Day: July 8, 2018

Public filings released in late May establish the strongest link yet between Bitstamp and Korean gaming firm Nexon.

A new patent filing finds retail giant Walmart seeking to utilize blockchain technology to solve problems when scheduling deliveries.

According to Crypto Fund Research, these are the 10 most important and influential venture capital companies investing in blockchain and cryptocurrency companies — ranked according to four key criteria: value of total blockchain investments, total number of blockchain investments, length of blockchain investment experience, and level of investment activity in the last 12 months

Cryptocurrency exchanges are a vital aspect of this industry. Although they make it more convenient for consumers to embrace this new form of money, there are a lot of concerns associated with these centralized platforms. Vitalik Buterin is convinced that these companies are a problem and should burn in hell.

Vitalik Buterin on Exchanges

The world of cryptocurrency is about decentralization at its core. As such, one would expect the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem to be as decentralized as possible. Sadly, that is not the case as of right now, as this industry is mainly centralized due to mining pools and trading pools. The increase in decentralized exchange platforms may help change that situation in the future, but for now, no real changes are happening.

The annoyance people have with centralized exchanges has also been well-documented. Coinbase is facing a mounting number of complaints due to its lack of scaling to accommodate the growing user base. Especially when it comes to customer support, there are a lot of issues which need to be resolved sooner rather than later. So far, no exchange has made a big impact in this regard, as the current situation simply isn’t dire enough.

Even so, the current status quo is also annoying more and more individuals who are actively involved in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Not just traders see the writing on the wall where these trading platforms are concerned. Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, acknowledges something needs to change sooner rather than later. In fact, he would love to see all of these centralized trading platforms burn in hell.

His concerns are always worth taking into account. A lot of current cryptocurrency users haven’t been around for more than a year or two. Even so, there have been numerous issues involving cryptocurrency over the years, ranging from mining pools controlling 51% of a network to centralized exchanges running off with people’s money.

Creating a decentralized cryptocurrency ecosystem has been an ongoing struggle for most developers. Although Buterin acknowledges the Ethereum Foundation is working hard in this regard, more streamlined efforts by all communities is warranted at this stage. User authentication is the main problem holding the decentralization issue back right now, although some big changes can be expected in this regard.

It is evident the cryptocurrency ecosystem will undergo big changes in the coming years. Less reliance on centralized platforms and service providers would be rather appreciated, although it remains to be seen how this situation will evolve in the coming months. Although there is increasing focus on decentralized solutions, they are not as consumer-friendly as one might want. As such, an uneasy situation remains, even though centralization will hinder the cryptocurrency industry in the long run.

Finally, there is a pump of demand as far as Bitcoin (BTC) price action goes. Bitcoin is trading above $6,500 and odds are we might see further gains this week after week ending July 8 bullish confirmation and push above $6,000. In any case, technical formations point higher but what would spur demand are fundamental events so we shall watch out for those too.

From the News

There is good news and a nice “problem” for Bitcoin legacy network. That of capacity resulting from too much demand for their blockchain-and that was expected. Of course, being the most valuable network in the globe, Bitcoin draws attention. Besides, the fact that it is super-secure means people have confidence in it that’s why it is draws an average of 200k transactions a day. That’s on top of those of Lightning Network which despite being on beta still has a capacity of around 40 BTC.

Stephen James is now accepting Bitcoin for the purchase of your new BMW! Contact us today to find out more about how you can use Bitcoin to walk away with a brand new vehicle #bitcoin #bitpay pic.twitter.com/qN1Bq5Juc1

— Stephen James BMW (@SJBMWGroup) July 5, 2018

People know Classic Recreations for their “openness” and how they went that extra length to ensure that everyone desirous of a customized car gets one during the extra-ordinary crypto rally of late 2017. Now, Stephen James BMW group, a BMW car dealership shop in the UK is following suit. In a new announcement, they dealership said Bitcoin owners can visit any of their dealership and wire to the official company address their Bitcoin.

It would be easy as that and because they work with BitPay, there won’t be much paper work. Of course, from a neutral’s perspective, this is what Bitcoin is meant for. A cheap peer to peer method of electronic payment that can significantly improves convenience.

Will he do this before or after the Bitmain IPO? And how will it effect the $40 billion valuation of the *Bitcoin* mining firm? https://t.co/BmeiHuoTT1

— dark pill (@DanDarkPill) June 19, 2018

As this happens, Bitmain which unofficially can attack the Bitcoin network now plans for an IPO after receiving a $400 million from the second round of investment. Bitmain is now valued at $12 billion and has monopoly of literally all ASIC miners in circulation.

Bitcoin (BTC) Technical Analysis

Weekly Chart

Bitcoin Weekly Chart by Trading View

A simple Fibonacci retracement tool between Bitcoin’s all time high low shows that prices are down roughly 65 percent from their 2017 peaks. Coincidentally, that’s where we are seeing pockets of bull pressure. As we can see after the close of last week, the double bar bull reversal pattern from around the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement line is true.

This way, we saw prices pushing above $6,800 triggering our buys in lower time frames as a result. Besides that technical formation, the only undoing to potential higher highs is the low volumes accompanying this move up.

If we compare recent weekly volumes, the average in the last week lags: it registers 140k to last 10 week’ average of around 170k. Regardless, it seems like prices are bottoming out with Bitcoin marking a turn for the better.

Daily Chart

Bitcoin Daily Chart by Trading View

Back to the chart and after periods of being neutral, our Bitcoin buys are now live. Thanks to July 7 gains, prices are now trending above $6,800 and June 22 highs meaning those who can buy on dips can do so from today.

Stops are at July 7 lows at $6,300 with targets at $10,000 or at-least May 2018 highs.

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are those of the author and aren’t investment advice. Trading of any form involves risk and so do your due diligence before making a trading decision.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Technical Analysis: It’s an IPO for Bitmain and a blow for Bitcoin appeared first on NewsBTC.

Weekend’s price action was a short in the arm for Bitcoin, IOTA and a host of other coins under our focus. EOS is also stable despite claims of block producer crash by EOS New York. On the other hand, Tron implements their incentivization plan which is overly good for network development.

EOS Technical Analysis

EOS Daily Chart by Trading View

From accusations of two percent of coin holders owning more than 90 percent of all EOS coins in circulation, RAM speculation, EOS centralization calls due to their emphasis on scalability and speed and now claims that some Block Producers actually crashed when their network RAM capacity exceeded one GB is just ridiculous.

Some Block Producers crashed when RAM usage on EOS exceeded 1GB tonight. Either they only had 1GB or they did not configure their node to properly set it at 64GB. This is a violation of the regproducer agreement. EOS New York produced on schedule. We are still confirming details.

— EOS New York (@eosnewyork) July 8, 2018

Claims that some BPs crashed came directly from EOS New York one of the leading BP with authority on the site. At the moment, we cannot pin point which BPs did crash but what we know is was due to their node configuration failure or that they only had 1 GB of RAM. At current spot price, 1 MB of RAM costs $873.

Regardless, EOS is still pretty stable and continues to move within a one percent trade range inside July 2 high low. With this, it also means our trade plan is still intact and neutral. All we need is a push above $9 as laid out in our previous trade plan for EOS buys to dominate or drives below $7 if sellers are to be on top.

Litecoin (LTC) Technical Analysis

Litecoin Daily Chart by Trading View

Despite Bitcoin and ETH edging higher and breaking key resistance lines, Litecoin is stable to say the least. Yes, it’s up five percent in the last day as I type this but still moving inside July 2 high low.

Either way, we remain positive on Litecoin and for activation of our buys, buyers must push and close above $90 to warrant buys on dips in lower time frames in days to come. Before then, it’s better to stay on the sideline and wait till our trade conditions are met.

Stellar Lumens (XLM) Technical Analysis

Stellar Lumens Daily Chart by Trading View

In the last 24 hours, Stellar Lumens has been edging higher and what’s important for our analysis is that consistent higher highs. To quantify, it is up seven percent in the last day and syncing with July 2 bulls.

Remember, this appreciation follows a week of horizontal consolidation above 20 cents. Since our longs are live, I suggest buying with stops at 19 cents and targets at 30 cents and later 40 cents.

Tron (TRX) Technical Analysis

Tron Daily Chart by Trading View

Quality is a word that Tron takes seriously. They want a prosperous network and those seeking to improve their ecosystem are often heavily incentivized. Taking a look at previous Tron events, we can see a track record of them supporting top notch products and now, they have a Tron Incentive Plan.

Behind this plan is a $200,000 plan where 10 projects would each receive $20,000 for their effort to build better dApps running on Tron.

It’s no doubt that Tron is still struggling to stay afloat. In fact is down two spots and is now at 12 in the liquidity list despite gaining five percent at the time of press. Ideally I would like to see buyers printing above 5 cents before going long but that’s a tall order for bulls at the moment.

So, first, because of that double bar bullish reversal pattern of June 29-30 and July 2 engulfing pattern, solid buys would happen after prices edge above 4.3 cents or there about. That’s above July 2 highs and above the last six days consolidation.

IOTA (IOT) Technical Analysis

IOTA Daily Chart by Trading View

After two days of strong depreciation, IOTA buyers managed to recoup some of their losses over the weekend. This is good because this means we now have a Morning Star, a bullish reversal pattern right at the support in the weekly chart.

As such, in the days to come, the best approach is to look for buys once IOTA prints above last week’s highs at $1.25 or even $1.3, our conservative bull trigger. On the reverse side, any break below 90 cents would cancel this buy projection.

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are those of the author and aren’t investment advice. Trading of any form involves risk and so do your due diligence before making a trading decision.

The post Litecoin, EOS, Stellar Lumens, Tron, IOTA Technical Analysis: EOS Plateaus to Tame “Expensive” RAM Prices? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Japan has positioned itself as one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency hubs. That in itself is a very important development, especially since China has made itself irrelevant. It now seems cryptocurrency exchanges are not the only major trend in Japan, as mining Bitcoin and altcoins has also become a lot more appealing.

Bitcoin Mining in Japan

Similar to most other countries where cryptocurrency mining is taking off, Japan has a few regions where there is plenty of access to cheap electricity. It is evident this situation will always be subject to change, as there is a good chance local energy providers will crack down on mining activity when the business model becomes too popular.

Until that situation changes, key regions in Japan are seeing an influx of cryptocurrency mining operations. Fukui is one of the interesting locations in this regard, as it is located on the Sea of Japan. At least one massive mining firm has hopped on the bandwagon with around 500 ASIC units and GPU mining boards.

Known as Alt Design, the company has been in operation for nearly one full year now. Thanks to Fukui’s cheap electricity rates and ease of setup for such operations, Alt Design’s initial investment has almost been recuperated by mining various cryptocurrencies. For now, the main focus lies on both Bitcoin and Ethereum, although other currencies may be explored in the near future, depending on how this industry evolves.

As one would expect, this new mining firm has helped create jobs. The impact of Alt Design is somewhat minimal in this regard, even though the firm has 10 employees on the payroll at this time. These costs are offset by proceeds gained by mining Ethereum, as the company is pulling in around 200 ether every month. If needed, the company can still expand its operation, as a deal has been struck to use up to 2,000 kW of electricity.

Although this firm is one of the very few active players in Japan right now, it is expected that places such as Fukui will attract more companies in the future. There are a few other parts of Japan that offer very similar advantages, which will help the country make a name for itself in the cryptocurrency industry. In Alt Design’s case, it benefits from using equipment belonging to its customers – mainly corporate clients – and taking a cut of the proceeds in exchange for maintaining the operation.

Japan is quickly solidifying its position in the world of cryptocurrency. Given its legalization of Bitcoin as a payment method and its lenient regulatory environment, a lot of exciting things are on the horizon. With cryptocurrency mining firms now showing an increased interest in this country, the future looks even brighter. Whether or not any of this will benefit the industry as a whole is a different matter altogether.

PoWx is developing Optical Proof of Work (OPoW) technology, in order to decentralize cryptocurrency mining by making energy costs negligible and changing how Bitcoin mining equipment is manufactured. OPoW will use Application Specific Photonic Integrated Circuits (ASPICs), which will open the door for competition between mining equipment manufacturers since ASPICs are less developed than ASICs. (unlike the current situation where Bitmain is dominating the Bitcoin mining industry).

ASPICs are built with silicon and can perform computations at the speed of light. ASPICs are extremely energy efficient since photonic circuits are nearly loss-less; there is barely any loss of energy as light travels through the circuit. Energy usage will be negligible with ASPICs, which solves one of the biggest problems with PoW. As it is now, Bitcoin PoW mining consumes tremendous amounts of electricity and is on track to comprise 0.5% of global electricity consumption, releasing large amounts of pollutants into the environment from the burning of fossil fuels and increasing average electricity costs worldwide.

Another unfortunate downside to using such tremendous amounts of electricity is centralization. Bitcoin mining has become concentrated in large warehouses run by major mining firms like Bitmain due to electricity needs. It is much less profitable for individual miners to attempt Bitcoin mining since the mining equipment costs much more when it isn’t purchased wholesale, and when electricity isn’t purchased at a wholesale rate.

The end result is most of the world’s Bitcoin mining is controlled by Bitmain and some other firms, making it quite centralized, and susceptible to attacks by hostile governments. If a large enough amount of Bitcoin mining equipment is sitting in large warehouses in a single country, like China, the government could take over the equipment with force and do what they wish with the Bitcoin network.

With OPoW the field will be leveled, and individual miners will once again be able to profitably mine Bitcoin since electricity costs will no longer be an issue.

Additionally, OPoW is inherently quantum resistant, which could prove quite beneficial as quantum computers become more powerful. Without quantum resistance eventually, someone who makes a powerful enough quantum computer could have such a high hash rate versus classical computers that they mine almost all the bitcoins on a daily basis, causing Bitcoin to become centralized.

Even if OPoW is fully perfected and ready for operational use, it seems unlikely that Bitcoin miners will accept such an algorithm switch. This is because Bitcoin miners are heavily invested in classical ASICs, and changing to ASPICs would ruin their business. It is more likely that a new cryptocurrency will be developed that uses OPoW and ASPICs, and perhaps it will eventually become a major cryptocurrency.

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Huobi has made its plans to enter the US market crystal clear. Its new trading platform, known as HBUS, went live last week. The new marketplace is now accepting registrations from US residents. The “official” launch will occur on July 10.

HBUS Prepares to Open its Doors

While it is good to see more cryptocurrency exchanges in the US, success is never guaranteed. For Huobi’s new HBUS venture, the uphill battle will be quite steep. Entering the US market is very difficult for any cryptocurrency firm, mainly because individual states have their own regulations and legislation on the books. Complying with all of those requirements requires a lot of time, money, and effort.

Interested users can pre-register for the platform and start depositing select cryptocurrencies at this time. Bitcoin and Ethereum are supported at this stage, yet it remains to be seen if any other currencies will make their way to HBUS as well. It is to be expected that altcoins will be supported at some point, as virtually all other exchanges offer Bitcoin-Ethereum trading already.

Customers who sign up and deposit funds to HBUS need to keep in mind that actual trading and processing of withdrawals will not commence until July 10. This initial pre-registration period is a good way for Huobi to gauge how popular its US-based platform will be. Assuming this venture is successful, it may even bring some competition to other big names such as Coinbase and Gemini.

It is quite interesting to note that Huobi was originally founded in China. While its headquarters are located in Singapore, Huobi has been quite vocal about expanding to the United States specifically. Over the past few years, Huobi has broken ground in Brazil and Canada, further confirming that the expansion is still ongoing. Offering similar services in Europe is not part of the current plan, it seems.

Cryptocurrency is a rather hot commodity in the United States these days. Even though there is no regulation in place just yet, the appeal of Bitcoin and various altcoins cannot be overstated. As such, it is only natural that new companies are looking to enter this market despite the uphill battle they will face. Demand for cryptocurrencies is apparently on the rise across the US; thus, more liquidity is needed.

Regulation-wise, HBUS may have bitten off a bit more than the company can chew. Although the firm has acknowledged it will comply and be transparent at all times, adhering to the country’s guidelines will not be easy by any means. Especially with the SEC cracking down on any wrongdoings, there are plenty of concerns to take into account.

The South African economy is struggling with the Rand at a six-month low, but bitcoin continues to gain popularity with investors, writes bitcoinist.com.

In April of this year, the South African Central Reserve Bank (SARB) announced moves towards overseeing cryptocurrency and fintech developments in the country, suggesting rather than taking prohibitive regulatory measures, it would introduce an investigative unit which would promote growth and innovation. The South African Revenue Service also announced a new framework for cryptocurrency taxes.

As a result, cryptocurrency adoption has started growing in the region. AsiaCrypto puts Bitcoin’s continued popularity in South Africa down to the fact that some of the country’s larger asset holders are moving into crypto. “Bitcoin” is now reported to be the trending term on SA Google search.

Other factors according to AsiaCrypto is that South Africa actually benefited from the recent dip in crypto prices during 2018, as this has enabled the creation of new startup businesses. The struggling economy has also aided Bitcoin’s rise in popularity as massive selloffs in the financial market due to the Rand losing value has pushed some investors towards alternative markets, with cryptocurrency becoming a viable choice.

A recent survey conducted in South Africa maintained that one in four respondents confirmed they plan to invest in cryptocurrency in the future, and another 15% said that they would invest in mining equipment. Although, warnings of electricity hikes of up to 50% in the near future may well dampen the enthusiasm of prospective bitcoin miners.

Apart from a recent ATM being installed in Johannesburg, the cryptocurrency community has access to exchanges such as Luno and Paxful who are reportedly doing a healthy trade in Bitcoin with other pairs available. Also, the platform Coindirect enables users to buy and sell Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple.

A new trading platform is scheduled to be opened later this year by asset management company Sygnia.

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