roadrunner

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is encouraging countries to create money to mitigate the effects of lockdown restrictions on economies. Specifically, the international lender wants businesses and workers displaced by the pandemic related responses to get financial support as they adjust their businesses and search for new jobs respectively. Recognizing the new normal In its October 2020 World Economic Outlook, the Fund says in addition to cushioning people and firms affected by the pandemic, countries now need to pursue economic policies that recognize the changing dynamics. The outlook report, which is projecting global growth of -4.4% for 2020, talks of “supporting resource reallocation away from contact-intensive sectors that are likely to be constrained for an extended period of time.” On the other hand, the report says, “retraining and reskilling should be pursued to the extent feasible so that workers can look for jobs in other sectors.” Explaining how these measures can be financed, the IMF says: Complementing such measures, broad-based accommodative monetary and fiscal responses—where fiscal space exists—can help prevent deeper and longer-lasting downturns. Still, the responses being recommended by the IMF, which can only be financed via large scale borrowing and money creation, are likely to result in inflation. In turn, increasing inflation leads to the debasement of national fiat currencies and the hemorrhaging of value. A shift away from physical contact business While the IMF believes lockdown restrictions to be effective tools in helping to bring down Covid-19 infection rates, it still acknowledges that the pandemic itself as well as the lockdowns are responsible for economic damage seen in 2020. Contact intensive businesses have become less appealing while contactless entities look more appealing. Consequently, the IMF is asking countries to pursue economic policies that are more favorable to non-contact intensive sectors. In the Outlook, the IMF says it supports the: Reallocation of workers and resources to sectors less affected by social distancing, and providing stimulus where needed to the extent possible. Meanwhile, the crypto market — which fits the description of sectors less affected by social distancing — is already up since the start of the lockdowns. The restrictions on movement appear to have increased the appeal of cryptocurrencies. Data shows that in the period starting in March of 2020, the use of cryptocurrencies, as well as traded volumes, have surged. The growing adoption of cryptos by mainstream organizations suggests that governments that are eager to avoid the resurgence of the pandemic will also see cryptocurrencies as a viable alternative. What do you think of the IMF’s call for countries to allocate resources to less contact-intensive businesses? Share your views in the comments section below. The post Covid-19: IMF Urges More Stimulus Support For Non-Contact Intensive Businesses appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto analyst George McDonaugh says that the U.S. presidential election is unlikely to change the bitcoin price’s upward trajectory. He draws on a number of fundamental and technical factors to illustrate his point. For example, McDonaugh argues that the recent surge in the price of bitcoin (BTC) is actually part of a sustained rally since the ‘Covid capitulation’ event back in March. “Since then we’ve seen nothing but bullish signals appear one after another,” McDonaugh said, in thoughts shared with news.Bitcoin.com “We’ve seen four straight ‘higher lows’ play out (if you split the time since March into consecutive 60-day cycles), which means there is a clear uptrend unfolding,” he added. America is awaiting the results of a Nov. 3 presidential election pitting incumbent Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden. Pre-election polls, including crypto-based predictions, have almost been unanimous, pointing to a Biden win. Pundits have forecast a variety of scenarios of the election outcome’s potential impact on bitcoin, but consensus appears to indicate that no matter who wins, bitcoin will also win. That’s because the next president is likely to continue with stimulus spending – inflationary economics that always push investors toward safe-haven assets like bitcoin. On election day, the price of BTC soared from around $13,400 to more than $14,000. At Press time, the coin had dropped 1.8% to $13,743, according to markets.Bitcoin.com data, but sustaining its bullish momentum. McDonaugh, who is also co-founder and managing director of crypto-asset investment firm KR1 plc, pointed to the fact that bitcoin has spent more time above the $10,000 mark than ever before in its history – a show of huge buying strength in the market. “Clinging on above this price point over the months of July, August and September was a huge moment…” he opined. He predicts that BTC will hit its record high of $20,000 by late December or early January, but warned this will come with increased volatility – periodic bursts of sharp declines, of as much 30%. There were five such declines on the way up to $20,000 in 2016/17. “We’re currently seeing a very ‘right translated’ 60-day trading cycle, which means we’ve spent a lot more time than normal ‘going up’ and there’s not much time left in the cycle to ‘go down’, McDonaugh explained, adding: We’re currently on day 57 since the last 60-day cycle bottom formed. If the market strings a range of consecutive right translated cycles together, this is what forms an uptrend. The sustained bitcoin price this late on in the cycle would therefore point to yet further strength coming to the market in the near future, as it’s possible we will only form a ‘shallow low’ before embarking on the next 60-day cycle. What do you think about the US election and bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post US Presidential Election Unlikely to Alter Bitcoin’s Path: Analyst appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Uniswap Dark is a uniswap fork that tackles impermanent and permanent loss. Our exchange provides a decentralized, peer-to-peer, and safe exchange platform with minimal fees and slippage to solve the problems. Usually, trading or swapping on Uniswap demands ERC-20 token to ETH involves a double swapping fee, but uniswapdark exchange enables stablecoin users to swap and stake as needed. The UniswapDark protocol is designed to help users swap their ERC-20 tokens in a trustful way across all of the platform’s native liquidity pools. In terms of its operability, UniswapDark is also designed to work in a similar way to Curve.However, its overall user interface is arguably more sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing. To start with, users are required to connect their hard/soft wallets to the app, after which UniswapDark makes use of a smart order routing protocol to route users’ trades to the pools that provide the best rate possible. In layman’s terms, one can think of UniswapDark’s native monetary pools as being self-balancing index funds, which incentivize users for increasing the platform’s liquidity instead of charging them a fee. It is right to say that the uniswap dark is a direct alternative to Uniswap to mitigate Impermanent loss. Instead of double conversion, it lets you swap directly to your stable coin or other supported assets. Token Sale: UniswapDark is one of the few exchange protocols has a Limited token supply. We talking about only 1000000 UNID minted & will be distributed to the community through our Airdrops and Pre-sale. UNID will be the primary token used in the uniswapdark chain, just like the UNI used in Uniswap, the opening listing price of UNID will be $6 and also our token will be lested on Uniswap & BitHumb & Bitmax & Kucoin and more before the end of the year and UniswapDark also will made some big announcements Presale link : https://uniswapdark.com/presale or use this link : https://telegra.ph/UNISWAP-DARK-PRE-SALE-IS-LIVE-10-22 Uniswapdark Tokennomics : Token Type : ERC-20 Token symbol : UNID Token Name : Uniswapdark Contract : 0x8dcD6fC37e672DA95c83f3323df62127e245fd3B Total Supply : 1000000 UNID Circulating Supply : 200000 UNID Initial Uniswap Liquidity : 150000 UNID UNID for Pre-sale : 250000 UNID Team Tokens : 50000 UNID Marketing & Development : 200000 UNID Airdrops : 350000 UNID Uniswap Dark Community : Website : https://uniswapdark.com Telegram Group : https://t.me/uniswapdarkprotocol Official twitter : https://twitter.com/uniswapdark Email : support@uniswapdark.com This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post Uniswap Dark (UNID) Next Generation Defi protocol with Ultimate Security Futures, Token Pre-Sale is Now Live appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty saw the second-largest drop in history on Tuesday, as the difficulty dropped to 16.78 trillion, losing a touch over 16% since last week’s all-time difficulty high. The last time bitcoin’s mining difficulty dropped so low was in October 2011, when it lost around 18%. Since the large difficulty drop took place, the overall SHA256 hashrate increased a great deal after losing 40% during the last week of October. The Bitcoin (BTC) network saw a significant mining difficulty drop on Tuesday when it slid -16.05% to 16.78t. News.Bitcoin.com reported last week on how the network’s SHA256 hashrate plunged around 40% to roughly 90 exahash per second. Following Tuesday’s difficulty drop, BTC’s hashrate has increased a great deal, spiking to 114 EH/s on November 3, after touching 97 EH/s during the earliest hours on Tuesday morning. BTC’s hashrate is hovering just above the 100 EH/s handle at 107 EH/s at the time of publication. Mining difficulty essentially is the relative measurement of the amount of resources needed to find bitcoin blocks on a given day. It gives people an idea of how difficult it is to mine a new block. Bitcoin’s difficulty changes using 2,016 block epochs or two-week intervals. When the hashrate is extremely high, the difficulty will grow more difficult during the change and if the total estimated hashrate has drops it becomes easier to mine bitcoin. With the hashrate at current speeds today, estimates show another -16% drop on the horizon. Data from Btc.com on Tuesday indicates the next change is more than 14 days away and estimates show it may drop down to 14.05t, losing -16.3% if it comes to fruition. Today, on November 3, there are 16 mining operations dedicating hashrate to the Bitcoin (BTC) network. F2pool leads the pack of pools with roughly 18.7% of the network with over 20 EH/s under the hood. This is followed by operations like Poolin (15.5 EH/s), Btc.com (12.4 EH/s). Huobi (12.4 EH/s), and Antpool (11.7 EH/s). With 107 EH/s dedicated to the BTC chain, the five aforementioned pools combined capture 67.28% of the overall hashrate. At press time, the mempool clog has dropped a hair after the backlog saw over 100k unconfirmed transactions during the course of last week and into the weekend. However, data shows the mempool still has around 73k unconfirmed transactions on Tuesday. What do you think about Bitcoin’s recent difficulty drop? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Network’s Mining Difficulty Sees Largest Epoch Drop Since 2011 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

While the United States prepares for the results of the 2020 Presidential Election, a number of data points and traders expect some significant cryptocurrency price fluctuations this week. Statistics from skew.com show bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility has increased to 59% while 3-6 month stats jumped over 62%. The digital currency economy is hovering at around $388 billion, which is a giant jump from where it was during the last U.S. election in 2016. For instance, during the 2016 presidential race, the price of bitcoin (BTC) was around $709. Since then the crypto-asset BTC has seen a 1,802% return on investment (ROI). Another example is ethereum (ETH), which was trading for $10.83 per unit in 2016, now swaps for $382 in 2020. For this election, a number of traders and a few points of implied volatility measurements suggest that crypto market participants expect a shake-up this week. Data from skew.com’s “Bitcoin ATM Implied Volatility” chart indicates that the crypto asset’s options market expects big price fluctuations. Market players trading traditional finance assets envision a similar market shakeup following the U.S. election. At press time skew.com’s chart shows one month implied volatility has spiked and is now hovering around 59% today. Three-month stats have jumped to 62% and 65% for BTC’s implied volatility for the six month period. On Twitter, the skew.com account tweeted about the implied volatility and said: It’s election day. Options traders are pricing in a little bit of extra premium for this week with a 3.5% bitcoin implied move for the election. Weekly puts are most active today. A number of other crypto pundits and digital currency market researchers discussed the post-election crypto market on social media channels and forums. After sharing its week 44th insights report, Arcane Research tweeted out a chart that shows a chart with bitcoin and the S&P 500 during the election week. “Some interesting movements from both bitcoin and S&P 500 during election day in 2016. What will happen this time?” Arcane tweeted on November 3. “Breathe easy today knowing silver and gold will be every bit as shiny and bitcoin as secure as ever, no matter the outcome of this election,” the crypto proponent ‘Cryptoredacted’ wrote. On election day, Messari.io’s Ty Young also discussed the economic ramifications of the U.S. election and bitcoin. “The majority of polls have Biden holding a 60% chance of winning the presidential election and even higher potential for a blue wave sweep through the senate,” Young wrote on Tuesday. “Those outcomes could mean larger stimulus packages, more QE, and clearer guidance for investors going into a new administration.” Young continued: One thing is probable: volatility is coming. On the bullish side for Bitcoin, central banks will continue to flood the world with money and stimulus packages, further setting the stage for BTC. On the bearish side, a contested election and a second wave of Covid-19 lockdowns could spell disaster for markets, dragging down BTC with it. Furthermore, the research and trading platform Luno’s weekly market report discussed the election on Tuesday as well. “Election day was bumpy four years ago, and there is little reason to believe that we will go through this election without large movements,” explained Luno analysts. “After closing hours on election day, the S&P 500 futures dropped substantially before erasing all losses when Trump was announced as the winner. The market reacted positively to the republican winner and ended the week up 5%” Many other bitcoiners believe that no matter who wins the U.S. election, stimulus and monetary corruption will continue. Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius Network believes that as civil unrest and economic uncertainty heighten, central banks will try to pump liquidity into the faltering economy. “The U.S. elections are increasing the uncertainty and the need companies have to have more reserves and more liquidity,” Mashinsky explained. “The global economy is going through a slow motion recession, as the demand for goods and services is slowing down. Meanwhile, the central banks pump liquidity to try and reverse this trend. All of this is not good for GDP or for our employment rates. No matter who wins— we will have a severe recession in the next 2-3 years.” Do you expect cryptocurrencies to be volatile following the U.S. election? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Volatility Expected to Rise After the US Presidential Election appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has amended some exemption rules, making it easier for crypto companies to raise funds. The rule changes raise fundraising limits for Regulation Crowdfunding, Regulation A, and Regulation D’s Rule 504 offerings. SEC’s New Rules Allow Crypto Companies to Raise More Money The SEC announced Monday that it has amended some rules pertaining to several exemptions. Among other changes, the regulator has increased “the offering limits for Regulation A, Regulation Crowdfunding, and Rule 504 offerings” and has revised “certain individual investment limits,” the announcement states. The amendments will be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. “We are increasing the maximum permitted offering amounts for certain exemptions,” explained SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, also known as Crypto Mom. “By raising the offering limit under Tier 2 of Regulation A from $50 million to $75 million and the Regulation Crowdfunding offering limit from $1.07 million to $5 million, we seek to reduce the costs relative to the amount raised under these exemptions.” Regulation A is an exemption from public offering registration; it has two offering tiers. Tier 1 is for offerings of up to $20 million in a 12-month period. Currently, Tier 2 is for offerings of up to $50 million in a 12-month period. Regulation Crowdfunding allows eligible companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. As for the third exemption, Commissioner Peirce described: “By increasing the Rule 504 offering limit from $5 million to $10 million, we seek to encourage more issuers to use this under-utilized exemption, to conduct regional multistate offerings, and to make use of state coordinated review programs.” Currently, Rule 504 of Regulation D provides eligible companies with a registration exemption when they offer and sell up to $5 million of their securities in any 12-month period. Peirce remarked: We are adopting targeted improvements to a regulatory scheme that unnecessarily hinders capital formation and unduly restricts investors’ opportunities to participate in economic growth. What do you think about the SEC’s new rules? Let us know in the comments section below. The post SEC Changes Rules, Making Fundraising Easier for Crypto Firms appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Payments giant Paypal has revealed more details of its new cryptocurrency service. The company is currently rolling out crypto functionality to U.S. customers, after which it will launch the service internationally and on the Venmo platform. Paypal’s CEO Unveils Crypto Plans Paypal CEO Dan Schulman provided new details of the company’s new cryptocurrency service during the Q3 2020 earnings call on Monday. Paypal recently announced that its customers will be able to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, directly from their Paypal accounts. Cryptocurrencies in Paypal accounts can also be used to pay for purchases at 28 million stores worldwide. “Clearly the world is rapidly moving from physical to digital and that’s so true for payments and financial services,” Schulman began. He added that based on his conversations with central banks and people in the crypto industry, “there’s no question that digital currencies are going to be rising in importance, having increasing functionality and increasing prominence.” The CEO also believes that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) “are a matter of when and how they are done, not if.” He claims that Paypal, with its digital wallets and the scale it currently has, “can help shape the utility of those currencies.” The CEO opined: “I do think that our platform and the new digital infrastructure that we are putting in place right now can help make that management and movement of money more efficient and less expensive and faster.” Regarding Paypal’s recently announced crypto service, the CEO shared: “Our base is very eager for us to offer these capabilities. It really came up very high on their wish list.” He additionally revealed: We’ve only rolled this out to 10% of our base. We did that a couple of days ago. But our waiting list is 2 to 3 times what our expectations were. We are going to take up our $10,000 limit per day to $15,000 per day based on the demand that we are seeing. “We’ll roll out to 100% in the U.S. in the next two to three weeks. Then we are going to expand internationally and we will expand into Venmo in the first half of next year,” he continued. “That’s what we starting off with.” Moreover, the CEO said that Paypal is already “seeing people who have already bought crypto” on its platform, noting that some users “opened their wallets several times a day to check on what’s happening with their crypto investments … We are beginning to already see some halo effects that go on with that.” Schulman, who previously disclosed that he owns bitcoin, elaborated: But what I’m really excited about is what we are going to introduce next year, which I think is going to dramatically increase the utility of cryptocurrencies by enabling somebody who holds a cryptocurrency in a Paypal account to instantaneously transfer that crypto into fiat currency. He explained that no additional integration is needed at the 28 million merchants and cryptocurrency transactions are “immediately settled into fiat,” adding that this method is “a lower-cost funding mechanism” for Paypal. In conclusion, Schulman said that besides the plans detailed above, “Over the course of next year, you will see us move into a couple of different areas,” noting that he sees “a lot of interesting things” Paypal can do with cryptocurrencies. The CEO emphasized that his company is “Working hand-in-hand with regulators every step of the way which is so important in what they expect from us in order to be a market leader in the digital currency space.” What do you think about Paypal’s crypto plan? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Paypal Begins Crypto Service: CEO Reveals Increased Limits, Expansion Plans, Venmo Rollout appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency regulation in Hong Kong is undergoing changes. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is reportedly introducing a new licensing system to regulate all crypto exchanges operating in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s New Crypto Regulation The CEO of the SFC, Ashley Alder, talked about implementing a new cryptocurrency regulatory framework at Hong Kong Fintech Week on Tuesday. All cryptocurrency trading platforms operating in Hong Kong or targeting local investors will be required to apply for a license with the SFC, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported. “Later today, the government will propose a new licensing regime under the Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance for platforms which trade any type of crypto asset even if not classified as securities,” Alder was quoted as saying. The SFC introduced an opt-in regulatory framework for crypto exchanges in November last year. However, it only applies to platforms that offer at least one cryptocurrency that falls under the legal definition of securities. Alder noted that the current regulatory system has serious limitations, making it possible for some trading platforms to operate away from the purview of the regulator. “If a platform operator is really determined to remain completely off the regulatory radar, it can do so simply by ensuring that its traded crypto assets are not within the legal definition of a security,” he explained. Many cryptocurrency exchanges operate in Hong Kong but they choose not to apply for a license, which is possible under the current system. According to Reuters, the SFC has not issued a full license to any exchange to date, but it has agreed in principle to issue a license to OSL Digital Securities, a cryptocurrency arm of Fidelity-backed BC group. Alder elaborated: Once this new regime is in place, all virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong would be regulated, supervised and monitored. What do you think about Hong Kong’s new crypto regulation? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Hong Kong Amends Crypto Law to Regulate All Exchanges appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. PARSIQ is a working platform that makes blockchain events consumable and blockchain data actionable. It allows users—both individuals, companies, enterprises—to monitor any events across different blockchains in real-time and at scale and connect those events to any off-chain apps or devices to automate different workflows. A blockchain-to-everything monitoring service PARSIQ was announced to get Binance funding in addition to the other four projects. Even though PARSIQ is not a DeFi project itself, it brings another layer of security and transparency addressing the main problems in DeFi. PARSIQ connects blockchain activity to off-chain apps and devices PARSIQ technology is a proprietary ParsiQL programming language that allows users to monitor and interpret an endless stream of data on the blockchain. Among the obvious use cases is monitoring the wallets of traders and ordinary users. Among the non-obvious are complex system integrations for financial institutions and DeFi projects that use the PARSIQ infrastructure to improve security, conduct audits, comply with regulatory requirements, and expand their workflows in other ways. The primary drag and drop interface of the service – Quick Monitoring Wizard – allows users to create their own notification system for the required crypto-addresses in a few clicks and bind additional data: Risk Score, information about the amount in equivalents (for example, in fiat or BTC), set up uploading to Google Spreadsheets or send directly to Telegram messenger. PARSIQ’s technology was recently used to help KuCoin hack victim projects restore the balances and conduct hard-forking of their tokens in order to restore the tokens to their rightful holders. How PARSIQ helps entrepreneurs and enterprises embrace automation with blockchain? PARSIQ makes it easy to integrate blockchain infrastructures into existing businesses by connecting workflows between blockchains to off-chain third-party applications. Zapier, Google Apps, Telegram, and even data analytics platforms can easily connect with blockchain activity via PARSIQ’s Smart-Triggers. Blockchain transactions have become an integral and essential part of many businesses today. Whether it involves receiving funds for client payments, sending payments to vendors, or executing smart contracts, you need to be on top of your transactions with smart notifications and real-time alerts. The possibilities are endless, and the use cases are only limited by your need to access this raw information. PARSIQ automates the monitoring of blockchain transactions by tracking the wallet addresses that need to be watched. Beyond instant notifications, your business can gain in-depth knowledge and information from these transactions. This includes: Actionable insights from market data, which can be used in analyzing both on-chain and off-chain data sources. Enriching transaction data with useful information like the fiat price value or even the sender address’s risk-scoring can enhance the overall quality of data being collected. New Epoch 2.0 economic model for PRQ tokens On Thursday, October 29, the PARSIQ team announced a planned transition to a new expanded token economy, which will provide even greater utility for the PRQ token. The first innovation that the team told about was Public Projects, which serve as additional gamification and attraction for users. With Public Projects, users can subscribe to existing PARSIQ Projects that were pre-made by other users and finally receive some fees in PRQ as a stable motivation. “By paying Public Project developers in PRQ, users that have subscribed to the Public Project will incentivize the creators to invent interesting, complex and more important – problem-solving projects.” – says Tom Tirman, CEO of PARSIQ. The team has already shown an example of what a Public Project can look like. A few weeks ago, PARSIQ released FLASHR – a free product to track famous crypto projects’ asset movements. Flashr is a public and free-to-use monitoring system that allows users to be notified of any token movements that they are interested in or invested in. Currently, FLASHR keeps track of 13 projects: Aave, Serum, FTX, Huobi, PARSIQ, Band Protocol, Compound, Reserve Rights, DFI.Money, Chainlink, CoinMetro, Yearn.finance, Uniswap. The rest of the Tokenomics announcement covered new requirements for holding some amount of PRQ to monitor the same number of addresses; O2 Protocol for risk-free collateral-less loans system provided to the crypto community by the PARSIQ team; and also new information about the Uniswap liquidity provider bonus program, which was announced earlier. As the team stated, PARSIQ plans to reveal another fruitful partnership with a top-10 blockchain project at the beginning of November. PARSIQ is actively working to partner with major layer 1 blockchain protocols to expand the range of blockchain integrations and give projects that build on those protocols the ability to monitor and automate workflows between blockchain and off-chain. Visit the PARSIQ website to discover some possible use-cases and find more details on the project and token: https://parsiq.net Media Contact anatsasia@parsiq.net This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post $100 Million Accelerator Fund from Binance Now Supports PARSIQ, a Reverse-Oracle Blockchain Platform appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The decentralized finance (defi) platform cvx.finance has launched the beta version of its “Crypto Volatility Index”, otherwise known as the “CVX.” The CVX is an index similar to the “Market Fear Index” (VIX) commonly used in traditional finance, but cvx.finance measures the suggestive volatility from bitcoin and ethereum options markets. It’s still early but a new product has been launched that may be able to give cryptocurrency traders a rough idea of how the crypto market is feeling and if traders expect future price fluctuations. The new service is a beta product produced by the cvx.finance platform and the creators claim the application is a decentralized version of VIX. The VIX is commonly used in traditional finance markets because it allows traders to hedge or to take profit from market volatility. Basically, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) measures the market volatility of the S&P 500 Index options during the course of a 30-day timespan. Traders call the VIX a “fear index” and the index is calculated in real-time via CBOE’s exchange engine. For instance, the higher the VIX is it means the S&P 500 is expected to decline and if the VIX drops then traders expect the S&P 500 index to remain relatively stable. The cvx.finance CVX refers to the crypto economy’s “Crypto Volatility Index” by measuring implied volatility via ethereum (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC) options markets. “We have created CVX so that traders can hedge themselves against volatility or lack thereof,” explains the CVX documentation. “CVX is a full-scale decentralized ecosystem that brings the sophisticated and very popular ‘market fear index’ to the crypto market and is created by computing a decentralized volatility index from cryptocurrency option prices together with analyzing the market’s expectation of future volatility.” The CVX developers detail that the project leverages a Black-Scholes option pricing model that is integrated with crypto market conditions. The project uses “Chainlink architecture with multiple oracles to retrieve the required data and calculate the formulated CVX using external adapters.” Then the calculated results from each oracle are “aggregated, verified, and passed to the blockchain node so that the data can be accessed and used both by the requesting smart contract and as a service for other use case implementations.” The Crypto Volatility Index creators stress: The combined CVX index is a weighted sum of CVX indices calculated for several cryptocurrencies (for example BTC and ETH), where weights are based on the currency market cap. At the time of publication, the CVX is awfully high and the previous hour saw a measurement of around 72.15. Last week, the CVX saw a high of 72.4 and a low of 60.28, which shows that traders seem to be fearful of increased volatility judging by the CVX. Since the start of the CVX’s measurements of implied volatility, it seems like there’s a direct inverse correlation between bitcoin’s (BTC) spot market prices and the CVX index. Another index, hosted on the web portal alternative.me called the “Crypto Fear & Greed Index” (CFGI) is a plot of the fear and greed index over time. “A value of 0 means ‘extreme fear,’ while a value of 100 represents ‘extreme greed,’ according to the web portal’s index description. Currently, the CFGI is beyond “fear” at the moment and the metric is in the “greed” zone with a value of around 71. What do you think about the CVX index? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Defi Index CVX Measures Crypto ‘Market Fear’ and Implied Volatility appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

While American citizens wait for bureaucrats to pass a new coronavirus relief package, the Federal Reserve has continued to serve corporate interests and the banking cartel. Behind the curtains from the comfort of their own mansions, members of the Fed have given more stimulus to crony Wall Street corporatists than it did in 2008. The U.S. central bank’s monthly rounds of stimulus have effortlessly surpassed the quantitative easing (QE) tactics that followed the United States’ subprime mortgage crisis. Ahead of the presidential election, the Fed is still purchasing $80 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities and $40 billion per month in Treasuries. The net of redemptions outpaces the 2008 bailouts and the QE from 2012 through 2014 as well. Meanwhile, while most Americans haven’t even blinked over the central bank’s massive money creation, mainstream media continues to dangle talks of a stimulus package for the average citizen. On Friday, the Fed dropped the threshold for the Mainstreet Lending program as the bank lowered the threshold for certain businesses. At the same time, the Fed has commissioned JPMorgan Chase with $2 trillion in bonds, according to data collected by the investigative financial journalists’ Pam Martens and Russ Martens. “Imagine that your neighbor across the street had been criminally charged with five felony counts for financial crimes in the past six years and admitted to committing each and every crime to the U.S. Department of Justice. Would you put one-third of all of your money in a safe, give that neighbor the combination, and ask him to hold the safe in his house for you?” the Martens ask in jest. “You would probably be suited up for a straight jacket if you did something like that,” the Martens insist. “That’s effectively what the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, has done when it comes to JPMorgan Chase.” The financial columnists also published the U.S. Representative for California, Congresswoman Katie Porter’s recent letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and the Board of Governors. Porter writes that the Federal Reserve “is using billions of taxpayer dollars to purchase the debt of banks like JPMorgan Chase.” Additionally, Porter’s letter highlights a serious conflict of interest between the Fed and the firm Blackrock. Essentially, the letter stresses that the “[Federal Reserve’s] decision to buy corporate debt with taxpayer dollars directly benefited Wall Street and the world’s richest corporate executives.” The talks of looming stimulus for the average American citizen has been a revolving farce passed around the headlines mainstream media (MSM) publishes every day. Massive rounds of stimulus are happening with QE-style debt purchases but a carrot is being dangled in the air by the media with these talks of relief packages. One MSM outlet actually praised the Fed members this week for working remotely from home. “We are all largely working remotely. Most of the banks and branches have very limited staffing, if any,” Randal Quarles, the Fed’s Vice Chairman detailed during a recent webinar discussion. On October 22, Mary Daly the San Francisco Fed President claimed that Federal Reserve employees “haven’t missed a step” this year. With well over $9 trillion in stimulus injections, the Fed’s 2020 USD pump eclipsed more than two centuries of the country’s dollar creation. Estimates say, in just a mere eight months in 2020, the U.S. has created 22% of all the USD issued since the birth of the nation. Meanwhile, MSM rags continue to claim Americans should be grateful that the Fed has allegedly “prevented a US economic collapse.” Rather, the Fed has managed to create trillions for the revolving door of fascist bankers from the comfort of their own mansions. When it comes to corporate and banker bailouts, the Fed certainly hasn’t missed a step. What do you think about the Federal Reserve’s so-called courageous efforts? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Federal Reserve Staff Sluiced Wall Street Bankers With Trillions From the Comfort of Their Mansions appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Major decentralized finance (defi) projects fell sharply in October, with token prices tumbling by between 30% and 56%, as money appears to be moving away from the overhyped space and back into bitcoin. According to Coingecko data, Andre Cronje’s Yearn Finance (YFI) fell fastest, crashing 56% to around $10,400 as of Nov. 1, down from $23,800 thirty days earlier. Since Sept. 12, YFI total market capitalization has bled $957 million from a high of $1.27 billion. The asset, whose price peaked at over $43,000 two months ago, currently boasts $312.9 million in market value. Uniswap (UNI), the popular decentralized exchange (dex) built on the Ethereum blockchain, lost 46% of its value to $2.34 from $4.43 on Oct. 1. Market capitalization fell similarly to $486.7 million. Lending protocol Aave (AAVE) tanked 45% to $30 from $54.81 at the beginning of October. Compound (COMP) plummeted more than 30% to $94 from $137, as it tracked declines across the entire defi industry. Several other tokens such as sythentix (SNX), UMA, maker (MKR), and loopring (LRC) all fell by between 9% and 35%. Defi protocols are built around smart contracts. Through them, investors can move their assets across different protocols looking for the best possible return in a process that has become to be known as ‘yield farming’. But as the total value of deposits locked in defi projects somewhat remained high – at $11.1 billion as at Nov. 2, according to Defi Pulse – trading volume on decentralized exchanges has nosedived, suggesting funds may be moving away from defi and back into bitcoin. Weekly volume skid to just $3.1 billion in the last seven days, Dune Analytics data shows, down from $18.3 billion thirty days ago, as the defi hysteria cools off. At the same time, the price of bitcoin (BTC) has been gaining in value, soaring nearly 30% in October to a yearly high above $14,000. And, apart from existing crypto money retracing back to BTC, new institutional money is pouring into the top digital asset. Multi-million-dollar investments into bitcoin by corporate outfits such as Microstrategy and Square appear to have added momentum to the emerging BTC bull market, with some analysts targeting a price of $20,000 by year-end. Ilya Abugov, lead analyst at Dappradar, told industry media that despite the defi token bloodbath, “there is nothing that has damaged the story of defi and dex growth [fundamentally]. New projects are being developed.” What do you think about the massive price correction in defi? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Major Defi Token Prices Plunge, as Money Moves Back Into Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A civil lawsuit has been filed against the firm HDR Global Trading Limited, the parent company of the exchange Bitmex, alongside the three cofounders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed. Plaintiffs allege “the defendants’ Hayes, Delo, and Reed looted about $440,308,400 of proceeds of various nefarious activities.” The cryptocurrency derivatives platform Bitmex is facing a lawsuit that claims the exchanges three cofounders “looted” $440 million from the platform. BMA LLC, Vitaly Dubinin, and Yaroslav Kolchin have filed the lawsuit against the popular crypto trading platform. The recently filed lawsuit follows the charges against the exchange stemming from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The filing alleges that the defendants were “keenly aware” of the DoJ and CFTC investigations and criminal charges before law enforcement acted. “While preparing to go on a lam from the U.S. authorities, defendants’ Hayes, Delo, and Reed looted about $440,308,400 of proceeds of various nefarious activities that took place on the Bitmex platform.” The court filing was invoked by a litigation team called “Consensus Law” and Bitmex categorically denies the allegations. “Pavel Pogodin of ‘Consensus Law’ has filed a series of increasingly spurious claims against us, and others in the cryptocurrency sector,” an HDR Global Trading Limited representative insists. “We will deal with this through the normal litigation process and remain entirely confident the courts will see his claims for what they are,” the HDR rep added. Pavel Pogodin believes that prior to the CFTC and DoJ crackdown, Bitmex executives were “trying to make its funds unavailable for the collection of future judgments against it.” “Furthermore, such a remarkable surge in proceeds distributions may also indicate that Defendants are looting Bitmex Insurance,” Pogodin’s court filing details. What do you think about the lawsuit against the Bitmex executives? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Court Filing Accuses Bitmex Cofounders of ‘Looting’ $440 Million Before the Fed Crackdown appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Venezuela says it will incorporate bitcoin and litecoin wallets to its Patria’s Cryptocurrency Remittance Platform. In an update, authorities in the country say this move will enable Venezuelan citizens to formally receive remittances in cryptocurrency form. Many citizens of hyperinflation hit Venezuela already use bitcoin as a store of value as well as for cross border payments. Plans of Adding Bitcoin-Petro Trading Pairs The formal incorporation of bitcoin into the national remittances system will likely boost the use of cryptos by Venezuelans. The country already ranks third on the list of countries with the highest cryptocurrency usage in the world. Meanwhile, this announcement issued via the Patria blog, is a continuation of a pattern of crypto policy amendments made by the Maduro government as it tries to counter the effects of US sanctions. In an update published October 28, the Caracas government-which still hopes to see the widespread embrace of its failed petro token-also talks about the “incorporation of petro [and] bitcoin and petro [and] litecoin pairs into an exchange system.” However, the update has no details about this exchange system or when this planned incorporation is set to happen. In the meantime, the update also reveals the plan to introduce “commissions and fees for exchange and remittances.” The Maduro government is planning what it terms an “implementation of a service commission for all operations carried out in the Petro, Bitcoin and Litecoin wallets.” Phased Introduction While the update does not provide the finer details, it does, however, clarify that some of these functions will be introduced in phases. The loosely translated Spanish language update says: In the few days following this update, some of these functionalities will only be available to a select number of users for purposes of testing the changes. The Patria Platform will gradually incorporate all these and other services, which due to their extension will require several days of updating and monitoring. Despite facing the US government accusations of using bitcoin to evade sanctions, authorities in Venezuela now appear more determined to embrace the top crypto than before. The government recently announced the formal recognition and endorsement of cryptocurrency mining. However, just like the latest update, Caracas is placing conditions that may work against the greater objective of increasing use and adoption of decentralized and censorship-resistant cryptos like bitcoin. It remains to be seen if the members of the Venezuelan expatriate community are going to embrace the proposed incorporation of bitcoin into the remittance system. Do you think incorporating bitcoin into Venezuela’s national remittance system is going to help Caracas? Share your views in the comments section below. The post Venezuela to Incorporate Bitcoin and Litecoin Wallets into National Remittances Platform appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Negotiations on a new coronavirus aid stimulus package are still underway as Americans wait to receive their second round of stimulus checks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Donald Trump, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have their own ideas of when the next stimulus package with direct payments to Americans will pass. US Lawmakers Push to Pass a New Stimulus Package Soon U.S. lawmakers have continually been discussing the next stimulus package to help Americans cope with the coronavirus pandemic-led economic crisis. Americans have been waiting for the second round of $1,200 stimulus checks after the first round was approved as part of the CARES Act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed the $2.2 trillion revised HEROES Act while the White House has made a $1.8 trillion counteroffer. Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin have been talking almost every day on the terms of the next coronavirus relief stimulus package. While both agree on providing second stimulus checks to Americans, there are still several outstanding items they cannot agree on. Many Americans are suffering without knowing when they can expect the next stimulus checks. President Donald Trump has made some bold promises as he tries to push for the next coronavirus relief stimulus package to pass quickly. He told reporters Friday: We will have a tremendous stimulus package immediately after the election. Pelosi believes that it will take longer than immediately after the election to pass a stimulus bill. The winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021. Expecting Joe Biden to win, she said in an interview with MSNBC Friday: Certainly, we’ll have something at the start of the new presidency, but we don’t want to have to wait that long, because people have needs. On Thursday, Pelosi took her stimulus package negotiations with Mnuchin public in what the treasury secretary called “a political stunt.” The house speaker published a letter she wrote to Mnuchin, outlining several outstanding items of their Covid-19 relief negotiations and seeking the Trump administration’s responses on them. She additionally pointed out that President Trump’s stimulus promise can only have meaning if he can get McConnell and other Senate Republicans to agree with their House counterparts. Mnuchin responded by publishing a response letter to Pelosi on the same day. “I woke up this morning and read your letter to me in the press. Because you sent it to my office at midnight and simultaneously released it to the press, I can unfortunately only conclude that it is a political stunt,” he wrote. The treasury secretary proceeded to outline the discussions and disagreements he has been having with Pelosi. He also tweeted that Pelosi’s “all or none approach is hurting hard-working Americans who need help now.” Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is less optimistic than Trump or Pelosi about when the next stimulus package will be approved. He told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday: We probably need to do another package, certainly more modest than the $3 trillion dollar Nancy Pelosi package. I think that’ll be something we’ll need to do right at the beginning of the year. When do you think Americans will receive their second stimulus checks? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Second Stimulus Checks: When Lawmakers Will Pass Relief Package With Direct Payments to Americans appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Zurich-based Gazprombank, a subsidiary of Russia’s third-largest bank, has been approved by Switzerland’s financial regulator to offer a number of cryptocurrency services, including the buying, selling, trading, and custody of bitcoin. Gazprombank Approved to Offer Bitcoin Services Gazprombank (Switzerland) Ltd. announced Thursday that it has received authorization from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to provide cryptocurrency services. The Zurich-based bank is wholly owned by Russian Gazprombank. The parent company is the third-largest bank in Russia as well as the third-largest in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of equity, according to the bank’s website. A fully licensed Swiss financial institution, Gazprombank (Switzerland) provides traditional banking products and services to its corporate and institutional customers. With the new approval, the bank will begin offering its clients “custody of cryptocurrencies as well as trading between crypto and fiat currencies.” The bank added that initially it will provide these services to a limited number of selected clients, elaborating: The new services will include institutional-grade storage solutions and the purchase and sale of bitcoin. Gazprombank plans to gradually expand the offering to include additional cryptocurrencies and other products and services. “The clients get access to cryptocurrency liquidity, while the safekeeping of the cryptocurrencies is taken care of by a Swiss regulated bank. Furthermore, the counterparty risk is limited,” the announcement outlines, detailing the benefits of the new crypto offering, adding: We expect digital assets to become increasingly important in the global economy and, in particular, for our current and potential clientele. What do you think about Gazprombank providing crypto services? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Switzerland Approves Gazprombank to Offer Bitcoin Trading and Custody appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The world-famous gamer and Youtuber, Pewdiepie is getting involved with another blockchain project called Wallem, a 3D augmented reality video game that uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for skins and items. The game also rewards players with an Ethereum-based ERC20 token called pteria (PTE). The Youtuber also has a non-fungible token that represents a skin of Pewdiepie that can be purchased on the Rarible marketplace and used in Wallem’s virtual 3D world. The popular Youtuber Pewdiepie is joining a new blockchain technology project called Wallem built on top of the Ethereum network. The Youtuber and gamer told his 107 million subscribers about the Wallem game on October 30, while playing in the 3D world on his channel. Wallem is an augmented reality (AR) video game for iOS and Android users. The AR is integrated with the real world similar to the well known AR game Pokémon Go. In addition to the AR and 3D world, Wallem leverages the Ethereum blockchain for a native game currency called pteria (PTE) and NFT-powered skins and items. On November 1, the Wallem team announced that the team has issued a limited number of NFTs via the Pteria DAO, the NFT skins represent unique skins. The Pteria DAO (following a positive majority vote) issued a limited number of NFTs representing skins that can be used within the Wallem app,” explained Wallem’s announcement. The team further stated: As first mint, the Pteria DAO issued 6 different NFTs that represent the YouTuber Pewdiepie skin in Wallem. The Wallem AR blockchain game is not the first time the famous Youtuber Pewdiepie has endorsed distributed ledger technology. In February 2018, Pewdiepie poked fun at Youtubers who shilled the Bitconnect crypto Ponzi. Then in April 2019, Pewdiepie joined the live streaming platform Dlive, an alternative to video platform Twitch. Interestingly, when the Pewdiepie NFT becomes available on Rarible, NFT owners will be able to accrue revenue from future sales. For instance, “10% of all the crypto that Pewdiepie skins collect within the crypto events in Wallem,” the Wallem team notes. Blockchain gaming and non-fungible tokens have become very popular these days. Nonfungible.com shows that there’s been over $1.5 million in NFT sales. During the last seven days, the average NFT sells for $60.58 according to the nonfungible.com stats web portal. Moreover, a number of virtual world games utilize blockchain technology and many of them leverage the Ethereum network. VR worlds like Decentraland, Sandbox, Wallem, and Somnium Space are all trying to revolutionize the metaverse. What do you think about Pewdiepie joining the Wallem project and his NFT skins? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Pewdiepie Joins the Blockchain AR Game Wallem, Players Can Buy Youtube Star’s NFT Skin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A study by Etoro and The Tie find listing and partnership announcements as significant developments (Sigdev) that have an immediate, large, and positive influence on token price. This influence, which peaks within the first 24 hours, usually wears off after a week, according to the study report. The Impact of a New Token Listing Yet, on the other hand, funding, as well as Merger and Acquisitions announcements, tend to have positive effects on the token price that extend beyond one week. The study, which lists and ranks a total of 15 Sigdevs, finds token burning and 51% attacks as factors with the least positive influence on price. The Etoro and The Tie quarterly report, which zeroes in on new token listings, covers a period dominated by new listings and airdrops, particularly within the decentralized finance (defi) space. Just recently, the defi token of Andre Cronje’s new project, KP3R soared by 3,600% after going from $10, its opening price on Uniswap, to over $373.00 in 24 hours. Token Listings Are Similar to an Equities IPO Explaining why new listings seem to have a greater and immediate influence on token price movement, the study says “when a crypto-asset gets listed on an exchange it immediately becomes available to a large set of potential users.” Before any such listing, investors may not have had exposure to that particular asset. After drawing comparisons with an equities initial public offering (IPO), the report, however, states that “crypto-assets may trade on hundreds of individual exchanges, and thus different listing events may have significantly different impacts on price.” The report explains the difference between a token listing on a liquid market and an illiquid one. It states: However, when a newer asset that was previously listed on more illiquid markets gets placed on a large trading venue, like eToro, Coinbase, or Binance, the potential price impact is the greatest. This is because markets previously didn’t exist for that coin on any of the larger exchanges. The report uses the example of the aragon (ANT), which listed on a number of large cryptocurrency exchanges, including Okex, Binance, and Huobi between August 12th and 13th respectively. Within two hours of listing on Okex, the token went “from $4.34 to $5.38 in just under two hours, a gain of 24%.” However, the listing of ANT on the other two exchanges saw larger gains being made. The report states: “Less than 24 hours later, the token was listed on Huobi and Binance concurrently, and the price of Aragon soared to a high of $11.45, a 164% gain in under 24 hours.” At the time of writing, ANT was trading at $3.12. Mergers and Acquisitions Generate Better Returns In the meantime, the study data shows that mergers and acquisitions have “a 90% chance of a positive return after a week, averaging 8.23% in returns.” Explaining this growth phenomenal growth, the Etoro and The Tie team says “this outsized return is likely due to the fact that most token-related M&A news is tightly held secrets.” Other Sigdevs averaging higher returns after a week include funding with 4.21%, illicit activity (5.59%), and mainnet launches (3.08%). Do you agree with the findings in the token study? Share your views in the comments section below. The post Report: Token Listings Have Short Term Positive Influence on Price, M&A Have Better Impact in the Long Term appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto lender Genesis provided $5.2 billion in new loans in the third quarter of 2020, more than double its previous record of $2.2 billion in the preceding quarter. Issued to corporate borrowers such as hedge funds and trading firms, the loans are mainly denominated in bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), and cash. According to the U.S. company’s Q3 Digital Asset Report shared with news.Bitcoin.com on Oct. 30, Genesis grew its active loans outstanding 50% to $2.1 billion from $1.4 billion in the second quarter. Altogether, Genesis has processed a total of $13.6 billion worth of crypto loans since it started its lending business in March 2018. As a percentage of the total loan portofolio, bitcoin-based loans fell sharply in Q3, tanking to 40.8% from 51.2% previously. BCH loans almost remained stagnant at 4.3% while ETH borrowing nearly doubled to 12.4%. “The main driver of this portfolio shift came from the impact of liquidity mining on decentralized finance (defi) protocols,” said Genesis. “We saw defi interest rate arbitrage drive significant new issuance where our trading counterparties started actively borrowing ETH and stablecoins to lever up liquidity mining strategies. These counterparties, at the same time, borrowed the associated governance tokens such as UNI, YFI, COMP, and LEND to hedge their future in-kind earnings.” The lender says it is seeing massive growth across all its business lines, including derivatives and spot trading. In the review quarter, derivatives volume – both options and futures – soared 150% to $1 billion from $400 million previously. Genesis only started trading derivatives in Q2 2020. Spot volume rose about 15% quarter-on-quarter to $4.5 billion, it said. What do you think about Genesis’ growing loan book? Share your thoughts in the comments below. The post Genesis Doubles Crypto Loan Issuance for the Third Quarter to $5.2 Billion appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

While bitcoin has run-up to all new price highs in 2020, a great number of crypto supporters have been complaining about the mempool backlog and the high fees needed to send a transaction. Meanwhile, the Lightning Network is far from seeing widespread adoption, and a number of attack vectors have been revealed this year. At the time of publication, the Bitcoin (BTC) mempool (backlog of transactions) shows 113,000+ unconfirmed transactions and the backlog hasn’t been this high since 2017. When the bull run took place three years ago, transaction fees and unconfirmed transactions shot through the roof. Currently, according to bitcoinfees.cash data on October 31, the next BTC block fee is $10.77 and the current median fee is $6.43. Even with the high fees and the mempool clog, the greater bitcoin community is still transacting mostly onchain. The Layer 2 protocol built on top of Bitcoin called the Lightning Network (LN) was supposed to ease the problems, and it was assumed people would shift to the LN solution. However, this never came to fruition, as the LN software has been considered too difficult for the average user, many apps are custodial, and there have been numerous vulnerabilities disclosed this year. Even though the LN total-value-locked (TVL) in 2020 has been at an all-time high ($14.3M), it hasn’t come close to the over $2 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC) held on Ethereum. The attack vectors have also been making crypto advocates leery of the Layer 2 protocol, as there’s been a number of vulnerabilities disclosed. For instance, Joost Jager, an independent Bitcoin and Lightning Network engineer tweeted about one on Sept. 22. “Lightning is great, but can’t say it is battle-tested,” said Jager. “If script kids would be interested, they could take down those shiny new 5 BTC wumbo channels with negligible cost and no effort at all.” The fact that any script kiddie could leverage the ‘griefing attack’ to take down those 5 BTC channels, with very little effort, is quite discouraging. The Bitcoin (BTC) mempool (backlog of transactions) shows 113,000+ unconfirmed transactions on October 31, 2020. Moreover, the researchers Jona Harris and Aviv Zohar recently published a paper called: “Flood & Loot: A Systemic Attack On The Lightning Network,” which is similar to the griefing attack. “One of the risks that were identified early on is that of a wide systemic attack on the protocol, in which an attacker triggers the closure of many Lightning channels at once,” explains the paper’s authors. “The resulting high volume of transactions in the blockchain will not allow for the proper settlement of all debts, and attackers may get away with stealing some funds. This paper explores the details of such an attack and evaluates its cost and overall impact on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.” Furthermore, on June 2, 2020, Antoine Riard and Gleb Naumenko published a paper on another Lightning Network vulnerability called the “time-dilation attack.” One scary fact that Naumenko and Riard disclose about the time-dilation attack, is that it is “currently possible to steal the total channel capacity by keeping a node eclipsed for as little as 2 hours.” Not too long after that issue, Antoine Riard recently discussed another susceptible exploit called the “Pinning Attack.” Riard notes that to the best of his knowledge, “currently deployed LN peers aren’t secure against [certain Pinning Attack] scenarios.” One particular scenario “requires heavy, long-term work at the base layer,” Riard stressed. The Lightning Network has been around for quite some time, but these vulnerabilities and exploits combined with how unfriendly the user experience is, it hard to imagine the second layer solution catching on. Of course, some of the exploits are more costly than other attacks, and engineers are working on solutions to fix these issues. However, many Lightning Network skeptics don’t believe the LN protocol will ever be ready, as one individual noted on Twitter: Even if that were a success (by 2051, with one-third of the buyers already dead of old age) Lightning Network would STILL be vulnerable to Flood and Loot attack, and trivial DDOS at the protocol level. Lightning Network is no solution whatsoever. What do you think about the Lightning Network vulnerabilities disclosed this year? Do you think it’s a good scaling solution? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Lightning Network Exploits Continue to Hinder the Bitcoin Scaling Solution appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency supporters all around the world are celebrating the fact that today is the 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper, a summary of the invention created by the pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin’s inventor published the paper on metzdowd.com’s Cryptography Mailing list and ever since then, the financial world hasn’t been the same. 12 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto decided to let the world in on Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer electronic cash system that took the world by storm. The very first time Nakamoto published the paper was at 2:10 p.m. Eastern Standard, on metzdowd.com. There’s a lot we don’t know about Bitcoin’s inventor and to this day the anonymous creator’s identity is still unknown. However, we do know that Nakamoto was a legendary genius and could have been a single person or even a group of people. Bitcoin’s inventor specifically chose to publish the “Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper” paper on metzdowd.com mainly because of the Cryptography Mailing list, a pipermail message service that was operated by a group of visionaries and cypherpunks. The cypherpunks had been trying to create reliable digital money since the 1990s and several experiments like Wei Dai’s b money circulated on the message service. We also know that Satoshi wrote the codebase for Bitcoin before the famous white paper was published. Then on October 31, 2008, on the eve of Halloween, Satoshi wrote: I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party. The system Nakamoto created, has given birth to a massive counter-economy worth close to $400 billion, just in the market capitalization of all 7,000+ cryptocurrencies alone. Since the paper was first introduced, it has been cited 12,425 times to-date and mentioned in tens of thousands of articles during the last 12 years. Minus the paper’s citations, the Bitcoin white paper is 3,457 words in length and is composed of 16,686 characters excluding the arithmetic. Excerpt from Satoshi’s Bitcoin white paper published on Oct. 31, 2008. At the end of the paper, Nakamoto uses the term “we,” and stresses that the paper is a proposal that describes a system of electronic transactions “without relying on trust.” Nakamoto added: We started with the usual framework of coins made from digital signatures, which provides strong control of ownership, but is incomplete without a way to prevent double-spending. To solve this, we proposed a peer-to-peer network using proof-of-work to record a public history of transactions that quickly becomes computationally impractical for an attacker to change if honest nodes control a majority of CPU power. Excerpt from Satoshi’s Bitcoin white paper published on Oct. 31, 2008. Nakamoto then called the network “robust in its unstructured simplicity.” Of course, at that time when Satoshi published the white paper, nobody knew that the anonymous author literally developed the first working solution to the Byzantine Generals’ Problem. Bitcoin’s creator knew that the infamous Byzantine Generals’ Problem, something that plagued computer scientists for decades, was officially solved and Nakamoto detailed this fact in some of the earliest messages to the community. Of all the mysterious clues about Satoshi’s identity, the paper is one of the most succinct economic papers ever written. The white paper is so well crafted that many people think that it may have been written by another person, other than the online persona people communicated with until Dec. 2010. Speculation aside, the paper gives a clear definition of the network and is considered a must-read for every cryptocurrency newb joining the counter-economy. For some reason, on Halloween eve, Nakamoto felt the urge to tell the world there is a need for an electronic payment system “based on cryptographic proof instead of trust.” This in turn would allow “any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.” With the central banks creating money out of thin air, the need has never been more clear. What do you think about Satoshi Nakamoto publishing the Bitcoin white paper 12 years ago today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin White Paper: A 12-Year Old Summary of Robust Unstructured Simplicity appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

John McAfee has shared many details about his life in Spanish prison and chances of extradition to the U.S. He additionally claims to have regained control of his ghost cryptocurrency project. Prison Life ‘Is an Adventure’ Former U.S. presidential candidate and antivirus software tycoon John McAfee is in Spanish prison awaiting his extradition trial after he was arrested in Spain. McAfee has been tweeting regularly from prison. “You want to know what prison is like. It’s like a Motel 6 run by Hitler’s SS,” he tweeted, elaborating: I am content in here. I have friends. The food is good. All is well. Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine … Prison is an adventure to say the least. “Spanish prisons are like the Hilton hotel compared to the abject surreality and dehumanization of American prisons,” he described in another tweet. “In Spanish prisons, you are treated as a human being instead of a number. I am treated well.” Admitting that he is “surrounded by murderers, muggers, and thieves,” the antivirus software tycoon maintained that it is “Not as bad as our government of course. But still.” McAfee Denies Charges Against Him The former presidential candidate insists that the U.S. government is after him for speaking the truth, particularly against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). “I once publicly called the SEC a festering pustule on the face of America, and the IRS – a legalized criminal gang aspiring to be the equivalent of Hitler’s SS. These are the two agencies accusing me of hideous crimes. I can only assume that they took offense at my remarks.” Nonetheless, he affirmed: “I would not exchange my life in prison for a life of freedom in which I could not speak the truth.” Regarding the $23 million dollar judgment against him, McAffee claimed: “It was a civil suit not a criminal issue. I never even responded to the suit. It was simply a default judgment.” He declared: I am charged with tax fraud – which is lying on your tax return. I have filed no returns for many years and have made no secret of it. If I have said nothing how could I have lied. My real crime is speaking publicly about the insanity rampant within our system of government. Responding to a question from the media about whether the U.S. justice system is just, he said: “If extradited, I face 35 years in prison for multiple counts of refusing to file tax returns. Had I chosen armed robbery, I would’ve received 5 years maximum. You tell me if it’s just.” Furthermore, McAfee tweeted on Friday: “I’m in prison for refusing to file tax returns, while government bureaucrats use your taxes for private planes, lavish parties and all other benefits of their power.” Commenting on the upcoming U.S. presidential election, he said, “If you think this election, whatever its results, will change this system, you will be sadly disappointed.” McAfee Still Pumping His Ghost Cryptocurrency Although charged by the SEC for pumping tokens, McAfee is still pumping his ghost cryptocurrency. He confirmed from prison that Ghost is the only crypto project he is involved with at present. Recalling that he abandoned the project in August due to a fallout with the management, he clarified: I have returned to controlling the Ghost development. My feud with management has ended. With the announcement that we will soon release a private stable coin, will mark a new era in transacting crypto business. Transaction fees will be shared amongst all Ghost holders. “When our private stablecoin is released, it will revolutionize crypto transactions. I have capable managers and communicate frequently from prison,” he claimed. “My work with Ghost revolves entirely around our development of the world’s first private stablecoin. Version one will be a wrapped DAI. Later we will have a new stable, private blockchain. Holders of Ghost will share all transaction fee profits for the stablecoin.” He also commented on Paypal’s announcement to begin supporting cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, on its platform. “Paypal’s acceptance of cryptocurrency signals, I believe, a new wave of cryptocurrency acceptance worldwide. Governments around the world will have to get used to cryptocurrencies.” He further tweeted: “Paypal to take crypto. The IRS must be pissing itself.” What’s Next for McAfee The U.S. government wants him extradited from Spain, which McAfee says he is 100% certain will not happen because the Spanish “courts will see the clear resentment of the American government toward my public condemnations of their increasing corruption. They also understand how simple it is for a corrupt system to manufacture evidence that can prove anything against anyone who is a public enemy. They will decline my extradition,” he wrote. As such, he said he will not need a lawyer in the U.S., emphasizing that “There is zero chance that Spain will extradite me.” McAfee revealed that when he is released, he will do “The same as before,” which is to “continue speaking against the cancer that has invaded every organ of the U.S. government bureaucracy.” He added that he is not sorry for what he has done. “I have followed my heart and stood up for my beliefs. I will never regret that,” he said. On the subject of him allegedly being wanted for murder in Belize, McAfee insisted: This is false. I was not charged with murder nor was I a suspect. The Belizean authorities will confirm this. I was a person of interest like all of the murdered man’s neighbors. I chose not to be questioned. I was already at war with the Belizean government. McAfee posted his prison address on Friday after he said many people have asked for it. “Letters only. No packages. No money, drugs or weapons please. Everything is opened,” he warned. Finally, the cybersecurity tycoon said he would not reveal where he had been hiding: “I will not say. I may need to hide again someday.” What do you think about John McAfee’s story? Let us know in the comments section below. The post John McAfee Pumps Crypto From Prison, Denies Tax Fraud and Murder Charges appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A Chinese court has confirmed the sentencing of the masterminds behind the 7.7 billion yuan Chinese Ponzi scheme Wotoken, which had over 715,000 investors. Wotoken Scammers Sentenced to Prison The Intermediate People’s Court of Yancheng city, Jiangsu province, denied an appeal by four convicts involved in the billion-dollar Ponzi scheme Wotoken on Tuesday, several local media reported. The court upheld the original sentences for Gao Yudong, Li Qibing, Wang Xiaoying, and Tian Bo who were dissatisfied with their original sentencing and filed an appeal. They believe they had minor roles in the scheme. The four were sentenced to prison for eight years and six months, seven years, seven years, and two years and six months respectively, IT Times reported. They were also fined two million yuan, 1.5 million yuan, 1.5 million yuan, and one million yuan respectively. In addition, two other defendants were sentenced for their roles in the Wotoken scam. Li Guomin was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 100,000 yuan while Tang Xiaohua was sentenced to six months imprisonment with one-year probation, the publication added. In May, 12 people allegedly behind the Wotoken Ponzi scheme were tried, including the six defendants mentioned above. Chinese law enforcement has seized 425 million yuan ($64 million) of illegal proceeds from the Wotoken scheme, which were turned over to the state treasury. The illegal proceeds belonging to the four who appealed will also be recovered and turned over to the state treasury, the publication conveyed. The scheme involves a number of cryptocurrencies, collectively worth about 7.7 billion yuan ($1.15 billion), according to blockchain data. They included 46,050 BTC, 286 million USDT, 2 million ETH, 292,590 LTC, 56,900 BCH, and 6,841,797 EOS. The Wotoken (WOR) platform attracted 715,249 registered users between July 2018 and October 2019. The scheme has 501 MLM layers. At least one person behind the Wotoken Ponzi scheme was also a key member of a larger Chinese Ponzi scheme called Plustoken, according to an investigative reporter. The Plustoken Ponzi swindled about $6 billion from more than 715,000 investors. Chinese police took down the scheme in July, arrested 109 people involved, and charged six members with fraud. What do you think about the Wotoken Ponzi scheme? Let us know in the comments section below. The post $1.1 Billion Crypto Ponzi: Masterminds of Wotoken Head to Prison in China appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The acting director of the U.S. Office Comptroller of Currency (OCC) Brian Brooks says the creation of the U.S. digital dollar is a terrible one because the government is not good at building things. Instead, Brooks believes tech companies, which already possess the know-how, to be in a better position to issue stable digital currencies. He says the U.S. government needs to focus on doing what it does best-regulation. Growing Stablecoin Supply The acting comptroller of currency’s comments come as reports suggest the US is currently working on a digital dollar. However, the U.S. digital dollar can only be issued in four years’ time. Speaking in an interview, Brooks, who uses analogies to support his stance on stablecoins, believes the United States can only flourish when the government allows the private sector to innovate. Expounding on this belief, Brooks says U.S. government regulatory agencies should instead be concerned with the protection of investors. To support his theory, Brooks points to the phenomenal growth of stablecoins in the past few months. He says: If you look at the growth of the major stablecoin, the USDT, you see it has been doubling in market capitalisation every 60 days for the past four, five to six months. This kind of growth is astounding. Therefore, instead of competing with private innovators, Brooks advises the US government to focus on “putting audit and consumer disclosure rules so that the market can have confidence that the money is there.” The Envisioned Role for Central Banks Still, Brooks makes it clear that allowing private companies to be the issuers of stablecoins does not diminish the effectiveness of the monetary policy since any such tokens issuance is backed by dollars that are in circulation. “Just like Circle and Coinbase have issued a stablecoin and not the Federal Reserve…. still that stablecoin is issued with the promise that it is redeemable for a dollar.” All dollars in circulation are issued by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Brooks also clarifies that stablecoins issued by private tech companies cannot be more than the circulating supply because “you cannot sell the stablecoin unless someone gives you the dollar.” When asked about the role of commercial banks in this setup, Brooks says he envisions the financial institutions “being nodes on these blockchains or themselves be issuers of stablecoins at some point.” This will be in addition to banks acting as depositories. Contradictions Meanwhile, the OCC acting chief appears to contradict the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as he laments how the U.S. has been slow to embrace digital currencies. Powell recently said that the U.S. not very concerned about being the first to issue a central bank digital currency. Instead, he says prefers getting it right the first time. However, pointing to the EU’s release of a stablecoin framework as well as China’s distribution of the e-RMB, Brooks asks: The question is where is the U.S. in all this? It is not an answer to just say we are worried about AML. Brooks explains that other countries are seeing “crypto and stablecoins in particular as a strategic advantage” and the U.S. “has not figured that out yet.” Do you agree that the US government must not issue a digital dollar? Tell us what you think in the comments section below The post OCC’s Brian Brooks Against Government Issued Digital Dollar – Supports Regulation of Privately Issued Stablecoins appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Yield Trust Team from Stockholm, Sweden is ready to launch their new DeFi protocol for public access, providing users exciting and unique technologies to finally beat market manipulation and reduce market affection by the whales. The protocol is going to grow all around starting it’s move to Polkadot after releasing all significant features and might become one of the biggest multichain DeFi projects in the industry. What makes Yield Trust so unique? Yield Trust is part of the large Yield Trust protocol which will include way more features in future to build around the main governance which will control the whole ecosystem of dApps. It is built for people not users implying a trust score system to treat everyone as a person. Main Yield Trust advantage is that it is not another compilation project from the others or copycat or fork. It brings absolutely new features to decentralized finance scope. Upcoming Features of Yield Trust Protocol ► Trust score (Monetary proxy) The system to reward holders and punish manipulators by restricting whales. Trust score is an internal smart contract variable which is applied to everyone, but restricts only the people who are manipulating token price. Smart contract as a monetary proxy will decide if a user is violating Trust score. ► Insured farming Is the new yield farming approach where users get cover tokens instead of getting nothing by depositing liquidity or tokens into a pool. Cover tokens represent liquidity rate for the pair of the pool and served by separate smart contract and can be redeemed anytime. ► Early Referral program Airdrop Instead of throwing away tokens there is a Referral program to reward the most active users of the community for spreading the word about Yield Trust. 1,000 Tokens are going to be distributed between everyone who joined it. Token Metrics 48.3% – Dapps & Rewards 30% – Presale Allocation 15% – Initial Liquidity (forever locked) 3.3% – Team 3.3% – Referral program Presale Info Yield Trust is making Yield Trust ($YTRU) Governance Token accessible by joining an exclusive presale through bounce.finance from OCT 30th 3PM UTC – NOV 8th 3PM UTC. At the end of the presale YTRU/ETH pair will be listed on Uniswap and initial liquidity added and locked forever. Repositories with source code of the protocol will be available on Github after deployment. 1 ETH = 15 YTRU Soft Cap: 400 ETH Hard Cap: 600 ETH Presale Allocation: 9,000 YTRU Max Supply: 30,000 YTRU Unsold Tokens: Proportional Burn Individual Cap: No Max Presale venue is bounce.finance More information at https://yieldtrust.finance/presale Social Media Website: https://yieldtrust.finance Telegram: https://t.me/ytru_finance Twitter: https://twitter.com/ytru_finance Medium: https://yield-trust.medium.com/ This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post Yield Trust DeFi Protocol with Anti-Manipulation and Unique Trust Score Feature – Presale Now Live appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article