Day: July 8, 2018

There have been some concerns involving Microsoft’s acceptance of Bitcoin in recent months. Although the company seemingly still accepts Bitcoin deposits to top up one’s Microsoft account, some Reddit users have run into problems. One company representative even claims this option should have been removed a while ago, and that any active Bitcoin option is merely a “bug”.

Microsoft’s Stance on Bitcoin

Big was people’s surprise when Microsoft began accepting Bitcoin payments a while ago. Although that was a positive development, it was evident the company never really saw any merit in cryptocurrency for the long term. Its failure to address most concerns regarding the removal of the Bitcoin option clearly showed that this payment option wasn’t of major concern to the technology giant.

Those rumors first began surfacing a few months ago. Bitcoin enthusiasts tried to find the BTC payment option, but it had been removed from the website. Instead, Microsoft had quietly moved the option to the user account screen, where BTC deposits could be made to top up one’s Microsoft account. It still had the same effect as direct payments, even though it was also a clear sign of what was yet to come.

According to a new Reddit post, anyone trying to top up their Microsoft account with Bitcoin will encounter major issues. Even though there are still links to top up one’s account with Bitcoin, the deposits are seemingly not being credited to users’ Microsoft accounts. This is apparently because the company has stopped accepting BTC transactions altogether, even though the payment option is still visible at this stage.

Even contacting customer support is not helping much in this regard. In fact, one representative allegedly stated that the Bitcoin redeem option should have been removed from the Microsoft account service quite some time ago. It is also unclear whether users’ Bitcoin transactions will be refunded somehow. Issuing Microsoft credit at a predetermined rate would be the logical solution, although the actual outcome could be very different.

Of course, this ordeal may have been the result of a customer support representative not having been trained in dealing with Bitcoin. At the same time, it is equally possible that Microsoft has turned its back on Bitcoin altogether, even though it hasn’t officially confirmed as much. Getting in touch with BitPay, which processes Bitcoin transactions for Microsoft, will not result in any major changes, as funds are sent to Microsoft’s account.

The big question is how this will affect the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Considering Microsoft’s backing was such a major development for the cryptocurrency industry, it is evident this setback could have all kinds of repercussions. Even so, until the company officially clarifies its stance on Bitcoin once and for all, all of these incidents could still be explained as mere ‘issues’ rather than an indication that the technology giant no longer accepts Bitcoin.

Huobi has announced that they are launching a cryptocurrency exchange in the United States named HBUS via a strategic partnership. Registration is already open and deposits of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash, Tether, DASH, Civic, and TrueUSD are already being accepted. Trading will go live on 10 July 2018.

This is part of a continuing effort by Huobi to expand globally. Huobi was originally founded in China but was forced to leave the country in September 2017 following the cryptocurrency trading ban. Huobi moved its headquarters to Singapore, has launched an exchange in Australia, and will be launching an exchange in London before the end of 2018 to target the European market.

Huobi is usually ranked among the top 3 cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with trading volumes between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion per day, alongside Binance and OKEx. Huobi will technically be the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, and will be a competitor to Coinbase, who has long dominated the United States market. This is going to create a beneficial situation for cryptocurrency traders in the United States. Competition is always positive since both Huobi and Coinbase will lower fees and increase the level of their services so that customers choose them.

Indeed, HBUS is offering daily withdrawal limits of USD 200,000 for full verification, which is orders of magnitude higher than Coinbase. If HBUS becomes successful then perhaps Coinbase will consider raising their limits.

HBUS is trying to increase registration numbers by offering up to 0.1 Bitcoin for free and 100 days of free trading. Due to state regulations users in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Hawaii, Vermont, and Washington cannot register.

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Venezuela is a country which makes a lot of headlines, though not for the right reasons. Cryptocurrency has slowly begun making an impact in this country, even though it remains to be seen how successful all of these efforts will be. For the Dash team, Venezuela will remain an important location for the foreseeable future.

Dash Continues its Venezuelan Push

Various cryptocurrencies are worth keeping tabs on at this time. Other than Bitcoin and Ethereum, there are several key projects which are all contributing to bridging the gap between traditional finance and virtual currencies. Dash, for example, is focusing a lot of its attention on Venezuela as of right now. Given the country’s unstable financial situation, it is only natural that new forms of money would quickly find a market.

Even so, the going has been rather tough for Dash in this part of the world. Despite setting up the Dash Venezuela project, making a meaningful impact has been challenging. The Venezuela “branch” has now successfully crowdfunded the 9th Domestic Dash Conference and the 7th Dash City. Both of these developments show that Dash is making inroads in this country, though not necessarily on a large scale.

A while ago, the Dash team announced its plan to host a total of 12 conferences in Venezuela. At the time, that was considered to be a major milestone if it could be pulled off successfully. Such a venture is not without its own set of challenges, as Venezuela is a very peculiar country when it comes to international “financial interference”.

Several months later, and it seems the momentum is still in favor of Dash. Turning Venezuela into a so-called “Dash nation” will not be easy, even though several cities across the country have embraced this altcoin to a certain extent. There is also a strong interest in Dash among people who are interested in cryptocurrency. Even so, relative to the entire population, Dash is a very tiny niche market.

Nevertheless, there is no point in giving up on the original plan as long as there is enough funding to keep the momentum going. Although it is the first conference not paid for by the Dash Treasury itself – mainly due to the massive Dash price decline over the past few months – putting the funds together has not posed any major problems. Most of the contributions have come from the Dash community, although it remains to be seen if the same will be true for the final three conferences.

All of this further shows that the mainstream appeal of cryptocurrency is nowhere near where it should be at this point. Despite clear advantages and benefits, cryptocurrencies struggle to get beyond the concept of being a store of value or speculative investment vehicle. Whether or not breaking this vicious cycle is even remotely possible at this stage in time is a question which has proved very difficult to answer.

South Korea’s central bank says crypto poses “insignificant” risks for financial institutions, with domestic banks holding a “not really big” $1.79 bln in crypto at the end of 2017

The world’s largest producer of ASIC mining machines, Bitmain, is expected to invest $50 million into the upcoming IPO of Opera Ltd.

Bitmain’s Expanding Circle of Influence

Norway-based Opera Ltd., one of the top internet browsers, has just filed for a Nasdaq initial public offering (IPO) last week, in an attempt to raise up to $115 million in financial capital.

For those who are unaware, Opera’s raison d’etre is their in-house internet browser, fittingly named the Opera Browser. It offers a similar experience to a variety of browsers but gives access to unique features like a built-in VPN and ad-blocker.

According to Statcounter, Opera currently holds 3.5% of the world’s browser market share. Although this may not sound like an impressive figure, Google and Apple have held an iron grip on the browser industry, with 59% and 14% respectively. In March, Opera noted that its desktop and mobile browser applications have drawn in an average user base of over 300 million users.

These 300 million users have amounted to a public valuation of $115 million, with Bitmain expected to buy approximately 43% of the shares, totaling to a value of $50 million.

It is unclear what exactly the cryptocurrency mining company plans to accomplish with these soon-to-be-acquired shares, but it is speculated that Bitmain is doing this in an attempt to expand and diversify its circle of influence. But after raking in a profit of an approximate $4 billion last year, it would be logical for the company to diversify its holdings, securing footholds in other markets.

Bitmain Leads $110 Million Funding Round For Circle

And Bitmain has done just that, as the mining giant led a $110 Million Circle Financial funding round in May. Circle has become an influential player in the cryptocurrency industry, securing funding from Goldman Sachs and Baidu. Circle recently reported that its premier trading platform facilitates over $2 billion in trades a month, and saw a 30% increase in institutional interest in May alone.

A collaboration between some of the most influential players in the cryptocurrency space has been welcomed. As with this investment into Circle, Bitmain and Circle have become partners in an upcoming U.S dollar stablecoin project that attempts to improve on what Tether has accomplished. According to Bloomberg, the cryptocurrency industry could see the fruits of the partnership within the upcoming weeks, in the form of USD Coin (USDC). 

Bitmain Becomes One Of The 21 EOS Block Producers

In other news, Bitmain recently became a part of an exclusive group of twenty-one members who validate EOS mainnet transactions. Since the EOS mainnet launch at the beginning of June, block producer candidates have been vying for the votes of EOS mainnet users, attempting to secure a spot as a block producer.

EosAntPool https://t.co/0nLuAsxhKN has become one of the 21 #EOS block producers. Thanks so much for all your support, vote and trust. EosAntPool will keep working on #EOS community development and construction. Let's rebuild the world together. https://t.co/nTkoEDgjOW pic.twitter.com/xHcj6ZyHcw

— AntPool (@AntPoolofficial) July 3, 2018

On Tuesday, Bitmain, in the form of AntPool, became one of the official EOS BPs after securing a sufficient amount of votes from EOS users. Bitmain now has an influence over a majority of the top blockchains, leaving some to wonder where Bitmain will strike next.

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The Korea Times has reported that South Korean regulators are about to ease cryptocurrency regulations in line with G20 recommendations.

Back in May, government regulators made an initial agreement to apply the G20’s “unified regulations” and classify digital currencies as assets, having agreed that the situation regarding the trading of cryptocurrencies needed improving.

It appears according to the Korea Times report that the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has now revised its guidelines for cryptocurrency exchange operators. A government official commented about the latest developments:

“The FSC made revisions to its rules to apply strengthened policies in order to prevent or detect money laundering and illegal activities because the regulator isn’t opposed to cryptocurrencies.”

Another official commented that adopting the recommendations are in the “early stages of fine tuning” but that the establishment of unified rules has its complications.

The loosening of South Korea’s current cryptocurrency regulations illustrates the degree to which the government sees the value of blockchain and acknowledges the growth of cryptocurrency in the country’s financial sector. However, security issues still remain a concern to the government. A Trade ministry official commented on this aspect of the current changes to legislation suggesting that changes would be made, “but not at the expense of safety and security.”

The government’s gradual shift towards cryptocurrency adoption will certainly give a lift to the industry in South Korea. Mainstream adoption, if it comes, will have a massive impact providing it moves beyond speculative trading, says Seoul-based technology journalist National Tax Agency:

“Global banks predict that interest in cryptocurrencies will double. We believe an increase in adoption will come when crypto-assets can be used as actual currencies rather than just speculative investments.”

Hong Eu-rak of the ruling Democratic Party has suggested that there are current discussions in the progress to lift the country’s ban on ICOs, and it has also been reported that further discussions with the National Tax Agency to develop a taxation framework for cryptocurrencies is underway.

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Fantasy leagues have made an impact on the sports industry over the past few years. Digitizing this experience is bound to happen sooner or later. Strykz aims to make its mark on this industry by offering the first fantasy soccer token. Although it has a lot of potential, there are no guarantees of success.

The Football-Stars Concept

Fantasy soccer is a booming industry. Consumers enjoy friendly wagers and putting their favorite players together to form the ‘best lineup’ week after week. Translating this concept to the cryptocurrency world will be quite challenging, although the Strykz team is confident they can make it work with their Football-Stars platform.

How Does it Work?

Bridging the gap between fantasy soccer and cryptocurrency will be a struggle. The team wants to tokenize gaming for soccer fans all over the world. It is also worth noting that the project allegedly has the backing of renowned soccer star Luis Figo as its brand ambassador. While that doesn’t necessarily legitimize the project all of a sudden, it is still pretty interesting to keep an eye on.

It appears Strykz has also partnered with various major fantasy soccer platforms to make this venture a success. Its underlying technology could help revolutionize the industry as a whole by supporting localization efforts. Moreover, the Football-Stars platform is cross-compatible and utilizes a free-to-play model, which will make it very approachable for consumers all over the world.

Whether or not this vision is sufficient to catapult Strykz and Football-Stars to the mainstream is unclear. The concept seemingly has a lot of merit, and the backing of German platform Kicker is a major breakthrough. Even so, making a lasting impact once the initial hype calms down will be critical for Strykz. It will mainly depend on how useful the token turns out to be.

The Strykz Token

Any blockchain-oriented project has its own token these days, and Football-Stars is no exception. The native Strykz token will be traded across exchanges, and it can be used on the Football-Stars platform to unlock content and features. New partnerships are being forged to create more use cases for the token, but nothing has been set in stone just yet.

The Road Ahead

Building the Football-Stars platform is only the first step in making this cryptocurrency-oriented fantasy soccer platform a success. For the time being, the team is focusing on a token sale and expanding the overall functionality of the platform. Early 2019 will see an aggressive expansion into the Asian market, which will be worth keeping an eye on.

It’s finally happened! At press time, the father of digital currency has leapt to the $6,700 mark and conquered its latest plane of resistance.

After weeks of analysts going at it (Will bitcoin reach $6,700? Will bitcoin reach $6,700?), it appears the currency has defeated its latest obstacle. Now, $7,000 could easily be in bitcoin’s midst, and many are hoping the number can be graced within the next few days.

At the same time, it appears bitcoin isn’t entirely out of the dark just yet. One source mentions there are still risks posed to the crypto leader, but acknowledges that $7,000 is a doable target. The source reads:

“BTC risks falling below $6,341 (double bottom neckline – former resistance-turned support, the lower end of the trading range) as indicated by the bearish setup on the hourly and four-hour chart. Acceptance below $6,341 would abort the bullish view put forward by the double bottom breakout, bull flag breakout, and bullish falling channel breakout, and would shift risk in favor of a drop below $6,000. On the higher side, an aggressive move above the significant obstacle of $6,754 (23.6 percent Fibonacci resistance) would bolster the already bullish technical setup on the daily chart, and open the doors to $7,000.”

There are several factors that may have led to this sudden (yet positive) change. South Korea – which is responsible for roughly one-quarter of the world’s cryptocurrency trades – has announced it is loosening restrictions on all cryptocurrency trading. It is also leaving the door open for domestic initial coin offerings (ICOs).

“Financial regulators plan to ease rules on crypto-based assets in line with policies initiated by G20 nations to establish ‘unified regulations,’” writes the Korean Times.

Other stories include Coinbase Custody, which went live on Monday, and the increased usage of the Lightning Network, which we discussed during yesterday’s price article. However, the source quoted in that piece suggested a negative side to the Lightning Network’s activity, saying that if miners didn’t get their way, the bitcoin price could be hit hard.

However, the Lightning Network does appear to be increasing approximately 50 percent every week, and roughly 20 new stores are accepting Lightning payments.

According to Jon Pearlstone – publisher of the newsletter Crypto Patterns – the currency has been developing solid resistance at $6,450. While this is a positive sign, he’s warning investors to remain careful.

“While it’s bullish short-term that BTC has held $6,450 since moving up from the lows, the struggle for buyers to follow through and take the price above the next key technical level of $7,250 is a good indicator that it’s best to stay cautious in this market,” he explains.

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Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin had harsh words for centralized cryptocurrency exchanges at the TechCrunch Sessions: Blockchain 2018 conference in Zug, Switzerland. He said, “I definitely hope centralized exchanges go burn in hell as much as possible”. He thinks decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges are the way of the future.

Vitalik Buterin is particularly critical about how centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have gained the power to decide which cryptocurrencies will become popular. He says “We can really take away this stupid king-making power that these centralized exchanges have where they have this ability to just decide which tokens become big by deciding to list them and then charging these crazy $10 million to $15 million listing fees. The more we can get away from that world and into something which actually satisfies the blockchain values of openness and transparency the better.”

Aside from Vitalik Buterin’s criticisms, in general, there has been animosity towards centralized cryptocurrency exchanges from the crypto community due to numerous exchange hacking incidents, and even more incidents of exchanges acting like a centralized bank and freezing user funds. For example, over 100 pages of complaints have been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission describing how Coinbase has frozen user accounts and funds and their customer service doesn’t offer any help. This highlights how centralized cryptocurrency exchanges control money, defeating one of the main purposes of cryptocurrency which is to give power over money back to the people.

Additionally, centralized cryptocurrency exchanges usually require identification information from users, removing the anonymity that cryptocurrency was built to provide.

Vitalik Buterin recognizes that the fiat side of cryptocurrency trading is what has caused centralization, saying “In practice, particularly on the fiat to crypto side, it is very difficult to decentralize because you ultimately are interfacing with the fiat world, and the fiat world is one that only has basically centralized gateway. There are valuable services being provided there that are very hard to decentralize”.

Vitalik Buterin is strongly in favor of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance and Huobi, which are among the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, are planning on switching to decentralized blockchain-based platforms, so they won’t have to deal with government regulations anymore.

A truly decentralized cryptocurrency exchange will be able to offer cryptocurrency trading anywhere in the world without collecting identification information from users, and due to its decentralized blockchain-based nature governments can’t really do anything to stop it. Binance and Huobi were forced out of their native country of China following the September 2017 cryptocurrency trading ban, which is probably why these exchanges are leading the way towards decentralization, to ensure their survival no matter the regulatory environment.

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We hear a lot of talk about Web 3.0 and the fourth industrial revolution. About how blockchain is going to shake up every industry and person on the planet. But perhaps one of the most interesting areas that looks to be tipped upside down is younger than blockchain itself – the sharing economy.

A way of life that’s become our new normal, we unflinchingly bypass hailing a taxi to prepay and order an Uber. We rent out other people’s apartments and monetize our spare rooms, vehicles, and services. But the sharing, caring economy has a few problems of its own.

Dubbed as “peer-to-peer,” we’ve been led to believe that we’re sidestepping giant enterprises and connecting on a more human, direct level. But unfortunately, blockchain technology is showing up to make the sharing economy look like a fraud. Making us realize that it’s actually more of a “peer-to-intermediary-to-peer” economy after all.  

No one can deny that these marketplace platforms have been great enablers. But now that blockchain allows us to establish trust automatically, we no longer have the need for the fat cats in the middle lapping off the cream. We can transact online in decentralized marketplaces without paying fees on top. So sites like Upwork and their 20 percents are going to have to rethink their business models.

Enter Origin Protocol

Origin Protocol is an open-source platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. It’s especially designed for building decentralized marketplaces that allow for truly peer-to-peer transactions. Through Ethereum and the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), the Origin platform and participants interacting on it are decentralized by nature. This means that they can create bookings and transactions without a third party in the middle.

Origin Protocol aims to go directly up against incumbent players in the sharing economy, transferring the astronomical fees these platforms take back to the people. So, rather than having to give up a massive chunk of their revenue, the host or service provider receives the full value of a given transaction.

In fact, according to their product brief, “These new marketplaces that focus on gigs, services, and fractional asset use are particularly well-suited for disruption by decentralized systems built on the blockchain.”

In addition to that, Origin Protocol aims to create value for participants who contribute to the platform’s growth through DApps, referring users, etc. They will be rewarded with the Origin Token.

Several interesting marketplace companies are being built on Origin right now, including beBee, CanYa, ServisHero and Kozaza. beBee is almost like a LinkedIn on the blockchain, a place for companies to post job advertisements and for individuals to host their portfolios and profiles. People can also network through ‘hives’ and meet like-minded people in their professions. CanYa and ServisHero are working on taking Upwork and TaskRabbit on, and Kazaza is a home rental platform, currently only operating in Korea.

The Takeaway

Disruption of the sharing economy and its intermediaries looks to be inevitable thanks to blockchain technology. However, for now, at least, it’s also some ways off. The ever-present issue of scalability may slow the speed and onboarding of users for these platforms.

Origin Protocol has yet to launch a token sale, and as such, Origin Token is not yet listed on CoinMarketCap. But with a solid premise and several interesting ideas already up and running, it could be worth keeping an eye out for this one.

Crypto markets see a wave of confidence, with Bitcoin pushing the $7K price point, and Ethereum close to $500