In a Nutshell: TravelbyBit was launched in 2017 as a way for travelers to use their cryptocurrency when booking trips and traveling. Thanks to a partnership with Binance, the platform has grown substantially and now functions as a full-fledged travel booking site. TravelbyBit also appeals to those looking to acquire Bitcoin through its rewards program where they can book using Visa or Mastercard and receive a portion of Bitcoin in return. The company also facilitates transparent donations via the blockchain. And its Visa debit card will launch in the near future, allowing users to spend crypto without being limited to the travel space.

Planning and booking vacations or business trips has never been easier, thanks to the internet and plentiful travel sites as well as direct-booking options through hotels and airlines.

Travelers can select flights, hotels, or Airbnb rentals from nearly any price level and date range.

But there is at least one audience that has largely been overlooked when it comes to travel booking sites the crypto crowd. Of course, some vendors accept cryptocurrency as payment, but none of the major travel booking websites currently allows users to use their Bitcoin or Ethereum to pay for their next getaway.

The company launched in 2017 with a focus on facilitating point-of-sale cryptocurrency payments in Australia travel destinations. CEO and Co-Founder Caleb Yeoh said TravelbyBit received its seed funding from the Australian government in a bid to boost tourism.

Australia went through a phase where it said, We really envy what Silicon Valley has, and we want to create our own startup ecosystem. And were going to provide some funding and support and mentorship to a bunch of fintech startups, Yeoh said. So we were very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

Yeoh said that, as TravelbyBits point-of-sale network was growing in Australia, they were hearing feedback from frequent travelers and digital nomads who liked the service. The feedback led to TravelbyBit expanding to the full-fledged travel booking platform system that it is today.

It wasnt long before TravelbyBit entered into a partnership with the worlds leading crypto exchange, Binance, which invested more than $3.5 million in the young company.

Being advocates of cryptocurrency, we felt that it would be really important for the crypto ecosystem and the blockchain ecosystem to have a flagship company that specializes in the travel space, Yeoh said.

Yeoh likens TravelbyBit to the well-known travel site, Expedia. Of course, TravelbyBits differentiating factor is that it accepts crypto payments. But for those who dont have crypto to spend, or are holding it as a speculative asset, TravelbyBit also offers a valuable proposition earning Bitcoin.

We spoke to a lot of people and they said, We really like your idea we love the concept of TravelbyBit but we dont have a lot of Bitcoin, Yeoh said. So theyre not at the stage where theyre prepared to spend Bitcoin and maybe wanting to collect more Bitcoin.

With those people in mind, TravelbyBit established its crypto rewards program. For users who dont want to spend their cryptocurrency, they have the option to pay with Visa and Mastercard and in turn, receive a portion of Bitcoin as a reward.

When you make an eligible flight or hotel booking, you will earn TravelbyBit Status Points, which help you progress through the Status Tiers, according to the company website. Once you accumulate enough Status Points required to progress to the next Status Tier, you will unlock a greater reward percentage.

Users are automatically given Bronze member status upon signing up for the Crypto Rewards Program activating a 1% Bitcoin reward on hotel bookings and $1.50 in Bitcoin.

Earn Silver status by spending US$2,000 on eligible bookings to unlock a 2% Bitcoin reward on hotel bookings and US$2.50 in Bitcoin reward on flight bookings, according to TravelbyBit.

The status tiers progress to Gold, Platinum, and finally, Titanium, which is for users who spend $90,000 on eligible bookings to unlock the 10% Bitcoin reward on hotel bookings and $30.50 in Bitcoin on flight bookings.

Yeoh said Binance has given TravelbyBit a mandate to continue to experiment with ways to grow the cryptocurrency ecosystem, including driving adoption and making crypto more usable in the larger finance world.

One of the ways TravelbyBit is doing this is through its charity program, which makes donations transparent through blockchain technology.

Weve partnered with Binance Charity, a non-profit organization that utilizes the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of blockchain technology to improve the lives of the Bottom Billion, according to the company website.

Binance Charity works on location to understand local needs and develop solutions for specific social problems, according to TravelbyBit. This includes continuously testing and improving their solutions to scale up their social impact.

And TravelbyBit users can be sure their money is reaching the intended charitable organization.

Normally, if you make a donation to a charitable organization collecting money on the street, God knows how many hands and middlemen it goes through, Yeoh said. You have no visibility of whether the money reaches the recipient, or what portion may reach the recipient.

One of the highlighted charities on the TravelbyBit website is funding lunches for underprivileged Ugandan children so they stay in school and dont go hungry.

We tack on a donation option whenever you book a flight on our platform, Yeoh said. With the blockchain donation function, you can be sure that the money once you send it to us we can show that that whole sum is transferred directly to a blockchain wallet that goes directly to the school in Africa.

Yeoh said he believes the donations function is a very powerful use case for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, which aligns with the companys goal to find ways to expand the ecosystem.

Were trying to integrate different blockchain technologies into our platform payments, donations, and a whole bunch of other stuff to really build out the use cases for blockchain.

TravelbyBit is preparing to launch its new travel rewards debit card and is currently offering its users to sign up for early access to the card.

Yeoh explained how TravelbyBit values freedom and privacy in the digital payments ecosystem, and that he is personally an advocate of peoples rights to use their money through their system of choice.

Were seeing the growth of a lot of these super apps and wallets where theres a huge amount of centralization on one payment method or system, he said. I think peoples freedoms could potentially be put at risk when you have the centralization of payment systems.

In China, for example, consumers in recent years have seen a huge shift away from cash and primarily make all their transactions using one of two digital payment apps.

The apps also include a social messaging component, and Yeoh said that, if users send anti-government messages via these structures, the government can ban them from making payments using the apps. This can essentially shut citizens out of participating in the economy and society in many ways.

Yeoh said cryptocurrencies and the blockchain allow people to work around these types of centralized systems and maintain their freedom.

Regarding our credit card platform, were seeing as well that there are a bunch of people, like digital nomads, who would like to transact outside the travel space and in their daily life using crypto, he said.

TravelbyBits Visa crypto-backed debit card makes a lot of sense for these consumers, Yeoh said.

It gives them a lot more freedom, so they are not limited to booking just for travel but there are a whole bunch of other expenses they could use it for as well, he said.

Yeoh explained that the debit card interacts with an app and functions as a Bitcoin wallet as well. Users will download the app and use their wallet to top up their Visa debit card by transferring their crypto balances to it, then use it anywhere Visa is accepted.

The card itself would support not just Bitcoin, but the Binance BNB coin and the Binance stable coin the Binance USD as well, he said.

Yeoh said TravelbyBit plans to launch the card in the near future.

While TravelbyBits main focus is on the travel industry, its clear that the innovative platform is laying the groundwork for a long-lasting presence in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

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TravelbyBit: A Travel Booking Website That Lets Users Pay With Cryptocurrency and Earn Crypto Rewards - CardRates.com

/latest/2020/02/3-of-cryptocurrency-exchanges-were-hacked-last-year-cryptocompare-report-finds/

A report published by leading cryptoasset data provider CryptoCompare reveals that 3% of cryptocurrency exchanges were hacked last year, and that only 4% offer some form of insurance.

In a press release shared with CryptoGlobe, CryptoCompare announced an update to its cryptocurrency Exchange Benchmark tool that reveals the top cryptocurrency exchanges based on several criteria, including the team behind them, the quality of their markets, geographical location, legal status, and data provision.

The Benchmark currently ranks over 160 active spot exchanges throughout the world, assigning them a grade to help users identify the lowest risk cryptocurrency exchanges in the industry. For the first time, the press release notes, U.S. and Japanese regulated exchange itBit ranked number one.

ItBit was followed by Gemini, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp which make up the top five. Notably, popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance didnt make it to the top 10. Charles Hayter, co-founder and CEO of CryptoCompare, commented:

The industry needs reliable metrics to evaluate the vast number of cryptocurrency exchanges globally and we have been extremely pleased with the response to our analysis since launch last year. Our cryptocurrency Exchange Benchmark aims to provide this transparency by assessing exchanges using a clear methodology to assess risk

In its Exchange Benchmark, CryptoCompare found that 3% of cryptocurrency exchanges were hacked last year, and this trend seems to be continuing. CryptoGlobe reported this week Italian crypto exchange Altsbit was shutting down after being hacked, as it decided to use its remaining funds to partially reimburse affected users.

The figure is somewhat alarming as its well known that organized hacking groups like Lazarus specifically target cryptocurrency businesses, allegedly to fund the North Korean regime. Moreover, CryptoCompare also found only 4% of exchanges offer some form of cryptocurrency insurance.

The report also found top-tier exchanges those graded AA to B accounted for 27% of the global trading volume, while lower-tier exchanges graded C-E accounted for 73% in Q4 2019. Only 30% of trading platforms possess a crypto exchange license or are registered as a money service business.

Notably, 16% of exchanges reveal they hold over 95% of cryptocurrency in cold wallets. While such a small amount securely store most of their assets offline and only 4% offer insurance, 33% offer margin trading.

Featured image via Unsplash.

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3% of Cryptocurrency Exchanges Were Hacked Last Year, Cryptocompare Report Finds - CryptoGlobe

Welcome to Moonday Mornings, fellow Hard Forkers.

You know the drill, lets take a look at this weekends top cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines.

If you didnt get enough of the $4 billion OneCoin cryptocurrency scam then youre in luck. According to entertainment news website Deadline, the real-life drama is going to be made into a TV show.

In an allegedly intense bidding war, New Regency Television International beat the likes of 20th Century TV to win the screen rights to the popular BBC Sounds podcast, The Missing Crypto Queen. Its definitely worth a listen. Full details on the shows production are yet to be announced.

[Read: 2019s juiciest crypto drama: The saga of OneCoins $4B cryptocurrency scam]

A company offering a digital savings scheme, with fixed interest of 5%, has had to remove its adverts from London Underground train stations after coming under pressure from the UKs Financial Conduct Authority, The Telegraph reports.

According to the report, the billboards said interest rates were fixed and investors could remove their money whenever they pleased. What wasnt disclosed on the adverts though, was that investor money was used to buy cryptocurrency before being transferred to a financial services firm based in China.

The Australian government has finally released its blockchain roadmap that it says will help foster adoption in the country, The Block reports.

The 52-page document outlines a 12-step plan for the next five years, that will supposedly lead Australia to a blockchain empowered future, whatever that means. The Australian government announced its plans for blockchain last year, despite the latest document, were still waiting for anything tangible to develop.

The London-based cryptocurrency exchange LBX is facing compulsory liquidation, news.bitcoin.com reports. Despite the recent rise in cryptocurrency prices, the exchange hasnt been able to stay afloat.The company was issued a winding up order at the end of January for failing to pay creditors.

Court appointed liquidators are now working to reportedly resolve client concerns as soon as possible, including any money owed to them. It hasnt been mentioned how much money clients are owed.

And finally

A man from the US state of Michigan has been ordered to pay over $208,000 in restitution for his role in a cryptocurrency-based scam, according to a US Department of Justice release.

The individual, James Matthew Thomas, has also been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for defrauding two people from Missoula, Montana. The perpetrator pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering last October.

According to the release, the Thomas solicited investments from his LinkedIn network, promising them large returns for investing in cryptocurrency. Only, he never paid his investors back. Where have we heard that before?

Well, there you have it. Now go get on with your week of watching Bitcoins price go up and down.

Published February 10, 2020 09:42 UTC

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Moonday Mornings: $4B OneCoin cryptocurrency scam to be made into TV drama - The Next Web

EOW has taken this decision in the backdrop of cryptocurrency fraudulent cases

In 2018, RBI had told banks to withdraw all support services for crypto entities

Startups and internet organisations are demanding for open crypto network

In a bid to curtail cryptocurrency-based transactions in Tamil Nadu, the states Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has now issued a warning to individuals dealing with cryptocurrencies.

According to a report in The Hindu, the department has taken this decision in the backdrop of cryptocurrency fraudulent cases reported in Tamil Nadu. A few cryptocurrency investors were cheated in these cases, however, accused are now arrested, it added.

The public is hereby advised not to deal with cryptocurrencies including Bitcoins, Ethereum, Ripple and more. Those trading in virtual currencies were doing so at their own risk, given that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not given a licence or authorisation to any company to deal in such cryptocurrencies, the Economic Offences Wing said.

Notably, RBI, on April 6, 2018, had told banks to withdraw all support services that were being extended to crypto entities, thereby announcing a virtual ban on cryptocurrencies. The deputy governor of RBI, BP Kanungo, had then suspected that the rise of cryptocurrencies beyond a critical limit might bring financial instability in the country.

The EOW further highlighted that cryptocurrencies are not a currency as per the definition of currency in India. It is not a derivative as well, it added. Explaining further, the department said that it is only a virtual currency that is similar to gold or precious metals which behaves more like assets rather than currency. Most cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin and Ethereum are not backed by a sovereign guarantee, and therefore are not considered as legal tender, the notice added.

Unlike other investment options such as stocks, mutual funds, among others, there are no government organisations which regulate cryptocurrencies around the world. Once duped, investors are left with no option to redress their grievances. Moreover, the Indian government has not yet given the status of legal tender to any cryptocurrency.

RBI has warned investors about these risks many times in the past. Moreover, it has also highlighted that cryptocurrency can be used for unethical practices such as money laundering. To address these issues, EOW said that a draft bill has also been proposed to ban cryptocurrencies in the country and provide for official digital currency.

On the other hand, there are many startups that are urging the RBI to allow the flow of cryptocurrencies in the country. In an open letter written to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month, cofounder and CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform, CoinDCX Sumit Gupta cited benefits of cryptocurrencies. Moreover, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court in favour of open crypto regulation in the country.

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Cryptocurrency Fraud Cases: TN Police Issues Warning To Investors - Inc42 Media

The next bull season is almost upon us. Its just only 3 months remaining until the next Bitcoin halving and Bitcoin / Altcoins are already showing a major improvement in price. So, we thought that it might be a good idea to remind everyone of the seven deadly sins of cryptocurrency investing and how not to do it. Crypto investments are highly profitable at times, but they are extremely risky also. The market itself is volatile and relatively unstable, but practicing these tips would majorly insure you against losses, to a large extent.

The most basic investment advice is to invest only, what you can afford to lose. Only utilize money which is expendable, which wont cause you any problems, even if it all goes to zero. Its easier to commit large sums from your savings and borrowings (from either banks or people), when you believe that winning is almost certain, but doing so can bring financial problems, if the situation turns out, to be the other way around.

To protect against heavy losses, using stop loss is a must. A stop loss is a defined price or satoshi value, upon reaching which, the exchanges are asked to automatically liquidate either a part of or whole assets. Using stop loss ensures that you are able to sell your assets in due time, when the price is falling unexpectedly, without causing the value of your portfolio to go down much.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) buying occurs when the value of an asset is rising and people fear being left out. As a result, they will buy the asset at a sub-optimal price, when it has already risen much. This isnt a smart investment decision to make, since a correction can be underway or the assets would fall, because its already at peak.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) selling occurs when the people get impressioned by false propaganda against an asset, which isnt showing any dis-improvement in technical or fundamental analysis. Hence, they sell it in panic, without considering the fundamental value of the asset or how it might appreciate in the future.

Traders and investors are best advised to observe and respond to market trends. The price of an asset isnt exactly rational in nature, therefore if most people believe that its going to rise, that will act as a self fulfilling prophecy. On the contrary, if most people believe that the price of an asset would fall, that is likely to happen, because of the timeless principles of crowd psychology. The general trends, sentiment analysis and the technical charts should be used to gain better situational awareness.

Its better to take profits at regular times, instead of being greedy. So to secure some gains after an improvement in price value of an asset. Instead of being greedy and expecting it to improve more. Its better to secure profits instead of betting in an asset to rise further, which it will or it wont do. Its a double edged sword, for sure, but its better to err on the side of caution.

A lot of traders and investors have a thought pattern of gambling that they are more afraid of losing future profits than the capital amount, which they invested in the first place. Its again much better to exercise abundant caution and attempt to secure the capital amount first.

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Disclaimer: The authors of this website may have invested in crypto currencies themselves. They are not financial advisors and only express their opinions. Anyone considering investing in crypto currencies should be well informed about these high-risk assets.

Trading with financial products, especially with CFDs involves a high level of risk and is therefore not suitable for security-conscious investors.CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of losing money quickly through leverage. Be aware that most private Investors lose money, if they decide to trade CFDs. Any type of trading and speculation in financial products that can produce an unusually high return is also associated with increased risk to lose money. Note that past gains are no guarantee of positive results in the future.

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The Dash (DASH) cryptocurrency is a highly developed and widely adopted crypto-asset. Its prominent features are instantly settled transactions, near

Cardano (ADA) is a relatively new entrant in the cryptocurrency arena being first launched in October 2017, however it has

Inflation refers to the "reduction in purchasing power of a currency or asset" or to the fact that "most currencies

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The Seven Deadly Sins Of Cryptocurrency Investing - CryptoTicker.io

Staking is a process that came as an alternative to the Proof of Work mining algorithm. Proof of Stake means that you hold a significant amount of your coins and dont want to sell them short. Staking refers to classic stakes in the companies, where big capital is put into valuable papers for a long time.

When you hold Bitcoin, you also participate in its staking. Because you are holding a stake in the economy. Bitcoin is the decentralized economy and a centralized company mixed in one by venture capitalists.

The so-called crypto influencers understood that the public is ready to use different consensus models if they have a monetary incentive. If you cannot participate in mining, you can participate in automated mining, which is staking.

The classic Proof-of-Work algorithm is good as a consensus model. Probably, its the best consensus model in history. However, it takes time to establish, and the anonymity of parties brings in lots of confusion.

First, it imposes high burdens on who can make business with mining. Miners have to pledge real dollars into mining equipment, then they sell off mined coins. To be profitable, the miner needs to invest substantial amounts of cash into the mining rigs. Then, they dont have the tools of governance, and all the decision making is done by the coders. Those coders typically do not listen to the miners or users. Its their ego or the mercantile motives, but they dont like to report even to crypto journalists. Thats why theres so much attention to governance in Proof of Stake models.

The Staker is someone who can participate in the life of a cryptocurrency via putting in the money or the computational power of a node. Proof of Stake coins usually enable a broad list of features, including voting and elections. Those features help the network pick development decisions based on community consensus, not the sole will of a closed circle of developing elitists.

The staker is also a person who put a significant amount of his coin stash to the staking mode. This means that, in most PoS currencies, the reference wallet implementation has a special vault for staking part of your balance. You can compare the vault to a bank account, where you cannot withdraw cash until the deposit end date. Not all the coins demand to store the coins for some time. But youll have to deal with many pretty hard to remember rules. And most of the PoS systems make you lose stake rewards or even part of your stash in case you break the network rules.

In general, crypto staking is the automated shareholding with a build-in incentive scheme for the interested masses to explore. The staking model itself, just like the mining of PoW coins, has no intrinsic value. The cost of the coins appears solely from the massive crowds and their belief that the project is important. This is similar to ordinary stocks but in cryptocurrency.

Different staking coins offer different profits based on a hefty of parameters. For example, in the majority of staking coins, the more coins you hold in a stake mode, the more block rewards you get. Some projects may modify this rule to achieve precise consensus or new incentive schemes.

Another example in many of the projects, you will receive the return based on the time your node spends in the network. Sometimes, its the power of the validating node that acts as the key factor of staking reward volumes. Depending on the networks architecture and needs, staking plans differ in the demands.

If you dont care about the ideology of the project and simply want to put in some capital for growth, use websites giving statistics to compare the coins. Many of the staking-related services have profit calculators built-in.

For instance, on the Stakingrewards homepage, we could see thetop staking coins with their basic stats. It shows you the seven days price change, approximate reward per month or year (or per staking period), a percentage of coins currently in the stake mode and so on. The website also shows you the list of staking providers with ratings and coins they support.

You can see that some coins offer big returns like 55% profitability. And some other assets only give you 5% annually. Obviously, the more the coin gives back per the share, the more probability that its a shitcoin or a Ponzi scheme masked as a PoS currency. You must be extremely aware when investing in PoS tokens with high ROI. Check that they have low public coverage and weak code to make sure to stay away.

So, if youre in the staking game, one of the main questions is whether to perform it online or offline. Offline means that you will use your PC as the staking node, sometimes called a validator node or the delegate node. Depending on the blockchain, different projects require different nodes. Some of the PoS coins require that the node you use meets the minimum technical requirements to keep the networks operation quality at a high level.

The minimum burdens could be imposed on RAM, CPU speed or some other factors such as Internet bandwidth. However, many other PoS coins dont have any Desktop validator requirements, which means you can even use an outdated PC (like the one Tone Vays is using on his kitchen to support the Bitcoin network) for staking it.

The other option is much easier and it only requires you to have an account on some exchange. Many of the exchanges handle all the fuzz with preparations for a small fee. You simply register, put in the cash, lock it and enjoy. Online staking is better because it can offer higher ROI rates compared to Desktop validation. Your computer may be too old for the network, thus it will generate fewer profits thanks to RAM or CPU limitations. When using online service, there are best servers for you and they dont even want to know your real name in most cases.

There are three major types of online staking. The first one is a cloud validator node, where you buy cloud server space and put a validating node there, increasing profits thanks to powerful hardware. In the second one, you can drop the coins on the exchange and it will do the rest for you, but the returns may be smaller. The third one is several firms that serve as online staking providers. Its up to you to decide whether you want to use them, just compare the staking plans they offer and pick the best one.

Keep in mind that any of the validator plans in different types of PoS blockchains use a minimum stake volume to prevent cheating. To ensure that network participants act honestly, the blockchain could cut off a part of the staking stash if the validator tries breaking the consensus rules or cheating with transactions/blocks/censorship.

Putting in a substantial amount of tokens also means that youre either an early network supporter who bought lots of coins for low price, or an investor looking to earn more than local banks could offer via deposit system. In both cases, nobodys interested in a scenario where the networks consensus model fails. Presumably, this makes you a loyal follower ready to risk some of his time and energy to support and (possibly) promote a favorite staking plan.

Tezos in yet another PoS currency with the possibility of delegating the validation rights to other holders. You can transfer the rights without transferring the token itself. Also, you are not obligated to pick any Trusted Block Producers as in EOS or Lisk. The systems consensus algorithm is called Liquid Proof of Stake, or LPoS. Liquid, because the user decides on whether the rights are transferable or not.

Instead of mining or staking, Tezos is using baking as the reference word when it comes to the block producing. There is a difference between the Liquid Proof of Stake and classic Delegated Proof of Stake. Liquid version allows people an option to pick the delegates, but they can refuse. While classic DPoS is about obligatory picking of the delegates, and the delegates are known corporations, not the users.

Tezos is the second biggest staking coin by volume locked in staking stash. You can join the process both using your node or via the mainstream exchanges.Coinbase offers a 5% yield on Tezos staking, and the rate may be even higher. If you want to stake the coin via Trezor Model T read this. And if you sent some tizzies to your Ledger Nano X, read on to seehow it can be profitable for you. Other Tezos staking issues? Check outthis article.

Harmony is upcoming with its staking model called EPoS, which meansEffective Proof of Stake. It uses a sharded blockchain and around 400 validators are picking to participate in each of the networks shards. The system supports voting via bonded shares. One bonded vote share gives a validator the right to cast one vote. During the day, a validator is using all his bonded vote rights and the rights are re-attributed on the next day.

How are they re-distributed? At the end of each day, people who stake send out their bets to a special betting address. The more tokens sent as the bet, the more the chance of being elected by the protocol as the next block producer and transactions facilitator.

The core protocol features include FBFT, aconsensus typewhere at least 2 of 3 votes cast a decision. It also has BLS multi-signature consensus, sharded P2P, distributed randomness generator, and so on.

Since January 2019, there are multiple test networks working already to help the network facilitate self-checks. Harmony doesnt impose hardcore limits on the hardware of validator nodes, as well as on the network speed. If you have a weak PC and bad Internet but want to participate in block production you will have the ability to do so.

You can check other exchange offers to pick the one that fits you best. The estimated annual yield for staking ONE onBinance is 8-10%. If you want to stake using your own resources, heres the Ledger Nano S staking guide.

Cosmos is widely referred to as the blockchain for blockchains. It is using a Tendermint consensus protocol. The network consists of several scalable blockchains sending the data to each other via the primary one. This adds to the decentralization and governance-related solutions pile but adds troubles with code verification.

While the new features are untested, the finality of the project is under question. Also, the developers still working on the Inter-block Communication Protocol, which is a crucial part of the projects further developments.

The developers claim that the platform is programming language agnostic, which means it supports any type of smart contracts. According to the docs, DApps running on this blockchain receive an enormous amount of scaling possibilities.

One of the bad sides of staking Cosmos is that the top 10 validators are services or companies with the biggest stake. Over time, any stake gets bigger because the more you hold in staking the more rewards you get. Thats how the top 10 validators of the networkgot control of over 46%of the whole networks cumulative share.

Currently, the Ethereum staking roadmap consists of classic PoS rule-set where the more you have, the more you get.

Ethereum 2.0 will presumably arrive somewhere in Q1 2020 in a major network upgrade. It promises the support for staking of Ethereum, as well as for a list of other long-awaited features. From the current plans of developers, a minimum burden for a validator node will be 32 ETH.

This is a somewhat large price for the average investor. So, the majority of Ethereum staking will presumably work thanks to large companies/staking pools. In case you dont have 32 ETH or dont want to stake so many coins, staking pools will allow staking any amount of funds, but with some fees.

Also, there is no clearance regarding the possible ROI, and Buterin proposed something between 1,5% and 18%. Ethereum developer Justin Drake is proposing a 5% return rate for the validators.

Unlike other blockchains, where hybrid PoW/PoS algorithms work, in Ethereum PoS will work as a separate network layer. This means that classic Ethereum mining on video cards from AMD/Nvidia isnt going anywhere. The new network layer should work separately from the old one. While the classic layer will continue to focus on smart contract functionality, confirming transactions and PoW, the new layer will facilitate PoS-related tasks solely.

See the original post here:
Proof-of-Stake Algorithm: How to Stake in... - Coinspeaker

/latest/2020/02/ugandan-legislators-address-the-role-of-cryptocurrency-in-pyramid-schemes/

Ugandan Legislators Address the Role of Cryptocurrency in Pyramid Schemes

ugandan-legislators-address-the-role-of-cryptocurrency-in-pyramid-schemes

Ugandan politicians are targeting the role of cryptocurrencies in pyramid schemes that have plagued the country in recent months.

According to a report by local newspaper PML Daily on Feb. 4, legislators are advancing a proposal to criminalize Ponzi schemes which will include coverage for the role of cryptocurrencies.

State Minister of Finance David Bahati told members of parliament the government has established a task force to explore the impact of cryptocurrencies on Uganda, in addition to global trends.

Bahati also addressed the prevalence of Ponzi schemes in the country and pushed a government initiative that would educate citizens on recognizing financial scams.

He said,

We are also discussing with the Internal Affairs Ministry to ban such schemes. The challenge is that operators of such schemes register as financial institutions but when they get on the ground, their operations are different.

Bahati also recommended against investing in cryptocurrencies due to their lack of regulation.

He continued,

We have continued to advise the public to desist from investing in cryptocurrencies since they are yet to be supervised and regulated in Uganda. We have, therefore, strongly encouraged the members of the public to do their business transactions with only licensed financial institutions.

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com

Read the original here:
Ugandan Legislators Address the Role of Cryptocurrency in Pyramid Schemes - CryptoGlobe

XRP saw some intense bullishness over the past week, with the cryptocurrency clocking some major gains in the early part of the week while Bitcoin and the aggregated crypto market faced some bearish turbulence.

This bearishness in the aggregated market proved to be fleeting, however, and the quick turnaround allowed XRP to climb even further until it reached critical resistance between $0.28 and $0.29.

Analysts are now noting that the crypto could be just a matter of weeks away from its next major upwards push, which could be fueled by serious fomo from retail investors.

At the time of writing, XRP is trading down just over 1% at its current price of $0.277, which marks a slight decline from its daily highs of $0.285 that were set yesterday.

It is important to note that overnight the cryptocurrency did face some downwards pressure, which came about in tandem with the drops seen by Bitcoin and most other major altcoins.

This sharp yet fleeting selloff led the token to drop to as low as $0.268, but buyers quickly absorbed the intense selling pressure and led the crypto back into the $0.27 region.

It is important to note that XRP is currently nearing the spring phase of a bullish Wyckoff accumulation pattern, which means that the next several months could lead the crypto to see some intense upwards momentum.

TraderXO, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, spoke about this pattern in a recent tweet, explaining that he is waiting for XRP to push away from its yearly open before increasing his position size.

XRP Patiently waiting for XRP to retest the yearly open and push away before adding further size. So far going to plan! he explained.

One near-term possibility is that the cryptocurrency will rally up towards $0.33 before finding itself caught within an intense fomo-fueled rally that leads the token significantly higher.

The Cryptomist, a prominent crypto analyst on Twitter, spoke about this in a recent tweet, telling her followers that she believes that XRP will see some intense momentum in the coming few weeks and months.

XRP: Target of 33 cents remains the latest resistance region. Personally, I do feel in the next few weeks/months we see some serious fomo into this coin, she noted.

How the crypto trends in the coming few days could offer insight into just how likely this type of massive rally is.

Here is the original post:
XRP Could Be Weeks Away from a Major Breakout Despite Overnight Rejection - newsBTC

Feb 09, 2020 at 10:19 // News

Forks are tools employed by blockchain and DLT networks to increase blockchain execution and run the protocol. These are generally distributed into Soft Fork and Hard Fork (hardfork).

A Soft Fork is realized and implemented by creating a modernized version of the DLT protocol compatible with earlier versions. The Soft Fork puts in place a reversible change that enables contribution in the DLT network even to all those nodes that for various reasons decide not to upgrade.

A Hard Fork introduces irreversible change and needs blockchain nodes to create the upgrade mandatorily. With Hard Fork, new cryptocurrencies are formed as in the past, for example, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cases or zcash and Litecoin (LTC).

Hard Forks can be Planned and Scheduled, or Contentious, which means they can't find community consent.

Regarding Contentious hard forks, the proposed modification to the protocol does not reach an agreement within the community and with the Hardfork we come to a type of blockchain splitting. A Contentious Hard Fork leads to the establishment of a new coin.

Regarding planned Hard Forks, the protocol change is planned and the transition is approved by community participants. A Planned Hard Fork is not leading to the splitting of the DLT and the rules are rationalized in the formula of continuity.

The reasons which can lead to a Hardfork are different but can be summarized in some places:

One of the themes that leads the blockchain community to face a fork is scalability. For example, regarding the DLT net, the starting point is a DLT created to process transactions every ten minutes. A time closely associated with the amount of transactions and the number of users. In the second half of 2017 there was an exponential increase in registrations due to a very strong increase in the spread of the currency. This "demand" has also resulted in a slowdown in the time of consolidation of consolidation of blocks consolidation on the DLT.

And let's get to the Forks, which is the subject of the division between the developer family who want to maintain the traditional blockchain structure and developers who want to increase the volume of locks and transactions, trying to make the recordings faster. This contrast has generated some forks of the DLT and the emergence of new virtual currencies originating from Bitcoin blockchain (like BCH and BTC).

But it should not be forgotten that each new separation of the blockchain also determines the risk of a possible centralization in the running of the blockchain itself and thus of weakening the trust mechanism, that is, a trust that is directly proportional to the number of nodes in the DLT network.

If you assume that, for the Miner, the chances of winning the Proof of Work are directly proportional to the computing capacity you have, you notice that the Bitcoin blockchain is exposed to an imbalance risk in favor of those who may have greater computing power or, in other respects, can access more computing capacity at more affordable costs. In these cases, for example, the purpose of remediation is to define protocol-level innovations that will lower the importance of computing capacity in the resolution of Proof of Work, that is, by trying to reduce the risks of concentration of the Miners.

The subject of performance and scalability has always accompanied the development of blockchain tech. BTC's ability to process transactions compares to time limits of less than 10 transactions per second. Among the themes of the community is that we have a protocol that can improve these performances. Among the "streets" is to increase the block size, which is to double the amount of dealings in each block.

Interventions on the DLT protocol are also intended to run the DLT ecosystem, or the set of rules and balances that underlie the blockchain's own view. Among the themes is the controlling of the Forks itself and to the precision of the Hardforks that leading the community to face real splits poses a theme of protecting the overall value of the ecosystem and, directly, also a theme of shared rules, of distributed and shared governance for Bitcoin.

Read more:
Definition of a Cryptocurrency Fork; Why Are They Necessary? - Coin Idol

Bitcoin may have surged bombastically heading into 2020 but one analyst thinks the cryptocurrency is going to fall back.

Options trader Dyme said bitcoin is entering a perfect bearish setup, listing three converging negative indicators that hint a deep price retracement in the coming trading sessions. They are Rising Wedge, Bearish Divergence, and Overleveraged Longs.

Everything about [the setup] screams short, added Dyme.

In retrospect, each indicator typically leads to a price drop in an otherwise booming asset. Rising Wedge, for instance, appears if any asset trends upward, creating higher highs and higher lows, creating a conical pattern. But it breaks out to the downside upon reaching the apex of the diagram.

Bitcoin moving inside the red Rising Wedge pattern | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase

In its decade-old existence, bitcoin has broken down from Rising Wedge patterns on several occasions. That allowed Dyme to predict a similar scenario in the current cryptocurrency uptrend.

Similarly, Bearish Divergence also predicts a potential reversal in a bull market. The formation occurs when an asset makes higher highs but its momentum indicator (such as a Relative Strength Index) makes lower highs.

On bitcoins daily chart, there is merely a hint of divergence, with the RSI tops almost leveled equally among each other. On lower timeframes, however, the momentum indicator is making lower highs against bitcoins higher high formations. It fits the description of a potential trend reversal.

A set of bitcoins trade statistics shows that the cryptocurrency might be overleveraged at this point in time. While Dyme merely mentioned it, his fellow analyst Cantering Clark gave evidence of risky Long positions in the market, citing its funding rate, open interest, and futures premium.

I think the market is likely due to punishing late longs soon, the analyst wrote Thursday. The market is likely very long right now, as it should be, with the trend.

Clark stated that the next pullback could cause a $700-1,000 drop in the bitcoin price, adding:

We havent seen any major divergences in delta overall toward this recent high. If anything, I suspect a roll over / fall under own weight i.e. Cascade of stops and liquidations.

Alex Krger, a prominent market analyst, also noticed a pullback pattern brewing on BitMEX. He found that the funding rate on the derivatives platform had lately touched 0.12 percent that historically sends the bitcoin prices lower.

Source: Alex Krger

The boxplot shows what happens with bitcoins price when Bitmex funding reaches levels as extreme as todays, said Krger. Bitmex funding can be used as a proxy for traders positioning. The mean return after 5 days has been -7%.

See more here:
Three Reasons Why Bitcoin is Bearish, Explains Analyst - newsBTC