Day: March 22, 2018

US banking giant JP Morgan Chase is considering separating its blockchain division as an independent company. The notion being that liberation from the bank could increase the overall appeal of the project.

Blockchain Disassociated from Banks

According to reports citing ‘sources familiar with the situation’ the open source Quorum blockchain project could be spun off to create distance from its parent company. Sources claim that it is still early days for discussions and JP Morgan stated;

“We continue to believe distributed ledger technology will play a transformative role in business which is why we are actively building multiple blockchain solutions. We’re not going to comment on speculation, but Quorum has become an extremely successful enterprise platform even beyond financial services and we’re excited about its potential.”

In efforts to quash the rising tide of independent and decentralized forms of digital money major banks have been lavishing millions of dollars on their own blockchain projects and research. Another incentive is cost savings and improving efficiency and customer services such as international fund transfers.

Reuters could not confirm any details or whether existing staff would move to the new company. Amber Baldet has been leading product development for Quorum and is an executive director of the bank’s Blockchain Center of Excellence. She has made no comments on the move but had this to say of the Ethereum based project; “Quorum benefits from all the security and scaling research happening on mainnet ethereum,” 

Zcash Provides the Privacy

JP Morgan’s enterprise blockchain also partnered up with Zcash last year which integrated its zero-knowledge security layer (ZSL) to provide an additional layer of functionality and obfuscation of identifiable information on transactions.

Big banks are seeking the expertise of blockchain companies and existing cryptocurrencies to expand their own line of products. This could spell more partnerships in the crypto space as enterprises look further afield for their technology solutions.

There are already a number of blockchain projects in existence that can provide additional functionality such as an additional layer of privacy, or sharding technology, a programming platform, or a lattice type network as opposed to a chain. Some that come instantly to mind include Cardano, Lisk, Nano, and Verge. When large established institutions marry up with blockchain startups the entire crypto ecosystem will see greater adoption and acceptance in the mainstream, and that can only be a good thing.

The post JP Morgan’s Blockchain Quorum Seeking Independence appeared first on NewsBTC.

In the US, the SEC is preparing to examine up to 100 hedge funds that deal with crypto, according to WSJ. #NEWS

Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao has taken to Twitter to express his disappointment to what he called “irresponsible journalism” and to reassure Binance customers that there is no conflict between the regulations of the Japanese Financial Services Agency and his company.

Changpeng Zhao Responds on Twitter to “Irresponsible Journalism”

As previously reported by NewsBTC, the Nikkei Asian Review ran a story claiming that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) was about to order Binance, one of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges to cease its operations within the FSA’s jurisdiction pending official approval of its license.

Founder of the Hong Kong-based exchange has taken to Twitter since the story ran in order to challenge the article and to assure his customer base that Binance remains in compliance with the Japanese regulatory agency.

In a series of tweets, Zhao Changpeng addressed what he called the irresponsibility on the initial article, the content of the letter Binance received from the FSA and the steps his company is undertaking to continue trading legally in the country.

We received a simple letter from JFSA about an hour ago. Our lawyers called JFSA immediately, and will find a solution. Protecting user interests is our top priority.

— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) March 23, 2018

No need to worry. Some negative news often turn out to be positive in the long term. Chinese have a proverb for this. New (often better) opportunities always emerge during times of change.

— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance) March 23, 2018

Responses on twitter have generally been positive to the way Changpeng Zhao has addressed the accusations even resulting in a Reddit subthread .

One of the charges in the Nikkei article is that as a Hong Kong-based exchange Binance doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the FSA’s authority. Thus, making it impossible to force the exchange to return Japanese funds in the event of a breach of security.

FSA Still Developing Regulatory Practices

This is a major concern of the FSA since the two largest cryptocurrency hacks in the short history of such crime were carried out against Japanese exchanges.

The Mt. Gox Scandal in 2014 which resulted in the loss of 650,000 Bitcoins led to regulations which were ultimately amended in April of 2017 as a licensing requirement.

Then again after the Coincheck hack of January 2018 which resulted in a loss of $500 million worth of NEM virtual coins. Coincheck was one of 16 exchanges that were allowed to operate while its license was under review and was ultimately found negligent in the hack.

Since then the FSA has ordered two exchanges to cease doing business and have fined and or punished others including Coincheck which has to date refunded $430 million of its investors lost funds.

The Nikkei article shook up trading across the market yesterday as the total market capitalization fell by 5% on the day and Bitcoin lost around 6% in 24 hours from $9,000 to 8,474 at the time of writing.

The post Binance CEO Reassures Crypto Traders, No Conflict With Japanese Regulators appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price failed to rise further and started a downside move from the $0.7246 high against the US dollar.
• There is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance near $0.6850 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair is currently trading just above the $0.6100 support and it remains at a risk of more losses.

Ripple price is under short-term pressure against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD must stay above the $0.6100 support to avoid further declines in the near term.

Ripple Price Decline

After trading above the $0.7000 level, Ripple price failed to hold gains against the US Dollar. The price started a downside move and traded below the $0.7000 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. It also broke the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last upside wave from the $0.5324 low to $0.7246 high. More importantly, there was a break below the $0.6500, which has opened the doors for more declines.

The downside move was such that the price even broke the $0.6400 support. More importantly, there was a break below the 50% Fib retracement level of the last upside wave from the $0.5324 low to $0.7246 high. At the moment, the price is testing a major support at $0.6100. It must hold the stated $0.6100 support, else there is a risk of more declines in the near term. On the upside, the broken $0.6400 support may act as a resistance.

Above $0.6400, the next hurdle is at $0.6500, followed by a major bearish trend line forming with resistance near $0.6850 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. Moreover, the 100 hourly SMA is at $0.6700 to act as a resistance for an upside move.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is moving slowly in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is currently well below the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $0.6100

Major Resistance Level – $0.6500

 

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ripple Price Technical Analysis – Can XRP/USD Hold $0.6100? appeared first on NewsBTC.

The TMX Group announced Shorcan Digital Currency, a brokerage exclusively for cryptocurrencies on Thursday.

Earlier this week the Chinese exchange Bitasia announced it started accepting zero-confirmation transactions for bitcoin cash (BCH) for instant trading. The trading platform is one of the first exchanges to enable zero-confirmation transactions so traders can use the platform as quickly as possible.

Also read: Québec Premier: We’re Not Really Interested in Bitcoin Mining

Chinese Exchange Bitasia Adds Zero-Confirmation Support for BCH Deposits

The Chinese exchange Bitasia is a trading platform that allows traders to swap a variety of cryptocurrencies including ETH, LTC, ETC, BTC, BCH, and more. This week the exchange detailed that after some contemplation the trading platform will support zero-confirmation transactions for the bitcoin cash network. A zero-confirmation transaction means that exchanges, merchants, and other businesses are willing to accept a digital currency before the first network confirmation. The general sentiment within the BTC community is that at least one confirmation is needed to prevent double spends.

However, a while ago the developers Gavin Andresen and Tom Harding created specific patches that prevents fraud from happening when zero-confirmation transactions take place. However, the bitcoin core (BTC) developers have removed those patches from the core codebase. Now bitcoin cash developers and the community, in general, believe that zero-confirmation transactions are completely safe and have started testing zero-confirms on the main network over the past few weeks.

Other BCH Businesses Testing and Challenging Zero-Confirm Skeptics

For instance, the Mini-POS device developers have implemented zero-confirmation transactions. Another example is the company Cryptonize.it who offered a challenge to someone who was willing to try a double spend on a $1,000 transaction. A person tried to double spend the BCH but failed and lost $2,000 trying to exploit the transaction.

The First Exchange to Implement Zero-Confirm Support

Now Bitasia is one of the first cryptocurrency trading platforms to add zero-confirmation support to the exchange.

“After careful consideration, Bitasia will support the BCH zero confirmation (0-confirmation) arrival and instant trading,” explains the Chinese exchange.

Bitasia focuses on security and value user experience — For other currencies that use the Segwit mechanism, our current policy remains unchanged and the Segwit plan has not been launched.

Bitcoin cash supporters were thrilled to hear about Bitasia supporting zero-confirmation BCH transactions. However, a new website called “Doublespend.cash,” has recently published a list of all the double spends attempts against zero-confirmation BCH transactions. Bitcoin cash supporters are very skeptical of that website’s data as most of the transactions have a fee set lower than the network relay minimum requirement. The reason for this is because transactions under 1 satoshi per byte are typically never propagated throughout the BCH clients. Due to this reasoning, most BCH proponents see the Doublespend.cash website as an attempt to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).

What do you think about Bitasia adding zero-confirmation support for BCH traders? Let us know in the comments below.

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Images via Shutterstock, and Bitasia.

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The post Chinese Exchange Bitasia Now Supports 0-Confirmation BCH Transactions appeared first on Bitcoin News.

South Korea’s second largest and the world’s fifth biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, has announced the launch of the countries first domestic cryptocurrency index.

Korea’s First Domestic Index

Dunamu, the holding company that owns Upbit announced on March 22 the start of its new cryptocurrency index the UBCI (Upbit Cryptocurrency Index).

As reported by Business Korea UBCI has been in the works since the launch of the Upbit exchange in October of 2017 with a goal of advising local investors on how to trade in the market as well as becoming a standard index internationally.

UBCI will measure four indices of the market based on long-term transaction data pulled from the Upbit exchange as follows:

• Market index –  will be a market cap that will allow investors to measure the progress of all coins quickly.
• Sector Index – will classify coins in each sector.
• Bitcoin Index- Will follow the progress of Bitcoin prices.
• Strategy Index – Will be an indicator that will measure trade profits in accordance with an investment rule.

Upbit plans to launch the UBCI market, sector and Bitcoin indices in April while the strategy index will come later.

Song Chi-Hyung grew Upbit in October 2017 from Dunamu which he started in 2012 as a news aggregator but pivoted to FinTech while still in its early days. In 2013, he allied with Kakao to create KakaoStock, a mobile stock trading app that boasts some 300,000 users.

In October 2017 Dunamu along with Kakao again partnered with US-based Bittrex to create Upbit. In just three months Upbit had topped the global trade market by handling an average daily trade volume of $4.7 billion and a record of $11 billion in just one day. Upbit continues to rank among the worlds largest exchanges in the third largest market for cryptocurrency trading globally.

Chi-Hyung Likens Crypto to Fiat Market

As his first company Dunamu was rooted in the trading news of the traditional stock market Song is comfortable comparing the Fiat and cryptomarket when commenting on the launch of UBCI

“The present situation of the cryptocurrency market is quite similar to the traditional financial market based on stocks and bonds in its early stage … accordingly, as the market gets more sophisticated, the UBCI is expected to play an important role in this area in the future. We will also disclose the index rulebook and let the market evaluate it before long,” said Song.

The Korean cryptocurrency market is one of the three largest in the world but exchanges in place are still awaiting finalization on how the government plans to regulate the industry. Since rumors of a total ban came post-market correction in December 2017 the government has announced it may adopt a licensing model similar to that of New York.

The post Upbit Launches South Korea’s First Cryptocurrency Index, Key For Adoption appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price is under pressure as it moved below the $560 support level against the US Dollar.
• There was a break below a major bullish trend line with support at $560 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair may continue to decline and it could even attempt a break below the $500 level in the near term.

Ethereum price is slowly declining once again against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD remains at a risk of more declines below the $500 level.

Ethereum Price Resistance

There were no further gains above the $585-590 levels in ETH price against the US Dollar. The price started a downside move and traded below the $575 and $560 support levels. There was also a break below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $455 low to $589 high. During the decline, the price also broke the $540 level and it is currently well below the 100 hourly simple moving average.

More importantly, there was a break below a major bullish trend line with support at $560 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. At the moment, the pair is trading a few points below the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $455 low to $589 high. It may continue to decline in the short term and there is a risk of a break below of the $500 support. Below $500, the price may trade lower towards the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $455 low to $589 high at $487.

On the upside, there is a connecting bearish trend line with current resistance at $554.00. Moreover, the 100 hourly SMA is positioned at $552 to act as a major hurdle for buyers.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is now in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is currently well below the 60 level.

Major Support Level – $500

Major Resistance Level – $550

 

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – ETH/USD Could Break $500 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price failed to move above the $1,080 level and declined against the US Dollar.
• There was a break below a connecting bullish trend line with support at $1,040 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is currently below the $1,000 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average, which is a bearish sign.

Bitcoin cash price has started a downside correction from $1,080 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD is now well below $1,000 and is eyeing further declines.

Bitcoin Cash Price Decline

After a decent upside move, bitcoin cash price struggled to move above the $1,080 level against the US Dollar. The price started a downside move and traded below the $1,050 support. The decline was substantial as there was a push below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $840 swing low to $1,083 swing high. It has opened the doors for more losses below $1,000.

During the decline, there was a break below a connecting bullish trend line with support at $1,040 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. The pair settled below the $1,000 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average. The next support is around the $950 level. The stated $950 level is close to the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $840 swing low to $1,083 swing high. The pair is under a bearish pressure and it seems like it could even break the $950 support.

Below $950, the next crucial support sits around the $900 level. On the upside, the broken support near $1,000 and the 100 hourly SMA are likely to act as hurdles for buyers.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is now back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is now well below the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $950

Major Resistance Level – $1,040

 

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH/USD Short-term Bearish appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price failed to break past the $9,000 level after news of a potential shutdown of Binance in Japan broke out.
• However, bitcoin price could still form an inverse head and shoulders pattern, which is a potent reversal signal.
• Technical indicators are showing that bullish momentum could stay in play.

Bitcoin price sold off recently but could form a short-term reversal pattern on its 1-hour time frame and draw more buyers back in.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA just crossed above the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that buyers are gaining the upper hand. The 200 SMA is also holding as dynamic support at the moment, but a break lower could lead to another pickup in selling pressure.

Stochastic is pointing down to show that bears have the upper hand while RSI is turning lower as well. Both oscillators are nearing oversold conditions, though, so sellers could still let buyers take over soon.

An area of interest is located around $8,000 and a bounce from here could form the right shoulder of the reversal pattern. Bitcoin price has yet to break past the neckline around $9,200 to confirm a potential uptrend. This should last by around $2,000 or the same height as the chart formation.

Market Factors

Bitcoin price took another hit when it was reported that Japan’s FSA is looking into shutting down Binance in the country for being unable to secure the necessary permits to operate. This revived fears of strict regulation all over the globe, after a bit of reprieve on positive remarks from the G20 Summit.

To add to that, the dollar scored strong gains across the board when risk aversion returned on resurfacing trade war fears. Trump signed a memorandum to impose higher tariffs on Chinese imports that involve intellectual property theft from the U.S.

China has responded that it will not back down from a trade war if it comes to it, so it urged the U.S. to temper its protectionist stance. Further escalation of tensions could mean more losses for riskier assets like bitcoin.

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 03/23/2018 – Another Reversal Pattern? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Alex Momot, CEO of Remme.io and one of the top crypto experts in Eastern Europe, became an advisor at TruePlay.io – an innovative blockchain-based platform for gambling projects.

A Board Member of the Bitcoin Foundation Ukraine for the last three years, Mr. Momot has been in the Bitcoin mining business since 2015. With over ten years of IT-experience, Mr. Momot has been working in the blockchain industry since 2013. In 2014 Alex ran BitX, a start up that allowed people to pay for telecom and other everyday usage services in bitcoins. Besides serving as the CEO of Remme.io, he is the BDM of Hotmine.io – a popular mining hardware store that’s focused on utilizing the thermal energy produced by mining to heat office and living spaces.

TruePlay – a new and innovative platform designed to rid the online gambling market of a number of technical and ethical issues it currently faces faces, was first developed in 2017 by Oleksiy Mageramov, Stanislav Makarchuk and Oleksii Ragozin. As longtime veterans of the online gambling industry, they sought to create a truly transparent platform that any gambling project would be able to implement.

At TruePlay, Mr. Momot is going to utilize his extensive experience in blockchain to help lead one of the most innovative startups in online gambling towards the goal of changing the face of the industry through the use of blockchain technology.

Blockchain-based technology offers a unique solution that enables gambling platforms and players alike to have a streamlined operational and gaming experience, previously unheard of in the industry.

TruePlay utilizes blockchain-based technology to offer a unique solution that would enable gambling platforms and players alike to have a streamlined operational and gaming experience, previously unheard of in the industry.

TruePlay enables faster-than-ever transaction times between the player and the gambling project, ensuring quick transparent payouts, with no waiting period.

TruePlay enables a decentralized ledger that is accessible to all players, and therefore serves as a guarantee that a gambling project has enough funds to cover all bets.

TruePlay guarantees that a game’s results are decentralized and formulated before the bets are placed, and in such it creates a guaranteed fair game, unaffected by the amount and quality of bets.

Remme.io is a Ukrainian company that was founded in 2015, REMME intends to make passwords obsolete by migrating the authentication process on to the blockchain, thereby eliminating human error from the equation. This is being done using their distributed REMME Public Key Infrastructure protocol (PKId) along with a set of Access Management DApps built on top of it.

TruePlay is issuing its own utility token that provides access to numerous gambling platforms. The token allows for an unprecedented level of transparency in gambling by eliminating the game’s susceptibility to manipulation from operators and ensuring the public’s trust. The TruePlay token sale starts on May 15th, with pre-sale commencing on April 15th and continuing until April 30th.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

FOMO Moments

After a few days of solid gains and good momentum the markets are sliding back downwards once again. Sparked by fears of a clampdown on Binance in Japan everything is in the red again this morning, a scene which has become quite commonplace this year. Bitcoin has declined by 6.8% on the day and has fallen back to $8,450 with further losses looking likely as we enter the weekend. Altcoins as usual have all taken a similar beating and all in the top 25 are in the red. We have to look outside the 25 largest coins to find one that has made gains and today that coin is Verge.

According to Coinmarketcap XVG is up almost 8% during this morning’s Asian trading session while nearly every other altcoin in the top 25 has lost ground. The spike came around six hours ago when Verge jumped from $0.031 to $0.041 before pulling back to $0.037 where it currently trades. Over the week XVG is up by around 7.5% however the monthly picture is not so pretty as this altcoin has lost over 43%. In terms of BTC Verge is trading almost 16% higher today at 445 satoshis from 380 the same time yesterday. The longer term trend is a long slow decline though from its peak of almost 1900 satoshis ($0.25) in early January.

Verge has been one of those classic pump and dump altcoins, boosted by shills and hype then dropped like the proverbial hot rock when the FUD storm followed. This latest pump has come from a Tweet a few hours ago about “an opportunity for Verge to have the largest partnership in crypto to date!”;

** IMPORTANT UPDATE! ** An opportunity for Verge to have the largest partnership in crypto to date! https://t.co/5bmNLM4X2J pic.twitter.com/Hz6NNhISeW

— vergecurrency (@vergecurrency) March 22, 2018

The community is attempting to crowd fund 75 million XVG by Monday when they will release more details on this mysterious partnership. This has to be huge to bring Verge back to its former glory.

XVG is traded largely on Binance with 65% of the total $55 million daily volume. Bittrex and Upbit are the next two exchanges sharing that volume, currently Verge has a market capacity of $546 million which ranks it outside the top 25 at 27^th. There are 16.5 billion XVG in supply with 14.7 billion in circulation.

There are no other altcoins in the top 50 showing green gains this morning. The entire crypto market has shed 8.5% in 24 hours and continues to fall. Current market cap stands at $322 billion, and we are left wondering if it will head back to that monthly low of $275 billion on March 18.

More on Verge can be found here: http://vergecurrency.com/

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 Verge appeared first on NewsBTC.

U.S. crypto exchange provider Coinbase is in talks to purchase Earn.com, formerly 21.

The Japanese financial regulator has issued a warning to Binance over its operation legitimacy in Japan.

Cointelegraph

Dutch Court Finds Bitcoin A Legitimate “Transferable Value” Cointelegraph A Dutch court classifies Bitcoin as a “transferable value” after the court ruled in favour of a plaintiff who was owed 0.591 Bitcoins (BTC), according to a court document published March 20. The claim was filed in a Dutch court by Mr. J.W. de Vries on ... and more »