Day: December 23, 2017

The year 2017 has been pretty good for cryptocurrency exchanges in general. With so many new people entering this ecosystem, it’s been evident something would have to give at some point. It seems Bittrex is the first major “casualty” in this regard, as the company halted all account signups about a week ago and has yet to open registrations back up. It will be interesting to see if other exchanges take similar action moving forward.

Bittrex Sees too Much Growth

One could certainly argue the year 2017 has been pretty interesting for all cryptocurrency exchanges. A lot of companies have had to deal with major issues throughout the past 12 months, and it seems things will not improve anytime soon either. More specifically, Coinbase, Kraken, and a few other big trading platforms have suffered from degraded performance across their operations, which is never a good sign.

To make matters worse, a fair few cryptocurrency exchanges have had to deal with denial of service attacks throughout 2017 as well. Although it remains to be seen if these were actual attacks rather than simply large numbers of users logging in at the same time, their infrastructure needs to be upgraded regardless. Unfortunately, most exchanges will only address these issues after the fact, which is never the best approach.

Bittrex has decided to take an interesting approach in this regard. More specifically, we saw the company halt all user signups around a week ago. Although this is anything but a popular decision, it is also pretty clear why the company took such a course of action. It, too, has noticed the influx of new users and decided to take action before things got out of hand completely.

According to a blog post which went up a week ago, a decision was made to upgrade the site’s infrastructure. Its support and backend systems will need to undergo a big upgrade in the coming weeks and months to accommodate these new users. It is a bit unclear how the company will go about things in this regard, but it is seemingly intent on not letting its service degrade. More users trading on the platform means the backend will need to keep up with increasing demand. That is always much easier said than done.

Rest assured a lot of people will be looking forward to seeing Bittrex open up its registrations again. After the issues Poloniex went through earlier this year, Bittrex quickly overtook it as the biggest altcoin exchange. We can only applaud its decision to halt user registrations to ensure the service remains optimal at all times. If other exchanges had taken a similar approach over the past few months, fewer issues would have occurred in the cryptocurrency world.

The big question is whether or not we will see another major influx of new exchange users in 2018. While 2017 has seen very solid growth, it may very well be a fluke in this regard. Despite only being around for just over nine years, it feels as if most people have spent a lifetime dealing with Bitcoin. There is still a bright future ahead for cryptocurrency in general, but there will be some issues along the way to overcome.

Cointelegraph chats to renowned stock analyst Ronnie Moas, who has given us some of the most accurate price predictions on Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies this year. #INTERVIEW

WikiLeaks was one of the early cryptocurrency payment adopters to help put Bitcoin on the map. During a time of fundraising woes, the acceptance of Bitcoin has made a big impact for this site. The organization has now taken crypto donations a step further by embracing CryptoKitties. It’s a very interesting development, and it makes a lot of sense.

WikiLeaks CryptoKitties are a Thing now

Although the CryptoKitties project is still somewhat controversial right now, there is also merit to this project. When the CryptoKitties platform launched initially, it became evident pretty quickly the project had crippled the Ethereum blockchain once again. So many people showed an interest in buying blockchain-based virtual kittens that they caused the Ethereum blockchain to slow down. It wasn’t the first time the Ethereum blockchain had suffered such issues, though.

Now that everything has calmed down again, it’s a good time to explore what else the CryptoKitties project can bring to the table. It’s obvious these virtual cats are attractive to the general public. This is partially because every single kitten is unique and it is impossible to replicate them. This also means they can be used for marketing purposes, or in the case of WikiLeaks, as a new donation tool. The two purebred WikiLeaks CryptoKitties have unique offspring which is now available for sale.

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange commented on this development as follows:

Cryptography is not only transforming the global financial system, it is generating creative innovation in a vast array of human interaction. WikiLeaks likes cats and wants to help bring cryptocurrencies and smart contracts into the mainstream. Donors and crypto-kitty enthusiasts can empower WikiLeaks by bidding for one of our cute purebred cryptographic kittens. Newcomers will learn about the blockchain, acquire their very first cryptocurrency, and potentially even make a profit.

Although people may think this is a pretty silly project, there is a lot of merit to these CryptoKitties. The WikiLeaks team will donate two first-generation virtual cats to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The Trump Tender Tabby and Clinton Console Kitty certainly look pretty interesting and unique. Moreover, their values are as high as several thousands of dollars, which goes to show this project shouldn’t be dismissed automatically.

Mr. and Mrs. WikiLeaks are Generation 0 CryptoKitties. The goal is for WikiLeaks to continue breeding one kitten per week after the Christmas litter of 10. Of these 10 kittens, only eight will be for sale. Every purchase will serve as a direct donation to the WikiLeaks cause and allow the team to keep on thriving. Contrary to what some people would expect, the combined CryptoKitties in circulation are worth around US$17 million right now. In general, limited edition cats sell for six figures pretty easily, and it will be interesting to see how the WikiLeaks CryptoKitties fare in this regard.

As one would expect, these unique cats all have interesting names. Ranging from CableGate Kitty to Iraq War Kitty and CIA Vault7 Kitty to Kremlin Skying Kitty, they all look adorable and are extremely collectible. Most of these cats can be purchased for a few hundred dollars, which is pretty cheap, all things considered. Approaching this innovative concept may be a very smart decision by WikiLeaks in the long run. It’s evident that CryptoKitties are here to stay, and that new and interesting breeds will be created over time.

A team of specialists in higher education and IT solutions for more than 10 years, EdTech experts, are behind BCDiploma. Strong form this rich experience, BCDiploma is convinced that their Ethereum-based platform is the high quality creation and innovation, long awaited and expected “standard” certification, for the millions of diplomas issued each year in the world.

–       Easy to deploy and use on a global large scale

–       Secure and durable

Imagine that a single click will allow you, on LinkedIn for example, to access a diploma whose authenticity cannot be challenged. Imagine that this certified data is placed in the most secure place, without any time limit, in a decentralized way…

BCDiploma: A major innovation

BCDiploma has designed a totally innovative framework based on a cryptographic engine and a set of smart contracts, which respects the right of personal data (GDPR), and especially the right to be forgotten. This framework is designed to work with any data: the fields of application are countless (administrative data, registers, accreditations, civil status…).

The true innovation of BCDiploma is to place the encrypted data directly on Ethereum with all its authenticity proofs, thus avoiding all the complex manipulations of documents, hash, and proof sets to access reliable information.

That’s why BCDiploma is competing directly with MIT’s solution, thanks to its innovative technology, ease of use and compliance with data rights regulations!

BCDT: The indispensable token

The BCDiploma ecosystem is based on a “utility” token: the BCDT, which will be available for sale within the framework of the BCDiploma ICO, the presale of which will start on the 21st of December.

This token is essential to the functioning of BCDiploma and has been designed to gain value in proportion to the use of the solution. This initial sale of tokens will enable BCDiploma to “create the brand” in its first year of activity by equipping the world’s most prestigious universities .

ICO BCDiploma, the 100% winning presale

BCDiploma offers an innovative 100% winning presale:

• If the minimum fundraising threshold (softcap) is not reached, the participants will be able to take back their contribution (in ETH).
• If the fundraising is successful, the participants will receive BCDT tokens with a 20% bonus!

Join the BCDiploma presale and take part in the blockchain data certification revolution! Presale is live: https://www.bcdiploma.com
Feel free to ask questions: join the community https://t.me/BCDiploma !

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

A lot of people were quite surprised to see Coinbase enable Bitcoin Cash trading a few days ago. Indeed, it was a pretty intriguing decision, although the altcoin has cemented its place in the world of cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, it seems European users will have to wait a while longer before they can buy BCH with their euros. According to Coinbase, that’s because European markets are “not sufficiently healthy.” It’s an interesting decision, to say the least.

No EUR/BCH Market for Coinbase

On one hand, it is good to see Coinbase make this smart decision well ahead of time. After all, it can’t afford to launch illiquid markets, especially not when they only just added another major trading market. Supporting Bitcoin Cash has been a smart decision, to say the least. Plenty of cryptocurrency enthusiasts had assumed this decision would be made at some point, although no one assumed it would happen this year. Then again, a lot of interesting decisions have been made by cryptocurrency exchanges throughout all of 2017.

For Coinbase, the decision to add Bitcoin Cash was not an easy one. Its goal is now to enable fiat currency trading pairs for BCH first and foremost. Before that can happen, the company will need to evaluate whether these markets possess sufficient liquidity. In the US, that was far less of an issue, as traders were more than willing to spend a lot of money on Bitcoin Cash when the new trading pair was added. The same cannot be said for the EUR market, unfortunately, but that isn’t really surprising either.

The Coinbase team has acknowledged the European markets are not sufficiently healthy to enable Bitcoin Cash trading right now. This means it is possible to buy BCH with US dollars, but not with euros at this point in time. It is a bit unclear why the European markets are not sufficiently healthy, even though we all know Europe is a very small player when it comes to cryptocurrency in general. For some reason, neither Bitcoin nor altcoins are very popular in this part of the world right now.

This doesn’t mean Europeans won’t be able to trade Bitcoin Cash against the euro in the future, though, as Coinbase still plans to enable this market as early as January of 2018. No specific date was announced at this time, but we should find out more in the next few weeks. It’s good to see Coinbase remain committed to enabling Bitcoin Cash trading for Europeans in the future. We can only hope this market gets added sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, Coinbase will continue to evaluate other “qualifying countries” in regards to support for Bitcoin Cash. It is obvious that demand for this particular altcoin has never been greater, and people are more than willing to spend fiat currency to obtain BCH. Moreover, Coinbase is still contemplating adding support for other cryptocurrencies as well. There are quite a few coins which could use fiat currency support right now, and which coins will be added to Coinbase remains to be seen.

It is also important to note that Coinbase users may experience some big delays when it comes to sending wire deposits and receiving withdrawals. According to the website, these can take up to five business days, which is not acceptable. At the same time, the massive influx of new users looking to buy and sell cryptocurrencies at this crucial time will impact the platform’s service in one way or another. Centralized exchanges are still problematic in this regard, yet it will be very difficult to bypass issues like these in the future.

A board member for Bundesbank has confirmed that the eurozone is not currently considering a national cryptocurrency in spite of previous statements made by the bank’s officials.

Pundi X and Retainly have entered into a partnership that will allow both companies to complement each other in terms of both business and technology.

Pundi X will be able to offer loyalty bonus to consumers who transact on their POS devices. In addition to additional bonus on every transaction, consumers will also be able to pay for goods and services with the RETN stored in their wallet. The Merchants using PundiX POS devices will be able to significantly increase the number of transactions thereby reducing the return on investment period on the POS devices, not to mention the additional business from happy consumers.

For Retainly, which was till now focused on providing their loyalty platform to online businesses alone, will now also be able to extend their memberships to physical stores. With no additional overheads, this is a true win-win situation for everyone.

Loyalty programs are the cornerstone of all B2C businesses and this joint venture will be of great value to businesses who have not yet been able to see a break even in their Loyalty Marketing Programs.

As a part of this MOU, Pundi X POS devices to be placed at Retainly client locations globally, Retainly (RETN) token will be listed in the Pundi X Platform and made available for purchase/sale and acceptable with Retainly clients and all Pundi X merchants. 10 Retainly (RETN) tokens to be distributed free to each wallet (investor) of Pundi X during the initial promotional period.

About Pundix

Pundi X aims to solve the last mile challenge for cryptocurrency purchases and sales. The company’s business builds on the existing Pundi-Pundi business model of cashless payment systems, which enables smartphone users to scan QR codes and makes instant payments in retail and restaurant outlets. Pundi-Pundi has already signed up more than 100,000 registered users and over 500 merchant partners in Jakarta in less than a year of operation.

About Retainly

Retainly has been the fastest growing marketing automation platform since its launch in March 2017. Since then, Retainly has been acquiring average 350 businesses on to its platform every month. Breaking the commonality of marketing automation platforms, Retainly is the first such company to venture into Loyalty Rewards hacking the power of Blockchain.

Media Relations

Name: Soujanya
Email: [email protected]
Organization: Retainly Technologies
Address: Hyderabad, India.
Phone: +919160055530

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

Dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges can be rather problematic at times. With so many smaller altcoin exchanges out there, it’s become difficult to trust these companies overall. At the same time, smaller exchanges struggle to build up solid reputations over time. It seems Cryptopia is experiencing some issues as we speak. A lot of people’s accounts have apparently been locked for no apparent reason.

What is Going on With Cryptopia?

It is always interesting to keep tabs on smaller exchanges. In fact, we recently put together a brief list of some smaller trading platforms many people have never heard of. Cryptopia is one of those exchanges which focuses purely on crypto-to-crypto trading instead of meddling with fiat currencies. It is one of the more popular smaller exchanges these days, mainly because it is always among the first to list new altcoins.

Such an open-minded approach is always subject to a fair amount of scrutiny. After all, there are a lot of new coins created every week, and most of them will not serve any real purpose whatsoever. This means a lot of money can be made and lost when using platforms such as Cryptopia. Proper vetting of altcoins has still not become an industry-wide standard, for some unknown reason.

That may be the least of Cryptopia’s issues for right now, though. Several platform users have reached out to us to report that their exchange accounts have been locked for no apparent reason. It is not uncommon for exchange operators to flag individual accounts because of some illicit activity. In the case of Cryptopia, it seems this problem is affecting a growing number of users, yet no one knows for sure what the root cause is for this sudden decision.

Moreover, it seems the Cryptopia support team is unable to offer a satisfying explanation. Some of the people who reached out to us have been waiting for more than a month to receive a proper answer. While it is true that most exchanges have seen a large influx of new users as of late, there is no reason to prevent people from using their accounts if they have done nothing wrong. Failing to provide proper customer support will not help matters either; that much is certain.

Whether or not there is sufficient reason to compare Cryptopia with Mt. Gox remains to be seen. Smaller cryptocurrency exchanges will easily get overwhelmed with new users, which can cause a lot of problems in quick succession. Most exchange users will display a healthy amount of patience in waiting to receive an answer and hopefully see their problem resolved. For now, it is unclear what is happening with Cryptopia and how it plans to move forward in this regard.

Relying on centralized exchanges will always remain a problem. They trade security for convenience, which can sometimes have unexpected results. We can only hope decentralized exchanges and even atomic swaps become the new normal sooner rather than later. Cryptocurrency is all about decentralization, and there should be no need for centralized “gatekeepers” whatsoever.

A rising token tide may be lifting all boats, but when the water line lowers, utility will likely be their key defense.

At this moment in time, blockchain technology has huge potential across a variety of industries. However, there are still some disadvantages associated with the technology, such as scalability issues, long transaction times when confirmations are needed and the network is jammed, or numerous fees.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

To help fix these issues, a couple of new blockchain technologies are emerging on the market, known as data acyclic graph systems. With the introduction of the system, comes the introduction of DAG-based digital currencies, such as IOTA, ByteBall and more. The systems upon which these currencies are based allow users to further leverage the potential of the technology, in order to get more done.

For instance, ByteBall offers numerous benefits, such as:

•       Smart Contracts, and conditional payments (users set a condition upon receiving the money- therefore, if the condition is not met, the funds are returned)
•       P2P insurance (the ability to purchase insurance from peers and paid in case negative events occur. Users also have the possibility to sell insurance for profit)
•       Betting on prediction markets, on events such as price movements, insurance, sports betting and more.
•       P2P chat-based payments, made by clicking on links
•       Chat bots (and the ability to place orders by talking with merchant bots within a few clicks)
•       The bot store, where users can find new bots, and developers can build and public chat bots.

Those who are interested in ByteBall can also consider the untraceable version of the currency – Blackbytes. It advertises complete privacy, the inability to trace payments and P2P transactions.  

Lastly, some of the other benefits that a DAG-based currency can provide include: atomic exchange, regulated assets, multi-signature transactions, on-chain oracles, settlement finalities, immutable storage and more.

Bitcoin transactions have often been referred to as probabilistic, considering the fact that finality depends on transaction amounts due to the risk of double-spending, thus requiring users to wait for multiple confirmation before a transaction is over. DAG currencies such as ByteBall implement a different system, through the use of deterministic criteria. Therefore, the system is slightly different when compared to proof-of-work, proof-of-stake and other similar systems implemented on traditional blockchain networks.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, the appearance and development of DAG-based digital currencies can add numerous benefits to the fintech market. With deterministic criteria, security grows, and users are given more choices in terms of what they can do with the coins.

Recently we could seen increased interest in DAG-based currencies. IOTA and Raiblocks increased their capitalization almost seven-fold for IOTA and twenty-fold for RaiBlocks. A few days ago the price of Byteball, has rose up over 100% per day.