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Reports that global banking giants helped criminals launder money for close to two decades helped spark the crash of global stock markets on Monday, September 21. Also tumbling in tandem with stocks were cryptocurrencies thus leading to renewed concerns that digital assets are intertwined with the global financial system. However, these concerns are dismissed by Max Keiser, a bitcoin pioneer and a Wall Street analyst who insists that bitcoin behaves differently. Keiser’s latest comments about bitcoin were prompted by remarks made by one Twitter user who questions the commonly held view that cryptocurrencies are immune from the global financial system. In a tweet, the user expresses concern that each time “when stock markets go down bitcoin gets pummeled.” The user insists that “if bitcoin is ever going to be successful it needs to break away from bankings thumb. Until then.” In his response, Keiser argues that “bitcoin, like gold, is inversely correlated to the $USD – *not* the stock market.” In a warning to bitcoiners, Keiser says “don’t be fooled by randomness.” Just like Keiser, many bitcoin supporters are adamant that the top cryptocurrency follows a different path to that of company stocks. They point to the movement of the crypto shortly after crashing by 40% on March 12, the so-called black Thursday. At the time of the crash, global markets were also in the red yet it is bitcoin which appears to have recovered and grown at a much faster pace than stocks. To illustrate, an observation of data available on Markets.bitcoin.com shows that bitcoin nearly doubled in value between March and September 2020. Specifically, on March 21, bitcoin, which dominates the crypto market, traded at $5,792. Yet by end of day on September 21, the leading digital asset traded at $10,499. In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the widely-watched benchmark index in the U.S. for blue-chip stocks, closed March 20 at 19,173 points. However, exactly six months later, the index closed the day on September 21 at 27,147 points, representing growth of 41.5% from March. It is seemingly this data that convinces some bitcoiners that the cryptocurrency has an inverse relationship with fiat currencies like the USD. What do you think of Keiser’s assertions about bitcoin’s relationship with the USD? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. The post Keiser Insists ‘Bitcoin Inversely Correlated To USD Not Stock Markets’ After Crypto Market Tumble appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In 2017, the gaming world was revolutionized by the massive success of a simple blockchain game called CryptoKitties. It enabled players to breed and trade unique digital cats via a series of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. That simple concept led to a game that now boasts millions of dollars’ worth of user transactions, spawned a blockchain company that attracted serious venture capital investment, and garnered near-constant media coverage for months after launch. It also showcased blockchain gaming as a force to be reckoned with in the future gaming space. But in the years since, developers have had a hard time building on the early success. Part of the problem has been a lack of a viable financial model to support long-term blockchain game development. And that’s exactly what Team3D aims to create with the recent announcement of the public listing of their new VIDYA cryptocurrency. What is VIDYA? VIDYA is the opening move in Team3D’s broader campaign to create a thriving new blockchain gaming ecosystem. The goal is to use VIDYA to accomplish several vital tasks to further that effort. First, it will serve as a cross-game currency and inventory system that will enable developers to build multiple linked games that feature item sharing and other cross-connected gameplay mechanics. It will also serve as a bolt-on escrow system that developers can use to create wager-based game lobbies for their player-versus-player and multiplayer games. But most importantly, VIDYA is to serve as a funding mechanism to provide game creators with the financial support necessary to do the kind of long-term development that will result in revolutionary new blockchain gaming concepts. To begin, 30% of the total minted VIDYA will remain reserved for game development costs, which will provide seed funding for several games, at least one of which is already in the late stages of development. But the long-term funding will come from small staking fees assessed upon the successful completion of any VIDYA-connected game match. That means that players of each new game will become the financial fuel for others in the ecosystem. Who is Team3D? To understand how the idea for VIDYA came to be, it’s important to understand who its creators, Team3D, are. They’re a Toronto, Canada-based group of digital artists, game developers, and blockchain programmers who have been building dApps on the Ethereum blockchain for almost as long as it has been publicly available. Between them, they already have a plethora of decentralized games and tools to their credit, including notable dApp titles like TronGoo, TronFarms, and 0x60. They’ve also experienced firsthand what it’s like to try and develop groundbreaking blockchain-ready games for serious gamers. What they encountered was a blockchain gaming environment that’s set up to reward simple revenue-generating games rather than fostering innovation and experimentation that blends tokenomics with engaging gameplay elements. It was an ecosystem that incentivized developers to create safe, carbon-copy games in the shortest possible time. And that’s where the idea for the new VIDYA ecosystem had its genesis. According to a Team3D representative, the whole point of VIDYA is “To sustain an economy built for real games that have been in development for over two years, that touch on different aspects of tokenomics that we have seen so much of lately, such as deflationary and proof-of-liquidity models.” In other words, it aims to turn the traditional blockchain gaming financial model on its head – and to give developers what they need to build games that serious gamers will love, instead of building mass-market carbon copies of earlier games. What to Expect from Team3D and VIDYA The public sale of VIDYA began on August 22nd, but that’s not the end of the story. It’s only the beginning. That’s because Team3D is already hard at work building out the other elements of their platform to turn their blockchain game ecosystem concept into a reality. They’re already knee-deep into the development of VIDYA’s cross-game inventory and equipment system as well as its staking mechanism. The inventory system will be a game-changer because it will allow players true ownership of in-game purchased items. Unlike traditional in-game purchases which may be modified or discontinued by publishers at any time, items in the VIDYA system are immutable. That means they will form the basis for a viable secondary market where gamers can buy and sell the items they’ve acquired as often as they choose. And the system won’t be under the control of a publisher, giving the player total control over their assets. Owners can also opt to invest their VIDYA in the platform’s liquidity staking system, known as Generator. It offers investors the chance to earn additional VIDYA by contributing to the currency’s liquidity. In exchange for their stake, participants will receive a daily percentage of the system’s earnings from its varied operations. It’s a risk-free way to become a supporter of the concept while earning a tidy sum. Team3D is also about to begin testing on a blockchain-connected FPS game concept that will represent a major gaming breakthrough and a milestone in blockchain game development. If all goes well, Team3D expects to launch a completed VIDYA-connected game within the fourth quarter of 2020. It will function both as a proof-of-concept as well as a symbol of their ongoing commitment to keep innovating in the space for the long term. And at the same time, they’ll be bringing all of these developments together into a central management platform, known as TeamOS. It will give all stakeholders, be they VIDYA holders, game item owners, or even participating 3rd-party developers a single location to manage all of their VIDYA assets. It will be the culmination of the many development threads covered here, and a living symbol of the breadth and depth of the VIDYA concept as a whole. How to Learn More about VIDYA Since the ongoing development of the VIDYA ecosystem is still a work-in-progress, there’s bound to be even more developments coming from Team3D in the coming months. And as passionate gamers and developers, they’re more than happy to discuss their future plans and progress with anyone who’s curious about them. Team members are always easy to find via their official Telegram account and their Discord channel. And of course, the Team3D website will be updated frequently as development work progresses on VIDYA and its connected projects. Also, the site is going to serve as a hub for the upcoming VIDYA cross-game inventory system as well as for all of the games that will eventually become a part of the platform. So, remember to check out the site as frequently as possible to stay up to date on all things VIDYA as the work continues – and to witness the birth of a new era of cutting-edge blockchain gaming, unlike anything that’s come before it. This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. The post VIDYA’s Public Sale Marks the Dawn of a New Blockchain Gaming Era appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The price of SBTC plunged by nearly 98% in just over an hour on September 21 as devs announced the dissolution of the token. The dissolution announcement came more than a month after the token reached an all-time high of $5.07. At the time of writing, the token was quoted at $0.007 down from $0.64. In a short announcement issued via a Discord group, the SBTC team said they are no longer proceeding with the project while thanking those that stuck with the project until the end. According to information on Coinmarketcap, creators of the SBTC aimed to peg the token price to 0.0001 BTC or 100,000 Satoshi by utilizing the built-in smart contract token contraction & expansion algorithm, variable staking policies, and SBTC Foundation reserves. This would then ensure that one SBTC will be mathematically guaranteed to be worth 0.0001 BTC in the short/medium term regardless of circumstances. Meanwhile, in a message left of the SBTC website the team explained the steps holders of the token had to take before receiving the ETH airdrop: In order to receive the airdrop of ETH/ULU, you are required to hold SBTC in a wallet that you control the private key to or at an exchange that supports SBTC airdrop. Do not hold SBTC in any other form other than SBTC the very basic token, holding it via liquidity pool or via contracts will not receive the airdrop. You should have done the above before September 21st regardless of what time zone you are in. At the time of the announcement, the SBTC team said the “best effort estimation of airdrop is still around 0.002 ETH + some ULU tokens per SBTC. You will only receive airdrop if you hold more than 30 SBTC.” At the time of writing, the airdrop had been completed and another announcement in the discord then concludes that the “SBTC token is now useless, you should all sell it if it pays for gas and time.” The ULU airdrop “will not happen unless it becomes more worthy” adds the announcement. What are your thoughts about the dissolution of SBTC? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. The post SBTC Plummets by 99% as Devs Announce Dissolution of Token appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Years ago when the Bitcoin network started suffering from higher fees and congestion, a number of bitcoiners advocated the use of sidechains in order to relieve the main chain’s duties. However, they didn’t realize that the Ethereum network would solidify its role as Bitcoin’s main sidechain during the last year. Five years ago, bitcoiners relentlessly argued over scaling the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain and a number of proponents said that sidechains and offchain solutions would help. Moreover, a number of solutions like Blockstream’s Liquid and the RSK network launched. Many supporters assumed those two sidechains combined with the Lightning Network would help alleviate the issues. However, none of these bitcoin enthusiasts expected to see the Ethereum network take over as BTC’s main sidechain. The situation was discussed this week when the investment partner at Paradigm, Arjun Balaji, tweeted about Ethereum’s massive growth in this area. “Over the last year, Ethereum has emerged as the first working Bitcoin sidechain, growing from ~0 to 91.8K BTC ($1B notional, 0.5% of circulating supply),” Balaji wrote on Twitter. “Users have choice across the trust spectrum, from centrally issued (WBTC), trust-minimized (tBTC) to purely synthetic (sBTC).” Data from Dune Analytics and @eliasimos Financial commentator and cryptocurrency lead at Cinnober, Eric Wall, responded to Balaji’s tweet and said it was more like 20 months, as opposed to a year. Wall also shared a tweet he sent back when the Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) project officially launched in January 2019. The cryptocurrency lead at Cinnober said: “Big day in crypto. Ethereum is now officially a Bitcoin sidechain.” When Wall tweeted this statement in 2019, a number of people didn’t agree with his assessment, so Wall further described his perspective of the sidechain definition. “A sidechain is a different chain that uses the same native asset as another chain, where that asset can be locked/unlocked on the respective chains via a 2-way peg,” Wall tweeted last year. “[RSK], [Paul Sztorc’s] Drivechain [and] Blockstream’s Liquid are examples of these. Now Ethereum is another example.” Ethereum proponent, Anthony Sassano, at first did not agree with Wall’s definition and said: “Ethereum doesn’t rely on the security of the Bitcoin blockchain so it’s not a ‘sidechain to Bitcoin’. WBTC is simply a tokenized representation of BTC.” Wall responded to Sassano by stating: The Liquid sidechain doesn’t rely on the security of Bitcoin mainnet either, it just makes the assumption that the bitcoins that get locked on the mainchain (and gets converted to LBTC on Liquid) can be unlocked again when the Liquid functionaries redeems them. Data from Dune Analytics and @eliasimos. When Wall tweeted those statements, WBTC had initially announced locking 65 BTC into the protocol, as the Wrapped Bitcoin team considered the first lock-in in to be a milestone. At the time of writing, there is approximately 107,101 tokenized BTC or $1.1 billion using today’s exchange rates circulating on the ETH chain. WBTC’s meager 65 BTC start is nothing compared to the growth the project has seen to-date, as the Wrapped Bitcoin project is the largest issuer of tokenized bitcoins today. Wrapped Bitcoin captures over 72% of the tokenized bitcoin in existence with 77,161 WBTC to-date according to Dune Analytics data. WBTC is followed by renBTC (20,525), hBTC (4,810), sBTC (3,528), imBTC (1,390), and pBTC (136). Additionally, crypto proponents are gearing up to witness the first trustless BTC-ETH bridge, as the tBTC project re-launched on Tuesday. “Launched with unprecedented security measures in place and ready to be used at tbtc.network, tBTC is fully audited and open-source,” the project’s blog announcement reads. The current number of BTC held on Ethereum, out of the 21 million that will be ever issued, is currently 0.510% of the capped supply. Tokenized bitcoins are also traded on various decentralized exchanges (dex) like Curve.fi and Uniswap and centralized exchanges (cex) as well. With the re-introduction of the tbtc.network, the sum of bitcoins held on Ethereum will likely continue to grow. The token tBTC will have a graduated supply cap and start at 100 BTC in the first week. “Each week, the contracts will loosen the deposit restriction based on a pre-committed schedule,” the project creators detail. The other contenders who started developing sidechain solutions years before the massive tokenized BTC migration to Ethereum; RSK and Blockstream have a long way to go to catch up to the network effect the ETH chain currently holds. The RSK sidechain has a circulating supply of 270 rBTC ($2.8M), while the Liquid Network has 2,594 BTC ($27M) in circulation. The supply of tokenized BTC on Ethereum, RSK, and Liquid combined is close to 110,000 BTC in total. Tokenized bitcoins on the Ethereum network eclipses these projects by 97.4% of all the tokens combined. What do you think about Ethereum becoming Bitcoin’s main sidechain in 2020? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. The post Tokenized BTC Crosses $1B Notional: Ethereum Cements Role as Bitcoin’s Main Sidechain appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A new Coingecko survey has found that a large number of yield farmers do not know how to read smart contracts despite claiming they understand the risks that come with such investments. According to the survey, which polled 1,347 people, around 40% of decentralized finance (defi) users cannot comprehend the smart contracts they use for farming. Some 33%, it says, have never heard of ‘impermanent loss’ – a temporary loss of funds that occurs when providing liquidity. This “implies that they (farmers) don’t know their real return on investment (ROI) and are extreme risk-takers for the sake of the high returns,” concluded Coingecko, a data aggregator for the crypto industry. Smart contracts are at the heart of defi protocols. 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’. Some of the most popular farming pools include compound (COMP), balancer (BAL), yearn.finance (YFI), curve.finance (CRV) and sushiswap (SUSHI). As of September 21, a total of $9 billion of value was locked in the entire defi market, up 300% since July, figures from Defipulse show. Per the survey, more than half of farmers put up under $1,000 in capital to farm – but the returns have been astounding, as high as 500%. About 93% of respondents said they have earned as much profit from their ‘meager’ investment capital. For Coingecko, this was not unexpected. The result is not a surprise find as many of the current new pools provide insanely high APY of over 1,000%. Our opinion is that these high yields offered are not sustainable as it comes with high risk, and the spike in gas fees will be a barrier to entry and exit for farmers. Coingecko observed “a behavior where farmers would ‘farm and dump’ after accumulating a substantial amount of reward tokens in the pool, which indicates that yield farming tokens are not being held long-term.” Around 68% of users claimed they do not leverage their positions to minimize risk, and 49% said they would not invest in unaudited protocols, instead, relying on auditors to check the safety of the smart contract. The majority of yield farmers hold ethereum (82.7%), with bitcoin accounting for 74%. Farmers holding chainlink reach around 26% with litecoin, polkadot, and tron each accounting for between 15% and 20%. What do you think about yield farmers failing to interpret smart contracts? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Survey: Large Number of Yield Farmers Can’t Read Smart Contracts Despite High Risk appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On Monday afternoon, Judge Beth Bloom, from the District Court of Florida, denied Craig Wright’s summary judgment and the infamous billion-dollar bitcoin lawsuit will go to trial in January. The court published a 93-page decision on the matter, as Judge Bloom detailed that “a genuine dispute of material fact exists” for a number of the complaints. Since Valentine’s Day in 2018, Craig Wright, the Australian who claims he invented Bitcoin, has been involved in a billion-dollar lawsuit. The case concerns the rightful ownership of an alleged 1.1 million BTC worth roughly $11 billion using today’s exchange rates. The plaintiff Ira Kleiman initiated the case and Ira’s lawsuit accuses Wright of manipulating his late brother’s bitcoin assets after his brother David Kleiman passed away in 2013. Representatives of David Kleiman’s estate say Craig Wright “perpetrated a scheme against Dave’s estate to seize Dave’s bitcoins and his rights to certain intellectual property associated with the Bitcoin technology.” Just recently Wright’s lawyers put in a motion for a summary judgment, which would have stopped the Kleiman’s from bringing the lawsuit to trial. However, Judge Beth Bloom completely denied Wright’s summary judgment motion on Monday. Wright’s summary judgment motion attempted to argue that the Florida court had no jurisdiction over the matters but failed. “Upon review, [Craig Wright] presents no record evidence to support a defense that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over him,” Bloom wrote in her order. The order shows that the trial will take place on January 4, 2021. After the judgment, the attorney Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill, discussed a number of pages and the opinions from Judge Beth Bloom’s 93-page order on Twitter. “Wright made 6 arguments, all of which the judge ultimately says are losers,” Palley wrote. “Next, the judge will get into the facts, and identify ones that are not ‘genuinely in dispute.’” Palley further added: There’s no dispute (at least based on the evidence) that Wright described himself and Kleiman as Satoshi on multiple occasions. These statements doesn’t mean that when made they were true (that he is Satoshi), btw; let’s see if the Courts get there (doubtful). A number of people on social media and cryptocurrency forums discussed Judge Beth Bloom’s decision to deny Wright’s summary judgment. Longtime bitcoiner, Daniel Krawisz, said on Twitter that the court decision will be meaningful for the entire crypto market. “Whatever happens to Craig Wright in court will matter for everybody in the whole crypto market,” Krawisz tweeted. “You can’t escape him just by staying away from BSV,” he added. A few people did not believe Krawisz’s statements as a number of crypto advocates think Craig Wright is completely irrelevant in regard to the digital currency ecosystem in general. “I won’t be affected, at all,” one person responded to Krawisz, and another person replied “exactly zero.” What do you think about Judge Beth Bloom denying Craig Wright’s summary judgment? Let us know what you think about this matter in the comments below. The post Craig Wright’s Summary Judgment Denied – Billion Dollar Bitcoin Lawsuit Heads to Trial appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

New research from the digital currency insurance firm, Evertas, shows that a surveyed group of investors managing roughly $78 billion in collective assets believes that during the next five years, institutional investors will “dramatically” increase their crypto asset holdings. This week the crypto asset insurance company Evertas published a cryptocurrency survey that included a number of institutional investors who collectively manage $78 billion in assets. The survey’s participants included ultra-high net worth individuals, custodians, traditional financial institutions, exchanges, funds, and family offices. The research reveals that 90% of the surveyed respondents believe institutional investors will increase their allocation of digital currencies during the next five years. The study published by Evertas says that participants said that they had a number of concerns about the investment into crypto assets. Some of which included the quality of trading desks and custodial services within the crypto ecosystem. The data from the Evertas survey shows 56% of the respondents are “very concerned” about the lack of insurance within the digital currency economy. 54% said they were also “very concerned” about compliance procedures for services who deal with institutional investors. Interviewees also told a few reasons as to why institutional investors will increase crypto asset exposure. 80% of survey respondents detailed that it was because the market was growing more robust and able to provide “greater liquidity.” 84% said that the increased exposure will be fueled by the improvement of regulatory infrastructure. “Our research shows that institutional investors are enthusiastic about increasing their exposure to cryptocurrencies and crypto assets in general,” J Gdanski, CEO and Founder of Evertas noted after the company published the crypto institutional investment survey. “There are clearly many issues regarding the infrastructure that supports these markets that still concerns them. These clearly need to be addressed if the full potential of investment from institutional investors in crypto assets is to be realised,” Gdanski added. According to the Evertas crypto investment survey, the company worked with a market research firm called Pureprofile. Out of the group of institutional respondents who manage billions worth of assets, 25 were based in the United Kingdom and another 25 stemmed from the United States. Evertas also detailed that the survey was conducted during the month of July 2020. What do you think about the survey respondents saying they believe institutional investors will increase exposure to crypto assets? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Execs Managing $78B in Assets Say Institutional Investors Plan to Allocate More Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Monday published a letter clarifying that national banks and federal savings associations can now hold reserves for stablecoin issuers in the country. According to the OCC’s interpretive letter, reserve accounts can either be funded through deposits from stablecoin issuers or deposits from individual stablecoin holders. It stressed that banks can hold such reserves provided that ”the issuer has sufficient assets backing the stablecoin in situations where there is a hosted wallet.” The letter responds to questions regarding the application of stablecoin-related bank activities. It says: As the OCC recently reaffirmed, national banks may provide permissible banking services to any lawful business they choose, including cryptocurrency businesses, so long as they effectively manage the risks and comply with applicable law, including those relating to the [Bank Secrecy Act] and anti-money laundering. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies underpinned by another asset such as a commodity or fiat currency like the U.S. dollar. They are designed to minimize the impact of price volatility. Tether (USDT) is the most widely used stablecoin worldwide. Others include USD Coin and DAI. In a statement, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks noted that federally chartered banks are “currently engaged in stablecoin related activities involving billions of dollars each day.” “This opinion provides greater regulatory certainty for banks within the federal banking system to provide those client services in a safe and sound manner,” he stated. Jeremy Allaire, chief executive officer of Circle, issuers of the USDC stablecoin, said the new OCC guidance represents significant progress for the advancement of digital dollar stablecoins in the U.S. financial system. “With this clarity…fintech firms and banks can have more confidence in building on this innovation, while also ensuring that the guardrails and risk management expected from the U.S. banking system can be applied to this new age of internet money,” he said in a statement shared with news.Bitcoin.com. The OCC recently allowed federally chartered banks to hold custody of crypto assets. What do you think about the OCC’s new guidance on stablecoin reserves? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post US Banks Can Now Hold Reserves for Stablecoin Issuers, Says Federal Banking Regulator appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

September 22, 2020 – Global Hash Power Exchange today announced the launch of GHPEX.com, the world’s first crypto exchange devoted to trading hashpower futures, signaling the next evolution of crypto trading. Designed for traders and miners in mind, GHPEX.com offers traders the ability to increase their leverage to take short and long positions, earning higher returns, and for miners to mitigate risk through selling future contracts at attractive prices. Although a relatively new commodity in the trading world, hashpower is the essential component necessary for mining both Bitcoin and alt coins. Hashpower, also referred to as hash rate, is the amount of computing power miners use to validate blockchain. The more power it has directly results in greater amount of security the blockchain possesses. “We recognized crypto traders were limited in options to diversify their portfolio. Hopefully, this introduces a new alternative to trading that goes beyond the traditional buy and hold mentality,” says Eno Chen, CEO of Global Hashpower Exchange. “Coins will come and go, in this highly volatile market; however, the one constant that will be around is hashpower. We’re excited to create the first platform dedicated to trading such an essential commodity.” GHPEX.com offers traders a number of options to choose from on its platforms from trading hash power that delivers BTC or ETH with a monthly contract to start. In support of its launch, GHPEX.com is offering traders a free 200 USDT deposit and 10-free trades upon sign-up. Simply type in the promo code, “Launch” to receive the free deposit. “Recent data has shown that a growing number of first-time investors are on the rise this year due to Covid-19,” says Chen. “This fact combined with hashrate hitting an all-time high makes now a perfect time to start trading hashpower futures. Giving away a free deposit is to make it easier on traders to get their feet wet without any risk.” About Global Hashpower Exchange GHPEX is the world’s first exchange platform dedicated to hashpower futures. Our solution allows investors and miners alike to trade futures tied to the value of blockchain mining hashpower. We offer investors the ability to capitalize on the volatility of crypto without needing to immerse themselves in an altcoin-saturated market and provide miners with a solution to mitigate the risk involved in their operations by buying cheaper hashpower to offset costs. Contact Email victor@ghpex.com Supporting Link https://www.ghpex.com/register/launch 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 Global Hashpower Exchange Launches World’s First Exchange Dedicated to Hashpower Futures – GHPEX.com appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The bitcoin ATM industry has reached a milestone as the number of machines installed worldwide has surpassed 10,000 after seven years since the first machine was installed. There are now 10,162 bitcoin ATM locations spread across 71 countries. Number of Bitcoin ATMs Exceeds 10K The number of cryptocurrency ATMs has grown significantly over the years, surpassing 10K last week. “It took industry roughly 7 years to reach this point since the first permanent bitcoin ATM installation in the end of 2013,” cryptocurrency ATM tracking website Coinatmradar wrote. “After the first 3.5 years, there were 1,000 active bitcoin ATMs in operation, over the next 3.5 years this figure has increased by 9,000 ATMs more.” According to the site, 10,162 cryptocurrency ATMs have been installed in 71 countries. There are also 211,270 other locations that sell bitcoin such as mall kiosks and convenience stores. Coinflip CEO Daniel Polotsky has shared some insights into the bitcoin ATM industry with news.Bitcoin.com. “With 10,000 machines placed globally, bitcoin ATMs have become the go-to service for those participating in the cash-to-crypto market, including a significant amount of the unbanked and underbanked,” he began. The CEO added that his company is installing between 30 and 50 bitcoin ATMs per week and is on track to have 3,000 bitcoin ATMs by the end of next year. Bitcoin ATM installation growth. Source: Coinatmradar The U.S. is still in the lead with the most bitcoin ATMs installed (8,004 locations), followed by Canada with 879 locations, the U.K. with 281 locations, Austria with 152 locations, Spain with 105 locations, and Switzerland with 81 locations. Genesis Coin tops the list of bitcoin ATM manufacturers, with 3,574 of its machines installed, followed by General Bytes with 2,964 machines, Bitaccess with 1,040 machines, Coinsource with 632 machines, and Lamassu with 518 machines. There are also many bitcoin ATM operators. The top 10 operators run 5,263 crypto ATMs (52%). There are 545 other operators, running 4,857 crypto ATMs, according to Coinatmradar. Coin Cloud tops the list, followed by Coinflip, Bitcoin Depot, Rockitcoin, Coinsource, and Bitcoin of America. Top bitcoin ATM operators. Source: Coinatmradar “There will be an influx of new investors that need help getting started during the next bull run. By stressing simplicity and personalized service, bitcoin ATMs will be vital in converting interest into adoption,” Polotsky explained. “As blockchain-based financial services develop as an industry, ATMs will become an essential gateway for the underbanked. These populations can benefit the most from a more inclusive financial system, and bitcoin ATMs are among the few gateways they can use.” The Coinflip CEO also revealed that “There has also been a surge of first-time retail investors who need a simple buying process and personalized support.” In his view: Bitcoin ATMs have gained an edge over the competition within specific demographics due to the onramp’s speed and ease of use. Customers don’t need to be tech-savvy to locate a machine, call a support representative, and get through a transaction within five minutes. Polotsky also noted that among the users of Coinflip’s bitcoin ATMs, one group stands out. “A significant portion of our user base is the underbanked and low-income communities who transact primarily in cash,” he said. “These groups use our machines to transfer money, pay bills, invest, and more. We take pride in the fact that we’re the gateway into crypto for many people who prefer our security, convenience, and ease of use.” He pointed out that “Aside from the ATMs buying process’s benefits, there are many individuals with a strong cash preference.” Moreover, he asserted, “Exchanges are some of the most influential companies in the sector, but they have a blind spot: they can’t serve customers who wish to pay in cash,” adding that “Bitcoin ATMs were created to fill this gap in the market.” “We believe that cryptocurrency and blockchain have the potential to accelerate financial inclusion across the world,” he opined, noting that “Bitcoin ATMs are one part of the solution.” As for his company’s future plans, he said Coinflip is planning a global expansion as the U.S. market gets more saturated, concluding: We believe that crypto adoption will outpace the move away from cash and that bitcoin ATMs will be around globally for years to come. What do you think about the growth rate of bitcoin ATMs? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin ATMs Surpass 10,100 Worldwide: Expert Shares Industry Outlook appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A South African group calling itself “Anonymous ZA” has published fresh information that seemingly supports long-standing allegations that Mirror Trading International (MTI), an ostensible bitcoin investment company, is running a multi-level marketing scam. The new information, which was reportedly obtained after a breach of MTI internal systems, shows that the investment company is “entirely structured around a tree/pyramid scheme.” According to a report, the leaked data suggests that MTI has a practice of distinguishing between “normal members and founder members.” Assessing the data, Anonymous ZA says it would appear that while “deposits made by founder members are not easily traceable yet they (founders) seemingly get better ROI than regular members.” The data also shows that “founder members are also at the top of the pyramid scheme and earn more money from their binary bonuses than ROI or any other source.” Perhaps in revelations that may lend credence to allegations often leveled against MTI, the report quoting Anonymous ZA says: “The database further shows payouts of $ 86.25 million (8,171.6 BTC) to normal members, with $21.4 million (2,036.5 BTC) in the form of bonuses for referring new members. Payouts to founding members amount to $18.45 million (1,744 BTC).” The report confirms that members are paid to recruit new members but it fails to provide the number of founding members. Earlier in July, the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) accused MTI of running a multi-level marketing scam as well, as it operated in the state of Texas without a license. The TSSB subsequently issued a cease and desist order against MTI and some of its employees. Afterward, the South African regulator, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) issued its own public statement which repeats allegations made by TSSB. However, the FSCA statement goes further by asking investors to withdraw their funds from MTI. Anonymous ZA closes its statement in which it says “unless MTI can display or prove control of a Bitcoin wallet, or another storage facility to the value 17k BTC, it will stand by its view that: MTI is a Ponzi scheme.” Meanwhile, following the latest revelations, the MTI management moved to confirm the breach in a fiery response. Cheri Marks, one of MTI’s founding members and spokesperson, suggests a criminal offense was committed by those behind the breach which occurred September 18. Marks then goes on to threaten legal action against the perpetrators as well those publishing stories based the illegally obtained information: Yes, we had a security breach of our administration portal. Yes it was a criminal act. Yes we will be pressing charges and everyone publishing the personal information illegally obtained we will refer to our legal council. Marks then attacks assumptions that MTI had stopped trading claiming that “in August over 34,000 withdrawals were effected to the tune of 5,933 bitcoin without so much as a hiccup.” Throughout the rant, Marks challenges the media to name a single disgruntled investor out of the “170,000 that are growing their bitcoin with MTI.” Still, Marks fails to adequately deal with concerns that founders are possibly getting larger payouts than the rest of investors. Instead, Marks chooses to boast about her status as founder saying: “The fact that MTI has founder members is nothing new. Yes there is an extra profit share for them and this does not affect the company or the members in any way, nor is it a state secret.” Throughout the seventeen-minute video, Marks complains of media bias and the “intention to slander, not to provide a decent and informed view of MTI, its founders, shareholders or members.” Marks also briefly discusses MTI’s interactions with FSCA but fails to provide a satisfactory answer to why the regulator still went ahead and asked investors to withdraw funds even after the MTI “CEO opened our live trading account and BTC balance for the FSCA to see.” Surprisingly, just after the encounter with FSCA, the investment company made the decision to invest in bitcoin only. Critics argue the move was intended to remove MTI from the tutelage of regulators. Meanwhile, reports say the FSCA has been made aware of the data leak and is looking into it. What are your thoughts about the latest revelations on the MTI scam? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. The post Leaked Data Outs Bitcoin Investment Company as Scam: Founders Deny the Allegations appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Iran has granted bitcoin miners exclusive access to electricity generated from three power plants for their mining activities, according to state power utility Thermal Power Plant Holding Company (TPPH). Mohsen Tarztalab, managing director of TPPH, told a local news agency on Monday that the “necessary equipment has been installed in three power plants of Ramin, Neka and Shahid Montazeri.” The government firm, which is responsible for the development and operation of thermal-based electric power plants, will now proceed to issue out tenders for the three projects, whose “documents will be uploaded on the SetadIran.ir website in the near future,” said Tarztalab. It is important to note that crypto miners will only receive excess electricity from expansion turbines that are to be built at the target power plants for this specific purpose. Tarztalab explained this is because the turbines “do not consume liquid fuels like gas oil, and only natural gas”, which burns cleaner compared to coal. “These turbines are not connected to the national grid and the electricity generated by them is only used by the power plant itself,” he stated. However, it is not clear how much electricity will be produced or dedicated to crypto mining from the three facilities. As news.Bitcoin.com reported in the past, Iran issued permits to 14 crypto mining farms in July, each with a capacity of 300 megawatts. But it also recently shut down 1,100 illegal bitcoin miners. Some 1,000 miners had already been licensed in January. Until now, no power plant, or a part of it, could exclusively extract digital assets, even though the country’s Ministry of Energy in July gave power plants the greenlight to mine. One of the biggest motivations for Iran’s continuing open-mindedness to virtual assets is the potential that the industry brings to boosting falling government revenues. Tarztalab, the TPPH head, detailed: Unfortunately, constant price hikes and the obligation for supplying electricity with stable prices to subscribers have caused a large gap between revenues and expenditures in the country’s electricity industry, and we need new sources of income to fill this gap. Bitcoin mining is cheap in Iran – something that has drawn scores of miners, both legit and shady, to the nation’s shores. According to official data, mining farms in Iran pay as little as 4,800 rials ($0.01) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity but rates increase four-fold to 19,300 rials ($0.05) during the peak summer season, from June to September. What do you think about Iran allocating three power plants for exclusive bitcoin mining? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Iran Grants Bitcoin Miners Exclusive Access To Electricity at Three Power Plants appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Markets are expected to be volatile this week, as a great number of bitcoin and ethereum options are set to expire this Friday. Data shows more than 87,000 bitcoin options will expire and 77% of the action is held on the Deribit exchange. U.S. stocks dropped hard on Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 700 points during the stock market’s afternoon trading sessions. Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC) took a hit on spot markets dropping over 4% in value. A number of other cryptocurrencies like ethereum (ETH -8%) lost even bigger percentages on Monday. However, crypto analysts are eying this Friday’s crypto options expiries, as there’s a large number of derivatives contracts across Deribit, Okex, Ledgerx, CME Group, Huobi, Bakkt, and Bit.com that will expire. Data from Deribit shows there are over 87,000 BTC options that are set to expire this Friday. The exchange also details that 67k worth of those options (77%) are held on Deribit. Moreover, 459k worth of ETH options are set to expire on the same day and 414k or 90% is also held on Deribit. The other three competitors, that pale in comparison to Deribit’s numbers, include; CME Group, Okex, and Ledgerx respectively. On Monday morning (ET), Deribit’s Head of Risk and Product, Shaun Fernando, spoke about BTC’s volatility and the coin’s price action this month. “In the month of September, we have seen the BTC price trading between USD $10k and $12k,” Fernando said. “The 1 month ATM volatility hit a high of 70% before falling to its level of 46% and we have seen volatility in the skew.” Fernando further added: The Deribit Index is currently trading more than 2.5% below the settlement of nearly 4 hours ago which could suggest some interesting realised vs implied strategies. If the trend carries, expect a run on vol. If we bounce back, we could see some interesting moves around the 11k strike where over 10% of the Sep open interest is stacked. The researchers from Skew.com spoke about the cryptocurrencies implied volatility as well on Twitter. “Some capitulation in bitcoin,” Skew wrote. Options market as trading remains rangebound, one-month implied vol There’s been a number of occasions where crypto derivatives produced volatile crypto spot markets, while other times expiry dates can be lackluster. What do you think about the number of BTC and ETH options that are set to expire on Friday? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Turbulent Crypto Markets Expected – 87K Worth of Bitcoin Options Set to Expire on Friday appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The trouble with many current DeFi projects is that while they eliminate traditional institutions from the mix, they instead transfer ultimate control over to a select group of insiders who have their financial motives and agendas. It’s an arrangement that’s ripe for abuse, and something that should be anathema to anyone who believes in the real promise of DeFi. But now, there’s a DeFi solution that’s on a mission to deliver where so many others have failed. It’s called the Defito (DTO), and Defi Shopping Stake (DSS) is designed to be a platform that is a Bridge between Defi and E-Commerce. About DTO: A DTO token controls the Defito Ecosystem. Defito is a decentralized finance (Defi) platform with the goal of providing a solution for Defi to access e-commerce such as : Shopping Mining Shopping Staking Automated Shopping Making DTO is the native token in the Defito platform. Users can earn it by contributing liquidity to Defito’s liquidity pool and use the token for Platform Governance and Online Shopping. About DSS (Defi Shopping Stake): We are proud to introduce DSS to the public for the first time. We believe that the Defi Shopping Stake (DSS) model will be used more widely in e-commerce companies in the near future. DSS is a Defi-oriented enhancement of the Loyalty program system. As usual, each customer will have to show loyalty cards (also known as Rewards cards, Points cards, or Club cards) and Present them after each successful purchase (including online shopping) to collect the Reward Points. From now on, each wallet address used for payment will automatically be used for bonus recognition after each order is completed. The customer’s rewards points will be recognized with the smart contract and available for Spending at any time. Burn Mechanism & Governance Token Vote: The community has some right to vote for a burning token from the shopping treasury. If they want token keep for further development of the reward system or Burning for the growing value of DSS. Burn Mechanism Burning Mechanism works only for DSS, Not for DTO. DSS reward will be spent in Uquid Digital Shopping for Payment. The same Amount in the Uquid Shopping treasury will burn. Governance Burning Mechanism is work based on governance (Annual Voting). DTO holders have the right to vote for burning DSS in the treasury. How to Stabilize DSS Value? – The number of DSS tokens generated by staking and mining is limited. – If the community votes for DSS token burning, the number of tokens will become scarce. – When the amount of tokens in the shopping fund is burned. A further amount of tokens will be repurchased from the market. This process continued over time and will significantly increase the DSS value. About Uquid: On May 28, 2020, the digital currency and blockchain company Uquid has announced that the Uquid Shop is now live and accepting cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cash for payments. The team at Uquid has dubbed the market the “world’s biggest digital shop for crypto users is ready to launch with 30,000 digital products.” To know more, visit: defi.uquid.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 Uquid Launch the Defi Shopping Stake (DSS) and Defito Finance (DTO) appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), five major global banks have been exposed funneling trillions of dollars in criminal funds in the recently leaked FinCEN Files. The massive leak is 2,100 documents spanning from 2000 to 2017 which shows fraudulent funds flowed almost effortlessly through JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of New York Mellon. The world’s regulators are supposed to be regulating the ‘tainted’ dollars that flow through the financial system and the United States has a number of financial regulation entities. However, the recently leaked FinCEN Files indicates that Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and other regulators rarely prosecute the world’s banking cartel. The FinCEN Files is the perfect example of the corruption between the American bureaucracy’s regulators and the world’s leading banks. 2,100 documents implicate New York Mellon, JPMorgan, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered in facilitating a number of sketchy financial transgressions. The documents were revealed to 108 news organizations in 88 countries and the ICIJ and Buzzfeed broke the story. “$2.4 trillion in illicit funds are laundered each year,” the story notes, “but authorities detect less than 1%.” So far the leaks sent to ICIJ and Buzzfeed have uncovered over $2 trillion in fraudulent funding that was processed by the world’s leading banks. Moreover, the investigative journalists have found even more evidence and the tallied number of illicit funds continues to climb. The leak is quite large and investigative journalists from the ICIJ and other members of the media are still uncovering these financial crimes. The journalist Alicia Tatone says that there are many cases where U.S. regulators warned these five banks, but they continued to process illicit funds for criminals. “JPMorgan, the largest bank based in the United States, moved money for people and companies tied to the massive looting of public funds in Malaysia, Venezuela and Ukraine, the leaked documents reveal,” Tatone notes. There is also a significant list of “confidential clients” that are often associated with “mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes.” The FinCEN Files indicate that over the last decade, the five major financial institutions have no problem dealing with the world’s shadiest characters. The same American bank moved over a billion in USD for someone they claimed to not know in London, while the individual ultimately turned out to be on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. “In all, an ICIJ analysis found, the documents identify more than $2 trillion in transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were flagged by financial institutions’ internal compliance officers as possible money laundering or other criminal activity — including $514 billion at JPMorgan and $1.3 trillion at Deutsche Bank,” Tatone writes. Files show HSBC allowed fraudulent organizations to move billions while Deutsche Bank is accused of moving funds for terrorists and drug cartels. Interestingly FinCEN and the Treasury Department did not respond to a bulk of questions sent by ICIJ and various journalists. Despite being threatened with fines and sometimes even getting paltry fines much smaller than the transactions processed, the banking cartel did whatever it wanted with no shame. A former financial crimes prosecutor and U.S. Justice Department official, Paul Pelletier, told ICIJ during the investigation that the banks “operate in a system that is largely toothless.” After being caught so many times, Deutsche Bank who settled $258 million with the Federal Reserve and promised to clean up its act, continued to participate in moving criminal funds. Year after year, the FinCEN Files reveal how Deutsche Bank helped shady individuals and fraudulent shell companies proliferate. The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) is accused of helping the “Cryptoqueen” and the Onecoin crypto Ponzi move $137 million in 29 transactions. The FinCEN Files show that the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) helped the Onecoin crypto Ponzi move roughly $137 million. Back in 2017, BNY Mellon flagged the 29 Onecoin transactions but U.S. regulators did nothing. According to a spokesperson from BNY, the bank detailed to ICIJ that the institution takes financial regulation seriously. When members of the ICIJ sent questions to Deutsche Bank they declined to answer questions about certain individuals like Ukrainian business tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky. The report written by Alicia Tatone says that Deutsche Bank told ICIJ they are aware of the bank’s “past weaknesses” and “We are a different bank now,” Deutsche Bank stressed. In fact, all five banks have responded to the FinCEN files since they were leaked this past weekend, and most of the banks pass the blame to financial regulators. It is interesting the world’s banking cartel never gets in trouble for money laundering, dealing with drug cartels, hired murderers, and associating with known mobsters. Besides Bernie Madoff, not one major bank CEO has been jailed to-date, and the only reason why Madoff was burned was because he robbed the elite. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials and financial regulators were told by Donald Trump to “go after bitcoin” in 2018 or asked to dismantle the decentralized network in 2012. Localbitcoins traders are arrested and thrown in jail for “illegal money transmission” and the IRS continues to be very focused on ordinary citizens paying their digital currency taxes. What do you think about the FinCEN Files? Let us know what you think in the comments below. The post 5 Major Banks Exposed for Moving Trillions for Mobsters, Onecoin, and Drug Cartels appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Two people have been charged in the U.S. for allegedly using “a sophisticated market manipulation scheme” to defraud and steal $17 million in bitcoin and ether from users of three cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. The targeted exchanges were Binance, Poloniex, and Gemini. Binance, Poloniex, Gemini Users Targeted Globally The U.S. Department of Justice announced last week that two Russian nationals have been charged with crimes in connection with “an alleged conspiracy to defraud three cryptocurrency exchanges and their customers of cryptocurrency valued … at a minimum of $16.8 million in cryptocurrency.” Danil Potekhin (aka cronuswar) and Dmitrii Karasavidi (aka Dmitriy Karasvidi) allegedly stole at least $16,876,000 in fiat and cryptocurrency from users of crypto exchanges Poloniex, Binance, and Gemini. The two accused created numerous web domains that mimicked the three legitimate crypto exchanges in 2017. Using phishing and spoofing tactics, they fraudulently obtained the login credentials of more than 150 exchange users, including email addresses, passwords, and other personal information. This allowed them to access the victims’ accounts at the real exchanges. Besides stealing victims’ cryptocurrencies, Potekhin and Karasavidi engaged in price manipulation of the GAS cryptocurrency in what the indictment document describes as “a sophisticated market manipulation scheme that began in July 2017 using the stolen customer credentials.” Using funds valued at over $5 million in the accounts of three victims, the defendants purchased a large amount of the GAS token, causing its price to skyrocket. The pair quickly converted their tokens into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, causing the price of GAS to plummet, leaving the victims with worthless coins. The defendants then laundered the theft proceeds “and attempted to conceal the nature and source of the digital currency by transferring them in a layered and sophisticated manner through multiple accounts,” the DOJ described. “Ultimately, a significant amount of the stolen digital currency was deposited into Karasavidi’s account.” Potekhin and Karasavidi have been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and two counts of aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department detailed. “The statutory maximum penalty for all the charges against the defendants is 59 years imprisonment,” explained Dave Anderson, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. The U.S. Attorney also seeks the forfeiture of cryptocurrencies and dollars allegedly traceable to the defendants’ crimes. In addition to more than $6 million in U.S. dollars, law enforcement seized BTC and ETH in December 2017, worth over $12.62 million at the time. Several more cryptocurrencies were seized in August last year, including BTC, valued at about $2.60 million in total at the time. All seized assets are now in the custody of the U.S. Secret Service. What do you think about this case? Let us know in the comments section below. The post US Indicts Hackers Stealing $17M in Bitcoin and Ether From Binance, Poloniex, Gemini Users appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

XSwap, a main products of Xfinance ecosystem, has launched Uniswap LP token liquidity mining. This is a fair version, 100% distributed to the community, with No team shares, No Pre-mine. Governed by the Xfinance community. In just a few hours, the funds in the pool are above to 5000ETH. The highest APY reaches 70,000%! XSwap dapp link: https://xswap.app How to participate in XSwap Uniswap liquidity mining? Choose your favorite pair and add liquidity on Uniswap, then approve and deposit UNI-LP token on XSwap. In the first 100,000 blocks, each block will provide 10,000 XSP rewards, after 100,000 blocks, each block will be reduced to 1,000 XSP rewards. The maximum supply of XSP is 3,000,000,000 XSP. Reward ratio of each pool: XSP-ETH: 40x; XFI-XSP: 12x; XFI-ETH: 12x; XFI-LID: 7x; UNI-ETH: 3x; LID-ETH 3x; Others: 1x; XSP token contract address 0x9b06D48E0529ecF05905fF52DD426ebEc0EA3011 Buy XFI: https://uniswap.info/token/0x5befbb272290dd5b8521d4a938f6c4757742c430 Buy XSP: https://uniswap.info/token/0x9b06d48e0529ecf05905ff52dd426ebec0ea3011 What are the XSwap development goals? XSwap will become the most important product in the Xfinance ecosystem, that is, decentralized automatic market-making leveraged exchange. XSwap Staker will receive a 0.05% transaction fee, the liquidity provider will receive a 0.20% transaction fee, and the 0.05% transaction fee will be used to buy back and burn XSP. XFI will become the governance token in the Xfinance ecosystem and will also have deflationary characteristics. The better the Xfinance ecosystem develops, the greater the value of XFI. Xfinance community Twitter: https://twitter.com/xfinance_io Telegram: https://t.me/nowex_io 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 XSwap Started Yield Farming, The Highest APY Reaches 70,000% appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Just recently, the firm Arcane Research recently revealed a number of screenshots from the publicly traded energy firm, Equinor. The pictures show the multinational company leveraging natural gas flaring to power bitcoin mining operations. In recent years, using the unorthodox gas flaring scheme to mine bitcoin has become more prominent worldwide. The Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company Equinor (NYSE: EQNR) has recently announced joining the crypto economy, as the firm has partnered with Crusoe Energy Solutions to mine bitcoin. Equinor is a well known, publicly listed firm that is headquartered in Stavanger, but has operations in over 30 countries today. According to information obtained by Arcane Research, Equinor’s collaboration with Crusoe in North Dakota is aimed at reducing flaring from oil operations via bitcoin mining. Natural gas flaring has been an integral part of the world’s energy systems today, as it helps bolster the exploration and processing of oil from shale. To some observers, flaring is considered wasteful and undesirable to the environment, but it helps to ensure safety when using a flare during production testing after people drill a gas well or if shale oil is hydraulically fractured. Equinor leverages Crusoe’s digital flare mitigation technology (DFM) in North Dakota. Flare gas systems are oftentimes a method of controlling wasted gas that cannot be efficiently processed or captured. However, in recent years firms like Upstream Data and Greenidge Generation are using the excess gas to mine bitcoins instead of wasting precious energy. The Equinor flaring operation tied to bitcoin mining. “Mining cryptocurrency requires a lot of electricity to power computers, while a valuable commodity is wasted, and carbon emissions are created when we flare,” Lionel Ribeiro the project’s leader said of the Equinor and Crusoe Energy Solutions partnership. Ribeiro continued by adding: By connecting these inverse pains, we can satisfy both needs with no cost to market expense. It is a disruptive and scalable solution and shrinks the gap between the source of energy production and the final energy consumption while reducing our carbon footprint. Crusoe Energy Solutions is based in Denver Colorado, and the company offers a system called “digital flare mitigation technology” or DFM. In December 2019, Crusoe saw $70 million funneled into the company, as Bain Capital and KCK Group led the equity funding round. The firm says that its digital flare mitigation infrastructure is a “scalable and flexible” service. “[The] modular and portable systems are designed for the scale and throughput demands of the modern shale industry,” the company’s website details. “DFM systems are capable of processing up to millions of cubic feet of natural gas per day or as little as 50,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day. Systems operate effectively across a wide spectrum of gas compositions ranging from 750-2500 mmbtu/mcf.” Crusoe also says the system boasts a significant amount of emissions reduction by utilizing “built-in emissions control technology and catalytic converters.” The DFM can “significantly reduce NOx, CO, VOC and methane emissions compared to flare exhaust streams,” Crusoe highlights. The recent announcement details that flared gas being used for Equinor’s bitcoin mining is the byproduct of extracting oil from the Bakken oil field located in the U.S. Since the year 2000, the Bakken Formation or basin has seen a massive boom in oil production. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing is a common business in the 200,000 square miles (520,000 km2) North Dakota basin. Hans Jakob Hegge, the U.S. country manager for Equinor says the company must make bold choices in order to bolster cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency these days. “Innovation remains a fundamental strategic pillar in achieving our climate roadmap ambition,” Hegge said. “[Equinor] must be bold in our approach to employing new technologies to improve business efficiency.” What do you think about the Norwegian energy firm’s move to leverage gas flaring bitcoin mining solutions? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Publicly Listed Energy Firm Equinor Exploits Gas Flaring in North Dakota to Mine Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Since the summer of 2017, more than 44 forks of the Bitcoin network were created and so far many of them have lost considerable value and are near worthless. To-date only a few of the forks that stem from Satoshi’s creation have remained relevant during the last three years. There are three branches of Satoshi Nakamoto’s codebase that have commanded top positions within the top fifteen coins in the crypto coin market economy. Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Bitcoinsv (BSV) have all been top contenders for quite some time. Between the price, onchain activities, and community size only these three branches have data worth calculating. Out of the $335 billion market cap stemming from all 7,600+ crypto assets, BTC captures 58% of the valuation, while BCH commands 1.2%. BSV’s market cap dominance on Sunday, September 20 is 0.83% Meanwhile, over 40 other Bitcoin network forks that were born after August 2017, have lost significant value during the last two years. In 2017, just before the all-time price highs in the crypto economy, a great number of individuals and organizations decided to create forks from the BTC network. That year if you participated in the crypto economy, you surely heard about all the forks, snapshots, and airdrops that took place during the 12-month timeframe. Each and every one of them had a unique name tied to the word “bitcoin,” and they all offered some benefits that BTC does not offer network participants. This included bitcoin zero (BZX), micro bitcoin (MBC), bitcoin clean (BCL), bitcoin gold (BTG), classic bitcoin (CBTC), bitcoin cloud (BCL), big bitcoin (BBC), bitcoin atom (BCA), bitcoin interest (BCI), bitcoin smart (BCS), bitvote (BTV), bitcoin private (BTCP), and bitcoin rhodium (BTR). BTG charts on September 20, 2020. The list goes on and on and most all of these coins besides the top three branches have shuddered in value during the last two years. Before launching these forks the creators told the public that every fork had a special purpose. For instance, bitcoin gold (BTG) was supposed to make bitcoin mining decentralized by trying to bring CPU mining back to the codebase. Essentially, BTG changed BTC’s consensus algorithm from SHA256 to Equihash but quickly learned that the chain was far less secure. Just like the Ethereum fork (ETC), bitcoin gold has been 51% attacked on various occasions since it was born. A recent study shows that a single BTG whale controls more than half the supply and the 51% attacks have caused the coin to get delisted from prominent exchanges. Bitcoin gold is down 98.32% from the coin’s all-time high of $484 three years ago. The crypto asset has 898 KH/s of hashrate securing the chain but the cloud mining operation Nicehash controls 52.24% of the BTG hashrate on Sunday, September 20, 2020. BTCP charts on September 20, 2020. Another BTC fork project called bitcoin private (BTCP) told the public the coin’s benefits would be privacy features called zk-snarks. BTCP is down 98.8% since it’s ATH at $$86 two years ago and today the cryptocurrency is swapping for $0.10 a pop. GOD charts on September 20, 2020. A BTC fork called bitcoin god (GOD) created by the well-known Chinese cryptocurrency investor, Chandler Guo, is down 99.9% since the coin’s ATH on January 13, 2018. “Bitcoin God (GOD) will be forked off the main bitcoin chain at the block height of 501,225, which will happen on December 25th to be symbolic of me giving candy to all bitcoin holders,” Chandler Guo said via Twitter. Unfortunately, even though Chandler Guo shot for Christmas day, the fork at block height 501,225 happened two days later on December 27, 2017. BCD charts on September 20, 2020. One of the early BTC forks born on November 24, 2017, called bitcoin diamond (BCD) is down 99% since the cryptocurrency’s ATH. Data shows that BCD’s highest price point was the day after it was born at block height 495,866. At this time (11/25/17), BCD traded for $99 per coin and has steadily declined in value ever since that day. Interestingly enough, BCD is still worth $0.57 per coin and on Saturday, September 19, BCD saw a million dollars in trade volume. The bitcoin diamond trade volume globally is much larger than GOD’s $24 worth of swaps during the last day. Each and every BTC fork, snapshot, and airdrop that is still trading on exchanges for a small amount of value can still be acquired today. However, most major cryptocurrency exchanges do not support these small market cap BTC forks unless they have decent liquidity. Smaller crypto trading platforms, however, do still support these coins and it’s possible to still trade them for a fraction of value. Although, news.Bitcoin.com has reported on various occasions on how obtaining forked assets can be a “long and annoying process.” What do you think about the large list of Bitcoin network forks that have seen massive losses in value since the all-time price high? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Over 40 Bitcoin Forks Are Down More Than 98% Since 2017’s Forking Fiesta appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Nasdaq-listed company Microstrategy recently bought almost 17K bitcoins within 74 hours, costing about $175 million. The CEO of this billion-dollar company used to be a bitcoin skeptic but has recently become a bitcoin bull when his company purchased $425 million worth of bitcoin. Billion Dollar Public Company Dives Into Bitcoin Microstrategy recently made history in the bitcoin space when it became the first publicly-traded company to spend a material amount of its reserves to buy bitcoin. The company has purchased a total of 38,250 BTC at an aggregate price of $425 million. The first purchase was announced on Aug. 11 for 21,454 bitcoins at an aggregate price of $250 million. The company then disclosed on Sept. 14 that it had purchased an additional 16,796 bitcoins at an aggregate price of $175 million. Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor explained on Friday: To acquire 16,796 BTC (disclosed 9/14/20), we traded continuously 74 hours, executing 88,617 trades ~0.19 BTC each 3 seconds. ~$39,414 in BTC per minute, but at all times we were ready to purchase $30-50 million in a few seconds if we got lucky with a 1-2% downward spike. Saylor was previously a bitcoin skeptic, however. He tweeted on Dec. 18, 2013: “Bitcoin days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling.” During a podcast interview with Morgan Creek Digital partner Anthony Pompliano, published Wednesday, Saylor admitted that he had forgotten about the tweet. “I really am ashamed to say I didn’t know I tweeted it until the day that I tweeted that I bought $250 million worth of bitcoin and then I discovered the hive mind crypto twitter consciousness where all of a sudden they all went through all my tweets and they found it,” he described. “They reminded me of it. They compared it and I’m like oh my god I literally forgot I ever said that.” Nonetheless, Saylor added, “I didn’t get all worked up about it. I’m like you’re right I was wrong, what an idiot I was, I wish I could go back and do it again.” Bitcoin Solves Cash Problem, Better Than Gold The Microstrategy CEO then detailed how his company dived into bitcoin. With a cash-generating business and $500 million cash on hand, he was faced with the challenge of what to invest in to preserve its value. “First, I have a mega, mega, mega problem and the mega problem is I have a lot of cash and I’m watching it melt away,” the CEO shared. He revealed that before investing in bitcoin, he watched many videos, including those by Andreas Antonopoulos, Pompliano, and Dan Held. He also read The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous and Parker Lewis’ essays — to name a few. To convince his company’s board of directors about buying bitcoin, he assigned them homework to read and watch videos about bitcoin, before having intense discussions with each of them. Saylor is adamant about bitcoin being a better investment than gold. “Bitcoin is an anti-fragile, evolving thing,” he said in an interview with macro strategist Raoul Pal, who shares his sentiment about bitcoin being better than gold. “It’s the hardest currency because it’s getting continually exponentially harder … but it’s also smarter, stronger, and faster than gold.” He remarked: When I say it’s harder than gold, I mean it’s not just 10 times harder because it goes 100 years without losing any of its value. I say it’s harder because it’s an organic nest of cybernetic hornets feeding off of encrypted energy. “It’s a living thing, which means that the miners are going to keep upgrading their equipment. The developers are going to keep upgrading their development. The nodes are going to change. Every part of the ecosystem is going to change. And, they are changing in this terrifying Darwinian, capitalistic, libertarian, aggressive, winner-take-all, hold no bars, no one company, country, companies hold it,” the Nasdaq-listed company’s CEO elaborated. He believes that anything controlled by anyone, entity, or country is “crippled,” affirming that “anything that’s controlled by a CEO is crippled, controlled by a state is crippled, controlled by a country is crippled.” In contrast, he said: This entire thing [bitcoin] is its own ecosystem. Gold is not going to get a million times smarter in the next 10 years. It’s not thinking at all, it’s a lump of metal lying there.” He noted bitcoin may be 1000x better than gold. CEO Not Worried About Bitcoin’s Volatility Saylor further said he is not worried about bitcoin’s volatility. “I’m holding it for a hundred freaking years … I’m not the day trader guy that’s worried about it so I think that as the institutions come in and as they buy bigger amounts, they’re damping the volatility.” He also emphasized that his company was able to acquire a large amount of bitcoin without significantly affecting its price. Furthermore, he pointed out that the alternatives are much less attractive. “Let’s be honest, there’s a negative real yield on everything else I can buy. Okay, gold’s got a negative three, four, five percent real yield in my opinion,” he asserted, noting that bonds also have negative real yields. The CEO opined: Every other non-volatile asset is a negative real yield, which means that everything else is lifeblood draining out of my veins, so if my choice would be to accept some volatility and live or I had non-volatile cash that bought 30 percent less in a matter of eight weeks … at that rate you’re not going to make it through the decade and so volatility is just something you got to live with. He further said: “I find the entire bitcoin community to be inspirational and I did note in our press release one of the key drivers of our belief in the success of this is the community ethos. It’s a pretty amazing group of people and all of the thinking and all of the initiatives I just find to be extraordinary.” What do you think about Microstrategy and its CEO? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Skeptic Turns Bitcoin Bull: Billion Dollar Company Buys 17K BTC in 74 Hours appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

One of Nigeria’s most brazen crypto scams, Inksnation remains operational and still invites new investors some three months after the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deemed its activities illegal. The SEC has previously warned Nigerians against investing with the scam saying doing so would be at own risk as there is no legal recourse in event of the scam collapsing. False Blockchain claims The SEC warning had been prompted by fears that Nigerians are falling victim to yet another giant scam that rides on the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies. Described as the “World’s First Charitable Trust DAO”, the Inksnation masterminds claim they can “end poverty in any country in less than 9 months (by) incentivizing goodness, promoting love and equitable distribution of wealth.” On their website, the scammers offer a convoluted and sometimes confusing explanation of their operations and how the business generates revenues for investors. Prior to the SEC warning, another organization, the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SIBAN), went as far as to label Inksnation’s purported crypto coin, pinkoin a scam. SIBAN says, “Inksnation is not on any blockchain” while the scam’s purported blockchain, the Inksledger “is not public and may as well be inexistent.” Still, it appears the warnings have not had the desired effect as desperate Nigerians still flock to the scam. At the same time, the masterminds behind Inksnation seem unfazed by any possible legal consequences, as they are reported to have enlisted the services of a prominent Nigerian law firm, which specializes in blockchain and crypto law. Besides enlisting the services of the law firm, the creators of the scam have also tapped into the religious beliefs of potential victims. Enterprising scammers now exploit Nigeria’s well-known background as a divided but deeply religious state to fend off scam allegations. For instance, in a letter addressed to his followers shortly after the SEC and SIBAN issued warnings, the founder and CEO of iBSmartify, the creators of Inksnation, Amos Sewanu Omotade-Sparks wrote: “This is the result of the SIBAN guys and we have been waiting for it. Fear not members and watch how Elohim JahGah will convert this to all-round blessings. They have helped us to get the attention of the government which we have been waiting for and we are so so so grateful.” Elohim JahGah is the deity revered by Inksnation supporters. Exploiting Legal Loopholes Nevertheless, Omotade-Sparks, who also identifies himself as “Universal Daddy Inks (UDI)”, still assures followers that the warning by the SEC is just “a disclaimer.” He says its “the same way they said about bitcoin that whoever trades with bitcoin does so at his own risk. It shall surely end in praise.” Omotade-Sparks even sarcastically thanks SIBAN for “finally doing something that’s meaningful for once.” So just how do the masterminds of Inksnation continue to sell the scam as well as maintaining the followership interested despite the negative public warnings? Similar to other large scale scams, Inksnation relies on promising unrealistic returns on any investment whether small or big. Scammers are well aware of the powerful lure of earning a lifetime passive “salary.” As explained on the Inksnation website, investors become eligible to receive a lifetime salary starting at $342 per month after subscribing for the bronze “living node.” The bronze living node package, which requires a deposit of $3 (1000 Naira), which is cheapest while the “diamond living node” requires an investment of $3,000 for one to be guaranteed a lifetime salary of $857. Non-existent coin Interestingly, all benefits are paid out in pinkoin, the scam’s supposed reserve crypto coin that is valued at $17,556. According to Chiagozie Iwu, a CEO with Naijacryptos, a locally established cryptocurrency exchange, pinkoin is not listed on any exchange in Nigeria because “it is neither a crypto coin nor has any ties to the blockchain.” Many in Nigeria’s blockchain space are adamant that ultimately, pinkoin has no value. Determined to counter and dispel any doubts about their activities, the masterminds have been posting videos on Twitter of real Nigerian recipients of the promised salaries. In one video, a man is seen brandishing wades of the Naira banknotes which he claims to be payment of his salary. There are a few more videos that follow the same routine but as Iwu explains, this is just typical of most Ponzi schemes. The first few investors “will receive some payouts” and these “will defend the scam.” However, the majority of the so-called “downlines” will not get anything but by then it will be too late. With the SEC recently designating crypto assets as securities, it would seem the legal loopholes that Inksnation and other scams have been using to defy the regulator are closed. It remains to be seen if Omotade-Sparks and his legal counsel will continue aggressively recruiting new members or the project is about to fade away. What do you think about the Inksnation scam? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post Brazen Nigerian Crypto Scam Inksnation Still Operational Three Months After Regulator Warning appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Ethereum gas prices have set new records, with single DeFi transactions costing over $10 in fees. High fees are the result of congestion, as users pay ever higher fees to ensure their transaction gets into a block. As DeFi takes off, the price of gas on Ethereum threatens its future. Or does it? Is the Party at Vitalik’s House? Gas on Ethereum can be seen as “block space rent” and many are saying the rent is too damn high. That depends on who you ask, though. Even a $10 fee is a small fraction of many DeFi trades, as speculators are by definition those who have “money to burn.” For the moment at least, DeFi is a market that exists on Ethereum. If you have profitable trades to make on DeFi, then gas is simply another cost of doing business, since there is no other way to make the trade. This is why high gas prices don’t cause Ethereum leaders and boosters to lose sleep: the very fact of high gas prices only serves to amplify the message that Ethereum is the only game in town. It’s certainly true for DeFi today, but it can also translate to the perception of Ethereum as the only platform for smart contracts. Why go anywhere else when gas prices prove that the party is at Vitalik’s house? Gas prices go up as Ethereum gets more congested, and while the current rate is eye-poppingly high, congestion on Ethereum is nothing new. In late 2017, CryptoKitties was a collectibles game new to Ethereum that exploded in popularity and instantly caused the entire network to slow to a crawl. Non-CryptoKitties transactions such as entire ICOs went from minutes to hours and even days for completion. For dApp developers and projects this was, and still is, extremely worrisome. If gas prices are block rent, immediacy — the ability to transact in some predictable amount of time — is an arbitrary popularity contest. If you are the developer of an application that provides a time-sensitive service to a minority of Ethereum users, you can find yourself waiting behind a deluge of transactions to serve the latest craze, simply because it is attracting more users than your app. It doesn’t matter that those users represent an entirely different market: your app will still lose based on numbers alone. A Playground for the Wealthy This is compounded by the fact that not all applications are designed to net their users hundreds or thousands of dollars with every transaction, like the transactions of your average DeFi speculator. For a non-DeFi application, high gas prices exact an arbitrary drain on their ability to deliver value. Like high rents on commercial real estate, it can drive these efforts “out of business” if the mere cost of executing a transaction exceeds whatever revenue could ever be made in that transaction. High gas prices make blockchain a “playground of the wealthy.” While Ethereum’s high gas prices seem to only cement Ethereum’s network value, it also inescapably damages Ethereum’s utility as a smart contract platform for delivering decentralized and world-changing applications to the larger population. Instead, expensive gas fees serve to limit the market to rich speculators. This is not to disparage DeFi, as decentralized finance itself opens up markets to non-traditional participants. That said, the promise of smart contracts on a decentralized platform goes well beyond financial engineering. DeFi Participants are Actively planning Moves Also, it is worth noting that major DeFi participants are actively planning moves onto other platforms, with USDT (Tether) just announcing another alternative platform partner. So while Ethereum is the main game in town, many projects are seeing the writing on the wall that something has to change as Ethereum is clearly bursting at its seams. Why now? If this problem dates back to CryptoKitties, where any application is at the mercy of the most popular dApp destroying the network’s ability to function properly, what has changed? For a long time, Ethereum has been pointing to a future where the blockchain changes to Proof of Stake. In the last few years, the focus has been on Ethereum 2.0, which intends to deliver a sharded solution to solve congestion problems. The combination of Proof of Stake and sharding sounds perfect, and has served to reassure Ethereum projects that the current congestion problems and high gas prices will soon be a thing of the past. High Gas Prices Lead to Questions About The Promise of Blockchain The problem is that the Ethereum gang has proven themselves incapable of shipping promised improvements on any kind of reliable schedule, with a production Ethereum 2.0 sharded network always staying 1 or 2 years away. 2020 has been the year that faith in Ethereum 2.0 finally cracked, creating opportunities for alternative platforms that can actually deliver a scalable solution. Now, leading projects are actively working with blockchain platforms like Cosmos, Polkadot and others to build “exit ramps” off Ethereum, even as DeFi hits new highs. For DeFi, the future looks bright. Even as high gas prices lead to questions about the promise of blockchain, DeFi is forcing the ecosystem to consider new participants who can deliver where Ethereum 2.0 has failed. There are scalable blockchain platforms today that offer solutions where high traffic doesn’t mean high gas prices, where an application that is popular with one set of users doesn’t threaten the viability of another that is delivering critical services to a minority. We are at the start of a major transition in smart contract blockchains. What lies ahead is a future where blockchain technology moves beyond speculation to solve real problems. Written by Stuart Popejoy Stuart Popejoy is Founder and President of Kadena with 15 years experience in building trading systems and exchange backbones for the financial industry. Prior to starting the company with co-founder Will Martino, Stuart worked at J.P. Morgan in the Blockchain Center of Excellence, where he led and developed their first blockchain, Juno. Stuart also wrote the algorithmic trading scripts for JPMorgan, which informed his creation of Kadena’s simple smart contract language with Formal Verification, Pact. Did you know you can create smart contracts and token dividends on Bitcoin Cash? Read more on smart contracts here and on dividends here. This is OP-ed. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. 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 information in this Op-ed article. The post Party at Vitalik’s House? For DeFi, it’s Do-or-Die appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The European Union is planning to implement comprehensive cryptocurrency regulation by 2024, two EU reports have reportedly revealed. This follows five European finance ministers calling on the European Commission to put in place “very strong and very clear rules” on cryptocurrency. EU Crypto Regulation Coming Soon A comprehensive cryptocurrency regulatory framework is expected to be put in place within four years, according to two EU documents, Reuters reported Friday, elaborating: By 2024, the EU should put in place a comprehensive framework enabling the uptake of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and crypto-assets in the financial sector. “By 2024, the principle of passporting and a one-stop-shop licensing should apply in all areas which hold strong potential for digital finance,” the documents further state. According to Euractiv, a pan-European publication specializing in EU policies, the European Commission will publish the Digital Finance Strategy together with its new rules on cryptocurrencies later this month. They outline the Commission’s priority actions by 2024. In addition to the existing cryptocurrency proposal, European Commission Executive Vice-President in charge of Economy and Finance Valdis Dombrovskis said the Commission may also update “the prudential rules for crypto-assets held by financial firms, which could force banks with these digital assets to hold more capital as a cushion, given the volatility and risks associated with these assets,” Euractiv described. The two documents note that the draft law will clarify how existing rules apply to cryptocurrencies and set out new rules where there are gaps, Reuters explained, adding that it “should also address the risks associated with these technologies.” The documents also detail that the Commission “wants to make it easier to share data within the financial sector to encourage competition and a wider range of services, while upholding the principle of ‘same risk, same rules, same regulation,'” the news outlet conveyed. Moreover, the European Commission wants to increase the use of digital finance as 78% of payments in the eurozone are currently in cash, the publication noted, adding that the new rules should be in place within four years so new customers can start “using financial services quickly once anti-money laundering and identity checks have been completed.” Last week, the finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain called on the European Commission to include “strong rules” in its upcoming cryptocurrency proposal, particularly for global digital tokens like Facebook’s Libra. In a joint statement, they said stablecoins should not be allowed to operate in the EU countries until legal, regulatory and oversight challenges had been addressed. “We’re waiting for the Commission to issue very strong and very clear rules to avoid the misuse of cryptocurrencies for terrorist activities or for money laundering,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was quoted as saying. What do you think about the EU’s plans to regulate the crypto industry by 2024? Let us know in the comments section below. The post EU to Launch Comprehensive Crypto Regulation by 2024: Report appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A study from the team at Kisspatent shows that Alibaba Group is the largest blockchain patent holder in 2020 capturing 10x the number of patents held by IBM. The report notes that blockchain patents “are skyrocketing” this year and so far in 2020, there’s been more distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrency patents published than all of 2019. It seems distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrency solution patents are becoming a thing again in 2020. A few years ago various reports said that Bank of America (BoA) and the firm Nchain were gobbling up all the patents applied to digital assets and blockchain technology. Times have changed in 2020, and both companies have slid down the ranks as far as top blockchain holders are concerned this year. Kisspatent’s latest study shows that Alibaba Group was the top company this year with successful blockchain patent filing and IBM jumped significantly. Alibaba Group is the top blockchain patent holder while the Chinese multinational technology company is followed by the financial institution BoA. While Alibaba and IBM were the top two blockchain patent filing contenders in 2020, Alibaba outpaced IBM by 10x the number of patents. Moreover, this year has already seen “3 times more blockchain patents published than in 2018.” Behind IBM, is Mastercard, Nchain, and Walmart respectively in terms of blockchain patents held. The Kisspatent research noted that the list of top blockchain patent holders was not really represented by distributed ledger-specific firms. “Blockchain-only companies are not filing for patents, Fortune500 companies are,” Kisspatent researcher Dr. D’vorah Graeser notes. Interestingly, the firm Nchain, the infamous company that the self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright works for, is a “the only pure blockchain company.” Kisspatent highlights that Nchain’s claims are based on numbers said in a press release, but “[the number] could include many that haven’t published yet, plus they may be counting international applications filed in multiple countries as separate patent application filings,” Graeser says. Graeser’s list seems incomplete as it does not include firms like Reechain, Webank, and Tencent. Chinadaily.com shows that these three Chinese firms are top blockchain patent holders. According to the regional publication’s estimates, IBM has 240 blockchain patents, Rechain 279, Webank 282, and Nchain has 402 patents total. Chinadaily.com’s list shows Tencent has a significant number of distributed ledger patents with 724 to-date. Alibaba Group is still king with a whopping 1,505 blockchain patent filings. What do you think about the top blockchain patent holders in 2020? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Report: Blockchain Patents ‘Skyrocket’ in 2020, Alibaba Owns the Most Crypto Patents appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The price of bitcoin jumped above the $11k threshold on Saturday morning and into the afternoon, after hovering above the $10,900 range the day prior. The entire crypto-economy of 7,600+ coins has gained 2.29% during the last 24 hours touching $344 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) markets have surpassed key levels above the $11k mark on Saturday, as the cryptocurrency has seen close to $4 billion in global trade volume. A number of people are watching the current price range and believe the $11,000 region is a key zone to watch. One trader explains that BTC has a number of price hurdles ahead to remain bullish in the short term. “Seeing a lot of people bullish on [bitcoin (BTC)] in the short term, but unless it gets above $11,100 and then $11,500— I think there’s still [a] real risk of short term downside,” @Dirkcryptodiggy tweeted. The crypto economy had a decent day on Saturday gaining 2.29% during the last 24 hours. However, digital currency trade volume on the global level has dropped by 23% this weekend. Data from the blockchain analytics firm, Cryptoquant shows that BTC whales are possibly waiting for better prices. Cryptoquant’s CEO, Ki Young Ju discussed the situation concerning ‘BTC whales’ on Thursday. “Exchange Whale Ratio hits the year low—the fewer whales moving to exchanges, the less dumping, and makes [a] higher BTC price,” Ki Young Ju said. The Cryptoquant chart shared by the company’s CEO Ki Young Ju on Thursday shows fewer whales are moving to exchanges. “Exchange Whale Ratio is the relative size of the top 10 inflows to total inflows by day of each exchange,” the analytics firm CEO added. “I used the weighted average for all exchanges.” Meanwhile, the very next day, Cryptoquant’s Telegram channel alerts noted “unusual miner outflows” with 632 BTC in aggregated outflows from miners on Friday. The data shows a majority of the BTC miner outflow stemmed from the mining pool called Poolin. The mining operation Poolin is the network’s top mining pool with 18.9% of BTC’s global hashrate. BTC’s total SHA256 hashrate on Saturday is a whopping 140 exahash per second (EH/s). Since August 23, 2020, the bitcoin (BTC) hashrate jumped 27.27% from a low of 110 EH/s, to today’s all-time high (ATH). The top six crypto assets in the digital currency economy on September 19, 2020, at 5:15 p.m. (ET). Furthermore, BTC dominance, the metric that measures bitcoin’s (BTC) market capitalization against the valuations of the rest of the crypto market economy is over 58%. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 6% during the last seven days and 19% for the last 90 days. Ethereum (ETH) is trading for $385 per coin and is down 0.7% for the last seven days but is still up 68% for the last 90 days. Bitcoin cash (BCH) is trading for $233 per BCH and is up 1.2% this week and 1.14% for the 90-day span. The biggest gainer on Saturday was a coin called kambria (KAT) which jumped 50% during the last 24 hours and sashimi (SASHIMI) saw a 42% gain today. Swerve (SWRV) was the weekend’s biggest loser suffering a loss of 36%, while pillar (PLR) dropped 27% in value. What do you think about this week’s market action and bitcoin (BTC) spiking over the $11k mark? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Market Outlook: Bitcoin Breaks $11K, Whales Refuse to Sell, Downside Risk Remains appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article