PayPal CEO Shuns Crypto, Says Bitcoin Can’t Be A Currency And Retailers Aren’t Using It

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January 23, 2019

PayPal CEO Shuns Crypto, Says Bitcoin Can’t Be A Currency And Retailers Aren’t Using It

While cryptos endure their tough winter, various skeptics have come out to voice their opinions about what they perceive as an unstable market. The latest to throw shade on cryptos is PayPal’s own CEO, Dan Schulman.

Not A Currency

Speaking during the 2019 World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Dan had a few remarks regarding cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin in particular. First, he argued that Bitcoin is yet to be really accepted as a currency, noting that even as many people tout the crypto as globally accepted, the majority of retailers are yet to fall in line. They don’t accept payment with it.

Schulman believes that the real purpose of cryptocurrencies is only to demonstrate the power of the blockchain technology and not to take them as legitimate currencies. In fact, Schulman has told the users of PayPal’s Venmo, a mobile payment solution, not to expect the company to introduce crypto payments any time soon.

It’s Too Volatile

One of the major reasons Dan Schulman doesn’t like cryptocurrency is the nature of the market. Cryptocurrencies are volatile price-wise. In his argument, that kind of volatility makes them unattractive as adoptable currencies. To cap his point, he noted that most retailers would lose a lot of money on their sales if they’re paid with a digital currency that keeps fluctuating in price, adding that the fact that Bitcoin has been known to shift by 15% or more could be a real issue that makes retailers shy away from it.

Although the CEO of PayPal could be making a case for the survival of his company, he seems to have attracted the support of a few popular people, one of them being Chris Brendler. Chris works with the Buckingham Research Group as the director of research. Chris echoes Schulman’s sentiments, saying that transacting with cryptos isn’t merchant or consumer-friendly as the process isn’t efficient enough.

PayPal Co-Founder Is A Bull

While Schulman echoes the stance taken by his predecessor, Bill Harris, back in 2018, it’s interesting to note that one of the co-founders of PayPal is actually into cryptos. Peter Thiel owns Bitcoin, and according to him, the crypto is like digital gold. He likens his Bitcoin ownership with a hedging trick – just in case things go south. Peter is worth a cool $2.5 billion.

An Introduction to the ICO World

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Guest Author

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January 23, 2019

Chances are that you might have stumbled upon the term “ICO” elsewhere and probably wondered what it is about. If this is your first time seeing it, no sweat, you’re in good company.

On the other hand, perhaps you’ve been in the crypto space for a while – and the only references you have to the term – are the “easy money” of last year’s bull market (2017) or the “loss-making crap” of this year’s bear market (2018). Why get stuck though with those points of reference considering that there are way more to it than profits/losses?

Come on in, let’s see if we can learn something new and empower ourselves in the process…

What is an Initial Coin Offering (ICO)?

An initial coin offering or in short, ICO, is, in essence, a type of funding utilized by blockchain or cryptocurrency-related projects or companies. It usually happens in public in the form of crowdfunding – where many participants contribute small amounts of cryptocurrencies or crypto tokens to make up one large amount. In exchange, they receive tokens issued by the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) project that normally comes in the form of utility tokens – that provides no rights beyond the utility value.

There is also an increasing number of cases where ICOs are held privately – for various reasons, including to get away from legal scrutiny (or interference by the authorities) and to cater to the needs of large private investors – who like to keep their dealings private and with reason.

The Importance of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

The importance of ICOs to the crypto space should not be underestimated. If it was not for ICOs, most crypto projects would simply not have the capital required to get off the ground or do anything for that matter.

It should, after all, be no secret that players in the legacy financial system, especially banks, venture capitalists and stock exchanges, have a rather strong disliking of initial coin offerings (ICOs). Cryptos represent a threat to their business models and ICOs are in competition with their initial public offerings (IPOs). They love IPOs as it allow them to “ring fence” the benefits for themselves and other members of the “Big Club” as George Carlin used to refer to it.

On the other hand, ICOs open the door to as many people as possible. You don’t have to be a member of the “Big Club” to participate or benefit. This is why members of the “Big Club” are using their connections in government, the media and elsewhere to push us towards security token offerings (STOs). Yeah, ICOs are bad for your health, but STOs – IPOs in disguise – are good for you. Yeah right!

The next time you’re thinking about an ICO only in terms of profits/losses – remind yourself that ICOs and cryptos are important elements in trying to get a better deal for humanity on the table.

Disclosure: The ZyCrypto News Department Was Not Involved In The Creation Of This Content.

Two of the Most Underrated Cryptocurrencies, yet Highly Promising Tokens

By

Adrian Klent

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January 23, 2019

Two of the Most Underrated Cryptocurrencies, yet Highly Promising Tokens

When newbies get into cryptocurrency for the first few weeks, it is easy to get drowned in the notion that only the top 10 highly ranked coins and tokens are worth investing in. With everyone talking about Bitcoin and Ethereum, it becomes harder for tokens with lower market caps to make the front page of tabloids. This further strengthens the belief that everything else except BTC and Ether is a “shitcoin”.

However, this narrative can be debunked, when we look at the long term performances of these “shitcoins” so far. While it is true that most tokens did not live longer than a few months, data from coinmarketcap shows that more than a handful of tokens, despite being underrated and lightly spoken about, have continued to deliver time and time again.

Two of these tokens are Maker (MKR) and Waves (Waves), which are both coincidentally ranked side by side, with MKR occupying the 20th spot, and Waves occupying the 21st spot.

Both of these tokens do not have a sky-high market capitalization at present and are also not the first two options that cross a trader’s mind when he/she thinks of trading against or buying an altcoin, but after carefully analyzing both their performances from inception till present, two things are evident ; these tokens are highly reliable in terms of stability and have severally attained massive profits through their very slow but steady growth process.

Maker (MKR)

Launched in January 2017, Maker MKR opened with a trading price of $22.10 and a trading volume of $13,325. Three days later, the trading price hit $290.85 Between 2017 and 2018, MKR dangled between $300, $400 and $1000. While MKR had continued to fall below $1000 in 2018, the token’s declination rate, unlike most tokens didn’t fall flat in swiftness, instead, MKR maintained a fair trading volume.

Despite the bearish trends overtaking the cryptocurrency market in November, MKR managed to stay afloat with prices ranging from $300 to $400. More impressively, expect on two occasions, MKR has never dipped below the $400 from December 19th, 2018 till present.

Waves (Waves)

Let me begin by noting that Waves has currently broken out of the $2 and is now valued at $3, a trading price which we last saw on the 8th of January. More impressively, Waves has attained a whopping 18.19% against BTC since the last 24hrs. Looking back at June 2016 when Waves went live with a price of $1.33 and fell to as low as $0.18 level in the next few weeks, it was easy to conclude that the token had bottomed.

This trading price level crossed over to May 2017, shortly after it began to trade between $1 – $11. The movement pattern of the Waves token, after November’s bloodbath, has taken a rather promising turn as it managed to stay above the $1 mark since December 2018 till present.

Six Tips For Trading The Crypto Market Cycles

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Guest Author

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January 23, 2019

Six Tips For Trading The Crypto Market Cycles

What is the Crypto Market?

The virtual market has come to stay. Though it has its initial challenges, in the beginning, today with the acceptance of the virtual currency as a means of exchange in nearly all the countries of the world; it has risen to become one of the reliable markets for those who want to make gains that are not available in other sectors of the economy. This is now the number one investment notch with an investment worth billion in dollars having overtaken the real estate sector of the economy. Six key facts dictate crypto market cycles; that will be our main focus in this article.

Accumulation:

This is the time of depression in the market. The accumulation cycle is the time when the price has crashed to the floor right from the rooftop. If you want to invest for a long period of time, this is the moment to go for the kill. Do not bother yourself about the negative press that comes with this period. This is the period of time when you buy from people who do not know about markdown; you will buy cheap at this point in time; however, you are going into a long-time investment.

The loss of these set of investors will turn out to be your gain at the end of the day. This is the ideal time to buy because the activity in the market at this point in time is very low and you will have a market atmosphere that is devoid of the buzz that comes with it when the market is at its peak level.

Markup:

This is the action point for bitcoin. The steady rise of bitcoin began noticeably here, and records show that bitcoin stayed here for nine consecutive months in 2017. This was the base of bitcoin for the first nine months of that year. From here, it began its rise and rise until it broke out above its intended price channel. The early majority jump up on board the bandwagon because of the gains that they are going to make from the steady rise in the price index.

Towards the end of mark-up, it is observed that the great majority gets on board and the trading volume becomes massive. The temptation to join the market gets higher and higher until it finally results in the push-up of this phase to the next cycle.

Shorting:

Shorting is the ability to predict the fall of the market in cryptocurrency correctly. It is a clear one advantage. If a trader is able to get his predictions right, then he will make massive gains. An example of this happened in 1992 when George Soros made nearly $1billion dollars in pure profit by predicting the fall of the British pound. This is an effective way of making a profit that is possible through CFDs (Contracts for Difference)

On a different perspective, Shorting can be used for the purposes of hedging. If you hold a large amount of an asset like Bitcoin, you can decrease its volatility by opening a short position.

Parabolic Upswing:

With the sustenance of the gains during the Mark-up period of the crypto market cycles; the price goes up and up, and many who are not informed are tempted to buy during this period because they want to enjoy the dividends that are involved. This period is called the Parabolic Upswing because the graph tends to move in a straight line. However, the saying that what goes up must come down is true in this scenario.

When the crash comes in unannounced, there is panic selling among the traders. So, what do you do during this period to be on the safe side? Do not follow emotions; simply stick to your plan.

HODLing:

There is confusion trailing the concept of HODLing. Some traders think it represents a spelling error, but it is not so in technical terms of the word; it simply implies a situation where the buyer in the crypto market cycles of things decides to wait and watch the scenario before trading his coins. Holders stick to their coins and endure the pressure of selling off their coins. This strategy has gained relevance over the years.

Pullback:

With the Parabolic Upswing comes a phase in the crypto market cycles when the prices will crash. When this occurs, a state of Pullback sets in. This is normal with all manners of markets where a drop-in price is inevitable. Here, there is apprehension in the market because negative emotions will reach its peak. The sellers will dominate and dictate this market cycle. This is when the media will go out with negative headlines telling the world that cryptocurrency is dead.

For traders who are not holding on to any position in the Parabolic Upswing, you should be able to ride on the back of this phase smoothly to the next phase.

Crypto Markets Watch: Cardano (ADA), Litecoin (LTC), and Stellar (XLM)

By

Dennis Wafula

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January 23, 2019

The Cryptocurrency Market is Maintaining Stability - But Will it Last?

After a protracted bearish outlook, the various coins are slowly making attempts at an upward momentum. Market analysis charts have turned green for all of today’s focus coins. Stellar, Cardano and Litecoin are up by 0.5%, 2% and 3% respectively.

The slow Bull Run has breathed hope to investors seeing that most Relative Strength Indexes are downward facing. The reduction in sales means investors are confident that the various coins will pick an upward momentum due to the Bullish outlook.

Today’s focus coins performed as follows over the last 24 hours:

ADA/USD

The pair started off selling at $0.043 and is now at $0.044. This marks a 2.33% increase in its price. The upward momentum has had the effect of pushing the support zone upwards. It also looks set to test and perhaps breach the current Resistance if the Bullish momentum is sustained.

In the markets, investor confidence in Cardano (ADA) grew considerably with the RSI (A) in a downward outlook. The 9 day EMA (B) is upward facing, forming a reverse contracting triangular pattern with the 30 EMA (C) and is about to cross over. This signals that the Bull Run may be here for long.

LTC/USD

Litecoin is looking set to go through an upward momentum with all indicators supporting the Bull Run. Over the last 24 hours, the LTC/USD pair has gone up by 2.11%, from Yesterday’s $30.993 to the current $32.32.

Earlier today, the 9-day Moving average (B) crossed over the 30-day moving average (C) which shows a strong upward momentum. In the chart also, the two moving averages formed a reverse contracting triangular pattern which also supports the Bullish momentum.

Support has moved up and the resistance seems set to be breached after being tested severally. In the markets, investors are preferring to hold onto their coins as opposed to selling them seeing that price may undergo an upward reversal after a protracted Bearish period.

Investors are upbeat about the coin picking momentum as indicated by the RSI (A) which is downward facing.

XLM/USD

Over the last 24 hours, the XLM/USD pair has taken a slight dip, moving from $0.10341 to $0.10359 on 3-hour charts. This marks a 0.5% increase with both the 9 day EMA (B) and the 30-day EMA (C) indicating an incoming Bullish momentum. The two moving averages form a reverse contracting triangular pattern and the 9-day EMA looks close to crossing over on top.

In the markets, there has been little sale offs with the RSI (A) taking a dip which signals positive investor confidence. In the near future, the Bulls appear to dominate if the momentum is sustained.

Cudo Miner: the smart mining software that finally bridges the gap between command line and GUI miners

By

PR DESK

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January 23, 2019

Cudo Miner: the smart mining software that finally bridges the gap between command line and GUI miners

New mining platform means anyone from professional to novice miners get access to the most advanced and easiest-to-use platform available as Week-long comparison testing shows Cudo Miner is currently more than twice as profitable as competing miners.

Cryptocurrency mining startup Cudo, today announces the open beta launch of its crypto-mining platform: Cudo Miner. Cudo Miner is a intelligent GUI miner with in-built multi-algo switching technology enabling professional miners through to inexperienced or novice miners to install and sit back whilst the software automates everything else. Since launching a closed-beta two months ago, Cudo Miner has attracted thousands of users in more than 130 countries.

Not only does Cudo Miner provide a smart layer within the software that ensures that the most profitable coin is mined, based on a user’s hardware and fluctuations in the markets, what really sets them apart is that for the more experienced GPU and rig miners, Cudo Miner is starting to bridge the gap between GUI miners and traditional command line miners with an advanced settings page to preset optimizations on both, a per algo and per GPU basis. This will provide rig miners with the confidence to select ‘Auto’ mode should they wish, knowing that Cudo will change preset configs based on the most profitable coin to mine, without surrendering any mining performance.

The key features of Cudo Miner include:

- USER-FRIENDLY INTERFACE – accessible for experts and novices. Download Cudo Miner and relax as the software automates the entire set-up for miners.

- ADVANCED SETTINGS – Crypto enthusiasts with dedicated mining rigs can maximize earnings by tweaking algorithms on the “advanced settings” page, where they can also see the results of all their benchmarks. This is currently a time consuming manual task run via other mining software.

- GPU OVERCLOCKING – built-in GPU overclocking and other features designed to boost profitability, further bridging the gap between traditional command line and GUI miners.

THIRD PARTY MINERS – Enable third-party miners such as Z-enemy for Ravencoin and EWBF for Bitcoin Gold to increase your mining performance. New miners will be added regularly.

TWICE AS PROFITABLE – Week long comparison testing (28/12/18-3/1/19) shows Cudo Miner is more than twice as profitable as competing miners.

MULTIPLE COIN SUPPORT – able to mine multiple coins and switch between them based on which one is the most profitable at any given moment.

CHOICE OF PAYMENT – users also have a choice of how they get paid – they can receive compensation through Ethereum or Bitcoin and additional coins will be included on the list in the future.

POWERFUL WEB CONSOLE – miners can examine data related to their mining performance, look at historical earnings, view hardware information and power levels, as well as keep a close eye on the health of their devices.

IDLE MINING – casual miners can leave Cudo Miner working in the background while they use their PC, ensuring that it does not interfere with their computer’s performance.

Overall, the crypto mining world has been suffering a crisis of confidence over the past few months – but with Bitcoin miners alone already generating $4.7 billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2018, there is still a lot to play for.

“GPU mining is definitely alive and kicking, but some of the strategies being adopted by some professional miners are diminishing their chances of making a decent profit. Altcoins are often the most profitable but only for a few minutes or hours, so you need to mine during this period to maximize gain,” said Matt Hawkins, CEO, Cudo. “The emphasis needs to move away from focusing on a single coin or algorithm in favor of chopping and changing between an array of cryptocurrencies as well as choosing optimal settings – elevating their chances of making it worthwhile. This is why we have created Cudo Miner.”

The company’s founders, Hawkins, and Duncan Cook, were motivated to find an accessible mining solution when they discovered the huge amounts of computing power on laptops, PCs and servers – with hardware often idle 60 percent of the time. As a result, they sought to develop a solution that killed two birds with one stone: stopping resources from being underutilized while maximizing profitability from mining by removing the barriers to entry.

The two serial entrepreneurs have also established a charitable arm called Cudo Donate, whereby miners can convert their spare computing power into cash for good causes. This project has the goal of raising $1 billion in funding and computing resources for charities in the coming years.

“This for us isn’t just about making money – we want Cudo and our mining platforms to become a force for good. Part of the Cudo vision is to build towards a distributed computing model, which has the potential to help a number of good causes, including cancer research, protein folding, and seismic imaging,” added Hawkins.

For further information and to get going with Cudo Miner, please go to: www.cudominer.com.

Conclusion

About Cudo

Cudo is a team of miners, techs, and entrepreneurs. We’re passionate about creating good with technology and we see blockchain and cryptocurrency as an amazing opportunity to do this. Our aim is to make a positive impact in the world for good and for technical change.

We want our technology to be a sustainable and ethical solution.

For further, press information, please contact:

Dan Walsh

dan@mustardpr.com

+44 (0) 1753 656 661

Brad Ganey, COO of Catalyst says Ripple’s xRapid Provides a Cost-effective Way to Ditch Traditional Wire Services

By

Judith Riseshine

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January 23, 2019

Brad Ganey, COO of Catalyst says Ripple's xRapid Provides Cost-effective Way to Ditch Traditional Wire Services

The Chief Operating Officer of Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union, Brad Ganey, in his preview of the future of Ripple XRP and xRapid said companies can easily ditch the traditional wire services by using xRapid.

He said:

“The traditional international wire experience fails to meet today’s expectations from a price, speed and ease-of-use perspective. Blockchain technology and specifically Ripple’s xRapid product resolve all three of these challenges simultaneously.” Ganey continues saying,

“Catalyst Corporate, through our subsidiary companies’ technology platforms, will leverage the XRP digital asset to transfer money across borders instantly on behalf of our 1400+ member credit unions. We have signed a production contract and are currently building out our plan.”

This statement was made during a discussion with the Catalyst corporates on their plans in partnering with Ripple to boost payments to Mexico. The corporates’ aim is to secure a seamless cross-border money transfer across Mexico, reaching over 1,400 members via Ripple blockchain solution under an arrangement named ‘Currentz’.

“One of Catalyst Corporate largest endeavors in 2018 was forging a strategic partnership with Ripple, the leading enterprise blockchain provider for payments. Our goal is to send international payments to Mexico via Ripple’s blockchain solution. With this cooperative arrangement known as ‘Currentz’, secure cross-border money transfers can be completed within minutes.”

xRapid is a blockchain product developed by Ripple to revolutionize cross-border payments. It is particularly designed for institutions that have businesses in emerging markets. Basically used to settle cross-border payments by eliminating liquidity issues when sending money to emerging markets.

It reduces liquidity cost, by enabling pre-funding in local currency account. It allows money to be sent into the xRapid system, converted into XRP for faster movement and converted back to the required currency.

According to the company’s CEO, Kathy Garner, the Union needs to process payments sent to thousands of its member and clients across the United States. Ripple financial tool xRapid is a perfect solution needed to handle the payment issue at a cheaper and faster rate.

Experts and analysts believe Ripple’s products have great potential to help companies reduces cost and maximize profit. More banks and payment processors are signing on to partner with Ripple.

MyCryptowallet users in Australia Unable to Withdraw, Exchange Blames Bank for Closing Account

By

Ponvang Bulus

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January 23, 2019

MyCryptowallet users in Australia Unable to Withdraw, Exchange Blames Bank for Closing Account

Tension has gripped users of Australian exchange Mycryptowallet as they are unable to make withdrawals from their accounts. The exchange wrote to its customers explaining that withdrawals from the exchange will be on hold as the National Australia Bank (NAB) closed their account without prior notice.

“Due to the National Australia Bank (NAB) closing our bank account without notice, we are sorry to inform you that all withdrawals are currently disabled until further notice.”

According to the exchange, this is not the first time a major bank is closing its bank account and it intends to take legal action against the NAB. meanwhile, a complaint has been filed with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)

The email also indicated that the bank has not given any reason or explanation for closing the exchange’s account so far but has only promised to get back to them in 5 business days, according to the email.

Contrary to Mycryptowallet’s claims that withdrawals have been suspended due to the closure of its bank account, however, some customers claim withdrawals have been disabled since the beginning of January. An email was sent to customers on 7 January part of which read:

“MyCryptoWallet is currently undergoing maintenance for a technical issue related to our withdrawal function, and as a result, ALL withdrawals will be temporarily disabled until further notice.”

Apparently, the issue was not fixed before the National Australia Bank issue came up, which leaves customers in panic and makes the world question the authenticity of such claims.

It is no surprise that there is panic as this is coming just a week following the Cryptopia hack which started with a similar story of “unscheduled maintenance”. Another reason why the customers find it suspicious is that the exchange still accepts deposits but withdrawals have been disabled. A customer responding to the announcement wrote”

“My biggest upset is they’re still taking deposits, they still have a bank account.”

A Facebook user wrote: “Can you please shed some light on why people can’t (sic) take money out of your exchange at the moment but you are still accepting deposits.”

Right now it is difficult to tell how long the issue will last as the exchange says it has created a new account for trading.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) wavers the bearish storms, accumulates 6% in Gains

By

Adrian Klent

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January 23, 2019

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) wavers the bearish storms, accumulates 6% in gains

The cryptocurrency market is beginning to gain bullish grounds, but not in the swiftness that traders are craving. Instead, the market is taking a rather slow and steady pace. For traders, this will eventually build a stronger momentum in the next few hours and hopefully maintain this pattern through the next 24hrs.

Meanwhile, for tokens like BCH, there’s no better time to make a bigger bounce than now. Simply put, BCH has withdrawn itself from the “slow and steady movement”, and has now resorted to taking the faster route as BCH traders pump the token to attain as much as 6% in gains at press time.

BCH wavers the bearish storms, accumulates 6% in gains

A Breakout to $130

More precisely, BCH has gone up by 6.92%, a percentage that will soon cross over to 7%. Not only does this reflect flexibility in trading, as this continuous increase signifies that more traders are piling up to either sell or buy BCH, the increase in trading volume has resulted in an impressive breakout for BCH as it is now valued at $130 at press time.

BCH last hit a trading price of $130 on the 20th of January, the token even went further to hit a daily all time high of $131 but later closed at a slightly lower trading price of $123.89. Even worse, BCH closed at $122.83 the following day.

However, when trading volume moved from $187.81 million to $264.99 million as of yesterday, it was clear that traders from Lbank and Huobi Global with trading pairs of BCH/BTC and BCH/USDT had intensified trading. Lbank traders have topped the BCH market with a total of $23.04 million, while traders from Huobi Global have taken the second spot with $18.56 million in volume and counting.

According to data from coinmarketcap, BCH’s current trading volume is an estimated $283.51million. Comparing this current volume to yesterday’s $264.99 million, we see that BCH has increased by $19 million over the last 24hrs.

Justin Sun: Tron Will Retrieve Internet Power From Facebook, Amazon, and Google

By

Judith Riseshine

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January 22, 2019

Justin Sun: Tron Will Retrieve Internet Power From Facebook, Amazon, and Google

Justin Sun, the founder and CEO of one the largest blockchain network, Tron revealed that he still has more surprising packages for the world, while he was speaking in an interview with Coinspeaker. The aggressive businessman said his network is set to take back internet power from giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon.

Mr. Sun is standing like David, threatening Goliaths like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. These days, no one doubts the CEO when he says he would do anything because he had delivered on his past promises and endeared himself to the hearts of people.

Speaking in the interview, when he was asked the question; “There are people who yet don’t know what is your business about. Could you tell a few words about your business and what is the final aim you’re working with.”

He answered that the aim of his network is to decentralize the internet, by turning it back to what it was originally made to be, which means giving everyone the power to share information freely. And this power is being controlled by internet giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon.

“Our goal is to decentralize the internet. That means we want to return to the vision of the original internet, which is to give everyone the power to share information freely. Right now, that power is mostly in the hands of large companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google.”

Mr. Sun and his team have worked vigorously to structure and grow their network to be one of the strongest in the blockchain ecosystem. Their platform has developed and enhanced the internet by making the content development and transfer a seamless experience.

The latest giant step was taken by the team so far was to optimize BitTorrent, turning it into a business machine, which enables faster peer-to-peer download and transfer of electronic files.

He also stated that Tron has a goal for 2019 to build trust in crypto and blockchain through its vision.

Lucid Believes Bitcoin Will Be Worth $10 Million Someday

By

Jide Idowu

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January 22, 2019

Lucid Believes Bitcoin Will Be Worth $10 Million Someday

Against the current trend, Lucid, an asset management firm believes the best of the new digital currency to take over financial transactions globally, Bitcoin.

The Fate Of Bitcoin

Many analysts have in recent past had so much to say about bitcoin. With some having hope in a better future for the digital currency, and others using present challenges bitcoin faces as obstacles hindering its growth and therefore do not think the digital currency will make it to global adoption.

Nevertheless, the market reaction on bitcoin price has amazed even the best market analysts in the world. Pro bitcoin analysts such as John McAfee and Tom Lee have seized to make short term calls on the prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Lucid’s Prediction

Lucid, a global asset management firm, has again made a public prediction about the price of bitcoin. Lucid believes a piece of bitcoin will be worth $10 million or more. Despite this prediction, the firm has failed to mention a time frame for this to happen.

The report by the firms’ president, Dean Tyler Jenks, and its vice president, Leah Wald, explains why they think the proposed figure was achievable.

“Is this feasible? Probably not. But we believe it is possible and we believe it offers the greatest benefits with the least collateral damage to the least number of individuals, corporations, institutions, and countries. Most importantly, it would provide a permanent fix, a quality that none of the other solutions provides.”

The report further stated that;

“Why $10 million? At that level, Bitcoin would provide a sufficient reserve to alleviate the world debt burden. Bitcoin would be worth between $180 trillion and $210 trillion (depending on when that price was reached). Assuming world debt had reached $500 trillion at that time, remember it has grown by 394% over the past 20 years, Bitcoin would represent a 40% reserve against the debt.”

What The Future Holds For Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies

As it stands, there’s no doubt that cryptocurrencies could become the future of money. Nevertheless, whether bitcoin will remain the king of cryptocurrencies is still very vague and will be revealed as time goes by.

Daily Crypto Markets Technical Analysis: XRP, Digibyte (DGB), and Electroneum (ETN)

By

Dennis Wafula

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January 22, 2019

Daily Crypto Markets Technical Analysis: XRP, Digibyte (DGB), and Electroneum (ETN)

Yesterday’s Bearish momentum has been maintained over the last 24 hours with a majority of the indicators pointing towards a prolonged downward trend. The moving averages are all facing downwards with the 30 day moving averages dominantly above the 9-day moving average.

This has influenced investor sentiments on some coins. In some instances, the RSI has dropped, threatening to cross over into the ‘oversold’ area. Also, support levels were tested and breached in some instances and Resistance zones lowered as seen below:

XRP/USD

The pair has been engulfed with a strong Bearish momentum which has seen its price drop from $0.32141 to $0.31995, a 0.3% drop. The bearish momentum seems set to keep going as seen from the contracting triangular pattern formed by the two Moving averages (C and B). Further, the 30 day EMA (B) crossed over the 9-day EMA (C) yesterday and has gone ahead to open up a huge gap between them.

The 9-day EMA is currently below the 30-day EMA and is acting as the price support which goes to show the strong Bearish momentum in the market may go on for some time.

In the markets, XRP was marked with huge sales that have seen the RSI (A) threaten to cross over into the ‘oversold’ region. The coin sold $368.3 Million over the last 24 hours and is currently at $13 Billion in market capitalization.

DGB/USD

Digibyte has had little to no activity in the markets over the last couple of days. In the last 24 hours, it dipped by 2.5% and only sold $1.2 Million in total. The coin, with a market capitalization of $109 Million, looks as though it is headed downwards seeing that its 30 day EMA (B) has been dominantly above the 9 day EMA (C). Additionally, both EMAs are below the price level which spells a strong bearish outlook in the near future.

In terms of sales, there has been minimal activity, with the RSI (A) oscillating between 40 and 50 (the Middle zone). Investor sentiments can’t be said to either be neither positive nor negative.

Unless the Bulls can increase their momentum, Digibyte will keep on dipping.

ETN/USD

Electroneum, the first cryptocurrency to be designed around mobile ubiquity, is down by 1.6% over the last 24 hours, having begun off trading at $ 0.006961 against the current rate of $0.006978. Over the last 24 hours, it hit a high of $ 0.007211 and a low of $0.006961 and only sold $250,228.

The dip has seen its market capitalization clock at $61.6 Million

Meet the High school dropout who lost $3 Million in Bitcoin to the Bearish Market

By

Venus Juliana

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January 22, 2019

Meet the High school dropout who lost $3 Million in Bitcoin to the Bearish Market

Last year was not the best for both old and new cryptocurrency traders, and this is being made evident in more ways than one, as a sizeable number of traders and investors, a majority of which are Bitcoiners have continued to reveal the many tens and thousands of dollars that they have lost to the bears. Meanwhile, for Sam Karagiozis, a one-time high school dropout, his losses are in millions.

Karagiozis, who ditched high school at 15 and served customers at McDonald’s with burgers, before securing some property investments had been a long term Bitcoin investor for 5 years, giving him the opportunity to benefit from Bitcoin’s $27,000 peak in October 2017.

Having faith in yet another all-time high, Karagiozis threw in $15 million to build a Bitcoin ATM network in Australia. But a few years later, when Bitcoin dipped, this Bitcoiner was left with no choice that to calculate his losses.

“I was an early investor — I’ve been investing in bitcoin for five years now, and the value of the bitcoin I’m holding, from its peak to this week, has dropped by about $3 million, but I’m still holding the same amount of cryptocurrency as I was 18 months ago — it’s just worthless.”

While most investors have fully backed out from any form of Bitcoin investment after last year’s intense bearish outpour, Karagiozis is still betting big on Bitcoin’s recovery, as he recalled similar moments from years back saying ;

“It’s definitely not the first time it had dropped — for instance, in the past it hit $1200 and dropped to $100 a few years ago, which was a huge drop. It does have a history of dying and resurrecting again,”

The investor, after having expressed confidence in Bitcoin revealed that his money is still tied to Bitcoin despite his million dollar loss. He, however, concluded that he does not invest whatever he cannot afford to lose while urging traders to carry out intensive research before taking up any investments.

SWIFT too Scared to Face Ripple at the Paris Fintech Forum, 2019

By

Judith Riseshine

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January 22, 2019

SWIFT too Scared to Face Ripple at the Paris Fintech Forum, 2019

The European fintech forum coming up in Paris is an event that calls for all the participation of all the players in the global fintech industry. This event is scheduled to take place on the 29th and 30th of January 2019, giant payment processing companies like Ripple and SWIFT are expected to be there.

A list of those selected speakers on the event has been released including Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CEO of SWIFT, Gottfried Leibbrandt who were both also selected as speakers, to discuss the way forward in the fintech industry. Rumors have it that SWIFT executives are developing cold feet about participating in the upcoming event because of the unfavorable competition between the two giants.

SWIFT has been a payment processing giant controlling over 70 percent of the division’s payments until Ripple came to the scene. Ripple operations are basically via blockchain technology which offers faster and cheaper means of cross-border payment processing. This places them in a rivalry position with SWIFT which has been fighting not to lose grounds to Ripple. Rumors had it some time ago that the duo would tie the nut which unfortunately didn’t happen.

Though these two fintech companies are competitors, it was not so stiff until Ripple CEO, publicly declared during his interview with Bloomberg last year, that Ripple is not partnering with SWIFT but taking over from them.

“What we’re doing and executing on a day-by-day basis is, in fact, taking over SWIFT.”

SWIFT might have been able to compete with Ripple if they had embraced the blockchain technology on time. So many banks and payment processors on SWIFT network are now signing on with Ripple. It is natural if SWIFT executives are not ready to dine on the same table with Ripples’.

From all indications, SWIFT may be ready to feature in the upcoming fintech conference without making much noise.