Another ad for cryptocurrency has appeared in print media, this time without promoting a specific business or service.

A full-page ad for Bitcoin (BTC) appeared on the front page of the Hong Kong-based tabloid-style newspaper Apple Daily today. Though the text appears to be educating readers about BTC, there is no apparent mention of where or how to buy the coin only a single reference to Genesis Block, a crypto firm based in the special administrative region.

Bitcoin will never ditch you, the ad stated in English above the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, while adding in Cantonese: Banks, you're not ditching me today I'm ditching you.

"Bitcoin is digital money. It is not issued or controlled by any government or corporation. Nobody can stop you from transacting on the network and it cannot be shut down. Bitcoin is available to anyone regardless of their nationality, gender, or beliefs. Bitcoin began with the Genesis Block during the financial crisis of 2009. Now, its time is coming.

Source: Reddit

The Apple Daily is one of the largest print media in Hong Kong, but it has become even more popular since its CEO was arrested two weeks ago.

Billionaire and Apple Daily CEO Jimmy Lai was arrested on Aug. 10 for alleged violations of HKs controversial National Security Law. The newspapers offices were also raided by authorities the same day. His detainment was seen by many as part of a crackdown against pro-democracy figures in the special administrative region.

In response, Hong Kongers showed support for Lai and the free press by lining up early to buy issues of Apple Daily, and also shares of Next Digital the parent company responsible for the newspaper. Their efforts caused the price of the companys stock to surge by more than 1,100%.

Lai was released after 40 hours in custody. However, his arrest and the support for the newspaper as one of the independent news outlets in the midst of ongoing protests may partially explain why someone chose the Apple Daily for a prominent Bitcoin ad.

The ads messages of nobody can stop you and not being controlled by any government may very well resonate with young protesters looking for an alternative to traditional finance.

Link:
Bitcoin Will Never Ditch You Ad Tells HKs Apple Daily Readers - Cointelegraph

Micheal OLeary the CEO of major budget airline Ryanair has come out very bearish on Bitcoin (BTC).

Recently speaking to The Times, OLeary likened Bitcoin to a Ponzi scheme and advised investors to avoid it:

I have never, and would never, invest one cent in Bitcoin, which I believe is equivalent to a Ponzi scheme. [...] I would strongly advise everyone with any shred of common sense to ignore this false story and avoid Bitcoin like a plague.

OLeary was referring to an apparent crypto scam Bitcoin Lifestyle, which claimed to have his approval in a promotional campaign.

A bogus news article on a fake news outlet claimed that, in an interview on the Late Late Show, O'Leary shocked audiences and the host Ryan Tubridy by showing how much money he was making with the Bitcoin scheme which advertises itself as an automated trading system.

Per the scam's campaign, it was enough to drive National Ireland Bank to phone the show, and attempt to stop the bit from being aired.

One problem is that the National Ireland Bank does not exist.

Using the image of wealthy and famous people to promote cryptocurrency scams is a very common tactic to gain credibility among potential "investors." In early April, a Bitcoin trading scam claimed the involvement of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry Charles Albert David and Meghan Markle.

In March, Janet Jacksons billionaire ex-husband, Wissam Al Mana, demanded Facebook to reveal who paid for ads that featured his image while promoting a crypto fraud.

View original post here:
I would never invest one cent in Bitcoin, says Ryanair CEO - Cointelegraph

Supporting the open-source community continues to be a priority for OKCoin, which has enabled us to sponsor the development of the very infrastructure that we depend on as a crypto exchange. Our commitment to free and open-source software, or FOSS, has led us to provide three additional grants so far in 2020. Announced on Aug. 6, our most recent grant was awarded to Marco Falke, a Bitcoin Core maintainer and the most active contributor to the Bitcoin code since 2017. This has been preceded by three more: BTCPay, Amiti Uttarwar and Fabian Jahr.

Its been six months since we announced our first developer grant to a Bitcoin Core developer. In those months, weve witnessed the fallout from a global COVID-19 pandemic, and the strange and contrasting impact it has had on global communities and markets. While the general public has been pessimistic, experiencing hardship and loss, equity markets have been rising, with the Federal Reserve significantly increasing the money supply. These flaws in the existing economic systems have only served to further solidify the importance of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin (BTC) as an alternative, sound currency.

Weve also been inspired to heighten our role in supporting the open-source development of cryptocurrency infrastructure. Collectively, OKCoin has now provided over $500,000 in grants to open-source developers. Having provided these grants, weve been pleased to see other organizations get involved in supporting Bitcoin Core developer sponsorship as well.

Were excited to see the level of interest increase among a varied group of organizations, each of which views crypto from a different perspective. Optionality and partnership are very important in maintaining the independence of the developer community. This is why we partnered with BitMEX on our recent grant to Amiti Uttarwar, who has made strides in her work on Bitcoins peer-to-peer layer. Uttarwars contributions have strengthened Bitcoin Core, making the codebase more secure for everyone sending transactions.

Money is the foundation of our society, and OKCoin is committed to building crypto for the long run. Therefore, we think its a natural concept for us to support the developers who contribute to making Bitcoin a stronger candidate as sound money.

Weve continued to focus on supporting Bitcoin Core with our latest sponsorships because we see great externality in Bitcoin Core. The development of Bitcoin supports the entire industry in the forms of education, validation and adoption.

There may be many different versions in the future where crypto is impactful, but one of the most exciting versions may have a distributed and trustless monetary system, for example, Bitcoin, as a fundamental layer. On top of the new monetary system, a distributed and trustless financial system and a distributed and trustless society could emerge. To do that, Bitcoin needs to scale. Fabian Jahr, OKCoins first grant recipient, worked on accelerating remote procedure calls in the UTXO set this is just one example of the direct impact developers have on building essential Bitcoin infrastructure.

Bitcoins success is our success, so we dont see developer grants as an obligation or as a donation. We see these grants as an investment in our future. Free and open-source software benefits everyone, and supporting it is particularly critical in crypto.

Connecting with and backing Bitcoin developers has been a community effort, with a lot of knowledge shared among sponsors. Chaincode and Square Crypto have been very helpful to our efforts at OKCoin, and in order to strengthen this initiative, weve been happy to share what weve learned through the process with Kraken and others.

While not all grants are done in partnership, sponsoring open-source development is ultimately a collaborative initiative. Weve been open about what weve learned because we believe its healthy to build a community sponsorship matrix for FOSS development.

The funding model that exists today for open-source work is based on corporate grants and financial backing. While corporate objectives may align with the work that FOSS developers are focused on, the credibility of their contributions to decentralized networks relies on their ability to function autonomously while being financially supported. We believe that allowing developers to do their work without conditions improves the quality of full-time developers committed to open-source development and ensures that the community of developers operates collectively and transparently. Its on us as an industry to ensure that the right incentives are in place to attract and keep the best talent to help grow Bitcoin and the crypto industry.

Just as companies are continuously developing, so too is the Bitcoin codebase. There is still much work to be done, and its important that the organizations that rely on the infrastructure support this work. It also matters how financial backing is provided; without strings attached, allowing developers to focus on what they believe is most crucial. Were proud to have sponsored three independent developers and the BTCPay Server project and look forward to continuing to support the open-source community.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Hong Fang is the CEO of OKCoin a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in San Francisco and is the chief operating officer at OKGroup. Hong comes from a Wall Street background, having spent almost a decade at Goldman Sachs where she focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, investment, restructuring and various other corporate development activities for both traditional financial institutions and fintech companies. She is a graduate of Peking University in Beijing, China, and has an MBA in finance, accounting and entrepreneurship from the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business.

The rest is here:
Backing the development of Bitcoin Core infrastructure for sound money - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin has not broken the uptrend, though, and is continuing its ascension. On Saturday, 22 August, Bitcoin slightly rebounded off the weekly support level at $11,574 thus keeping it intact. Despite falling sharply, Ethereum has not breached its daily $378 support level either, allowing us to consider the ETH uptrend still running on.

Last week started for Bitcoin with a sharp surge on Monday in one 4-hour candlestick. Then the weekly high was made and the cryptocurrency began slowly slipping down henceforth. The first significant hurdle to that downslide was found on Wednesday, 19 August, when the price of Bitcoin reached the supporting trendline for Bitcoins local ascension move that began on 27 July.

The market leader rebounded slightly off this trend line, reaching above the 50-period SMA on the 4-hour chart and daily level at $11,862. But the upside move was small and short-lived, as a result BTC/USD slumped below the supporting trendline on Friday, 21 August.

On Friday, the pair finished below the $11,574 resistance level at $11,503, but rebounded back above it on Saturday. We thus may state that the fact the $11,574 resistance is keeping up Bitcoins upside trade, and the uptrend has not yet been reversed, judging by the graphic pattern formed. However, the dip below the 20-period and 50-period SMAs increases potential downside risks.

Ethereum started off this week with a moderately paced downside move that continued through Wednesday. There was a modest rebound on Thursday, however accompanied by a downside convergence of the 20-period SMA over the 50-perod SMA on the 4-hour chart. The pair was trending down until it almost touched the $370 daily support level on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday ETH/USD basically traded flat, staying above $390 most of the time.

The week has been negatively marked for Ethereum by a failure on the testnet Medalla built for Ethereum 2.0 proof-of-work on 18 August. One of the six servers on which Medalla runs reported the time as being one day ahead of actual time. The system averaged out the time discrepancy by shifting the time on all servers by 4 hours ahead of the present. As a result, validators incorrectly proposed blocks and attestations for future slots, as per Prysmatic Labs official report. The glitch in the system took most of the networks validators offline.

On that day Raul Jordan Prysmatic Labs editor wrote in his blog that Prysmatic Labs believed, this incident does not inherently affect the launch date. On August 19, the testnet was running again though not yet in a stable manner on a number of accounts. Still, the incident produced a notable effect on the trade of ETH/USD with the weeks biggest losses registered on the 18th and 19th August.

Story continues

Bitcoins uptrend is under the threat of a downside reversal. The key support level of $11,574 is in the markets focus. The space between the weekly support and the daily resistance levels is very small for a weeks time, and the price of the BTC/USD pair is unlikely to remain within its boundaries this week, however, there may be false breakthroughs that will ultimately let it stay within the corridor by the end of the week. Still, either a downside or upside exits are the more likely options.

Bitcoins uptrend so far looks intact with the weekly resistance holding on. However, the continuation of the uptrend looks questionable. The most reasonable decision for position traders now would be to wait and see until the situation clears. As for the odds of the direction Bitcoin continues, the likelier option is up, given its position around the weekly $11,574 support level. Shorting Bitcoin in the current situation might be a higher risk move.

For Ethereum, the situation also appears rather mixed. Approaching trading Ethereum versus dollar this week, one should closely monitor the news concerning Medalla testnet. The Ethereum 2.0 project is expected to increase the scalability of Ethereum and thus gives substantial fundamental input to its market valuation. However the projects realisation will have the ultimate impact on the markets reaction to it.

Ethereum was in a downtrend through last week and slowed down its descent, nearing daily support. A further upside move looks a technically plausible option and a buying order at $380 may be not a bad option. Nevertheless any negative news may create a threat for this scenario. However, a mid-term short order for ETH/USD looks a much riskier option in the current situation.

Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

Excerpt from:
Weekly Recap: Bitcoin Above $11,500, Ethereum Above $380 - Yahoo Finance

The decentralized finance (defi) ecosystem has matured quite a bit in 2020 and one project thats seen some growth is the Ren Protocol. The application that allows people to access inter-blockchain liquidity for a number of defi applications. The following post is a step-by-step guide on how to leverage the Ren Protocol with Bitcoin Cash and a Metamask wallet.

This week news.Bitcoin.com tested the Ren Protocol, another decentralized finance (defi) application that has been making waves within the crypto community. This is because the total value locked (TVL) in the Ren-VM system right now is more than 12,600 BTC ($146 million).

The Ren protocol also works with zcash (ZEC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) as well, as it offers cross-chain capabilities with three blockchains and then connects them to Ethereum. In order to give our readers some perspective on how the project works, we tested the Ren Bridge to mint a very small fraction of renBCH.

Essentially renBCH is just like renBTC, as it is a synthetic form of bitcoin cash. After the tokens are minted they can be leveraged on a number of defi applications like Curve or Uniswap.

The following guide illustrates how easy it is to utilize these defi platforms, but it also shows how Ethereum is suffering from fee issues.

Paying $3 to $6 per transaction is nothing to someone leveraging various defi apps in order to yield off of 6,000 USDC with an intricate flash loan. In my experiment, I only minted $1 worth of BCH to test the system for this article and this is totally not a recommended amount with current gas prices.

Before even leveraging the Ren Bridge the website explains that the platform should be used for over $10 worth of BCH, BTC, or ZEC. I found with gas so expensive today, its probably better to leverage a bit more than just $10, but for this test, I had the audacity to mint $1 worth of bitcoin cash (BCH).

The first thing you will need is some ethereum (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), and a Metamask wallet. You will also need a bitcoin cash (BCH) compatible wallet too and then you can head over to the website at bridge.renproject.io/.

From here you can connect with your Metamask wallet and accept the interaction with the Ren Bridge.

Once the wallet is connected, you can then leverage the Ren Bridge to mint renBTC, renBCH, or renZEC. As mentioned above, I decided to mint 0.0035 BCH ($1) into renBCH and the application lets you choose the asset, amount, the destination address, and it also shows you how much you will receive.

The window told me I would get 0.002797 renBCH and the next page breaks down the settlement fees. After accepting, the bridge gives you an invoice or bitcoin cash address to send the BCH to in order to continue. I sent $1 worth of BCH from my Bitcoin.com Wallet by scanning the QR code given with the invoice.

Paying the invoice takes a while, as the Ren Protocol wants 15 BCH confirmations in order to continue the process.

From here, I walked away for a few hours and came back after my transaction made it through 15 confirmations. Once the wait time is over, the Ren Bridge will ask you to submit the transaction to the Ethereum network.

After hitting confirm, the Ren Bridge connects with Metamask again and the wallet explained the fee would be $6.52 to process the action. Even though I knew the fees were well above what I minted, I continued the process for testing purposes only.

After the Ethereum blockchain confirmed the transaction, I was the proud owner of 0.002797 renBCH. The Bridge application also allows users to release the renBCH and you can get bitcoin cash (BCH) or whatever coin you leveraged during the process back at any time.

Instead, you can also leverage the wide variety of defi applications with the newly minted coins. Defi apps with few or no trust assumptions are available on the open web and renBCH and other crypto synthetics are supported for trade. My newly minted renBCH was identified on Uniswap and other platforms after simply connecting my Metamask wallet.

Overall the experience was simple to process and as mentioned a few times above, minting less than what it costs in fees is not sustainable. I highly recommend leveraging at least $50 or more, of any crypto asset supported, in order to use the Ren Protocol with gas fees today.

Although, people should research Ren with due diligence and never use more crypto assets than they can afford to lose with any defi application in existence. Even though defi offers solutions with little to no trust involved depending on the protocol, there is always risk involved.

However, those with deeper pockets who do want to leverage these defi applications in order to obtain certain preferable actions are likely willing to pay for such fees.

Users can make a whole lot of money farming yield, executing flash loans, and providing scalable dark pools of liquidity. All three of these concepts can be worthwhile even with $6 gwei prices if the person knows what they are doing.

What do you think about the minting experience using the Ren Protocol? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Ren Protocol, Ren Bridge, Uniswap, Etherscan, Defipulse,

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is 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 this article.

See the original post here:
Inter-Blockchain Liquidity: Minting Synthetic Bitcoin Cash With the Ren Protocol - Bitcoin News

New data from Chainalysis shows Chinese investors reportedly used Tether (USDT) to move nearly $50 billion overseas. This has led some crypto investors to question whether or not Bitcoin price could be impacted by capital flight from China.

Chainalysis researchers said:

Over the last twelve months, with Chinas economy suffering due to trade wars and devaluation of the yuan at different points, weve seen over $50 billion worth of cryptocurrency move from China-based addresses to overseas addresses.

A large portion of the funds were moved through Tether and as this occurred the dominant stablecoin saw its market cap rise to a new all-time high at $12 billion on paper.

China, along with several other Asian countries, have strict capital controls that make it difficult for investors to move large sums of money abroad.

If Chinese investors moved tens of billions of dollars in Bitcoin (BTC) or Tether solely to move capital out of China, there is a chance that a large part of it is sold and turned into cash.

Chainalysis emphasized that not all of the $50 billion is capital flight, but it can be considered as the absolute ceiling. The researchers said:

Obviously, not all of this is capital flight, but we can think of $50 billion as the absolute ceiling for capital flight via cryptocurrency from East Asia to other regions.

The researchers evaluated wallets based in China and their transactions to addresses in foreign countries. They found that $18 billion in Tether was moved from East Asia to other regions.

But the company noted that it is unlikely that all of it is capital flight. As such, it is difficult to know what percentage of the funds were moved as a means to transfer capital outside of China. They explained:

In total, over $18 billion worth of Tether has moved from East Asia addresses to those based in other regions over the last 12 months. Again, its highly unlikely that all of this is capital flight.

If the outflow was purely capital flight being routed into BTC, then this would add selling pressure to Bitcoin. In such a situation, there should be some downturn in BTC price as these investors would be closing their newly opened Bitcoin positions in pursuit of USD or other fiat currencies.

BTC/USD weekly chart. Source: TradingView.com

One variable that complicates the China USDT exodus theory is that in 2020 exchanges have seen their BTC reserves drop to record lows and more investors holding their Bitcoin in cold storage as they expect higher prices in the future.

It is entirely possible that, if the funds were moved for the purpose of capital flight, they could have been sold anytime in the past year.

Hence whether it could apply selling pressure onto the Bitcoin market in the near-term is practically impossible to conclude.

Based on the broad timeframe of the movement of the funds and Tether accounting for a large part of the funds, it is not likely to have a big impact on Bitcoin in the short-term.

Read more:
Bitcoin Macro Trend Unaffected by Chinese Investors $50B Tether Exodus - Cointelegraph

Cryptocurrency advocates have been recently discussing the mysterious Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto as RSKs chief scientist, Sergio Demian Lerner, published a paper called The Patoshi Mining Machine. Essentially, Lerner simulated Satoshis mining experience. The findings estimate that Bitcoins creator used a single computer to mine an estimated 1 million bitcoin minted in the early days.

Sergio Demian Lerner is well known for publishing one of the first estimates backed by technical data in 2013 concerning Satoshi Nakamotos alleged stash of bitcoin.

During the last seven years, Lerner has published a few more papers about this subject and it is estimated that Satoshi mined 1.1 million BTC. Not too long ago in 2018, Bitmex Research published findings that estimated Satoshi may have only mined 700,000 BTC.

At the end of July 2020, the blockchain trackers and researchers from Whale Alert published a new research report which placed the figure around 1,125,150 BTC.

Lerners latest paper The Patoshi Mining Machine looks into whether or not the Patoshi pattern (Satoshis mining) was done by multiple computers or a single PC. Lerner simulated Satoshis mining experience by mining a large part of Patoshi nonce space scanning sequentially in the range.

The RSK chief scientist paper noticed a tendency while re-mining the old Satoshi bocks which reduces the nonce value.

It turned out that re-mining reveals a strong tendency of the Patoshi mining algorithm to choose higher nonces when scanning the inner nonce, Lerner discovered. This tendency suggests the nonce was being decremented, which is the opposite that the Satoshi client version 0.1 does.

Re-mining revealed some of the possible solutions chosen by the miner, Lerner detailed and one that exists in the blockchain, will be called the real solution.

The finding leads Lerner to believe that Satoshi didnt leverage 50 computers to mine the Patoshi blocks and its very likely the inventor utilized a single machine back then.

Lerner thinks that Satoshi may have been scanning subranges in parallel when he examined the nonce imbalance decreases. Since the nonce imbalance decreases when analyzing two subranges together, this suggests Patoshi was scanning the 5 subranges in parallel, but each subrange internally sequentially, Lerners paper notes.

The researchers study further adds:

This contradicts a theory that Patoshi deployed the first mining farm of 50 independent computers (or any other highly decoupled system) and supports the theory that Patoshi was simply multi-threading in a high-end CPU.

Lerner said that he attempted the re-mining process in 2014, but shelved the idea for a number of years. The researcher detailed that this year he re-mined with a standard CPU and re-mined the first 18K block only to check that the theory matched the reality (It does).

During the last few years, the search for clues about Satoshi has been a fan favorite and people continue to investigate his past movements and how the inventor jumped-started the Bitcoin network.

Lerners Patoshi papers have always lent credence to a number of theories about the estimated size of Satoshis bitcoin stash and how Nakamoto may have operated in the early days.

What do you think about Sergio Demian Lerner re-mining 18,000 blocks in order to discover Satoshis secrets? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, https://bitslog.com

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is 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 this article.

Link:
Re-Mining Simulation Shows Satoshi Used a Single High-End PC to Mine 1.1M Bitcoin - Bitcoin News

The US presidential election and the weakness of the dollar will be high-octane drivers for the Bitcoin price for the rest of 2020, affirms the CEO of one of the worlds largest independent financial advisory and fintech organisations.

The prediction from Nigel Green, chief executive and founder of deVere Group, comes as the election campaigning moves into a critical phase after Joe Biden formally accepted the Democratic nomination

It also follows the dollar hitting a two-year low last week over concerns about the health of the U.S. economy.

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Mr Green says: Bitcoin is already one of the best-performing assets of the year, up around 70% year-to-date.

We can expect the worlds largest cryptocurrency to be further fuelled for the rest of 2020 by the U.S. presidential election and the weakness of the U.S. dollar, which will serve as high-octane price drivers.

He continues: A U.S. presidential election always stirs uncertainty but 2020 is seen by many as particularly important as not only will whoever wins be the CEO of the worlds largest economy, they will be in that role as the world economically readjusts following the global fallout of coronavirus.

As uncertainty heightens, investors will pile intosafe-haven assets, in particular those not tied to any specific country, such as Bitcoin and gold.

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Bitcoin is currently realising its reputation as a form of digital gold. Up to now, the precious metal has been perceived as the ultimate safe-haven asset, but Bitcoin which shares its key characteristics of being a store of value and scarcity could potentially knock gold from its long-held top spot as the world becomes driven by the tech revolution.

Decentralized, non-sovereign, secure digital currencies, including Bitcoin, will become more attractive to investors as they will offer a hedge against turbulence in traditional markets.

The deVere CEO goes on to say: Printing of historic sums of helicopter money thats pushed into the financial system has devalued the dollar and prompted inflation fears.

You cant just print Bitcoin.

He adds: The greenback could be in for a short-term boost, but in the longer term there are expectations its on a downward trajectory and that it could ultimately lose its global reserves status and this environment will provide a powerful boost for the price of Bitcoin.

This explosive combination together with a growing number of millennials and Gen Z investors moving into digital assets could provide the perfect landscape for a multi-year bull market, he notes.

Mr Green concludes: History will show that 2020 was a breakout year for Bitcoin.

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US Election and A Weak Dollar are 'High-Octane' Drivers for Bitcoin - AiThority

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a video explaining what cryptocurrency is. Besides suggesting that cryptocurrency could completely change the way we sell, buy, save, invest, and pay our bills, the video states that it could be the next step in the evolution of money.

The IMF tweeted a video explaining what cryptocurrency is on Sunday that instantly went viral. Referring to cryptocurrency as a special currency, the two-minute video attempts to outline its benefits in payments, such as by removing middlemen, lowering costs, and increasing transaction speed. It also warns of what it sees as risks, such as anonymity and volatility. The video has garnered more than 523K views at the time of writing; it has been retweeted 5.5K times, liked 8.2K times, and received 807 comments. The video ends with:

If we can counter the risks, then this new technology or some variation of it can completely change the way we sell, buy, save, invest, and pay our bills. And who knows, this could be the next step in the evolution of money.

The video references the IMFs F&D (Finance & Development) magazine, June 2018 edition, entitled Money, Transformed The future of currency in a digital world. When that magazine edition came out, the organization posted the above video on its Youtube channel, which received little interest at the time.

Many people in the crypto space view the IMFs video as bullish. Tweets such as IMF learning fast. Global adoption is on its way, This is a big deal, and They are finally understanding blockchain and cryptocurrency are not going away flooded Twitter. One user wrote: I still cant believe I see this. IMF shills cryptocurrencies, of course, not bitcoin yet, but that time will come too.

Since the IMFs crypto explainer video does not mention any specific cryptocurrency, many commenters took the opportunity to promote their favorite coins.

Some people, however, criticize the content of the IMF video, saying that the information is misleading and omits many important points, including mining. Many also believe that bitcoin should have been mentioned. Nothing about why people choose to store their wealth in a scarce currency like bitcoin instead of fiat currencies that are benign constantly debased by banksters and cantillionaires, one user tweeted. You forgot one fundamental difference between fiat and bitcoin. Fiat is printable by centralized entities like government & banks, whereas BTC is decentralized and has a limit cap to its supply where only 21 million will ever exist in this universe. All powered by blockchain, another wrote.

Some questioned who the bad guys in the video are supposed to be and frowned upon it referring to private keys as passwords. Some say the video gives the appearance that all cryptocurrencies share the properties of bitcoin, and some suspect that the IMF is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency. One user noted that this video is set up like a Prelude to their own crypto coin that will come out at some point fixing all the problems with crypto that the IMF has outlined in this video.

What do you think about this IMF video? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, IMF, Twitter

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is 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 this article.

Original post:
IMF Publishes Cryptocurrency Explainer, Saying It 'Could Be the Next Step in the Evolution of Money' | News - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin traders are hitting the sell button Friday while the ether options market loads up on lower prices.

After holding around $11,800 Thursday into Friday, bitcoin started to slide downward around 08:00 UTC (4 a.m. ET), dropping to a 24-hour low of $11,605. Spot volumes were lower to cap off the workweek. It was $138 million on major spot USD/BTC exchange Coinbase, lower than its $179 million average over the past month.

Over-the-counter crypto trader Henrik Kugelberg expects a bullish, if not record, fourth quarter ahead for bitcoin, even if the number of sluggish market days pile up. I expect a slower curve but would not be surprised if we reach a $15,000 BTC in October and somewhere around $18,000-$20,000 at year end.

Kugelberg points to the uncertain economy as giving people reason to swap fiat for crypto investments. Theres the falling value of the dollar to be priced in; we have not seen the end of the dollars fall that is for sure, he added. Indeed, while the U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the greenbacks strength versus a basket of other fiat currencies, is up 0.52% Friday, its still at lows not seen since June 2018.

In the bitcoin options market, Neil Van Huis, director of sales and institutional trading at liquidity provider Blockfills, noted volatility decreased this week. Bitcoins at-the-money implied volatility, which is a metric to forecast movement in prices, has dropped from 71% Monday to 59% Friday. Looks like some normalization of volatile trading as of late, Van Huis said.

Opportunities in Ethereum-powered DeFi are taking some traders focus away from the bitcoin market, Kugelbrg told CoinDesk. The crypto community is in a total FOMO to DeFi-related altcoins, said Kugelberg. I believe the run-up for bitcoin may be slower than expected and fueled by retail sales to newcomers wanting a somewhat steadier haven.

Ether options market bearish

Ether (ETH) was down Friday, trading around $399 and slipping 3.8% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

The ether options market is predicting prices by the end of 2020 wont be much higher than they are now for the worlds second-largest cryptocurrency. December 20 maturities only give ether a 25% chance of being over $520, a 38% probability of being over $420 and a 41% chance of being over $400, according to data aggregator Skew.

Despite the probabilities, Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner for Tellurian Capital, which has been investing in crypto projects since 2014, is still bullish on ether. He doesnt see Ethereums fundamental issues, such as fees constraining the network, as anything but a speed bump on the fast-moving DeFi highway. Structurally, no, said Bonnefous. But short term, ether needs a new trigger to go higher.

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dips to $11.6K, ETH Options Predict Price Below $400 by End of Year - CoinDesk - CoinDesk