Day: March 4, 2018

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are undoubtedly changing the way we view the world. Finance, banking, identity, and privacy are all areas that are immediately and irrevocably affected by blockchain technology. However, I also believe that they may be just as disruptive as automation to the way we work.

Cryptocurrency opens a world of possibility for workers, quite literally the world

One group of people that may have already realized how potent blockchain technology and cryptocurrency can be is digital nomads. Digital nomads are workers who are not tied to any one region. They often travel and may work for multiple companies at once (or are not tied to any one company). Put simply, they are a workforce of freelancers living life on the road, and I think they are going to become way more common because of cryptocurrencies.

One of the reasons I believe this is that when you free the market, and make wealth independent and mobile, then many of the things that tie a person down to a place are gone. This next example is anecdotal, but it was an eye-opening experience for me. When I was moving back to Chicago from London once I finished my master’s, it took four days to move my money from a UK bank account to my US bank account, and for two of those days it was in neither account. This experience was incredibly stressful, and I kept wondering how there couldn’t be a better way. It did not occur to me until I was back in Chicago that my Bitcoin and Dogecoin were still in the same place – they were still mine. Furthermore, I didn’t have to pay a fee to move them with me, and they were never out of my control. This was a profound realization for me, especially considering I lost about 50 dollars due to fees and exchanges rates.

With cryptocurrency, remote workers can be more secure in knowing where their money is, and can bring it with them without having to set up new bank accounts and such. This makes it easier for employers to pay their remote workers as well. Borders are gone, workers are free to move, and as a result, I think more people will take on the digital nomadic lifestyle – particularly because many of the most popular destinations for digital nomads have adopted a pro-crypto or crypto-tolerant stance.

This may be especially true for younger professionals, since they are less likely to have things like mortgages or other massive geographical commitments. However, I do not think it will only be young people. Considering that one of the things people wish they did more of in life is travel, we may be witnessing a burgeoning trend of work/travel hybrids. And I, for one, am incredibly excited by that prospect.

It is often difficult to find positive reports about Bitcoin. Too many transactions cause a spike in overall fees. Fewer transaction makes media outlets believe the interest in Bitcoin is slowing down. The uptick in SegWit adoption is indeed reducing the number of transactions, but that is a positive trend It seems a lot of people aren’t familiar with transaction batching.

The Reduction in Bitcoin Transactions

The Bitcoin network has always been a curious creature. It is impossible to find any constant features as far as this ecosystem is concerned. This is especially true when it comes to transactions over the network. In the past, an increase in Bitcoin transactions was not always a good thing. Given the low throughput of the original network, delays and increasing fees were all too common, unfortunately.

It now seems the overall number of Bitcoin transactions is decreasing. While that may seem like a worrisome sight at first, it is completely normal. Multiple factors contribute to this rather unusual phenomenon. First of all, indicates fewer people are sending Bitcoin transactions. This only represents a fractional minority of what is going on for the rest of the network, though.

The reality is how we now see more Bitcoin transactions being batched into one. As such, there are seemingly fewer individual transactions, even though that is not entirely the case either. Whenever transactions are batched into bigger groups, the outputs will drop as much as transaction count. Batched transactions create many outputs, which in theory can halve the number of outputs being created.

Batching is a Good Thing

If Bloomberg is to be believed, the current decrease in Bitcoin transactions is the beginning of the end. More specifically, their article quotes Charles Morris as saying how the hype-cycle is cooling down. While it is true the Bitcoin price is still lower than late last year, it is evident things are slowly improving once again. At the same time, this lack of understanding how Bitcoin works rears its ugly head once again.

Morris went as far as calling for a Bitcoin bear market. This is mainly based on the reducing number of Bitcoin transactions, rather than anything else. With the number effectively being cut in half, it is evident the batching solution seems to work just fine. With SegWit now becoming easier to use, it is not unlikely we will see even fewer outputs in the future. This does not mean people are using Bitcoin less often, though, as the opposite may be true.

Additionally, other factors contribute to this change as well. Batching only tells one part of the story in this regard. We also see fewer spam transactions on the Bitcoin network, which is a good thing. It is evident bathing is difficult to understand for the uninitiated, albeit it makes perfect sense to everyone else. Things are heading in the right direction for Bitcoin in every regard.

The post Bitcoin Transaction Volume Decreases With Batching, Not Due to Lack of Demand appeared first on NewsBTC.

The price of hotels is often the biggest factor in the cost of a holiday, rivaled only by airfare costs. While hotels may seem pricey now, bear in mind how much hotel costs have reduced since the early days of the internet thanks to the rise of comparison sites and peer-to-peer accommodation. The rise of blockchain technology is set to reduce prices even further for customers.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

While Sites like Airbnb devote a lot of effort and resources towards combating untoward practices, which in turn drives prices higher, a new blockchain project called Concierge is aiming to use ledger and blockchain technology to reduce these costs by making untransparent behavior impossible.

Board above board

Both hotels and customers partake in many questionable behaviors that lead to overall higher prices in the marketplace: hotels double booking rooms, guests booking and not showing up, bogus reviews, overcharging, fraudulent payment… the list goes on. This makes it necessary for centralized platforms to get involved to arbitrate and make sure things run smoothly.

The downsides of this involvement are that systems are more expensive, slower, and still prone to human error or bias. Platforms like Expedia or airbnb, credit card companies, and review sites are all prone to dishonest behaviour. But many of these problems could be easily remedied with trustless ledger and blockchain technology.

Making booking transparent

The Concierge platform is leveraging the speed of the NEO protocol in order to develop a system with 3 principal components. The marketplace is decentralized and allows hotel owners to easily and quickly add rooms to be displayed to customers. Bookings are created using smart contracts that stipulate the details of payment. And the whole transaction is enacted using the CGE token, which allows for fast and transparent settling of transaction amounts.

The broader strategy for the platform is to provide a means for all service providers to offer their travel and tourist products in a secure and transparent way. If Concierge.io takes off and achieves a critical mass, this will encourage travelers to use it for secondary services, especially tours and guided visiting. This is very compatible with the design of the platform, since services like guided tours vary widely in their quality and customer reviews are so important.

Because of the secure and transparent way reviews are placed on the platform, fake reviews (both positive and negative) will be eliminated, rewarding tour guides and tourist service providers that really do a good job.

Speed and reliability

The NEO protocol is among the fastest to settle of any token and has seen wide adoption among many business oriented crypto projects. For these reasons, it is hoped the NEO protocol will allow a greater level of efficiency for the Concierge platform even compared to traditional methods.

The CGE token is the central unit of value for the platform but the team behind it have designed the user experience so that transfers to and from fiat are easy and quick.

The team are raising funds to rollout their vision with the CGE token ICO starting on the 31 March.

The majority in a LendEDU poll would use an Amazon cryptocurrency, Starbucks hints at creating a Blockchain-based app #NEWS

At the beginning of 2018, I wrote an article outlining a New Year’s resolution that I thought could help boost cryptocurrency adoption and awareness in 2018, as long as enough people were doing it. Last week was the eighth installment of my year of cryptocurrency challenge. Admittedly, this week was a bit slower for me, as I got bogged down by some personal items and was unable to evangelize as much as I usually do. Having said that, let’s jump into my week!

TRY TO SPEAK TO AS MANY PEOPLE ABOUT CRYPTOCURRENCY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN

Sometimes I begin to feel bad about how often I discuss cryptocurrency with my non-cryptofluent friends, and I wonder how effective my short conversations are with Lyft and Uber drivers. However, this week I received some encouragement.

1. A friend of mine, who I was positive had tuned me out every time our group talked about crypto, sent me a text asking more about it. I was surprised, but excited to explain further. He was particularly curious about mining, what it was, and why it was even necessary. We had a long text conversation about it and plan on getting drinks next weekend to discuss it further. I may even give him some Dogecoin to play around with to see how it works!
2. A Lyft driver of mine asked what I did for a living, and I explained that I worked in the wild world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. They had “heard about that Bitcoin thing” on the news and were concerned because what they had heard was that it was a “bubble.” I explained that while a lot of the volatility is definitely due to speculators, the technology itself is sound, being improved, and is a massive step up from the current system of data reconciliation and integrity. By the end of the ride, they told me they would consider printing out a “Crew R code” (I corrected them) and accept tips in cryptocurrencies moving forward.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW ABOUT CRYPTO

There’s always more to learn in the cryptocurrency space. As a departure from my usual “I learned about X this week,” this week I learned how to better explain mining to the non-cryptofluent because of the many conversations I’ve had. While explaining it to my aforementioned friend, I finally hit on a super succinct and potent way of explaining it to the non-crypto crowd, and I have a work colleague to thank for helping develop the idea.

While I plan on writing an article elaborating on this further, the general flow is this: everyone understands announcements, work, and recording. Stay tuned for that article in the coming week.

BE GENEROUS – GIVE AND USE YOUR COINS

This week, my Lyft driver was a missed opportunity to send some crypto as a tip, though it’s probably for the best with the (lower but still kind of high) fees on the Bitcoin network. I plan on giving my friend a bit of Dogecoin when we get that drink to talk more about cryptocurrency mining, and will try to tip the bartender at my local pub tonight (I’m writing this on a Saturday).

Are you also participating in this challenge? How do you get past slower weeks in your challenge? Let’s make 2018 the year of cryptocurrency!

Banks succeed in executing first live securities trade worth $30 mln on R3 Blockchain platform #NEWS

Considering how much bureaucracy goes into getting a loan, it is not surprising that peer to peer lending has become so popular. It leverages tech platforms to allow users to negotiate and enact loans between themselves. One of the more promising developments in recent times is that of how blockchain technology can make this kind of lending more efficient and secure. Blockchain technology is both secure and transparent, which dramatically reduces the risk of fraud in the industry. Furthermore, features like smart contracts can automate and guarantee the functioning and integrity of agreements.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Bitstrades is a platform that is designed to allow easy and secure peer to peer lending. Furthermore, the platform has an investment and trading dimension to create more revenue streams for users.

User experience

Bitstrades uses an advanced dashboard and interface to ensure easy functioning on the platform. Their site gives the crucial description of the core functionality:

“Once the process to deposit BSS in your wallet is completed, go to your dashboard and click on the “Lend” button. Immediately there would be an option to select Bitstrades investment where you have to enter the amount (EURO or BSS) you want to invest. Once you are done with this step, you have to accept the terms and rules in the consecutive form.

Hit “Pay” button, the next page asks you for the confirmation and you have to confirm using the confirmation button. As soon as your transaction is successful, your account is ready to get return on investment from the Bitstrades lending platform.”

Handy investment

The same kind of user interface is beneficial in their overall investment user experience, explains the website: “A software is involved which calculates the interest rate incurred on your investment on a daily basis. Lend Bitstrades Coins in Bitstrades lending platform exclusively from the Bitstrades Dashboard and investment will lead to profiting from Bitstrades trading bot and volatility software. Upon investment term completion, you will receive your Capital back to take out from the Bitstrades lending platform or optionally reinvest back in lending a platform to continue receiving daily profit.”

A decentralized ecosystem

Bitstrades is clearly aiming to position itself as a complete platform that both links users together and also leverages economies of scale to make both lending and investing possible. The Bitstrades ICO raised millions in funding and now the BSS token is available for trading.

Bitstrades team promises to provide services with low transaction fee and take care of the security. Furthermore, the transactions will be made instantly. “We know your time is precious. Send Instant Payments and get the confirmation within a blink of your eyes. Virtual banking and stand out from the crowd.”, – bitstradescoin.com team says.

North Korea seemingly wants to bypass the sanctions imposed upon the nation by the US government. Doing so will require a very creative approach. So far, it seems the country’s government leans toward using bitcoin for this specific purpose.

North Korea and Bitcoin

It is evident there are growing rumors regarding North Korea and Bitcoin. For quite some time now, people have voiced concerns over this nation’s affinity with cryptocurrency. With the US continually imposing new sanctions on North Korea, something has to give eventually. Even though Kim Jong Un will not change his overall approach, he is considering the use of Bitcoin to bypass these sanctions.

The latest sanction comes in the form of firms and shipping companies allegedly aiding North Korea’s nuclear programs. Although it remains to be seen if there is any truth to this, the repercussions are very dire. The US government wants to cut off all revenue streams in the communist country. They fear any new capital will be used immediately to fund the nation’s weapons programs.

Whether or not these sanctions have any lasting impact, remains to be seen. So far, North Korea is not effectively suffering from the US’ actions. Instead, they look for new revenue streams to keep doing their thing. The rule of cryptocurrencies should not be underestimated in this regard. This borderless and bankless currency cannot be blocked by any government. As such, it makes perfect sense for North Korea to explore with this option.

More Hacking Attempts to Follow?

Assuming North Korea will explore the Bitcoin option, they will need a lot of cryptocurrency moving forward. One way to obtain that is by doing the same thing the country has done for years now. By targeting South Korean exchanges and effectively hacking them, a lot of currency can flow into North Korea without too many problems. Right now, it is estimated the communist nation earns up to $200 by selling cryptocurrency every year.

A report from Recorded Future shows North Korea’s keen interest in Bitcoin. More specifically, it shows how government actors purposefully target South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges for financial gain. They also go after South Korean college students interested in foreign affairs. This report seemingly indicates is also linked to the WannaCry malware in a roundabout way. Rest assured we will see more of these attacks as time progresses.

It is evident all of this momentum will further tarnish Bitcoin’s public image. Most people are Bitcoin-averse due to its ties to criminal activity. If communist nations now start to show an active interest in this currency, that situation will not improve anytime soon. For the time being, we have to wait and see how this situation evolves. It is evident cryptocurrencies open new opportunities, although not all of them are positive in this regard.

The post North Korea Taps Bitcoin to Circumvent US Sanctions, More Hacks to Follow appeared first on NewsBTC.

Markets are comprised of a wide variety of traders of differing success levels and intents. While charts can clearly show which trades are winners and losers, it’s much more difficult to assess the value of a trader. As a result, there is often bad information spread, due to either malice or lack of knowledge, that should always be recognized and ignored.

4. “This coin is a good buy because it is cheap”

This sentiment isn’t so common as it was in late 2017, when many new traders were beginning to attempt cryptocurrency trading, but it still is a frequently shared piece of advice. Oftentimes, certain coins are promoted as undervalued or good entries due to their low price. This is inherently an improper way to evaluate a cryptocurrency, because the simple metric of unit price completely ignores the market cap, distribution, inflation, and inception of such cheap coins.

Kin provides a pretty straightforward example of this. US$0.01 can buy over 30 KIN, which would suggest the coin is very cheap and therefore undervalued. However, a simple look at Kin’s market cap shows that this certainly isn’t the case. Merit of the project aside, there are close to 1 trillion KIN in circulation, which equates to a market cap of US$222 million – by no means a cheap project.

3. “Don’t fall in love with your holdings”

This concept is almost universally accepted among cryptocurrency communities, but it may not always be a proper rule of thumb. For new traders, yes, it’s probably not best to become attached to any single trade. However, for veteran traders who can recognize the merit and potential of different projects, there is nothing wrong with falling in love with a project. If you’re a long-term holder, your biggest position should be your favorite, and even one you love.

Having such a strong connection ensures unwavering faith in a position, even during extended downtrends. If this faith is well-founded, it will be infinitely easier to persevere through days, weeks, or months of red. Some projects can even take years to reach their true value. IOTA is a great example of that. Those who loved IOTA for years when it wasn’t listed on any exchanges have since had a massive payoff.

2. “Buy this coin because it’s better than Bitcoin”

This line is often used to shill the absolute garbage coins. There is no value in an altcoin being “better than Bitcoin”. The fact of the matter is that almost every single newly-created cryptocurrency is better than Bitcoin. It either forks the original code base to facilitate faster transactions, better distribution, or greater scalability, or implements new features that Bitcoin does not offer. A coin that is better than Bitcoin certainly does not automatically deserve to someday be worth as much as Bitcoin.

1. “Listen to what well-known traders say”

There is massive value in taking advice from proven, veteran, successful traders. However, a majority of the “crypto personalities” are merely facades. These popular social media profiles are just that – popular accounts that leverage their own outreach to turn a profit. This was clearly shown by all the YouTube channels with tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers promoting the obvious and now defunct Ponzi scheme Bitconnect (BCC).

In fact, Trevon James and “Crypto Nick” now face lawsuits for abusing the faith of their supporters for their own profit through the promotion of this Ponzi. However, these acts also happen much more subtly, especially on Twitter, in the form of paid shilling. It’s recently become known that sleazy projects will offer top cryptocurrency Twitter accounts such as John McAfee’s as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of miscellaneous cryptocurrencies to tweet about their coins.

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Overall, the best piece of advice one can follow is to be cognizant of one’s own decisions and learn from their mistakes. Through trial and error, real lessons are learned. It is through this process that legitimately successful and veteran traders have established themselves in the market, and it is through this process that capable traders separate themselves from the incompetent ones.

Blockchain technologies are still pressing toward a new frontier but are still met with a myriad of challenges that can prove to make or break a prospective crypto/blockchain startup, or cause the industry to stagnate under the goalpost of mass-adoption. Issues such as scalability, coding errors, speed and latency and monetization options for participants and giving value to the respective cryptocurrency on a platform are factoring in to this spiraling issue, that if addressed could bring the industry up in to a new era.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Sharing to Secure a Decentralised Future

At the 2017 Blockchain Conference in New York, a well-known car company gave presentation on developing a Blockchain-Based autonomous fleet of vehicles, the spokesperson highlighted that in order to perfect this software and overcome the aforementioned issues, they would need a trillion miles worth of data for their high tech machine learning algorithms and at present the car company had only managed to generate several million miles worth.

At present, whilst the blockchain solves issues of ownership, integrity and the accountability of marketplace vendors, and the Ethereum Networks’ smart contract technologies provide the prime conditions for payments and sharing, competitors aren’t sharing their million miles of data that could address key faults in the emergence of blockchain technologies.

The Missing Link

DApps (Decentralized Apps), are believed to be the next integral component in the blockchain machine, these applications will shape how we interface with the crypto world but are also themselves in dire need of another missing ingredient. ContractNet, a Hong Kong blockchain startup, believes they have found this missing link in form of IoT (Internet of Things) devices. The IoT is an interrelated system of computing devices, digital machines, objects, people or even animals that have unique identifiers with the ability to transfer data across the interwoven network without the need for human-to-human or human-to-computer.

What ContractNet is producing with IoT technology is a public, permissionless Blockchain that has the storage, analysis and sharing of IoT data streams. Creating a framework for sharing IoT data and a diverse platform for developing distributed applications and smart contracts, ContractNet could very well have completed the holy trinity of Blockchain, Smart Contracts and the Internet of Things.

IoT device owners through the ContractNet Blockchain will have access to cutting edge IoT solutions where device owners can endlessly share their data streams in an incentivised and secure way. Whilst this is at play, the next generation of smart contract and DApp developers can gain access the gigantic flows of data and push the frontier forward; being at the ‘intersection of Blockchain technologies’, ContractNet states its philosophy and its purpose is to be the global exchange of IoT data, whilst being the go to platform for the highest calibre of applications on the decentralised web.  

Not a “One Trick Pony”

DApps aren’t the only the only target on the ContractNet hit-list, they’ll be separating storage from the blockchain to reduce the costs of storage by 2000 – 8000% eventually becoming cheaper than cloud storage, furthermore they’ll be using the ContractNet native token, CNET, as a utility within the platform, they also aim to provide participants with many monetisation options. Further to this miners will be able to earn CNET for providing storage and computational within the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism and IoT device owners will be able to sell their data streams. It’s a fully-fledged platform and marketplace of data that could sow the seeds of the Web 3.0 revolution; ContractNet are prepping for the sale of the CNET coin beginning in March 2018.

To find out more head to their website here and check out the whitepaper here.

Venture capital investments in Blockchain companies poised to eclipse 2017 total #NEWS

Bitcoin doen $500 in hours as $12k proves toughest nut to crack. #NEWS

The weekend is always a curious time for cryptocurrency markets. Whereas the rest of the week seemed rather solid for most currencies, today is the exact opposite. That doesn’t mean there are no markets appreciating in value, though. The Stellar price is heading up once again and surpassed the $0.35 mark. How high the Stellar price will go, remains to be determined.

Stellar Price Trend Seems Rather Solid

It is evident a lot of strange things tend to happen in the world of cryptocurrency. While the Bitcoin price is going down again for no apparent reason, we see a few other markets buck this negative trend without too many problems. The Stellar price, for example, has noted a strong 9.46% uptick in the past 24 hours. This is a remarkable development, as it is not exactly a trend most people had envisioned to materialize today.

Even so, the Stellar price is slowly rising back to the level it had reached earlier this week. More specifically, on Monday, we saw a Stellar price of $0.37, yet things have gone south ever since. With the XLM value dropping to $0.32 in the next few days, it is evident things were not looking all that great. It now seems that trend is slowly turning around in favor of Steller again, although it remains to be seen how long this uptrend will last.

This current 9.46% increase in SUD value is pretty significant, yet the Stellar price may not go much higher, all things considered. While Steller also notes an 11.37% increase against Bitcoin, it remains to be determined if that momentum can be sustained for more than a few hours. Assuming that is the case, we may very well see a Stellar price of $0.4 before the day is over.

One thing that is somewhat worrisome about Stellar is the current 24-hour trading volume. More specifically, we see just $99.14m in 24-hour trading, which is anything but spectacular. That doesn’t necessarily mean there is no demand for this currency as of right now, but it is important to put things into their proper perspective. The overall cryptocurrency volume is a lot lower than it should be as well, thus it’s only normal all markets suffer a bit.

Binance is the leading trading platform when it comes to XLM trading volume. Their lead over Upbit is quite big, and Binance processes over twice the volume of Poloniex. With only the KRW currency pair in the top three, very little fresh capital is entering the market right now, as XLM’s USD pair on CEX generates just $1.11m. None of this is necessarily worrisome, though, but it is important to keep all of these things in mind at all times.

For the time being, it remains difficult to predict what the future will hold for the Stellar price. Anything is possible in this industry, especially during the weekends. Whether or not the Stellar price will still be in the green come tomorrow, is a different matter altogether. For now, people who hold a position in this market may be better off taking smaller profits rather than waiting for a big score. Unless the trading volume picks up significantly, there is no real reason to expect major increases.