Day: September 15, 2018

Over nearly three days on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie, more than two dozen hacker teams competed for cash and prizes in the state’s first ever Wyohackathon: Breakin’ Through. Organized by the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, the event included speakers from industry luminaries, and all three of the state’s gubernatorial candidates made an appearance.

Also read: Billion Dollar ICO Industry Governed by Securities Law, Judge Rules

Wyoming’s Wyohackathon Smashed Expectations

When asked about the hackathon’s result, “The event smashed our expectations,” organizer Caitlin Long replied enthusiastically to news.Bitcoin.com. “We anticipated about 10 teams would compete but we had 27. The quality of the submissions was terrific, including one from a senior Google engineer, and I believe more than a handful of these projects will turn into real businesses.”

Wyoming has quietly, ploddingly built up quite a reputation within the cryptocurrency community. Just this year alone, the state’s legislature approved close to half of a dozen blockchain friendly laws at the behest of Representative Tyler Lindholm and the newly formed Wyoming Blockchain Coalition.

In fact, there was so much momentum the state went as far as exempting cryptos from money transmitter laws, overtly made utility tokens safe from securities regulators, flatly rejecting taxing cryptos as property, recommending incorporating blockchain tech into corporate records, and forged new codes for LLCs involving the nascent technology.

That it would then actively recruit devs and coding teams to a hackathon might come as little surprise. “A hackathon is a marathon coding session,” explained Ms. Long to news.Bitcoin.com, “that typically lasts over a weekend. Participants ‘hack together’ code from code libraries and add new lines of code to produce a solution to a challenge.”

Wyoming Gubernatorial Candidates Attend 

Ms. Long is quick to reiterate legislative successes as driving the event idea. “Wyoming passed 5 blockchain-friendly laws earlier this year, and having a hackathon on the University of Wyoming campus to bring start-ups to the state was a logical next step. The University’s motto is ‘Bucking the System Since 1886’ – it fits the blockchain industry well. Moreover, UW has been teaching blockchain classes for more than a year already,” she stressed.

Asked about the state’s response to an event with the word ‘hack’ in it, not normally something politicians would wish to be associated with, Ms. Long doubles down, “We had all 3 candidates for governor of Wyoming judge and speak to participants. This shows that the blockchain momentum we had under Governor Mead will continue under the next governor. It also let the candidates see how special the blockchain industry is, and interact with some of its pioneers who were in attendance.” Indeed, Ethereum co-founder and founder of Consensys, Joseph Lubin, along with Overstock.com’s Patrick Byrne, both early supporters of the tech and the space, were eager to offer their time by being in attendance.

As for the hackathon becoming a regular fixture in the state, Ms. Long explained she hoped so. “UW did a great job for the participants, and at the end many were begging us to do it again next year – the facilities were perfect, the food was great and abundant, the wifi was also very good, and we provided cots donated by the Red Cross for participants to nap during the event. The biggest complaint we heard was lack of vegan food, which we solved – next year we’ll fix that!”

Also in attendance were 12 year-old CEO of Pocketful of Quarters, George Weiksner, Dr. Robert Macinnis CEO of Active Aether (which announced his company’s move from New York City to Wyoming), Gabriel Cardona of BITBOX and Bitcoin.com, and many others. Winners included First Place, $12,000 (Sponsor – University of Wyoming) – Token Subscription Team; Second Place, $8,000 (Sponsor – University of Wyoming) – Peregrine Team; Third Place, $4,000 (Sponsor – University of Wyoming) – Wyoflow Team; Most Creative, $1,000 (Sponsor – University of Wyoming) – Cowgirl Technologies Team; Audience Favorite, $1,000 (Sponsor – University of Wyoming) – Rawhide Team; Best Use of Technology, $1,000 (Sponsor – University of Wyoming) – Topicless Team, among many others.

What do you think about hackathons? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter, Wyohackathon.

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The post Wyoming’s Crypto Cowboys: First State Hackathon Lures 27 Teams appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Crypto enthusiast and venture capitalist Tim Draper, who made headlines across the crypto world when he purchased the Silk Road bitcoins from the US Marshals has made the most bullish crypto and Bitcoin forecasts in history. He is calling for the crypto market cap to hit USD 80 trillion within 15 years, which implies a price per Bitcoin of USD 2 million or more.

The previous record holder for the most bullish Bitcoin forecast is John McAfee, who says Bitcoin will hit USD 1 million by 2020. He combined that prediction with an extremely aggressive bet.

When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions. I now predict Bircoin at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my dick if wrong. pic.twitter.com/WVx3E71nyD

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 29, 2017

Draper says in regards to crypto, “The internet started in the same way, it came in big waves and then it kind of came crashing down, and then the next wave comes concentrated but much bigger, and I suspect the same thing will go on here. I think it’s going to have such a transformative effect on industries that we never even imagined would be transformable. The internet went after industries that were 10-100 billion USD markets, cryptocurrency will go after trillion USD markets – these are finance, healthcare and insurance, banking and investment banking, and governments”.

Basically, Draper is saying cryptocurrency will replace fiat currency, which is in agreement with numerous crypto experts. The total amount of bank notes, i.e. cash, in the world is USD 7.6 trillion, and the total amount of cash plus checking accounts, narrow money, is USD 36.8 trillion. The total amount of broad money, which is narrow money plus savings accounts, time deposits, and money markets is USD 90.4 trillion. Therefore, if the crypto market cap hits USD 80 trillion like Tim Draper says, it means crypto will be the dominant global currency and hold practically all of the money in the world.

In the event of a fiat currency collapse, and the replacement of fiat currency with crypto, a crypto market cap in terms of fiat won’t make sense anymore. If crypto hits USD 80 trillion like Draper says, fiat currencies will be so worthless that crypto’s market cap couldn’t be defined in terms of fiat anymore.

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Listen to the 14 September 2018 BitcoinNews Radio Show below.

On this edition of the BitcoinNews.com daily radio show, we discuss CoinMarketCap’s historical snapshots which show 2018 is not a bear market. Learn about the new decentralized mapping and navigation system FOAM which is based on Ethereum. Hear about how the SEC has halted trading of the only Bitcoin ETN, and how OKCoin USA is expanding and breaking Coinbase’s monopoly on the USA market.

Follow the BitcoinNews Radio Show on Anchor, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Castbox, and Breaker. We broadcast a new episode every day, covering the most important topics in the crypto, Bitcoin, and blockchain world!

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U.S. law enforcement agencies have started their money laundering investigations of Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest bank, according to the Wall Street Journal. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have been implicated. Danske Bank is also currently under investigation by Denmark and Estonia and its CEO reportedly ignored warnings of suspicious transactions.

Also read: 160 Crypto Exchanges Seek to Enter Japanese Market, Regulator Reveals

$150 Billion Money Laundering Case

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, September 14, that “The [U.S.] Justice Department, Treasury Department, and Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] are each examining Danske Bank after a confidential whistleblower complaint was filed to the SEC more than two years ago,” citing a person familiar with the matter. According to the person and the documents the news outlet has reviewed:

U.S. law enforcement agencies are probing Denmark’s largest bank over allegations of massive money laundering flows from Russia and former Soviet states…U.S. involvement in the case greatly raises the stakes for Danske Bank.

An estimated $150 billion are suspected to have flowed through non-Estonian customer accounts held at Danske Bank’s Estonian branch from 2007 to 2015 – from countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. The publication added that the bank’s investigators have not revealed if the entire amount should be viewed as suspicious. The bank has been conducting an internal investigation and will release the results on September 19, a notice on its website states.

Danish and Estonian authorities have been investigating the bank and have shared information with their U.S. counterparts, several European officials familiar with the matter told the news outlet.

Why Is the US Interested?

The U.S. has yet to officially confirmed that it is investigating Danske Bank. Two weeks ago, Marshall Billingslea, U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing, told Danish daily Berlingske “We are following this case very closely.” Reuters elaborated:

While the bank does not have a banking license in the United States, it has a bond program in dollars and its Estonian branch saw U.S. dollar customer flows, which could heighten interest among U.S. regulators.

The Wall Street Journal explained that the U.S. Treasury can restrict the supply of U.S. dollars to foreign banks and the Treasury and Justice Department can fine banks.

Adam Barrass, an analyst at Berenberg, noted back in July that the key risk to Danske Bank was “the potential U.S. fine because [of] Danske’s use of dollar funding and transactions,” the Financial Times reported.

CEO Ignores Money Laundering Signs

According to the Financial Times, Danske Bank’s CEO, Thomas Borgen, ignored calls to scale back business at the Estonian branch when warned of money laundering activities. The minutes seen by the news outlet reveals that the CEO was informed at a meeting in October 2013 that:

The level of activity in its [Danske Bank’s] Estonian branch from outside the country — mostly from ex-Soviet states and Russia — was higher than that of rivals and ‘needed to be reviewed and potentially reduced’.

Instead, Borgen responded by emphasizing “the need for a middle ground, and wanted to discuss this further outside of this forum,” the publication noted.

The Wall Street Journal additionally detailed, “Estonian officials are investigating 26 former Danske employees, from low-level staff to the former branch CEO. They are accused of helping to launder $230 million in money from an alleged fraud committed in Russia.”

Deutsche Bank and Citigroup Implicated

Citing the person familiar with the probes, the Wall Street Journal also reported:

The whistleblower complaint identified Deutsche Bank AG and Citigroup Inc., both overseen by U.S. regulators, as involved with transactions into and out of Danske Bank’s Estonian branch.

Deutsche Bank acted as a correspondent bank for Danske, handling dollar wire transfers while Citigroup’s Moscow office was involved in some of the transfers through Danske Bank’s Estonian branch, the person told the publication.

With the ongoing probes, the bank’s share price has been on a sharp decline this year.

Why are regulators going after crypto with so much money laundering going on in the banking system? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Yahoo Finance, and Danske Bank.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has declared that Bitcoin is not a currency in an affidavit to the Indian Supreme Court, during an ongoing legal battle regarding the ban on banks from facilitating any crypto-related activity in India. The Reserve Bank of India is completely wrong.

Specifically, the affidavit says “It is submitted that crypto-currencies fall short of being true currencies. It is further submitted that RBI does not consider virtual currencies such as Bitcoins as ‘currency’ under the extant laws. There are no enabling provisions under the extant law to treat Bitcoin as currency”. The RBI further argues that Bitcoin can’t be a currency because it has no physical form, and aren’t issued by the RBI.

The RBI could not be more wrong. Bitcoin has an excellent track record as a currency, it can be used to buy or sell anything in the world, and transactions sent with Bitcoin are instant and cryptographically secure. Combined with very low fees to send Bitcoin transactions, Bitcoin is actually better than fiat for international finance due to its speed and security. Bitcoin has 99.9% uptime and success when sending transactions, and is very reliable when used as a currency.

The RBI has led a month-long battle to stomp out Bitcoin and crypto in India, and they have succeeded at getting banks to stop offering accounts to crypto exchanges and traders. However, since Bitcoin itself is still legal in India, peer to peer Bitcoin dealing has proliferated across the country. It would probably be best for India to classify and regulate Bitcoin, like most other countries, instead of driving it underground where they have no control over it at all.

In reality, the RBI likely feels threatened by Bitcoin, since it is the first decentralized currency to spread across India, and is rapidly gaining value and use. This is unlike the Indian Rupee (INR), which has been experiencing massive inflation rates. The exchange rate has gone from INR 63 per USD to INR 72 per USD so far during 2018, yielding an annual inflation rate of 19% per year.

This inflation rate is approaching the hyper-inflation threshold, and as seen in other nations like Venezuela and Zimbabwe, once inflation begins increasing to double digits it usually continues to accelerate until ultimately a currency collapse occurs. Right now, the RBI’s biggest problem is the threat of a currency collapse, and they likely think capital outflows into the Bitcoin market will worsen the situation, which is why they are trying to make it illegal.

The collapse of fiat currencies like the INR may be inevitable, and it would be much better for India if Bitcoin stays legal so the country can adopt it over time, so the Indian financial system will still be functional in the event of a fiat collapse.

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This week a blockchain researcher named Alex Lebed published a code review on the new stablecoin, the gemini dollar, created by the Gemini Trust cryptocurrency firm. According to Lebed’s study, gemini dollar accounts can be frozen by the exchange, and the tokens can be turned into non-transferable assets.

Also read: Markets Update: Short Term Recovery – Is a Bullish Reversal in Sight?

The Custodian Has the Ability to Freeze Gemini Dollar Accounts

The latest tether (USDT) competitor, the gemini dollar (USDG) created by the cryptocurrency exchange owners the Gemini Trust, has had a code review this week. A post written by Alex Lebed details that exchange’s new stablecoin creation has some interesting centralized features. It’s also interesting to note that Lebed is not only a blockchain researcher but also the founder of ‘Stableunit,’ another stablecoin that claims to be decentralized and offer low volatility. According to Lebed’s report, he reviewed the gemini dollar’s codebase that was created with an ethereum-based smart contract.

“Gemini USDG is a new centralized stablecoin (similar to tether) implemented as an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain,” explains Lebed’s study.

The current implementation gives Gemini the ability to freeze any account or make all tokens non-transferrable. The custodian is able to completely change the implementation of the token every 48 hours.

After detailing with references on how anyone can verify his work on their own, Lebed reviews the code and replicates the results. Lebed claims the custodian of the gemini dollar smart contract can generate an “infinite amount of tokens.” Moreover, Lebed emphasizes that the custodian can easily make all the tokens non-transferable.

“This project has another single point of failure: the company — They can just say one day: ‘you know what, sorry, we don’t want to change your tokens for dollars anymore,’” Lebed states.

You think this is impossible because it’s a big company with a reputation? History has a precedent when the whole country with the largest economy in the world did this in 1971. And here we speak about just a private company which has to follow all the regulations of the US government.     

‘Then It’s Not a Cryptocurrency’

Since the rise of tether, and the slew of other stablecoins released over the past few months, many other cryptocurrency firms are in the midst of creating their own stablecoin. For instance, there are at least 6-7 more stablecoin projects on the way like the Boston-based US cryptocurrency unicorn, Circle Invest, is in the midst of making a stablecoin. And then, of course, Lebed seems to be making his own decentralized version of a stable digital asset. In an update after the editorial review published, the author notes that Gemini Trust is not hiding the fact that his claims are possible in the official white paper.  

“Nowadays this is considered a best practice for evolving smart-contracts, especially for the asset-backed token — And Gemini made an excellent job by explicitly mentioning that in their whitepaper,” Lebed concludes.

Of course on social media and Reddit forums, cryptocurrency proponents were quick to note that controversial Tether Limited, the company that issues tethers via the Omni Layer, also has the ability to freeze accounts. One Reddit user explains what he thinks of the gemini dollar custodian’s freezing ability saying, “then it’s not a cryptocurrency, just a database.”

What do you think about the stablecoin phenomenon? Let us know in the comment section below.

Images via Pixabay, Fandom, and the Gemini dollar logo. 

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In a continued evolution towards a cashless society, Japan’s Kintetsu Group is rolling out a second cryptocurrency usage drive to over 1.6 million potential participants 

In less than a month, Bitcoin will turn ten years old. Bitcoin, along with the cryptocurrency market has surpassed several milestones since Satoshi first released Bitcoin’s whitepaper to the public. There are now approximately 17 million bitcoins in circulation, as well as numerous other tokens available to trade and transact with – as of August 2018, more than 1600 cryptocurrencies are in circulation.

ICOs have also become an established fundraising method, with the first quarter of 2018 recording a historic high of $6.3 billion – around 118% of the total amount raised in 2017. The Crypto ATM market alone is expected to grow from $16.3 million in 2018 to $144.5 million by 2023, this lends credence to the idea that the way financial transactions are undertaken is bound to shift.

However, even though the industry as a whole has garnered considerable support, it remains fairly controversial. This is primarily due to the lack of governmental regulation, as well as the fear generated by fraudulent scams and illegitimate behavior.

We tend to forget that this is a normal process for every innovative revolution; in fact, the crypto market’s evolution is very similar to that of the Stock Exchange market circa late 19th and early 20th century. At the time, the financial boom occurred so fast that it took a while for proper regulation to catch up. It can be difficult to imagine a time when investment and stock trading markets didn’t exist in the form as we know it now, especially without the presence of institutions such as the SEC and FINRA who now set the rules that help to organize and regulate the sector.

Change is underway as more and more countries are embracing the industry and initiating conversations about future regulation. This holds huge promise for cryptocurrencies, as regulations are strongly linked to a wider acceptance of digital tokens.

At Blockchain.io, we believe that Crypto-Exchanges will lead the way in the new era of how value is traded. The Crypto market holds great potential when it comes to simplifying access to financial payment systems; as such, participation will not be determined by credit history, but by the willingness to access the technology itself. To facilitate ease of access into this new financial ecosystem, we have worked diligently to deliver a product that is intuitive and easy to use for traders, investors, and the everyday people.

We are mindful of the role that Europe can play in helping to develop this industry further. To transform Europe into a credible Crypto hub that can compete with Asia and the US, we need innovative projects that will deliver stellar products and value to advance the growth and innovation of this sector further. That is precisely what we aim to do with Blockchain.io, a new gateway into the era of the Internet of Value. Our goal is to become the leading Cryptocurrency Exchange platform in Europe by 2020 – to accomplish that, we are aware that we must actively build a flourishing community of Crypto-enthusiasts around the world.

We look forward to leading the crypto revolution alongside you. You can join us by participating in our public sale that opens on September 27th!

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of NullTX. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

The post The Potential of the Cryptocurrency Market – Why Giving into FOMO Isn’t a Bad Idea appeared first on NullTX.

Decentralized apps, or dApps, operating on the blockchain face a singular problem: scalability. Take a look at Bitcoin 10 transactions per second (TPS) limit, compared to Visa’s 24,000 TPS. While a handful of high-quality projects and companies have partly surmounted this challenge with sidechaining and sharding, nonscalability has inhibited the progress of many otherwise promising blockchain projects. DApp scaling frameworks may be an early solution on which to build greater and wider blockchain scalability in the future, and it’s worth examining what they are and why they’re so important.

DApps, or decentralized apps, use blockchain technology to deliver value in a peer-to-peer fashion. Blockchain is a decentralized, trustless, peer-to-peer ledger that allows users to transact between each other without a centralized authority through an encrypted medium.

While outwardly beneficial, this structure is intrinsically problematic. Imagine if every transaction or purchase you made had to be confirmed by a network of other people before it was completed. This property, the consensus protocol, is one of blockchain’s greatest strengths and weaknesses: for a blockchain to work, every node participating in it has to confirm every transaction that happens on it.

This massively increases transaction immutability, verifiability and transparency, but also makes its transaction per second (TPS) speed very low. Slow processes rarely scale. More unfortunate is that without scalability, blockchain technology cannot reach mainstream usage: at the time of this writing, only about 8 million people globally use any form of cryptocurrency – to reach mainstream usage, 800 million people must use it, and on a consistent basis. Though this may suggest that this is a chicken-and-egg problem, the reality is that the blockchain space can solve its own problems with the right resources.

DApp scaling frameworks are one way. They are bundles of code inside blockchain protocols that allow distributed apps to become even more distributed, letting a blockchain scale its TPS and allow more transactions than ever before. Unfortunately, not very many developers have access to these, and the few that do only built the earliest versions of this technology, leaving questions about the value of this innovation.

Many developers will especially agree that dApps are currently terrible to interact with. They’re slow, confusing, and rely on 3rd-party software which consumers can’t readily use. Yet the chief issue here is speed. Without scale, dApps can’t increase their TPS, the key performance measurement of all distributed systems. And without high DPS, user acquisition eventually wanes. There are fixes for this problem, but little implementation and even less progress on their collective maturation. They exist in five categories, below:

1. Low-Level Optimizations

2. Parallel Blockchains (“sharding”)

3. Homogenous Vertical Scaling

4. Heterogeneous Vertical Scaling

5. Heterogeneous Interconnected Multichains

6. Multilayered dApp development toolboxes

There’s not much to be said for the solutions in the first category. Most of them – consensus algorithms, PoS migrations, parallel processing on transactions and code optimizations in the EVM – are low-level and impermanent band-aids to the deeper problem.

The best of the solutions in the second, third, and fourth categories are at this stage still in the proof-of-concept phase, being built almost exclusively by and for Ethereum and Bitcoin such as Ethereum Plasma and the Lightning Network. These are getting the most traction here only because they’re developing out of Blockchain and Ethereum, but are nontheless still are very early-stage.

The idea behind Plasma is to take smart contracts, give them self-governing and self-execution properties to let the Ethereum root chain essentially create buds or “shards”. These shards are sidechains each monitoring one aspect of a transaction instead of putting that combined pressure on the root chain. This method of splitting transactions into sidechains dramatically increases TPS.

Comparatively, Lightning Network is a system that acts as a second-layer payment protocol parallel to the root blockchain, featuring a peer-to-peer system allowing cryptocurrency micropayments to be transacted via two-way payment channels, never delegating custody of funds. Both platforms are examples of how some blockchain companies are using secondary and tertiary parallel blockchains to scale their TPS.

Concepts like Polkadot—scalable heterogeneous multichains—provide foundations for later functionality in the area of relay-chains, where the goal is to build validatable, globally connected, frequently-changing data structures on top of these frameworks.

Companies like MenloOne—multilayered dApp development toolboxes—create and deploy digital tools for dApp developers to use when they’re building. They include:

• A layer for communication.
• A layer for governance (given lack of server admins to ban malicious users in a decentralized network).
• A local wallet for smooth transactions (no more MetaMask popups).
• A core layer, a network of content nodes which cache mirror versions of blockchain data.

These incorporate fragmented systems to make dApp development easier for professionals. Together, solutions in these categories are working to help top blockchains scale TPS to thousands per second. To eventually become adopted by the mainstream public, these frameworks will need to use a variety of different tools to make transactions effortless for blockchains to process.

What do you think about the scalability of blockchains today? Is it a problem for you or are you unaffected? Let us know in the comments below!

The post What Are Dapp Scaling Frameworks, and How Will They Affect Blockchain Technology in the Near Future? appeared first on NullTX.

BitGo has received approval from the South Dakota Division of Banking to be a public South Dakota Trust Company. This makes it an officially licensed crypto custodian in South Dakota, and the rest of the United States, because other states generally practice reciprocity when it comes to this sort of license.

BitGo claims to be the first qualified crypto custodian in the United States, although, there are certainly other major crypto custodians active in the United States such as Coinbase and Xapo. At the least, BitGo is probably the custodian with the most cryptos available – more than 75, including major cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and numerous Ethereum based tokens.

Mike Belshe, the CEO of BitGo had this to say:

“Custody has been the missing piece of cryptocurrency market infrastructure and this gap has kept institutional investors out of the market. Traditional custodians don’t have experience handling cryptocurrency. Exchanges that double as custodians present a conflict of interest and raise regulatory concerns. BitGo Trust Company is a qualified custodian, and therefore the only custody offering that delivers the highest levels of both security and regulatory compliance”.

In this statement is a direct jab at Coinbase, which runs both an exchange and a custodian service for crypto.

Indeed, crypto custodianship is an essential piece of infrastructure for institutional investors, and BitGo will be specifically targeting institutional investors with this new trust company. Institutional investors deal with large amounts of money in the USD 1 million to USD 10 billion range, and they need a crypto custodian to bank their crypto to ensure no chance of getting hacked or robbed. Crypto custodians are generally insured, leaving no chance of losing crypto for people using a true crypto custodian service.

Also, when dealing with large amounts of crypto, it is essential to follow know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws to ensure no violations of regulations. BitGo will make sure institutional investors don’t have any run-ins with the law.

Crypto custodians like BitGo Trust Company are essential for crypto hedge funds. There are at least 466 crypto hedge funds and that number is rapidly growing. Crypto hedge funds will link up with crypto custodians, creating optimal investment conditions for institutional investors that want crypto. This institutional investment infrastructure could lead to the next big crypto rally.

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A new report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has outlined that Africa will need to invest more in internet connectivity in order to maintain the continent’s current pace of cryptocurrency adoption.

The popularity of Bitcoin in Africa continues to grow as a result of the presence of cryptocurrency exchange platforms. There are benefits to cryptocurrency ownership that are unique to the African continent, many devolving from the widespread unstable economic conditions.

Owning and trading in cryptocurrencies is a trend on the rise in countries across the globe. The markets in the USA and Asia have typically gained media traction, while the phenomena in Africa is left largely uncovered. Moreover, a large number of recognized exchanges don’t offer services in Africa, whereas, some recognize the significant marketplace that includes many Africans who do not have access to formal bank accounts.

If Africa is to be the next boom as many experts are currently predicting, it will need to make major changes to its telecommunications infrastructure across the continent, as indicated by the ITU report. The report shows that to connect the majority of Africans to the internet will cost as much as $450 billion.

Currently, governments on the continent spend significantly less than the global average with most countries spending three times as much on connectivity. Low education levels and the high cost of internet capable devices have been cited as contributing factors to the current slow uptake of the internet in many areas of the continent.

The uptake of digital currency has been prolific in Africa over the past two years, with many countries taking on the advantages that currencies such as Bitcoin offer over local fiat currencies. Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe have all shown a significant increase in crypto adoption.

Coindirect co-founder Stephen Young says that Africa has unique problems and these must be considered in any startup plan for cryptocurrency adoption on the continent. He feels that current exchanges don’t take these into consideration. In terms of African fiat currencies, Young identifies their systemic volatility, insecurity and lack of governance as factors that the crypto space need to take on board: He argues:

“If Africans are to benefit from the cryptocurrency revolution we need make it easier to buy, store and trade cryptocurrencies. As Africans, it is our responsibility to help build the infrastructure and we need to be a part of the revolution.”

It is clear that this “infrastructure” depends on connectivity. ITU reveals that out of the 52 percent of the world’s population who remain unconnected to the internet, the majority of these live on the African continent.

One country is attempting to address this disparity. Rwanda has managed to achieve a 90 percent broadband spread with its nationwide rollout of optical fiber throughout a larger part of the country. The project began in 2009 in order to boost broadband services and attract foreign business investment.

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At press time, Dogecoin – the currency that started out as a joke and uses a cute little Shiba Inu as its mascot – is trading for about $0.0024. This is about $0.0012 less than where it stood just a few days ago, and the currency is moving down the financial ladder.

Still, the currency is doing much stronger than most other altcoins. Roughly 111 billion coins are in circulation, while Dogecoin’s daily trading volume exceeds $21 million.

Everything seems to have changed in August, when it was revealed that developers were working on what they called Dogethereum, a combo platform designed to fuse Dogecoin with Ethereum’s smart contract capabilities. Basically, users will be able to exchange Dogecoin for Ethereum tokens and vice versa on digital currency exchanges once the application is up and running.

Overall, Dogecoin was one of the crypto space’s best performing currencies last month. While entities like Ethereum and bitcoin were deep in the red, Dogecoin was busily adding to its reputation and value – so much so that research firm On Chain FX stated that the currency had jumped by roughly 160 percent between the beginning and end of August, with the bulk happening during the month’s final week.

Between August 29 and September 1 alone, the currency jumped up by approximately 150 percent, from $0.0026 to $0.0065, and Dogecoin’s valuation went from a whopping $300 billion to an even more impressive $763 billion. Presently, the currency’s total valuation is about $739 billion.

While Dogethereum has a lot to do with the currency’s newfound popularity, there are other elements contributing to its success as well. For example, Dogecoin was recently added to the trading app Robinhood – a stock trading platform designed for millennials and younger generations.

Jackson Palmer – the Australian entrepreneur widely accredited for bringing Dogecoin to life – also believes plain old speculation may have had something to do with the currency’s rise to fame. In a recent Motherboard post, Palmer explains:

“Dogecoin’s valuation is the result of market mania that has resulted in inexperienced investors buying up low-priced assets on a whim hoping that they will follow bitcoin’s meteoric trajectory.”

What’s interesting is that despite its success, Dogecoin doesn’t seem to share the ambitions of most other altcoins. While other digital monies have sought to disrupt the financial system and bring about monetary revolution, Dogecoin has seemingly taken a back seat. It possesses no whitepaper, and the website for the coin jokes that it’s the preferred currency of Shiba Inus – the dog breed that currently serves as its mascot.

However, it appears that while its executives aren’t serious about the currency’s growth, newfound investors certainly are.

Dogecoin Charts by TradingView

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