Cryptocurrency prices have once again dipped some more as most digital assets are seeing 24-hour losses of around 2-10 percent today. Bitcoin Core (BTC) markets have dipped below the $6K region to a low of $5,774 per coin but have since rebounded a hair to $5,907. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) markets dropped to a low of $630 per coin but are now averaging $661 per BCH on June 29, 2018.

Also read: Japanese Economist Explains Why Another Bitcoin Price Surge Is Unlikely

Cryptocurrency Markets Drop a Hair Lower

Digital currency markets are at a turning point today as most cryptocurrencies have lost quite a bit of value erasing nearly all the gains achieved since last October 2017. Since Bitcoin Core’s (BTC) all-time high (ATH) at $19,600, the cryptocurrency has lost 70 percent of its value. The entire cryptocurrency capitalization of all 1600+ coins is $234Bn as it has lost nearly ⅔ of value since December 2017. Today, on June 29, there’s been an 11.7Bn worth of digital currencies traded as trade volumes continue to grow weaker. On the other hand, there’s been a lot of development taking place behind the scenes, and big crypto-focused firms like Coinbase, Blockchain, Circle, and others are now enticing institutional investors from venture capital firms.

BTC Market Action

BTC market action has been tough on bulls as bears continue to wreak havoc and shorting every chance they can get. However, many short positions on exchanges like Bitfinex are being liquidated and dwindling down as long positions are starting to grow. At press time, BTC has a market capitalization of a little over $100Bn and 24-hour trade volume of around $3.7Bn. The top exchanges today swapping the most BTC include Binance, Bitfinex, Okex, ZB.com, and Bitstamp. The Japanese yen is capturing 59 percent of today’s BTC trade volume which is followed by tether (USDT 17.4%), USD (16.2%), EUR (2.5%), and KRW (1.5%).

BTC/USD Technical Indicators

Looking at the 4-hour and daily BTC/USD charts on Coinbase and Bitstamp shows bulls are exhausted after pushing back to the $6,200 range and losing it. Just like our last markets update, right now the long-term 200 Simple Moving Average (SMA) is well above the short-term 100 SMA. This indicates the path to least resistance will be towards the downside. MACd levels look as they’ll be heading southbound after seeing a slight lift during the early morning trading sessions. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) oscillator is showing oversold conditions at the moment (32.04) which means we could see a slight increase northbound in the short term. Looking at order books shows that bulls need to get past the $6K region but bigger resistance is above the $6,200-6,400 zone. The walls looking northbound are not that tall and things could change directions in an instant. On the backside, there are mountains of buyers between now and $5,000.

     BCH Market Action

BCH action shows bulls are struggling to hold current market spot prices as well. Today the Bitcoin Cash market capitalization is resting at $11.4Bn with around $390Mn in 24-hour trade volume. BCH is holding the 5th highest trade volume today out of all 1600+ cryptocurrencies in existence. The top exchanges trading the most BCH on the last week of June are Okex, Bitfinex, Huobi, Hitbtc, and EXX. Data collected from Crypto Compare shows BTC commands roughly 40 percent of today’s BCH trades. This is followed by tether (USDT 29%), USD (17%), KRW (6.3%) and JPY (1.8%). The addition of the yen joining the top five is interesting and ETH trades account for 1.59 percent of BCH swaps as well.

BCH/USD Technical Indicators

Looking at the BCH/USD charts on Bitfinex indicates BCH bulls have their work cut out for them. The 200 SMA is above the short term 100 SMA but the gap is smaller than the 4-hour BTC/USD chart. However, this still indicates that the least resistance is the downside if any uptrends are squashed along the way today. MACd is meandering in the middle as we speak and could head in one of two directions. RSI levels (31.7) are similar to the BTC/USD charts as the oscillator on the BCH/USD 4-hour is also showing oversold conditions. Bulls need to press past $685 to find smoother seas ahead and at the moment that’s still attainable in the short term. Looking at the backside shows bears will see pit stops between the current vantage point and $620 through $590 because of extremely large buy walls.

The Top Crypto Markets Today

The second largest market cap belonging to Ethereum (ETH) is down 5.3 percent over the last 24-hours. ETH markets are also down 13 percent over the last week with a price average of around $412 per token. Ripple (XRP) markets are down 5.2 percent today and 13 percent over the last seven days as one XRP now trades for $0.43 cents. Lastly EOS still commands the fifth position but EOS markets have dropped 5.5 percent over the last 24-hours. EOS charts show seven-day losses of around 17 percent with one EOS priced at $7.38 per coin.

The Verdict: Cryptocurrency Markets Are at the Crossroads

Today’s verdict is still filled with uncertainty and skepticism on whether or not we will see a bear market reversal soon. There has been a triple bottom and so far most cryptocurrency prices have remained above these key areas for now. People are still in the midst of coordinating newer positions like a game of musical chairs in search of the next wave up or even down.

Where do you see the price of BCH, BTC, and other coins headed from here? Let us know in the comments below.

Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.”

Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, and Satoshi Pulse.

Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section.

The post Markets Update: Cryptocurrency Prices at the Crossroads appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The post Bitcoin a Buy ‘Below $5,000’, Says Allianz Chief Economic Advisor appeared first on CCN

Please Note: This is a Press Release

Despite the power that social media and e-Commerce has demonstrated over the years – helping people network and enabling instantaneous shopping experiences, there has been a limit to which these platforms could expand beyond their primary functions. While possessing platform spaces to reach out to millions globally, brands lacked the relatable quality to form an emotional connection with their consumers. The gap to be filled in the market was to present platform that could integrate the functionalities of social media and e-Commerce, and have relatable figures that represented to brand that could connect with consumers. This combination would elevate the usability of e-Commerce and interactive aspect of social media. And that is how the formation of FANFARE came into play!

What is FANFARE?

FANFARE is the world’s first Blockchain-powered Social eCommerce platform driven by ERC20 tokens. Our closed-loop ecosystem offers both brands and consumer influencers a common platform to engage with each other directly, and more transparently. FANFARE pioneers the reduction of barriers between brands and consumers, significantly shortening the path of purchase for customers. The main intention was to give full reins to consumers promoting products & brands they genuinely believed in, in hopes that these consumer-created videos could aid users to make informed purchase decisions.

How does it operate?

FANFARE is a community of users, consumer influencers and brands that stay connected through consumer-generated videos that can be converted into shoppable videos. By staying active on the platform through watching and commenting on videos, users can earn FAN tokens that can be redeemed for gifts on the FANFARE e-Store. Consumer influencers can also submit their videos for ongoing campaigns, and stand a chance to win sponsored products or coins. They are also fairly rewarded with FAN Tokens when a brand chooses to verify their videos – this builds up the trusting relationship shared between brands and consumers.

Brands can create channels

For brands, FANFARE offers them tools to convert consumer-generated videos into shoppable videos, such as adding a ‘BUY’ Button directly next to the selected video. These videos would be nicely curated for users’ viewing pleasure on their brand-verified channel. Consumer-generated videos present a potential point-of-sale for brands, where users may be spurred to buy products, seeing positive feedback from fellow consumers. It opens up a new purchasing channel that drives more revenue. With FANFARE’s one-of-a-kind Video Verification feature, brands can automatically aggregate the videos that they are tagged in.

It’s made even easier for consumers, who need not browse multiple non-trusted websites to make an informed purchase decision. Brand-verified channels give consumers an opportunity to hear reviews from trusted sources, which are fellow consumers themselves. With its reward mechanism in place for consumers, they can take advantage of this win-win situation – earning rewards for watching videos and being more informed of desired products. FANFARE’s operation is made simple yet effective in incentivising both consumer influencer and brands.

Time-saver platform for sales

A consumer-focused, intuitive marketplace saves consumers the time taken to search online for the most genuine reviews. As FANFARE is a social community driven by users, we aim to be a time-saving platform where consumers can make videos, watch reviews, and purchase products all from this ‘one-stop shop’. This convenience would optimize our consumers’ shopping experience to make the best possible informed purchases.

Videos can be linked externally

Brands can choose to link these Shoppable videos to their online store, or any other major e-Commerce marketplace that sells the brands’ products. This method helps brands and consumer influencers to receive exposure from multiple marketing channels and websites – driving sales from all the sides and earning millions media impressions.

Final thoughts

Intuitive marketplaces on social media can potentially grow in relevancy, as long as it prioritizes the needs of all parties involved. With FANFARE’s emphasis on all-encompassing model for the community to grow together, the fair involvement of both sides in brand promotion and transparency of their business policies, FANFARE gathered much interest from customers and investors alike, to contribute to FANFARE’s growth.

What are your thoughts on it?

The project will conduct its tokensale in October 2018, with a presale scheduled in August.

To find out what more you can do with Fanfare, visit https://Fanfare.global/

To take part in the upcoming token sale, visit https://tokensale.Fanfare.global/

Fanfare Twitter: https://twitter.com/Fanfare_Global

Fanfare Telegram: https://t.me/FanfareICO

Media Contact

• Name:    Michael Chua
• Email: michael@fanfare.global
• Website: https://fanfare.global/
• Phone: +65 94554297
• Join our Telegram group: https://t.me/FanfareICO

&

The post Building Intuitive Marketplaces on Social Media: Fanfare appeared first on Blockonomi.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

It has been more than six months since Bitcoin peaked at roughly $20,000 in December, and the subsequent 70% crash and sustained bear market in cryptocurrencies has tested the patience of investors--particularly those who bought in amid the frenzied exuberance late last year.

Crypto enthusiasts have long urged each other during market selloffs to “hodl”--a onetime typo for “hold” that has since been embraced as an acronym for “hold on for dear life”--but new data suggest their faith in the principle is waning.

Customers of Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, withdrew more from the company than they deposited in April, according to exclusive data from Chime, a San Francisco-based bank startup that offers free checking accounts.

Withdrawals from Coinbase have been increasing relative to deposits since December, when the Bitcoin price peaked at $20,000. But April was the first and only month in which the money flowing out of Coinbase actually exceeded the money flowing in, Chime’s data shows. During that month, investors took 37% more money out of Coinbase than they put in--withdrawing $1.37 for every dollar deposited.

Deposits to Coinbase outweighed redemptions in May, but it was only by a 10% margin--putting in $1.10 for every dollar withdrawn.

The analysis is based on the behavior of roughly 500,000 of Chime’s active customers--most of whom are between ages 25 and 35--and therefore may not fully reflect the activity of Coinbase’s more than 20 million users. Coinbase, which declined to comment, also caters to institutional and sophisticated investors, a demographic that is unlikely to be represented among Chime customers, many of whom are attracted by free debit cards and paycheck advance offerings.

Still, the trend revealed by the data is notable because it highlights negative sentiment among this subset of investors in April, a month when cryptocurrency prices were rising, as opposed to panic selling during a market plunge. That gap is a sign that they’ve turned pessimistic in their outlook for Bitcoin, and lack confidence in its recovery.

The pattern also reflects a recent class of rookie cryptocurrency investors looking for quick profits, who are unused to the roller-coaster price swings in Bitcoin and its ilk.

“You have a kind of washing out of momentum investors…investors who were not really taking a longterm point of view,” says Chad Cascarilla, the cofounder and CEO of Paxos, an institutional trading firm that also operates Bitcoin exchange itBit.

Indeed, the influx of new money that piled into Bitcoin as its price swelled in 2017 often came from young, inexperienced investors, with millennials disproportionately likely to invest in cryptocurrency compared to other age groups. Chainalysis, which tracks cryptocurrency transactions recorded on the blockchain (or digital ledger), found enormous turnover between the crypto old money and newbies, with long-term investors selling $15 billion worth of Bitcoin to “new speculators” in December alone, according to the Financial Times.

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, seemed to acknowledge in a tweet last week that the prolonged downturn had made some investors give up on cryptocurrencies, “get[ting] rid of the people who are in it for the wrong reasons.”

But there may also be sellers who believed in Bitcoin so much that they poured their savings into it, and are now feeling squeezed. Last year also some an uptick of people using credit cards to buy Bitcoin, or even taking out mortgages on their home to fund purchases.

With digital asset prices plummeting, some may decide they’ll sleep better at night if they cut some of their losses now, just in case the worst is still ahead, says Cascarilla. “I’m sure people are saying, ‘Hey, a price correction tends to go on for a pretty long time, and it tends to be steep--I’m just going to take some money off the table here because who knows how deep it goes and how long it lasts?'”

That likely includes some early Bitcoin adopters, too. The Chainalysis study found that long-term holders sold another $15 billion to speculators in the first four months of this year.

In hindsight, crypto investors who looked for the door even during the April bounce turned out to be prescient. Bitcoin, which traded at roughly $9,240 at the end of that month, has since dropped 37%, to about $5,850 early Friday.

Yet Chime’s CEO, Chris Britt, notes that the overall money flow patterns illustrate that investors’ market timing is poor. “Unfortunately, it's human nature that investors often buy at the highest prices and sell at lower prices,” Britt says. “While we can't predict the future value of Bitcoin, I suspect we may look back at the current prices a few years from now and see that these lower prices were a great time to buy.”

Of course, investors may need a strong stomach to take that gamble.

On 28th June, Roger Ver tweeted:

“If you think BTC with its full block, high fee policy will be able to maintain market share, you are mistaken. It won’t, and it is time to move on to other things. #BitcoinCash #Ethereum #Dash #Monero #Zcash #Zcoin #cryptocurrency”

Along with the tweet, Ver posted an image that indicates the TPS of BTC.

Source: Twitter

Crypto World, a Twitter user commented:

“So, BCash isn’t working as you expected and now you promote other coins. Yeah, that’s a great way to show confidence in you “product”.”

Roger Ver in his tweet has accused BTC of having a high-fee policy and calls out on the people who believe that BTC is able to maintain the market share.

The handful of revolutionary use cases of what Bitcoin can deliver at this developing stage is incredible. The coin has been utilized to build decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, IOT networks for devices to trade and share sources, smart contract proprietorship models, and systems for trading computational assets continuously. These are just the first and appropriate cases for the Bitcoin innovation, which is stated to be slow yet steady.

Recently, Bitcoin Cash’s account on Twitter posted an image comparing BTC and BCH. The image spilled out the differences between the current transaction fee of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, the vast difference between difficulty index of mining, and ledgers in the block heights of the coins.

The post Roger Ver trashes Bitcoin [BTC], never ending controversy appeared first on AMBCrypto.

TRON (TRX)–Despite the plummeting cryptomarket over the past two weeks (down nearly 60 billion USD in market capitalization), TRON has managed to push forward with the development of the currency. Monday June 25th marked the official genesis block of TRX on Main Net, signifying the moment that TRON officially distanced itself from Ethereum’s ERC-20 token to establish an independent public blockchain. While Main Net has been a successful launch for several months now, the critical beginning to TRON’s digital platform has officially started, allowing for founder Justin Sun and the TRON team to work towards the creation of a new media landscape.

The Utility of Main Net for TRX

As opposed to Bitcoin, which is currently struggling to find a way around the crippling miner fees and slow transaction times that have characterized periods of peak use, TRX (the native currency to TRON), has been established with the ability to scale. As outlined by Justin Sun in early May, TRX on Main Net has the utility to be a top of the market currency. Transactions using TRON consume 0.00001 TRX, which means a single coin purchased today for 3 ½ cents could provide a user 100,000 TRON based transactions. In addition to negligible fees, TRON has a network capable of handling 10,000+ transactions per second, which eclipses that of even Ripple’s Xrapid banking system. In addition, similar to the format of Ethereum with ERC-20 token creation, TRON has designed a system for developers to produce their own cryptocurrency on Main Net, thereby allowing for near-infinite innovation outside the parameters of TRX. This gives inherent value to the TRX coin (1024 TRX = one new cryptocurrency), while also allowing developers the freedom to expand away from TRON’s native currency if they so choose–and still retain the benefits of Main Net.

Despite being less than a week into the official start of TRON’s independent blockchain, it has become clear that the TRON team has prioritized two features in their currency: overcoming the issues of scale ahead of an influx of users, and giving developers the tools to expand in a multitude of directions. Given the currency’s position as re-defining the digital landscape of entertainment media, both are necessary for long-term development.

A Plethora of Announcements for TRON

Speaking on a livestream to commemorate Monday’s Independence Day, TRON founder Justin Sun lauded his team for their poignancy in meeting deadlines related to the development of the currency, including March’s Test Net launch and the most recent creation of the genesis block. He also alluded to July 30th being the next major date in TRON’s development, with the release of the TRON Virtual Machine (TVM–a user-friendly tool for the creation of blockchains) and also hinting at a “secret project.”

While Sun has yet to give further details on what the TRON team has in the works, the days following the launch of the independent blockchain saw TRON making substantial partnerships in the industry of online adult entertainment. Pornhub, the world’s number one porn site in terms of traffic and the 31st largest website overall, has established a program to start accepting TRX for payments (in addition to ZenCash and the previously announced Verge). To accompany this monumental partnership, the TRON team produced a tongue in cheek video playing on the future of money and other cultural references:

@Pornhub is now accepting TRX! The leading adult website will soon offer #TRX as a payment method. With over 85 million daily visitors, Pornhub is currently ranked 13 across all website categories in the world! pic.twitter.com/9VlJm43Fnn

— Tron Foundation (@Tronfoundation) June 27, 2018

TRON followed up on the Pornhub announcement with another X-rated partnership in the form of Brazzers. While TRON has been a vocal pursuant of gaming, social media, publications and even education on Main Net, clearly adult entertainment is going to factor in as a feature. As of now, these websites are not publishing content on TRON’s network, but instead accepting TRX as a form of payment for premium services.

While the rest of the market reals from double-digit losses to extend the bear cycle, the TRON community has new outlets for adoption to sift through, in addition to the upcoming announcement of Justin Sun’s “secret project.”

The post State of TRON (TRX) Post Independence Day appeared first on Ethereum World News.

Bithumb has managed to recover roughly 45 percent of the cryptocurrencies stolen during the June 20 hack. The platform announced the news in an update published on June 28 — while also providing full disclosure of the digital currencies taken in the attack. The company also acknowledged the support of other exchange platforms in its efforts to recover the stolen funds. 

Taking Back Half

Bithumb initially reported that hackers had managed to steal $31 million in cryptocurrency from its coffers. In its latest hack update report, the platform revealed that it had recovered $14 million worth of the looted cryptocurrencies. Thus, the total losses now stand at $17 million.

Commenting on the recovery efforts, the company stated:

The main reason for the reduction of the damage is due to the ongoing participation, support, and cooperation of cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrency foundations across the world.

Also, our quick response to the cyber attack by removing cryptocurrencies from hot wallet to cold wallet effectively contributed to reducing the overall damage. At this moment, we will continue our recovery process as well as implementing preventative measures until this incident is fully resolved.

Full List of Cryptocurrencies Stolen

As part of the update, the company also provided a list of all the cryptocurrencies affected in the hack. The hackers managed to steal a total of 11 virtual currencies — including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Ripple.

Bitcoin accounted for a significant portion of the theft with about 2,016 BTC stolen (approximately $12 million). The hackers also reportedly took $794,000 and $489,000 in Bitcoin Cash and Ether, respectively, during the attack.

Before the attack, the 24-hour trading volume on the platform was roughly $400 million. At the time of this writing, that figure stands at $261 million. Bithumb is yet to enable deposits and withdrawals on the platform, explaining:

We have noticed that despite [sic] that we have officially announced to our customers asking not to make any deposit for the time being, yet deposit orders are still made. We would like to strongly ask our customers not to deposit any fund until the whole process of deposit service reformation is complete and until [a] further announcement is given.

In the aftermath of the hack, Bithumb promised to reimburse its customers. The company also plans to carry out an airdrop to compensate its users.

Do you think Bithumb will be able to recover more of the stolen funds? Keep the conversation going in the comment section below. 

Image courtesy of Bithumb.

The post Bithumb Hack Update: Cryptocurrency Exchange Recovers 45% of Stolen Coins appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

The post Crypto-Friendly Brave Browser Adds Tor Option in Private Tabs appeared first on CCN

Same story, different week. The cryptocurrency market has continued its slow and steady decline. We’ve had week-after-week of losses for the entire month on June, and May wasn’t much better. All of that to say, we haven’t bucked the downtrend yet, folks, and there’s not much to indicate that we will in the near-future.

At $234 bln, the entire market has shed 8% of its value over the week. Bitcoin is also treading below its previous lows in February and April. No one has a crystal ball, but breaking below these previous support levels should not inspire confidence.

Bitcoin: Crypto’s golden boy has lost 4.5% of his value this week with a price of $5,900.

Ethereum: Ethereum took a pretty heavy hit this week. With 13% knocked off of its price. It’s currently priced at $411.

Ripple: At $0.43, Ripple isn’t fairing much better than Ethereum, as it’s down 12% on the week.

Cryptocurrency Market Stats (6/29/2018)

Domestic News

Supreme Court Denies Review of Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht’s Life Sentence: Ross Ulbricht, also known as Dread Pirate Roberts, won’t be rescued from the brig anytime soon. The US Supreme Court has rejected the Silk Road founder’s plea for a shorter sentence. Arrested in 2015 on numerous counts of aiding drug and weapons trafficking, the distribution of other illicit materials, money laundering, and fraud, Ulbricht is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison.

Coinbase’s Brain Armstrong Establishes Crypto-Charity, GiveCrypto: Coinbase’s CEO is launching a cryptocurrency charitable fund. GiveCrypto, as it’s called, will distribute its crypto-filled coffers to those in financial need in less-developed markets and countries. Brian Armstrong hopes that it will “help people in need by sending money to them directly” and “provide universal access to an open financial system.” The fund has already raised $3.5 mln and hopes to raise $10 mln by year’s end.

We're live! https://t.co/z74I3TmouB

— GiveCrypto.org (@givecrypto) June 27, 2018

Walmart, Retailers, and Manufacturers Partner With IBM for Supply Chain Tracking Solutions: IBM has penned partnerships with some of the US’s major retail and manufacturing businesses to develop a blockchain platform for the grocery industry’s supply chain. The Food Trust blockchain initiative has actually been in the works since 2016, with Walmart, Kroger Co., Tyson Foods Inc. Nestlé SA, Dole Food Co., Driscoll’s Inc., Golden State Foods, McCormick and Co., McLane Co., and Unilever NV joining IBM in its efforts. In August of 2017, the initiative began testing a pilot for the network.

FBI Is Investigating 130 Crypto-Related Cases, a “Small Sliver” of Its Workload: During his talk at the Crypto Evolves conference in New York this week, FBI agent Kyle Armstrong told his audience that the FBI’s investigations into illegal cryptocurrency use are “a small sliver” of the “thousands” of the agency’s currently-active cases. Armstrong indicated that the FBI is currently looking into around 130 “threat flagged” cases involving cryptocurrency’s use in felonious acts, such as human trafficking and kidnapping, ransomware, and black market drug dealings. With a flaring opioid epidemic in the United States, the FBI, Armstrong stated, is most concerned with crypto’s use for illicit prescription sales, though he admitted that likely only 10% of the world’s drug trade occurs on the dark web.

More on Crypto and Illicit Markets: US Agencies Bust Some 35 Dark Web Dealers, Recover Over $12 mln in Bitcoin: The US Department of Justice, in league with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Secret Service (USSS), the Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), have put a stopper in the black market operations of over 35 dark web drugs and arms distributors. The first-of-its-kind nationwide and inter-agency bust resulted in the seizure of over $12 mln in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with some 4,000 more Bitcoin (values at roughly $24 mln) awaiting requisition approval.

Andreessen Horowitz Establishes $300 mln Cryptocurrency Capital Fund: Legacy financial firm Andreessen Horowitz is extending its financial reach even further into the cryptocurrency industry. The firm, which already holds equity in crypto-related ventures like Coinbase, announced this week that it has created its own cryptocurrency investment fund, a16z crypto. Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon indicated in a company blog post that the fund will choose “investments for 10+ years,” be they coins, tokens, or blockchain companies.

What’s New at CoinCentral?

DJ 3LAU on Curating a Blockchain-Powered Music Festival: Music festivals on the blockchain? Sign us up.

Cobinhood Exchange Review: Zero-Fee Trading on an Underdog Exchange: Its name in playful reference to the more popular Robinhood exchange, learn more about one of crypto’s best-kept secrets.

Why Blockchain Asset Tracking Is Not Just for the Super-Rich: You don’t have to be loaded to take advantage of the blockchain’s services.

Blockchain Data Storage Could Soon Be The New Standard: The blockchain offers us an alternative storage method to compete with transitional and cloud models.

Codex CEO Mark Lurie Talks Ethereal and the Future of Blockchain Art: Mark Lurie has an impressive resume: Harvard alum, Lofty founder, and now, Codex Protocol CEO.

Putting EOS on Trial | An Analysis of Cryptocurrency’s Largest ICO: In this featured article, we put EOS, a network subject to widespread controversy recently, on trial to see if the criticism is worth the worry.

Bitcoin Isn’t Anonymous, and That’s Ok: No, it’s not anonymous, and yes, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Blockchain in Supply Chain | How One Chain Helps the Other: Learn more about one of the blockchain’s potentially most disruptive use-cases.

Blockchain Military Applications – the Future Tech of the Armed Forces: Where do blockchain and the military meet? We’ll show you.

Digital Mints: How to Create Your Own Coins and Tokens: Making your own cryptocurrency is as easy or difficult as you want to make it.

Innovations in Blockchain Aerospace Tech Ready to Launch: The future is now, guys.

How to Buy Cobinhood (COB) | A Step-By-Step Guide: A quick rundown on how to get your hands on some COB.

ConsenSys Bounties Network Simona Pop on Building a World on Bounties: Hear what this industry leader has to say about the value of white hats and bounties.

Top 5 Ways Blockchain Will Disrupt the Travel Industry: Luggage tracking, digital IDs, loyalty points, and more.

Blockchain in Government: Making Operations More Efficient: Will blockchain drain the swamp? No, but it does have its place in improving bureaucracy. 

5 Keys to Consider When Building Your Cryptocurrency Portfolio: Make sure you have these things checked off before you start investing.

What is Aeon (AEON)? | Beginner’s Guide: Aeon is a mobile-friendly, lightweight privacy coin. Similar to the way that Litecoin is a lighter supplement to Bitcoin, you can look at Aeon as Monero’s little brother.

Mycelia’s Imogen Heap on Blue Skies, Astronauts and the Intersection of Music And Blockchain: Imogen Heap is on a mission to create change in the world. Starting with the music world, at least. 

The Top 6 Crypto Confiscations of All Time: Hey Ross Ulbricht, Imma let you finish but…

What is Ravencoin (RVN)? | Beginner’s Guide: Ravencoin is a blockchain specifically dedicated to the creation and peer-to-peer transfer of assets. Just as Monero is solely focused on privacy, Ravencoin specializes in asset transfer – nothing more, nothing less.

ChainXChange to Turn Mandalay Bay into Global Blockchain Expo: ChainXChange announced its three-day global blockchain exhibition at the iconic Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on August 13th to the 15th, 2018.

ShapeShift Co-Founder Jon on Regulation, the Rabbit Hole, and the Future of Cryptocurrency: See what Jon has to say about government regulations and the trajectory of the industry.

The Sun on the Blockchain: A Love Story: Imagine a future where solar energy is a transferable, tokenized asset. If it sounds crazy, it isn’t; it’s just a few innovations away from reality.

The 7 Biggest Bitcoin Mistakes of All Time: These will make you feel better about that time you lost a few satoshis to the wrong public key.

Cryptocurrency News From Around the World

Binance Set to Launch Fiat Trading In Uganda, CEO Reveals: In an interview with Cointelegraph, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) indicated that the exchange would launch its seminal crypto-to-fiat trading operations in Uganda. Binance Uganda will allow its users to trade the Ugandan Shilling for major cryptocurrencies. The platform is ready for immediate launch, CZ stated, and he believes it “shows Binance is not just into chasing the most developed markets.” A bit of an experiment, the exchange is also somewhat of a litmus test to see if underdeveloped markets are more likely to adopt cryptocurrency economic systems: “Uganda [is a] really interesting situation, only 11 percent of the population has bank accounts. It’s both a challenge and an opportunity. So it may be easier to adopt cryptocurrency as a form of currency instead of trying to push for bank adoption. It’s an interesting experiment – Africa’s a big market, that’s why we’re there,” CZ stated in the interview.

86% of Cryptocurrency Executives Want Formal Self-Regulation for Industry: Research results released this week show that nearly 9 of 10 executives and investment managers at cryptocurrency firms want “formalized” self-regulatory standards. Conducted by Foley & Lardner LLP, an international law firm,  in the spring of this year, the study consulted 62 individuals. A little less than 86% of the respondents believe that government authorities should watch over these regulations.

CTO of Enjin Creates New Ethereum Token Standard for Fungible and Non-Fungible Assets: Enjin’s CTO, Witek Radomski, has created a new token standard for Ethereum. Announced this week and known as ERC-1155, the token standard allows developers to deploy both fungible and non-fungible assets via the same smart contract, something current standards do not allow. Written with the gaming industry in mind, the standard will make it easier for developers and gamers to manage in-game collectibles and assets for blockchain-based games. Though it was built to solve limitations for tokenizing game-related assets, Radomski believes that “the application of this standard is by no means limited to the games market,” and “could be used to certify all forms of ownership, tangible or digital.”

“Once [The ERC-1155 crypto item standard] is used, millions of creative items will be formed, not only for gaming, but also in various other industries. ERC-1155 can be used to guarantee true ownership for all items, both digital and non-digital.”https://t.co/1IShhutltM#ADOPT pic.twitter.com/JOQK6bf5ek

— Enjin (@enjin) June 27, 2018

Huobi Opens Up Shop in London, Announces OTC Trading: One of the industry’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Huobi, is opening an office in London. The exchange views England as its “gateway” to European markets, and it plans to trial over the counter (OTC) trading with its London-based operation in Q3 of this year. “London was selected as the first office in Europe, due to its preeminence as a global financial center and the largest cryptocurrency trading centre in the region with an active blockchain community and fast developing market,” the Huobi team stated, explaining its decision.

Founder of EOS Wants to Trash the Platform’s Constitution and Write a New One: EOS founder and serial crypto-entrepreneur Dan Larimer wants a re-do. He’s calling for a redrafting of EOS’s constitution, a rallying cry to amend a document that has invited the community’s negative scrutiny after EOS block producers have continued to freeze public keys on the network without justification. Larimer’s initiative needs a 15% vote from EOS token holders to pass, and affirmative votes must hold this threshold for 30 consecutive days in a 120-day voting time frame to go through with any changes.

China Updates its Crypto-Ratings, Shows Clear Bias for Chinese Projects: In the latest installment of the Global Public Chain Technology Index, The China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) is showing lots of love for Chinese projects–but not so much for Bitcoin. The new grades put EOS, a project that has mass backing from Chinese investors and block producers, as its number one asset, surpassing the top grade Ethereum earned in the original report by 30 points. Behind it, in order, are Ethereum, NEO, Stellar, Lisk, and Nebulas, while Bitcoin fell from the top 15 from 13th to 17th.

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The post This Week in Crypto: June 29, 2018 appeared first on CoinCentral.

Earlier this year, Trezor announced the upgrade of all their crypto devices. Today, the Trezor team finally worked the plan out.

Trezor’s official account posted:

“Releasing updates for nearly everything: Trezor Model T, Trezor One, and Trezor Wallet! Inside, you will find Zcash Overwinter, Bitcoin Cash Cashaddr, expanded coins & token support, and more. Read our blog to find out all the details: https://blog.trezor.io/june-updates-trezor-devices-one-modelt-wallet-zcash-cashaddr-doge-8d98c2a73036 …#SecurityMadeEasy”

Koko ‘the’ apechild, a Twitter user commented:

“I was always thought it was unnatural to love a piece of hardware ….until now. Thank you.”

Trezor on their Medium explains the differences between their devices as they state:

“Main differences between TREZOR One and Model T

If you have formerly used a TREZOR One before, there are some differences you will need to get used to. The Model T uses a touchscreen, relinquishing the need for physical buttons. There are more differences, which we will address as we go through the onboarding process.”

Trezor has updated the firmware of Trezor One and Trezor Model T, with new features and adjustments reflecting changes in certain cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, Trezor has expanded the cryptocurrency support in its devices like the firmware update for Trezor Model T contains NEM and Lisk support, among other cryptocurrencies. The Trezor One has now also learned to recognize and accept new coins and tokens.

The wallet interface of Trezor upgraded along with Trezor One and Trezor Model T. The team has introduced features to export transaction history in PDF format. The estimation of conversion to fiat has been taken care of, while new currencies like Dogecoin and Vertcoin have also been introduced to the users.

The post Bitcoin [BTC] hardware wallet: Upgrades and updates appeared first on AMBCrypto.

One company believes that unsecured mobile apps are to blame for the surge in cryptocurrency mining attacks aka cryptojacking. Other internet security experts also report that unless drastic measures are taken, the attacks will only become more severe.

Coinhive Leads the Way in Cryptojacking Attacks

Amidst the price saga of 2018, the rise of cryptojacking has been another highlight of the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry. There have been numerous cryptocurrency mining hacks reported in the first half of the year. The second quarter of 2018 has seen a dramatic rise in these attacks as cybercriminals have developed even more sophisticated mining exploits.

According to California-based cybersecurity firm, Proofpoint Inc., there has been a 460m percent surge in Coinhive-based cryptojacking attacks. The firm also reveals that a large percentage of these attacks are carried out via mobile phone apps. The apps mine cryptocurrency, usually Monero – a privacy-centric coin, in the background while the phone is in operation.

Earlier in 2018, the company announced that there were 19 smartphone apps infected with Coinhive malware. These apps have since been removed from the Google Play Store. However, Proofpoint reports that Coinhive activity seems to be increasing, even experiencing a massive spike in May.

Commenting on the situation, Sherrod DeGrippo of Proofpoint said:

Cybercriminals are following the money and right now Coinhive is a road to success. Coinhive traffic has also likely increased recently because the damage it inflicts isn’t immediately apparent, but it is profitable. Ransomware, for example, is extremely disruptive and banking Trojans are much more difficult to monetize.

According to Mike Pound, a Professor at the University of Nottingham specializing in computing technology, the spate of cryptojacking is not unexpected.

It doesn’t surprise me that malware creators are moving away from simple in-browser scripts by burying mining code in apps and other banking malware. These kinds of attacks are only going to become more prevalent when this script is bundled into other malware as an add-on. It’s an efficient route to profit for criminals.

Cryptojacking: A Clear and Present Danger to the Cryptocurrency Industry

Both Google and Apple have had to remove malware-infected apps from their respective online stores. With the increase in the prices of cryptos last year, cybercriminals seem evermore desperate to acquire coins by any means necessary. Tech behemoths like Microsoft and Tesla have also had their cloud platforms infected with cryptojacking malware.

Most of the cryptocurrency mining hacks are centered on mining Monero. In March 2018, researchers discovered more than 50,000 websites infected with malicious mining scripts. However, based on Proofpoint’s findings, it seems like the attackers have upped their game significantly.

It is incumbent on internet users to be safety conscious while online. Many browser stores have plugins and add-ons that can protect computers from cryptojacking attacks. People can also endeavor to download apps only from reputable online stores.

Do you agree with Proofpoint’s analysis that shows mobile phone apps are to blame for the ubiquity of cryptojacking attacks? What steps do you think people can take to prevent falling victim to crypto mining hacks? Keep the conversation going in the comment section below.

Image courtesy of

The post The rise in Cryptojacking Attacks Linked to Unsecured Mobile Apps appeared first on Ethereum World News.

“TMGcore will be one of the first companies to utilize 3M’s Novec fluorochemical coolant at the heart of an enterprise scale cryptocurrency mining apparatus,” said CEO JD Enright. “The company’s intelligent mining system uses a two-phase liquid cooling immersion technology to dramatically decrease cooling costs by up to 90 percent and lets the company conduct mining operations from anywhere, including the middle of hot and muggy Texas. TMGcore also employs dynamically intelligent mining software that automatically mines the most profitable coin based on real-time market value and difficulty of access for the most profitable deployment of resources in real time. Our technology is first-to-market and delivers a transformative approach to crypto mining that stands to fundamentally disrupt the market.”

The goal is to create mining infrastructure in the U.S. and to prevent overseas control of the various currencies.

“Giving America a seat at the table is our No. 1 goal here at TMGcore. Our cooling technology and efficient mining rigs open up more regions of this country to house this type of operation,” said Enright.

The mine is housed in Plano, Texas inside a 150,000 square foot facility and is capable of a “100 megawatt live power load.” Further, the company is running custom ASIC chips to increase board density and reduce mining costs significantly. In short, it will be one of the highest tech mining facilities in the world.

From the release:

The company has developed a unique use case with a fluorochemical coolant that delivers smart, safe and sustainable cooling for industrial technology operations. TMGcore will be one of the first companies to utilize this compound at the heart of an enterprise scale cryptocurrency mining apparatus. The company’s intelligent mining technology uses a Two-Phase Liquid Cooling Immersion technology to dramatically decrease cooling costs by up to 90%. The system also dynamically adapts its mining efforts toward the most profitable token at any given time, factoring in real-time market price, the difficulty of access and hash rate. TMGcore has also developed custom-made ASIC mining boards that result in a 20% increase in token output.

“Leveraging the magic of this coolant and groundbreaking mining circuitry, we saw a massive opportunity to capitalize on the nascent and highly lucrative mining industry in a physical, tangible and industrial fashion,” said Enright. “TMGcore seeks to deconstruct the mining monopoly in other countries with an American-made, U.S. driven approach that not only pushes the blockchain ecosystem forward but also creates job opportunities for Texas’ fast-growing technology community. We understand the importance of the research and development that creates not only innovations but the efficiencies that support the blockchain industry on a global scale.”

“Texas, more so than many other states in this country, has an abundant supply of energy available on their grid with available real estate to house such a project,” said Enright. “Cryptocurrency mining has not really been able to take advantage of Texas’ energy supply to date because the state is too hot. By utilizing Novec in this two-phase liquid cooling immersion technology, we have unlocked Texas’ potential to mine for the first time.”

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

The NBA team has announced a new partnership with cryptocurrency mining and hosting company MiningStore.com, keeping its lead as a tech-savvy team. The Kings were the first sports team in the world to accept Bitcoin back in 2014, and they’re the kings of Golden 1 Center, the 100% solar-powered sports complex in downtown Sacramento, California that hosts a tier-4 data center.

They use a mix of drones, Bitcoin, augmented reality/virtual reality and Google Glass to deliver an innovative sports experience for their fans.

From basketball to blockchain, Ryan Montoya, the Kings’ chief technology officer for the Kings, has been a longtime supporter of technological innovations. He and his teammates are launching Mining For Good, a charity that will donate most of the mined ether to Build Black, a community group that works to improve the lives of local youths. The group will be able to convert the ether to cash or hold it as an investment.

“For example, we teach our own Kings employees that everyone is an innovator here. When we first decided to work with MiningStore, we brought its Founder, JohnPaul Baric in to teach all of our employees about blockchain. Why? Because, at the end of the day, these are just words people are reading; nobody knows what it is,” said Montaya in a Forbes report.

Kings Owner and Chairman Vivek Ranadivé founded Tibco, a real-time computing software company and led his team to the top spot on Fast Company’s “Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Sports.” It’s through his drive and vision that the NBA team keeps its eye on the ball of building community and using revolutionary tools to make important social and structural changes.

The team is all about the blockchain. And cryptocurrency. And Ethereum.

Reports Yahoo, “Vivek said, ‘What can we do with cryptocurrency to give back to the community?’ It was obvious to us: Let’s start mining cryptocurrency,” said Montoya. “Let’s mine cryptocurrency and give the proceeds back to groups that could use a little extra help. And we are superfans of Ethereum.”

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. Your transfers and trades are at your own risk. Any loses you may incur are your responsibility. Please note that The Daily Hodl also participates in affiliate marketing programs.

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]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/nba-fans-these-tech-titans-of-basketball-are-first-to-mine-ethereumhttp://www.coinhooked.com/nba-fans-these-tech-titans-of-basketball-are-first-to-mine-ethereumalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

The no transaction fees blockchain has seen costs for new accounts rise to nearly $4, up from $1 just a few days ago. Ram, which sort of stands for storage...

The post EOS Transaction Fees Skyrocket, BPs Hoarding Ram, Block One to Start Voting appeared first on Trustnodes.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/eos-transaction-fees-skyrocket-bps-hoarding-ram-block-one-to-start-votinghttp://www.coinhooked.com/eos-transaction-fees-skyrocket-bps-hoarding-ram-block-one-to-start-votingalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)As one of the earliest adopters of institutional digital assets trading, Susquehanna International Group, founded in 1987, has been ahead of the blockchain curve – actively trading cryptocurrencies for the past two years.

Wall Street is Old News

In contrast to traditional financial markets, cryptocurrency draws a worldwide, 24/7 audience of retail and institutional investors.

As blockchain and cryptocurrency continue to grow, the once-resistant firms of Wall Street are changing sentiment and moving towards a new era of digital financial instruments.

Goldman Sachs and the NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange are just two examples of major investment firms seeking to join the crypto community by planning the launch of their own Bitcoin futures trading desks.

Bullish on Bitcoin

In an interview with NYT, Bart Smith, head of the digital asset group at Susquehanna, expressed his support for blockchain and cryptocurrency:

“We believe that this technology and this asset class is going to change some facet of financial services, and we think it is going to exist forever.”

An Early Opportunity

First exposed to Bitcoin trading in 2014, Susquehanna International Group was contacted by the Winklevoss twins for assistance with the launch of their Bitcoin ETF.

Although regulators didn’t approve of the ETF, Susquehanna decided to maintain its Bitcoin trading desk and hired a few more digital assets traders the following year.

The firm now has a dozen dedicated cryptocurrency traders on staff and buys and sells millions in digital assets each year.

With investor interest growing, Susquehanna plans to open trading to 500 of its clients and expand soon after. With 1800 employees worldwide, Susquehanna has the resources and manpower to be a global force for institutional virtual currency investing.

The post Wall Street Falls Behind: One Firm Trades Bitcoin for the Past Two Years appeared first on CryptoSlate.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/wall-street-falls-behind-one-firm-trades-bitcoin-for-the-past-two-yearshttp://www.coinhooked.com/wall-street-falls-behind-one-firm-trades-bitcoin-for-the-past-two-yearsalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Crypto pundit, John McAfee, is speaking tough on HitBTC and other exchanges for not standing in defense of the poor whose funds are being carted away by hackers.

Mr. McAfee, a respected programmer known for condemning fiat currency while maintaining that crypto (BTC, LTC, XRP, XMR, TRX) is the next big thing, is calling for total boycott of HitBTC and other exchanges which crypto lovers say are behind market manipulations and having exorbitant buy-in that is greater than the poor’s monthly income.

McAfee tweeted: “The crypto exchanges have become the thing that we have originally fought against. Their power is immense. HitBTC, for example, has increased suffering for millions of poor people who cannot afford the minimum buy-in since it is greater than their monthly income. Boycott them.”

He later maintained that he’s going to be HitBTC’s worst enemy until they go in line with the cryptocurrency community while helping the poor at the same time.

“I will be your worst enemy until you prove that you are aligned with our community and are truly interested in helping the poor. You have not done shit to help access the only free healthcare in the world.”

While the cryptocurrency community is wondering what might have gone wrong between McAfee and HitBTC, it is no news that so many exchanges are being manipulated to fence out the poor who believe there is future in HODLing crypto.

Recently, John McAfee launched his coin, McAfee coin, saying in a tweet on the 29th of May, that the crypto will come live in 26 days time.

“No hoax. The “McAfee Redemption Unit” is real and coming in 26 days. The graphic is low res – don’t want to give much away yet. Printed on currency paper, holographs on both sides, serialized, linked to the blockchain, redeemable, convertible, collectible”

Though, there is no sign McAfee coin would be unveiled soon, owing to his silence on the coin, but there is a new development. The crypto dad has unveiled his McAfee wallet on the 22nd June, and when it was made public for sale on 28th, the first batch of the wallet was sold out within 2 minutes.

“Today I am announcing my ultra secure wallet, built by Bitfi. It will forever change the landscape of crypto storage. Would have told you earlier, but, if you read my prior tweets, I was unconscious. Anyway, you must check it out”.

The post John McAfee Goes After Exchanges, Says HitBTC Suffers Millions Of Poor People appeared first on Ethereum World News.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/john-mcafee-goes-after-exchanges-says-hitbtc-suffers-millions-of-poor-peoplehttp://www.coinhooked.com/john-mcafee-goes-after-exchanges-says-hitbtc-suffers-millions-of-poor-peoplealexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)The EOS network, already characterized by critics as one of the cryptocurrency ecosystem’s most centralized projects, could be about to concentrate even more power in the hands of an even smaller number of actors. Block.one to Begin Voting for EOS Block Producers EOS creator Block.one on Thursday announced that it will begin staking its tokens

The post EOS Might be About to Get a Lot More Centralized appeared first on CCN

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/eos-might-be-about-to-get-a-lot-more-centralizedhttp://www.coinhooked.com/eos-might-be-about-to-get-a-lot-more-centralizedalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)South Korea’s mobile app operator Kakao plans to raise funds for its upcoming blockchain platform. The company’s blockchain unit is now seeking partners.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/kakaos-blockchain-unit-seeking-partners-for-its-better-than-ethereum-platformhttp://www.coinhooked.com/kakaos-blockchain-unit-seeking-partners-for-its-better-than-ethereum-platformalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Two recent updates from the Tron Foundation include BitForex resuming trading for TRX deposits, withdrawals and the other regarding the speed of TRON network. On June 26th, Singapore time, all TRX tokens of BitForex had finished the main network migration.

Tron Foundation’s tweet | Source: Twitter

Team Tronics, the community SR candidate put up a post with a video about the speed of the transactions being completed in seconds time indicating that the website is both user-friendly and fast. Their tweet mentions:

“If you want to know the speed of the #TRON network, please have a look at this video. Made by Fabrice, aka @SnearK6 technical member of@team_tronics!! @justinsuntron @Tronfoundation you are doing a very good job!”

Parallelly, Cobo wallet has also completed Tron mainnet upgrade and has resumed services for TRX tokens.

CoinFalcon, a Cryptocurrency exchange whose aim is to “is to put the future of money, in the pockets of the world” recently listed Tron deposits and withdrawals. They mention:

“Users that have deposited their coins to CoinFalcon before the migration will also now be able trade their newly-minted coins.”

Tron currently has a market cap of $2.3 billion with the price of $0.035 and has seen a downfall of 7.41% over the past 24 hours. Tron was trending positive post the Pornhub accepting TRX and Binance TRX trading competition news broke out.

Tron trade history [7 days] showing market cap and price | Source: CoinMarketCap

Investors are still questioning as to when Binance is resuming trade for TRX.

bdeldy, a Twitter user commented:

“Why does Tron bleed when there‘s good news?”

Love Trx, a TRX trader and a Twitter user commented:

“Oh nice very very fast… Trx go top 1 CMC.”

Bryan Ly, a Twitter user commented:

“Withdrawal is still suspended in binance #TRX.”

Rahil Patel, a crypto enthusiast and a Twitter user commented:

“Who is interested in your volume shoot up the price and let the fun began.”

The post Justin Sun’s Tron [TRX] Lambo and listing announcements continue; Prices still sore appeared first on AMBCrypto.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/justin-suns-tron-trx-lambo-and-listing-announcements-continue-prices-still-sorehttp://www.coinhooked.com/justin-suns-tron-trx-lambo-and-listing-announcements-continue-prices-still-sorealexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

With more and more instances of malicious mining attacks, people are failing to recognise the problems that can be caused by this sort of activity. Often, these sorts of attacks can be seen as harmless, at the end of the day, they simply just utilise a small amount of your computing power, right?

Whilst this may be the case, often, there is a great deal of principle that needs to be considered here.

Continue reading Kaspersky Warn Of The Potential Damage Caused By Mobile Miners at Crypto Daily™.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/kaspersky-warn-of-the-potential-damage-caused-by-mobile-minershttp://www.coinhooked.com/kaspersky-warn-of-the-potential-damage-caused-by-mobile-minersalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Imagine an enhanced field of vision — one which allows us to seamlessly interact with others, through the use of our hands and without dependency on a screen.

This future has arrived — with unparalleled possibilities for advertising, training and collaboration — free of geographical barriers. Welcome to extended reality (XR), encompassing mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and 3D technology. 

The projected market size — $209 billion by 2022 according to Statista — for AR and VR is massive. Trivver, a cutting-edge, programmatic advertising startup, is at the nexus of this XR world and traditional advertising. Trivver will employ blockchain technology for validating advertising, to ensure transparency, security and efficiency. In pursuing XR technology, Trivver joins the likes of Facebook, Google and Apple in pushing the boundaries of this new digital frontier.

Trivver uses 3D product placement of brand models to deliver advertising — in games, business, entertainment or sports XR environments. Trivver’s comprehensive XR advertising platform leverages its suite of patented technologies to deliver 3D branded objects across environments and platforms, enabling a single model to autoscale to fit seamlessly with multiple environments. With this technology, Trivver is poised to enable the adoption, commercialization and monetization of XR.

Trivver provides advertisers with the ability to engage with today’s rapidly growing XR user community. In particular, Trivver’s Smart Objects are intended to foster organic relationships between brands and consumers, leading to less digital ad friction. In addition, Smart Objects offer unprecedented capability to record view engagements with brands, including viewability and intent to purchase. 

The platform provides a set of tools for game developers, retailers, real estate and other XR content publishers. Trivver is using its Ethereum-based token, TRVR, to promote development of a library of Generic Smart Objects, the default 3D models that represent ad spots in the environment. As the library of Generic Smart Objects grows, it will become available to game developers for future development, as well as offer a way for XR developers and designers to become part of the Trivver ecosystem. 

The Genesis

Founded in 2011, Trivver is the brainchild of founder and CEO Joel LaMontagne. A serial entrepreneur with a background in computer science and mathematics, LaMontagne’s previous work includes the creation of a patented digital randomization engine that facilitates nonlinear experiences for online gaming, education and military training.

“The epiphany [that led to Trivver] came to me back in 2007 when I witnessed my twelve-year-old son play an online game and repeat the same level again and again to achieve a better score, because he learned the game’s pattern,” LaMontagne said.

He added that Trivver’s multi-patented technology enables advertisers to easily deploy, monitor and efficiently measure user actions across all devices inside AR/VR/MR/3D — really any XR environment. 

“Our ‘one and done’ IP allows a brand to create a single 3D Branded Object file and send it to many XR locations in just one click,” he said. 

Trivver’s 3D Branded Object files, or “branded smart objects,” are native to the environment they are placed in, creating nondisruptive advertisements that consumers actually enjoy interacting with. Trivver, LaMontagne added, also monitors and tracks metrics to provide brands with detailed consumer data.

LaMontagne said that Trivver’s patented technology allows both large and small developers the ability to “become a part of our network and monetize their published content.” The Trivver ad network, he said, provides advertisers the ability to connect with smaller content providers seamlessly.

The “Virtual” Road Map Ahead 

The public sale of TRVR commenced on June 15.

All available TRVR will be issued during the one-time distribution period with no additional issuance after the close of the campaign. The total number of TRVR to be issued will be calculated at the end of the distribution period.

“Our desire is to become the standard in XR advertising,” LaMontagne said. “We want to enable developers in the XR Space — both large and small — to fund themselves through advertising, to encourage the improvement of technology that enhances people’s lives and to make product placement in XR space as relevant and interesting to users as possible.” 

Note: Trading and investing in digital assets is speculative and can be high risk. Based on the shifting business and regulatory environment of such a new industry, this content should not be considered investment or legal advice.

This promoted article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/promoted-trivver-xr-advertising-in-an-xr-worldhttp://www.coinhooked.com/promoted-trivver-xr-advertising-in-an-xr-worldalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Downward pressure comes in waves - and, once again, Thursday and Friday sees the market crash as Bitcoin continues to lose positions.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/cv-market-watch-weekly-trading-overview-22-29-junehttp://www.coinhooked.com/cv-market-watch-weekly-trading-overview-22-29-junealexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Bitcoin (BTC) is presently in a do or die situation. The price has once again plunged below $6,000 and is now trading just above the previously held $5,800 level. If the price falls below $5,800 and stays below $5,800 for the next few days, it will invalidate a bullish bias and may lead to a long term bear market. On the other hand, if Bitcoin (BTC) stays above $5,800 for the next few days and closes the monthly candle above $5,800, it would mark the beginning of the next bullish impulse.

Continue reading Bitcoin (BTC) Falls Back To Demand Zone, Failure To Hold Support Might Trigger Significant Sell Off at Crypto Daily™.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/bitcoin-btc-falls-back-to-demand-zone-failure-to-hold-support-might-trigger-significant-sell-offhttp://www.coinhooked.com/bitcoin-btc-falls-back-to-demand-zone-failure-to-hold-support-might-trigger-significant-sell-offalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Trade.io announced the date of the launch of its blockchain-powered cryptocurrency exchange. The announcement was made a Bloomberg event in London.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/tradeio-to-launch-its-crypto-exchange-on-july-17http://www.coinhooked.com/tradeio-to-launch-its-crypto-exchange-on-july-17alexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

The price of Bitcoin fell below $6,000 once again on Thursday — bringing the entire market down with it. Nevertheless, cryptocurrency trader Ran Neu-Ner believes the bottom isn’t far away, and that there is a pair of altcoins worthy of your attention right now.

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‘There’s More Blood to Come’

Bitcoin has continued its bearish trend, and — though it might be close — the bottom is probably not in. CNBC Africa‘s Ran Neu-Ner agrees, telling CNBC‘s “Fast Money” on Thursday:

There’s more blood to come. Right now my money is on the market continuing to go down.

Neu-Ner, who founded OnChain Capital, has a recent track record of correctly calling Bitcoin’s price movement. Now, the trader is calling for a continued decline to just above the psychologically-important $5,000 level — due, in part, to the break-even price for miners. He noted:

And a bear market means we’re going to test $5,350 […] I’m calling $5,350 in the next week or two.

‘Now is a Great Time to be Buying’

Because low-$5000 price points are not far away, Neu-Ner agrees that Bitcoin bulls should probably be looking to buy — if not now, then soon. He explained on “Fast Money”:

If you understand the technology and you’re a bull, then now is a great time to be buying. The blockchain is progressing and this thing isn’t going away.

Neu-Ner himself is a noted cryptocurrency bull and believes there are other investments to be made in the altcoin space while Bitcoin searches for its bottom. When asked about his picks for altcoin investments, the CNBC Africa host named NEO (NEO) and Cardano (ADA), stating:

It’s a toss up for me among two coins. Those two coins are NEO, the currency used for a Chinese platform similar to Ethereum, and Cardano’s ADA cryptocurrency. [Cardano’s] a blockchain protocol, which I think is highly undervalued.

Like most altcoins in the market, both NEO and Cardano are currently down far away from their all-time highs. Unlike other altcoins in the space, however, NEO and Cardano may arguably represent ‘safer’ choices than those found further down the market-capitalization rankings, thanks to the fundamentals behind the projects.

What do you think about Neu-Ner’s statements? Do you think the time to buy is here, near, or far from now? Let us know in the comments below! 

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, CoinMarketCap.com.

[Full Disclosure: The author of this article holds NEO (NEO), Cardano (ADA), and Bitcoin (BTC). The contents of this article should not be construed as financial advice from both the author and Bitcoinist.]

The post Neu-Ner: Bitcoin and 2 Altcoins Still Worth Buying (If You’re a Bull) appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/neu-ner-bitcoin-and-2-altcoins-still-worth-buying-if-youre-a-bullhttp://www.coinhooked.com/neu-ner-bitcoin-and-2-altcoins-still-worth-buying-if-youre-a-bullalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Cryptocurrency stakeholders in Poland are on the warpath with local banks. The Polish Bitcoin Association (PBS), a coalition of crypto enthusiasts in the country are accusing banks of targeted discriminatory practices against them. Poland has a history of being hostile towards the virtual currency industry even though there is no official government policy to that effect.

Polish Bitcoin Association Accuses Banks of Discrimination

According to Finance Magnates, the PBS is petitioning the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP) to look into claims of alleged cryptocurrency profiling by Polish banks. There are reports of banks freezing or closing accounts belonging to digital currency enterprises.

The PBS is also accusing banks of frustrating any efforts to run a profitable cryptocurrency business due to their restrictive policies. Banks are reportedly implementing a blanket over participants in the industry. According to the Association, about 15 financial institutions have so far declined banking services to more than 52 cryptocurrency-related firms. These banks have also either frozen or closed down the accounts held by 25 of such firms.

The cryptocurrency coalition believes the banks are carrying out a tacit campaign of discrimination in a country where cryptocurrency hasn’t been deemed illegal. A portion of the PBS complaint to the OCCP reads:

The effects of the banks’ actions described clearly aim at removing virtual currency entities from the market, despite the fact that such activities are legal and conducted with dignity. In view of the above, action by the regulators is necessary, and this notice and his requests are fully substantiated.

At the time of writing this report, the OCCP has yet to release any official word concerning the matter. Thus, it is not clear whether the antitrust authority would investigate the case. Erring banks may face severe sanctions if the claims turn out to be true.

The Travails of the Cryptocurrency Community in Poland

While there isn’t any official government directive banning cryptocurrencies in Poland, the environment is still less than conducive. In May, BitBay, the country’s largest crypto exchange platform announced that it would be closing its offices in Poland in favor of a move to Poland. The platform had become frustrated by the discriminatory practices of several banks in the country.

The country’s central bank sponsored a smear campaign earlier in the year that aimed to cast cryptocurrency trading in a negative light. The apex bank paid popular YouTube vloggers to run a veritable campaign of calumny against Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. The ban on ICOs is the only official governemnt position concerning the cryptocurrency industry in Poland.

Poland isn’t the only country where crypto businesses face discrimination from banks. Ireland, Chile, Zimbabwe, India, and Iran have also enacted negative laws against the nascent virtual currency industry.

What are your opinions on the current cryptocurrency climate in Poland? Do you think the crypto community in the country stands any chance in its fight against the discriminatory policies of local banks? Keep the conversation going in the comment section below.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

The post Polish Bitcoin Association at War with Local Banks appeared first on Ethereum World News.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/polish-bitcoin-association-at-war-with-local-bankshttp://www.coinhooked.com/polish-bitcoin-association-at-war-with-local-banksalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

South Korea’s top financial regulator recently told 23 other countries’ regulators that the kimchi premium has fizzled since the anonymous trading of cryptocurrencies was banned in the country. Now, the government is introducing a new guideline to prevent local crypto exchanges from buying cryptocurrencies at foreign exchanges.

Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space

Kimchi Premium Disappearing

Kim Yong-beom, the vice chairman of South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), attended a meeting of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in Basel, Switzerland, earlier this week.

The FSB is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. Its members are financial regulators and central bankers from 24 countries as well as the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of International Settlements, the World Bank, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission.

According to the FSC’s statement issued this week, Kim told other world regulators that “The so-called kimchi premium stood at 0.6 percent on June 19,” Yonhap described. In comparison, he noted that “On Jan. 7, a speculative rally in bitcoin in South Korea prompted investors to pay premiums of 46.7 percent compared with international prices.” The vice chairman was further quoted by the news outlet:

Currently, there are small price gaps in cryptocurrency between local and international markets.

At the time of this writing, the price of BTC on Bitfinex is $5,875 while its won price on Bithumb equates to $5,947.

Government Believes Real-Name System is Working

The South Korean government introduced the real-name system for cryptocurrency accounts at the end of January, effectively “banning the use of anonymous bank accounts in transactions to prevent virtual coins from being used for money laundering and other illegal activities,” the publication described. “The real-name trading system was also part of the government’s latest measures to curb speculative investment into virtual money.”

However, since its introduction, the system has often been criticised because only a few banks decided to offer to convert existing “virtual” crypto trading accounts to real-name ones. The conversion rate is low and the banks that do offer this service choose to only provide it to the country’s largest crypto exchanges: Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone, and Korbit. Other exchanges continue to use corporate accounts, which the regulators say are prone to money laundering.

Nonetheless, the FSC said:

The frenzied buying of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seen in January this year in South Korea has been fizzling since the government banned anonymous trading of cryptocurrencies.

Stepping Up Monitoring

At a recent P2P loan review meeting with the Ministry of Justice and the National Police Agency, Kim pointed out that the real-name system “applied only to exchanges that receive virtual accounts at banks,” Hankook Ilbo reported. He added that the majority of crypto exchanges are still using corporate accounts.

Then the FSC said Wednesday that “it will step up monitoring of money transfers between local and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges,” the Korea Times reported, adding:

The new guideline, which aims to prevent local cryptocurrency exchanges buying virtual coins at foreign exchanges to launder money, will come into force on July 10 for one year.

The financial regulator revealed that it plans “to closely keep tabs on bank accounts used by cryptocurrency exchanges for parking their expenses.”

What do you think of the Korean government’s strategies? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Yonhap, and the Korean government.

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The post South Korea Thinks Real-Name System is Working – Stepping Up Crypto Monitoring appeared first on Bitcoin News.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/south-korea-thinks-real-name-system-is-working-stepping-up-crypto-monitoringhttp://www.coinhooked.com/south-korea-thinks-real-name-system-is-working-stepping-up-crypto-monitoringalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Microsoft has partnered with Taiwanese firm China Binary to exploit the commercial potential of blockchain technology.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/microsoft-teams-up-with-china-binary-and-high-cloud-on-blockchainhttp://www.coinhooked.com/microsoft-teams-up-with-china-binary-and-high-cloud-on-blockchainalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Last year, growing problems of Bitcoin mining centralization came to light with the controversy of an AsicBoost scandal. As a largely centralized hash rate began to threaten the software’s magical property, concerns were raised that incentives at the crux of Bitcoin’s game theory had broken away.

Now, the power of miners, harnessed by economic incentives, escaped accountability by attacking Bitcoin’s SHA 2 hashcash and exploiting it. This further gained advantage through vulnerability in the network’s interface with the old world of industrial infrastructure and patents.

In facing the increasing power of hardware manufacturers, the idea emerged to make changes in proof of work to fix incentives. Some see such moves to be dangerous, as it could devastate the security of the network and create a contentious hard fork. Others are more pessimistic about ASIC-resistant algorithms, due to the flexibility of hardware engineers and manufacturers’ ability to control hardware production. This challenge that cannot simply be solved technically brings us a unique opportunity to explore this innovation and discover the technology’s elegant design.

Money as a Technology of Cooperation

The invention of Bitcoin arrived through the accumulative efforts of many minds. Before Satoshi Nakamoto shared the vision of peer-to-peer digital cash in the white paper, there were pioneers who stepped into this uncharted territory. Nick Szabo, a legal scholar and cryptographer, with his creation of bit gold inspired this breakthrough of computer science.

In the paper Shelling Out, the Origins of Money, published in 2002, Szabo traveled into the ancient past to trace precursors of money used by our ancestors. By gaining the insight of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins who saw money as a “formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism,” Szabo recognized the role of money in providing humans’ unique evolutionary advantage. Describing it as a “technology of cooperation,” he noted how early forms of money, such as the shells of clams, solved the problem of the risk of cheating in the exchange of favor, where reciprocity wouldn’t be made simultaneously.

Now, in this digital age and with the birth of Bitcoin, this tool for cooperation is replicated online. Satoshi, through engaging computer machines to work on mathematical puzzles of computation, found a way to check man’s selfishness that takes advantage of others’ good will. Bitcoin’s consensus algorithm enforces sets of rules across a network, by aligning incentives of all players and encouraging each to overcome selfish tendencies that prevent cooperation with a careful balance of risk and reward.

Puzzle of Altruism

The genius of Bitcoin’s protocol was developed on this understanding of the origin of money that is deeply tied to evolutionary forces within mankind. At the core of this technology lies knowledge of human nature informed by evolutionary biology. Dawkins, who authored the influential book, “The Selfish Gene” renewed the theory of evolution by putting genes rather than individuals at the center. With the term “the selfish gene,” he explained how “a gene that didn’t look after its own interests would not survive.” With this gene’s-eye view of life, Dawkins appeared to have solved part of the riddle of human nature. Yet, he stumbled upon another when he recognized acts of kindness in nature. Altruism has been one of the greatest puzzles for many biologists.

Dawkins asked, “How can selfish genes support kindness?” Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection offered no incentive for organisms to help others. Dawkins went on, “If genes are striving selfishly to make more copies of themselves, how can a gene achieve this selfish objective by making their bearers act altruistically?” He contemplated how, in the Darwinian struggle for existence, kindness toward others seemed to counter this programming.

Partial explanations were provided in the idea of kin selection. Inclusive fitness theory argues the reason for such behavior is due to a sharing of large percentages of genes among close relatives. Another is the idea of reciprocal altruism used to explain costly cooperation between non-relatives, with a tit-for-tat strategy of “you scratch my back and I scratch yours.” Here, altruism is widely considered by biologists to be part of a survival game for genes, and nature has shown that the genes that return favor are more likely to survive. Yet, Dawkins pondered that, when it comes to humans, there seems to be something more that goes beyond what these theories can explain, for helping occurs even among those who are not close relatives and is given to complete strangers who don’t return favors.

Paradox of Human Nature

In recent years, examples of altruistic acts emerged on the internet with the waves of whistleblowers. From WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, we have seen individuals that acted on behalf of the public good at expense of their own well-being. These individuals demonstrated extraordinary courage, even risking their lives to protect not only the welfare of their nations, but all of humanity.

This presents an internal contradiction within humans: man is selfish and can be nasty, yet at the same time has a capacity for empathy and can act kindly to others. Dawkins found a way to embrace this paradox of human nature. He remarked how “selfish genes give rise to altruistic individuals” and asserted that the puzzle of altruism can be solved by using the concept of the selfish gene. He looked at altruism as the misfiring of selfish genes and explained how “we have a lust to be nice, even to total strangers, because niceness has been hardwired into us from the time we used to live in small groups of close kin and close acquaintances with whom it would pay to reciprocate favors.”

Civilization seems to have lost this paradox of human nature. Western construction of morality split an evolutionary force in nature into opposite tendencies. Humanity, in efforts to attain virtues that are considered positive, suppressed others that have been deemed negative and unworthy. Philosopher Jacob Needleman described how religious and moral doctrines of European cultures created a dualistic morality that “supports the radical separation of the good (however it is understood) and the evil (that which resists the good).” He noted such morality becomes “‘moralism’ when it imposes a sense of good and evil that diminishes the interconnectedness of life.”

Duality of human nature with selfishness on one hand and altruistic attributes like empathy on the other, created an internal conflict within man. This made people pit one side of human nature against the other. This one-sidedness of a human view in favor of certain characteristics over the other led to the failure of self-honesty, making it difficult for us to truly account for our deeds. Selfish parts of ourselves that are denied and condemned become dark. Efforts to eradicate this force made it more hostile and cunning. The extreme selfishness created through society’s refusal to accept human nature in its fullness has become destructive. It began to pose a threat to civilization itself.

The Value of Networked Individuals

In the last half of the 20th century, we have seen an increase in this schism of human nature. The tension of opposites that could no longer be contained, unleashed a cold war dividing the world into two competing power blocks. One sector was represented by the U.S. and Western European model of liberal democracies and the other was by Russian and Chinese communist states. Unresolved conflicts inside ourselves became ideological battles, creating a brutal competition for existence. In this grand struggle of power, Western capitalism promoted the value of the individual over the needs of the collective, while communism forced people to place the interests of a community over individuals.

Systems of governance based on political ideologies, incapable of holding the paradox of human nature, suppressed the dynamics of life. The centralized model of society, both in a form of capitalism and socialism, has subverted the force of evolution, by using money as an instrument of control to regulate aspects of human nature. The state’s oppression of self-interests of the majority led to the concentration of power in a few hands, fueling the corruption in the system. As ordinary people were held hostage by this political battle of governments, being kept in a loop of a death spiral, Satoshi found the perfect equation that could restore the paradox of human nature to end this war that is waged inside each person.

While the hierarchy of institutions divides human nature, breaking apart the value of individuality and the collective, decentralization unites them, creating a higher value of the networked individual. In Bitcoin’s open horizontal platform, what one does to oneself can be directly translated into what one does to others and vice versa. Everyone’s contribution enriches the whole network, while harmful behaviors bring loss for all. In this inclusive circle, contradiction between the logic of service to oneself and service to a group can now be reconciled. What an individual does out of one’s self-interests can become a communal act of giving because it benefits all in the network.

In this invention of free software, Satoshi liberated human nature that was bound up by intellectual property of the nation-state built on the archaic knowledge of man. Centralized systems of politics are inherently undemocratic. In this, the reform and progress of society often relies on the conscience of individuals who can demonstrate an extraordinary capacity to act altruistically as is seen by the example of whistleblowers. This requires a great sacrifice on the part of these individuals to take risks that are unsustainable.

Now, Bitcoin opens a new paradigm that is much more balanced. In this, one no longer has to sacrifice one’s needs in order to act altruistically and one does not have to give up aspirations for altruism in order to preserve self-interests. Upon economic incentives of selfishness, a spiral staircase of Bitcoin’s DNA can emerge. The incentive structure that is built upon a realistic assessment of humanity allows individuals to align themselves with their own self-interests. Through each taking risks voluntarily, the system increases the rewards for networked value.

Dormant Sleeping Codes

In the act of releasing a protocol pseudonymously online, the unknown creator of Bitcoin launched an open source development to build a new habitat for networked individuals. Responding to the good will of strangers, developers around the world came together to engage in a labor of love to work on Bitcoin. Those ambitious and adventurous ones among us all began investing precious resources to play the market. Greed of miners through the survival of the fittest mining markets have helped the network build a global level of security.

Now, in facing the threat of mining centralization, it might be tempting to jump into a quick tech fix of changing algorithms, trying to punish selfishness and combat our destructive potential within. But such solutions will likely just replicate the problem of the old system of control and possibly destroy the harmony of human nature that has been restored in the code.

Perhaps a perceived design oversight of a proof-of-work function, with its lack of resistance against mining centralization is not a flaw that needs to be fixed. Rather, it can be seen as something that could enable the vital feature that needs to be activated at a critical phase in the development of this technology. The problem that now confronts this ecosystem urges us to find solutions that are already in the protocol. Crisis can stimulate and trigger resistance from a human organism. This awakens dormant sleeping codes: sovereign users who claim their role in the network as ones who ultimately give Bitcoin value.

The integrity of Bitcoin is ensured through decentralization. This decentralization that ensures Bitcoin’s defining feature of permissionless-ness and censorship resistance cannot just be guaranteed with proof of work through people simply depending on technology. In the summer of 2017, in the midst of the storm of the scaling debacle, cryptographer and inventor of Hashcash, Adam Back reminded:

cypherpunks write code, and sovereign individuals run code? that maybe levelling up soon

The design of Bitcoin’s unprecedented immutability built with the best security practice in computer science includes the pressure for decentralization that is to be applied from everywhere.

Activation of Sovereign Users

The new stream of self-interests began to emerge in the ecosystem during the block size battle in 2017. As the threat of a contentious hard fork grew, resistance was swiftly organized from the bottom up. From the #UASF movement to the #No2X protest, we have seen the awakening of sleeping giants. Samson Mow, chief strategy officer of Blockstream and CEO of game company Pixelmatic, instigated a new game of “Proof of Hat consensus” by distributing the UASF cap across the network. What arose was a vision of cypherpunks. It placed Bitcoin’s value proposition in features that could bring a larger implication in the functioning of democracy, such as an ability to circumvent financial blockades and governments’ seizures. This came to clash with the PayPal 2.0 vision of Bitcoin, with emphasis on its utilitarian and commercial value as cheaper, faster, on-chain transactions.

Under the radar, the activation of sovereign users has been slowly occurring. Some are stepping up to fulfill their role in this network, manifesting the blueprint of this technology. Teams behind Bitseed created Bitcoin full node devices to help users around the world attain secure access to the blockchain to run full nodes and enforce rules. Bisq, an open-source desktop application, has been working to bring a P2P-based solution to the problems of centralized exchanges in order to extend Bitcoin’s decentralization.

Now, the network is finding creative ways to tackle problems of mining centralization. With an aim to break the mining hardware monopoly and bring much needed competition, Bitcoin Core contributor BtcDrak began a mining project, setting up an ASIC chip manufacturing company. While some strongly oppose it, a new initiative for the Blockchain Defensive Patent License is put forward as a way to counteract the AsicBoost patent monopoly that blocks competition, without jeopardizing the pristine protocol. Opportunities for the use of renewable energy are emerging as a way to decentralize mining. The idea is to take the excess capacity from solar and hydro energy production and use them to mine bitcoin.

The darkness of the old world that has yet to be enlightened became tyrannical. As it begins to infiltrate this new P2P network, the call is given for a wider distribution of self-interests to strengthen Bitcoin’s noble architecture. Imagination of computer science inspires us all to align ourselves with incentives coded inside our own DNA and restore the balance of human nature. Each individual’s participation in the development of this technology helps Bitcoin maintain its mathematical precision. By laying the solid foundation upon the virtue of selfishness, blocks of cooperation can be built to further improve the workings of reciprocal altruism.

This is a guest post by Nozomi Hayase. Views expressed are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/op-ed-challenge-of-mining-centralization-unveils-bitcoins-elegant-designhttp://www.coinhooked.com/op-ed-challenge-of-mining-centralization-unveils-bitcoins-elegant-designalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Two days ago, on June 27 – Pornhub via Twitter made it known that it is going to accept ZenCash and Tron. PornHub, the world’s largest adult entertainment websites with over 115M+ daily users, has indicated it is accepting ZenCash (Zen) and Tron (TRX).

In an announcement on Twitter PornHub specified: “We’re excited to announce that were now accepting @zencashofficial and @Tronfoundation as crypto currency payment for Pornhub Premium!!”

Earlier, PornHub adopted Verge (XVG). Though, before Verge could seal the deal, it announced a crowdfunding program which was purposely designed to achieve the surprising partnership with a firm that the team called a “global organization” with a “vast network of high traffic sites”.

Not long after, today, the founder of Tron – Justin Sun tweeted the much welcomed announcement of TRX being accepted on Brazzers, Trafficjunky and Nutakugames.

I’d like Tron to be on Coinbase, Amazon and Facebook plz, thx.

— CryptoZ (@HODLandWIN) June 28, 2018

With movements like this, TRON [TRX] is showcasing its path of actualizing the dream of being a global-wide coin that is used by every firm.

TrafficJunky Inc is one of the biggest digital marketing company in the world today with its base at Montreal, Canada. TrafficJunky is a company that strives to improve the products and services of worldwide companies through internet marketing.

Similar to TrafficJunky, Brazzers has its base in Montreal Canada. It produces x-rated movies making it one of the leading porn companies in the world with over 35 mil traffic monthly.

“We are excited to announce that we’re now expecting Zencash and will soon be accepting Tron (TRX) as cryptocurrency payments or Brazzers memberships!”  – Brazzers Twitter page

Keeping in mind that like Pornhub, Brazzer’s commences and conducts a lot of transactions in its network and adoption Tron could be just the very right step to do.

“Hey, Guys! We’re stoked to announce that we’re accepting Zencash official and Tron (TRX) as cryptocurrency payment for all your Nutaku Gold needs!” – Nutaku Games Twitter

The hentai game producer Nutaku, that has over 20 mil visitors on a monthly basis signed for the same opportunity as did TrafficJunky and Brazzers – Accepting TRX and Zen.

The post Tron (TRX) Accepted and Partnership Signed with Brazzers and Traffic Junky appeared first on Ethereum World News.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/tron-trx-accepted-and-partnership-signed-with-brazzers-and-traffic-junkyhttp://www.coinhooked.com/tron-trx-accepted-and-partnership-signed-with-brazzers-and-traffic-junkyalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Tether is a cryptocurrency with a growing reputation. Very recently, Tether has been noted to have some impact on the value of Bitcoin, in fact research has recently found that Tether has been used to manipulate the price of Bitcoin, bringing into question a whole host of problems and questions.

Regardless of this, Tether has seen some growth recently, moving up to ninth place for market capitalisation according to Coinmarketcap.com, with a market cap at the time of writing, of $2,700,621,552.00.

Continue reading Tether In Controversial Double Spend Attack at Crypto Daily™.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/tether-in-controversial-double-spend-attackhttp://www.coinhooked.com/tether-in-controversial-double-spend-attackalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Zebpay, the famous exchange platform for cryptocurrencies, on June 29th, tweeted the listing of 10 new crypto trading pairs on its wall. All of the pairs had BTC in common with 10 coins, namely, NCASH, Angur [REP], BAT, ZRX, Zilliqa [ZIL], Golem [GNT], VeChain, KNC, CMT, and AE.

The tweet reads:

“Zebpay is excited to announce the launch of 10 new crypto-to-crypto trading pairs. Trading now live! Trade 19 cryptocurrencies and 35+ trading pairs on Zebpay cryptocurrency exchange.”

Off late, Zebpay has been under the government radar following the controversies associated with the circular on ‘Prohibition on dealing in Virtual Currencies’ released by Reserve Bank of India earlier this month. It had, in response to RBI’s ban, released its own statement informing the user-base regarding its appeal to the Supreme Court for a legal hearing.

Crypto Beri, a crypto-follower sarcastically commented:

“Seems, the RBI ain’t convinced with INR trading pairs.”

Another crypto-enthusiast, Crypto.CATALYST also wrote:

“If you guys can Implement a trading Platform for a dedicated to Desktop/ Laptop then That would Be awesome”

Surendra Mahto, a Zebpay follower requested:

“#tcc plz add this coin ..many people want to buy #tcc coin from #zebpay because this exchange is India’s number one exchange. Many tcc holder registered in your exchange #zebpay to #btc to #tcc trading. Thanks you. .I hope you will review at #tcc”

The main crypto-players paired with Bitcoin are VeChain and Zilliqa positioned on the 17th and 25th rank on CoinMarketCap. Earlier this year, VeChain’s had announcement its MainNet launch [VeChainThor], after which it had gathered support from popular platforms including Bithumb, CoinSpot, and Binance.

Currently, the VeChain token is trading at $2.48 with a market cap of $1.36 billion. The past 24 hours have seen a change of -2.85% in its price with a trading volume of about $52 million.

The post VeChain, Zilliqa [ZIL] among others paired with Bitcoin [BTC] on Zebpay appeared first on AMBCrypto.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/vechain-zilliqa-zil-among-others-paired-with-bitcoin-btc-on-zebpayhttp://www.coinhooked.com/vechain-zilliqa-zil-among-others-paired-with-bitcoin-btc-on-zebpayalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)
EOS, the world’s fifth largest cryptocurrency, has been mired in chaos over ‘governance,’ ever since its blockchain went live earlier this month. Block.one, the currency’s parent company, is now jumping in to take control in its own hands. Block.one will participate in the EOS block producer elections, the company announced on its website on Thursday. As a recipient of 10 [percent] of the initial EOS token allocation, Block.one recognizes its responsibility to participate as an active minority voting member. As such, our approach has been carefully considered, and Block.one will soon begin allocating votes to block producers that share the…

This story continues at The Next Web]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/eos-creator-blockone-to-participate-in-blockchain-governancehttp://www.coinhooked.com/eos-creator-blockone-to-participate-in-blockchain-governancealexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)While not all cryptocurrencies and tokens are built to last, the math shows token projects and forked digital currencies abandoned, shut down, and scammed are far greater than one may think. “Dead Coins” As per data collated by Coinopsy and Dead Coins, two digital currency tracking websites, an estimated 1,000 cryptocurrencies projects are lacking any

The post Research: Over 1,000 Cryptocurrencies are “Dead Projects” appeared first on CCN

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/research-over-1000-cryptocurrencies-are-dead-projectshttp://www.coinhooked.com/research-over-1000-cryptocurrencies-are-dead-projectsalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)This is a paid-for submitted press release. CCN does not endorse, nor is responsible for any material included below and isn’t responsible for any damages or losses connected with any products or services mentioned in the press release. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned

The post Creators of American Idol’s Crypto Platform Tour Asia appeared first on CCN

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/creators-of-american-idols-crypto-platform-tour-asiahttp://www.coinhooked.com/creators-of-american-idols-crypto-platform-tour-asiaalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Lugano Switzerland, June 27, 2018, trade.io In anticipation of its upcoming cryptocurrency exchange, trade.io has announced a commitment to exceeding common security standards and has ensured the early implementation of a comprehensive security program.

Please Note: This is a Press Release

During its ICO, rigid security controls and systems were deployed, and as a result, trade.io was able to fend off numerous cyber-attacks and attempted hacks on the website and our users.

To further strengthen its guarantee of a trusted, reliable and safe platform, as reported earlier this year, we have employed a world-class security officer and a highly trained team with the ability to enhance trade’s cybersecurity robustness.

As a result, the following technologies, practices and procedures have therefore been implemented:

• A multi-layered protection for users to sign in to the platform using several authentication methods. In addition, trade.io is implementing and enforcing only secured communications for its users with the platform.
• The exchange will employ proprietary algorithms for the sake of ensuring security to the exchange funds and wallets architecture.
• Extensive risk assessments, penetration tests, architecture reviews and code review processes are conducted by internal and external security experts, working under international known standards and methodologies, to make sure the platform is secured via best practices.
• An in-house professional cybersecurity team that will monitor the platform 24/7 for anomalies related to the exchange, user accounts and activities.
• Working methodologies based on international known standards such as the NIST framework and use of top of the line security products to secure internal systems.
• Bank-level security monitoring systems that allows trade.io to quickly detect and block cyber incidents related to the platform, users accounts or internal systems.
• Cybersecurity is integrated in all of the development stages including design, implementation and testing.

trade.io’s Head of Security, Ari Propper, commented, “We are using innovative industry-leading technologies to detect, protect and respond quickly to cyber events. We have a team of experts with vast knowledge and experience in the cybersecurity field as well as deep and strong connections in the industry that allows us to consult, review and test relevancy of cybersecurity technologies continuously. We are treating cyber defence as an ongoing process and integrating it in all of the development and business activities.”

trade.io’s Chief Technology Officer, Charles Voltron, also commented, “Our security approach towards securing the exchange is holistic, other than protecting the exchange with a multi-layered defence tactics, we are enhancing our employee’s awareness for cyber events, we protect our business processes and our internal technologies.”

“When it comes to security, the trade.io team is firm on not cutting any corners and is committed to having an exchange that clients feel safe using.”

To pre-register for the trade.io cryptocurrency exchange, visitors can join the waiting list on this page: https://exchange.trade.io

About trade.io

trade.io is a next-generation financial institution based on blockchain technology, providing the ultimate in security and transparency. By leveraging decades of experience in the investment banking, trading & FinTech sectors, and combining them with the power and transparency of the distributed ledger, trade.io has created a truly unique exchange that will revolutionize asset trading and investment banking.

Media Contact:

• trade.io
• Attn: Media Relations
• Piazza Santa Lucia 7
• Lugano, Switzerland
• +41 43 508 1834
• Marketing@trade.io

The post trade.io Leads The Way In Security For Its Upcoming Cryptocurrency Exchange appeared first on Blockonomi.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/tradeio-leads-the-way-in-security-for-its-upcoming-cryptocurrency-exchangehttp://www.coinhooked.com/tradeio-leads-the-way-in-security-for-its-upcoming-cryptocurrency-exchangealexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

An incredible $13.7 billion has been raised in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) during the first five months of 2018 according to a report by PwC in collaboration with the Crypto...

The post ICOs Have Raised Almost $14 Billion This Year, Double All of 2017 appeared first on Trustnodes.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/icos-have-raised-almost-14-billion-this-year-double-all-of-2017http://www.coinhooked.com/icos-have-raised-almost-14-billion-this-year-double-all-of-2017alexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

The 21st century has witnessed the birth of an entirely new economy and technology. It is almost like the industrialization era all over again, but this time everything is on…

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]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/investor-insight-ins-ecosystem-ins-and-omisego-omg-the-two-coins-to-buy-this-summerhttp://www.coinhooked.com/investor-insight-ins-ecosystem-ins-and-omisego-omg-the-two-coins-to-buy-this-summeralexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

Technically, the essence of cryptocurrency is gambling. Investment is a form of gambling so actually, you’ve always been able to gamble on the blockchain. However, this new creation allows you to play roulette on the blockchain too.

According to The Next Web, a developer by the name of Rui Gomes has created a game called ‘Lighting Spin’. The game allows users to play roulette within the Bitcoin lightning network. According to The Next Web:

“The app lets you wager anywhere between 1,000 Satoshi (approximately 6¢) to 100,000 Satoshi (approximately $6) per round.

Continue reading Now You Can Gamble On The Blockchain at Crypto Daily™.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/now-you-can-gamble-on-the-blockchainhttp://www.coinhooked.com/now-you-can-gamble-on-the-blockchainalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)The Indo-Aryan-speaking Rohingya people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are encountering the dire issue of persecution and ethnic cleansing. Fortunately, many individuals and groups are using blockchain technology to help refugees in innovative ways beyond just remittances.

Who are the Rohingya People?

The 3.5 million Rohingya people are a stateless, predominantly Muslim ethnic minority who’ve historically faced persecution and are without citizenship or equal civil rights. In 2016 and 2017, the Myanmar government ordered its military to commence mass executions of Rohingyas, resulting in large-scale human rights violations and deaths.

The ethnic cleansing has led to a refugee crisis, with over 600,000 refugees migrating to Bangladesh and India for sanctuary.

The United Nations (UN) has received criticism for its response to the Rohingya crisis. Although the UN criticized Myanmar’s military actions and characterized them as ethnic cleansing and genocide, it hasn’t called for member nations to help settle and protect Rohingya refugees.

Instead, the majority of aid is from private nonprofits like Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International.

A recently signed repatriation deal between the UN and Myanmar doesn’t address the issue of Rohingya citizenship and ignores pleas to establish a refugee representative. The crisis is also relatively less visible in Western media compared to other humanitarian crises like the Syrian civil war or Yemeni crisis.

How Blockchain Is Helping

Fortunately, blockchain technology is already helping Rohingya refugees improve their lives. The Rohingya Project is a philanthropic initiative to give refugees digital identification and other social services. The project aims to address the challenges of being stateless, including a lack of national identification, no access to capital, credit, and other financial services.

The project will use blockchain tech to issue digital identification to refugees who can verify their status by taking a test. The project, currently experimenting with a pilot program, hopes that successful identification will be a first step toward restoring the human rights and dignity of the Rohingya people.

Educating Refugees Using Blockchain

A new blockchain project that aims to help refugees worldwide is ExsulCoin. ExsulCoin is working on providing educational opportunities to refugees through an immutable record of educational achievements.

The ExsulCoin blockchain will help refugees learn, refine skills, find employment, and share their work records with other people. The founders of ExsulCoin, James Song and Cat Song, are deeply passionate about aiding refugees.

The UN and world governments should intervene and provide humanitarian relief. In their absence, these two blockchain technology initiatives will help refugees transcend their struggles and successfully pursue a better life.

The author does not hold any positions in any of the assets above.

The post How Blockchain Technology Is Helping the Rohingya Crisis appeared first on CryptoSlate.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/how-blockchain-technology-is-helping-the-rohingya-crisishttp://www.coinhooked.com/how-blockchain-technology-is-helping-the-rohingya-crisisalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Dick Costolo has kept busy since stepping down as Twitter’s CEO in 2015 amid investor complaints that the social media company wasn’t growing quickly enough.

He had a brief stint as co-founder of fitness app Chorus, which he quickly shuttered after it failed to catch on. And now, he’s focused on investing in and advising a few companies that he says have similar growth challenges as Twitter twtr did before its initial public offering.

His latest investment, announced exclusively to Fortune, is in fast-rising business software startup Airtable. The company specializes in software tools that let people who aren’t coding geniuses create apps for their businesses to use internally, pitting it against giant tech companies like Google goog and Microsoft msft that sell similar products.

Customers include Netflix nflx , Atlantic Records, and Cond? Nast Entertainment.

Costolo plowed an undisclosed amount of money into the $7 million funding round, an extension of a previous $52 million round that the company closed in March. Other investors in the latest round include prominent business executives and philanthropists Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis, and former Twitter executives Katie Jacobs Stanton and Elad Gil.

Airtable was co-founded by Howie Liu, who previously sold his older enterprise software startup Etacts to Salesforce crm in 2011. With the new funding, Airtable has raised a total of $70 million.

In this edited interview with Fortune, Costolo discusses why he’s investing in Airtable, his thoughts about Jack Dorsey taking over as Twitter’s CEO, and political discourse in the Donald Trump era.

Why are you investing in Airtable?

Even though there are a lot of companies in the SaaS [tech jargon for cloud-based business software] space for collaborative work, I thought that Airtable really had the ability and the potential to do for software creation what the Macintosh did for personal computing.

If you think back to when we were all working with C:/ command prompts [reference to old-school computing programming] and with Microsoft operating systems back in the day, along came the Mac and just made PCs accessible to everyone.

You're interested in the fact that Howie's intent is to stick with the company and not eventually leave and be replaced by a more experienced CEO.

You’re exactly right. I’m 100% interested in working with founder/CEOs who have every intention of remaining a CEO, growing the business and sticking with it, and building something great.

What happens when there's too much concentrated power within founder/CEOs and no one’s able to tell them what to do?

That’s a fair question. I think that there’s a difference between public company governance, where you’ve got everything from all the decision-making and voting rights and everything is consolidated to one-person--and there’s no other way around it. I think there’s a difference between that and a CEO who is growing a private company with less than 100 people, and is scaling the business.

You've been publicly supportive of the #MeToo movement. Many start-ups tend to focus on only their products and ignore important institutional values as they grow the business, which can lead to potential problems down the road.

I’m completely and 100% behind your hypothesis about how important that is. Between both Airtable and Patreon [the artist-centric crowdfunding company], where I’m on the board, the thing that you’ll find across all those companies is you've got CEOs who not only acknowledge how important that is, but put their money where their mouth is.

Howie’s going out of his way to make sure he’s got more women investors--Katie Stanton joining me as an investor. Howie spent a lot of time with Jenny Lefcourt on the Founders for Change, an initiative that she’s been part of putting together.

I’m in complete agreement with you that those institutional values, as you put it, are just as important as scaling the business, your business acumen, and your willingness to learn.

Since you’ve left Twitter, the company's stock has gone up and there's a perception that things are much better. How do you feel about Jack Dorsey's recent tenure as CEO?

Listen, I was the one on CNBC saying Jack was doing a great job when the stock was at $15 [Twitter's stock is now around $44]. Unlike all the other analysts who sold Twitter when the stock price was $15, I’ve been a fan of his ever since I've known him. Of course, all those same analysts are now talking about what a great job he’s doing, and recommending to buy those stocks, now that it’s expensive.

I don’t know how the guy is able to do such a great job of running two companies. I haven’t seen him this happy in a few years, so good for him.

You said that you regretted during your tenure not doing enough to police bad behavior on Twitter. How do you feel Twitter is doing in that area now, especially in this intense political environment?

I’ll say a couple things about this. One, I think our society in general right now, particularly in the U.S. across the media landscape is a little bit dysfunctional in the sense that people are just yelling at each other. On the one hand, you can’t expect the platforms to just correct that. You’ve got a president who calls people names, like a fourth grader, and you can’t expect the platform to stop this societal dysfunction.

On the other hand, all of these platforms need to, and I’m sure will, continue to invest heavily in dealing with this while also continuing to deal with things like spam, and then the new vector of meddling in politics. And it’s not just Twitter, it’s YouTube and Facebook, and others as well.

People argue about whether these platforms facilitate that discord or that they merely are reflections of the discord.

There’s for sure a part of this that’s a reflection of the discord. Again, you’ve got a president who’s modeling the behavior of calling people names. So, what do you want the platforms to do about that? There will be a piece of it that’s a reflection of what’s all in society.

I just think there’s a sense of, "Well, just delete their account if they do X, Y, Z." But there might be times when people rightly raise their voice at other people. It may be a customer service complaint, or it may be a particularly hotly charged political issue like this separating children from their parents at the border. It’s a harder problem than the simple solutions that are suggested for it, but at the same time, these platforms all need to recognize, and they all do, that there’s a lot more work to be done.

Are you seeing more technology companies having to comment on political or controversial issues than they had to in the past because of this politicized environment?

It’s funny you say that. If you go back to end of 2010, when I first became CEO of Twitter, it was generally not the case that tech CEOs like myself thought of themselves in the context of their role in the geopolitical spectrum, or in society in the larger context. I remember getting a phone call on a Monday morning and it was the White House and I was like, why are they calling me? What’d I do? It was Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s chief of staff, wanting to discuss some bigger geopolitical thing that was going on.

Now, I think some of these younger CEOs like Howie know that they have a role to play here, know they need to take leadership to this initiative, and know that it’s no longer even okay to just pay lip service to these things.

What was the bigger geopolitical thing you had to talk about?

if I remember correctly, it was during the Arab Spring when people were organizing protesting on social platforms like Twitter--starting with organizing protests in Tunisia. It was a conversation about what does it mean for the world and is there anything interesting we can do to be helpful to you guys as governments start to do things like shut down these platforms so people can’t organize protests. Not meddling, but just interested in having the conversation about what are you guys seeing, and what’s interesting that we’re seeing that’s not necessarily out there in the public, if you’re just looking at Twitter, et cetera.

Who was Twitter’s biggest competitor when you were there?

Facebook. We were always under the shadow of Facebook fb . They have an enormous user base. We were both advertising based. We were both feed-based advertising products. I think it’s correct to say that they were originally advertising over on the side of the webpage, and then they migrated to that in-feed advertising format after we did. I think that’s correct, but I might be wrong about that. I’ll probably get yelled at by some of my Facebook friends.

They were just much, much bigger than us, so that’s always a tough position to be in, and you’re trying to find strategic beachheads to get out from under their shadow.

What were some things you learned from your stint as a consultant for Silicon Valley [The HBO satire of the tech industry]?

I came out of the Silicon Valley writer’s room experience realizing how hard it is to be a writer in Hollywood. You’re in the room for like 10 hours. You don’t leave. Coffee and lunch come in, but you’re writing the whole day. Then, someone’s got to take the script, go home, write the whole thing up and put it in the format. It's not easily romanticized, like oh, what a fun, easy, creative job it would be. It’s creative, but it’s hard.

Is there any joke or premise from Silicon Valley that I could trace to you?

I had some input, things that got into the script, but sadly, none of the really good one-liners and jokes I can take credit for.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/dick-costolo-talks-airtable-investment-twitter-donald-trump-and-silicon-valleyhttp://www.coinhooked.com/dick-costolo-talks-airtable-investment-twitter-donald-trump-and-silicon-valleyalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)Lisk today announced the release of “Lisk Explorer v1.7.0”. This update also includes the addition of Japanese Yen, British Pound, and Polish Zloty price tickers. In this release, the following currency rates are updated in real-time: LSK, BTC, USD, EUR, GBP, RUB, PLN, CNY, JPY.

Lisk Explorer updates | Source: Lisk Explorer webpage

Additionally, the updates also include Merged pull requests:

• Currency picker redesign
• Replace Chinese Yuan [CNY] price ticker
• Add British Pound [GBP] price ticker
• Add Polish Zloty [PLN] price ticker
• Add Japanese Yen [JPY] price ticker

Note: According to GitHub, Merge a pull request into the upstream branch when work is completed. Anyone with push access to the repository can complete the merge.

Lisk also announced that Lisk core 1.0 is on the public testnet. Lisk Core 1.0 is a hard fork which incorporates several changes. The website mentions:

“A height was picked in order to proceed with a simultaneous global upgrade. This way the probabilities of creating forks are lower.”

Lisk is a blockchain application platform whose aim is to bring blockchain technology to the forefront by an SDK [Sidechain Development Kit] written in JavaScript.

This release was predominantly focused on improvements, code refactors, and minor bug fixes. The most significant completion include the support of multiple networks with one installation. To make that possible, they placed all network-specific files into corresponding directories, with a separate one per network.

Lisk earlier this week also announced on Twitter that they have got support from Trezor, a hardware wallet. Another major achievement that Lisk recently announced was their subreddit just hit 30k subscribers.

According to CoinMarketCap, Lisk currently has a market cap of $520 million with the price at $4.84 and has seen a downfall of 7.17% in the last 24 hours.

bllsnbrs, a Twitter user commented:

“Congratulations, Lisk! Wish you guys a successful public test!”

TerraBellus, another Twitter user commented:

“Many congratulations! You’ve done something amazing and let nothing and no one let you doubt it for a second”

The post Lisk [LSK] spilling good news, Explorer v1.7.0 and core 1.0 – Still stands red at $4.84 appeared first on AMBCrypto.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/lisk-lsk-spilling-good-news-explorer-v170-and-core-10-still-stands-red-at-484http://www.coinhooked.com/lisk-lsk-spilling-good-news-explorer-v170-and-core-10-still-stands-red-at-484alexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has opened shop in Africa to offer fiat trading pairs for the first time. In an announcement on Thursday, the company announced the launch of its first ever fiat crypto exchange – Binance Uganda. The exchange will support the Ugandan fiat currency Shilling and began accepting registrations from new users

The post Binance Launches First-Ever Fiat-Crypto Exchange in Uganda appeared first on CCN

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/binance-launches-first-ever-fiat-crypto-exchange-in-ugandahttp://www.coinhooked.com/binance-launches-first-ever-fiat-crypto-exchange-in-ugandaalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)

With the markets in such a poor condition, we quite like it when economists tell us that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will shoot up soon. Today however, a report from Bitcoin.com tells us how famed Japanese economist, Yukio Noguchi has told Diamond Weekly how Bitcoin Futures could mean that Bitcoin will never surge again.

Just when we really need a Bitcoin surge, it now seems quite unlikely to happen.

According to Bitcoin.com:

“He argues that the introduction of the futures market has driven down the price considerably.

Continue reading Bitcoin Futures Trading Means Bitcoin May Never Surge Again at Crypto Daily™.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/bitcoin-futures-trading-means-bitcoin-may-never-surge-againhttp://www.coinhooked.com/bitcoin-futures-trading-means-bitcoin-may-never-surge-againalexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)It was once said, a dumb person doesn’t learn from their mistakes, a smart person learns from their mistakes, and a genius learns from other people’s mistakes. This age-old saying rings ever true in the crypto market. Nobody’s perfect, and your Bitcoin mistakes can end up costing you big time. There are no refunds or take-backs on the BTC blockchain.  

Everyone makes mistakes. In terms of cryptocurrency, they can range greatly in their repercussions. In many instances, a Bitcoin mistake is small enough to recover from, but that’s not always the case. As you’re about to learn, even a small typo can end up costing millions of dollars when you’re dealing with BTC. Here are seven of the biggest Bitcoin mistakes ever made.

Mt. Gox Incidents

The now infamous Mt. Gox story reflects the importance of working with a team of accomplished developers on your project. Initially, Mark Karpeles saw great success working as the only developer for what had grown into the largest BTC exchange in the world. Unfortunately for him, his luck quickly changed after a hacker was able to infiltrate the auditing system of the exchange and slash the price of BTC down to pennies. Consequently, the price of BTC plummeted for months following this incident.

Mt.Gox is One of the Biggest Bitcoin Mistakes Ever Made

That same year saw the demise of Mt. Gox but not until after it was revealed that another mysterious hacker reportedly made off with $340 million in BTC. The shadowy intruder had been siphoning crypto from the platform, unnoticed, for years. To make matters even worse, the Mt. Gox system interpreted the hack as deposits. This caused the system to then begin crediting individuals with free crypto. One wallet received 40,000 in extra BTC. Ultimately, there was a total of 850,000 BTC lost in the incidents, which resulted in the bankruptcy of the exchange.

Mt. Gox from the Grave

It turns out that the ghost of Mt. Gox wasn’t done plaguing the market, and, in 2014, Mt. Gox struck again. This incident was far more innocent but still resulted in major losses for one individual. The losses occurred when an unknown crypto investor accidentally sent 800 BTC to the exchange’s wallet. In a heartfelt Reddit post the individual explains:

“messed up big time. I sent this address 800 bitcoin:

113MmkyjjH6zS9VMvbwrhBNoMe6upzdvNC.”

As it turns out, the address was already stored in the investor’s wallet because they had sent Mt. Gox BTC in the past. The Reddit community came to the aid of the individual and helped him to track the mysterious address to the now-defunct Mt. Gox, but he was never able to retrieve his crypto. All of this has further fueled the aura of bad luck surrounding this infamous exchange.

Send Me Over Your Private Keys Real Quick

What would you do if someone sent you an email claiming to be your friend and asking for your private keys? It would probably be a good idea to verify that person’s identity before sending the requested information. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same level of common sense when dealing with the protection of their crypto.  

The firm Canadian Bitcoins lost 149 BTC last year when an unnamed individual sent a simple request for access to the server. When he contacted the company’s data center, the hacker claimed to be Canadian Bitcoin’s CEO, James Grant. At that time, the company’s data was being migrated to a new provider, Rogers Data Centre. All it took was one email, and the new data firm sent over the information.

Would You Like Some Mastercoin?

The platform Fyfe was billed as the decentralized version of the internet. This project had seen extensive development over the last eight years, and this year saw the launch of their second stage ICO. Interested parties could invest in the platform by using either BTC or Mastercoin. The latter turned out to be a huge mistake. Mastercoin is a little-known altcoin that lost huge amounts of market value since the ICO date.  

MaidSafe lost a significant portion of their funds as the Mastercoin price fell to zero.

Maidsafe, the firm behind the Fyfe project succeeded in raising millions, but, since most of the crypto gathered was Mastercoin, the firm’s funds have now since dwindled. Till this day, no one can explain why or how Mastercoin became involved in this ICO but one thing is for sure, Maidsafe learned an expensive lesson about accepting unknown and obscure altcoins.

Never Complain About Fees

Bitcoin fees have been the subject of discussion in the crypto community ever since scalability issues began to emerge in 2016. At the peak of hysteria and volume, BTC users were paying substantial fees for their transfers. None of that compares to what one UK resident did in September 2013: accidentally input 80 BTC as his transaction fee.

To add insult to injury, the individual only wanted to send 0.01 BTC to the address in question. This mistake is more common than you would imagine. A similar incident occurred in July of 2013 when another BTC investor accidentally input 30 BTC as their transaction fee. Talk about inspiration to double check your transaction before pressing send.

Trashcoin

The decentralized nature of BTC makes it crucially important that you maintain control over your private keys. You can lose access to your BTC forever if you lose these all-important codes. That’s exactly what happened to Wales native James Howells when he accidentally threw out a hard drive that contained the private keys to 7,500 BTC.

Image of UK Landfill

Mr. Howell mined BTC from 2009 – 2013. It was in 2013 that his laptop suddenly quit working and he was forced to discard it. In an interview with Telegraph, he explains how he accidentally placed the hard drive (HD) in the rubbish during a spring cleaning. The story made international headlines, and James even offered the landfill a reward if they were able to locate the HD. Considering that these coins hold a market value of $48,975,000 today, it would have been much cheaper for James to have purchased the landfill.

Lessons Learned

In the end, all of these incidents could have been avoided had the individuals involved chosen to follow a stricter protocol when dealing with their crypto. The immutable and unalterable nature of blockchain technology makes it perfect for most financial tasks. However, these same strengths can also become weaknesses when combined with human error and lackadaisical business practices.

The post The 7 Biggest Bitcoin Mistakes of All Time appeared first on CoinCentral.

]]>http://www.coinhooked.com/the-7-biggest-bitcoin-mistakes-of-all-timehttp://www.coinhooked.com/the-7-biggest-bitcoin-mistakes-of-all-timealexela84@gmail.com(Coinhooked)