Day: June 14, 2018

Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The company is already rapidly expanding its presence across Europe and the rest of the world. In its latest move, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Digital Jersey. Another major step in the right direction toward global expansion of cryptocurrency.

Binance is on a Roll

Over the past few months the Binance exchange has made several headlines. The company has set up a headquarter in Malta due to the country’s favorable cryptocurrency and blockchain regulation. Compared to Asian countries, European nations are almost welcoming companies like Binance with open arms. Harsh regulation will drive companies away, and they will take their multi-billion dollar business with them.

Malta isn’t the only European country which shows a keen interest in cryptocurrency. The island of Jersey, while relatively unknown to most, is looking to make a splash as well. This effort is spearheaded by the Digital Jersey organization. The economic development association wants to put Jersey at the forefront of digital excellence.

Additionally, the country’s infrastructure lends itself to cryptocurrrency activity. With its working spaces, training courses, events, and fiber broadband internet access, Jersey is evolving quite quickly. This new collaboration with Binance will be beneficial to Digital Jersey as well. The association wants to build a blockchain infrastructure which can transform the island into a global hub for financial activity.

Another License on the Horizon

As part of this expansion, Binance will seek to obtain a license and a banking permit. Especially this latter part is of great interest. Opening up more fiat currency gateways for cryptocurrency enthusiasts can only be considered to be a good thing. This venture will also benefit Digital Jersey, as CEO Tony Moretta explains:

“Jersey was one of the first countries in the world to clarify the legal position of cryptocurrency exchanges back in 2015. We can provide a permissive sandbox for innovative crypto businesses to thrive without moving away from the general high standards of regulation that apply in our jurisdiction. We look forward to collaborating with Binance to develop their exchange and compliance function in Jersey, deliver blockchain training as part of our digital skills programme and support the growth of new start-ups in this area.”

For Binance, supporting GBP transactions is a major part of its global expansion plans. Jersey is also close to the UK and Western Europe, which helps the company solidify its market position. The exchange also plans to create around 40 additional jobs to boost the local economy in Jersey. All of this will help bring cryptocurrency to people around the world in the coming years. It is another example of how cryptocurrency is evolving as an industry.

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Formerly BTC-only exchange itBit announces regulated trading of BCH, ETH, LTC, XLM, as well as custody, escrow, and OTC services

With all of the cryptocurrency markets showing early signs of a recovery process, interesting things can happen. While it remains to be seen if this momentum can be sustained in the long run, the TRON price is enjoying some positivity. More specifically, its value has increased by 6% in the past 24 hours, which is pretty interesting to take note of.

Positive TRON Price Gets People Excited

There are many different reasons as to why all top cryptocurrencies should be going up in value right now, rather than bleed value. Unfortunately, rational thoughts are hard to come by in this industry. Most users are only interested in short-term gains and quick profits, whereas the rest of the world has to watch these markets evolve in directions they aren’t comfortable with. This is no different as far as the TRON price is concerned.

More specifically, the TRON price has seen its fair share of declines in the past week. With the value dropping from $0.06 all the way to $0.04, the overall trend had taken on some very worrisome proportions. Although the bearish momentum is far from over at this point, it seems there is a small uptrend in place, for the time being. A small 5.99% increase in USD value is pretty spectacular at this point.

Moreover, it seems the TRX value is increasing compared to both Bitcoin and Ethereum a swell. The TRX/BTC ratio improved by 5.39% in the past 24 hours, whereas the TRX/ETH ratio shot up by 3.71% in the same time period. All of these developments hint at a rather interesting short-term future for TRON, but since the markets are all over the place right now, it is unlikely anything major will happen in the coming days.

One thing working in favor of TRON right now is how its overall trading volume seems to pick up the pace a bit lately. With $261.28m in 24-hour volume, things are certainly looking up  Maintaining any positive momentum in the cryptocurrency these days proves to be rather challenging. As is usually the case, anything can change in the blink of an eye.

Looking over the markets currently ranked by TRX trading volume, Bithumb is leading the charge. It has a small lead over Upbit, with Binance taking up the third and fifth spots. OKEx is in fourth place, which is on par with how most other altcoins look in terms of exchanges. Two fiat currency pairs in the top five shows there is some fresh capital entering the market, which can have a positive effect on the price in the days to come.

While the current TRON price remains rather positive, it is evident it won’t take much volume to swing the market in a completely opposite direction. That isn’t something most people are waiting for at this stage, but one could understand it if and when it happened. Whether or not the upcoming weekend will surprise people in a positive way, remains unclear, but it’s certainly possible.

Bitcoin has made a 6 percent recovery from the 90-day low hit yesterday, but what happens next?

Kenya is one of the African nations in dire need of financial reform. Introducing such changes will require embracing new technologies. Blockchain will certainly play its role in this regard. The nation’s informal economy – valued at $20 billion – can certainly benefit from immutable ledgers.

The Informal Economy in Kenya

African nations are very interesting creatures when it comes to finance. On the surface, it seems a region most Western banks will not show much interest in. For local financial institutions, a whole set of new problems have arisen over the years. Financial inclusion is still one of the bigger concerns in Kenya, as well as other countries around the world.

Secondly, the country is home to a growing informal economy. To put this into perspective, thousands of small-scale retailers exist in African regions. However, they use slightly different methods of accessing loans, buying goods, and so forth.  As such, they are ineligible for official credit ratings, even though the industry has grown to a value of over $20 billion annually.

Solving such a glaring problem will not be easy. For these smaller entrepreneurs, cutting costs and building a credit track record is a key challenge. Forging new partnerships with suppliers and financial service providers is problematic. While there is a genuine open-mindedness toward extending these services to small businesses, not every entrepreneur is on a level playing field.

The Introduction of Blockchain Solutions

It does appear one type of technology can solve all of these problems in the coming years. Blockchain technology allows businesses to evolve and build up immutable records. In a world without official credit-scoring, such a transparent ledger offers many benefits as well. Twiga, a startup in Kenya, is already taking the plunge in this regard.

The startup relies on blockchain for its day-to-day operations. The company specializes in buying wholesale fresh produce and selling it to small entrepreneurs. With blockchain technology, the company monitors orders, supplies, and repayment habits. It has the potential of bringing the informal sector to the forefront in Kenya moving forward.

Whether or not this venture can close the lending gap, is a different matter altogether. Small and micro-sized businesses direly need loans in Kenya and other African nations. Accessing this type of finance is proving to be extremely difficult these days. Without newer infrastructures, such as blockchain-based services changing that situation will prove to be extremely difficult. Even so, distributed ledgers are changing the way finance is conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd has defended Blockchain art startup Verisart against Terence Eden after claims that the company mistakenly believed Eden had painted the Mona Lisa, according to Bitcoinist.

Verisart, launched in 2015 is the world’s leading platform to certify and verify artworks and collectibles using the Bitcoin blockchain, after appearing on the scene with the original idea of using the immutability of blockchain to create certification to the fine art market.

Todd alleged Eden, who currently runs Open Standards for the UK Government Digital Service (GDS), “misunderstood what Verisart is” after the company uploaded the Mona Lisa to the Blockchain with Eden as the artist.

“Verisart is a tool to collect and timestamp evidence, not an authoritative blockchain; his Mona Lisa claim is an obvious fraud [without] evidence,” Todd wrote.

Allegedly, Verisart had required only “an email address” and “a photo of the Mona Lisa from Wikipedia” as “proof” he had painted it after he had published a blog post detailing the Eden experiment. “I don’t understand the blockchain hype,” Eden wrote on Twitter in response to Todd and explained:

“A startup has certified my artwork & placed their verification on the Bitcoin blockchain. Now art dealers & auctioneers can feel secure that I am the original artist. One small problem… I am not Leonardo da Vinci!”

This work is certified and verified on a decentralized public ledger with its digital provenance data permanently verifiable on the bitcoin blockchain.

Verisart’s Todd responded:

“What Verisart’s tech – specifically [open timestamps] – prevented… [Eden from] creating backdated evidence. If he tried to forge that evidence, it’d still show up as being created recently, and thus be suspicious,” he continued.

Stephan Vogler, an artist, and entrepreneur based in Germany, feels that blockchain can become an excellent foil against forgery or dubious claims by “artists”, suggesting that by placing a hash value of digital artwork on the blockchain, buyers can verify that the artwork has been licensed:

“Bitcoin offers a solution to this problem. Just like Bitcoin can replace banknotes, it can replace the piece of paper with the license text on it. I see great potential in Bitcoin and its technology.”

Registering art on the blockchain creates a cryptographic link between a physical work and the blockchain, meaning once it is registered, its identity can be automatically authenticated for potential buyers. This eliminates any forgeries or shady dealings from taking place.

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Big crypto players in the U.S. are now able to invest between $250k and $20 mln in the Coinbase Index Fund

Western Union says it has found no saving by using Ripple’s XRP for transactions while Ripple responded that Western Union hasn’t made a proper case study.

No Savings with XRP

Ripple has pegged its reputation and that of its cryptocurrency, XRP, to the fact that it is a faster, cheaper way to move money across borders. This is the reason that Western Union decided to text the currency using Ripple’s xRapid product but says so far it has seen no savings. CEO Hikmet Ersek told Fortune magazine that,

“We are always criticized that Western Union is not cost-efficient, blah blah blah, but we did not see that part of the efficiency yet during our tests. The practical matter is it’s still too expensive,”

Ersek added that the company is only interested in using XRP if it can cut costs. The loss of Western Union as a client could be a major set back for Ripple but the company has pointed out that the Western Union’s test case is too small to make any conclusive judgments.

In fact, Western Union has only tried XRP in ten transfers and only between US dollars and Mexican pesos. Ripple’s senior vice president of product Asheesh Birla said the pilot was far too small to see significant results. Adding that;

“If they were to move volume at scale, then maybe you would see something, but with 10, it’s not surprising that they’re not seeing cost savings, They do millions of transactions a month, and I’m not surprised that with 10 transactions it didn’t have earth-shattering results.”

Pilot Program too Small

Birla went on to explain that if Western Union expanded it’s test of xRapid to all of its transactions they would see savings of around 50%. He also pointed out that Western Union has failed to embrace the benefits of their product by retaining legacy costs from their traditional method of currency transfer. The company has maintained staff to cover functions that can be eliminated using blockchain and this Birla explained is eating into the cost benefits of adapting xRapid.

CEO Ersek isn’t pulling his support of xRapid yet. He says that he is committed to pilot program and believes that using blockchain can help save the company money. “I don’t want to kill it,” Ersek said before adding that the Ripple team “are good people” who are “very innovative.”

Western Union has been using a 10-digit “money transfer control number” to complete digital payments since the 1990’s that Ersek likens to the companies own digital currency. “We have the cryptocurrency definitely more than 30 years,” he said.

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Thailand’s securities regulator is reportedly about to make the country one of the first to register token sales in a regulated environment.

Muslim entrepreneurs, investors, and governments are intent on being leaders in the competitive global marketplace

The past few days have not been all that great for the cryptocurrency markets. With all markets going off the deep end in pretty quick succession, no immediate reversals are expected. One exception to this trend is the Cardano price, which has seemingly recovered over 7.6% of its value in the past 24 hours. A remarkable trend, but there is still plenty of concern to contend with.

Cardano Price Reversal Seems Temporary

While it is interesting to see the Cardano price recover some of its lost value over the past 24 hours, the current outlook is anything but positive at this stage. All markets are still down by quite a margin, and the overall cryptocurrency market cap has dropped below $280bn once again. It is not the trend anyone has been looking for, yet there is very little that can be done about it, for the time being.

For the Cardano price, this past week has been pretty interesting, although not for the right reasons. With the value dropping from $0.21 all the way to $0.153 in a span of six days, the bearish pressure has been more tangible than ever before. Even so, the past 24 hours show signs of hope, as the Cardano price has risen to $0.1715 once again. A temporary reversal, surely, but still a positive development regardless.

It is also interesting to take note of the ADA/BTC ratio in this regard. Contrary to what some people might expect, it seems there are some solid gains in this department. More specifically, the ADA/BTC ratio has improved by 8.29% in favor of the altcoin. Considering how the Bitcoin price is still in the red, that in itself is a development well worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

Considering how the overall cryptocurrency trading volume has risen a bit again over the past few days, the Cardano volume seems to remain relatively stable. With $177.861m in 24-hour volume, Cardano is of relative interest to cryptocurrency speculators as of right now. However, it remains to be seen how long this positive trend remains in place, as the markets are still subject to a lot of negative pressure.

Looking over the exchanges ranked by ADA trading volume, it seems Upbit can maintain its position on the market with relative ease. Its KRW pair generates more volume than Binance’s BTC and USDT pairs combined at this point. Huobi’s USDT pair and Bittrex’s BTC market are also in the top five, which further confirms there isn’t much fiat currency activity taking place in this regard.

Whether or not the Cardano price will continue to see positive momentum for a few more hours, remains to be determined. With all of the bearish momentum on the market as of right now, anything can happen in fairly quick succession. Any uptrend can be turned into negative pressure and vice versa. For the Cardano price, a stable floor will not be achieved anytime soon at this rate.