Day: July 13, 2018

A judge in New York has postponed a decision on a crypto fraud lawsuit until the CFTC can explain how it calculated damages.

FOMO Moments

Current performing altcoins are Ontology, Dash, Bytecoin and Bitcoin Gold.

As another week comes to an end in crypto land markets are down once again on the week. After hitting a weekly low of $242 billion markets have clawed back a little but are still very bearish.

Bitcoin is up a meager 1.3% on the day to trade at $6,280. It broke through support at $6,400 and has fallen over the past week, a dip below $6,000 could be imminent if buyers cannot be found. Ethereum is up 2% on the day but still low trading at just over $440.

Most altcoins are marginally up today following a week of heavy losses. According to Coinmarketap the top performing coin in the top 25 at the time of writing is Ontology which is up 11% on the day. Currently trading at $3.60 ONT is up from $3.21 this time yesterday but down 25% from $4.73 this time last week. Over the past month Ontology has been hammered with all other altcoins losing over 40% from around $6 this time last month. Against Bitcoin ONT is up 8% on the day to 56900 satoshis from 52000 sats this time yesterday.

Momentum has largely come from the small rally that most altcoins are having after their lows of the week. According to their Twitter feed LianAn Technology has joined Ontology’s Co-Builder Plan as Security Specialists;

LianAn Technology Joins Ontology’s Co-Builder Plan as Security Specialists https://t.co/pNv4gXDk3D $ONT

— Ontology (@OntologyNetwork) July 12, 2018

Most ONT has been traded on Asia’s top three exchanges OKEx, Huobi and Binance in USDT. Trade volume has declined from $83 million to $60 million indicating that things could be slowing down again. Other altcoins performing well today include Dash up 7.2%, Bytecoin rising 8.2%, and Bitcoin Gold climbing 19% on the day to just over $30.

Total market capitalization has clawed back 2.5% on the day to $250 billion from $244 billion this time yesterday. They dropped to a July low of $242 billion yesterday before rebounding slightly today. Trade volume has remained at around $11 billion but since last Friday crypto markets have declined 6.7% from $268 billion. Things are still looking very bearish however and we may not have reached the bottom just yet. Most altcoins are near to their lowest levels in 2018.

More on Ontology can be found here: https://ont.io/

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

The post Cryptocurrency Market Update: Ontology (ONT) and Bitcoin Gold (BTG) Leading the Rally appeared first on NewsBTC.

Several hours ago, it became apparent the cryptocurrency markets might finally see some positive momentum this weekend. So far, that momentum ha snot relented, although it hasn’t grown much stronger either. The Dash price is currently enjoying a nice spell of momentum, as its value surpassed $225 once again.

Dash Price Makes up Lost Ground

The ungracious fall from grace of the Dash price throughout 2018 has made a lot of investors and speculators worried. After hitting $1,500 a few months ago, the Dash price has dipped a slow as $209 in recent weeks. It has been a gradual decline for Dash, albeit one that is on par with all other major cryptocurrencies. Reversing this momentum will take a lot of time and money.

Keeping that in mind, every brief spell of positive momentum needs to be cherished. For the Dash price, that positive momentum has materialized in a strong 7.2% gain over the past 24 hours. Dash is also one the strongest climbers in the cryptocurrency top 15 ranked by market cap. Thanks to this unexpected uptrend, the Dash price has successfully surpassed $225 again.

This push in value is also aided by ongoing developments in the DASH/BTC ratio. This particular ratio has increased by as much as 5.96% in favor of Dash. Combined with Bitcoin’s current USD gains, it has a very positive effect on the Dash price overall. If both ratios remain in the green all weekend, the price per Dash may effectively surpass $235 come Sunday evening.

As is always the case in the cryptocurrency world, no momentum will go unpunished. Even though Dash benefits from an increased trading volume of $265.177m, that volume can dry up at any given moment. With the bulls currently in firm control of the market, it seems everything is going the right way for Dash. However, weekends are always incredibly unpredictable, and all bets are off during this time of the week.

It would appear the ZB.COM exchange is inflating the Dash trading volume as of right now. This platform represents 72.5% of all Dash trades over the past 24 hours, which is rather unusual. As such, it is also the primary reason as to why the Dash price is going up all of a sudden. Huobi comes in third place, with just $5.94m in 24-hour volume. It will be rather interesting to see how all of this plays out in the coming hours and days.

For Dash price speculators, the current momentum is more than welcome. Things have not gone too well for nearly six months straight. A short reprieve will be appreciated, but everyone is looking for a long-term reversal. Whether or not this is the beginning of the Dash price reversal, remains to be determined. With just one exchange dominating the volume, that seems highly unlikely.

CoinList, arguably the top site for listing token sales, has chosen TrustToken as the fifth ICO to be hosted on its website.

Hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen backs crypto and blockchain-focused hedge fund Autonomous Partners, Bloomberg reports

Decentralized exchange platform Bancor has pledged to protect the crypto industry against hackers, but critics remain unconvinced

What is “The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement” and how it could affect the crypto legislation around the world

In this age of disinformation, misinformation and fake news, information vetting has become a highly anticipated subject and recently, another startup emerged with plans to use a decentralized blockchain system to filter out the noise and get to the truth.

Dirt Raises $3 Million for Blockchain-Based Information Vetting Platform

The team at Dirt Protocol announced today that it has assembled $3 million in seed in money from numerous corporate and private sources in order to launch thier vetting database. When founder Yin Wu, who had previously created two succesful startups, became interested in the cryptocurrency space but was put off by the mass of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) that circulates around initial coin offerings and crypto exchange information.

Wu told TechCrunch,“The market today is still unregulated, with high incentive for people to spread misinformation for personal gain,”

The only solution for filtering out the trolls and huxsters that seemed viable to her when she began to dissassamble the way  social media sites, like Reddit for instance, work was to ensure users have “some skin in the game,” By which she means a financial stake in creating positive posts.

The Dirt Protocol aims at being a tool chest for developers to build their own databases which can be focused on speacilized topics. A single token will work across the entire platform and users will need to stake tokens in order to create new posts, dispute someone elses or vote when a dispute has been made.

Wu believes that economic incetive and penalties will eliminate the majority of bad information. On top of that, the more popular a database is, the more expensive it will be to interact in. As wu said:

 “The more valuable the network, the more people are contributing information, the more expensive [it becomes to contribute].”

Techcrunch pointed out that the pay to play aspect of the blockchain platform may eliminate trolls from dropping their opinions just for fun but it seems almost tailor made for a concerted marketing or propaganda campaign with funding like the one which allegedly influenced the 2016 US presidential campaign. Since the decentralized vetting system puts the power of establishing veracity into the hands of a majority who can afford to vote, an organized group could control a database.

Like Civil but Free

The platform that Wu and her team developed is very similar to the startup Civil which NewsBTC covered earlier last month. Civil is a “decentralized marketplace for sustainable journalism” which also uses a token curated registry to vet contributing journalist who wish to participate in the service.

Civil though, plans on selling their service to outlets where as Dirt has no plans to monetize access to their platform. As Wu said, “We’re focused on creating this open data set that anyone can use, If we achieve that goal, I’m confident that some monetization will arise.”

The post Blockchain Network Raises $3 Million to Combat Fake News With Decentralization appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin (BTC) could soon test $6,400, having seen a high-volume reversal from the two-week lows hit yesterday.

It is hoped that Belt and Road associated nations will be generating 80% of the world’s GDP by 2050. To achieve this goal, however, the 68 countries taking part will have to contend with a range of challenges relating to identity interoperability.

Africa and the Middle East

Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country.

African Union

Single digital currency discussed in Transform Africa summit: The latest summit Transform Africa once again discussed the idea of a single African digital currency, according to CNBC Africa.

This year’s event in Kigali attracted political, economic and industry leaders from across the continent and many topics were in discussion. However, much of the conversation revolved around the use of blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and a possible African economic union that would enhance connectivity.

South Africa

South Africans still believe in crypto despite major price decline: According to a recent survey by Savings and Investment Monitor 2018, many South Africans interested in cryptocurrencies still believe that investing in cryptocurrencies will reap benefits and profits for them.

The report involved more than 1,000 face-to-face interactions lasting one month from 26 April to 26 May 2018. While a majority of the respondents were not knowledgeable about cryptocurrencies, the 4% who knew about the cryptocurrency space were optimistic about the future growth of the cryptocurrency space.

More than 71% of the respondents said that it was possible to make money from cryptocurrencies despite major price tanks since the start of the calendar year.

Bitcoin ransom rumors arise in kidnapping case: Rumors regarding cryptocurrency-based ransom have started circulating around a recent kidnapping in Cape Town according to latest reports from local TV sources.

News24 reported that a local man Liyaqat Parker was kidnapped from his business in Parow and rumors have started circulating in the neighborhood that there was a cryptocurrency-based ransom involved. The police have declined to comment on the matter.

A spokesperson for the Cape Town Police said:

“This case is also investigated by our provincial detectives. Please bear with us as we cannot divulge details of the investigation that has yet to be presented before a court of law.”

Nigeria

Entrepreneurs choosing crypto over national currency: An increasing number of Nigerian entrepreneurs are using cryptocurrencies rather than the national currency Naira.

Cryptocurrencies are increasingly drawing battle lines with local fiat currencies in a battle for relevance as they present P2P transactions, lower fees, an alternative to inflation and fast transaction times. The Naira has been losing its value for some time just like many other local currencies across the continent. To offset this huge inflation issue, Nigerians are increasingly turning towards cryptocurrencies as a safer bet. Retailers, importers and engineers are using cryptocurrencies to make and receive payments.

Dash continues expansion in Nigeria: Use of cryptocurrency Dash is growing rapidly in Nigeria. Dash Africa’s mobile refill project called Bitrefill.com has released mobile data showing that an increasing number of Nigerian users are using cryptocurrencies like Dash to buy mobile minutes across the country.

Nigeria, the biggest economy in Africa, was obviously the forerunner in the stats as the Dash’s service got 111 orders from 59 unique numbers with a total purchase of over EUR 191. Nigeria had even bigger purchase limits than Germany. Dash is now working to increase the wider appeal of cryptocurrencies and is offering a 10% discount if users use the Dash-based service.

Zimbabwe

Reserve bank studying blockchain implementation: The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is pursuing its acquired interest in blockchain technology according to local media outlet NewsDay.

The current RBZ governor John Mangudya said that the bank is looking to embrace the technology citing similar moves by banks in China, US, UK and South Africa who have been studying blockchain technology and its uses.

He said:

“I did not say cryptocurrencies because it is lower than blockchain. Blockchain encompasses all the cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin… and we are saying we are putting in motion studies, ways and means of investigating that blockchain technology.”

Israel

Crypto platform hacked, resulting in $24 million losses: Bancor, an Israeli crypto company, saw the biggest hack in the past several weeks as more than USD 23.5 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen from its wallets.

The combined Swiss-Israeli company raised over USD 150 million last year in an ICO and the services it was offering included a built-in exchange service. The company said in a statement that “a wallet used to upgrade some smart contracts was compromised”.

Bancor has subsequently frozen its native BNT token and is communicating with a number of exchanges to stop the liquidation of the stolen coins.

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The post Africa and the Middle East: Crypto and Blockchain News Roundup, 5th to 12th July 2018 appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The primary provider of fiat backed digital tokens, Tether, has brought on a Leonardo Real, the former AML quality control manager at the Bank of Montreal, as Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). The hire was reportedly made “in order to create the gold standard for regulatory compliance” in the cryptocurrency sector. Real joins Tether as the company continues to face questions over its accounting practices.

Leonardo Real Joins Tether as CCO

Real is a seasoned professional in the traditional financial industry. His background includes not only his position at the Bank of Montreal but also Bridgeforce Financial, one of Canada’s leading Managing General Agents (MGA). He is an experienced stocks and futures trader and co-wrote the 2016 ACAMS Today Article of the Year, which focused on money laundering risks associated with cryptocurrencies.

In August of 2016 he organized a blockchain, cryptocurrency, and AML event held in Toronto, Canada. The event brought together regulators, bankers, law enforcement professionals, and companies in the space to discuss the future of responsible cryptocurrency management.

Jean-Louis van der Velde, Chief Executive Officer of Tether released a statement about the companies most recent high profile higher, saying, “We are all very excited to introduce Leonardo as Chief Compliance Officer at Tether, as he joins us on what has already been a remarkable journey to date disrupting the legacy financial system. His depth of experience managing AML risk in capital markets, as well as the wealth management and commercial banking sectors, combined with his proven expertise in quality control management and strategy formulation will make him an invaluable asset to our company. All of us at Tether have every confidence in his ability to oversee and manage all relevant compliance issues as we continue to move forward and grow,”

Tether launched in 2014 as the first blockchain enabled platform to pair digital tokens at a 1:1 ratio with fiat currencies. The company contends that it reserves currency to match every contract it generates. A total list of balances issued for all Tether contracts is meant to be available to any interested parties at any time.

Real’s Hire May Put to Bed Questions of Manipulation

Questions about Tether’s reported 2.54 billion worth of backing funds have plagued the company which engaged Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan LLP (FSS) earlier this year to review bank account documentation and to perform randomized inspections on it’s USD currency reserves. A move which did not quash allegations, as a paper from the University of Texas titled “Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered?” in June, and more recently a report by Bloomberg have both accused the company of price manipulation and fraudulent transactions, as reported by Sludgefeed.

Tether has denied all such claims, and by adding an industry expert on regulatory compliance to its officer ranks sending a strong message to both regulators and investors that they are operating with full disclosure.

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