Day: January 4, 2018

Former Clinton Advisor Glenn Hutchins believes people are distracted by Bitcoin price and should invest in technology companies. Do you agree with him? #OPINION

In the world of cryptocurrency, hard forks are seemingly the new altcoins. More specifically, a lot of developers want to hard fork existing currencies rather than build their own coins from scratch. In the case of Ethereum, one of those hard forks was known as EtherZero. However, this fork has been canceled due to a “lack of community support and big trading platforms”. It’s a very interesting decision, although few people will mind that the fork will not happen after all.

EtherZero hard Fork is Canceled

It is evident that Bitcoin was subject to quite a few hard fork attempts in 2017. Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold are perhaps the most notorious ones, even though Bitcoin Gold is very different from both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. It is evident that this way of creating currencies will affect altcoins in the future as well. While the concept of taking existing code and turning it into a new project is not uncommon, it seems developers are far too keen on creating hard forks and airdrops right now. That’s not a favorable course of action by any means, as most of these hard forks serve no purpose whatsoever.

The first altcoin to have received such hard forks/airdrops is Ethereum. Given Ethereum’s position in the world of cryptocurrency, that is not entirely surprising. It is evident that people like what this project has to offer and wish to make a quick buck from introducing so-called hard forks. Moving away from the original codebase for no apparent reason usually means the new fork is just a money grab which serves no real purpose. This is very different from how Ethereum Classic was created, as this currency exists due to ideological differences between parts of the Ethereum community regarding the “bailout” of The DAO.

The first major Ethereum hard fork which was set to occur in 2018 is EtherZero. Although most people are still unaware this project even exists, the goal was to introduce this fork on January 19. Once the Ethereum network reached a block height of 4,936,270, the EtherZero fork was to go into effect. Those plans have now been canceled, which is not exactly a big surprise. After all, there was very little buzz regarding this fork and how it would potentially affect Ethereum itself.

Unfortunately, the team behind EtherZero decided to throw in the towel more than two weeks prior to the launch of this initiative. In a way, that is a big relief to anyone who supports Ethereum, as it seemed that projects such as EtherZero would only give Ethereum a bad reputation. There was little to no interest from the community in this hard fork, and no major trading platforms had any intention of supporting this new coin. Again, no real surprises there, as EtherZero wasn’t going to serve any purpose whatsoever.

This doesn’t mean the team has given up on their plan to issue ETZ to the masses, though. Instead of using a hard fork, the team is now contemplating having an initial coin offering. A new currency name will be chosen in the future, and a rebranding is in order as well. How all of this will play out remains to be determined, though. After all, the EtherZero website looked anything but professional, mainly due to many spelling errors and other inconsistencies. It is evident this project will be met with further scrutiny regardless of how the team decides to market it.

It is evident there may not be much value in creating an Ethereum hard fork. Most such projects have no value, serve no purpose, and shouldn’t even be traded on exchanges. It is good to see most trading platforms take an aggressive stance toward projects like EtherZero. We can only hope people give up on the concept of hard forking existing currencies without any real reason, as it only creates unnecessary confusion.

However, regulators in China reportedly plan to withdraw preferential benefits such as tax deductions and cheap electricity available to mining firms.

The world of esports is followed enthusiastically, just like physical competitive sports. In fact, more people are beginning to identify themselves with an esports team rather than a conventional sport like football or basketball. The millenials are the most important group of this population, and it is expected that the scope and popularity of esports will increase considerably in the future as VR and other technologies improve the gaming and viewing experience.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

The esports aren’t a direct competition towards other sports but rather a different universe altogether. As online sports evolves and expands, there is a need for a good platform for the esports community, including both gamers and enthusiasts who wish to follow these sports and engage in activities like remote viewing of some of the best players in the business just like regular sports.

Esports.com is an all-new platform that aims to provide exactly that. The project has just finished the development of its decentralized e-gaming platform after a successful TGE allowed it the monetary freedom to execute its ambitious goals with freedom.

The Services

The basic services of the new platform include a new online esports shop where users can buy hardware, merchandise and game items from esports guys or certified vendors of sports teams, a licensed esports betting platform, a community sharing portal, and an all-exclusive “eSports University.” The esports university is a unique aspect of the new platform as it offers tutorials for new users, coaching lessons from professional players and free gaming education that is fun for everybody. The main games the platform is targeting right now include League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and DotA2.

The Success of the Token Generation Event (TGE) and Token

Chief eSports Officer Benjamin Főckersperger was of the opinion:

“This allows us to realize our dream and motivates us to work hard for the implementation of our ambitious plan to make esports.com the biggest e-gaming community worldwide!”

The platform is ready to be deployed but it is never finished by any means. It will evolve continuously as time progresses. The token is called the ERT token and the cryptocurrency exchange named Coinexchange.io is officially listing the new token on their platform for trading with another exchange C-ex following up with a release of its own.

The startup is also looking towards further partnerships with top gamers and players in the esports industry to boost the performance and attract more and more people to use their services.
To learn more or participate in the ICO, visit the Website: https://esports.com

While Wall Street continues to slowly incorporate Bitcoin, Merrill Lynch has decided to go the other way, banning its advisors from buying Bitcoin-related investments for their clients. #ANALYSIS

TRON becomes 9th largest crypto by market cap and pushes Dash to 11th place following tweets from CEO #NEWS

It’s been nine years since the Bitcoin genesis block was mined, but the underlying technology has over 40 years of history behind it.

Since Bitcoin made the bold step towards being digital gold it would seem that it may have inadvertently also sunk its dominance in the cryptomarket. #ANALYSIS

More and more consumers need to start taking their privacy seriously. Especially when it comes to using the internet, there’s no reason to expose sensitive and personal information to third parties. With the use of VPNs and Tor on the rise, an interesting trend is created. Especially in Iran, reliance on Tor is skyrocketing as we speak. Given the political turmoil in that part of the world, this is no real surprise.

Iran Starts Flocking to Tor for Political Reasons

There are many reasons why people would start using Tor or a VPN connection to mask their online activity. While some people may think this always has to do with illegal activity, that is far from the case. In fact, the number-one reason for using such tools is simply to ensure privacy for all online activities and keep information away from prying eyes such as the government and internet service providers. After all, we should never give up such information either willingly or unwillingly.

At the same time, governments all over the world are cracking down on such tools. Especially in countries with oppressive regimes, there is a growing concern over the use of Tor and VPN connections. After all, such governments don’t want their residents to have any freedom of speech whatsoever, even though it is a basic human right in the eyes of most internet users. Restricting access to specific websites and platform has become the new normal in some places. China is a good example of such political interference.

It seems things are slowly evolving in this direction in Iran as well. More specifically, the public has protested against some decisions made by their country’s government in recent months. When such turmoil comes to light, the first step oppressive governments tend to take is ensuring no one can voice any public concerns over the situation. That often involves restricting access to social media and other platforms on which anyone can share their opinions on these sensitive topics.  

However, restricting access to platforms such as Instagram, Telegram, and a few others is almost never the answer (though one would expect the Iranian government to know better by now). Furthermore, the government started blocking access to Tor in August 2016, even though its efforts seem to have been less successful than originally anticipated. In fact, they have backfired.

Whereas the number of people connecting to Tor was relatively low in December 2016, it increased significantly starting in March 2017. A spike appeared on the charts in December 2017, and the current protests will only make more people flock to tools such as Tor. That is only normal, as people want to access the blocked social networks first and foremost.

Whether or not we will see a further increase in Tor usage across Iran remains to be seen. It is evident the government will not be too pleased with the way things are unfolding right now, especially considering that it tried to block Tor in the past without much success. It seems unlikely that it will crack down on this tool any further, although anything is possible at this point. Even so, there is still the option to connect through a bridge if needed, which would bypass most restrictions.

True Flip, a blockchain fair games platform, has revealed major updates to the operation as well as additional changes to occur in Q1 and Q2 of 2018.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

As it stands, True Flip has accomplished 60% of the objectives that were promised in the crowdsale, including an entirely redesigned interface and additional features. This is coupled with ticket prices now at a discounted rate, lowering the barrier of entry to open accessibility to even more users.

“True Flip started as a game with a once-daily jackpot drawing and the average user spent about $5 per day on trueflip.io. Users lacked real-time games that would drive additional ticket buying and raffle participation. We completely redesigned the platform, combining several game products in a user-friendly environment. This is a step forward to the “World of True Flip”, which is in development to gamify the entire system, offering users characters, levels, quests, experience points, bonus games and much more” – said the COO of True Flip, Nikita Parkhomenko.

The platform already hosts multiple games for players to choose from, and they are able to seamlessly switch between two existing games, with an additional 3 games scheduled to launch in the first half of 2018.

Current players can participate in “Flip’s Star”, a number game with daily draws, and has over 400 BTC in the jackpot, which is more than the platform’s current market capitalization. Ticket prices have decreased by 50% to .0002 BTC (less than $5), which precedes a solution True Flip has yet to release that will keep ticket price the same regardless of volatility in the first quarter of 2018.

Players can also play “Rapid to the moon”, which was available starting November. Draws are linked to every new block in Bitcoin’s blockchain, with a 15 BTC prize fund.

Token Holder Profiles have been structurally and aesthetically overhauled, to present the complete data sheet in a way that was more intuitive and friendly. Also, True Flip now accepts its TFL tokens for gaming, with a “Flip’s Star” ticket offered for 1 TFL, and ticket prices for “Rapid to the moon” starting at half a TFL token.

CMO Konstantin Katsev says nothing will prevent the company from achieving their marketing goals, with a main focus on increasing ticket sales, which will in turn grow the prize pool and fund further development.

“As the new landing has been launched, now there are no obstacles to impede our marketing progress. The main focus is of course the ticket sales, which will keep growing with the help of our CPA partners, as well as the enhanced player support and stable positive news flow raising awareness among our desired audiences”, TrueFlip

About TrueFlip

True Flip is a blockchain fair games platform, based on the advantages innate to distributed ledgers. These include overall transparency of processes, like random number generation, ticket purchases, prize distribution, and an innovative approach to the financial part of igaming.

True Flip currently runs 2 games, with three more in development, attracting a total of 150 000 registered players. As a result of the successful crowdsale in July, 2017, a significant 400 BTC formed the current Jackpot, that keeps growing with every sold ticket.

The platform operates a self-developed customer product available on trueflip.io, and also offers a range of B2B solutions for igaming operators, affiliates and integrators

Ethereum hit a new all-time high of $955 on Wednesday, just a day after it saw $900.