Month: March 2020

Another blockchain project is heading to the Polkadot Network. Launched in 2017, Internet-of-Things (IoT) platform Nodle announced it is switching from the Stellar blockchain to Parity Technologies’ Substrate network, according to a blog post shared in advance with CoinDesk. Substrate lets teams customize their own blockchains; Nodle’s is called Arcadia. Nodle provides “last mile” support for IoT devices through connections to smartphones. The network had recently been averaging roughly 1 million daily microtransactions over the Stellar blockchain. The protocol joins Read more …

Yesterday’s Bitcoin rally has led the cryptocurrency into the mid-$6,000 region, with the mounting resistance at $6,500 proving to be too much for BTC’s bulls to surmount. This has led to yet another bout of consolidation around this level. One analyst is noting that Bitcoin’s bulls are currently being “put to the test” after losing a key technical level that was previously bolstering its price action. If bulls want to further extend their newfound momentum and propel the crypto higher, Read more …

Brazilian crypto exchange XDEX, which is owned by the largest stock broker in Latin America, announced the end of its activities. The company announced its closure on March 31: “Today, we announce that XDEX is starting the process of closing its activities. Market projection, competition and few regulatory advances reduced the opportunities found at the beginning of the project and were the basis for this difficult decision.” Take some time The company offered non-custodial exposure to cryptocurrencies, so customers have Read more …

Bitcoin (BTC) balances of the major exchanges are at their lowest point since 2019. Calm waters ahead? From a high in mid-January, the number of Bitcoins on deposit at major exchanges has dropped significantly in following months. This trend accelerated after the recent market collapse. Source: Glassnode Further supporting this trend is the “exchange net inflow” data, which is derived by subtracting Bitcoins leaving exchanges from Bitcoin moving into exchanges. The net inflows have been negative for much of 2019 Read more …

Blockchain firm Lightning Labs drafted the specifications of a new Lightning Network-based authentication system that could replace traditional email-based accounts. According to a March 30 announcement, the Lightning Service Authentication Tokens (LSAT) is a new authentication protocol for paid services. The system issues Lightning-based tokens for users after they paid for the service in Bitcoin (BTC) instead of providing their personal information for traditional email-based accounts. The lightning tokens in question act as tickets for the purchased resources and encode Read more …

Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ — the man behind Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world — took part in Cointelegraph China HUB, an online interview column started by Cointelegraph China. Cointelegraph：The markets are currently seeing high volatility, which has challenged Bitcoin’s role as a safe haven and sparked a crisis of faith in the industry. But you tweeted: ”Still worried about #BTC going to 0? Don’t! So long as I have a penny left, it won’t Read more …

Coinbase reports that it migrated its Tezos (XTZ) staking bakery from the United States to Ireland while incurring just one minute of downtime on March 31. Since launching its staking service for XTZ in 2019, the exchange has come to operate the largest validator in the Tezos network. Regulatory needs of Tezos ETP provider sparks Coinbase bakery migration The Irish migration of Coinbase Custody’s Tezos Bakery was necessitated by the regulatory needs of Swiss digital asset product provider Amun. In Read more …

The U.S. mortgage industry faces collapse once again, this time due to the economic consequences following the coronavirus outbreak and massive job losses. Up to 50% of borrowers could default on their mortgage payments, according to industry estimates. Since the stimulus bill signed by President Donald Trump provides relief for homeowners but does not provide relief for the mortgage industry, companies are worried they may go out of business. Also read: 2x Bitcoin — Wanna Double Your BTC to the Read more …

A group of former State Street blockchain builders are now launching their own company – but with distributed ledgers playing only a minor role. “We could have retrofitted Hyperledger or any other blockchain project to do the management of consumers’ personally identifiable information, but it would have just added so much unnecessary burden on the platform that we felt that wasn’t necessary,” Kohari, the firm’s CEO, said. The Manetu team is not short on blockchain know-how, with its mix of Read more …

Leah Callon-Butler, a CoinDesk columnist, is the director of Emfarsis, a consulting firm focused on the role of technology in advancing economic development in Asia. About a week ago, my boyfriend and I stood in the kitchen and had a discussion about where we would hide a wad of cash if we were to drain our local bank account. The bookshelf was too obvious. Under the mattress was too cliché. I suggested a ziplock bag in the freezer and he Read more …

The total cryptocurrency market cap can oftentimes provide clues as to where Bitcoin and altcoins could be headed in the short-term. The latest price action is exhibiting a pattern that looks structurally similar to a head and shoulders, which if valid and confirmed would suggest Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market will make another retest of lows. Cryptocurrency Market Chart Forms Head and Shoulders Reversal The coronavirus hasn’t just killed thousands, frozen humanity, and devastated the economy, it’s Read more …

Money — the magical power it has on people is almost universal. But whether we earn it, spend it or save it, we hardly ever think about the following questions: What is money? Why does it exist? What will money look like in the future? And why should we think too much about it? Our money works. Day in, day out, we use it without much effort. So what’s the problem? As August Friedrich von Hayek pointed out, we humans Read more …