Day: February 16, 2018

Similar to most other cryptocurrencies, it has been a rather interesting week for the Nano cryptocurrency. After successfully rebranding from Raiblocks to Nano, the currency has seen some solid momentum. Due to the recent “hack’ of BitGrail, however, the Nano price took a major hit. it now seems most of these losses have been recovered in quick succession  There is still a lot of market volatility to contend with, but things look pretty good for now.

Can the Nano Price Hit $10 Today?

After the drop from $12 to $8.5, a lot of people were unsure as to what to expect from the Nano price moving forward. It is evident volatility reigns supreme in the cryptocurrency world, even though it has hardly been as intensive as the past few weeks. With all currencies taking a major nose dive followed by a major bounce, it is virtually impossible to make any sense of this industry right now.

As for the Nano price, it seems some relief is on the horizon. Thanks to solid overnight gains in both the USD and BTC ratio, we are now looking at a Nano price of nearly $9.5 again. If this trend continues, that value may very well hit $10 before the day is over, even though it’s not unlikely profit-takers will drive the price down a bit in the next hour or two. For now, it’s always best to take profits before the market turns sour again.

Thanks to a solid 14.68% gain in USD value, things are looking pretty good for the Nano price right now. We also see a nice uptrend in the XRB/BTC ratio, resulting in a 13.13% gain in favor of the altcoin. It is important for altcoins to make up lost ground against Bitcoin as well, as the market momentum will turn bearish once the Bitcoin price train loses some of its steam. By the current look of things, that can happen a lot sooner than people may anticipate.

With $59.476m in 24-hour trading volume, things are not looking all that impressive for Nano, even though it’s not as horrible as some people might expect. To be more specific, all alternative currencies have seen their trading volume decline in the past few days, and it seems Nano is no exception in this regard whatsoever. For now, the volume is pretty solid, but things can always turn around pretty quickly.

Most of the XRB trading volume comes from the Binance exchange as of right now. With its BTC and ETH pair, Binance is dominating the landscape as we speak. Their BNB pair is also in the top five, separated by Kucoin’s BTC and ET  markets. Once again, we see no fiat currency markets for Nano, but that’s not preventing this market form succeeding in the past. Rest assured a fiat currency market would send the Nano price to new heights fairly quickly, at least for a few days.

For the time being, it remains to be seen what the future holds for the Nano price. With these current gains in place, things will get very interesting, deepening on how most speculators respond to this development. After all, a lot of people will see a 14% profit, cash out their Nano, and move on to the next exchange. Those who buy in right now may still effectively make a nice profit, though, as there’s a real chance the Nano price will surpass $10 or even $11 later today.

Community members have taken to Github to express their discontent over a controversial proposal for lost fund recovery.

Nothing final about their self-regulatory merger, Japanese crypto group director says. #NEWS

Llew Claasen predicts Bitcoin to hit $40,000 by the end of 2018, while claiming that 90% of altcoins are doomed to fail. #NEWS

Money laundering has always been a big problem in the financial sector. Turning “dirty” money into “clean” money makes it nearly impossible to trace criminal activity. One could argue money laundering is a sold as the banks themselves. US Bancorp is fined $613m to settle “willful” violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. It is once again evident financial institutions are the go-to solution to launder money. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, on the other hand, are very small fish in this cesspool.

Addressing money laundering problems is not easy by any means. With so many people involved in these processes, it’s only natural some transactions go by unnoticed. Banks staffers often fail to recognize or report suspicious transactions. In the case of US Bancorp, it will cost them a hefty penny. With $613m in fines to be paid, some bank members will be to blame. It also shows how relatively easy it is to launder funds through the banking system. There are quite a few institutions who either don’t flag transactions or do not bother to deal with the reporting side of things.

US Bancorp Fined for Money Laundering

Most of the fines will be paid to the US Treasury. The remainder will go to FinCEN, The Federal Reserve, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. While such a fine is steep, it’s usually a drop in the bucket. Entities such as US Bancorp can make a lot more money from processing these illicit transactions like normal. They collect fees for every transaction, after all. This fine will not necessarily make any big dent in their earnings. More worryingly, people will probably forget US Bancorp was even involved in this scandal in a few months from now.

It is uncanny how these are the same banks who tell people Bitcoin is a tool for criminals and terrorist. Unlike the systems used by US Bancorp and consorts, Bitcoin is as transparent as it can get. There is a degree of pseudonymity, but people can flag transactions in real-time. All information other than users’ identities is public and traceable. Converting Bitcoin to real money needs to be done through brokers or exchanges. These companies perform checks to prevent money laundering as well. It is very cumbersome to cash out crime proceeds with Bitcoin as of right now.

Even then, the converted money is still processed by banks. If they do not perform proper AML checks, bitcoin isn’t to blame for their shortcomings. US Bancorp and consorts need to be punished far more severely for failing to adhere to regulatory guidelines. They have all of the information on hand to flag, track, and identify suspicious behavior in a few minutes. Why they aren’t doing so is anybody’s guess right now. Money laundering will always be facilitated by the banking system.

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Bitcoin cash has rallied sharply from recent lows, but still remains trapped inside a bearish pattern, price charts indicate.

With the boom in ICOs over the last year or so, there has been an increased need for regulation, however, with no global standard, different countries are taking different approaches. #INFOGRAPHICS

60.1 mln Ethereum-based USDT tokens and 86 mln EURT tokens come from Tether. #NEWS

The Japanese government said today that inspections will take place at 15 unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges in light of a recent major hack.

Survey shows that British business with crypto stockpiles have diversified beyond BTC to altcoins #NEWS

Every other company, especially the ones dealing with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology wants to host its own crowdsale and raise funds. This has led to an unprecedented rise in interest among people, who wish to know more about the whole token sale process. This article aims to provide a brief insight into some of the steps ought to be taken by those who are embarking on an ICO campaign.

Only a small portion of companies opting for an ICO tend to complete it with performance much better than earlier expectations. Some of the things to be considered include –

Getting Started

The most important part of any project is the team itself. With a team and a business plan in place, the next logical step is to have a solid business plan, followed by the project implementation. The most important and complex task of this stage is the creation of Crowdsale contract (The ICO Contract).

What is the Crowdsale Contract?

The crowdsale contract is a program for the development and distribution or sale of the project’s tokens. There are different ways for developing the contract, each having its own pros and cons and level of simplicity and reliability.

The Ways for Creating Crowdsale Contract

1. Using the Internal Resources

Just like any other project, the project’s own resources are the primary or initial resources used by the project manager for creating the contract. In case of insufficient availability of in-house funds and expertise, this method is risky. This is because Ethereum network and Solidity programming language are significantly different from traditional program, requiring a higher investment. We have many examples where millions of US dollars were lost or frozen due to inappropriate resources used by the developer.

2. Finding the Best Developer

In view of the above challenge, the recommended way to create the contract is to find the most suitable developers as per the nature of the project. This may seem as a simple task considering the growing popularity of blockchain and increasing number of people willing to invest in it. However, the following challenges usually arise during the process.

• Lack of expert developers
• High cost charged by the developers
• Lack of Tools to evaluate developers’ skills
• Need for testing and auditing by a third party

Considering these challenges, finding the best qualified specialists and audit firm, becomes a time-taking process.

3. Go for an ICO Agency

ICO agencies offer a range of services, from website development to token listing on the exchanges. If you are willing to outsource the marketing and PR campaigns of the project to an ICO agency and also have necessary funds in hand, this is an ideal approach. On average, the cost usually ranges between USD 300,000 and USD 500,000.

4. The Contract Constructor

Contract Constructor is a service having a library of tested and audited contracts, which enables the users to specify their token distribution parameters (number of tokens, price), bonus structure, sales dates and so on.

This approach brings the following benefits:

• No need to search for qualified developers.
• The platform’s templates are repeatedly tested by the specialists.
• Zero probability of error.

Some widely used and most popular constructors are:

Token Wizard

It offers the ability to develop a token and crowdsale contracts. Due to the requirement of installing an additional software and having deep knowledge, it is not recommended for unprepared or new users.

Etherparty and BlockCAT

These are highly popular projects in the smart contract market, offering the ability to create a token and a crowdsale contract. However, both platforms are currently available in their BETA version.

MyWish

MyWish is one of the most widely used open-source platforms that create contracts (over 300 users), using a simple interface that doesn’t even require the installation of any additional software. You can get a crowdsale contract at the cost of just 1 ETH per contract. Being a complete solution, it is used by many projects for raising funds. Watch here how it works.

In the next post, we will explain in detail the two most convenient and reliable methods of Crowdsale contract creation; Delegating the contract creation to ICO agency and Creating a Contact via MyWish.

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