Day: September 13, 2018

As Ethereum faces intense pressure from bearish market forces, a number of distinctive faces within the cryptocurrency community have been making comments to counter the overall FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) sentiment seen in September. Ryan Sean Adams, the founder of crypto asset investment company MythosCapital, took to Twitter to remind its followers that Ethereum is being used for real-life applications that are causing real change in the lives of people.

Decentralized Stablecoin Platform Maker Issued $114m-Worth Loans In Beta Version

Ethereum has found a boost on Thursday trading, with gains of approximately 20% changing the course of what could be a tragic week for the cryptocurrency. From a $170 low, the price is now consistently moving upwards as it claims the $200 handle. ETH is still far from recovering the area it stood at earlier this month as the $300 level remains a mirage for now.

Many factors may be behind the recent surge. The cryptocurrency market as a whole is trading on a positive note as the bearish pressure wore off. The biggest winners in the top 10 coins are Ethereum, EOS, and Monero, all of which with gains above 10%. ETH lost its market position during the summer as a number of ICO projects dumped the cryptocurrency into the market.

Ryan Sean Adams, however, is now countering the prevalent sentiment with a practical example of how Ethereum is being used in the real economy. The investor said a blockchain startup which “launched a bank in December 2017” has issued 3270 loans worth $114 million at an interest rate of 0.5% in its beta version.

A startup launched a bank in December 2017

Since then it's issued 3270 loans worth $114m ($12m per mo) at an interest rate of .5%

Oh, and this is its beta product

The product is Maker, but you should ignore it because Ethereum isn't used for anything

— Ryan Sean Adams (@RyanSAdams) September 13, 2018

He was referring to Maker, a smart contract platform on Ethereum that backs and stabilizes the value of Dai through a dynamic system of Collateralized Debt Positions (CDPs), autonomous feedback mechanisms, and appropriately incentivized external actors. Ethereum-asset holders can generate stablecoin Dai on the platform which can be used as any other cryptocurrency.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has recently said that the next growth phase for cryptocurrencies is based on the adoption of real applications by real people.

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said in an interview that he expects “pretty tremendous growth” thanks to the 2017 boom that brought a lot of talent and entrepreneurs to the blockchain space which has led to a huge amount of activity in many different niches of the ecosystem. “Everything that is an asset right now is probably going to have representation as a crypto asset at some point in the future, so there’s so much growth ahead”, he added.

Lubin, who is the CEO of ConsenSys, has recently said that the cryptocurrency market is likely to experience another bubble soon as “layer 2 technologies” will enable “exchanges and games to have hundreds and thousands of transactions per second”.

 

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The post Ryan Sean Adams Counters Ethereum FUD With Success of Maker appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price is slowly moving higher and it recently broke the $0.2720 resistance against the US dollar.
• There was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance at $0.2675 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair is now placed nicely above the $0.2700 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Ripple price is moving with a bullish angle against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD could rise further towards the $0.2900 and $0.3000 resistances in the near term.

Ripple Price Support

Yesterday, there was a decent upward move from the $0.2600 swing low in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The XRP/USD pair traded above the $0.2650 and $0.2700 resistance levels. During the rise, there was a break above the $0.2720 resistance and the 100 hourly simple moving average. Additionally, the price surpassed the 61.8% fib retracement level of the last slide from the $0.2900 high to $0.2490 low.

More importantly, there was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance at $0.2675 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. The pair traded above the $0.2800 level and formed an intraday high at $0.2863. Later, there was a downside correction below the $0.2800 level. The price tested the 23.6% fib retracement level of the recent wave from the $0.2492 low to $0.2863 high. However, declines were limited by a connecting bullish trend line with current support at $0.2790. It seems like the price may continue to rise as long as the trend line and the $0.2720 support are intact.

Looking at the chart, ripple price needs to clear the $0.2860 and $0.2900 resistance levels to climb towards $0.3000. The current price action is positive, but XRP must hold the $0.2720 support.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is slightly in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is well above the 60 level.

Major Support Level – $0.2720

Major Resistance Level – $0.2900

The post Ripple Price Analysis: XRP/USD Could Extend Gains Toward $0.30 appeared first on NewsBTC.

A joint report led by the World Economic Forum (WEF) details how the blockchain industry has the potential to add UDS 1 trillion in new trade to the global market.

Published Thursday, ‘Trade Tech – A New Age for Trade and Supply Chain Finance‘ comes as a collaborative effort from WEF, the supply chain and transport industries, and the System Initiative on Shaping the Future of International Trade and Investment.

The paper provides an overview of trade and supply chain finance, framing the discussion with the presumption that international trade and global value chains are ”critical” in discerning the wealth of nations and easing geopolitical tensions. It continues to highlight the importance of applying ”smart tools and technologies” in order to reduce obstacles preventing small and medium-sized businesses and emerging markets from conducting trade.

One of the solutions the paper provides is a blockchain one; the forward reads “Distributed ledger and other technological innovations promise groundbreaking advances in trade and supply chain finance by reducing costs and ease of use”.

Blockchain has already become a popular method for companies to track the movements of their products, with the decentralized technology being praised for its efficiency and immutable nature.

The report discusses the lengths to which distributed ledger technology (DLT) can help close the trade finance gap of USD 1.5 trillion by bringing in new trade, citing that USD 1.1 trillion of new trade can be established because of the barriers DLT can lift. Some USD 0.9 trillion in ”traditional” trade is expected to move to DLT and utilize the improved, cheaper services.

The paper also acts as a warning for governments not to fall behind on technological innovations, reading: “With some governments already starting to make these moves, the laggards will become increasingly disadvantaged.” It suggests that eventually utilizing DLT is unavoidable.

 

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After revealing the plan in March, Japan’s SBI Holdings said it will roll out a Ripple DLT-based payments app in fall for iOS, Android devices.

This week the trustee in charge of the Mt Gox legal case has announced that corporate customers can now file rehabilitation claims for the October 22 deadline. The news follows the claim process that started for non-corporate customers on August 23.

Also read: Mt. Gox Victims Must Take Claims to Tokyo, Not US, Judge Rules

Corporate Clients Can Now Apply for the Mt Gox Civil Rehabilitation Refund

Corporate creditors can now join the rest of the claimants filing for the new rehabilitation process for a chance to receive some of the funds that were lost during the Mt Gox scandal. The process is being overseen by Nobuaki Kobayashi, the rehabilitation trustee for the now-defunct exchange. The new process was invoked by a group of Mt Gox customers who were not pleased with the previous bankruptcy case. The group managed to move the case from a bankruptcy proceeding to a civil rehabilitation which could produce far better results for customers who lost funds. Last August Nobuaki Kobayashi opened up the option for non-corporate clients to begin the claim process.

On September 12 Nobuaki Kobayashi wrote on the Mt Gox website:  

We are pleased to announce that we have released an online rehabilitation claim filing system (the “System”) for corporate users who filed their proofs of bankruptcy claim by using the Mt Gox online bankruptcy filing system (in the bankruptcy proceedings) which allows corporate users to file their proofs of claim by online methods in connection with the civil rehabilitation proceedings.

New Mt Gox Claim Process Confusing to Some Claimants

On the subreddit r/mtgoxinsolvency, a forum focused on the Mt Gox insolvency case, it has been filled with people discussing the civil rehabilitation. A quick scan through the forums top posts shows many people have been filing claims and discussing the process in great detail. One big complaint was that some of the claimants are saying that a confirmation email is not being sent to the user saying the filing was complete. “There is no email confirmation, sadly,” explains one claimant. “How can it be confirmed the process was done correctly?” The subreddit moderators have also pinned a very informative post that gives a lot of information on the Mt Gox civil rehabilitation process.

Close to 800,000 BTC was lost during the Mt Gox fiasco, and after the site went dark some of those funds were found in cold storage. Mt Gox customers have been fighting for the remainder of those funds for years. Civil rehabilitation customers believe they are entitled to the fair market value of all the coins. This includes the BTC and the BCH tethered to the original addresses in contrast to the $500 per BTC promised to them during the bankruptcy case.

What do you think about the new Mt Gox civil rehabilitation process? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comment section below.

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Images via Pixabay, Shutterstock, and the Mt Gox building in Japan. 

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Key Highlights

• ETH price surged higher and broke the $200 resistance against the US Dollar.
• There is a short-term ascending channel in place with support at $216 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair is following a solid bullish bias and it could continue to move higher towards the $235-240 levels.

Ethereum price gained bullish momentum against the US Dollar and bitcoin. ETH/USD rallied above the $210 resistance and it looks set for more gains.

Ethereum Price Rally

Finally, there was a sharp upward move noted from the $170 support base in ETH price against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair started a solid bullish wave and broke many resistances such as $185, $195, $200 and $210. It even settled above the $200 handle and the 100 hourly simple moving average. During the rise, there was a break above a key connecting bearish trend line at $#185 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD.

The pair even broke the $220 level and traded as high as $224.09 recently. At the moment, it seems like the pair is following a short-term ascending channel with support at $216 on the same chart. On the downside, the channel support is above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent wave from the $167 low to $224 high. Below this, the pair may perhaps correct towards the $200 handle. Finally, the most important support is near $195 and the 100 hourly SMA. Additionally, the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent wave from the $167 low to $224 high is also near $195.

Looking at the chart, ETH price is clearly back with a bang and dips from the current levels towards $200 remains supported. On the upside, the next important resistances for buyers are $235 and $240. Above this last, the price could test the $250 level.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is moving in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is currently in the overbought zone above the 70 level.

Major Support Level – $210

Major Resistance Level – $235

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD Skyrockets Above $210 appeared first on NewsBTC.

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.

South Africa

Reserve bank bags award for best distributed ledger initiative: The South African Reserve Bank (SARS) has bagged the award for the best DLT initiative at the Fintech RegTech Global Awards 2018.

The project called Khokha saw seven banks conduct gross settlements of the native currency rand on the Quorum blockchain from JP Morgan’s Byznatine fault-tolerant system. The system is designed as a high-throughput blockchain-based interbank payment system that adheres to the country’s principles for Financial Market Infrastructures.

While the initiative is good, the bank overall has been reluctant to adopt blockchain and said:

“This is only the starting point… Key considerations that need to be addressed include the evaluation of supporting frameworks and other systems that integrate with the RTGS system, as well as the legal, regulatory and compliance factors.”

Blockchain technology is seen by many as a solution to overcome South Africa’s financial woes.

Egypt

Blockchain startup Elkrem receives $75,000 for blockchain development: Egypt’s blockchain startup Elkrem has managed to secure crucial funding of USD 75,000 from the ConsenSys Tachyon blockchain accelerator to create a smart kit for blockchain Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Elkrem hopes to launch its products across the globe soon.

The company started back in January 2018 and got a seed investment of USD 250,000 from Endure Capital. The company also won the competition at EthDenver Hackathon that featured over 100 teams from around the world.

Nigeria

US company aims to bring blockchain banking to Nigeria: US blockchain development company HashCash is looking to engage financial institutions in Nigeria to set up potential blockchain solutions in the banking industry.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency’s popularity is increasing in the country and HashCash is aiming to profit from it. The case of financial exclusion of millions of Nigerians is a big point of concern for many and the government is keen on solving it. The company aims to use the wide accessibility of mobile devices to implement a blockchain-based banking solution. The move will be especially important for far remote areas and their mainstreaming.

Kenya

Blockbank purchases stake in local Bank to provide blockchain banking: Blockbank, a cryptocurrency banking startup, has purchased a stake in local Kenyan bank Spire. This strategic acquisition will allow the startup to provide global blockchain and cryptocurrency payments and other banking services to the customers of the bank.

The bank’s aim to is to provide users with a platform for faster transactions and increased transparency.

Turkey

Currency crisis forces Turkey to focus on blockchain and crypto: Turkey’s lira has been suffering from a crisis in recent weeks due to sanctions imposed by the US after a diplomatic row. To counter these effects and move towards a crypto future that is free from US intervention and sanctions, Turkey is working to adopt blockchain and cryptocurrencies into its fintech space.

The Turkish Borsa Stock Exchange has announced the development of a first blockchain-powered customer database for the exchange services and a result, the Istanbul Gold Exchange and the Turkish Derivatives Exchange (TurkDex) will both move forward to a blockchain-based future.

Cryptocurrency trading is also becoming more and more popular in the country as people look to circumnavigate the effects of lira depreciation.

United Arab Emirates

Market watchdog recognizes crypto as securities: The UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority has unveiled new regulation to give cryptocurrencies the status of a security.

According to the regulator’s statement:

“In light of the rapid development of the digital tokens market and the response thereto by the regulators in a number of countries worldwide towards regulating the initial coin offerings (ICOs), the SCA Board of Directors has approved the SCA plan to regulate the ICOs and recognize them as securities.”

UAE has become one of the crypto hubs of the region, allowing more and more blockchain companies to grow under its umbrella.

 

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DOGE has recently experienced a large jump in price as almost every other cryptocurrency has fallen substantially. To better assess whether or not a large price jump has staying power, chart patterns, exponential moving averages (EMAs), Ichimoku Cloud, and divergences can be used.

Ethereum researcher Vlad Zamfir has coded up the base architecture of upcoming scaling solution, sharding.

South America

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.

Argentina

Government advised to buy crypto to resolve currency crisis: CoinDesk’s advisory board chairman Michael J Casey has advised the Argentinian government to buy Bitcoin to address financial challenges presenting the country.

The country has been in an economic crisis for the past 30 years and tried a number of solutions of conventional nature to overcome this issue. According to Casey, an out-of-the-box solution like cryptocurrencies is needed to overcome the circular challenges that are present in the fiat model of today.

While it may be a radical move, Argentina must try to look for innovative solutions, according to the adviser.

Brazil

Brazilian Association of CryptoEconomics launched: The Brazilian Association of Cryptoeconomics (ABCCripto) was launched in the country with several members of the Brazilian cryptocurrency scene signing up as pioneering members.

Among the new members, notable names include Luiz Roberto Calado, founder of exchange Bitcoin Market, Natália Garcia, Legal Director at Foxbit and vice president of ABCripto and other members of the community.

Blockchain community holds election through blockchain: The Brazilian Association of Fintech (ABFintech) will hold elections for a new board of directors on 9 October with the help of blockchain technology.

Foxbit, a Brazilian cryptocurrency broker, is about to write an important chapter in its history by moving for a blockchain-based voting system. The election will use the system of OriginalMy, a Brazilian startup specializing in digital signatures and certification of documents through blockchain technology.

Brazilian MPs in talks for creation of parliamentary block for the promotion of crypto: The rising popularity of cryptocurrencies in the country is showing as several members of the Brazilian parliament have started the creation of a Joint Parliamentary Block for Blockchain and Digital Assets.

The current chair of the Science and Technology Commission is responsible for the initiative and has the support of Brazilian Association of Cryptomoedas and Blockchain (ABCB). The parliamentarians are hopeful they can promote the vital industry in the country.

Presidential candidate will implement digital government: A Brazilian presidential candidate has said that he will digitize the governance of the country and focus on blockchain-based applications.

João Amoedo, the candidate of the Novo Party, has said that blockchain technology can become a part of the system that will make public offices more efficient. He also supports mass applications of the Internet of Things initiative.

Venezuela

Petro to be affected by new oil deals: The state cryptocurrency of the Venezuelan government Petro may be hit by new ventures by the government to increase oil production in the country.

While the country itself is still struggling to adopt the new digital currency created by the state, it is still guaranteed by the government to be backed by a barrel of oil each. But once the oil production goes up, theoretically, the price of the Petro will be affected.

The move comes after several loopholes were found in the creation and operation of Petro cryptocurrency in the country. The initial affidavit by the government said that it was linked to oil barrels but investigations showed that lack of investments meant that it wasn’t possible to do so. The 5 billion barrels of oil that were supposedly allocated for Petro itself will take a hit because more oil is being drilled and there is no way to tell where exactly the oil backing Petro is.

 

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IBM has become a founding member in a decentralized registry for blockchain projects

Cryptocurrency mining hardware giant, Bitmain, is sponsoring a Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hackathon in the United States — San Francisco, to be exact. For the China-based company, BCH Dev Con is the first project financed by its $50 million fund, Permissionless Ventures (PV).   

Also read: Mt. Gox Victims Must Take Claims to Tokyo, Not US, Judge Rules

Bitmain’s Permissionless Ventures Launches First Project

Arguably one of the most successful companies in the ecosystem, the crypto mining giant Bitmain, announced its first project connected with its Permissionless Ventures. Hilton San Francisco Union Square will be the venue to host the first BCH Dev Con, a Bitcoin Cash hackathon series.

Over two days, on October 10th and 11th, the series will debut during the San Francisco Blockchain Week among some 5,000 visitors and attendees. BCH Dev Con is a way to encourage innovation and problem solving on the Bitcoin Cash network, including working with tokenization and smart contract platforms such as Wormhole, the company claims.

Epperly Li, Investment Director at Bitmain and Partner in its Permissionless Ventures, insists the $50 million PV fund “will operate more like an incubator, which will provide funding and also incubation for BCH developers. But this fund will be very neutral, open and creative, [and] will invest 60% into BCH projects and the other 40% into different blockchain projects.”

Coinbase, Factom, and Money Button to be Among Hackathon Judges

Ms. Li, during an interview with News.Bitcoin.com, continued, “Our idea is to build an open, innovative and creative ecosystem for BCH developers and communities. [We] want to work together with different blockchain communities to push forward the progress of blockchain technology.”

It appears the BCH Dev Con San Francisco will expand to Amsterdam, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and India, though concrete plans are not readily public at the time of publication. So far, the announced judging panel includes David Johnston of Factom, Shammah Chancellor from Bitcoin-ABC, Ryan X Charles of Moneybutton.com, Jiazhi Jiang from Wormhole, Josh Ellithorpe of Coinbase, and Gabriel Cardona from Bitbox. Evaluation is based upon five criteria: understanding of Blockchain technology, practicability, scalability, creativity, and BCH score (which includes use of Op_Return and Op_Datasigverify).

The hackathon’s principal focus, BCH, was done on purpose, according to the website. “To be honest,” organizers posted, “BCH is one of the most amazing Blockchain technologies we have ever seen in terms of its scalability, security and potentiality with smart contract in the future. There are some outstanding projects operating based on BCH or associated with BCH, for instance: Yours.org, Purse.io, Wormhole project, Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) and many more.  We intend to attract more developers through these events and eventually build a stronger community with real-world use cases.” More information and registration can be found here.

Are hackathons a good way to encourage innovation? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com is a sponsor of this event.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Gerald Fabrot contributed sourcing for this article.

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