Day: September 5, 2018

Investment bank Goldman Sachs has reportedly dropped plans to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk, for now at least.

Intel and software multinational company SAP have announced that they are partnering to address “gaps in the market” for solutions that support enterprise blockchain systems

Despite the overall negative momentum sweeping through the cryptocurrency landscape right now, not all currencies are affected in a similar manner. The Stellar price has always been an interesting exception in this regard, as it suffers from the smallest losses in the entire top 15. Various key developments influence this market in a positive manner.

Stellar Price Holds its Own

Whenever the value of Bitcoin drops significantly, altcoins and digital tokens will suffer from a similar fate sooner or later. In the case of the Stellar price, its current decline is to be expected, albeit it is much lower compared to other altcoins on the market. In fact, it is safe to say the Stellar price momentum is borderline boring in this regard.

Some interesting developments regarding Stellar are taking place as of late. Although these efforts are primarily ignored outside of the XLM community, they cannot be overlooked. StellarSwap, a project first announced in March of 2018, is seemingly gaining a bit more traction. The project is a global exchange for all Stellar-based tokens, similar to how ERC20 trading platforms work. It is a valuable addition to the Stellar ecosystem as a whole.

The semi-recent release of VNTPay has also gone by virtually unnoticed. It is a new wallet solution to store both VNT and Stellar’s native XLM token. Support for this latter asset is quite unusual, although it shows companies are paying attention to what is happening across the industry as a whole. It allows for direct purchases of XLM with one’s debit card, as well as the option to create new stellar accounts and assigning multiple addresses to one wallet.

Last but most importantly, IBM’s recent announcement has taken the world by storm. Their new World Wire platform is built on top of Stellar’s technology and will be used to settle and clear cross-border payments in seconds. It is one of the biggest examples of commercializing blockchain technology for the financial sector. A demo of this new platform will be unveiled later this year.

All of these changes have impacted the Stellar price in a relatively positive manner. Albeit the current dip is not unavoidable, it remains to be seen how much negative pressure the market will have to contend with. It appears speculators are not intent on letting the XLM price drop too much, thus anything can happen in the coming hours. With a current trading volume of just $68m, it seems volatility will be less present in this market.

As is always the case when the Bitcoin price goes down, there will be consequences for other currencies. So far, Stellar is the only asset backing this growing negative trend, albeit it remains to be seen if this momentum can be sustained.  Its current gains over Bitcoin keep the USD value afloat, although things can come to change at any given moment.

Distributed applications play an integral role in the evolution of blockchain ecosystems. NEO, often referred to as a competitor to Ethereum, has its own growing collection of dApps which are in various stages of development. The following 8 dApps are worth keeping an eye on, as they offer a lot of potential current and future potential.

#8 AdEx

Blockchain-based advertising networks are gaining a lot of attention as of late. AdEx aims to make it easier for advertisers to reach their target audience and ensure marketing budgets will give companies their right bang for the buck. Users can monetize their online influence by connecting to trusted advertisers and getting paid for quality traffic.

#7 NeoAuth

Enabling new authentication systems for the Internet will improve overall account security. NeoAuth is, as the name suggests, an online authentication solution based on the NEO Blockchain. This open-source dApp lets users access supported services by using their NEO wallet address. Not too many services supported NeoAuth just yet, but it is a solution worth looking into.

#6 Alphacat

Robo-advisors are making their mark on the financial industry as a whole. It is only normal blockchain-based iterations of the same concept offer some potential benefits. Alphacat aims to offer a marketplace for robo-advisors focusing on cryptocurrency investments. The platforms is built entirely on NEO’s blockchain and will offer predictive investment tools, as well as support AI and big data.

#5 FTW

Online gambling and blockchain appear to be a solid combination. FTW tackles this concept by introducing a purely decentralized gaming ecosystem. By leveraging the potential of NEO smart contracts, the project can offer more transparency and fairness to the online gambling market.  

#4 HashPuppies

Collectibles are nothing new in the world of blockchain technology. Whereas most projects create tokenized assets on Ethereum, HashPuppies will do the same for NEO. The project lets users, collect, breed, and raise virtual dogs, as well as offer an online competition element to this game.

#3 NEO Health

Blockchain technology is a viable solution for the healthcare industry as a whole. NEO Health aims to build the most advanced medical information resource and clinical decision support tool. By using NEO blockchain technology, the venture can leverage all native advantages this particular ecosystem has to offer.

#2 NEX

The NEX platform aims to become a new decentralized exchange leveraging the NEO blockchain and its underpinning technology. This particular project uses an off-chain matching engine to offer faster and complex trades across multiple blockchains at the same time. It appears somewhat similar to atomic swaps in this regard.

#1 Red Pulse

The Red Pulse platform is very different from all other projects on this list. It is a tokenized research ecosystem which focuses its attention solely on China.  This event-driven platform covers every market segment impacting Chinese companies, as well as the overall economy. An interesting use case for NEO technology.

What is your favorite NEO dApp? Let us know in the comment section below.

A blockchain startup run by former Deloitte execs plans to launch a new platform built on ethereum and quorum to streamline supply chain processes.

The People’s Bank of China is extending the activities of its Digital Currency Research Lab beyond the country’s capital, opening a new research center in Nanjing

The Canadian mill town of Ocean Falls on British Columbia’s central coast has seen its population shrink from 5,000 to just a handful of residents, becoming a ghost town, but Bitcoin mining might be bringing back the good old days.

Ocean Falls is a community on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Formerly a large company town owned by Crown Zellerbach, it is only accessible via boat or seaplane, and is home for a few dozen full-time residents, with the seasonal population upwards of 100.

It became the classic tumbleweed ghost town of western movies after the paper mill which supported a buzzing small community, finally shut down in the late 1970s, seeing the town’s population desert Ocean Falls for more lucrative prospects.

Since then it’s remained home to a few, only buoyed by some seasonal interest during a few months in the Canadian summer. But that’s changing. From this summer, sounds began to emanate from the old deserted mill; the first heard in almost half a century. These were not the buzz of a saw though, but the distant hum of electricity; the sound of Bitcoins being created.

Ocean Falls has now become home to a mini Bitcoin mining industry, utilizing the dam which used to provide the mill’s 13 MW of power, enough also to power the two nearby towns of Bella Bella and Shearwater. The electricity was always more than enough to supply the power needed for the three towns, so now the surplus is being put to good use.

The idea was the brainchild of Kevin Day, a crypto enthusiast who first came across the name Ocean Falls watching a documentary in the State capital of Vancouver eight years back. His newly acquired interest in crypto later drove him to consider mining Bitcoin, and the ghost town came to mind once again.

Day started up the company Ocean Falls Blockchain (OFB), telling his investors he would be buying 6 MW of energy from Boralex, the private utility that owns the dam, by the end of 2018, bringing in about USD 5.7 million in annual revenue from the Bitcoins created. Plans were to then expand out from Ocean Falls with predictions that OFB would have over 17,500 Bitcoin mining units by 2012 by increasing its energy consumption to 30 MW of power.

In true Canadian pioneering spirit, Day shipped in hundreds of Bitmain Antminer S9 mining units and a half ton transformer, transported from Vancouver by truck, then barged up the river the rest of the way. He then constructed his lab using the paper mill complex as an operations area then installed huge fans for cooling. The project was born and the mill brought back to life.

It’s unlikely that a handful of computer operators will bring the old town back but there is life in the place now. Keith Cockell, son of one of the original dam operators in the 1950s and 1960s, is back in town and doing his father’s job now. He likes what he sees:

“There’s been a lot of years where we’ve been waiting for someone to come along… the day we fired up, the miners started going, there was the humming, and I said to Kevin, “It’s a good feeling seeing that extra power being used”.”

Toni Ziganash, who runs a boarding house from the old bank building in town, would love to see a local economy bringing back the public:

“We have a very ageing population here, and when I say ageing, that means 70 and up. So there’s not a lot of energy. There’s not a lot of enthusiasm for anything new, to tell you the truth… So I would just like to attract some younger people to come in.”

Day pulled his server’s switches in July. It remains to be seen what awaits Ocean Falls, and if this could be the start of something special, revitalizing an economy frozen in time.

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews

Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here.

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

The post Can Bitcoin Save a Canadian Ghost Town? appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Our Expert

Calvin Ayre is the founder of the original Bodog online gaming enterprise, and creator of the global BodogBrand. As online gaming’s popularity surged, Ayre landed on the cover of Forbes magazine’s 2006 annual Billionaires edition and Star magazine’s “Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelors” list in late 2007. As an industry pioneer, online branding icon, and serial entrepreneur for online gaming you may ask what made him turn his efforts and get heavily involved in cryptocurrency?

Why we chose him to answer your questions

Andrew O’Hagan published a writer’s account of the background behind Craig Wright publicly asserting himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the “inventor” of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Wright revealed Ayre to be part of the business operation behind this affair, possibly even its ultimate organizer and the financial backer of the $30 million acquisition and development of Craig Wright’s assets.

Ayre is the most famous Bitcoin Cash (BCH) supporter with the largest BCH mining operation and in August 2017, he acquired cryptocurrency news site Coingeek.com…you will find out why below he has turned CoinGeek’s focus to support BCH. Ayre has dedicated significant amounts of his investment funds towards creating a Bitcoin Cash mining operation by purchasing both hardware and software in order to help grow the BCH hashrate. Ayre’s mining operations Coingeek (dedicating its hashpower to the Bitcoin Cash blockchain only) became the world’s largest Bitcoin Cash miner surpassing BTC.top as verified by community-driven Bitcoin statistics leader Coin Dance.

Ayre’s Media Group and Bitcoin.com’s Roger Ver issued a joint press statement stating that Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the only Blockchain that can do it all.

Your Questions

In the most recent Ask The Expert we gave you the opportunity to ask Calvin Ayre the questions you really wanted him to answer. So, I followed up with him in London to get his thoughts on the plethora of topics you, the NullTx community, sent in from personal to professional.

Q:What is the most drastic change for the world you believe will happen in the future of crypto and how quick do you think it will happen? from NullTx reader MondayMcFly

A: Well without sounding like a broken record I believe very strongly that Bitcoin BCH is the future of all cryptocurrency, certainly those that agree with the original White Paper should be on board with BCH. It is also, surely, just a matter of time before merchants see this is the best of option for them of any currency or payment method because it’s the one that costs them the least. So, that change will happen organically. How quick? That really is ‘how long’s a piece of string stuff’, sadly.

Q: Is it a concern that Bitcoin’s hashpower is now controlled by only a few entities/mining pool? Is Bitcoin still decentralized? from NullTx reader Wihan Ju

A: We (CoinGeek) have just received confirmation that we will be the official distributor of the new ASIC mining rigs being created by Squire Mining. Not only will these make mining more accessible but also far more efficient for both the user and the environment so hopefully this will be a game-changer in expanding the mining pool. CoinGeek is distributing power as we do agree that Bitmain and their fully-funded Dev team Bitcoin ABC have way too much power now and that this is bad for Bitcoin.

Q: What made you decide to turn CoinGeek’s focus towards BCH? from NullTx reader CryptoDawg

A: Bitcoin is supposed to be a low-fee, digital currency. BCH is the only one that is. Terrifyingly simple, really!

Q: Why is Craig Wright trying to fork BCH? Do you support it? Are you and Craig no longer on the same page? sorry 3 questions in 1 hahaha. from NullTx reader The Real Satoshi”s Vision

A: He is not trying to fork at all. This is an election, not a fork, to quote Eli Afram – who incidentally refuses payment when he writes for CoinGeek: “Unlike a national election for presidency, it is not 1 human = 1 vote. It is 1 CPU = 1 Vote. This means, it comes down to hash power” Craig & I are friends first and foremost but there’s no falling out – we’ve only ever really disagreed about which wine to choose! Bitcoin needs to adopt the internet model of locking base protocol so that innovation can explode on a stable platform, so what Craig and I want is to stop the current devs from tinkering which means continuing to fork. Craig, most of the other miners, and I, are not forking, we want to stop others (Bitmain) from forking away from Bitcoin.

Q: How are you so connected in Antigua? from NullTx reader TorontoXX

A: That is a longer story but, essentially, it started with the weather and the beaches and then you realise they have the infrastructure for so much more than tourism. As a result, it was impossible not to invest there and now I can prove that having state-of-the-art offices here really works I want to help spread the word. My role as an economic envoy just makes that role more official. Find out more about Champion Place, a new state-of-the-art BPO office in Antigua.

Q: What happened to BCH that was received by exchanges after the fork but not distributed to users (such as Gemini)? from NullTx reader Twinklevoss Wins

A: I can only assume lost or kept by the exchanges.

Q: Why is the question of which one is the real bitcoin between BCH and BTC decided by a Street Fighter game? Can we do best 2 of 3? from NullTx reader Natoshi Nakomoto

A: HA! We wanted to put the message out in a way that spoke to a wide range of folk and made it simple to grasp. It was short, sweet, simple and, I hope, effective. BCH is the only Bitcoin based on the original white paper however. BTC forked to segwit Technology and a different business model of digital gold and is no longer money and, therefore, not Bitcoin.

Q: I know Bitcoin Cash says it’s aligned with Satoshi’s original vision of a peer-to-peer electronic cash but most forks think they are solving the problems from the original… what is the problem with both existing and Bitcoin Cash saying it’s Bitcoin? from @jeremyhawley reddit

A: One (BTC) is not only segwit technology but also has an average transaction fee of $12, BCH is $0.02…if you’re selling coffees at $3 then BTC ain’t going to work as a currency is it?

Q: How does Ayre respond to his charges in money laundering and what steps is he taking to act as a responsible actor in crypto now? what will he do to remain reliable and undo his bad rep? from @vhb17 reddit

A: The fact that the US dropped all charges against me is an extremely powerful vindication but also (documents attached) the original indictment was illegal under international law anyway. But you will also find that the Bodog brand had the best record of any betting company on the planet for paying customers not to mention the best customer service year after year. It’s that business detail that I am known for within the gaming industry and I am extremely proud of my track record in the gaming industry.

Q: How did Ayre earn the title “billionaire bad boy?” from @sparklefairy15 reddit

A: I enjoy life and some people see that as ‘bad’ but they are often the people that have skeletons in their closet (sometimes literally) I am open about how I live my life…is that ‘bad’!?

Q: Do you think bitcoin/crypto wealth will ever be able to translate into serving philanthropic purposes? Or will it remain a medium for personal fiscal gain? from @bananahamock15 reddit

A: It already does: Bitcoin Cash Charity Donations

Q: What advice would Ayre give to someone hoping to invest/get their start in the crypto currency world? from @123cherrybomb reddit

A: I think having a foot in all aspects is a good way to see all sides: mine a bit, trade a bit and, of course, use it to pay for things…I will only do business with people who accept BCH and once they are ‘in’ they get it. Look at your business, you do the same, only trade in crypto and its done you no harm!

Blockchain developer Spacemesh has raised $15 million as part of its quest to develop a new kind of consensus algorithm called proof-of-space-time.