Day: June 28, 2018

A court in China’s Hangzhou city has accepted that blockchain technology may legally be accepted by the court as evidence to prove the authenticity of data.

The court came to this ruling after revising the case presented by the plaintiff’s legal representation, deciding that the legal viability of blockchain technology in an evidence deposition may be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Remaining both open and neutral

The judge highlighted the importance of remaining both an open and neutral stance on the emerging technology. ”We can’t exclude it just because it’s a complex technology. Nor can we lower the standard just because it is tamper-proof and traceable,” he commented.

In the case in question, the judge recognized that the third-party blockchain platform offered no conflict of interests and was able to provide a legal basis for proving intellectual infringement took place.

The case

The plaintiff in question, media company local Huatai Yimei, took screenshots from web pages to court, where it believed it found the Shenzhen company using its media assets in an unauthorized capacity.

Huatai Yimei presented evidence showing that the data in question had been encoded through a third-party site named baoquan.com, that provides a blockchain-based evidence deposition platform.

The court was required to judge whether Baoquan could be used as a legal method of determining the authenticity of evidence, a ruling that would set a precedent for similar blockchain cases.

The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff even if the disputed media assets be removed, saying that blockchain-backed data is sufficient enough to be accepted by the court. This is the first officially sanctioned circumstance blockchain has been accepted in legal proceedings.

The Hangzhou Internet Court was officially incorporated in August 2017, offering a progressive initiative for dealing with similar cases such as this. It is one of the first in its country to process cases fully online and to preside over intellectual property dispute that involves online misuse.

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The Bitcoin bloodbath of 2018 continues as the leading cryptocurrency fell to a new yearly low of $5,885.41 and still descending. Marking an almost 50% price drop this quarter and down nearly 75% from its all-time high just 6 months ago.

Pundits, bulls, and bears all have their own theories on the factors that control the market.  The market is volatile, crypto traders are emotional and the bubble is bursting are all ad-hoc fallbacks that supposed financial oracles rely on, but there are also real-world factors that have been laying Bitcoin low throughout the year.

Mt. Gox

The shadow of the now legendary Mt. Gox hack and all of the FUD that followed it continued to bloody the market waters this year as massive sell-offs of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash by the estate’s trustee was revealed. Over the course of a few months, roughly 36,000 Bitcoin and 34,000 Bitcoin Cash were dumped, possibly causing the market to bottom out at $6,000 in February. Furious traders took to social media speculating that the market was being manipulated with Bitcoin essentially stolen from users.

There’s been no shortage of attacks on exchanges so far in 2018, each causing price dips of their own relative to the size and severity of the hack. Starting just after the new year when Japanese exchange Coincheck was taken for a jaw-dropping $534 million worth of the NEM token. Though the effects of the hack were felt throughout the space,  a quick announcement by Coincheck that they intended to reimburse customers softened the initial blow.

The Coincheck hack trained the focus of regulatory bodies around the world on the weak security responsible for the hack but that didn’t stop blackhats from siphoning off more digital assets. Since January there have been at least four other major hacks; the latest just weeks ago on South Korea’s largest crypto exchange Bithumb.

The overall market effects of the Bithumb were fairly negligible, partly due to the exchanges quick response and following Coincheck’s example promising to pay back the $30 million that was stolen back to its customers.  Also possibly partly due to people realizing that as Charlie Lee, the founder of litecoin,  put it on CNBC:

“It’s like if a bank gets broken in and gold gets stolen, does this affect the price of gold?”

Capital Gains Tax

Crypto Bull Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Associates floated the theory that the steep decline in Bitcoin price at the early part of the year was an effect of newly minted Bitcoin millionaires selling off coin to pay their $25 billion crypto asset tax bill. He suggested that once the April, 15 tax deadline passed Bitcoin would start to gain traction.  Which it did for a short time, going from about 8,500 at tax time to nearly $10,000 before dropping back to security at $8,000 by mid- May.

These and a myriad of other factors have been beating Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market for the last six months. Call them growing pains, but the upside is that Bitcoin has continued to rally back from its lows. Not to the levels that the Fast Money bulls have predicted but enough to prove that Bitcoin is a very difficult bubble to burst.

The post Bitcoin Falls to a Yearly Low of $5,800: Factors and Trends appeared first on NewsBTC.

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi has put in place regulatory rules which will specifically apply to cryptocurrencies, as announced by the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in a press release.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of and second most populous city of the United Arab Emirates, and also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the UAE’s seven emirates.

The new framework is being established so that cryptocurrency firms can operate in the ADGM which is the country’s international center and free zone.

In February of this year the UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority made the following statement:

“It [the SCA] reiterated that it does not recognize, regulate, or supervise any ICO presently and that ICO investments are not offered legal or regulatory protection.”

Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) is clearly keen to clarify how current guidelines apply to digital currencies in this part of the UAE in line with significant cryptocurrency interest in the region. Consumer protection, safe custody, technology governance, disclosure/transparency and market abuse were cited as important factors of any new regulation and were reported to have been handled by the authority in line with securities exchanges globally.

The outcome designated cryptocurrencies and utility tokens as commodities. Derivatives or crypto- related assets or tokens are to be regulated as “specified Investments” under current FSRA rules. Agency chief Richard Teng was encouraged by the regulatory progress made to date.

“We are encouraged by the significant global and regional interest from exchanges, custodians, intermediaries and other institutions to our crypto spot regulatory framework,” said Teng.

The changes mean that new exchanges will pay an initial authorization fee of USD 125,000 with an annual fee of USD 60.000. Custodial firms will now have to pay a USD 20,000 set up fee with an annual tariff of USD 15,000.

At the end of last year, an ICO policy was published by the FSRA after the government decided that one policy to cover both initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies was “inappropriate”.

In other UAE emirates, Dubai, with its high-tech society of unmanned trains and Wifi benches, plans to become the first blockchain megalopolis by 2020. Projects underway involve giants Google, Uber, Amazon, and IBM and, due to the initiation of its Smart City program, 545 city projects are underway which have the capacity to change residents lives.

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Key Highlights

• Ripple price failed to move above the $0.4750 resistance and declined against the US dollar.
• There is a major bearish trend line in place with resistance near $0.4600 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair could accelerate declines below $0.4300 and it may even trade to a new low in the near term.

Ripple price is facing a heavy selling interest against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD is likely to decline further below the $0.4300 and $0.4200 levels.

Ripple Price Support

Yesterday, there was a minor upside correction above the $0.4600 level in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The XRP/USD pair even traded above the $0.4700 level. However, the upside move was capped by the $0.4750 resistance. The price was rejected, resulting in a downside reaction below the $0.4600 level. It even broke the $0.4500 and $0.4400 support levels.

A low was formed at $0.4393 and it seems like there could be more losses in the near term. An initial resistance is near the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $0.4572 high to $0.4393 low. However, the most important resistance is near the $0.4600 level. There is also a major bearish trend line in place with resistance near $0.4600 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. The 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $0.4572 high to $0.4393 low is below the trend line to prevent gains. Therefore, if the price corrects higher, it is likely to face sellers near the $0.4600 and $0.4620 levels.

Looking at the chart, the price remains at a risk of more declines below the $0.4400 level. The next supports are seen near the $0.4320 and $0.4200 levels.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is placed heavily in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is now well below the 35 level.

Major Support Level – $0.4350

Major Resistance Level – $0.4600

The post Ripple Price Analysis: XRP/USD Targets Fresh Lows appeared first on NewsBTC.

Hodling but ignorant? An Ontario regulator is concerned the public still lacks knowledge about crypto and its regulation – even if they own assets.

Benny Giang tweeted out to his followers on the CryptoKitties twitter feed that his team would be joining Ubisoft this week in Paris for a special hackathon. To mark the collaboration he posted an image of a special edition “Rabbid Kitty” and ended the tweet by writing “Super excited about more official collabs coming out soon“. The tease worked, as commenters speculate over what other collaborations may be coming.

CK x Ubisoft pic.twitter.com/f11w5cxLui

— Benny (@BennyGiang) June 28, 2018

The special hackathon mentioned in the tweet is the Ubisoft organized Blockchain Heroes which will be taking place from June 29 -July 1 in Montreuil, France. The object of the hackathon is to challenge development teams to integrate blockchain technology with gaming, so it’s no mystery why Ubisoft founder and CEO Yves Guillemot wanted the CryptoKitties team to be apart of the program.

Since it’s introduction in late 2017 CryptoKitties has become the worlds most successful blockchain-based game. Having transacted US $25 million via 1,5 million wallets the kitty based game introduced a mass consumer audience to blockchain technology and demonstrated real-world value for digital assets. There is no doubt that blockchain will be the next platform for interactive gaming and that the development of games will push the mainstream adaption of blockchain the way email brought the masses to the internet.

As Rohan Gharegozlou, CEO of CryptKitties said about games bringing mainstream users to new technology, “From Doom on PC to Farmville and Facebook, games have been key in driving mainstream consumer adoption of emerging platforms, and blockchain will be no different, but blockchain unlocks exciting new possibilities for developers and players alike. Players can truly own their digital items and developers can create all sorts of new experiences.”

Blockchain Heroes Hackathon

Ubisoft as a major creator, publisher, and distributor of interactive games like the Assasins Creed series recognizes the potential of blockchain based gaming, which is why they put together the Blockchain Hereos hackathon to encourage developers to build on existing decentralized apps. In a way, they are following CryptoKitties lead as they recently revealed a program to support developers working on third-party projects by providing funding, free tools, and guidance.

Nicolas Pouard, Blockchain Initiative Manager at Ubisoft was quoted about his expectations of the hackathon saying:

“We truly believe in blockchain’s potential to provide key new benefits to players that could help improve their gaming experience. This hackathon is an opportunity to explore how to set them as heroes of our worlds like never before,”

By the way, that special edition Rabbid Kitty will be awarded to the top team by CEO Gharegozlou and though no monetary value has been set on it, similar custom Kitties have sold for over $100,000 in the past.

The post CryptoKitties Team To Join Ubisoft at Blockchain Heroes Hackathon appeared first on NewsBTC.

FOMO Moments

Crypto land is in pain; Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Cardano and Monero are all hurting.

The downward pressure has continued as the week draws to a close with markets plummeting further again today. After lulling just below $250 billion for a couple of days crypto markets have taken another turn south dropping below $240 billion and heading towards a new yearly low.

That $5k Bitcoin prediction is looking more likely as BTC once again drops below $6k, falling 3.7% on the day to $5,890. Ethereum has shadowed it with a 3% fall to just over $420 during Asian trading. As usual all altcoins have been bashed again with only two showing any gains in the top 50.

Taking the biggest hit in the top ten at the moment is Bitcoin Cash dropping 6.7% over the past 24 hours to $660. BCH did fall further to just over $600 during the first week of April. Cardano is another big loser today with a 6.2% decline to $0.117, its lowest level since the end of November. EOS, Litecoin, Stellar and Iota have all lost over 5% on the day as markets plummet back towards last Sunday’s dip.

Monero in twelfth place is also not looking pretty with a 10.5% fall to $117 also taking this altcoin back to mid-November price levels. Neo, Ontology, Qtum, Icon, Lisk and Zilliqa are all getting trounced at the time of writing losing between 7 and 8 percent on the day. Other double figure declines at the moment include Decred down 10%, Bitcoin Diamond falling 13%, KuCoin Shares losing 14% and Komodo with a 12% drop.

Binance Coin is currently holding up with a 2.3% gain on the day to $14.24. Over the week however BNB has lost 14.5% from $16.65 this time last Friday. Augur down in 30^th place is also pumping at the moment, up 8% to just over $32. Mainnet launches are often the reason for buying pressure however this has not been the case for EOS and Tron which have both lost ground following their much hyped mainnet launches.

A couple of the more obscure altcoins are also bucking the trend and performing well at the moment. Mithril is on a pump, up 18% to $0.437 as is Ethos climbing 16% to $1.34. All others are in the red though as markets inch dangerously closer to another 2018 dip. At the moment total market capitalization is just below $236 billion, down 4% or $10 billion, from $246 billion this time yesterday. Since last Friday crypto markets have lost 46 billion dollars, 16% down from $282 billion. A new low is imminent and Bitcoin could well fall to $5,000 within the next few days.

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 A New Yearly Low Looms as Crypto Markets Continue Bleeding appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price extended its decline and traded to a new weekly low at $415.54 against the US Dollar.
• There is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance near $435 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair is in a bearish zone and it could extend its decline towards the $405-410 levels in the near term.

Ethereum price is struggling to recover against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD may perhaps decline further below the $415 low if buyers continue to struggle.

Ethereum Price Upside Hurdle

There was a rejection noted around the $446 level in ETH price against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair failed to break resistance and declined back below $430. There was a break below the $425 and $420 support levels. As a result, there was a new low formed at $415.54 and the price is currently in a bearish zone. An initial resistance is around the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $450 high to $415 low.

If there is a break above $423, the price could extend gains towards the $430 level. On the upside, there is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance near $435 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The same trend line is positioned with the 50% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $450 high to $415 low. Therefore, the price is likely to face a strong resistance near the $430-435 zone. A break above this could push the price towards the $445 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Looking at the chart, the price is clearly under a lot of pressure below $430. It may perhaps continue to move down towards the $410 level. On the upside, resistances are at $430, $435 and $445.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is gaining momentum in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is now well below the 40 level.

Major Support Level – $410

Major Resistance Level – $435

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD Could Decline Further appeared first on NewsBTC.

Tron Price Key Highlights

• Tron was previously consolidating inside a descending triangle as it formed lower highs and found support at 0.38.
• Price is now breaking through support to indicate that further losses are in the cards.
• The highly-anticipated mainnet launch didn’t seem to have much of an impact on price as expected.

Tron could be poised for more losses as it breaks below the descending triangle bottom on the 4-hour time frame.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is below the longer-term 200  SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the downside. This means that the selloff is more likely to resume than to reverse. In addition, the 100 SMA lines up with the top of the triangle to add to its strength as a ceiling around 0.042.

RSI is on the move down to reflect the presence of selling pressure, but the oscillator is closing in on the oversold region. Stochastic is also moving south so Tron could follow suit until oversold conditions are indicated. Turning higher could lead to a pullback to the broken triangle bottom or a bounce back inside the formation.

Note that the chart pattern spans 0.038 to 0.058 so the resulting drop could be of the same height.

TRXUSD Chart from TradingView

Tron had its Independence Day early in the week as it activated its mainnet following a migration to its independent public blockchain, following the beta launch at the end of May.

According to the company’s blog post, the foundation handed out “a small number of TRX during the 12-hr livestream so the members of the TRON community could test the different features of TRON mainnet.”

It also explained that:

Tron Independent Group (TIG) is a community consensus-based group, consisting 27 anonymous, volunteering Genesis Representatives (GR). During the transitioning period when the GR are being replaced by other SR, TIG will be in charge until this process is complete.

The post Tron (TRX) Price Watch: Bulls Shrug Off Mainnet Launch appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

·         Bitcoin cash price declined further and moved to a new monthly low at $650 against the US Dollar.

·         There is a new connecting bearish trend line formed with resistance near $690 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).

·         The pair is likely to extend losses towards the $640 and $630 levels in the near term.

Bitcoin cash price is back in a downtrend below $700 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD may perhaps continue to decline towards the $630 level if sellers remain in action.

Bitcoin Cash Price Resistance

There was a fresh downside wave initiated from the $780 swing high in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair failed to gain traction, moved down, and broke a few important supports such as $750 and $700. The decline was such that the price even broken the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last leg from the $665 swing low to $780 high.

It resulted in more losses below the $665 swing low and the price traded to a new low near $650. It seems like the price may continue to move down towards the $640 and $630 levels. The next target could be the 1.236 fib extension level of the last leg from the $665 swing low to $780 high. Further below this, the price may even test the $620 support zone. On the upside, an initial resistance is near the $680 level. There is also a new connecting bearish trend line formed with resistance near $690 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair.

Looking at the chart, the price remains in a major downtrend below $700. If there is no recovery sooner or later, the price may even test the $600 handle.

Looking at the technical indicators:

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

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

Major Support Level – $630

Major Resistance Level – $690

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis: BCH/USD Resumes Its Slide appeared first on NewsBTC.