Day: May 14, 2018

It’s only 10 days before Tron snapshot begins and while we expect a vibrant Tron as investors shuffle to login to their respective exchanges, prices might end up on a high. Anyway, like Tron, the same pattern might pan out in IOTA now that IOTA prices are finding support and rejecting $1.5. Other than these two coins of interest, EOS and Litecoin are promising prospects. After Gemini listing, look to enter on every low when trading Litecoin and aim for $180.

Let look at these charts:

EOSUSD (EOS)

EOS Daily Chart by Trading View

Rob Jesudason, the former CFO of the Commonwealth Bank is trending. He quit the bank and is now part and parcel of Block.One and EOSIO in that case. This move is timely and might even turn out to be the much needed impetus for cryptocurrency dominance. However, while the vibe is good, we need to look underneath the covers:  Is this what the blockchain needs? Will the defection of seasoned bankers help propel blockchain companies?

Commonwealth Bank CFO Rob Jesudason to lead https://t.co/LgcclYjBIb as Group President and Chief Operating Officerhttps://t.co/JbjJrmO3Rw

— EOS (@EOS_io) May 13, 2018

This consolidation we have been seeing in the past two or three days means there is no support of EOS. A quick look at volumes gives but a clear picture of what I’m talking about. The average volume since May 13 is less than half of what we saw from May 10.  Regardless, look at those lower wicks. Those are bull pressures and as long as there is no retest of $12, we remain net longs with short term triggers at around $16.

LTCUSD (Litecoin)

Litecoin Daily Chart by Trading View

In the days to come, Winklevoss Twin’s Gemini shall provide support for Litecoin. This follows approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), a regulatory arm that oversees Gemini. Gemini is a regulated exchange, so this makes sense.

Litecoin is the not the only coin, Bitcoin Cash and ZCash are some of the coins where Gemini users would be in a position to make deposits and trade with. Topping this is the good news that Litecoin is now compatible with Blocknet protocol. In a nutshell, cross-chain transactions between these two independent blockchains are now possible. Litecoin focuses on retail adoption so merchants and users are set to benefit. Let’s not forget that users can either pay in Litecoin or fiat.

Gemini will be adding Litecoin! https://t.co/cftDatQv1Z

— Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) May 14, 2018

Anyway, after periods of uncertainty, Litecoin is up two percent and it is actually the only coin in the positive territory. As long as we have green candlesticks, our previous analysis holds true. Because of this development, we anticipate proper take profits at $180 as long as prices are above $130.

XLMUSD (Stellar Lumens)

Stellar Lumens Daily Chart by Trading View

Even though we have a slight dip in Stellar Lumens daily average range, bulls are in charge. Notice that that apart from those bullish soldiers and generous higher highs, volumes are picking up. This means Stellar Lumens is finding support. As such, buying on dips on lower time frames with stops at 30 cents and immediate targets at 50 cents in line with yesterday’s analysis can be a good trading strategy.

TRXUSD (Tron)

Tron Daily Chart by Trading View

Ahead of the mainnet snapshot, Tron is reversing previous losses. Though it’s still in the negative territory, erosion is not as deep as last week’s. Like EOS, Tron would follow the same protocol and coin owners at different exchanges need not to register tokens. Instead, Tron shall rely on exchanges to do the snapshot of individual owner’s coin balances.

Clearly, TRX buyers are rejecting lower prices as they find support at around 6 cents. Besides high volumes, yesterday’s candlestick had a long lower wick meaning buyers are trying to trend in lower time frames.

Now, here is the thing. I expect immediate resistance at 7.5 cents or May 11 highs. If there is any attempt to break it accompanied by abnormal volumes, then that would be an automatic buy. Otherwise, any break a below May 13 lows at 6.5 cents will likely send Tron back to 6 or even 5 cents.

IOTUSD (IOTA)

IOTA Daily Chart by Trading View

Price action is towing according to yesterday’s trade plan. Better still, our entry proposition remains valid after IOTA buy pressure. Like Tron, we have a long lower wick signaling rejection of lower lows. Then again, if you look keenly at yesterday’s price action then you notice that despite high volumes, prices didn’t dip instead there was a rise. So, we shall trade as per yesterday’s trade plan and aim for $2.5 and $3 in the short term.

The post (A Former Banker to be EOS Group President and Chief Operating Officer) IOTA, Stellar Lumens, Tron, Litecoin, EOS Technical Analysis appeared first on NewsBTC.

There is an abundance of blockchain-oriented projects on the market today. Even so, not all of these projects aim to achieve similar goals. Enecuum positions itself as the blockchain of tomorrow, placing a strong focus on integrating this technology into business processes. With its speed, scalability, and security, the project is certainly worth taking note of.

The Concept of Enecuum

Although there are other projects which try to bring blockchain technology to business processes, competition can only be considered a positive development. Enecuum focuses on speed, security, and scalability to ensure that companies can incorporate this technology with ease. It is expected that this solution will achieve a throughput of up to 1 million transactions per second, which is rather impressive.

How Does it all Work?

Under the hood, Enecuum uses a hybrid consensus algorithm. Its mining component is based on an improved version of Bitcoin-NG which allows for the mining of many different network blocks in parallel. That is part of how Enecuum aims to achieve such a high transaction throughput moving forward. This project will also be ASIC-resistant by using a version of the CryptoNight algorithm, but with a few undisclosed modifications.

Moreover, Enecuum uses proof-of-activity in two stages. PoA miners can reach consensus to form teams of 64 participants. Every team validates chains of 62 microblocks with 40 transactions each, and publishes them to the network. PoA mining is a far more hardware-friendly approach to mining, as all it really requires is a stable and fast internet connection. It should even be possible to conduct PoA mining on mobile devices.

Last but not least, Enecuum also makes use of the proof-of-stake algorithm to achieve consensus. Miners will constantly check balances of all wallets within the system, which entitles them to a flexible reward. It seems Enecuum wants to ensure that as many people as possible take part in this ecosystem, as there is a job for everyone to complete. It’s a remarkable approach, although there is still a lot of work yet to be done.

The ENQ Token

With every blockchain-oriented project creating its own token, one often wonders what the use cases are. In the case of ENQ, there are two. The first iteration is an ERC20 token which can later be exchanged to the cryptocurrency at a 1:1 ratio. It will also be the utility token to grant holders access to the functionality of this adaptive decentralized environment. That includes publication of SHARNELL smart contracts, publishing custom transactions, and accessing complex computations.

What Comes Next?

A lot of things are planned on the Enecuum roadmap. First of all, we will see the Petri net editor for smart contracts, followed by the full implementation of SHARNELL smart contracts. In late 2018, a gateway for automatic transfers of smart contracts from other systems to Enecuum will be implemented. Further improvements will occur throughout 2019 and the following years. It’s a very interesting roadmap, considering that the project was first conceived and launched in 2015.

CME Group And Crypto Facilities have introduced ETH indexes, which “will provide a standardized reference rate and spot price index” to the market

A lot of coders and developers have shifted their attention from traditional projects to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. There is an abundance of job opportunities out there right now for freelance coders. In India, it seems close to 5,000 software developers could work in these industries. It’s positive news, but the demand for qualified coders will only continue to increase.

Indian Developers are Honing Their Skills

Although most people on this planet may not care too much about blockchain or cryptocurrencies at this stage, the industry is booming. The global interest in this technology has sparked a race among companies to find the world’s best developers. Freelancers are a very important group in this regard, even though these coders will need to meet very strict qualifications to land jobs.

In India, it seems a lot of coders have dreams of landing a cryptocurrency or blockchain job. With close to 5,000 individuals possessing the necessary skills to work in this particular industry, it seems to just be a matter of time before major growth is noted. There is no shortage of new blockchain and cryptocurrency companies as of right now. Hundreds if not thousands of jobs have been created by Bitcoin companies in the past few years.

While 5,000 Indian developers sounds like an impressive number, it may only be a drop in the proverbial bucket. This number represents just 0.25% of the entire Indian coding community. That is not exactly an impressive figure by any means, especially considering that there are several million software developers active in the country. Data science and cryptography skills are not part of normal training materials these days, which means coders will need to pick up these skills themselves.

It is certainly true that India has the infrastructure in place to easily triple – if not quadruple – that number. However, it will require a very costly and efficient retraining program to make that happen. Given India’s somewhat negative stance toward cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology these days, it seems unlikely the government will double down on these efforts. One does not simply become a cryptocurrency or blockchain expert overnight simply because they wrote a successful “Hello World” program the day before.

For companies looking to hire proper developers, these delays are of great concern. Indeed, there are a lot more job openings than qualified applicants as of right now. It is evident that developers can take the necessary steps to achieve greater success in this regard, although it remains to be seen if they will do so. There will be no decrease in the number of companies looking to hire new coders, but whether or not the job market can keep up is an open question.

All of this goes to show that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are in a very good place right now. There is a growing demand for qualified people, which further confirms that the industry will continue to grow for quite some time to come. For its part, Upwork is confident there will be even more job openings on its platform in the future. Blockchain was the fastest-growing skill set during Q1 of 2018, which certainly portends an interesting future.

The ethereum evangelist and bitcoin maximalist battled it out after Amber Baldet’s startup pitch didn’t strike the right note.

Dutch cryptocurrency exchange BL3P has announced it plans to follow Hong Kong exchange OKEx and remove Bitcoin Cash before the announced hard fork due to take place on 15 May, according to a recent BL3P blog post.

The exchange suggested that the move was pre-planned, stating, “Since there already was a planning for the removal of Bitcash the hard fork has become a reason and strict deadline for the removal of Bitcash from BL3P.”

Reddit has been flooded with comments surrounding Bitcoin Cash (BCH) since it forked from Bitcoin in August 2017, receiving a plethora of favorable and less supportive points of view concerning the new currency, reports Bitcoinist.  Volatility in BCH markets has remained higher than that of Bitcoin,  fluctuating considerably as Bitcoin prices fell over the weekend.

According to the Cointelegraph, the Dutch exchange’s release manager Tom Zander was putting a positive spin on the fork last November when he suggested that Bitcoin Cash would find its own market, commenting, “It is now up to the next billion people to start to use Bitcoin Cash. In at most six months I’m sure we’ll just drop the ‘Cash’ and call it Bitcoin.”

In shutting down its operations and asking customers to withdraw their funds, the company blog  announced, “BL3P maintains a strict selection policy when it comes to support for altcoins, bitcash, unfortunately, does not meet these requirements.”

Despite slightly faster and cheaper transactions than Bitcoin, the alternative BCH currency has had many detractors, often claiming that it is essentially stealing the code and the brand name of the original Bitcoin. Many investors suggest that it has no infrastructure and no support, whereas Bitcoin has thousands of websites, merchants, and casinos which support it, and a network effect of millions of people.

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With the absence of formal rules leaving gray areas, panelists at Consensus 2018 argued that crypto firms should lead the way with self-regulation.

Bitcoin enthusiasts will be aware of how Bitcoin Pizza Day is almost upon us. Until this year, there was only one way to celebrate this unofficial holiday: order a pizza, pay with Bitcoin, and enjoy. This year, however, we will also see Bitcoin Cash Pizza Day. It is a bit more difficult to find merchants accepting BCH, but that is where the BCHPizza website will prove to be a valuable resource.

BCHPizza is an Interesting Project

Even though people all over the world have celebrated Bitcoin Pizza Day for many years now, it is not necessarily easy to find merchants that accept Bitcoin payments these days. The world’s leading cryptocurrency has lost a fair amount of appeal in this regard, but it is still possible to use websites such as Takeaway.com for this purpose.

For cryptocurrency enthusiasts who wish to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day with Bitcoin Cash, the situation becomes a bit more complicated. Thankfully, a dedicated directory has been created to keep track of places accepting Bitcoin Cash payments in exchange for pizza.

There is also an incentive offered by the platform. Anyone can post a Bitcoin Cash bounty to get a certain pizza shop in a particular city to accept BCH as payment. As soon as the location officially enables BCH payments, the individual responsible can claim the bounty. Getting such businesses to stick with Bitcoin Cash will be rather challenging, as Bitcoin has seen similar struggles in this regard. Even so, it is an interesting initiative which will certainly be appreciated by community members.

So far, the website lists various locations throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Central and South America, and elsewhere. It is evident that a lot of businesses are rather interested in supporting Bitcoin Cash payments, although those locations are rather spread out, especially in Europe. There is a surprising number of businesses in Venezuela, Mexico, and Israel which will sell you pizza in exchange for Bitcoin Cash.

All of this goes to show that acceptance of Bitcoin Cash is growing steadily. Although buying pizzas with BCH is not necessarily the use case that will make this altcoin go mainstream anytime soon, it indicates that things are evolving in the right direction. There is still a lot of work to be done before Bitcoin Cash can rival Bitcoin, but at least users will be able to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day with their preferred version of Bitcoin.

While no one will deny that Bitcoin Cash is a very successful and popular altcoin, there is still plenty of work to be done. Celebrating Bitcoin Cash Pizza Day may become a trend in the near future, which can only be considered a good thing. Bringing cryptocurrency enthusiasts together during events like these is what crypto is all about.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has blocked the filings of Bitcoin exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) even after the launch of Bitcoin futures contracts in December 2017. The regulator now seems closer to accept this financial instrument, but some investment firms chose not to wait and get creative. REX Shares is about to launch BKC, its Blockchain ETF.

Bitcoin Trader and Blockchain Advisor Brian Kelly to Manage REX Shares Blockchain ETF

REX Shares, LLC is a Connecticut-based financial services firm founded in 2014 who is tapping the digital currency market via the launch of ETFs that track the performance of cryptocurrency-related firms. Like the Winklevoss twins and 16 other companies, REX Shares first filed for a Bitcoin ETF with the SEC. The financial watchdog, however, kept the filings pending until Greg King, CEO of the firm, decided to withdraw. King told Bloomberg that the firm is about to launch a blockchain ETF instead.

“The Bitcoin ETF was technically withdrawn”, as he explained that not being in the filing process allowed him to talk about the issue. “But we do have a blockchain ETF that we are hoping to launch in the upcoming weeks. We’re excited about that because we think investors want exposure to this technology and we have partnered with a portfolio manager who runs a crypto hedge fund, so he’s going to be an active manager for this ETF.”

Active management for an ETF is an unusual method, given that ETFs traditionally follow a passive index. King argued that REX Shares is taking an active approach because investors want exposure in companies who are invested in or developing distributed ledger technology.

The active manager Greg King was referring to is Brian Kelly, the CNBC ‘Fast Money’ Correspondent who has been a Bitcoin investor since 2013 and the author of ‘Bitcoin Big Bang.’ Kelly has 25 years experience managing macro, currency, equity, and cryptocurrency strategies, and has served on Board of Advisors for tZero, Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, and the CME Bitcoin Futures Board.

Brian Kelly has founded his own fund, BKCM, which manages a long/short hedge fund focusing on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar, Monero, Litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies. He is now also managing REX Shares Blockchain ETF, BKC.

In the interview, REX Shares King explained how the turning point was in 2015 when the CFTC said bitcoin is a commodity, which led King to file for a Bitcoin ETF based on futures contracts. Little did he know these would only be launched in December 2017.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Rob Jesudason, the CFO of Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has resigned with immediate effect in order to join EOS token developer Block.one as group president and COO

The study of cryptocurrency and blockchain at educational institutions could impact positively on the space filling skill gaps in the industry, according to a report by Bitcoinist.

The University of Nicosia, Cyprus, announced that it would offer the world’s first Masters programme in digital currency back in 2013. The postgraduate course was aimed at financial services professionals:

“The MSc in Digital Currency is designed to help financial services and business professionals, entrepreneurs, government officials and public administrators better understand the technical underpinnings of digital currency, how it will likely interact with existing monetary and financial systems, and what opportunities exist for innovation in digital currency systems.”

Bisade Asolo, writing for Bitcoinist, argues that the lack of high-level blockchain and cryptocurrency courses has caused a skill shortage within the industry, thus producing more opportunities for those already with expertise.

Professor Dan Boneh of Stanford’s Computer Security Lab suggests that “cryptocurrencies are a wonderful way to teach cryptography… a lot of people are attracted to the huge valuations in these currencies”.

There are now many opportunities for blockchain developers, but clearly not enough skilled technicians to fill these gaps. Toptal, a marketplace for hiring tech talent, recorded a 700% increase in demand for blockchain developers since January 2017. These positions can be well paid. According to Jerry Cuomo, VP of IBM’s Blockchain Technologies division, the best blockchain developers can command a salary above USD 250,000.

Such positions can only be filled by those that can display an expert knowledge of the industry. Masters degrees such as the one offered in Nicosia are scarce but an essential source of knowledge for those wanting to take the industry forward.

There are, however, some educational institutions offering courses in digital information systems, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. In the US, the Northeastern University College of Engineering in Boston and George Mason University in Virginia run courses in blockchain tech as part of other advanced educational postgraduate Science programs.  The University of Cape Town now offers a cryptocurrency and FinTech elective module as part of its wider Data Science Masters programme.

In Scotland, the University of Sterling – as part of its Financial Technology (FinTech) Masters programme, offers participants a primer to blockchain technology, which includes cryptocurrencies, decentralized applications, smart contracts, and applications and case studies.

Sao Paulo University Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV) is the most recent university to try and fill the educational gap, offering a Masters Degree in Cryptofinance as part of its program in order to “prepare students for the coming era of digital currencies”.

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Bitcoin Press Release: Vanig International, (Vanig) is proud to announce the launch of its integrated E-Commerce and Supply Chain Ecosystem.

May 9th 2018 Charlestown, Nevis – E-Commerce is projected to triple by 2030 while today the gross total value of B2B E-Commerce topped $20 trillion in 2017.  Vanig is addressing this sizable market place with outreach to emerging and established economies.

Key features of Vanig:

Vanig is the world’s first integrated E-Commerce platform and Supply Chain ecosystem powered by the blockchain.

• Vanig addresses several significant Supply Chain and E-Commerce challenges and inefficiencies, providing a higher level of brand experience.
• Vanig’s Supply Chain ecosystem leverages the latest in blockchain technology using HyperLedger’s Sawtooth technology.
• Vanig simplifies the E-Commerce experience and its embedded Supply Chain, eliminating intermediaries, reducing friction and manual processes as it ushers in a new level of transparency.
• The Vanig platform is safe, secure, and user-friendly, benefiting all members of the ecosystem and allows cryptocurrency payments.
• Vanig provides provenance information on products, increasingly an essential consumer ask, it is fully integrated in our ecosystem.
• Vanig uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to make advertising effective, to certify sellers and provide a customized shopping experience for the buyers.

Vanig was launched successfully in early April with massive participation from the community.  Vanig team is now joined by over 20K unique members on Telegram, Twitter and Facebook.

Vanig’s Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is getting closer to release. MVP development integrating Ethereum and Hyperledger Sawtooth, adding self-sovereign identity authentication & verification to the platform is complete.

The Vanig team continues to expand with experts from different fields joining the team. Here are some of the recent additions –

• David Drake has joined Vanig, founder of LDJ Capital with $1.5 trillion of assets under management. David will assist Vanig with investor outreach, token sale and business development.
• Paddy Tan and Alan Wong key advisors to number of successful ICOs have joined team Vanig. They have a great deal of experience advising companies from planning to funding and execution in Asia.
• Don Quartiere, a recognized supply chain innovator, most recently engaged at Kuehne + Nagel where he served as a key leader in formulating an inbound logistics strategic plan, will guide Vanigon Supply Chain and Blockchain Technology.
• Syed Ali and Jeremy Khoo, entrepreneurs, Supply Chain and Retail strategists from South East Asia

Vanig is also forming exciting partnerships in the South East Asia region. Here are some of our partners so far –

iFashion Group – leading retail venture platform company that owns fashion and lifestyle e-commerce ventures based in Southeast Asia.

MegaxStore – Singapore based marketplace that owns 6 brands and several retail stores, plans to adopt payments in Vanig tokens on its retail stores.

iCommerce Asia – provides a one-stop integrated logistics and supply chain solutions in Southeast Asia.

Dan Ramirez, CEO of Vanig stated:

“We have assembled a global team of experts in E-Commerce, Supply Chain and Blockchain, to work on this ambitions project. We have also forged great partnerships with exciting companies in the South East Asia region to enable us to make quick progress with our rollout once we finish our Token Sale.  We are in Private sale period now and our main token sale will be live from June 2018.The journey is just getting started for Vanig and team Vanig is all geared up for this challenging and exciting ride.”

Visit the Website: https://www.vanig.io/
Meet the Team: https://www.vanig.io/#team
Read the Whitepaper: https://vanig.io/assets/pdfs/vanig-whitepaper-v-4.2.pdf
Get in touch on Telegram: https://t.me/vanigplatform

Media Contact
Name: Prem Sekaran
Contact Email: [email protected]

Vanig is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. Cryptocurrencies and tokens are extremely volatile. There is no guarantee of a stable value, or of any value at all. Token sales are only suitable for individuals with a high-risk tolerance. Only participate in a token event with what you can afford to lose. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

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The txTenna partnership with Samourai Wallet offers bitcoin transactions via mesh networks.