Crypto Trading Added By UK Remittance Service

UK-based service TransferGo has reportedly become the world’s first remittance operator to offer crypto trading, Bloomberg reported  July twenty seven.

TransferGo currently lets customers buy and sell 5 major cryptocurrencies –– Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).

According to TransferGo chief executive officer and founder Daumantas Dvilinskas, the crypto trading choice was launched “in response to demand from our user base”:

“With over 4,000 users signing up in the first few hours we can see there is a strong demand in the market for a simple and reliable investment and trading solution.”

Founded in 2012, TransferGo presently has “over 600,000” registered users and is partnered with thirty banks.

A remittance is that the transfer of cash from a foreign employee to a different individual across international borders. In 2017, international remittance flows to developing countries reached an enormous $466 billion.

Earlier in the week, the chief executive officer of payment giant Mastercard Ajaypal Banga smashed decentralized  cryptocurrencies –– as opposed to state-issued calling them “junk.” Banga accused cryptocurrencies of “wild” volatility, claiming they do not “deserve” to be thought of a medium of exchange.

Previously in June, Qiwi Blockchain Teсhnologies (QBT), a subsidiary of major Russian fiat payment service supplier Qiwi, reportedly launched a crypto investment bank designed on a “classic investment banking model.” according to the firm’s chief financial officer, the forthcoming HASH platform will begin offering crypto trading services in 2019, after the company obtains necessary licensing.

Latest Development of Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum (ETH), the number two cryptocurrency by market cap, announce a wave of new developments this week. Here’s a glance at the highlights.

Constantinople is returning

 Ethereum’s developers are gearing up to launch the platform’s next hard fork, constantinople. Its activation is scheduled to take place by Oct 30th. Constantinople is designed to extend potency and lower transaction fees.

Skrill Adds Ethereum

 Ethereum has been added to the London-based cryptocurrency exchange Skrill, that presently has regarding twenty five million customers.

Presidential Hopeful Accepts Ethereum

For the first time, a US presidential candidate is accepting Ethereum, ERC20 tokens and Bitcoin. Supporters will donate to the the “Humanity First” candidate Andrew Yang through his Yang 2020 web site.

‘Dream City’ Building on Ethereum

Government leaders trying to make a digital “dream city” in China are partnering with Ethereum development studio ConsenSys. The partnership will use the Ethereum blockchain to assist China “establish Xiongan as a next-generation smart city and a leading blockchain innovation hub.”

MyEtherWallet Reveals New App

The most popular on-line Ethereum wallet is returning to iOS and android. MyEtherWallet, that lets users store Ethereum and ERC20 tokens, plans to launch MEWconnect in September. In addition, MyEtherWallet is now selling Ethereum on its web site for the first time, thanks to a third-party partnership with SimplexCC.

Ethereum returning to Google Cloud

 Google is launching a full-stack software system developer kit (SDK) on its Google Cloud platform that features support for Ethereum. The kit can remove some of the technical barriers involved in making DApps on the Ethereum blockchain.

Spend Ethereum on Amazon

You can currently spend Ethereum on Amazon within the US and Germany, thanks to Bitrefill. The company currently lets its customers purchase Amazon gift cards using Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash and Dogecoin.

The Numbers

After rising from $465 to a high of $483 in the past week, Ethereum’s price is currently back at about $465, according to the newest information from CoinMarketCap. The number two cryptocurrency by market cap witnessed a surprise surge in volume in the last 24 hours, but the value remains primarily unchanged.

Best Bitcoin Wallet 2018

Have you checked the value of bitcoin lately? It's nowhere near what its peak was, but over the past month, it's been mounting. As of this writing, one BTC is price $8,239.13.

So perhaps you have seen this and have an interest in learning a way to purchase bitcoin. The most necessary factor you'll need for owning bitcoins could be a bitcoin wallet. Because bitcoin is an intangible asset and not a physical sort of currency, fittingly, bitcoin wallets aren't the usual wallet you retain in your pockets. A bitcoin wallet is a series of keys - one public, one private. These keys verify each buyer and seller for a bitcoin purchase, and the dealings is formed entirely through blockchain technology.

Bitcoin has been around longer than you will realize, and bitcoin wallets have progressed and taken on many completely different forms as a result. In 2018, what are some of the best wallets for prospective owners to use?

Best software Bitcoin Wallets

Software wallets are used to store your private key on your desktop. That can create one an inherently risky alternative - what if you get a computer virus, or get hacked? Your info is exposed, and that hacker could probably take your bitcoins from you. As a result, there is work required on your end for keeping your computer as safe as possible, making antivirus and antimalware programs necessary.

It also helps that as opposed to hardware wallets, you usually don't have to purchase a software bitcoin wallet; you simply need to download it.

Here are some of the most effective software bitcoin wallets to look into:

1. Electrum

Electrum is available for Windows, mac and linux, as well as android. Originally created in 2011, one among Electrums' biggest advantages over other software wallets is that its servers index the blockchain rather than downloading the entire bitcoin blockchain, creating it a much faster and smaller download. Electrum also offers a number of safeguards for your bitcoins, including a cold storage that lets you keep your bitcoins keep offline and a "seed" that lets you recover your bitcoins should something happen (hacking, pc corruption, etc.)

2. Copay

Copay also sells itself as a particularly secure software wallet, an open source multisig wallet (multisig means that it needs multiple signatures for a bitcoin transaction; electrum also desires multiple signatures). One of Copay's most intriguing selling points is its ability to hold multiple bitcoin wallets. Those with different wallets for separate purposes or who want to hold wallets for family members would be wise to look into Copay to keep them in one place. Copay is available for Windows, mac and linux on desktop, as well as iOS and android for mobile users.

3. Exodus

Exodus is out there specifically through desktop only, and is not multisig. What it will provide, though, is a nice aesthetic, simple design and the ability to support dozens and dozens of different cryptocurrencies beyond bitcoin, as well as Ethereum, Litecoin and Zcash. Exodus is also hooked up to its own exchange that permits for the purchase of of these cryptocurrencies - over 85, according to its website. Its vision is an accessible one-stop shop for crypto for people who may be beginners.


Best Hardware Bitcoin Wallets

Hardware wallets are among the safest kinds of bitcoin wallets out there. Once you have purchased them and the transfer has gone through, they're now safely stored within the hardware, and as long as it isn't connected to a computer, those bitcoins are safely keep offline. You simply need to keep the hardware from getting stolen.

That kind of security can offer you peace of mind, but it's also going to value you in a way that the software wallets will not. If you want that safety for your bitcoins, plan on creating them a long-term investment, and have the funds for one, a hardware wallet could be excellent for you.

These are the two finest brands for hardware bitcoin wallets: Ledger and Trezor.

1. Ledger

Ledger has a couple of choices for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. The Ledger Blue is a handheld touch screen hardware wallet with capabilities for apps, as well as a secure PIN code that resets if the user gets it wrong three consecutive times. The Ledger Nano S is a smaller wallet that simply connects to the pc and lets you confirm transactions. The Nano S also needs a PIN code, and costs less than the Ledger Blue. Both permit storage of multiple cryptocurrencies.

2. Trezor

Trezor claims that its wallets will support over five hundred types of cryptocurrencies, as well as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash and Bitcoin cash. The Trezor One is USB compatible with Windows, mac and Linux OS. The costlier Trezor model t boasts a more impressive central processing unit, sleeker look and recovery seeds that create it easier for making a backup in case you need to recover your bitcoins in an emergency.

Best Mobile & online Bitcoin Wallets

Unless you are mining bitcoins, you are probably buying them from a bitcoin exchange. Once in a while, some notable bitcoin exchanges will also create a wallet to make themselves a whole bitcoin experience - similar to what the aforementioned Exodus does.

Online wallets, though, bring you all the protection risks of a software wallet. Their strength lies more in their convenience, as most will also have a mobile wallet you can use. A safe, reliable mobile app can create buying bitcoin fast and easy.

Do your full analysis on bitcoin wallet apps just as you'd any cryptocurrency-related app. Bitcoin scams run rampant, taking advantage of those who are curious but unknowledgeable. Google and Apple have done what they can to remove dangerous crypto-mining apps from their app stores, however you'll need to do your part to mitigate the danger.

Here are some of the best mobile and online bitcoin wallets.

1. Mycelium

Available for android and iPhone, mycelium is one among the foremost widely praised bitcoin wallet apps on the market. Their web site claims the wallet offers "bank grade security," but maybe the most crucial part of their security is its integration with hardware wallet brands like Trezor and Ledger. Mycelium additionally allows users to sell or trade bitcoins, and its open source code allows for transparency.

2. GreenAddress

GreenAddress comes in numerous forms. It's obtainable for the major computer operating systems, android and iOS. On Android, it's called GreenBits. GreenBits and GreenAddress also support hardware wallets, allow for a backup, and supply two-factor authentication to assist for a safe and secure transaction.


Best Paper Bitcoin Wallets

A paper wallet is precisely what it sounds like. It's all the information you need to buy, sell and store bitcoin on a single piece of paper. Scan the QR code on the paper for an online or mobile wallet, and you have created your purchase without needing to store your information on a probably dangerous server.

Any danger here comes from you; ensure you do not lose it, lest it fall under the wrong hands. Beyond that, however, paper wallets allow for cold (offline) storage in a way that alternative wallets merely don't. It does not need connecting anything to a computer or mobile device. If you are looking for the most security you can notice in a bitcoin wallet, it's hard to get safer than this.

NEM Launches Two Blockchain Hubs in Australia and New Zealand

NEM has declared the launch of two NEM Blockchain Hubs, one in Australia and the alternative in New zealand, to serve as an education and information hub for blockchain technology.

Located at The Percinct in Brisbane’s fortitude valley and EPIC Westport at Westport respectively, the hubs will have a dedicated NEM representative liable for sharing the basic foundations of blockchain and cryptocurrencies with the public and community members. They will even be supporting startups and bigger enterprises who are watching adopting blockchain for their business. This will be through regular activities, workshops, hackathons and forums control throughout the year.

NEM.io Foundation’s Expansion Director for Australia and New Zealand, Jason Lee, 

“The priority for the NEM Blockchain Hubs is to educate and inform the general public and businesses about the benefits and applications of blockchain. Secondly, we want to be able to attract software developers, startups and the wider blockchain community to explore and develop use case of the NEM blockchain technology platform.”

NEM Brisbane Blockchain Hub

The NEM Blockchain Hub in Brisbane is hosted by TravelByBit, a NEM funded company that's on a mission to open up Australia to digital currency tourism. it's built a network of local tourism businesses across regional Australia, permitting travellers to pay for product and services with digital currencies without the trouble of foreign exchange rates.

“We have been part of the crypto and blockchain community in Australia for some time and the development of the NEM Blockchain Hub will be a positive step forward towards education and adoption in cryptocurrency.” said Caleb Yeoh, CEO of TravelbyBit and also board member of Blockchain Australia.

NEM NZ Blockchain Hub

In New Zealand, the hub at Westport is hosted by the CerebralFix group, a gaming studio that works with Disney, DreamWorks and the BBC and had recently developed the ‘MatchNEM’ game. The hub in New Zealand will have a co-working area, regular education and engagement activities further as an incubation platform for businesses leveraging the NEM blockchain.

“The purpose of the NEM.io Foundation is to introduce, educate, and promote the use of the NEM blockchain technology platform on an international scale to industries and institutions. NEM ranks as one of the top blockchain technologies worldwide and we are excited that Westport which is just 45 minutes flight from Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city, is the location of choice to develop the hub.” said Benjamin Dellaca, Group Director for CerebralFix.

The Foundation is hosting a launch event at EPIC Westport on Wednesday, 25 July and at The Precinct on Friday, 10th August.

NEM Australia & New Zealand

The Foundation has presence in over 100 cities in 47 countries, together with Australia and New Zealand. Since the inception of the local operations in November 2017, the NEM Australia and New Zealand team, currently created up of eight full time employees, have been focused on giving educational talks around the country — ‘NEM 101’ — and developing partnerships with academia and businesses interested in blockchain technology.

What is study insurance

You will see unique assortments of insurance, so make certain you are correctly covered. The expense of insurance is dependent on the length of time you intend to be out of the nation. If you're relying on a private medical insurance policy program, check the coverage for foreign travel you may wish to consider purchasing insurance that's specifically created for travel, whether by GeoBlue or other reliable providers.

A duplicate of the insurance has to be delivered to the ISO in addition to the Dean's Office every year. This insurance is offered by Cultural Insurance Services International (CISI) and the price of the CISI coverage is contained in the IAP program fee. It is not a major medical plan.

For students that are planning to study abroad, ensuring you've got the proper global health and travel insurance policy plan in place may be not your greatest priority. You might, for instance, break something where you're working or studying, or lead to damage to your rented room. Actually, studying a few hours per night over the duration of a couple weeks is more beneficial than attempting to cram in only a couple of days.

If your parents' third liability insurance doesn't include you, or in the event the length of coverage isn't long enough, you are going to have to take out additional travel insurance. A great sleep apnea life insurance policy broker will have the ability to help present your case to the insurance carrier in the greatest possible light. If you're in a collision, even something as easy as spraining your ankle, you might require medical attention.

Although statistics is important in many forms of business, it's particularly important to the insurance market. Then the business gives a personalized insurance policy plan based on teeth-brushing data. Private domestic and foreign medical insurance policies from different countries might also be recognised in Germany.




For example, you want to verify several insured events for a single health risk reinsurance contract. At the close of the day, the insurance policy decision is left up to you. Before insurance policies are issued, an insurance policy provider assesses the chance of the applicant by employing different algorithms to find out how likely that applicant is to submit a claim.

Many people think that insurances primarily cover theft and wellness care but there are different things that could be even more costly. Regardless, it's important to clarify your medical insurance status before you start your visit to Germany! The insurance has to be valid for the whole period of studies.

The methodology adopted to attain the above task is as follows. If you're attending a study abroad program which is not on any of the above mentioned lists but have verified your program involves a plan given by GeoBlue or CISI, please email your ULA Adviser and feature a copy of the insurance policy policy for review. Most students do not believe they will require coverage, or you might just leave it to the last minute without having the opportunity to research all the plans to locate the smartest choice.

You will be able to register your claim on the internet or by calling us. In the event that you require medical attention whilst abroad, you will need to pay for any healthcare expenses and submit a claim form directly to Atlas International for reimbursement. So as to enrol and submit an application for a residence permit, you've got to present confirmation of health insurance policy coverage.

Once you're a student, you will have the ability to login directly online. Removing negative information from your credit history has been demonstrated to be the absolute most efficient and efficient method to fix a poor credit score. To begin with, insurance is a rather passive item.

Cardano (ADA) is a good pick, but these 3 downsides to deal with

The current eighth largest cryptocurrency of the market, Cardano (ADA), saw a fantastic hype not so long ago that shoot the crypto to the top and made everybody in the cryptosphere wondering specifically where might ADA get to, and what wouldn't it be possible for the token to achieve. Currently that the hype is usually gone, it's the best time to respond to these and different queries. Let’s see how it goes.

Cardano (ADA) 101

Cardano (ADA) is built on a totally open source blockchain with the use of the Haskell programming language, a code that truly was constructed from scratch (no copy-code controversy here as like in the case of Tron since the Ethereum founder and some alternative programmers criticised it for doing such).

It was created by two remarkable figures of the crypto world, Charles Hoskinson, and Jeremy Wood, both of which were formerly a part of the Ethereum group. In fact, in the starting, one amongst the most vociferate ambitions of the crypto was to serve as an Ethereum killer, a crypto providing everything Ethereum does but in a higher way.

A group of thirty developers participated in the creation of a crypto platform that's really able to deal with sensible contracts at an enterprise level usage, which means it was designed to be scalable. The similar approach, the company determined to collaborate with the Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) which is in charge of designing, developing, and maintaining the Cardano platform until 2020.

Finally, one amongst the most fascinating features that Cardano designed was the creation of two different layers that interact with each operation. This way, data, and transactions function separately from the other, on the one hand, the transaction part works under the Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL), and on the other, the data part functions with the Cardano control Layer (CCL).

Three main disadvantages of Cardano

As the official webpage of the crypto establishes, Cardano “is the first blockchain platform to evolve out of a scientific philosophy and a research-first driven approach”, and this, although represents a groundbreaking concept it, at constant time, is an antonym of what the crypto community really seeks. In fact, this approach can be understood in a manner as a form of going back to the roots of the “old world” where information didn’t move freely, and other people weren't that a lot of into self-learning.

Cardano has characterized for being one of the cryptos in the market that has fully grown incredibly quick, and this is something that primarily responds to the way the market moves with many developments and different coins that appear daily. But as it looks, this is actually a curse and a blessing for the currency at the same time, as a result of in the measure that Cardano tends to grow so do others within the market, among that most likely we’ll have a ‘Cardano killer.’

To conclude, another disadvantage that Cardano (ADA) has is that the crypto is getting to approach two of the foremost opposite targets of the industry, privacy, and regulations.

For the one part, Cardano is attempting to move head to head with regulators in order to be somehow a ‘safe coin’, and on the other, the coin also wants to provide a wholly personal and anonymous area for users to trade, and we can all agree that besides being an formidable goal, it's improbable one.

Fidelity Enters Crypto Investment Market in Dash Masternode Company Including 15% Stake

On the most recent Dash Force News three Amigos Podcast, it had been discovered that Fidelity, the big investment company, owns a 15 August 1945 stake in Neptune Dash, the publicly listed company providing fractional Dash Masternode ownership.

Dash Force News reached intent on Neptune Dash for elaboration on this news that marks a significant adoption of Dash by the traditional financial world. Dustin zinger, investor Relations Manager at Neptune Dash, explained how Fidelity’s investment got started.

“Fidelity took part in our convertible debentures which resulted in them owning 11% of the company at the time of going public on January 22nd, 2018. Between January 22nd, 2018 and March 9th, 2018 Fidelity increased their position to 14.93%.”

Dustin detailed that after owning 11 november of Neptune Dash, Fidelity “increased their holdings through purchases in the open market”.  Dustin also added that Fidelity was one among the primary firms they went to when searching for investment.

“Originally they were one of the funds we approached during our initial go public funding roadshow. We cannot speak for the motives of Fidelity but we can assume they wanted exposure to the cryptocurrency space.”

Dustin also added that Neptune Dash “is run by a team of people with a proven track record of success”, that created Fidelity have confidence “to invest through [Neptune Dash] which gave them immediate exposure to the space”.

Fidelity blends together old money with new money

Fidelity, that manages $2.5 trillion USD in assets, does have a ‘small and exploratory’ crypto fund and tends to own generally favorable views towards cryptocurrencies. Their CEO, Abigail Johnson, recently said at a cryptocurrency conference that she’s “a believer” and “one of the few standing before [the audience] today from a large monetary services company that has not given up on digital currencies”. Fidelity is still trying to expand its cryptocurrency participation since they recently had a job posting for a developer to work on ‘first-in-class custodian services for Bitcoin and alternative digital currencies”. Fidelity’s expansion into cryptocurrencies, even if small, does signal bigger institutional investment in cryptocurrencies, which is supported by different companies emerging, such as Neptune Dash, BlockCypher, and BitGo, to help modify firms to adopt cryptocurrencies.

Institutional investment in cryptocurrencies can be both positive and negative for cryptocurrencies. Positive since more institutional investment would signal greater confidence in cryptocurrencies, bring in a lot of users and investors, and increase the overall robustness of cryptocurrencies. Negative since it does risk making derivative markets that could become larger than the underlying asset, cryptocurrencies, and could produce perverse incentives to control the market. However, institutional investors like Fidelity, are seeking the most effective possible returns for their clients and have incentives to seek positive long-term returns, which benefits all parties, as well as cryptocurrencies.

Dash’s focus on everyday consumers provides the necessary returns for investors

Investors are interested in Dash because of its focus on consumer usability in everyday life to buy or sell things, no matter how little or massive. Dash has been ready to do this by maintaining record low transaction fees, fast confirmation times, and security. This has enabled Dash to check rapid adoption by consumers around the world. Dash has therefore been ready to solidify its userbase and its transaction volume, which in turn, has allowed it to solidify its honest price. This has been possible through Dash’s unique decentralise Autonomous Organization (DAO) that has enabled better and a lot of consistent improvements and upgrades to the network, while also staying decentralized. This has given investors confidence in the Dash network to grow steady and considerably into the future.

Fidelity, and different institutional investment firms, have a fiduciary duty to their investors to seek out the assets that will generate the most effective overall returns for their clients. Thus, their investment in Neptune Dash, and therefore Dash, could be a signal that Fidelity has researched Dash and realized its benefits and potential for future growth and returns. This may give Dash with more market exchange value stability and will increase users’ confidence; the mixture of which will further increase Dash adoption.

Launched No-Fee Cryptocurrency Trading By Uber Co-Founder and E*Trade Alum

More competition is coming back to the commission-free cryptocurrency trading market. Voyager, a startup backed by an Uber co-founder also as an early investor in the ride-hailing company, disclosed plans Wednesday to offer no-fee trades of a minimum of 15 totally different cryptocurrencies, as well as Bitcoin, Ethereum and others.

The company will perform as a sort of aggregation engine for cryptocurrency prices across more than a dozen trading venues, permitting customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and different digital assets at the simplest value available among them. By waiving commission fees—the bread and butter of most cryptocurrency trading businesses—Voyager expects to compete with Robinhood, the stock trading app that also presently provides zero-free trading of 5 cryptocurrencies.

“We saw an opportunity to make a dynamic smart order router that can make the most of the marketplace and also provide customers no commissions,” voyager chief executive officer stephen ehrlich tells Fortune. In place of trading fees, voyager will form up the difference in revenue “by beating the average value of the coins at the point in time we execute the trade.”

By at the same time connecting to and showing prices from 10 cryptocurrency exchanges plus three additional market makers—including those based in the U.S. as well as abroad—Voyager believes it can consistently execute buy and sell orders at better prices than customers would usually get by simply visiting one exchange, such as Coinbase or Binance.

“Sometimes you head to trade on a certain exchange, but there’s no liquidity there,” explains Ehrlich, the former chief executive officer and founder of retail brokerage Lightspeed financial who also previously ran the professional trading arm of online stock broker E*Trade once Lightspeed acquired it. Ehrlich says he took an interest in cryptocurrency about a year ago, and currently plans to bring his expertise catering to each individual and professional investors in the traditional equity market to the crypto industry.

The startup’s different co-founders include Oscar Salazar, the founding designer and chief technology officer of Uber, who is Voyager’s main technical adviser as well as an investor in the company, which has so far raised “”significant capital” from solely friends and family, Ehrlich says. Gaspard DE Dreuzy, Voyager’s chief product officer, and board chairman Philip Eytan, an early Uber investor, are also co-founders.

Voyager is coming into beta testing later this week, and aims to release its no-commission mobile trading app to the public by the end of October. It also plans to offer additional functionality for hedge funds and different institutional investors, as well as cryptocurrency news and analysis options in its mobile app to assist regular investors build buying and selling decisions.

While the list of fifteen digital currencies voyager will trade remains being finalized, it'll include the lion’s share of the top twenty five most valuable cryptos on the market today, as listed by Coinmarketcap.com, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin cash, Ethereum Classic and others. “If you see it being traded these days by some of the most prominent players, we'll definitely have those plus some,” says Ehrlich, adding that voyager is “leaning towards” listing certain different major cryptocurrencies, such as XRP and Stellar Lumens (which aren't listed by major U.S. exchanges like Coinbase and Circle), but first must ensure that they can be keep firmly.

The rollout of Voyager’s free trading product will be gradual, as it secures the required state licenses in the U.S. It presently is approved in a few states including California, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Montana. It also has applications pending with regulators in different states such as new york (where a so-called BitLicense is needed for cryptocurrency exchanges to try and do business), with a goal of operating in at least forty U.S. states.

While Robinhood presently dominates in no-fee crypto trading, after launching the product earlier this year with ambitions to take on Coinbase as the market leader, Ehrlich believes there’s still area for voyager to flourish, partially by offering a larger choice of crypto assets as well as additional services to assist investors get comfortable trading cryptocurrencies for the first time.

“We don’t think crypto has been adopted yet by the masses in the united states,” he says. “I believe the market space itself is extraordinarily large…We think the opportunity for each retail and institutional is vast, and we wish to be a part of that, and facilitate the industry grow, and be good citizens to the industry, and facilitate people get more knowledgeable in crypto assets.”

S. Korea’s Top Telephone Company Declares Its Own Blockchain Network

State-owned KT Corporation, South Korea’s largest telephone company, has declared the launch of its blockchain-powered commercial network. The firm has designed a blockchain layer on top of its existing nationwide network in order to create it “more secure and transparent,” according to an article by The Korea Herald published Tuesday, July 24.

The news outlet reports the head of KT Blockchain Center Seo Young-il as saying that blockchain tech can be utilized in telecommunications for secure and efficient data management. Seo added:

“The whole point of applying blockchain to networks is to address security and transaction issues by making the current networks more secure and trusted.”

With its new network, KT plans to allow its individual and corporate clients to store and transfer their digital information with “less hacking risks,” The Korea Herald further reports. The network has a claimed capacity of 2,500 transactions per second (TPS), compared to Bitcoin’s (BTC) 3 TPS and Ethereum’s (ETH) 15 TPS.

KT Corp. also has plans to offer blockchain-based roaming services with international mobile carriers, such as NTT Docomo, the highest provider in Japan. According to The Korea Herald, the use of blockchain will allow the company to calculate roaming bills in real time and improve the speed of internet connection for customers.

Cointelegraph reported on july six that KT Corporation has joined the Carrier Blockchain Study group (CBSG), a worldwide blockchain consortium of telecom companies whose goal is to make a cross-carrier blockchain ecosystem with such capabilities as “[cell phone] top-up, roaming wallet, secured clearing and settlement, personal authentication [and] IoT applications.”

The blockchain market in Korea is anticipated to grow 20 times over in four years - from $44 million in 2018 to concerning $887 million in 2022 - The Korea Herald reports, citing the country’s Ministry of Science and information and communications technology (ICT).

TRON Acquires Major P2P Platform Operator BitTorrent

TRON’s long-rumoured acquisition of BitTorrent inc., the operator of well-liked torrent client uTorrent, has been confirmed by TRON founder Justin Sun in a community letter published July 24.

The BitTorrent protocol launched in 2001 and depends on distributed “seeding’” by users who upload shareable content. In his letter, Sun celebrates the software system as “the genesis of the decentralization movement,” a legacy protocol for the blockchain revolution, noting.


“Bittorrent is […] the first decentralized Internet protocol with large-scale global application, [which] even today [... ] retains its status as the world’s largest decentralized protocol, once transmitting 40% of daily Internet traffic.”


According to Sun, BitTorrent and TRON will be entirely integrated, with the TRON and BitTorrent teams merging into one. Today’s letter emphasizes their shared vision, which was already indicated by the repeated mention of torrents and specific reference to BitTorrent in the TRON white paper.

As Cointelegraph has reported, rumors of the acquisition have been circulating since late may, with the inclusion of Sun’s lawsuit against the company for allegedly violating an exclusivity clause in early negotiations. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, and unconfirmed details encompassing the finalization of the deal surfaced in June.

As of press time, TRON (TRX) is ranked the eleventh largest cryptocurrency globally, trading around $0.04 with a complete market capitalisation of over $2.3 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Honeyminer App, That Lets You Earn Bitcoin With a Laptop Again

New mining software guarantees to let almost anyone earn little amounts of bitcoin with a Windows laptop computer, giving users a taste of the cryptocurrency's early days.

Revealed completely to CoinDesk, the New Jersey-based crypto mining startup Honeyminer quietly launched a free beta in june and has already garnered 10,000 downloads across the world. Honeyminer permits users to participate in a dynamic mining pool by running the app when the computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) is not in use processing images or videos.

The pool focuses on mining cryptos like ethereum, ethereum classic, zcash, monero and different GPU-friendly currencies. Then, at the end of the session, Honeyminer sends the participant's earnings, converted into bitcoin, directly to the user's wallet.

"The miner does not need to do the math or manage all the configurations and settings, or manually check the prices," Honeyminer advisor Noah Jessop, a venture capitalist at Founder Collective in San Francisco, told CoinDesk.

He added:

"We make it so that any surplus compute, so any laptop you aren't using all the way up to a rig that you run is automatically doing the most profitable computation."


This type of service offers new opportunities for people who wish to accumulate bitcoin but have little money to invest or limited access to cryptocurrency exchanges. It might also broaden the range of participants in cryptocurrency mining, which over the years has had its barriers to entry rise as pricey, specialized hardware gave massive, professional operations an edge over hobbyists.

Honeyminer's algorithm automatically switches between cryptocurrencies each 10 minutes approximately, depending on block size, if there is a sudden change within the currency's mining profitability.

"We are pooling individuals together to find those block rewards quicker. Together, we've a bigger hashrate," Honeyminer co-founder Larry Kom told CoinDesk. "Not only do we connect you to the blockchain and anonymize you through us, but you also are contributing to what's, in essence, a pool."

To be sure, this is not the most profitable way to mine cryptocurrency, given broader market volatility compared to bitcoin and Honeyminer's cut, ranging from 2.5 % to 8 % depending on the quality of the user's hardware. Somebody with a few high-end GPUs could expect to earn bitcoin value a dollar or two from running the software almost all day.

However, it's going to be one of the simplest strategies so far. Though the company declined to specify how many users are in nations where cryptocurrency access is restricted, such as Jordan or Venezuela, it said more than 18 % of users hail from developing nations.

"If you hear about crypto and you want to learn, you can either go out and pay real cash money," Jessop said. "Or you can download a program in 30 seconds and start earning your own crypto, for free."

Diversified mining

Honeyminer's software was, in part, impressed by the controversies that surround bitcoin mining. Namely, the method many users of the software feel the China-based hardware supplier Bitmain has achieved a near-monopoly on mining equipment and how an identical little number of firms control the majority of mining pools.

"As we've watched in bitcoin proper, the arms race escalates to this custom hardware and so people that have access to the best silicon tabs are the people who control mining," Jessop said. "For us, it's all regarding increasing the number of individuals who have access to the best-in-class."

But in keeping with David Vorick, ceo of Nebulous, which operates Siacoin and the mining equipment manufacturer Obelisk, this may not change the broader ecosystem beyond attracting a lot of curious newcomers. Particularly as a result of the software is closed source, albeit with plans to increase open APIs in the future.

"That actually increases centralization, because all you've got done is moved the ability from the mining pools or users who have to be advanced, to software toolkits," he told CoinDesk. "Basically all the power lies with the devs of the software."

Elaborating on this time, Vorick said he believes GPU mining will nearly entirely disappear over the next two years regardless. He added:

"We're going to see general purpose ASICs [mining hardware] come out that is capable of targeting lots of algorithms. As soon as that happens, the role that GPUs play is going to disappear."

For better or worse, the Honeyminer team recognizes it will need to provide further features for various types of users.

For newbie retail investors, Honeyminer will shortly allow them to send their bitcoin to wallets on third-party platforms like Coinbase. Plus, the app's algorithm also can help miners with professional mining rigs as well.

Whether they are low cost laptops or pro rigs, "each computer will get a different [task], based on its specific performance or capabilities, you will get assigned what's most profitable for it," Kom said.

A specialized version known as Honeyminer pro is in the works for professional miners who need help with power consumption management and options for manually choosing which cryptos to mine, thus they're not restricted to whatever's most profitable, or which coins to cash out in, in case they do not wish bitcoin.

Speaking to the lack of user-friendly tools for both novice and experienced miners, Kom said:

"I would say there's not a clear competitor for us, which is why we built what we built."

More than 50 percent of Indian’s Crypto Market Controls By Ripple

Talks of cryptocurrencies usually strikes fear to establishment. The fear is apparent in BSI but it recently spread to India. An rising economy with more than one billion people where a substantial portion are unbanked. Recently, the RBI and Supreme Court sync imposing a ban on cryptocurrencies even after it was clear that the rbi call to ban Ripple and alternative cryptocurrencies was a reactive move and crypto stake holders in the country weren’t involved.

Now, this reiteration by the Supreme Court upholding rbi call is coming at the advantage of Ripple. According to Senior vice president of Product at Ripple, Asheesh Birla, Ripple currently controls more than 50 % of India’s cryptocurrency market and are still making an attempt to convince more Indian banks to make use of their RTXP protocol.

RTXP is their payment processing platform that is known to be low-cost and settles transactions nearly instantaneously. If Ripple manage to draft more banks to their network then these banks will be part of a bigger network of global banks who see immense price in Ripple’s revolutionary ledger.

That is possible if we think about what Asheesh had to said. While speaking at the Scaling and Digital Disruption in Fintech panel, he was assured that the only manner they (Ripple) would go about and tap the more than two billion customers in the country was to present to the top three banks the befits of utilize their time-tested and efficient platform.

By doing so, they would have access to 80 % of the entire banking market share in India besides unbanked mobile phone customers once they begin targeting Telcos. Moreover, he said business has been good after deciding to make in-roads in the country. They have been closing deals week in week out and are able to make Ripple a go-to platform for cross border payment processing.

Regardless of their bullish move, there need to be caution. RBI cryptocurrency ban remains in effect and it demands new players to comply with regulation.

CEOs of Circle, Coinbase, and Major Crypto Firms are Bullish on Ethereum, Why ?

Executives and operators of major crypto conglomerates, valued at several billions of dollars, have been more optimistic towards Ethereum than bitcoin, the most dominant cryptocurrency in the international market, as of late.

Throughout the past year, Circle, the $3 billion cryptocurrency exchange and payments platform, and Coinbase, the $8 billion cryptocurrency brokerage company which also remains as the biggest digital asset exchange in the world, have continued to precise their enthusiasm concerning the expansion of Ethereum and its vibrant ecosystem in which hundreds of thousands of developers are building decentralized applications (dApps) to extend the adoption of the blockchain.

Circle and Coinbase CEOs Love Ethereum

This week, on CNBC’s fast money, Circle co-founder and chief executive officer Jeremy Allaire said ETH can be the catalyst for future cryptocurrency rally, because of the “enormous” quantity of developer activity on the Ethereum blockchain.

Several analysts have disclosed that ETH presently has over 300,000 developers on its network and have been adding more than 50,000 developers on a monthly basis since may.

In july of last year, the founder and chief executive officer of Aragon, a decentralized governance protocol based on Ethereum utilized by major blockchain networks such as District0x and Request Network, said “there’s a gold rush among developers to learn the coding language of money,” adding that he doesn't understand a single ETH developer that has not become a millionaire yet.

Allaire, who has overseen the evolution of Circle from a cryptocurrency brokerage to a payments company, and its re-entrance into the cryptocurrency market, said that Ethereum as a base layer for numerous types of blockchains and dApps is crucial for the long-term growth of crypto.

“One of the things that basically} catalyzed the [cryptocurrency] market last year was actually that ethereum, in particular, kind of got to a place where you could build apps on top of it. You could issue new tokens on top of it; You could produce new styles of monetary contracts, using the smart contracts technology. It also catalyzed plenty of competing infrastructures to ethereum,” Allaire said.

Brian Armstrong, the chief executive officer of Coinbase, the first unicorn in the cryptocurrency sector, has been consistently optimistic towards ETH since late 2017, once he publicly disclosed that he personally owns a lot of ether, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, than bitcoin.

His Fortune 40 under 40 profile from 2017 read:

“Armstrong, who now personally owns even more Ether than he does Bitcoin, is responsible for introducing much of America and beyond to cryptocurrency: The world’s largest exchange for trading digital currency, Coinbase’s customers have more than doubled in the past year, while trade volume in 2017 alone is roughly eight times last year’s total.”

Ethereum is a Necessary Base Layer

Most multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency firms and investors are extremely anticipating the growth of ETH throughout the next few years, particularly with the imminent launch of two-layer scaling solutions Plasma and Sharding, because 90 percent of public blockchains and cryptocurrencies are already based on Ethereum, and the dominance of the Ethereum network over the blockchain and smart contract sector is rapidly increasing.

‘Honu Kitty’ Collectible to Fund By CryptoKitties Auctions

The world’s biggest blockchain game, CryptoKitties, has collaborated with marine conservation organizations to form a rare cat named “Honu Kitty”. This is the first environmental-friendly collectible that pulls attention towards the protection of endangered sea turtles.

Ocean Elders and ACTAI global, two completely different communities consisting of worldwide leaders, athletes and technologists focused on conserving environment, teamed up with CryptoKitties to form an auction for cryptocurrency users. The auction started on July 9, 2018 and ended on july 18, 2018. A total of eighteen bids were placed on the item, with the winner paying $25,000 for the one-of-a-kind collectible. The funds are going to be donated to sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Operation Jairo and Unite BVI Foundation’s Saving The Turtles Project.

However, this isn’t the first time Ethereum’s viral game has contributed to a charity. In May, CryptoKitties’s head of art, Guile gaspar, created a Celestial Cyber Dimension Kitty, that was auctioned for $140,000. The funds were then given to a foundation that supports blockchain and art industry. After a few days, another campaign titled “Kitties For A Cause (K4C)” sold 370 CryptoKitties and raised $15,000 for a children’s hospital in Seattle.

In the past few months, several crypto and blockchain programs have helped different charitable causes. The Pineapple Fund remains the foremost renowned crypto-based philanthropic project. It was created by an anonymous Redditor named “Pine” in december 2017. Pine received nearly 100,000 applications and successfully donated 5104 BTC ($34 million) to 60 different charities. The non-profit organizations supported by the fund ranged from clean water projects to chronic complicated disease research foundations.

Last month, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong also launched a charity platform named GiveCrypto. So far, it has received donations from Ripple executive Chairman Chris Larsen, Zcash Company ceo Zooko Wilcox, Ripple ceo Brad Garlinghouse, and Bitcoin.com ceo Roger Ver. Armstrong plans to distribute these cryptocurrencies to individuals in need all over the world.

Earlier this year, Ripple donated $29 million to 35,000 room projects on an academic funding website DonorsChoose. The announcement was even mentioned in the Late Show with stephen colbert. The crypto firm also given $4 million in XRP to american TV host Ellen DeGeneres’s wildlife Fund.

League of Legends and other internet games has infected by Monero (XMR) mining malware

Coinhive, the Monero mining malware has claimed another victim. This time, widespread internet game, League of Legends has fallen victim to the malware that surreptitiously mines the cryptocurrency within the background. According with many gamers, the malware has infected many other web games that use the Garena server. This is not the first time that the Monero (XMR) mining software has been on the incorrect aspect of the law.

Earlier it had been reported that the Monero mining software is being investigated by the japanese police. Coinhive was reportedly involved in a cryptojacking case. The software also created headlines after unicef declared its crypto mining webpage based on Coinhive, known as “The HopePage.” The Pirate Bay was also surreptitiously running a Coinhive browser-miner to mine cryptocurrency.

A Redditor known as Lestergonzaga discovered that the malware had infected the League of Legends game. He reportedly unearthed the malware on the Garena server. The mining software runs in the background without alerting the players. Considering the game’s popularity, many thousands of players across the world could’ve been mining Monero unbeknownst to them.

The developers of the game were instantly informed of the malware via Reddit. Several alternative gamers were of the opinion that the malware had infected different internet games on the Garena server. The Garena server took steps to get rid of the malware as soon as they saw the suggestion. They took measures to make sure that it was removed before it caused any further harm.

Officials from the Garena server said,

“There was an unauthorized modification of the League of Legends PH client lobby where a certain JavaScript code was inserted. This code performs blockchain mining on affected computers, which consumes CPU resources from these computers. Apart from increased CPU usage, extensive analysis from our security engineers has determined that there is no other impact on affected computers.”

But, consistent with sources Garena removed the code. Moreover, they also promised users that the team will make sure that the server is protected against such vulnerabilities in the future. According to josh Grunzweig, 5-hitter of the whole Monero that has been mined is via hacking. Josh Grunzweig is a researcher at the Palo Alto Networks.

It’s still unclear as to how long the malware has been running on the internet game before Lestergonzaga discovered it. Altogether probability, the malware has been running without the players’ information for an extended time. Online gaming servers and platforms have been targeted to run these cryptocurrency miners for an extended time. The  main reason being the invention of their existence and tracing it back to the source is quite tough.

And a large quantity of cpu consumption by gaming servers ensures that the malware’s owner rakes in a very hefty profit. Moreover, the difficulty in discovering malware which hijacks the CPU for mining ensures they can run undetected  for an extended time.

The Reason, Charlie Lee Believes Litecoin Can Be Instrumental in Bitcoin Lightning Network

For some cryptocurrency enthusiasts, one among the most promising aspects of the digital currency area is the Lightning Network. Conceived as a separate network that adjoins to the present bitcoin network, Lightning might yield user-to-user transactions which might not suffer from extended processing times or high transaction fees. As a result of Lightning Network payments would be created on an individual basis, the thinking goes, they could perhaps be treated separately from the general bitcoin blockchain, thereby liberating them from the slowdowns related to typical transactions.

Charlie Lee, the outspoken founder of litecoin, believes that his digital currency might be instrumental in facilitating the Lightning Network as it develops. He re-echoed his enthusiasm simply last week.

Litecoin the "Easiest Onramp"

In a tweet from July 11, Lee advised that litecoin "will also be the simplest onramp onto the Lightning Network. BTC takes too long and charges [too] high? No problem. Open an LTC payment channel on chain cheaply and quickly, then atomically swap for BTC if/when you wish to. This may be done in one step."

Lightning Labs, a developer behind the Network, has a beta feature in its network in which two cryptocurrencies might be selected, though this feature isn't yet on the live mainnet, according to Crypto Vest. Litecoin, for its part, has its own independent Lightning Network that has tested atomic swaps, though there remains some fine-tuning to do before this procedure are often readily incorporated.

As of now, litecoin is one of the go-to digital assets when it involves on-chain transactions that are both quick and low cost. However, the bitcoin network, once affected by congestion, has managed to beat several of those problems. It currently runs on comparatively low fees and has even become the preferred network for the transmission of huge transactions. Because of  the way that the Lightning Network processes transactions, some within the crypto community feel that enormous transactions are too risky for the new network.

Litecoin Foundation Acquired stake In German bank WEG Bank AG. and Could Result In Crypto Services

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee announced on Reddit on, July 17, to clarify his position within the Litecoin Foundation and also the future of the foundation following its acquisition of a stake in German bank WEG Bank AG. In his post, Lee mentioned the chance of the bank providing crypto services.

Last week, the Litecoin Foundation acquired a 9.9 % share in WEG Bank through a brand new strategic partnership with crypto-fiat payments firm TokenPay. In exchange for providing its blockchain, logistics, and promoting expertise to TokenPay’s crypto and business operations, Litecoin received TokenPay’s former 9.9 % stake in WEG.

In his post on tuesday, Lee sought to “clarify some things regarding recent events,” providing some details relating to the bank acquisition, and stating that the foundation “did not pay any money for this stake within the bank.” Lee added that he expects to receive a board position at the bank. Regarding the potential growth of crypto services, the Litecoin founder commented:

Lee told that with a seat on the board of the bank, he will be in a position to positively influence the further adoption of cryptocurrencies in the bank’s operations. He said that, even if they're unable to work with the bank in pushing for crypto services, the Litecoin Foundation can profit financially from their stake.

While Lee criticized ICOs in his post “because a number of them are outright scams and most of them are set up to fail,” he praised TokenPay for their sale of TPAY tokens, saying that “they didn't run away with the their funds” and that TokenPay’s leadership is legitimately fascinated by more crypto adoption. Lee expressed that, for the sake transparency, neither he nor the Litecoin Foundation own or plan to own TPAY tokens. Lee is the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation.

At press time, Litecoin (LTC) is riding a wave of positive momentum in crypto markets, trading at $90.37, up 18.03 % over the last seven days.

Bought more Bitcoin By Digital Currency Group's Silbert, and says it has 'hit the bottom for the year'

Digital Currency Group's Barry Silbert is optimistic concerning bitcoin as an investment.

"I think we’ve probably hit the bottom for the year. I actually put some money into bitcoin last week," he said at the Delivering Alpha Conference in new york on wednesday. “As an asset class it is here to stay … I’m 100 confident a decentralized, non-fiat form of money is here to stay.”

The price of bitcoin is presently trading at $7,380 wednesday, down nearly 60 percent in value since it rose higher than $19,000 in mid-December.

Circle's Jeremy Allaire, who also spoke at identical session on cryptocurrency, believes blockchain will serve as the foundation of recent technology innovations.

"This may be a new infrastructure layer of the internet. It's progressing to replace what operating systems do," Allaire said. “It is the future of the internet ... This simply isn’t about digital gold.

Silbert is the founder and chief executive officer of Digital Currency group. The firm invests in the bitcoin and blockchain trade, backing more than 120 companies in 30 countries including Coinbase, Ripple, BitPay and Circle.

Allaire is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Circle, a cryptocurrency-trading firm backed by Goldman Sachs and Baidu.

New patent of Mastercard for cryptocurrency transactions

Consumers would possibly in the future be ready to charge their purchases on their credit cards using bitcoin as a currency.

On Tuesday, Mastercard won a patent to protect a way that might manage "fractional reserves of blockchain currency."

At present, Mastercard holders can only pay for things using currency that the govt has declared as legal tender, Seth Eisen, Mastercard's senior vice president for communications, said.

In the document, revealed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, Mastercard said that there has been "increased usage" in blockchain currencies by customers who "value anonymity and security."

But there are disadvantages to using digital currency, the document noted, and there is a necessity to enhance the storage and processing capability of such transactions.

"While blockchain currencies can usually offer such safety and security for the payer's info, such security could also be restricted for payees, particularly due to the restrictions of the blockchain," the document said. For example, digital coin transactions still take longer: about ten minutes for blockchain transactions versus nanoseconds for traditional payments.

As a result, both consumers and merchants have to wait a "significant amount of time" for these digital transactions to go through, or "rely on the payer's good faith" that they're valid, said the document. It added that in the latter instances, the anonymity of the blockchain could leave those accepting payments at a disadvantage.

"Many entities, notably merchants, retailers, service providers, and different purveyors of goods and services, could also be cautious of accepting blockchain currency for products and taking part in blockchain transactions," the document concluded.

However, while the details are still unclear, if the method was brought to market, it may speed up blockchain transactions by permitting cardholders to instantly pay for things on their mastercard with a fraction of their digital currency.

In an email to CNBC, Eisen wrote, "We’re consistently watching ways to bring new thinking and new innovations to market to create price for us and our customers and cardholders. Patent applications are part of that method, taking steps to shield the company’s intellectual property, whether or not the concept ever comes to market."

Eisen said currently, no products have been brought to market.

Still, Fundstrat global Advisors Tom Lee told CNBC that this is excellent news for digital currency.

"It’s extremely validating the concept that digital money, or blockchain-based money, is a valid kind of transaction," Lee, who is managing partner and head of research at the equity research firm, said on "Fast Money" tuesday.

The bitcoin bull pointed out that different countries, such as Japan, have "taken a much more positive stance on digital money, or blockchain based money, being real transactions."

Crypto traders celebrated Tuesday as bitcoin passed $7,000 around 2 p.m. ET and held steady on top of $7,300 for most of the day, according to Coinbase. That's an increase of regarding 13 % from a year ago.

Bitcoin fell below $6,000 in June, in what some traders deemed was a cryptocurrency bear market. The coin bounced back a few days later. Still, bitcoin, the most important digital coin by market cap — valued at over $125 billion, in keeping with CoinMarketCap — is nowhere near its december peak when it was priced around $19,500.

Which Cryptocurrency Mining is Four Times More Profitable Than Bitcoin Mining !

As investor enthusiasm for bitcoin has faltered and also the cryptocurrency's value has down considerably since the beginning of the year, there has been less interest in mining BTC. This is coupled with rising prices related to mining based on power and hardware needed, among different issues. The result's that bitcoin mining has become less profitable than it had been earlier in the cryptocurrency boom. Now, a report from cryptocurrency tools supplier anything Crypto suggests that mining for BTC may be only a fraction as profitable as mining for zcash, a preferred altcoin.

Zcash Mining 4 Times more Profitable Than BTC

The data, according on by Crypto briefing, suggests that ZEC is the most profitable digital currency to mine at this time, with expected returns so much outpacing alternative proof-of-work coins like BTC and ethereum. ZEC miners using the Antminer Z9 mini may expect to return $8,000 on their investment in just 2 years, according to the report. This rate of return is considerably higher than those for competitor coins at this stage. Indeed, zcash expected profits over a two-year mining stint are nearly three times the next highest expected return, related to ether mining rigs operating with Antminer E3 setups. These miners might expect to bring in just $2,800 over a similar time frame. For bitcion miners, the outlook was even dimmer; the foremost lucrative rig was the GMO B2, and miners using this setup might expect to bring in simply $1,500 in returns over 2 years.

All told, mining Zcash with the most profitable instrument is over 4 times more profitable than mining bitcoin.

Rate of return may Diminish

As time goes on, anything Crypto expects that an increase in zcash mining problem and changes to the value of the token can bring the rate of return down. assuming a 15% increase in mining difficulty and 10% price increase over a monthly basis, the rate of return can fall to simply below $5,400 for the two year period. However, if bitcoin miners assume similar changes going forward, the most optimistic profit for bitcoin mining efforts with the GMO B2 was just $283.

It's unclear whether profitable Zcash mining can last for the predictable future, as there are a multitude of factors that confirm profitability.

Bitcoin Set for Biggest Gain in Two Weeks

Bitcoin headed for its largest increase in fortnight on Monday, as major cryptocurrencies taken off the week with a broad rally.

Amid a gentle drip of news reports suggesting a number of the largest names in investment are taking more of an interest in digital tokens, the largest crypto-coin advanced 6.8 % to $6,606.18 as of 9:03 a.m. in new york, in keeping with composite costs on Bloomberg. Rival coins Ripple, Ethereum and Litecoin all climbed at least 5 %. Bitcoin hasn’t notched a one-day gain of more than 2 % since july 2.

Last week, billionaire investor Steven Cohen was said to have place money into a hedge fund that specialize in cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based companies. In Europe, the owner of Switzerland’s securities exchange in zurich said it’s making a platform for trading digital assets. most recently, London’s financial News reported that a BlackRock inc. team looking into how the world’s largest asset manager will make the most of the cryptocurrency market and blockchain is studying whether to take an active role in Bitcoin futures. A BlackRock spokeswoman declined to comment on what the team’s current focus is.

“As I have said in the past, we’re very excited about blockchain technology,” Larry fink, chairman and chief executive officer at BlackRock, told Bloomberg TV’s Erik Schatzker. but while the firm is studying cryptocurrencies to see how they’re performing, no clients have yet sought to buy one, he said.

“When it becomes more legitimatized, when it has a true open nature of it that you will identify who the players are on both sides, that’s when we’ll probably look at it,” he said.

Elsewhere the CFA Institute, whose grueling three-level program has helped train quite 150,000 financial professionals, is adding topics on cryptocurrencies and blockchain to its Level I and II curriculums for the first time next year. The move could also be another example of the crypto industry’s gradual shift into the globe of mainstream finance.

First Bitcoin (BTC) Two-Way ATM In Malta Launched By MoonZebra Company

Malta’s digital transformation looks to be going very well. Malta has recently been a fairly active playground for the crypto-related developments and adoptions further.

Just a week past Malta was also abler to pass three bills that are regarding crypto and blockchain. On july 14th, a company referred to as MoonZebra has launched a two-way Bitcoin ATM here.

Buy Bitcoin instantly using fiat money

MoonZera is an ATM that enables users to buy cryptos such as Bitcoin and Litecoin instantly with fiat currency.

The company helps you get eliminate all the hassles of trading on on-line exchanges that expose a user to various hacking threats, misuse of sensitive data and additional cyber crime-related problems.

Last year Malta had its very first Bitcoin ATM go missing, and this triggered some bad results – a loss of over €3,000.

The company believes that changing the scenario currently with four crypto specialists on board who are working on the installation of such ATMs will be undoubtedly a way to success.

How crypto-ATMs work

A crypto-ATM works specifically just like a cash ATM. Here are the steps needed to use such a machine:

• Deposit fiat money
• Enter public key
• The respective wallet will receive cryptocurrency

A two-way crypto-ATM implies that you can modification crypto into fiat currency and the different way around as well. People have been recognizing Bitcoin ATMs also in Europe and the USA.

Bitcoin ATMs in the USA are slowly getting into communities such as Union Gap, Washington; indianapolis, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; fresno, California; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; louisville, New York, and kentucky.

In Europe, Bitcoin ATMs have been noticed at the Amsterdam airport, and a Redditor even posted a photo of it.

Earlier in 2018, there have also been reported a number of robberies. One Bitcoin ATM robbery took place at a convenience store in Irving, Dallas. Another Redditor posted a photo showing a Bitcoin ATM robbery.

A Bitcoin Billionaire Wants to Make First Decentralised Bank on a Tiny Island

Plans for the world's first decentralised bank are taking root in Malta.

According to Bloomberg, the project is backed by the bitcoin billionaire Changpeng Zhao's cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.

Binance, that uprooted its operations to the little European island of Malta earlier this year, has been warmly welcome by the country's prime minister, Joseph Muscat.

In March, Muscat tweeted that he had high hopes for his country's role within the blockchain industry:

"We aim to be the global trailblazers in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses and the jurisdiction of quality and choice for world class fintech companies," Muscat wrote.

The bank, called Founders Bank, will be distinctive in that it will not belong to a single corporation, person, or entity. Instead, it'll be owned  in part by anyone who purchases some of its token-based equity.

Fundraising for the project will happen on the blockchain equity platform Neufund.

There are still some regulatory issues that Malta, a country belonging to the european Union, will need to face, however Muscat appears mostly optimistic regarding the project's viability.

"The concept sounds confusing right now, but I have no doubt that it'll form the base of a new economy in the future," Muscat aforesaid in a recent speech.

"Just as we attribute value to pieces of paper, so too will future generations attribute value to electronic storage systems."

Australian Crypto Exchange Bitcoin.Com.Au Appoints Ex-Exec PwC as CEO

Australian cryptocurrency exchange bitcoin.com.au has appointed former consulting large PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) executive ben Ingram as its new CEO, Business insider Australia reports on, July 12.

Ingram held the role of director in charge of digital strategy at big Four auditor PwC, leaving the company in March of this year.

Business insider Australia writes that Ingram’s work bitcoin.com.au will include both improving the exchange’s trading functionality and focusing on expanding crypto-based monetary products into the traditional market area.

Ingram specifically mentioned instituting crypto investment products into areas like superannuation, that is a company-created organizational pension plan for employees. He additionally noted that the emergence of crypto-focused funds could “perhaps [be] a hedge against poorly managed central bank currencies.”

Ingram told Business insider Australia that bitcoin.com.au may be considered a lot of of a gateway service than a full crypto exchange, because it provides same-day settlements, letting people get into Bitcoin (BTC) and “importantly, get back out of bitcoin.”

Bitcoin.com.au presently offers transactions in Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH), having added ETH in March, though Ingram noted the firm would like to add other cryptocurrencies in future.

Ingram also voiced his personal interest in the technology behind cryptocurrency, telling Business insider that the “core premise of distributed ledger technology (DLT) has terribly obvious widespread appeal. even if the tech capabilities at present aren’t capable, i think humans will prevail,” continuing:

“We know this tech doesn’t have a dead-end. While the evolutionary path hasn’t been fully determined, I think there’s enough evidence that there is a path.”

Ingram isn’t the first Wall Street exec to join the crypto sphere, as an obvious exodus from traditional financial markets into crypto has been ongoing since this spring.

In March, bitcoin.com.au created buying BTC and ETH for fiat possible at 1,200 newsstands across Australia.

Australia, which ended the practice of double taxation of cryptocurrencies in July 2017, is taken into account by some to be a growing cryptocurrency hub. the government recently signed a $740 million deal with IBM to use blockchain and different new technologies to enhance data security.

Abra Announces Bitcoin Purchases By New Credit Card Payment Options

Bitcoin payment startup Abra has declared the addition of Visa and Mastercard payment choices for getting bitcoin on its platform. The new payment choice is in partnership with fintech company Simplex, per the company’s blog post.

Up until today, users who needed to buy cryptocurrencies were limited to a few choices that included bank deposits and wire transfers. In addition to those, the company also offers a way of buying altcoins using either bitcoin or litecoin for countries wherever bank wires and deposit options are unavailable.

The addition of Visa and Mastercard debit/credit card options makes it cheaper and quicker to buy cryptocurrencies on the platform. The new payment options are accessible via the website and also the app.

Speaking with Bitcoin Magazine, Abra chief executive officer Bill Barhydt stated, “Today we have users from over seventy countries, but the majority of those users who are outside the U.S. might solely fund their Abra wallet using bitcoin. With this launch, we can currently offer an easy way for customers globally to use Abra to buy their first bitcoin using any Visa or Mastercard and then begin investing in any of the other twenty four cryptocurrencies we support today.”

The new payment choices come with increased purchase limits, quicker processing times and additional accessibility. Users who purchase bitcoin with their Visa or Mastercard can currently be allowed to buy up to $20,000 worth of bitcoin at a time — which is a step above the $2,000 limit placed on bank deposits.

Users will also be able to store purchased bitcoin into any supported wallet. The company says processing time would be shorter, as new bitcoins should be available in digital wallets 30 minutes after purchase.

Abra is one among the few cryptocurrency platforms that hasn't embraced KYC/AML regulations in their entirety. In an email sent to its customers last month, the company said users weren't mandated to provide “any kind of identification" to use its platform. Barhydt has said that Abra is able to avoid "all these complexities" as a result of it doesn’t hold customers’ funds.

The company, however, needs american customers to submit their ID to extend funding limits via bank transfer options.

Robinhood Pushes to Expand Crypto by Adding Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin in app

Robinhood, a stock-buying app popular with young investors, declared on thursday it has added two new cryptocurrency offerings: Bitcoin cash and Litecoin.

The additions, that represent the fourth and sixth most beneficial digital currencies respectively, come back after Robinhood began providing Bitcoin and Ethereum—the two biggest and best well-known currencies—in February.

Currently, Robinhood is providing the cryptocurrencies in a restricted number of states, as well as california and texas, whereas it navigates licensing requirements in the rest of the country.

Robinhood’s call to add Litecoin and Bitcoin cash isn't surprising as the currencies come with little regulative risk, based on recent guidance from the SEC. This is not the case with alternative more centralized digital tokens, that the agency has warned are akin to securities that must be registered.

Robinhood says it’s service offers users the flexibility to track the value of different cryptocurrencies, together with XRP and Monero, and that the company could offer some of these for sale in the future.

The price of Litecoin and Bitcoin cash, like different cryptocurrencies, are well off their highs from last Dec when the overall market went into a mania.

While a growing range of companies offer cryptocurrency, including market leader Coinbase and payment service Square, Robinhood’s service is distinct as a result of the company doesn’t charge direct commissions or trading fees. As Fortune explained in June:

"With a dearth of market makers in the nascent cryptocurrency industry, Square and other trading platforms like Robinhood typically buy their Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies straight from public crypto exchanges and then resell them to investors, hoping to profit on the spread, or difference, between the purchase and sale price. But that can be tricky, especially when cryptocurrency’s high volatility results in frequent price swings."

At the time, Robinhood’s co-founder told Fortune that the company isn't concerned at the moment about creating money on crypto. Instead, the company sees it as a complement to its core stock brokerage service, which has already notched a lot of accounts than conventional services like eTrade.

Authorities will bring down 'hammer' on bitcoin: Nobel-winning economist said

Proponents of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin say the digital money and the public ledger technology beneath — called blockchain — will revolutionize our daily lives, from transacting to harnessing personal information.

Critics, however, voice concerns regarding adopting a mostly unregulated financial asset that can be used anonymously and has no central authority.

Nobel prize-winning economic expert and columbia university professor Joseph Stiglitz is among those critics.

Although the ledger of transactions that has taken place on the blockchain is public, Stiglitz says the anonymity of bitcoin opens the door for criminal enterprises.

"You cannot have a means of payment that is based on secrecy when you’re trying to create a transparent banking system," Stiglitz, 75, told the financial News monday. "If you open up a hole like bitcoin, then all the nefarious activity will go through that hole, and no government can allow that.”

Although the cryptocurrency market nowadays is little, Stiglitz says its growth can quickly bring regulation from authorities: “Once it becomes significant they'll use the hammer.”

Indeed, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has begun to scrutinize the market, while regulators around the world are also making policies to handle cryptocurrency exchanges.

In fact, Stiglitz has told more regulation of bitcoin will render it useless. "My feeling is when you regulate it so you could not have interaction in money laundering and all these other [crimes], there'll be no demand for bitcoin," he told Bloomberg in Jan. "By regulating the abuses, you're progressing to regulate it out of existence. It exists because of the abuses."

Some financial institutions appear to disagree: In May, Goldman Sachs declared plans to open a bitcoin trading operation, which can lead other banks to follow. In June, prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen horowitz declared it'd launch a fund entirely dedicated to cryptocurrency technical school. And U.K. bank Barclays inked a deal to support Coinbase, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in March.

In comments that some might construe as ageist, bitcoin investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, 37, told CNBC in February that the technology is something an older generation might not understand. in addition to Stiglitz, financial stalwarts such as Warren Buffett, International monetary fund head Christine Lagarde and J.P. Morgan ceo Jamie Dimon have all criticized bitcoin. so has Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates.

"The criticisms are simply a failure of the imagination," said Tyler Winklevoss.

Previously, Stiglitz has argued in favor of the U.S. moving transactions and payments to a more digital system that's open and clear.

"There is a international framework for each corruption and tax evasion and tax avoidance," he said at the globe Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos in 2017. “I believe very strongly that countries just like the united states could and should move to a digital currency ... so that you would have the ability to trace this kind of corruption. There are vital issues of privacy, cyber-security, but it'd actually have huge benefits.”

But, that does not mean it should be bitcoin.

"I'd like us to move more towards an electronic payments [system] but you do not need a bitcoin for that," Stiglitz told Bloomberg in january.

Bitcoin's market cap was close to $116 billion monday afternoon, in keeping with data from CoinMarketCap.com. a single bitcoin's price traded at just below $6,700, according to Coindesk.