Day: April 16, 2018

Bancor has announced the direct purchases of Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency Ether from their wallet using a credit card, Reddit commentators applauded the move.

Bancor Announces Direct Credit Card to Ether Purchases

Reddit and other social media platforms where cryptocurrency issues are debated are awash with users discussing the newly launched Bancor wallet function of buying Ether directly with a credit card.

The Bancor native wallet allows users to buy store and manage any ERC20 token through a direct token conversion settlement with any other token on the Bancor Network without going through a cryptocurrency exchange. This allows any user with a wallet to convert any token into any other token at a predetermined rate, regardless of the need for the token at the other end of the exchange.

Decentralized Wallet Offers an Alternative to Exchanges

The wallet offers built-in conversion between 75 cryptocurrencies with more coming in the future. The in wallet conversion provides relative stability as compared to exchanges, offering an attractive alternative to newbies not interested in arbitrage trading. Bancor’s in wallet conversions are made using smart contracts which give users fast, transparent pricing without the fees and spreads of a traditional exchange. Bancor neither holds nor has access to investor funds.

The Bancor wallet now allows users to buy Ether directly with any major credit card.  Galia Benartzi, co-founder of Bancor talked about the role of digital wallets in the new economy to TechCrunch saying,

“Money is changing, and digital wallets must be as dynamic as the currencies they hold. Imagine if your coffee shop loyalty points were accepted at any cash register in the world, or your airline miles could buy cellular minutes with the click of a button… Bancor’s new wallet aims to deliver on that promise by offering continuous access to crypto tokens and instant convertibility between virtual assets, unlocking enormous purchasing power for consumers,”

Comments on Reddit about the new option were almost universally congratulatory though some questioned the fees involved and others complained of the inability to get registered. One commenter  from the US who said access was denied got a response from another user pointing out that “There was a comment on the Bancor subreddit indicating that Simplex currently lets you buy BTC in the US but not ETH, and they’re “working on it.”

Neither the company blog nor any  Reddit comments made reference to the ruling of both Mastercard and Visa to classify cryptocurrency purchases as cash advancements that incur %5 fees and interest on the value from the time of purchase.

The post Decentralized Exchange Bancor Enables Users to Buy Ethereum With Credit Card appeared first on NewsBTC.

CoinDesk examines the arguments for and against a proposal that would limit the total number of ether that could ever be issued.

It would appear the momentum is turning against all top cryptocurrencies once again. While this is anything but surprising, it has become apparent this was just to be a matter of time. When looking at the bigger picture, there’s no reason to think the full recovery is in place yet. As such, we now see the Bitcoin price dropping to nearly $8.000 again, albeit it remains to be seen if that level will hold.

Bitcoin Price Woes Are Looming Ahead

Although a temporary dip is nothing to be concerned about when dealing with cryptocurrencies, the current Bitcoin price momentum can turn extremely bearish pretty quickly. We have seen things like that happen before, and it is very likely things will head in that direction fairly soon. Late last week, we saw positive Bitcoin price movements, effectively carrying the value from $7m100 all the way to $8m300 with relatively little effort.

For those who have been around in cryptocurrency for more than a few months, it quickly becomes evident such price momentum will not effectively last very long. In this particular case, we are looking at a potential bearish trend which began forming late last night. Albeit things remain in the green for some time now it now seems the upcoming losses will be quite steep as well. We have already lost nearly $300 in just a few hours, which will trigger another massive sell-off eventually.

It is a bit unclear what is fueling this sudden bearish pressure. There is no reason for anyone to think governments will effectively ban Bitcoin or prevent people from using the only tool which provides them with financial freedom. At the same time, volatility is the name of the game where Bitcoin is concerned, and it seems we will have a bit of a rough period ahead.

With $5.51bn in 24-hour trading volume, things are not looking all that bad for Bitcoin as of right now. Even though the Bitcoin price is currently suffering from a dip the trading volume is not slowing down, which is pretty interesting to keep an eye on. Assuming the bears do not take control of the market, interesting things are bound to happen to the Bitcoin price.

Similar to most other days, Bitfinex is still leading the charge in terms of trading volume.That may not necessarily last much longer, as Binance’s USDT pair is just $1m in volume behind Bitfinex as of right now. OKEx completes the top three with another USDT pair, which is rather interesting. We see 2 fiat currency pairs and three USDT markets in the top 5 as of right now, making for a nice mix of pairs and exchanges.

How all of this will affect the Bitcoin price moving forward, remains to be determined. It is very likely we will see the Bitcoin price drop below $8,000 in the next few hours, although things may turn out just alright in the long run. Cryptocurrencies are incredibly volatile at all times, and it seems that situation will not come to change in the near future. Whether or not that is a good thing, remains to be determined.

Malta is moving closer to introducing a test that would clearly define when assets derived from initial coin offerings are securities.

A Taiwanese miner allegedly failed to pay two gangster customers due to mainland China’s Bitcoin policy. #NEWS

Blockchain technology is making inroads in many different industries. Samsung, a global technology leader, is now keeping a close eye on this technology. The company plans to incorporate distributed ledgers to manage its global supply network. Samsung also shows a keen interest in manufacturing cryptocurrency mining equipment.

The Impact of Blockchain Technology

Cryptocurrencies have introduced the world to how blockchain technology can be harnessed for many different purposes. For Samsung, it seems this technology can serve as an immutable record to keep tabs on the company’s global shipments. Incorporating a distributed ledger into the existing supply chain will help reduce shipping costs. For a company dealing with billions of dollars in shipments every year, any cost-cutting measure needs to be explored.

This new implementation is being developed with the help of SDS. Depending on how this measure turns out, the impact on Samsung’s supply chains can be rather significant. In its current form, this industry relies on paperwork being sent back and forth between different parties. With a distributed ledger, coordinating with other parties and authorities becomes a lot more straightforward.

The technology in question will be trialed to handle most of Samsung’s products. That list includes smartphones, displays, and so forth. If successfully implemented, blockchain technology will be a valuable tool in reducing the time between product launches and actual shipments. In terms of rivaling with other companies, this method can give Samsung a competitive edge in the industry.

Samsung Keeps a Close eye on Cryptocurrency

This new announcement comes at a rather interesting time for Samsung. Over the past few months, it has become apparent the company is eyeing the cryptocurrency industry as well. More specifically, the firm has shown an interest in developing mining hardware components. For now, Samsung is producing ASIC chips for Halong Mining, a very popular manufacturer of Bitcoin and Ethereum mining hardware.

With this particular venture, the technology giant is bringing some much-needed competition to the mining industry. As of right now, it is primarily controlled by Bitmain. There is plenty of room for other manufacturers, yet none of them makes any big impact. With Samsung backing the effort by Halong Mining, the ecosystem continues to grow.

By tackling both cryptocurrency and blockchain, Samsung is heading in a rather surprising direction. When global technology giants pay attention to these industries, interesting things are bound to happen. The company’s blockchain venture is still in development and has no official “roadmap” as of right now. Other companies in the shipping and logistics industry are also looking for ways to cut overhead costs once and for all.

The post Samsung Implents Blockchain and Produces Bitcoin Miners, Focuses on Crypto appeared first on NewsBTC.

There are rumours afoot that ask.fm is going to launch a token sale in the not too distant future.

For those of you that are not familiar with Ask.fm, it is a Q&A social network with 215 million registered users. Maybe you’ve heard of Quora or in the coding world StackOverflow? Well, it is similar but bigger and caters mostly to young people and is arguably a little more frivolous.

Users can ask and answer questions openly or anonymously, which is ideal for young people who are embarrassed to ask stuff they think they should already know – maybe mum and dad did tell them about the birds and the bees or they couldn’t work out what their parents were talking about in that coded lingo.

Ask.fm is not so popular in North America and Asia but is well-known in Europe and the Eurasian side that was once part of the old Soviet Union.

With 85% of its user base aged under 25, this is the sort of platform that has advertisers salivating.

Ok, let’s get to the evidence for the prosecution.

Exhibit one in the case for an imminent ICO: ask-fm.pro.

A mysterious website has been parked by the European-based company that promises a second iteration of the platform – the page reads “askfm 2.0”. What might be the nature of the new-look askfm?

Askfm released an app update back in 2014 that it labeled askfm 2.0, so it is extremely unlikely that the “2.0” emblazoned on the parked website refers to another redesign. The 2.0 this time, perhaps, hints at something radically different, suggesting that “Pro” references more than just a look-and-feel refresh, although that might be something in the mix.

The case for a blockchain social network

By way of an expert witness to help us determine the nature of the radical departure askfm has in mind, we need to look beyond askfm itself to the wider social network sector.

You may have noticed that Facebook has had a little local difficulty recently. The Cambridge Analytica data breach has shone a light in the places Mark Zuckerberg didn’t want us to see. If consumers were not aware of it before, they certainly are now – with many social networks you are the product; your data is for sale to the highest bidder, or so it would seem. Facebook, Twitter et al, of course, deny this is the case, but their ability to sell targeted advertising is at the core of their business model.

On one level, there’s nothing wrong with that, provided the data stays anonymized and, even better, the user has full control over their data and receive remuneration for user-generated content.

However, as we have just seen in Facebook’s debacle, this is not the case or at any rate, cannot be guaranteed. That’s where blockchain technology comes in because it can do all of the above.

Messaging app Telegram is going down the blockchain route and has raised a massive $1.7 billion already in its private token sale, and Canadian messaging social network Kik has already held its sale, raising $98 million, so it would be no surprise if askfm was to go down the same road.

The main advantage, however, would be in making askfm less reliant on advertising and making the product more valuable to users by monetizing content creation and curation. For users, it means your answer becomes an asset that earns you money, or more precisely payment in the native token of the askfm ecosystem.

Domain Registrations

So, what is the other evidence pointing to an ICO from askfm?  Well, a flurry of domain name registrations is particularly telling.

Two such examples are askfmico.com and icoaskfm.com. It is difficult to put any other interpretation on that discovery other than a token sale is in the pipeline. Both of those domains are in the name of ask.fm Europe Limited, according to the Whois directory of who owns what regarding web domains.

Our last piece of evidence concerns the building of a decentralised social network. To achieve that end requires talented engineers and project managers with experience of development in the field.

Take a look at the listings on Crypto Jobs List and there are at least three from what is described as “a global social Q&A network with more than 200 million registered users”. That’s a bit of giveaway wouldn’t you say? One is for a “Blockchain Developer”, another for an “Ethereum Solidity Developer” and a third that is described as follows: “The client is a global social Q&A network with more than 215 million registered users in more than 150 countries, with offices in Latvia and Ukraine. They are looking for a Business Development Manager to join their team to help develop a new blockchain/cryptocurrency project globally.”

So, put all the evidence together and some educated guesses to join it all up and you come up with the highly probable supposition that askfm is at the very least thinking about an ICO, if not is about to launch one on an unsuspecting public. Let’s hope we haven’t ruined askfm’s plans by letting the cat out of the bag a little ahead of schedule.

The post Psst! A Top Tip Social Network Maybe about to Launch an ICO appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin needs to take out resistance at $8,500 to confirm a long-term bearish-to-bullish trend change, the price charts indicate.