Day: April 8, 2018

With Bitmain releasing their new CryptoNight ASIC miner, coin developers have had to make some tough calls. In the case of Monero, a hard fork was introduced to nullify this ASIC threat altogether. As is usually the case with hard forks, new currencies have popped up out of nowhere. Below are the four new “offspring” of Monero, although it’s doubtful that any of them will gain traction.

Monero Classic

It is only normal that we see a currency with “Classic” in the title. Ever since Ethereum hard forked and Ethereum Classic was created, this has become a rather popular trend. In the case of Monero Classic, the new coin’s developers dislike the algorithm change, as they fear it will lead to more centralization. Monero Classic claims that 80% of the hashrate of Monero will follow it in the future, although it remains to be seen how that will play out.

Monero-Classic

Not to be confused with the currency detailed above, Monero-Classic – or XMC – was developed by a group of people who have been involved in cryptocurrency for quite some time now. The main reason for creating this forked currency was that the team doesn’t agree that specialized mining machines are necessarily useless.

Monero-Classic wants to give equal airtime to both pro and anti-ASIC sentiments. It’s an interesting approach, albeit not necessarily one that will prove popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Its website claims Monero-Classic has a multitude of partners in place, although it is unclear how things will go from here on out.

Monero (Not the Real One)

There are now two GitHub repos for Monero, which will undoubtedly confuse a lot of people. The repository found on the XmanXU Github page appears to be a nice clone of that of the actual Monero, although it remains to be seen what name this project will receive. After all, it is still being called Monero at this point, a situation that will hopefully change in the very near future.

Monero 0

Pronounced “Monero Zero”, this new hard-forked currency wants to remove itself from the actual Monero development branch. The latest hard fork has been the proverbial last straw for the people backing the Monero 0 project. Their vision revolves around using Satoshi’s Proof of Work for the foreseeable future, which seems to welcome the ASIC miners causing centralization in the mining ecosystem.

It is also interesting to note Monero 0 doesn’t position itself as a hard fork of Monero. Instead, it claims to be the original Monero which goes back to version 11. There is no premine, and existing Monero holders will have an equivalent balance of Monero 0. The team will not implement replay protection, as they feel that doing so is up to the Monero developers. It’s an interesting stance, to say the very least.

Global leading broker ExpertOption is introducing the first ever ecosystem designed for bridging traditional online trading with blockchain investments. The revolutionary project will begin with the release the EO coin for trading on its award-winning platform. This will be followed up with the EO.Finance crypto wallet designed for easy purchases, storing and exchange of cryptocurrencies, and last but not least the EO.Trade crypto exchange.

This seamless combination of platforms fueled by one coin is bound to eliminate all the complications of crypto trading and encourage more online investors to make the leap into the financial revolution of blockchain.

“Crypto trading may be taking over the market but online trading still dominates with more than 5 trillion in daily turnover” ExpertOption CEO Ivan Opria said, “We are designing an ecosystem which will make every online trader convert to crypto with no more than a few clicks and we will be there to help them make the jump”.  

Considering the years of success ExpertOption has had with a strong team that developed and built its platform and trading app entirely in-house, the market is in for a major treat when the same team releases this game-changing series of investment tools.

The new digital coin called EO Coin will be based on Ethereum which is the second biggest open source blockchain. 1 billion coins will be produced 70% of which will be allocated for sale. The company launched a private presale exclusively for existing ExpertOption clients on the 31st of March.

“The EO coin will give every trader the power to get higher profit percentages on the ExpertOption platform” Opria said about the new coin. “Holders of the EO Coin will benefit in many ways on all the platforms we are developing”.  The coin will give investors special fee discounts on both EO.Finance and EO.Trade crypto exchange which will be developed by the company.

Along with the addition of the EO coin the ExpertOption platform will offer accounts entirely based on cryptos. Coin holders will be able to use the EO coin to trade derivatives on cryptos, fiat currencies, commodities, and stocks.

The project will include the release of the EO.Finance, a crypto wallet designed to make crypto investments easy and instant even for investors who have never ventured into digital currencies. The allow purchasing cryptos directly with a Visa or MasterCard making the process completely simple for first timers. The wallet will be used to buy cryptos, store them and use them for online transactions.  

The market is also highly anticipating the EO.Trade crypto exchange which will be developed later on in the project. The company has announced it plans on building the exchange in-house and designing it to withstand present and future market demand. Currently crypto exchanges on the market have been failing to keep up with the increasing amount of users causing downtime, slow KYC processes and withdrawals as well as delays in orders.

“Our team has built one successful company without any help from third parties. We handle millions of clients on a daily basis” Dmitry Nikitin, head of Client Care told us “My team has been prepared and trained for the next move and are ready to expand at a moment’s notice”.

In a market infested by repetitive blockchain projects which offer nothing new, this incredible plan which could have only been birthed by an investing mastermind offers the most promising ecosystem which will combine the power of the biggest industry in the world with the fastest growing technology of blockchain.

The coin sale will be open to the public later this month.

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.

Perhaps an even more striking result from the survey was that 27% of millennials viewed Bitcoin as more trustworthy than big banks. What exactly the survey meant by “trustworthy” is not elaborated on, but it is suggested that they find the Bitcoin blockchain a more secure option.

As well as this, millennials have come of age in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, largely blamed on the irresponsible trading practices of large banks and financial institutions. It is conceivable that the generation in question have become disenfranchised with these entities and are more inclined to find alternative practices.

Despite the dismissive approach to Bitcoin from mainstream politics and financial organizations, 52% of millennials do note share in their skepticism, with 52% citing the project as a positive financial innovation.

Finally, 42% of the age group believe most people will be using Bitcoin in the next ten years, so it is not surprising the 16% describe themselves as ”very likely” to buy Bitcoin in the next five years. Millenials have indicated that they view cryptocurrencies as a genuine investment opportunity as well as a trustworthy one.

Millennials across the globe

This survey took place in fall of 2017 and had over 2,000 American adults taking part. Similar studies conducted internationally have found trends much like that in the US.

A survey of young, working men in Japan found that 14% had cryptocurrency holdings, with 92% of those noting that they entered the market for investment purposes. In regards to their future plans with their holdings, 47.1% reported that they would like to actively invest in the market, with only 34% saying they did not intend to continue investing.

In South Korea, polls indicate that citizens in their 20s and 30s are familiar with cryptocurrencies and are willing to invest in them. Nearly a quarter of the millennials surveyed answered that they were willing to purchase some form of cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin’s popularity is on the rise and millennials appear to be a generation looking for alternatives to the financial institutions they no longer believe in. If younger generations continue to adopt cryptocurrency as a primary form of investment, this will likely increase the aggregate value of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin.

The post 27% Of Millennials Would Choose Bitcoin Over Traditional Stocks appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The suspension of BCH’s @Bitcoin Twitter account, apparently long awaited in the /r/Bitcoin community, has sparked discussion over Twitter’s suspension policy #NEWS

Last year the Chinese government cracked down on initial coin offerings (ICO) and stopped all domestic cryptocurrency exchanges from dealing with the renminbi. According to local reports and the central bank’s recent ‘2018 agenda,’ the People’s Bank of China aims to finish what it started in 2017 by “rectifying” all virtual currency operations, introducing new “reforms and supervision.”

Also read: Coindcx Launches Indian Crypto-to-Crypto Exchange Amid Regulations

The PBOC Aims to Strengthen Virtual Currency Supervision

Ever since last year, China’s central bank has had it out for cryptocurrencies and digital asset exchanges. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) first cracked down on ICO projects by making them illegal, but then soon after the bank made domestic cryptocurrency exchanges close down their operations. It’s been well over a year since these events occurred, but people continue to follow the PBOC’s actions to see if the government will allow digital currency exchanges to reopen. So far it doesn’t look positive, additionally, there have been indicators pointing to the bank possibly creating its own central bank digital token.

Just last week the PBOC revealed it will be taking further action against cryptocurrency operations including multi-level-marketing schemes. According to the vice governor of PBOC, Fan Yifei, the central bank is pursuing research towards its own digital renminbi.

“The rectification of all types of virtual currencies will be carried out,” the vice governor states.

First, we will intensify reforms and innovations to promote the central bank’s digital currency research and development; Second, the bank must strengthen supervision and rectify all types of virtual currencies.

Are Public Blockchains Like Bitcoin Taking the Heat Because the Bank Plans to Create a Digital Renminbi?

Further on April 3 the PBOC’s director general of financial research, Sun Guofeng, explains that traditional fiat money has adverse effects on the economy’s interest rates and a PBOC issued cryptocurrency would bolster interest rate measures. From the many reports over the years, China has been interested in developing its own cryptocurrency and the central bank has been involved in a lot of blockchain research to progress this effort. Guofeng believes a PBOC digital currency could help negative interest rate methods, and so the central bank’s R&D efforts should be sped up.          

“In the long run, due to the lower natural interest rate, monetary authorities can incorporate negative interest rate policies into the normal monetary policy toolbox,” explains Sun Guofeng.

While the central bank’s digital currency is conducive to the implementation of negative interest rate policies, the central bank should speed up the development of a central bank issued digital currency.

It’s been said that the Chinese government still doesn’t look at cryptocurrencies favorably, but has allowed the idea of blockchain concepts to flourish. Speculators believe a digital renminbi issued by the PBOC is enough circumstantial evidence for the bank to crack down on public blockchains like bitcoin. There’s currently no information on how the PBOC plans to “rectify” or add more reform and supervision towards the cryptocurrency situation in China. There have been many reports detailing how the PBOC was monitoring domestic exchanges that have moved abroad, and the over-the-counter digital currency market taking place under the central bank’s watchful eye.

What do you think about the central bank of China’s plan to rectify the cryptocurrency market? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, Shutterstock, and the PBOC logo.

Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that enables near-instant, low-cost payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: transaction management and money issuance are carried out collectively by the network. Read all about it at wiki.Bitcoin.com.

The post PBOC Plans to Continue “Rectifying Cryptocurrency Activity” in China appeared first on Bitcoin News.

There are a lot of conflicting opinions on the Verge cryptocurrency as of right now. This is not a big surprise, as the project has always been considered to be rather controversial. The network’s most recent “accidental fork” goes to show there is still a lot of work to be done before this project can be taken seriously.

Verge Just Keeps Getting Better (Or Worse)

For those who are unaware, the privacy-oriented Verge cryptocurrency either suffered a hack or an accidental fork earlier this week. It is believed that close to 250,000 XVG has been “misplaced”. Assuming this was a hack, close to $1 million has been stolen. At the same time, the developers claim this was a fork due to an accidental 51% attack against the network.

Even though 51% attacks are very rare when it comes to proper cryptocurrencies, altcoins tend to suffer from such incidents on a semi-regular basis. In the case of Verge, it seems this attack was triggered by someone mining a large number of blocks in quick succession. This would require an assailant to control the majority of hashing power pointed at Verge’s blockchain, as they would then be able to discover network blocks faster than other mining pools could.

Although it is unclear if this was an actual 51% attack, OCMiner claims that a hacker exploited various “bugs in Verge’s code” to gain a competitive advantage. How this was pulled off remains to be determined at this stage, as information is still hard to come by. It does show any reports indicating this was a “hack” are probably incorrect, although it is evident someone collected a lot of money in short order through illegitimate means.

Even though Verge makes use of five different crypto algorithms for mining, it seems there are still some weaknesses to be found within this particular ecosystem. Every new block usually triggers a switch to a different algorithm until the next network block is discovered and validated. If any miner successfully controls 51% of the mining power for an algorithm, they can continue controlling the network.

In a way, this means a Verge attacker can control the majority of the XVG mining power without having to own a lot of hashpower himself. That is quite worrisome, as it could hint at more of these attacks occurring in the future. By providing fake timestamps to the mined blocks, the assailant successfully took control of the Verge network for an extended period of time.

Addressing this problem will not be all that easy either. It appears as if Verge will need to undergo a hard fork to prevent issues like these from happening again. Most people will readily agree that Verge is slowly turning into a joke currency at this point, as things are going from bad to worse. It will be quite intriguing to see how all of this pans out, as this may not necessarily be the last attack against Verge.

The Bitcoin price has gone through the wringer in Q1 of 2018. After reaching astronomical heights in 2017, the value plunged in the following three months. Even so, the demand for Bitcoin trading is not slowing down by any means. OTC trading is quickly growing in popularity, especially in Canada. It isn’t unlikely a similar trend will emerge in India over the next few months.

Canada’s OTC Trading is Spiking

There are many different ways to buy, sell, and trade Bitcoin. Using centralized exchanges is one way of doing so. People who prefer a peer-to-peer approach often flock to OTC trading platforms. LocalBitcoins is perhaps the best-known platform offering such functionality on a global basis. Buyers and sellers connect with one another in a direct manner to complete trades.

In Canada, it seems OTC trading is quickly gaining popularity. Just last week, the volume has spiked well beyond the regular volume. It seems a lot of people would rather not deal with exchanges directly. OTC trading is a more than viable alternative, as it offers a solution to exchange value in a different matter. Moreover, this form of trading can accommodate virtually any payment method buyers and sellers are willing to use.

Meanwhile in Canada.#bitcoin pic.twitter.com/G8798l8WQL

— Nick Cote – Pizpie (@mBTCPizpie) April 8, 2018

There’s another reason why OTC trading is growing in popularity. With governments cracking down on cryptocurrency trading, consumers automatically look for alternative solutions. In an over-the-counter market, regulation is a non-issue, for the time being. Governments tend to exert rules upon centralized platforms, which is a bit more difficult where these OTC platforms are concerned. It is a positive intermediary step toward the use of completely decentralized exchange protocols.

An Interesting Trading Solution for India

Over in India, the regulatory situation has taken a bit of a dire turn. The Reserve Bank of India made it clear banks are expected to end support for cryptocurrency companies. Exchanges and trading solutions may find different ways to counter this solution, assuming the need arises to do so.

For consumers, OTC trading is an option worth exploring as well. With the demand for Bitcoin not slowing down, these “new” trading solutions will see more liquidity moving forward. That will ultimately lead to more trades taking place as well. It may even boost overall Bitcoin trading in India, although it is still too early to say for sure.

All of this further shows governments cannot curb Bitcoin trading in an effective manner. If centralized exchanges are no longer a convenient option, people will switch to OTC trading. In the future, we will see decentralized protocols take over, removing all middlemen completely.  Cryptocurrency is here to stay, and enthusiasts will make certain that is effectively the case.

Image Courtesy of Shutterstock

The post OTC Bitcoin Trading Surges in Canada, Same May Happen in India appeared first on NewsBTC.

George Soros, Hungarian-American investor, business magnate, philanthropist, political activist and author, added a new feather to his cap as his company Soros Fund Management received approval to trade cryptocurrency. The company was founded in 1969 and is currently worth USD 26 billion.

This marks a change of heart for the magnate who, in January of this year, labelled cryptocurrencies a bubble, commenting that digital coins could never function as actual currencies due to their volatility. Since the billionaire’s comments earlier this year, Bitcoin has fallen 41%.

Soros is one of the world’s most successful investors. As of February 2018, Soros had a net worth of USD 8 billion, after donating USD 18 billion to his philanthropic agency, Open Society Foundations.

According to a recent article on Bloomberg, Adam Fischer, the macro investment manager of Soros Fund Management, had been given the go-ahead to begin trading cryptocurrencies although as yet, there is no official word on exactly when trading will commence.

The iconic hedge fund manager has a blistering track record of acquisitions and sales and always appears to be on the lookout for new stock, some of his biggest holdings being Facebook and Time Warner.

According to Bloomberg and despite his earlier comments, Soros has been indirectly backing cryptocurrency by amassing a stake in Overstock.com. In August of 2017, the company became the first major retailer to accept digital currencies and also planned to start its own cryptocurrency exchange.

The cryptocurrency market is increasingly under scrutiny from governments around the world. Central banks are currently investigating the risks as well as the obvious benefits of adopting the virtual currency. Earlier in the year, Soros commented on some of the risks, “As long as you have dictators on the rise you will have a different ending because the rulers in those countries will turn to Bitcoin to build a nest egg abroad”.

Given that Soros has long expressed doubt regarding the viability of cryptocurrencies, the recent announcement by the family office has been of great interest to industry pundits.

The post George Soros Gets Crypto Trade Approval appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

It is evident the cryptocurrency markets are not in the best of places right now. With all currencies bleeding value virtually every single day, there is still a long way to go until things improve again. Trading volume looks especially bleak right now, as a lot of currencies are struggling to note any growth in that department. With just 18 currencies noting higher volume numbers over the past week, things are not looking all that great.

Crypto Trading Volume is Suffering

As most people will have noticed by now, there is far less interest in trading cryptocurrencies. It is a bit unclear where this negative trend originates from, although the falling values of all currencies probably have something to do with it. Even so, the prices won’t go back up until the trading volume improves again. As of right now, very few coins are noting growth in that area.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies ranked by market cap, over 80% saw lower trading volume over the past week. That list includes virtually all top cryptocurrencies, even though Bitcoin is still doing a more than adequate job in this regard. Unfortunately, only 18 currencies have seen slight to major increases in trading over the past seven days. It is evident that investors and speculators are souring on cryptocurrency right now.

In late March of this year, the overall crypto market volume per day was $12.75 billion. At that time, we also had a cryptocurrency market cap of just over $215 billion. One week later – on April 1 – that market cap had shrunk to $248.57 billion. As a direct result, the overall trading volume also declined to $9.54 billion. Compared to the $40 billion in daily trading volume late last year, things have certainly taken a turn for the worse.

Fast forward to today, and the overall trading volume and market cap have not decreased further since the start of April. That in itself is a positive development, even though we have seen a lot of bears exert pressure all week long. Whether or not speculators want to keep things as they are or aim to push all values down further remains anybody’s guess as of right now.

Even though the top cryptocurrencies may be seeing less trading volume than they were before, there is a silver lining to all this: the ratio of the top 10 market value to the top 100 value hasn’t changed. This further confirms that there is a correlation between top altcoins and smaller-cap currencies. Unfortunately, it also means there is no growth expected for any cryptocurrencies in the top 100 unless the major coins and tokens suddenly make a push, which seems highly unlikely.

Additionally, it seems there have been no real changes in terms of the market share for all top 10 currencies. While Bitcoin gained a bit over the altcoins, everything else remains virtually unchanged. Ethereum lost a bit of momentum last week, although the same can be said about most of 2018 so far. Anyone can see that things are not looking great for cryptocurrency right now. At the same time, the current trend will have to improve at some point – or so we all hope.

Rockefeller’s VC firm Venrock and crypto investment company Coinfund will now be working together to “mentor, advise, and support” teams in the crypto and Blockchain space #NEWS

BTC and ETH growing gradually stronger on news of major institutional players investing in crypto #NEWS

One particular aspect of cryptocurrency which people love to talk about is mining. The process of validating transactions and minting new coins has boggled the minds of enthusiasts for some time now. As such, it’s always interesting to keep an eye on mining trends. Things are looking pretty solid for Ethereum in this regard, although there are some minor concerns as well.

Evolution of Ethereum’s Network

According to recent statistics from Huobi, there are some interesting developments in the world of Ethereum mining. Despite the recent price drop, there is no shortage of people mining Ether. Whether this is because they expect the price to go up, or simply because ETH still remains more profitable to mine compared to other altcoins, is unclear. What is clear, however, is that the average Ethereum network hashrate has not declined in the slightest, although it seems to have flattened out a bit as of late.

From late March to early April, the Ethereum network hashrate increased by 0.72%. In the grand scheme of things, that may seem like a small gain, even though it further confirms people are still keeping a close eye on Ether as of right now. Some people claim that Bitmain has been mining massive amounts of Ether with its Ethereum ASIC miners over the past year and that it may soon begin to taper off. Those are merely rumors, though, and things may very well play out in a different manner.

On the mining pool front, things have remained largely the same for Ethereum. The distribution of hashpower is still unchanged, although ViaBTC has become a lot less popular all of a sudden. Again, this may be related to the Bitmain ASICs, although it is impossible to confirm such speculation at this point. We did see an increase in the number of blocks mined last week, which is rather interesting.

One worrisome sign is that Ethereum’s network saw as many as 43,005 unconfirmed transactions at one point. This is a lot higher compared to Bitcoin, although it remains a bit unclear what caused this sudden spike in the number of Ether transactions. It is important to note that this was clearly not a spam attack, as average transaction fees went down over the same period. Sending Ethereum still remains 80% cheaper than Bitcoin, which is a positive sign for this ecosystem.

Last but not least, there was a slight change in terms of reachable nodes. This applies not only to Ethereum, but also to Bitcoin. Both currencies sustained a decrease in the number of reachable nodes, even though Ethereum still has a lot more nodes overall. That situation is pretty interesting to keep an eye on, although there is no cause for alarm just yet.