Day: January 14, 2018

Bitcoin Cash enthusiasts were quite pleased when Coinbase and GDAX announced support for BCH a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the good feelings didn’t last all that long, mainly because the trading of BCH was halted pretty quickly afterward. It seems there is also an investigation ongoing into how some people managed to manipulate orders across GDAX. Thankfully, the trading of Bitcoin Cash will be resumed on this platform on January 17 at 9 a.m. PST.

GDAX Will Finally Resume BCH Trading

It is always interesting to see how things unfold when major exchanges enable support for additional cryptocurrencies. There are quite a few top cryptocurrencies which are not supported by any major exchange right now. Especially when it comes to fiat currency gateways, there is still a lot of work to be done for most coins. Coinbase is the go-to exchange for most people looking to buy cryptocurrency with their euros and US dollars.

A few weeks ago, GDAX announced it would launch trading of Bitcoin Cash. A lot of people were quite excited about this development, especially because it would allow more people to invest in BCH without any major problems. As was to be expected, however, this sudden interest in BCH would result in some very unusual market action. Some people will always look to take advantage of new currencies being added to this platform.

Although this behavior did not go unnoticed, it didn’t impact the Bitcoin Cash price all that much. The one downside, however, was that Coinbase was forced to halt the order book and trading on GDAX, which was a very worrisome development. Companies want to protect users first and foremost, but doing so comes at the risk of annoying said users and missing out on a lot of money at the same time. People have been rather patient when it comes to the relaunch of BCH trading on GDAX, and it seems their patience will be rewarded after all.

More specifically, the GDAX Twitter account has shared that trading of Bitcoin Cash will resume come January 17 at 9 a.m. PST. This means we might see some interesting market action for Bitcoin Cash in the next few days. A lot of people are still waiting to see if the GDAX listing will affect the price in the coming weeks and months. With more fiat currency gateways at users’ disposal, things will undoubtedly get very interesting moving forward.

The first question that comes to mind is whether or not we will see another attempt to manipulate the BCH price. It remains unclear who was responsible for the first attempt at doing so weeks ago, but it was evident this was a well-coordinated event, all things considered. At one point, people were trying to buy Bitcoin Cash for US$8,000 and more, which was and is well above the current market value. Although this shows a clear interest in BCH on the part of investors, it is also somewhat problematic when it comes to properly assessing the value of this altcoin right now.

Some Bitcoin enthusiasts are already calling for a major BCH dump when GDAX resumes trading. Whether that is wishful thinking or an indication of future price manipulation is very difficult to determine right now. It is evident there is some animosity between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash supporters, and some people would gladly wish harm upon the other community’s fortunes. That in itself is pretty bothersome, but it is highly unlikely that situation will change anytime soon. This doesn’t mean there will be an actual Bitcoin Cash dump to speak of, though, but you never know how things will play out.

A legacy cryptocoin that we’ve covered since it’s inception, IrishCoin has stood the test of time in crypto terms since 2014.

The team have been working diligently in the background over the years to keep the coin alive whilst stalwarts like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple have dominated the crypto scene over the past year or so.

With close to one trillion dollars moving into the crypto space, legacy coins like IRL have not only the novelty Irish factor but become trading coins in their own right acting as arbitrage between exchanges and or other coins and tokens.

IrishCoin (IRL) is trading up to 3,525% in heavy volume that started after the holiday break.

Follow IrishCoin’s live price trades here: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/irishcoin/

We hear now (one of our former writers was part of the dev team) that the next phase in IRL involves updates and ramping up marketing for 2018.

For live updates you can follow their twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/irishcoin

News:

CoinTelegraph – Irishcoin Aims To Boost Tourism in Dublin and Beyond

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.

Various banks all over the world prevent their customers from buying or selling cryptocurrency. That is not a positive development, as people should be free to spend their money as they please. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works right now. Capital One is the latest bank on a growing list of banks blocking cryptocurrency-related transactions. Various complaints can be found across all of social media as we speak.

Capital One Refuses to Process Bitcoin Transactions

It is not the first time a major bank has decided to not process customer requests related to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. These incidents usually involve people looking to buy Bitcoin, but they can also pertain to those individuals selling cryptocurrency. In the case of Capital One, one of the biggest US banks, it is no longer allowing users to buy crypto. As is usually the case, your individual mileage may vary when it comes to using this bank’s payment methods as of right now.

We have been informed by multiple users that Capital One has prevented them from buying Bitcoin. This mainly applies to people who rely on the Coinbase exchange, although it seems likely other exchanges will be affected by this development as well. More specifically, people using a Capital One credit card have a higher chance of running into problems right now than those relying on a regular bank transfer. However, neither payment method is reliable as of right now.

Capital One users who try to purchase Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies right now will notice that their transactions are not being processed. Unlike other banks, this particular financial institution seemingly doesn’t notify customers regarding blocked transactions either, which is rather worrisome. Instead, users will find out when the exchange contacts them directly regarding the transaction seemingly not coming through. It’s a pretty annoying turn of events, especially because there was no prior indication that Capital One would be taking such an aggressive stance.

According to one Reddit user, he got in touch with Capital One to ask what was going on. The response he received was that all exchanges have been officially blocked by the bank as of this week. There will undoubtedly be some platforms which can still be used in conjunction with a Capital One credit card or bank account, but it may prove difficult to find such companies right now. It is evident the banking system has no love lost for cryptocurrencies, and financial institutions will continue to crack down on this type of activity for quite some time to come.

All of this further confirms that big banks are slowly becoming useless when it comes to buying cryptocurrencies. Instead, credit unions may be the best option for any US customer looking to get their hands on Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency capable of being purchased with fiat currency. Whether or not this news will lead to people switching from Capital One to a completely different bank or institution remains to be determined, though.

The big question is why Capital One has made this decision all of a sudden. It is certainly a move that will upset a lot of people and create some negative PR at the same time. While cryptocurrency may still be considered a niche market right now, interest in Bitcoin and altcoins has never been higher. If enough people ditch Capital One because of its aggressive stance toward cryptocurrencies, interesting things may happen in the future. It seems highly unlikely that will be the case, though.

In a move that will have far-reaching implications, Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. has halted all cryptocurrency related wire transfers, effective immediately. #NEWS

Network congestion is a problem most users would associate with Bitcoin or Ethereum. Both of these networks have seen their fair share of issues in this regard. Bitcoin Cash saw its transaction backlog grow quite spectacularly this morning. For several hours, someone – or a group of people – were flooding the network with very low-fee transactions. As a result, there was a minor delay in transactions, although things were well within the acceptable limits.  Why any of this is happening right now, has yet to be determined.

Bitcoin Cash has not been subject to major spam attacks as of yet. Bitcoin, on the other hand, seems to get clogged up with transactions every other week. Keeping this in mind, it’s not surprising to see so many people flock to BCH in recent weeks. This has caught the attention of whoever is responsible for the current “spam” on the BCH blockchain. More specifically, there have been a ton of new transactions to fill up the blocks rather quickly. A rather worrisome development, although things were handled relatively well.

Bitcoin Cash Handles the Business

The big question is why anyone would flood the BCH network with low-fee transactions. At a price of 1 Satoshi per byte, inflating overall fees would be rather difficult. After all, users can easily pay double that and not have their transactions delayed. Even with the higher fee, Bitcoin Cash remains a lot cheaper than BTC right now. With this cost in mind, it would cost approximately $16,000 to flood the network for an entire day. That doesn’t seem like much money, thus it is possible this is a well-orchestrated attack. For now, there is no solid evidence to back up such claims.

Unlike what one would expect, this issue has not caused many problems. The Bitcoin Cash mempool has been cleared relatively quickly and things are returning to normal. If this was an attack, it was a very weak attempt at causing permanent damage. If such an issue were to affect Bitcoin, the fees would skyrocket and transactions backlogged for 24 hours or more. Having a larger block size can be rather beneficial in this regard. It also shows how BCH is better at scaling compared to Bitcoin, at least for now.

Whether or not this is a prelude to more attacks, remains to be seen. No one will be surprised to see issues like these arise again in the future. The “fight” between BTC and BCH supporters is far from over Although it’s not exactly a turf war, hostilities are not entirely uncommon either. Attacking a network with low-fee transactions is despicable We don’t know if that is what has happened to Bitcoin Cash, though. In the end, the issues seem largely resolved, which is a positive sign.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

The post Bitcoin Cash Network Shrugs off Mempool Backlog With Relative Ease appeared first on NewsBTC.

The younger brother of Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, seems to have been somewhat neglected over the past 4 months as most people have been focused on the main Ethereum network and there were not many reasons to look for alternatives. As a result, the price of Ethereum Classic (ETC) on Bitcoin markets has been decreasing continuously and currently sits at around 0.002 BTC, which is the lowest value since April 2017. It is true that ETC appreciated more than 20-fold against USD in the last year, but honestly, which cryptos did not appreciate against fiat money?

At first look, ETC’s situation does not seem to be very promising. However, further analysis might bring us to an opposite conclusion. First of all, let’s take a look at Ethereum (ETH), which is starting to have difficulties to process the ever-growing number of transactions. An interesting occurrence came after the game CryptoKitties, which runs on the Ethereum network and allows users to trade their kitties for Ether, became popular. A recent article on the BBC stated:

“According to ETH Gas Station, the CryptoKitties game accounts for over 10% of network traffic on Ethereum. As traffic increases, transactions become more expensive to execute quickly. “The real big issue is other major players looking for alternatives to Ethereum and moving to different systems.” Mr. Hileman says”

Since there are many similar games in development, we can expect Ethereum to get flooded with transactions soon, not even counting the increasing number of business users. This being said, the search for reasonable alternatives seems inevitable. What is the alternative going to be? Well, you probably guessed. Ethereum Classic has near enough the same functionality as Ethereum, so it is obviously the first candidate. If businesses and users start leaving Ethereum for Ethereum Classic, an according part of their funds will go with them. And since ETC now reaches only 3% of the value of ETH, even if only 10% of the funds are transferred, it will be a huge boost for ETC.

Another good sign can be seen from the ETC/BTC price chart, from which it is clear that the bearish trend lost its power and the price saturated at the current level of about 0.002 BTC, where it probably found its bottom. This is also relatively close to the all-time low of about 0.001 BTC, so it is reaching a very strong support level as very few people are willing to sell this low. Will we see a reversal of the trend?

As always, it is difficult to make any predictions. However, it seems quite likely that Ethereum Classic will profit significantly from the upcoming problems of its big brother.

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 cryptocurrency situation in Russia has always raised a lot of questions which can’t be answered. Whether crypto trading will be officially allowed or subject to jail time remains to be determined at this point. Russian media sources claim the Ministry of Finance has drafted a new bill to legalize cryptocurrency trading on organized trading platforms. It’s a rather interesting development, although this proposal will still need to be approved first.

Another Bitcoin Plot Twist in Russia

Over the past few months, we have seen multiple stories regarding the future of cryptocurrency in Russia. It is obvious most government officials do not see eye to eye on this topic. Proposals have ranged from legalizing cryptocurrency to only allowing trading by accredited investors, and even putting exchange operators behind bars for multiple years. It is evident this topic is very controversial in Russia, and there is no official indication as to what the future may hold. Rest assured this is not the last time this topic will be touched upon either.

Earlier this week, Russian news sources claimed the country’s Ministry of Finance had come up with a new approach to tackling cryptocurrencies. In fact, it seems to be the most positive approach regarding this new form of money so far. Do keep in mind this is still merely a proposal and not an official law by any means. Until this new idea receives governmental approval – which seems highly unlikely – the future of cryptocurrency in Russia will remain unclear.

According to reports, the Russian Ministry of Finance is seeking to legalize cryptocurrency trading. The ministry has made reference to “organized trading platforms”, which raises a lot of questions. After all, this seems to indicate that only government-approved exchanges will be used to trade cryptocurrencies. It is unclear if that is actually the case, though, but since no one can answer these questions, speculation will run wild for some time to come. Regardless, it is a rather positive proposal which very few people had expected at this time.

It is not the first time the Ministry of Finance has made an attempt to legalize cryptocurrencies, at least up to a certain degree. Its goal is to see how Bitcoin and other currencies can affect Russia’s economy, without exposing investors to too many risks. Issuing a “pre-approved” list of trading platforms would certainly help achieve both things at the same time. For now, all of this is still in the very early stages of debate, as nothing has been approved just yet.

No one will be surprised to learn the Russian Central Bank isn’t too happy about this development. More specifically, the central bank and Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev have both opposed the idea of legalizing cryptocurrency trading. It is this level of friction which makes it very difficult for any cryptocurrency to thrive in Russia. At the same time, Webmoney still uses Bitcoin without any major repercussions. Russia is a very interesting country for cryptocurrency with conflicting opinions regarding this new form of money.

How all of this will play out moving forward is impossible to accurately guess. It seems Russian officials come up with new ways to ban or boost cryptocurrencies every few weeks. While this new proposal is rather positive, it seems highly unlikely it will be approved under existing conditions. Until any of these proposals are turned into law, using and trading cryptocurrency will not be illegal in Russia. It’s also not legal, though, which means users are advised to be cautious when dealing with large amounts of crypto.

SALT – An opportunity for investors, BTC holders, ETH, arbitrage with a big reward and a way to cut taxes.

Maybe you’re still thinking about investing in cryptocurrencies and are asking yourself what could be a good investment similar to BTC, as their price multiplied by 18 times last year. Nobody knows which cryptocurrencies will have similar profits this year but there is good news. In the crypto world, good opportunities to make a big profit sometimes exist and you can know about it beforehand.

One of these is an arbitrage with SALT lending. You can make a big profit in an easy way with great potential. The perfect explanation with a step by step guide is in this article.

This is not the only good thing about this revolutionary SALT lending. SALT allows you leverage your blockchain assets to secure cash loans. It is an easy way to get money without having to sell your favourite investment as you can use the money from your secured BTC / ETH as a collateral. You can spend all of this money however you want and simultaneously you are still the holder of your BTC / ETH.

Media giant Bloomberg published a voluminous article on their website about SALT lending and how it’s an entrepreneurial project with fantastic service.

Another good feature of SALT lending is that it cuts taxes. How? Usually, if you have 1 BTC and you want to sell it, you have to pay some tax from your profit. In each country there exists diverse rules for paying taxes. Generally, the tax rate is floating in the range of 16% – 22% of your net profit. For example, in the United States the tax rate is 21% and in Great Britain it is 19%. If you want to sell 1 BTC for the price of 10000 USD, in the USA you will have to pay 2100 USD as a tax and in the UK 1900 USD. With your leftover amount of around 8000 USD you can do whatever you choose. The big disadvantages of this are that you will lose your BTC and have to pay taxes.

With a loan from SALT lending, you can avoid paying these taxes and do not have to sell your BTC.

If you take a loan via SALT lending and secure this loan with your BTC as a collateral, you will receive money in exchange for your BTC, then with the money you can buy a car, house or something else. After paying off the loan you will get all of your secured BTC back. The result is that you have money as well as BTC and you do not have to pay any taxes because you received the money as a loan. Also, according to the purpose of the loan, you can deduct your paid interest as expenses. If you have not invested in SALT, then you should do so now.

Whether you want to get in on the arbitrage, hold some for a future loan payment or just make some money via trade by exchanges; the potential of SALT lending is huge.

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.

Comparing different blockchain-based ecosystems usually makes no sense whatsoever. It feels like comparing apples to oranges and grapes. In the cryptocurrency world, however, there are some interesting metrics worth keeping an eye on. Over the past 24 hours, it seems the Ethereum blockchain helped transfer just over $23bn. This is almost as much as Bitcoin, BitcoinC ash, Litecoin, Dash, BTG, and ETC combined. An interesting development, although not all blockchains can be traded in this regard.

Every blockchain is capable of processing transactions and moving financial value from one user to the next. In the cryptocurrency world, that is a requirement to ensure the network has any value at all. Ethereum has suddenly become a very popular solution to transfer value. So much even that it processes almost as much value as six other top cryptocurrencies combined. Whereas many people assume Bitcoin is the king of the hill, that is not the case in this regard. An interesting development, although it’s important to put things into perspective.

Another Good day for the Ethereum Blockchain

More specifically, Ethereum’s value transfer doesn’t pertain just to ETH transactions. It also includes all of the ERC20 tokens issued on this blockchain. That means the numbers are skewed a bit, although not by all that much. The key factor is how this blockchain handles $24bn worth of volume over a 24-hour period without too many problems. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is still more expensive and a lot slower, even though it remains very popular. Ethereum’s value transferred in the past 24 hours is bigger than Bitcoin’s, which is not all that uncommon.

However, when adding the value transferred by other blockchains on top of Bitcoin’s, it’s not much higher than Ethereum’s throughput. For many people, this is a key indicator of how Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin at some point. Such a scenario is not entirely impossible, although it may not happen anytime soon either. Comparing the value transferred over individual blockchains is always a snapshot at an opportune time. These statistics can look very different a day or week from right now, for all we know.

As such, it is difficult to draw any conclusion based on this fortunate snapshot. The demand for Ethereum-based value transfer solutions is certainly there. It’s cheaper to use, works better, and is faster. At the same time, it also encompasses a lot of tokens rather than Ether itself. How all of this will play out in the future is impossible to predict right now. With proper scaling, this blockchain will certainly become even more popular in the coming years.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

The post Ethereum Blockchain Processes Over $23bn in Transactions Over the Past 24 Hours appeared first on NewsBTC.

In the world of technology, blockchain and artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role moving forward. Although the skeptics will claim that neither technology is mature enough to be used on a large scale, Baidu thinks otherwise. The company has come up with a blockchain-as-a-service platform that will rival other companies providing similar services. This new platform is known as Baidu Trust, and it will certainly attract a lot of attention.

Baidu’s Blockchain-as-a-service Platform

Most people are all too aware of how Baidu has shown a keen interest in blockchain technology. Having one of China’s largest companies looking into this technology is widely considered to be a major vote of confidence. However, there were always people doubting whether or not Baidu would ever do something with this technology in terms of a commercial product. That wait is now finally over, as the company unveiled Baidu Trust to the masses last week.

Baidu Trust is a blockchain-as-a-service platform. Baidu is not the first major company to have offered such solutions. Microsoft hosts many blockchain-as-a-service solutions through its Azure platform. Unlike those projects, however, this new service is built from the ground up. All of the technology has been developed internally, which seems to hint at this being more of a private ledger than anything else. Even so, the Baidu Trust project could still be very successful in its own right.

The company describes this platform as an efficient and low-cost traceability and trading platform. Not only is it ideal for digital currencies of all kinds, but it will also play a role in terms of payments and settlement. Baidu Trust can also be used for digital ticketing, bank credit management, exchange-traded securities, and other activities. It is evident the Chinese giant hopes to tap into as many different markets as possible, although it will take a lot of time to do so successfully.

Moreover, Baidu has shared how its new blockchain-as-a-service product has been applied to asset securitization and asset exchange. As a result, the company is responsible for building China’s first asset-backed securities exchange products using blockchain technology. Given the country’s rather negative stance on digital currencies, it is remarkable how China still has high hopes for blockchain technology and distributed ledgers. Whether or not we will see new currencies issued on this BaaS platform remains to be determined.

It will be intriguing to see how companies and developers approach Baidu Trust, considering that it focuses on a wide range of use cases. It is evident the blockchain can be used to transform many aspects of daily life, even though not every task requires a distributed ledger either. Baidu says it aims to implement blockchain technologies in various other industries including artificial intelligence, unmanned vehicles, and distributed computing.

It is also important to note that this blockchain-as-a-service platform has been operational since late July of 2017. At that time, the project entered private beta testing. After nearly six months of collecting data, the platform has now been unveiled and opened to the public. So far, no major projects have been announced for this platform, but things tend to move rather quickly in the world of blockchain technology. Moreover, it is now up to Baidu’s competitors to come up with their own BaaS platforms in the near future.