Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies are the talk of the town these days, and investors and programmers around the world are searching for systems that will provide the greatest level of support and return. One such currency, NEO, has the makings of the largest and most important cryptocurrency in the world.

The cryptocurrencies that most people are familiar with are Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin has been in the news because of the recent fork in the currency, resulting in Bitcoin Cash. However, the blockchain that Bitcoin is supported by is limited in its effectiveness for creating and running programs. In fact, only currencies and not programs are not possible on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Ethereum was invented four years ago as a way to both monetize the blockchain and allow for programmers to build apps and programs on the chain itself. Ethereum is both a cryptocurrency (ETH) and a blockchain that allows for smart contracts and some programming languages. Built by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum still retains the anti-establishmentarianism of Bitcoin, while allowing for more programming and transaction applications.

NEO is the new name for the upgraded version of Antshares, a digital platform developed in China. NEO is a radically different and more powerful version of Antshares and presents massive opportunity for investors and programmers alike.

To begin with, NEO creates a unique digital economy around its token. NEO is a full integration of digital assets, digital identity, and smart contracts, creating a fully digitized economy that will be transparent and safe, and make money laundering and underground dealings difficult or impossible. Because of the ability of the new NEO blockchain system, companies and developers will be seeking to use NEO for various applications. The proliferation of smart contracts will make investment on the NEO platform simple and safe.

Second, NEO is unique among blockchain cryptocurrencies because of the versatility of the blockchain it is based on. Unlike Bitcoin, which only allows for the cryptocurrencies and no programming, NEO is very simple to learn and understand (unlike Ethereum), and has the ability to work with nearly every (90%) programming language available. NEO uses compilers compatible with Java, C#, and .NET, and will support Python, Go, and others in the near future. Unlike Ethereum, this diversity allows for a far more complex array of programs and apps that can be run on the NEO blockchain, and opens doors for extensive partnerships. With ease of learning and robust compatibility, NEO is poised to overtake Ethereum and others as the blockchain of choice.

Third, NEO is different philosophically. Rather than seeking simple rejection of the overall control of governments, NEO is designed to work within the framework of existing government control, while still providing freedom and autonomy to its users. This is a far more realistic perspective than the anti-government rhetoric of other blockchains, and will result in far greater investment and acceptance.

Fourth, NEO is not based on a proof-of-work mechanism, and so there is no mining necessary. This has been a huge detriment to both Bitcoin and ETH, as mining is so energy intensive and public opinion is turning against miners and the blockchain systems they support. NEO utilizes an ether-gas system for production and continuation, but protects the environment against over consumption of energy.

NEO, though relatively new, has already entered the top ten list of cryptocurrencies based on overall market cap. While this may seem like a small feat, a newer coin that has been recently released never enters the top ten in this way. NEO has had an explosive beginning as a cryptocurrency.

The future for NEO is bright, as the world begins to understand the complexity and simple elegance that is built into the NEO blockchain system. NEO will continue to gain market share (as already evidenced), and may surpass even Bitcoin in terms of its market share. As companies, investment firms, programmers and others realize the power and versatility of NEO, it may well grow to be the largest cryptocurrency in the world. Its design and features have positioned NEO to be massively successful in the coming years.

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Can NEO Become The Largest Cryptocurrency in the World? - HuffPost

In BriefIt's not outlandish to think that our current financial systemwill soon be replaced by cryptocurrency, and the shift will bringabout some big changes to the global economy. The Flippening

For a time, Bitcoin seemed unassailable in its dominance of the cryptocurrency market,being the first digital currency to really take root and establish itself in the mainstream. Since then, a host of worthy competitors have emerged, and theres a real possibility that the balance of power could flip.

Many who have been regularly followingdevelopments in the cryptocurrency market refer to the tipping point where one digital currency supersedes another as the flippening We almost saw this occur in May 2017, when Ethereums market cap approached Bitcoins amid a surge in popularity.

When individuals have significant amounts of money invested in one cryptocurrency over another, its no surprise that tensions run high when they go head to head. However, these squabbles over which coin is best might be distracting us froma more pressing issue.

Some observers would argue that the true flippeningisnt a case of competition between two different forms of cryptocurrency at all. Thesea of change yet to come could have more far reaching consequences, if and when digital currency as a whole becomes more popular than conventional fiat currency.

There would be some major advantages to an all-cryptocurrency future: its value cant be manipulated as easy as fiat currency, and it lends itself to the concept of universal basic income.In fact, several different programs, such as uCoin and Cicada, are already using cryptocurrencyto distribute UBI.

In a future where our transactions with shops and services are likely to be handled by automated systems, cryptocurrency removes many of the intermediaries that would take their own cut. There are many benefits for the individual, but the flippening stands to pose some major challenges for the global economy in its current form.

Should cryptocurrency manage to jump ahead of fiat money in terms of usage, cash wont be able to close the gap. Thats the trick to the flippening once changeover takes place, the losing party loses value and cant do anything about it.

If everyone begins using cryptocurrency, infrastructure would need to bedevelopedwith that in mind. It might not take too long for cash to become incompatible. At this point,it remains to be seen whether established financial institutions could pivot to that new status quo in time.

At the highest level, governments will be hit hard, as they will no longer exercisethe same level of control over the countrys currency. The idea of printing more money has been raised time and time again in response to financial turmoil, but that option disappears once currency has to be mined.

The flip from fiat money to cryptocurrency is a very real prospect, and it could well change the face of how our society spends and saves.

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What Would Happen if Cryptocurrency Became More Popular Than Cash? - Futurism

Sensay, a bot that connects people with other people for anonymous advice, announced today plans to launch an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency called SENSE.The bot currently has hundreds of thousands of monthly active users, founder Crystal Rose told VentureBeat earlier this year. Token sales will begin Oct. 10.

Sensay has been used by near 3 million people since its launch as an SMS bot in 2015. The bot surpassed the one million user mark in May 2016.

In an interview earlier this year, Rose told VentureBeat Sensay views monetization as a priority in order to provide its human network of advice givers incentive to use the bot and continue to offer advice on subjects ranging from relationships (most popular) to where to find dank memes.

Today, advice givers can receive tips in the form of tokens, and roughly 20 million coins have been awarded already. Once SENSE becomes available, coinholders will be immediately rewarded in a 1:1 basis, a Sensay spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.

The currency may be made available to bots, apps, and services beyond Sensay in the future, a company spokesperson told VentureBeat.

SENSE is the second cryptocurrency launched for the bot ecosystem in recent months. This spring, chat app Kik announced plans to create its own cryptocurrency called Kin.

Sensay is currently available on Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Slack, Kik, Skype, SMS, iMessage and Telegram.

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Sensay advice bot to launch Ethereum-based cryptocurrency - VentureBeat

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Jensen Huang summed up the chip makers view of cryptocurrencies in a single phrase Thursday: rock n roll.

Thats how Huang described his companys ability to ride out what he sees as a blossoming market for his companys graphics cards in mining the digital currency.

Crypto is here to stay, and the market will grow to be quite large, Huang said Thursday on the companys second-quarter call with analysts. Its not likely to go away any time soon. There will be more currencies to come, they will come from different nationsWe stay very close to the market, and understand the dynamics very well.

Dont miss: Intel earnings have message for Nvidia and AMD: Bring it on

Nvidia NVDA, -5.33% detailed quarterly results Thursday that beat expectations handily for sales and earnings, but the stock plunged more than 6.5% in after-hours trading following an already punishing day during the regular session. The companys shares are still up more than 50% this year, against the S&P 500 indexs SPX, +0.13% gains of 8.9%, as investors bet on Nvidias artificial-intelligence efforts to pay off in server and autonomous-driving sales.

Huang seemed to think crytpocurrency mining could add another long-term growth area to Nvidias bull case Thursday, and hinted at products developed specifically for those efforts, telling analysts on the call that the company offers the coin miners a special coin-mining SKU that is optimized for mining.

When asked whether the CEOs comment confirmed the rumored development of specific cryptocurrency products, an Nvidia spokesman declined to comment.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy told MarketWatch that he didnt believe that Huang was suggesting new cryptocurrency products, but rather offerings that partners in the sales channel were developing with Nvidia chips. Moorhead pointed out that there is at least one card based on Nvidias Pascal architecture that is manufactured by Asustek Computer Inc. 2357, -1.90% and marketed to cryptocurrency miners.

That is a similar approach to how Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +0.91% is approaching crypto mining, but Nvidia sounds much more optimistic on the long-term prospects for customers seeking to mine digital currencies.

Some of our partners are also offering mining-specific cards that have a different feature set, such that were really segmenting the market between gaming and mining, Su said on her companys earnings call last month. But its important to say we didnt have cryptocurrency in our forecast, and were not looking at it as a long-term growth driver.

AMD also beat earnings expectations thanks to a boom in cryptocurrency mining that uses graphics-processing units. The development of new digital currencies beyond Bitcoin over the past few months, particularly on the Ethereum blockchain, have seemed to drive sales of the two companies GPUs.

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Nvidia is more bullish on cryptocurrency than AMD

Nvidia is riding high on the boom in cryptocurrency mining, according to the graphics card (GPU) manufacturer.

Revealedyesterday, the California-based company'ssecond-quarter earnings wereup 56 percent year over year, with its GPU division taking in $1.9 billion during the second quarter a rise of 59 percent compared to the same period in 2016.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang struck a bullish tone about the prospects for selling to would-be miners, tellingVentureBeat:

"Cryptocurrency and blockchain are here to stay. Over time, it will become quite large. It is very clear that new currencies will come to market. Its clear the GPU is fantastic at cryptography. The GPU is really quite well positioned."

The firm's CFO, Colette Kress, echoed the remarks in statements, citing rising values in the global cryptocurrency market as a primary driver for GPU sales.

"Our PC OEM revenue includes GPUs designed for mainstream desktops, notebooks, and cryptocurrency mining," she said. "The recent rise in crypto coin prices resulted in increased demand in OEM GPU sales."

Huang's comments stand in contrast to those from rival GPU maker AMD, however. Last month, CEO Lisa Suindicated that the company doesn't see a long-term future for sales in the miningmarket. That aside, she indicatedthat hercompany would "continue to watch the developments" in the space.

Recent months have seen growing demand for GPUs from cryptocurrency miners, who usethe cards to add new transaction blocks to a blockchain and receive newly minted coins as reward. GPUs are used to mine cryptocurrencies like ethereumand litecointhat use the "scrypt" hashing algorithm. Bitcoin, by contrast, is chiefly mined today using dedicatedhardware called ASICs.

Jen-Hsun Huang image via Flickr/BagoGames (Creative Commons)

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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Nvidia CEO: Cryptocurrencies Are 'Here to Stay' - CoinDesk

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cryptocurrency - Steemit

The National Bank of Ukraine, the country's central bank, has indicated it may soonseek to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies.

While a clear outline for the initiative is still absent, in its latest announcement, the central bank said the legal implications of cryptocurrencies will be discussed at the next Financial Stability Board of Ukraine meeting at the end of August.

The decision comes at a time when Ukraine is seeing increased bitcoin activity, from payments to mining to blockchain development, but also when regulatory uncertainty hasled its law enforcementto take steps to reprimand bitcoin users.

Just days ago, Ukrainian police arrested several suspects who allegedly set up 200 computers to mine bitcoins at an abandoned swimming pool withina state institute in Kiev.

According to local media Kyiv Post, the court documentaccused the suspectsof illegally taking advantage of state property, and producing a currency, which is currently a function only the National Bank is legally allowed to do. Further, the law also states that no other currency besides theUkrainian Hryvnia can be treated as legal payment in Ukraine.

Citing the different approaches taken by other countries in defining cryptocurrencies, the banking authority will now begin itsdiscussion withthe Ministry of Finance, State Fiscal Service, the State Financial Monitoring Service, Securities and Stock Market State Commission and the National Commission for the State Regulation of Financial Services Markets.

Ukraine imagevia Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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Ukraine's Central Bank Moves Closer to Cryptocurrency Regulation - CoinDesk

The total value of all cryptocurrencies set a new all-time high today, rising above $126 billion for the first time in history, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The new benchmark was set at 8:00 UTC and comes just four days after the crypto asset class set aprevious recordabove $116 billion.

At press time, the price increase appears to be driven by a new influx of capital into bitcoin, the markets oldest and perhaps best understood asset. Over the last seven days, the value of one bitcoin is up more than 20%, rising to over $3,500 from $2,854 last Friday.

During that time, the total value of its coin supply also rose, climbing in value to $57 billion from $47 billion a week ago.

Strong gains have also been seen in the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Neo (formerly Antshares), a well-publicized project out of China saw its market capitalization pass $1 billion for the first time. Over the past seven days, it has seen its market capitalization rise to $1.7 billion, up from $550 million, as its price per coin climbed to $34, up from roughly $10 seven days ago.

Elsewhere, IOTA also rose to $1.7 billion, up from $1.1 billion, while ether, the native cryptocurrency on the ethereum blockchain, increased its total market cap to $28 billion, up from $21 billion aweek ago.

But that's not to say all cryptocurrencies have seen such big movementsduring the period.

Bitcoin cash, the cryptocurrency created in last week's bitcoin fork, added little new value to its market, inching up to $5.4 billion, from $5.1 billion a week ago.

Hot air balloons image via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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$126 Billion: The Cryptocurrency Market Just Set a New All-Time High - CoinDesk

European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp will launch new trading pairs for ether next week.

Beginning on August 17, Bitstamp will add markets denominated in US dollars, euros and bitcoin for the ethereum-based digital currency. As part of the release, Bitstamp also revealed a new pricing structure for its markets, which unifies the fees it assesses among the exchange'strading pairs.

In an effort to promote the new markets, Bitstamp will waive trading fees for those pairs until October 1. It will continue to offer discounts through the end of the year.

Bitstamp is one of the last major cryptocurrency exchanges to list ether. In statements, the exchange indicated that it will add support for additional assets, framing the unified fee structure release as part of that process.

Founded in 2011, Bitstamp is one of the world's oldest bitcoin exchanges. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitstamp operates the third most voluminous exchange in US dollar terms, reporting about $43 million in trades over the past 24 hours.

The addition of ether comes amid new developments in that digital asset's market. As CoinDesk reported yesterday, ether prices crossed the $300 line for the first time in a month.

Ether markets have subsided somewhat since then, trading at roughly $294 at press time.

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Bitstamp Will Add Ether Trading to Cryptocurrency Exchange ... - CoinDesk

A digital asset investment project has netted close to$1.8 million through an initial coin offering (ICO).

The Digital Developer Fund closed its ICO this morning, raising6,429 ETH worth roughly $1.85 million at current prices over a month-long period. Thecompany behind it, based in the Cayman Islands, had previously invested in domain names through a venture dating back to 2010.

The effort is one of the latest to use cryptographic tokens to represent shares in an investment firm. According to materials published on the Digital Developers Fund website, token-bearers will receive quarterly dividends distributed through an ethereum smart contract. Any netprofits generated through the fund will also be issued to token-holders.

As is the case with many ICOs, the sale was blocked to prospective buyers from the US. Other recent examples of this strategy include district0x, a blockchain-based marketplace project that raised $9 million through an ICO at the start of the month.

Token sales have accelerated in recent months, as shown by data from CoinDesk's ICO Tracker. Nearly $1.7 billion has been raised to date through the model, with more than $500 million during July alone.

That month also saw a major release from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the topic. The agency publishedits findings from an investigation into The DAO, the ethereum-based funding vehicle that sold $150 million worth of tokens at the-current prices, only to later collapse following a debilitating code exploit.

The SEC saidthat DAO tokens constitute a kind of security, and that other tokens may fall under this definition.

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Cryptocurrency Investment Fund Completes $1.8 Million ICO ... - CoinDesk