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Cryptocurrency volatility: Why the risk-reward tradeoff is skewed

Cryptographic assets are one of the most — if not the most — volatile asset class there is; you can make loads of money or lose everything. While for many the possibility of generating spectacular returns is the key attraction of crypto, are the risks …

Cryptographic assets are one of the most — if not the most — volatile asset class there is; you can make loads of money or lose everything. While for many the possibility of generating spectacular returns is the key attraction of crypto, are the risks consummate with the potential rewards?

Morning Asian Altcoin Trading Roundup: the leader is Tron

FOMO Moments   Things are looking brighter during the Asian trading session this weekend. Bitcoin has done better than hold the pivotal $8k level, it has risen to just under $9,000. As usual the movements of Bitcoin are mirrored in the altcoin charts and most of them are trading higher this morning. The leading altcoin … Continue reading Morning Asian Altcoin Trading Roundup: the leader is Tron

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

FOMO Moments

 

Things are looking brighter during the Asian trading session this weekend. Bitcoin has done better than hold the pivotal $8k level, it has risen to just under $9,000. As usual the movements of Bitcoin are mirrored in the altcoin charts and most of them are trading higher this morning. The leading altcoin however is one that has taken a lot of flak recently. But with a 53% jump in less than 24 hours Tron is on a flyer at the moment.

Social media has been vicious to Tron and its founder. For some reason this altcoin has hit a nerve with the Facebook fanboys that have been bleating on about it for some weeks. It has probably suffered a greater FUD attack than any other cryptocurrency out there, with the possible exception of Verge, and this may be due to the huge attack of FOMO causing the coin to spike from virtually nothing to $0.25 on January 5.

Since then it has been on a downward slide with all other altcoins. Today however Tron is over 50% higher than its trading price the same time yesterday. Currently trading at $0.054 TRX has seen the largest upward movement in the top 25 altcoins this morning. Founder Justin Sun is very active on Twitter where he posts almost weekly updates about partnerships with small Chinese companies. The entertainments based altcoin could easily reach its previous all-time high if a bigger partnership gets announced.

TRX is predominantly traded on Binance which has over half the total volume. Its market cap is $3.6 billion which ranks it as the 16th most popular altcoin. $480 million has been traded in the past 24 hours, largely in South Korea. Other altcoins enjoying big jumps today are Ripple, Cardano, Stellar and Lisk.

More on Tron can be found here:  https://tron.network/enindex.html

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 Tron appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin scammers are impersonating Elon Musk and Donald Trump on Twitter to steal cryptocurrency – The Sun

The SunBitcoin scammers are impersonating Elon Musk and Donald Trump on Twitter to steal cryptocurrencyThe SunAn example included a fake John McAfee tweet, which promised 20 bitcoin for every 0.02 received, and reportedly collected 0.184 bitcoin (£1084…


The Sun

Bitcoin scammers are impersonating Elon Musk and Donald Trump on Twitter to steal cryptocurrency
The Sun
An example included a fake John McAfee tweet, which promised 20 bitcoin for every 0.02 received, and reportedly collected 0.184 bitcoin (£1084) within hours. Marie Vasek, an associate professor who has studied bitcoin scams, told Buzzfeed: “People ...

Why Bitcoin Is So Volatile – Forbes

ForbesWhy Bitcoin Is So VolatileForbesWhen I wrote my first article on the Bitcoin bubble entitled The Great Bitcoin Scam on December 28, 2017, Bitcoin was trading at $15,433.73. As of today, February 7, 2018, about 40 days later, Bitcoin has fallen by…


Forbes

Why Bitcoin Is So Volatile
Forbes
When I wrote my first article on the Bitcoin bubble entitled The Great Bitcoin Scam on December 28, 2017, Bitcoin was trading at $15,433.73. As of today, February 7, 2018, about 40 days later, Bitcoin has fallen by more than half and the price is ...

Market Swoon Puts Bitcoin to the Test – Barron’s

Barron’sMarket Swoon Puts Bitcoin to the TestBarron’sBitcoin started to rebound last week. But its usefulness as a hedge against stock market volatility has lately been called into question. In the past 90 days, bitcoin has registered its highest corre…


Barron's

Market Swoon Puts Bitcoin to the Test
Barron's
Bitcoin started to rebound last week. But its usefulness as a hedge against stock market volatility has lately been called into question. In the past 90 days, bitcoin has registered its highest correlation—33%—to the stock market in at least two ...

and more »

Russians arrested for ‘mining bitcoin’ at nuclear facility – The Guardian


The Guardian

Russians arrested for ‘mining bitcoin‘ at nuclear facility
The Guardian
Engineers at Russia’s top nuclear research facility have reportedly been detained after they attempted to mine bitcoin on its computers. Several employees at Russia’s nuclear centre in the city of Sarov have been detained after making “an attempt to
Russian nuclear scientists arrested for ‘Bitcoin mining plot’ – BBC NewsBBC News
Russian nuclear scientists were arrested for using a supercomputer to mine bitcoinQuartz
Staff at Russian nuclear facility caught using supercomputer to mine BitcoinsDigital Trends
Washington Post –RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty –BGR –Fortune
all 45 news articles »

The Guardian

Russians arrested for 'mining bitcoin' at nuclear facility
The Guardian
Engineers at Russia's top nuclear research facility have reportedly been detained after they attempted to mine bitcoin on its computers. Several employees at Russia's nuclear centre in the city of Sarov have been detained after making “an attempt to ...
Russian nuclear scientists arrested for 'Bitcoin mining plot' - BBC NewsBBC News
Russian nuclear scientists were arrested for using a supercomputer to mine bitcoinQuartz
Staff at Russian nuclear facility caught using supercomputer to mine BitcoinsDigital Trends
Washington Post -RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty -BGR -Fortune
all 45 news articles »

CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse: Cryptocurrencies are Bad Currencies

The Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has stated that he doesn’t consider XRP, Bitcoin, Ether, or any other major digital token as currencies. He elaborated his position to Yahoo Finance at their All Markets Summit on Cryptocurrency which was held on Wednesday. The six-hour event was streamed online and sponsored by CoinDesk. The aim of the … Continue reading CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse: Cryptocurrencies are Bad Currencies

The post CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse: Cryptocurrencies are Bad Currencies appeared first on NewsBTC.

The Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has stated that he doesn’t consider XRP, Bitcoin, Ether, or any other major digital token as currencies. He elaborated his position to Yahoo Finance at their All Markets Summit on Cryptocurrency which was held on Wednesday. The six-hour event was streamed online and sponsored by CoinDesk. The aim of the meet was to examine the growing interest in digital currency and the technology behind it.

A wide spectrum of companies involved in cryptocurrency and blockchain were represented at the summit. These included Blockchain, the digital wallet company, BitPesa, a payments processing firm focusing on Africa, and Chain, a private blockchain initiative being developed for banks.

Another project that has been targeting banks is, of course, Ripple. The idea behind their XRP token is to facilitate faster cross-border payments for traditional centres of finance. The XRP token had an amazing 2017 with its price rising over 32,000%. However, Brad Garlinghouse is uneasy about the title that his token and others have taken:

“I don’t call this cryptocurrency… It’s not currency. I can’t go to Starbucks or Amazon and use—and you know, somebody inevitably will be like, Well, I have one example where I bought something with a bitcoin.’ And then I usually say, ‘Well, did you do a second transaction?’ It’s not actually a currency. These are digital assets. If the asset solves a real problem for a real customer, then there’ll be value in the asset.”

However, the Ripple CEO overlooks the fact that there are loads of examples of people using cryptocurrency to buy something and even more of people using an alternative item or token not typically defined as a currency to make a purchase. What’s more, in the UK I can’t use dollars in my local off license. Does that mean dollars are not a currency? Of course it doesn’t. There is no universal currency. In fact, certain cryptocurrencies are the closest we as a race of people have come to having a currency without borders. Just because people aren’t encouraged to get rid of Bitcoins through centrally managed inflation as soon as they get them doesn’t make it any less of a currency.

For Garlinghouse, digital assets only have value if the asset solves a problem in the business world. They don’t have value as a day-to-day currency. However, this again overlooks the fact that a $20 note has zero utility other than the fact that people widely agree that it is useful as a medium of exchange. Gold too has some practical applications in electronics but these are limited. By and large, the perceived value of gold far outweighs its actual usefulness. The value of gold and paper money is constructed by society and there is no reason why it cannot be constructed again for an asset like Bitcoin, which could be far more useful as a store of value than gold ever has been – BTC is divisible, transferable, transparent, and permissionless to name but a few of its qualities.

However Garlinghouse feels about the title his token and others have assumed, the term cryptocurrency has become so entrenched now after nine years of use, it’s unlikely to be changing anytime soon.

The post CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse: Cryptocurrencies are Bad Currencies appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin for tax payments? Arizona could become first state in the US to allow it – AZCentral.com

AZCentral.comBitcoin for tax payments? Arizona could become first state in the US to allow itAZCentral.comIt passed the Senate Thursday and has moved to the House for consideration. Scot Mussi of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Jonathan Paton, a 2…


AZCentral.com

Bitcoin for tax payments? Arizona could become first state in the US to allow it
AZCentral.com
It passed the Senate Thursday and has moved to the House for consideration. Scot Mussi of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Jonathan Paton, a 2012 congressional candidate, support it, while dozens of Arizonans have registered their opposition to the ...
Arizona Moves One Step Closer to Accepting Bitcoin for TaxesCoindesk

all 7 news articles »

What Is Aion?

While the crypto domain continues to garner more and more attention by the day, the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology is still hampered due to issues of scalability, privacy, etc. While first and second-generation blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum worked to create decentralized payment platforms that eliminated the need for financial intermediaries such as banks and financial institutions, the latest generation of blockchain is designed to federate data and value assets using a “hub and spoke” model. Aion is an all-new multi-tier blockchain network that has been created to address issues pertaining to interoperability that currently exist within the

While the crypto domain continues to garner more and more attention by the day, the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology is still hampered due to issues of scalability, privacy, etc. While first and second-generation blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum worked to create decentralized payment platforms that eliminated the need for financial intermediaries such as banks and financial institutions, the latest generation of blockchain is designed to federate data and value assets using a “hub and spoke” model.

Aion is an all-new multi-tier blockchain network that has been created to address issues pertaining to interoperability that currently exist within the blockchain domain. To be more specific, the Aion network is able to support custom blockchain architectures while still allowing for cross-chain interoperability.

Additionally, this third-generation blockchain provides users with an unprecedented level of security and fairness, and provides users with an array of crypto economic incentives. Here are some of the core features of this blockchain:

  • Users are able to exchange data between any Aion-compliant blockchains.
  • Via the Aion network, customers are able to access faster transaction speeds.
  • It allows for the creation of customized public or private blockchains that allow publishers to have full control over consensus mechanics, token issuance, etc.

Overview of Aion

  • Compatible with private as well as public blockchains
  • Possesses a solid infrastructure that allows for the creation of high-performance decentralized applications
  • Has a robust and sustainable economic model
  • Makes use of an ERC20-compliant token

Key Features

While conventional blockchain systems employ point-to-point connections, these protocols result in complicated state channels that can often lead to a single person (or a group of individuals) running the relaying networks. However, Aion makes use of an Interchain framework that allows for messages to be relayed between blockchains in a completely trust-free manner.  

                             

Visual representation of how Interchain transactions work (courtesy of the Aion whitepaper)

We can see that Interchain transactions are created on a source blockchain. As time progresses, transactions are processed and relayed via connecting bridges before they finally reach their destination. As a result, users receive incentives at each point within the transmission route.

Another core aspect of the Aion blockchain is its use of a digital framework that creates a federation of “compatible blockchains” that can serve as:

  • Purpose-specific blockchains
  • Private networks
  • Consortium blockchains that represent a collection of virtual entities.

Owing to the high interconnectedness present within this network, users reap various benefits pertaining to transfer efficiency, speed, and transparency.

How Aion Works

While the Ethereum blockchain has already laid the foundation for technologies like smart contracts and digitized agreements, it should be understood that there are many other blockchains out there which offer a wide array of other features such as increased privacy and faster transaction speeds.

Aion-1 (which is the blockchain of the Aion network) is designed to allow other blockchains such as Ethereum to transfer digital information via their native contracts to entities that lie outside of the central chain, as well as to any external network. It acts as an intermediary which allows for transactions that are much faster and more stable compared to today’s solutions.

                    

Simplified diagram representing the workings of the Aion-1 blockchain (courtesy of the Aion whitepaper)

Core functional aspects

  • The Aion blockchain allows for different systems and platforms to communicate with one another without having to change their underlying digital frameworks.
  • This blockchain allows for the transfer of logic data sets in a completely free and uninterrupted manner.
  • None of the internal transactions occur via a centralized intermediary system.
  • The Aion-1 blockchain allows for seamless integration of third-party applications, and it creates an incentive-driven ecosystem that promotes interoperability.

History of Aion

Aion is a new venture that is headed by Matthew Spoke. According to his LinkedIn profile, Matthew has been in the blockchain space for over 4 years now and has worked with some of the leaders within the crypto domain. Additionally, he is the founder and CEO of Nuco, a company that operates within the crypto sector and has been responsible for the development of modular, secure, and scalable blockchain networks.

Kesem Frank serves as the company’s COO and development head. He has been in the blockchain domain for 5 years and is an alumnus of the University of Toronto.

Token Performance

Released only a few months ago in October 2017, the price of a single Aion token has risen sharply from a modest US$0.50 to a respectable US$3.11 by February 2, 2018.

Aion token six-month chart (courtesy of CoinMarketCap)

The currency hit its peak value around December of last year, when the price per coin rose as high as US$10.23.

While past performance should never serve as the sole motivating factor for future investments, Aion has serious potential since it is offering its users an all-new blockchain technology that is loaded with advanced privacy and transaction features.

Final Thoughts

The future of blockchain is extremely promising, and Aion is offering customers a platform that aims to completely redefine what it means to make use of crypto technology.

If the use of blockchain continues to grow at the rate it has been for the past year or so, it is not unreasonable to expect that Aion will flourish and hit new highs in 2018. Also, if Aion is able to deliver on all the fronts mentioned in its whitepaper, it will solve many of the issues that exist within the blockchain sector today.

Considering current market indicators, we would not be surprised if Aion popped up on many top crypto lists in 2018.

If you’d like to start investing in Aion, currency trading pairs are currently being offered on Binance.

Suicide Hotline Opens in Moscow for Cryptocurrency Traders

One of the golden rules of investing in anything is not to sink more money into it than you can afford to lose. This has never been more important than it is with cryptocurrency. The huge price volatility and lack of historical precedent within the market makes it a potentially dangerous space for those unfamiliar … Continue reading Suicide Hotline Opens in Moscow for Cryptocurrency Traders

The post Suicide Hotline Opens in Moscow for Cryptocurrency Traders appeared first on NewsBTC.

One of the golden rules of investing in anything is not to sink more money into it than you can afford to lose. This has never been more important than it is with cryptocurrency. The huge price volatility and lack of historical precedent within the market makes it a potentially dangerous space for those unfamiliar with high risk investments. After the enormous run up in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seen last year, and the subsequent correction in recent weeks, a Moscow-based company known as Blockchain Fund have opened a hotline to help those dealing with large losses. RT News even suggest that swings like the movement in Bitcoin from $20,000 to $6,000 in early 2018 could prompt a spate of mass suicides.

Elena Pikhovkina, a psychologist who works on the hotline spoke with Russian news source Life.ru about the initiative:

“Some people are in a panic, they don’t understand what is happening. At first everything was so good in this market, and now it has faced such changes… First of all, I will get acquainted with people in my work, listen to their stories and then give advice on how to calm down and recover. It is very important so that a person does not do anything stupid.”

Pikhovkina has learned to deal with those affected by large financial loss through first hand experience. She worked with many who lost money in 2014 when the euro and dollar rates jumped suddenly against the ruble.

There have already been reported cases of suicide occurring because of misplaced investments in the cryptocurrency space. This week, Youtube channel World Crypto Network reported of a case in which an investor had decided to take their own life following the recent price correction. In another example, a post of Reddit’s Bitcoin pages last month details the story of a 29-year-old who had sold his cryptocurrency prior to the huge price run up. According to the victim’s brother, the man in question sold or lost around 15,000 BTC just before the dramatic price increase. He told the forum:

“As the price took off in late 2013-early 2014 you could tell he was distraught over it and became increasingly withdrawn from family and friends… If I had missed out on $50M I might have killed myself too. I can’t imagine what my brother must have been feeling these past several years knowing he missed his best and easiest shot at the wealthy life he had always fantasised about.”

Recently, George Popescu, the CEO of Block X bank, told The Investor of Korea of the need for a suicide hotline to help those who’ve been affected by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He stated to the publication:

“People borrow money and invest in cryptocurrencies. If they lose it, they can get really hurt in this bitcoin craze… Maybe what we should do right now is to set up a suicide prevention lifeline to give those who hoard bitcoins a call and ask if they really know what they are doing.”

 

Image: PixaBay

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Hong Kong Regulators Send Warnings to Non-Compliant Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Regulators in Hong Kong have issued a strict warning to exchanges doing business with Chinese customers about trading tokens deemed as securities.In an announcement today, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said it has sent letters …

Hong Kong Regulators Send Warnings to Non-Compliant Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Regulators in Hong Kong have issued a strict warning to exchanges doing business with Chinese customers about trading tokens deemed as securities.

In an announcement today, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said it has sent letters to seven Hong Kong exchanges and firms attempting to fundraise through initial coin offerings (ICOs), warning them about the legalities of selling digital tokens with the characteristics of securities. Most of those receiving the letter confirmed compliance with the SFC’s regulatory regime or delisted tokens in question.

The agency said it had been receiving complaints from Chinese citizens about market manipulation on exchanges. Some said they were unable to withdraw funds and reported significant losses due to “technical breakdowns” on exchanges.

“We will continue to police the market and enforce when necessary,” SFC CEO Ashley Alder said in a statement. “But we are also urging market professionals to do proper gatekeeping to prevent frauds or dubious fundraising and to assist us in ensuring compliance with the law.”

The agency also cautioned investors about the risks involved in trading cryptocurrencies, including price volatility, theft and fraud, and the difficulty of recovering losses.

“If investors cannot fully understand the risks of cryptocurrencies and ICOs or they are not prepared for a significant loss, they should not invest,” said Julia Leung, executive director of intermediaries at SFC. “Investors who store their fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies with unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges should be aware of the risks of hacking and misappropriation of assets.”

The SFC issued two prior warnings to exchanges, one in September and other in December, about selling bitcoin futures.

Today’s statement follows a denial by Hong Kong–based exchange Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, that it had been hacked after it suspended trading on Thursday. The company blamed the suspension on a prolonged system upgrade.

Regulators in Europe and in the U.S. are coming down on fraud in the space. Earlier this week, representatives of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) spoke before the Senate Banking Committee about future cryptocurrency regulations. And recently, several U.S. banks banned customers from using credit cards to buy digital currencies on exchanges.  

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

MyEtherWallet Co-founder Forks Site – Creates MyCrypto.com

These days, forks don’t seem to be just limited to cryptocurrencies; the popular MyEtherWallet tool has forked today, with a rebranded service named MyCrypto.com being launched by one of MEW’s co-founders. Popular Ethereum wallet MyEtherWallet (MEW) has “forked,” releasing an unexpected alternative product, one of MEW’s original developers announced in a blog post today, February 9th. MEW has … Continue reading MyEtherWallet Co-founder Forks Site – Creates MyCrypto.com

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These days, forks don’t seem to be just limited to cryptocurrencies; the popular MyEtherWallet tool has forked today, with a rebranded service named MyCrypto.com being launched by one of MEW’s co-founders.

Popular Ethereum wallet MyEtherWallet (MEW) has “forked,” releasing an unexpected alternative product, one of MEW’s original developers announced in a blog post today, February 9th. MEW has become one of the most popular Ethereum and ERC20 token storage management tools over the past year and will continue to exist along with a new project, which has an almost identical interface.

Taylor Monahan, who started MEW with Kosala “Kvhnuke” Hemachandra in 2015, announced the new company and wallet service called MyCrypto.com. MyCrypto is initially a forked version of MEW, but Monahan said it will launch an enhanced version of the site soon — with desktop and mobile apps set to arrive “in the coming months.”

“MyEtherWallet LLC was sufficient for the early stages of growth. MyCrypto is designed with next-level scaling in mind from the beginning,” Monahan explained in the post, adding she had spent nine months assembling a team to oversee all operations.

In the blog post, Monahan gave a brief history of the project, as well as the impetus behind her creating MyCrypto, while remaining silent on relations between herself and her fellow co-developer of MEW Kvhnuke. She did, though, clarify that: “Kvhnuke remains in control of the MEW GitHub repository, the MEW domain, the AWS instances, and the MyEtherWallet social media accounts.”

MyCrypto will enter public beta testing in the near future, but Monahan is “terrified” about the road ahead: “I was terrified — am terrified — at the potential harm this change will have on myself, the team, and/or the Ethereum community but ultimately, the risks created by continuing down the road we were on are greater than the risks of splitting to a new brand, new company, new name, and new domain. While contemplating this decision, I began to see that my inaction would be the only thing that guaranteed my failure.”

MEW has since got a new Twitter account for its old handle, but Kvhnuke suggested that the social media takeover may have been “unlawful.” His Tweet read: “MyEtherWallet.com is secure and functioning normally. Your wallets have not been compromised, and you may continue to use MEW as intended. At present, however, we are investigating what we believe to be an improper, perhaps unlawful, social media account switch.”

Reasons for the split are not clear, but, it’s likely that the two MEW founders had different visions of the future for the service — which began as a side-project to both of their professional careers. Online, the circumstances surrounding the changes continue to cause suspicion and confusion.

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Request Network Uses Blockchain Technology to Create a Decentralized Payment System

request networkBlockchain technology is capable of transforming a number of industries, yet it’s been predicted that the financial sector will be leading the way in terms of development via the blockchain. According to IDC’s inaugural Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide, blockchain spending will be led by the financial sector, whose spending is expected to reach $754 million in 2018. With this in mind, a number of new use cases for blockchain technology are developing in the financial space. One of the most noteworthy ones is the digital transformation of online payment systems through the creation of decentralized payment platforms. A Decentralized Payment System The Request

request network

Blockchain technology is capable of transforming a number of industries, yet it’s been predicted that the financial sector will be leading the way in terms of development via the blockchain.

According to IDC’s inaugural Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide, blockchain spending will be led by the financial sector, whose spending is expected to reach $754 million in 2018. With this in mind, a number of new use cases for blockchain technology are developing in the financial space. One of the most noteworthy ones is the digital transformation of online payment systems through the creation of decentralized payment platforms.

A Decentralized Payment System

The Request Network (also known as Request) is an Ethereum-based, decentralized payment system which allows users to request payments and securely receive money. The Request Network uses blockchain technology to enable secure, peer-to-peer payments that will accommodate both cryptocurrencies and global currencies. Request currently accepts payments in ETH (Ether), but later this year, the company plans to add support for Bitcoin, ERC20 tokens and fiat currency.

The Request Network aims to become the next leading global payment system (think PayPal, but decentralized), yet without any third-party interference or high transaction fees. Request also plans to go above and beyond just sending and receiving payments. The Request protocol aspires to create financial flows on the blockchain by setting the standards for payments, invoicing, accounting and auditing in both cryptocurrency and fiat.

This is especially appealing for cryptocurrency enthusiasts looking to eventually send invoices, provide payments and receive salaries exclusively in cryptocurrency.

How The Request Network Works

The Request Network allows users to perform a number of financial actions, of which the most noteworthy is the processing of transactions on the blockchain.

Peer-to-peer payment requests are relatively simple on the Request Network. Users requesting and receiving payments can send invoices to other users via the blockchain. Once requests are detected, payments can be made in one click. The entire transaction happens without any third-party interference, and payments are received instantly.

Payments made on the Request Network demonstrate a number of advantages when compared with traditional payment systems. For instance, payments sent through Request are push-generated, meaning the account holder sends the money directly. This ensures that users don’t have to share their bank account information. Also, the use of blockchain technology allows for lower transaction fees. The Request whitepaper explains that all fees will remain between 0.05% and 0.5% and will decrease as the system develops.

Request also aims to have a large impact by improving the way businesses exchange money. Many traditional payment systems require third parties to ensure that payments are made to employees, other organizations, etc. Request, however, will serve as a proof of transactions between two (business) parties. Invoices are also linked directly to payments, meaning that the request becomes the transaction. The network also makes sure that requests are validated by recipients in a timely manner.

And while the entire Request Network is built upon digital trust, Request’s reputation system lets users rate other participants as “good” or “bad” in terms of their payment reputation. This also increases the chances of receiving financing and investment from third parties and lets users improve their credit scores over time.

REQ Token

The Request Network uses an ERC20 token called REQ, which users spend in order to access the network. REQ tokens are necessary for participating in the network and are required to create advanced Requests and reward various parties that help build the Request ecosystem.

While using the network, participants will have to pay a network fee using the REQ tokens, which will subsequently be burned. The fees will be adjusted by the Request Network operators depending on the decreasing supply of REQ and the exchange rates associated with the various currencies authorized by the network. Other purposes of the REQ token include acting as an intermediary for cross-currency exchanges and forming governance in community voting.

Decentralized Payments Are The Future

As the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to evolve, there will be a greater need for decentralized payment systems that can accommodate both cryptocurrencies and fiat payments. Thanks to blockchain technology, the Request Network has built just this. Request caters to a variety of financial actions in both the crypto world and the traditional world, allowing participants to easily send and receive cryptocurrency payments without the interference of third parties and high fees.

The Request Team plans to continue to build out their network and has allocated $30 million in REQ and ETH over the next five years to the Request Fund. Through this fund, the team plans to work on new Dapps (decentralized apps) relating to invoicing, P2P payments, payroll, supply chain traceability, and other financial tools that will encourage the widespread implementation of decentralized payment systems.