A twitter post on January 29 promoted a website selling a so-called cure for coronavirus, accepting Bitcoin as payment. Scams such as this have proliferated as the global crisis escalates.

The Russian-based website selling the fake cure has been deactivated. Screenshots show it offering the so-called vaccine in doses for up to three people. It claimed to be tied to the Australian National University in Canberra.

Although extensive research is underway, no cure or vaccine for COVID-19 presently exists. Nevertheless, it is not surprising that scammers would seek to exploit the current crisis by promoting hoaxes. Any so-called treatments sold online should be avoided. Some media personalities, such as Alex Jones, have been ordered to stop promoting supplements and alternative medicines that they have asserted will fight the disease.

Criminals are also attempting to profit by establishing fake charities and support organizations. Many seek donations via Bitcoin. Thus, any group claiming to provide relief during the current outbreak should be extensively researched. The Better Business Bureau has a website dedicated to this issue.

One safe way to donate is to choose a well-established organization such as the Red Cross. A drive by the Italian Red Cross has already raised thousands of Euros for coronavirus relief. Bitcoin donations to the International Red Cross can be made via BitPay.

There are a growing number of legitimate applications of bitcoins underlying technology blockchain under development that may help fight the coronavirus. One is Stanford Universitys [emailprotected] project, which now seeks help from bitcoin and crypto miners. For years volunteers have donated their computers unused cycles to this project for protein research. [emailprotected] is now setting up a version of this application for studying COVID-19 that can benefit greatly from access to GPUs.

Also, proposals to apply Blockchain technology to fight the virus has led to a number of collective initiatives. One is the Covidathon, an eight-week hackathon sponsored by SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol. Blockchain-based apps are also under development. Some seek to create anonymous interactive maps of infection hotspots that can provide immutable data for both health workers and the general public. Others promise to better manage the complex logistics of delivering desperately needed medical equipment.

Importantly, as the fight against COVID-19 grows, it will be increasingly important to draw a distinction between honest projects and those that seek to exploit the public by providing false hope.

We wish you stay safe amid this crisis and not fall prey to any such scams

Image via Shutterstock

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Fake COVID-19 Treatments Ask for Bitcoin Payments on Social Media - Bitcoinist

A San Francisco-based experimental art movement has created what they describe as an autonomously programmed art piece that changes appearance as the price of Bitcoin fluctuates.

Asynchronous Art revealed Matt Kanes Right Place & Right Time today, an artwork that evolves dynamically in response to BTC price action. As the value of the cryptocurrency changes, so too does the artwork, explained Kane:

"Each day, a new look for the Master is generated using a data feed of Bitcoin's last 24 hours of price action. Each hour's price programmatically controls rotation, scale, and position of a correlating layer."

The complete piece is referred to as the Master in async.arts parlance, because individual Layers discrete aspects of the piece are independently controlled.

Right Place & Right Time (Low volatility)

Right Place & Right Time (Bullish)

In a previous instance of this unusual artistic collaboration, the thirteen layers of First Supper were individually auctioned to different collectors. So while one collector owns the Master (which was sold for 103.4 ETH, a crypto art record), the owners of the Layers themselves can update and change them whenever they see fit.

First Supper, by thirteen artists, rendered on March 23rd at 8:23am ET

Some of the elements that can be changed include characters, walls, and the table in the artwork. Some Layers can change outfits, others can substitute faces, and still others can change size or orientation. async.art notes that this enables over 54 billion distinct state changes in the piece.

The individual Layers were sold for a total of 263 ETH, suggesting that collectors value the opportunity to have direct input into the appearance of the Master artwork.

In the case of Right Place & Right Time, the artist retains control of the Layers, which are controlled by API calls.

Kane explained that "I want to keep the artwork fresh and surprising for both collector and viewers as price volatility is visualized and maintain this as a living work-in-progress. Additionally, when Bitcoin's price reaches key levels, that achievement is recorded as part of the artwork that day."

async.art founder CEO Conlan Rios said that We are now truly on track to impact the art world it reinforces the fact that the entire NFT community believes in this movement.

The new piece will be unveiled at a virtual gallery showcase event, Citadel 6.15, hosted by crypto artist Coldie and opening on March 27th in the Cryptovoxels world.

Cointelegraph Magazine has been focusing on the crypto art movement this week, in a series of features exploring ephemerality, art communities and collaboratives, and censorship.

Original artworks by Cointelegraph artists will be on display at the exhibition, alongside works from noted crypto artists including Coldie, Hackatao, AlottaMoney, XCOPY, Josie Bellini, Shortcut, BlackBoxDotArt, MLIBTY, TwistedVacancy, Matt Kane, Rutger van der Tas, Vans Design, and Connie Digital.

More information on Cointelegraph Magazine Art Week and the Citadel 6.15 Virtual Art Show can be found here.

(Artworks courtesy async.art)

Read more from the original source:
Algorithmic Crypto Art Changes Appearance to Reflect Bitcoin Volatility - Cointelegraph

Source: Adobe/KittyKat

Johnson Xu is the Chief Analyst at TokenInsight, a token data and rating agency._____

The sharp market downturn in mid-March 2020 forced some Bitcoin (BTC) miners to switch off their mining rigs. As a result, the Bitcoin network hash rate plummeted to ~75.8 EH/s. After reaching its lowest recent point, down from its all-time high of ~136 EH/s, the network hash rate is currently hovering at ~100 EH/s.

Consequently, we have seen a fall of almost 16% in mining difficulty, resulting in the second-largest drop in history.As the price plummeted yet lower, the network has seen a surge on its mean block interval from roughly 10 minutes per block to 15 minutes per block before the scheduled network adjustment kicks in.

The MRI (miner's rolling inventory) provides valuable insights into how miners perceive the market.Prior to the market downturn (March 11, 2020), the MRI reflected the fact miners appeared conformable to sell, indicated by a >1 MRI. When the market stabilized, after bitcoin crashed to sub-USD 4,000 at its lowest ebb, the daily MRI dropped significantly to < 1.

That indicates a very different view from miners on the condition of the market, and means they are holding back on bitcoin and their inventories are growing (Bytetree, 2020). At the time of writing, the daily MRI is running at around 1 (or 100%).Miners are still comfortable selling into the market in the longer run, as demonstrated by the 1 week, 5 weeks and 12 weeks MRI ratios.

The recent market downturn has caused some miners to switch off their rigs, as indicated by the recent ~16% downward adjustment on network mining difficulty.

However, 1-week fees are slowly creeping up to 52-week fee levels, despite the recent market downturn. Rising fees reflect increasing network activity, which could well be a positive indicator for the bitcoin market.

The SOPR (Spend Output Profit Ratio) ratio, developed by Renato Shirakashi, is one of the many insightful indicators that help analysts gauge market participants sentiment and behavior.

This ratio dropped significantly to <1 during the recent market downturn, and backed up to near 1 when the market stabilized.

However, the ratios upward turn faces some difficulty in its quest to break the >1 mark strongly. This could be an indicator that market participants are waiting to hit the breakeven point before they sell.

Theoretical 24-hour attack costs have dropped significantly recently, and currently sit at USD 14 million. This does sound alarming, especially when we can see a large drop in 24-hour attack costs.

However, it is practically impossible to perform a 51% attack on the Bitcoin network, as an attacker cannot solicit enough hash power to perform such an attack, due to the following reasons:

All of the above is true unless we discover a direct channel, which could let an attacker to control 51% hash rate effectively. The risk of a 51% attack on the Bitcoin network is extremely low and such an operation is extremely difficult to realize.

View original post here:
Are Miners Waiting for Bitcoin to Hit Breakeven Point? - Cryptonews

The crypto market remains volatile, with analysts actively trying to seek insight into its next moves. Litecoin now appears ready for a notable correction. Such a move could set off a similar drop in Bitcoin and other cryptos, as it has done before.

As crypto traders attempt to find patterns in the present market environment, many look to altcoins which have lower liquidity and tend to be traded by more experienced players. Analyst Benjamin Blunt asserts that Litecoin may soon see a price drop. In a recent tweet, he stated:

Should Blunts prediction prove true, and Litecoin does tank to the low 20s, Bitcoin may soon follow. Litecoins curious relationship with Bitcoin dates to the earliest days of crypto adoption, with market action between the two frequently working in tandem. In fact, Litecoin moves can often be used as predictors for Bitcoin.

As with the rest of the cryptocurrency market, Litecoins price has swung wildly over the past several days. It is down two percent over the past twenty-four hours. This decline is understandable, as profit takers are now selling to reap the rewards of yesterdays big gains.

Much has been made of the uniform movement of all coins within the cryptocurrency market. Despite the tremendous differences between different platforms, they all seem to rise and fall together. Before the introduction of stablecoins, altcoins tended to move opposite of Bitcoin. More recently however, the market tends to move as one.

Litecoin critics have long claimed that its similarity to Bitcoin makes it unnecessary, and thus doomed to fail. Nevertheless, it has remained resilient, with a large group of dedicated advocates that have stood by the project even after founder Charlie Lee sold off his huge LTC stash. Longevity notwithstanding, Litecoin remains primarily a speculator coin used almost entirely for trading.

Altcoin advocates repeatedly assert that mass adoption of blockchain technology will lead some platforms to challenge Bitcoin for the top spot in the market rankings. However, Bitcoin remains by-far the most valuable and best-known blockchain asset, worth far more than all others combined. It has been almost three years since another coin presented a serious threat to this hegemony.

Following altcoin prices as a metric to gauge Bitcoin will no doubt continue. Such a strategy may be useful, yet all crypto trading remains risky. Blockchain adoption and mass use of cryptocurrency as a new asset class is a near certainty, but more time is needed for the space to become fully mature.

Do you think Litecoin is heading towards another crash? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @SmartContractor

Continue reading here:
Litecoin Could See Another Price Crash Soon, Will Bitcoin Follow? - Bitcoinist

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold with dire consequences across the globe, desperate measures to keep the economy afloat continue to be taken by world governments. Currently the most notable example is the U.S., which recently announced an unlimited quantitative easing program and also reached an agreement for a $2 trillion stimulus package.

The unlimited quantitative easing process will entail the Federal Reserve purchasing assets in the amounts needed to support smooth market functioning and after the announcement was made Bitcoin (BTC) price rallied almost 10% from $6,300 to $6,900.

At the moment, Bitcoin has dropped to $6,630 and crypto markets have remained fairly stable throughout the day.

Crypto market data. Source: Coin360

Gold and silver have also recovered after several days of losses. Gold price dropped by more than 12% in 10 days but has since recovered to the $1,620-$1,680 price range seen between February 20 and March 9.

SILVER USD/m2 chart. Source: TradingView

Meanwhile silver has hit its generational low against the US dollar when money supply adjusted, a figure to keep in mind while the Fed prints billions of dollars. In the last 3 days, silver has seen modest gains, surging from $12 to $14.5.

As the U.S. government sets out to spend billions of dollars this week, stock markets reacted positively and the S&P 500 rallied over 9% on March 24, the biggest daily surge since 2008. The Feds QE efforts may prop up stock prices for now but the long-term consequences will likely have a significant impact on the economy for years to come.

While stock markets are currently reclaiming some of the ground lost during the past two weeks, the worst may be yet to come as the total impact of the Coronavirus and its effects on the population and on the economy are not yet visible.

At the time of writing the number of newly confirmed cases is growing at an alarming rate. Just yesterday, in the U.S. the number of confirmed cases grew by 10,270 to a total of 54,453. At this rate, the total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. may soon overtake Chinas.

Cumulative total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Source: CDC

As for Bitcoin price, it is showing stability and painting higher highs and lower lows on the daily time frame. It seems likely that Bitcoin will continue to hold its own as the dollar inflates, although its worth noting that today's difficulty adjustment may cause the digital asset to lose value as mining becomes cheaper.

BTC USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

To the surprise of many investors, precious metals had been falling alongside global equity markets which on March 9 saw their worst performance since the 2008 financial crisis. However, this isnt entirely new for gold or silver.

In 2008, safe-haven assets behaved similarly, dropping alongside stocks and rallying after the announcement of the Fed's quantitative easing program. For the time being, gold and silver seem to be back to providing security for traders and Bitcoin has been following the lead by holding its own in what could be its biggest test as a unique asset class so far.

The Feds unprecedented new measures highlight one of the primary value propositions of decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the issuance rate cannot be tampered with.

As the current global financial meltdown has demonstrated, precious metals also have their weaknesses. On March 23, three of the worlds largest gold refineries announced that they would stop production for at least a week in order to comply with requests by local authorities. How this will weigh on price is yet to be determined.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, operates on a decentralized system that ensures that no geo-specific event can alter its production. Unlike precious metals, Bitcoins system allows miners to leave and join the network without severely impacting the amount of Bitcoin mined.

Over the past month the U.S. Dollar has also seen steady gains throughout the crisis due to the market participants quick exit from stocks and other risk-on assets. So far DXY has risen 6.35% in March but it has fallen by nearly 1% since the Feds announcement of unlimited QE.

Coincidentally, Bitcoin is set to have its next halving event in April which will lower its issuance rate drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC every ten minutes. This means the supply will increase less than 2% per year, and will drop to less than 1% after 2024, a rate which is similar to the average rate of increase of the gold supply.

As the Fed sets out to print an unlimited supply of dollars, Bitcoin is in a prime position to become the next ultimate store of value currency as its issuance rate remains relatively unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming halving continues as programmed.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Here is the original post:
Feds Unlimited QE Places Spotlight on Bitcoin Store-of-Value Narrative - Cointelegraph

Current Price: $6,160

BTC/USD daily confluence detector shows a lack of healthy support levels on the downside, so further price drop is expected. On the upside, there are three strong resistance levels at $6,215, $6,500 and $6,715. $6,215 has the one-hour and one-day Bollinger Bands and SMA 10. $6,500 has the one-day and one-week Fibonacci 38.2% retracement levels, while $6,715 has the SMA 10, SMA 50, SMA 100, SMA 200 and one-week Fibonacci 23.6% retracement level.

Key Levels

Current Price: $127.70

Quite like BTC/USD, ETH/USD also has a lack of support levels on the downside, holding the price up. On the upside, there are two strong resistance levels at $134.50 and $143. The former has the SMA 10, SMA 50, SMA 200 and one-day Fibonacci 38.2% retracement level, while the latter has the one-day Previous High, one-day Bollinger Band and one-week Pivot Point resistance-one.

Key Levels

Current Price: $0.168

Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, Ripple actually has healthy support levels on the downside at $0.1675 and $0.162. $0.1675 has the SMA 5, 4-hour and one-day Bollinger Bands, while $0.162 has the one-week Fibonacci 61.8% retracement levels, SMA 10 and SMA 50. On the upside, XRP/USD has strong resistance at $0.1765, which has the one-hour Bollinger Band, Previous Year low and SMA 100.

Key Levels

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Top three coins price prediction: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple go through bearish correction Confluence Detector - FXStreet

NULS, an open-source adaptive blockchain, wants to leave its isolation from the rest of the blockchain ecosystem and create bridges to other networksand perhaps one day between them. The first step is connecting NULS to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

That vision is laid out in a whitepaper the NULS Technical Community released on Thursday. The whitepaper details a new network called Nerve, a cross-chain solution for making NULS interoperable with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other networks.

The NULS network runs on a democratized staking system that mixes delegated proof of stake with a credit rating. The proposed Nerve Network sits atop the NULS protocol, allowing users to transfer major cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and ERC20 tokens, to the NULS blockchain. The company hopes the network will compete with Cosmos and Polkadot, two other cross-chain solutions in development.

While the protocol doesn't bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum in quite the way Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin pined for earlier this week, Berzeck, the pseudonymous developer of NULS, conceded to Decrypt that it is a step in this direction.

Clarified Berzeck: The protocol doesnt directly bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum; it instead allows the NULS blockchain to bridge into Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively. Though, he added, We could definitely explore ways to have NULS act as an intermediary between these blockchains and broker transactions.

To make cross-chain transactions possible, Berzeck said the Nerve Network will use a native token called NVT to transfer value between networks. Essentially, Nerve Network will operate like an autonomous virtual broker with masternodes that can dock blockchains and digest their transactions, he said. Nerve will then translate that function and value to the NULS blockchain, effectively making them interoperable.

Berzeck noted that this could enable microtransactions with specialized blockchains. With cross-chain functionality, developers wont have to worry about maintaining a singular network with limited scale, he said. Instead, several concurrent blockchains could run independently (one for games, one for supply chain, etc.) and NULS could act as a terminal for disparate functions to become more collaborative and autonomous.

For now, however, with the blueprints laid out, the NULS community is ready to build an interconnected future for blockchains.

See original here:
NULS to bridge to Bitcoin and Ethereum with new network - Decrypt

Data provider Messari announced a new charting feature that allows its users to receive data on the Bitcoin (BTC) price performance relative to the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The feature is called Covid V Markets and allows the overlay of data on Ethereum, Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies, precious metals, stocks, crude oil, among others, with COVID-19.

Through his Twitter account, Messari CEO Ryan Selkis stated that the feature will allow users:

Plot Bitcoin against the S&P and see how significantly BTC outperformed up until the corona induced carnage.

On the other hand, users will be able to follow the progress of the pandemic globally. Users will have access to country-by-country data, see the number of cases, recovered, deceased, death rate, even see key moments, such as when the United States became the country with the most infected among other relevant data. Selkis further outlines:

() And you can better understand when different countries or regions start to flatten their curves. Weve spent time making sure all of these resources are available as a public good, and hope you find them helpful.

This feature will be a powerful addition for users who want to see the effect of COVID-19 on the market. The spread of this pandemic has had a negative effect on traditional markets and on the price of Bitcoin and the crypto market. Due to the uncertainty it has caused in the world, the crypto market has experienced an increase in volatility and one of its worst sudden declines in its history.

On the other hand, users of the Covid V Markets feature will be able to see how the correlation between Bitcoin and traditional markets is evolving. Although speculation has begun about a decoupling between Bitcoin and the S&P 500, it is still possible to see how Bitcoin reacts to traditional market performance.

At the time of publication, Bitcoins price trades at $6,262 with a 6.32% loss in the last 24 hours.

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Last Updated on 28 March, 2020

Originally posted here:
Messari releases tool to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on Bitcoin - Crypto News Flash

So, you may not be a gambler, even though Im pretty sure people have called you that just because youre invested in crypto. But you know just as well as me (if not better) thats far from the whole truth.

Just as Bitcoin is quite misunderstood by many, so is the notion of the casino being impossible to beat. But it has been done.

Slots is probably not your best bet

Sitting down at one of the slot machines and pressing random buttons is probably not the best strategy if you want to win (even though BitStarz saw a guy winning 2.4 million dollars on a single spin last year).

Because if that was the case, those old ladies playing penny slots close to the entrance of a Vegas Casino smoking Marlboro Lights would probably be millionaires at this point. Im not that much of a betting man myself, but Id place my money on that not being the case.

With that said, it can be fun to check out the various slot games for entertainment purposes. Personally, I prefer just having a look at the various new games and themes. I mean, theres a potpourri of weird titles that are out there. Family Guy, Fruits, Wolves howling at the moon with some weird Arizona backdrop. Yeah, they never cease to amaze me.

But if youre looking to use your savant level mathematical skills like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman, the table games area is your playground.

This is not Hollywood, well kind of

So when I mentioned Beating the Casino, Im not talking about Danny Oceans crew in Oceans Eleven, trying to get away with as much money as possible from Bellagio in some elaborate heist. First of all, that would be illegal, and second, Im sure that would result in a possible lawsuit that Im too poor to handle right now.

A better idea (since Im stuck with the movie references now) would be to take the approach of the MIT Blackjack Club which was the inspiration of Kevin Spacey movie 21. In this classic casino movie, a group of students from MIT got together to try to master the game of Blackjack and beat the Vegas casinos at their own game. Spoiler alert they did.

Blackjack is one of the games with the highest return to the player if played with Basic Strategy (which is the term of making the most mathematically optimal plays based on you and the dealers cards). If you do this, your return will be 99.5%.

With that said, 99.5% still means the Casino has a slight edge over you, and if we want to beat the casino, having a return which is lower than 100% isnt going to do us any favors.

Combination of Strategies

Now you might ask yourself what other aspects of playing can affect the outcome of the game. Because if were already executing the most logical plays, how can we further influence the game? By combining this with a betting strategy.

One of the most popular ones would be a classical hi-lo count strategy, and although it may require quite a bit of practice, its intellectually stimulating to say the least. It requires you to keep track of the cards (and dont worry, you dont need to be Rainman or Darren Brown), more specifically if the count of the deck is negative or positive.

Ask the dealer to shuffle the deck, and when the cards show up on the table, you need to keep track of the positive cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and the negative cards (10, J, Q, K, A) in each game round.

If the game round resulted in 2 more positive cards than negative cards being dealt, your deck count is now +2. You continue to keep track of the deck count and increase your bets the more positive the deck is as it favors the player to have more high cards in remaining in the deck.

Excerpt from:
It Is Possible to Use Your Bitcoin to Beat an Online Casino Heres How - newsBTC