Day: July 15, 2018

More universities are offering crypto courses, but what kind of knowledge do they provide?

With so much positive cryptocurrency market momentum to take into account, it will be interesting to see what the future holds.  For the time being, things look very promising, especially as long as the Bitcoin price remains in the green. The 0x price, for example, is rising very quickly as of late.

0x Price Momentum Intensifies

There is a very good reason as to why the 0x price is rising so quickly these days. Coinbase recently made it clear the company will be adding support for new currencies and tokens in the near future. Among the tokens highlighted by the exchange is 0x, and it seems that is fueling plenty of 0x price speculation at this point. Whether or not that momentum will remain in place for some time, is a different matter altogether.

For the time being, there is a 17.56% 0x price increase over the past 24 hours. It is a remarkable gain, especially when considering how most of the other cryptocurrencies only note a gain of 2-5% in the same timespan. Assuming this momentum remains in place for quite some time to come, the 0x price may effectively surpass the $1.15 mark in the coming days. As is usually the case, the current market conditions are subject to change, and nothing has been set in stone at this time.

The current 0x price momentum is also aided by solid gains over both Bitcoin and Ethereum. The 0x/BTC ratio improved by 15.32% in favor of the altcoin, whereas the 0x/ETH ratio rose by 14.54%. This further confirms the 0x price is in a very good place right now, although it is possible this momentum will turn around fairly soon. Sundays are always interesting for cryptocurrencies, albeit they never pave the way for long-term gains.

All of this current momentum isn’t aided all that much by the current low trading volume. All cryptocurrencies have suffered from a decline in trading volume over the weekend, and the 0x market is no exception in this regard. With just $31.237m in 24-hour trading volume, there isn’t too much of a demand for 0x, despite all of the positive momentum and hype associated with this market at this time.

As one would come to expect, there is a lot of trading volume stemming from the Binance exchange. Its BTC and ETH pairs are both in the top three, separated by Upbit’s KRW market. BitMart and Bittrex bring two additional BTC markets to the top five. Although this is not necessarily an influx of new money entering the 0x market, it is still a pretty good mix of trading pairs

As is always the case when it comes to cryptocurrency markets, things will be very different come Monday. When exchanges clear new deposits and users begin cashing out profits, the markets will see some big changes which may not necessarily be all that positive for certain currencies. In the case of the 0x price, it is a matter of time until the market is affected by profit takers who drive the value down accordingly.

There is a lot of hype associated with the blockchain industry. Companies and investors expect big things from this technology. So far, few actual use cases exist to warrant that excitement. Despite the ongoing struggles, the R3 blockchain consortium is contemplating filing for an initial public offering.

R3 Wants to Go Public

It is not entirely common for blockchain firms to look into launching their own IPO. In this day and age, most blockchain ventures use an initial coin offering to raise capital, even though that business model is still met with a lot of scrutiny. When it comes to the R3 consortium, their business model is very different from what a typical ICO venture is trying to achieve.

Rather than going for the quick money, R3 is working on legitimizing blockchain technology in the financial industry. It will take a lot of time, money, and effort to do exactly that, since making blockchains work with legacy infrastructures remains a huge problem. Additionally, it remains up to individual banks and other service providers to develop new use cases for this technology.

With the R3 consortium now looking to file for an initial public offering, things will undoubtedly get very interesting. Although this plan has not been set in motion officially, it is an option actively being discussed among key members. Whether or not this would bring more positive attention to the R3 consortium and its Corda project remains to be determined. An IPO would certainly validate the startup’s plans.

One also has to wonder if now is a good time for R3 to be exploring this option. Despite having been created nearly five years ago, the company has still not achieved any real traction. Nor has it successfully built a business around its own version of blockchain technology, despite raising $107 million throughout 2017.

Some speculators are even concerned that R3 might run out of money by mid-2019, which would put a nail in the coffin of the project fairly quickly. If that is indeed plausible, launching an IPO now would not help matters much. In fact, it would cause investors to lose a lot of money by investing in a project that was already nearly dead in the water.

If R3 were to host an IPO, they could bring a lot more legitimacy to the blockchain industry as a whole. This technology needs to go mainstream very soon if it wants to play any role of importance. Billions of dollars have been poured into blockchain firms over the years, yet nearly none of them have anything to show for it. It is crunch time for the blockchain industry, and R3 may set a precedent for other firms to follow.

Chile’s Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Orionx crypto exchange, saying that the state-owned Banco Estado has to reopen the company’s previously closed deposit account

China’s Tsinghua University researchers have come up with an ingenious scheme to enable the protection of country’s cultural heritage and artifacts using blockchain technology, according to Coindesk

They have filed a patent, for a system which will save digital versions of ancient artifacts on the blockchain using 3D scanning. The computing model created by a team of three inventors will be able to scan an object, to create its digital version. The resulting digitized artifact and its related information will then be stored on to a private blockchain by using the concept, called “hashing”. To give a better understanding, hashing is described by Technopedia as follows,

“Hashing is generating a value or values from a string of text using a mathematical function. It’s one way to enable security during the process of message transmission when the message is intended for a particular recipient only. A formula generates the hash, which helps to protect the security of the transmission against tampering. It is also a method of sorting key values in a database table in an efficient manner”

The team, including Tan Jiajia, a postdoctoral researcher and Lu Xiaobu, the head of the university’s Academy of Art and Design, suggest that by principally including museums, the platform has the potential to grow into a kind of shared ledger cultural heritage consortium which can be updated as necessary with participating members’ fresh archives, which could in time be visible to the public as would be artefacts in a museum.

The team’s patent reads as follows:

“Based on the unique design of blockchain for exchanging information, the digital identities of each cultural heritage can be transferred among different parties at lower costs with higher efficiency, so that we can enlarge their economic and social values.”

Now the concept has been patented by the inventors, they need to establish how to put their ideas into working practice. The inventors reported that the work that they had completed to date was based on Tencent’s Trust blockchain platform.

Investopedia describes the TrustSQL platform as a:

“…rich framework for application development and includes basic application models such as digital assets, shared books, proof certificates, stock swaps and proprietary transactions…”

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A much-talked-about deal between a cryptocurrency non-profit and a bank saw cheers and jeers this week, and all sorts of reactions in between.

Sundays are always interesting days for the cryptocurrency industry. Although it usually results in a fair amount of negative market pressure, this Sunday proves to be very different. The Stellar price continues to rise at an accelerated pace, as it continues a week-long uptrend without too many setbacks.

Stellar Price Peaks Above $0.215

Just a few days ago, it became apparent the Stellar price was on the right track. After a brief spell of continued upward momentum, the Stellar price maintained its value at $0.18 with relative ease. That trend has only continued ever since, as the XLM value is still rising as of right now. With a current price of $0.217,  things are looking pretty good for this asset.

Over the past 24 hours, there has been another 9.4% Stellar price increase. That in itself is rather spectacular, even though it is mainly fueled by the current positive Bitcoin price trend. If Bitcoin was losing value, very few currencies would effectively see a value increase, but Stellar is doing quite well on its own. If this rate keeps up, it’s not unlikely to expect a Stellar price of $0.25 in a few days’ time.

As one would come to expect from this current Stellar price momentum, the current situation is facilitated by an increase in the XLM/BTC department. That trading ratio has seen a strong 7.14% increase over the past 24 hours, further indicating the demand to buy and sell XLM is rising as of right now. Whether or not that is effectively a sustainable long-term situation, is very difficult to predict at this time.

All of this positive Stellar price momentum is occurring despite very low overall trading volume. Although a volume of $47.58m is not bad by any means, it is virtually nothing compared to what one would expect based on the current Stellar momentum. Even so, it is more than sufficient to keep this trend going, albeit the situation may come to change in the coming days.

Similar to earlier this week, Binance is the leading exchange ranked by trading volume. Its BTC and USDT pairs generate over 38.7% of all trades. BCEX’s CKUSD pair is in third place, followed by two BTC pairs by CoinEgg and BCEX. All of these markets are quite interesting for the current XLM momentum, although there is not necessarily a lot of fresh capital entering the market.

Whether or not the Stellar price can continue to rise, is a very different matter. Sundays are very different days compared to the rest of the week, as they are not a correct representation of cryptocurrency market sentiment. Once things return to normal on Monday, the situation may look very different for XLM and all other markets.

The use of crypto donations by a Venezuelan citizen has shown cryptocurrencies are better than some fiat currencies even though they have been dismissed as too volatile. These donations also highlight the changing perception of crypto away from its murky past on the dark net.

Crypto Helps Citizens Affected by Hyper-Inflation

The NANO community has donated almost $5,000 worth to a Venezuelan called Hector. After initially receiving a month’s worth of salary (0.5 NANO, or $1.20), further donations enabled him to buy 300 kg of food with 61 NANO ($145). The balance in the account now stands at 1,809 NANO ($4,178) which equates to almost 9,000 kg of food.

Hector is choosing to store the donations as NANO instead of his local currency, the bolívar, and has been buying food from a vendor who accepts NANO payments. This showcases how cryptocurrencies in their current state can work better than the worst performing fiat currencies. While volatility is a key issue for the crypto market, it is decreasing and will continue to reduce with an increase in liquidity.

The main issues faced in Venezuela is hyper inflation. The annual rate of inflation is 15,657% and their currency inflates by 167% monthly. Citizens have started making handbags and purses out of the paper notes in order to make some value out of them. The main cause is the government’s relentless printing of money.

An analysis by JP Morgan in 2017 showed that only $6 billion had entered the crypto market when the total market cap was higher than it is today. In contrast, Venezuela’s GDP is at $330 billion. If the entire economy was using one cryptocurrency, it would not just become a stable currency but there would be no hyperinflation through the printing of more money.

Think Tank Calls for More Crypto Donations

Mainstream media has often disregarded cryptocurrencies due to their association with buying illegal goods on the dark net. eToro UK Managing Director Iqbal Gandham told NewsBTC that he was frustrated with the ‘tired commentary’ on the crypto industry. However, recent initiatives have started raising awareness of the number of people using cryptocurrencies to help situations globally.

pic.twitter.com/FH65a8RU3I

— eatBCH Venezuela (@eatBCH_VE) July 1, 2018

EatBCH is feeding citizens in Venezuela and South Sudan through Bitcoin Cash donations. Their account has received 21.8 BCH ($22,800) and has spent 6.2 BCH ($5,800) on providing food. Both countries have financial troubles over crippling inflation rates, with the Sudan Sudanese Pound hitting rates of 11,000%. The Center for Strategic and International Studies has also called on more cryptocurrency donations to help support these citizens.

Moises Rendon, Associate Director at CSIS’s Americas Program, said: “For example, the use of cryptocurrency to safely transfer worldwide donations, following a model like EatBCH, is a novel approach already creating a positive impact for Venezuelans on the ground today. More peer-to-peer electronic cash transfers should be encouraged to assist with humanitarian aid from abroad.”

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The post Crypto Becomes Proper Alternative to Cash in Struggling Economies appeared first on NewsBTC.