Sunday 31 December 2017

Bitcoin’s Dominance of Cryptocurrency Market Is Fading

For much of its history, bitcoin had been synonymous with the cryptocurrency market. But 2017 signaled a profound shift in market dynamics, with bitcoin accounting for a smaller share of the pie. This trend could intensify in 2018 as investors discover new use cases for the many altcoins hitting the market.

Bitcoin’s Declining Market Share

On Jan. 1, bitcoin accounted for nearly 88% of the cryptocurrency market’s total capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. Twelve months later, that share has fallen to roughly 39%. At its lowest in June, bitcoin accounted for less than 38% of the market. Over that period, existing altcoins and those that emerged from bitcoin hard forks have seen their market capitalization rise.

This isn’t to say bitcoin’s influence is declining. It remains by far the largest, both in terms of market cap and daily turnover, and is capping off an incredible year of growth. However, as the recent upsurge in Ripple demonstrated, investors are noticing potential beyond bitcoin. An asset like Ripple further demonstrates that not all cryptocurrencies offer the same value proposition. Diversify in value and use case will only grow as more cryptos enter the market. At the time of writing, there are nearly 1,400 coins to choose from.

For market participants, some of the more attractive altcoins have been those that try to overcome bitcoin’s scalability issues and transaction limitations. Ripple is one example, and Cardano is another. Cryptocurrency IOTA is emerging as an enabler for the internet of things, which represents a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity. Litecoin has also earned its keep for its promise of more confidential transactions. Ethereum also suffers from transaction limitations, but has quickly emerged as the platform of choice for businesses seeking to raise startup capital via initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Bitcoin’s declining market dominance is also observed when analyzing its impact on other cryptocurrencies. For much of the year, it wasn’t uncommon for the overall market to follow bitcoin’s lead. Although this is still the case, bitcoin’s impact on other cryptocurrencies is nowhere near as high as it was just one month ago.

As CCN notes, bitcoin’s November correction was met with a nearly identical percentage decline in the market’s overall capitalization. But since plunging 30% from its most recent peak near $20,000, the broader crypto market declined by only 6%.

It’s still too early to conclude that bitcoin’s market dominance will decline indefinitely, but it’s clear that investors are beginning to diversify into other cryptocurrencies. This suggests the market is distributing wealth more proportionately across the digital asset class, which is positive from the perspective of risk.

At the time of writing, the global cryptocurrency market was valued at roughly $615 billion, which represents a gain of nearly 3,400% since the start of the year. In volume terms, bitcoin accounts for less than 40% of daily transactions. Ripple, Ethereum, Tether and bitcoin cash round out the top five, based on the last 24 hours of activity.

Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.

Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock. 

Important: Never invest (trade with) money you can’t afford to comfortably lose. Always do your own research and due diligence before placing a trade. Read our Terms & Conditions here. Trade recommendations and analysis are written by our analysts which might have different opinions. Read my 6 Golden Steps to Financial Freedom here. Best regards, Jonas Borchgrevink.

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How Serverless Computing will Change the World in 2018

Serverless computing is a fairly new concept that has somewhat exploded in terms of popularity. This is in-part due to AWS’ Serverless offering, AWS Lambda as well as Azure’s newly released Functions.

Serverless computing essentially allows you to define individual API endpoints that perform any number of actions once triggered. This could be as simple as a “Hello World” endpoint or as complex as an online store transaction endpoint that handles credit-card payments.

I believe the combination of the following factors are going to cause an explosion in the number of developers leveraging Serverless options in order to extend their existing systems.

Parallels With The Unity Game Engine

When I first started getting into programming 8 or so years ago, I was focused on game programming. I read up on the forums and bought the books C++ Primer Plus, Beginning C++ Through Game Programming and OpenGL Programming Guide.

When I was just getting started I ultimately believed that I could do everything from the physics and gameplay side to the AI and graphics rendering systems. I was overly optimistic and unfortunately I never completed a full game.

However I was able to learn a hell of a lot and as I was entering university, a game engine called Unity3D came out and started to revolutionize the way game developers developed their games.

By the end of 2016, thousands of games had been developed and released onto the Steam platform. By abstracting away some of the key complexities of game development such as the graphics rendering system, game developers were able to make far further strides than they would have been should they have attempted to go it alone.

Serverless computing will have as big an impact on software development as Unity3D had on Game Development.

Horizontally Scalable

When it comes to services such as AWS Lambda, when you expose an endpoint, you don’t necessarily have to worry about massive surges in traffic. The underlying system will automatically handle things such as load-balancing and the provisioning of appropriate infrastructure in order to meet any massive surges in traffic.

Pay For What You Use

When it comes to AWS pricing, you pay for what you use. There is no need to provision a tonne of t2.small instances running your service and autoscaling groups that will duplicate said instances in the event of surges.

This all comes for free.

Underlying Infrastructure Managed For You

These Serverless cloud providers constantly monitor and manage the underlying fleet of servers running your code. They apply security patches as and when they are available.

This helps to minimize the risk of 0-day exploits hitting your company hard and somewhat reduces underlying infrastructure security concerns.

If you were running your own EC2 instances you would have to apply security patches yourself and you would have to keep on top of them as they come out. This can be a time drain and can reduce the amount of time you spend actually producing new products and services.

Language Agnostic Endpoints

Thankfully, every endpoint you set up can use a different language runtime. If you have Python developers, feel free to let them create endpoints written purely in Python, if you have Go developers, let them do likewise.

AWS Lambda supports Node.js, Java, C#, Python and more recently Golang so the option to enable your developers to write in the language they are most comfortable with is certainly there.

These endpoints can be written in a number of different languages which allows you to specifically choose the language best fitted for the job. This alone is a major win.

Changing the World, Faster

As we lower the friction between having an amazing idea and implementing it so that it is production ready, we will maximise the speed at which newer technologies can evolve and subsequently make their mark on the world.

Conclusion

These are just a few key points that make Serverless computing an incredibly attractive option for all developers to consider when developing new systems.

Obviously there will be some reasons why certain applications will never be able to migrate to a serverless architecture but I’m hoping this article has at least made you consider serverless for those scenarios where it is possible!

Let me know what you think in the comments section below or by tweeting me: Elliot Forbes. I’m also on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotforbes/ for those of you wanting to connect!

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As Prices Dip, Bitcoin’s Market Dominance Slips Towards New Low–and the Market is Better for It

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It’s dipping season, folks.  Well, it was dipping season.  Yesterday, assets all across the cryptocurrency market were getting hammered, and the ubiquitous price dent had 89 out of Coin Market Cap’s top 100 turning red at the time of our first draft’s initial coverage.

During this latest dip, Bitcoin went sub $13k.  As of press time, crypto’s flagship currency has bounced back up to around $14,200 as it’s climbing away from the lows it hit upon the recent Christmas correction.  The market has been strapped for confidence since the pre-Christmas flash crash, as Bitcoin’s net worth has fluctuated around the $215-240bln range since the correction.  Depending on these day-to-day ebbs and flows, this puts it down anywhere from 28-36% from its market cap’s all time high of $333bln.

A Loss in Bitcoin Dominance Could Pave the Way for Alt-coin Confidence

In the wake of the recent correction, however, we’ve witnessed a rare sight: Bitcoin’s market capitalization dominance has fallen below 40%.  The last time this happened, alt-coins were on the come-up of a booming summer market, and Ethereum was breathing down Bitcoin’s neck amidst wild speculations of the flippening.  During this time, Bitcoin’s market dominance reached a low of 37.29%.

Now, Bitcoin is inching towards this figure once again, entertaining the possibility of an unprecedented low in market dominance.  Over the course of the last two days, crypto’s king has flirted between a 37.5% and 39% share of crypto’s total marketcap.  If it drops below the 37.29% threshold, we’ll see Bitcoin at its weakest since the market’s inception.

Of course, this came at a time when the rest of the market was suffering, as well, with the exception of a few outliers.  Ripple was one of these exceptions, surging to a new all time high yesterday of $2.84.  This situation calls to mind Ethereum’s gaining on Bitcoin back in June, as Ripple’s current capitalization is $90bln, nearly half of Bitcoin’s own.  Difference being, of course, Ripple is one of the only currencies actually performing well right now, while Ethereum’s surge came with a rising tide of alt-coin prices.

Still, Bitcoin’s neutered market dominance is good for one thing: it mitigating the impact of the latest correction.  But everything still bled out for a while there, right?  Well, yes, but when we compare this correction to those in months past, a more evenly distributed share of market wealth is stanching loses.

For example, let’s compare our latest dip to one from last September. Over the course of about two weeks, Bitcoin’s price fell 40% from an all time high of $5,000.  The market followed suit, dropping 44% to $100bln from a high of $180bln just 13 days prior.  At the time, Bitcoin boasted a market dominance of ~45%, and as the data indicates, crypto’s overall market cap seemed fettered to Bitcoin’s fluctuations. Just take a look at charts for both Bitcoin’s price and the total market’s value during the September correction–they’re practically identical.

On a smaller scale, an end of November correction tells a similar story.  As Bitcoin lost 19% of its value, the market’s overall capitalization dropped a nearly identical 20%.  During this dip, Bitcoin owned a healthy majority of the market at 55%.

But it looks as though times have changed.  Since peeking its head just above $20k on December 17th, Bitcoin has lost 30% of its value with its current price floating around $14,000.  Meanwhile, cryptocurrency’s net worth is only down 6% since Bitcoin began its most recent downward trend. The market hit an all time high of $654bln on December 21st, and at press time, it is valued at approximately $610bln.  Even as alts suffered losses yesterday, the market was only down 13% from its December 21st high.  All the while, Bitcoin’s market dominance has made a steady recession from 55% to its current 38.6% share.

I’m not going to tell you that Bitcoin is dying, nor am I going to try to argue that the market hasn’t taken a hit thanks to the Christmas correction–most coins suffered loses from their all time highs, and its likely that your portfolio has come down with a case of post-holiday scarlet fever.

But I will say that, when we compare this pullback to corrections in the past, alt-coins and the market in general are fairing much better than they would be if Bitcoin held a majority of overall market value. Whereas the market’s losses have been nearly synonymous with Bitcoin’s own over the course of 2017, it appears that cryptocurrency as a whole is slowly but surely breaking free of the ties that bind its fate to Bitcoin’s.

If 2018 brings balance to market dominance within cryptocurrency’s top 10, this could usher in a new era of alt-coin confidence, and it could also hedge investing risks by distributing wealth more proportionally across all market assets.  

So keep an eye on Bitcoin’s market dominance heading into the new year, and don’t despair too much over your sickly portfolio–it could be much worse.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely that of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to CCN.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Bitcoin News

Bitcoin Price Slightly Recovers as Ripple Market Cap Drops by $13 Billion

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The bitcoin price has slightly recovered to above $13,500 as the market valuation of Ripple dropped by $20 billion overnight.

Major Shift in Trend

Since December 30, Ripple has regained $7 billion in market cap and is still demonstrating a valuation significantly larger than Ethereum, the third most valuable cryptocurrency in the market.

Over the past few days, the entire cryptocurrency market has experienced a drastic shift in trend. Newly introduced cryptocurrencies like Cardano have demonstrated rapid growth. Cardano in particular surpassed Litecoin in terms of market valuation, achieving a $18 billion market cap.

The dominance index of bitcoin has also declined to an all-time low at 38.3 percent, as alternative cryptocurrencies in the market started to surge in value. While it is difficult to justify the market valuation of most of the cryptocurrencies in the market, it has become worrisome that the combined market valuation of alternative cryptocurrencies surpassed that of bitcoin.

In January of 2017, the dominance index of bitcoin was at over 90 percent and the majority of the funds in the market were stored in bitcoin. 12 months later, as the market enters 2018, the dominance index of bitcoin remains below 39 percent.

Several analysts are still optimistic in bitcoin achieving a trillion dollar market cap by the end of 2018, given its network effect and the adoption by financial institutions. Bitcoin still remains as the only cryptocurrency with full support from major financial institutions building options trading, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and custodian platforms for retail traders.

As CCN previously reported in November, billionaire hedge fund legend Mike Novogratz stated:

“Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018. It easily could. Ethereum, which I think just touched $500 or is getting close, could be triple where it is as well. There’s a big wave of money coming, not just here but all around the world. What’s different about these coins than other commodities … there is no supply response here. So it’s a speculator’s dream in that as buying happens there’s no new supply response that comes up.”

The bitcoin community, market, and users are also expecting lower transaction fees in 2018, with the implementation of innovative scaling solutions. Developers remain confident that with the activation of Lightning, bitcoin fees can decline below $1. But, that is under the assumption that SegWit is adopted by leading bitcoin service providers like Coinbase and Blockchain. The two companies, which operate the majority of bitcoin wallets, have not integrated SegWit yet, although they plan to do so by the first quarter of 2018.

What Will Happen to Bitcoin?

Many analysts expect 2018 to be a breakout year for bitcoin, after an impressive yearly performance in 2017, with a 14-fold return. While the market valuation of many cryptocurrencies remain very high, without results, active user bases, and activities, they will not be able to retain the current valuations.

Like $10,000 was a psychological threshold for many bitcoin traders, the $1 trillion mark will be a significant milestone for bitcoin that could push its price up significantly higher than the current levels.

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Ignore nifty distractions and work on the important things

10x/rockstar/ninja developers are real and how to be one

The new year is just around the corner. With it comes the social obligation to consider how one will try (and most likely fail) to make next just a bit better than this year.

I want to be more productive and here is my take on productivity. Forget 10x. Let me suggest that there are only 1x developers and 1/10x developers. The 1x-ers spend 100% of their time and effort on what matters. The 1/10x-ers waste 90% on being busy doing the wrong thing.

From the popular software documentary

To demonstrate, here is a list of 10 things you can do as a developer:

  1. Solve a problem with code
  2. Create a problem with code
  3. Write nifty code that solves no one’s problem
  4. Have a meeting about the wrong problem
  5. Have a meeting about … I really don’t know
  6. Watch a YouTube video about someone else’s nifty problem
  7. Have a meeting about deploying your code
  8. Have a meeting about deploying someone else’s code
  9. Give an update about your code to someone who doesn’t care
  10. Give a status update on the outcome of the meeting about deploying someone else’s code that created a problem.

As you can see, being a “rockstar” is not inherently about doing more, but rather doing less. By choosing to ignore 9 out of 10 things on the list above, you are free to get 10 times as much of the right stuff done. #RealMath

Maybe you have worked with that guy who churns out bad code at furious pace. Had he literally done NOTHING all day, the company would have likely been better off. “Working” long hours just gave him more time to waste yours. Don’t be that guy.

Here are a few pointers on the best ways that I can think of to ignore the nifty distractions and work on the important things.

Know the fundamentals

Understand the problem

Elon Musk has made Aristotle’s First Principle thinking sexy again. As he (Musk) explains it “You boil things down to the most fundamental truths … and then reason up from there.” To over-simplify the origins of SpaceX, Musk observed two fundamental principles: 1) rockets are expensive but 2) raw materials are relatively cheap. The logical conclusion was to design and build his own rockets.

As an example within the software industry, you may observe the fundamental principles that 1) at lunch it takes everyone a while to find a place to eat, but 2) only a few people have strong opinions about where to go. In this case, the logical conclusion is to develop an algorithm that quickly recommends something based on a few weighted preferences. All of the resulting conversation and code should be about HOW to make that happen. Anything else is a waste of time! Don’t build a food-oriented social network. Don’t build your own cross-platform mobile UI framework. Don’t build a custom suite of tools for your deployment pipeline.

Don’t get me wrong, food consumers are social and your app UI needs to be high quality and deployed cheaply, but don’t waste brain cycles on those solutions if your fundamental problem is “instant weighted recommendations.” The best over-the-counter tools will be more than good enough. Remember, customers don’t buy nifty code that solves YOUR problem, they buy nifty solutions to THEIR problem.

Rockstar developers understand the problem and why it must be solved.

Understand the solution

Don’t write code when more code is not the solution. Not every solution comes in the form of in-house development. Is there an off-the-shelf tool that does 80% of what you need? Done. Even though you might admire the problem and think you could do better, don’t be tempted to solve it yourself. Sometimes the solution is as simple as a spreadsheet or regular phone call. While patently unsexy, Excel is often a fantastic 80% solution that lets you focus on your secret sauce.

Bad solutions are also known as problems. Roughly 75% of a project’s cost comes from maintenance after it is initially shipped. This means that if you decide to finish and deploy the wrong solution to justify its sunk cost, you will end up paying that amount 3 MORE TIMES rather than being able to invest time and effort in the correct solution. It is often tempting to jump into a project by writing code rather than identifying the correct solution. Immediately building the first solution that comes to mind before the correct one is identified leads to expensive rework. As a coworker of mine says:

“Months of coding saves a week of planning.”

Lastly, ensure you can actually “hit the high notes.” Of everything in this article, this is the only one that has anything to do with the hard skills of a developer. While much of productivity has to do with “not doing those bad things,” you still have to be able to do the right things with excellence.

Joel Spolsky refers to this as “hitting the high notes.” In his own words:

“Mediocre talent just never hits the high notes that the top talent hits all the time. The number of divas who can hit the f6 in Mozart’s Queen of the Night is vanishingly small, and you just can’t perform The Queen of the Night without that famous f6.”

If your company sells software (as opposed to, say, a bank that has an IT department), then its success or failure is predicated on the quality not the quantity your work. Invest the time to get really good at the skill sets needed to solve your core problem. Even if your problem domain struggles to hold your interest, that’s still good data. If all of the interesting problems seem to be elsewhere, go to where they are rather than importing a shiny albeit incorrect solution.

Rockstar developers avoid even the niftiest solutions to what is NOT the problem.

Solve, then automate

Human developers are good at creativity but bad at repetition. Machines, on the other hand, are horrible at creativity but awesome at repetition. Exploit this! Don’t limit your investment to just the creative process of solving problems. Take time to automate the resulting solutions. Problem solving without automation makes you a victim of your own success.

If you spend a few days learning how to deploy your project to the cloud, don’t stop until you have automated the process. NOT doing so guarantees that you are going to be stuck with that task for the foreseeable future. This will consume time that is much more wisely spent on solving your fundamental problem (which is likely not sitting through deployment meetings and following checklists).

Granted, be aware of how much time automation will save and thus how long it will take for you to see a return on your investment. Consider the following:

https://xkcd.com/1205/

Rockstar developers don’t waste time on repetitive tasks.

Scale out, not up

Humans scale poorly. (Although, at this time of year I usually tend to scale out … heh heh.) Everyone has only 24 hours a day and thus can only get so much done whether that be coding or communicating. Dan Abramov, an author of Redux, wrote a fantastic article related to this because, in his own words: “I am a human and don’t scale.” The majority of his post is a strategy for the community to leverage his work without taking a direct dependency on him.

This is the first part of scaling well: don’t be the the sole repository of your own knowledge. Dump your knowledge as publicly as possibly and then point others there. Invest time building a community around your area of expertise. Train others, write good documentation, blog, contribute to open source projects, speak at meetups, become famous, you know … find ways to communicate to a many people as possible as efficiently as possible.

The second part of scaling is learning to communicate asynchronously. A verbal, face-to-face conversation means that all parties must find time to meet at the exact same time. Steve’s first law of meetings states that the probability of scheduling a meeting quickly is inversely proportionate to the number of participants. When the system you built goes down at midnight, the on-call team needs your knowledge NOW, not at 10am the next morning. Communicating asynchronously means documenting and training when all systems are green so that you don’t have to be around when stuff goes sideways.

Rockstar developers communicate well so that others can be rockstars too.

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First Real Bitcoin Lightning Network Payment Completed via Bitrefill

Technology

Considering the persistent issues with the system at the moment, fast and cheap bitcoin (BTC) transactions might sound like a distant dream, but its realization might be just around the corner. The first transaction using real bitcoin to make a payment on the lighting network has recently been completed via mobile top-up service Bitrefill.

Also Read: Several Bitcoin Exchanges Are Closing Their Doors to New Traders

Lightning Payment on Bitrefill

First Real Bitcoin Lightning Network Payment Completed via BitrefillSoftware developer Alex Bosworth has revealed that he successfully completed the first lightning bitcoin mainnet (not a testing environment) transaction for an online purchase at Bitrefill. He paid his own actual phone bill with no fees, which executed instantly. Bitrefill is an online service that enables users top up their prepaid mobile phone plans with bitcoin and litecoin with over 600 operators across 150 countries.

The Lightning Network is a scaling solution that has been in development for a few years already. The protocol creates an off-chain system by forming a network of payment channels where funds are not entrusted to a third party. It theoretically promises to scale bitcoin by allowing thousands of transactions per second without compromising its trustless nature.

Bitrefill CEO, Sergej Kotliar, explained to news.bitcoin.com the motivation for this development by his team. “As we all know, blockchains currently don’t scale for consumer payments and currently require tradeoffs between decentralization and efficiency.  Lightning is a tool that can enable the best of both worlds – a great customer experience (both fast and cheap), but also trustless custody of funds. So we’re eager to enable it as a payment method and do what we can to support developments on that front.”

Full Steam Ahead

This payment integration with Lightning has been surprisingly easy and the company is already working on further developments, Kotliar explained to us. “At first we’ve enabled Bitrefill orders to be paid with Lightning. That’s the easiest integration for us. Next step will be enabling full lightning support (send and receive) in our user accounts.”

As to how he sees his company’s role in the larger development of the network, the CEO said: “A common problem with new technology and innovation is actually implementing things in production. That’s also where real issues pop up. We’re a small company, but we think that it’s important to help where we can. In our case it’s at least implementing this new piece of technology as it becomes available and provide testing. Credit belongs where credit is due with all of the independent and corporate developers of the Lightning protocol.”

Real Bitcoin Lightning Network Payment Completed on Bitrefill

Bitrefill most recently made headlines when it came to the rescue of bitcoin PC gamers after Steam announced that the popular online games store would no longer accept BTC as a method of payment. “I can’t share revenue numbers but I’ll tell you that Steam voucher sales far exceeded our expectations, Kotliar commented. “We’re looking to add more voucher products to our service soon.”

Would the lightning network be the cure-all for bitcoin’s current ills? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.


Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitrefill.


Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.

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Australian Bitcoin Investors Claim Banks are Shutting Down Their Accounts

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Bitcoin investors in Australia have claimed that major banks including National Australia Bank, ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation, have started to freeze the bank accounts of cryptocurrency traders without prior notice.

Major Banks Called Out

Earlier this week, Australian cryptocurrency trader Alex Saunder publicly called out all of the major banks in Australia that have had a history of treating cryptocurrency traders unfairly, despite the criticism of the Australian government.

In May, the Australian government released the 2017-18 budget which contained the elimination of double taxation on the trading of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Given the controversy around some of the country’s largest banks unfairly closing down the accounts of cryptocurrency traders and businesses, the government also reaffirmed that it will provide a friendlier ecosystem for both cryptocurrency businesses and users.

“The Government will make it easier for new innovative digital currency businesses to operate in Australia. From 1 July 2017, purchases of digital currency will no longer be subject to the GST, allowing digital currencies to be treated just like money for GST purposes,” the budget read.

Still, regardless of the efforts of the Australian government to revive its cryptocurrency and fintech industries that have struggled to see success for many years due to the unfair treatment of businesses, Australian banks are reportedly refusing to provide services to fintech businesses like bitcoin exchanges and brokerages.

CoinSpot, one of the few remaining cryptocurrency exchanges processing Australian dollar (AUD)-to-bitcoin trades, stated that the company has placed a temporary restriction on all forms of AUD deposits, because of the lack of banking services provided by local financial institutions.

“We assure you we are just as unhappy with the situation as you, but unfortunately Australian banks have been so far unwilling to work with the digital currency industry which leads to frequent account closures and strict limits on accounts whilst they remain operational, in effect debanking our industry,” said CoinSpot.

Bitcoin Babe AU, another Australian cryptocurrency trader, revealed two documents sent by ANZ, announcing the closure of the trader’s bank accounts. The two documents provided a vague explanation for the closure of the client’s bank accounts. They read:

“In accordance with the Business Transaction Account Terms and Conditions, ANZ gives you notice of its intention to exercise its discretion to close the above accounts effective 30 January 2018.

ANZ may exercise its discretion to close an account due to unsatisfactory conduct for any other reason it considers appropriate.”

Commonwealth Bank Says it Does Not Recommend Cryptocurrencies

A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson also Sydney Morning Herald in an interview that it does not embrace cryptocurrencies because the institution believes they have not been regulated. But, evidently, lack of regulation is not a viable reason to close down the accounts of traders, given that the Australian government has regulated bitcoin as a currency.

“However, we do not currently use or recommend any existing virtual currencies as we do not believe they have yet met a minimum standard of regulation, reliability, and reputation compared to other currencies that we offer to our customers”.

The Australian government eliminated double taxation on bitcoin in June to revive its local cryptocurrency and bitcoin markets. Without proper banking services, the Australian cryptocurrency industry will not be able to compete with other regions like Singapore and Hong Kong with friendly regulations.

Featured image from Shutterstock,

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2017 Review: The Year Cryptocurrencies Seized the Mainstream Spotlight

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Two Thousand Seventeen will go down in the history books as a year cryptocurrency made tangible inroads in mainstream finance and commerce, driven by the 1400% rise in bitcoin’s price over the year. Regulatory measures, worrisome network forks and warnings from naysayers could not stop the crypto momentum as consumers and businesses by the millions became first-time cryptocurrency users.

Source: CCN

As bitcoin’s price rose steadily throughout the year, the upward pace gained momentum in the fourth quarter, with the price nearly reaching $20,000 in mid-December.

During the month of November, which saw triple-digit gains in a matter of a few days at a time, bitcoin skeptics with impressive financial credentials joined the “bitcoin’s a bubble” chorus.

As bitcoin use rises, the media pays more attention to it, making more people aware of its use as both an investment and a currency. The convenience of making transactions across borders with minimal transaction fees provides significant benefits to both businesses and individuals.

In 2017, more retailers, both physical and online, accepted bitcoin as a form of payment, including Virgin Galactic, Overstock, TigerDirect, Dish Network, Expedia, Newegg, Microsoft, eGifter, Gyft, Zynga, Starbucks, Subway and Autopartsway.

2017 Began Strong

Bitcoin began the year on a positive note with the U.S. election of Donald Trump last November, who many viewed as pro-bitcoin.

The fall of the Chinese yuan in January drove many investors to seek better opportunities, including cryptocurrencies.

Concern about the bitcoin hard fork – a protocol designed to address slow transaction times as currency use increases – carried over from 2016 into 2017, a concern that gave many observers uncertainty about bitcoin’s future. These concerns were largely put to rest as a series of forks took effect throughout the year.

Source: CCN

Bitcoin continued to surge in August after the execution of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork. Bitcoin Cash blocks can hold up to 8 MB worth of transactions, whereas the original bitcoin is capped at 1 MB.

Investors quickly realized that the hard fork had little to no impact on the bitcoin network and that the activation of the Bitcoin Core development team’s transaction malleability fix and scaling solution Segregated Witness (SegWit) meant that for the first time in the history of bitcoin, the activation of a major scaling solution was locked in and insight.

The bitcoin market used the hard fork as a trigger to establish momentum and continue to increase in value.

As a result, some of the largest bitcoin exchange markets, including the U.S., South Korea, China and Japan, experienced drastic increases in bitcoin demand, as the digital currency hit an all-time global high at the time of $3,470.

The Japanese bitcoin industry, in particular, demonstrated an exponential growth rate in terms of merchant adoption and daily trading volumes of local exchanges. Apart from the Philippines and China, Japan is one of the few markets that has been considering bitcoin as a digital currency rather than as digital gold and a long-term investment.

Bitcoin Cash, for its part, made its mark, eventually challenging Ethereum for the number two cryptocurrency.

The Bitcoin Gold fork launched in October with the goal of making bitcoin more decentralized by blocking the use of ASIC miners. Bitcoin Gold, an altcoin that — like Bitcoin Cash — has a shared blockchain history with bitcoin, delivered a minor temporary setback to bitcoin’s price, which dropped below $5,700 on Oct. 24, as traders rebalanced their portfolios to stake larger positions in altcoins following the Bitcoin Gold hard fork. Ethereum jumped 8%, while two of the top 10 cryptocurrencies — Dash and NEO — posted double-digit increases.

Altogether, the cryptocurrency market cap added about $700 million on Oct. 24, even as bitcoin temporarily dropped more than 3%.

Bitcoin Gold, for its part, fell to $136 in two days — even amid buying pressure from margin traders who wanted to purchase it to pay back lenders. The price has stabilized since that time, standing at $218.41 on Dec. 30., according to ccn.com.

The impact of the SegWit2x (B2X) hard fork on Dec. 29 was uncertain at this time, but forks, to date, have not delivered negative lasting impact on bitcoin demand. (The SegWit2X should not be confused with a fork led by Jeff Garzik that failed to launch in November. The B2X increases the block size to 4 MB, twice the amount as the earlier SegWit2x proposal.)

What also remains unknown at the present time is whether SegWit2x delivered the solution to slow transaction times.

Most observers voiced no problem with hard forks as a tool for competition and experimentation, even though some see forks as compromising the perception of bitcoin’s limited supply, which they view as critical to its underlying value.

Altcoins Also Fork

Several altcoins also forked in 2017.

Ethereum’s Byzantium hard fork took effect Oct. 16, considered to be the first half of Metropolis, a protocol upgrade that has been planned since 2015. It introduced nine protocols to enhance the network’s privacy, scalability and security. The second phase — Constantinople — does not yet have an official release date but is tentatively scheduled for 2018.

Source: CCN

This marked the fifth time the Ethereum network has undergone a hard fork. The ETH price has appreciated more than 3,000% since its last hard fork in November 2016.

ZenCash, which provides a privacy networking platform, partnered in June with IOHK, a blockchain research and development company, to upgrade to a transaction replay resistant system via a soft fork. The ZenCash platform’s design allows users to conduct shielded transactions that hide information about sender and receiver, as well as the transaction amount. Users can also perform transparent transactions. Communications are encrypted among nodes, delivering certificate-based encryption connections for ZenCash wallet applications.

Monero successfully hardforked in January to add higher levels of privacy and anonymity.

Source: CCN

Political And Economic Factors

Political and economic news tended to enhance cryptocurrency’s standing among investors in 2017.

The war of words between the U.S. and North Korea in August raised the demand for cryptocurrencies at the expense of traditional “safe” havens such as U.S. Treasuries and gold.

In inflation-ravaged Venezuela, bitcoin overtook the bolivar as the main currency, despite attempts by the government to crack down on bitcoin mining.

Other governments continued to seek to regulate cryptocurrencies out of concerns about money laundering and other fraudulent activities.

European regulators are considering joint bitcoin regulation due to concerns about money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing. The governments of India, Singapore and the Philippines have issued warnings about bitcoin. China, meanwhile, banned ICOs and cryptocurrency trading.

Investor Acceptance Grows

Bitcoin also made progress in gaining acceptance among mainstream investors in 2017, as two Chicago trading firms – Cboe and CME – issued bitcoin futures.

In July, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted LedgerX LLC registration as a derivatives clearing organization under the Commodities Exchange Act. The company was granted temporary approval to operate as such in 2015.

New York’s department of financial services in January approved Coinbase’s application for a virtual currency and money transmitters license, making it one of the largest bitcoin companies to gain the department’s approval and one of five virtual currency firms granted approval to operate in New York State.

One of the biggest challenges still to be met on the investment front is gaining the government’s approval for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which many observers believe will unleash a floodgate of investment capital. In March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the first bitcoin ETF, causing the price to fall from a high of $1,350 at the time to below. $1,000.

Also read: Ripple briefly achieves $100 billion market cap, can it be justified?

Market Correction Strikes

Bitcoin’s fourth-quarter surge corrected itself on Dec. 10, as its price shed 25% of its valuation, taking most altcoins down with it, including Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Cardano, IOTA, NEM, and Monero. The price stabilized around $14,000 in the final days of the year.

The end-of-the-year price correction is not viewed as a sign of a bubble as much as imposition of new regulations on domestic bitcoin exchanges in South Korea, a bitcoin trading hub. Analysts have also attributed the correction to the sudden increase in the value of cryptocurrencies over the past few months. The 25% correction cannot be viewed with alarm against the full year’s gains.

The South Korean regulations, for their part, are seen by some as a sign of official recognition that will benefit the markets over the long-term and help bitcoin mature into a mainstream asset, even as market traders exhibit uncertainty about how these regulations will affect the markets in the short-term.

Leading altcoins, with the exception of Bitcoin Cash, recovered faster than bitcoin from the recent correction. Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Cardano, IOTA, Dash, NEM and EOS all recorded gains of over 10 percent in the days following the Dec. 10 fallout.

Source: CCN

Ripple’s price surged by 38 percent on Dec. 29, enabling XRP to unseat Ethereum as the second-most valuable cryptocurrency. Ripple managed to tread water during the market downturns, and it has surged during the calm periods in between. In the last week of December, its price leaped by more than 80 percent, bringing it to a present value of $1.63 on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.

Some analysts claimed that the entrance of institutional money and hedge funds in the cryptocurrency market initially by bitcoin futures has led investors to explore other cryptocurrencies.

Others have attributed the success of altcoins to the scalability issues of bitcoin and the lack of SegWit integration to date.

Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency market as a whole, buoyed by Ripple’s recent rally, grew to $584.8 billion Friday, Dec. 29, a single-day increase of approximately 5% from Thursday, when it was valued at $554.5 billion.

The fourth quarter price surge attracted media attention to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, causing some reputable financial experts to join the naysayers. Such experts include Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder and CEO of the Citadel hedge fund management firm; Jim Cramer, former hedge fund manager, best-selling author, and host of Mad Money; Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business; Katsunori Sago, the chief investment officer at Japan Post Bank; Societe Generale Deputy CEO Severin Cabannes; and Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam.

Meanwhile, bitcoin continues to gain acceptance by businesses and consumers.

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$1 Million Bitcoin Ransom Reportedly Paid for Kidnapped EXMO Executive

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On December 26, 40-year-old IT specialist and bitcoin exchange executive Pavel Lerner was kidnapped in Kiev, Ukraine. He was reportedly forced into a Mercedes-Benz Vito by unknown assailants wearing dark clothes and balaclavas. Lerner, a leading analyst at cryptocurrency exchange EXMO, stopped answering the phone after leaving the company’s offices.

Speaking to Reuters, Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, stated that Pavel Lerner was released after a $1 million bitcoin ransom was paid. Per his words, it seems either Pavel Lerner or EXMO paid the ransom, but at this point it’s unclear who actually did it. Per a statement EXMO released, Pavel didn’t have access to the financial assets of users, and the platform kept operating normally.

Notably, Gerashchenko added that this is the “first such case in Ukraine linked to bitcoin,” a potential hint at just how big cryptocurrencies are becoming. Kiev police begun investigating the crime on December 26, and so far it has only admitted it launched a criminal investigation after a man was kidnapped in the Obolon district, without revealing the victim’s name.

After Lerner was found alive and safe, EXMO revealed he was in a “state of major stress” and as such wouldn’t provide any official comments in the coming days. In its statement, the cryptocurrency exchange, which currently has a $194 million trading volume and lists crypto to Russian ruble trading pairs, thanked the cryptocurrency community for its support. The statement reads:

“EXMO team is deeply grateful to the cryptocurrency community and the media for their active support. We promise to timely provide any updates on the situation.”

It notes, however, that ”the story of Pavel’s abduction has overgrown with rumors that might tamper with the official investigation,” and as such currently “refrains from any comments or suggestions of own versions of the possible scenario, in the nearest future.”

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South Korea Enacts Rules Regulating Cryptocurrency

The South Korean government has announced a number of new restrictions on cryptocurrency trading amid a surge of crypto popularity by the South Korean public. The government claims these rules are designed to control fraud and to protect the public from losses incurred from wild price fluctuations. Bitcoin prices fell 11 percent after the announcement, but have since recovered.

“The government has warned several times that virtual coins cannot play a role as real currency and could result in high losses due to excessive volatility,” the government statement reads.

The new regulations require South Koreans to use their real identities when trading, prohibit minors from opening exchange accounts, and ban banks from offering crypto trading. The South Korean Justice Department has also recommended new laws be enacted that enable it to shut down exchanges. These new rules add to government statements earlier this month indicating that crypto profits would be taxed as capital gains.

The South Korean government has long been considered hostile to crypto adoption. In September the nation’s Financial Services Commission banned ICOs and margin trading, and rumors have swirled for several months that cryptocurrency may be banned outright. Nevertheless, the South Korean public has embraced crypto, and appears poised to make its use mainstream regardless of government actions.

The situation in South Korea thus represents a common disconnect many governments have with their constituents on crypto adoption. Actions by public officials and financial regulators to thwart cryptocurrency adoption are generally ignored by citizens eager to own and use it. Additionally, the new regulations reflect common misunderstandings by officials over the nature of blockchain assets. Simply put, it is effectively impossible to prevent anonymous crypto trading, or to limit its use to adults.

South Korea has, nevertheless, opened the door to crypto regulation, a move long supported by crypto advocates. Although largely unenforceable, these new statutes demonstrate that the South Korean government is taking cryptocurrency seriously, and recognizes it, albeit reluctantly, as a new asset class. It should thus be considered only a matter of time before more reasonable regulations are put into place.

Of critical importance is the understanding that the development of cryptocurrency is merely one component of the blockchain revolution. Blockchains are universally praised as groundbreaking technology, and will soon be commonplace in government, business, and other institutions. Thus, the digital assets that make blockchains possible must be handled by governments in a realistic manner. The sooner governments come to accept this fact the more effective regulations will be.  

It is likely that even the South Korean officials that have enacted these regulations understand that they are largely unenforceable, and will be modified or replaced as crypto use increases. These rules should thus best be seen as a stopgap response by a government that is losing control of its currency and what its citizens consider assets. The same phenomenon is, of course, happening across the globe, No doubt government responses will be similar in the short term. Nevertheless, cryptocurrency, and its underlying technology, has proven its value and relevance. Thus, its growth will no doubt continue unabated.

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PR: Cryptocurrencies Are Now Instantly Spendable with MoxyOne’s White Labelled Debit Cards

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release.

Cryptocurrencies are now worth over $600 billion. This is more than the net worth of Amazon or Facebook. Owing to its continual growth, many great projects have emerged that are developing to enhance pre-existing services and products. As the number of projects increases, so does the demand and need for a means to utilise company-issued tokens. These can range from platform and service fees on a company’s ecosystem to a more varied role such as grocery purchases and other daily transactions.

Realising the need for this service, MoxyOne is developing a white-label service for any company that wishes to supply their users with a company-issued debit card and wallet system. White labelling allows companies to become partners and gives them access to the MoxyOne infrastructure. Companies will have great flexibility to change the components on the MoxyOne system to suit their individual needs.

In addition to their white label service, MoxyOne will also be providing their token holders (SPEND) with a debit card and wallet system to make real-world purchases. Users will be able to utilise the wallet and debit card to make everyday purchases, withdraw funds from any compatible ATM and make instant payments anywhere, anytime [even where cryptocurrencies are not accepted]. Cryptocurrencies will instantly and automatically convert to fiat at point of sale without any extra input required by the user.

Liquidity providers are a major component of the MoxyOne system. These individuals or companies provide equivalent fiat for the amount of purchase by a user. They will in return, receive the full token amount as well as an added percentage of tokens as fees. By being available in multiple countries, users will incur little or no foreign exchange fees in the countries that liquidity providers are available. Cryptocurrencies and fiat will be exchanged at the domestic exchange rate which is great for travelling users.

MoxyOne already has an exchange partnership with Cryptopia, meaning SPEND will be listed there as soon as the token sale ends. Other exchanges, both majors and pay-to-play, will be listed and announced in the near future. Additionally, they have secured a partnership with a decentralised social networking platform, “Social” (SCL). They will be the first white label partner to offer its token holders a “Social” instant access debit card to be used on its platform.

Raiden Network’s micropayments channel will be used for enhanced transaction speeds and Gladius’ DDoS protection and security will be used to secure the system. It has also been announced that the MoxyOne developers are finalising a prototype for its wallet system. It may be released prior to the token sale in early 2018.

The pre-sale will begin on 8th February 2018 at 01:00 GMT and ends on 10th March 2018 at 01:00 GMT. The main token sale event will run from 14th March 2018 at 01:00 GMT to 14th April 2018 at 01:00 GMT.

Contact Email Address
info@moxy.one
Supporting Link
https://moxy.one/

This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

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Most Valuable AI Medical Blockchain Project AIDOC Officially Launched

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This is a paid-for submitted press release. CCN does not endorse, nor is responsible for any material included below and isn’t responsible for any damages or losses connected with any products or services mentioned in the press release. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned in the press release.

[Now join AIDOC official Chinese telegram group (https://t.me/AidocMe) to get 7 AIDOC tokens (about 0.6 dollars) for free! Also chances to win an IphoneX if you bring your friends to the group. More promotional activities will be announced after AIDOC get listed on exchanges. Stay tuned for more information later ]

AIDOC, whose English name AI Doctor, is a AI super doctor based on blockchain. With AIDOC, 3veryone can has their own Batmax!

Headquartered in Singapore, AIDOC is an international AI smart medical application platform development team with members from all over the world. Its core members are all industry-leading developers or experts in the field of AI and healthcare, with several years of development experience and resources accumulation in applying new technologies tomedical industry.

IDC once predicted that by the year 2020, the global medical data volume will reach 40 trillion GB, about 30 times as the one in 2010. It is foreseeable that the powerful combination of “medical + artificial intelligence + blockchain” will undoubtedly be a viable solution to the current dilemma of the medical industry. The revolutionary business model and technological innovation will be able to get through the medical industry from the ground up, so all parties are given the opportunity to realize the increase and free movement of value and all the participants will be fully connected. By integrating the resources of the health industry and deeply exploring the value of health data, AIDOC helps to maximize the value of the participants in the chain.

AIDOC’s value

According to the design standards in the whitepaper, the core value of AIDOC lies in the following two sections:

NO1.  AI super doctor AIDOC

AIDOC will create a digital profile for each registered user using AI and virtual imaging technology for free. With vital signs and pathological data uploaded, the digital profile will be more and more completed and closer to the real user.  Then, you will be able to understand your physical condition fully and timely by monitoring the digital figure in the virtual environment in real time. Also, you will be make corresponding lifestyle change or get targeted treatment according to the advice provided by built-in AIDOC super doctor. It is not just a private AI super doctor that can guard us 24/7, it also has an autonomous and uninterrupted learning ability that enable it to convoy human health tirelessly.

AIDOC will gradually incorporate advanced blockchain-related technologies such as homomorphic encryption, differential privacy and discrete storage to ensure the safety of the vital sign date uploaded by the user

NO2. The first endogenous token system that mines using vital signs data

By incorporating an endogenous token AIDOC in the system, AIDOC solves the problem of inter-block blocking in the process of value transfer between the various modules of the system, and thereby conferring economic value to the tokens to make it more conducive the dissemination and promotion of products.

Way to obtain AIDOC token

Generally, there are three ways that a user can obtain AIDOC token:

  1. During the pre-release phase of the project, AIDOC tokens were replaced. It was initially determined that using Ethereum ETH as a replacement channel, the AIDOC tokens to be exchanged would be free to circulate within the system for value transfer and may be transferred between different accounts.
  2. The day-care provider will adopt a method of “digging” for AIDOC tokens through the use of vital sign data stored in real time into personal “life-banking” accounts.
  3. In addition to the above methods, you can also get more AIDOC tokens through other channel transfer to buy, according to statistics, there will be a number of well-known exchange AIDOC trading intermediary services;

The AIDOC tokens users get through various means are automatically stored in their personal accounts and can be used to purchase a variety of products and services in the system. Of course, the tokens can also be sold to others to realize real benefits.

Technical advantages

AIDOC has now acquired the strategic medical support of MEDP.AI. Founded in January 2015 by senior scientists from Baidu and Microsoft and well-known professors from top universities, the team is a leading medical artificial intelligence company in China. The company has successively developed several kinds of artificial intelligence products such as chest CT intelligent auxiliary diagnosis system, chest X-ray intelligent auxiliary diagnosis system, ECG intelligent analysis system and medical document intelligent identification system, provided services to hundreds of medical institutions, and acquired more than 40 national patents and related technology rights. Its core technology members have won many best paper awards in international top magazines and conferences such as IJCV, CVPR and ICCV, and won top prizes in many international evaluations such as FAT and Middlebury .

The two parties have obtained billion-scale investment (RMB) from the world-renowned investment institutions such as Redpoint Ventures, New Vision Capital, Yilian Capital, Aplus Capital, as well as famous investment institutions in the field of blockchain such as Node Capital, Link Capital, Geek Capital and others.

The collaboration between AIDOC and MEDP.AI is accidental. Shizhan Wu, the founder of MEDP.AI, was one of the earliest block chain entrepreneurs in China. As early as the concept of block chain was still in its infancy, he has jointly established the well-known blockchain asset trading platform Yuanbao.com with the pioneer in blockchain industry Di Deng. Also, Wu is the co-founder of world’s first listed company in blockchain industry Tai Cloud/yuanbao token

(Wu Shizhan, founder & CEO of MEDP.AI, big data and blockchain experts, senior architect

50 major leaders of healthcare industry in 2017, executive director of China Precision Medical Industry Innovation Alliance, director of China Non-public Medical Association and director of CMFF AI Professional Committee. Former chief of Baidu commercial big data team leader and the market chief data officer, has a wealth of big data management and mining experience, especially for high concurrent high availability environment, a large number of operations have in-depth research and practice. Prior to founding Medicare, he was the co-founder of Taiyun Cloud / Yuanbao, the first blockchain listed company in China, and had deep understanding and research in the area of blockchain. )

AIDOC project development direction and domestic prospects

AIDOC already has a well-formed product model and a large and professional background of resources at the beginning of the project release. Apart from the popular label of blockchain and medical treatment, AIDOC is still expected to radiate broader fields. Artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain technology, deep integration, technology will bring disruptive innovation experience for users.

It has been revealed that AIDOC’s product launches and marketing plans are expected to be opened simultaneously in the near future on a global scale, and there will also be a corresponding incentive mechanism promulgated.

The core value of AIDOC in the current phase lies in obtaining “to mine” the token through vital signs data. User vital signs data is now mainly from third-party applications, such as iOS health data center, health APP and so on. A number of smart medical hardware sensor vendors are now working closely with AIDOC to launch customized smart medical hardware to get more accurate vital sign data and avoid cheating and the emergence of the “Wool Wool Party” To ensure that the interests of users are not infringed.

According to the person in charge of the project, the new model of “blockchain + medical treatment of artificial intelligence and big data technology” will be popularized in the future. In the future, AIDOC will make people’s vital signs data more accurate through smart medical hardware Will prevent some cheating, the most important thing is through the hardware to the user more benefits.

Other Information Please be aware of the AIDOC Chinese Telegram Bulletin: https://t.me/AidocMe

Chinese Telegram Group QR code:

Or add AIDOC customer service WeChat: AIDOC-1024 into the WeChat group to keep abreast of the progress of the project

AIDOC customer service micro signal two-dimensional code:

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CME Launches Bitcoin Futures Trading Simulator

CME Launches Bitcoin Futures Trading Simulator

Markets and Prices

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has launched a market simulation tool that allows newcomers to practice trading bitcoin futures without risking any capital. The free tool has been added to the company’s ‘CME Institute Suite’.

Also Read: Thailand’s Year of Bitcoin Ends With Central Bank Education Push

CME Tweeted About the New Simulator on December 27th – Less Than Two Weeks After Launching Its Bitcoin Futures Markets

CME Launches Bitcoin Futures Trading SimulatorEarlier this week, CME posted on Twitter alerting followers that the company had launched its new bitcoin futures simulator. The simulator will offer new investors the opportunity to practice trading the bitcoin futures markets without risking any capital losses, and will also allow more experienced traders to try out the company’s platform and experiment with new trading strategies in a risk-free environment.

The launch of the market simulation tool is likely designed to attract new participants in the bitcoin markets to CME in a bid to attain dominance in the bitcoin futures contracts-for-difference (CFD) markets.

On December 18th, CME Became the Second United States-Based Financial Market Company to Launch Bitcoin Futures

CME Launches Bitcoin Futures Trading SimulatorCME’s bitcoin futures launch followed that of CBOE – who launched their bitcoin futures contracts on December 10th. The new markets have also been exposed to traders using major retail brokerages – with TD Ameritrade allowing clients to trade CBOE’s futures contracts, and Interactive Brokers recently announcing its intention to soon allow customers to trade CME’s futures contracts in addition to CBOE’s bitcoin CFDs. Interactive Brokers claimed that it handled over half of the trading volume seen on CBOE’s launch day, despite the platform maintaining a margin requirement 150% larger than CBOE.

Major market-making firms DRW, DV Trading, and Akuna Capital have also indicated that they will provide liquidity to the bitcoin futures markets.

Despite the hype leading up to the launch of the bitcoin futures market, volume has thus far been dwarfed by the scale of trade being conducted on leading cryptocurrency exchanges. As of this writing, 1,078 contracts have been traded on CME, and 4,790 on CBOE.

Have you traded CME or CBOE’s futures markets? Share your experience in the comments section below!


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Cloak’s Transaction System Enigma Is Open Source – A Milestone for Privacy

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This is a paid-for submitted press release. CCN does not endorse, nor is responsible for any material included below and isn’t responsible for any damages or losses connected with any products or services mentioned in the press release. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned in the press release.

After three years of hard work, countless hours of programming, passion and perseverance for a shared vision, CloakCoin has reached a new milestone in building the world’s safest cryptocurrency.

ENIGMA, the in-house payment system is open source as of 31st December 2017. Anyone can now take advantage of CloakCoin’s Transaction System.

At the heart of CloakCoin is ENIGMA, protecting you from access by third parties, such as hackers, official bodies or any unwanted parties. The blockchain payment system encrypts the transactions of users and prevents transaction tracking while providing secure transactions with a maximum processing time of 60 seconds.
Thus, CloakCoin’s ENIGMA ensures full privacy combined with speed.

Many advantages that are hard to find at other cryptos and which are now easily accessible to you, the end user.

By making ENIGMA freely available, CloakCoin aims to provide its community with the transparency it deserves and gives prospects the opportunity to leverage their proven payment system.

While your own privacy is being eroded day by day, piece by piece, CLOAK rebuilds it where it matters most. ENIGMA protects your finances and transactions from sightings by unwanted parties. With the Open-Source, the team of the CloakCoin expressly declares this security. The team now stands behind the promise of making its technology freely available.

A clear manifesto at a time when heroes like Edward Snowden are being persecuted by the law and espionage is being run by the state on a grand scale, protection is more important than ever before. Nobody should give away more information than he or she wants to reveal.

Along with this manifesto and the resulting enhanced transparency, there is an opportunity to collaboratively advance CLOAK. The community, technology experts and prospects are encouraged to use its technology freely and share these improvements with the Cloak team. By doing so, CLOAK expects to receive new impulses from outside and acceleration of its establishment in the markets. The common welfare stands in the foreground.

CloakCoin is aiming for a whole new level, which will be confirmed by a quality audit of an external company in January and increased promotion of the ENIGMA technology. Already CLOAK’s current increasing value confirms its growing prominence.

CloakCoin redefines data privacy and makes its vision become reality.

Website: http://www.cloakcoin.com

Chat. http://chat.cloakcoin.com

Open Source: https://github.com/CloakProjectDev

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Bitcoin Facing Decisive Year in 2018, Says Legendary Investor

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Elevation Partners co-founder and tech investing legend Roger McNamee said that he believes 2018 will be a decisive year for bitcoin.

Why 2018 is Decisive for Bitcoin

Speaking with CNBC, McNamee — an early Facebook investor — explained that next year will be crucial in determining whether bitcoin’s ascent is sustainable over the long-term or whether it will prove to be a short-term asset bubble.

Bitcoin is “still a very small market in the context of the larger financial world, but it has had a huge year,” McNamee said on “Fast Money.” We’ve done it around a speculative mania…”If a mania goes on long enough, it becomes self-fulfilling. Even after a crash, what follows is a legitimate industry.”

McNamee compared it — favorably — to the dotcom bubble that occurred at the turn of the millennium, recognizing that although the bubble caused a brief recession it spawned a legitimate, transformative industry.

The key, he said, is that bitcoin continues to captivate investors long enough that the “mania” becomes “self-fulfilling,” and he believes that this will be apparent by the end of 2018.

“With the amount of activity going on around it, there are people willing to invest the kind of dollars it takes to make a thing like bitcoin into a long-term part of the financial market,” he said. “You’ll have these big swings, up and presumably down, as well. And, you know, wherever that settles out I think will tell us a lot about the role of bitcoin long-term.”

Increased Institutional Involvement Needed to Prevent Collapse, Says Economist

McNamee is not the only industry observer who believes bitcoin has reached a crucial juncture in its short history.

Mohamed El-Erian, the chief economic adviser at European asset management giant Allianz, said earlier this week that he believes bitcoin’s recent downtrend could prove to be a “moment of truth” for the upstart cryptocurrency.

Noting that, despite the advent of bitcoin futures, institutional investors have yet to make a splash in the cryptocurrency markets, he said that how Wall Street responds to the correction could prove decisive in the asset’s long-term trajectory.

“Either this sharp price correction will act as a catalyst for expanding…institutional involvement in this market — or it will become a stage in the deflation of a remarkable and historic asset bubble,” El-Erian concluded.

Write to Josiah Wilmoth at josiah.wilmoth(at)cryptocoinsnews.com.

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