Day: March 13, 2018

Exchanging value with other individuals was a critical milestone in the human evolution and the way our ancestors first began to interact with each other.

Collaborating with groups in the earliest tribes meant specializing roles and social contracts – some people hunted and gathered whilst others nurtured new generations.  The mutual benefit was implicit and enforced by social norms.  But what if you wanted to interact with someone outside your regular group? Some kind of exchange of value was needed: “you give us half that elk carcass, and we’ll share our cave through the coming storm. Win-win”. No central authority mediated the exchange, the benefits were clear and immediate, and nothing else was needed. No AML, trusted transactions, or records being kept – although some of the earliest written communications in history do appear to have been ledgers of some kind, maybe writing evolved to support P2P exchanges.

In fact, it’s not just humans who understand this, many species can also understand the value of P2P transacting – learning to perform tasks for researchers in exchange for rewards like food.

Higher primates can be taught to use tokens of exchange too, to understand ‘money’ – from which they rapidly progress to depressingly human-like behaviors from hoarding and theft to protection rackets and prostitution. Currencies and centralization may lead inevitably to corruption – but we must never forget that P2P came first.

And if the cryptocurrency movement is to recover its original intentions of trustlessness, this what we need to get back to.  LocalCoinSwap understands this, and have built their platform around the P2P experience:

“P2P platforms started to disrupt the financial sector over a decade ago”, explains Thomas Underwood, LocalCoinSwap Chief Technical Officer, “with the emergency of lending tools like Zopa and Affirm, enabling investors to connect directly with potential borrowers.  In the dawn of the ‘sharing economy’, people who cared about P2P talked a lot about their ability to cut out banks as middlemen, for the brokerage of credit. Nowadays we have similar services like Transferwise for the exchange of fiat currencies, matching buyers and sellers in different markets.”

“But in reality, these services are still highly centralized, because they depend on third party maintenance of a central ledger, and need to be underpinned by huge amounts of escrow funding.  As such, the main players in each market tended to quickly apply for banking licenses – modeling themselves on the very industries they were supposed to be disrupting”.

By exploiting fundamental qualities of blockchain technology, however, LocalCoinSwap has been able to create a true P2P trading platform without the need for centralized control:

“What the immutable blockchain ledger brings to accounting is truly a revolution on a par with the invention of double-entry bookkeeping. This is the 21st Century Renaissance!” Thomas continues enthusiastically. “Instead of needing a third party to reconcile the separate records based on each party’s transaction receipts, buyers and sellers can write their transactions directly into a joint blockchain register, immediately creating an incorruptible system of enduring accounting record.”

“And using ERC20-based smart contracts to fix the deal up-front, that means funds can be disbursed accurately and immediately according to fixed contractual rules, creating a genuinely peer-to-peer environment for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. “

“But because the peers interacting on the platform are more than just a bunch of private keys, we’re providing a comprehensive set of human community building tools as well – profiles, ratings, and reviews, will all help establish both trust and interactivity, and create a true marketplace, of individuals, trading with each other directly without hierarchy or third party control – that’s what P2P is all about at its heart”.

Of course, P2P exchanges already exist in crypto, but one of the stand-out unique selling points for LocalCoinSwap is the sheer scope. P2P at scale, accepting any fiat currency as a point of entry and planning to launch with the top 10 cryptos on-board for immediate exchange, and a growing number of new launches to be added.

“We extend the P2P philosophy beyond that of our community of traders, it includes those innovating in the space to offer ICOs and new products”, Thomas concludes. “We’ll invite carefully-vetted new token launches to trade on our platform, where they can incentivize our traders – who are platform shareholders in any case – by offering them airdrops of their tokens. That way we’ll support emergent startups, reward our LCS Cryptoshare investors, and continue to encourage new ideas and participants into the marketplace. We’re taking P2P to a whole new level”.

Intrigued? You should be. You can find out more by joining the presale on March 15^th – and in the meantime, you stay in touch with the team directly on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter and register on the Website.

The post P2P, Past and Future: Why Is the World’s Most Innovative Cryptocurrency Exchange Using Humanity’s First Ever Trading System? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Google has said it will change its financial product policy in June to effectively ban advertisements related to cryptocurrency and ICOs.

Being a part of crypto community, we closely follow developments in the crypto world. We are excited with the pace it is growing and boldness of the projects appearing and could not pass by the recent announcement of the secret second presale of Telegram. We would like to share our mixed feelings on the issue in a form of comment from our CEO Alex Duhamel.

 Crypto philosophy is all about transparency, universal contribution, and participation. Its ideals of breaking free from the unnecessary institutions and supervisions have attracted a lot of free-spirited idealists into the pool of crypto-enthusiasts. And I guess this was the reason why adopting Telegram messenger as one of their major means of communication was so innate.

Being a creation of a famous entrepreneur Pavel Durov, who was forced to sell his stake of VKontakte (a Russian “Facebook”) where he was one of the founders and immigrate, and his brother Nikolay, this messenger became means to belong to something revolutionary and truly great. It boasts end-to-end encryption and was claimed to be a pain for oppressive regimes around the world due to its high information security standards. That’ s why the news about TON, the “Telegram Open Network” which is intended to be a new, ‘third generation’ blockchain with superior capabilities, was such a blast.

However, from the very beginning, there have been a lot of ambiguity around the Telegram ICO of TON. The information about its possibility was leaked by a former employee in December last year — and this is when the hype began. It is understandable — Telegram is not a startup to be built from the round up. It is a well-established messaging platform used internationally with over 180 million subscribers base.

After the news about the published whitepaper of TON came in January, a new wave of scepsis arose at the truly ambitious and some say unrealistic plan. Additionally, there was a wave of scams — websites appearing and claiming to give opportunity for investors to participate in TON ICO — which was unfortunately met by a lack of an officially dedicated announcement or tweeting decrying them. Pavel Durov did warn the community against scams, however taking into account the magnitude of the problem, it felt like more effort should have been put into this.

Finally, it was announced over a week ago that the private presale round of the ICO was oversubscribed and raised $850 million, however the amount of $600 million was planned to be raised. That first stage was running from January to February, and only invited investors could participate. It is a normal practice to invite private funds and established investors to give a vote of confidence to the project with their investment. It is also encouraged by bonuses, as tokens can be bought at the discounted prices — fair enough.

However, what was a surprise when just a few days ago information about the second “secret” presale was leaked to the community. Nobody knows about its amount (another $850 million?), nobody knows how and if it will affect the public ICO amount and/ or its timing. So, at the moment TON tokens (Grams) are being sold in secret to a limited number of investors, which totally goes against the whole crypto community philosophy driven by completely different values.

According to the Verge, Charles Noyes, a quantitative analyst at the cryptocurrency VC firm Pantera Capital, said his team passed on Telegram’s private presale the first time around, (his firm did not get the offer for the second presale) and to him, the secretive Telegram ICO goes against the spirit of blockchain development.

“It’s very important in blockchain technology and specifically cryptocurrencies that you be very open with what you’re trying to do and have as many people as possible looking at it to see if they can find a flaw.. Not inviting outside scrutiny is dangerous,” Charles Noyes said. And at BITRUST we couldn’t agree more and we do share this sentiment.

 Some in the crypto community remain skeptical of TON, and there have been a lot of voiced speculation going on that TON is a way to monetize Telegram finally, which so far is claimed to be financed by Durov himself.

 It may not matter for the early investors if TON will deliver the promised and if the platform will work well — they will most probably be able to lock their profit right away, once TON token circulation will be opened up to the broader public. But for us, as blockchain community members, the news about the “secret” presale is definitely sad and casts a shadow on the whole project and sustainability of its success under such leadership in general.

 To finance the development and launch of the BITRUST platform, a limited-supply sale of BITRUST tokens (BTFs) will be created by BTF Project Limited. The sale will start on 5^th of March— see more information about the BITRUST ICO structure and the company here.

 Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Medium to be the first to find out about BITRUST development news and everything else that’s important in crypto world

The post Opinion: BITRUST on Telegram’s ‘Secret’ Second Presale appeared first on NewsBTC.

The South Korean government is examining an end to the country’s ban on ICO’s as it explores ways to boost its crypto economy.

S.Korea Explores ways to Boost Blockchain

The country which banned initial coin offerings (ICO’s), a popular way for fintech companies to raise capital, in September 2017 is now having another look at allowing the method to take place as it worries about falling behind in developing blockchain based fields.

According to Business Korea, during a briefing on IT and Fintech the country’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced plans to revitalize blockchain technology.

Methods talked about including attending international conferences, promoting the use of the technology for companies within the country, and by dedicating financial resources to its promotion and use. The ministry of science will contribute 4.2 billion won ($3.94 million) of its budget to support blockchain technology projects.

Private Sector Urges a Lift on ICO Ban

Market watchers in the country though are calling for a lift of the ICO ban in order to finance the development of blockchain projects in a meaningful way.

Park Sung-joon, head of the Blockchain Research Center at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said the government needs to lift the ban on ICO’s;

“An ICO is banned only in South Korea and China. The government said it will make a 14 billion won (US$13.15 million) investment to promote the technology but it is a ridiculously small amount of money considering the fact that other countries are seeking to research and develop the technology by raising hundreds of millions of won through an ICO.”

Government critics of the controversial funding method argue that it is still to early to lift the ban. Legislation examiner at the National Assembly Won Jong-hyun said, “Currently, cryptocurrency trading market is not stable. We need more time because an IPO and other confounding fund raising (sic) methods will not be able to control risks of price fluctuations.”

Despite the ban, many South Korean companies have been involved in raising money through ICO’s overseas. The Korean regulatory bodies have no permission to look into companies records for overseas funding.

South Korea is reaching out to it’s neighboring countries Japan and China to explore regulatory cooperation that could bring about a smaller ecosystem of trade within the Asian market.

While the ban on ICO’s may be lifted due to private sector pressure the ban on foreigners trading cryptocurrency within the country will remain in place as a precaution against money laundering and other cross-border crimes as reported in Business Korea.

The post South Korea Urged by Private Sector to Lift ICO Ban appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitrewards is a blockchain-based loyalty system that has been designed with e-commerce businesses in mind. This new platform will enable online stores to rewards shoppers using the BIT digital currency. It has been shown that having a function reward system can help to raise sales by about 17 percent. With the help of the blockchain and the team’s unique model, this system will be offered to any participating business for free.

Understanding Bitrewards

This is a blockchain loyalty platform and ecosystem, which makes it possible for retailers to reward their customers for purchase, inviting others to the store and various other functions. The rewards are paid in BIT token. This token has an absolute value for the customers since they get liquid Ethereum-based tokens, which they can trade on exchanges for fiat or crypto. These tokens can be transferred to other wallets or they can be redeemed for a product in the online store. The value of the token is going to continue rising due to the unique model of business. Thus, the rewards will go up in value with time rather than expire.

Bitrewards has major benefits for the retailers. The reason for this is that they will have more satisfied customers who will become more loyal with time. It has been shown numerous times that having a comprehensive rewards program can help grow revenue by double digits. The stores will also capture the attention of the large crypto community, which is usually appreciative of attention they get from regular businesses.

The Value Proposition for Businesses

This token will be offered to all participating online stores for free. To use this token, shops will only have to buy it on the open market to reward the users. The value of rewards software usually starts at $200 a month. Thus, thousands of retailers are going to be keen to connect to Bitrewards. The developers of this platform are able to make this claim because they have worked in the loyalty software market for over five years. Thus far, they have had over 500 clients who are online stores. Thus, they deeply understand their needs.

The Bitrewards platform is compatible with the most popular e-commerce systems such as Shopify, Magento, Ecwid, and WordPress via a simple API.

The ICO

The price of one BIT, during the ICO,  will be 0.00003472 ETH. There will be a total of 1,280,000,000 BIT tokens at the ICO, which represents 64 percent of all tokens. The ICO will launch on April 1, 2018.  The crowdsale has already hit the predesignated soft cap of $3,000,000 even before the main token sale.

What do you think of the Bitrewards platform and BIT token? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post Bitrewards: A Rewards and Loyalty Platform for a $20+ Billion Market appeared first on NewsBTC.

Circle made its Invest app widely available Tuesday. It offers commission-free trading of bitcoin, ethereum, and several other tokens.

A new report issued by an international banking group analyzing the use of cryptocurrency by central banks recognizes the usefulness of digital currency while calling into question their overall safety and security.

Study Calls Centralized Crypto Inevitable

The Bank for International Settlements issued a report on Monday saying that cryptocurrency, as issued by central banks, could be beneficial to replace cash as it disappears from the marketplace but warned of problems it sees as inherent to the system.

As central banks around the world are studying the potential of issuing cryptocurrencies of their own, the consortium of banking regulators in Basel, Switzerland released their white paper saying “(Central bank cryptocurrencies or other forms of digital currencies) could bring substantial benefits,”

Cryptocurrency issued by a central bank could be a stable, robust and even safer alternative to cash said the study by the group that includes the Federal Reserve and 59 other central banks of nations that account for about 95 percent of world gross domestic product.

Warnings of Dangers Ahead

This bit of positivity though came with many caveats warning of potential dangers. The report argues that digital currencies could become a rival to cash which would lead to rising interest rates as cash would then pulled from the commercial banking system.

“A general purpose CBDC could give rise to higher instability of commercial bank deposit funding. Even if designed primarily with payment purposes in mind, in periods of stress a flight towards the central bank may occur on a fast and large-scale, challenging commercial banks and the central bank to manage such situations.”

Ensuring the security of transactions and storage of the currency was also a concern addressed in the paper; “cyber-security could be a big problem with central bank cryptocurrencies and digital currencies since they would (be) open to many participants and points of attack.”

There was even some concern in the paper about how issuing cryptocurrency could lead to runs on banks during times of financial crises; though how this would differ or be more likely than the same event involving paper or fiat currency was not expressed.

Perhaps the most important acknowledgment made is that central banks issuing some kind of digital currency is inevitable. That once international regulatory standards are established and uniform payment methods are created “the currencies would have a limited impact on monetary policy implementation.”

Many central banks around the world are already looking into establishing a crypto version of their currency.  Sweden’s Riksbank has said that it could issue a so-called e-Krona at any time while the even the Bank of England has a cryptocurrency unit despite Governor Mark Carney’s very vocal distrust of cryptocurrency.

The post International Banking Study Calls Centralized Crypto Inevitable appeared first on NewsBTC.

While there is an obvious slide of altcoins prices, there is hope for EOS, LTC and NEO. Technically, these charts are hinting of possible price appreciation with series of higher highs at lower time frames happening at key support lines.

NEO prices looks interesting and not only are sellers testing the main support line in the weekly chart but a buy signal in the daily chart and rejection of lower lows in the 4HR chart may mean a lift off past $90. On the flip side though, sellers can further erode prices and drive NEO to $55.

Let’s have a look at these charts:

XLM/USD (Stellar Lumens)

Besides the strong bear Lumens trajectory, there is nothing much that can be said when it comes to price volatility. Fact is, since March 9 pin bar, prices have been slow and moving within that candlestick with no clear cut gains.

From a positive perspective, the middle BB at $0.30 is our logical resistance line. While Lumens prices are $0.02 from our key support line at $0.30, the rate of depreciation hasn’t been that rapid to warrant a bearish break out and consequent sells.

In my view, prices can still go two ways. Either buyers feed the already bullish momentum or sellers continue with their drive towards $0.20.

The odds of the latter happening remain high and as long as prices trend below the middle BB and $0.30, bulls are subdued.

XMR/USD (Monero)

From the charts, $250 remains pivotal for our analysis. It’s a key line that can either make or break Monero prices in the short to medium term and as it is, yesterday, there was a break below this key support line.

Even from a top down approach, sellers appear to be in charge and in the weekly chart not only are prices confirming last week’s bear pressure but are now below the 20 period MA.

However, before we go head first and sell, it’s imperative that today’s candlestick confirms that view. I would like to see prices breaking past $230 or February 12 accumulation and that’s when I will be recommending shorts on any pull back towards $250.

EOS/USD (EOS)

Admittedly, altcoins prices and those of EOS in particular have been in accumulation. Honestly, that’s quite boring for traders who benefit from rapid price fluctuations. Like yesterday’s view, our bullish overview is still intact. As long as sellers cannot push prices below March 9 lows of $5, then odds of a bullish comeback are high.

Besides, as per our hint, these side-way movements and higher highs relative to the lower BB can be positive for buyers. However, that is only valid if there is a push above $6.5 in line with the already bullish stochastic momentum.

That’s my expectation today and if that happens, then on March 15, buyers can buy on dips with stops at $5.

LTC/USD (LTC)

Generally, trading this coin has been tricky considering LTC prices have been ranging over the last couple of days. Well, even after yesterday’s bearish candlestick, a clear stochastics buy signal is visible at the secondary chart.

Now, here is my view and trade plan for LTC.

First, we shall use March 9 high lows at $190 and $155 as our immediate resistance and support since prices have been moving along $180. It is not that reliable and $180 looks like a median price. If there is a break below $155 today, then we shall cancel our bullish forecast.

On the contrary, if buyers follow through and momentum increase leading to a break above $190, then buyers can think of going long. Otherwise, I know it gets boring but we are still neutral on this pair.

NEO/USD (NEO)

Now, even though it’s clear that NEO prices are trickling lower, I cannot suggest shorting this pair. The time is not ripe and you might ask why.

Well, in the weekly chart prices are at the periphery and testing the main support-the middle BB. In the daily chart, sellers seem to be on the lead yes but somehow stochastics are at the oversold territory with a buy signal.

These are conflicting set of data and patience is an asset now. In my view, there is a high probability of prices bouncing back and closing above $90 than further price erosion towards $55.

It is for this sole reason that I’m neutral but ready to hop in and recommend longs our first condition happens.

All BitFinex, Bittrex and CoinBase charts courtesy of Trading View

The post NEO, EOS, LTC, Monero, Lumens: Technical Analysis March 14, 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Coinbase has announced it has been granted an e-money license from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority.

Key Highlights

• ETH price is slowly gaining pace from the $677 swing low against the US Dollar.
• There is a connecting bullish trend line forming with current support at $685 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair has to move above the 100 hourly simple moving average and $710 to gain traction.

Ethereum price is slowly rising higher against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD may climb higher in the near term above the $710 level.

Ethereum Price Resistance

Yesterday, there was a downside move, but it was contained by the $677 level in ETH price against the US Dollar. The price was seen struggling, but buyers succeeded in preventing any major breakdown towards $620. A low was formed at $677 recently and the price is currently correcting higher. It has moved above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $739 high to $677 low.

However, there are many barriers on the upside for buyers around $708-710. The 100 hourly simple moving average is positioned near $710. Moreover, the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $739 high to $677 low is at $708. Therefore, a break above the $708-710 is needed for buyers to gain upside momentum in the near term. Above $710, the next major resistance is near $735 and $737. The stated $735 level acted as a resistance on many occasions, and it may continue to prevent gains.

On the downside, there is a connecting bullish trend line forming with current support at $685 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair remains supported on the downside around $685. However, it must rise above $710 to avoid a downside reaction in the near term.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is gaining pace in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is now placed nicely above the 50 level with positive signs.

Major Support Level – $685

Major Resistance Level – $710

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – Can ETH/USD Move Higher? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price has formed lower highs and higher lows, creating a symmetrical triangle pattern on its 1-hour chart.
• Technical indicators are showing that a downside break might be more likely to happen.
• The chart pattern spans $8400 to $10,000 so the resulting move could be of the same height.

Bitcoin price is currently consolidating in a short-term symmetrical triangle while investors are waiting for the next big catalyst.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is below the longer-term 200 SMA on the 1-hour time frame, which suggests that the path of least resistance is to the downside. In other words, support is more likely to break than hold.

This could also mean that resistance is more likely to keep gains in check. The 200 SMA lines up with the top of the triangle to add to its strength as a ceiling.

However, it’s also worth noting that the gap between the moving averages is narrowing to signal a slowdown in selling momentum. Stochastic is turning lower to show that sellers still have the upper hand, while RSI looks ready to move south as well.

Market Factors

Bitcoin price gains are limited due to regulatory concerns and a few security glitches over the past few days. Geopolitical risk has picked up and dollar demand has waned on the latest developments in the White House, but surprisingly bitcoin has been unable to take advantage.

More recently, IMF head Lagarde called for a crackdown on bitcoin, citing that they should use the technology behind the digital currency to “fight fire with fire”. She also said cryptocurrencies are a “potentially major new vehicle for money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”

Although these remarks aren’t really new or surprising to bitcoin traders, it does weigh on sentiment for the general public. Risk-taking has also taken some hits these days as fears of a trade war limit investors appetite for higher-yielding assets.

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 03/14/2018 – Waiting for a Triangle Break appeared first on NewsBTC.

FOMO Moments

Markets have been pretty flat during this morning’s Asian trading session. Momentum in either direction has been elusive and Bitcoin has gained nothing on yesterday’s prices. Altcoins as a result are largely stagnant with only a couple showing solid gains. One coin that has taken off this morning and nudged its way into the top 25 is Binance Coin.

Coinmarketcap reports that Hong Kong exchange Binance’s own coin, BNB, has exceeded a billion dollar market capacity and made it in to the top 25. It is trading almost 30% higher this morning from $8 yesterday to over $10 today. In terms of Bitcoin it has jumped a similar proportion from 88750 satoshis this time yesterday to 114500 sats today. BNB is a coin that Binance customers can use to pay for trading fees at a discount. It has been slowly down trending over the past month until the spike a few hours ago.

The reason for this sudden surge is an announcement on Binance that the exchange would be developing its own public blockchain called Binance Chain. According to the post “Binance Chain will focus on performance, ease-of-use, and liquidity. Binance Coin (BNB) will be upgraded to exist on its own blockchain mainnet, becoming a native coin. At the same time, Binance will transition from being a company to a community.”

Naturally BNB can only be traded on the Binance exchange. Trade volume in the past 24 hours has shot up to $233 million which has boosted market capacity over a billion dollars to put the altcoin into the top 25.

Other altcoins enjoying double digit growth this morning in Asia include Nem and Icon. Outside the top 25 Ardor and Electroneum are also performing well.

More info on the BNB announcement can be found here: https://support.binance.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001668872-Binance-Chain

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 Asian Altcoin Trading Roundup: Top Cryptocurrency is Binance Coin appeared first on NewsBTC.