Day: December 7, 2017

As the popularity of CryptoKitties continues to strain ethereum, frustrated users are calling for a quick fix – an increase to the gas limit.

Bitcoin continues to dominate the news as prices nudged over $14,000 in Asian trading this morning, up almost $2,000 in 24 hours. The surge is likely to be off the back of news that the big boys are starting to entertain cryptocurrencies. JP Morgan switching tack and backing Bitcoin as the new gold and Nasdaq recently joining the fray has done wonders for BTC trading. The imminent launch of CBOE trading on December 10 and CME Bitcoin futures shortly after has also boosted price and market sentiment. In addition to this are a number of hard forks and the promise of the free equivalent coin that usually comes with them.

Getting lost among the hype are the altcoins, many of which remain undervalued. One such crypto asset that has gained over 20,000% this year alone is NEO, often referred to as Chinese Ethereum. NEO was rebranded from its previous incarnation, Antshares, back in August when price rocketed from around $8 up to almost $50 – in April it was still priced at $0.20. Since China’s ICO ban NEO fell slowly back to earth as most pump and dumps do and wallowed between $20 and $27 from September to November.

Many of the altcoins have enjoyed price spurts this week as the daddy Bitcoin has pulled them all up with it. Most can only be traded for in BTC on various exchanges that do not accept fiat which explains the often mirrored chart patterns. NEO jumped to as high as $40 but has now dropped back again to around $34 and is still falling. According to Coinmarketcap.com, it is the 14^th largest cryptocurrency with a market capacity of $2.2 billion.

Da Hongfei, CEO of Onchain, and the founder of NEO isn’t worried. He has acknowledged that Bitcoin itself may be a bubble but says it is completely natural for emerging technologies and industries. The tech entrepreneur has big plans for NEO, many of which involve branching out from China. His vision of a ‘smart economy’ requires a platform that is already capable of integration with current systems and technology, which NEO apparently is. It is for this reason and its potential in the powerhouse that is the Chinese economy and beyond that crypto, analysts say that the coin is still undervalued.

With most of the current decentralized apps (dApps) being hosted on the Ethereum network, there is a competitive market for them which NEO aims to be a part of. A number of ICOs based on the NEO network are in the pipeline though it remains to be seen if the Chinese government will intervene again. There is an emerging market for dApps on both Ethereum and NEO and these are still very early days.

The post NEO stalling as Bitcoin bounds on appeared first on NEWSBTC.

SophiaTX Token Generation Event (TGE) starts today, December 7th, at 2pm UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Previously postponed due to the Ethereum network being clogged with digital kittens (that’s a whole other story in itself), SophiaTX’s TGE will happen today regardless of any Ethereum feline intruders.

The SophiaTX project is premised on an in-depth analysis of the technological capabilities of existing blockchains, to ensure a strategy and a platform which can truly add value and provide businesses with not only suitability, but genuinely superior functionality and features.

The resulting platform, and its focus on adoption by real businesses, is one of the most innovative advancements of blockchain into the way in which the businesses and their customers interact and how ecosystems are continuously re-defined by digital technology.

SophiaTX has taken every precautionary measure to make sure their TGE goes off without a hitch! Unlike other crowdfunding methods of this scale, SophiaTX has abided by the tightest regulations requiring KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) checks prior to participation. This ensures that all participants are indeed who they claim to be and protects everyone involved. There is an option for individuals as well as organisations to complete the KYC registration and partake in their TGE.

SophiaTX TGE landing page has detailed instructions for all participants and they’ve even created a simplified, step by step guide for anyone to follow. Their goal is to make this process as seamless as possible so that anyone who wants to participate can do so without an hassle or complication.

Interested parties can view the “why participate” page of their website which gives a nice summary pinpointing the important facts about their TGE. Some things to highlight include the following:

1. SophiaTX TGE will have 5 rounds, approximately 48 hours each, for a total duration of 10 days. Every round has 30,000,000 SPHTX Tokens available, making a grand total of 150,000,000 SPHTX Tokens throughout the TGE.
2. The starting price in the first round is 1 SPHTX = 0.00062789 ETH. Each subsequent round will have a small increase in price of 10%
3. The hard cap for the entire TGE is set at 115,000 ETH and there is no soft cap nor is there a minimum amount for participants to contribute.
4. Any unclaimed tokens which remain at the end of the TGE will be proportionally distributed to investors in line with their existing SPHTX stake.
5. Participants can use BTC, ETH, or DCT. For DCT participants, they offer a 10% bonus. Conversion rates for these currencies are calculated by averaging the past 24 hours from 4 of the leading cryptocurrency market lists. (Cryptonator, https://coinbin.org/eth & https://coinbin.org/dct, Coinmarketcap and Cryptocompare).
6. After their TGE, the SPHTX tokens will be distributed within 48 hours as an ERC20 Token sent to the participants ETH addresses. (participants must provide the same ETH address during KYC and TGE registration)

SophiaTX is open source and tailored to allow traditional enterprise applications to be extended to more robust, collaborative and decentralized blockchain-enabled business models.

“Integrating blockchain with SAP and other business systems allows businesses to deliver efficiencies, better collaborate along the value chain and even re-shape their business models,” explains SophiaTX CEO Jaroslav Kacina.

The SophiaTX team recently published a white paper and unveiled a working Proof of Concept demonstrating how businesses can use SophiaTX to transparently and reliably exchange information between their enterprise systems in real time.

About SophiaTX

SophiaTX is a blockchain platform and marketplace for businesses of all sizes, and the first open source platform to primarily integrate blockchain technology with enterprise applications such as SAP, Oracle, and others. 74% of transaction revenue worldwide touches SAP systems, and SophiaTX provides a business-appropriate blockchain for B2B collaboration and communication.

The post SophiaTX Token Generation Event Begins Today (Dec. 7th) appeared first on NEWSBTC.

The agency is increasingly concerned about the possibility that the virtual currencies could be used in illegal activities like money laundering and tax evasion due to their growing popularity.

We don’t see too much cryptocurrency market activity in the top 10, other than altcoins going in the deep red. That doesn’t mean the other currencies aren’t worth paying attention to either, though. The Stratis price, for example, is approaching the $10 mark for the second time in history. That is remarkable growth, considering the Bitcoin price is destroying all previous records. At this rate, it is only a matter of time until we see a new All-time high Stratis price.

Massive Gains for the Stratis Price

Whenever Bitcoin is obliterating altcoins, it is only a matter of time until one currency bucks the trend successfully. So far, no coin in the top is making any positive impact in this regard, but the 19th largest currency by market cap is a different story altogether. In fact, it is the only currency noting any solid gains in both USD and BTC value right now. Most of the top 20 coins by market cap are in the red, and some of them even in double digits.

Most people will have heard of Stratis by now, even though few people seemingly talk about it. This cryptocurrency has made somewhat of a name for itself thanks to the strong focus on privacy and anonymity for both STRAT and Bitcoin transactions. Their Breeze Wallet is inching closer to finally being released. Whether or not it will be a major success, has yet to be determined at this stage. However, it opens up a lot of interesting opportunities for the support currencies in this regard.

Things have been relatively quiet on the Stratis price point these past few months. After the altcoin peaked above $12 for the first time in June of 2017, the price quickly dropped back to $2.5 in the following weeks. Two attempts to surpass $7.50 were rejected fairly quickly, and the price struggled to stay above $2.75 until very recently. Momentum picked up in November again and is now going through a  very bullish mode. With a Stratis price of $9.94, it is only a matter of time until the value is pushed back down, though.

Additionally, Stratis has pretty solid trading volume compared to some other currencies right now. With over $128.7m worth of volume in the past 24 hours, things aren’t looking all that bad. One has to keep in mind altcoins are not popular markets right now, especially not when the Bitcoin price is pushing toward that $20k mark. Despite the odds, the Stratis price gained 42.66% in USD value and 21.71% in BTC value.

Given the lack of fiat currency gateways for Stratis right now, it’s not surprising to see Bittrex is the leading cryptocurrency exchange for this altcoin. This further confirms we are looking at a pump-and-dump cycle for this currency right now, although nothing has been set in stone just yet. With most of the volume coming from Bitcoin and Ethereum trading markets, it is highly unlikely any major price shifts will occur in the days to come.

It is remarkable how some coins succeed in gaining value due to some minor momentum, whereas the established currencies struggle right now. There is plenty of price manipulation across all cryptocurrency markets. The Stratis price is no exception in this regard, as there is nothing organic about this growth whatsoever. Cryptocurrency is a good way to make a lot of money, but one needs to take profits accordingly as well.

The blockchain ‘virtual gifting’ platform partners with the global entertainment ecosystem to bring decentralized content creation monetization to millions of consumers

HONG KONG – Gifto, a new universal virtual gifting blockchain platform, has announced a partnership with TRON, a decentralized protocol that aims to construct a worldwide free content entertainment system using blockchain and distributed storage technology. Gifto will leverage TRON’s underlying technology to help facilitate massive transactions of users using virtual gifts.

“Gifto and TRON are both innovating the content creation space using blockchain technology and together we will be able to offer anyone an alternative to the standard model of content creation ownership and monetization that is available today,” said Andy Tian, the former head of Zynga China and now the CEO of Asia Innovations Group (AIG) – the creator of Gifto. “Very soon, content creators will enjoy the benefit of blockchain technology and we are thrilled to partner with Tron to help make this a reality.”

Gifto is being launched by Asia Innovation Group, the creator of Uplive, a live streaming mobile application with over 20 million users that uses virtual gifting to reward content creators on their platform. Every month, millions of people use Uplive to view livestreamed content from over 60,000 content creators on their platform.  The company has stated that it will earn over $100 million of projected revenue in 2017 alone from virtual gifting on Uplive.  With Gifto, this technology is being brought to the blockchain and made universal so that virtual gifts can be created, curated, tracked, bought, sent and exchanged across any content platform such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

“We are excited to partner with Gifto and Asia Innovations Group to further expand the usage of TRON platform and technology,” said Justin Sun the founder of TRON and a member of the Forbes Asia 30 under 30. “This partnership is putting together two companies that both have successful consumer entertainment apps, and both using blockchain technology to disrupt entire industries in the years to come.”

TRON is a decentralized content protocol that aims to establish a global free content entertainment ecosystem through blockchain technology. It allows each user to freely publish, store, and own data. The content creators will be empowered through the free creation, circulation, and trading of digital assets under decentralized self-governance. TRON will be one of the first Ethereum compatible protocols to support fast micro-transactions at scale in Q1 2018.  TRON will use its transaction technology to support Gifto’s roll out to millions of users.

Tron was founded by Justin Sun, the former Greater China chief representative of Ripple.  Justin was featured in 2015 and 2017 Forbes Asia 30 under 30 and was a member of the first cohort of entrepreneurs at Hupan University, an elite business school established by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group. According to coinmarketcap.com, Tron has a total market cap over $140 million.

Learn more at www.gifto.io and www.tronlab.com

The post Gifto and TRON partner to monetize decentralized content appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Bitcoin price predictions have dried up online as memes appear to tell more than charts.

Bitcoin’s stellar run continues with prices leaping one major psychological hurdle after another, and chart analysis suggests the gains may continue.

Not a week goes by without some Bitcoin mempool drama these days. Every week or so, the number of unconfirmed transactions rises. In most cases, that is a big problem, yet the matter usually gets resolved pretty quickly. In this particular case, however, over 136,000 transactions are pending. This is an unusual development considering the network hashrate has increased instead of decreased.

Having a backlogged Bitcoin mempool is nothing new under the sun. Issues like these arise nearly every single week. The popularity growth of Bitcoin isn’t helping matters much in this regard. Nor is the availability of scaling solutions. SegWit is active, but adoption remains abysmally low. It will take some time to solve these matters, that much is certain. Until that happens, we will see a backlog of unconfirmed transactions form every so often.

More Bitcoin Mempool Problems

There are multiple reasons why events like these transpire. In most cases, it is the result of a spam attack. Somebody may be flooding the Bitcoin network with low-fee transfers once again. This has happened a few times throughout the year and will continue to happen throughout 2018 as well. Another possible reason is how Bitcoin miners are switching to other currencies. That doesn’t appear to be the case either right now.

In fact, the Bitcoin network hashrate has been rising steadily as of late. A few hours ago, the network had over 14 exahash per second of mining power. That is now slowly declining a bit again, but it is still between the 11 and 12 exahash we have seen for weeks now. There is a mining difficulty increase to take into account Such a steep increase should never be underestimated whatsoever. Especially if it’s combined with a possible spam attack, things can get ugly pretty fast. For now, we will have to wait and see how things go.

Rest assured there will be some debate over this backlog in the coming days. No one likes to wait around for Bitcoin transactions to be confirmed on the network. It is unclear how long it will take for this situation to be resolved, that much is evident. Until order is restored, we will see higher fees and even more delays. This is far from an ideal situation, but Bitcoin users are getting used to it these days. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to resolve this matter.

The post Bitcoin Mempool Fills up Again Despite a Rise in Hashrate appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Bittrex users took to social media to voice their concerns: something is wrong at the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Customers openly complain they’re having issues with withdrawals, and this has been going on for weeks. Certainly every popular platform has had its share of problems with runs in the wake of price spikes, but until yesterday the exchange offered no formal, public explanation.  

Also read: Peer-to-Peer Bitcoiner Gets Year in Prison for Being Unlicensed

Bittrex Has a Public Relations Problem

Bittrex hasn’t Tweeted since 30 November. Its Facebook page hasn’t been updated since Summer. Customers are starting to worry, loudly.

Curious to outsiders, infuriating to customers, is the notion of the exchange taking orders, money, seemingly without issue … only to cover itself in cloaks of legalisms at withdrawal time.

Indeed, a user told Business Insider how “This is a big deal because when you sign up with Bittrex, they allow you to deposit funds into your wallet and even allow you to trade without Verification. But then you cannot withdraw your funds.”

The exchange has been around since 2014, and is based in Las Vegas though its mailing address is Seattle. Its daily trading volumes hover near 1 billion USD. As of this writing, it ranks second in daily volume among exchanges.

Though not Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited, Bittrex nevertheless has a dedicated page of mounting complaints. Users have gone public with their stories, and most have documented something like the following, “Last night I tried to withdraw and got this: ‘Unverified account withdraw limit has been reached. Please try again in 24 hours. To increase your limits, please verify your account,’” Russia Today noted. There’s even a Twitter hashtag, #BittrexTrouble.

These are not the first problems for Bittrex, nor are they alone in this regard. Bitcoin’s price, as well as the value of the crypto space generally, has risen beyond expectations. It could just be the case of not being prepared. In these pages, flashes and run-ups were reported at Kraken, Coinbase, Tether, Gemini, among others.

Problems like these are not only worrisome for those unable to access their funds, but they’re also excuses for tighter government controls and regulations. With Wall Street and assorted whales headed crypto’s way in the coming months, readers can be sure such problems will not be tolerated.

As a matter of plain justice, however, in a volatile market, losing precious seconds, much less weeks or months, could literally financially break enthusiasts.

What do you think about exchanges refusing user withdrawals? Tell us in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, Bittrex. 

Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.

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