Day: September 14, 2018

Medici Ventures, a blockchain/crypto specific division of Overstock.com, has acquired Bitsy.com in an effort to finally merge the worlds of online retail with decentralized, digital cash facilitated by the Bitsy’s new biometric wallet. The Crypto Winter, assuming it ends at some point, might be best defined by what companies in the space did to prepare for the future, to consolidate and increase relative positions as others retreated.  

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

Overstock’s Medici Acquires Bitsy

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne announced, “Bitsy sets a new standard for cryptocurrency wallets. It is a game-changer because it gives users the freedom that bitcoin has always promised. This new Bitsy wallet has extraordinary advantage in convenience versus anything currently on the market. In addition to setting a new standard for cryptocurrency wallets, integrating with Bitsy will allow Overstock to take the next step in its cryptocurrency journey by allowing the company to offer bitcoin for sale directly from the retail website.”

As the press release elaborated, in addition to its acquisition, Bitsy “has commenced the limited beta launch of a digital wallet service that creates a simple, secure, and convenient bridge between traditional fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.”

Indeed, Bitsy has an interesting niche when compared to crypto banks and exchanges. They do not hold clients’ keys, and are therefore able to avoid liability when it comes to matching buyers and sellers. The company is at once keen to insist they comply with the myriad of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, but won’t ever involve themselves in censoring transactions for less than strictly illegal activity. Having such a company, often referred to as a ‘bridge,’ further allows frictionless international crypto transfers in accordance with Overstock’s plans, something centralized, more established exchanges avoid at all cost.  

It’s just the latest company to be scooped up by Medici, of which terms were not immediately disclosed. In the last couple of years, it has gobbled up firms in the ecosystem such as Ripio, Tzero, and Bitt. Overstock’s very visible CEO, Mr. Byrne, has been a vocal, full-throated supporter of everything crypto, earning the community’s trust even though the online retailer’s business is helped in only fractions of a percent by being crypto friendly. Overstock accepts “dozens of cryptocurrencies,” the company insisted, and “plans to use the Bitsy service to offer bitcoin for sale on the Overstock website.”

Your Face is Your Key

Overstock’s move looks to be an overt play into the heart of the ecosystem. Bitsy’s latest wallet configuration has as a selling point or marketing ploy known as biometric markers, basically substituting for keys. A face and a fingerprint, that combination, is claimed by the wallet service to be so unique as to supplant the laborious recording and storing of keys.

Its recovery plan is reportedly through a multi-key generation process, allowing a third party to help clients who have wallet issues, coin issues for whatever reason. The company stresses the fact it does not have keys and therefore no access to them, and this, in Bitsy’s reckoning, saves it from one central point of failure with regard to hacks. In other words, users who forget or lose a password will no longer view such as the end of the world.

Bitsy might also fit well with the above mentioned group of crypto companies making up Medici holdings. An early promise of BTC was the giant remittance market, but that hasn’t seemed to have materialized in the way early proponents hoped. The combination of Ripio, Bitt, and Bitsy, Medici insists, could offer lower cost ways to move money internationally, thereby helping even the traditionally unbanked.   

President of Medici Jonathan Johnson explained, “Bitsy and the work it is doing dovetails perfectly with Medici Ventures’ goal of investing in companies that are democratizing capital by eliminating middlemen and re-humanizing commerce.”

Would you use a biometric wallet? Would you buy crypto from Overstock.com? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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A gambling application that is based on the EOS blockchain has had a flaw in its smart contract system exploited. Hackers were able to make off with $200,000 worth of EOS due to the vulnerability.

EOSBet Taken Offline Following Security Breach

Those behind today’s attack exploited a weakness in one of the EOSBet platform’s smart contracts. Following the incident, the service was taken offline whilst developers tried to pinpoint exactly how such an attack was possible.

According to a report by TheNextWeb, an EOSBet spokesperson has stated:

“[…] A few hours ago, we were attacked, and about 40,000 EOS was taken from our bankroll… This bug was not minor as was stated previously, and we are still doing forensics and piecing together what happened.”

They added that the service should resume full functionality “relatively quickly” and that the incident was caused by a fault within the coding of one of their games. In addition, it appears that the hackers were able to target numerous games with the same code.

It seems that those behind the attack were able to trick the EOSBet’s transfer funds function by using a fake hash. The discovery was first made public by a member of the EOSBet Reddit community. The post by user “thbourlove” showed the code used to exploit the vulnerability. This was responded to by the platform’s official Reddit account:

“Yep, we were hacked. But we also have this exact assertion that you do. I would be careful, it’s a bit deeper than you think.”

It seems that those responsible for the attack have attempted to make the transfers off the platform to the attacker’s wallet appear legitimate by creating an account that looks very similar to that of the official EOSBet wallet. They received small transactions from a number of accounts accompanied by the following message and other similar ones:

“Memo: Please refund the illegal income eos, otherwise we will hire a team of lawyers in China to pursue all criminal liability and losses to you. Eosbet official eos account: eosbetdicell.”

Taking a leaf out of the Twitter-bot scammers’ playbook of spreading ill gotten gains thinly across many wallets, the fake account then sent out many small amounts of EOS tokens to several accounts with this message:

“Memo: Dear players: In order to make up for the loss of eosbet players in the hacking incident, the platform launched a recharge to send BET. 1EOS=1BET, the official eos account: eosbetdicell, the transfer will automatically give the same BET.”

Presumably, the hope is that the disbursement is meant to resemble an official refund for players impacted by the breach.

Although the figures involved are much smaller, the incident is all too reminiscent of the DAO hack on the Ethereum network. There, a smart contract vulnerability was exploited allowing attackers to make off with millions of dollars of investors ETH tokens. It was the response the this that caused the fork that created Ethereum Classic. Clearly, far greater care needs be taken by developers hoping to use smart contracts in their dApps.

The post Hackers Steal $200,000 Worth of EOS, dApp Had Smart Contract Flaw appeared first on NewsBTC.

A senior official at the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) in Zimbabwe has told local insurance companies that blockchain solutions should be employed as an answer to the industry’s problems.

Reports coming from local media sources say that the issues within the insurance industry amount to a lack of universal access to both insurance policies and pensions, resulting in financial exclusion throughout the country.

The chairman of IPEC, Lynn Mukonoweshuro, argued that blockchain could provide a much-needed modern update to the antiquated methods of insurance delivery that relies completely on brokers and agents; she cites this old system as one of the main failures of the industry.

With a blockchain strategy, Mukonoweshuro claimed, insurance companies would be able to service “the digital customer”, a trending target in the country for businesses. She called for the industry to ”embrace” blockchain, and use it to provide insurance to the wider population of Zimbabwe. ”These technologies provide new ways to measure, control, and price risk, engage with customers, reduce cost, and expand insurability,” she added.

Blockchain is already being applied on a global scale by insurance companies, which have praised the improvements it brings in areas of risk management, transparency, and accountability. The technology is being commended for its potential to bring an entirely new level of trust and security to insurance.

One insurance company in Zimbabwe, Marsh, already uses blockchain for proof of insurance purposes. Marsh agrees with Mukonoweshuro’s arguments in favor of rolling out the technology across the sector and believes that the process of issuing and storing insurance certificates can be completely transformed into a ”streamlined and transparent” practice with the help of blockchain.

Modernizing insurance in the African nation will be enabled by IPEC funding that will target updating technology and pursuing financial inclusion in particular.

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North 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.

Mexico

Government to tighten Bitcoin regulation through central bank-issued payments: The Bank of Mexico is tightening up Bitcoin regulations by releasing a circular that says Bitcoin exchanges and other businesses dealing in cryptocurrencies will have to require a government permit to do so.

The circular was published in the government’s official daily channel and shows that the country is working to tighten trading laws in the country in an effort to stop any misuse of the digital currencies.

Canada

Canada home to first Bitcoin-linked mutual fund trust: Canadian investors are going to get a taste of something new as a company called First Block Capital Ltd was allowed by the government regulators to operate as a mutual fund trust.

The move means that Canadians can now save their money in Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) that is essentially a tax-free savings account in the country. This will boost the application of crypto and let people save money in the form of cryptocurrencies for retirement.

USA

Crypto industry starts lobbying group in Washington: A new lobbying group has been established by the Blockchain Association of the USA to represent entrepreneurs and investors in the sector and lobby for the right response from the government.

The group will also assist the government in implementing crypto specific laws including Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) measures.

Department of Defense building to become crypto mining facility: A Nevada-based building of the US Department of Defense is being taken over and converted into a cryptocurrency mining facility by a private mining company.

The Wuhan General Group of China has used the opportunity to use the vacated building and install a total of 1,300 mining rigs in the building. With competition tough around the world, companies are finding it difficult to locate suitable buildings for cryptocurrency mining operations because they take a lot of space and need a former factory floor for installation of equipment.

SEC stops only Bitcoin ETN operating in US: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stopped the trading of the only Bitcoin Exchange Traded Note (ETN) being offered in the country. The ETN in question had only been trading in the country since mid-August.

The banned ETN is named Bitcoin Tracker One and according to the SEC, there is a lack of consistent, accurate information about the ETN that confuses investors. While the statement from the SEC says that the ETN has been banned only till 20 September, its overall attitude probably means that the ETN will be banned for a long time.

New York approves Gemini stablecoin: A New York State regulator has allowed two-dollar linked digital tokens including one belonging to the Winklevoss twins’ exchange Gemini.

The Winklevoss brothers made big money settlements with Mark Zuckerberg during their infamous trial in which they accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. They also jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon early on and profited a lot from it.

While the twins have been trying to get ETFs legalized for some time, they are also experimenting with stablecoins, digital coins linked to recognized assets such as the US dollar that gives them stability.

Marshall Islands

IMF puts pressure on government after plans for a national crypto: The tiny Pacific nation of Marshall Islands’ plans to shift to a national cryptocurrency have suffered a setback after the IMF warned against the idea and suggested that the banks will refuse to work with it if the government goes ahead with its plans.

The new token being considered by the tiny island nation was called Sovereign and could have displaced the US dollar as the national currency in the near future. But, the IMF which heavily relies on the current fiat system for survival has come out and warned the country against doing so.

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There are low time frame recoveries but it looks likely that our previous Cardano price analysis and subsequent price predictions remain true. This is despite the flurry of positive price boosting Cardano news which should naturally lift prices above it’s all-time-lows and main support at 7 cents. If anything, Cardano has a bearish outlook that’s unless there is a high-volume break and close above 7 cents later today.

Latest Cardano News

It’s true that there is a positive correlation between altcoins including Cardano and Bitcoin. Dominating at more than 55 percent at the time of press, the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson told Mpho Dagada that was it not for Bitcoin, we would not have Cardano, a platform that wants to change the way smart contracting is executed.

Thanks to the Cypriot Crisis in late 2012-2013, the event propelled the Bitcoin prices from almost zero to $250 giving it a pass to the media which in turn funneled as these investors keen on exploring the “amazing” technology and digital money.

The banking crisis in Cyprus did create problems but it was instead a platform for Charles Hoskinson to be a force in the crypto space which made him possible to create IOHK, Dan Larimer of EOS and Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum.

Since then, Cardano as an idea has been evolving. Currently, the team is even talking of developing solutions that continue to be problematic in the Bitcoin ecosystem. That of UTXO, or Unspent Transaction Output.

Besides, the platform under the Byron Stage is planning on Marlowe, a templating language platform with smart contracting capabilities. Marlowe will work together with Plutus, another of Cardano’s blockchain language that allows smart contract compilation via Haskell.

Cardano Price Prediction

Weekly Cardano Price Chart

Weekly Cardano Price Chart by Trading View

Technically, ADA is the biggest loser in the top 10 dropping by 18 percent on a week over week basis. What this means is that last week’s solid candlestick is still a shadow for recent bullish events and could hamper recovery.

In any case anyway, last week remains an important candlestick in our analysis. It was a bearish engulfing bar breaking below 9 cents and retesting ADA’s ATLs at 7 cents.

The level as we have seen in previous Cardano price analysis is an important support level for Cardano price and was broken early this week.

As such, though there is a minor shift in sentiment, Cardano buyers are yet to shake off sell pressure. Going forward, Cardano prices might collapse and print new lows in coming days.

Daily Cardano Price Chart

Daily Cardano Price Chart by Trading View

Considering the development of Sep 12, Cardano prices did recover on Sep 13. On Sep 12, a bear pin bar printed with abnormally high trading volumes

The result was a three-bar bullish reversal pattern, the Morning Star. However, ADA is yet to close above 7 cents signaling shift of trend. Instead, yesterday’s lower time frame consolidation means our Cardano sells hold true.

Unless otherwise Cardano prices recover and hit stops at 8 cents, our previous Cardano price prediction will be valid.

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are those of the author and aren’t investment advice. Trading of any form involves risk and so do your due diligence before making a trading decision.

The post Cardano Price Analysis: Cardano Buyers Accumulate appeared first on NewsBTC.

This week, FINRA debuted its regulation of the U.S. crypto market, while the SEC targeted crypto hedge funds in an apparent first. Here what’s to come

According to a recent tweet, the Tezos Foundation will launch its mainnet on Monday, September 17

The Ether Tracker One and Bitcoin Tracker One issued by crypto fund provider XBT Provider AB, a subsidiary of the UK company CoinShares, were suspended due to confusion in their descriptions.

Samsung SDS will develop a blockchain platform for Korea’s customs agency in order to fight customs fraud and forged documents

Recent developments show that fundamentals in the crypto sector are improving, but will prices follow? Let’s find out

The altcoin market is stabilizing and poised to add more over the weekend due to specific candlestick formations in EOS, Litecoin, IOTA and Tron. That’s on top of favorable altcoins news that continues to trickle. Of all the coins under our review, Stellar Lumens price is slow to pick up and still trading below 25 cents. However, the general shift in momentum could aid thrust altcoin prices back towards profitability in the short to medium term.

Let’s have a look at these charts:

EOS Price Analysis

Latest EOS News

• Through a blog post, EOSFinex, the DEX that shall run on EOSIO blockchain will launch live during the Blockchain Live event on Sep 26 in London. The DEX platform says their network is built around speed, performance. Initially, it shall list all the major trading pairs as EOS/USD trading pair before expanding to tokens.

#EOSFinex to be unveiled live at Blockchain Live in London on Sept. 26. https://t.co/NR8sZuxq9l

— EOS New York (@eosnewyork) September 13, 2018

EOS Price Predictions

Daily EOS Price Chart by Trading View

A three percent drop of EOS price in the last day is nothing new and usually happens after periods of high volatility. On Sep 13, in the face of high market participation, EOS prices surged hitting the $5.5 buy trigger and positioning EOS coin for further gains.

That’s was expected yesterday but instead a lower time frame consolidation meant our previous EOS price analysis remains in loss making territory but today we might see higher highs.

Regardless, we keep in mind that any dip below $4 invalidates this EOS price prediction while any thrust and close above $7 would most probably usher in a wave of buyers aiming for $9 and even $15.

Litecoin Price Analysis

Latest Litecoin News

• The Litecoin summit is ongoing and shall conclude later today. For those who couldn’t attend but want to keep track, watch live at any of these links.

Litecoin Price Predictions

Daily Litecoin Price Chart by Trading View

It might be miniscule or even negligible to some but a three percent gain in the last 24 hours means prices did confirm the three bar bull reversal pattern set by Sep 13 close.

What this means is that our last Litecoin price prediction  is true and going forward, traders can load at current Litecoin prices with stops at $50.

Going forward, it’s likely that Litecoin prices would edge higher in response to Sep 12 high volume pin bar meaning our first targets at $70 would most likely be hit.

Stellar Lumens Price Analysis

Daily Stellar Lumens Price Chart by Trading View

Even after series of higher highs, XLM prices are still trending inside Sep 11 bullish bar. Nonetheless, we still hold a bullish expectation despite yesterday’s four percent drop in prices and failure of XLM buyers to drive prices towards our immediate resistance trend line and 25 cents, the main resistance line.

Considering this mid-range consolidation, our previous Stellar Lumens price prediction remains valid and unless there are market boosting XLM news, buyers holds an upper hand. Any dip and close below 18 cents shall nullify this price projection.

Tron Price Analysis

Daily Tron Price Chart by Trading View

Like the rest of the altcoin market, Tron price is stable adding a paltry two percent in the last day but encouragingly trading above yesterday’s highs. Though it can deflating after periods of strong Tron sells, yesterday’s resistance for higher highs is normal following high volume moves of Sep 12.

However, since the three bar bullish reversal pattern is now complete, we shall trade according to our last Tron price analysis. In that case, we recommend small volume buys at spot rates with stops at 1.6 cents and targets at 3 cents or high.

On the reverse side, we remain aware that any market damping Tron news would fast-track reversal of gains. This will likely drive  prices back to Jan 24 lows in line with our last Tron price analysis.

IOTA Price Analysis

Latest IOTA News

• GE Ventures, the Venture Capital arm of the tech Behemoth, General Electric did a presentation at the Hannover Fairs USA. At the event, they demonstrated the proof of concept using IOTA’s tangle for the industrial application of IoT. The entry—or even the intention of entry—for a company tapping $160 billion in revenue should be a massive boost for IOTA.

Our Director @jochenrenz will present 3 times today @HannoverMesseUS in the Solution Theatre. 1) DLT in New Mobility 2) Iota at the Pitch Showcase presented by GE Ventures & @sente_link and 3) DLT in IIoT #IOTA #dlt #iiot

— New Mobility Lab (@newmobilitylab) September 13, 2018

IOTA Price Prediction

Daily IOTA Price Chart by Trading View

If anything, yesterday was pretty even with IOTA prices leveling each other out. Nonetheless, IOTA prices did inch higher adding two percent by yesterday’s close.

While we didn’t see strong closes above 60 cents triggering small size buys in line with our IOTA price predictions, it’s likely that we might see buyers breaching that level by close of the week.

When that happens, we shall initiate IOTA buys on every pull back. First targets will be at Sep 5 highs and later 90 cents.

On the other side of the coin, any shift of momentum that will  see prices drop below 50 cents would usher in sellers eyeing 30 cents.

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are those of the author and aren’t investment advice. Trading of any form involves risk and so do your due diligence before making a trading decision.

The post Stellar Lumens, EOS, Litecoin, Tron, IOTA Price Analysis: Morning Star Bull Reversal pattern Clear in Litecoin, Tron appeared first on NewsBTC.