Things are not looking all that great for Ethereum right now. The popular cryptocurrency suffereda major crash not too long ago and it remains the market is still recovering. The past two days have heralded another downturn for Ether, making it highly doubtful Ethereum will pass Bitcoin in market cap anytime soon. It seems safe to say more volatility is on the horizon for Ethereum holders.

Looking over the Ethereum price charts leaves traders and investors disappointed, as their hopes for challenging Bitcoins crown subside. More specifically, the ETH price has taken another beating, as it declined by 7.65% over the past 24 hours. This puts the value of one Ether well below the US$300 mark and it is possible this value will keep heading toward US$270 or lower over the coming days. This momentum is not entirely surprising given Ethereums bullish trend throughout the first half of 2017.

It is not hard to forget once ETH was worth under US$11 back in early January of this year. Things have certainly picked up over the past few months, culminating in an Ether price peak of nearly US$400, according to Coinmarketcap. Such a spectacular price increase can only be met with future price volatility, which is what we are seeing on a daily basis right now. Even so, the Ether value increase has been nothing short of impressivethis year.

Ethereum enthusiasts have referred to a phenomenon known as the flippening all year. This trend would occur once Ethereums market cap surpasses that of Bitcoin. Although both currencies were only separated by just US$8bn, the gap has widened once again. More specifically, Bitcoins market cap is close to US$41bn right now, whereas Ethereums is only US$26.32bn. The flippening will not be happening anytime soon at this rate.

The bigger question is why Ethereum is facing such a setback right now. Shifting market conditions are likely the culprit. Moreover, the Ethereum blockchain and its technology are weighed down by the influx of cryptocurrency ICOs. Transactions are confirmed far slower when a big ICO happens, and smart contracts used by these projects often contain issues which need to be fixed later on. The technology is still premature, yet investors also see this can become a much bigger problem if things arent resolved quickly.

Speaking of cryptocurrency ICOs, they have quickly become the main use case of the Ether currency. That is not necessarily a positive development either. With so many projects raising funds in Ether, the chances of a market dump will increase as well. When teams need funding, they will convert ETH to fiat currency, creating negative pressure across the exchanges. When more projects sell off their raised funds, the price per ETH will undoubtedly continue to go down quite quickly. It is unclear if that is part of the ongoing price drop right now, but it is something to keep in mind.

It is unclear what the future will hold for Ethereum right now. The Ethereum price is very volatile, which is only to be expected at this point. However, Ethereum is not a store-of-value by any means. With so many dumb money flowing into Ethereum to participate in cryptocurrency ICOs, it is virtually impossible to determine the real value of the existing coin supply. Technical issues are becoming a major problem as well. If this trend keeps up, the flippening may never happen at all. These are interesting times for Ethereum to prove its value, but so far, the projectleaves quite a bit to be desired.

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Ethereum Price Drops Below $300 Amid Technical Issues and ... - The Merkle

Bitcoin is the worlds biggest cryptocurrency but there are now close to 800 digital currencies work around $96bn total. Photograph: Alamy

Last Sunday a message posted on message board 4Chan started the rumor that Vitalik Buterin, the founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum, had been killed in a car crash. News of the 23-year-old, Russian-born programmers demise was soon proved false but not before 20%, or roughly $4bn, had been wiped from Ethereums soaring market value.

The hoax not only drew attention to Ethereum, the second largest digital currency after bitcoin, which had seen its value rise fiftyfold since the start of the year to $300 a coin, but also to the booming market in other so-called cryptocurrencies that could now be on the cusp of mainstream financial credibility.

Last week Barclays CEO for personal and corporate banking, Ashok Vaswani, revealed the lender had opened discussions with UK regulators about adopting digital currencies.

We have been talking to a couple of fintechs [financial technology companies] and have actually gone with the fintechs to the FCA [the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK regulator] to talk about how we could bring the equivalent of bitcoin, not necessarily bitcoin, but cryptocurrencies into play, Vaswani told CNBC at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Obviously [its] a new area, obviously an area weve got to be careful with. We are working our way through it.

Vaswanis comments came after several central banks from across Europe and Asia said they were looking into establishing digital-only currencies in addition to traditional denominations.

The Peoples Bank of China has reportedly run trials, while the Danish central bank is considering a digital-only e-krone.

On 19 June, the International Monetary Fund issued a staff discussion note stating that banks should consider investing in cryptocurrencies, saying: Rapid advances in digital technology are transforming the financial services landscape, creating opportunities and challenges for consumers, service providers and regulators alike.

At the same time, IBM announced it had made a deal with the Digital Trade Chain Consortium a group of seven European banks that includes Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Societe Generale and Unicredit to build a digital trade platform that will run on IBMs cloud.

Andrew Levin, professor of economics at Dartmouth and co-author of a study on central bank digital currencies, told the Guardian that the concept of private institutions creating new forms of payment was not in itself new, but the greater need is for consumers and businesses to have access to money that has a stable value and is practically costless to use. We think theres a strong case for central banks to issue digital currencies that would be free to use.

Crypto- or cyber-currencies are digital-only currencies in which encryption and registry techniques, often called blockchains, are used to regulate the generation of units of currency independent of a central bank.

It is a booming, dizzying market. Since the start of the year, bitcoin, the worlds biggest cryptocurrency, has almost tripled in value to $2,565. By some estimates, the cryptocurrency business could be worth $5tn by 2022. There are now close to 800 cryptocurrencies worth, in total, around $96bn.

One of the newest offered to market is Tezos, backed by billionaire venture capitalist and early bitcoin investor Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. According to a prospectus, a total of US$893,200.77 worth of XTZ tokens will be issued on 1 July.

The best thing I can do is lead by example, Draper told Reuters last month. Over time, I actually feel that some of these tokens are going to improve the world, and I want to make sure those tokens get promoted as well. I think Tezos is one of those tokens.

Tezos founders, Kathleen and Arthur Breitman, anticipate their ICO will become a digital commonwealth or self-governing network. The couples background in finance speaks to the seriousness of the endeavor: Arthur worked at the high-frequency trading desk at Goldman Sachs; Kathleen at Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund.

We think our competitive advantage is in our ability to assign governance, Kathleen told the Observer. The thing about blockchain is its very interdisciplinary. You have to have an understanding of finance and economics, but also game theory, pure science and networking theory.

She concedes that blockchain complexity is also cause for investor skepticism. A lot of people struggle to understand its value proposition, because it offers something different to everyone. I like the idea of putting business logic in a decentralised network, and hopefully, it will help people to conduct business more easily.

Brock Pierce, managing partner of Blockchain Capital and a relative veteran of the ICO market, recently launched a tradeable, digital securities token called BCAP that he considers the next giant leap in the democratization of venture capital and liquidity where everybody has equal access.

Three days ago, Pierce launched the token distribution of EOS, a blockchain coin (or token) offering thats already taken in $100m. This is a 340-day project thats already broken every record. Its 100% certain were going to surpass Bancor, the most successful ICO to date.

Pierce predicts that the underlying technology of blockchain essentially a public record of actions is going to impact our world more than the internet has.

He added: The implications are huge, and its going to have huge implications not only on venture, but private equity, real estate, digitizing currency. This is going to be the technology that democratizes the global financial system so everybody has equal access.

But such rapid increases in value is cause for concern. Five-year-old Ripple XRP, which is connected to 75 banks, including Bank of America and Royal Bank of Canada, has increased in value by 40 times this year alone. According to CNBC, 100 billion XRP are in existence, each priced 26 cents.

A lot of lessons will be learned and a lot of money will be lost, before a lot of money can be made, Peter Denious, head of global venture capital at Aberdeen Asset Management, told Bloomberg last week. Prices right now arent being driven by network usage, theyre being driven by speculation that tokens are going to appreciate. Its a gold-rush mentality.

But Les Borsai, an early investor in Ethereum, believes that what is under way is a re-ordering of the financial systems. At root, he argues, blockchain technology shows we dont need a centralized solution for anything. Its a liberated attitude and the implications are huge.

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Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream? - The Guardian

The church/charity ecosystem is in the billions of dollars globally. The Waves based Krosscoin project is a multifaceted project and multinational team that aims to bring much needed and overdue solutions to the church and charity space. Krosscoin will assist big ministries in migrating to the blockchain where products and materials can be paid for by krosscoin or their native asset.

Krosscoin will also create a matching pair with them to promote liquidity. Krosscoin innovative products will also have a global market with applications for different purposes. Ribbon is its first product and will be released at the end of July.

Ribbon is the worlds first multilingual in-messaging app. It boasts of other features which the Krosscoin core team will disclose shortly before its release.

The Krosscoin team however being the first coin to provide solutions for Churches, NGOs and Charities, actually has a global outlook. They plan to participate in the disruption of several industries such as ecommerce ( a product is being developed for that already), banking, business solutions, media, gaming, government, transportation, oil and gas and international remittance. They also aim to merge virtual gaming with real time charity, an interesting thing to see.

Krosscoin has a very strong community on Facebook and on its slack channel, comprising of people from all over the world. The Waves platform and community is definitely benefiting from the strong Krosscoin ecosystem.

Mark Zuckerberg announced on Instagram that Facebook is changing its mission to not just merely connect the world (which they have done very remarkably) but to also promote unity and togetherness, to connect vitally. Krosscoin seems to be at the forefront in this regard to make this possible. Its logo Lets make good happen underscores the teams mission.

Discalimer: This is not trading advice. If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Krosscoin The First Church and Charity Centric Cryptocurrency - The Merkle

VIRTUAL currencies have been said to capture the imagination of some, strike fear among others, and confuse the heck out of the rest of us. What exactly are they? Should we invest in them? Where do we even start? Here are some of the most popular questions answered.

What is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is digital money created from code. Most cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain, an incorruptible digital ledger of all economic transactions made in virtual currency. The cryptocurrency economy is free of all government oversight and monitored by a peer-to-peer Internet protocol.

What are the major cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin (founded in 2008), Ethereum (2015) and Ripple (2014).

How much are these worth today?

Let's just say anyone who's bought cryptocurrency before 2017 would have made astronomical gains (see graphs below).

Why invest in cryptocurrency now?

Cryptocurrency is said to be one of the best-performing assets in the last two years. Its market added nearly US$7 billion in value in just the first quarter of 2017, going by a CoinDesk report.

Bitcoin, whose price topped US$2,000 per coin for the first time in May, has arguably entered the mainstream. You can actually use it to buy stuff now, at retailers such as Microsoft, OkCupid and even Subway.

How to invest - where to even start?

First, there are two ways one can invest using cryptocurrency:

1. Buy and sell cryptocurrency. One can do this through platforms such as Coinbase, Coinhako and CoinMama using a credit card, debit card or bank transfer. Identity verification may be required for large transactions on some platforms.

Notably, a majority of cryptocurrency investors conduct only this form of investment, where they wait for prices of virtual currencies to appreciate before selling them.

2. Buy cryptocurrency, and participate in initial coin offerings (ICOs). One can do this on token markets or cryptocurrency crowdfunding sites such as TokenMarket or FundYourselfNow (Singapore-founded).

An ICO allows startups with innovative products to issue their own digital tokens that can be bought by investors or backers using virtual currencies. Digital tokens typically entitle backers to monetary rewards (such as profit sharing), or non-monetary rewards (exclusive products).

Notably, only a minority of cryptocurrency investors buy virtual currencies and participate in ICOs. The latter is considered a more speculative form of cryptocurrency investment, as it entails backing a young and thus high-risk company, and profiting only if the company succeeds.

How much to invest for the first time?

The rule of thumb is to not invest what you cannot afford to lose. The cryptocurrency market is uniquely unregulated and extremely volatile: prices can one day rise by 100 per cent and plunge 50 per cent the next day. Panic selling is very common.

One should therefore not invest in cryptocurrency if he or she is unaccustomed to wild price fluctuations.

Early adopters recommend S$4,000 as a good first amount to set aside for such investing, and to never let cryptocurrencies occupy more than 50 per cent of one's portfolio.

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Cryptocurrency: Funds of the future? - THE BUSINESS TIMES

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who previously helped Bitcoin's value drop after calling it a "bubble," is now interested in another digital currency. And no, it is not Ethereum, but the UnikoinGold .

According the Coindesk , Cuban is participating in another fundraising round of one of his portfolio companies , a sports-betting blockchain platform dubbed Unikrn, via an initial coin offering.

An ICO is a crowdfunding method that has grown in popularity as of late among blockchain startups, with more than 30 ICOs already this year. Companies sell their own digital currencies and use the proceeds to fund their businesses .

Unikrn has already raised some $10 million from investors, including Ashton Kutcher. The company allows anyone to place bets with its digital token, the Unikoin, according to Coindesk.

Investors will be allowed to register for the pre-sale starting mid-July. About 1 billion UnikoinGold tokens will be up for grabs.

The company has yet to establish a price for the UnikoinGold, though investors will be able to exchange digital currency for Ether, the token under Ethereum.

Read more here:
This Is the Cryptocurrency Mark Cuban Is Backing - Fortune

Genesis Mining

Nvidia and AMD are in a war.

The two companies both produce graphics cards and compete over PC gamers, self-driving car manufacturers and data center managers to prove that their technology is superior. Nvidiatends to be ahead in many of those markets and has seen its stock rise more this year because of it.

A new market is emerging though. The two graphics processing unit (GPU) companies are currently fighting over the cryptocurrency GPU market, and both are rumored to be releasing cryptocurrency optimized chips in the near future, according to RBC Capital Markets.

Cryptocurrencies are red-hot right now. Bitcoin is probably the most notable and has been around for years. But, recent explosive growth in rival currency Ethereum, has been making headlines. Recently, $100 million worth of GPUs were added to the Ethereum network in just 11 days.

The cryptocurrencies are made up of a decentralized network of users, and every time a transaction occurs in one of these currencies, it has to be verified by the whole network. People who help confirm these transactions are called "miners" and often use GPUs to speed up the calculations required to verify payments.

Previously, miners have used GPUs designed for gaming in their computers. This works, but isn't optimized for the task. Nvidia and AMD could release new cards that are optimized to draw as little power as possible and increase the speed of cryptocurrency specific tasks.

RBC reckons that when this happens, Nvidia's chip will outpace its rival AMD.

"Given Nvidia's performance lead across numerous categories (gaming and data center) we think the Company is best positioned to become the market leader in GPU based cryptocurrency mining if a new product is released," RBC wrote in a recent note to clients.

Details about the new cards are sparse, and their existence is only rumored for now. Considering only current GPUs, AMD has beaten out Nvidia because it has been faster at mining-specific tasks. RBC is betting this will change soon. When Nvidia has time to optimize their technology for mining, RBC thinks the company will be able to outpace AMD.

Previous domination in markets Nvidia has set its sights on is really the only information RBC is working with. Until the new cards come out or are officially announced, improvements are only hypothetical. RBC thinks Nvidia's work in data centers and high-end consumer gaming is enough to bet on the company winning the cryptocurrency market as well. Nvidia is certainly making waves in the self-driving car market, with a recent slate of high-profile partnerships.

Onlytime will tell. Nvidia is up 43.4% this year, compared to AMD's 10.24% increase and the general S&P 500's 7.17% increase.

Markets Insider

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A Wall Street bank is betting Nvidia will win the cryptocurrency battle (NVDA, AMD) - Business Insider

Graphics chip makers Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) are both working on graphics processing units (GPU) specifically for processing cryptocurrency transactions, and RBC Capital bet on Nvidia to make the superior chip in their note Friday.

Every time a transaction occurs in one of the cryptocurrency markets a GPU speeds up the calculations needed to verify payments. Nvidia and AMD currently make GPUs for everything from video games to self-driving vehicles but don'thave a chip specifically for cryptocurrency, yet, RBC said.

AMD's shares fell 0.5% to $12.54 early Friday afternoon. Nvidia's were down 0.7% to $145.64.

What's Hot On TheStreet

Get ready Tesla fanboys: Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said Friday there would be "news on Sunday" about the company's much anticipated Model 3. While that's all fine and good, what Musk won't tell people is how his electric car company may be speeding toward a monopoly.

Tesla's master plan may hold the key for saving the future of the auto industry, a Moody's Analystics researcher told TheStreet.

With the advance of self-driving vehicles, Tony Hughes, managing director at Moody's Analytics, argued it is not the cars themselves that could lead to the decline in the automotive industry but ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft. The plan CEO Elon Musk has laid out to create a fleet of self-driving Tesla vehicles for ride-sharing purposes could be the way to save automakers from a demise.

A VIP gives his market outlook: Nobel Prize winning-economist Robert Shiller told TheStreet's Anders Keitz that U.S. equities markets are "quite high" currently but may go even higher in coming months, and that's why he's not exiting the market completely. Indeed there's another thing that could have an unpredictable effect on the market Shiller explains: The narrative around Donald Trump.

"Short-run forecasting of the market is very hard," said Shiller. "I think it's a time for caution, but it could go up substantially."

Apple iPhone 8 pictures leak: Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 8 looks kind of cool. That is if yet another photo leak is to be believed. Noted Apple information leaker Benjamin Geskin tweeted photos of an alleged iPhone 8 finished prototype on Thursday evening (head here to see). Suffice it to say, Apple is gearing up for the mother of all product launches. And consumers look ready to respond.

About 92% of iPhone owners say they are "somewhat likely or "extremely likely" to upgrade their smartphone in the next 12 months, according to a note from Morgan Stanley. The loyalty rate is up sharply from 86% one year ago.

Nike managed to excite Wall Street: After a major restructuring announcement, Nike (NKE) was able to boost Wall Street's views on the company's prospects. On an earnings call Thursday evening, Mark Parker, Nike CEO and board chairman, said its pricey new Air VaporMax sneakers drove sales in the quarter and that there will be new styles coming to the brand sometime this summer. There are also "a few more surprises along the way," Parker said.

As TheStreet's Lindsay Rittenhouse reports, Nike also confirmed that it teamed up with Amazon (AMZN) to sell certain products on the e-commerce conglomerate's site. The company is also selling directly to consumers via Instagram.

Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now .

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Nvidia Could Have the Best Cryptocurrency Chip Out There...Soon - TheStreet.com

Given the recent popularity of cryptocurrency ICOs, it was to be expected some things would be unclear to a lot of people. One of the most recurring questions is why all of these ICOs try to prevent US citizens from participating. There are many different reasons as to why this is the case, even though the countermeasures can be bypassed quite easily.

Anyone who has recently participated in a cryptocurrency ICO or pre-ICO may have noticed how these offerings are, in theory not available to residents in the US. Some projects even go as far as trying to dissuade residents from Singapore to participate as well. It is evident these two regions do not take kindly to cryptocurrency ICOs, mainly due to regulatory reasons.

To put this into perspective, the United States is quite strict when it comes to investment regulations. Only accredited investors can partake in private placements of securities. While some people would urge all cryptocurrency ICOs are tokens and not securities, regulators will have a very different opinion regarding this matter. A lot of the ICOs we have seen can be labeled as traditional sales of equity.

As is to be expected, the team organizing a cryptocurrency ICO cannot guarantee only accredited US investors will partake. They can take the necessary steps to prevent most US citizens from investing, although these measures can be bypassed. Right now, the ICOs tend to ask if you are a US citizen, but there is no verification of whether or not one speaks the truth. Some projects use geolocation to block US citizens, but those can be bypassed with a proxy or VPN. It is impossible to prevent US citizens from participating, but these measures have to be taken regardless.

Some of the bigger cryptocurrency ICOs will ensure they hire lawyers who can create a more workable environment for interested parties. If they would not take these steps, their entire token sale would be liable to criminal charges in the US. That is, assuming the SEC would ever decide to investigate a particular crowdsale for those specific reasons. It is highly unlikely that will happen, even though the SEC is looking to regulate ICOs moving forward.

Once the SEC will effectively intervene in cryptocurrency ICOs which is only a matter of time things will get very interesting, to say the least. A lot of previous ICOs didnt take the necessary steps to deny US citizens from investing. All of those projects and their teams are at the mercy of the SEC for the time being. Violating US securities laws is not something anyone wants to deal with. Additionally, these laws can also be enforced upon non-US companies, which makes it even more important to take countermeasures.

It is evident this unregulated space will be of keen interest to financial watchdogs all over the world in the coming years. The bigger question is how many companies will get burnt for not doing their due diligence. It is bad enough to know most of these projects may ultimately fail. Worrying about future criminal charges will certainly have a big impact on all of these crowdsales moving forward.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Why Can't US Citizens Participate in Cryptocurrency ICOs? - The Merkle

Published on June 29th, 2017 | by Derek Markham

June 29th, 2017 by Derek Markham

Solar electricity production + blockchain = a currency based on sunshine

Just as cryptocurrency has become a disruptive technology, so has renewable energy, and although those two distinct sectors havent really come into their own just yet, an innovative solar incentive program is incorporating both solar electricity production and the blockchain, with the intent of boosting and supporting one with the other.

Instead of a digitally mined product, this cryptocurrencys proof of work happens in the physical world, and those who have photovoltaic arrays can earn SolarCoin just for generating solar electricity. Its essentially a global solar rewards program, and is designed to help incentivize more solar electricity production, while also serving as a lower-carbon cryptocurrency than Bitcoin and similar alternative currencies.

We initially covered SolarCoin in 2014, right after it launched, and since then, the project has rewarded more than 10,000 solar installations for their electricity generation (totaling somewhere north of 200 megawatts). [As a side note, its actually somewhat surprising to me that the number is only 10,000 solar generators, considering that the currency is granted essentially for free to any solar producer that gets verified.]

This 90-second intro video explains SolarCoin in a nutshell:

SolarCoin is like airmiles for global solar electricity producers. Joseph Zitoli, The SolarCoin Foundation

This longer (5 minute) video explains where SolarCoin gets its value from:

As of January of 2017, more than 34 million SolarCoins have been put into circulation, with that figure growing by about 5,000 per week, and some 240,000 SolarCoins have gone to solar producers in 23 countries. In addition, two solar-focused crowdfunding platforms, Lumo and TheSunExchange, are now incorporating SolarCoin, the Belgian energy monitor company Smappee includes SolarCoin in its features, and in March 2017, the French collaborative energy supplier ekWateur became the first energy company to accept SolarCoin as a means of payment.

SolarChange, the SolarCoin Foundation platform that integratesthe SolarCoin Blockchain and incorporates a host of other monitoring and energy management features, was recently chosen to participate in the four month MassChallenge Israel accelerator program, which could help ramp up the solar currencys adoption.

The Goal for SolarChange in the MassChallenge program is to dramatically scale its AI-Blockchain interface solutions and Prosumer incentive capabilities from a Startup company to SME and expose its technology to utilities and the solar industry.

As far as cryptocurrecies go, SolarCoin (SLR) has a lot of growing to do, as it is shooting for an eventual $30 price but is currently hovering just over $0.20. Aside from getting a lot more solar generators onboard, there are also issues with scaling up its adoption as an alternative currency for both buyers and sellers of goods. The Swiss currency marketplace Lykke Exchange has added SolarCoin to its offerings, with Lykke CEO Richard Olsen (who ended up joining the SolarCoin Foundation advisory board) putting it succinctly, Our users can now convert sunshine directly into francs, euros or bitcoins.

Bringing the SolarCoin currency into the Lykke Exchange is a logical extension of our long-term plan. We are always looking for ways to expand market access and increase participation. Challenging conventional wisdom is what we do best, and we will be able to do it that much better with the passionate, forward-thinking SolarCoin community on our exchange. Olsen

A recent article in PV Tech by Florent Andrillon sums up the challenges facing SolarCoin, as well as a key selling point for the currency:

SolarCoins success will depend on the capacity to generate a large and robust ecosystem, and leverage social added value to differentiate from other cryptocurrencies.

In contrast to most other cryptocurrencies, its not just the financial value of the SolarCoin currency thats at the core of its strength. Sure, SolarCoin could be a legitimate investment option for those looking for a future return, but far more value may come from its incentivizing of solar energy production, which the project hopes to underwrite for some 40 years, to the tune of about 97,500 TWh of solar electricity.

And it is gaining acceptance, as IRENA and Solar Power Europe have endorsed the currency, but there are still many challenges to overcome:

Stakeholder engagement with power producers, investors, companies and individuals to convince, educate and reconcile on economic and financial and technical challenges is critical. Convincing power producers to share generation data is also a key challenge. At last, driving consensus among companies to promote SolarCoins depends on its liquidity and consumer attractiveness compared to other cryptocurrencies. Andrillon

Learn more at SolarCoin and SolarChange.

Hat tip: Karl Graves. Images: SolarCoin

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Tags: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, SolarCoin

Derek Markham lives in southwestern New Mexico and digs bicycles, simple living, organic gardening, sustainable lifestyle design, slacklining, bouldering, and permaculture. He loves good food, with fresh roasted chiles at the top of his list of favorites. Catch up with Derek on Twitter, RebelMouse, Google+, or at his natural parenting site, Natural Papa!

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SolarCoin Is A Cryptocurrency Earned By Generating Solar Electricity - CleanTechnica

Keep the megadeals and uncertainty coming, it's great for us in the news business. Not so much for some investors that may have not seen the recent tech sell-off coming or who haven't been following this missive where all I seem to do is harp on M&A and activism. But, we'll get to that later.

Despite a serious sell-off, TheStreet was focused on two hot names in tech: Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) that have seen a recent boost given the cyberattacks that have ravaged multinational companies and put a spot light on cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.

TheStreet's Annie Palmer writes that the two are in a heated battle to design chips optimized to mine Bitcoin. According to many on Wall Street, there is going to be one clear winner in this battle.

Outside of tech, the oil markets held steady on Thursday, a rare occurrence for the commodity that has been on a roller coaster ride for as long as I can remember. Crude oil prices held onto gains to close higher for a sixth session in a row. West Texas Intermediate had surged 1.1% a day earlier, even after an increase in domestic stockpiles.

I told you we would get to activism and M&A ... Let's talk about the second merger to rock everyone's world in the past two weeks (after Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) , which I can't help but go on and on about: the merger of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) and Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) .

Thursday got off with a bang as the two companies announced a revised deal that includes about half of Rite Aid stores as opposed to the roughly two-thirds of them that were included in the original deal. Whether you think the new deal will be enough to pass antitrust officials is one thing, but the fact that Fred's Inc. (FRED) may be in trouble, much to the displeasure of activist David Einhorn, or the fact that CVS Health (CVS) may have to do something to help keep itself relevant seem to be two safe assumptions.

This is an excerpt from "In Case You Missed It," a daily newsletter brought to you by TheStreet. Sign up here.

Photo of the day:Happy birthday to the iPhone

Ten years ago, people were lining up to buy the very first generation of Apple's (AAPL) new product, the iPhone. Initially priced at $599 for an 8GB model, the device was more expensive than most other phones on the market, but the novel touchscreen, capacity for music and inclusion of the Safari web browser made the hefty fee worth it for many. Now, a decade later, the price has actually climbed even higher for a first-generation iPhone because of its collectible value--as long as it's new and unopened. Currently, the product that was first released to the public on June 29, 2007, is selling for $4,000 on eBay unopened and in its original packaging.

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Nvidia, AMD Battle for Cryptocurrency Supremacy; Oil Markets Steady -- ICYMI Thursday - TheStreet.com