Day: March 26, 2018

Adding new cryptocurrencies is a “top priority” for Coinbase, and it’s becoming more clear how the exchange makes decisions about which to support.

Have you ever thought about what happens to your cryptocurrency investments after your death? Whether you pass on testate (with a will) or intestate (without a will), Safe Haven’s SHA token seems to provide a solution. By allowing you to plan ahead to ensure that your digital assets are passed down to those intended in a secure and transparent manner, Safe Haven will become the future of crypto-vesting.

What Happens To My Digital Funds When I Die?

If you were to get hit by a bus tomorrow and die, what would happen to all your digital assets? When it comes to estate planning, individuals inevitably need to plan ahead for the future of their property and assets. This is no different when it comes to digital assets.

With cryptocurrency, funds are protected to the fullest through encryption and storage on a blockchain. But what happens to those digital assets when their holder dies? How are they made accessible to loved ones or friends?

Welcome to Safe Haven’s SHA token, an ERC20 token. Operating on the Ethereum blockchain, SHA aims to fuel a platform designed to encrypt an individual’s digital assets. “I have children, and the biggest question I have is, if something happened to me tomorrow, how can I ensure that my wife and children have access to my funds?” said SafeHaven co-founder Logino Dujardin.

Recent hacking attempts and successful hacks on exchanges and wallets make it necessary for individuals to start thinking about encrypting their digital assets, such as private keys to exchanges, social media passwords, and other documentation from their safes.

The token allows Safe Haven to encrypt these assets and then distribute shares to individuals named in one’s will. The advantage is that, since assets are stored on the blockchain, they are not accessible to anyone but the holder of the token/shares.

How Are Shares Distributed?

As long as the individual (initiator of the token) is alive, they retain 100% control of their funds. Once they are deceased, shares are distributed according to the legal document to loved ones or relatives. Without all the shares together, the assets cannot be retrieved. Well, that could make family disputes really long…or really short-lived.

The Legal Field Needs To Jump On Board

Of course, while traditional estate planning is slowly starting to adapt to the online world, individuals need to caution themselves when it comes to securing their online assets. Once they are gone, they are gone. Today is the day to start planning.

When cryptos are focused on platform/community development, everybody wins.

It has long been said by many that the true value of any cryptocurrency should be placed more in its present and future potential function rather than temporary and relatively volatile hour-to-hour or day-to-day shifts in value.

For diligent long-term investors, as well as active traders, it can be argued that the most profitable approach is to purchase new and under-valued coins in their early stages and holding for a year. With careful tracking and basic speculative analysis, a significant profit can be made on such ICOs when sold, or after the expected trajectory and roadmap have been successfully executed.

One factor that can help identify such potential coin value is the pedigree and measurable accomplishments of the team/developers who created it. Some coins, however, are looking to put function over immediate trading value to such an extent that they are willing to forego the ICO pre-sale process entirely.

A Hong Kong-based exchange called ‘OKEx‘ has a new and exciting coin on the horizon which certainly falls into this category.

An Ecosystem for Rewarding the Community

OKEx is a leading, cutting-edge digital asset exchange. They provide highly competitive services not only due to their advanced web and mobile applications and API offerings but also because of the huge portfolio of coins which users can trade in.

The platform offers a broad range of local and international crypto coin pairs for trading. Additionally, they are constantly looking to build on their success, as well as the stability of their underlying platform (see the regular update logs like this one, for example).

The introduction of a token economy is a brand-new feature to their arsenal and one which is no exception to the team’s trend of continuous improvement.

“OKEx firmly believes that blockchain technology will eliminate transaction barriers, increase transaction efficiency across society, and eventually have a significant impact on the global economy. We strive to build the greatest transaction network which extends to every corner of the world and will never stop innovating and improving our customer experience” [source]

AUTO is a recent significant addition to their roster of offering, having been introduced to the exchange in February this year.

What else should I know?

OKEx recently launched a range of competitions and other incentive schemes for new and loyal customers – with different cryptocurrencies as compensation each time. The latest of these was a ‘token-trading’ loyalty program for their proprietary coin (OKB), which launched on the 19th of March.

OKB is a global utility token issued by OK Blockchain, which they aim to use for various platform-centric purposes. For example, it could be used as an intermediary trading token in a similar way to Tether.

Unfortunately all associated rewards have been earned already, which is quite remarkable. If you missed out you can try checking the site (or their social media pages on Twitter and Facebook) every now and again, as these giveaways occur on a regular occasion!

The post Crypto Exchange Pick Indicates the next Big Cryptocurrency appeared first on NewsBTC.

To almost every single retail business, the most significant problem is developing loyalty among customers. Entrepreneurs use several techniques with coupons, discounts and loyalty cards as the most prominent methods. For something this important to businesses, it is a pity seeing most of them getting it wrong mainly because of the many frictions and fractures that leak millions in invested value. Such losses end up undermining both the participation and expected outcome.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Businesses investing in marketing campaigns that build a profitable brand following shouldn’t despair. The disrupting qualities of blockchain hold the solutions to all the problems plaguing brand loyalty at the moment. And, the Ovato is the platform behind all these promised largesse. The premise behind Ovato is simple; it promises to revolutionize how the traditional loyalty programs work primarily by eliminating the problem of forwarded recordable liability and extended redemption periods.

The Premise

The loyalty industry is projected to hit the US$ 100 billion mark in 2020 with loyalty management taking almost 10% of this to stand at US$ 6.5 billion. These numbers are enormous by any standard. Besides, there is an increased demand from consumers to have more explicit authenticity and value from the transactions they make. And, it is befitting that the blockchain technology provides an answer to these issues since authenticity is one of the few reasons why Bitcoin, the first blockchain cryptocurrency rose to its current prominence.

The Ovato solution keenly considers the overlay of the retail market as it stands currently. The environment is characterized by millennials who form an ever-increasing portion of the consumer demographic. Unfortunately, only a small segment of this portion of the population is subscribed to the loyalty programs. This revelation may point to the millennials’ disinterest in the regular loyalty programs. For businesses to survive and grow to be competitive, millennials should be roped into the fold.

Ovato seeks to solve problems on both sides of the retail transaction divide by replacing the traditional loyalty programs with a tokenized solution that is convenient and meaningful. Importantly, the answer also seeks to reimagine and add value to the marketing programs that retailers by making them better.

Justification of the Applicable Use Cases

The population of the world stands at slightly over 7.5 billion people. More than half of this population (3.8 billion) have reliable internet access while almost 5 billion have access to some form of a messaging application. Besides, between 5 and 10 million people use cryptocurrencies for the various purposes currently.

These numbers highlighted here above point to a fantastic market opportunity especially considering that traditional loyalty programs are nothing but costly, tax-imposing and liabilities to operators that only afford the consumer only modest value. This sad situation probably is the reason only one-third of the subscribers of these programs are active. However, if the internet has such broad penetration, why not make the most of it?

The current loyalty programs have thrown away US$ 50 billion in debt. Primarily, this amount reflects the value that has never been redeemed. Moreover, the redemption rate now stands at only 50% and declining. Furthermore, customers have grown selective and now just subscribe to loyalty programs that they consider to offer the best value and are flexible and easy to redeem.

Ovato seeks to address these problems by enabling consumers and providers to conduct their transactions in a secure environment. Besides, these solutions hope to reduce the cost of these transactions and in the process, strengthening the residual value of the rewards for everyone involved.

Details of the ICO

The Pre-Sale of the Ovato tokens (OVT) is currently ongoing. With about a week to go, this exercise gives backers a chance to get their hands on this revolutionary Ovato token (OVT) that will enable them to get rewards for everyday purchases as well as access daily deals from both local and national merchants.

During the entire token generation exercise, a total of 33.96 million tokens shall be released. A million of these have been made available in the Pre-Sale with the intention of raising US$ 6 million. Another 16 million tokens shall be sold during the ICO with the hardcap of this sale set at US$ 21.7 million. The remainder of the tokens shall go to the team (14%), bounty program (5%), distribution partners and affiliate marketers, 15%, and 16%, respectively.

The Value Proposition for Ovato Investors

The unique solution that Ovato provides will help merchants reduce the cost of running loyalty programs by almost 90%. Also, it will offer a secure system where anyone can conduct business efficiently from everywhere on earth and create a bigger audience for smaller merchants. These benefits, and the beauty of smart contracts, which shall make it possible to provide promotions and special deals to consumers in real time, make a compelling argument why you need to get the tokens now.

Read more about the Ovato platform on their website and the whitepaper, and subscribe to participate in the ICO here.

Crypto-asset lending is a new type of Fintech business that is surfacing all over the world #EXPERT_TAKE

In regions like the Philippines and India, remittance service providers dominate their respective finance industries due to the lack of affordable and efficient banking systems that accommodate local residents and citizens.

Growing Remittance Market

A study done by QZ revealed that the global remittance market is valued at $500 billion, with countries like India, China, and the Philippines accounting for the majority of the market. The remittance market has grown exponentially over the past decade due to the inability of banks to process payments for expat workers and local residents, especially in regions with lower annual individual income.

In the Philippines for instance, one dominant local bank Union Bank of the Philippines only allows filipinos to open bank accounts with a base balance of 100,000 pesos, which is equivalent to $2,000. But, according to the Philippine government, the average monthly income of a family is 22,000 pesos, or $450. Hence, to place the base balance threshold at $2,000, that is equivalent to six months’ worth of family income is simply not rational.

Consequently, the majority of employees both within the Philippines and expat workers working outside the country have been utilizing local remittance service providers to send and receive money, which have established a banking system of its own to send and receive money on behalf of their customers.

Paxful, a bitcoin marketplace, is carrying out similar operations as remittance providers, in that it process small and large payments in bitcoin. According to the Paxful team, a major portion of the daily volume of Paxful derives from small transactions worth $2 to $20, that are difficult to process with local banks.

More importantly, because bitcoin relies on its public ledger to process transaction, it employs a transparent and fair system of transaction settlement, in contrast to banks that utilize an opaque and inefficient system to settle transactions.

Paxful Vendor, a service of Paxful that operates as a remittance platform, has continued to demonstrate a rapid growth in its weekly volume, fueled by the increasing demand for affordable and efficient remittance services. As demonstrated by Coin.Dance below, the weekly trading volume of bitcoin on Paxful has risen from $2.6 million to nearly $13 million, in less than a year.

Remittance Senders on Paxful Actually Earn Money

The advantage of a bitcoin-based remittance service provided by firms like Paxful has consistently been highlighted by billionaire investor Tim Draper, who recently noted “[bitcoin] is the future currency. It’s what we will all be using. It’s also the currency that is not subject to the political whims,” emphasizing that bitcoin is the superior currency against fiat currencies or cash because it provides individuals the ability to process payments without the involvement of intermediaries.

“Remittance was a big buzz yet it never materialized the way us bitcoin dreamers thought it would,” Paxful CEO Ray Youssef told NewsBTC. “Many Africans are starting to see bitcoin as a vital part of their global financial toolkit so the demand grows, because many do not have bank accounts that let them freely access the international world they are willing to pay extra for bitcoin and there are those who supply them for profit.”

Youssef further emphasized that on the Paxful platform, contrary to other remittance service providers, payment senders actually are incentivized for sending payments on the Paxful platform.

“End Story is on Paxful when you send bitcoin to someone you make money. Sending $100 USD of local money in another country may only cost you $92 USD worth of bitcoin. Awesome for the little guy and some people make a business out of it. When business allows other business to flourish that is an Epic Win and we see epic wins as a pattern in the emerging world from this point thanks to crypto,” Youssef added.

The post How Paxful is Improving Financial Empowerment With Bitcoin in Underbanked Regions appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bigbom is proud to announce that it has joined forces with Tomochain to form a long-term collaboration in startup acceleration.

Tomochain is an innovative solution to the scalability problem with the Ethereum blockchain. They plan to support horizontal scaling via adding more second layer blockchains with good performance integrated with Ethereum for backup and atomic cross-chain transfer.

By integrating with the Tomochain technology, Bigbom will have a near-zero transaction fee, faster confirmation time and a much higher transaction capacity, compared to those on Ethereum.

Bigbom is building a decentralized advertising ecosystem based on the Ethereum blockchain that will operate worldwide. The system is to allow advertisers, content publishers, advertising platforms, and advertising channels to buy and sell ads through the blockchain.

Bigbom is implemented using DApps technology and runs on top of the Ethereum blockchain using the ERC20 protocol. It is envisioned to solve several problems within the world of online advertising by providing a smart-contract solution for multi-advertising models such as CPC, CPM, and CPA. This smart-contract enables all parties involved to perform their actions efficiently and securely.

With cross-chain transfer between Ethereum and Tomochain, the collaboration of Bigbom-Tomochain will utilize all opportunities for Bigbom Eco to implement the smart contracts on Tomochain, to benefit Bigbom Eco’s customers in term of saving time and reducing cost when making transactions.

The ecosystem is powered by the Bigbom token: BBO. Bigbom will be launching its pre-ICO for the BBO tokens on March 28, with only 1.000ETH cap and has already garnered a lot of attention within the industry. More information about Bigbom, including their white paper, can be found at their website: www.bigbom.com.

Medium: https://medium.com/@bigbomeco
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bigbomglobal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigbom.global/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/bigbom
Telegram:https://t.me/bigbomglobal (Announcements channels Global)
https://t.me/bigbomicogroup (Community Global)

The post Bigbom and Tomochain Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement appeared first on NewsBTC.

Germany’s Deutsche Börse Group is planning to develop a platform for securities lending using R3’s Corda blockchain tech.

ASIC-resistant Monero releases code for update that will change its PoW to block any ASIC miners’ ability to mine the altcoin #NEWS

It seems today will be another rough day for all cryptocurrency markets. These developments have been in place for quite some time now and it seems the negative spiral continues to repeat itself quite regularly. As of right now, the Bitcoin price is heading to $8,000 and potentially lower once again, which will only make things worse.

Bitcoin Price Woes Aren’t Over Yet

Anyone who has been around in the world of cryptocurrency for quite some time now will know how the Bitcoin price dictates all markets. Although not everyone wants to acknowledge this fact, it is the undeniable truth, after all.When the Bitcoin price surges, things improve for all other currencies. When the Bitcoin price goes down, nothing good ever happens to altcoins.

To put this into perspective, Bitcoin isn’t returning to its previous all-time high anytime soon. In fact, we may not even see a Bitcoin price of $15,000 or more for quite some time to come. Assuming that is the case, things will only go from bad to worse for the Bitcoin price in the coming weeks and months. Right now, we have to be concerned about how Bitcoin may effectively hit $8,000 once again, which is a further confirmation of this ongoing downturn.

With a current Bitcoin price of $8,160 and the market becoming more bearish by the hour, it is evident we have to be rather cautious when buying BTC as of right now. Anyone who is hoping for a price increase may be sorely disappointed, even though we all know this negative pressure will not remain in place forever.

Albeit Bitcoin still has $4.9bn in 24-hour trading volume, it is a lot lower compared to the $10+bn we used to see several weeks ago. Reversing this trend may prove to be rather difficult, as it seems unlikely we can hit a Bitcoin price of $10,000 anytime soon. Then again, the volatility present in the world of cryptocurrencies swings both ways, and gains can materialize equally as quickly.

With Bitfinex still leading the charge in terms of BTC trading volume, it is evident there is still some positive momentum in the tank. Binance and OKEx complete the top three, and we see a total of 6 different fiat currency pairs in the top ten. There are also three USDT pairs, all of which seems to indicate there is plenty of money pouring into Bitcoin. Either that or it is flowing out an accelerated pace.

Whether or not the Bitcoin price will dip below $8,000 is difficult to predict right now. It is evident the momentum doesn’t favor the world’s leading cryptocurrency or any other currency, for that matter. If this trend keeps up, $7,500 will have to become the new support, assuming people don’t pull their buy orders to put them even lower. A very troublesome time for the Bitcoin price, but like all previous dips, it will be overcome eventually.