Chinas Ministry of Industry has been releasing its rankings of cryptocurrency projects for quite some time, having released a total of 14 versions of the rankings. In the most recent version, EOS was on top of the list, followed by TRON and Ethereum.

The projects are ranked in three categories;

Previously, it is likely that these lists have been ignored. However, with the recent endorsement of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies by President Xi, these rankings might have an actual impact on the market.

Many investors are paying close attention to the news coming from China perceiving it as the future leader of the blockchain industry. This is also visible with the large funding done by local Chinese governments for blockchain-related projects.

Crypto trader Daniel Larimer (@bitemaster7) posted the full list of the project rankings in the tweet below:

EOS ranks first in the Basic-Tech category and second in Creativity, trailing only Ethereum.

Lets take a look at the technical outlook and see if it affirms its leading position.

Short Summary: The technical outlook for EOS looks bullish, especially is it breaks out above the resistance outlined below.

The EOS price has been decreasing since May 31, when it reached a high of $8.65.

It reached the $2.80 support area and created a double bottom, which is considered a bullish pattern.

Afterward, it moved above the peak between the bottoms then came back to validate it as support.

Both momentum indicators, the RSI and the MACD support further upward movement.

The double bottom was combined with a bullish divergence in both and the latter has moved into positive territory.

A breakout above the current descending resistance line would confirm this upward movement.

If not, it is possible that the price decreases to the support area and creates a triple bottom.

Disclaimer: This article is not trading advice and should not be construed as such. Always consult a trained financial professional before investing in cryptocurrencies, as the market is particularly volatile.

Images courtesy of Twitter, TradingView.

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EOS Leading the Charge in Chinese Cryptocurrency Project Rankings - BeInCrypto

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but victims who lost money as a result of Mt. Goxs implosion will have to wait even longer to get their refunds.

The news comes after the trustee, tasked with refunding users, again decided to extend the submission deadline for claims.

In a statement released earlier this week,Nobuaki Kobayashi said a Tokyo District Court had issued an order to extend the deadline until March 31, 2020.

Kobayashi announced the deadline extension just one day before the current one, which was agreed in April, expired.

When it collapsed in 2014, Mt. Gox was the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, handling approximately 70 percent of all Bitcoin transactions.

It officiallyfiled for liquidationin April 2014, claiming750,000 BTC had been lost, although 200,000 BTC was later recoveredfrom a forgotten wallet.

Nobuaki Kobayashi was appointed a trustee after former CEO Mark Karpeles failed to safely operate the exchange.

Last summer, apress releasewas published on the Mt. Goxwebsite alongside anonline toolfor submitting claims, signaling it was readyingto return$1 billion in stolencryptocurrency.

As frustrating as it must be for victims, it seems they have no other choice but to sit and wait for their cryptocurrency to be returned.

Published October 31, 2019 13:39 UTC

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The never-ending Mt. Gox saga: Cryptocurrency recovery deadline pushed back (again!) - The Next Web

When Microsoft revealed last May that millions of Windows devices had a serious hackable flaw known as BlueKeepone that could enable an automated worm to spread malware from computer to computerit seemed only a matter of time before someone unleashed a global attack. As predicted, a BlueKeep campaign has finally struck. But so far it's fallen short of the worst case scenario.

Security researchers have spotted evidence that their so-called honeypotsbait machines designed to help detect and analyze malware outbreaksare being compromised en masse using the BlueKeep vulnerability. The bug in Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol allows a hacker to gain full remote code execution on unpatched machines; while it had previously only been exploited in proofs of concept, it has potentially devastating consequences. Another worm that targeted Windows machines in 2017, the NotPetya ransomware attack, caused more than 10 billion dollars in damage worldwide.

But so far, the widespread BlueKeep hacking merely installs a cryptocurrency miner, leeching a victim's processing power to generate cryptocurrency. And rather than a worm that jumps unassisted from one computer to the next, these attackers appear to have scanned the internet for vulnerable machines to exploit. That makes this current wave unlikely to result in an epidemic.

"BlueKeep has been out there for a while now. But this is the first instance where Ive seen it being used on a mass scale," says Marcus Hutchins, a malware researcher for security firm Kryptos Logic who was one of the first to build a working proof-of-concept for the BlueKeep vulnerability. "Theyre not seeking targets. Theyre scanning the internet and spraying exploits."

"It hasnt hit critical mass yet."

Jake Williams, Rendition Infosec

Hutchins says that he first learned of the BlueKeep hacking outbreak from fellow security researcher Kevin Beaumont, who observed his honeypot machines crashing over the last few days. Since those devices exposed only port 3389 to the internetthe port used by RDPhe quickly suspected BlueKeep. Beaumont then shared a "crashdump," forensic data from those crashed machines, with Hutchins, who confirmed that BlueKeep was the cause, and that the hackers had intended to install a cryptocurrency miner on the victim machines, as detailed in this blog post from Kryptos Logic. Hutchins says he hasnt yet determined which coin theyre trying to mine, and notes that the fact the target machines crash indicate that the exploit may be unreliable. The malware's authors appear to be using a version of the BlueKeep hacking technique included in the open-source hacking and penetration testing framework Metasploit, Hutchins says, which was made public in September.

It's unclear also how many devices have been impacted, although the current BlueKeep outbreak appears to be far from the RDP pandemic that many feared. "I've seen a spike, but not the level I'd expect from a worm," says Jake Williams, a founder of the security firm Rendition Infosec, who has been monitoring his clients' networks for signs of exploitation. "It hasnt hit critical mass yet."

In fact, Williams argues, the absence of a more severe wave of BlueKeep hacking so far may actually indicate a success story for Microsoft's response to its BlueKeep bugan unexpected happy ending. "Every month that passes by without a worm happening, more people patch and the vulnerable population goes down," Williams says. "Since the Metasploit module has been out for a couple of months now, the fact that no one has wormed this yet seems to indicate theres been a cost-benefit analysis and theres not a huge benefit to weaponizing it."

But the threat BlueKeep poses to hundreds of thousands of Windows machines hasn't passed just yet. About 735,000 Windows computers remained vulnerable to BlueKeep according to one internet-wide scan by Rob Graham, a security researcher and founder of Errata Security, who shared those numbers with WIRED in August. And those machines could still be hit with a more seriousand more virulentspecimen of malware that exploits Microsoft's lingering RDP vulnerability. That could take the form of a ransomware worm in the model of NotPetya or also WannaCry, which infected almost a quarter million computers when it spread in May of 2017, causing somewhere between $4 and $8 billion damage.

See the original post here:
The First BlueKeep Mass Hacking Is Finally Herebut Don't Panic - WIRED

Autonomous cryptocurrency Decred (DCR) is skyrocketing after its community welcomed new developments surrounding Politeia, its own censorship-resistant blockchain-anchored public proposal system for funding projects.

In the last 24 hours, DCR jumped over 19% to hit a high of $18.50. The upward momentum was timed by a well-known technical pattern. Now, this cryptocurrency could be preparing for a further advance.

The recent bullish impulse that took Decred to rise from a low of $15.50 to a high of $18.50 seems to be the result of a bull pennant. The bull pennant is a continuation pattern, which has developed on DCRs 12-hour chart since Oct. 25.

The 26% upswing that DCR went through between Oct. 25-26 formed the flagpole of this technical pattern. Meanwhile, the consolidation phase between Oct. 27-31 formed the pennant, which led to a breakout in the same direction of the previous trend.

Now, DCR is trading above the 7-three-day moving average, which is a positive sign for its uptrend. Additionally, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD), which helps determine changes in a given trend, recently turned bullish. The crossover between the 12 and 25-week exponential moving averages signals a further upswing.

A spike in the buying pressure behind this cryptocurrency could take Decred to the next resistance level on its 3-day chart. The barrier sits around the 30-three-day moving average, which is currently trading around $20.85. If the volume is high enough, then DCR could break above it and test the 50-three-day MA that is trading around $24.

CCN reached out to Zerocaschool, a well-known trader in the crypto community, to gather their opinion about Decreds price behavior. The technical analyst stated that this cryptocurrency had a significant bullish change in character whereby demand was found in a hammer and piercing pattern formations on its 31-day and 1-month charts, respectively. Now, Zerocaschool expects that DCR to retrace to approximately $16 before it can resume its bullish trend.

Zerocaschool said:

Price has expectedly met with supply at Phi EMA 144 and a pullback will now come. Ideally, the correction will take DCR to the SMMA 6 & EMA 30 ($15.50-$16.50). From this point, a bullish candlestick reversal with enough volume could support higher prices. Were looking for hammers, bullish engulfing patterns, and morning stars. Volume is the key factor which will illustrate the drive to break out of EMA 144 and push into the next Phi EMA 305 target ($20.00). Beware that a failure of these EMAs to hold as support will invalidate this bullish target.

The sentiment around Decred appears to be as positive as the rest of the market. Chinas decision to embrace blockchain technology seems to have had a direct impact on the markets outlook. At the moment, it seems like DCR is preparing for the next significant move that could take it to around $21. However, this cryptocurrency could first retrace to approximately $16, before it continues rising, as Zerocaschool estimated.

Disclaimer: The technical analysis above should not be considered trading advice from CCN. The writer owns bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in different cryptos but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.

This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.

Last modified: November 1, 2019 15:24 UTC

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Decred (DCR) Cryptocurrency Suddenly Spikes Over 19%; Whats Next? - CCN.com

Crypto-currencies have been through the hype-cycle, and have survived the inevitable crash. Now's ... [+] the time to start building what comes next.

Bubbles happen. The cryptocurrency market went through an undeniable hype cycle.The moment that the statement Hey, we can all mint our own currency! was uttered, you knew that this was all going to end badly. Bitcoin, the Ur crypto-currency, went all the way up to within spitting distance of $20,000, and then crashed back to $6,300. Not surprisingly, a lot of people lost a lot of money. Yet since then, Bitcoin has managed to rise 33%, fluctuating around $8000 a coin.

Two things have happened since the Bitcoin crash in 2017. The first is that blockchain went through a trial by fire, and in the process it spurred a lot of people at all levels to think about hard about trust-chains in general.

The second thing is that it has given time for governments and banks to start coming to grips with the implications of ICOs for the stability of the economic system, and to start shaping up some form of regulatory framework around them to make sure that future instability is not quite so extreme. Had the broader economy crashed the same way Bitcoin did, we would be in a worse recession than the one that hit in 1929.

Cryptocurrency companies today have emerged from the carnage of 2017, using the lessons learned to create a more stable, secure and safe framework. These companies are also taking advantage of recent advances in machine language and AI to start using the core trust-chain technologies to support platforms that will make crypto-currencies more acceptable moving forward. Among them are a number of significant new players:

Online.IO

Online.io is a blockchain technology company with a pretty smart angle. They knew that the internet is something that human beings would never be willing to give up and they knew that the biggest fear is that of privacy. Someone said and I quote, privacy is the biggest currency. Now if we take a look there are many internet businesses out there already making money by securing privacy. The biggest example would be a VPN we know that they cash fear and they sell privacy. Online is offering a spying free internet and asking people to try their unique algorithm: Proof of Online.

Rise

Rise is a company that is not into AI, machine learning and blockchain for only selling its coins, but for making investments safer with these technologies. This is a Fintech venture skyrocketing because of offering a professional product that allows the businesses and investors to manage capital sanely and make only safe investments. Stats is only the least of all things on the back of this business and it will be interesting to see how they progress in 2020.

Skycoin

Skycoin is a company offering its mining setups as well as its unique algorithm. For those crypto enthusiasts, who know what blockchain can make possible, but still dream to own a traditional crypto business with its own mining technology and own coin offering, Skycoin is the company to follow in 2020.

Skycoin is also selling what Online sells an internet, a network, safe, decentralized and not controlled by countries or corporations. People can buy their miners from their website or get indulged in their unique consensus algorithm: Obelisk.

8Pay

8Pay is close to the fin-tech venture Rise. However, 8Pay is not about making investments easy, but a simpler task. People with Cryptocurrency in wallets have seen everything that could happen to an internet currency, including the hackers hacking the entire exchanges to steal peoples sweat and blood. This company makes it sure that you pay for whatever you want to pay, from your cryptocurrency and that too with a push of a button. The admissible currencies are Ethereum and all other ERC20 currencies.

It is tough to pay attention to one particular venture, while there are so many new blockchain ventures are initiated every year, but it is a matter of fact that these 5 have some serious chance to growth - and time will tell.

Forex Academy

Forex.Academy is a free educational website, offering valuable information to those who are interested in Forex and Crypto trading. Francisco Salgado, He is the Managing Director of Forex.Academy says, our mission is to be the most comprehensive online resource on currencies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, metals, and indices.

Bithumb Global

Bithumb Global is a new crypto exchange that has recently spun out from Bithumb Korea, Korea's largest digital asset exchange. Within less than a year, Bithumb Global has become one of the most popular and trusted crypto exchanges in the blockchain industry. With their new BG Staging initative, Bithumb Global has become very popular for blockchain projects to debut as the BG Staging differs from the IEO with real sustainable audiences and large liquidity pools. Bithumb Global has also recently announced their brand new Bithumb Chain, a new open trading protocol that provides Bithumb's chain infrastructure and resources to the rest of the development and crypto community.

Bybit

Bybit is the fastest growing cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform debuting mid-2018. With over 150,000 users worldwide, users have been attracted due to their state of the art matching engine with over 100,000 TPS per contract. Currently users can select from a variety of trading pairs including BTC/USD, ETH/USD, XRP/USD and EOS/USD perpetual contracts with 100x leverage.

With the founding team hailing from Forex, investment banking and blockchain along with their development team with backgrounds from Morgan Stanley, Tencent, Ping'an Bank and Nuoya Fortune, Bybit is defintely one of the must watch blockchain companies in 2020. Recently, Bybit has introduced the "Coin Swap", "Drag and Drop Order Adjustment" and " Flexible Stop-Loss and Take-Profit orders" features.

These features are a big step in transparency for users and greatly reduce the risk of malicious traders attempting to engage in market manipulation on Bybit. Bybit is also launching a new mobile app on both iOS and Android to allow more convenience for traders on-the-go and will continually offer the most advanced derivative trading platform with all the bells and whistles.

Cryptocurrencies are still very speculative, and as recent scrutiny by Congress over Facebook and its plan to launch its own cryptocurrency platform have shown, it may still end up taking years before the smoke clears and people have a better idea about how this industry will shake out, but there are signs that were moving past the Wild West days of crypto. Companies such as these may very well be the leading edge of this shift.

See original here:
The Second Coming of Crypto - Forbes

The United States-focused wing of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance will add support for Neo (NEO) and Cosmos (ATOM).

Binance.US announced on Oct. 30 that it will add full trading support for the two tokens on Oct. 31, both of which are among the top-20 tokens by market capitalization according to Coin360.

Per the announcement, users can already start depositing funds before trading commences at 9:00 p.m. EST tomorrow.

Cosmos provides a blockchain-based platform that works as a mediator between different blockchains. It launched its first ecosystem hub in March 2019 after raising $17.3 million in its token sale in April 2017.

Neo is a decentralized open-source blockchain application platform. In September, Neo became the first blockchain member of Microsofts open-source project, the .NET Foundation.

At press time, NEO is up by 4.32% to trade at $10.87, while ATOM is trading sideways, down 0.23% to trade at $3.10.

Earlier this week, Binances main platform listed Blockstacks STX token when the firm paid Binance a $250,000 long-term payment to ensure that the token remains listed on the platform. A filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from Blockstack reveals that Binance received 833,333 STX, which at the $0.30 token valuation provided by the company is equivalent to $250,000.

Binance states that it did not charge a listing fee to Blockstack and that the marketing payment was Blockstacks initiative.

STXs listing on Binance follows a $23 million token sale that was approved by the SEC under Regulation A+. An A+ funding round is a type of initial public offering for startups in need of early funding in which members of the public can participate.

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Binance.US Cryptocurrency Exchange to List NEO and ATOM - Cointelegraph

NYU School of Business professor Scott Galloway discusses Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's threat of China launching a similar version of cryptocurrency before Facebook's Libra can start.

PayPal is perhaps the best way ever designed to move money from one person to another. Yet it started in failure.

In his book, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, founder Peter Thiel explains that PayPal was originally intended to allow owners of PalmPilots to beam money to each other. That idea did not work, but it evolved into using similar technology on eBay auctions.

The point is that PayPal was a private company competing in the market economy. That meant it was subject to market discipline. It had to develop an effective product or it would go out of business. The same thing cannot be said of the federal government.

In its latest bad idea, movement is building for the Federal Reserve to establish its own cryptocurrency exchange to compete with others in the marketplace and even replace physical cash.

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It is inevitable, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker reportedly said at a recent conference. I think it is better for us to start getting our hands around it.

Its an apt metaphor, since what the Fed always wants to choke off is any competition to its monetary monopoly. This comes hot on the heels of another bad idea, called FedNow, which is supposed to speed up the processing of financial transactions.

INSIGHT INVESTMENTS GAUTAM KHANNA: LOW INTEREST RATES CAN HURT YOU HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Speed is great, of course. It can take a full business day for transactions to clear. Thats too slow in our 21st century world of instant communication.

But the Fed is late to the party. The Clearing House launched a real-time payment system two years ago that now reaches half the banks in the country. Its expected to be everywhere by next year.

Judging by the non-answers that the central bank has given to members of Congress on its interoperability with private sector systems, FedNow would seemingly not compete on a level playing field; it would simply use the power of the federal government to crush a private-sector competitor.

Proponents of a Fed-run crypto exchange argue that such an exchange could stop the current delays in the U.S. bank transfers entirely on its own. This thought proves just how bad the Fed is at making good investments, anticipating changes in technology, and keeping up with the speed of innovation.

If board members of the central bank believe that blockchain may soon supplant the need for real-time payment services like FedNow, why the Fed would spend the next 3-5 years building FedNow from scratch when The Clearing House already offers the same type of service is beyond me.

If board members of the central bank believe that blockchain may soon supplant the need for real-time payment services like FedNow, why the Fed would spend the next 3-5 years building FedNow from scratch when The Clearing House already offers the same type of service is beyond me.

The Fed should stay out of the wayand let the private sector blockchain and real-time payments marketplaces settle this debate. Instead, the central bank seems poised to set itself up as both the regulator of all monetary exchanges and a participant in that business.

Without assurances on interoperability from the central bank, businesses will always choose the Feds offerings instead of a private companys, since doing so would make the business look better to its regulator.

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The Fed cannot handle real competition, and so it is trying to shut it down. It worries about Bitcoin, it worries about The Clearing House, and it will be worried about the next bright idea for money sharing that comes along. Its got a monopoly to protect.

We need to open up the field for new forms of money. While I served in Congress, I introduced the Free Competition in Currency Act, which would have defined money as whatever people are willing to trade with each other, whether thats paper, tokens of some sort, or direct barter. It would have ended the Feds power to declare that only certain pieces of paper are currency.

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Lets allow companies to compete, and let the market set the value. Thats where the next PayPal will come from, and consumers everywhere will be the winners.

Dr. Ron Paul, a former congressman from Texas, is the chairman of Campaign for Liberty.

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Ron Paul: No, cryptocurrency is not something the Fed should be getting its 'hands around' - Fox Business

Since the days of the British Empire, the United Kingdom has been one of the worlds largest and most influential economic powerhouses. Even though its financial control over the world has substantially decreased, the country is still one of the most culturally relevant regions in the world, especially when it comes to the adoption of a trend.

A survey by London-based law firm Michelmores LLP revealed that 20% of affluent millennials in the United Kingdom have invested in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Keeping this in mind, when the U.K.s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposed a crypto ban, it caught the attention of the entire crypto ecosystem.

Up until now, the U.K. hasnt made any specific crypto-focused law, and its regulators have had a fairly lenient approach to cryptos. Although the country has no explicit cryptocurrency legislation, cryptocurrencies are not deemed legal tender, while exchanges have registration requirements and need to be registered with the FCA, whose guidance stresses that entities engaging in crypto-related activities falling under the existing financial regulations for derivatives (like futures and options) require authorization.

Related: U.K. Crypto Regulation Is Changing, Recognition Looming at Long Last

The gains and losses from cryptos are subject to capital gains tax and income tax. The U.K. tax authority, Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has specified that buying and selling cryptos will be considered the same as gambling, and the individual will be subject to capital gains tax. However, if an individual is engaged in trading of these assets, income tax would take priority over capital gains tax.

HMRC even requested that cryptocurrency exchanges hand over the names of their customers and transactions, aiming to identify cases of tax evasion, but the U.K.s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws doesnt mention crypto specifically.

However, this will change by Jan. 10, 2020 with the impending implementation of the U.K.s Fifth Money Laundering Directive. Talking to Cointelegrpah about the current regulatory situation in the U.K., Eric Benz, CEO of the exchange Changelly, said that the regulatory framework is attempting to keep up with the emerging market, adding:

I do think regulation is a good thing but only if done in a way, which suits this new market. Applying traditional archaic regulation to crypto simply will not work as its been designed in its nature to avoid regulation. There has to be a much better understanding of the market and technology on behalf of Governments not just in the U.K. but globally.

On Aug. 24, the National Liberal Party wrote a post on its website asserting that the U.K.s current cryptocurrency strategy is nonexistent and affirmed the government has declined to take a position on regulation.

Back in July 2018, the FCA warned that cryptos pose a huge risk to consumers who are generally misinformed about them, and recommended that products such as derivatives and exchange-traded notes that reference crypto-assets were ill-suited to small investors. Sukhi Jutla, co-founder of the U.K.-based blockchain platform MarketOrders, said:

The proposed ban will be seen as a major blow and backward step for innovation in the crypto-asset space. It will also signal that despite the U.K. being the leaders in the Fintech scene, they will have effectively be compromising on this position.

This move by the FCA follows on from a public commitment to abide by the Cryptoasset Taskforce Final Report. Even though the report recognizes that cryptos can facilitate cheaper and more efficient transactions through the elimination of intermediaries, the majority of the report portrays cryptos in a negative light. In the report, the FCA mentions that it wants to mitigate the risks to consumers and market integrity, and prevent the use of cryptoassets for illicit activity.

Following the report, U.K. regulators ramped up their investigations on cryptos. As a matter of fact, crypto investigations in 2019 have surged 74% in comparison to 2018, and the FCA reported that crypto investors in the U.K. lost over $34 million due to cryptocurrency and forex scams from 2018 to 2019. Many, including Changellys Benz, believe that the consequences of the proposed ban would clearly make the situation even worse, since crypto will always find a way around the regulations:

The decision to not have crypto investment products I feel is not the right decision but instead, the FCA should be looking to see how best to create a regulatory framework for these businesses.

In an open letter on their website on Sept. 23, U.K.-based digital asset management firm Coinshare claimed the FCA has not provided enough evidence to justify the proposed ban on exchange-traded notes. It urged its customers to support them in fighting these proposals by submitting a response.

On Oct. 21, the U.K. government made it clear that deciding whether to press ahead with the proposed ban is up to the FCA. This shows that the government is not keen to take part in the ban, or at least wants to distance itself from it. Talking about the apparent disconnect between the FCA and the government, Jutla of MarketOrders said:

I very much doubt there is transparency of communication between the Government and the FCA.

Jutla believes that governments are not comfortable dealing with the crypto industry and therefore, the government and the FCA may not want to move in the same direction. She said:

Both parties have opposing agendas and viewpoints. Even if the FCA is not ready to embrace crypto assets, it has a duty of care to ensure that if these products are available, protection is in place for consumers and investors.

Related: UAE Accepts Crypto Regulation, Blockchain Projects Stand to Benefit

Considering how the U.K. has already been failing to maintain its global leadership in finance, giving up on crypto innovation will be a major blow. It seems the country should draw some inspiration from the UAE government, which recently released guidelines on how crypto assets will be treated. Even China, which was previously one of the most hostile nations to crypto, passed its first crypto law, going into effect in January 2020.

View post:
The Future of Cryptocurrencies in the UK Hangs on FCAs Decision - Cointelegraph

The number of daily XRP transactions is going through the roof, nearing an all-time high of 1.70 million.

According to the crypto data tracker BitInfoCharts, XRPs daily transactions now account for more than 50% of all the cryptocurrency transactions during the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH) comes in second, while Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) settle for a shared third place.

The last time XRPs daily transactions were this high, the crypto markets were reveling in the middle of the famous bull run of December 2017.

On Oct. 21, XRP was processing around 730,000 daily transactions, while only eight days later, the third-most-popular crypto coin was recording 1.6 million daily transactions. This constitutes an increase of more than 100% in less than a week. Since then XRP has been eyeing a new all-time-high in daily transactions.

It is unclear what is causing the boost in daily transactions, but it is almost certain that speculation is about to run wild. One reason for this sudden boom, could be Ripples upcoming Swell event next month. Another possible reason is Ripples partnership with payment service Moneygram that is perhaps now exploring new ways on how to use XRP.

Regardless, most likely something significant is happening behind the scenes as the cryptocurrency is seemingly about to break its record of 1.7 million daily transactions.

XRP is currently trading at around $0.302 and has gained 1.6% in the last 24 hours. The altcoin saw its highest price point over the week on Oct. 26, with a weekly low of $0.262 on Oct. 23.

In October, the San Francisco-based blockchain startup Ripple announced that it was joining the Blockchain Association. Ripples membership in the Blockchain Association will put the company in contact with many of the regulators and lobbyists working in the space. The association is a non-profit organization that consists of blockchain advocates and promotes adoption of blockchain technology around the globe.

Read more from the original source:
XRP Accounts for Over 50% Of All Crypto Transactions in Last 24 Hours - Cointelegraph

A US power plant thats more than 100 years old, and is of significant historical value, is being saved from demolition by cryptocurrency.

The 110-year old power plant, Old Rainbow, is being allowed to become a cryptocurrency mining farm, after being granted approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Proposal documents submitted to the FERC say the mining machines will be placed in just one part of the building, and there are plans to expand; presumably if the endeavor proves profitable.

Cryptocurrency mining operations at Old Rainbow will be staffed and run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Theres perhaps a subtle irony in the fact that Old Rainbow used to produce clean, hydroelectric power but will now participate in an industry thats incredibly resource hungry. The proposal doesnt state how the new mining center will be powered, though.

However, in 2013 a new hydroelectric plant was constructed further down the river that Old Rainbow is based on, and used to generate electricity. Hopefully the data center will be powered by this hydroelectric renewable energy.

As it happens, when plans for this new power plant were announced in 2009, the FERC demanded Old Rainbows owners to find a new use for the building or to take it out commission.

The Old Rainbow power plant, located in Montana, completely ceased operations in 2013 and since then has been the focal point in a series of discussions over what to do with it. Montanas locals however, are hesitant to demolish it because of its cultural and historic value to the local community.

Importantly for some locals, the plan to turn the building into acryptocurrencyminingfarm means it will remain largely unchanged. The proposed data center will have minimal impact and maintain the historic character of the building, the proposal states.

H/T The Block

Published October 30, 2019 10:17 UTC

Excerpt from:
Cryptocurrency saves a 110-year old power plant from demolition - The Next Web