Day: February 14, 2018

It almost feels as if the whole world is waiting for the next cryptocurrency market uptrend. Whether or not we will see any major developments in 2018 remains to be determined at this point. If Pantera Capital is to be believed, however, a major Bitcoin price turnaround is coming in the next two weeks. It’s a rather optimistic prediction, but it’s not impossible.

Timing the Next Bitcoin Bull run

With so much momentum affecting the Bitcoin price last week, it has become rather evident the year 2018 is anything but positive so far. With all prices crashing hard in the first six weeks of the new year, people are growing concerned about the future of cryptocurrencies. Even though such negative trends are rather common in the world of Bitcoin, this recent dip is quite spectacular. Percentage-wise, it’s not the worst in history, but the value dropping from US$20,000 to US$6,500 was quite scary for novice holders.

According to Pantera Capital, it’s only a matter of time until the market turns around again. More specifically, they predict the Bitcoin price will see some major bullish momentum in the next two weeks. They initiated a 71-day countdown when the Bitcoin price started slipping. They’ve calculated that Bitcoin has lost 64% of its value since reaching its all-time high late last year. It is quite a steep retracement, but one that was bound to happen sooner or later.

Predicting the future Bitcoin price has always been rather difficult, for obvious reasons. Volatile markets like crypto are inherently unpredictable, and no one knows for sure what the future holds in this regard. The prediction made by Pantera Capital may not even come true in the end, as the markets tend to do the exact opposite of what most people predict. Even so, it seems the same bearish pattern has repeated itself time and time again.

More specifically, Bitcoin’s bear cycles usually result in a decline of 60% to 65%. This makes the current 64% reduction fall right into the predicted range, yet it doesn’t automatically mean we will see another major uptrend in the future. All previous bearish cycles were followed by major upswings, but it just goes to show there is a precedent for steep declines and massive bounces in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Trends are made to be broken, though, which could mean the Bitcoin price may head in either direction in the coming weeks.

Moreover, it seems Bitcoin’s bear markets have lasted an average of 71 days. Since this downtrend began in late December, the “deadline” is set to expire in about two weeks from now. Do keep in mind this is only the average, though, and the current bearish trend may continue for quite some time to come. It is not impossible we will see a six-month bear market affecting the cryptocurrency markets. Anything is possible in this industry, and the past never predicts the future by default.

Surprisingly, Pantera Capital is not all that concerned about future Bitcoin regulation. Instead, they welcome it as a necessary change to further legitimize cryptocurrencies. It is evident more regulation could attract even more speculators and institutional investors, even though there is no guarantee of success whatsoever. The recent sell-off has created exciting buying opportunities for those looking to get involved in Bitcoin, though. Only time will tell if Pantera Capital’s prediction comes true.

Moody’s Investors Service said today that it doesn’t believe the launch of bitcoin futures will hurt the creditworthiness of either CME or Cboe.

Google the term ‘blockchain’ and you’ll find an endless list of results, starting from the definition of blockchain to how it can transform industries ranging from retail to trucking, health care  to finance. And that’s just for starters.

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Blockchain is more than just an instrument of finance, in fact calling it a ledger recording only transactions is misleading. It is more of a ledger recording “agreements.” It is an immutable system which records the history of “deals” made between two or more parties, in which neither party can go back and change the terms.

If you think along these lines, you will realize blockchain has innumerable functionalities apart from merely keeping a record of financial transactions. One such use is transforming the future of supply chain.

The Blockchain Supply Chain

Imagine documenting every move of a product in an immutable ledger as it changes hands, generating a long list of interconnected blocks containing complete product lifecycle information. This will give rise to a supply chain ecosystem which is faster, cheaper, and free from any human error threatening its authenticity.

Such a system will impart a range of benefits to the existing supply chain:

1. Traceability and Transparency

If you work in the food sector, the traceability of the raw product and quality are of vital  importance, given the alarming rates of food adulteration. The current complicated process of raw product traceability can be eased by utilizing the power of blockchain and advanced tracking tools such as BudboTrax- an advanced logistics tracking tool, which Budbo, is using to track cannabis consignments. Now you will be able to trace every product back to the source of raw material and thereby get an instant, incorruptible report on product history.  

2.       Smart Payments

Another critical  aspect of blockchain is the ease of transactions . By  implementing smart contracts – which self-execute  should a particular condition be met, the entire process of payments can be made frictionless. As one example, you can have a smart contract to  automatically pay the manufacturer should the criteria of on-time delivery and quality be met. The entire ecosystem of blockchain-managed supply chain will allow for quicker, seamless and secure transactions to happen across every level, ensuring everybody gets their due share.

3.  Data validation and Immutability

With data validation happening at every stage of transaction or agreement , blockchain imparts an added level of security to the supply chain. Records of documents exchanged, delivery received or product ordered can be stored on this immutable ledger, free from external or internal factors influencing the same. Augmented by smart contracts, the ledger has the potential to transform the current supply management system completely, rather than just automating the process of bookkeeping.

The Future of Blockchain-Managed Supply Chain

Product traceability is one of the many advantages blockchain offers within supply chains. Product tracking, end-to-end delivery information, and  product authenticity are just some of the solutions blockchain offers to critical supply chain challenges.

Budbo, an established U.S. based startup, is now working on Budbo V2.0, a supply chain management solution with even more impressive features for managing and streamlining the cannabis supply chain. Using BUBO utility tokens, every stakeholder in this ecosystem will benefit immensely and immediately from the Budbo Blockchain solution. To learn more about Budbo visit https://budbo.io/.

A gold trading company in Dubai has been granted the first crypto trading license in the Middle East and will store customers’ crypto in a cold storage vault. #NEWS

Forks of existing cryptocurrencies have become the new hot commodity these days. In the case of Bitcoin, there has only been one successful fork so far, whereas everything else has taken a backseat. In Litecoin’s case, the first major “fork” to be created will be aptly known as Litecoin Cash. It is a SHA-256 fork of the existing Litecoin project, even though it remains to be seen how much interest there will be in this project.

Will Anyone Care About Litecoin Cash?

While no one will deny Litecoin has earned its place in the world of cryptocurrencies, the same will not necessarily apply to Litecoin Cash. It is a fork of Litecoin which changes quite a few of the things people have come to like about the original Litecoin, which may or may not be a good thing in the long run. Perhaps the biggest change is that Litecoin Cash will come with a SHA-256 algorithm for mining purposes.

The legitimate Litecoin uses Scrypt mining, which has been rather successful in its own right. Some companies have even developed proper ASIC hardware for this currency, although users can also mine other Scrypt coins with it. Litecoin Cash, on the other hand, wants to switch to SHA-256 to give people’s old Bitcoin mining hardware a second lease on life. It is a decision some people will appreciate, yet one which most others will ignore.

Moreover, this is not an exact fork of Litecoin by any means. With a total supply 10 times higher than that of LTC, it’s clear that Litecoin Cash may not see any real success in the short or long term. Existing LTC holders will automatically be eligible for the LCC airdrop at a ratio of 10 LCC for every 1 LTC owned at block 1,371,111. Assuming, that is, that any exchange or wallet provider supports the Litecoin Cash hard fork, which remains unclear as of now.

It also seems Litecoin Cash will have its own replay attack protection and a new address prefix. This seems to be rather similar to how Bitcoin Cash has evolved in the past few months, as those changes have worked out quite well for the popular altcoin. The LCC network’s mining difficulty will retarget automatically using Dash’s DarkGravity V3 algorithm. This should prevent any major issues with block times on the Litecoin Cash network.

Interestingly enough, early miners will not be able to reap the benefits of mining LCC at a low difficulty. Instead, the initial block reward will be small and grow over the course of the first 400 blocks. At its peak, there will be a 250 LCC block reward, which will halve at the same time the Litecoin block reward is cut in half. With a maximum supply of 840 million coins, there will be plenty of mining activity in the years to come.

The big question for now is whether or not Litecoin Cash will serve any real purpose. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Litecoin itself, even though not everyone may agree with that. Either way, introducing an unnecessary hard fork of an existing currency is never a good idea. Unless this currency can be used for multiple purposes, there is no reason for anyone to buy into LCC. Litecoin Cash will also support SegWit and the Lightning Network, which is rather interesting. For now, we will have to wait and see whether or not this fork can gain any noticeable traction.

Skycoin project aims to revolutionize the Internet through crypto. #SPONSORED

Following news of LTC merchant solution and ‘scam’ hard fork, Litecoin leads altcoin gains today, Feb. 14 #NEWS

Coindirect is offering a secure peer-to-peer trading platform for 34 of the leading cryptocurrencies. The company has been online since October 2017 and has been steadily building their international presence into English speaking countries. The all-in-one platform lets users not only purchase altcoins in their local currency but allows for real-time transfers between their Bitcoin wallet balance and any of the altcoins on offer.

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34 altcoins and counting

With interest in cryptocurrencies reaching far beyond the established coins such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), Coindirect looks to offer an ever-expanding range of popular altcoins. This eliminates the issue of having to create multiple accounts every time you want to buy a new coin offering. You’ll find altcoins like Monero (XMR), Litecoin (LTC), Neo and Dash amongst many others that are ready to trade on the Coindirect homepage. If you’ve heard of it, there’s a good chance you’ll find it on Coindirect. If not, it’s most likely on its way.

Local payment methods

The UK launch of Coindirect opens up a coin purchasing method that’s convenient, secure and in British Pounds. Other countries that Coindirect is currently active in include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Australia with more coming in the near future. The platform has partnered with local financial institutions letting users pay the way they want to by using local banking systems or their Paypal accounts.

Coindirect is registered with the Isle of Man FSA and each transaction is escrow protected in order to secure a risk-free trade for buyers and sellers alike. The local peer-to-peer system matches verified buyers and sellers so users will only ever need one portal to facilitate every purchase, sale and trade they make going forward.

Simple coin conversions

Once an account is created, each user is able to create free wallets for any altcoin they’re interested in trading with. These wallets act as digital banks within Coindirect and allow users to easily send and receive currency in and out of their various wallets with ease. It’s also a quick process to convert altcoins into Bitcoin, or Bitcoin to the desired altcoin, with no approvals, hidden costs or minimum waiting periods required. All this without leaving the site.

A Secure option

With bank-grade security and peer-to-peer transactions that are escrow protected, Coindirect makes every effort to keep their user wallets, and personal information secure. The platform also has the option for users to opt into Two-Factor Verification which adds an extra level of security when logging into their accounts.

Ripple has struck a deal with Saudi Arabia’s central bank on a pilot program that will see banks in the country trial the company’s tech.

There have been a lot of interesting discussions regarding the scaling of blockchain technology. So far, a lot of progress has been made in this regard, even though it seems there is no perfect solution in place. According to research by Microsoft, on-chain scaling is best seen as a temporary solution, but in the long run, it will not be enough. To tackle real-world use cases, a different approach will need to be taken.

The Future of Blockchain Scaling

In an ideal world, blockchain technology would disrupt any business model one can think of right now. To do so, however, we need proper scaling solutions for this innovative technology. In its current state, there is no such thing as a scalable public blockchain. Private chains, on the other hand, seem to achieve great success in this regard. Microsoft is not too keen on using private chains for real-world use cases, though, which comes as a bit of a surprise.

Over the past few months, the company has conducted some internal research on how things will need to evolve when it comes to blockchain technology as a whole. Rather than on-chain scaling solutions such as a block size increase, Microsoft seemingly leans toward layer-two solutions. This is a rather surprising disclosure, even though they seem to have some solid evidence to back it up.

Their recent blog post on the topic explains how an increase in on-chain transaction capacity degrades the decentralized state of the network. To some people, such a comment may not make a lot of sense, even though it is technically correct. A higher block size means some players will be able to support bigger blocks, whereas others will not. As such, those supporting the increase will account for more transactions over time, leading to a degree of centralization.

Moreover, unless infrastructure and internet bandwidth become equal all over the world at the same time, it is only normal that there will be some inequality to contend with. As a result, the network will become less decentralized over time. Microsoft is also concerned that an on-chain scaling solution will be incapable of achieving millions of transactions per second or per minute in the future. World-scale use cases for blockchain will require a one million TPS throughput or better, and on-chain scaling will not provide that.

Instead, Microsoft sees a bright future ahead for layer-two scaling solutions. The tech giant will collaborate on such protocols which run on top of existing public blockchains to achieve global scaling results. These new solutions should not interfere with the day-to-day operations of those blockchains or their decentralized aspects. It will be interesting to see what the future holds in this regard, as no further details have been announced so far.

Whether or not the company is correct in its assessment also remains to be determined. Bitcoin Cash has seen great success with on-chain scaling relative to Bitcoin’s SegWit implementation. When the Lightning Network comes to market in the future, we will see how well layer-two solutions hold up when it comes to blockchain scaling. There is a lot more information to be processed on a blockchain than just transaction details, though. 

Right now, there are more than 3.9 billion people without regular and reliable access to the Internet. At the same time, a further 2 billion are at risk of losing their reliable connectivity to the Internet due to unforeseen circumstances – natural disasters, political and social unrest, that sort of thing.

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Numerous companies have tried to solve both of these problems, with potential solutions coming from some of the biggest names in the tech space – Facebook, Google and more.

None, however, have been particularly successful.

That is, until now.

With the advent of blockchain technology, the ability to create and execute on the rollout of what’s generally referred to as a ‘parallel Internet’ has become a reality and one company, MeshBox, is pioneering this concept right now.

Some reading might already be familiar with SmartMesh. For those that aren’t, it’s a first mover company that has designed a technology (also called SmartMesh) that serves as the protocol layer for a so-called Mesh network – a system that employs a collection of interconnected notes to create a decentralized network.

This SmartMesh technology was essentially the first step towards the creation and implantation of a parallel Internet and it serves as, as mentioned, a sort of protocol layer that’s comparable to the TCP/IP that underpins the current global Internet framework.

MeshBox, however, which is closely affiliated with SmartMesh, has designed a piece of hardware (also called MeshBox) that serves as comparable to the routing hardware that’s central to existing Internet technology.

MeshBox can be deployed pretty much anywhere, both indoors and out, and, using the SmartMesh protocol, can connect to both other MeshBox units as well as mobile devices (so, smartphones, tablets, etc.) to form a pretty-much compromise-resistant network.

By connecting this network to the Internet, it, in turn, creates a compromise-resistant pathway through which the above-mentioned mobile devices can also connect to the Internet, overcoming pretty much every aspect of the issues introduced at the start of this piece – natural disasters, political and social unrest, etc. – as well as providing a simple, cost-effective and elegant solution to the issues associated with providing reliable Internet connectivity to those without current access.

So where does blockchain technology come in to all of this?

Well, the great thing about a system like this is that, with it resting on blockchain technology, it affords a degree of micro-transaction capability to the network created through the merging of the MeshBox and the SmartMesh technology.

Users who are sharing content across the network can request payment from those consuming the content in tokens associated with the MeshBox blockchain (in this instance, the tokens are called SMT tokens) and the network providers can also charge a fee, payable in tokens, for access to the Internet through the network they have set up.

The bottom line here is that this is a potentially game changing concept that has only really become possible with the advent of blockchain technology and that, in the instance of MeshBox, is being led by a team of industry incumbents including, perhaps most notably, David Cohen – a industry incumbent that was the Founder of Dcntral.ai, an Executive member of the IOTA Foundation and a HashGraph Advisor – in a prominent position on the company’s Advisory Board.

We strongly recommend you check out MeshBox’s White Paper here.

There’s also more information available at the company’s website, here.  

The Treasury undersecretary has called for other nations to regulate cryptocurrencies to help protect the financial system and national security.