Day: June 5, 2018

Despite the overall negative pressure across all cryptocurrency markets, it seems RIpple’s native currency is going through some positive momentum. The XRP price has risen to $0.66 once again thanks to a very small increase over the past 24 hours. If this trend continues, the XRP price may reach $0.7 later this week.

A Small XRP Price Gain Materializes

Given the current circumstances surrounding the cryptocurrency markets, it is rather surprising to see any market gain some sort of traction. In the case of the XRP price, things are certainly improving over the past 24 hours. While a 1.42% gain is anything but spectacular, it still shows there is plenty of room for positive momentum in the cryptocurrency industry.

To put all of this into perspective, the XRP price has risen by 1.42% in the past 24 hours. That in itself is pretty impressive, although it remains to be seen how all of this will change in the near future. Given the bearish pressure on the markets right now, it is evident some interesting momentum will form over the coming hours and days. Even so, it is possible this small gain will be eroded fairly quickly.

There is also a small 2.88% increase in the XRP/BTC ratio over the past 24 hours. Once again, this is not necessarily the development most people have been looking for, although it is still a positive development when looking at all other cryptocurrency markets right now. For the XRP price, it results in a push to $0.66, which will please a lot of XRP holders.

As one would come to expect from any of the top altcoins, XRP generates a decent trading volume. With $408.37m in trades over the past 24 hours, the market seems to be liquid enough to keep things somewhat interesting in the coming hours and days. Even so, the overall cryptocurrency trading volume is still in the low side of the spectrum, and that situation may not come to change anytime soon.

Looking at the current exchanges ranked by trading volume, Bitbank is the largest trading platform for XRP trading. Bithumb comes in second place, followed by Binance, OKex, and Bitfinex. There are three fiat currency pairs and two USDT markets in the top five, which is pretty impressive, all things considered. If this trend keeps up, there may be future XRP price gains on the horizon.

Cryptocurrency markets will always remain unpredictable first and foremost. The XRP price is no different in this regard, although it remains to be seen what the next few hours hold for all markets. If the XRP price momentum remains in place, there may be a push to $0.70 in the coming days. However, it seems unlikely the XRP price can escape this negative spiral affecting all other markets.

Most cryptocurrency companies are in the midst of expanding their market presence. imToken, a popular Ethereum wallet headquartered in China, is moving to Singapore. This is part of the company’s plan to expand overseas and increase its presence in the market. The move is facilitated thanks to a new financing round from IDG Capital.

A big Move for imToken

In the world of Ethereum, various competitors have emerged. MyEtherWallet is a popular solution, but it faces stiff competition. imToken claims to be the largest Ethereum wallet service provider at this time. Their main priority throughout the remainder of 2018 is global expansion. Despite the success to date, over half of its users still reside in the company’s native country.

On paper, that is not necessarily a bad thing. However, given the company’s headquarters in China, their growth may be somewhat limited. As such, setting up shop in Singapore is a big step in the right direction. Unlike China, Singapore has a more open-minded approach to cryptocurrencies and its associated services. It also makes the region more accessible when it comes to this particular industry.

Moving to Singapore is facilitated by a new financing round for imToken. IDG Capital has injected more into this project to ensure it can expand its market presence. If this move proves to be successful, the wallet will reach over 10 million users by the end of 2018. Around half of those users will need to come from markets outside of China, which will be a rather tall order.

The Success of Singapore

Over the past few months, various regions have made their mark on the blockchain industry. Malta in Europe has become a prominent region in this regard. Singapore is trying to achieve the same goal in Asia as of right now. imToken founder Ben He considers Singapore to be a “blockchain-friendly nation”.

Under the hood, imToken claims to “control” $35 billion in crypto assets. That is on par with the assets controlled by a regular Chinese medium-size commercial bank. If those statistics are correct, the company is definitely on the right track to becoming a major entity in the Ethereum world. Rest assured its competitors will not sit by idly either in this regard. The cryptocurrency wallet business is constantly growing and evolving.

Depending on how the cryptocurrency ecosystem evolves, solutions such as imToken will continue to gain more traction.  Consumers seem more than confident to trust these third-party wallet solutions. Blockchain-enabled financial services are the new hot commodity as of right now. With IDG Capital pumping $10 million into this project, it is evident there will be a bright future ahead for this wallet service.

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Blockchains should do for the global value chain what shipping containers did for transport of goods, says HSBC trade finance expert Vinay Mendonca.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is to pay settlements of USD 530 million for breaching anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing laws, writes the BBC.

The Commonwealth Bank is one of Australia’s big four banks along with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp.

The settlements are being paid to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) for failing to report 53,506 bank transactions, improperly monitoring 778,370 accounts for money laundering red flags, and filing 149 suspicious matter reports over a period of three years.

The CBA argues that a single coding error had led to the failure to report the 53,506 transactions and that it wasn’t aware that the bank had violated AML laws, although it did admit to lack of due diligence.

“Our agreement today is a clear acknowledgement of our failures and is an important step towards moving the bank forward. On behalf of Commonwealth Bank, I apologize to the community for letting them down,” said CBA current chief executive, Matt Comyn.

Given bank demands for tougher regulation on cryptocurrencies because of digital currency’s perceived susceptibility to being used for money laundering, this news comes as somewhat of an embarrassment for those banks calling for tougher AML legislation on crypt assets. Endless media reports have suggested that Bitcoin is used for criminal activity.

A recent panel held by the US Senate Judiciary on modernizing anti-money laundering laws discovered that only a small percentage of such activity involves cryptocurrency. Columbia University’s economics professor Edgar Feige cited last month that 50% of the world’s fiat currencies contribute towards illegal activity such as drug and arms trafficking, writes Bitcoinist.

A further embarrassment to the CBA is the fact that two years ago, the now-ousted CBA executive, Ian Narev was extolling the “transformational” potential of blockchain for the bank’s customers:

“Our intention is to be right in the middle of the early stage R&D, because it has the potential to be that transformational for the business – both for customer benefits and for processes and costs,” adding that DLT tech could be, “…more significant than anyone even thought they were. That is something we would expect to pan out over the next couple of years [for distributed ledger technology].”

A CBA ledger built on the blockchain would’ve made it much more difficult to conceal 53,506 transactions, saving AUSTRAC a lot of time and money investigating the breach.

If a court approves the fine, it will be the largest civil penalty in Australian corporate history. The bank, Australia’s largest lender, said it would also cover AUD 2.5 million in legal fees accrued by investigators, according to the BBC.

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Elwood: There’s 106 miles to Las Vegas, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses.
Joliet Jake: Hit it!

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Can you think back to watching one of your favorite buddy comedy movies from childhood? I wouldn’t be able to count how many times I saw the Blues Brothers as a kid. How I re-lived those scenes time and time again saying the lines out loud with them. Seth Rogen certainly understood the power of this and passed the torch to the next generation. On a smaller scale, I live this every day with my dog Tres. It is something we automatically want to be a part of. The secret sauce of the Bad Crypto Podcast conjures its power from that very special ingredient, which without a doubt makes the world a better place.

Check out the episode #130 with VESA here

We Do Not Talk About The Crypto Club

Seems like many of you have though. The other magic dust inside the show would be the general impact artists have on our culture. The Tyler Durden line of the service people from the Fight Club toilet scene comes to mind in an altered way: “We make your movies, record, play and DJ your songs, paint your walls, bleed on a dance floor, go to literal and figurative war zones to distill truth and help you have a good night with your significant other watching a Netflix comedy. Do not f**k with us.”

Check out the “Blood On The Podcast Floor” piece details and other associated product links here

Foundationally though, when it comes down to something that we take as seriously as our money, there is something very important underneath it all. The clowning around is made possible by holistic knowledge in finances including the whole system of FIAT as well as Crypto. This is the bones that the comedy meat of the show is layered on.

Joel and Travis constantly say the bar is really low but is merely a trick for you to feel comfortable enough to hop on board. Make no mistake. The show is no joke(s).

The Crypto Fellowship

What remains elusive to many, is that the fellowship everywhere is a frequency with certain rules understood by those on the inside. The narrative takes side steps sometimes and tragedy is a part of it, but since the beginning of time, the general vibe of it has been the hero’s journey for the protagonist to figure out. Much like LOTR, the blockchain space has everything from hobbits to wizards and trolls. The eye of Sauron burns brighter than ever now. Feel free to use your imagination as to what is what in real and electric life.

In more general terms today, with the outbreak of outrage culture and political correctness, the value of not taking things too seriously contributes something very real to all our lives. It restores a part of our sanity through laughter on top of talking about solutions to get out of the mess we are in with the state of global finances. It’s the essential mix of putting ketchup on broccoli. We must eat our veggies but it can be done in a bad way.

I was more than happy to contribute my two cents into this melting pot of crypto pop & art culture. Much respect and love for Mr. Joel Comm and Mr. Travis Wright for having me on the show. For a moment there, I got to have a moment inside the Blues Brothers movie after all.

Stay Bad,

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A major Hong Kong-based exchange allows fast-track listing for projects supported by a majority of users and approved by a listing review committee #SPONSORED

Mikhail Shlyapnikov, cancer survivor turned quaint Russian farmer and cryptocurrency revolutionary, is well known within the ecosystem. He’s about as eccentric as imagined, defiantly taking on his government through the issuance of a proprietary, local money. It was a way to get out from under gouging state-backed banks. Close to half a decade later, and after a crackdown, his little hamlet is thriving as a result of tapping the digital universe to cure their monetary ills.

Also read: DOJ Crypto Investigation Tanks Prices, Fundstrat Welcomes Adult Supervision

Russian Farmer Living the Crypto Revolution

“I don’t want to expand because it will bring obligations I’m not ready for. I’m not ready to save the world or even Russia, I want to be comfortable and I want to share this comfort with the community,” Mikhail Shlyapnikov told CNN Money. The expansion he speaks of revolves around his personal economic odyssey spurred by banking cartels and their double digit interest premiums on access to capital, Russian rubles.

Колио́ново (Kolionovo) is little over an hour by car from Moscow. That was just enough space for Mr. Shlyapnikov to hospice a cancer diagnosis. It’s a farming village, population probably around a couple dozen. It was a chance to escape city life. That was nearly a decade ago, and almost immediately the iconoclast former banker set about changing things.

Mr. Shlyapnikov explained, “I didn’t want to suffocate and be a slave of the banks. So I had to invent my own money. And I did it. I’m my own bank, government, regulator.” Indeed, around 2010 he led the charge to stop politicians entering the hamlet, insisting they prove mental fitness. Only a few years later, he launched his “kolion” to purposefully usurp the ruble.

Crypto’s Bright Russian Farming Future

Kolion in its 2014 iteration was paper. That was all it took for his arrest, as a Russian court deemed kolion illegal about a year later. Spring of last year, undeterred, Mr. Shlyapnikov seized on initial coin offering (ICO) mania, raising half a million dollars. “We now have about $2 million in kolions because its value has jumped since the ICO,” he noted. “This way we can attract real money into the business.” 

The village’s crypto has 500 bitcoin backing it in reserve, almost $4 million worth. Kolions aren’t mined, and no fiat is paired with it. Instead, Kolionovoians can earn it through a concept he calls ‘plowing,’ which involves trading labor in exchange. Kolions can also be purchased with other, more established cryptos.  

His vision has turned out to be fortuitous. Russian economic prospects can be seen as immediately bleak: the country faces growing sanction levies on top of sometime contracting markets. The village and its neighbors, who both are incorporating the crypto into their daily lives more and more, are effectively insulated from wild downturns. Such was not the case only a few short years ago.

Is this the model for crypto’s future? Let us know in the comments. 

Images via the Pixabay.

Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

The post Russian Farming Village: Local Crypto, Bitcoin Reserves, No Govt Money appeared first on Bitcoin News.

China’s central bank has completed a blockchain-based system that digitizes checks in a move to counter fraud in the country.

There is something to be said about the usefulness of Blockchain in retail. Not only can cryptocurrencies that are run on blockchain technology help in the digitalization of payments, the blockchain itself can lead to smoother operations in retail. A report by Deloitte claims, “Blockchain has the potential to transform the way that individuals and organizations interact, the way that businesses collaborate with each other, the transparency of processes and data, and, ultimately, the productivity and sustainability of our economy.” Talking about the retail sector specifically they say, “As the technology evolves and new use-cases emerge, the retail and consumer packaged goods industries are well placed to take advantage of the opportunities that blockchain affords.”

Indeed targeting the retail segment and creating transactional ease may be the turning point which could fuel the use of cryptocurrencies. Now a project called MillionCoin is aiming to create an inclusive ecosystem which would comprise of a retail platform, a cryptocurrency trading tool, as well as a full support system, made up of accounting, counseling and legal services. The ecosystem would allow for the smooth and harmonious use of cryptocurrency and fiat money to conduct transactions for purchases as well as payments and eliminate the need for wallet-to-wallet transfers that make cryptocurrency transactions expensive as of now.

Creating real-world value for investors

The MillionCoin project is taking the crowdfunding route by holding an initial coin offering (ICO). What sets the MillionCoin ICO apart from others is the fact they have decided to hold a staged ICO, where the value of the ICO token (MON) depends on the developments and achievements of the project as well as the products that they will sell.  The presale stage of the project is already in progress and is set to end on August 17, 2018, or when the target of 1000 ETH is reached. The ICO schedule is given below:

The roadmap of the project, as well as technical and other financial details of the project, can be gathered from a whitepaper that they have released.

OneMillionShop to foster crypto use

In order for cryptocurrencies to gather mainstream momentum, it is essential that they are used to purchase things of daily use by average people who till now remain non-users. MillionCoin has started a platform for this very purpose and it is called OneMillionShop (OMS). On this platform, authorized companies can sell their goods for cryptocurrencies, while businesses can if they so choose to pay out their profits in fiat. The crypto to fiat exchange mechanism would be facilitated by MillionCoin exchange office. OMS will be released by the second quarter of 2018. Testing for the retail platforms has been carried out extensively for a period of over a year. During the testing sale of luxury goods and small real estate were conducted. OMS has also tied up with service providers and producers in Poland, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and Norway.

Holistic focus on cryptocurrency

While retail is just one part of the project, boosting the use and encouraging understanding and proper management of cryptocurrency assets is another. To that end, MillionCoin has introduced the Automated Trading Systems Bot (AT. Systems Bot). This tool is available free of cost to the users of the ecosystem if they hold more than 500 MON tokens in their portfolio. With the Bot, users can configure their own approach to trade cryptocurrencies or they can use expert created settings to trade as well. Security of the trading bot has been designed by experts and it has already been operating for 2 years in cooperation with major exchanges like Poloniex, Binance, Bitbay.

Perhaps one of the most supportive features of the entire MillionCoin project are the ancillary services that they provide users like accounting and billion. They have also made arrangements for regulation analysis and counseling so that users can gain more confidence while using cryptocurrencies. The strength of the project is its inclusive approach. While the shopping platform will reduce the friction that is currently present in using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, the bot would make it easier to profit from holding cryptocurrencies and the MON token would act as a binder to the whole project bring together experts, customers, and experts.

The post MillionCoin’s Inclusive Approach Will Fuel Crypto Use appeared first on NewsBTC.

Ripple has announced a USD 50 million University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) partnering with 17 universities around the world, reports, Business Wire.

The initiative will support the workforce of the future, including academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments.

Ripple’s UBRI partners include some of the world’s most prestigious universities including Princeton University, MIT, and University College London (UCL). Several universities across the US, along with others in Korea, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, India, Brazil, Cyprus, and Australia are also included in the project, giving the initiative a distinctly international flavor.

Although each university is to decide on its own individual research topics, Ripple is committed to collaborating with universities regarding subject matter and technical resources along with providing financial backing.

A 2017 report has shown that global fintech investment in companies has grown by 11% due to the continuing demand for technological solutions. In addition, 4,500 job openings with the terms “blockchain,” “Bitcoin” or “cryptocurrency” in the title were posted on LinkedIn this year showing an increase of 151% on 2017 figures.

Eric van Miltenburg, SVP of Global Operations at Ripple says that the figures reflect the degree to which he feels that university graduates will increasingly fill situations in the fintech space as cryptography and blockchain matures. Universities will play a major role in the development of these new technologies:

“Much of the enthusiasm and activity to date around blockchain is disconnected from real use cases that result in clear benefits to businesses or civil society. While Ripple won’t dictate research parameters, we are excited to play a role in helping to support faculty and student-led projects that explore increasingly useful applications of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.”

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.

The university sector is increasingly becoming a beneficiary of tech companies drives to further develop blockchain education. Last year, The University of Edinburgh and the Tokyo Institute of Technology received a commitment of USD 1 million to set up new blockchain labs from Charles Hoskinson, who helped develop Ethereum.

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The current cryptocurrency market situation doesn’t exactly instill a lot of confidence. That is only to be expected, considering how all of the top markets are in the red once again. The Bitcoin Cash price has lost 5.2% over the past 24 hours, which make sit one of the bigger “losers” in the top fifteen.

Bitcoin Cash Price Decline is Very Real

It is evident there is a lot of bearish pressure across all of the cryptocurrency markets for some unknown reason. Turning that situation around will not be easy whatsoever, but it seems there will be a lot of positive momentum later this year. That is what the experts expect, at least, but the current Bitcoin Cash price momentum isn’t exactly all that great.

To be more specific, the recent 5.20% Bitcoin Cash price decline shows how some altcoins will continue to suffer more from this bearish momentum compared to Bitcoin. It is not entirely uncommon to see altcoins lose even more value when the Bitcoin price is declining, though. In the case of the Bitcoin Cash price, remaining above $1,000 won’t prove much of a challenge, but anything above $1,050 may prove to be rather difficult.

There is also the decline in the BCH/BTC ratio to keep in mind at all times. Although this decline is less steep than the USD decline for Bitcoin Cash, it isn’t helping matters much at this stage. Even so, the Bitcoin Cash price is still going through a rough period, and it is very likely that will continue to happen for quite some time to come.

Even though BCH maintains a pretty solid interest across markets, its trading volume has dropped to $709.02 million. That in itself is more than sufficient for the time being, albeit it may not necessarily be sufficient to keep the Bitcoin Cash price above $1,050 for much longer. Even so, cryptocurrencies are always unpredictable, and the momentum can change course in the blink of an eye.

As of right now, OKEx remains the biggest trading platform for Bitcoin Cash. Its lead over HUobi isn’t too big, though, and Binance completes the top three. All of these exchanges offer USDT trading, which vastly trumps any pairs related to fiat currencies at this stage.

Looking at the bigger picture, the Bitcoin Cash price is doing just fine. The currency is still in the four-digit price range, even though it has dropped well below this threshold on more than one occasion as well. Whether or not the Bitcoin Cash price can remain above $1,050, will be the question that needs to be answered as soon as possible. For now, it seems that will be the case, although nothing has been put in stone just yet.