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What Is IoTeX Cryptocurrency?

TheMerkle IoTeXIt seems there is a growing synergy between blockchain technology and the Internet of Things. Building the best infrastructure for this purpose will not be easy by any means. IoTeX claims to have come up with a viable long-term solution in this regard, although it remains to be seen whether the project can deliver on its initial promise. The Concept of IoTeX The IoTeX project positions itself as the next generation of Internet of Things-oriented blockchain infrastructure. Inter-device communication can certainly benefit a lot from distributed ledger technology. This is also relevant to IoT’s payment aspect. However, building the necessary infrastructure to make IoT thrive in its

TheMerkle IoTeX

It seems there is a growing synergy between blockchain technology and the Internet of Things. Building the best infrastructure for this purpose will not be easy by any means. IoTeX claims to have come up with a viable long-term solution in this regard, although it remains to be seen whether the project can deliver on its initial promise.

The Concept of IoTeX

The IoTeX project positions itself as the next generation of Internet of Things-oriented blockchain infrastructure. Inter-device communication can certainly benefit a lot from distributed ledger technology. This is also relevant to IoT’s payment aspect. However, building the necessary infrastructure to make IoT thrive in its own way will always be challenging.

How Does it Work?

It seems IoTeX will focus on the things which matter in order to bring blockchain to IoT. Scalability, privacy, and interoperability are all concerns when dealing with distributed ledgers. Even though other projects are focusing their attention on the same concepts, it seems IoTeX is looking to make things a bit less confusing and more approachable for the masses.

Even though it appears IoTeX is throwing together a lot of buzzwords, it will be interesting to see how the team approaches these challenges. They will use sidechains and a rootchain to form the project’s core protocol. There is no way that multiple IoT applications can use the same blockchain at the same time, although giving them different chains to use is a different matter altogether.

Additionally, the IoTeX project offers constant-size ring signatures, a range proof using Bulletproofs, a cross-chain transfer of value and data option, and fast consensus through the RDPoS implementation. With public and private properties for all subchains and Turing completeness, there is a lot to be explored here. If successful, the transaction throughput of IotTeX will be quite impressive, although exact specifics have yet to be determined.

The IoTeX Token

As one would expect, there will be a native token for the IoTeX ecosystem. While it remains to be seen how this token will be used exactly, it seems safe to assume it will power all of the transactions and features provided by this project. It will take some time to determine the real value of this particular project and its associated token, though.

The Road Ahead

IoTeX’s roadmap is still filled with plenty of work. The testnet preview launch is ongoing, and the beta version will be introduced in June. The mainnet will go live in October, and it will be interesting to see how the IoTeX project evolves from that point forward. Transactional privacy will not be implemented until late 2019, although such timelines are always subject to change.

Top 6 Bitcoin (BTC) Alternatives in 2018 – GlobalCoinReport


GlobalCoinReport

Top 6 Bitcoin (BTC) Alternatives in 2018
GlobalCoinReport
It has been a while since cryptocurrencies first appeared, and due to their last year’s increase in price and popularity, nearly everyone with the internet connection has at least heard of them. Most people are already somewhat familiar with Bitcoin

and more »


GlobalCoinReport

Top 6 Bitcoin (BTC) Alternatives in 2018
GlobalCoinReport
It has been a while since cryptocurrencies first appeared, and due to their last year's increase in price and popularity, nearly everyone with the internet connection has at least heard of them. Most people are already somewhat familiar with Bitcoin ...

and more »

China to Launch National Blockchain Standardization Committee

An official from China’s ministry of industry and information technology has verified that the country’s plan to launch a national blockchain standardization committee should be ready to launch by the end of this year. Structurally based on TC 307 As discussed in a keynote speech from Li Ying, head of the IT ministry’s information and software …

The post China to Launch National Blockchain Standardization Committee appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

An official from China’s ministry of industry and information technology has verified that the country’s plan to launch a national blockchain standardization committee should be ready to launch by the end of this year.

Structurally based on TC 307

As discussed in a keynote speech from Li Ying, head of the IT ministry’s information and software department, the structure of the committee will be based on that of TC 307, the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) counterpart blockchain commission, as reported by CoinDesk.

“We have been working closely with the ISO and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). We should soon have our national technical committee for blockchain standardization ready within this year,” Ying said, commenting on the plans to establish a comprehensive framework for blockchain standards by the end of the year while confirming the Chinese government’s direct involvement.

Ying’s announcement came at the 2018 Guiyang Big Data Expo on Saturday.

China’s blockchain agenda

These comments follow closely the revelations from China’s IT ministry that indicate an agenda to pursue the standardization of blockchain application development. Ying noted the government’s plans to “expedite blockchain deployment in areas that most urgently need the nascent tech”.

While China is currently a participating member of the ISO’s TC 307 commission, the country has plans to provide its own initiative surrounding blockchain standardization. The TC 307 focuses predominantly on authentification and smart contracts; it may be speculated that China wishes to pursue the standardization of blockchain elements beyond these uses.

The IT ministry of China currently directly supervises a research lab responsible for conducting monthly evaluations of significant public blockchains. It has been reported that this is done in an effort to create a standard rating system of these blockchains, a service that would be a huge benefit for businesses looking to utilize blockchain for their company.

 

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The post China to Launch National Blockchain Standardization Committee appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Why Decred (DCR) is the new Bitcoin – GlobalCoinReport


GlobalCoinReport

Why Decred (DCR) is the new Bitcoin
GlobalCoinReport
Decred’s core fundamentals were actually based on an opinion piece published in 2015 outlining Bitcoin’s biggest challenges: governance, funding and powerful miners having too much influence on the blockchain. All of these three problems are solved


GlobalCoinReport

Why Decred (DCR) is the new Bitcoin
GlobalCoinReport
Decred's core fundamentals were actually based on an opinion piece published in 2015 outlining Bitcoin's biggest challenges: governance, funding and powerful miners having too much influence on the blockchain. All of these three problems are solved ...

TRON Wants to Help Build a Blockchain Ecosystem for Soccer

It seems TRON will continue to make media headlines for some time to come. There have been a lot of interesting developments over the past few weeks. Most recently, a new joint venture with vSport was announced. The goal is to launch a new blockchain centered around soccer. Bringing sports and distributed ledgers together in a meaningful manner can have many consequences. Another Major Development Involving TRON Not a week goes by without TRON making headlines in one way or another. Whether it is the potential acquisition of BitTorrent or the upcoming mainnet launch, people are genuinely excited to see what will come next

It seems TRON will continue to make media headlines for some time to come. There have been a lot of interesting developments over the past few weeks. Most recently, a new joint venture with vSport was announced. The goal is to launch a new blockchain centered around soccer. Bringing sports and distributed ledgers together in a meaningful manner can have many consequences.

Another Major Development Involving TRON

Not a week goes by without TRON making headlines in one way or another. Whether it is the potential acquisition of BitTorrent or the upcoming mainnet launch, people are genuinely excited to see what will come next for this project. A partnership with vSport is not necessarily something most enthusiasts expected, although it remains to be seen how much impact this venture will really have when everything is said and done.

With this new partnership, both teams will focus on a rather unusual market. The companies will share resources and collaborate on technical challenges associated with blockchain technology in the sports industry. More specifically, making distributed ledgers more commonplace in soccer will be very challenging, although it is not impossible by any means.

Given TRON’s market position, a partnership of this magnitude seems to make a lot of sense. The company offers a blockchain-based DApp OS and aims to decentralize the World Wide Web. As such, the project will need to focus on many areas. A blockchain developed for the sports industry is not necessarily one of the main use cases most users would think of, but it seems both companies have a plan to make it work.

TRON Founder Justin Sun commented on this development as follows:

Combining soccer, and even sports in general, with blockchain technology will effectively expand community support for blockchain. This will provide people with an enhanced experience of blockchain and even change their lifestyles. That’s what we are going for with this TRON/vSport partnership. Qiang Bai is a successful serial web-entrepreneur and is also a diehard soccer fan. Qiang has always sought to promote soccer. Then we have Wesley Sneijder, who not only helped the Netherlands dominate the field, but also has spearheaded soccer-related projects off the field. As a fast learner that embraces blockchain technology, it’s likely that Wesley will completely change the structure of the soccer ecosystem through this initiative. TRON very much looks forward to this partnership.

For the time being, it remains to be seen what the new platform will entail exactly. It will seemingly be a blockchain-based soccer results forecasting service that will improve the overall soccer watching and entertainment experience. It’s an interesting venture to keep an eye on, but for now, it remains unclear if this concept has any long-term potential.

Op Ed: How Atomic Swaps Could Work for Stock Market Trading

Traditional stock market trades can leverage the concept of atomic swaps to facilitate direct stock-to-stock trades without requiring cash positions.Atomic Stocks OverviewIn traditional stock exchanges, retail in…

Op Ed: How Atomic Swaps Could Work for Stock Market Trading

Traditional stock market trades can leverage the concept of atomic swaps to facilitate direct stock-to-stock trades without requiring cash positions.

Atomic Stocks Overview

In traditional stock exchanges, retail investors in public markets are unable to switch from one position to another without first going into cash. For example, an investor looking to trade his or her Amazon shares for PayPal shares must first exchange these Amazon shares for U.S. dollars, before buying PayPal shares with these dollars.

This style of exchange creates unnecessary friction and expense because of a) transaction costs incurred on the sale of the asset, as well as on the purchase of the new asset; b) U.S. dollar purchasing power exchange-rate risk; and c) transaction fees paid to the broker that the purchaser is using, as well as the bid-ask spread that exists for each publicly traded stock (which occurs on both the sale of the previously held asset, as well as on the newly purchased asset).

Atomic Swaps

In the context of cryptocurrency, atomic swaps are a proposed feature that could allow direct conversion between two cryptocurrencies without having to use a third-party intermediary or exchange. By employing hash time-locked smart contracts, atomic swaps guarantee that parties will deliver the currency needed for the trade, or else the transaction is automatically canceled. These “all or nothing” trades preserve atomicity because they either take place or are canceled immediately. For example, customer A could directly trade his or her bitcoin for customer B’s ether with full confidence that the trade will either take place or terminate if either party doesn’t deliver their side of the bargain.

Atomic Stocks

Harnessing the principle of atomic swaps, direct stock-to-stock exchanges (Atomic Stock Exchanges) enable retail investors to avoid the forced conversion into cash that occurs when selling a stock to USD just to buy back another stock.

It is a commonplace occurrence to switch between stock positions for retail investors and financial firms, and the prevention of touching cash allows for the avoidance of transaction fees that would normally be incurred when making these trades, and the cost-saving consolidation of the bid-ask spreads on both of these stocks into one bid-ask spread. While the larger cost saving would occur on direct stock-stock swaps, there are incremental cost savings on the bid-ask spread as well.

Atomic Stock Exchanges could feasibly work with large-cap stocks that have deep pools of liquidity, such as stocks on the S&P 500, and the liquidity needed for making the trades would be provided by high-frequency traders (HFT) who could make up the gap that exists.

This would squeeze HFT margins, but as a commodity business that provides a middleman service, we imagine they would facilitate this as a way to make incremental revenues (if they have no other options).

By focusing on the needs of the average retail consumer, we realize that in many cases, the sale into cash is forced and doesn’t correspond to what the investor actually wants, which is to simply switch from one highly liquid position to another.

Atomic Stock Exchange: Practical Example

Let’s imagine for simplicity that only the S&P 500 is available and that we want to rotate out of Google stock into Facebook stock because we think that Facebook stock has been shifted off of its fundamental value due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Therefore, we want to exchange our Google shares for Facebook shares; because they are both denominated in USD, there is a ratio of what one share is worth relative to the other share. On the market close of May 4, 2018, one share of Google is worth 5.95 shares of Facebook stock. In this hypothetical exchange, shares are fractional, and you are able to exchange one Google share for 5.95 Facebook shares and vice versa.

The “spread” in this case would be the amount of Google stock you receive when making this exchange. You would only receive 5.93 shares of Facebook when you are doing this exchange, and the market maker is getting 0.02 Facebook shares in exchange for facilitating this transaction. These shares add up over time in favor of the market maker and serve as their profit once they liquidate them.

This spread dynamic could potentially cause an issue since market makers are now being paid by stock instead of in cash, unlike with normal bid-ask spreads. However, this could allow market makers to profit via the appreciation of these shares during the trading day as well. However, nothing would prevent HFT from liquidating the shares they receive as cash immediately as well, provided someone takes this trade.

Exchange Dynamics

To start, Atomic Stock Exchanges would charge no exchange fees. Revenue can be made by selling order flow and the right to trade on this exchange to HFT. The way the buy and sell process would work from stock to stock could be: when a sell order is placed, it is specified which position the firm would like to exchange into, and provided that this trade is available, it is filled by simply swapping shares. This is where HFT could be invaluable as a market maker and be able to profit off the spread. This would serve as a way to make a profit, and many exchanges try to obfuscate the fact that they make money off retail investors doing so.

Questions Worth Considering

What is the main issue that would have to be overcome to create an Atomic Stock Exchange?

It’s critical to figure out how to enable the purchasing of decimalized amounts of shares and how to pair users that are actually looking to swap shares with each other. In private markets, counterparties have broad control over their trade arrangements, but in public markets this utility hasn’t yet been harnessed. In other words, for atomic stocks to work, an Atomic Stock Exchange would have to create decimalized shares. When we consider that for a retail user of E-Trade or Charles Schwab, the cost of going from Amazon to Facebook is selling one and buying the other, each of which carries a transaction fee, and we see that this could be a huge cost savings for the average retail investor, even if a service had to be paid on the back end to enable a decimalized share service to exist. However, for an Atomic Stock Exchange to be profitable, it would have to support massive volume.

Is decimalization of shares in public markets the equivalent of decimalization for stock prices?

Before 2001, all stock prices in the U.S. were quoted as 1/16 of a dollar, creating opportunities for arbitrage, but also creating massive inefficiencies within markets as well. Decimalization has led to tighter spreads because of the corresponding smaller price increments and movements. With decimalization, the minimum price movement is now one cent, allowing for tighter spreads between the bid and the ask levels. For example, shares could be decimalized out to five decimal places, allowing for the equivalent trading of shares.

Would the theoretical lack of (or less) cash be an issue for this exchange?

Many exchanges make money by putting cash that hasn’t been invested into money market accounts. An Atomic Stock Exchange could allow for these kinds of cash holdings as well.

What about liquidity?

Atomic Stock Exchanges can be built on top of existing exchanges, meaning that retail investors can still switch to cash positions if they wish to do so.

Do any kind of similar trades already happen?

Institutional investors can already execute paired trades that never expose them directly to fiat currency. But retail investors miss out on this opportunity.

This paper is part of a research project being developed by Erik Kuebler and Oscar Avatare at the University of Washington. If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions, please email [email protected] or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

Marshall Islands Is Officially Crypto Enabled

The Marshall Islands made its own cryptocurrency, doing away with the US dollar in March, but is unclear as yet if the island’s banking system is ready to adopt it, reports The Verge. Politically, the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a presidential republic in free association with the United States, with the US providing defence, subsidies, and …

The post Marshall Islands Is Officially Crypto Enabled appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The Marshall Islands made its own cryptocurrency, doing away with the US dollar in March, but is unclear as yet if the island’s banking system is ready to adopt it, reports The Verge.

Politically, the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a presidential republic in free association with the United States, with the US providing defence, subsidies, and access to US-based agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the United States Postal Service.

Although the new cryptocurrency, the sovereign (SOV), has now officially displaced the US dollar as the official currency, it appears likely that the country’s 53,066 population will continue to use the dollar until banks and credit companies put in place a framework for the currency’s use.

“As a country, we reserve the right to issue a currency in whatever form it is, whether in digital or fiat form,” said David Paul, minister-in-assistance to the president of the Marshall Islands talking to Reuters earlier this year.

Hilda C Heine, the country’s president, was quoted in Finance Magnates as saying, “This is a historic moment for our people, finally issuing and using our own currency, alongside the USD. It is another step of manifesting our national liberty.” The new SOV will have multiple positives, she suggested:

“The RMI will invest the revenues to support its climate change efforts, green energy, healthcare for those still affected by the US nuclear tests, and education. In addition, SOV units will be directly distributed to citizens.”

Although the presale has not been announced officially as yet, the initial offering is reported to be capped at 24 million tokens as a precaution against inflation. The Marshall Islands now joins Venezuela which launched its own national cryptocurrency, the Petro, recently, mainly as a bridge across US sanctions, with US citizens under a presidential ban from investing in it. The bolivar is still in use in the hyperinflated nation.

Several governments, including China, Estonia, Iran, Sweden, and Russia have discussed plans for their own digital currency.

 

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Poloniex Tightens Its KYC Requirements for Legacy and New Users

TheMerkle_PoloniexThere is never a boring day in the world of cryptocurrency, even when the price of Bitcoin is not headed in the right direction. The Poloniex exchange was once one of the bigger altcoin trading platforms in the world. It has since lost some of its popularity, and the company’s latest decision will not help matters much. A forced KYC implementation will annoy a lot of users, for rather obvious reasons. An Interesting Change by Poloniex In the world of cryptocurrency, there is a growing focus on KYC and AML verification. This has caused a fair few issues for cryptocurrency trading platforms,

TheMerkle_Poloniex

There is never a boring day in the world of cryptocurrency, even when the price of Bitcoin is not headed in the right direction. The Poloniex exchange was once one of the bigger altcoin trading platforms in the world. It has since lost some of its popularity, and the company’s latest decision will not help matters much. A forced KYC implementation will annoy a lot of users, for rather obvious reasons.

An Interesting Change by Poloniex

In the world of cryptocurrency, there is a growing focus on KYC and AML verification. This has caused a fair few issues for cryptocurrency trading platforms, regardless of whether they support fiat currencies or not. Additionally, the users of such trading platforms will have to adhere to some new guidelines which they may or may not like.

For Poloniex users, a lot of changes are on the horizon. More specifically, there is a new implementation of KYC rules which will limit withdrawals to $2,000 if one is a legacy user. Anyone who does not fall into this category will be given a $0 withdrawal limit until he or she completes the proper verification procedure. Users of non-legacy accounts seemingly have seven days to adhere to these guidelines.

Even legacy account owners should get their Poloniex account verified as quickly as possible. Failure to do so will result in having restrictions placed on one’s account and the inability to withdraw money. It is not a positive course of action by any means, although it is not unlike what Bittrex has done in the past few months. The latter exchange also imposed limits on individuals unless they were legacy users or people who had verified their accounts.

As part of the Poloniex verification process, users will need to submit a valid government-issued ID card or passport. Additionally, they will need to take a selfie to prove that they are submitting their own information. This is in line with how other cryptocurrency exchanges verify people’s identities these days. Anyone who successfully completes the verification process will have their limits raised to $25,000 per day.

All of this further confirms that the cryptocurrency industry direly needs decentralized exchanges to get to the next stage. Although it is understandable why centralized service providers need to adhere to guidelines and laws, a lot of users are put off by these requirements. 

Moreover, introducing such harsh changes without prior warning will not be to the liking of a lot of Poloniex users. After all, they are being thrown for a loop and have just seven days to comply. This is seven days since receiving an email, mind you, not seven days since logging in after receiving the message. Even so, not all legacy users have received this communication, which paints a rather interesting picture for the future of Poloniex and its users.

What Is Celer Network?

TheMerkle Celer Network BlockchainScalability is a major concern in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. It has been a problem for quite some time now and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Celer Network is looking to address this moving forward, even though it will face an uphill battle. Celer Network in a nutshell It is evident that scaling blockchain networks is direly needed, even though it poses a lot of challenges. By becoming the first off-chain operating network with internet-level scalability, Celer Network may become the most scalable chain in the world of distributed ledgers. Even so, it will need to offer prominent features to

TheMerkle Celer Network Blockchain

Scalability is a major concern in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. It has been a problem for quite some time now and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Celer Network is looking to address this moving forward, even though it will face an uphill battle.

Celer Network in a nutshell

It is evident that scaling blockchain networks is direly needed, even though it poses a lot of challenges. By becoming the first off-chain operating network with internet-level scalability, Celer Network may become the most scalable chain in the world of distributed ledgers. Even so, it will need to offer prominent features to make all of this happen, which will remain a major challenge.

How Does it Work?

Celer Network uses a layered architecture to ensure stability and scalability. While very technical in nature, it seems to support the transformation of DApp states. More specifically, it can evolve beyond the more traditional concept of simple payments and provide many new features. The project’s documentation shows how all this will work, although it will prove difficult to grasp for most consumers.

On the scalability front, it seems Celer Network aims to achieve a throughput of 15 times the current rate of state-of-the-art solutions. That will be a tall mountain to climb, as some projects aim to process over 1 million transfers per second. Multiplying that number by a factor of 15 will pose a fair few hurdles, but if successful, Celer Network will certainly shake things up.

It is evident that off-chain solutions can play a role in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Whether or not Celer Network will make an impact remains to be determined. It offers a fully decentralized technology stack with high failure resilience. Additionally, it can support any feasible payment process on a state channel network. Compared to Raiden and Lightning, Celer may be capable of achieving true unprecedented scalability, according to its developers.

What Comes Next?

As is the case with any blockchain infrastructure, there is still plenty of work to be done before Celer’s goals can be achieved. Celer Network is a project which represents a major undertaking, albeit one that will not necessarily be all that easily brought to market. After all, a lot of blockchain projects have come and gone with similar ambitions, yet they almost all failed eventually due to unforeseen problems. Whether or not Celer Network will fare any better remains to be seen.

Decentralized Innovation Platform Crowdholding Upgrades, Allows Instant Withdrawal of Earned Tokens

Combining the proven concept of crowdfunding and instead of using the platform for raising money, Crowdholding raises ideas. By allowing companies and entrepreneurs to connect with people at a much larger level, they can simply ask users if a particular change in their existing business, application or service will be good or bad. Users reply and voice their opinions on the platform, allowing the companies to get a better idea of what step to take that will be the most positive for them. Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article Yup, Let’s Not Forget The Users Companies and firms get a

Combining the proven concept of crowdfunding and instead of using the platform for raising money, Crowdholding raises ideas. By allowing companies and entrepreneurs to connect with people at a much larger level, they can simply ask users if a particular change in their existing business, application or service will be good or bad. Users reply and voice their opinions on the platform, allowing the companies to get a better idea of what step to take that will be the most positive for them.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Yup, Let’s Not Forget The Users

Companies and firms get a lot of benefit from floating their ideas to Crowsholding’s users: From having a better idea of what to do to increase business, to saving R&D costs. This is all good for them, but how does it benefit the users? The answer is the Yup token.

A user’s opinion on a project or an idea, if upvoted, generates Yup tokens for him or her. In this way, a good and well researched opinion or suggestion by a user will garner more attention and increased upvotes. The user will be compensated with a higher amount of tokens, while the company will have to simply look at the highest upvoted suggestions and comments to know what their user base wants.

Yup On The Ethereum Blockchain

In their latest upgrade to the Crowholding platform, the developers of this decentralized system have moved the Yup token to the public Ethereum blockchain. This allows users of the platform to withdraw their tokens which are earned as a reward for their contribution to they projects and ideas floated on the platform.

This instant monetization is possible due to the very basic feature of Ethereum: smart contracts. As soon as an idea or a suggestion is upvoted on the platform, smart contracts ensure that a certain amount of Yup token is transferred to the originator. Users then can withdraw their earned tokens from the platform, or use the tokens for further purchasing or upvoting other articles by users.

Crowdholding’s Strong Presence

Crowdholding, like thousands of other blockchain based platform, offers unique services that cater to a very small niche. Yet, the platform has been able to raise roughly USD 2,000,000 from their token generation events in the start of this year and now has 17,000 plus users

The platform boasts more than 25 different blockchain startups on its platform, including some big names such as anonymous crypto payment system Deep Onion, savings platform Peculium and trading platform Intelligent Trading Foundation.

The ability to connect users with special skill set and knowledge with companies and organizations that benefit from the users is what makes Crowdholding stand apart.

Ethan Clime, CEO of Crowdholding stated that online communities are providing an astonishing way for people to interact with each other, learn new skills, solve issues and discuss and debate. With Crowdholding, the community system becomes stronger than ever.

For more information on the crowdfunding for ideas, visit their website: https://www.crowdholding.com/

Scottish ‘Crypto Clinic’ Treats Bitcoin Trading Addicts – Cointelegraph


Cointelegraph

Scottish ‘Crypto Clinic’ Treats Bitcoin Trading Addicts
Cointelegraph
Last year, Cointelegraph reported on a Bitcoin investor who used his home as collateral for a $325,000 equity loan, in pursuit of making a mid-term profit on the cryptocurrency. Crypto community members, evidently viewing his investment mindset as …
Bitcoin junkies to be treated at British cryptocurrency addiction centreMetro
Bitcoin traders offered therapy for addictionThe Times

all 8 news articles »


Cointelegraph

Scottish 'Crypto Clinic' Treats Bitcoin Trading Addicts
Cointelegraph
Last year, Cointelegraph reported on a Bitcoin investor who used his home as collateral for a $325,000 equity loan, in pursuit of making a mid-term profit on the cryptocurrency. Crypto community members, evidently viewing his investment mindset as ...
Bitcoin junkies to be treated at British cryptocurrency addiction centreMetro
Bitcoin traders offered therapy for addictionThe Times

all 8 news articles »

Ex-Coinbase User Claims Account Lock Caused Homelessness, Swears Off Exchanges

A Coinbase user has bitterly claimed that exchanges do not “act in the spirit of Bitcoin” and have “turned Bitcoin into something worse than fiat currency”, after being locked out of his account with the popular US cryptocurrency exchange. The user has recounted a torrid experience without access to funds, including a period of homelessness. …

The post Ex-Coinbase User Claims Account Lock Caused Homelessness, Swears Off Exchanges appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

A Coinbase user has bitterly claimed that exchanges do not “act in the spirit of Bitcoin” and have “turned Bitcoin into something worse than fiat currency”, after being locked out of his account with the popular US cryptocurrency exchange. The user has recounted a torrid experience without access to funds, including a period of homelessness.

“Bitcoin is supposed to be better than fiat currency since it gives control of money back to the people through cryptographic decentralization… but exchanges have ruined that,” said the user.

The Coinbase user, who wished to remain anonymous, told Bitcoin News that he utilized Coinbase several times before to convert Bitcoin paychecks into US dollars for rent, food and basic necessities. The person claims to be a low-income earner depending entirely on these paychecks to stay out of homelessness, with no extra money to use in case of emergency.

The user and his partner lived in a weekly motel without tenant rights. He had developed a routine of depositing Bitcoin earned from freelance work two days before rent was due, as it typically took up to two days before Coinbase withdrawals were reflected in their bank accounts.

Unexpected glitch

On the last occasion on 10 May, the user was locked out after a third unsuccessful login attempt. The user recounts:

“I put the right password, the right 2-FA code. I use the same device for every login but always received an email to confirm a new device. This time, the link from the confirmation email bugged out every time. After my third attempt, I received a notification that my account was locked for 24 hours.”

All attempts to reinstate access via phone support did not work as Coinbase support claimed it had no control over account lockouts even if the user was able to verify identity.

By the time the user was able to log in to sell, Bitcoin’s price had fallen. Making matters worse, the funds had not arrived on the day rent was due. Coinbase could only tell the user that it was not responsible for his loss of money. An unsympathetic landlord threw the user and his partner out of the rental, after which they lived on the streets for several days.

Be wary of exchanges

The user told Bitcoin News that he no longer trusted Coinbase or even other exchanges with his funds and would now seek alternative ways of converting Bitcoin to fiat. He suggested that he might try peer-to-peer trades or look up decentralized exchanges, but admitted he was not sure how they worked.

Decentralized exchanges, as the name suggests, involve trading of currencies without the need to deposit funds onto a centralized wallet where users no longer control their private keys – which is the case with centralized exchanges like Coinbase. Peer-to-peer platforms like Localbitcoins have also been popular among Bitcoin users as they involve direct exchanges between people or traders, eliminating the need to trust intermediaries.

“Let this be a warning to everyone when depositing Bitcoin into Coinbase or any other exchange; the moment you deposit your bitcoin you lose control of your money due to the centralized nature of exchanges. Do not deposit Bitcoin unless you completely trust an exchange,” concluded the user.

Coinbase has not responded to requests for comment. Coinbase receives USD 1 billion of revenue per year.

 

Image source: Flickr – Charlie Cowins

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