Day: June 17, 2018

To most banks in the U.S., cryptocurrency businesses are pariahs. To Metropolitan Commercial Bank in New York, they’re “pioneers.”

Europe’s competition commissioner has beaten up Google for rigging search results, introduced the right to be forgotten, told Facebook to stop spreading fake news and smashed Apple with multi-billion dollar fines for tax dodging. 

Nvidia is supporting a blockchain startup as part of its Inception Program, which seeks to support artificial intelligence development.

With every slide in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin dominance increases. As a matter of fact, Bitcoin ball park control stands at 40 percent in the last seven days or so. That’s when bears took more than $30 billion despite supportive news from the SEC. Going forward, it could be worse for cryptocurrency portfolios because any break below $6,000 and we might see BTC valuation dropping 85 percent from its ATHs to $3,000.

Let’s have a look at these charts:

From the News

It is attack after attack but in the case of BitGrail, ordinary account holders are set to suffer. A while back, this Italian exchange was hit by hackers who made away with $187 million worth of Nano coin. Even though the operations of the exchange took a hit, they resumed normal services a few days later. However, with formal announcement by the exchange that they were not in a position to reimburse user funds because they strongly believe hackers took advantage of Nano’s blockchain weakness, the Nano Foundation refutes these claims.

We have temporarily disabled the BitGrail exchange pending further notice.

— BitGrail Exchange (@BitGrail) May 2, 2018

This inevitably means the court is the only center of arbitration and now through the orders of a Florence Court, where bankruptcy petition for BitGrail is on-going, BitGrail’s digital assets are under state custody. We cannot make solid conclusion as the hearing continues.

3000 users of the #BitGrail fiasco have filed a petition asking an Italian court to declare the entities that operated the Bitgrail exchange bankrupt.https://t.co/x3wfor4qe1

— DeusExMachina (@d1rtydan) April 27, 2018

Then again the CEO of BitGrail has been clear that there is nothing since the exchange is following court orders. Regardless, it’s clear that the exchange is in a poor financial situation and probably won’t repay victims.

As litigation continues in Italy, authorities in South Korea are planning on creating a special economic zone for blockchain companies in the city of Busan.

“We need a place to concentrate on the cryptographic industry in Korea like the Crypto Valley in Switzerland”

This comes at the back drop of the country’s initial steps of totally banning ICOs and fostering an environment that isn’t supportive for crypto traders in general.

#SouthKorea intends to launch a #blockchain center in Busan city to incubate companies and projects working in the sector. Modeled as “#Crypto Beach,” the development is reportedly inspired by Switzerland’s “Crypto Valley” in Zug.#Bitcoin #btc $btc $bitcoin #ETH #EOS #ICX

— Hitman (@Hitman637) June 17, 2018

Because of this, most blockchain start-ups in South Korea offer their ICOs in other countries. So, to prevent loss, the only approach is to thaw their regulatory grip by creating such blockchain friendly zones. Of course, all things constant, this is positive for Bitcoin in the long haul.

Bitcoin (BTC) Technical Analysis

Weekly Chart

Bitcoin Weekly Chart by Trading View

Talking of Bitcoin hitting $3,000 may be pessimistic but here is the thing: Any break below $6,000 this week or within the next month and it would be catastrophic for coin holders in general. The web might even spread considering the positive correlation between Bitcoin prices and altcoins as we have been seeing in the last couple of days. Besides, even Trustory CEO thinks BTC prices are yet to bottom out and unwind the effect of Q3 and 4 2017 Tether pump.

Price wise, it’s clear that BTC prices are trending around a key inflection point, a double bottom as the weekly chart shows. Overly, bears are in charge and we can draw a simple trend line between Q1 and recent Q2 highs to demonstrate that. In our previous projections, any up-thrust that lifts BTC prices above $8,000 will mean bulls are in charge and buying in line with the new shift of trend is practical. Conversely, it will be a journey back to $3,000 if sellers break below $6,000 as we have mentioned before.

Daily Chart

Bitcoin Daily Chart by Trading View

Announcement by the SEC on June 14 was by all means timely. As we can see from the daily chart, that’s right at the main support line and initial bear targets at $6,500. Now, our trade plan based on these new events proposes buying but only when buyers push prices ideally past $7,000 and for conservatives at $7,800.

Of course, with the past three candlesticks moving within tight trading ranges, patience would be an asset and would mean buying only once our trade conditions are met. On the reverse side where sellers drive below $6,000 and it would be a slide to $3,000.

The post “Bitcoin (BTC) Prices Yet To Hit Rock Bottom”: Bitcoin (BTC) Technical Analysis (June 18, 2018) appeared first on NewsBTC.

Despite our buy projections, sell pressure is evidently strong and quickly reversing previous gains. Even though most coins as Stellar Lumens, IOTA and Litecoin are still trending within June 14 anchor candlestick, it’s very possible that bears might break lower and align with the general bear trend. That’s patience and waiting for right trigger levels to be hit is the right trading strategy.

Let’s have a look at these charts:

EOS Technical Analysis

EOS Daily Chart by Trading View

After raising $4 billion from investors, EOSIO mainnet has been nothing short of disappointments. We can talk of their tumultuous coin staking process which was full of privacy concerns with centralization claims in the last days but that’s no longer a cause of concern. Shortly before their bounty program, Guido Vranken while working alone bagged $120,000 after identifying 12 vulnerabilities.

So the #EOS blockchain was taken offline for 5 hours just days after launch due to a bug – until a centralized company (https://t.co/wD6EA0fSC5) issued a patch to block producers.

…and this software had $4B in funding. Making it hard to not be critical folks https://t.co/Z93qpkbxcS

— Jackson Palmer (@ummjackson) June 16, 2018

Inevitably and rightly so, allegations were rife that Block One did outsource their platform building to a third party. Luckily, Guido Vranken is now an employee of Block One. He might even help the team to pin point the case of their recent blockchain freeze.

“Earlier today, the EOS network came to a complete halt – an emergency mechanism in the software was triggered automatically to prevent the EOS blockchain from hard forking due to a bug..“

Before diagnosis, their 21 BPs were hard at work dissecting the network to pick out where the problem. Unfortunately, as this was ongoing external connection to the network wasn’t possible.

“The EOSIO software is designed in such a way that when an error of this type occurs the chain will pause to prevent a hard fork. All block producers were halted when they detected a break in consensus.”

Price movement within EOS has been limited gaining one percent in the last 24 hours and validating our previous view of this coin’s trade plan. As long as horizontal consolidation continues, we shall remain neutral until either there is upside past $13 or June 14 lows or a slide below $9. Any move below $9 means the general bear trend is in progress and in that case immediate bear targets would be at $7 and later $5.

Litecoin (LTC) Technical Analysis

Litecoin Daily Chart by Trading View

If anything, that LTC bear break below $110 is influential for prices in the short to medium term regardless of recent SEC’s classification of BTC as not being a security requiring oversight.

We Are #Bitcoin
We Are #Litecoin
We Are #EthereumClassic
We Are #Cryptocurrency
We Are #Free
We Are The #Future

We #HODL!!! #TokenizeTheWorld #Decentralize#Blockchain #Fintech #IoT #crypto #Innovation #Security #Bigdata #Digital #ETH #Infosec #News $CVC $BCN
#nytimes #reuters

— Bitcoin Fusion #BFUSE (@KingTrump16) June 15, 2018

Needless to say, in the last 24 hours, LTC have been registering modest gains and while they are up one percent, we need to see strong moves above $110 for our bullish projections to hold true. Otherwise, any slide below $90, our immediate support and sell trigger line might see Litecoin prices printing $70 and later $50 as BTC slide to $3,000.

Stellar Lumens (XLM) Technical Analysis

Stellar Lumens Daily Chart by Trading View

Undeniably, recent bullish up-thrusts are happening right in a steep Stellar Lumens price slide. It’s a tall order for buyers keen on reversing recent losses. As it look, its even harder for bulls to edge past 30 cents in the direction set by June 14 bullish engulfing pattern. Before, we were net bullish anticipating follow ups.

However, contrary to expectations, we are stuck with XLM prices moving within tight ranges. That’s besides sellers making a comeback slowly eroding our previous stand. In any case, any strong break above 25 cents and 30 cents will signal XLM buyers. Nonetheless, if this consolidation persists then we shall stay neutral and wait to see what happens between 18 cents and at current prices.

Tron (TRX) Technical Analysis

Tron Daily Chart by Trading View

It’s no doubt that Tron promises to be a tough competition for Ethereum. With a TVM, a proved scalable platform and high throughput incentivizing developers, TRX could be worth an investment.

I’m not saying that #TRON will be deemed a Security in the US. If it is,
it would be a good thing imo. It would give more incentive for US Institutions to invest. They would have the regulations and security they’re looking for. ALL WE CARE ABOUT IS CHINA ANYHOW.$trx #trx pic.twitter.com/DSVxkh90Hw

— T. @WLFOFMYST (@WLFOFMYST) June 17, 2018

However, that’s speculation and “possibilities” especially if their Independence Day spurs market participation. Before then, Taiwanese investors can now buy TRX using their national currencies, the TWD at MAX Exchange.

【MAX x TRON】 Message from Justin Sun #TRON #TRX https://t.co/dUDhghh1SW via @YouTube

— MAX Exchange (@Max_exch) June 13, 2018

On to the chart and the struggle is across the board. Unless otherwise, we remain neutral until after we see movements past 5 cents triggering buys or below 4 cents welcoming sell pressure.

IOTA (IOT) Technical Analysis

IOTA Daily Chart by Trading View

Still, IOTA is a go to blockless ledger for tech companies who wants to leverage the Tangle in their innovations. With IOTA, Volkswagen can comfortably interconnect their cars while allowing seamless transfer of software/ updates via Tangle. The cool thing is that they have their proof of concept live forecasting that by 2020, it would be live in their product line.

Definitely, in a world of IoT, IOTA leads the way and that’s what makes it a long term buy-hold coin. However, in the mean time, things aren’t so rosy for swing traders. June 14 bullish candlestick is quickly turning out as another zone of unloading IOTA. That’s  why selling because of lack of support above $1.3 remains a good idea. I recommend shorting when prices break below $1.1 and targeting 90 cents in line with the general bear trend.

The post Another Bug Wipes $200 Million Off EOS: IOTA, EOS, Litecoin, Stellar Lumens and Tron Technical Analysis (June 18, 2018) appeared first on NewsBTC.

The Director of Research at Pension Partners, Charlie Bilello, has found zero correlation between the S&P stock market index and the price of Bitcoin in data stretching back to 2010. This debunks a popular theory that Bitcoin and the stock market were correlated since they both reached record highs near the beginning of 2018. Since May 2018 the stock market has been moving upwards while the Bitcoin market has gone downwards, totally opposite of the theory that Bitcoin and stocks move up and down together.

Bitcoin hit all-time highs near 20,000 USD per coin in December 2017. About a month later the S&P 500 Index, which is one of the most popular measures for stock market health in the United States, reached highs near 2,900 on 26 January 2018. The stock market and Bitcoin had both been rallying throughout the entirety of 2017, giving the impression that perhaps there was a positive correlation.

Further evidence towards a possible correlation is that the S&P 500 hit its lowest levels in 2018 so far on 8 February, about the exact same time as Bitcoin hit its lowest levels of the year so far at 6,000 USD. Perhaps there was a common cause for these market movements in early February 2018 since the synchronized timing of the minima in the stock market and Bitcoin market is quite striking.

When stepping back and looking at the longer term, there is clearly no relationship between stock movements and Bitcoin price. Bitcoin is down 60% since its peak in December 2017 while the S&P 500 is up 4% during the same time. Likewise, during the Bitcoin bear market from December 2013 through January 2015 Bitcoin fell 85% and the S&P 500 rose 12%.

A very important point that Charlie Billelo mentions is that correlation is meaningless without causation. Stock prices are tied to long-term corporate earnings, while Bitcoin price is influenced by entirely different factors since it is a decentralized currency.

A possible connection between stocks and Bitcoin is that Bitcoin can be a haven to store money when stocks are crashing. However, although institutional investment infrastructure and interest in cryptocurrency are ever increasing it is still a relatively small factor at this time. Perhaps when institutional investment infrastructure becomes more widespread, and the stock market crashes, then this mechanism will come into play and Bitcoin will go up while stocks go down.

In any case, if Bitcoin became a significant money haven during stock crashes then the Bitcoin market and stock market would have a negative correlation, which is opposite of the theory stemming from price movements in 2017 that the stock market and Bitcoin market have a positive correlation.

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Christopher Bendiksen and Samuel Gibbons from Coinshares Research released an analysis of the Bitcoin mining network on 21 May 2018 and found that Bitcoin mining consumes 35 TWh annually, 0.14% of global capacity and less than the energy consumption the tiny European nation of Luxembourg. This is less than half of the 71 TWh estimated by Digicononomist, which would be 0.32% of global consumption and comparable to the large South American nation of Chile.

The Coinshares study estimates the spectrum of rig types being used across the Bitcoin mining network in order to make its calculation. Quite the opposite, Digiconomist uses the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index (BCEI) which is based on the philosophy that it is too difficult to calculate energy consumption based on hash rate because of all the different types of mining rigs and their varying efficiency. BCEI simply assumes that Bitcoin mining electricity costs are 60% of Bitcoin mining revenue, and calculates electricity consumption from the resulting figure by using a global average of 0.05 USD per KWh.

Furthermore, the Coinshares study finds that the Bitcoin mining network is primarily fueled by renewable energy, especially hydroelectric, massively reducing its carbon footprint. Apparently, Bitcoin miners do a good job of setting up farms where there is an excess of renewable energy being generated, like in parts of China and Quebec, Canada.

This would make the estimates on Digiconomist of carbon footprint far overestimated. Currently, they say each Bitcoin transaction releases 500 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere, but if Coinshares is right then the amount of CO2 released per Bitcoin transaction is less than half this estimation.

On 16 May 2018, Alex de Vries published a study on Bitcoin mining energy consumption in ScienceDirect that used the BCEI, and his study made rounds through cryptocurrency media causing much discussion on how Bitcoin mining is bad for the environment due to the burning of fossil fuels, and would soon lead to increased electricity costs globally.

Apparently the BCEI calculation used by Digiconomist and Alex de Vries is overly simplistic and makes no attempt to calculate Bitcoin mining energy consumption by summing up the power consumption of the mining equipment that comprises the Bitcoin network, which is what the Coinshares study does.

It can’t be known for sure which methodology is right or wrong, what can be known for sure is that experts disagree on the amount of Bitcoin mining energy consumption and it may be far less than what the media has been reporting previously.

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Venture capitalist and Bitcoin bull Tim Draper has predicted that by 2028 the cryptocurrency market will be capped at USD 100 trillion, despite the recent downturns in the market.

Draper has become notorious in the industry for his seemingly outlandish predictions, and this one does not largely differ from this trend. The current market cap stands at just above two hundred eighty billion, meaning that an arguably unprecedented amount of growth would be required to meet his forecast.

His comments came during an interview with the financial news publication The Street, where he also predicted the Bitcoin market alone would account for USD 10 trillion of the aggregate market worth in the same period.

The primary reasoning behind Draper’s comments comes from his belief that the use of fiat currencies is on the decline in lieu of crypto alternatives. He used Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin Gold to illustrate his point that cryptocurrencies can surprise investors with exponential growth.

Draper sees that a turning point will arrive in around four years time when he believes people will be able to pay for everyday items with cryptocurrencies. This change he foresees instigated his belief that central banks are on the way to becoming obsolete.

He even suggested that he should tell Federal Reserve employees ”to start looking for a new job.”

For Draper, cryptocurrencies themselves represent a valuable investment. When asked if he would sell his assets should Bitcoin reach USD 250,000 he answered ”Moving from crypto to fiat is like trading shells for gold…It is reverting to the past. I’m thinking long term I’ll use it, spend it, invest it, or just keep it”.

While Draper’s prediction may seem massively ambitious, the cryptocurrency market has exploded in recent years. The value of Bitcoin was just USD 0.008 when it was first developed, increasing 900% in its first five days. Just 8 years later, the value of Bitcoin stands at approximately USD 6,500.

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A lot of research has been conducted regarding the future of cryptocurrency mining. Not all of these findings are overly positive. In the case of currencies using the Equihash algorithm, it seems a large amount of the combined hashrate is provided by ASIC hardware. It’s a worrisome development which could introduce a lot more 51% attacks in the future.

The Future of Equihash May Be in Peril

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts all over the world have witnessed an influx of 51% attacks over the past few months. Currencies such as Bitcoin Gold, Electroneum, and Verge have all suffered attacks. Although the full repercussions of these developments remain unclear, it seems highly likely that more 51% attacks are looming around the corner.

Research by experts at the University of Luxembourg puts all of this in a completely different light. It seems there is a good reason as to why these attacks have kept happening over the past few months. Close to 30% of the entire Equihash hashrate comes directly from ASIC devices, which is a rather worrisome development, all things considered.

While all major cryptocurrency networks are subject to ASIC mining, they also present a major problem in the long run. More ASIC mining will eventually lead to more centralization issues and the potential for miners – and even mining pools – to collude as a way to attack the networks in question.

For Equihash currencies, it seems to only be a matter of time until new incidents come to light. Major currencies such as Zcash use this algorithm, although it has been safe from such attacks for quite some time now. Bitcoin Gold, ZenCash, and a few others are completely different creatures in this regard. With Bitmain having launched its Antminer Z9 mini ASIC recently, it seems more hardware will come online soon.

The bigger question is what this means for the Equihash mining algorithm in the long run. After all, if these ASICs continue to pose problems, it’s only natural that most altcoins will move away from this algorithm or try to modify it in such a way that it can remain safe from 51% attacks. That is much easier said than done, though.

Moreover, it remains unclear who is responsible for the recent 51% attacks. One obvious possibility is that Bitmain is covertly mining these cryptocurrencies with its own ASICs prior to their release. Whether or not there is any truth to that remains to be determined.

Now everyone can start the morning right with a steaming hot cup of Bitcoin coffee, thanks to Ricardo Reis of Brazil. He has been a Bitcoin enthusiast since 2016 and created this automated Bitcoin-powered coffee machine to prove the ease of using Bitcoin as a currency.

He used the popular programming language PHP to develop the code for the Bitcoin coffee machine and connected a Raspberry Pi to the entire setup to provide the processing power.

The user of the coffee machine simply scans a wallet capable of reading QR codes on the coffee machine, and the Bitcoin address and amount to be sent is auto-filled into the transaction fields. The user then sends Bitcoin to the coffee machine, and the coffee machine uses blockchain.info’s API to detect that a transaction has come in and starts spitting out a cup of coffee.

The whole process is quite seamless and fast, basically the user scans their phone over the machine and it instantly starts pouring a fresh cup of morning joe.

In this example, a cup of coffee costs 0.05 USD (0.00000662 Bitcoin), and transaction fees are 0.06 USD, which is actually quite low for the transaction fee, but since coffee is poured at the moment a transaction is detected without waiting for confirmations a low transaction fee is ok.

It would be much more ideal to use the Bitcoin lightning network for these sort of microtransactions, since on the lightning network there would be practically zero transaction fee and a user could buy 2 cups of coffee instead of spending their money on 1 cup of coffee and the transaction fee. Ricardo Reis has built a test website to experiment with purchasing coffee using the lightning network, but hasn’t implemented a physical version yet.

This technology demonstrated in Ricardo Reis’ video could perhaps be useful for vending machines. There are vending machines that dispense coffee at some gas stations, and they could theoretically start accepting Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin-powered coffee machine is similar to the Sweetbit candy dispenser developed by Swiss inventor David Knezic in May 2018, which dispenses candy for a small amount of Bitcoin instantly after the user sends a transaction by scanning the QR code on the machine.

Ricardo Reis’ Bitcoin coffee machine and David Knezic’s Sweetbit candy machine prove that Bitcoin can be used as an everyday currency for fast and efficient transactions, even for micropayments of a dollar or less.

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