Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:35 AM on Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019
SPONSOR:ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE)
Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a
Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed
small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More
than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest
small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.
The crypto market cap and bitcoin (BTC) are currently surging above key resistances. Ethereum (ETH), litecoin, ripple, BCH, TRX, XLM, BNB and EOS are also correcting higher.
Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis
BCH price formed a decent support base near the $280 level against
the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair started a solid upward move and broke
the $290 resistance level. The price is currently up more than 5%, with
an immediate resistance near the $300 level.
If the price surges above the $300 and $305 resistance levels, there
could be more gains in the coming sessions. On the downside, the $290
level may now act as a support in the short term.
Binance Coin (BNB), Litecoin (LTC) and Tron (TRX) Price Analysis
Binance coin (BNB) price is also showing a lot of positive signs and
it recently climbed above the $22.00 resistance area. BNB price is up
around 6% and it is trading above the $22.50 resistance level. The next
key resistances are near the $23.00 and $23.20 levels.
Litecoin price is still facing a lot of hurdles on the upside near
the $68.00 and $70.00 level. LTC price must settle above the $70.00
level to start a decent upward move. On the downside, the main supports
are near the $65.00 and $62.00 levels.
Tron price is slowly moving higher and is trading above the $0.0155
level. An immediate resistance is near the $0.0160 level, above which
TRX price could climb further above the $0.0162 resistance level. The
main supports on the downside are near $0.0152 and $0.0150.
Looking at the total cryptocurrency market cap 4-hours chart,
there solid recovery initiated from the $235.0B support area. The
market cap broke the $240.0B and $250.0B resistance levels to move into a
positive zone. Moreover, there was a break above this week’s followed
bearish trend lines near $248.0B and $252.0B. The market cap is now
placed nicely above $250.0B and the 100 SMA on the same chart.
Therefore, there could be more gains in bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS,
litecoin, ripple, binance coin, BCH, TRX, XMR, XLM and other altcoins in
the near term.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 5:18 PM on Wednesday, August 28th, 2019
SPONSOR:ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE)
Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a
Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed
small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More
than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest
small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.
IDK: CSE
Why Some Executives See Crypto As A New Business Tool
Executives are leveraging blockchain-driven currency to axe business process friction or fuel innovative products and services.
Signals are building that more organizations recognize its alluring features as fuel for innovative products and services, or useful for axing friction in the business process behind a transaction.
By: Jason Abdilla, Unsplash
Many executives see blockchain-driven digital currency as a terribly clunky payment vehicle or speculative investment. But signals are building that more organizations recognize its alluring features as fuel for innovative products and services, or useful for axing friction in the business process behind a transaction.
Unlikely Bedfellows Align Around Feature-Rich Token Projects
For example, a group of 14 financial firms
led by UBS Group AG and including Barclays PLC, Nasdaq Inc., Credit
Suisse Group AG , Bank of New York Mellon Corp., and State Street Bank
& Trust Co have created a new company, Fnality International, to
control development of a bitcoin-like token that the firms plan to use
to settle cross-border trades. The token, called utility settlement coin
(USC), is designed so banks can settle transactions directly with each
other without having to involve a third-party intermediary, removing
layers of costs and inefficiency. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is taking a
similar approach, creating a network of more than 250 members that is
working on a token called JPM Coin. Twenty eight brands, led by Facebook
and including Mastercard, Visa, Uber, Spotify, PayPal, and eBay have
created the Libra Association
to develop a token, which is named Libra. In so doing, unlikely
bedfellows are coming together to take on the extremely difficult work
of forging a new financial infrastructure, pioneering challenging
territory in joint governance, and navigating regulatory uncertainty.
What Is So Compelling?
Blockchain-driven digital tokens have very attractive attributes that
make it possible to do something totally new: merge business and
operational activity with the movement of money. All of a sudden, money
can be programmable—terms and conditions could be directly
embedded into how money moves from one party to another. While this is
certainly possible in today’s financial world, the potential to reduce
the cost of doing so to writing a few lines of code is tantalizing.
For example, the USC token serves as a messenger that includes the
data needed to complete a trade along with payment, which could cut
transaction cost and time. A key feature of Facebook’s Libra is a
programming language called Move that can be used to customize
transaction logic and create “smart contracts†that dictate the
conditions under which value is moved—an element which could fuel a
range of financial innovations. Imagine a world in which a few lines of
code ensure a transaction doesn’t take place until certain other
conditions are met—an asset couldn’t be spent until a certain time in
the future, or until a certain number of parties have registered their
approval. While moving this logic to code comes with a new set of
challenges (including the possibility of bugs and the open question of
legal enforceability), pioneers imagine digital tokens flexibly embedded
into existing products, used to create innovative bundling, or develop
completely new financial products.
Digital tokens carry other attractive attributes as well. They are
designed to be interoperable (they are more useful the more widely
accepted they are, and so token development is a race to get the
flywheel turning on network effects). They are typically traceable, so
they provide clear auditability, and hold the potential to settle on a
near-immediate basis.
By cutting out intermediaries, they also offer the prospect of a
low-transaction cost global currency. According to Bloomberg, retailers
are paying $90 billion in swipe fees on credit and debit cards every year. On August 14, supermarket giant Kroger stopped accepting Visa at 21 supermarkets and five gas stations because of what the company called “excessive feesâ€.
Digital tokens could eventually also serve as an efficient way to
shape and align consumer or partner behavior, functioning as a high value rewards system,
like a supercharged loyalty point. This has the potential to exert
influence across a wide range of organizations and business objectives.
Regulators Are Taking These Signals Seriously
UNITED STATES – JULY 16: David Marcus, head of Facebook’s Calibra
digital wallet service, prepares to testify during the Senate Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on “Examining Facebook’s
Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy
CQ-Roll Call,Inc.
Momentum has been met with a heightened response from regulators and
lawmakers. Facebook’s announcement of Libra led to heated U.S. Senate
Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee held
hearings. At the hearings, Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo of Idaho
painted the complexity ahead, “Libra is based on a relatively new and
continually evolving technology in which it is not entirely clear how
existing laws and regulations apply.†The Financial Stability Oversight
Council, an umbrella group of regulators that includes the Fed, has
formed a working group to discuss oversight of digital assets. The Group
of Seven (G7) industrialized nations have elevated cryptocurrencies to a
priority issue, with finance ministers debating how global
cryptocurrency could impact financial markets. Bank of England Governor
Mark Carney even suggested central banks should consider joining forces to create a virtual currency
(based on a network of digital central-bank currencies) that could ease
the global economy’s reliance on the dollar and be used to facilitate
cross-border trade and international payments.
Suddenly, the prospect of whether this new form of money could
undermine the role of central banks or become a viable alternate to
national currencies had become serious debate. This acknowledges the
power and influence of the players exploring these new currencies as
well as the complexity of projecting how they would operate in the wild.
Canary In The Coal Mine?
Will these initial projects succeed or fail? It is too early to
project the outcome of such early work in the space, much less how it
could evolve as momentum builds. However, we are seeing clear signals
that there is hunger for the features and functionality
blockchain-driven digital tokens and currency make possible. And many in
the space are taking the position that it’s inevitable that something
like these early projects will ultimately come to market, even if the
initial attempts fail to make it through the regulatory gauntlet. It is
likely we will see a race for innovation in this space, one that could
blur the lines between the financial services industry and other
sectors, and even the role of nation-states versus corporations.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:37 AM on Thursday, August 15th, 2019
SPONSOR:ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE)
Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a
Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed
small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More
than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest
small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.
IDK: CSE
How Blockchain can further the cause of electric vehicles
According to researchers, EV charging infrastructure could get a further boost if blockchain is integrated into energy systems
Countries such as India and those in the European Union are pulling out all the steps to strengthen the EV ecosystem
Bengaluru: Charged up with the idea that electric
vehicles (EVs) hold the future of energy and transportation, many
countries such as India and those in the European Union are pulling out
all the steps to strengthen the EV ecosystem with battery storage
manufacturing plants, besides offering a host of financial and tax
incentives.
While all these initiatives are steps in the right direction, many
researchers believe the EV charging infrastructure could get a further
boost if blockchain is integrated into energy systems.
A new study by researchers at the University of Waterloo, for
instance, reveals that there is a lack of trust among charging service
providers, property owners and owners of EVs. With an open blockchain
platform, all parties will have access to the data and can see if it has
been tampered with, researchers insist. Their reasoning is that using a
blockchain-oriented charging system will allow EV owners to see if they
are being overcharged while property owners will know if they are being
underpaid.
Blockchain, primarily known for powering cryptocurrencies like
bitcoins, is a form of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that promises
to reduce costs and establish trust, but faces challenges like the
speed of processing transactions. Its popularity lies in the fact that
participants have a copy of the ledger’s data that contains the most
recent transactions or changes, thus reducing the need to establish trust using traditional methods.
“Energy services are increasingly being provided by entities that do
not have well-established trust relationships with their customers and
partners,” said Christian Gorenflo, a PhD candidate in Waterloo’s David
R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, in a 14 August press statement.
“In this context, blockchains are a promising approach for replacing a
central trusted party, for example, making it possible to implement
direct peer-to-peer energy trading,” he added.
In undertaking the study (recently published in the ‘Proceedings of
the Tenth ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems’),
Gorenflo, his supervisor, professor Srinivasan Keshav of the Cheriton
School of Computer Science, and Lukasz Golab, professor of Management
Science, collaborated with an unnamed EV-charging service provider who
works with property owners to install EV supply equipment that is used
by EV owners for a fee.
The revenue stream from these charging stations is then shared
between the charging service provider and each property owner. The EV
supply equipment is operated by the charging service provider, so the
property owners must trust the provider to compensate them fairly for
the electricity used.
From the case study, the researchers deduced that to incorporate
blockchain technology into an energy system, the involved parties must
first establish trust between themselves. Second, the parties concerned
should design a minimal blockchain system including smart contracts that
resolves the trust issues identified in the first step. Finally, with
the trust-mitigating blockchain in place, the rest of the system can be
migrated iteratively over time. This allows the business model to
eventually grow from a legacy/blockchain hybrid into a truly
decentralized solution, the researchers said.
According to Gorenflo, “In the end, we could even have a system where
there is machine-to-machine communication rather than
people-to-machine. If an autonomous vehicle needs power, it could detect
that and drive to the nearest charging station and communicate on a
platform with that charging station for the power.”
While blockchain implementations in India especially have centred
mostly around the banking, financial and insurance services sector
(BFSI), Jio recently announced it will install one of the largest global blockchain networks in India, comprising “tens of thousands of nodes operational on day one”, over the next 12 months.
That said, integration of blockchain technology into energy trading is now being touted as a promising area of research, and many studies have made efforts in this regard.
Switzerland-based The Share&Charge Foundation, for instance, is
building a decentralized blockchain system for EV charging, to support
payment and contracts. It uses the Open Charge Point Interface protocol
(OCPI) protocol for the peer-to-peer (P2P) connections between service
providers and charge point operators. According to Share&Charge, the
combination of OCPI with blockchain technology can result in secured
contract and connections between parties and improved payment and
settlement.
During the ‘Global Blockchain Congress–Consensus 2018’, organised by
the Department of Information Technology and Electronics, Government of
West Bengal in December 2018, researchers from New-Delhi based The
Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) made a presentation on the
‘Application of Blockchain in Modern Day Power Systems: Trendsetting a
New Paradigm’. Teri’s proposal, made by Alekhya Datta, Fellow, and
Shashank Vyas, Associate Fellow, covered use cases for EVs, distributed
battery storage, grid-connected microgrids, and rooftop solar PV project
financing using blockchain.
As an example, the Teri researchers pointed out that privately-owned
EV charging stations could be used to charge some vehicles passing near
the station and the transaction of bids of charging station owners,
power/energy flow, billing and real-time settlement of payments could be
managed over a blockchain.
Similarly, IIT-Kanpur researchers have proposed that since current billing systems
lack transparency, enabling the service provider to overcharge the
customer, blockchain could be used to develop a “verifiable billing”
system.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:11 PM on Tuesday, August 13th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
IDK: CSE
Blockchain Investment Soars In H1 2019: A Look At Trends
Blockchain Investment Trends Research by TeqAtlas includes analysis of 2.5k active blockchain companies that were funded by 1.8k blockchain investors in 2.5k funding rounds through both – conventional and alternative instruments.
While VC activity surpasses Dot-Com era in the U.S., Chinese tech
companies valuations are higher than any time in recent memory, and SoftBank
raised another multi-billion dollar fund, the state of the blockchain
investment market shows indications of maturity and saturation. Although
most blockchain companies are newbies into the market, they still
present an attractive investment potential.
The Blockchain Investment Trends
Research by TeqAtlas includes analysis of 2.5k active blockchain
companies that were funded by 1.8k blockchain investors in 2.5k funding
rounds through both – conventional and alternative instruments.
TeqAtlads takes a comprehensive view of the unique trends that define
blockchain investment market to understand the investor expectations
Investors Continue To View Blockchain A High Return Investment
In the first half of 2019, total capital investment into blockchain
companies has been the opposite of what we saw in the previous year,
which saw a dramatic rise in the amount of capital investment.
The previous year saw a record-breaking $15.2 billion investment in
TGEs (token generation events) and $5.1 billion in conventional equity
funding. In contrast, approx. $2 billion in TGE capital were raised in
the first half of this year. The upward trend is losing steam in the
first half of 2019, after four years of positive growth.
The research still reports a positive, upward trend in terms of
venture capital (VC) injected into blockchain companies. Conventional
equity rounds have accumulated $1.2 billion in the first 6 months of
2019, as compared to $1.3 billion for all of 2017.
How Did Blockchain Companies Fare In Deal Activity?
Throughout the research, 2018 continued to remain the benchmark for blockchain companies. The height set during the blockchain boom is hard to replicate as the effects of the dramatic fall in value still affect the industry.
In terms of deals, the grand total of investment rounds in the blockchain industry in the first half of 2019 was 268.
For comparison, blockchain companies attracted 910 deals in 2018 and
478 deals in 2017. At the same pace, 2019 might just oust 2017 in terms
of blockchain deal activity.
Surprisingly enough, if you add private equity into the equation, the
total number of conventional funding rounds almost equal the growth
numbers in 2018.
A breakdown of all the blockchain investment funds also reveals that
TGEs were more successful in raising money than Venture Capital rounds –
with the former amassing 26% more on average.
There Is Increasing Interest In Alternative Funding Techniques
Research into completed deals in 2019 shows an emerging trend; investors are increasingly experimenting with alternative funding methods. In fact, a majority (56%) of all closed deals in these six months were secured through TGEs.
Venture capital deals of early-stage funding ensure that traditional
investment comes in second with a 34% share. Early-stage VC rounds form
the major part of conventional funding rounds in terms of the total
capital invested in active Blockchain companies with a 34% share in 1H
2019. If you add in angel seed rounds, this share increases by another
7%.
Equity Funding Has Decreased as compared to 2018
If you analyze the investment pattern from 2014 to the first half of 2019, you are likely to notice that Early-stage VC rounds come out on top for most blockchain investment by stages, with blockchain investments in this stage exceeding $2 billion.
Later Stage Venture Capital Investment Is On The Rise
Later stage venture capital rounds have become increasingly popular,
which means that major players, such as institutional investors, became
interested in this market.
The total amount raised by later-stage blockchain companies backed by
venture capital was $289 million in 2018 only. To compare, the median
round amount of the later-stage IT companies amounted to $11.5 million
in 2018, according to Statista.
The TGE Hype Is Fading Away
TeqAtlas analyzed TGE investment data for 18 months ending in June 2019 to consider how many investors participate through TGE.
The findings state that – despite minor spikes – the overall trend and interest in token generation
events remain on an all-time low. Blockchain investors tread carefully
when it comes to investing in TGEs, with only 153 deals to show for the
six months of 2019.
Blockchain regulations surrounding TGEs, coupled with the dismal
investment numbers, has led us to predict that they are nowhere near
becoming the principal funding method in the blockchain industry.
64% Of Startups Don’t Meet Their Hard Cap
Another challenge identified in the research was that startups, due
to being new and relatively inexperienced, often fail to predict their
hard cap amounts accurately.
A mere 36% of startups manage to meet their hard caps during the
token generation event, with the rest failing to do so. Nevertheless,
2019 has been a slightly better year for startups; the percentage of startups that didn’t meet their hard cap dropped 13 points as compared to the previous year.
What Are The Biggest Deals since the Blockchain inception?
When comparing the different types of fundraising, the general trend
is that TGE usually outperforms conventional VC funding by the capital
raised. The biggest TGE was held by EOS.IO
and led to an enormous fundraising amount of $4.2 billion. When
compared to the biggest VC deal, EOS.IO’s amount is approximately 220%
higher.
The biggest VC-backed company by funding value is Bitmain that has raised $400 million being valued at $12 billion in a Series B round. Another blockchain company Bakkt,
owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), secured $182.5 million for
their project which will enable them to build the global digital assets
platform and bitcoin futures product.
Which TGE Type Extracts The Greatest ROI?
The research analyzed the return on several different TGE
investments, and the results showed a clear winner – blockchain
infrastructure developers.
Amongst investors who enjoyed the best returns, many had funded
blockchain platforms, IoT Infrastructure providers and interoperability
blockchain developers such as Ethereum, IOTA and Cosmos Network,
respectively.
DCG Dominates The Number Of Deals
The research outlined that more than 800 venture capital firms are already capitalizing on blockchain adoption.
Still, no one comes close to the Digital Currency Group,
which is comfortably placed at #1 with 131 deals to date. In fact, the
second and third-placed competitors combined have 109 completed deals.
Unsurprisingly, 80% of the top 10 active blockchain investors reside in the USA.
Most Active Investors industry focus is FinTech
Considering the security and encryption prowess of the technology, it
comes as no surprise that a majority of blockchain technology
investment is concentrated in the financial sector. In fact, FinTech has
114 more deals completed than the second-best sector, blockchain
infrastructure.
Not only does FinTech boast the highest number of completed deals
(150), but investors have poured in huge amounts in such blockchain
startups. This proves that investors truly believe in the potential of
blockchain, especially in the field of FinTech.
Angel/Seed Rounds Are The Investors Favorite
While reviewing the biggest active blockchain investors,
an interesting trend was identified; most of them fill their portfolios
in the first round of funding – the Angel round. While alternate
funding methods might be gaining hype, conventional funding instruments
prevail in the portfolios of the most active investors.
IEO – The ICO Replacement?
ICOs were riddled with problems by the end of 2018, partially due to
fraud that hindered investor trust in blockchain as a whole.
Now, there is a new way to offer coins and this method involves crypto exchanges
in the offering process. This involves the exchange becoming a core
member – essentially, the exchange offers the coins to their existing
consumer base rather than the company offering it to the public.
This allows exchanges to run background checks and verify developer
legitimacy, substantially decreasing the risk of fraud. In the research,
TeqAtlas came across all launchpads that have already conducted IEOs in
the current year – or are planning to.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:23 PM on Monday, August 12th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
IDK: CSE
Goldman Sachs Analysts Say that It’s Time to Buy Bitcoin
In short – the experts are quite bullish for Bitcoin to go up.
Basically, they have set up a short-term price target of $13,971 – yes, specifically this one.
Recently, Three Arrows Capital CEO Su Zhu has shared the Goldman Sachs
note which was sent out to investors. In the note, Goldman Sachs
analysts suggest that buying this Bitcoin dip is a prime opportunity.
The note itself consisted of a Bitcoin CMI futures chart and a comment from the analysts.
First of all, the fact that Goldman Sachs is sending out crypto, in
this particular case, Bitcoin advice to their investors is mind-blowing.
Also, the fact that they are seeing it as a bullish pattern and they
are using the Elliot Wave Theory indicators on their Bitcoin chart is
also a big surprise.
Experts point out that the fact that the Bitcoin CMI futures chart is
used means that this note is being sent out only to institutional
investors. You can see this by the little gaps in the chart which are
weekends. That is the time when CMI Bitcoin Futures markets are closed.
What does the Note Say?
In short – the experts are quite bullish for Bitcoin to go up.
Basically, they have set up a short-term price target of $13,971 – yes,
specifically this one.
In detail – they believe that Bitcoin will find a support level near
$11,094 and $10,791. Once it does that, the analysts say that the chart
has plenty of room to break out at least to $12,916, and possibly to a
new 2019 ATH – $13,971.
“Reaching these levels could mean completing a v wave count from
July. Bottom line, watch for a short-term top/consolidation once
satisfied,†says the note.
But this is a short-term prediction. What about long-term? Well,
according to Goldman Sachs analysts, anything below $13,000 is an
indication to accumulate. They believe that we are in for a similar
run-up like we saw recently this year when Bitcoin went from $7,600 to
around $11,900 in a matter of a couple of weeks.
“In the bigger scheme of things, this might still be the first leg of
another 5-wave count similar to the trend that lasted from Dec ‘18
through Jun ’19,†reads the note.
Also, another thing which recently was highlighted – Bitcoin loves
30% pullbacks. Some experts and analysts have noticed that after a
healthy 30% pullback, Bitcoin always have recovered and this is even
considered as a normal investment strategy. Hence, it is 100% sure that
Bitcoin will have a run-up if it has fallen by approx. 30%.
So in short – Goldman Sachs says that we all need to buy Bitcoin.
But, as usual, only the time will show whether this advice was
definitely the one that investors should have followed.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:45 AM on Friday, August 2nd, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
IDK: CSE
Bitcoin Suddenly Back Above $10,000 As Crypto Markets Gain Billions
The bitcoin price is up 10% over the last three days, with traders and investors pointing to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first rate cut in bitcoin’s ten-year history as one of the prime catalysts for the sudden recovery.
Bitcoin had been trading under the psychological $10,000 mark since
the end of last week but the bitcoin price has now bounced back.
Getty Images
On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the
first time in more than a decade and signaled its readiness to provide
more support as growth slows in the world’s largest economy.
The bitcoin price climbed to highs of $10,500 on the Luxembourg-based
Bitstamp exchange last night, while the wider bitcoin and
cryptocurrency market has added around $10 billion to its overall value
over the last few days.
“Given the connection that crypto influencers have been making
between economic stimulus and crypto lately, we will probably see a much
swifter reaction in bitcoin’s price than we usually do,” Mati
Greenspan, senior market analyst at brokerage eToro, wrote in a note
clients.
“We can see that bitcoin did have a nice run-up the entire morning
ahead of the [Fed’s decision]. At the exact time of the cut, there was a
notable step down, which was quite in line with what happened in the
stock market.”
Just after the Fed revealed it was to reduce the cost of borrowing,
bitcoin investors learned supplies of the digital token are almost
exhausted, despite new coins still due to come into the market for the
next 120 years.
Bitcoin now has 85% of its supply in circulation as of August 1,
leaving just 3.15 million to be mined, according to data from monitoring
resource Blockchain.
The bitcoin price fell sharply at the end of last week, sparking fears the latest bitcoin bull run could be over.
CoinDesk
Meanwhile, the markets were further emboldened by news Jack Dorsey’s
payments company Square revealed it made $125 million in bitcoin sales
through its Cash App, nearly doubling a record first quarter.
“During the quarter, bitcoin revenue benefited from increased volume
as a result of the increase in the price of bitcoin, and generated $2
million of gross profit,” the company wrote in its second quarter earnings report.
Elsewhere, the chief executive of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE),
the parent company of the closely-watched bitcoin futures platform
Bakkt, yesterday said the bitcoin and cryptocurrency platform will be
launching soon, without fixing a firm date.
“Subject to final regulatory approvals, we plan to launch our
physically settled bitcoin futures in the very near future,” ICE CEO
Jeffrey Sprecher said during a quarterly earnings call.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:40 PM on Thursday, August 1st, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
IDK: CSE
NBA is going crypto, launching blockchain souvenirs from the maker of CryptoKitties
To put this product in context: The whole value proposition of blockchain, the decentralized peer-to-peer technology that came about with bitcoin in 2009, is as a place to record transactions on a public, immutable, tamper-proof ledger.
Bitcoin runs on its own blockchain; ether, a rival cryptocurrency, runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
NBA Top Shot will run on a blockchain.
Dapper Labs and the NBA aren’t saying yet exactly which blockchain, but it’s likely to be Ethereum, the home of CryptoKitties.
The NBA is putting its biggest dunks on a blockchain.
The league, along with the NBA Players Association, announced on
Wednesday the coming launch of NBA Top Shot, a home for blockchain-based
digital collectibles.
The idea is for fans to buy and trade unique digital video clips that
commemorate “in-game moments from the NBA season, such as a Kevin
Durant 3-point shot or Joel Embiid dunk,†the NBA says in a press
release.
To put this product in context: The whole value proposition of blockchain,
the decentralized peer-to-peer technology that came about with bitcoin
in 2009, is as a place to record transactions on a public, immutable,
tamper-proof ledger. Bitcoin runs on its own blockchain; ether, a rival
cryptocurrency, runs on the Ethereum blockchain. NBA Top Shot will run
on a blockchain. Dapper Labs and the NBA aren’t saying yet exactly which
blockchain, but it’s likely to be Ethereum, the home of CryptoKitties.
Each video clip will be labeled with a number to mark it as distinct,
much like when you purchase a print or signed piece of art and it is
labeled with how many there are in supply.
Top Shot also promises a gamification element, where fans can compete
head-to-head by building a roster and pitting their digital collections
against each other, fantasy-style.
Much has been made about the uses of blockchain for sports
memorabilia, since souvenirs or autographed items must be authenticated.
As CoinDesk research director Nolan Bauerle put it at Yahoo Finance’s crypto summit last year,
blockchain-based collectibles are “the extension of that
anti-counterfeit quality of all of these coins. So this is really the
beginning of what we’re going to see—I think, anyway—for sports
memorabilia, for the authentication of game-worn jerseys, and cards, and
all kinds of other stuff.â€
But success here is hardly guaranteed—participation isn’t even guaranteed.
Major League Baseball launched a blockchain collectibles game last year with
game developer Lucid Sight called MLB Crypto Baseball. It has not, so
far, been an obvious hit. If you search Twitter for mentions of the
product, most are complaints. It is also far from easy to use, since
participants have to first buy the cryptocurrency ether.
The NBA’s product comes from Dapper Labs, maker of the mega-popular Ethereum game CryptoKitties. At its peak,
the digital kittens in CryptoKitties were so popular they were selling
for tens of thousands of dollars, and trading activity was clogging the
entire Ethereum network.
Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou acknowledges the possible pitfalls.
“We want to give basketball fans something that they’ve never seen
before, but also something that is immediately familiar and they want to
actually play with… You might want that play because you love LeBron,
you might love the team he’s currently on, or you might need that
moment to play in the Top Shot game.â€
Gharegozlou also points to the NBA’s huge social media following as
something that can boost awareness of the game. “They’re going to be
very engaged with us in helping make sure that this experience is
authentic to the fan, and not just a crypto experience.â€
Although this is the NBA’s first league-wide foray into blockchain, the Sacramento Kings last year launched an Ethereum mining operation to
donate crypto to a local community charity. “We know blockchain is
going to revolutionize the world,†Kings CTO Ryan Montoya told Yahoo
Finance last June.
Now, one year later, the league office appears to agree. Adrienne
O’Keeffe, NBA’s head of consumer products and gaming, says, “We are
always exploring new ways to engage with fans around the world. We saw
this partnership with Dapper Labs as an opportunity to expand our gaming
presence while also creating a new and innovative platform that will
allow fans to collect and own specific in-game moments.â€
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:05 AM on Wednesday, July 31st, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
Crypto Markets See Second Day of Green, Bitcoin Above $9,700
crypto markets are seeing widespread green, with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking back above $9,700 and many large market cap altcoins seeing solid gains of between 3 and 9% on the day.
Wednesday, July 31 — crypto markets are seeing widespread green, with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking back above $9,700 and many large market cap altcoins seeing solid gains of between 3 and 9% on the day.
Despite trading in a lower price range since dropping back to a four-figure price point in a recent corrections, BTC is today up a solid 2.4%, bringing it to $9,717 by press time.
This mild uptick nonetheless stops short of bringing the coin back
into the green on its 7-day chart, where Bitcoin is still reporting a
fractional 0.7% loss. On the month, losses are starker, topping 8%.
Yesterday, Peter Tchir — a former Executive Director at German multinational investment bank Deutsche Bank — argued
that Bitcoin is an indicator of hidden geopolitical tensions, pointing
to the coin’s momentous performance this May at a time of fraught trade
talks between the United States and China.
Also this week, erstwhile Bitcoin bear and CNBC host Joe Kernen predicted that the top coin could hit $55,000 — a 500%+ price surge — by the time of its next halving in May 2020.
Top altcoin Ether (ETH) — which celebrated its fourth birthday
yesterday — has posted a 1.9% to trade around $212 by press time. In
corrections earlier this week, the coin had circled perilously close to
the round $200 mark, but has since recovered ground and is just slightly
in the red, at 2.2%, on its 7-day chart. On the month, however, Ether
is down over 18%.
XRP is
reporting a 2.7% gain on the day, while among the remaining top ten
coins several alts are seeing stronger upward momentum: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is posting a 7.5% gain on the day, Litecoin (LTC) is up 3.6% and Binance Coin (BNB) is up 4.1%.
In the context of top twenty coins, Tezos (XTZ) is outstripping all
other assets, seeing a 24% gain on the day following news of the token’s
listing on major United States crypto exchange Coinbase. At press time, XTZ is trading at $1.24
Still among the top twenty, strong gains are being reported by Chainlink (LINK) — up over 9% — as well as by NEO (NEO), IOTA (MIOTA) and Cosmos (ATOM), all of which are up by 4-5%.
Total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies is at $261,434,827,781 at press time, according to Coin360 data.
Dominating the crypto headlines this week is the hearing devoted to
examining regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and blockchain held
at the United States Senate Banking Committee. Cointelegraph reported live on the most important developments during the hearing as it unfolded.
Yesterday’s Committee hearing notably follows upon earlier hearings in mid-July that had examined the regulatory hurdles surrounding Facebook’s Libra.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 3:36 PM on Tuesday, July 30th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
Branson-backed cryptocurrency firm launches a super-fast exchange to take on Coinbase
Blockchain’s exchange is the result of work led by a team of former trading industry executives.
The exchange can execute orders in a matter of “microseconds,†according to CEO Peter Smith.
The firm has raised $70 million from investors including Richard Branson, Alphabet and Lakestar.
Blockchain CEO Peter Smith.
Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Blockchain, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency wallet
platforms, says it’s launched a digital currency exchange aimed at
delivering “lightning-fast†trades.
The company’s exchange, called The PIT, is the result of a
behind-the-scenes effort led by a team of former executives from the New
York Stock Exchange, TD Ameritrade, Google and Goldman Sachs.
According to Blockchain CEO Peter Smith, the new exchange’s matching
engine Mercury can execute buy or sell orders in “40 to 50
microseconds,†an “order of magnitude faster than other market playersâ€
like Coinbase and Binance.
Founded in 2011, Blockchain initially started out with what’s known
as a block explorer — kind of like an internet browser for
cryptocurrency data — and then built digital wallets for users to store
and exchange their crypto. It derives its name from the eponymous
blockchain network that records bitcoin transactions.
Having enjoyed popularity with bitcoin enthusiasts — Blockchain
claims to account for about 25% of daily activity on the bitcoin network
— the company is hoping its exchange platform will help lure in the
uninitiated.
“There’s a huge audience of people who have not yet placed their
first bitcoin trade,†Nicole Sherrod, head of trading products at
Blockchain, told CNBC in an interview. Sherrod previously led the active
trading product team at online stock broker TD Ameritrade before
joining Blockchain.
Sherrod said the new trading platform would give investors a degree of liquidity not seen in competitor exchanges.
“In volatile markets in particular, speed is of utmost importance,â€
she said. “I would not feel comfortable delivering a platform to retail
investors that puts them in a position where they couldn’t get in and
out of a trade with lightning-fast speed.â€
Blockchain CEO Peter Smith says the cryptocurrency firm’s new exchange can executive order in a matter of “microseconds.â€
Blockchain
Cryptocurrencies have gained a reputation for their volatile price
swings. Bitcoin in late 2017 skyrocketed to a near-$20,000 record high,
before plummeting the following year to as low as $3,122. The world’s
best-known digital currency has been on the rise this year, however,
last trading at $9,502.
Bitcoin’s rise in 2019 was attributed in part to Facebook’s plans to
create a cryptocurrency, with analysts saying it brings some much-needed
credibility to cryptocurrencies. Facebook’s Libra project has been
panned by regulators, however, concerned by the risks it may pose to
consumers.
One big hurdle for the industry to overcome is bringing institutional
investors with deep pockets on board. That may be slowly starting to
happen, with financial services giant Fidelity signaling it’s warming to the space. Sherrod said that Blockchain’s crypto exchange is providing liquidity through “institutional-level market makers.â€
Blockchain said its exchange will be available in more than 200
countries, starting with 26 trading pairs. Users will be able to link
their bank account with Blockchain and use U.S. dollars, euros and
sterling to trade cryptocurrencies.
The company has raised over $70 million from investors including
British billionaire Richard Branson, Alphabet venture arm GV and early
Spotify backer Lakestar. It has also accrued over 40 million users,
Blockchain said, who will be able to transfer crypto from their wallets
to the exchange.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:49 AM on Monday, July 29th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
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lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————
Blockchain is finally becoming the next-gen database of choice
Image Credit: TimeStopper/Getty
In short, a blockchain is a server that can’t crash and a database that can’t be corrupted — all in one easy to deploy package.
When I think of why we need a blockchain, I think of one guy. There was a dev we had hired to build a few important parts of our product for us. A few years previously, in another life, he had been hosting his own servers and one of them crashed. He was telling me this with tears in his eyes: The database, a massive mess full of customer data, point-of-sale info, and inventory information had gone up in smoke. The backups were hosed, as well. And there was no way to rewind the data.
He spent almost 24 hours in an air-conditioned server room, a monitor
attached to the rack and a keyboard on his knees, trying to resurrect
it. He was partially successful, but the real question was whether the
data was accurate. Whether the transactions all matched up, whether he
would keep his job in the morning.
Everything turned out fine and, since then, it has gotten a lot
easier to do his job. Cloud replaced servers while also being cheaper
and more reliable. His lingering fear never went away though. Things are
better, but he can’t be 100% sure things will never go sideways again.
He believes, though, that there’s a stronger safety net available now
than we’ve had before: blockchain.
Benefits like disaster recovery,
security, availability, and automation are all baked into blockchain.
The serverless architecture of public blockchains makes them powerful
proofs of how blockchain can deliver on enterprise-grade reliability for
business databases. The costs are also not much higher: Blockchain’s
ability to instantly replicate may even allow you to safely get away
with the same (or even less) redundancy compared to a traditional
database. Perhaps the biggest advantage? Smart contracts
will regulate changes, so a new hire can’t throw a wrench into
everything — the blockchain will protect you from changes that could
compromise data or stability.
In short, a blockchain is a server that can’t crash and a database that can’t be corrupted — all in one easy to deploy package.
To be clear, blockchain isn’t perfectly suited to solve certain data
problems, the same way that email isn’t suited for instant messaging.
Big data analytics is crazy expensive to replicate, and unless you are
directly monetizing the data (like selling ads), it is not worth the
cost to shoehorn blockchain into an analytical workload. Blockchains are
best for core business transactional data, like your account balance.
They are absolutely mission-critical when it comes to account data and
ownership records, the loss of which would be an existential threat to a
company. A company like Walmart can probably survive the loss of all
website traffic data, but it would be very much at risk if it lost its
inventory ledger.
Business continuity is a major concern for enterprise players as
customers demand nothing less than always-on availability. As businesses
grow though, the pains of migrating databases and updating systems can
lead to massive fumbles. According to Boston Computing Network’s
research, 60 percent of companies that lose their data will shut down
within six months of the disaster. There exists an entire industry of
SysOps, DevOps, and others who monitor code pushes and database
migrations, giving humans plenty of chances to foul up a launch.
So blockchain represents a big opportunity for businesses to move quickly while keeping their operations secure.
Today, it isn’t just about the speed of transactions, it’s also about
verifying and securing those transactions. That’s what has always been
missing in system management and is something that anyone from our
beleaguered dev to the teams that run databases for Twitter, Facebook,
and LinkedIn are learning.
Blockchain tech is the evolution of the database. Smart contracts
enforce business rules, while databases are backed up and verified
continuously. All of the infrastructure and computational needs are
calculated before deployment, and embedded rules ensure compliance from
day one onward.
In fact, it looks a lot like the next generation of what APIs look
like. You’re encapsulating processes, tying them together with requests
for data, and expecting results. Right now, the business logic is
processed on central servers of some kind. What’s innovative with
blockchain is that you can take that logic, wrapped as a smart contract,
and run it on your own. It still adheres to the rules set by the people
who created it, and it must interact as expected.
Now, imagine databases on blockchain using these same robust rules.
Robust databases that are unkillable. You don’t have to worry about your
main server going down. Replication is built-in. Immutable laws exist
that you can’t lose or change. If you’re on a public blockchain, this is
as robust as possible, and you don’t have to pay for any servers. With a
public blockchain, your data is stored cryptographically by the
blockchain’s miners all around the world. If you’re on a private
blockchain, you may run several replicated systems. Or, you can own all
the nodes. You can also use blockchain on cloud platforms like Amazon
Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The key is that blockchain is built to
be replicated, again and again. Traditional databases must be migrated
in specific, expensive ways under certain conditions to guard against
data loss.
Ultimately, this is where blockchain really proves its worth:
combining the basic elements of security, robustness, replication, and
business logic all in its “DNA.†Smart contracts are safe, distributed,
and secure. Your entire dataset is more secure this way, too. This is
why blockchain promises to be the next-generation database.
