Day: March 27, 2018

The EU markets watchdog has agreed a temporarily change in the leverage limts for cryptocurrency derivative contracts in the region.

Europe

Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country.

European Union

The European Union is going to rule on a new legislation called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that allows citizens from across the EU to request for their personal data to be removed from public databases. Blockchain businesses and startups are wary of this new bill as it mentions “public data” on a broad spectrum and public blockchains could fall under its jurisdiction. So, unless it becomes clear, blockchain businesses are on guard regarding these developments. It has the potential to shake up the crypto outlook for the entire EU.

United Kingdom

Government – The UK government has constituted a special task force according to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond to “look into cryptocurrencies”. The new task force will include Bank of England representatives, treasury officials and the dreaded Financial Conduct Authority, the financial watchdog of the country. So far, the details of its mandate are unknown as the press release was vague. England has previously been lenient towards the use of cryptocurrencies and there is no telltale sign of any bans being implemented in the near future.

Sports – Ex-England football star Michael Owen has announced that he would be launching his own cryptocurrency called “Owen Coin”. The coin will allow fans to buy goods and donate to charities.  

Netherlands

Dutch Finance minister Wopke Hoekstra has called for “a concerted effort to regulate cryptocurrencies within the EU”. The tone of the minister is reconciliatory but it is yet to be known what these proposed “concerted efforts” will be.

France

As part of President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to bring more blockchain projects to France, the French government is working on framework initiatives to enable funding through cryptocurrencies. This is a really pro-crypto move by the incumbent government while at the same time bringing ICOs into the framework of conventional fintech laws.

Spain

Spanish Economy Minister Román Escolano Olivares has said that the EU won’t wait for Global agreement on cryptocurrencies before regulating it. But, at the same time, he offered a conciliatory tone by saying that he doesn’t believe that cryptocurrencies are a threat to the current financial system and only illicit activities and consumer protection in the crypto world need attention. He was of the opinion:

“The general agreement we have reached, is that right now we cannot think that crypto-assets are a risk to global financial stability, but it’s a subject we need to actively monitor.”

Sweden

Sweden can potentially become the leading country in the cryptocurrency revolution as it has already adapted to a cashless world with digital payments being preferred all around the country, according to Business Insider. Cashless application is at the heart of the cryptocurrency movement and Sweden could be a nice experiment for the future of cryptocurrencies. The government has already deliberated on a national cryptocurrency called E-Krona.

Sweden has seen crypto jacking cases increase by over 100 times. Most cases involve criminals switching to hijacking victims’ computing power and using it to mine cryptocurrencies. While this may not be as serious as hacking into cryptocurrency exchanges, it could lead to personal computers slowing down.

Russia

The Russian government reportedly helped Venezuela in launching its new cryptocurrency Petro according to latest findings with some even calling it a joint venture.

But, there is also an internal tussle going on between Bank of Russia and its finance ministry over regulation of cryptocurrencies. A final decision has not been reached yet.

The post Weekly Crypto and Blockchain News Roundup: Europe, 19 to 26 March 2018 appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Emergent Technology Holdings, a US-based FinTech company is planning to release the “g-coin”. A digital token that will be fully backed by gold in an effort to create a way to trade the precious metal with more liquidity.

The G Coin Will Be as Good as Gold

Similar to the way other companies are developing ways to encode and track seafood using blockchain technology to ensure humane and legal fishing practices the company hopes to digitally encode the gold supply chain to reinforce ethically mined gold.

Emergent is partnering with NYSE listed Yamana Gold to create “g-coins”. Each coin will be backed by a gram of responsibly mined gold which has been recorded through each stage of its processing as it travels the supply chain.

By encoding and tracking the gold the company will be able to ensure the provenance and purity of the gold. The “g-coin” as a blockchain based asset will be a certificate of ownership to be used like any other currency for investing or as payment for goods and services.

Chief Commercial Officer of Emergent Mitchell Davis explained to CNBC in an email that by attaching a tamper-proof cryptographic seal the company is able to track the gold at every point along the supply chain. “Each step of the process is recorded and publicly visible,” he added.

Fundamentally Different Than Other Tokens

So-called blood gold has made the news of late as sources like Bloomberg have reported on the horrific conditions of makeshift mines around the world where impoverished peoples are forced to labor for little to no money and even under threat of death.

This gold is then cleaned up by refiners and processed into everything from smartphones to cars with guarantees from companies like Apple Inc. and General Motors that the gold has come from legitimate sources.

The “g-coin” won’t be the first gold-backed digital currency but as Davis said in his email it is “fundamentally different” from others as its focus is on “responsibly sourced gold.”

Venezuela released a gold backed spin-off of its oil backed Petro token called Petro Gold to an array of criticism. Opposition in the country called it another example of President Madoru stripping Venezuela of its material wealth while international critics called it a ploy to get around economic sanctions levied against the country.

By using blockchain technology, Emergent is hoping to make the process of taking gold from mines to vaults easier while ensuring that every step in the supply chain is handled in an ethical way. As Davis wrote in his email discussing the “g-coin”; “You’ve got a trusted asset that is liquid, is traded globally and is fully backed by gold,”

The post Using Blockchain to Track the Gold Supply Chain appeared first on NewsBTC.

The bears continued to be in the driver’s seat on Monday, but bitcoin could see a minor corrective rally soon.

All cryptocurrencies are suffering from another downturn as we speak. With the Bitcoin price dropping by over 5% in the past 24 hours, yesterday’s prediction came more than true. It does appear the Verge price is still bucking this negative trend, despite this somewhat shady partnership “crowdfunding campaign”.

Verge Price is Surging for Some Reason

A lot of people expressed their concern over the recent Verge “partnership” and the way the team went about things. By asking XVG holders to contribute nearly $2.75M in funds before the team would even unveil this “potential partnership:”, there were genuine concerns over this being a major scam. Unsurprisingly, the crowdfunding goal was met, and it seems the Verge price is responding kindly to this news.

At the time of writing, no one has any idea what the partnership is all about. Even though the amount of money needed to be raised has been reached, the actual information still remains shrouded in mystery. Whether or not this is a positive development, remains to be determined, though. Regardless of what comes of this partnership, the current Verge price is surging by over 16% over the past 24 hours. The hype is very real where this currency is concerned.

It is also worth noting the Verge price increase is made possible thanks to a 21.67% gain over Bitcoin. Considering how the Bitcoin price is still going down as we speak, it is only normal some altcoins start to surge against Bitcoin. Even so, very few currencies can effectively do so right now. The current Verge price is still a long way removed from the all-time high of over $0.20, but things are starting to look up. It all depends on the actual partnership news, though, as the Verge price could crash pretty quickly if the news isn’t satisfactory.

With $176.08m in 24-hour trading volume, the demand for XVG is certainly there. At the same time, one has to wonder how much of this volume relates to the hype surrounding this alleged partnership, compared to the amount of “smart money” being thrown at XVG right now. Given the overall decline in cryptocurrency trading volume over the past few days, this volume is more than proper for a smaller altcoin.

As one would come to expect, the Verge trading volume mainly originates from the Binance exchange. That exchange alone generates over 56.46% of all XVG trades, which further indicates there is no fresh capital entering the XVG industry as of right now. Bittrex and Upbit complete the top three, although neither of those platforms offers a fiat currency pair for XVG either. An interesting mix of exchanges in the top three, but nothing really surprising either.

For the time being, it remains to be seen what the future holds for the Verge price as of right now. The hype surrounding this currency is very tangible, but the developers still have to deliver on a lot of their initial promise. Until we know more about this alleged partnership, the future of Verge still remains a mystery. The support from the community its pretty intriguing, but it remains to be seen if this effort was worth it.

It has been a remarkable year for Circle Internet Finance, Ltd. The Goldman Sachs-backed startup is seemingly profitable for the first time in a while. Given their desire to massively hire new people, it is evident something must be going right. Reaching profitability as a Bitcoin company is not all that easy.

The Story of Circle to Date

It is evident Circle has gone through some interesting stages in the past. Their initial focus on mobile payments appeared a bit ahead of its time. Back in 2013, the concept of mobile transactions was not as common as it is today. Additionally, the company’s desire to experiment with blockchain also took a lot of people by surprise.

These days, combining blockchain with investment options is almost normal. Circle Invest is a great example of how such technologies and opportunities can come together in a meaningful way. With this app, average consumers can now invest in cryptocurrencies as they see fit. The company also operates Circle Trade, an OTC trading desk for various cryptocurrencies.

It has become evident Circle’s success is partially entwined with the future of cryptocurrencies. As of right now, the cryptocurrency market isn’t looking too impressive. That situation can change at any given time, though. Even so, the interest by this company in this new form of money shouldn’t be underestimated by any means. Cryptocurrencies are slowly becoming the next mainstream investment of choice. A peculiar trend that will become more prevalent over time.

Turning a Profit and Expanding

With the puzzle pieces falling into place for Circle, the company can look to the future. As of right now, they are allegedly profitable, which is rather interesting. Although no one expected anything less, the company turns a profit when cryptocurrencies are struggling every day. It seems Circle facilitated over $75 billion across its platforms during December 2017 and February of 2018.

All of this shows the global interest in cryptocurrency is not slowing down. Everyone has an opinion on this form of money and more people are looking to buy into these markets. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire claims their trade platform’s average customer order is worth over $1m, which is rather spectacular. Some investors are legitimately throwing their weight around in this regard. For now, it doesn’t have a positive effect on the overall cryptocurrency prices just yet.

For the time being, Circle will look to expand. More specifically, its workforce will more than double, if things go according to plan. The number of jobs created in the cryptocurrency world is a lot higher than most people assume. This particular trend will only become more apparent as time progresses. With a profitable business model and more staff members, the future looks pretty good for Circle as a whole.

The post Circle Becoming Profitable is a Bullish Signal for the Cryptocurrency Industry appeared first on NewsBTC.

South Korean internet giant Kakao has confirmed it is setting up a new blockchain subsidiary, but quashed rumors of a planned initial coin offering.

What are virtual and augmented realities?

Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) are two up-and-coming technologies that will be soon shaping the future. VR is a computer-generated, three-dimensional environment rendered to replicate an existing or imaginary place. Users are completely immersed in this cyberspace and as the technology evolves, it will no longer be limited to the primary senses of sight and sound. Newer systems are finding ways to emulate touch, taste, smell and even emotions. AR is similar to VR but is an overlay of the simulated environment on top of our own reality.       

How can virtual reality benefit from blockchain?

VR and AR are finding their way into more real-world applications. As their uses grow, certain issues arise regarding data infrastructure and licensing. Currently, applications are centralized and suffer from server speeds bottlenecking their performance when too many users are logged in. With a decentralized solution, audio and visual data can be stored in the blockchain to alleviate these issues. User data for accounts encoded into smart contracts will create an unforgeable contract of ownership because of network verification.

VR is heavily dependant on the quality of its visual and auditory samples as these depict realism. As VR becomes more widely adopted, these resources will need to copyright protection, and have details of their ownership rights and authors readily available. VR/AR is a new technology, without a standardized set of codecs to use. This is the perfect time in the technology cycle to implement a new standard that will reap the benefits of what blockchain has to offer. Blockchain could create a database of sensory samples with the rights of the developers and any other information cryptographically encoded within the sample. Seen as the blockchain is in a constant state of synchronization the sample information would always be up to date. Timestamps on financial transactions would keep a record of events such as royalties being paid for a sample.

A new world

Dot Blockchain Music has already designed its own codec and is taking steps to make blockchain the security that the music and audio industry needs. Metadata in standard codecs isn’t always easily accessible. Dot Blockchain Music will bind metadata to the music which will be verified by the network and be rendered unplayable without that information. With licensing information embedded in the song and the use of smart contracts, this could change the way in which royalties are collected and how security regarding user rights of material is achieved.

In future, getting to work may be as simple as going to the study and putting your VR headset on. In your VR environment you would earn cryptocurrency for your completed tasks and your funds would then be available in the real world. Jobs such as teaching, entertainment and design are perfect for VR as they are remotely accessible. ImmVRse is one of the many companies in the industry that have already adopted blockchain technology in this manner. 

Decentraland is a virtual platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain, using smart contracts to verify ownership of land in the virtual world. Users can go about creating their own in-depth world to visit casinos, attend workshops, shop with friends or even drive a car.

With the rapid advancements in these sectors, the world as we know it today will become indistinguishable from the heavily augmented/virtual world of tomorrow. One thing is for certain, there’s a need for a stable, secure infrastructure for this metaverse and blockchain promises to be that solution.

More on Blockchain in VR/AR:

PR:LUCYD AND INDE FORM STRATEGIC ALLIANCE INDE to Provide Augmented Reality Apps for Lucyd

PR: Lucyd and Roomful Form Strategic Alliance— Roomful to Provide Their AR/VR App Platform for Lucyd Smartglasses

PR:A Hybrid-Decentralised Marketplace And Content Sharing Platform Poised To Disrupt The Virtual Reality Industry

Vivid Announces Release of World’s First Social AR Crypto Management Tool

The post Virtual Reality and Blockchain The New Matrix appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

CoinDesk Editor Pete Rizzo puts forth an alternate way to think about crypto valuations – one that might poke holes in critics’ bubble talk.

A third dip was almost expected, when crypto markets fall they fall fast, 9% has been shaved off all cryptocurrencies in 24 hours. Anyone living in the crypto sphere for a year or more will be used to these cycles by now. Those new to it in the past three months are likely to have panic sold, licking their wounds and exacerbating the slide.

Fundamentals and news has a big impact, especially on the uninitiated and those new to trading in general. This week the news has been a mix of good and bad, and by now we should be used to web monopolies throwing their weight around and censoring ads they don’t approve of. If anything this should be good news for the well-established cryptocurrencies and blockchain companies that do not need to advertise on social media. It should not cause the panic selling we see time and time again in crypto land.

Lower Highs Lower Lows

The sure sign of a bear dominated market is lower highs and lower lows. This is the longest period of no higher highs since 2016. The first big dip came on Jan 17 when markets plummeted from over $830 billion to $430b, that was a loss of almost 50% in just ten days. Following that was the crash of February 6 when total market capitalization fell to $280b, the recovery took markets up to $515b which was nowhere near that after January’s crash when they returned to $630b pretty quickly.

Next came the fall of March 18 when markets hit a new 2018 low of $275b, returning to a lower high of around $355b on March 21 before collapsing again. The $275-$280 billion level is a key support line so if this current decline falls lower than that it could drop a lot further. However if markets can rally above the last previous high it may be a sign of a reversal.

Bitcoin Market Dominance Increases

Altcoin hodlers are getting hammered at the moment as Bitcoin’s market dominance heads back towards 50%. Since March last year BTC has lost ground to altcoins which have been steadily eating away at its market share. The low point was around the January spike when BTC dropped to 32% however it has been clawing back its market dominance ever since, largely at the expense of Ethereum which has shed almost 50% in a month. Currently Bitcoin has just under 45% market dominance and it does not look like this is about to change.

The next few days will be critical for crypto markets. Currently the total market cap is hovering around $300 billion, if it drops below $275 billion there could be tougher times ahead and this bear run may not be over yet. Conversely a rebound above $355 billion and a new higher high may spell brighter days in crypto land.

The post Op Ed: Lower Highs and Lower Lows, Bears Still Dominate Crypto Markets appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ethereum classic price is in a bearish zone and is struggling to hold the $15 level against the US dollar.
• There is a crucial bearish trend line forming with resistance at $16.50 on the hourly chart of the ETC/USD pair (Data feed via Kraken).
• The pair is under a lot of pressure and it could even break the $15.00 support level in the near term.

Ethereum classic price is in a downtrend against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETC/USD remains at a risk of more losses as long as it is below $16.50.

Ethereum Classic Price Resistance

There was a major downside move initiated in ETC price from well above $19.00 against the US dollar. The ETC/USD pair declined and broke the $18.00 and $16.50 support levels. It traded close to the $15.00 level and formed a low at $14.99. Later, an upside correction was initiated and the price moved above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $18.35 high to $14.99 low.

However, the upside move was capped by the $16.50-80 resistance area. Moreover, the price failed to move above the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $18.35 high to $14.99 low. There is also a crucial bearish trend line forming with resistance at $16.50 on the hourly chart of the ETC/USD pair. The pair is once again moving lower and is currently well below $16.50. If the price fails to move above $16.50, it could soon break the $15.00 support level for more losses.

The next major support below $15.00 is near the $13.20 level. On the flip side, if the price succeeds in breaking the $16.50 resistance, it could move back in a positive zone toward $18.00.

Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETC/USD is slightly in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETC/USD is currently well below the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $15.00

Major Resistance Level – $16.50

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ethereum Classic Price Technical Analysis – Can ETC/USD Hold $15? appeared first on NewsBTC.