In recent weeks, many coins have seen absolute explosions in value. The top 10 and top 50 market cap rankings have been penetrated by a number of new contenders, some ascending from well outside the top 100. With many developments poised to occur this month and this quarter, investors are wildly bullish on an array of cryptocurrencies.

Among these projects is EnjinCoin (ENJ), whose mobile wallet is slated for release as soon as tomorrow. The wallet is rumored to boast the greatest security of any Ethereum mobile wallet. The ENJ mobile wallet will also feature native support for all 600+ ERC20 tokens listed on CoinMarketCap.com. Beyond this, a Minecraft plugin, which will allow custom servers to implement EnjinCoin and ENJ-minted virtual items, should be released within a month.

ENJ is currently trading at just over US$0.36, after topping out at just over US$0.45 earlier today. When ENJ was first introduced on The Merkle one month ago, EnjinCoin was trading at under US$0.025, sitting outside the top 200 on CoinMarketCap.com. Today, it is flirting with the top 100, and trading close to 15 times higher. Unfortunately, with Bitcoin recently rallying to local highs above US$16,000, it seems that EnjinCoin’s run was ended, or at least paused, prematurely.

While EnjinCoin initially struggled after its ICO – at one point trading 67% below its ICO price – speculators have begun to recognize the massive potential of this project, whose developments will be available to Enjin’s existing community of over 18 million monthly users. Enjin’s past Minecraft plugins have already been wildly popular. Its DonationCraft plugin boasts over 5 million downloads.

On a broader scale, gaming coins are poised for a great year. Beyond ENJ, GameCredits and MobileGO are expecting their final product releases in June. Chimaera, the protocol evolution of its prototype product, HunterCoin, is also set to run its public sale next month, with its blockchain technology being rolled out soon afterward. Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, recently tweeted his opinion on game coins.

Two major theme predictions for crypto in 2018: 1) Blockchain-based gaming and tokenized game assets, and 2) tokenized securities (equities or other registered securities as tokens).

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 4, 2018

Alongside the release of the Minecraft plugin, the EnjinCoin team will distribute 15% of the total ENJ supply set aside for adoption purposes across over 100 Minecraft and other gaming communities that have pledged to incorporate ENJ on their servers. After Minecraft, the EnjinCoin team plans to release integration plugins for Unturned and Ark.

The video game industry is a major market that seems a very likely candidate for cryptocurrency integration. This adoption may be seen on a significant scale as early as this year. If this is the case, the project that achieves it could compete as a top cryptocurrency, and other gaming coins should also appreciate as speculators begin to place larger value on gaming cryptocurrencies in general.

The ever-growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and interest in blockchain technology has caused a constant increase in the amount of coins and tokens issued. The technology has proven itself as a superior way of raising funds than traditional fundraising practices. The decentralized nature and the lack of involvement by regulatory and governmental authorities, gives companies greater control over their campaigns, while also making the process cheaper and more efficient.

Due to being a relatively new and complex process, many businesses looking at launching an ICO may feel overwhelmed by the additional processes required, like customizing their coin, developing their platform and creating their wallet. In addition, there’s marketing, legal and administrative operations which need to be addressed.

All of these problems with crowdfunding and ICOs are exactly the things that CoinStarter is attacking head on. CoinStarter is an first of its kind, innovative platform for launching ICOs. The user-friendly and intuitive platform brings ease-of-use to the complex world of launching an ICO. Users are provided with all of the necessary tools and guidance to launch a successful fundraising campaign.

The idea behind CoinStarter really started taking off in the middle of 2017, when within six weeks we were able to attract over 60,000 subscribers interested in launching their ICO with CoinStarter. The community has reached over 140,000 members within the last three months of beta testing. We already have over 11,000 projects being developed by our users and over 2,000 projects are waiting for approval. After reaching 80,000 community members we decided to launch our own ICO in order to develop the platform further.

One major difference between CoinStarter’s ICO and other ICOs is that, while most ICOs can only show their rough roadmap and their whitepaper, CoinStarter has already built their platform, which is in beta testing, and has gathered a community of over 140,000 loyal ICO enthuiasts.

The funds from the ICO will go directly to improving the platform even further, to introduce even more features and solutions.

The supporters of the ICO will receive StarterCoins, the utility coins of the CoinStarter platform. Within a few weeks following the ICO, StarterCoins will be available on most exchanges.

StarterCoins can be used on every CoinStarter platform including the ICO crowdfunding solutions, Businefy and CoinStarterBox platforms.

Businesses can use them to take advantage of the wide variety of tools provided by the platform and launch their ICO, manage their business through Businefy, and gain exposure and reach a dedicated audience through CoinStarterBox.

Regular users can be a part of the CoinStarterBox solutions and receive carefully curated coins of the best ICOs every month. Making it fun and easy to find new promising ICOs and get some of their coins significantly below retail price.

Imagine being a subscriber of CoinStarterBox and receiving the coins of the next Ethereum or the next Bitcoin, without even knowing it. After a year you come back to your CoinStarterBox and find out that the coins you have received from your subscription have grown thousands of times – and you didn’t even have to do any extensive research and analysis to get these coins.

The initial issue of coins will be limited to 695,800,000 which will be available during the pre-ICO and ICO. All of the coins which are not sold will be burned. The limited amount of StarterCoins means that their value is directly tied to the business model. Meaning that the value of the coin will grow with the platform. New features on the platform will increase the usability of the StarterCoins and raise their value.

The limited amount of the StarterCoin and the fact that these coins can be used to access the tools of the CoinStarter ecosystem, ensures not only a steady growth in value but also a valuable asset for those looking to take their business activities to the next level.

CoinStarter pre-ICO launches on the 6th of January, 2018 and the main ICO begins on the 20th of January. The campaign will last till 17th of February, 2018. The StarterCoin [STC] will equal 4500 STC to 1 ETH, but early participants of the pre-ICO and ICO will receive a bonus on their purchase. The earlier the purchase, the bigger the bonus.

Learn more about CoinStarter ICO: https://coinstarter.com/pre-ico

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.

The North American Bitcoin Conference is upon us.

Many established and emerging crypto & ICO stars are soon to hit the stage at the James L Knight Center in downtown Miami. To many outsiders it might seem to be against better judgment to spend time inside a packed conference hall right next to that seductive turquoise water, gently swaying palm trees and that world famous golden beach. That is true especially for those traveling over from the currently Blade Runner-esque January London. To most crypto obsessives, however, the weather can’t compete with what is available inside.

According to the latest data from Keynote, the attendance expectancy has tripled to 3000 people. Crypto is undeniably on a high roll in 2018. This year might just be the one that blockchain solutions explode into the public consciousness as much more than just a new form of currency. Considering its been around less than a decade the speed is incredible.

Speaker list at BTC Miami here

I will be among the other floor displayers there to present some crypto art and write to News BTC about the experience. Getting an email offer to join the conference came at the perfect time a month back as another trip over had been in the works since last summer.

My second US art exhibit will be at the Art Ford Lauderdale fair a week after BTC Miami so that serendipitous gap might allow me that day at the beach after all – even if to just mentally prepare for what is to come right after. This is also my first collaboration exhibit through the legends only Tranter-Sinni Gallery. Due to the gallery, AFL will now also include our bodypainting performance with dancers and a 30-minute talk about tech, art and societal change at 3 pm on the 25th.

Art Ford Lauderdale site

“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. ” – Carl Sagan

It will be interesting to talk at a mainstream contemporary art show about the blockchain, VR, and AI after hearing the latest tech insights a week before at BTC Miami. It is not apparent to most in crypto why the blockchain is relevant to art – let alone those who might have only heard the name Bitcoin in passing. Crypto is fast becoming connected to visual art through innovations like Verisart and Maecenas, a decentralized art gallery. It can solve things that have caused major problems within it for centuries.

After recently selling a piece to Silver 8 Capital I used blockchain to verify it through an open to public ledger. See the online authentication here. The landscape of art business is changing due to technology, and a few galleries already cater to the emerging crypto collector class.

Tropical Bit Thunder

There will be at least two more articles regarding everything that is about to happen in sunny Florida. These will include some professionally put together video material, images, insights and quotes from speakers. There are not many covering topics in this space from the perspective of a creative, so I’m privileged to offer it on this platform.

In the world of finance people often forget why they are relevant to people outside of their primary field of interest. Money, especially now, can quickly feel like a gamelike abstraction only. The feedback loop from outside it is often the one that fuels intuition on where to invest next, what to support and perhaps help generate a new evolutionary idea.

For me, the blockchain inspired a whole new art platform and freed me to express potential future directions more easily than the previous. Grandiose as that might sound within the art world, in tech, this is just a normal Monday.

The trip already inspired me to make this crypto art piece titled “T(r)optical.” The central palm tree has some coconuts in it and suggests that by journeying over you get to crack them open and access what is inside.

The peacock nesting in the tree has spread its wings to flaunt other crypto logos within as well.

The famous Miami skyline at the bottom incorporates the coins as well as the code that is transforming the banking buildings that make it.

If someone had told me only a couple of years ago that I would be making art about digital money and be inspired by a conference –  I’d likely suggested for them to alter their medication.

The power of Bitcoin I guess.

Should you like to purchase the T(r)optical art piece nr. 1s before everyone else you can do so here

More to come and will be listening to U2’s ‘Miami‘ on the way over.

V E S A
Visual Artist
London / Helsinki
www.artforcrypto.com
www.artevo.org

The post North American Bitcoin Conference appeared first on NewsBTC.

European bitcoin debit card providers say they were told to suspend their services by card network Visa on Friday.

It does not happen all that often that we see cryptocurrencies undergo a rebranding. In most cases, there is no reason to do so, especially not when a team has built up a solid reputation. RaiBlocks, a project which has recently started to gain major traction, will apparently rebrand itself in the next few weeks. The currency will reportedly move forward under the name Nano, which makes a lot more sense from a marketing point of view.

Raiblocks Could use a Name Change

It is always interesting to see existing cryptocurrency projects suddenly change their names. Since this hasn’t happened all that often in recent years, it’s fascinating to explore why some choose to do so. There is no real reason to drop the RaiBlocks name all of a sudden, even though the name isn’t exactly the most flashy or marketable. Switching things up can be a good thing, as long as the core idea remains the same.

Not too long ago, we saw Antshares rebrand to NEO. Since that time, the currency has soared in value, although it is unclear if that had anything to do with the rebranding itself. All cryptocurrencies surged in value around that time, although NEO sounds a lot better than AntShares at getting people excited about the project. Marketing the name Nano rather than RaiBlocks could have a similar effect.

At the same time, using the Nano name will cause a fair amount of confusion among cryptocurrency users as well. That’s because the Ledger Nano S is one of the most popular hardware wallets on the market today. Novice enthusiasts may look for a connection between this wallet and the Nano cryptocurrency, which have nothing to do with one another. Plus, there is the risk that some people would consider Nano to be far too generic a name for a cryptocurrency. All of these concerns are more than valid, although things may work out eventually.

The big question is why this rebrand is occurring right now. RaiBlocks has seen major growth in the past few weeks, and changing its name at such a critical time is almost the same as taking two steps backward. It is evident that doing so will force all trading platforms to upgrade to the new name and client as well, which may lead to even more confusion down the line. People are used to the name RaiBlocks these days, and thus it remains to be seen if the team will actually go ahead with this.

It is important to keep in mind that this rebrand has not been officially confirmed by the RaiBlocks team at this point. Someone simply came across a website which seemingly contained information related to RaiBlocks but with a different name attached. We do know that the RaiBlocks team has a major upcoming announcement planned, although it is unclear if it involves a rebranding effort.

The world of cryptocurrency is always evolving. Projects and their teams cannot afford to stand still at any given moment. It is far more important to have proper technical fundamentals than a fancy name, though. Projects need to focus on their long-term goals, rather than become the next pump-and-dump. Over time, only the former projects will prevail, whereas the rest will disappear into obscurity. Changing the name of a cryptocurrency to something entirely new will always be controversial, to say the very least.

A company of a new generation, DataTrading, has already gathered almost 920 000 USD during a token sale, which was running from 11.20.2017 till 11.30.2017 and granted all participants 30% bonus.

DataTrading is an innovative platform that conquers the world of trade forecasting. Its key feature is using models of Artificial Intelligence that make analytics and forecasting for financial markets. What is more, each trader who is a member of this progressive community will get an access to those models and will be able to use them for his own trading.

Currently, DataTrading is participating in token sale and is planning to receive more funds for the further development of its products and attracting progressive traders, who will become a part of a DataTrading community. The company’s crowd sale consists of pre-sale (11.20.2017–11.30.2017), during which the company gathered around 1 000 000 USD and 2 rounds for the participants from different parts of the world: Round A, which is held for eastern region (12.18.2017–01.08.2018) and Round B, held for western regions (02.01.2018–22.22.2018). All token sale participants will get a unique opportunity to join the beta testing of DataTrading product.

During the business trip to China, DataTrading, represented by Anton Vokrug, CEO, Alexander Gandzha, CTO, and Julia Chaschina, Development of international relations partner, has started a strategic cooperation with top Chinese advisors — Zeng LianBin and Huang DaoLin.

Zeng LianBin graduated from the Zhongnan University and became Doctor of Science in the field of cartography and geographic information technology. The key area of his activities is working with graphs and Big Data. In 2011 he participated in the project of research and application of the new model of the GIS database and was awarded a prize for the scientific and technical progress of geoinformation in China. Zeng LianBin wrote many scientific articles in the sphere of graphics and processing of Big Data. Has realized visualization of the forecast of the stock market tendencies.

Huang DaoLin is the chairman of the board of the Shenzhen DaoLin company, research supervisor of graduate students of the Shenzhen University. He is a special guest on Phoenix TV station, the Hubei television, the Shenzhen TV channel of finance and economy, the central Chinese television of CCTV and other TV programs and media. Since 1996 Huang DaoLin works in the sphere of securities, an expert in trend analytics, respects three theories of investment (a hot spot, a point of purchase and a point of sale).

Expert in live shows of financial and economic channel Tencent (the Chinese telecommunication company QQ, Weixin). Author of the book “Logic of Investment of One Director on Private Placement of Securities”.

We are happy to welcome these awesome experts in the DataTrading team!

The era of technical indicators, previously used for trade forecasting, has come to an end  — Artificial Intelligence is a new word in the world of trading. DataTrading brings this sphere to a new level and makes AI technologies available to each trader!

Join our token sale and become a part of the community that changes trading forever!

Click here for further information

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.

Finding reliable cryptocurrency exchanges is often a lot more difficult than people would like to think. That’s not because one can’t trust most companies, but mainly because few platforms provide uninterrupted experiences at all times. The Kraken exchange, while one of the oldest in the business, has suffered from major performance issues over the past year or two. It is still one of the better exchanges due to the number of markets it supports, though.

Mixed Feelings About Using Kraken

For all intents and purposes, the Kraken exchange has a very solid reputation in the world of cryptocurrency. It was one of the first major platforms to come to market, and the company has attracted its fair share of funding along the way. Its goal is to provide fiat currency gateways for as many “worthy” cryptocurrencies as humanly possible. Compared to other giants such as Coinbase, GDAX, Gemini, and Bitstamp, Kraken offers a lot more trading markets and fiat gateways for top cryptocurrencies.

Moreover, the company has never suffered from any major issues which set it or its users back. As is the case with any cryptocurrency exchange, its trading engine has had some very odd moments, resulting in people completing trades which should not have been possible under normal circumstances. Thankfully, virtually all of those incidents were minor, and they often got sorted out after a few days or weeks. Companies have to take responsibility in this regard.

One factor that is holding Kraken down, however, is that its infrastructure is absolutely horrible. Orders are placed after a few dozen tries, and it seems these issues are only growing worse over time. This doesn’t just affect any one particular market, as these issues plagued all trading pairs in 2016 and 2017. So far, there is no solution in sight, even though the company promised users that they would see improved services starting in December of 2017. Not much has changed, unfortunately, as the platform is still subpar more often than not.

It is evident that a lot of customers are not too happy with these problems either. Unfortunately, depending on which currencies one aims to trade, there are no options other than Kraken right now. It’s uncanny how so few exchanges list all of the top currencies that are in high demand and have built up solid reputations over the years. Until that situation changes, users will have to rely on Kraken or use a broker to buy or sell specific currencies. The latter option is not preferable, though, as brokers often suffer from liquidity issues when completing large purchases or sales.

Moreover, it seems Kraken has far less trading volume than it could or should have. This goes hand-in-hand with the degraded performance of this exchange, as these issues need to be addressed sooner rather than later. It is unclear when the company will make any progress on this front, even though a large portion of its user base is getting fed up with the subpar service. Verifying one’s account on Kraken is also a very tedious process, as it can take weeks to get a reply. This is pretty common across all major exchanges these days, though.

In the end, there are a lot of things to like and dislike about Kraken. It is evident that the service could be a lot better, yet it offers more fiat trading markets than most other exchanges do. If it could finally upgrade its infrastructure, the company could easily become one of the top three trading platforms once again. For now, users will have to take the good with the bad and exert a fair amount of patience when using this cryptocurrency exchange.

In a tweet late Thursday night, Ripple stated that three of the top five money transfer businesses will begin using its XRP cryptocurrency in 2018.

LiveEdu is a decentralized learning ecosystem that teaches people how to build complete products in future technological fields. They are building the YouTube for online education. You can also describe their ecosystem as the next-generation Lynda.com. Unlike existing online education platforms, LiveEdu is not focused on beginners, but mainly intermediates to experts. People learn on LiveEdu by watching how peers build real projects and can also download all project resources and files. The new LiveEdu platform is set to launch in 2018 and will start with eight main topics which encompasses several subcategories: Artificial intelligence, Cybersecurity, Game Development, Data Science, Cryptocurrencies, programming, Design, and Augmented and virtual reality Project creators in the LiveEdu ecosystem will build 10,000 projects for these topics.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

The LiveEdu public sale starts from Jan 15th, 2018 — Feb 10, 2018. Education (EDU) tokens can be purchased directly using ether (ETH), bitcoins (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies (via Shapeshift). Bonus starts from 20%.

Artificial intelligence

The LiveEdu Artificial Intelligence topic explores the ability of a digital data processor or information processing system-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent living beings. It is comprised of the following subcategories: Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Robotics, and Self driving car.

Cybersecurity

The LiveEdu’s CyberSecurity topic illuminates why information is constantly at a risk of being exploited and securing data. The subcategories are: Ethical Hacking, Mobile Security, Malware‎/Ransomware protection, Internet of Things Security, Cybercrime and Information Warfare

Game Development

The LiveEdu Game Development topic facilitates the emergence of new technologies to make it possible to develop better and more powerful games. LiveEdu holistically improves game development in the following subcategories of GameDev, Unity, Love2D, Unreal Engine and GameMaker.

Data Science

The LiveEdu Data Science topic has a multidisciplinary blend of data inference, algorithm development, and technology in order to solve analytical complex problems. Within this topic they have subcategories of Data Visualization, Data Mining, Data Analytics, Text Processing, Wolfram, Data Warehouse and Big Data

Cryptocurrencies

Under the LiveEdu Cryptocurrency topic we delve into the greatest revolution in the finance industry in the last millennium. The subcategories are Cryptocurrency Basics, Ethereum, Security and Hacking, Blockchain Mining, BitCoin, and ICOs.

Programming

The topic programming in the LiveEdu ecosystem covers over 100 programming languages and frameworks such as PHP, JavaScript, C-C++, Java, HTML-CSS, C#-.NET, React.js, Python, Django, C++, and Node.js.

Design

The LiveEdu Design topic is focused on a specific problem in human experience and endeavoring to improve said experience. It comprises the following subcategories, Art and Illustration, Mobile App Design, Logo design, Web App Design, and UX design.

Virtual and augmented reality

The LiveEdu Virtual and Augmented Reality topic hurtles you into the great beyond and boldly go where no other online education has taken VR & AR. It covers the subcategories of VR Games, Desktop and Console VR, Augmented reality and Mobile VR.

ICO investors will have voting rights for every key decision in the ecosystem which includes advising which new topics or product features are to be added.

Website and Social Media

Website: https://tokensale.liveedu.tv/

How to Buy EDU tokens: https://tokensale.liveedu.tv/en/buy-tokens/how-to-buy-edu-tokens

Whitepaper: https://tokensale.liveedu.tv/static/docs/LiveEdu-white-paper.pdf

Telegram: https://t.me/liveeduico

Twitter: https://twitter.com/liveedutv