Day: February 8, 2018

An Arizona lawmaker wants to protect blockchain node operators from possible prohibitions by local and county governments.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price is currently moving inside a range below the $0.7300 resistance against the US dollar.
• There is a short-term contracting triangle forming with support near $0.6900 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from SimpleFx).
• The pair looks set to make the next move either above $0.7400 or below $0.6900 in the near term.

Ripple price is poised to make the next move against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD may soon climb higher above the $0.7300 and $0.7400 resistance levels.

Ripple Price Resistance

There was no major upside move above $0.7400 during the past two sessions in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The price attempted an upside break above $0.7400-0.7500 recently, but it failed to gain momentum. The recent high was $0.7640 from where the price mostly traded inside a range. It moved below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $0.5180 low to $0.7640 high.

However, the downside move was protected by the $0.6600 support area. Moreover, the 38.2% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $0.5180 low to $0.7640 high also acted as a support. At the moment, it seems like the price is preparing for the next move either above $0.7400 or below $0.6900 in the near term. There is a short-term contracting triangle forming with support near $0.6900 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. A break above the $0.7400 level could push the price above $0.7600 or even $0.8000.

On the downside, the $0.7000 and $0.6900 levels are decent supports. The pair has to stay above the $0.6900 level to make an upside move, otherwise, it could retest the $0.6500 support.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is mostly flat with a few bearish signs.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is just above the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $0.6900

Major Resistance Level – $0.7400

Charts courtesy – SimpleFX

The post Ripple Price Technical Analysis – Can XRP/USD Make it? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Did you hear that bitcoin’s dead? Or how about the new coin that’s going to be the next ethereum? Also, there’s this cryptocurrency called verge that experts are tipping to make huge gains this year. And let’s not forget ripple either. You should totally load up on $3 ripple. Navigating the cryptocurrency landscape is tricky enough for experienced heads. But for the general public, who take their news from traditional media outlets, the situation is far worse. Hopelessly misinformed reporting and PR puff pieces published as ‘news’ have left the public more clueless than ever.

Also read: Weiss Ratings Defends its Decision to Give Bitcoin Only a C+ Grade

Sowing the Seeds of Crypto Confusion

As bitcoin reached record highs in December, the mainstream coverage grew to a crescendo. Suddenly everyone from mom to the metaphorical shoeshine boy had an opinion on cryptocurrency as the masses wired their deposits to Coinbase to get some skin in the game. When the markets started to fall in January, these new adopters got burned the worst. Many were stunned to see their rapidly diminishing portfolios, and a number quit altogether, electing to sell at a loss rather than endure more financial agony.

Mainstream media aren’t to blame for the price of bitcoin, and can be forgiven for getting swept up in the crypto mania that was unavoidable for a while. Reporting on the news is their job after all, and for a while the news was “Everyone’s buying bitcoin and it keeps going up”. What’s less forgivable is the recklessness of much of the reporting. Established outlets such as the New York Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters, while not perfect, have the resources to provide proper coverage of the crypto space. But less reputable rags have also piled in, and their breathless reporting is often woeful.

Crypto Gibberish from the Tabloid Press

In the UK, three mainstream publications have excelled themselves when it comes to clueless crypto coverage – the Mail Online, Sky News, and the Express. In one article this week, detailing bitcoin’s slide, the Express featured related ads and articles that urged readers not to buy ethereum, to buy ripple, to look into a bitcoin pension and to learn more about bitcoin ‘skyrocketing’ 25% in 24 hours. Is it any wonder that casual readers have no idea what’s actually happening? The same ads aren’t unique to mainstream media sites either – Coindesk has also come into criticism for hosting similar clickbait ads alongside its news stories.

Even if the contradictory ads are overlooked, the quality of reporting from outlets such as the Express is hopelessly misinformed:

This is the same publication that recently claimed ripple to be a mineable cryptocurrency. This week, Sky News also published – as straight news – a press release for a new ICO headed by notorious British businesswoman Michelle Mone. The Scottish lingerie entrepreneur has a string of failed ventures and dubious business practises to her name, but there was no mention of that in the story, which has since been deleted, but is still available as a cached version. Titled “I hope my new cryptocurrency encourages women to invest in tech”, it bears the strapline “Baroness Michelle Mone launches cryptocurrency Equi which will allow the public to invest in tech start-ups”.

Whatever her ICO may be, it has nothing do with helping women. The piece is riddled with preposterous claims that crypto heads would see through instantly, but that could easily hoodwink newcomers including the women the project is supposedly designed for.

Accurately reporting on the cryptocurrency space requires journalists with the requisite knowledge and expertise. Otherwise, not only are these platforms misleading their readers – they’re potentially defrauding them. While the ‘fake news’ meme has caused the public to be more sceptical of the information they’re fed, the majority still presume that if a story’s on an established site, it must be true. If media outlets can’t tell the difference between vaporware and legitimate cryptocurrencies, and don’t understand things such as market cap and total circulating supply, they should refrain from dispensing investment advice or enlist reporters who can.

Do you think mainstream media coverage of the cryptocurrency space informs or confuses the public? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, the Express, and Twitter.

Why not keep track of the price with one of Bitcoin.com’s widget services.

The post Thanks to Mainstream Media, the Public Are Clueless About Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Bitcoin has gone to its bottom price and will rise back to its peak level and then probably grow from there said digital investor Dan Morehead.

Bitcoin Should Return to its Peak Soon

Speaking with CNBC’s Fast Money Dan Morehead from Pantera Capital made some very promising predictions regarding the immediate future of cryptocurrency, and he had the statistics to back them up.

“Bitcoin is still so underowned by institutional investors that it trades at its own beat,”

Morehead called for a 50 percent decline in Bitcoin prices before there would be another surge back in December when his fund was up 2,922 percent and had collected $2 Billion in assets under management. The firm became so successful it was forced to raise fees to reduce investor inflow.

“It’s volatile on the upside. It can be volatile on the downside.”

Pantera Capital started its first fund in 2003 and it’s first cryptocurrency fund in 2013. Now working only in cryptocurrency Pantera has had returns of over 22,000 percent. In 2017, the firm launched an ICO, or initial coin offering, fund, and a digital asset fund, receiving returns of 549 percent and 188 percent, respectively.

Morehead said that we have experienced a 64% fall from peak to trough which is the average decline for Bitcoin in the last seven bear market cycles. He said the fall in value was the right downdraft.

Adding that bear markets have historically had a 71-day run and that this one is in its 52 day he sees it coming to the end of its cycle.

“It seems like another couple of weeks and everything will be normal and [bitcoin] can start growing back up again.”

Since the new year market correction cryptocurrency has started a slow recovery starting mid-week as Bitcoin went back over $8,000.

Regulation Will be Good for the Market

When asked about regulatory measures in the US Morehead said that it has been good for cryptocurrency and even more would be better.

Citing the ruling of Bitcoin as property and the CFTC clearing the way for crypto futures, and the SEC talking a more or less hands-off approach as being helpful to investors.

While confirming that his firm is most heavily involved with established cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum Morehead said that emerging protocol tokens or  ICO’s are what interests him personally. Calling them the small caps of the industry.

The post Hedge Fund Investor: Bitcoin Already Hit Bottom, Ready to Surge appeared first on NewsBTC.

FOMO Moments

Following the big dip and the hopeful recovery the markets have calmed down a little during this morning’s Asian trading session. Bitcoin is hovering just under $8,000 and most of the altcoins have fluctuated plus or minus a couple of percent in the past 24 hours. One has taken a wild ride upwards after losing out more than the others and that is Bitcoin’s nemesis, Bitcoin Cash.

According to Coinmarketcap BCH has jumped 24% on the day. Trading this time yesterday at just under a thousand bucks it is up today to $1,240. Bitcoin Cash lost heavily during the big selloff over the past few weeks. From a monthly high of just under $3,000 it slumped to a low of $780 on February 6 before recovering over 55% to its level today.

Bitcoin Cash has caused a massive rift in the core community with proponents such as Bitcoin dot com’s Roger Ver claiming that it is the original Bitcoin. While detractors say that jumping ship goes against the entire ethos the original founders of Bitcoin envisioned.  Bitcoin Cash has a larger 8Mb block facilitating faster and cheaper transactions, though prices for sending Bitcoin have dropped significantly in recent weeks. Either way BCH is out performing BTC at the moment in terms of percentage increase with big brother showing a 2.27% decline on yesterday’s prices.

While no specific news has driven the momentum Bitcoin Cash still remains one of the main cryptos that is easy to trade, it is listed on Coinbase and all major exchanges. BCH remains planted in fourth position in the crypto market cap charts with $20.8 billion invested. It is traded heavily in Southeast Asia with OKEx, Upbit and Bithumb commanding the lion’s share of the trade volume. That volume has been $2 billion in the past 24 hours which has driven the price of BCH back up faster than its siblings.

Other altcoins performing well this morning are Qtum, Bitcoin Gold, and RChain.

More on Bitcoin Cash can be found here: https://www.bitcoincash.org/

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the Asian trading session and analyses the best performing one, looking for trends and fundamentals. 

The post Morning Asian Altcoin Trading Roundup: the leader is Bitcoin Cash appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price is testing an area of interest at the $8,000 major psychological level which lines up with several support levels.
• For one, this is the bottom of a short-term ascending channel visible on the 1-hour time frame.
• This also coincides with the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level, which already appears to have held as a floor.

Bitcoin price could be due for a small bounce off these short-term support levels as bullish pressure appears to be slowly returning.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still below the longer-term 200 SMA to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the downside. This means that the selloff is more likely to resume than to reverse.

However, the gap between the moving averages is slowly narrowing to indicate that bearish pressure could be fading. The 100 SMA might also hold as dynamic support if this keeps up.

Stochastic is turning slightly higher to signal that buyers are returning, but RSI is still on its way south so bitcoin price might follow suit. If the $8,000 level holds as support, price could bounce up to the swing high or the channel resistance closer to $9,000.

Market Factors

Risk aversion returned to the financial markets and these days bitcoin price has been tracking equities and commodities, unlike in the past when the cryptocurrency tends to benefit from safe-haven flows.

However, analysts are confident that the market slump is just a mere correction from the overdone rallies earlier in the year. If so, higher-yielding assets including bitcoin could see the longer-term uptrend resume at some point.

For bitcoin price, it seems that traders are mostly waiting for a strong catalyst that could encourage investors to reopen their long positions. One possible factor could be the Senate hearing that called upon regulators to increase oversight without hampering development, something that could still be overall positive for the cryptocurrency industry.

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 02/09/2018 – Slow But Steady Climb appeared first on NewsBTC.

After leaving the startup he co-founded, Greg Maxwell is focusing his energy on developing more efficient and more private bitcoin smart contracts.

Key Highlights

• ETH price is trading inside a range above the $775 support level against the US Dollar.
• There is a short-term contracting triangle forming with current resistance at $830 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via SimpleFX).
• The pair may soon make the next move and it could break $830-840 to trade further higher.

Ethereum price is preparing for more gains against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD could slowly move higher and trade past the $830-840 resistance in the near term.

Ethereum Price Sights Next Break

Yesterday, we saw a nice upside move in ETH price above the $700 level against the US Dollar. The price traded above the $800 level and formed a high near $846. Later, a minor downside wave started and the price moved below the $800 level. There was also a break below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $553 low to $846 high.

During the downside move, the price moved below the $770 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. However, losses were limited and the price recovered back above the $770 level. The 38.2% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $553 low to $846 high acted as a support. At the moment, there is a short-term contracting triangle forming with current resistance at $830 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair is about to break the pattern and make the next move either above $830 or below $775. On the upside, above $830, the price may trade above the $880 level.

On the downside, below $775, the price may test 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $553 low to $846 high near $700.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is slowly reducing its bullish slope.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is currently struggling to move back above the 50 level and is heading south.

Major Support Level – $770

Major Resistance Level – $830

Charts courtesy – SimpleFX

The post Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – ETH/USD Eyeing Upside Break? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price rallied recently and moved above the $1,000 and $1,200 resistances against the US Dollar.
• Yesterday’s highlighted major connecting bearish trend line with resistance at $990 was broken on the hourly chart of BCH/USD (data feed from SimpleFX).
• The pair traded above the $1,300 level before starting a downside correction.

Bitcoin cash price rallied above the $1,200 resistance against the US Dollar. BCH/USD is currently correcting lower, but it remains supported on the downside.

Bitcoin Cash Price Rally

There were as a good bullish structure formed above $900 in bitcoin cash price yesterday against the US Dollar. The price started a sharp upside move and broke a few important resistances, starting with $985. More importantly, the price was able to move above the $1,000 resistance and settled above the 100 hourly simple moving average.

It opened the doors for more gains above the $1,100 level. During the upside move, yesterday’s highlighted major connecting bearish trend line with resistance at $990 was broken on the hourly chart of BCH/USD. The pair surged above the $1,200 resistance and it even climbed above $1,300. A high was formed near $1,344 from where the price started a downside correction. It has moved below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the wave from the $934 low to $1,344 high.

However, there are many supports on the downside such as $1,120 and $1,000. The 50% Fib retracement level of the wave from the $934 low to $1,344 high is at $1,139 to prevent declines. Overall, if the price corrects lower further from the current levels, it is likely to find support at $1,120 and $1,000. On the upside, the price is facing hurdles near $1,300 and $1,340.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is slightly reducing its bullish slope.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is moving lower towards the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $1,120

Major Resistance Level – $1,300

Charts courtesy – SimpleFX

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH/USD Rallies Past Key Resistance appeared first on NewsBTC.

LED BY A DREAM TEAM OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERTS, THE UPCOMING PLATFORM FOR MUTUAL INSURANCE HAS ALSO RELEASED A WHITE PAPER

February 8, 2018: ShineChain is using blockchain technology to reinvent the insurance marketplace. Led by its CEO Jin Hui, the ShineChain Foundation has a dedicated team of experts with extensive industry experience, who are ready to bring their vision to reality.

“ShineChain is opening a new chapter in the insurance industry, where blockchain technology is leveraged to insure the health and wellbeing of our members.” Said Jin Hui, the CEO of ShineChain, while introducing the blockchain based mutual insurance platform. “In our society we are seeing rapid development and drastic changes in our living and working environment. There are increasing instabilities, environmental disruptions and food safety issues.  Mutual Insurance has also become a necessary supplement to public and tradition commercial insurance programs.” He explained. Mr. Jin also stated that industry experts understand that through its decentralization and trust-creation, blockchain technology can effectively address the deficiencies in the current insurance industry.

Traditional commercial insurance companies have high premiums, information asymmetry, privacy leakages and the risk of inflation. However, ShineChain will be entirely different. By basing the business model on blockchain technology, ShineChain will eliminate the possibility of insurance fraud, rising costs, inefficient data exchange and inaccurate decision making, privacy leakage etc. These problems are inevitable in the traditional insurance model, but the ShineChain insurance system will mitigate these challenges.

ShineChain’s leadership are experts in their respective fields. They include Senior Economist Jin Hui, who serves as CEO, Oxford Ph.D. graduate and University College London Blockchain Researcher, Dr. Hugo serves as the CTO, Engineer Peng Song serves as the CIO and Veteran Alibaba Manager Wang Jinlong serves as the COO.

With the goal of creating a “Decentralized Mutually Insurance Society”, ShineChain has emerged as the entity capable of bringing this service to market. It will not only be convenient to the participants, but ShineChain customers can rest assured, safe in the knowledge that the promised benefits will be available in their time of need. The most significant feature of ShineChain is that it can circulate globally without relying on any centralized organization. Users and mutual aid organizations around the world can take out an insurance policy and receive compensation pay-out without barriers through ShineChain’s mutual aid protocol. ShineChain’s distributed data network has a far lower operating cost than traditional insurance companies. Therefore, users receive the same amount of indemnity, but pay a much lower premium using ShineChain token (SHE) in the ShineChain mutual aid ecosystem.

For more information, please visit: www.shinechain.org  and telegram https://t.me/shinechainofficial.

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.

While New York Stock Exchange traders were grappling with a market in freefall, elsewhere in the city this week all eyes were on more important matters. New York Fashion Week officially starts today (February 8), and at a pre-show on Tuesday, the latest haute couture and avant-garde designs were on display. Seeking to tap into the zeitgeist, Ovadia & Sons’ catwalk show featured a model rocking a bitcoin-themed outfit.

Also read: You Can Now Bid for Jamie Dimon Crypto Art Made From Old Credit Cards

From the Blockchain to the Catwalk

Bitcoin has been popping up in the unlikeliest of places recently, from Kentucky Fried Chicken to the catwalk. In an era in which everything is placed on the blockchain and “blockchain” is being placed in front of everything, it was inevitable that the crypto craze would be picked up by fashionistas sooner or later. Bitcoin has long since made the mainstream, but this is believed to be the first time it’s made the catwalk.

Fashion designers are notorious for tapping into whatever trends are en vogue, often commandeering movements and themes with little sensitivity or understanding of the underlying issues. Not that it’s necessary to comprehend distributed ledger technology to slap a bitcoin logo on a silk shirt of course; all that’s required is for a certain motif to be hot, and right now bitcoin ticks all the right boxes.

Ariel and Shimon Ovadia’s coda to NYFW saw them draw their inspiration from punk, Silicon Valley, and crypto. A collection of 35 men’s pieces was showcased, with the highlight – for bitcoiners at least – being a natty green shirt paired with a faux sailor’s cap. “Bitcoin accepted – No cash” ran the slogan on the side of the shirt. Judging by the haunted look in the model’s eyes as he traipsed down the catwalk, he was holding some very heavy crypto bags.

Many of the pieces exhibited at events such as New York Fashion Week are haute couture that’s destined never to make it to the high street. Thus, the prospects of snapping up Ovadia & Sons’ bitcoin shirt – and of being able to pay for it in bitcoin (no cash) – seem remote. Still, should any self-styled fashionistas fancy replicating the look, it’s nothing that couldn’t be whipped up in five minutes with the aid of a gaudy green shirt and an iron-on bitcoin logo.

Would you wear the bitcoin outfit paraded at New York Fashion Week? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Getty Images.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Bitcoin Couture Makes Its Debut at New York Fashion Week appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Social media plays a huge part in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Blockchain companies themselves use the various platforms to communicate with their clients and investors and make announcements. Due to the ‘anything goes’ nature of social media it has also attracted a number of colourful characters, one of which is self-appointed crypto overlord John McAfee.

The anti-virus tech mogul has a big presence in crypto land, his once weekly altcoin shills resulted in no end of pump and dump action. McAfee has since moved on to ICOs, writing white papers, and is also conducting surveys. Over 400,000 votes were made in a nine part poll he ran on his Twitter feed over the past 24 hours. The results are quite revealing and give a good insight to the current climate in crypto land.

The first poll was on the ages of the crypto community and it came as no surprise that around half of the respondents were between 18 and 30. What was quite a shock though is that only 4% of those surveyed were over 50.

Who are we?
I am doing a series of polls to help discover exactly what the composition of the Crypto community is composed of. This is the first poll. What is your age?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

The second poll asked how often you buy and sell cryptocurrencies and 42% responded once a month or less indicating that they were hodling and investing rather than trading. Less than 20% of those that responded were trading cryptos daily.

Second poll.
How often do you buy or sell cryptocurrencies?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

The third question asked about the interest in the type of cryptocurrency and over 40% said that altcoins held the greatest interest for them. About a quarter each selected Bitcoin/Ethereum and all currencies and only 5% invested in ICOs.

Third poll.
Where is your primary interest in Cryptocurrencies?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

When asked what percentage of your total assets were invested in crypto it was very surprising to see that almost a third of those surveyed had over 50% of their total savings in crypto. To balance that out 35% said it was less than 10% which is a more comfortable number. It seems that millennials like a big gamble.

Fourth poll.
What percentage of your assets is in Cryptocurrencies?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

58% answered that their primary use for cryptocurrencies were for investment purposes with 38% using them for both investment and as a currency. This balance is likely to change as global adoption increases and it becomes easier, faster and cheaper to transfer them.

Fifth poll.
What is your primary use for Cryptocurrencies?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

When asked about their firm belief respondents largely agreed that crypto and fiat would co-exist. However 27% thought that crypto would eventually replace fiat.

Sixth poll.
What best describes your firm belief?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

It came as no surprise that 55% of those surveyed said that governments were the greatest threat to cryptocurrencies with 30% of the opinion that banks are.

Seventh poll.
What do you believe poses the greatest threat to crypto?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

When asked about barriers to trading or getting into crypto most people agreed that it was registering with exchanges. The only way crypto can truly thrive is when centralized profit making exchanges are done away with and the entire network is peer to peer.

Seventh poll.
What has been your greatest obstacle to buying Crypto?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

Each poll had an average of around 44,000 respondents, of those surveyed almost a third of them were students with a quarter having a technical background.

Last poll.
How would you classify yourself?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) February 7, 2018

Although this poll is very limited as it only includes Twitter users that have followed McAfee it does shed some light into the demographics of the crypto community. With 50% aged under 30, and a third of them being students, these guys are the future. This could go some ways into explaining why the institutional investing and banking dinosaurs that have already made their billions are so anti-crypto.

The post Crypto Pundit McAfee Surveys the Community with Surprising Results appeared first on NewsBTC.

Hong Kong’s securities watchdog has moved up regulatory actions against cryptocurrency exchanges and initial coin offering organizers.