As the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade approaches, users have been showing an increasing interest in the staking process, which would allow them to make a passive income by validating the new network.

This is evidenced by the growing number of Ether (ETH) wallets and ETH deposits on cryptocurrency exchanges. According to a recent report published by analytical company Arcane Research, the number of Ethereum wallets containing 32 ETH or more the minimum amount of coins needed to run the staking node have increased by 13% over the year, and the number of Ethereum 2.0 Google search queries have grown by around six times since March.

While some users have already opted to run their own validator node, others are still choosing among becoming an independent validator, joining a staking pool or using staking provider services. But is there actually any difference?

The upgraded Ethereum network will switch from the proof-of-work to the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, replacing miners with validators who will bet their coins to verify transactions. Once validators verify honest transactions, they will receive the rewards in the form of passive income this process is called staking.

At the moment, the exact size of an annual reward for Ethereum stakers is still unknown. However, according to the projects roadmap, this value will vary from 1.56% to 18.1% and will be inversely proportional to the total number of validators: When the network increases, rewards contract.

On the one hand, a staking model can be attractive to a wide range of crypto users because there is no need for expensive mining equipment or special technical skills and might look as simple as having a bank deposit. All that is needed to receive annual interest on staked funds is to store ETH on a hardware wallet.

However, an in-depth analysis of the requirements for becoming a validator on the Ethereum network has shown that not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance. The minimum entry threshold of 32 ETH is just one of such requirements.

Related: Ethereum 2.0 Staking, Explained

For example, given the ETH exchange rate of $250, the user will need to invest $8,000 to become a validator on the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain. But what about the reward? Taking into account the cost of validation of $180 and an average reward of 5% suggested by Ethereum developer Justin Drake, the annual profit from staking 32 ETH can be around $190. So, given the possible risks of Ethers price experiencing volatility and users being unable to withdraw funds, this reward model is unlikely to allow an average staker to hit a big jackpot.

Another task users will have to deal with to be a full validator is running their own validator node. As evidenced by a survey published by Consensys, 33% of the ETH users are ready to perform this task. But thats not all. Additionally, validators would be required to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of the hardware wallet. If users disconnect, they lose all their daily income. Even worse, if at some point their stakes drop below 32 ETH, users will lose the right to be a validator.

The Ethereum staking entry threshold is not as high as the cost of running a master node on other blockchain networks, such as Dash, and for many users, high barriers to enter may be unaffordable. That same survey conducted by Consensys also showed that 33% of ETH owners do not intend to participate in network staking, and 71% of those who refused said that they do not hold enough Ether to become a validator.

The above-mentioned limitations can be circumvented if joining a so-called staking pool or staking-as-a-service providers. Such third-party services either decentralized or centralized offer staking on the users behalf and relieve them of the need to worry about launching special software or keeping the network online during the life of the staking deposit. And if launching ones own node can be compared to opening a deposit account at a bank, then staking providers act as brokers, taking on all the risks and maintenance expenses for a certain fee.

The biggest advantage of such solutions is the ability to earn on staking with any amount of ETH, which becomes a way out for many users who cannot afford to keep their own node. According to Consensys, at least 33% of Ethereum users plan to use third-party services and 20% of the respondents who previously revealed the intention to run their own validator nodes said they would consider using a staking service instead. This raises the question: Which is the better option a staking pool or a staking-as-a-service provider?

Today, many crypto exchanges offer staking services for PoS-based coin owners with daily income payments. For example, Poloniex does not impose any requirements on the terms of deposits the user can trade and withdraw funds at any time. For this, however, users are charged a 25% fee on their rewards, which is said to cover operating expenses and risks associated with the management of the service.

Bitfinex, another major crypto exchange, claims that it doesnt charge a fee for its current staking programs, holding a small portion of staking rewards instead. Additionally, asstated on Bitfinexs website, in some cases, its staking service provider can also take a portion of the rewards collected through the exchange. Meanwhile, staking services provided by Bitfinex are available for any category of users since its enough to have as little as $0.10 to start receiving rewards on the platform.

Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer at Bitfinex, revealed to Cointelegraph that the cryptocurrency exchange has the biggest Ethereum cold wallet and is planning to be a key part of Ethereum staking. According to him, Ethereum staking will be quite profitable for users who keep their funds on exchanges:

Exchanges like Bitfinex will charge a tiny fee to cover operation costs, but the large majority of rewards will go directly into the pockets of the users. Not all users want to go through the process of custodying their own assets and learning how to stake properly.

Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, the CEO of Binance crypto exchnage told Cointelegraph that users who actively stake via Binance will be able to earn higher interest rates than those who simply hold cryptocurrency in their accounts:

Binance will stake a fractional reserve of the Ethereum held by our users, as we still require some funds to be liquid for users to withdraw at any time, while automatically distributing proportionately the rewards to our users.

Another convenience of centralized platforms and custodial services is that they undertake the conversion of the users ETH to ETH2. Cryptocurrency services provider Bitcoin Suisse, for instance,claims that it doesnt charge any commissions for such a conversion, however, it will take 15% from rewards received by its customers. The platform also promises to monitor the timely update of its own software so that the staking process remains uninterrupted and beneficial for the user.

However, according to some users, staking programs offered by crypto exchanges can lead to the centralization of the Ethereum blockchain. In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Sergey Zhdanov, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange EXMO, explained that although the exchanges will definitely become the biggest network validators, the influence will be inseparable:

Data from Arcane Research and Nansen AI shows that Ethereum wallets with at least 32 ETH, the amount required for ETH 2.0 staking, have grown by 13% this year. The amount of these wallets are more than 120K, so the exchange wallets are taking just 1% of them.

Alongside the crypto exchanges, custodian services provided by some institutional players also appear to be willing to offer such services. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, 42% of crypto hedge funds are also involved in cryptocurrency staking.

Related: ETH Miners Will Have Little Choice Once Ethereum 2.0 Launches With PoS

Zhdanov also pointed out that many big players will likely be staking ETH by themselves as a tool to hedge the risks of their portfolio and that the popularity of ETH among other altcoins working on PoS will help reduce the centralization risk.

Speaking about the probability of centralization, Bitfinexs Ardoino told Cointelegraph that this threat can be possible only in the early phases of the upgrade, adding: Education on the importance of staking from own wallets will be a key factor in order to reduce centralization.

Besides, according to CZ, staking is particularly effective in helping stabilize cryptocurrency prices, as it encourages users to make market buys when purchasing tokens, as well as rewards limit sell orders rather than market sell orders, as users continue to earn staking rewards while their order hasnt filled yet. He added:

Thus, during panics, users are incentivized to set limit orders to sell rather than dump on market, and during bullish periods, users are incentivized to get in faster.

Staking pools or decentralized exchanges can be an alternative for those who are concerned about possible centralization and penalties incurred, for example, for going offline. As the decentralized nature implies, everything from rewards to risks is shared among the members of such pools.

For example, decentralized staking pool Rocket Pool claims that a user deposit cannot be assigned to a bad node since all the pool members share the risk of nodes being slashed and, therefore, the size of the penalty. Thus, if one node fails, each pool member will lose a small number of funds. However, in the case of running a node, its the user whos at risk of losing everything.

In addition to so-called socialized losses, Rocket Pool introduced its native token that represents a tokenized staking deposit and allows stakers to instantly receive a reward and withdraw it at any time. In addition, the pool does not charge fees for staking. In order to join the pool, individual users will need to have a minimum of 0.01 ETH, while those who plan to run a Rocket Pool smart node software will require 16 ETH half as much of the minimum amount needed to run an individual validator node, but a lot more than what crypto exchanges would require.

The entry threshold to become an Ethereum validator has become the most discussed issue among users interested in staking. Many of themargue that 32 ETH is too much and noted that if the required amount was smaller, there would be many more validators on the new network.

Others said that they wouldnt lock up 32 ETH just to secure the Ethereum network unless the staking rewards were higher than 10% per year, given that the possible profit could be negligible compared to losses in the event of a coin price drop. Although the exact staking reward size still remains unknown, many users who have revealed their plans to use third-party provider services already said they would choose the platform that offered at least 7.6% in revenue.

There are also those in the crypto community who appeared to be concerned about the threat of Ethereum centralization, rather than the cost of staking. They, however, appeared to be in the minority. Notably, a significant part of users spoke out in defense of the entry threshold of 32 ETH, comparing this amount to tens of thousands of dollars needed to own master nodes in blockchain networks, such as Dash.

While the launch date for Ethereum 2.0 is still open, users have time to decide whether they want to participate in the stake or not and how exactly they want to do it. As the examples discussed in this article show, almost any crypto user can become a validator of the new network and receive passive income regardless of their financial and technical capabilities.

Excerpt from:

Ethereum 2.0: The Choice Between Ones Own Node and a Staking Service - Cointelegraph

EOS

EOS fell by 1.59% on Sunday. Reversing a 0.36% gain from Saturday, EOS ended the week down by 8.62% to $2.5691.

It was a bearish start to the day. EOS fell from an early morning intraday high $2.6105 to an early afternoon intraday low $2.5252.

EOS fell through the first major support level at $2.5672 and the second major support level at $2.5280.

Finding support late in the day, EOS broke back through the major support levels to wrap up the week at $2.569 levels.

At the time of writing, EOS was down by 0.22% to $2.5634. Another bearish start to the day saw EOS fall from an early morning high $2.5703 to a low $2.5615.

EOS left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

EOS would need to move through the $2.57 pivot level to take bring the first major resistance level at $2.6113 into play.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for EOS to break out from Sundays high $2.6105.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $2.6113 would likely limit any upside.

Failure to move through the $2.5680 pivot could see EOS in the red for a 2nd consecutive day.

A fall through to sub-$2.55 levels would bring the first major support level at $2.5260 into play.

Barring another crypto sell-off, however, EOS should steer well clear of the second major support level at $2.4830.

Major Support Level: $2.5260

Major Resistance Level: $2.6113

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $6.62

38% FIB Retracement Level: $9.76

62% FIB Retracement Level: $14.82

Ethereum fell by 2.87% on Sunday. Reversing a 0.25% gain from Saturday, Ethereum ended the week down by 5.49% to $231.34.

A mixed start to the day saw Ethereum rise to an early morning intraday high $238.59 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $239.94, Ethereum slid to a late intraday low $229.75.

The reversal saw Ethereum fall through the first major support level at $235.25 and the second major support level at $232.34.

Finding late support, Ethereum moved back through to $231 levels to reduce the deficit on the day.

At the time of writing, Ethereum was down by 0.51% to $230.15. A bearish start to the day saw Ethereum fall from an early morning high $231.34 to a low $229.95.

Ethereum left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Story continues

Ethereum would need to move through to $233.20 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $236.70.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break out from $235 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Sundays high $238.59 should cap any upside.

Failure to move through the $233.20 pivot could see Ethereum take a hit on the day.

A fall back through to sub-$230 would bring the first major support level at $227.86 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer clear of the second major support level at $224.39.

Major Support Level: $227.86

Major Resistance Level: $236.70

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $257

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $367

62% FIB Retracement Level: $543

Ripples XRP fell by 1.07% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.30% decline on Saturday, Ripples XRP ended the week down by 6.41% to $0.19040.

It was a bearish start to the day. Ripples XRP slid from an early morning intraday high $0.19263 to a late intraday low $0.18875.

Ripples XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.1909 and the second major support level at $0.1894.

Finding late support, Ripples XRP briefly revisited $0.191 levels before falling back through the first major support level.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was down by 0.13% to $0.19015. A bearish start to the day saw Ripples XRP fall from an early morning high $0.19041 to a low $0.18988.

Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Ripples XRP will need to move through to $0.1910 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.1924.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripples XRP to break out from the morning high $0.19041.

Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Sundays high $0.19263 would likely cap any upside.

Failure to move through the $0.1910 pivot could see Ripples XRP spend a 3rd day in the red.

A fall back through the morning low $0.18988 would bring the first major support level at $0.1886 into play.

In the event of extended crypto sell-off, the second major support level at $0.1867 would likely come into play.

Major Support Level: $0.1886

Major Resistance Level: $0.1924

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.3638

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.4800

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.6678

Please let us know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks, Bob

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

Read more:

EOS, Ethereum and Ripples XRP Daily Tech Analysis June 15th, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Introduction

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently published that Visa (V) has filed a patent application for a digital fiat currency. The application mentions Ethereum (ETH-USD) several times, suggesting that the Ethereum blockchain could be the one used for the project. Should the project go through, its implications are significant for both parties.

Source

The patent describes techniques for the generation of a digital currency and the subsequent removal of the physical currency from circulation in the standard fiat (government-issued) currency system. The application abstract states:

Techniques are disclosed which include receiving, by a central entity computer, a request for digital currency. The request includes a serial number and a denomination of a physical currency. The central entity computer generates the digital currency for the denomination and linked to the serial number. The generating includes recording the digital currency on a blockchain. The central entity computer transmits a notification of the generation of the digital currency. The central entity computer causes removal of the physical currency from circulation in a fiat currency system."

The patent refers to the generic term "digital fiat currency". It can be assumed that its first application will be to the US dollar, but other international currencies could soon follow.

Figure 1 - Process Architecture - Source

The whole process will be recorded on a blockchain. For those who are not familiar with the technology, a blockchain is decentralized, distributed ledger that records the provenance and exchange of digital assets through a transparent and secure process. In its first application, bitcoin (BTC-USD), blockchain technology allowed to perform financial transactions without relying on a central trusted third party. Removing the need for a centralised third party has been shown to, ultimately, improve efficiency, security, and reliability processes. In this specific application, it would solve the need of creating an immutable record of transactions while achieving efficiencies and cost-saving on several aspects.

Significant cost reduction is achievable through the adoption of the technology. Reconciliation expenses are the first thing to consider. "In accounting, reconciliation is the process of ensuring that two sets of records are in agreement. Reconciliation is used to ensure that the money leaving an account matches the actual money spent. This is done by making sure the balances match at the end of a particular accounting period."

Across almost all financial services, reconciliation is an expensive and time-consuming process. The lack of transaction transparency and inefficient information sharing across organisations lead to delays and extra expenses. Examples of this can be found in the workflows of trade settlement and trade finance, cross-border and domestic payments, credit letters settlement, and many more. Using blockchain, the time and cost of these reconciliation efforts could be drastically reduced since all parties get instant visibility of transaction and information, maintaining high security and immutability of records.

Audit costs could also be reduced since each transaction is recorded sequentially and indefinitely, providing an audit trail for all assets and transactions that have been successfully executed.

Other examples include information sharing between parties, such as KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and AML (Anti-Money-Laundering) data, an all kinds of workflows automation, such as using smart contracts for accounts payable/receivable and data validation.

In this particular application, Visa aims at receiving physical fiat currency and replace it into the system with digital currency recorded on a blockchain. Therefore, this would slowly absorb physical currency from the current system, potentially achieving a gradual shift to a cashless society. For Visa, dealing with digital currencies will provide a frictionless environment that will significantly increase efficiency and allow it to achieve all the above-mentioned cost-saving benefits.

The blockchain use by the project could be the Ethereum blockchain, as it is mentioned several times in the patent application, such as:

In some embodiments, Ethereum may be used to implement various aspects described herein.

In some embodiments, digital fiat currency may be implemented using Ethereum as illustrated in FIGS. 9A-9D."

The Ethereum blockchain seems, therefore, a valid candidate for the project. If you are not aware of the Ethereum network or you want to know more about it, I highly suggest you read my previous article, "The Present and Future of The Ethereum Network". Currently, due to scalability issues, such a high volume of transactions is probably not feasible on Ethereum or any other pure decentralised blockchain network. However, scalability is set to improve significantly due to the series of updates known as Ethereum 2.0. Developers are also working on other solutions to improve Ethereum scalability, such as Matic, a sidechain scaling solution that is now live on the Ethereum main-net. As an alternative, Visa could decide to settle with a centralised, less-secure second layer on top of the Ethereum blockchain, with only periodic synchronisations with the Ethereum main-net.

The filing of a patent application does not necessarily mean they have any intention of actually rolling it out. Competitors could be working on the same lines, and patenting the technology could be a way to kill the competition.

However, I believe this specific patent has huge potential since it is tied with the figure of a central authority or central bank. The patent states that these central authorities could be entities "responsible for the production and distribution of money and credit in a region (e.g., a nation)" and would have "exclusive permission to transform physical currency into digital currency in order to regulate the value of the digital currency". To ensure that this digital coin value is stabilized, for every time a dollar worth of digital fiat currency is generated, the central entity ensures that a corresponding physical dollar bill is removed from circulation, in order to regulate the value of the digital fiat currency.

This central entity would have control of the timing and quantity of the digital currency issuance and would manage "the destruction of units of physical currency in connection with the generation of corresponding units of digital fiat currency". To me, this seems like the only way in which the government could complete the switch to a cashless society in the never-so-near future completely digital world. It would be no surprise since many governments are embracing digital currencies. China already stated to be close to the release of its own digital currency, Singapore is testing blockchain digital currency system for banks, while Ghana is about to start testing an actual central bank digital currency, with Deputy Governor Maxwell Opoku-Afari stating:

Individuals, businesses, and government have shown a strong preference for digital payments for reasons of convenience, efficiency, speed, affordability, round the clock availability and robust audit trail."

Recently, Americans got an exposure to the idea of a sovereign digital currency when a digital dollar bill was included in the proposed solutions for distributing federal handouts during the COVID-19 crisis. While this proposal was eventually left by the wayside, on June 11th, the US congress devoted an entire hearing to the subject, demonstrating that the idea is now closer than ever to becoming reality.

Should the government go ahead with the transition, Visa could find itself in a very strong position, having patented the most straightforward system to do exactly what the government would be needing to do. In that case, the government would not be seen as a patent "infringer" but it would probably agree to offer compensation for the use of someone else's patent. In any way, Visa could have just cemented its position as the main government partner in the shift to monetary digitalisation that is bound to happen in the future.

I rate VISA a strong BUY.

If you found this article of value, please follow (near the title) and/or press "Like this article" just below.

Disclosure: I am/we are long V, ETH-USD, BTC-USD. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: I am not a financial advisor. All articles are my opinion - they are not suggestions to buy or sell any securities. Perform your own due diligence and consult a financial professional before investing or trading.

More:

Visa And The Digital Dollar On Ethereum - Seeking Alpha

The developers at Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL), an externally audited enterprise-grade blockchain platform that claims to be secure against a potential (future) attack from quantum computers, stated that Ethereum (ETH) could go quantum computer resistant through a unique smart-contract.

The QRL team said that a project called EnQlave helps users secure their computers against a quantum computer attack. They pointed out that the Ethereum 2.0 fork will bring many improvements like sharding, zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), enhancing overall blockchain efficiency, and lower transaction fees.

They noted:

One of the biggest hindrances to blockchains right now thats affecting its adoption is its ability to scale. [We] think [the Ethereum 2.0 related upgrades] will help out quite a bitProof of stake, Ethereum is going there, and so are we [at QRL.] Transparency, trust, immutability, pseudonymity, security all these things are core tenets of blockchain.

They added:

When it comes to Ether, [Ethereums native token,] were soon going to have another option. And that option is to make it quantum secure, or not. But why quantum? Quantum computers are quite cool [even literally.] In 2016, the NIST or National Institute of Standards and Technology (in the US) initiated a process to solicit, evaluate, and standardize one or more quantum resistant public key cryptographic algorithms.

They explained that this was basically the NIST calling upon academics and the general public to write and propose new asymmetric or public key algorithms to be used in the post-quantum era (i.e. when quantum computers powerful enough to threaten or practically outperform existing binary computers have arrived).

The QRL team revealed that so far there have been 60 submissions, out of which 12 were reportedly broken and there were five withdrawals from the competition. There are currently two quantum-secure protocols in draft recommended state, the team revealed. One of these is called XMSS which is the underlying protocol used by QRL.

They confirmed that quantum computers are available right now. For instance, D-Wave has been manufacturing them since 1999, the team said. IBM has also been releasing more and more powerful quantum computers.

The QRL team noted that, in 2019, Google announced Quantum Supremacy which is defined as the construction of a device that can solve a problem or perform a function that would be unfeasible for any classical computer. Google was able to carry out a function in 200 seconds and based on their calculations, it would take a supercomputer 10,000 years to complete the same function, the QRL team revealed.

They added:

It appears that quantum resistance is not on the Ethereum roadmap, so this is where I think the QRL team can help. Project EnQlave is an Ethereum smart contract that creates a quantum secure safe to store your Ethereum cryptocurrency.[this means, that] using your browser, you can access your Ethereum and transfer funds into a quantum secure safe, all while staying on the Ethereum blockchain.

However, the cost associated with doing this is that every time a smart contract is called or invoked for this purpose (moving funds in and out of your EnQlave wallet), you would incur a gas (fee) charge from the Ethereum network, The gas charge price is set by ETH miners who are processing transactions on the worlds largest smart contract development platform.

Gas fees are a financial incentive for Ether miners to process users transactions.

The QRL team recommended:

Due to gas costs, EnQlave works best as a long-term, post-quantum secure storage solution. Its not something youd want to move your funds in and out of every day.

As of June 2020, EnQlave has been running on an internal test network (testnet) and the code is being audited.

As previously reported, many experts believe quantum computers could completely shatter the current Internet security systems protecting the Bitcoin (BTC) network, digital payments, and IoT devices.

See original here:

Ethereum (ETH) Might Not have Quantum Resistance on its Roadmap, the QRL Team Reveals - Crowdfund Insider

EOS

EOS rose by 0.36% on Saturday. Following on from a 3.38% gain on Friday, EOS ended the day at $2.6063.

A bearish start to the day saw EOS fall to an early morning intraday low $2.5549 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $2.5182, EOS rallied to a late intraday high $2.6209 before easing back.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $2.6490, EOS fell back to sub-$2.58 levels before wrapping up the day at $2.60 levels.

At the time of writing, EOS was down by 0.36% to $2.5970. A bearish start to the day saw EOS fall from an early morning high $2.6105 to a low $2.5944.

EOS left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

EOS would need to avoid sub-$2.5940 levels to take bring the first major resistance level at $2.6332 into play.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for EOS to break out from Saturdays high $2.6209.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $2.6332 would likely limit any upside.

Failure to avoid a fall through the $2.5940 pivot could see EOS struggle on the day.

A fall through the $2.5940 pivot would bring the first major support level at $2.5672 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, EOS should steer well clear of the second major support level at $2.5280.

Major Support Level: $2.5672

Major Resistance Level: $2.6332

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $6.62

38% FIB Retracement Level: $9.76

62% FIB Retracement Level: $14.82

Ethereum rose by 0.25% on Saturday. Following on from a 3.21% rally on Friday, Ethereum ended the day at $238.17.

It was a choppy start to the day. Ethereum fell to a late morning intraday low $234.11 before finding support.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $234.4, Ethereum rallied to a late intraday high $238.8.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $242.1, Ethereum fell back to sub-$236 levels before finding late support.

A late move back through to $238 levels delivered the upside on the day.

At the time of writing, Ethereum was down by 0.22% to $237.64. A bearish start to the day saw Ethereum fall from an early morning high $238.22 to a low $237.33.

Ethereum left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Story continues

Ethereum would need to avoid sub-$237 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $239.94.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break out from Saturdays high $238.8.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $239.94 should cap any upside.

Failure to avoid sub-$237 levels could see Ethereum take a hit on the day.

A fall through the $237 pivot would bring the first major support level at $235.25 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer clear of sub-$230 levels. The second major support level at $232.34 should limit any downside.

Major Support Level: $235.25

Major Resistance Level: $239.94

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $257

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $367

62% FIB Retracement Level: $543

Ripples XRP fell by 0.30% on Saturday. Following a 2.66% gain on Friday, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.19246.

A bearish start to the day saw Ripples XRP fall to a late morning intraday low $0.19087 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $0.1883, Ripples XRP rallied to an early afternoon intraday high $0.19385.

Coming up short of the first major resistance level at $0.1964, Ripples XRP fell back to a low $0.19183 before finding support.

In spite of the late support, Ripples XRP was unable to move back through to $0.1930 levels and into the green.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was down by 0.12% to $0.19222. A mixed start to the day saw Ripples XRP fall to an early morning low $0.19214 before rising to a high $0.19263.

Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Ripples XRP will need to move through to $0.1924 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.1939.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripples XRP to break out from Saturdays high $0.19385.

Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Saturdays high would likely cap any upside.

Failure to move through the $0.1924 pivot could see Ripples XRP spend a 2nd day in the red.

A fall through sub-$0.1920 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.1909 into play.

Barring another extended crypto sell-off, Ripples XRP should avoid the second major support level at $0.1894.

Major Support Level: $0.1909

Major Resistance Level: $0.1939

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.3638

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.4800

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.6678

Please let us know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks, Bob

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

Continued here:

EOS, Ethereum and Ripples XRP Daily Tech Analysis June 14th, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Tether, a blockchain-enabled platform that powers the largest stablecoin by market capitalisation, has eclipsed Ripples XRP to become the second largest altcoin behind Ethereum tokens (ETH).

USD Tether (USDt) has made a rapid ascent in 2020, amid challenging market conditions and, at times, extreme levels of market volatility. USDt is also playing an increasingly important role as a valuable source of liquidity in the nascent DeFi space, which has spawned innovative financial products such as flash loans that form part of an alternative financial system.

USD Tether (USDt) has grown to a market capitalisation of USD9.6 billion, dwarfing the size of rival stablecoins by market capitalisation, trading volume and number of users. USDts market capitalisation has eclipsed that of XRP, which currently stands at US$8.5 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap, a provider of cryptocurrency market data.Tether is manifestly growing in popularity as the most liquid, stable and trusted stablecoin, says Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether. Tethers ascent to become the third biggest cryptocurrency underlines the pivotal role USDt plays in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The march of USDt is gathering momentum amid growing recognition that stablecoins will play an important role in the future of finance as a trusted and robust form of digital money.

As of 12 May, 2020, USDt has a market share of 77.84 per cent among Ethereum-based stablecoins, according to recent research by The Block. USDts outstanding Ethereum-based supply has grown by about 113 per cent year-to-date to from USD2.3 billion to USD4.9 billion. The aggregate Ethereum-based stablecoin market capitalisation has increased 95.38 per cent year-to-date to USD6.25 billion, research from The Block found.

Tether functions as the reserve currency for the crypto market, says Ardoino. The recent market instability has demonstrated that there is a huge need for this asset. Investors want a safe haven to reduce the risk in their portfolios.

In addition to its Ethereum-based version of USDt, there are versions of USDt that work on Algorand, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni and Tron. Tether is driven to support and empower growing ventures and innovation in the blockchain space.

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Tether becomes second largest altcoin behind Ethereum tokens - HedgeWeek

Many people are familiar with blockchain technology, but did you know that Ethereum has the largest and most active blockchain community in the world?

Unlike many other blockchain networks, Ethereum is programmable. This customizable feature has enabled developers to solve problems ranging from digital identification and privacy, to corporate ownership and data security.

When the blockchain community disagrees on what changes the network needs to function smoothly or when such changes should take place, developers plan for a fork (an offshoot) of the underlying code rules.

Todays graphic maps out the major Ethereum blockchain forks that have occurred to date, highlighting key events that surrounded each of these updates. It also includes details on the highly anticipated Istanbul hard fork, planned for December 2019.

Forks are common practice in the software industry, and happen for one of two reasons: split opinions within the community, and required changes to the blockchain code.

When either reason is discussed, four major types of forks can occur.

There are currently three types of hard forks:

Lets dive into the timeline of major Ethereum forks, and explore a few of their defining moments and characteristics.

Below are some of the most prominent and important forksboth hard and softon the Ethereum blockchain since its launch.

Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, and his team finished the 9th and final proof of concept known as Olympic in May 2015. The Ethereum blockchain, also known as Frontier, went live shortly after, on July 30, 2015.

Also known as Frontier Thawing, this was the first (unplanned) fork of the Ethereum blockchain, providing security and speed updates to the network.

Homestead is widely considered Phase 2 of Ethereums development evolution. This rollout included three critical updates to Ethereum: the removal of centralization on the network, enabling users to hold and transact with ETH, and to write and deploy smart contracts.

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) event was the most contentious event in Ethereums short history. The DAO team raised US$150 million through a 2016 token salebut an unknown hacker stole US$50 million in ether (ETH), prompting the developer community to hard fork in order to recover the stolen funds.

Widely regarded as the only Ethereum fork of any significance, this hard fork was based on the controversial DAO event. The original chain became known as Ethereum Classic, and the new chain moved forward as the main Ethereum chain.

This September 2019 hard fork event required all software users to upgrade their clients in order to stay with the current network. Enhancements included better security, stability, and network performance for higher volumes of traffic.

Regarded as the third phase of Ethereums evolution, the Metropolis-Byzantium soft fork functioned more like an operating system upgrade, rather than a full split.

Constantinople is the current version of the Ethereum blockchain. This hard fork occurred concurrently with the St. Petersburg update. Important changes included closing a major security loophole that could have allowed hackers to easily access users funds.

Constantinoples most notable improvements include smart contracts being able to verify each other using only the unique string of computer code of another smart contract, and reduced gas feesnamely, the price users pay to process transactions more quickly.

The Ethereum community is preparing for the next hard fork event Istanbul, scheduled for release on December 4th, 2019.

Ethereums 4th and projected final stage of development is Serenity, which has yet to be scheduled. Community members have speculated what changes will come with Serenity, but many agree that the Ethereum blockchain will shift focus from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.

Proof of Stake means that there is less competition for completing blocks of data, significantly reducing the energy required to process data. Currently, a single Bitcoin transaction consumes the same electricity as 1.75 American households do in a day.

Ethereum continues to be a leading blockchain platform, with the highest number of decentralized apps (dApps) and a massive, engaged community.

To date, cryptocurrencies have largely been the focus of news headlines. However, weve only begun to scratch the surface of what blockchain can offer, and the value it will create beyond the financial world.

[Blockchain] could be the foundation of a whole new era whereby our basic right to privacy is protected, because identity is the foundation of freedom and it needs to be managed responsibly.

Don Tapscott, Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute

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Cryptocurrency: Redefining the Future of Finance - Visual Capitalist

In the second part of the interview with Skale Network CTO Konstantin Kladko, he explainedwhy he believes that Ethereum (ETH) is more than just the Eth 2.0 roadmap, and what he believes to be the best use case for it.

Kladko is quite vocal about the failures of other layer-two solutions, though Skale itself partially relies on Ethereum. As Kladko explained:

Our token lives [on Ethereum]. When you register nodes on Skale, you register [them] through ETH. We probably have the largest ever set of smart contracts on ETH mainnet.

This architecture is consistent with Kladkos view that the ecosystem behind Ethereum is at this point an unstoppable bulldozer and that now its pretty much pointless and hopeless to compete with Ethereum.

Kladko recounted an episode in his life from the year 2000, when he was working at Stanford:

A friend of mine [...] got to my office and [...] he showed me Google. And the moment I saw this, the moment I just typed in the search query, I saw that this is going to be a hundred billion dollars company.

Sometimes in life you get this feeling, he added, mentioning Steve Jobspresentation of the iPhone in 2007 as another case of this.

For Ethereum, the same happened at Devcon 3, a conference held in November 2017. It was clear to us that even at that time, Ethereum had incredible momentum, he said.

For Kladko, the momentum and the community are the only things that matter for an ecosystem. Technology can always be fixed, he added.

When asked about how Ethereum 2.0 and its delays tie into the unstoppable bulldozer theory, he compared it to some programming languages like Java, which despite regularly taking double the planned time between releases was able to assert itself on the market. Continuing the analogy, he said:

So I think thats very much the same story with ETH. It doesnt really matter. Theyllprobably have delays because theyre all mature and open-source guys, but in the meantime, startups like ours will help. You will be able to do lots of things on ETH 1.0 plus Skale.

Skale, as the name suggests, aims at scaling blockchain through a sharded architecture, which he believes can compete with more centralized cloud platforms like AWS.

He recounted a science fiction novel that inspired him in this, Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. In the novel, a planet is engulfed in a war between two computer civilizations. One is made of large computers, and another is made of tiny swarms that can assemble into anything the swarms eventually win due to their flexibility.

As Kladko explained, Skale seeks to power the next wave of decentralized applications, which he says will replace Google, Facebook and other centralized data platforms.

People want to have the power, they want to control their data, and it's actually getting huge. And for this one, you actually need to use blockchain.

But Ethereum 2.0, with its 64 shards and thousands of transactions per second, is still not enough to host a decentralized Google, explained Kladko.

Skales vision in the next ten years is that Ethereum will provide a base security layer, and the thousands of transactions will be used by other networks like ours as a foundation.

Read more here:

Skale CTO: Ethereums Strength Is the Ecosystem, Not Its Roadmap - Cointelegraph

Four years after the $55 million hack on the DAO threatened the future of a new blockchain system known as Ethereum, the crypto community is giving it a second try.

Its known as the LAO this time, which stands for Limited Liability Autonomous Organization. If that sounds like some kind of cyber law firm, thats the point. Unlike the DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, project where anyone with an Ether wallet could join in an effort to provide funding to startup projects, the LAO is limiting the number of participants as well as the amount of cryptocurrency they can contribute. So far, the LAO has raised 3,600 Ether, worth about $878,000, and awarded its first funding to a startup.

By contrast, when the DAO was attacked in June 2016 it held $250 million of Ether and counted thousands of participants. It was the most ambitious project seen on Ethereum at that time when the network was less than one year old. In a controversial move that still is argued over these days, the Ethereum community voted to change the blockchain history to make it so the DAO attack never occurred and no one lost any money.

Yet the spirit of wanting to help pick projects worthy of funding to further the Ethereum ecosystem has never gone away, said Aaron Wright, co-founder of OpenLaw, a digital contracting system that helped create the LAO.

I dont think that vision has ever dimmed when it comes to Ethereum, said Wright, who is also a professor at Cardozo Law School in New York. A lot has been learned about security, governance and making the LAO work inside of existing U.S. law, he said. This time, the LAO ties every transaction to legal documents via so-called smart contracts and the investors are vetted to ensure know-your-customer and anti-money laundering laws are obeyed, Wright said.

We have a robust set of tools to experiment with DAOs, and thats what the LAO is about, he said. The LAO is the marriage of the legacy world and the crypto world.

Like the DAO, the LAO works as a type of virtual venture capital fund. LAO users, who Wright said are more like partners in a partnership than security owners, contribute a maximum of 120 Ether each. Startups pitch their projects to the LAO participants who then vote on whether they think it deserves funding. Right now there are 42 LAO proposals for things like creating a market for digital art to something called The IAO that describes itself as like the LAO but for fishing, according to the LAOs web site.

One supporter of the LAO is Christoph Jentzsch, the co-founder of slock.it who wrote the code for the DAO in 2016. At the time, lawyers told Jentzsch that if a terrorist organization had somehow received funding through the DAO that other DAO users could be held liable, he said. Thats no longer a threat with the LAO.

Their whole idea about limiting liability is great because that was certainly lacking in the DAO, he said. Jentzsch, who owns 1% of the LAO and is able to vote on projects for funding, said if it can become a for-profit venture it could help solve the funding issue facing Ethereum projects. On the other hand, he worried that LAO investors might not spend much time vetting projects as they only have a small amount of Ether at stake.

This is a bit missing in the LAO, he said, referring to an economic incentive to do a lot of due diligence on projects.

The first startup to receive funding from the LAO is called Tornado.Cash, which received 244 Ether, worth about $59,000, Wright said. It adds a layer of privacy to Ethereum transactions that are traceable on the Ethereum blockchain if a persons address is known.

Read More: New Startup Aims to Prove Blockchain Is Fast Enough for Finance

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

See more here:

Ethereum Users Giving the DAO Another Try After Digital Stickup - Bloomberg

EOS

EOS tumbled by 8.86% on Thursday. Reversing a 0.37% gain from Wednesday, EOS ended the day at $2.5193.

A relatively bullish start to the day saw EOS rise to an early morning intraday high $2.7772 before hitting reverse.

Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $2.7958, EOS tumbled to a late afternoon intraday low $2.4250.

The reversal saw EOS fall through the major support levels before a move back through to $2.54 levels.

In spite of the partial recovery, however, EOS failed to break back through the third major support level at $2.6039.

A bearish end to the day left EOS back at sub-$2.52 levels.

At the time of writing, EOS was down by 0.87% to $2.4973. A bearish start to the day saw EOS fall from an early morning high $2.5132 to a low $2.4891.

EOS left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

EOS would need to move through to $2.5740 levels to take bring the first major resistance level at $2.7227 into play.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for EOS to break back through to $2.60 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, resistance at $2.60 would likely leave EOS short of the first major resistance level at $2.7227.

Failure to move through the $2.5740 pivot could see EOS struggle for another day.

A fall back through Thursdays low $2.4250 would bring the first major support level at $2.3705 into play.

Barring another crypto meltdown, however, EOS should steer well clear of the second major support level at $2.2216.

Major Support Level: $2.3705

Major Resistance Level: $2.7227

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $6.62

38% FIB Retracement Level: $9.76

62% FIB Retracement Level: $14.82

Ethereum slid by 7.22% on Thursday. Reversing a 1.64% gain from Wednesday, Ethereum ended the day at $230.15.

Tracking the broader market, Ethereum rose to an early morning intraday high $250.26 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $251.68, Ethereum slid to a late afternoon intraday low $225.2.

The meltdown saw Ethereum fall through the days major support levels before finding support.

Late in the day, Ethereum moved back through the third major support level at $230.04 to limit the downside.

At the time of writing, Ethereum was down by 0.10% to $229.93. A bearish start to the day saw Ethereum fall from an early morning high $230.15 to a low $227.84.

Ethereum left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Story continues

Ethereum would need to move through to $235 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $245.21.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break back through to $240 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $245.21 should cap any upside.

Failure to move through to $235 levels could see Ethereum lose more ground.

A fall through the morning low $227.84 would bring the first major support level at $220.15 into play.

Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer clear of sub-$220 and the second major support level at $210.14.

Major Support Level: $220.15

Major Resistance Level: $245.21

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $257

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $367

62% FIB Retracement Level: $543

Ripples XRP slid by 7.44% on Thursday. Reversing a 0.91% gain from Wednesday, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.18808.

A relatively bullish start to the day saw Ripples XRP rise to an early morning high $0.20388 before taking a hit.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.2047, Ripples XRP tumbled to a late afternoon intraday low $0.18401.

Ripples XRP fell through the days major support levels before briefly recovering to $0.1920 levels.

Coming up short of the third major support level at $0.1939, however, Ripples XRP fell back to sub-$0.19 levels.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was up by 0.21% to $0.18848. A mixed start to the day saw Ripples XRP fall to an early morning low $0.18686 before striking a high $0.18860.

Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Ripples XRP will need to move through to $0.1920 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.2000.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripples XRP to break back through to $0.1950 levels.

Barring a broad-based crypto rally, resistance at $0.1950 would likely leave Ripples XRP short of the first major resistance level.

Failure to move through the 0.1920 pivot could see Ripples XRP fall back into the red.

A fall back through Thursdays low $0.18401 would bring the first major support level at $0.1801 into play.

Barring another extended crypto sell-off, Ripples XRP should avoid the second major support level at $0.1721.

Major Support Level: $0.1801

Major Resistance Level: $0.2000

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.3638

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.4800

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.6678

Please let us know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks, Bob

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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EOS, Ethereum and Ripples XRP Daily Tech Analysis June 12th, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

The controversial Facebook-led Libra project is reportedly the most active project in terms of developer activity, according to CoinCodeCap data.

There are 41 active developers working on Libra, meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH), the worlds largest smart contract platform, has 36 active developers, the data site reveals.

Other active open-source protocols include Near (NEAR), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), CELO, and IOTA even though it recently experienced serious issues including a million dollar hack.

Filecoin (FIL), a highly-anticipated blockchain project that has been aggressively rolling out updates, is the 7th most active project right now in terms of developer activity.

Insolar (XNS), a Swiss enterprise blockchain development firm that counts Microsoft, Oracle and AT Kearney amongst its business partners and clients, has also consistently been in the top 10 in terms of having the most active development.

As confirmed in a separate report by Outlier Ventures, blockchain interoperability project Cosmos (ATOM) has seen many developers contribute to the ongoing development of its protocol.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) development has remained steady due to the significant amount of support it receives in terms of grants to developers, and also international support from established organizations like the Human Rights Foundation.

Development for stablecoin Dai, Decred (DCR), Stellar (XLM), Algorand (ALGO), Waves, Lisk (LSK), and Cardano (ADA) has remained fairly steady despite the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting economic uncertainty.

Despite being a fairly new player in the competitive DLT space, Libra has managed to attract 176 active authors in the past year which is a lot more than any other project.

This has all been going on while Facebook had to make significant changes to it development roadmap for Libra, after regulators heavily scrutinized the initiative citing concerns about the social media giants issues related to privacy and many lawmakers being against Big Tech moving into finance.

As reported, Facebooks Libra may serve as signal that Fintech firms like Visa, Paypal, Booking.com have been eager to explore stablecoins, one of the fastest-growing sectors in decentralized finance (DeFi) and the blockchain space, in general.

Lex Sokolin, the Global Fintech Co-Head and CMO at ConsenSys, a leading Ethereum (ETH) development studio based in New York, told CI in recent interview:

I think Libra will be very impactful, no matter what form it takes. If it just takes the form of a payment rail for CBDCs, that already is massively important. The existence of such a regulated blockchain rail, being private and closely regulated, will by definition take market share away from other types of permissionless open blockchain rails.

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Facebooks Libra Stablecoin Project, Ethereum (ETH), Near, Bitcoin Cash are Currently Most Active Development Projects: Report - Crowdfund Insider

The global technology transformation has increased the demand for blockchain technology. There has been a boom of innumerable cross-chain and consortium blockchain projects in the industry. Some of them have been developing, and some have failed.

On June 1, Cointelegraph China hosted its third HUB LIVE event to discuss the topic: Ethereum 3.0: A Silicon Valley Star Project CasperLabs. Cointelegraph China HUB is an online interview show initiated by Cointelegraph China. Speaking with the leaders of the blockchain and cryptocurrency world, we discuss the development opportunities and challenges of the industry segments today and how businesses can break through the current situation to eventually lead in the future. HUB LIVE is the video column of HUB. The third HUB LIVE event was hosted by Tracy Zhang, the commercial director of Cointelegraph China, and the show invited Mrinal Manohar and Cliff Sarkin as guests and had Steve Yue and Waylon Wu as the technology reviewers.

The first part was a Q&A with the CEO and COO of CasperLabs to get a quick and clear look at CasperLabs powerful technology content and the overall project outlook. In the second part the round table two technical experts, Yue and Wu, had an in-depth discussion with Manohar and Sarkin to analyze and discuss the development of blockchain technology and CasperLabs from a professional perspective.

Mrinal Manohar is the CEO and co-founder of CasperLabs. He received his master degree in Carnegie Mellon and has worked at Microsoft, Oracle, Bain & Company and Bain Capital. He also contributed to the open-source program of BitTorrent in 2002 and has been investing in cryptocurrency since 2012.

Cliff Sarkin is the COO of CasperLabs and received a bachelors degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. Before joining CasperLabs in January 2019, he was the vice president of business development at DNA, a leading blockchain venture fund in its early stages.

Steve Yue is a partner and the director of business development at DoraHacks. He graduated from the Tsinghua School of Economics and Finance.

Waylon Wu is a former Bay area engineer and an early adopter of blockchain technology.

1. Cliff Sarkin: Every decision at CasperLabs is made to broaden participation, ownership and ease of use.

2. Mrinal Manohar: Ethereum 3.0 is the full transition to proof-of-stake using CBC-Casper. We are releasing a blockchain with our provably live implementation of CBC-Casper this year.

3. Cliff Sarkin: CasperLabs will be publishing research on novel DDoS style attacks soon and how we can prevent them. This should benefit the industry overall.

4. Mrinal Manohar: App developers will have unprecedented control over their contracts. Our blockchain architecture does not mandate any transmission of private data to the blockchain.

5. Mrinal Manohar: CasperLabs is in the process of establishing a developer DAO with a very significant allocation of resources that will be solely managed by external developers to help drive the ecosystem and long term sustainability of the platform.

6. Mrinal Manohar: Having a lot of public blockchains is not a bug; it is a feature of innovation.

7. Mrinal Manohar: CasperLabs will continue to engage deeply with communities even as the coronavirus restrictions open up. We aim for a lot of in-person events, hackathons and much more which should see these trends gain more popularity. The launch is approaching, and we have begun preliminary conversations with leading universities.

8. Mrinal Manohar: CasperLabs never wants to sacrifice security and decentralization, and as a result, we use fundamental mathematical models to achieve this.

CasperLabs is athe blockchain platform purpose-built to scale opportunity for everyone. Building toward blockchains next frontier, CasperLabs is designed for real-world applications without sacrificing usability, cost, decentralization, or security. CasperLabs removes the barriers that prevent mainstream blockchain adoption by making blockchain friendly to use, open to the world, and future-proof to support innovations today and tomorrow. Guided by open-source principles and built from the ground up to empower individuals, the team seeks to provide an equitable foundation made for long-lasting impact.

Website: https://casperlabs.io/

Technical Specification: https://techspec.casperlabs.io/

Consensus Proofs: https://github.com/CasperLabs/highway/releases/download/v1.0/highway.pdf

Explorer: https://explorer.casperlabs.io/#/

Github: https://github.com/CasperLabs

Medium:https://medium.com/casperlabs

Twitter:https://twitter.com/meetCasperLabs

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CasperLabs

This is a paid press release Cointelegraph does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products or other materials on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company. Cointelegraph 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.

See the article here:

CTC HUB | CasperLabs: Ethereum 3.0 and A Silicon Valley Star Project - Cointelegraph

For the day ahead

Ethereum would need to move through to $244.30 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $249.71.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break back through to $249 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Tuesdays high $249.99 should cap any upside.

Failure to move through to $244.30 levels could see Ethereum see spend another day in the red.

A fall back through to sub-$240 levels would bring the first major support level at $238.63 into play.

Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer well clear of the second major support level at $233.23.

Major Support Level: $238.63

Major Resistance Level: $249.71

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $257

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $367

62% FIB Retracement Level: $543

Ripples XRP fell by 1.49% on Tuesday. Reversing a 0.44% gain from Monday, Ripples XRP ended the day at $0.20120.

It was also a choppy start to the day for Ripples XRP. Within the 1st hour, Ripples XRP rose to an early morning high $0.20541 before hitting reverse.

Coming up against the first major resistance level at $0.2056, Ripples XRP slid to an intraday low $0.19979.

The sell-off saw Ripples XRP fall through the first major support level at $0.2022 and the second major support level at $0.2001.

Ripples XRP recovered to $0.2035 levels before taking a 2nd hit in the afternoon. Ripples XRP slid back through the first major support level to a low $0.20016 before finding support.

A return to $0.2023 levels was brief, however. A bearish end saw Ripples XRP fall back through the first major support level in the final hour.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was down by $0.10% to $0.20100. A bearish start to the day saw Ripples XRP fall from an early morning high $0.20120 to a low $0.20099.

Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

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EOS, Ethereum and Ripple's XRP - Daily Tech Analysis June 10th, 2020 - FX Empire

This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire

Riga, Latvia -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/15/2020 -- Blockchain-based online gaming and gambling platform AceDBets has made good progress ever since going live earlier this year in March 2020. Since then, the developers of AceDCoin have been working to add many sporting events, as the platform hosts over 15 different online gambling facilities.

The platform offers support for Bitcoin but also has its own native cryptocurrency called AceD. All bets on the platform are in AceD and users can withdraw money from their AceD wallets anytime they want.

However, the developers have decided to undergo a major change. As per their latest community announcement, the AceD cryptocurrency will be swapped to AceD tokens.

This means that AceDBets will be moving away from its traditional MasterNodes platform. The decision of this swap arrived after a number of bad actors exploited the MasterNode rewards for a long time. This has not impacted the reputation of the platform, but brought down the value of AceD coins.

Switching to the Ethereum NetworkThe developers of AceDCoin have decided to move their base to the Ethereum blockchain platform. They think the switch to Ethereum network will help them overcome all these problems and hopefully boost the price of AceD tokens.

The developers have thus requested some co-operation from the existing token-holders to make this swap process absolutely swift and hassle-free.The swap of AceD tokens already took place in the last week of May.

The AceDCoin team has confirmed that the swap was successful and any swap requests coming forward shall be honored to a 1:1 ratio. The new Ethereum-based AceD tokens will be soon available in their official website i.e. acedbets.io. Thus, users will be able to start betting using the new Token.

Speaking about their successful swap, the AceDCoin team said: "Overall the swap was a success, we are proud to have made history by conducting the first Crypto Swap on a sportsbook. This proves that our platform's capacity and security is top notch as there was 0 Fallout".

Henceforth, the old AceD chain has become redundant. Also, the total supply for the AceD tokens have been maxed by four times to 100 million tokens.

After the successful swapping, all the non-circulating tokens are moved to a single address and shared publicly. However, in the near future, the cold staking facility will be available on AceDBets. AceD and GIN Strategic Merger

The AceDCoin team is currently discussing with other cryptocurrency projects Livecoin regarding a potential merger. Some of the benefits of this merger would be:- AceD will be listed on Livecoin (We will replace their current listing with AceD token) Approximately 4BTC to list on Livecoin right now.- AceD will receive rights to their twitter account (Over 5000 followers)- All the coin holders will receive a set swap ratio for the new aced token, this will expand the aced community and bring instant demand and value to AceD Token.- We will also be opening new sectors of business for ACED which will be carried over from merging the project's development team.

This will ultimately create a win-win situation for both AceD and GIN communities. With this merger, AceD will get access to a larger and quality community. This merger will help to bring more users and thus create bigger awareness to AceD's sportsbook, entertainment hub, and ecosystem.

As stated above, AceD will take over and put back life in GIN's Livecoin listing. You can read more details about the merger here.

Successful OTC Sale of 50 Million AceD Tokens And InPlay Betting

Recently, due to the high demand, AceDCoin team is conducting an additional OTC sale of 50 million AceD Tokens live on the Graviex exchange. The proceeds of this sale will go further platform development like exchange listings, aid development, maintenance of the platform, and upcoming products.

Powered by the AceDCoin Tokens, the AceDBet platform is a full scale sportsbook which offers comprehensive coverage of global events. The platform will soon be launching its much-awaited InPlay betting feature.

About CryptoshibCriptoshib tries to keep crypto enthusiasts updated with the latest happenings and stories from the crypto world. We try to post stories about projects and people of the crypto and blockchain communities from around the world.

Media Contact

https://cryptoshib.com/acedcoin-switching-to-ethereum/

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/acedcoin-will-be-switching-to-ethereum-network-with-aced-swapping-to-aced-tokens-1294125.htm

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AceDcoin Will Be Switching to Ethereum Network with AceD Swapping to AceD Tokens - Press Release - Digital Journal

Ethereum 4 Hour Price Update

Updated June 16, 2020 01:36 AM GMT (09:36 PM EST)

The choppiness in the recent four-hour candle price action of Ethereum continues; to start the current 4 hour candle, it came in at a price of 231.33 US dollars, down 0.42% ($0.97) since the last 4 hour candle. On a relative basis, Ethereum was the worst performer out of all 5 of the assets in the Top Cryptos asset class during the last 4 hour candle.

Ethereum is down 0.27% ($0.63) since the day prior, marking the 2nd day in a row it has gone down. As for how volume fared, yesterdays volume was up 116.56% from the previous day (Sunday), and up 134% from Monday of the week before. Relative to other instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Ethereum ranked 3rd since the day prior in terms of percentage price change. Here is a daily price chart of Ethereum.

Notably, Ethereum is now close to its 20 day moving averages, which may act as price barrier for the asset. Volatility for Ethereum has been contracting over the past two weeks relative to volatility over the past month. Whether volatility reverts will be something to watch. Trend traders will want to observe that the strongest trend appears on the 90 day horizon; over that time period, price has been moving up. For another vantage point, consider that Ethereums price has gone up 7 of the previous 14 trading days. Also, candlestick traders! Note we see pin bar pattern appearing here as well.

For laughs, fights, or genuinely useful information, lets see what the most popular tweets pertaining to Ethereum for the past day were:

If you think #DeFi will have a smaller impact on $ETH than ICOs, you arent paying attention.The ICO boom flexed #Ethereums ability to perform 1 financial service: early-stage capital formation. #DeFi will flex Ethereums ability to perform *all* financial services.

#DeFi is so early that no applications are safe from being overtaken by innovative projects. While I think certain infrastructure pieces are coming into place & will be harder to unseat, the dApp game is wide open with only $1B in DeFi on #Ethereum. Its gonna be fun to witness.

hey does anyone know whats going on these days with Charles Hoskinson, Co-founder of Ethereum? Does he have a youtube or tiktok or something?I think he could be a great CEO for some company, I wonder why he didnt go down that route

For a longer news piece related to ETH thats been generating discussion, check out:

Ethereum 2.0: The Choice Between Ones Own Node and a Staking Service

While a minimum stake of 32 ETH is needed to become a validator on Ethereum 2.0, staking pools and services make the participation possible for everyone.While some users have already opted to run their own validator node, others are still choosing among becoming an independent validator, joining a staking pool or using staking provider services.According to Consensys, at least 33% of Ethereum users plan to use third-party services and 20% of the respondents who previously revealed the intention to run their own validator nodes said they would consider using a staking service instead.According to him, Ethereum staking will be quite profitable for users who keep their funds on exchanges: Exchanges like Bitfinex will charge a tiny fee to cover operation costs, but the large majority of rewards will go directly into the pockets of the users.Not all users want to go through the process of custodying their own assets and learning how to stake properly. Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, the CEO of Binance crypto exchnage told Cointelegraph that users who actively stake via Binance will be able to earn higher interest rates than those who simply hold cryptocurrency in their accounts: Binance will stake a fractional reserve of the Ethereum held by our users, as we still require some funds to be liquid for users to withdraw at any time, while automatically distributing proportionately the rewards to our users. Another convenience of centralized platforms and custodial services is that they undertake the conversion of the users ETH to ETH2.However, in order to join the pool, users will need to have a minimum of 16 ETH half as much of the minimum amount needed to run an individual validator node, but a lot more than what crypto exchanges would require.

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Ethereum (ETH) Down $0.97 Over Past 4 Hours, Entered Today Down 0.27%; Pin Bar Pattern Appearing on Chart - CFDTrading

Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: An Overview

Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, is arguably the second most popular digital token after bitcoin (BTC). Indeed, as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, comparisons between Ether and BTC are only natural.

Ether and bitcoin are similar in many ways: each is a digital currency traded via online exchanges and stored in various types of cryptocurrency wallets. Both of these tokens are decentralized, meaning that they are not issued or regulated by a central bank or other authority. Both make use of the distributed ledger technology known as blockchain. However, there are also many crucial distinctions between the two most popular cryptocurrencies by market cap. Below, we'll take a closer look at the similarities and differences between bitcoin and ether.

Bitcoin was launched in January of 2009. It introduced a novel idea set out in a white paper by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamotobitcoin offers the promise of an online currency that is secured without any central authority, unlike government-issued currencies. There are no physical bitcoins, only balances associated with a cryptographically secured public ledger. Although bitcoin was not the first attempts at an online currency of this type, it was the most successful in its early efforts, and it has come to be known as a predecessor in some way to virtually all cryptocurrencies which have been developed over the past decade.

Over the years, the concept of a virtual, decentralized currency has gained acceptance among regulators and government bodies. Although it isnt a formally recognized medium of payment or store of value, cryptocurrency has managed to carve out a niche for itself and continues to coexist with the financial system despite being regularly scrutinized and debated.

At the start of the cryptocurrency boom in 2017, Bitcoins market value accounted for close to 87% of the total cryptocurrency market.

Blockchain technology is being used to create applications that go beyond just enabling a digital currency. Launched in July of 2015, Ethereum is the largest and most well-established, open-ended decentralized software platform.

Ethereum enables the deployment of smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps) to be built and run without any downtime, fraud, control or interference from a third party. Ethereum comes complete with its own programming language which runs on a blockchain, enabling developers to build and run distributed applications.

The potential applications of Ethereum are wide-ranging and are powered by its native cryptographic token, ether (commonly abbreviated as ETH). In 2014, Ethereum launched a presale for ether, which received an overwhelming response. Ether is like the fuel for running commands on the Ethereum platform and is used by developers to build and run applications on the platform.

Ether is used mainly for two purposesit is traded as a digital currency on exchanges in the same fashion as other cryptocurrencies, and it is used on the Ethereum network to run applications. According to Ethereum, people all over the world use ETH to make payments, as a store of value, or as collateral.

While both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are powered by the principle of distributed ledgers and cryptography, the two differ technically in many ways. For example, transactions on the Ethereum network may contain executable code, while data affixed to Bitcoin network transactions are generally only for keeping notes. Other differences include block time (an ether transaction is confirmed in seconds compared to minutes for bitcoin) and the algorithms that they run on (Ethereum uses ethash while Bitcoin uses SHA-256).

More importantly, though, the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are different with respect to their overall aims. While bitcoin was created as an alternative to national currencies and thus aspires to be a medium of exchange and a store of value, Ethereum was intended as a platform to facilitate immutable, programmatic contracts, and applications via its own currency.

BTC and ETH are both digital currencies, but the primary purpose of ether is not to establish itself as an alternative monetary system, but rather to facilitate and monetize the operation of the Ethereum smart contract and decentralized application (dapp) platform.

Ethereum is another use-case for a blockchain that supports the Bitcoin network, and theoretically should not really compete with Bitcoin. However, the popularity of ether has pushed it into competition with all cryptocurrencies, especially from the perspective of traders. For most of its history since the mid-2015 launch, ether has been close behind bitcoin on rankings of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap. That being said, it's important to keep in mind that the ether ecosystem is much smaller than bitcoin's: as of January 2020, ether's market cap was just under $16 billion, while bitcoin's is nearly 10 times that at more than $147 billion.

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Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: What's the Difference?

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted a tweet on March 24 claiming that the continuing lack of easy movement between the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks was embarrassing.

As a solution, he proposed putting resources into building a decentralized exchange (DEX), to act as a trustless bridge between the two.

Buterins plan calls for the DEX to be trustless and serverless, with a user experience very similar to Uniswap. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange that runs without an order book, instead relying on asset pairs with Ether as a fixed base currency.

As Cointelegraph reported, Uniswap has just announced plans to release a V2 update in Q2 2020, which will allow direct token-to-token swaps.

Decentralized exchanges have struggled to gain market share against traditional exchanges, despite being more closely aligned to the overall trustless ethos of cryptocurrency. Part of the issue has been a lack of liquidity, although a dedicated BitcoinEhereum DEX supported by Buterin may well see greater uptake.

Vitalin suggested further suggested that Bitcoin was not the only potential destination for a DEX bridge from Ethereum, and other blockchain ecosystems should also be up for consideration.

Buterin specifically mentioned Zcash as one example, saying that he has already had discussions to this end with Zooko Wilcox, CEO of Zcash-creators, the Electric Coin Company. However, he admitted that they could both work harder to turn such talk into action.

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Vitalik Proposes Solution to 'Embarrassing' Lack of BitcoinEthereum Bridge - Cointelegraph

The Ethereum community now has a roadmap, albeit a confusing one.

Dropped Wednesday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterins state of the network map helps contextualize the next five to 10 years for a global community of 20,000 developers while highlighting a key issue for the blockchains next version: scalability.

The Eth 2.0 research team is now leaning into a new concept called polynomial commitments to reduce the data used per computation on the network, according to a March 17 blog post by researcher Danny Ryan.

Dubbed magic math by Buterin, polynomial commitments are being eyed as a way to verify the state of the network at low computational cost, a key goal of the future network.

Still, Buterins map tags his magic math for network integration not until at least the third phase in the multi-year push to Eth 2.0.

Polynomial commitments could be the major breakthrough weve been looking for, Ryan said, specifically regarding the storage of account data in the next version of Ethereum.

The Ethereum Foundation did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Magic math

Polynomial commitments are similar to the polynomials we all came to learn and love in elementary school: a math expression with both variables and coefficients (i.e., Y=2X).

But, again, this is magic math so its not quite so simple.

Buterin describes polynomial commitments as a sort of hash of some polynomial P(x) with the property that you can perform arithmetic checks on hashes. The original paper on polynomial commitments, meanwhile, synthesizes the math scheme as six algorithms that show proof of an event occurring with as little computing data as possible.

We suggest replacing Merkle trees by magic math called polynomial commitments to accumulate blockchain state, Buterin said in the Ethereum Foundation blog post. Benefits include reducing the size of stateless client witnesses (excluding contract code and state data) to near zero.

(For the mathematically inclined, a three-part series on polynomial commitments hosted by Eth 2.0s Justin Drake can be found below.)

The blockchain state

Blockchains record both the ins and outs users create when transacting. On the whole, blockchain accounting systems come in two kinds: the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model and the account-based model. Bitcoin uses the former while Ethereum uses the latter.

When a user wishes to spend bitcoin in the UTXO model, the transaction drags along with it the entire history of those coins, which is then checked by every peer on the network.

The account model, on the other hand, records only the transaction between the two peers while directing questions of the transaction's validity to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) in conjunction with a proof of the transaction. The EVM executes state changes the current accounts and balances of the blockchain on behalf of users.

Each block on Ethereum which binds transactions into just that, a block also contains a proof, a Merkle tree, which connects itself to the beginning of the networks history. This proof contains the receipt of the state referenced above and is needed for the EVM to execute a transaction.

This last part has been a sticky issue for Ethereum, however.

Why? Merkle trees are data-efficient, yet not data-efficient enough for Eth 2.0s ambitions. This is where the magic happens.

The current Merkle tree setup takes about 0.5 MB per transaction. Ryan estimates polynomial commitment schemes would reduce the weight of state proofs to between 0.001 and 0.01 MB. For a network that recently averages around 700,000 transactions per day, the savings in terms of data computation add up.

As such the idea of a stateless client has been in the works since at least October 2017 to reduce the amount of data used for ethereums big upgrade.

Multiple projects outside of Ethereum also lean on polynomial commitments in their own way, including Zcashs zero-knowledge proof, Halo.

Buterin said his implementation of polynomial commitments remains one of many. Moreover, its still in the research phase.

Although incredibly promising, some of this research and magic math is very new. We need to spend more time better understanding the complexities and tradeoffs, as well as just getting more eyes on this new and exciting technique, Ryan concluded.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Why Polynomial Commitments Might Be a 'Breakthrough' for Ethereum 2.0 - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Headed by Cornell professorEmin Gn Sirer, AVA Labs is building a next-generation blockchain that is working to become the so-called AWS of Finance. And even in a crypto community deeply opposed to Amazon, the highly scalable technology may come out on top. And it might bring Ethereum with it.

The AVA blockchain is built using a novel consensus mechanism launched in 2018 calledAvalanche. It boasts high throughputs, malleability, and allows entrepreneurs full control of any crypto project built on top of the network.

AVA Labs Inc.is the joint venture between Sirer and co-founderKevin Sekniqibuilt on top of the AVA network. In an interview with Sekniqi, he broke down how developers, users, and entrepreneurs could manipulate the AVA blockchain to achieve a wide variety of uses.

AVA is three tiers of user control, said Sekniqi. First, theres the network layer, the middle layer, which would be the actual blockchain or virtual machine, and then theres the application layer.

Ethereum has a similar hierarchy, but it falls short of its ability to be customized at every layer, said Sekniqi. In many ways, however, the second-largest blockchain network opened the door to flexible crypto networks. And AVA wants to continue in this same vein.

By allowing developers to interact and adapt every layer of the network to their specific needs, AVA offers unparalleled customizability. These needs could range from supply chain management, tokenized bonds or gold, fundraising, and everything in between. Plus, the advanced functionality may reveal never-before-seen applications.

Once launched, the swiss army knife blockchain could overtake many specialized crypto networks. And already theyve been turning heads.

In 2019, AVA Labsraised $6 million from noted crypto investors Polychain, MetaStable, and Andreessen Horowitz. But Sekniqi said that though the million-dollar figures look large, the project only raises exactly what it needs.

The money appears well spent so far, too.

The funds we raised have been used to build out some of the core technologies, said Sekniqi. And the mainnet is just one milestone. We have a lot of activity coming out in 2020.

The primary task at the moment is to convince developers to experiment on the testnet.

To attract the largest developer community in blockchain, the team built out an Ethereum Subnet calledAthereum. A friendly fork, it brings over all the rich developer tools like Metamask, Truffle, MyEtherWallet, and others to allow them to operate within AVA comfortably.

The goal is to expose a tight-knit community to AVAs high throughputs, low finality, and the security of thousands of validators.

Were not trying to be an Ethereum competitor, by any means, said Sekniqi. Instead, we want to be a testnet for Ethereum 2.0.

The team has also opened up theircodebase, funneled communications over to a growingDiscord channel, and has been offering webinars on the AVA technology. The webinars, though small, have filled up quickly, said Sekniqi.

They have launched a Developer Accelerator Program to entice developers to comb the code for bugs and build native dApps as well.

The AVA Labs site reports bounties of up to $50,000 for any bugs found in the code.

As for the future, Sekniqi mentioned that there is a token offering on the cards, but couldnt divulge much more than that. Readers can expect a mainnet launch later this year.

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AVA Labs Wants to Be Ethereum 2.0's Testnet, and Then Some - Crypto Briefing

Ethereum started off 2020 as bullish as can be, outperforming BTC and other crypto assets by a large margin.

The top altcoin in the crypto market may soon make a massive 95% move against Bitcoin, according to one analyst, but the direction of that move is still up in the air, although theyre leaning heavily toward a chart pattern formation resolving to the downside.

Following the boom in the decentralized finance movement in late 2019 and early 2020, all signs pointed to Ethereum going on a powerful rally.

The altcoin kicked off the year with an over 100% rally, doubling in price and helping to lead the rest of the market toward what are now in hindsight the years highs.

Related Reading | Ethereum Sets Record for Most Bullish String of Weekly Price Action Yet

Ethereum and other altcoins not only broke out of their downtrends on their USD pairs, but they also saw a breakout against Bitcoin on BTC pairs.

The latest price action has caused Ethereum to form a massive, multi-year symmetrical triangle on the ETH//BTC trading pair, which based on the formations measure rule would have a 95% rise or drop for a target.

The triangle is currently reaching its apex, suggesting this powerful breakout is imminent. However, symmetrical triangles break up almost as often as they break downward.

The crypto analyst who spotted this massive formation and potential move believes that the latest price action suggests that the formation is more likely than not to break down.

According to the trader, Ethereum has been trading within a bear channel on the ETH/BTC pair for an extended period, indicating that down is the probable direction.

Ethereum and other large-cap altcoins often are leading indicators for the rest of the crypto market, and in particular, the altcoins space.

The number two cryptocurrency by market cap showing signs of falling against Bitcoin could signal a worse drop across the wider altcoin market.

The total altcoin market cap against BTC is also in a multi-year formation, however, this pattern looks to be more descending in nature and not symmetrical like Ethereum.

Related Reading | Altcoin Market Forms Cryptos Most Dangerous Pattern

Descending triangles in the crypto market have in the past been notably deadly. Its the same pattern that sent Bitcoin from $6,000 to $3,000, then again from $13,000 to $6,000.

Now, its appearing in the altcoin market, and it could cause the assets to be decimated by Bitcoin dominance in the days ahead.

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Analyst: Ethereum Prepares for Massive 95% Move Against BTC, But Which Direction? - newsBTC