Day: June 21, 2018

On 19 June 2018, block #528,249 was discovered with a peculiar blockhash containing a highly improbable starting sequence of 18 consecutive zeros: ‘00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a’. The ’21e8′ sequence following the zeros is also being interpreted by some as a reference to the unified field theory, i.e. the theory of everything that tries to unify all fundamental physics interactions into one theory (there is a website called 21e8.com based on a fractal from unified field theory).

This has caused speculation and conspiracy theories that perhaps this block was intentionally made, which would mean someone has created a powerful quantum computer or a time traveler from the future did this.

With an incredibly high hash rate of 1 exahash/s, which is about 1/40th of the entire Bitcoin mining hash rate, it would take 2,500 years to pre-determine the first 24 characters of the block hash. Therefore, if this block hash wasn’t a coincidence, then it would take some futuristic technology, like an extremely powerful quantum computer, to accomplish this feat.

Occam’s razor says that the simplest theory, the theory that makes the fewest assumptions, is probably correct. Therefore, this block hash is probably just a coincidence and was produced by normal modern-day Bitcoin mining equipment. This is especially likely since the block was found by a typical mining pool and not an individual computer, and the block contents were quite average at 1 MB with several thousand transactions.

Regardless of Occam’s razor, simplicity, and common sense, some of the cryptocurrency community has went into a frenzy over this block hash. Some have said that maybe a time traveler is trying to send us a message, or even that Satoshi Nakamoto is a time traveler to begin with and now he’s leaving us messages in block hashes. The more sane theories say that someone has developed a quantum computer with no time travel involved, specifically a man posting cryptic rants on Twitter.

Perhaps this will be the start of a new hobby where cryptocurrency enthusiasts watch block hashes come in on blockchain.info in expectation that more messages from time travelers will roll in.

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The post Bitcoin Block’s Hash Fueling Time Travel and Quantum Computer Conspiracies appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Key Points

• Bitcoin price failed to hold gains and broke a major support at $6,700 against the US Dollar.
• Yesterday’s discussed important contracting triangle was broken with support at $6,720 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is currently trading below $6,680 and 100 hourly simple moving average, which is a bearish sign.

Bitcoin price declined below the $6,700 support with negative signs against the US Dollar. BTC/USD could continue to move down and it may even retest the $6,550 level.

Bitcoin Price Analysis

There was another attempt to move past the $6,820 resistance by bitcoin price against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair was rejected from the $6,800 level and started a downside move. It declined and broke a few key supports, including $6,700. Moreover, there was a break below the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $6,511 low to $6,811 high.

More significantly, yesterday’s discussed important contracting triangle was broken with support at $6,720 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair. The decline was such that the price settled below the $6,700 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average. At the moment, the price is trading near the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $6,511 low to $6,811 high. It may continue to move down if sellers succeed in pushing the price below the $6,600 support. The next key support on the downside sits around the $6,550 level.

Looking at the chart, the price has likely moved into a bearish zone below the $6,700 level. To initiate a fresh upside move, bitcoin buyers must push the price back above $6,700 and the 100 hourly SMA. If not, it could decline back towards the $6,550 level.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BTC/USD is gaining pace in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI is now near the oversold region.

Major Support Level – $6,550

Major Resistance Level – $6,700

The post Bitcoin Price Watch: BTC/USD Turned Bearish? appeared first on NewsBTC.

American Institute For Economic Research (AIER), an independent 501 economic research institute that does not represent any fund or special interests, has reported that Bitcoin, the most dominant cryptocurrency in the global market, has significantly and consistently been less volatile than other digital assets since 2013.

In early 2018, researchers at AIER conducted a study comparing Bitcoin to major cryptocurrencies and digital assets including Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum and Bitcoin. AIER found that Bitcoin has been consistently less volatile than the four major cryptocurrencies and discovered an interesting trend in the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin’s Volatility

The researchers emphasized that there exists a variety of ways economists measure volatility of a currency or an asset. In its study of cryptocurrencies, AIER researchers utilized a basic method of observing the daily price movement of Bitcoin and other digital assets in the global cryptocurrency market.

“Economists and statisticians measure a variable’s volatility in many ways. We choose a relatively simple metric: the average daily percentage change in price. We average the absolute value of daily percentage returns for each cryptocurrency and year,” AIER researchers explained.

After comparing the daily price movement of Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) since 2013, AIER formed a database of averaged daily price movement of every cryptocurrency over the past five years. Given that bitcoin Cash debuted in late 2017, the price movement of BCH since September of last year was included in the analysis.

Comparison of major cryptocurrencies and their volatility rates, chart provided by AIER

From 2013 until 2018, Bitcoin has managed to demonstrate the lowest volatility rate amongst the four major cryptocurrencies, which have also been less volatile in comparison to small market cap assets and tokens.

“By our measure, in every year, Bitcoin is the least volatile of the five cryptocurrencies we study (we also looked at coefficients of variation, a more technical measure, which yielded similar results). Bitcoin reached its lowest average daily price movement, less than 2 percent, in 2016, before rising again to levels not seen since 2013,” AIER researchers noted.

Hence, the claims of most cryptocurrency analysts that the market valuation of the majority of initial coin offering (ICO) tokens and small blockchain projects is largely influenced by Bitcoin and Ethereum are correct to a certain extent, given that BTC and ETH have shown the lowest level of volatility and highest level of stability amongst all cryptocurrencies in the market.

Still Long Way to go to Compete Against Reserve Currencies

Government-backed fiat money or reserve currencies such as the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, and the US dollar had never recorded a daily price movement of over 10 percent. In contrast, Bitcoin recorded nearly 20 days per year with price changes of more than 10 percent, while Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum recorded 30 to 50 days.

“None of the benchmark assets — euro, yen, pound, or gold — had a single day since 2013 with a change in USD exchange rate greater than 10 percent (the largest single-day change was an 8 percent drop in the pound against the dollar after the Brexit vote),” said the researchers.

The post Economic Research Institute: Bitcoin is Less Volatile Than Other Cryptos, Sign of Maturity appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price was not able to gain momentum and broke the $0.5400 support against the US dollar.
• Yesterday’s highlighted important ascending channel was breached with support at $0.5350 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair is back in a bearish zone and it could continue to move down towards the $0.5150 level.

Ripple price fell sharply below key supports against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD is likely to extend declines towards the $0.5150 and $0.5100 levels.

Ripple Price Resistance

Yesterday, Ripple price made an attempt to break the $0.5500 resistance against the US Dollar. The XRP/USD pair failed to move past $0.5500 and $0.5505, which resulted in a downside move. The price declined and broke a few important supports including $0.5400 to move into a bearish zone. It even traded below the $0.5350 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

More importantly, yesterday’s highlighted important ascending channel was breached with support at $0.5350 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. The pair cleared the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $0.5094 low to $0.5611 high to accelerate declines. At the moment, the price is trading below the $0.5300 level and the 100 hourly SMA with bearish signs. It may continue to decline towards the $0.5150 level. An intermediate support is around the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $0.5094 low to $0.5611 high.

Looking at the chart, the price clearly moved into a bearish zone below $0.5300. If sellers remain in action, there is even a chance of ripple price retesting the $0.5100 zone. On the upside, the broke support at $0.5350 and 100 hourly SMA are likely to act as resistances.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is now back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is now near the oversold levels.

Major Support Level – $0.5100

Major Resistance Level – $0.5350

The post Ripple Price Analysis: XRP/USD Broke Channel Support appeared first on NewsBTC.

A South Korean government agency has announced a plan to boost blockchain adoption in the country.

FOMO Moments

Markets are falling, altcoins getting hit hardest are Ontology, Bytecoin and 0x.

Just when signs of a recovery were looking positive crypto markets have dumped again dropping another $10 billion in a matter of hours. Buying pressure could not be sustained and the bears once again dominate crypto land. Total market cap did not reach $300 billion and has fallen back as a sea of red envelops the charts.

Bitcoin never got close to $7k and has shed 1.8% over the past day declining to an ominous $6,666 at the time of writing. Ethereum, after a couple of days of good gains, has fallen harder with 4.4% losses on the day back to around $515. Predictably altcoins have suffered worse with almost the entire top 50 losing ground. Only BAT down in 45^th place is actually showing gains this morning.

According to Coinmarketcap Basic Attention Token is up over 6.6% on the day trading at around $0.29. The gains are small but significant as all other altcoins are dropping once again. Over the past week BAT has made an impressive 40% gain from around $0.21 this time last Friday. The monthly picture is not so pretty as the token has lost 12.5% from $0.34 this time last month. Against Bitcoin BAT is up 8.6% on the day to 4440 satoshis and 36% on the week from 3275 satoshis this time last week.

BAT is an Ethereum based digital advertising platform that aims to solve the problem of the intrusive advertising plague smothering the internet from search and social media monopolies. It has recently launched a reward based ad platform with open-source privacy-focused web browser Brave.

Testing of our ad model is starting! When the @brave ad system becomes widely available, users will receive 70% of the gross ad revenue in BAT, while preserving their privacy (ads shown in the browser in a private channel to users who consent to see them). https://t.co/5J6FfBhpwy

— BasicAttentionToken (@AttentionToken) June 19, 2018

Binance currently dominates BAT trade with around 60% of the total volume. Daily trade has almost doubled from $4.5 million to just over $8 million and the market cap for BAT is just under $300 million. Total market capitalization has dropped 3% on the day falling back to $282 billion and into the danger zone once again. If bearish pressure continues over the weekend markets could fall to a new yearly low.

All other altcoins are losing today; those taking the biggest hits include Ontology down 7%, Bytecoin losing 8.5%, and 0x dropping 7%. Way down the charts at 71^st spot is venture studio Centrality which is pumping 73% at the moment.

More on BAT can be found here: https://basicattentiontoken.org/

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the Asian trading session and analyses the best performing one, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.

The post Another Day Another Dump, $10 Billion Shaved off Crypto Markets Again appeared first on NewsBTC.

Historically venture capitalists do not own cryptocurrencies. They hold equity and invest in privately and publicly held companies but, with the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain based technology companies to create unprecedented returns VC firms are exploring ways to restructure legally and financially to tap into that future revenue stream.

VC Firms Creating New Strategies for Crypto

Recode recently examined four different strategies some of the top venture capital firms have taken to re-orientate the way they do business.

Andreesen Horowitz, cofounded by Marc Andreesen creator of the first web browser (Netscape Navigator) and longtime Bitcoin enthusiast, for instance, has created a separate pool of money raised specifically for investment in cryptocurrency projects. This allows Horowitz to put together a group of investors whose main interest is in the nascent technology. It also allows the firm to sidestep laws that limit VC firms from having more than 20% of their investments in assets considered liquid securities such as cryptocurrencies.

Finding a middle ground between launching a separate fund such as Horowitz has and maintaining the traditional status quo allows LightSpeed Venture Partners to earmark a percentage from a general fund specifically for investment in crypto projects. This sends a message to the crypto world that they are dedicated to the space and attracts investors whose main interest is in crypto projects, while soothing partners still skeptical about the volatile industry.

The famous New York Venture Capital firm Union Square Ventures leads a handful of smaller funds putting money into crypto-specific funds set up by other firms. With this strategy, the firm doesn’t have to create a separate unit for crypto but, still gains plenty of exposure to the space without the time and resource commitment of owning any startups. It also allows them to invest simultaneously in multiple funds.

Fred Wilson from USV has advised investors previously about having at least some position in crypto saying:

“If I were a trader, a stock trader or hedge fund person, I might think of having 5% of my assets in something like this; it’s still early days; I don’t think you want to go all in on it, but I think you want to be in it.”

For most the Status Quo

Most VC firms so far have only made slight legal and financial tweaks to their traditional business models. This allows them to dabble in cryptocurrencies, to hold some coins or invest in ICO’s, without making radical changes that could upset partners or expose them to the ongoing legal troubles that crypto startups must negotiate. This is a safe hedge against a catastrophic shift in the crypto space that still allows them enough exposure to shift gears when the industry settles into a more traditional pattern.

The post World’s Biggest VC Firms are Creating Cryptocurrency Funds, Market Enthusiastic appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price failed to move above the $545 barrier and declined against the US Dollar.
• This week’s highlighted key bullish trend line was broken with support at $518 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair is now well below $530 and the 100 hourly simple moving average, which is a bearish sign.

Ethereum price came under renewed selling pressure against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD is now trading below $530 with bearish signs.

Ethereum Price Resistance

Recently, we saw a rejection around the $545-548 resistance in ETH price against the US Dollar. The price made another attempt to surpass the $545 resistance, but buyers failed to gain traction. As a result, there was a bearish reaction and the price moved down below the $540 and $530 levels. There was a sharp decline and the price broke the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $489 low to $548 high.

During the decline, this week’s highlighted key bullish trend line was broken with support at $518 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair settled below the $530 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. At the moment, the price is consolidating around the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $489 low to $548 high. If the price continues to move down, it could break the $508-510 area and declined towards $500. It must stay above the $500 support zone, else there is a risk of more declines in the near term.

Looking at the chart, the recent decline is a sign of rejection from the $545 level. Therefore, there are chances of more losses towards the $500 level. On the upside, resistances are seen near the $524 and $530 levels, followed by the all-important $545.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is now back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI has reached the oversold zone

Major Support Level – $500

Major Resistance Level – $530

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD Broke Key Support appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price looks ready to resume the downtrend as the descending trend line keeps holding.
• Bulls seem to be having trouble sustaining the upside wedge breakout and might give in to bearish pressure.
• Applying the Fibonacci extension tool shows the next potential downside targets.

Bitcoin price might be ready to resume its selloff as the $6,800 level is proving to be tough resistance.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is safely below the longer-term 200 SMA to suggest that the path of least resistance is to the downside. This means that the selloff is more likely to resume than to reverse.

The 100 SMA also lines up with the trend line to add to its strength as a ceiling, and a move higher could still encounter a roadblock at the 200 SMA dynamic inflection point.

RSI continues to head south so bitcoin price might follow suit while sellers have the upper hand. Stochastic is also moving lower without even hitting overbought levels, signaling that bears are eager to return.

BTC/USD Chart from TradingView

A continuation of the drop could lead to a move to the 38.2% extension at $6,300 initially then to the swing low near the 50% extension at $6,100. Stronger selling pressure could spur a break of the $6,000 handle onto the 61.8% extension at $5,879 or the 78.6% extension at $5,585. The full extension is near the $5,200 level.

Sentiment in the industry has tossed and turned for the most part of the week, starting off with the BitLicense approval for Square then the Bithumb hack midweek. The Bank of International Settlements also had some negative commentary on cryptocurrencies, which also contributed to investor anxiety.

Apart from that, dips in risk appetite also led to some profit-taking off key technical levels, which explains why the upside barriers are holding. Bitcoin price would need an even stronger bullish catalysts or several ones in order to inspire confidence in the industry once more.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch: How Low Can It Go? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price failed to move past the $900-910 resistance and declined sharply against the US Dollar.
• Yesterday’s highlighted key bullish trend line was breached at $880 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is currently under a bearish pressure and it could soon retest the $825 support.

Bitcoin cash price struggled to trade above $910 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD declined and it may perhaps continue to move down towards the $825 support.

Bitcoin Cash Price Decline

There were many attempts to break the $900-910 resistance zone by bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. The price failed to settle above $910, which resulted in a sharp downside move. It declined and broke many supports, including $900 and $880. BCH price even settled below the $875 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average to move into a bearish zone.

More importantly, yesterday’s highlighted key bullish trend line was breached at $880 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. The pair even broke the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $824 low to $926 high. Therefore, there are chances of more losses below the $850 level in the near term. At the moment, the price is consolidating near the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $824 low to $926 high. However, the price may perhaps continue to move down and it could soon retest the $825 swing low. Below this, the price may even revisit the $800 support zone.

Looking at the chart, the price is clearly under bearish pressure below $880. To initiate a recovery, it has to move above the $880 barrier and the 100 hourly SMA.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD has moved back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD has reached the oversold levels with bearish signs.

Major Support Level – $825

Major Resistance Level – $880

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis: BCH/USD Could Retest $825 appeared first on NewsBTC.

After spending his time developing zcash’s most popular wallet software, the developer threatened a hard fork in an effort to secure more funds.