Month: January 2018

Lawmakers in Arizona have advanced a proposal that would allow residents in the state to pay their taxes in bitcoin.

“When you have taxi drivers talking to you about Bitcoin – that’s when you know it’s pretty mainstream.” Mike Butcher, editor-at-large of TechCrunch talks about Blockchain at the World Economic Forum, media’s role in the digital economy, and modern reporter’s responsibility to the market and their readers. #INTERVIEW

It’s Wednesday evening and we are closing in on the end of yet another rough session in the bitcoin price. We were hoping for some degree of reprieve during the session today, with price dipping to fresh weekly lows overnight last night and setting up as if we were in line for some consolidation.

Unfortunately, things haven’t turned out that way and we wait yet again for the bitcoin price to bounce near term.

Whether it will happen tonight remains to be seen. As mentioned, we will likely need to see some degree of consolidation heading into the US afternoon session before any major breakouts (assuming the breakout is going to be sustainable) so that’s what we’re on the lookout for right now.

Consolidation, breakout, recovery.

So, let’s get some levels in place that we can use moving forward.

As ever, take a quick look at the chart below before we get started so as to get an idea where things stand and how action today has influenced our approach going forward. The chart is a one-minute candlestick chart and it’s got our primary range overlaid in black.

As the chart shows, the range that we are looking at for the session this evening comes in as defined by support to the downside at 9850 and resistance to the upside at 10130.

Our standard breakout rules apply for the session, so our two primary entry points will be as follows:

A close above resistance will signal a long entry towards an upside target of 10250. A stop on the trade at 10100 defines risk to the downside on the position.

A close below resistance will signal a short entry, this time around with a target of 9750. Again we need a stop and somewhere around 9900 looks good.

Let’s see how things play out and we will revisit in the morning.

Here’s to a strong session.

The post Bitcoin Price Watch; Consolidation, Breakout, Recovery appeared first on NewsBTC.

Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan warned on Wednesday that cryptocurrencies are dangerous, but that blockchain technology is not to blame.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges will finally begin adding new users after disabling anonymous trading. #ANALYSIS

Competition in the world of all-in-one blockchain solutions has been heating up these past few months. Multiple companies and projects aim to make a meaningful impact in this area. ARK claims to have the technology in place to become one of the world’s top blockchain service providers moving forward. With a team of 17 core members, a lot of interesting things are on the horizon.

What is ARK Doing Differently?

Claiming to offer an all-in-one blockchain solution is one thing, but actually doing so is something else entirely. In the case of ARK, the team has been focusing on building a foundation for this ecosystem. As one would expect, there is a lot of work to be done. As of right now, the project is still in its early stages, even though the native currency is appreciating in value as we speak. It will be interesting to see if the team can deliver on its initial promise.

The Technical Side of the ARK Project

It is evident there will need to be some solid technology to back up the claims of the ARK team. For the time being, there is still a lot of development taking place behind the scenes, and most of the infrastructure is not even ready at this point. For example, the team is building the ARK Virtual machine, which will allow users to issue smart contracts in the future. It is very similar to Ethereum in this regard, but the project is only 70% completed at this point.

Furthermore, ARK’s team is working on introducing blockchains which can be deployed with the push of a button. That in itself is pretty interesting, as it will allow ARK to become easily “cloneable”. Moreover, these new blockchains will be linked to the ARK main chain through the Smartbridge technology. Smartbridge’s documentation and instructional videos are currently still being worked on, so this technology may not be of great interest to companies right away.

Even though ARK has its own native currency, there are very few ways to use it as a payment method. Even the project’s own merchandise store still doesn’t accept ARK transactions just yet. The team hopes to integrate its technology with IPFS in the future, although it is unclear when this will happen exactly. Testnets for businesses are coming as well, but there is still more work to be done in this regard as well.

What Comes Next for ARK?

Even though the ARK project has a lot of potential, virtually nothing is finished at this point. It takes time to build an infrastructure, and its website keeps track of how the various sub-projects are progressing. Right now, we can expect to see NFC and contactless chip wearable device partnerships and hardware wallets in the near future. The team is also close to integrating other coding languages for ARK development moving forward. For now, there is a lot of hype, but until all of these essential aspects are completed, there isn’t much to be overly excited about.

Casinos might never have a good reputation, let them be in Las Vegas or the digital world, but SP8DE might make the game a bit fairer using the Blockchain technology. #SPONSORED

Cryptocurrency users have no love lost for financial institutions. This is especially true when it comes to Deutsche Bank, which is considered by many to be “too big to fail”. It now seems the bank’s Wealth Management arm is advising users not to invest in any cryptocurrency, especially not in Bitcoin. There are a lot of issues associated with these markets, including the high volatility, price manipulation, and even data theft. It’s a very interesting development, even though it remains to be seen if people will pay any attention to this warning.

Deutsche Bank Still Doesn’t Like Bitcoin

For as long as Bitcoin has existed, banks and other financial service providers have advised against buying any cryptocurrency. People who followed that advice to a fault have missed out on some of the best investment opportunities of the past decade. Even so, the markets are still prone to manipulation, speculation, and volatility. These are all very problematic aspects as far as Deutsche Bank’s Wealth Management arm is concerned. In a way, it is not surprising that they do not like Bitcoin or similar currencies in the slightest.

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management currently does not “recommend consumers invest in Bitcoin or similar currencies”. Instead, they see this market as something only speculative investors should pay attention to. While that is an interesting train of thought, any form of investment is always speculative first and foremost. No one makes an investment to retain their current value, as everyone hopes to get more money out of it as time progresses.

Moreover, the Wealth Management arm of Deutsche Bank is warning investors that buying Bitcoin could result in a “total loss”. It is true the Bitcoin price could hit $0 as easily as it could reach $100,000. Bringing down this market will be pretty difficult, though, especially considering that regulation has had no real impact. Even when an exchange is hacked, the markets shrug it off without any problem. Pushing the Bitcoin price down to zero is not impossible, but it seems highly unlikely at this point.

It is neither the first nor the last time financial “experts” have warned against the use of cryptocurrencies, though. This entire market has been fueled by speculation and hype for as long as people can remember. This does not just apply to cryptocurrencies, even though it is far more apparent in this particular industry as of right now. No one can deny there is a lot of risk associated with cryptocurrencies from an investment point of view. Even so, greater risks often result in greater rewards. It’s not hard to see why so many people are smitten with Bitcoin and similar currencies.

The most recent Bitcoin price fluctuations only confirm the statement by Deutsche Bank’s Wealth Management arm. After all, we saw the Bitcoin price rise to nearly US$20,000 and quickly drop to US$10,000 in the weeks afterward. This doesn’t mean the Bitcoin price won’t rise to US$20,000 or more again in the future, though. For now, it is evident there is plenty of manipulation and volatility in the markets. The lower price is an excellent value for new investors, though, as it is unlikely the price will go much lower at this point.

Last but not least, Deutsche Bank’s Wealth Management spokespeople like to state that traditional money is backed by the underlying economic power of a country. That is an interesting, albeit incorrect statement. There is literally nothing backing the value of fiat currency in most countries right now. Paper money and coins represent a promise made by the country’s central bank to honor the value of that bill or coin. Nothing prevents the government from breaking this promise in the future. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not regular money, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

The president of Venezuela has said the pre-sale of the country’s proposed oil-backed cryptocurrency will launch next month.

Viberate has proudly announced their collaboration with Imogen Heap – an exceptional and inspiring award-winning artist, known to be an early adopter of the blockchain. With the synergy of two important players in the music industry, the future for the artists, event managers, booking agents, and venues looks bright.

Heap and Viberate.com will work creatively towards empowering those in the live music segment in listing and mapping the global live music ecosystem by building a database of profiles for musicians, venues, agencies and event organizers. The project’s goal is to set a standard for the live music industry and connect the stakeholders in a way that they will be able to get in contact and do business with one another directly on the platform.

Vasja Veber, Viberate’s co-founder and COO, says that Imogen Heap is the best celebrity ambassador they could imagine: “Influencer marketing has been a hot topic lately and as a music service we are always on the lookout for partnerships with famous musicians. Imogen is not only one of the best artists out there and an inspiration to many of today’s superstars, she is also widely known for getting on the blockchain train before it was cool. We respect that and that is why we are so excited to have her on board.”

The vision of the two-time Grammy Award-winning artist is a sustainable music industry ecosystem. With her Mycelia Creative Passports project, she is working on new potentials for music makers and the services who interact with their works in light of the distributed ledger technology and smart contracts. She says: “Blockchain has become the long overdue catalyst for the music industry to update its policy and business models toward music makers and to provide quicker and seamless experiences for anyone involved in creating or interacting with music“.

Once she discovered Viberate’s mission, she felt excited about the opportunities Viberate could give to the music industry: “Anything that involves music makers being independent and having space where they can reach out to anybody who wants to make business directly with them is a really positive thing.”

Heap’s main role in Viberate’s advisory team will be to help further guide us toward a second to none service for the live music segment, that truly works for the music maker from a user perspective and to share with her peers in the music industry and millions of fans about Viberate.com.

The post Viberate & Imogen Heap Strive to Give Equal Opportunity to Every Artist appeared first on NewsBTC.

Crypto markets will not face a crackdown or ban, the South Korean Finance Minister has said. #NEWS