Day: January 4, 2018

On its website, Altcoin.io advertises itself as “a truly decentralized exchange. Built by traders, for traders.” Recently, the company released an updated version of its atomic swap wallet. As CEO Andrew Gazdecki told The Merkle, “it’s basically a decentralized version of www.shapeshift.io via atomic swaps.” The concept piqued our interest, so we decided to write up this exclusive covering the specs of this nascent platform. Here’s what we found.

A New Era of Decentralized Trading

For those new to atomic swaps, they’re exactly what the name implies. It’s a method of swapping currencies across blockchains without needing to go through an exchange. Atomic swaps use hashed time-locked contracts to confirm the sending or receiving of funds, a contractual agreement similar to smart contracts in function. The trading parties will not receive their exchanged currency until both sides agree to the trading terms and sign off on a cryptographic code that serves as a receipt for the transaction.

Now that that’s covered, back to Altcoin.io. In October, the company published a blog post indicating that it had conducted the first-ever successful atomic swap between the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. Currently, its wallet beta only allows for testnet swaps of Bitcoin and Ethereum. A testnet coin is a coin that originates from a testnet faucet for the specific purpose of testing new tech. If you decide to try out Altcoin.io’s atomic swap wallet, do not send any of your actual coins. They will be lost, you will be sad, and we’ll probably get some angry comments about it.  

Altcoin.io wants to make sure these swaps are completely secure before it launches its mainnet, so that’s why the company doesn’t want you using anything but testnet tokens until then. But if you’d like to give the beta a go to see what it’s like, Altcoin.io offers handy instructions on one of its blog posts.

The company plans to launch its mainnet after a security audit is completed to verify the integrity of its network. When the testnet goes live, the Altcoin.io team hopes to introduce the following by the end of the year: an expanded list of coin offerings, a decentralized order matching system, the ability to use their atomic swaps within an existing wallet, and create an improved user interface/experience.

The Benefits of Altcoin.io’s Atomic Swap Wallet

There are a number of benefits to using a cross-chain decentralized exchange. The most apparent is the ability to trade funds directly from a user-controlled wallet without the need for a centralized exchange like Binance, Bittrex, or Bitfinex.

Even when we compare this option to a decentralized exchange, the benefits stack up in Altcoin.io’s favor. When you use smart contracts for trading on an exchange like EtherDelta, you still have to deposit funds into the exchange’s smart contract. As such, you are relying on the smart contract’s code and your own ability to not somehow mismanage the funds between wallet and smart contract. With Altcoin.io’s atomic swap wallet, though, your funds stay in your own wallet until the swap is completed, resulting in a safer exchange that you control from the get-go.

We’re pretty excited to see what Altcoin.io has in store for the new year. As detailed in a recent blog post, the company’s mission “is to empower everyone, regardless of market knowledge, to trade altcoins securely and with confidence.” Additionally, Andrew Gazdecki told The Merkle that Altcoin.io is operating with “[no] ICO, no outside funding,” and that the team is “just working to make cryptocurrency trading easier and more secure for the world.”

It looks like they’re doing their best to provide an easier, more secure, and more accessible way to trade altcoins than the market currently provides, and they’re doing so in a way that prioritizes product and user experience before investment capital. As such, Altcoin.io has caught our attention, and given the rate of its progress, it’ll likely keep it in the year to come.

Acute Angle PC is coming out, please stay tuned.

Acute Angle PC had been launched on its official website at 12:00 on December 12th. This is a universal hardware host based on IPFS point-to-point hypermedia protocol storage and Acute Angle Chain management of digital assets and formulating reward system for the users through smart contract.

History of Acute Angle PC

Based on blockchain technology, Acute Angle PC acquires digital assets by sharing idle disk space and bandwidth through distributed cloud storage and cloud computing. This is what we commonly refer to as “mining” and the hardware that acquires digital assets is what we call “mining machine”.

Gao Shengli, the developer of Acute Angle PC, is a computer enthusiast. He started to keep an eye on blockchain technology as early as 2014 and began to devote himself to personal computer development the following year: he started with iterating computer hardware performance and appearance constantly and never stopped research on the application of blockchain technology, and finally completed the world’s first Acute Angle PC based on the blockchain technology.

Acute Angle PC, built with 128G SSD hard disk storage inside and interface with hard disk storage device outside, provides comprehensive and stable CDN services for the Internet business with the idle resources provided by users and a series of innovative and valuable massive business acceleration services for the download platform, UGC acceleration platform, streaming media platform and dynamic acceleration platform.

In the future, Acute Angle Cloud will offer more massive services to provide users on the cloud with CDN acceleration services that better meet the needs of the Internet business. Users can not only earn Acute Angle Coin by sharing the idle storage space and bandwidth through Acute Angle PC but also easily win community rewards and technological innovation bonuses by sharing contents.

Why Acute Angle PC?

 The significance of Acute Angle PC’s research and development lies in that it can bring users point-to-point information dissemination at lower costs and has made a great contribution in the direction of globalization. In addition, Acute Angle PC also has the necessary advantages of long lasting storage and great stability to go global. Let’s take a closer look at its advantages.

Storage advantages

It solves the waste of storage space through distributed storage technology and automatically reallocates data to improve utilization of storage space and connect all computing devices with the same file system.

Its principle lies in that the domain-based address is replaced with the content-based address, that is, the user is looking for the content stored in an address instead of the address itself, and there is no need to verify the identity of the sender, but only verifying the hash of the content. In this way, the web pages can become faster, more secure, more robust and more durable.

 Lower cost of use

The distributed IaaS platform is realized through technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, and IPFS to subvert the operation mode of the traditional centralized computer room with high operation and maintenance costs and makes rational use of idle resources and returns benefits to users.

 Avoiding waste of resources

Acute Angle PC solves idleness of the personal computer hard drive, CPU, and other resources through virtual technology. It collects, allocates and fully recycles the user’s idle hard disk and CPU resources to apply Acute Angle PC and Acute Angle Cloud in the chain ecological system.

Comparison between Acute Angle PC and OneCloud, LLT Box

 The biggest difference between Acute Angle PC and OneCloud, LLT Box is the form of the equipment. The essence of Acute Angle PC is a computer based on blockchain technology with the Windows10 system, the latest Apollo N3450 14nm quad-core microprocessor of Intel, 8+64G internal memory, solid node storage with capacity of 128G or larger, which is safe and high-speed with node storage. Thus, it can not only be used for mining, but also for daily office working and entertainment. The other two are private Nas (Network Attached Storage), and if users use Nas’ memory, the unused space for digging up the mines is more limited. In addition, Acute Angle PC’s service system also surpasses the only cloud storage services of the other two devices, and constructs a better global distributed IaaS platform.

At present, we have already released the White Paper and the product has drawn the attention of many investment institutions.

For more information, please go visit our official website: www.acuteangle.com and leave your email to be the first to know any updates regarding the product.

The post Acute Angle PC – Extraordinary Coin Mine appeared first on NewsBTC.

ESR Wallet is a UAE based startup that looks to provide the first universal wallet, complete with banking services, as well as providing 20% interest yearly on cryptocurrency deposits.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

The UAE company, with a US-based office in Miami, Florida, has already raised more than $1 million through a pre-sale they had carried out, but has opened participation to a more public crowdsale, which started December 18th.

The team looks to achieve $8 million through their fundraising, which project developer Alexey Korn thinks is achievable:

“We are sure that it will be much easier to reach the sale goal of $8M, as long as we show our investors the huge scale of our work, and all the problems that we have solved during last 2 months.”

While there are competitors with similar goals and ambitions, none have come as close as ESR Wallet to actually achieving a holistic banking platform for all. Projects that have raised millions of dollars have still not delivered finished platforms months after their token sales.

The team behind ESR wallet, however, is already working hard at finishing major aspects of their teams platform before their token sale even begins.

“Bringing a cryptocurrency bank into realization is both a technically and legally difficult task, due to the legal complexity of connecting traditional bank accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges. Unlike the founders of many similar projects, our team is highly experienced in the fields of finance and licensing. Our company, ES Reliable Investments, has been operating its own ATM network in the USA for years”, says Konstantin Beynars, technical director of the company.

Basic functionality is already working for their platform, with the token sale just beginning. KYC and AML compliance have already been implemented, with ESR’s currency exchange not far behind. Soon, users will be able to use both fiat and crypto to replenish their accounts, send and receive payments on and off the platform, as well as participate in digital currency exchange.

ESR tokens for the platform start at $7.50, but will soon raise to $10 following the release of the first ESR plastic cards.

“The price and liquidity of the Token after the sale is what most investors are interested in. In addition to the distribution of 30 percent of the company’s profits to all Token holders, the ESR Token will be used inside the ESR Wallet system to pay commissions. Thus, the use of our Wallet without ESR Tokens will be impossible. Considering that we have collected more than 15,000 pre-orders for ESR cards, our investors do not have to worry about the demand for Tokens on the exchanges after the token sale.” – Oleg Gerasimov, strategic management.

With 15,000 pre-orders already lined up, there is plenty of demand for the token. Combined with the 30% profits distributed to token holders as dividend, token value should appreciate as more users adopt the platform.

Exchange and wallet startup Coinbase has taken to reminding its customers to pay taxes due on their cryptocurrency gains.

Amsterdam, January 4, 2018: Icecat, a listed company in The Netherlands and exploiting a unique and global open content catalog in the e-commerce market, is working on the creation and issuance of a so-called “2.0” cryptocoin, ICURY. The ICURY, Icecat CryptocURrencY, will be a cryptotoken that is accepted by Icecat, and will play a role in payments and content creation in Icecat’s existing ecosystem. It is a 2.0 coin in the sense that the token is issued by an existing and profitable business with substance, running operational services and a track record. Icecat is not just a startup with only a business idea.

ICURY is defined as a cryptotoken to decentralize Icecat’s existing global product content syndication network, which already facilitates 18 billion downloads per year by tens of thousands of e-commerce companies. Icecat wants to use the token as pre-pay for its services at a minimum value. Next, the token can be used to incentify decentralized content production and syndication. Currently, Icecat produces around one million product data-sheets per year. In a decentralized set-up, including token incentives, Icecat expects that the production can increase to tens of millions of product data-sheets annually. In its token ecosystem, independent Proof-Of-Quality checks are seen as critical, as users demand standardized and verified product content.

For the technical creation and issuance of the ICURY, Icecat is collaborating closely with the Tacxe/Ledgable blockchain team. As soon as the technical pilot is concluded, Icecat will announce its time schedule for the Initial Coin or Token Offering (ICO/ITO) of the ICURY.

About Icecat NV
Icecat NV, stock noted at Dutch NPEX, is a global publisher and syndicator of product information for the e-commerce market. Icecat NV, founded in 2009, works with  some 68,000 webshops and hundreds of brands such as Philips, Sony, Samsung, HP, P&G, Lego, and L’Oréal.

Icecat includes the subsidiaries Icecat LLC (Icecat Ukraine) and Icecat Content Sourcing OÜ (Icecat Estonia), Iceshop BV, and participation Hatch B.V. The cost centers Icecat Ukraine and Icecat Estonia are responsible for hiring editor and software developer capacity. Hatch BV delivers smart “Buy Now” buttons that help manufacturers to turn their websites into measurable lead generators for their online retailers. Iceshop is specialist in e-commerce-integrations and Product Information Management (PIM) solutions.

More information:

• • https://iceclog.com/icury-tokenizing-the-dominant-open-content-syndication-network-in-the-e-commerce-market/
  • Telegram ICURY group: https://t.me/joinchat/ILcuOAz2sKyWZxlnmTmx1Q
  • ICURY blog: https://iceclog.com/category/icury/

Contact
Name: Martijn Hoogeveen
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +31654256476
https://twitter.com/mjhoogeveen

The post Icecat Works on 2.0 Cryptocurrency ICURY for Content Syndication appeared first on NewsBTC.

It’s a long road yet to mainstream blockchain use, according to Santander’s head of blockchain R&D. But integration, he argues, won’t be the issue.

Today, there are close to 1,500 active cryptocurrencies, and that number continues to grow each day. Ultimately, it is best to understand as many of them as possible. Of course, a good place from which to start researching is the very top. Here is a brief overview of what each of the top ten cryptocurrencies has to offer:
Bitcoin (BTC)

Created as a response to the global financial crisis in 2008, Bitcoin is the grandfather of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin was created as a method of transferring wealth and power from financial institutions and governments to individuals. Bitcoin seeks to provide this autonomy with a decentralized money supply operating outside of the jurisdiction of a governing body. Active developments such as Lightning Network seek to bring Bitcoin closer to achieving its original goal.

Ripple (XRP)

If this were a novel, Ripple would be the foil to Bitcoin. Ripple seeks to provide cheap, efficient, and precise transaction solutions to banks and financial providers using the RippleNet technology. Unlike the vast majority of cryptocurrencies, Ripple is centralized, minted and distributed through the Ripple company. Ripple boasts over 100 partners on its network, including American Express and Visa.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum introduces smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) on top of its blockchain network. Ethereum provides a powerful environment for developers to build upon the blockchain. The most widespread use of Ethereum’s technology is token creation, where developers can create transferable tokens. Hundreds of projects operate as Ethereum tokens, are distributed through ICOs administered by the ETH network through smart contracts, and are later traded and transacted on the Ethereum blockchain.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Bitcoin Cash is a Bitcoin fork that advertises itself as the true vision of Bitcoin. On August 1, 2017, everyone who held Bitcoin received an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash. It is mainly supported by angel investor Roger Ver, Bitmain executive Jihan Wu, and crypto-eccentric Craig Wright. BCH pledges to solve Bitcoin scaling issues with a 2 MB block size, double that of Bitcoin.

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is branded as a third-generation cryptocurrency, seeking to create an environment that is inviting for developers and doesn’t require expert blockchain knowledge. ADA boasts an impressive team comprised of a number of computer science scholars, as well as Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. Cardano was built in conjunction with the Ethereum fork, Ethereum Classic.

Litecoin (LTC)

Since its inception, Litecoin has acted as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. It is one of the oldest altcoins, and has served primarily as a testnet for Bitcoin, where many features such as SegWit have been integrated and experimented with before getting implemented on the Bitcoin network. During periods of Bitcoin struggle and congestion, Litecoin has gained support as a potentially superior alternative to Bitcoin.

IOTA

IOTA is unique in that, unlike virtually all other cryptocurrencies, IOTA does not operate on a blockchain. Rather, its ledger operates through a network called Tangle. The goal of IOTA is to act as the communicator between various entities in an Internet of Things (IoT) environment. In the future, the idea is that IOTA will be the method by which smart devices interact with one another. Currently, IOTA’s major draw is its zero-fee transactions.

NEM (XEM)

NEM’s major defining characteristic is its Proof-of-Importance (PoI) approach to network propagation. PoI is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) hybrid that, rather than give incentives for holding, like traditional PoS, rewards nodes for spending NEM. NEM also offers mosaics, which are similar to Ethereum’s token system, but are much more user friendly. NEM also provides a private ledger feature for internal transactions, which financial institutions in Japan are currently testing.

Stellar Lumens (XLM)

Stellar serves as the decentralized alternative to Ripple. While both offer similar features, XLM seeks to service individuals with fast and cheap remittances and micropayments. Much of the appeal of XLM comes from its current partnerships with major businesses, primarily IBM. IBM is currently working to build a cross-border payments system that runs on XLM. Another major partnership involves Deloitte, one of the Big 4 accounting firms in the US.

DASH

DASH is digital cash. The coin seeks to establish itself as the number-one option for merchants and consumers. DASH features instant transaction confirmations and some privacy features to mask users’ wallet balances and transactions. DASH boasts one of the largest networks with almost 5,000 nodes, as well as dozens of merchants worldwide that accept the coin. The projects and developments of the team are proposed and voted on by holders of the coin.

DASH/USD

DASH continues to be a bit volatile, but we are underneath the downtrend line that makes the top of the downtrend in channel. If we can break above the $1200 level, the market could continue to go higher, perhaps reaching towards the $1400 level. If we break down below the $1000 level, then I think we go down to the $850 level.

LTC/USD

Litecoin fell a bit during the trading session on Thursday, but I think there is plenty support below at the $200 level to keep this market afloat. We may drift down towards that area, but right now I think the volume simply isn’t there, meaning that we are going to go back and forth.

Thanks for watching, I’ll be back tomorrow.

The post DASH and Litecoin Analysis January 5, 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

ETH/USD

Ethereum continues to grind higher, as it looks likely to reach towards the $1000 level over the next several days. Because of this, I believe that the markets will continue to find buyers on dips, as the large, round, psychologically significant number is far too tempting of a target. I believe that it is not until we break down below the $800 level that you should worry about the uptrend.

ETH/BTC

Ethereum rallied against Bitcoin as well, and it looks as if the markets are starting to favor Ethereum overall. The market looks likely to go looking towards the 0.07 handle above, and I think dips continue to be supported at the 0.06 level below.

Thanks for watching, I’ll see you tomorrow.

The post Ethereum Analysis January 5, 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin drifted a bit lower during the trading session on Thursday, as traders continue to bounce around the head of the nonfarm payroll number coming out of the United States. This will have a drastic effect on the US dollar, and by extension Bitcoin. It looks currently as if we are consolidating still, with the $13,000 level being the “floor”, and the $16,000 level being the ceiling. Because of this, back and forth range bound trading strategies seem to be the best way to deal with Bitcoin currently.

BTC/JPY

Bitcoin fell a little bit against the Japanese yen after initially rallying, but in the Japanese market, it looks as if Bitcoin is trying to make a move to the top of the consolidation range at ¥1.9 million. If we can break above there, we will challenge the ¥2 million level, and a move above there becomes more of a “buy-and-hold” scenario. Until then, buying the dips continues to be the best way to trade.

Thanks for watching, I’ll be back tomorrow.

The post Bitcoin Analysis January 5, 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

John McAfee insists that cybersecurity will be paramount in 2018 after his personal Twitter account was hacked in December. #SECURITY

The price of ether, the native token of the ethereum platform, has hit a new all-time high over $970 and is looking upwards.

Initial coin offerings have come under increased scrutiny by the SEC. That is only normal, as a lot of these projects catered to US-based investors. However, very few of these concepts effectively filed with the SEC to issue securities. After Tezos, Giga Watt is now the second major project to feel the SEC’s wrath. The company is effectively being sued for securities fraud as we speak. Whether or not this group of investors will benefit from such legal action, is a big unknown.

Investing in an ICO is always a certain risk. Most novice users tend to ignore these risks and potential warning signs as well. It is far from an ideal situation, to say the very least. Giga Watt is one of the ICOs which attracted a lot of attention in 2017. Although the tokens are going up in value, investors are not impressed. This is mainly because no one has received their tokens or been refunded in the process. Nor is there any sign of the promised mining equipment either. A very disturbing development, especially for a project of that magnitude.

Giga Watt ICO Fails to Deliver

After all, not issuing tokens to investors is a very serious problem. It has affected the Tezos ICO as well. That particular company is facing three different class action lawsuits as we speak. For Giga Watt, the first of such lawsuits have been filed by investors as well. These people are – genuinely – concerned they will never receive their tokens or mining equipment activated. It is unclear why the ICO team hasn’t issued the tokens to investors or made any other significant progress, though.

At the same time, there’s the concern over the token “status” as well. More specifically, it seems Giga Watt violated securities laws in this regard as well. Although advertised as a utility token, it’s not immune from SEC regulation whatsoever. It will be interesting to see what the government agency has to say regarding this matter. Until this matter is resolved, investors will have to hope for the best. It is unclear if they will reap the benefits of the token value appreciation in the end.

All of this goes to show initial coin offerings remain a big problem. While there are legitimate projects out there, some of the bigger ideas simply fail to deliver on their promises. It is evident issues like these will set the whole industry back over time. Giga Watt is a very ambitious project, but a lawsuit can make the whole thing fall apart pretty quickly. Moreover, the creator of this ICO is Dave Carlson. He has a colourful history of failed mining ventures. The people who conducted their research would have known that from day one.

The post Giga Watt ICO is the Latest Project to Commit Securities Fraud appeared first on NewsBTC.