Bitcoin (BTC) made a sudden jump of 9% in the past 24 hours. However, altcoin cryptocurrencies have been showing strength recently as well.

Recent surges from large caps have been in the double digits with Dash (DASH) surging 50% and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) 30% in the past four days. Is it possible to draw a conclusion that the altcoin market capitalization is potentially bottoming? Lets find out.

Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360

Many altcoins have reached their cycle low levels, which means that many of them hit levels not seen since before the bull market in 2017, and some have even dropped to their January 2016 levels. One example is Dash.

Dash BTC 5-day chart. Source: TradingView

Markets tend to move in cycles, through which data accumulates from previous periods. The Dash chart is showing a cycle low in 2016 at the green rectangle.

A similar level and bounce are spotted from this price through the past weeks, combined with bullish divergence. This bullish divergence was also spotted on smaller time frames in January 2016.

XMR BTC 5-day chart. Source: TradingView

At the same time, a full retrace to these levels is not always necessary. It can also retrace towards the cycle lows in 2017. An example of such a chart is Monero (XMR). This privacy-focused coin retraced back to the first support of the last cycle, found around 0.00600000 satoshis.

The same phenomenon is spotted here, which means that theres another bullish divergence marking a local bottom.

So is a new cycle is going to start? If we would do a survey of sentiment between regular altcoin investors, then it would currently be depression, as the majority of the altcoins have been crushed in the last months against their BTC pair.

Moreover, a similar view is found on USD pairs with XRP (XRP), in particular, demonstrating major weakness in recent months.

XRP USD 5-day chart. Source: TradingView

XRP lost major support at $0.30 and retraced towards the next major support, seemingly the last crucial one. The same views were found in the previous cycle, through which similar support was tested before continuation and a bull market started. That period was in January 2016 when the breakdown occurred, and now its January 2020.

Remarkably, the best period for altcoins is when Bitcoin makes a slow, upwards grind. People tend to have Bitcoin as their safe haven and trade altcoins a bit more. However, when Bitcoin starts to turn parabolic (like we saw in June 2019), altcoins are being sold for Bitcoin. And when Bitcoin decides to move downwards, people and traders sell their cryptocurrencies for USD.

Hence, Bitcoin has to now find a cycle low for altcoins to gain some upward momentum.

BTC USD 5-day chart. Source: TradingView

Given this chart, the price of Bitcoin hit a 4-year old trendline and bounced from it. Aside from that, the golden pocket Fibonacci ratio held as well, which is showing signals of a possible bottom formation.

Similar, in January 2016, a bottom formation was found as well, which gave altcoins freedom to grow, as the price of Bitcoin was making slow movements to the upside.

A similar thought and expectation could be the case here, in which Bitcoin is slowly grinding upwards in the coming months, giving altcoins space to continue.

Another significant sign is the stoppage of downtrends. Some large caps have broken out of their 2-year old downtrends while some of them still have to break upwards. One example is Bitcoin Cash.

BCH BTC 5-day chart. Source: TradingView

This chart shows that the price broke a 2-year old downtrend, which could signal the start of an uptrend from here. A similar breakout is seen in the Ethereum Classic (ETC) chart, though, admittedly, Ether (ETH) is not quite there yet.

ETH BTC 4-day chart. Source: TradingView

Nevertheless, Ether is close to breaking it. If we analyze this chart, it shows that ETH fully retraced to the 2016 lows as well. Additionally, the low in September 2019 at 0.01645000 satoshis marked a bullish divergence.

This pattern also marked the beginning of previous bullish reversals. For example, as of January 2016, a slightly higher low led to a breakout of the downtrend, comparable with the movements of January 2017 and January 2018.

Thus, another 2-year old downtrend is on the table here, ready to be broken to the upside. If that occurs, a significant move should occur for altcoins if the biggest altcoin finally breaks out of its downtrend.

Indeed, the first quarter of the year once again looks like a good period for trading altcoins. In fact, Ether has been reversing these downtrends almost always in Q1.

Total altcoin market capitalization chart. Source: TradingView

A significant sign is a bounce in the green zone from the total altcoin market capitalization. This level was the support zone in 2017 before the big bull market. The level also served as support in April 2019 before the significant surge of altcoins occurred (and ETH rallied towards $360).

However, the total altcoin capitalization needs to show strength and break the downtrend. If that occurs, total altcoin capitalization could then see $80 and $125 billion as the next levels.

Total altcoin market capitalization chart of 2015. Source: TradingView

A similar retest occurred from November 2015 to January 2016, the last cycles low. A retest was necessary to confirm support before the altcoins started to make their moves.

Therefore, there are more arguments for potential long entries and possible bottom formations on altcoins rather than further downwards pressure. However, the crypto market is highly unpredictable, so tread carefully. If Bitcoin decides to make a move towards $9,500, altcoins may likely be crushed further against their BTC pairs.

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.

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4 Signs the Cryptocurrency Altcoin Market May Have Finally Bottomed - Cointelegraph

The cryptocurrency space is infamously ravaged with bad actors and fraud.

Indeed, of the 1,840 failed cryptocurrency projects since 2017, the majority were outright scams.

But despite a total of 518 blockchain and crypto projects falling by the wayside in 2019, that still marks a 20% decrease from the previous year.

Its not surprising that most cryptocurrency project failures happen when the market is bleeding. The largest number of cryptocurrency projects disappeared during the early months of 2019 when the bear market was at its most savage.

115 folded in January, with 48 collapsing in February and a further 120 in March, accounting for more than half of the total failures of the year. An alarming rate, you might say. However, it was still a 20% decrease from 2018, according to data from DeadCoins.com.

So, how did these cryptocurrency projects die? DeadCoins divides them into four categories: deceased, hack, scam, and parody. Most of the dead projects have been categorised as scams.

In both 2018 and 2019, 55% and 58% of projects respectively entered this category. The rest failed due to hacks or impersonator projects.

Despite the high number of failed cryptocurrency projects, in the second quarter of 2019, only 83 projects disappeared. This very likely coincides with the fact that market conditions took a turn to the upside.

The prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies increased steadily during most of the second quarter of 2019.

Most scam projects have a life cycle of less than one year, while legitimate projects that fail generally tend to have a life cycle of one to three years.

The number of ICO projects in 2019 decreased significantly throughout the year, according to ICObench.

In January, there were 151 published ICOs, while December closed with just 30.

The high number of failed cryptocurrency projects may not be an encouraging sign. However, in some ways, it has meant that the quality projects have risen to the top.

Rather than ideas and whitepapers, blockchain projects have started to grow up and find real use cases and purpose.

In 2019, for example, more military and business blockchain projects emerged. According to Deloittes Global Blockchain survey in 2019, the overall quality of the projects was higher than in 2018 as blockchain is getting down to business.

So, what can we expect as we move into 2020? Of course, many projects are still vulnerable to market conditions. Given the high amount of deceased projects to date, its likely that the number of deaths will continue to rise along with the birth of more viable solutions.

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Total number of failed cryptocurrency projects falls 20% in 2019 - Coin Rivet

One of the most heated debates in the cryptocurrency space is the future of regulation and whether financial regulatory bodies should oversee the trading of crypto coins.

Just last month, a group of United States congressmen put forward a new cryptocurrency bill labeled the Cryptocurrency Act 2020.

The goal of the new legislation is to provide additional clarification on digital asset regulations. The bill has some wide-ranging regulations that, if voted into law, could reshape the crypto landscape moving forward at least in the United States, that is.

The US senator who put forward the Cryptocurrency Act 2020, Paul Goser, stated that it was his desire to attribute regulatory clarity to the market.

Currently, many cryptocurrency regulations across the world are vague. Consumers and lawmakers are locked in a debate over which agencies are responsible for regulating different types of cryptocurrencies.

Some companies, like EOS or Telegram, have even been fined for conducting unregulated securities, for instance.

In this article, Ill discuss what to expect from regulators in 2020 with a focus on the Cryptocurrency Act 2020, since I believe it could have a significant impact on the space.

In November last year, Coin Rivet reported that the US Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has called for tighter regulations on stablecoins and digital assets.

As part of its latest annual report, the council identified digital assets and stablecoins as major areas for concern, urging closer scrutiny of existing laws and a review of new products in the blockchain space.

In October, the Central Bank of Russia revealed it is against the integration of cryptocurrencies in the public monetary system, even though some banks and politicians, Vladimir Putin included, have insisted on adopting crypto regulations instead of banning digital coins.

On January 10 2020, the European Union (EU) will implement a new law known as the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) which requires cryptocurrency platforms and wallet providers to identify their customers for anti-money laundering purposes.

Some countries such as Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands are expected to implement the 5AMLD law by the deadline this week, but other nations are resisting it.

The United Kingdom has decided to implement the law despite its decision to leave the EU.

Mexico is also reportedly taking a harder stance on fintech and cryptocurrency companies.

We can clearly see the current trend is moving towards increased regulation and oversight across the globe.

The Cryptocurrency Act 2020 begins with the categorisation of cryptocurrencies into three main groups. These groups are then used to determine which agencies are responsible for the creation of regulation and legislation. The first class described in the new bill is cryptocurrencies.

The crypto class includes Bitcoin, Litecoin, and any other cryptocurrencies that dont fall under the current securities regulations. The bill classifies these tokens as any digital asset that includes representations of United States currency or synthetic derivatives resting on a blockchain or decentralised cryptographic ledger.

Smart contracts and oracles fall under the cryptocurrency category as well.

The next class described in the bill is crypto-commodities. A key aspect of these tokens is the fact that they contain some form of substantial fungibility.

Fungible assets are interchangeable, such as the USD. These assets must reside on a blockchain or decentralised cryptographic ledger to fall under this classification.

The final type of coin described in the bill is crypto-securities. These tokens are simply any coin that fails the Howey Test.

The three regulatory bodies mentioned in the bill that will oversee the cryptocurrency space include the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

These groups will gain sole authority over their respective digital asset types.

We have witnessed a clear and transparent shift from government bodies, especially in the US, towards the regulation of digital assets since the announcement of Facebooks Libra. I expect more legislation in the near future, even though I highly doubt its long-term effectiveness.

However, if regulation brings more businesses and companies into the space, thats a good thing. Hopefully, well see companies taking this wave of regulation as a sign for adoption.

The post What to expect from cryptocurrency legislation in 2020 appeared first on Coin Rivet.

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What to expect from cryptocurrency legislation in 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Image: Peter Kruse

Security researchers from Romanian antivirus vendor Bitdefender have discovered a botnet that infects home routers and other Internet of Things (IoT) smart devices and then attempts to mine for cryptocurrency.

This marks the third such IoT botnet that wastes its time by attempting to mine cryptocurrency on devices that clearly don't support these types of operations.

Named LiquorBot, the botnet was first spotted in May 2019, according to a report Bitdefender published yesterday.

The botnet is nothing special in terms of technical capabilities. It works just like any other IoT botnet that's been documented over the past few years. Below is a short summary of LiquorBot's features:

About the only novel detail about LiquorBot is the fact that the malware is a version of the Mirai strain rewritten in the Go programming language -- but that's about it.

Most IoT botnets today usually appear and disappear within weeks or months. LiquorBot is a strange case because it remained active throughout all 2019.

Bitdefender says the malware often received updates, usually in the form of new exploits. The most interesting update was, however, recorded in October.

The company says the LiquorBot code was expanded with a module that attempted to mine the Monero (XMR) cryptocurrency on infected devices.

The module, in itself, is quite useless, seeing that the entire botnet is predicated on infected routers, above anything else.

SOHO (Small Office Home Office) routers are cheap devices that lack the CPU and hardware capabilities to adequately mine cryptocurrency -- which is a very resource-heavy operation.

In the past, other IoT botnets have also wasted their time attempting to mine cryptocurrency on SOHO routers, with little success, and with all dropping any attempts within weeks, primarily due to the low yield the hacked devices were turning in.

The first IoT botnet to experiment with the feature was a Mirai-based botnet operated out of China, back in March 2017. The botnet experiment with a Bitcoin-mining module for a week, before dropping the module altogether.

The second was an IoT malware strain named Linux.MulDrop.14, detected by Dr.Web in June 2017. This botnet targeted Raspberry Pi devices, where it also attempted to mine Bitcoin. While Raspberry Pi devices have access to more hardware resources than your casual SOHO router, this botnet didn't break the bank either, stopping its experiments after a few weeks.

The discovery of these two botnets in 2017 encouraged researchers to look into the possibility of IoT botnets of being used as cryptocurrency mining farms. At the time, Errata Security estimated that if a Mirai botnet of 2.5 million bots mined cryptocurrency it would earn only a meager $0.25 per day, effectively dispelling the notion that IoT botnets could ever be used for cryptocurrency mining.

Apparently, the LiquorBot author didn't get the notice.

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Naive IoT botnet wastes its time mining cryptocurrency - ZDNet

After appearing in court this week, the full impact of a Uganda-based cryptocurrency scam is starting to reveal itself.

Following its collapse last year, Ugandan police have logged 4,000 complaints against cryptocurrency startup Dunamiscoins Resources Ltd.

Two directors of the company, Samson Lwanga and Mary Nabunya, appeared in court on Monday this week. They were charged with 65 counts of obtaining money under false pretense and conspiracy to commit a felony, The Observer reports.

Prosecutors allege the pair operated their illicit cryptocurrency-based scam between February 14, 2018 and December 3, 2019.

According to the report, Lwanga and Nabunya managed to obtain more than $37,000 (140,050,000 Ugandan shillings) by promising dozens of investors unrealistic returns.

Previous reports claimed the Dunamiscoins scam has managed to con more than 10 billion Ugandan shillings (ca. $2.7 million) out of its victims.

The pair reportedly recruited hundreds of people into their fake cryptocurrency scheme, which like many others, promised unrealistic returns on investments.

Whats more, Dunamiscoins set up offices and hired a number of local citizens in Masaka Town who, after being asked by the firm, also invested in the company.

However, a month later in December, the offices closed unexpectedly leaving people out of work. In some cases, employees hadnt even completed their first day.

The two directors have reportedly said they are willing to refund victims. The only problem however, is that their bank accounts are frozen by the countrys Financial Intelligence Authority so they claim.

The suspects pleaded not guilty to the claims and are due to be questioned again later in the month. They remain in custody until then.

But with the growing numbers of complaints against the collapsed firm, a lot of questions remain unanswered.

Published January 8, 2020 09:07 UTC

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Directors of bogus Ugandan cryptocurrency startup charged after 4,000 investor complaints - The Next Web

2020 marks the turn of the decade. Here's what we think might happen this year (or the next).

In May 2020, Bitcoin's block reward will be reduced by half, which should reduce inflation and drive up the price of BTC. However, many experts have observed that past halvings haven't caused price surges. If inflationary changes are priced into the market, as some experts believe, Bitcoin's next reward halving will probably have long-term effects that play out over more than a year. A short-term price surge is unlikely.

Ethereum collectibles (or non-fungible tokens) make up a modest portion of the crypto market. However, recognition is growing: Binance has announced a special series of Ethereum NFTs, while CoinGecko has announced a forum called NFTGecko. Other major exchanges and market aggregators may add limited support for NFTs in 2020especially if trading continues to grow on dedicated markets like OpenSea.

In October, Ripple CTO David Schwartz suggested that an XRP-backed stablecoin is under consideration. This is an important step forward for Ripple: many similar crypto projects aimed at bank settlement, such as JPM Coin and IBM World Wire rely heavily on stable, fiat-pegged cryptos. Though Ripple hasn't confirmed anything yet, a stablecoin would certainly give the company a stronger competitive foothold.

EOS has been plagued by congestion over the past two years. The issue has prompted several DApps to move to WAX, a blockchain that runs on EOSIO software without sharing EOS's overburdened network of block producers. Even EOS's parent company, Block.one, is planning to launch a social network on its own EOSIO blockchain. Alternate EOSIO blockchains may continue to "steal" apps from EOS this year.

In 2019, Tether minted $2 billion of USDT, bringing its market cap up to $4 billion and making it the fourth largest cryptocurrency. If Tether continues to mint $2 billion worth of USDT per year, it could surpass XRPs $8 billion market cap by the end of 2021. This would make USDT the third largest coina controversial achievement, given that some critics doubt that Tether actually has sufficient fiat backing in its reserves.

This year,Litecoin will introduce private transactions, a feature that led many exchanges to delist Monero and Zcash in 2019. Litecoin has attempted to reassure its users, but some exchanges may be biased toward delisting for regulatory reasons. The fact that Litecoin's privacy features are optional seems irrelevant, as Dash's similarly optional privacy features did not save it from delistings on Upbit and Coincheck.

This year, Cardano will launch staking rewards. Currently, its testnet has about 9.6 billion ADA tokens staked, representing about 1/3 of its total supply. However, this testnet only allowed entry over two "snapshot" days, whereas Cardanos mainnet will offer staking to all coinholders with very low restrictions. Cardano may be able to attract at least 50% of funds to its staking poolsand that is a conservative estimate.

Riccardo "fluffypony" Spagni stepped down as the lead maintainer of Monero in December, leaving a long-time contributor, Snipa, to take his place. However, Spagni also represents Monero on Twitter, while Snipa has admitted that he does not have an active social media presence. As one of Moneros few non-anonymous developers, Spagni will probably continue to be Monero's most recognizable personality.

Facebook's Libra is facing difficulties. U.S. regulators have been hostile to the project, several European countries have announced plans to block the currency, and companies have dropped out of the Libra Association. However, Facebook has been exploring other markets, such as India and Mexico, as well. Libra should find one location to go live in this yeareven if its launch is more limited than originally planned.

There are many uses for blockchain in the video game industry. Ultra is taking a grand-scale approach that is similar to Facebook: it's bringing onboard major companies to serve as node operators for profit. So far, Ultra has signed Ubisoft as a block producer and AMD as a strategic partner. If it succeeds, it will be a sign of a future trend: consortium-backed blockchains with big players from mainstream industries.

Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.

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Ten Predictions For Cryptocurrency and Blockchain In 2020 - Bitrates

New York, NY, Jan. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) Blockchain technology saw exponential growth in 2019, unprecedented adoption and interest by governments and institutions around the world validating its utility.

With core infrastructure being built out across the planet, enterprise investment and regulatory pathways being defined the stage is set for 2020 to be the year for mass adoption of blockchain technology.

Thomas Carter, digital securities pioneer, and CEO ofDealBox outlinestwo key trends that will bring about massive opportunities in the blockchain space in this new year.

Key 1 - The Fat Protocol & Next Generation Blockchains

Joel Monegros Fat Protocol thesis describes how the value of blockchain technology is based on an opposite paradigm to the way value was created via the internet over the past couple of decades.

The protocol layer of the internet (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc) which is the technology that provides the underlying mechanics for websites, file transfers, and email isnt where the value was created.

Instead, the apps that used the protocols (Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc) were the winners. Thus, the thin protocol designation.

In the Blockchain ecosystem we see the inverse is true where value creation will be realized by the market cap of the underlying blockchain protocol as opposed to the apps being built on it.

In other words, the value in the Ethereum blockchain can be expected to be more than the dApps (decentralized apps) being built on it. Fat Protocol.

This thesis holds true only if the blockchain in question has solved the TPS (transactions per second) or throughput problem.

1st and 2nd generation blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on consensus mechanisms that put a huge drag on transaction speed making them unviable by enterprise adoption standards.

3rd generation blockchain is all about increasing transaction speed without compromising the security, immutability and distribution of the chain.

To solve the TPS problem, various new consensus mechanisms are being developed along with sidechain technology.

Sidechains are a separate and parallel data layer that off-loads some of the data from the mainchain thereby reducing the amount and frequency of needing to wait for consensus confirmation. Gorbyte, founded by Giuseppe Gori is one project in particular just coming out of stealth mode that has created an elegant solution to the problem of blockchain scalability.

Gorbytes GNodes system eliminates the need for miners which has been the traditional bottleneck for TPS. George Gilder is a legend in tech and economic circles. His book Wealth and Poverty was the guiding light for Regans economic policies which ignited the rise of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from roughly 800 in 1979 to where it is today.Gilder predicted much of the ubiquitous tech in use today years before it existed in his books: Microcosm, Telecosm, Life After Television, and The Silicon Eye.

In this latest book, Life After Google..Gilder coins the term The Cryptocosm, to describe the emerging wave of innovative blockchain-based technology companies who are not just bringing paradigm shifting solutions to the market -- but redefining the market itself.

Gilder recently had this to say about DealBox security token issuer Giuseppe Gori in thislatest newsletter

Giuseppe Gori is an internet legend..

On Giuseppes new book -

With Reinventing the Blockchain Gori becomes the reigning prophet of the next phase of the Cryptocosm, and Cryptocosmic investment

Gori is the tribune of a new generation of blockchain inventors and their companies.

Giuseppes company Gorbyte has built a blockchain that is faster and vastly more scalable than Bitcoin. Its easier and more affordable for running smart contract applications than Ethereum.

Key 2 - Usability Blockchain is different from the traditional internet in that it incorporates a shared data layer rather than data being siloed and monetized by companies like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc.,

For those companies, the better model would compensate the users for creating the content and empower them to take their content elsewhere if a better deal became available. With data decentralized, security would be much better and privacy would be better protected.

Thats exactly what a decentralized application built on an open data protocol would do. And the compensation of the users is what a native cryptocurrency token would satisfy in this new business model.

Why isnt this being done en masse? Bitcoin is now over a decade old. Bitcoin miners have been incentivized by receiving tokens and that is precisely why Bitcoin works as well as it does. The model is proven.

Actually, a number of entrepreneurs have tried. Steem is like a decentralized Reddit with a token incentive model and it has been chugging along for sometime.

There are 150 + decentralized apps in the Blockstack app store and a similar thriving ecosystem can be found on Ethereum.

We know that TPS/scalability has been a problem but there is a second key component and that is usability.

Usability for blockchain is in dire need of a refactoring. No matter how amazing a technology is if it is hard to use, people simply wont use it. More accurately, if they cant figure out how to use it - they cant use it.

We now have scalability solved with next generation blockchains like Gorbyte and a consortium of other ventures are now working together on a shared vision to improve blockchain usability called Make Crypto Easy.

Thomas Carter on the current situation:

"With blockchain tech and cryptocurrency, we aren't dealing with a typical market adoption learning curve. Bitcoin was born of iconoclastic ideals and philosophy. If you were a technologist and you resonated with the philosophy behind Bitcoin, then you would figure out how to use it. In other words, user-friendliness wasn't ever a consideration until now and that was mostly on purpose."

The Make Crypto Easy consortium venture members are focused on solving usability issues in 4 areas of user blockchain user-experience: Transactions, Identity, Education and Digital Banking.

To learn more about the ventures and groundbreaking technology spearheading this initiative please visit http://www.makecryptoeasy.io/

As blockchain technology and the verifiable distributed trust it confers continues to reshape the world of finance that directly impacts the fundamental ways we all transact online.

Addressing theTwo Key issues of scalability and usability will remove the final friction points to widespread user adoption.

With the pace of progress being made by the ventures mentioned above as well as by other projects in the crypto space, 2020 is likely to be the tipping point for massive disruption and opportunity.

Thomas Carter, founder and CEO ofDealBox, Inc; read about Thomas:This FinTech Veteran Is Making Cryptocurrency Startup Funding Legitimate; connect onLinkedInandInstagram.

Contact:

Shazir Mucklai

Imperium Group

shazirm@aol.com

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Digital Securities Guru Thomas Carter on The Two Keys That Will Unlock Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrency/Blockchain in 2020 - GlobeNewswire

Sydney Ifergan, CEO of The Currency Analytics, tweeted: This is amazing on how a conflict between #USA and #IRAN can pump the #cryptomarket! If I remember right, the last high time was during the conflict between the USA and #northkorea.

No wonder, there is a lot of regulatory and legislative attention for the cryptocurrency community. The situation particularly escalated when Facebook launched its Libra project. The Social Giant attracted the attention of several politicians and central bankers from across the world. The US Federal Reserve Board stated that they are working on crypto-like projects, and they called it Central Bank Digital Currency.

It is undeniable that nations are alarmed about losing economic control. They are not interested in leaving control of the cryptocurrency space. The income for the government will decline. People will have greater control over the happenings in commerce and economy, and eventually, it will be like days of laissez-faire.

Indeed, we are in the early innings of the cryptocurrency markets. A lot has happened. There is a lot to evolve, and the rules of the games need to set straight. Several hundred cryptocurrency projects like TCAT tokens, which are starters through those which are well-established giants like Stellar Lumens, XRP, and Cardano, are around. Every token and Dapp in the industry in clusters of their ecosystem, contribute to the sector.

Several small scale operations and coding sectors filled with individual developers are dependent on the income generated from this industry. The bulk of employment created by the blockchain technology gets interlinked by the needs and demands of the industry.

Though not by written rules, the services and individual activities of people in this industry are becoming indispensable for each other. The cryptocurrency world is held together and sustained by true people and people in focus, contributing to the mission of Decentralization. Though TCAT Tokens has nothing to do with Stellar Lumens, the overall cryptocurrency ecosystem needs big and small players. Just like the Ocean requires the shark and the starfish in the ecosystem, every little player has a little to contribute to the world of Decentralization.

At the University level, different universities from across the world are offering blockchain courses. Trained blockchain graduates and developers who are certified are making it to the market to take to top positions. The structure of the cryptocurrency market is slowly forming. The trials and errors are continuing in the market place.

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TCAT Token in the Early Innings of Decentralized Cryptocurrency Space - The Cryptocurrency Analytics

Financial watchdogs formally put dodgy cryptocurrency entrepreneurs on high alert this year, dishing out fines and forcing startups into submission on the regular.

To some, the US Securities and Exchange Commissions hard-on for crypto-justice was telegraphed when it deemed Ethereums native cryptocurrency Ether not a security last year.

Simultaneously, the SEC hinted that tokens deployed on the network could very well be classified as such. In the movie business, they call that foreshadowing.

As it turns out, a slew of cryptocurrency startups didnt get the memo or if they did they simply didnt give a fuck. Heres a list of blockchain-themed lawsuithighlights for the year. A regulatory dunk reel, if you will.

In September, Block.one the firm that built the blockchain-powered cloud computing service EOS agreed to pay $24 million for violating US securities law with its year-long$4.1 billion ICO.

Many people in the industry felt this particular SEC action was long overdue, especially those who considered it obvious that selling 900 million tokenswithout any product backing them would eventually attract the attention of US regulators.

The SECs statement even reflected this sentiment. It clearly highlighted its very thorough investigation into autonomous blockchain firm The DAO, which established quite clearly how token sales(like the one conducted by Block.one) align with US securities law.

Either Block.one didnt read it, or (more likely) simply didnt care. In the end, Block.one neither agreed to or disputed the SECs claims, but still paid $24 million in fines. Definitely not enough, in my opinion.

Almost one year on from the launch of the EOS mainnet (which, again, cost $4.6 billion), not only is EOSstill suffering from major, crippling bottlenecks, but block producers have alleged that its actually being run by sock puppets owned by vote-buying cartels.

This case comes by way of the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which says Steven Nerayoff (the guy responsible for the legal architecture of Ethereum ICOs) as well as one of his buddies extorted a budding cryptocurrency business for millions of dollars worth of Ether.

In exchange for 22.5 percent of all funds raised, as well as 22.5 percent of the tokens issued, Nerayoffs company was to help an unnamed cryptocurrency startup launch a successful ICO.

Eventually, Nerayoff is said to have demanded that his share of the profits be increased from 13,000 ETH to 30,000 ETH (worth $8.75 million at the time), threatening to destroy the company if he didnt get his way. The firm paid, but Nerayoff and his company didnt give the startup any further assistance.

Nerayoff associate Michael Hlady did pretty much the same thing. After claiming to have worked for the NSA and the CIA, he demanded a $4.45 million Ether loan, or else hed destroy the companys community.

Both Nerayoff and Hlady were arrested on extortion charges in September, and both face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The SECaccused Reginald Middleton, a self-described financial guru, of misleading investors by touting outsized and fictitious demand for his crappy cryptocurrency VERI.

VERI was sold under the guise that one day it could be used as a utility token for Veritaseum, a platform that was meant to offer products ranging from self-custody escrowing, financial and data analytics, and the tokenization of assets.

Turns out (yet again), none of this ever fucking existed. Middleton still (allegedly) shilled VERI on unsuspecting investors by fraudulently claiming to have a blockchain product ready to generate millions of dollars worthof revenue.

The SEC also said that in one day, Middleton artificially boosted the price of VERI by 315 percent, presumably in a bid to lure even more buyers.

In total, Middleton and his associated companies raised $14.8 million, $8 million of which Middleton allegedly still holds. In August, Hard Fork reported that the SEC had pulled an emergency lawsuit on Middleton to prevent him from accessing those funds.

Yep, messaging app Telegram, which boasts over 200 million users, is being sued for allegedly raising a ball-twisting $1.7 billion by selling unregistered securities in the form of crypto tokens.

A US federal judge also ordered Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov to be deposed in early January, and its vice president has been urged to testify in London. An employee that was featured on the companys letters to investors has been requested to to do the same.

The SEC already put a stop to any further sales when it secured an emergency restraining order against the company in October, but the lawsuits are yet to be decided upon. Telegram began selling its tokensat the start of 2018.

Thing is, Telegrams token sale was ridiculously strange. The Telegram Open Network is supposedly a blockchain-based platform that would allow users to access payments services, decentralized apps, file storage, and even a browser.

As TechCrunch noted last year, the original TON whitepaper indicated the firm sought to raise $1.2 billion from invite-only private investors and the general public. That target was later extended to $1.7 billion, and presumably after raising enough money, the firm canceled the public token sale altogether.

In turn, a secondary market for TON was born, as early investors looked to offload their tokens to keen buyers locked out of the ICO process. In one instance, tokens bought for $0.37 were reportedly being sold for $1.30 a 350-percent increase for a token that was supposedly powering a blockchain platform that didnt yet exist.

Im sure many onlookers are keen to see how this one plays out. I for one am curious to see just how big (or small) any potential SEC fines may be.

Bitqyck was an allegedly fake cryptocurrency mining business that sold $13 million worth of tokens to more than 13,000 investors.

Their facility wassupposed to generate cryptocurrency using electricity it had secured at below-market rates. The SEC found, however, that Bitqyck had struck no deal at all.

In fact, the entire mining operation didnt even exist, and the company that sold the tokens was deemed an unregistered securities exchange.

Soon after the SEC made these allegations, its founders promptly agreed to return $13 million raised to 13,000 investors,with interest. They were also fined a collective $10 million in civil penalties.

Fake crypto mining aside, this is really on brand for the SEC, as this year has seen a swathe of other blockchain startups targeted for selling tokens without registering them as securities.

Crummy token peddlers, take note: you could be next.

Published January 6, 2020 13:32 UTC

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5 times regulators revealed their raging boners for crypto justice in 2019 - The Next Web

The term Cryptocurrency is in vogue these days. Most of the people are prejudiced about the know-how of Cryptocurrency.

However, Cryptocurrency is much more than what people know about this term. In this article, we would know how Cryptocurrency has changed the business world.

Cryptocurrency is an asset that is completely available online.

It is specially designed to work as a:

Cryptocurrency is a system that meets the following conditions and is capable of:

Now, after you have mug-up all the facts mentioned above about Cryptocurrency, its the time to know how can Cryptocurrency transformed the business world.

Following are the pointers that will give the true and fair picture to you about the transformations that have taken place after the arrival of Cryptocurrency-

The fact that some economies are already disturbed is not hidden from anyone. The reason is the rising issues against the central government.

However, at such a critical time, a currency in which people can put their trust as well as they know it will maintain its value can open new doors.

Many people expect that the economies will get stable by using Cryptocurrency against that untrusted local currency.

Of-course when Cryptocurrency has the potential to level up the economy, it has the capability to lower down the currency risk as well.

The users need not worry about their government is printing money or not; also, the fear of monetizing their debts will also be eliminated.

Further, great confidence could be seen in a user that their currency will have value in the future. Hence, the currency risk will be eliminated with the usage of Cryptocurrency.

We are pretty much aware of the fact that transferring money from one bank to another is a lengthy as well as a cumbersome process.

Even a couple of hours are wasted in confirming it via wire transfers. However, with the help of Cryptocurrency, the facility of quick, instant, and faster confirmations can be initiated.

The reason is that all the transactions are done on the digital platform, and the holder or user does not have to go anywhere personally.

When a real estate gets closed or is merged into some bigger entity, the money has to be transferred in order to make sure that the title is transferred.

Such ownership or title-ship transfers can be made easier with the help of Cryptocurrency whereby:

To bank something is to keep something valuable somewhere.

Banks were opened to facilitate a safekeeping of money, ornaments, and important documents of the people; however, we are listening to such news daily that banks are going bankrupt.

Hence they are not able to repay the principal amount to the user, what to talk of interest?

Likewise, it is expected that in the coming time, the necessity of keeping your money in the bank would no more remain a necessity.

A platform like Cryptocurrency provides us a completely digital way to keep our money safe and secure; also we can use it as and when we want and require.

Investment

In the investment world, a broker plays an important role and, a broker only helps you when you are paying handsome amounts to him to be your broker, whether it is an individual, an agency, a financial institution or a bank.

However, with the help of Cryptocurrency, the middleman gets removed as the parties can connect directly without the need of any broker.

Hence, you save a great sum that way as three things are important:

Cryptocurrency promises to flatten the investment procedure for buyers as well as sellers.

The Exchange agencies like money gram or western union money transfer offer the key feature in which the users can move ownership from one person to another. Here the parties generally do not know each other, but the payment is facilitated.

However, using a digital platform like Cryptocurrency is offering in investments. It eliminates the lengthy and cumbersome procedures out and clears the way for the users to execute what they want to easily.

This is not an overrated statement that 4/5 of the people use mobile phones and out of them at least half of the people shop online from a hairclip to a pair of shoes or sandals; from soap to a perfume; from a beautiful dress to a branded pair of jeans and what not?

When everything is available online, why would people waste their time, efforts, and energy in personal visiting and buying?

Cryptocurrency gives reasons to believe in this online system to the ones who are yet afraid of the online scams or any kind of insecurity while making online payments.

The reason is that it eliminates the risk of fraud for individuals as well as for business entrepreneurs.

Therefore, it is building a strong base and strengthening the e-commerce day by day. Moreover, it also allows users to shop online freely.

Hence, these were some of the highlighted benefits and core points about Cryptocurrency that will surely give you a boost to ponder about it.

We surely are entering into an exciting world where the fear will be eliminated, and confidence will be leveled up in every being. Cryptocurrency will have more dynamic effects than the ones mentioned here.

The one that can foresee the uncertain and un-happened can foretell that Cryptocurrency will bring great opportunities for the people as well as for the businesses in the upcoming time.

By Harikrishna Kundariya, who is a marketer, developer, IoT, ChatBot & Blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz Technologies, an AngularJS Web Development Company. His 8+ experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT & Blockchain.

Website URL:- https://www.esparkinfo.com/

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Can Cryptocurrency Transform The Business World in 2020? - Irish Tech News