Day: March 30, 2018

It is very difficult to stand out in the ICO market of start-up cryptocurrencies, which are pouring out large amount of new crypto coins in a month. In addition to presenting their own vision with their individuality, a lot of them are often trying to shake off their profits by proposing fraudulent information using public’s interest in crypto currency market. It is difficult to find the right and profitable coin therefore if you want to invest on a proper one, you must gather all necessary information about the coin as well as you need to distinguish the fiction and the truth about it.

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The hardest part of the many challenges that most start-up cryptocurrency companies face is probably gathering investment funds. Even if they have excellent technology and vision, without investment funds, they cannot even try to build up their business which makes the “investment funds” the most important thing for these new rising coins.

Looking at this, Alibabacoin Foundation’s official ICO round 1 and 2’s early sell-out attracts investors compared to other start-up coins and can expect enormous growth near the future. It is believed that their early sell-out can only be expressed as that people trust and support Alibabacoin Foundation’s vision and its future. For example, their vision presents, Alibabacoin Foundation has developed a mobile digital wallet implementing facial recognition instead of using the security key, which will not always be remembered. This facial recognition data will not be saved but will be formed into a blockchain and it will be removed later on which seems to grab many investors’ attention.

A famous analyst also known as the author of “Best Tock, Optimal Timing” Williom O’Neill, said, “Opportunity is open to anyone, in this age it is not enough to simply settle for your job and pay a monthly salary. You must save and invest wisely in order to do what you want to do, go where you want to go, and have what you want. “

To summarize William O’Neill’s investment principles; the momentum investment method, people need to focus investment method on the “explosively growing stocks” when they are showing their “rising trend”.

It seems like people needs to invest in Alibabacoin now since their ‘rising trend’ showing with their early sell-out of their official ICO.

We will focus on growth momentum, which is a momentum investment method for growth stocks.

Most people in the US are aware that Newegg began accepting Bitcoin payments some time ago. Although this venture carried certain risks, the company has stuck with Bitcoin for several years now. It seems now is a good time to bring this payment option to customers in Canada as well.

NewEgg Canada and Bitcoin Payments

It is evident Newegg is still one of the major e-commerce players when it comes to North America. The company’s vast selection of computer hardware, software, and peripherals has received a lot of positive attention throughout the years. When the company initially began accepting Bitcoin as a payment option, a lot of people were genuinely excited about this concept.

Newegg was one of the very first retailers to accept Bitcoin payments when it started doing so in 2014. It was a positive development overall, although it remains unclear how successful this decision has been so far. It is evident the Bitcoin industry has grown tremendously since 2014, which means more people own BTC and are willing to spend it.

As such, the decision by Newegg to support Bitcoin payments in Canada simply makes sense. Canada has shown a great interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over the years. Additionally, several Bitcoin mining operations are setting up shop in the country, indicating the Canadian government is still open-minded when it comes to this new form of money. After all, this industry also creates a lot of jobs, which should never be overlooked.

The Bitcoin payment option will be available for Newegg’s entire catalog of products. With the majority of the company’s users residing in North America, it is evident this part of the world is of keen interest to Newegg as of right now. Leveling the playing field in terms of accepted payment options appears to be a very smart decision. Bitcoin payments will be processed through BitPay, just like they are handled by the company for its US website.

BitPay CEO and co-founder Stephen Pair commented:

Newegg was an early e-commerce adopter of bitcoin, and that leap of faith the company took in 2014 put Newegg on the map as a bitcoin-friendly place for tech enthusiasts to shop. We’re seeing a lot of traction in Canada, and we’re happy to see Newegg extend its bitcoin payment option north of the border.

Whether or not this decision will work out well for Newegg remains to be seen. It is good to see such a longstanding supporter of Bitcoin expand this payment functionality rather than drop it altogether like some other companies have done in the past. For Newegg, there seems to be no reason to shut down its Bitcoin services, although the company did not comment on specific sales figures involving Bitcoin.

Telegram Group Inc., the encrypted messaging platform, has completed its second initial coin offering (ICO) — the world’s largest — bringing the amount raised to $1.7 billion. The ICO was held to help establish the Telegram Open Network (TON), a “fast, scalable, and user-friendly” cryptocurrency and blockchain platform.

In addition to the $850 million Telegram raised in February of this year, $850 million has been raised from 94 investors this month. Further, the company “may pursue one or more subsequent offerings,” the British Virgin Islands-registered firm stated in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company, founded by self-exiled Russian Pavel Durov, plans to use the ICO proceeds to develop the TON blockchain, which includes its in-house cryptocurrency, the Gram. It aims to enable transaction speeds faster than the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains — using multi-blockchain technology — and may seek to compete with global payment processors Visa and Mastercard, according to Telegram documents. The total supply of native TON tokens (Grams) will equal 5 billion.

Interest in the Telegram ICO has recently helped the company surpass the threshold of 200 million monthly active users, “with over 700,000 new users signing up each day.” The company projects that it will have 1 billion users by 2022.

According to Telegram’s white paper, Q2 and Q3 of this year will see the launch of the TON “Test Network,” and well as “Testing and Security audits.” In Q4, the “Stable Version” of TON will be deployed and the “Telegram Wallet” will be launched. For 2019, in Q1, Telegram plans to create the “TON-based economy,” and Q2 will see the launch of “TON Services, TON Storage, and TON Proxy.”

Skepticism

Despite the popularity of Telegram’s messaging service, and the fact that investors are willing to invest such large amounts of money (those taking part in the ICO had to invest at least $1 million), some in the cryptosphere are skeptical about what the company can actually accomplish. Its white paper describes a suite of blockchain based services including file storage, DNS service, and an ad exchange network with the ability to process millions of transactions per second, but with no explanation of how.

Matthew Green, cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University is impressed by some parts of the blockchain project, but finds many of the claims in the white paper unrealistic:

“I’ll be honest, the white paper reads like someone went out on the internet and harvested the most ambitious ideas from a dozen projects and said ‘let’s do all of those but better!’ It feels unachievable, at least at the scale they’re aiming for now.”

Just this week Telegram admitted it had connection failures in Europe and the former Soviet Union, blaming the interruptions on its data center provider. These issues have been dealt with.

In other news, Telegram is under threat of being blocked in Russia after it refused to provide encryption keys to the Federal Security Service to comply with legislation on fighting terrorism.

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Chile’s public bank will terminate the accounts of three cryptocurrency exchange clients within 10 days, according to a local news report.

Fortune

Even as Bitcoin Languishes, Telegram Raises $1.7 Billion Ahead of Largest ICO Ever Fortune The five-year-old company, which has attracted users by touting its encrypted-messaging service, raised $850 million from 94 accredited investors in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Thursday. That doubles a previous raise first ... and more »

France and Germany never shied away from asserting their sovereignty online. Will it work the same with Blockchain regulation? #IN_DEPTH

The cryptocurrency situation in Japan is evolving in many different directions. While Bitcoin is a legal payment method in the country, multiple exchanges are still facing regulatory scrutiny. So much, in fact, that two more platforms have been forced to shut down due to this mounting regulatory pressure.

Curtain Call for Tokyo GateWay and Mr. Exchange

Ever since Coincheck was hacked in early 2018, Japanese regulators have scrutinized the cryptocurrency exchange industry in many different ways. It is evident there are a fair few trading platforms which are under fire right now, even though they may not have been involved with hacks or anything like that. For both Tokyo Gateway and Mr. Exchange, it appears closing down was their only course of action.

More specifically, both of these trading platforms are facing a lot of regulatory scrutiny. With all trading platforms being scrutinized right now, it is certainly possible that irregularities may show up. Additionally, all trading platforms have to register with the country’s FSA and obtain a license to legally operate. It is unclear if either of these two companies successfully did so in the past few weeks.

For the time being, both companies are withdrawing their applications to register, but it is unclear if they will resubmit them in the future. With both companies being tasked with improving their overall security in terms of data and trading, it seems both companies are taking a step back in order to address these issues. Doing so will take a lot of effort, though, as protecting consumer funds needs to be the top priority.

All of the cash and other currencies held by these companies will be returned to their customers in the near future. It is a bit unclear when that will happen exactly, although it shouldn’t take all that long to do so. Additionally, it seems these are not the only two companies still under investigation as of right now. With 16 exchanges being allowed to operate without official licenses being approved, it is possible a few more platforms will meet a similar fate.

It is not the first time Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges have been forced to withdraw their FSA applications. Three unregistered exchanges took a similar course of action in the past few weeks. There are still a few other unregistered exchanges out there which will not be applying for official licenses, and they can either shut down voluntarily or hold out until the last moment.

All of this will help strengthen the cryptocurrency industry in Japan moving forward. It is evident the bad actors and those failing to meet security standards will need to be weeded out, as only the legitimate companies should remain. While Mr. Exchange and Tokyo GateWay never scammed users or suffered from any major hacks, their inability to provide top-notch security standards is still pretty troublesome.

The Binance trading platform has gotten a lot of attention over the past few months. Considering that it is one of the world’s biggest trading platforms for cryptocurrencies, it is only normal that people will take a closer look at how this company operates right now. It seems the company is still operating without a license in Japan, which could quickly become a problem.

Binance Faces Issues in Japan

While no one will deny that the Binance exchange has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few months, there are still some legal questions waiting to be answered. Especially in Japan, the company is still facing a lot of scrutiny as of right now, although it remains to be seen if this will lead to any major repercussions.

To put this into perspective, Binance is an active exchange in Japan. While that in itself is not much of a problem, the company is operating without an official license. Considering that the Japanese Financial Services Agency made it clear that all companies must register and apply for licenses several months ago, this is rather strange.

Considering that this requirement has been in place for several months now, it seems strange that Binance isn’t even trying to apply for a license. As such, the Japanese financial watchdog has deemed any investor using Binance’s services to be in danger of losing their money due to theft, fraud, and so forth. It is not a scenario any cryptocurrency exchange wants to deal with right now, especially given the string of hacks and thefts affecting multiple platforms over the years.

Assuming Binance continues to operate without a license, it will become subject to an official criminal investigation. As of right now, Japan’s FSA has made it clear that it will file such charges against any cryptocurrency exchange which continues to operate without a license or any intent of obtaining one. That would certainly shake things up for Binance as a whole, although things may never get that far.

It is evident that even the largest altcoin exchange in the world can face regulatory pushback in any country. With so many regulators focusing their attention on the cryptocurrency industry as of right now, no one will be surprised to learn every small misstep is subject to a lot of speculation. In the case of Binance, its failure to verify the identities of Japanese investors has been a thorn in the side of the FSA for some time now.

For the time being, we’ll have to wait and see how Binance plans to deal with this threat. If law enforcement officials were to get involved in the investigation, things may not end well for the company and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. At the same time, with the launch of decentralized trading solutions, the need for centralized exchanges is slowly dwindling, which is a good thing.

The Malaysian discount airline plans to use its proprietary BigCoin token to facilitate transactions and act as a frequent-flyer rewards program.

Remember all that talk about a “flippening” last year? For a few months, if you scrolled down r/Ethereum or even it’s meme-intensive sibling r/ETHTrader, it seemed inevitable that the market cap of Ethereum would pass that of the current top dog in crypto – Bitcoin. The general consensus of both forums was sooner, rather than later, too.

However, several months on and the change in the prices of these two digital assets tells a different story. Ethereum has dropped from around $1,390 to about $385. The all-time high was over 3.6x greater than the price today. Meanwhile, Bitcoin fell from a high of around $19,974 to around $6,930 at the time of writing. This high is just over 2.88x greater than today’s price. Clearly, therefore, people are losing confidence in Ethereum faster than they are with Bitcoin.

Is a “Flippening” Still Possible?

When comparing the figures of last year’s speculative mania across all of cryptocurrency, it’s important to remember it was just that – a speculative mania. Whilst both Bitcoin and Ethereum did make some technological improvements and greater cases of adoption were reported in both digital assets, neither price spikes were warranted by any sort of fundamental change in either protocol.

Sure, the partial resolution to the scaling debate in Bitcoin called for an increase in price that mirrored the asset’s greater utility. However, according to researchers at BitMEX, the SegWit upgrade last summer has had an immediate impact of around a 41% free reduction for users making the switch. Whilst fees will continue to decrease as more users and institutional bodies (such as Coinbase) adopt it, it hardly warrants a price increase from the $2,700 range to near $20,000. Evidently, a lot of the money flowing into the market during the latter part of 2017 came from folks who cared little about the technology or its implications. These investors just wanted to make a quick buck.

Ethereum’s rise from the start of 2017 to its high point was even more pronounced. This is likely because many who felt they had “missed the boat” on Bitcoin spied a second chance for meteoric gains. It was also driven by ICO investors and contributors. However, without as solid a bedrock of believers in the Ethereum project as Bitcoin, and the ICO funding method coming under regulatory scrutiny along with many contributors being burned in scams, ETH buying pressure has largely dried up. This leaves companies, both legitimate and corrupt, with lots of Ether to cash in. Such selling pressure without equal or greater buying can send the price in one direction only – downwards.

Whilst there are undoubtedly more reasons for the current sell-off in Ether than there are for Bitcoin, this doesn’t mean that a “flippening” cannot happen. It does, however, seem a distant prospect right now.

When considering such a likelihood, it’s important to remember that both projects have very different aims. Ethereum seeks to be a sort of decentralised supercomputer for applications to run on. Bitcoin, meanwhile, is simply digital cash or gold. The market may eventually decide that one of these use cases is more valuable than the other. It may also decide that one of Ethereum’s competitors serves the purpose better than the current market leader for decentralised app creation.

The fact is, along with these radically different use cases, each project faces their own hurdles. The most pronounced of these are currently competition and technological limitations. It therefore seems folly to state a price target for either Ether or Bitcoin. Granted, both projects have a lot of upside potential, but it is nothing more than that at the moment. With the “get rich quick” crowd being brutally burned thus far in 2018, it will take a real fundamental change to initiate the kind of growth required for there to be a change in the current crypto pecking order. Remember, there are no guarantees in this market, least of all a guaranteed “flippening”.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the fastest growing and lucrative industries in the world; other sectors are scrambling to implement IoT hardware and software, and it’s no wonder why considering the market is anticipated to be worth 1.2 Trillion USD in 2019. But, issues are preventing the market reaching its full capacity, and that is the use of data silos and walled gardens. Organisation and companies that utilise IoT sensor data are keeping it to themselves, for the most part, locking the data away.

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Making the Most of the Market

DataBroker DAO, a Blockchain startup from Dubai, has developed a platform that allows users of any background or size to buy and sell their local IoT data. In doing so, DataBroker DAO put themselves ahead of the curve with the plans to tap a significant portion of the locked away IoT data, worth approximately 120 Billion USD. The company has been extraordinarily active, especially throughout their token pre-sale and have been making some sterling announcements regarding exchange listings, partnerships and platform updates.

Exchanges and Partnerships

DataBroker DAO have managed to get themselves listed on the CoinFalcon exchange, which is one of the most simple and straightforward exchanges available, it presently lists BTC, IOT, NANO, LTC and ETH and features an ‘instant trading’ tool, it allows users to begin trading cryptocurrencies the instant that their deposit is confirmed. Being listed on an exchange can do fantastic things for the value of a cryptocurrency and therefore that of its parent company; the listing on CoinFalcon could prove to be a winning move for DataBroker DAO.

DataBroker DAO has also partnered with IoT data ‘middleware’ platform, AllThingsTalk; the new partnership with the IoT Data giant is intended to create ease of access for IoT data users. The AllThingsTalk platform allows customers to aggregate and process IoT data, and is an end-to-end solution, connecting any of the user’s hardware or software platforms, causing them to connect, interact and store data which can be observed via mobile or web dashboards.

DataBroker 2.0

The team at DataBroker DAO have also received a lot of feedback from its alliance members, users and potential users; a hot topic that kept coming up was the quality assurance of the data being provided on the marketplace. So in response, DataBroker DAO revamped the platform from the ground up releasing the “V2.0” version or the aptly named “Discovery Release”. The update brings a “token curated registry” that requires data sellers to stake the platforms native token, DTX, against the data.

It also comes with a new range of IoT sensors in Belgium that actively search for high-quality data sets, acting as the interface between the users’ search enquiries and the data available.

It’s an exciting project, the value of IoT data is set to grow exponentially, and DataBroker DAO have identified a vital portion of the market that once unlocked, could set off a whole new trend of how we buy, sell, share our own IoT sensor data.

DataBroker DAO has just finished up the presale for their utility token, DTX, the token is the platforms native currency and is a means to buy and sell IoT sensor data.

The Pre-Sale began March 19th, 2018 and ended March 26th, 2018; and the main sale for the DTX token begins April 26th – 4PM CET.

The sale will run for four weeks with a rate of 4000 DTX Per 1 ETH and participants on the first day will awarded a 10% bonus.

Contributions made before and during the sale through a referral link will also be awarded 5% bonus of tokens sold via that referral

A Cisco patent application describes how a blockchain could let people form groups on the fly to share files and other data while tracking membership.

It seems there is one cryptocurrency and blockchain project which has been making a lot of waves lately. Known as Ontology, this new high-performance public blockchain will be quite interesting to keep an eye on. So far, the project is still in the early stages of development, but there will be some milestones to be achieved in the coming months.

Ontology Explained

When it comes to public blockchains, one of the more pressing issues these days is scaling. No public blockchain can properly scale to enterprise-grade levels in their current form. Ontology aims to address that problem by introducing a new high-performance blockchain which serves as a distributed trust collaboration platform.

Under the Hood

It is evident this public blockchain solution will need some powerful features in order to work. As such, Ontology will offer a set of high-performance blockchains which come with their own set of distributed ledgers, as well as smart contract solutions. While there are so many blockchain projects on the market right now, it is evident smart contracts are not unique by any means. Even so, Ontology may provide some unique features to make this project stand out.

The main bread and butter of Ontology is supporting custom public blockchains for users. These chains can be used for different applications, which makes it seem like this is a sidechain-oriented project. With a modular approach to public blockchains and customizable options for various business solutions, Ontology is certainly working out so far.

The common modules for the various blockchains are quite interesting to keep an eye on. With multiple distributed scenarios to take advantage of, Ontology hopes to become a major player in the blockchain world. It seems there are plans to focus on digital identity solutions, data exchange protocols, and more. It’s an interesting mix of opportunities for enthusiasts of public blockchain technology.

The Native Token

As one would expect, Ontology has its own native token, known as ONT. It is the main currency of this ecosystem, and it will provide a lot of functionality in terms of access to various features across different chains. Whether or not this token will bring much value to the network remains to be seen, but it is evident using a native token will have advantages and disadvantages.

The Road Ahead

Forecasting the future of Ontology is not all that easy, as there is not much of a roadmap to go by. We do know the testnet is currently being deployed on GitHub, which should bring more positive attention to the project. It remains to be seen how long it will take the team to push the main net live, as that will be the point at which we can actually determine the true value of this network.

Park Won-soon, the Mayor of South Korean Capital Seoul, has announced intentions to pursue the development of blockchain technology in the city. Won-soon stated that there will be a digital currency created for use in Seoul, as well as the setting up of groups dedicated to exploring blockchain technologies and their future implications.

Korea Re-Embraces Crypto?

According to a local news source, Hani, Won-soon announced his intentions at the opening of CoinDesk Korea in the Seoul City Office on March 22. He stated:

“Given that Seoul has become a leader in the fourth industrial revolution in areas including information technology, it will have to continue exploring and studying revolutionary technologies like blockchain.”

He went on to declare that he would work towards preparing an institutional and legal framework for the creation of the Seoul digital currency that will be known as “S Coin”. He also committed to efforts at changing the current attitudes of the South Korean central government towards cryptocurrency in general. This would allow the necessary laws and regulations to facilitate such a financial tool.

The Seoul mayor continued to address the potential uses of blockchain technology for a modern capital city such as Seoul. He stated that this would translate into economic benefits for the citizens of his city. These would include savings on electricity, water, and gas, as well as supporting youngsters seeking employment:

“Blockchain technology is applicable to public infrastructures like the public transportation system and issuance of youth allowance payments. I truly believe blockchain technology can be used to power most of the government activities in Seoul.”

Hani state that such initiatives are expected to be included in Seoul’s blockchain planning that is due for completion this April. They also report that as of November last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will be collaborating with Samsung SDS to establish an Information Strategy Plan for blockchain innovation in the city. These are the first steps being made towards introducing blockchain to government and public institutions.

Finally, the mayor addressed the existing attitudes in the wider country of South Korea towards cryptocurrency and blockchain. He referred explicitly to the outrage of the public when rumours of a ban on cryptocurrency trading were hinted at earlier this year:

“Previously, the South Korean people protested strongly against the Ministry of Justice’s plan to ban cryptocurrency trading, and that led to the government deeply reconsidering its stance towards cryptocurrencies. The role of provincial and regional governments, I believe, is to apply innovative technologies first and demonstrate progress to the federal government. If Seoul lessens restrictions on cryptocurrency and blockchain development, it will lead to a flexible environment for businesses.”

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Soccer Manager fully integrates blockchain tech into gaming scene

Soccer Manager is bringing their trademarked football management game to blockchain technology, heralding a thrilling accomplishment to online gamers worldwide. With this, thousands If not millions of players and leagues will be supported, serverless on a decentralized network, and users will finally be given the chance to experience real transfer market action where they can gain and lose value that can be traded for real rewards through blockchain technology.

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However, unlike other online soccer games, Soccer Manager gives players true ownership of their assets and total control over its usage through its blockchain. Players can freely buy, sell, and exchange football credits, players, stadiums — as well as any other value that may be obtained within the game.

Gaming as it Should Be

Soccer Manager ecosystem will entirely run on revolutionary new blockchain platform, Chimaera, which will lead the world of blockchain gaming into a new area with its unique features.

Chimaera blockchain not only provides blockchain gaming with secure assets storage and management but also permits actual games to run on its own blockchain platform. The platform offers several advantages including the elimination of cheats, no need for servers, clarity of games played, no fraud, 24/7 uptime, and in-game items can be acquired in a fair and completely secure manner. The last feature offers players significantly more value than assets made at will by developers without their knowledge.

It is said and believed that CryptoKitties, a cute cat game on the ethereum blockchain, was the first blockchain game ever made and is highly complex as any blockchain gaming gets. However, this is not the case.

The Chimaera development team is the instigator and original creator of blockchain gaming, going all the way back to 2013, when they developed and released the world’s first decentralized MMO and the first true blockchain game, Huntercoin. Huntercoin is an entire virtual world that runs autonomously on the blockchain. A game where players move around a map, collect coins and treasures, fight others and steal their coins, these can then be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges for real world assets or cash.

Chimaera Looks to Revolutionize Gaming Industry

The CEO of Soccer Manager, Andrew Horeb, stated that:

“We’ve been wanting to build a blockchain soccer manager game for sometime but have never found a suitable blockchain platform to host it on. After a lot of research, we came across the Chimaera project whos team have been at the forefront of blockchain gaming for several years,”

Both Soccer Manager and Chimaera team are developing an entirely new and independent ecosystem where developers and gamers can easily drive the next generation of blockchain games. The players and participants team have needs and upkeep that must be attended to. Gamers are left to grow their stadium and fan base just as seen in any other Soccer Manager game.

League Matches are played on average of twice a week and each match results are determined over the course of rounds between  60 to 90 minutes. Friendly tournaments and matches can be played at anytime and anywhere. The players can challenge their opponents directly and compete for SMCs (Soccer Manager Coins).

Visit Soccer Manager’s official site here: https://www.soccermanager.com/