Did you know that you can claim Bitcoin hard forks coin if you owned Bitcoin at the moment of the fork?
Bitcoin, the first and most popular cryptocurrency ever created, has not been free from conflicts within the community. Over the years, many individuals and groups of developers have come up with ideas to make Bitcoin even better.
But most of these suggestions ended up dividing the community. That’s why over 100 Bitcoin hard forks have taken place since Bitcoin’s creation in 2009. Here’re the top BTC hard forks and how to claim them.
On October 31, 2008, a whitepaper was published that described the concept of Bitcoin ━ a trustless peer-to-peer system for digital currency to replace traditional money. The paper was published under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, but the author’s identity remains a mystery to this day. Many believe that the name is a pseudonym of one or a team of developers.
On January 3, 2009, the genesis block (block 0) was mined on the Bitcoin network, and the miner, the unknown Satoshi, was rewarded with 50 bitcoins.
From that point on, Bitcoin (BTC) was mined by other early contributors up to 2010. Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer, made the first commercial transaction using cryptocurrency by purchasing two Papa John’s Pizzas for 10,000 BTC.
Bitcoin has been traded many millions of times since then. The first major transactions were made in black markets. The largest was the Silk Road, an online black marketplace, which traded close to 10 million Bitcoin during its lifetime.
As Bitcoin grew more as a currency on different markets, regulations emerged from many countries. For instance, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) made the news headlines when they adopted these three separate actions and issued new regulations regarding cryptocurrencies.
The price of Bitcoin fell by half after each of these events. However, it always found a way to rise again to new astonishing values. This is because many countries and institutions allow cryptocurrency use. Also, as of September 7, 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
Another aspect of what makes Bitcoin increase in price is the maximum supply. There can only be 21 million BTC. As more investors join the cryptocurrency market, the coin experiences scarcity and the Bitcoin (BTC) price surges as with any supply and demand market.
Additionally, Bitcoin is more transferable and divisible than gold or another material asset and can be stored more easily. It will cost you a lot to transport gold, as well as the cost of storage in secure facilities. However, investors can store Bitcoin on a USB stick, also known as a cold wallet or hardware wallet.
As Bitcoin gained more popularity, it inspired other developers to create other blockchain platforms, and subsequently, some created Bitcoin hard forks.
Many of the cryptocurrencies that exist today use part of Satoshi’s technology. However, many others adapted the Bitcoin blockchain model or tried to improve it.
As more users joined the blockchain, it became increasingly difficult to update the network as no single person or group could decide on unanimous future development.
To modify the Bitcoin blockchain, all miners must agree on the new rules and what constitutes a valid block on the chain. To change the rules, you must “fork” it to change to indicate that something has changed from the original protocol. These situations are called Bitcoin forking.
Usually, forks are used to add new features or change some blockchain parameters. The forking process results in the blockchain being divided into two distinct blockchains after a certain point in time. Although there have been many forks since the inception of Bitcoin, only a few are viable projects.
Crypto forks can be either soft or hard forks. The main difference is that soft forks are not a fork that results in a new currency and new branches of the blockchain. Soft forks slightly modify the Bitcoin protocol, but the core Bitcoin blockchain remains the same. Soft forks are backwards compatible, which means that the upgraded chain can successfully share and use data from earlier network versions.
However, during a hard fork, the programming code of the Bitcoin blockchain and its mining processes are upgraded. Once a user has updated their software, it rejects transactions from any older version, creating a new branch to the blockchain. Users who keep the older software can still process transactions. This means that transactions are being processed on two separate chains, and two different currencies result from the hard fork.
This is how various digital currencies, similar names to Bitcoin, have been created. These include Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.
While not many investors know, anyone who owns Bitcoin, during a hard fork, is entitled to the new cryptocurrency. That’s why some consider that there’s an obvious financial incentive to fork Bitcoin’s blockchain and made some investors sceptical of the necessity of these forks.
Since it can be confusing for casual investors to distinguish between these cryptocurrencies, we’ll be going through the top Bitcoin hard forks.
Bitcoin has over 100 forks, but not all projects were further developed, and only a few remain functional today. You can find the complete list of Bitcoin forks on forkdrop.io. We’ll mention the most noteworthy Bitcoin forks here.
Bitcoin XT fork took place on December 27, 2014.
Bitcoin XT is the first known Bitcoin hard fork. Mike Hearn incorporated some of his ideas into the Bitcoin blockchain and launched Bitcoin XT in late 2014. It is said that Hearn is one of the few to have contacted Satoshi Nakamoto via email.
Bitcoin XT was designed to allow 24 transactions per second. The previous version of Bitcoin could only handle seven transactions per second. It proposed to increase the block size from 1 megabyte to 8 megabytes.
Initially, Bitcoin XT was a success. In 2015, it had more than 1,000 nodes running the software. But, just a few short months later, investors lost interest, and the project was abandoned. Bitcoin XT has been removed from the internet, and its website is not functional anymore.
Bitcoin Classic fork took place in early 2016.
Jonathan Toomim launched Bitcoin Classic in early 2016 as some community members wanted to see block sizes increase after Bitcoin XT’s decline.
Bitcoin Classic, like Bitcoin XT, saw a lot of initial interest. In 2016, there were approximately 2,000 nodes in use. The Bitcoin Classic (BXC) fork proposed a smaller block size of 2 MB.
The BXC coin still exists, but it seems that the community has moved on. The website is no longer live.
Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) fork took place on March 11, 2016.
Bitcoin Unlimited has remained a mystery since its initial release in 2016.
Bitcoin Unlimited is unique because it allows miners to choose the size of their blocks. Nodes and miners can limit the number of blocks they accept up to 16 megabytes. The community behind Bitcoin Unlimited believes in market-driven decision making, emergent consensus, and giving their users choices.
Despite some initial interest, Bitcoin Unlimited has not been widely accepted. Only a few nodes are still online.
Bitcoin Cash fork took place on August 1st 2017 (BTC block 478,558).
Pieter Wuille, a Bitcoin Core developer, presented the idea for Segregated Witness (SegWit) in late 2015. SegWit is a project that aims to decrease the size of Bitcoin transactions, thus allowing for more transactions to occur simultaneously. Technically, SegWit is a soft fork.
In response to SegWit, some Bitcoin developers and users decided to initiate a hard fork to avoid the protocol updates it brought about. Bitcoin Cash was the result of this hard fork. It split off from the main blockchain in August 2017, when Bitcoin Cash wallets rejected Bitcoin transactions and blocks.
Bitcoin Cash allows blocks of eight megabytes and does not accept the SegWit protocol.
Bitcoin Cash remains the most successful Bitcoin hard fork, and it is backed by many in the cryptocurrency community. BCH can be traded on popular exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, Gate.io).
BitCore (BTX) fork took place on April 24, 2017.
BitCore is an unspent transaction output (UTXO) fork of Bitcoin, and it was launched in 2017. BitCore used Bitcoin’s source code to create a new blockchain but updated the core to make the blockchain size smaller (which makes the network easier to scale). BitCore uses the MEGABTX consensus algorithm, which is ASIC-resistant.
Because anyone can become a BitCore miner, it is impossible to centralise mining power. BitCore also has a 10 MB Segwit-enabled block that allows it to handle 17.6 billion transactions per annum or 48 million transactions per hour.
The entire crypto community can mine BTX using PoW and Masternodes.
Bitcoin Gold fork took place on October 23rd 2017 (BTC block 491,407).
Bitcoin Gold is a hard fork that occurred shortly after Bitcoin Cash. The creators implemented this hard fork to restore mining functionality using basic graphics processing unit (GPU) because they felt mining had become too specialised.
The Bitcoin Gold hard fork featured a pre-mining of the Bitcoin Gold crypto. Pre-mining is when the development team creates the coin from the start. In this case, the Bitcoin Gold developers pre-mined 100,000 BTG. Developers said that these pre-mined coins will be used to grow the Bitcoin Gold ecosystem and pay developers.
Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) fork took place on November 24, 2017 (BTC block 495.966).
Bitcoin Diamond is a fork of the original Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin Diamond was created only two weeks after the Bitcoin Gold fork.
The BCD’s code allows for 100 transactions per second, increasing the block size to 8 megabytes, thus making it more efficient than Bitcoin. While this is an improvement, considering Bitcoin’s seven transactions per second, other cryptocurrencies have much greater transaction throughput, and that’s why some consider Bitcoin Diamond obsolete.
However, the first major Bitcoin hard fork, Bitcoin Cash, can process 116 transactions per second through its increased block size. Although these cryptocurrencies may not be the same, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Diamond are very similar. Some investors wonder if Bitcoin Diamond was a necessary hard fork.
Bitcoin SV hard fork took place on November 15th 2018 (BCH block 556,766). It is a fork from the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.
Bitcoin SV‘s goal is to realise the original vision and design of Bitcoin as described in Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper.
BSV is designed to provide stability and scalability while keeping Bitcoin a peer-to-peer electronic money system. It also aims to become a distributed data network that can support enterprise-level advanced blockchain applications.
It has also removed artificial block sizes limits, re-enabled script commands, and other technical capabilities that had been previously disabled or restricted by protocol developers on the BTC blockchain. The network can process thousands of transactions per second while keeping transaction fees low for micropayments. It also offers advanced capabilities like tokens, smart contracts and other use cases.
The block size of Bitcoin SV can go up to 2Gb and can process over 10,000 transactions per second. BSV reached over 50.000 TPS on the testnet.
BSV is unmatched in its ability to scale on-chain without any restrictions while being closer to the original Bitcoin design than any other blockchain.
Bitcoin Cash ABC fork took place on November 15, 2020 (BCH block 661648).
Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) is a cryptocurrency that was created in 2020 as a result of a hard fork within the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. This split the original chain into two new ones called “Bitcoin Cash ABC” and “Bitcoin Cash Node.”
Amaury Sechet is the leader of the Bitcoin Cash ABC developers. They proposed an update to the Bitcoin Cash network. This update included a controversial new “Coinbase Rule,” requiring 8% of all mined Bitcoin Cash to be distributed to BCH ABC to finance protocol development.
Another group, Bitcoin Cash Node from the Bitcoin Cash community, opposed the upgrade. They removed the so-called “miner tax” from their source code.
In July 2021, Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) was rebranded as eCash (XEC). With this relaunch, the team also announced their plans to integrate the proof-of-stake consensus layer Avalanche, which introduces great improvements to the network.
Three main improvements are:
The eCash (XEC) rebrand also decreases the coin’s decimal from eight to only two.
You should also bear in mind that some Bitcoin forks were created as a scam. Bitcoin Platinum, for instance, was created to lower Bitcoin’s value. Other scams, such as the fake Bitcoin Gold wallet, were created to steal your real funds. That’s why it’s crucial to keep your crypto funds safe and don’t trust everyone you talk to over the internet.
At the same time, you should be aware that some developers just want to make quick money. While some Bitcoin forks seem to be similar, the primary reason for their creation is more marketing buzz. Many developers are looking for free coins, and Bitcoin forks have become the new ICOs. The team creates the fork only to sell the coins on crypto exchanges as soon as it starts trading.
To reduce your chances of losing any Bitcoin, you have to move your Bitcoin to a new wallet before claiming any coins.
Before attempting to claim any Bitcoin fork coins, you should research the new project and the team of developers behind it to establish its legitimacy. They should also provide a clear and accurate roadmap for the project they want to build.
For instance, a Bitcoin fork coin should implement replay protection, to allow the new network to separate from its original.
Depending on the specific Bitcoin fork, you might need to perform certain risk actions such as exposing your Bitcoin wallet private keys, installing specific software or validating your identity on centralised crypto exchanges.
One of the easiest ways to claim Bitcoin fork coins is to use wallets that support them. Note that most wallets don’t support many of the Bitcoin forks simply because the process requires complicated technical developments, which is not feasible for most wallets. This is because most of the Bitcoin forks don’t have a great market value and lack a development team and community.
Before attempting to claim any Bitcoin fork coins, you should go through these simple (but effective against theft) steps.
For all Bitcoin fork claims and any forks in general, users need to provide the wallet’s private keys in which the Bitcoin was held at the time of the Bitcoin fork. You should never share the keys of an active wallet.
That’s why, for safety reasons, moving the crypto funds to a different crypto wallet should be performed first before revealing the private keys to any third party. By doing this, you eliminate any possibility of having your Bitcoin stolen.
If you still have a Legacy Bitcoin wallet with addresses beginning with 1, claiming these forks can be a great motivation to move your coins to a SegWit account. This will lower your transaction fees and allow you to use Lightning Network.
Firstly, you will need to export your private key from the wallet that was used to hold the Bitcoin funds at the time of the fork. Most wallets are able to export a file containing all the addresses and private keys. However, hardware wallets don’t allow private keys export, and for such cases, you need to enter the seed phrase into specific claiming software.
Using the seed phrase, you can also use open-source tools such as BIT39 to find a wallet’s pirate keys.
You can import only private keys that have funds to save time.
Using your Bitcoin wallet address, you can check if your address is entitled to a Bitcoin fork claim on Findmycoins.ninja.
You should save all the claimable wallets’ addresses and private key combinations.
All valid addresses and private key combinations should be recorded in a spreadsheet or text file that allows you to copy, paste, or replace text. The recording format should include a private key followed by the address.
Each entry should be numbered and the amount of Bitcoin they contain at the time of the first fork. It will be helpful to number each key pair for ordering purposes. It may be useful to note the sizes. You can, for example, use the address with the smaller amount to test the process.
There are several secure crypto wallets that can help you claim some of the most popular Bitcoin forks, such as:
While the BitPie and Bither wallets are the most common solution you can find on the web these days to claim your Bitcoin forks, the wallets do not support BTC fork claiming anymore. We tried this option without any success.
Firstly, make sure you have the latest version of Coinomi on your mobile device. Afterwards, create a new wallet, and make sure to write down its seed phrase to recover your funds later, in case something happens to the mobile device. You will also be asked to set up a password for this specific wallet and device.
Before claiming the Bitcoin forks in the Coinomi wallet, you need to select the specific coins as balances in your Coinomi wallet.
Click on the bottom-right plus sign and select Add coins. Select the Bitcoin forks you will be adding (e.g. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), BitcoinSV (BSV)).
Select the coin you want to claim the Bitcoin fork for, and within that specific wallet, click on the top menu > Sweep wallet.
You will have to paste or scan the wallet’s private key that had the Bitcoin at the time of the fork.
After you get all the transaction details (The amount of Bitcoin fork coins you will receive, the value in USD, the transaction fee), review all the details and tap Confirm.
You will then see the updated balance for the Bitcoin fork coins.
Repeat this step for every address with a balance of the forked coin.
More advanced crypto users that do not want to rely on a specific Bitcoin wallet, can use Ymgve’s script to claim the most Bitcoin forks. This method will require some technical knowledge on the user’s side because you will need to run a Phyton script.
The Ymgve is open-source. It is available on GitHub, along with all the information about how to use the script. Ymgve supports standard P2PKH and Segwit P2SH-P2WPKH addresses.
Using the Ymgve fork claimer script is recommended if you want to claim most forks, although it’s riskier and mistyping any of the commands can result in a loss of funds.
By the end of 2021, there have been over 100 Bitcoin hard forks, and investors expect to see more soft and hard forks in the years to come. However, out of all the hard forks to date, only a few are still operational.
Long time investors are entitled to claim all of these Bitcoin hard forks. Luckily there are ways to do so, using the wallets described in this article. However, as of the beginning of 2022, no Bitcoin fork has raised more in popularity than the original Bitcoin.
What is a metaverse NFT? The metaverse has been one of the most awaited online experiences. Now it is now available for users from all around the world through a simple internet connection.
Here’s what the metaverse brings and how the metaverse NFT tokens can be used.
The metaverse is an immersive virtual world, where users have their own avatar and can interact with each other, share experiences and create places and objects similar to real life. A metaverse is likely to build a completely new ecosystem, a massive-multiplayer online game if you will, with an incorporated economy, that enables users to buy and sell items.
In 1992, the SF novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson was the first published piece to mention the term “metaverse”. In the book, humans could interact with software within a 3D space similar to the real world.
However, the idea of the metaverse exists since the late 1970s. That’s when the internet pioneers talked about the internet as a place to create a bridge between the real and the digital world.
The Metaverse and Metaverse NFTs are taking over all industries, including crypto, gaming and social media. It has become one of the most used words in 2021, as more platforms are developing and integrating a metaverse experience for their users.
When Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook will be rebranding and will be called Meta, he described a virtual world that will enhance and step up our online experiences.
The metaverse can be experienced through a computer, smartphone or a virtual reality (VR) headset.
Since the metaverse requires a safe and transparent technology to incorporate all aspects of a virtual world, including a financial environment, the rise of crypto metaverses has started. A metaverse app can be built on top of a programmable blockchain that supports smart contracts, such as Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, Harmony and others.
A crypto metaverse is all around the economy within the virtual space, which will rely on metaverse NFTs and tokens.
How are crypto metaverse app different from traditional online multiplayer games?
Firstly, the core component of the crypto metaverse apps and NFTs are :
Several crypto metaverse protocols have been already launched in 2021 and more are announced to be released in the near future.
The most popular crypto metaverses apps and are:
The blockchain network of a crypto metaverse game is one of the most important aspects of the experience, since a congested and hard to scale network may lead to high network fees for transactions and slow speed to confirm and register transactions.
A metaverse non-fungible token (NFT) enables internet users and metaverse participants to truly own the digital assets purchased within the metaverse.
By owning a metaverse NFT token, the user gets to own a part of the internet and has complete control over it, to trade it, store it and use it.
A metaverse NFT can by any crypto asset in the metaverse, such as digital objects or land. The ownership of the metaverse NFT is recorded on the blockchain network of that specific metaverse and represents a real value on the decentralised finance (DeFi) market.
Metaverse NFTs can be traded for digital assets, such as bitcoin (BTC) or ethereum (ETH) on supported NFT marketplaces and decentralised exchanges (DEXs).
With the great surge in the interest in NFTs and other crypto tokens for the past years, Metaverse NFTs are a great investment opportunity. However, it’s important to check the scarcity of the metaverse NFT that you want to purchase, as well as the brand and community behind it before you make your investment.
To buy a metaverse NFT you will first need to decide on which metaverse you want to start your digital experience. Some of the most popular crypto metaverses that support NFTs are Decentraland, Star Atlas and Alien Worlds.
Metaverse NFTs are traded using a cryptocurrency wallet, such as MetaMask and other wallets supported by WalletConnect.
After you connect your wallet, you will be able to access and experience the metaverse. Users can interact with each other and set a custom avatar for the metaverse.
Metaverses have incorporated NFT marketplaces, where you can buy or sell NFTs, using the crypto metaverse native token. To buy an NFT, you will need to hold the required sum in the wallet you used to connect the metaverse.
Obviously, users can enjoy the metaverse for free, and there’s no requirement to buy a metaverse NFT.
Now that you know how the metaverse works and how to access the metaverse NFT tokens, we hope you will enjoy this new era of the internet.
What is the best way to earn free cryptocurrency and free NFTs? We’ve all heard of airdrops and signup bonuses, as a way to earn cryptocurrency, but none of these methods gives you a significant amount of crypto to actually do something with it.
After some in-depth research of the current ways to earn free crypto, we can recommend a platform that doesn’t require any initial investment.
How to earn free cryptocurrency and free NFTs? Continue reading to discover how you, too, can make a monthly income from crypto and start earning.
Giving away free crypto as a reward for performing an action has been one of the main drivers for adoption at the beginning of the crypto era.
Some of these methods are still used today, and anyone can use them to get free crypto. What are the old strategies you can still use to earn crypto and bitcoin rewards?
Just like traditional giveaways, crypto companies will sometimes organise a giveaway for their users to create awareness around their coin.
Most of these crypto giveaways will have specific rules to follow that may differ from one giveaway to another and in return, participants may earn cryptocurrency.
An example would be when an exchange when it lists a new coin on its platform.
That’s when they need more users and publicity to spike up the volume. By organising a giveaway, they ask users to share the news on social media, follow them on their socials, and sign up for a new account.
The prizes are incredibly enticing for new crypto enthusiasts, but the competition is also high.
Beware of the many giveaway scams on social media. Most of these scams require participants to send a specific amount of crypto to a given address. Don’t do it. You’ll lose your crypto.
Usually, new cryptocurrency projects perform airdrops.
They give their cryptocurrency to new users in exchange for a small task, such as a share on social media.
Airdrops allow people to obtain free crypto and to become investors while the company gets free publicity and creates awareness around its product. Airdrops may also help users start learning about crypto and their project.
Platforms such as Coinbase and eToro are offering signup bonuses in crypto for new users.
The bonus is often received after a specific condition has been fulfilled, such as taking a quiz about a new cryptocurrency or deposing a specific amount of cash in your exchange wallet.
Note that some platforms ask for ID verification, and then they report back to the fiscal entities.
Stacking is a way to support the security and operations of a blockchain by locking your funds in for some time and receiving rewards for it. Staking is one of the safest ways to generate a passive income from your crypto funds. It is much safer than crypto trading, although the rewards may be smaller.
Some platforms allow users to stack crypto directly from their crypto wallets, such as Trust Wallet. Exchanges also offer the option to stake your tokens by keeping the coins in the exchange wallet. PancakeSwap is famous for this practice.
Users who participate in staking contribute to the consensus mechanism of the blockchain by facilitating the Proof of Stake (PoS).
Unlike the Proof of Work used by Bitcoin’s blockchain, the PoS algorithm randomly chooses one of the staking participants to validate the next block.
Earning free crypto is awesome, but you need to signup to many different platforms to collect all the small bonuses.
What all of the ways mentioned above to get free cryptocurrency have in common is that you only get the bonus once, and after that, you need to trade or perform other actions that require you to spend money.
In this case, what’s the best way to get free cryptocurrency for an indefinite time?
We found a platform that rewards users with free cryptocurrency for staying active, and it doesn’t require you to spend any money.
It’s a fantasy football game on blockchain called FootballCoin.
Yes, you will need to know a thing or two about football, but you might get lucky anyway.
The win the game’s cryptocurrency, XFC, you need to create a valuable football squad.
Unlike real life, fantasy football gets really fun when choosing the lucky combination of 11 players.
The players from real football games all have collectable football cards in the game. According to their real-life performance, they get a score in the fantasy football game.
In FootballCoin, more points equal a higher chance of winning XFC prizes in the daily fantasy football contests.
That’s why you need to be intentional when choosing your team in fantasy football. The better the players play in real life, the better for your fantasy football team.
FootballCoin organises daily contests for the main European football leagues and tournaments. It also features the North American MLS league and the Chinese league CSL.
Contests in FootballCoin reflect the games played in real life.
FootballCoin players are called managers. The managers can choose the football players in their fantasy football team based on those playing in real life, in those particular football games.
The contests are free to join and have substantial prices in the game’s cryptocurrency, XFC.
The game’s mechanics also allow users to create their own contests, for which they can charge a participation fee. These are called private contests and are fun to play within a group of friends passionate about football.
One of the best ways to earn bitcoin and free cryptocurrency is by joining a free blockchain game. What sets apart FootballCoin from other blockchain games is the free-to-play feature.
It’s free to set up an account. And it is free to play. There are free daily contests that anyone can join to win real crypto.
The free daily contests in FootballCoin are tournaments. There are two kinds of tournaments. The Double Up tournaments reward the first half of the ranking managers. The Top 30% tournaments reward the top 30% of managers.
After a contest is finished and all, the rankings are calculated according to the scoring system. The players from the contest are rewarded automatically with XFC, depending on their rank in the contest.
The free cryptocurrency is deposited automatically in your FootballCoin wallet, and you are free to use it however you want.
You can choose to invest in the game, get more NFT digital assets in the game, or you can simply send it to one of the crypto exchanges that accept XFC and trade it.
By now, most crypto enthusiasts have been talking about and investing in non-fungible tokens and some big names in the industry have talked about acquiring NFT collections.
It’s important to note that FootballCoin supports non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In fact, its market for football player cards is actually an NFT marketplace.
NFT marketplaces are where the cards can be traded. In the FootballCoin market, the game’s users are able to freely buy, sell and lease non-fungible tokens and grow their NFT collections.
Furthermore, the player card tokens can be easily exchanged for another card, for a small fee. In this way, the game guarantees that users will always have cards that can be used in the game.
Assuming you start right now playing FootballCoin with a new account, you will get free crypto if you join the free daily contests. According to your real football knowledge, you will be able to create better fantasy football teams for free.
These teams that perform well will allow you to get the game’s crypto, XFC. You can later use that crypto to buy the game’s NFTs.
In FootballCoin, there are two different kinds of NFTs.
You can get football player NFT cards, which are usually for more famous players, such as Christiano Ronaldo. Having these cards will eventually help you rank better in the tournaments and earn even more XFC.
The other kind of NFT is the stadium card. These can be used to create your private contest, and you can earn a passive income from the fees that managers pay to join your contest.
By definition, NFTs come in limited supply and are often called collectable cards in the game.
While NFTs are a good way to store value and generate more income in FootballCoin, they are not required to play. However, it’s nice to know that you can buy them if you perform well in the free contests without investing your money.
FootballCoin doesn’t require any investment to play or to win in the game.
Unlike the famous mobile games that are pay-to-win, which sell worthless assets, in FootballCoin, you own everything you collect and win.
The game has many different assets that might help you advance and earn even more crypto, but no investment is required.
Most players start with nothing, and after a few months, are able to trade or sell their assets for a profit.
It’s important to point out that regular players get a monthly income from the game without an initial investment.
Manchester City Football Club will launch a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to honor their victory in the English Premier League.
🔥 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 #𝗡𝗙𝗧 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴! 🔥#ManCity x @JonNoorlander collab series – 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟰 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟴𝗽𝗺 𝗕𝗦𝗧
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 19, 2021
An exclusive collection to mark our @PremierLeague title win! 🏆
Preview on @makersplaceco: https://t.co/avs0QxODBL
NFTs will appear on the MakersPlace platform on May 24 – the day after the trophy is presented to the team. Part of the proceeds from the sale of non-fungible tokens by Manchester City will go to charity.
The collection, designed in collaboration with artist John Nordlander, contains four works. One of them – The Champions Medal – can be received by the club’s fans for free by taking part in the drawing.
NFT’s gain more and more popularity among Football fans.
From the popular FootballCoin game where you can Collect, Trade or Lease Player cards from all major leagues to the NFT release from Brazilian footballer Pele that took place in May on the Ethernity Chain platform.
In June, Bayern Munich player Alfonso Davies will present a collection of non-interchangeable tokens on the Binance platform.
Ark Investment CEO Catherine Wood expects Bitcoin to rise to $ 500,000 despite the latest price swings this week.
Catherine Wood has once again expressed her opinion about bitcoin. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, the founder of Ark Investment Management said that bitcoin is now “sold out”, and even during yesterday’s fall, the cryptocurrency may not have reached a minimum yet.
She describes the current market as emotional and says the bottom is difficult to predict. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has almost completely won back yesterday’s losses.
During the interview, Wood expressed her opinion on Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s comments on the environmental issues posed by bitcoin miners. The use of solar energy in the mining industry is about to skyrocket, she said.
In a research collaboration with $SQ, @yassineARK, @wintonARK, and @skorusARK debunk the myth that #Bitcoin mining is damaging the environment. Instead, as crypto mining, energy storage, and AI technologies converge, the adoption of renewable energy is likely to accelerate! https://t.co/EmMy1jXGlL
— Cathie Wood (@CathieDWood) April 22, 2021
Wood also noted that prospects for Bitcoin ETF approvals in the US this year have been boosted by the recent fall in prices.
“Now that we’ve gone through this correction, the odds are better,” she said.
Last month, Catherine Wood said that Bitcoin could become the new gold standard as it can increase purchasing power. She also believes that bitcoin will continue to grow and the first trillion in cryptocurrency capitalization is just the first step.
Earlier, Catherine Wood also warned BTC holders in the United States against converting crypto assets into fiat currency pending tax changes.
The entire world is pushed to the edge of their nerves as a global pandemic and civil wars are knocking on its door. What has happened in the Crypto world in February 2020?
A Lawmaker from New Jersey wants to create a crypto license for crypto exchanges. The Digital Asset and Blockchain Technology Act was introduced by Yvonne Lopez, whose proposal is to provide licences to any service of digital asset trading, storage, purchase, sales, exchange or issuing services. If the bill passes, the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance would be responsible with the licences and regulating businesses.
When traditional investors think about Bitcoin, they mostly think about its price volatility.
The volatility is determined by measuring the past prices and is typically measured for a 30-day period, calculating the standard deviation of daily price variations. But volatility only measures the price deviation and not its direction.
The price of oil has been more volatile than the price of Bitcoin.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price’s volatility stood at 105.3% on Feb. 10. The oil price’s volatility hit a 4-month high of 119.6% at the end of January.
Bitcoin’s historical volatility recently dropped to 42.3%, the lowest level since September.
Ripple has paid over $11 million in the past half year to MoneyGram, as a continuation of their partnership. MoneyGram is the first money transfer company which scales the blockchain capabilities usage.
“The Company is compensated by Ripple for developing and bringing liquidity to foreign exchange markets, facilitated by Ripple’s blockchain, and providing a reliable level of foreign exchange trading activity. The Company expects that this partnership, at scale, will reduce our working capital needs and generate additional earnings and cash flows,”
Ripple is closely tied to MoneyGram and own 10% of their stocks.
Revolut is a London-based bank and it has raised over $500 million in a Series D funding round.
Revolut offers the option to purchase cryptocurrency to its users and it is valued at over $5.5 billion. Revolut aims to challenge the traditional bank systems, by minimizing the prices on the provides services.
Revolut has raised a total of $836 million in its funding rounds.
The Tax authority of New Zealand is considering a change in the crypto space, that would eliminate the current goods and service tax.
The current regulation considers digital currencies as a form of property and it is liable for a 15% tax when the currency is traded. The double taxation issues arise when the income tax is applied.
The New Zealand Inland Revenue Department (IRD) suggests eliminating the property tax for cryptocurrencies and keeping the income tax for these assets.
In a policy issues paper made public on Monday, the IRD states:
“Because of their innovative nature, [cryptocurrencies] will often also have different features to … other investment products. This means that some existing tax rules can be difficult to apply, involve very high compliance costs or may provide policy outcomes for some crypto-assets that lead to over-taxation compared to other alternative investment products.”
An IT employee of the Judicial Administration in Ukraine has been charged with illegally mining cryptocurrency at his workplace.
The employee was working in the data system division of the court administrative department and was taking advantage of the equipment and internet bandwidth from his office to mine cryptocurrency from January to May 2018. He has also used servers from his workplace to host external websites.
If he will be found guilty, he faces up to six years in prison and he will not be allowed to work in any governmental agencies.
Yemen is in a state of civil war and is has the biggest humanitarian crisis on its hands. With half of the country being controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militant group, which have their own crypto, locals are wary of being associated with them and with cryptocurrency.
So far, it appears using bitcoin (BTC) in a war zone may be riskier than cash, especially when illicit actors use cryptocurrency as well as civilians.
The ongoing civil war in Yemen highlights the contradictions underlying bitcoin adoption: It’s difficult for civilians to acquire cryptocurrency without heavily regulated infrastructure that makes them vulnerable to coercion and surveillance. Such is the case in Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthi militia controls the northern half of the country and a failing government controls the central bank in the south.
For most people in Yemen, purchasing bitcoin is nearly impossible. Most international companies avoid doing business in Yemen due to concerns over U.S. sanctions, which aren’t comprehensive like the sanctions against Iran but nonetheless raise compliance questions.
Plus, peer-to-peer markets are hampered by both cash shortages and a lack of reliable communications infrastructure. Yemeni-American researcher Ibraham Qatabi at the Center for Constitutional Rights said telecom and electricity companies are owned by governments, both foreign and domestic, depending on the region. There’s no need for a warrant if Big Brother already owns the pipes. Plus, Qatabi said, most international money transfers are monitored by local authorities.
“Everything is monitored. They have everyone’s information,” Qatabi said. “If they want to go after somebody, they’ll have access to those files.”
Hamza Alshargabi, a doctor who worked in Yemen until 2012 and briefly mined ether (ETH) after he immigrated to the U.S., agreed it’s “almost impossible” to get a safe and reliable internet or phone connection in most of Yemen. He said in big cities connectivity is “so expensive that it’s unusable,” so he can’t imagine his sister using bitcoin in Yemen.
As such, some Yemeni civilians and expats are scared to be associated with cryptocurrency, including bitcoin. If protests last year in Iran and Lebanon offered a peek at bitcoin’s limitations, then Yemen is the full picture of bitcoin usage still relying on government infrastructure.
The increasing fear of new pandemic is showing the financial markets as stock prices go down. Indexes are going down form the beginning of 2020. Bitcoin’s price has taken a hit and it is trading below $8,000.
One strategy some traders are contemplating to prepare for COVID-19 is not holding volatile cryptocurrency assets unless absolutely needed. That’s what Althena’s OTC desk is doing. “We manage inventory very tight and run a matched book, so the coronavirus hasn’t been a factor,” said Althena’s Leon.
Bitcoin transactions are over 500 million as of the beginning of February 2020. The number of transactions doubled in 3 years, from 250 million in 2017 to 500 million in 2020.
The Bitcoin network went live on January 3, 2009. Eleven years later, in 2020, the network processes over 500 million transactions.
Since 2017, Satoshi.info, named after the pseudonym of the presumable creator of Bitcoin, started tracking and recording the number of transactions on the Bitcoin network.
The data on Satoshi shows a constant increase in the Bitcoin transactions, year after year. In only 3 years, the volume of Bitcoin transactions has doubled and considering the same growth rate, Bitcoin transactions can exceed 1 billion transactions.
How did the community react to the 500 million milestone?
Today, as of block 00000000000000000001145bf2e7cb7f04df55feaf3b55d9f6511522bbbf333f at height 616064, Bitcoin surpassed 500 million transactions confirmed on the blockchain. https://t.co/eVLbYnHohj
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) February 5, 2020
500 million transactions confirmed on the Bitcoin blockchain.
— hodlonaut🌮⚡🔑 (@hodlonaut) February 5, 2020
Bitcoin isn't talking about this. Or about how revolutionary and unprecedented its traits of censorship resistance and immutability are.
Bitcoin just is. And does.
One block at a time.
500.000.000 transactions processed on the #Bitcoin Network
— ◼️➖◻️➖🔳 (@themazuma) February 5, 2020
📲Sender of bitcoin
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📲Receiver of bitcoin pic.twitter.com/9qmIteOiCH
Now, on to the next 500 million.
IT’S FAIR ENOUGH TO SAY THIS USES CRYPTOCURRENCY TECHNOLOGY
This is sort of a controversial matter. There is also a public ledger, though only some individuals are permitted to mine the coin. It is said that Libra is limited in how the blockchain functions.
Bitcoin is a permissionless system. In order to participate in it, you have to provide proof of work in a competition of solving a complex puzzle, and this will let you add a block to the chain. So, basically, anybody can participate. This is only one of the most important thoughts behind Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 newspaper: bitcoin demands consensus, not trust.
The Libra cryptocurrency, in contrast, is permissioned, meaning just a few trusted entities may keep tabs on the ledger. That makes it like electronic money as opposed to a cryptocurrency.
On the flip side, Libra is delegated to pseudonymous “wallets,”, Transfers are done through public key operations.
Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute stated that the permissioned model implies less computing power is necessary. Bitcoin wastes a whole lot of energy, preventing so-called Sybil attacks where an attacker fills the system with computers that the attacker handles and wreaks havoc.
The conclusion is that there’s not just one definition of “cryptocurrency,”. We shall call Libra a cryptocurrency so that everyone knows what we are talking about, but it does come with some special characteristics.
Basically, Facebook would like to make it easy to move cash around the world since it is to send a text message.
The Business published a White Paper to describe the details. It will not observe the cryptocurrency as an effort to substitute the present financial system, as is Bitcoin’s goal. Instead, it is meant to expand an electronic payment system to under-served populations which don’t now have easy access to conventional financial institutions.
Worldwide, nearly two billion adults”stay beyond their fiscal system with no entry to a conventional lender, although one billion possess a cell phone and almost half a billion have net access,” reads the newspaper.
In the U.S., where buyers have access to a wealth of payment choices, the FDIC quotes that over 8 million families are unbanked.
“For big chunks of the Earth, Libra will be about using a superior kind of payment and wealth preservation,” states Colas. Agents from Libra didn’t respond to CNBC Make It is petition for comment.
Facebook’s strategy to run its digital money presents dangers to the global banking system which should activate a fast response from international policymakers, according to the organisation which represents the world’s central banks.
Even though the transfer of major tech companies like Facebook, Amazon and even Alibaba into monetary services could accelerate transactions and reduce costs, particularly in developing world nations, it may also endanger the stability of a banking system which has just recovered from the wreck of 2008.
Echoing warnings from several technology experts, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) stated that while there were potential benefits to be made, the digital currencies’ adoption beyond the existing financial system could decrease competition and make data privacy problems.
“The aim should be to respond to big techs’ entry into financial services so as to benefit from the gains while limiting the risks,” said Hyun Song Shin, economic advisor and head of research at BIS.
Libra is going to be handled by a Swiss-based nonprofit. Contrary to other cryptocurrencies, Libra is going to be endorsed by”actual” government-backed resources from central banks to provide it stability.
Facebook states Libra is going to be made accessible to Messenger and WhatsApp users, that will cash in their regional currency to purchase Libra. The money is going to be held at an electronic wallet named Calibra (more on this below) and may be spent on goods and services at participating merchants, exactly as with any other money.
To withdraw money, users will have the ability to convert their electronic money into legal tender according to a market rate. It will not be so equivalent to if you swap U.S. dollars for euros through a European holiday, for instance.
Presently, Libra isn’t”pegged” into one currency. However, this will allegedly make it less volatile compared to other cryptos.
For all those concerned about safety, Libra obligations won’t be linked to an individual’s Facebook information and will not be utilized for ad targeting.
The white paper includes some detail about Libra’s design. Nonetheless, there’s very little debate about why people do not have a bank account.
In accordance with that the World Bank data Facebook is mentioning, nearly two-thirds of men and women who do not have bank accounts state it is because they do not have sufficient cash to start one. A third of individuals who do not have bank accounts stated they do not need one. Libra doesn’t fix these issues.
Libra simplifies just the popular reasons people do not have a bank account. Approximately a quarter of respondents said banks’ large and unexpected prices were part of why they did not have balances; the lack of proximity to a bank is a barrier for another 20%.
To utilize Libra, you need to purchase Libra.
Problem is, individuals who don’t use banks don’t have bank accounts and do not have credit cards. They use cash.
The Libra’s whitepaper doesn’t mention anything about how Libra will reduce prices to convert fiat money into Libra currency, which will be a challenge for any user of Libra.
In terms of mobile banking, other challenges arise. For instance, in Nigeria, individuals prefer cash money because they worry that if their mobiles are stolen, their money is gone, also. This is an issue of societal norms, not technology. This, also, isn’t a problem you can resolve through technology. You can find several other, more mundane issues as soon as it comes to mobile banking also, such as the price of getting inactive clients.
Libra doesn’t make it clear why a mobile payments agency such as the one Facebook is suggesting requires cryptocurrency in any way. It feels like a non-starter in lots of the markets in which mobile payments may be needed. And Libra does not cover the principal problem that the documentation says it is.
Concluding from the documentation, Libra is not intended for individuals without a bank account; it is meant for men and women that have cash. Facebook is a company; companies need to create money. As we’ve observed, individuals without a bank account, don’t have money.
Of course, all of this could be a transition towards the mobile digital identity, which is a plausible game.
Facebook is constructing an app for the privileged class. However, Facebook is unlikely to do so for the greater good.
“Before we allow such a giant corporation to begin processing millions to billions of financial transactions, we have to study these issues and ensure we have the tools and guardrails in place to deter terrorists, extremists, and/or enemies from utilizing such a platform to do harm to our nation.” – Emanuel Cleaver, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Calibra, a subsidiary company of Facebook, and which operates independently from Facebook, enrolled as a money services company with FinCEN.
Broadly, people are discovering new ways to run illegal financial activities, Cleaver stated in the announcement, citing cryptocurrencies along with other brand new marketplaces as tools that these celebrities can accommodate.
“Now that we’re seeing a giant corporation like Facebook—which has already shown an inability to identify and impede these kinds of actors at an acceptable level—creating its own virtual currency called Libra, it cannot be understated the importance of Congress and financial transmitters to be proactive in utilizing the newest and most powerful technologies to ensure the financial system is not being used improperly,” he added.
Whether Libra succeeds, it affirms the inescapable fact that international currency movements in the electronic age is going to be contingent on blockchain-like options that disintermediate the present gatekeepers and challenge the bank-and-sovereign money-dominated version of this 20th century. Additionally, it emphasizes the way we’re moving into an era of electronic assets.
Beginner exchanges are exchanges that offer a simple way to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with as little confusing jargon and setup time as possible. Here are 6 cryptocurrency exchanges that are fairly easy to use by a new cryptocurrency investor.
Coinbase is one of the best options for a new crypto investor. Coinbase is the best-known cryptocurrency exchange in the US. It is the simplest and easiest on-ramp for crypto beginners.
Coinbase is the most trusted place for all things crypto.
It allows you to deposit fiat and crypto, offers a small variety of crypto (Bitcoin and Ethereum included) and has never been hacked before! As for security, you can activate the two-factor authentification and it is available in 100+ countries around the world (January 2020).
As any entity operating with fiat, there will be some fees, especially for deposing fiat. Coinbase Fees vary based on location and amount.
The user interface is intuitive, and the design is clean and simple. You can link up your bank account or pay with a card. There’s also a deep library of guides and explainers for newcomers.
Coinbase has a limited choice of cryptocurrency options to keep things simple. However, they consider the addition of more altcoins.
As for security, Coinbase stores 98% of customer funds in cold storage, in safe deposit boxes and vaults around the world, making it relatively secure. The remaining 2% is insured in case of hacks.
Lastly, there’s a handy mobile app to buy and sell cryptocurrency on the go.
Get started on Coinbase.
Shapeshift is a crypto-only exchange. You can’t buy cryptocurrency with dollars or euros. You can only trade between cryptocurrencies. However, due to its simplicity, we still recommend it for beginners.
The crypto offer is vast, and you can trade anything for anything and it is available all over the world. Make sure to switch on the two-factor authentification, in case of a future security breach. The exchange rate shown is exactly what you’ll receive, minus only the “miner fee.” There is no exchange fee, or service fee.
ShapeShift allows you to transfer currency between addresses of your choosing, rather than between accounts on its platform. It means ShapeShift doesn’t hold any customer deposits, making it relatively safe.
ShapeShift has been hacked three times, which all occurred in the same month due to internal sabotage. The exchange was extremely transparent in what happened over the hack, with the CEO going so far as to write a blow-by-blow explanation of what exactly happened.
Get started on ShapeShift.
Gemini was founded by the Winklevoss Twins. It’s a US-based exchange noted for being a licensed platform (Regulated by NYSDFS). Gemini gained headlines in 2019 by announcing full insurance coverage for funds on its exchange and in custody.
We believe that crypto investors deserve the same protections as investors in other asset classes, so we’ve built a rules-based marketplace with security at its core.
They operate in all U.S. states except Hawaii. Other countries in which they operate are Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the U.K. Gemini has never been hacked before and the few selected trading pairs are perfect to start your journey as a crypto investor.
Gemini and the Winklevoss Twins pride themselves on being fully compliant and working within existing regulations. As such, there’s a decent amount of safety from fraud and insurance coverage on this exchange. Of course, that comes at a cost: handing over a lot of personal information.
Gemini offers a decent chunk of volume, though few trading pairs compared to other exchanges. Security wise, aside from the standard 2FA, withdrawal address whitelisting is a welcome sight.
The Gemini app is also slick and easy-to-use for beginners.
Get started on Gemini.
Changelly is a crypto exchange similar to ShapeShift. It is address-to-address so Changelly never holds your funds. You can exchange crypto to crypto or fiat to crypto. A vast number of trading pairs are available.
Changelly is a cryptocurrency exchange with the most favorable rates and the fairest terms.
Your exchange has never been so smooth.
Changelly accepts users from any country in the world. As well, they will accept payments in any currency, but it will be converted to either the Euro or USD. They have never been hacked before and it supports two-factor authentification. There is a flat fee of 0.25% for each transaction made via the service.
There’s a simple frontend for buying bitcoin and converting it to whatever cryptocurrency you would like. Much like ShapeShift, Changelly transfers happen between addresses you own, rather than between accounts that the exchange controls.
It’s super fast and efficient. There’s a mobile app too for making transactions on the go.
Get started on Changelly.
Luno offers a great platform for African and European traders looking to get started. Alongside their exchange, Luno offers a wallet service with a companion mobile app. The exchange has been around since 2013 and has never been hacked, giving it a fairly solid reputation for security.
Luno makes it safe and easy to buy, store and learn about cryptocurrencies. Upgrade your money today.
Luno supports fiat/crypto exchanges on a few selected pair, which will be fairly easy to use by a new crypto enthusiast. They have never been hacked before and the platform supports two-factor authentification. Fees Maker / Taker. Makers fees are a flat 0% and takers fee range from 0.20% to 1.0%.
It’s designed to be as simple as possible, including an “instant buy” feature.
Get started on Luno.
Coinmama is a good choice for those looking to buy crypto using a credit card or other fiat sources. Coinmama is a broker so you’re buying directly from the company itself which makes transactions fast.
Trusted by over 1,800,000 people across 188 countries since 2013
However, there are some things to be aware of. Coinmama is “buy only” so you cannot sell cryptocurrencies on the platform. There is also no wallet feature on the exchange, so you need to withdraw directly to a wallet. This is no bad thing as keeping your funds on an exchange is risky, but you will need a wallet set up first.
Unfortunately, Coinmama’s simplicity is offset by the incredibly high fees charged for every transaction. Coinmama’s market rate is based on the XBX + 2%. In addition, there is a commission fee of up to 3.90%. For credit/debit card transactions, there is an additional 5.00% processing fee. This fee will be added after choosing your method of payment.
Get started on Coinmama.
We hope you have found the best cryptocurrency exchange that works for you. And if you ever decide you are serious about the cryptocurrency world, then remember there are ways to earn free cryptocurrency and Bitcoins.
Yes, you can earn free cryptocurrency and the list of services offering free cryptocurrency is growing.
Currently, the most popular way for people to get hold of a cryptocurrency (aka electronic money) is to buy it on an exchange with fiat currencies or through mining, but there are other ways you can earn cryptocurrency without getting out your wallet. In this article, you will discover services and platforms to help you earn free cryptocurrency without investing or mining.
No matter how you call it, electronic money, cryptocurrency or digital currency is something the entire planet started to be interested in.
While mining cryptocurrency and Bitcoin isn’t the cheapest way to get cryptocurrency, new blockchain platforms have emerged and are ready to help you earn this new electronic money, which is called cryptocurrency.
As Bitcoin makes it more and more on the international news, companies have come up with a different way in which you, can take part in this blockchain world, without investing any fiat money, or mining the cryptocurrency.
Sure, by signing up for any of these apps, you won’t be able to quit your day job anytime soon. But they give you the opportunity to earn money while you practically sleep and they also provide you with valuable experience in the up-and-coming decentralized sharing economy.
Something you shouldn’t miss on is the chance of earning free cryptocurrency! Since you are already online, so why not earn cryptocurrency online?!
Where to find services which help you earn cryptocurrency without investment? Here is what we found so far. (The list of where to get free cryptocurrency is updated regularly).
A decentralized open innovation platform empowering anyone to earn cryptocurrency,
Crowdholding is a co-creation platform were you log in, give feedback and earn crypto for it. They have over 70 crypto startups and over 40,000 signups. They have new startups as well as establish coins such as SmartCash, DeepOnion and ITF. (All on CoinMarketCap).
It’s free to sign up! How do you earn free crypto? After you sign up, you can give feedback, take part in bounties and airdrops to earn free cryptocurrency without investing.
The stages of Crowdholding, according to their website:
Earn anywhere, anytime, from any device
What is Storm?
According to its website, “Storm Token is a premium cryptocurrency reward used to fuel the world’s only blockchain-supported microtask platform.”
Storm Play is an app started in 2017, which pays you Bolt for doing a simple task such as downloading apps, surveys, and quizzes.
Storm (STORM) intends to make a blockchain-based, gamified, micro-task market (Storm Marketplace) that empowers users to earn STORM ERC-20 tokens by completing different tasks.
Micro-tasks in the app have been ‘gamified’ into a reward system that allows you to easily earn tokens for playing games or trying out new products or service.
“Participate in short surveys, try out new products, watch videos, and help finish small tasks to earn rewards in Storm Token, Bitcoin, or Ethereum.”
Some of the tasks, for example, involve achieving goals in games you have to download. Some mobile gamers may find that StormPlay gets them the entertainment factor they need, all while earning cryptocurrency without investment.
Bolt is the in-app currency which you can convert to Bitcoin, Ethereum or Storm coin when you have reached the minimum withdraw limit.
Steemit, or as the founders say, ”Come for the rewards. Stay for the community,” is a Reddit-like portal which supports posting content as well as up and down-voting.
Steemit is based on a blockchain that runs on a native coin called STEEM.
Steemit’s developers say that their Blockchain, in contrast to Bitcoin’s proof-of-work, is based upon “proof-of-brain.” That is to say, cryptocurrency is generated by participants creating original content. If you are some sort of content creator, then you definitely have to have an account on Steemit and you can earn cryptocurrency without investing by simply creating the content you are really good at.
This works as follows: A certain pool of STEEM tokens is dedicated to incentivizing content creation and curation. And how exactly these tokens are distributed for specific pieces of content is determined by “crowd wisdom” – the participant community assesses the value of the content and its token reward.
LBRY is an open-source and decentralized platform for video content sharing which rewards you for content consumption. Yes, you read that right. Not only are you rewarded for content creation, but for content consumption.
Why is that? Of course, in the long run, the main point of LBRY’s economy will be the remuneration of content creators, namely with tips from content users in the app’s native LBC token (short for LBRY Credit). The app comes with a dedicated LBC wallet. Other ways to obtain LBC’s are contributions to the LBRY project and mining – see here for all the ways of earning LBC.
However, to encourage widespread adoption of the LBRY app, the LBRY team is currently providing in-app rewards for early adopters. They can be earned simply by surfing video channels and watching videos.
SMSChain is a decentralized SMS gateway. It is based upon one of the most classical sharing economy concepts: Take a resource that someone has paid for, but isn’t using, and enable that person to share this resource with others.
These messages mostly consist of standard templates, not individualized content. These templates will be defined in SMSChain nodes, and participants can choose in advance which types of content they wish to permit to go through their SIM card.
SMSChain offers exactly this marketplace, and the marketplace’s currency is their native token SMSTO. You can earn SMSTO simply by signing up for an account on the SMSChain website, and by agreeing to sell your unused SMS capacities.
In the context of SMSChain, you are known as a “miner” – similar to Bitcoin’s concept of mining. However, the mining mechanism in SMSChain is not wasteful proof-of-work, as in other cryptocurrencies, but proof-of-delivery. That means that you do the useful work of delivering SMS in order to earn your SMSTO.
The explosion of cryptocurrencies has created a market where you can offer your services and receive remuneration in cryptocurrency.
There are subreddits such as /r/Jobs4Crypto and /r/Jobs4Bitcoins, or you can simply contact ICOs if you have a desirable skill set. Got something to sell? There are also multiple sites where you can sell your unwanted items for cryptocurrency. Some examples are Bitify (a platform similar to eBay) and BazaarBay (a platform that acts like Etsy).
SweatCoin will help you earn cryptocurrency for simply walking around outside.
SweatCoin might be the app that sounds familiar to you because it’s the easiest to use, and therefore the most popular. SweatCoin pays you in a currency that will eventually be turned into actual cryptocurrency on the blockchain.
Blockchain games are taking gaming to a whole new level. And yes, playing games can actually help you earn cryptocurrency without investing. More and more startups and companies are on their way to change their business model and the gaming industry is a big part of it.
You can earn free cryptocurrency by playing arcade games such as Alien Run and collectable fantasy football games like FootballCoin if you are a football enthusiast. Let’s not forget about attention games like Block Stacker. All these games are ready to reward you for your time and attention. And if you get really good at any of them, this could a permanent way of earning free cryptocurrency.
Remember there is an essential difference between blockchain games and crypto games. The two notions mean different things.
These are some of the most in handy and obvious ways in which you too can earn free cryptocurrency without investing. If you have more suggestions, feel free to send them and we will happily add them to the list.
Remember that there is a big cryptocurrency market and it grows at an exponential rate. As always, the firsts ones are the most advantaged players.
Read more on What is Bitcoin?
Although this is the case, and Bitcoin is running over 110 billion dollars in market cap, BTC is still not widely regulated across all countries in the world in the same manner.
Even though many countries marked BTC as a legal entity, there are many parts of the worlds where Bitcoin trading is considered illegal.
Bitcoin got a green light from the United States, as trading this digital asset is not set as illegal by the law. The Securities and Exchange Commission found proof that Bitcoin does not represent a security but rather currency, and FinCEN deemed it as legal.
FinCEN has been following up with Bitcoin on legality matters since 2013, so there are no laws prohibiting the trading of Bitcoin in the United States of America.
The European Union as a whole hasn’t yet issued any specific regulations or laws that would prohibit Bitcoin from being traded within the states that belong to the European Union.
That is how trading Bitcoin is legal in EU, while some countries like Bulgaria, Cyprus, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and more have issued their own regulations all in favour of the top currency in the market.
Bitcoin is a perfectly legal entity in Australia. That means that all activities regarding Bitcoin are allowed and legal in Australia.
Canada says “Yes” to Bitcoin as far as the law is concerned. According to them, Bitcoin like any other entity that allows trading.
That means that Bitcoin is being regulated the same way as any other investment in Canada. However, this country is concerned about the possibility of money laundering when it comes to using Bitcoin.
That is why all Canadian Bitcoin exchanges have to report their records and suspicious transfers.
In early December, each G20 nation signed an acknowledgement of “necessary reform” due to the global economy’s “digitalization.” The document refers to “crypto-assets,” which may be cryptocurrencies. Therein, the G20 agreed to regulate such assets consistent with FATF standards.
“We will regulate crypto-assets for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in line with FATF standards and we will consider other responses as needed.”
The United States has been the first country to take concrete action against the financing of terrorism with its report by the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control. The report discussed two Bitcoin wallet addresses and warned them and the financial community that those who were transacting may be subject to sanctions.
According to their website, the FATF acts as a financial police:
“The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Minister of its Member jurisdictions. The objectives of the FATF are able to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF is, therefore, a ‘policy-making body’ which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.”
BAT promises to create a transparent network, where those interested in receiving or selling advertising services, are free to do so without the involvement of intermediaries, in a healthy, competitive environment.
The BAT token is meant to be used to power the Brave network, set up by the developers using the ERC20 technical standard. Brave is a browser service that can also act as a marketplace to be used by those selling or buying advertising.
The project’s biggest calling card is the involvement of Brendan Eich, BAT’s founder. Eich is best known for his participation in the developing of Mozilla and Firefox, projects he helped co-found. Eich’s reputation alone was enough to garner a lot of attention for BAT.
The other members of the BAT team share an impressive background in the world of services and internet services, having worked for the likes of Yahoo, Evernote, or AOL.
There is another element that works in favour of BAT. It’s the general anti-ad attitude of the vast majority of internet users. BAT promises to offer a revenue system for those targeted by ads. As the name suggests, BAT’s objective is to convince users to provide them with their attention in exchange for BATs. And similarly, advertisers will receive BATs in proportion with the level of attention users provide them.
BAT was conceived with the ERC20 system in mind. At the time of writing, Ethereum blockchain technology continues to be highly popular in the crypto world. BAT will to remain dependent on Ethereum and subject to be influenced by the possibility of its popularity fluctuating.
The Brave network will also need to fight against several high profile competitors, among them CDX (a representative of alt-media), Bitclave, or AdEx (a company with a similar vision to BAT).
BAT set an ambitious roadmap, with confidence helped by the company able to raise a large sum of money in the ICO stage ( $35M). Initially, 1 billion tokens, of the total amount of 1.5 billion, were put on sale.
The developers held a further giveaway at the start of 2018. The number of users on the Brave network also increased, with an estimated 5 million downloads at the time of writing. The company also claims to have over 18,000 verified Brave publishers.
Yes, there is undoubtedly a real market need for advertisers and their customers to connect without additional interference. There also exists a real need for the consumers to feel they are genuinely rewarded for the amount of attention they decide to invest in various marketing campaigns.
The Brave browser and the accompanying BAT token aim to offer a solution to these issues. Indeed, the hurdles they will need to overcome will be high, and the competitors they face will present a challenge. However, how the project has developed, the level of interest it has garnered from users, promises to make it an exciting prospect for the future.
Cryptocurrencies are a kind of alternative currency and digital currency (of which virtual currency is a subset).
Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems.
The decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.
Bitcoin, first released as open-source software in 2009, is generally considered the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Since the release of bitcoin, over 4,000 altcoins (alternative variants of bitcoin, or other cryptocurrencies) have been created.
The first decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was created in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, as its proof-of-work scheme. In April 2011, Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very difficult. Soon after, in October 2011, Litecoin was released. It was the first successful cryptocurrency to use scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Another notable cryptocurrency, Peercoin was the first to use a proof-of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid. IOTA was the first cryptocurrency not based on a blockchain, using the Tangle instead.
On 6 August 2014, the UK announced its Treasury had been commissioned to do a study of cryptocurrencies, and what role, if any, they can play in the UK economy. The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered.
According to Jan Lansky, a cryptocurrency is a system that meets six conditions:
In March 2018, the word ‘cryptocurrency’ was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Stephanie Yang of The Wall Street Journal defined altcoins as “alternative digital currencies,” while Paul Vigna, also of The Wall Street Journal, described altcoins as alternative versions of bitcoin. Aaron Hankins of the MarketWatch refers to any cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin as altcoins.
A blockchain account can provide functions other than making payments, for example in decentralized applications or smart contracts. In this case, the units or coins are sometimes referred to as crypto tokens.
Decentralized cryptocurrency is produced by the entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly known.
In centralized banking and economic systems such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units of fiat money or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers.
In the case of decentralized cryptocurrency, companies or governments cannot produce new units and have not so far provided backing for other firms, banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in it.
The underlying technical system upon which decentralized cryptocurrencies are based was created by the group or individual known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
As of May 2018, over 1,800 cryptocurrency specifications existed.
Within a cryptocurrency system, the safety, integrity and balance of ledgers are maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners: who use their computers to help validate and timestamp transactions, adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme.
Read more about the Distributed Ledger Technology(DLT).
Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually decrease the production of that currency, placing a cap on the total amount of that currency that will ever be in circulation. Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies can be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement. This difficulty is derived from leveraging cryptographic technologies.
The validity of each cryptocurrency’s coins is provided by a blockchain. A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography.
Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, a timestamp and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way”.
For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority.
Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain. Blockchains solve the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server, assuming no 51% attack (that has worked against several cryptocurrencies).
Read more on What is Bitcoin and how does Bitcoin work?
Cryptocurrencies use various timestamping schemes to “prove” the validity of transactions added to the blockchain ledger without the need for a trusted third party.
The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof-of-work scheme. The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are based on SHA-256 and scrypt.
Some other hashing algorithms that are used for proof-of-work include CryptoNight, Blake, SHA-3, and X11.
The proof-of-stake is a method of securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus by requesting users to show ownership of a certain amount of currency. It is different from proof-of-work systems that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions.
The scheme is largely dependent on the coin, and there’s currently no standard form of it. Some cryptocurrencies use a combined proof-of-work/proof-of-stake scheme.
In cryptocurrency networks, mining is a validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward.
The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network.
The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and Scrypt. This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has been on since the day the first cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was introduced in 2009.
With more people venturing into the world of virtual currency, generating hashes for this validation has become far more complex over the years, with miners having to invest large sums of money on employing multiple high-performance ASICs. Thus the value of the currency obtained for finding a hash often does not justify the amount of money spent on setting up the machines, the cooling facilities to overcome the enormous amount of heat they produce, and the electricity required to run them.
Some miners pool resources, sharing their processing power over a network to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A “share” is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work.
As of February 2018, the Chinese Government halted trading of virtual currency, banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining. Some Chinese miners have since relocated to Canada. One company is operating data centres for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites, due to low gas prices.
In June 2018, Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 MW to crypto companies for mining. According to a February 2018 report from Fortune, Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of its cheap electricity. Prices are contained because nearly all of the country’s energy comes from renewable sources, prompting more mining companies to consider opening operations in Iceland. The region’s energy company says bitcoin mining is becoming so popular that the country will likely use more electricity to mine coins than power homes in 2018.
In October 2018 Russia becomes home to one of the largest legal mining operations in the world, located in Siberia.
In March 2018, a town in Upstate New York put an 18-month moratorium on all cryptocurrency mining in an effort to preserve natural resources and the “character and direction” of the city.
An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards (GPU) in 2017. Popular favourites of cryptocurrency miners such as Nvidia’s GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 graphics cards, as well as AMD’s RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs, doubled or tripled in price – or were out of stock.
A GTX 1070 Ti which was released at a price of $450 sold for as much as $1100. Another popular card GTX 1060’s 6 GB model was released at an MSRP of $250, sold for almost $500. RX 570 and RX 580 cards from AMD were out of stock for almost a year. Miners regularly buy up the entire stock of new GPU’s as soon as they are available.
Nvidia has asked retailers to do what they can when it comes to selling GPUs to gamers instead of miners. “Gamers come first for Nvidia,” said Boris Böhles, PR manager for Nvidia in the German region.
An example paper printable bitcoin wallet consisting of one bitcoin address for receiving and the corresponding private key for spending
A cryptocurrency wallet stores the public and private “keys” or “addresses” which can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency. With the private key, it is possible to write in the public ledger, effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency. With the public key, it is possible for others to send currency to the wallet.
Bitcoin is pseudonymous rather than anonymous in that the cryptocurrency within a wallet is not tied to people, but rather to one or more specific keys (or “addresses”).
Thereby, bitcoin owners are not identifiable, but all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain. Still, cryptocurrency exchanges are often required by law to collect the personal information of their users.
Additions such as Zerocoin have been suggested, which would allow for true anonymity.
In recent years, anonymizing technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and ring signatures have been employed in the cryptocurrencies Zcash and Monero, respectively. Cryptocurrency anonymizing implementations such as Cloakcoin, Dash, and PIVX use built-in mixing services, also known as tumblers.
Most cryptocurrency tokens are fungible and interchangeable. However, unique non-fungible tokens also exist. Such tokens can serve as assets in games like CryptoKitties.
Cryptocurrencies are used primarily outside existing banking and governmental institutions and are exchanged over the Internet.
Transaction fees for cryptocurrency depend mainly on the supply of network capacity at the time, versus the demand from the currency holder for a faster transaction.
The currency holder can choose a specific transaction fee, while network entities process transactions in order of highest offered fee to lowest. Cryptocurrency exchanges can simplify the process for currency holders by offering priority alternatives and thereby determine which fee will likely cause the transaction to be processed in the requested time.
For ether, transaction fees differ by computational complexity, bandwidth use, and storage needs, while bitcoin transaction fees differ by transaction size and whether the transaction uses SegWit. In September 2018, the median transaction fee for ether corresponded to $0.017, while for bitcoin it corresponded to $0.55.
Cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money, or to trade between different digital currencies.
Atomic swaps are a mechanism where one cryptocurrency can be exchanged directly for another cryptocurrency, without the need for a trusted third party such as an exchange.
Jordan Kelley, the founder of Robocoin, launched the first bitcoin ATM in the United States on 20 February 2014. The kiosk installed in Austin, Texas is similar to bank ATMs but has scanners to read government-issued identification such as a driver’s license or a passport to confirm users’ identities.
An initial coin offering (ICO) is a controversial means of raising funds for a new cryptocurrency venture. An ICO may be used by startups with the intention of avoiding regulation.
However, securities regulators in many jurisdictions, including in the U.S., and Canada have indicated that if a coin or token is an “investment contract” (e.g., under the Howey test, i.e., an investment of money with a reasonable expectation of profit based significantly on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others), it is a security and is subject to securities regulation.
In an ICO campaign, a percentage of the cryptocurrency (usually in the form of “tokens”) is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies, often bitcoin or ether.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, four of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings have used Switzerland as a base, where they are frequently registered as non-profit foundations.
The Swiss regulatory agency FINMA stated that it would take a “balanced approach“ to ICO projects and would allow “legitimate innovators to navigate the regulatory landscape and so launch their projects in a way consistent with national laws protecting investors and the integrity of the financial system.”
In response to numerous requests by industry representatives, a legislative ICO working group began to issue legal guidelines in 2018, which are intended to remove uncertainty from cryptocurrency offerings and to establish sustainable business practices.
The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them.
While some countries have explicitly allowed their use and trade, others have banned or restricted it. According to the Library of Congress, an “absolute ban” on trading or using cryptocurrencies applies in eight countries: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates. An “implicit ban” applies in another 15 countries, which include Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macau, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. In the United States and Canada, state and provincial securities regulators, coordinated through the North American Securities Administrators Association, are investigating “bitcoin scams” and ICOs in 40 jurisdictions.
Various government agencies, departments, and courts have classified bitcoin differently. China Central Bank banned the handling of bitcoins by financial institutions in China in early 2014.
In Russia, though cryptocurrencies are legal, it is illegal to actually purchase goods with any currency other than the Russian ruble. Regulations and bans that apply to bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems.
Cryptocurrencies are a potential tool to evade economic sanctions for example against Russia, Iran, or Venezuela.
In April 2018, Russian and Iranian economic representatives met to discuss how to bypass the global SWIFT system through decentralized blockchain technology. Russia also secretly supported Venezuela with the creation of the petro (El Petro), a national cryptocurrency initiated by the Maduro government to obtain valuable oil revenues by circumventing US sanctions.
In August 2018, the Bank of Thailand announced its plans to create its own cryptocurrency, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency advertisements were temporarily banned on Facebook, Google, Twitter, Bing, Snapchat, LinkedIn and MailChimp. Chinese internet platforms Baidu, Tencent, and Weibo have also prohibited bitcoin advertisements. The Japanese platform Line and the Russian platform Yandex have similar prohibitions.
On 25 March 2014, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that bitcoin will be treated as property for tax purposes. This means bitcoin will be subject to capital gains tax. In a paper published by researchers from Oxford and Warwick, it was shown that bitcoin has some characteristics more like the precious metals market than traditional currencies, hence in agreement with the IRS decision even if based on different reasons.
As the popularity of and demand for online currencies has increased since the inception of bitcoin in 2009, so have concerns that such an unregulated person to person global economy that cryptocurrencies offer may become a threat to society. Concerns abound that altcoins may become tools for anonymous web criminals.
Cryptocurrency networks display a lack of regulation that has been criticized as enabling criminals who seek to evade taxes and launder money.
Transactions that occur through the use and exchange of these altcoins are independent of formal banking systems and therefore can make tax evasion simpler for individuals. Since charting taxable income is based upon what a recipient reports to the revenue service, it becomes extremely difficult to account for transactions made using existing cryptocurrencies, a mode of exchange that is complex and difficult to track.
Systems of anonymity that most cryptocurrencies offer can also serve as a simpler means to launder money. Rather than laundering money through an intricate net of financial actors and offshore bank accounts, laundering money through altcoins can be achieved through anonymous transactions.
In February 2014 the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, declared bankruptcy. The company stated that it had lost nearly $473 million of their customers’ bitcoins likely due to theft. This was equivalent to approximately 750,000 bitcoins, or about 7% of all the bitcoins in existence. The price of a bitcoin fell from a high of about $1,160 in December to under $400 in February.
Two members of the Silk Road Task Force—a multi-agency federal task force that carried out the U.S. investigation of Silk Road—seized bitcoins for their own use in the course of the investigation. DEA agent Carl Mark Force IV, who attempted to extort Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht (“Dread Pirate Roberts”), pleaded guilty to money laundering, obstruction of justice, and extortion under colour of official right, and was sentenced to 6.5 years in federal prison. U.S. Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges pleaded guilty to crimes relating to his diversion of $800,000 worth of bitcoins to his personal account during the investigation, and also separately pleaded guilty to money laundering in connection with another cryptocurrency theft; he was sentenced to nearly eight years in federal prison.
Homero Josh Garza, who founded the cryptocurrency startups GAW Miners and ZenMiner in 2014, acknowledged in a plea agreement that the companies were part of a pyramid scheme, and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2015.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission separately brought a civil enforcement action against Garza, who was eventually ordered to pay a judgment of $9.1 million plus $700,000 in interest. The SEC’s complaint stated that Garza, through his companies, had fraudulently sold “investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated” from mining.
On 21 November 2017, the Tether cryptocurrency announced they were hacked, losing $31 million in USDT from their primary wallet. The company has ‘tagged’ the stolen currency, hoping to ‘lock’ them in the hacker’s wallet (making them unspendable). Tether indicates that it is building a new core for its primary wallet in response to the attack in order to prevent the stolen coins from being used.
In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold (and two other cryptocurrencies) were hit by a successful 51% hashing attack by an unknown actor, in which exchanges lost estimated $18m. In June 2018, Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, losing US$37 million worth of altcoin. The fear surrounding the hack was blamed for a $42 billion cryptocurrency market selloff. On 9 July 2018, the exchange Bancor had $23.5 million in cryptocurrency stolen.
The French regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) lists 15 websites of companies that solicit investment in cryptocurrency without being authorised to do so in France.
Cryptocurrency is also used in controversial settings in the form of online black markets, such as Silk Road. The original Silk Road was shut down in October 2013 and there have been two more versions in use since then.
In the year following the initial shutdown of Silk Road, the number of prominent dark markets increased from four to twelve, while the number of drug listings increased from 18,000 to 32,000.
Darknet markets present challenges in regard to legality. Bitcoins and other forms of cryptocurrency used in dark markets are not clearly or legally classified in almost all parts of the world. In the U.S., bitcoins are labelled as “virtual assets”.
This type of ambiguous classification puts pressure on law enforcement agencies around the world to adapt to the shifting drug trade of dark markets.
Cryptocurrencies have been compared to Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes and economic bubbles, such as housing market bubbles. Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management stated in 2017 that digital currencies were “nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it”, and compared them to the tulip mania (1637), South Sea Bubble (1720), and dot-com bubble (1999).
While cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that are managed through advanced encryption techniques, many governments have taken a cautious approach toward them, fearing their lack of central control and the effects they could have on financial security.
Regulators in several countries have warned against cryptocurrency and some have taken concrete regulatory measures to dissuade users. Additionally, many banks do not offer services for cryptocurrencies and can refuse to offer services to virtual-currency companies.
Gareth Murphy, a senior central banking officer has stated: “widespread use [of cryptocurrency] would also make it more difficult for statistical agencies to gather data on economic activity, which are used by governments to steer the economy”. He cautioned that virtual currencies pose a new challenge to central banks’ control over the important functions of monetary and exchange rate policy.
While traditional financial products have strong consumer protections in place, there is no intermediary with the power to limit consumer losses if bitcoins are lost or stolen.
One of the features cryptocurrency lacks in comparison to credit cards, for example, is consumer protection against fraud, such as chargebacks.
An enormous amount of energy goes into proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining, although cryptocurrency proponents claim it is important to compare it to the consumption of the traditional financial system.
There are also purely technical elements to consider. For example, technological advancement in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin results in high up-front costs to miners in the form of specialized hardware and software.
Cryptocurrency transactions are normally irreversible after a number of blocks confirm the transaction. Additionally, cryptocurrency can be permanently lost from local storage due to malware or data loss. This can also happen through the destruction of the physical media, effectively removing lost cryptocurrencies forever from their markets.
The cryptocurrency community refers to pre-mining, hidden launches, ICO or extreme rewards for the altcoin founders as a deceptive practice. It can also be used as an inherent part of a cryptocurrency’s design. Pre-mining means the currency is generated by the currency’s founders prior to being released to the public.
Paul Krugman, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner does not like bitcoin, has repeated numerous times that it is a bubble that will not last and links it to Tulip mania. American business magnate Warren Buffett thinks that cryptocurrency will come to a bad ending.
In October 2017, BlackRock CEO Laurence D. Fink called bitcoin an ‘index of money laundering’. “Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is in the world,” he said.
Source wikipedia.org
Originally devised for the digital currency, Bitcoin, the tech community is now finding other potential uses for the technology.
“Bitcoin is first and foremost a currency; this is one particular application of a blockchain. However, it is far from the only application. To take a past example of a similar situation, e-mail is one particular use of the internet, and for sure helped popularise it, but there are many others.” – Dr Gavin Wood, Ethereum Co-Founder
Picture a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers. Then imagine that this network is designed to regularly update this spreadsheet and you have a basic understanding of the blockchain.
Read to understand how a basic blockchain works How to Run a Blockchain on a Deserted Island with Pen and Paper
Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared — and continually reconciled — database. This is a way of using the network that has obvious benefits. The blockchain database isn’t stored in any single location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable. No centralized version of this information exists for a hacker to corrupt. Hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet.
“The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.” – Don & Alex Tapscott, authors Blockchain Revolution (2016)
Blockchain technology is like the internet in that it has a built-in robustness. By storing blocks of information that are identical across its network, the blockchain cannot:
Bitcoin was invented in 2008. Since that time, the Bitcoin blockchain has operated without significant disruption. (To date, any of problems associated with Bitcoin have been due to hacking or mismanagement. In other words, these problems come from bad intention and human error, not flaws in the underlying concepts.)
The internet itself has proven to be durable for almost 30 years. It’s a track record that bodes well for blockchain technology as it continues to be developed.
The blockchain network lives in a state of consensus, one that automatically checks in with itself every ten minutes. A kind of self-auditing ecosystem of a digital value, the network reconciles every transaction that happens in ten-minute intervals. Each group of these transactions is referred to as a “block”. Two important properties result from this:
In theory, this could be possible. In practice, it’s unlikely to happen. Taking control of the system to capture Bitcoins, for instance, would also have the effect of destroying their value.
“Blockchain solves the problem of manipulation. When I speak about it in the West, people say they trust Google, Facebook, or their banks. But the rest of the world doesn’t trust organizations and corporations that much — I mean Africa, India, the Eastern Europe, or Russia. It’s not about the places where people are really rich. Blockchain’s opportunities are the highest in the countries that haven’t reached that level yet.” – Vitalik Buterin, inventor of Ethereum
These computers, which are part of the blockchain network, are called nodes. Every time a transaction occurs it has to be approved by the nodes, each of whom checks its validity. Once every node has checked a transaction there is a sort of electronic vote, as some nodes may think the transaction is valid and others think it is a fraud.
Each node has a copy of the digital ledger or Blockchain. Each node checks the validity of each transaction. If a majority of nodes say that a transaction is valid then it is written into a block.
A block is a container data structure. In the Bitcoin world, a block contains more than 500 transactions on average. The average size of a block seems to be 1MB. A block is composed of a header and a long list of transactions. Let’s start with the header.
The header contains metadata about a block. There are three different sets of metadata:
This dependence of one pair on the previous pair makes it a chain, thus getting its name — Blockchain (a chain of blocks).
The whole family of blocks is the Blockchain. Every node has a copy of the Blockchain. Once a block reaches a certain number of approved transactions then a new block is formed.
The Blockchain updates itself every ten minutes. It does so automatically. No master or central computer instructs the computers to do this.
As soon as the spreadsheet or ledger or registry is updated, it can no longer be changed. Thus, it’s impossible to forge it. You can only add new entries to it. The registry is updated on all computers on the network at the same time.
Blocks in Blockchain are tied to the next block by hashes. If data in one block is modified, hashes need to be recalculated for all the following blocks and since calculating the hash is a very resource intensive operation, it gets practically impossible to do that and hence the network rules out the invalidated block. The calculation of the hash is called mining. Here are some Crypto Mining Business Model Used Worldwide
Bitcoin is the result of mining.
All the computers on the blockchain network, keep a copy of the full blockchain, so if one block or one complete chain at a particular computer or multiple computers is modified, the whole network tries to compare it with their own copies of the full chain.
In the case of blockchain technology, private key cryptography provides a powerful ownership tool that fulfils authentication requirements. Possession of a private key is ownership. It also spares a person from having to share more personal information than they would need to for an exchange, leaving them exposed to hackers.
Authentication is not enough. Authorization – having enough money, broadcasting the correct transaction type, etc – needs a distributed, peer-to-peer network as a starting point. A distributed network reduces the risk of centralized corruption or failure.
This distributed network must also be committed to the transaction network’s recordkeeping and security. Authorizing transactions is a result of the entire network applying the rules upon which it was designed (the blockchain’s protocol).
Authentication and authorization supplied in this way allow for interactions in the digital world without relying on (expensive) trust. Today, entrepreneurs in industries around the world have woken up to the implications of this development – unimagined, new and powerful digital relationships are possible. Blockchain technology is often described as the backbone for a transaction layer for the Internet, the foundation of the Internet of Value.
In fact, the idea that cryptographic keys and shared ledgers can incentivize users to secure and formalize digital relationships has imaginations running wild. Everyone from governments to IT firms to banks is seeking to build this transaction layer.
Authentication and authorization, vital to digital transactions, are established as a result of the configuration of blockchain technology.
The idea can be applied to any need for a trustworthy system of record.
It is this difference that makes blockchain technology so useful – It represents an innovation in information registration and distribution that eliminates the need for a trusted party to facilitate digital relationships.
Yet, blockchain technology, for all its merits, is not a new technology.
Rather, it is a combination of proven technologies applied in a new way. It was the particular orchestration of three technologies (the Internet, private key cryptography and a protocol governing incentivization) that made bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s idea so useful.
Most significant companies will run business processes on their private blockchains.
Sources dev.to hackernoon.com blockgeeks.com coindesk.com cointelegraph.com
In reality, Bitcoin is but one of many hundred software which uses blockchain technologies now.
“[Blockchain] is to Bitcoin, what the internet is to email. A big electronic system, on top of which you can build applications. Currency is just one.” – Sally Davies, FT Technology Reporter
The vital distinction between Bitcoin and Ethereum, is that Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency ledger, a method to keep tabs on electronic currency trades, whereas the Ethereum system is centred on creating and take care of the code for any programming code of a decentralized program.
As ethereum.org states:
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.
On the Ethereum blockchain, miners operate for Ether, the token that fuels the system. Ether can be utilized to cover transactions services and fees within the Ethereum network. The second sort of token utilized on the Ethereum blockchain is GAS. Gas has to be compensated for each and every smart contract implementation and to be set in the blockchain.
A smart contract is a personal computer code used to ease the exchange of material, cash, assets and whatever of worth. A smart contract is a self-operating computer application which automatically implemented when certain conditions are satisfied on the blockchain. As these are all programmed, there’s absolutely not any chance of fraud, downtime or some other third party hindrance.
While all blockchains can procedure code, Ethereum differs, allowing its developers to make whatever sort of software they wish.
“ [Ethereum] blockchain has some extraordinary capabilities. One of them is that you can build smart contracts. It’s kind of what it sounds like. It’s a contract that self-executes, and the contract handles the enforcement, the management, performance, and payment” – Don Tapscott
Blockchain programs were restricted before the invention of this Ethereum blockchain. The functions provided by Ethereum are supposed to fix and operate any sort of problem. Ethereum Virtual Machine EVM is its own heart invention.
The EVM enables the introduction of blockchain software, which makes this process a lot simpler than before. Practically, rather than developing a new blockchain for every program, Ethereum permits developers of distinct software to utilize only 1 platform.
Ethereum is utilized to deploy decentralized software (Dapp). These programs can serve a specific function to its own users.
It supplies a peer-to-peer digital money system that permitted online bitcoin payments. Decentralized applications are constructed on a blockchain system, which means that they aren’t controlled by any central entity or person.
Read the Ethereum white paper.
A DAO is completely autonomous, a decentralized company without a single leader.
The code was made to replace the principles and construction of a conventional business, eliminating the need for individuals and concentrated control. A DAO is possessed by everybody who buys clippings, but in lieu of every token equating to equity stocks and possession, tokens act as gifts that provide individuals voting rights.
“A DAO consists of one or more contracts and could be funded by a group of like-minded individuals. It operates completely transparently and completely independently of any human intervention, including its original creators. A DAO will stay on the network as long as it covers its survival costs and provide a useful service to its customer base” – Stephen Tual, Slock.it Founder, former CCO Ethereum.
Ethereum can be being utilized as a platform to establish different cryptocurrencies. Due to the ERC20 token benchmark characterized by the Ethereum Foundation, other programmers can subject their own variations of the token and increase funds with a first coin supplying (ICO). Inside this fundraising plan, the issuers of this token set a sum they would like to increase, provide it in a crowdsale, and get Ether in exchange.
Billions of dollars are increased by ICOs over the Ethereum stage in the previous two decades, and among the very precious cryptocurrencies in the Earth, EOS, is the ERC20 token.
Ethereum has just made a new standard known as the ERC721 token for monitoring unique digital resources. Among the greatest use instances now for these tokens is electronic collectables, since the infrastructure permits people to demonstrate possession of infrequent digital products. Many games are now being constructed using this technology, like the overnight strike CryptoKitties, a sport at which you are able to collect and strain electronic cats.
Since causal applications run on the blockchain they gain from all its attributes.
Despite attracting lots of advantages, decentralized software are not faultless. As clever contract code is composed of people, smart contracts are just as good as the men and women who compose them.
If an error in the code becomes tapped, there isn’t any efficient way where an assault or manipulation could be stopped beside acquiring a community consensus and copying the underlying code. This goes contrary to the basis of the blockchain that’s intended to be immutable.
Additionally, any actions taken by a central celebration raises serious questions regarding the decentralized character of a program.
I would like to come up with a program. How can I get Ethereum?
There are a lot of ways that in which you can plug in the Ethereum system, among the simplest ways would be to use its native Mist browser. Mist provides a user-friendly interface & electronic wallet for consumers to exchange & shop Ether in addition to compose, handle, install and utilize intelligent contracts. Like internet browsers provide accessibility and help individuals navigate the web, Mist provides a gateway to the world of decentralized blockchain software.
There’s also the MetaMask browser expansion, which turns Google Chrome to an Ethereum browser. MetaMask enables anyone to run or create decentralized software from their own browser.
As soon as it’s still early days, Mist, MetaMask and also an assortment of different browsers seem set to create blockchain-based applications available to more individuals than ever before. Even people with no technical background can potentially construct blockchain programs. This is a radical jump for blockchain technologies which could bring decentralized software to the mainstream.
“If you think the internet has affected your life, Ethereum will have that same pervasive influence on our communications, on our entire information infrastructure. It’s going to impact all aspects of our existence
Building the public Ethereum ecosystem: As scalability and configurable privacy/confidentiality grow on public Ethereum over the next two years, consumers will use their blockchain identity and access point (uPort) to interact with a variety of interesting early stage offerings.
Including crowdfunding platforms (Weifund), group governance tools (Boardroom), music/film/art content registration and utilization platforms (ujo), wisdom markets (Gnosis), and gaming apps (Virtue Poker)”
Joseph Lubin, CEO of Consensys
Buenos Aires plans to issue blockchain-based identity documents, including birth and marriage certificates, while Brazil aims to make its new blockchain-powered national ID program available across the country. Both initiatives signify a major leap in government services and personal data security.
More than 214 million people in Brazil are about to start using blockchain technology for their digital IDs, according to a recent announcement by the government. The states of Rio de Janeiro, Goiás, and Paraná will be the first to start rolling out these blockchain-based identification documents.
They’re using a special, secure system created by Serpro, Brazil’s national data service. The plan is to have this technology available across the entire country by November 6, 2023.
Alexandre Amorim, the head of Serpro, explained that blockchain was chosen for this project because it’s a secure and decentralised way to manage digital IDs.
Blockchain technology is key in making personal data more secure and in reducing fraud, creating a safer digital environment for people in Brazil.
The use of the b-Cadastros blockchain platform improves the safety and trustworthiness of the National Identity Card project.
According to the government, this project is important for tackling organised crime and encouraging different parts of the government to collaborate. It also makes it easier for people to get government services and helps simplify record-keeping.
In recent years, Brazil has been trying to standardise the way IDs are issued across its nearly 30 states. This new technology will help safely share data between the Federal Revenue Agency and other government departments, as stated in the announcement.
Another big change happening in the country is the introduction of a new digital currency by the central bank.
The government recently shared more details about this project in August and has renamed the digital currency to “Drex.”
Past reports suggest that the central bank aims to make it easier for businesses to get funding through a special system linked to Drex. A local developer found that the code for Drex allows a central body to either freeze money or lower account balances.
Notably, Buenos Aires in Argentina has announced a similar plan that lets people get their identity documents through a digital wallet.
Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, is also taking a big step to include blockchain technology in its administrative processes.
Starting in October, people living in the city will be able to get their identification documents through a digital wallet, as revealed in a September 28 announcement.
Initially, you’ll be able to get documents like birth and marriage certificates, proof of income, and school records on this blockchain system. The plan also includes adding health records and payment information down the line.
The city aims to have a detailed plan for expanding this blockchain service throughout the country by the end of 2023.
The technology backbone of this project comes from QuarkID, which is a digital identity system created by the Web3 company Extrimian.
QuarkID wallets use zkSync Era, a special feature built on the Ethereum network that helps it run more efficiently. This feature uses something called zero-knowledge rollups, which lets one person show another that something is true without having to share any detailed information about what that ‘something’ is.
“This marks a huge leap forward in making government services in Latin America safer and more efficient,” said Guillermo Villanueva, the CEO of Extrimian.
The information in these digital wallets will be controlled by the individual, meaning people can decide how and when to share their credentials, whether it’s with the government, businesses, or other people. zkSync Era will serve as the foundation for QuarkID, making sure everyone’s credentials are accurate and secure.
Diego Fernandez, who leads innovation for Buenos Aires, added, “This makes Buenos Aires the first city in Latin America, and among the first globally, to adopt and champion this new technology. We’re setting an example for how other countries in the region can use blockchain technology for the good of their citizens.”
Officials in Argentina are looking into another digital ID project called Worldcoin. In August, they revealed that they’re examining potential privacy issues tied to how Worldcoin gathers, stores, and uses people’s information. The project is also facing questions in Europe and Africa since it went global in July. Created by Sam Altman, who is also a co-founder of OpenAI, Worldcoin uses eye scans to confirm the identity of its users.
After attempting to acquire FTX Europe to boost its international derivatives business, Coinbase pivoted to offer perpetual futures to qualified customers in and outside the U.S.
Coinbase, a major platform for trading cryptocurrencies, twice considered buying FTX Europe after it went bankrupt in November 2022. Their aim was to expand their services related to financial derivatives abroad.
Despite these efforts, they’ve decided to back out of the acquisition. Coinbase looked into this deal two times: once right after FTX Europe’s financial troubles in November 2022, and again in September 2023.
A Coinbase representative verified this, stating they’re continually exploring ways to grow their business globally.
Other companies like Crypto.com and Trek Labs are also reportedly interested in FTX Europe. FTX initially spent close to $400 million to set up its European division.
FTX Europe was unique in that it was based in Cyprus and was the only company to offer certain trendy financial products like perpetual futures.
A perpetual future is a type of derivative financial instrument often used in cryptocurrency markets. Unlike regular futures that have an expiration date, perpetual futures go on indefinitely until you decide to close the position. They’re designed to mimic the price of an underlying asset, like Bitcoin, without actually requiring you to own it. Traders use perpetual futures for various reasons, such as hedging against price changes or trying to profit from market movements. Traders can benefit from perpetual futures whenever the markets move, regardless of the direction, up or down.
If Coinbase had gone through with buying FTX Europe, they could have made more money from fees, especially since this type of trading is becoming more popular, even when the overall crypto market isn’t doing so well.
In fact, Coinbase made $707 million in the second quarter of 2023, though their earnings from regular trades dropped by 13% from the last quarter.
Meanwhile, globally, the trading of these financial contracts on centralised platforms went up by almost 14% in June to a staggering $2.13 trillion.
Binance led the way in this kind of trading, followed by OKX. Even Bitcoin futures trading saw a boost, especially on the CME exchange.
As for Coinbase, they’ve already dipped their toes into this market in the U.S. and now just got the green light from authorities to offer this type of perpetual futures to non-U.S. qualified customers.
In the U.S., the green light from authorities allows Coinbase to offer Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts via its derivatives platform called FairX, which is overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. According to what Coinbase said when they announced this, these types of contracts make up nearly three-quarters of all crypto trading globally, making it a key entry point for traders.
Coinbase has announced its next steps in its “Go Broad, Go Deep” strategy, aiming to work closely with global regulators to shape a crypto-friendly framework.
They’ve expanded access to perpetual futures contracts to qualified customers outside the U.S., reinforcing their mission to update the global financial system.
This move comes at a time when other crypto exchanges face increasing regulatory challenges. Perpetual futures are highly sought-after, making up about 75% of global crypto trading. Coinbase sets itself apart by offering these contracts within strict compliance rules. They’ve already seen over $5.5 billion in trading volume from institutions as of the second quarter. Their exchange follows regulations set by the BMA and offers multiple layers of user protection.
What makes Coinbase unique is its emphasis on security and compliance. They guarantee a 1:1 hold on customer assets, and their financials are publicly audited. They’re also backed by a well-funded Insurance and Liquidity Support Program using the stablecoin USDC, rather than risky exchange tokens. Additionally, they have an experienced risk management team and don’t engage in market-making themselves.
As environmental concerns and costs mount, the future of crypto mining is looking increasingly green. Industry leaders are exploring alternative energy solutions for more sustainable and cost-effective operations.
In 2021, when cryptocurrency prices were soaring, big mining companies borrowed a lot of money to buy the gear and set up the systems they needed to mine crypto. But then major crypto platforms like FTX and Celsius went under, leaving many of these companies broke and struggling.
With crypto prices down and competition in Bitcoin mining fiercer than ever, people are questioning whether these mining operations can bounce back from their losses. One thing’s for sure, these companies are now looking at using greener energy options to save money, make some profit, and also be a bit kinder to the planet.
According to Swan Bitcoin, a company focused on Bitcoin financial services, it generally costs around $26,000 to mine one Bitcoin.
However, companies that use renewable energy are finding it much cheaper, with costs ranging between $5,000 and $15,000 per Bitcoin.
A spokesperson from Riot Blockchain, a U.S.-based Bitcoin mining company, explained that thanks to wind and solar energy in Texas, their costs are among the lowest in the crypto mining business. To be exact, it costs Riot $8,389 to mine a single Bitcoin.
Kent Halliburton from Sazmining, a company that hosts Bitcoin mining operations, pointed out that the biggest cost in mining is electricity. He said that miners naturally want to find the cheapest power available, and renewable energy often fits the bill because it sometimes produces excess electricity. He also mentioned that data from the Bitcoin Mining Council indicates that the Bitcoin network is becoming increasingly sustainable, with 59% of mining now carbon-free and growing each year.
Phil Harvey, the CEO of Sabre56, a company providing infrastructure for crypto mining, said that they’re helping several mining companies set up operations at their facilities in Wyoming and Ohio. This move towards renewable energy appears to be a growing trend among miners who are thinking about their long-term success.
Phil Harvey from Sabre56 said their mining center in Gillette, Wyoming, known as “Bonepile,” has around 2,200 mining machines running on a mix of energy sources. Nearly 29% of this energy is renewable, coming from wind, recovered energy, and hydropower. The machines they use are a mix of MicroBT Whatsminer M50s and Bitmain Antminer S19s. The Bonepile site uses a special design to keep the machines cool: they force air into the facility, which helps prevent the machines from overheating and allows for hot air to naturally exit.
This design is different from the usual methods used in the mining industry, where typically additional systems are used to suck hot air out, but there’s no special system to bring fresh air in.
On the other hand, OceanBit is taking a unique approach to renewable energy for mining. Michael Bennett, the co-founder, explained that they are incorporating Bitcoin mining into their ocean thermal energy power plants. This allows them to adjust to fluctuating energy demands, deliver power more quickly to offshore projects, and also make extra money from unused energy.
Ocean thermal energy, according to Bennett, is a massive and largely untapped renewable energy source. It uses the temperature difference in ocean water to generate electricity, similar to how hydro and geothermal energy work. Bennett thinks that Bitcoin could be the key to making this type of energy more widely used because it helps solve some of the commercial challenges associated with ocean thermal energy.
Diagram of OceanBit’s thermodynamic cycle. Source: OceanBit
Nathaniel Harmon, who co-founded OceanBit with Michael Bennett, explained how their system is a win-win. The ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) process produces cold water as a byproduct, which is perfect for cooling the specialized computers used in Bitcoin mining, known as ASICs. On the flip side, these ASICs produce low-level heat, which can be recycled back into the OTEC process. This creates a cycle that makes both operations more efficient and cost-effective.
Bennett also mentioned that OceanBit is aiming to reveal its research and development power plant in Hawaii by 2024.
Stronghold Digital Mining, a crypto mining company in Pennsylvania, is taking a different approach by using waste coal to power its mining activities.
This waste of coal, which is left over from the coal mining process and mixed with various impurities, has been a pollution issue in Pennsylvania for years. Greg Beard, the CEO of Stronghold, said they’re working with local environmental agencies to clean up these waste coal piles and use them for energy.
Beard pointed out that the waste coal has been a major source of water pollution and has also caught fire spontaneously over the years, releasing toxic fumes. By converting this waste into energy, Stronghold either powers its own Bitcoin mining or feeds electricity back into the local grid. Beard argues that this makes their operation more efficient than other miners who are just looking for cheap power.
However, this method isn’t without its critics. Using waste coal still means burning hydrocarbons, and some groups claim that these kinds of plants actually pollute more than new coal plants. Stronghold also faced backlash when it planned to burn tire-derived fuel at one of its plants. Russell Zerbo, an activist with the Clean Air Council, said that the plant should be reclassified as a solid waste incinerator, which would subject it to stricter air pollution monitoring. So, while Stronghold’s method does help clean up waste coal, it also raises environmental questions.
While it’s good news that crypto mining companies are moving towards alternative energy, there are hurdles that could slow down this transition.
Kent Halliburton mentioned that people often misunderstand the benefits that Bitcoin mining can bring to local communities, like creating jobs and making use of excess or wasted electricity. Electricity is hard and expensive to store, so if it’s not used or stored right away, it goes to waste.
Phil Harvey pointed out another challenge related to the location of their mining facility in Gillette, Wyoming. Due to the high altitude, the air is thinner, making it harder for their machines to pull in enough air for cooling.
Additionally, the issue of thermal pollution exists, where hot air from mining machines is released into the atmosphere. To counter this, some companies are getting creative. For example, Genesis Digital Assets uses the hot air generated by its mining machines to grow vegetables in colder climates.
So, while the move towards renewable energy in crypto mining is promising, there are still a variety of challenges that need to be addressed.
It looks like renewable energy will play a key role in the future of crypto mining. Bitmain, a top company in crypto mining gear, is now focusing on water-cooling technologies, as the demand for such eco-friendly options will keep rising.
Nearly 25% of all Bitcoin miners are already using water-powered setups. Wind and nuclear energy come in second and third as the most popular sources of power for these miners.
As Web3 technology gains traction in the gaming world, industry leaders discuss the hurdles and opportunities for mass adoption, predicting a significant increase in players within the next two years.
Saudi Arabia is working hard to grow its economy in new ways, so it’s not just relying on oil money.
The country is diving into the world of new tech like blockchain and artificial intelligence, and they’re also getting into the video game market.
Although Saudi Arabia isn’t yet a big name in video games or AI on a global scale, people who know a lot about this stuff think the country’s efforts could have a big impact down the line. Yat Siu, the co-founder of Animoca Brands, said that Saudi Arabia is really interested in this next wave of the internet, known as Web3.
Saudi Arabia is teaming up with companies like The Sandbox and Animoca to explore the next phase of the internet.
Yat Siu, an executive in the industry, believes Saudi Arabia gets that the future of gaming will be tied to blockchain, where players actually own the items in the game.
Saudi Arabia is a big player in the Middle East’s growing video game market, thanks to its young people who are really into tech.
A report from Boston Consulting Group says that Saudi Arabia makes up almost half of the gaming market in the region and is worth over $1.8 billion.
In 2017, Saudi Arabia set up the Saudi Esports Federation to help grow and manage its video gaming scene. According to a Bloomberg report in April, the country invested a whopping $38 billion through its Public Investment Fund to become a big name in global gaming.
Yat Siu says that while the Saudi government understands the big picture of Web3 and how it could work with esports, there’s still some confusion. This is mainly because the country hasn’t set clear rules about things like cryptocurrency and other digital assets yet.
He also points out that other places, like Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates, are ahead in this area. They have clearer rules about what you can do with cryptocurrencies and Web3, making it easier to plan out a strategy.
It’s still unclear what Saudi Arabia’s plans for Web3 gaming will turn out to be, but according to Yat Siu, the country is studying other markets to figure things out. He feels that Saudi Arabia’s eagerness to be at the forefront of new technology is something special.
While some traditional gamers and developers are sceptical, games developers believe that for anyone to really get into Web3, whether in gaming or another area, they need a good understanding of finance.
At this stage, just having a bank account isn’t enough; you need a higher level of financial know-how to be a true Web3 user.
Getting people to use Web3 isn’t just about giving them a digital wallet; that’s actually the easy part.
The real challenge is making them understand that they now own something valuable, like a digital asset, and that it can do different things and has its own kind of value that needs to be maintained.
A spokesperson from FootballCoin, an independent blockchain game, says that Web3 games also allow people to be part of an ecosystem. In this way, individuals are more than simply players of the game and, basically, become a partner in the game.
Footballcoin is a Web3 game which empowers people to buy and sell digital assets. But in the end, Web3 should make the gaming experience better, not just be a way for people to make money.
While multiple Ethereum staking services are pledging to limit their market share to 22%, Lido Finance takes a different path, sparking debates on centralisation and community values.
The top five companies that offer ether staking pools for individuals have stated that they won’t control more than 22% of all ETH currently staked.
This is a way to make sure that no single company has too much power over the Ethereum network, keeping it open and fair for everyone.
Companies like Rocket Pool, StakeWise, Stader Labs, and Diva Staking are either already following this rule or planning to do so, says Superphiz, a key Ethereum developer.
Puffer Finance, another such company, has also said they’ll stick to this limit.
Why 22%?
Superphiz explains that to make any big changes to the Ethereum network, 66% of the participants have to agree.
By setting a limit of 22%, it ensures that at least four big companies would have to work together to push through any major updates. This makes the network safer and more secure.
When talking about blockchain transactions, the finality of a transaction is the moment when transactions are locked in place and can’t be changed.
Superphiz, a leading Ethereum developer, brought up an important question last May:
Would a company that helps people stake Ethereum be willing to put the network’s well-being over its own profits?
Interestingly, Lido Finance, the biggest company of this kind, decided not to follow the 22% self-limit rule. Almost all of their members (99.81%, to be exact) voted against it back in June.
Superphiz mentioned in a post at the end of August that Lido aims to control most of the deciding power in the Ethereum network.
To give you an idea of how big Lido is, they control 32.4% of all Ethereum that’s currently being staked.
That’s a big deal, especially when you consider that the next largest, Coinbase, only has an 8.7% share, according to data from Dune Analytics.
Source: Dune Analytics
Well, the Ethereum community has different opinions on that.
One expert named Mippo commented at the end of August that the 22% self-limit rule isn’t really about staying true to Ethereum’s ideals, which are about open access and innovation for everyone.
Mippo thinks that those advocating for the self-limit would probably not stick to it if they were in the dominant position like Lido Finance. In his view, everyone is just acting in their own best interest.
Another person argued that user-friendly services shouldn’t be criticised as greedy.
On the flip side, some people are really concerned that a few big companies could end up controlling too much of the Ethereum network. They see Lido’s large market share as a problem, even calling it “selfish and disgusting.”
Lido ticks all the boxes when it comes to staking services.
They support multiple types of digital money and make it super easy for anyone to use their platform.
Their fees are fair, and they even offer nice rewards if you refer people to their service. On top of that, they make a lot of different cryptocurrencies more available for trading and are backed by some big names in the decentralised finance world.
What’s cool is that when you stake your digital tokens with Lido, you get back tokens that are tied to the value of what you staked. You can then use these for more ways to earn money in the DeFi world.
Lido has become a top pick for people looking to stake their digital assets thanks to some standout features.
First off, staking is a breeze; you can earn daily rewards by simply staking your tokens, and there’s no minimum amount you need to start.
Want to make even more from your tokens?
Lido allows you to use them for things like loans, yield farming, and other money-making activities. This can give your earnings a nice boost.
They also have their own digital token, called LDO, that you can trade on popular exchanges like SushiSwap, Uniswap, and many more.
When it comes to security, you can rest assured. Lido’s smart contracts have been thoroughly checked by reputable firms like Quantstamp and Sigma Prime.
Although Lido doesn’t offer its own wallet, you can still use popular ones like TrustWallet and MetaMask to manage your assets.
Web3 games are still emerging. In the booming play-to-earn gaming arena, not all Web3 games and projects are created equal. Let’s delve into the complexities of Web3 gaming, exploring the issues that have hindered growth and how pioneering projects like FootballCoin have managed to innovate and thrive.
The world of play-to-earn games is more than just a way to pass the time. Players are looking for an interesting digital environment, and a huge added bonus is the ability to earn tokens or some sort of real-world benefit while getting involved in this Web3 world.
The play-to-earn games craze started in 2021. During that time, Web3 was going through big changes.
One of the highlights was a game called Axie Infinity, which allowed players in developing countries like Ghana and the Philippines to make a lot more than the minimum wage.
However, a serious issue with a token bridge and a drop in market interest caused the earnings from these games to decrease significantly.
When you take a broader look, only a few projects in the play-to-earn game world have managed to grow steadily.
This seems to be because of some basic problems with the way play-to-earn works.
To start playing, people might need to spend hundreds of dollars to buy the NFTs necessary to participate.
Even those who are willing to pay that much might be let down by the games themselves, which can have poor graphics and no real storyline.
But the issues don’t stop there.
Many Web3 games that make money through selling NFTs are still in the early stages of being made.
If the game’s developers don’t add new features quickly enough, players can become frustrated.
There can also be a need to keep coming up with new collectable items all the time to make sure there’s always money coming in.
The biggest problem, as seen with the game Axie Infinity, is related to the rewards given to players.
According to a research report by CoinGecko, For every Axie Infinity player, there are 2,155 Roblox players. While there may be many issues with the game itself, this is a clear indication that the world of Web3 games is still considered an emerging technology.
Giving away lots of tokens to attract new players might sound like a good idea, but it can actually be very harmful to the value of that digital currency.
Since the prices of digital assets change a lot and are affected by supply and demand, increasing the total number of tokens available can reduce their value.
This can lead to some pretty nasty results. Gamers who get tokens as rewards might not keep them unless there’s a really good reason to, which can put more pressure on selling and lower prices even more.
This can start a harmful cycle where the value of the digital asset keeps dropping. If the value falls by a large percentage, everyday players might stop playing, and when the community gets smaller, the entire project can fail.
First of all, all Web3 are blockchain-based.
It’s not only the economy part of the project that is based on blockchain because everyone can do that.
You can recognise a Web3 project by asking yourself these questions:
If the answer is “Yes” to all of these, then you are indeed looking at a Web3 project, and in this particular case, a Web3 game.
The first step towards a better change or choosing to spend your time and invest in a reliable Web3 game is recognising the main risks in the Web3 world today.
The success or failure of play-to-earn projects right now depends on either attracting new users or being able to keep giving rewards to current ones. Neither of these approaches is likely to work for a long time.
There’s often a lot of excitement at first, but without interesting stories or engaging gameplay to keep players interested, that excitement fades quickly.
A high-quality gaming experience might make players less concerned about earning and more focused on playing.
However, when neither earnings nor engaging play are present, players tend to lose interest and leave.
Projects are constantly trying to find a balance between drawing in new players and keeping the current ones satisfied, and it’s a struggle.
Even though there are big challenges facing this still-young field, Web3 gaming has the chance to be more than just a passing trend that’s not sustainable. And this has already been proven by reputable Web3 games.
FootballCoin emerged as an innovative concept in the world of gaming when it was launched in 2017.
Not just a game, it symbolises a vision to integrate the world of football fans with the burgeoning sphere of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
What makes FootballCoin stand out is its holistic approach to creating a world-class gaming experience.
The developers didn’t merely focus on providing a fun experience; they also enabled players to win real prizes.
Through this game, participants can engage in football manager-type contests and fantasy sports, appreciating the tangible benefits of blockchain technology.
FootballCoin’s economy is another unique aspect.
The game has introduced two major types of player cards – free and collectable. In the Web3 world, these collectables are known as NFT trading cards or sports cards.
These trading cards, ranked based on the player’s real-world value, notoriety, and achievements, bring an additional layer of complexity and engagement to the game.
In a market where partnerships and collaboration often dictate success, FootballCoin’s affiliations with reputable companies like Sportradar, Perform, Omnisport, and BoostIT stand as a testament to its credibility.
Its cryptocurrency, XFC, has also gained respect, being listed on well-known exchanges such as Coindeal, Livecoin, InstaSwap, and Exrates.
From the perspective of a technology enthusiast, the game represents a project that respects core Bitcoin philosophies.
For gamers, it’s a gateway to a top-level gaming network where they can win real cryptocurrency rewards.
In a landscape filled with fleeting trends and unsustainable models, FootballCoin shines as a durable Web3 project that has withstood the test of time.
It continues to innovate and grow, carving a niche that bridges the gap between the crypto sphere and the passionate world of football fans.
Its continuous delivery on promises, alignment with both gaming and tech values, and innovative integration of blockchain technology make FootballCoin an exemplary model in the industry.
After PayPal’s recent introduction of PYUSD, the market examines the prospective use cases and benefits of this new stablecoin, especially within the U.S., highlighting its potential utility within the existing financial framework.
PayPal, a leading global payments company, is making its debut in the crypto realm with a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin named PayPal USD (PYUSD). The announcement came on August 7, 2023.
According to PayPal’s official statement, this new crypto called PYUSD is 100% backed by USD:
“PayPal USD is designed to contribute to the opportunity stablecoins offer for payments and is 100% backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. Treasuries, and similar cash equivalents. PayPal USD is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars and is issued by Paxos Trust Company. “
The PYUSD stablecoin, built on the Ethereum platform, will soon roll out to American PayPal customers.
This is the first instance of a premier financial service launching its own stablecoin.
With PYUSD, users have the option to transfer between PayPal and approved external crypto wallets, employ the coin for various transactions, or exchange it with other cryptocurrencies supported on PayPal, like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).
PayPal emphasized that their stablecoin is poised for adoption by an expansive and evolving network of external developers, digital wallets, and web3 platforms and is also primed for easy integration by crypto trading platforms.
Paxos Trust, a crypto financial services firm located in New York, will oversee the issuance of PYUSD.
The coin is underpinned by U.S. dollar reserves, short-term government securities, and other cash-like assets. Moreover, users can redeem it for U.S. dollars or trade it for other digital currencies available on PayPal’s platform.
At the time of the launch, PayPal’s CEO Dan Schulman remarked, “Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.”
It is expected that PYUSD to be available later on the Venmo app as well.
PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin reserves will be monitored and verified through a multi-step process to ensure transparency and trustworthiness:
Starting from September 2023, Paxos, the firm in charge of issuing PYUSD, will release a public monthly Reserve Report for PayPal USD. This report will detail the specific assets that make up the reserves backing the stablecoin.
In addition to the monthly report, Paxos will also release a public third-party attestation on the value of the PayPal USD reserve assets. This is to double-check and confirm the validity of the reserves.
The attestation process will be carried out by an external, independent accounting firm. This ensures that there’s no conflict of interest and that the process is free from potential biases.
The attestation will comply with standards set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). This means the audit will follow rigorous professional guidelines, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the information.
PYUSD, launched by fintech leader PayPal, is distinct from other stablecoins due to its robust regulatory framework. PayPal’s PYUSD stands out in the stablecoin landscape due to its unique position of being backed by a trust company that is stringently regulated by the NYDFS.
This sets it apart from major stablecoins like USDT and USDC.
Here’s how PYUSD is regulated:
Paxos Trust, the company behind the issuance of PYUSD, operates as a trust company. This status subjects them to direct oversight by a regulatory authority.
Paxos is regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). This means that the entire process of issuing PYUSD, including the management of its reserves, is under the constant supervision of NYDFS.
Walter Hessert, the head of strategy at Paxos Trust, highlighted the importance of having a prudential regulator. With such oversight, every activity linked to PYUSD’s issuance is monitored. For token holders, regardless of their location worldwide, this ensures that they benefit from the protection and guidelines established by New York’s regulatory framework.
One of the significant rules established by the NYDFS concerning PYUSD is the protection against bankruptcy risk. Should Paxos face bankruptcy, the assets of PYUSD token holders are safeguarded. The NYDFS would intervene, ensuring that PYUSD is excluded from the bankruptcy process. Consequently, token holders would not become involuntary creditors during a bankruptcy, and their funds would be promptly returned.
Both USDT (issued by Tether) and USDC (jointly issued by Circle and Coinbase) dominate the stablecoin market. However, as Hessert pointed out, both these coins are unregulated, albeit transparent in their operations. In contrast, PYUSD’s regulatory structure offers an additional layer of security and trust for its users.
PayPal’s decision to issue the PYUSD stablecoin is emblematic of its substantial influence and strategic positioning in the financial sector.
While there’s undeniable regulatory uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrencies in the U.S., PayPal’s stature enables it to not only navigate but also potentially influence these regulatory decisions.
Companies like Coinbase and Circle may have paved the way in the crypto regulation space, but major entities like PayPal are sending a clear message: they can effectively handle and even counteract regulatory pressures.
At its core, PayPal’s move is driven by the prospect of profitability. The issuance of PYUSD isn’t a minor endeavor, requiring collaboration across several of PayPal’s departments, from compliance to communications.
However, this decision wasn’t born out of altruism. Instead, it’s a calculated business move, made in response to a rapidly evolving digital financial landscape, reinforcing PayPal’s dominant position and highlighting its confidence in seizing new lucrative opportunities.
The use case for PYUSD appears to be in its infancy, and its exact utility for the average consumer remains somewhat ambiguous.
Introduced via Venmo, PYUSD essentially provides another avenue for banked Americans to transact using a digital representation of the U.S. dollar, aligning with how most PayPal products have functioned since the company’s inception.
However, one distinct feature is that PYUSD can potentially be sent outside of PayPal’s proprietary ecosystem using the Ethereum network.
This capability hints at a use case where individuals barred from Venmo or PayPal could potentially transfer their funds via an Ethereum-based PYUSD withdrawal.
Yet, this use case might be limited, given the centralized nature of the stablecoin.
In essence, while the stablecoin could offer a mechanism to navigate around restrictive banking scenarios, its primary use cases might lean more towards backend financial operations that institutions can leverage, rather than direct consumer applications.
NYU law professors Richard Epstein and Max Raskin published a paper to explain the potential hazards of central bank digital currencies, highlighting the risk of overstepping governmental boundaries and the importance of maintaining the ‘separation of money and state’.
Central banks worldwide are swiftly progressing with their explorations in creating digital currencies.
Numerous examples, such as the recent announcement of a successful prototype by the New York Federal Reserve or the Bank of England’s achievement in the subsequent phase of its digital pound trial, indicate that over 130 nations globally are considering the idea of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
The reasoning behind this is twofold.
Firstly, central banks can position themselves as protectors of consumers and innovators in cost-saving technologies by eliminating the role of private banking intermediaries.
Secondly, they can acquire an additional mechanism for policymaking.
However, the proposition of excluding these intermediaries raises an important question of who would be responsible for the other end of the financial transactions.
The inevitable answer is a far-reaching and intrusive government capable of monitoring every single expenditure.
Max Raskin, an adjunct professor of law at New York University and a fellow at the school’s Institute for Judicial Administration, and Richard Epstein, a law professor at New York University, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago, are exploring this topic in a paper called “A Wall of Separation Between Money and State: Policy and Philosophy for the Era of Cryptocurrency,“ published in The Brown Journal of World Affairs.
Their argument suggests that a central bank, for instance, the Bank of England, would issue a “digital pound,” which would be a direct claim on the central bank, much like current cash is.
This process would involve creating the necessary infrastructure for individuals to store digital pounds in digital wallets and facilitate interactions with retailers and other users.
Contrasting current practices where central banks such as the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England do not offer accounts to direct depositors, the proposed model would eliminate the costly private banking system that presently stands between the central bank and the accounts held by businesses and individuals.
At a glance, it seems that CBDCs might cut unnecessary costs.
However, these apparent efficiency benefits can be deceptive and hazardous.
Intermediaries function in thousands of markets, with representatives, aggregators, and monitors in almost every significant business line. These participants can’t be easily deemed obsolete.
Intermediaries often provide value as they are motivated to offer more than the bare minimum to stand out – such as new banking products and services.
The variety of services banks can offer due to competitive pressures that ultimately benefit consumers. Restricting these forces can hamper the market economy.
The implementation of CBDCs is not without risks.
The idea of providing extensive power and confidential information to a faceless government entity can be alarming. The system can use that data against you in numerous ways.
By removing the private banking intermediaries, CBDCs would eliminate a crucial barrier that currently safeguards individuals and firms from government intrusion and overstepping.
The use of cash and bearer instruments is currently untraceable by the central government.
However, the use of digital cash would be.
It’s clear that even those who decide to stick with private bankers will still be scrutinised by the state, which holds control over all transactions.
Moreover, these digital funds would empower central banks to direct personal loans and mortgages to specific private parties with minor competition, raising concerns around state industrial policies. It’s not hard to imagine potential nightmare scenarios, yet they are difficult to avert.
The question remains: can we trust thousands of new banker-bureaucrats to perform any better?
The Bank of England, in its digital pound argument, emphasised the British government’s commitment to fighting climate change, stating that the digital pound would be designed with this objective in mind.
Why should a topic as intricate and contentious as climate change be regulated through the financial system?
Similarly, U.S. financial regulators have started to wade into political issues like climate change.
If such explicit political objectives are considered, it is not a stretch to imagine a government-run bank using its powers to favour certain energy producers and punish others through their bank accounts.
The power to impact credits and debits must be a feature of the central banks’ proposed code, which introduces a covert system of industrial policy.
If CBDCs become a reality, officially favoured energy sources like solar and wind power could witness their bank accounts receiving subsidies without the need to attract private investors or undergo the scrutiny of the private banking system.
Bank accounts could become vulnerable to political manipulations, bureaucracies, or even disenfranchisement overnight with limited recourse.
Furthermore, these CBDC initiatives in the U.S. were originally proposed in the context of directly providing pandemic stimulus to the economy. However, the evidence is overwhelming that this hasty system of government payments was incredibly wasteful.
Moreover, central banks could implement countercyclical monetary policies, such as providing cash boosts to individuals in specific regions or sectors, which again becomes a political football.
We should undoubtedly strive to leverage new technologies, but only when implemented correctly. According to the paper in the Brown Journal of World Affairs, “Money should be a neutral unit of measurement, like inches or kilograms.”
This concept, referred to as the “separation of money and state,” aims to stabilise all currencies over time, minimising the need for private parties to design complex and costly mechanisms like adjustable-rate mortgages to handle financial instability.
For instance, Bitcoin has a predetermined supply of no more than 21 million units, not governed by any individual institution but rather by the network’s consensus mechanism.
This feature provides a robust defence against value dilution that no government-centric system could hope to match.
This fixed system could offer additional institutional support for developing countries seeking modernisation.
Countries with a history of mismanaging their monetary systems could benefit from the discipline that comes with certain forms of digital currency.
For instance, a central bank like Zimbabwe‘s or Argentina’s, plagued with mismanagement, could adopt an innovative form of dollarisation using Bitcoin or another form of programmed cryptocurrency.
As the dawn of the new digital age ushers in, the synergy of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming multiple industries. These cutting-edge technologies are not just trending buzzwords, but robust tools that promise to revolutionize business operations, data security, and decision-making processes.
Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are combining to revolutionize the financial industry. Financial institutions handle massive amounts of data, and AI and blockchain can manage this data more efficiently.
By automating processes and examining data on the blockchain, these institutions can improve risk management and compliance. For example, AI algorithms can sift through financial data on the blockchain to detect potential fraud and money laundering. Here, blockchain technology guarantees that the data is safe and unalterable.
Take FactSet, a global provider of financial data and analysis software, for instance. They’re using AI and blockchain to enhance their risk management and compliance processes. AI algorithms are used to scrutinize the company’s financial data housed on a blockchain to identify potential fraud and other irregularities. At the same time, the company’s blockchain technology safeguards the algorithms and data.
Beyond finance, AI and blockchain have other valuable uses. In the transport sector and other industries, AI can boost the efficiency and transparency of supply chains.
AI algorithms can analyze data on the blockchain to identify supply chain inefficiencies, helping companies optimize their operations. Simultaneously, blockchain technology ensures the transparency and traceability of products in the supply chain by maintaining records of logistics documents and ensuring visibility of goods’ locations.
In healthcare, AI and blockchain can bring significant improvements. AI, by analyzing medical data on the blockchain, can help identify patterns in patient data, aiding doctors in making accurate diagnoses and treatments. The blockchain technology can be used to safeguard patient data, an essential requirement in healthcare.
Blockchain and AI are joining forces in the life sciences field, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, to significantly enhance operations. They offer much-needed transparency and tracking abilities for the drug supply chain while significantly boosting the success rate of clinical trials.
By combining AI’s advanced data analysis capabilities with blockchain’s decentralized structure, these technologies bring about increased integrity and transparency to clinical trial data. They facilitate better patient tracking and consent management, along with automating the process of trial participation and data collection. In simple terms, AI digs deep into data to uncover valuable insights, while blockchain ensures that this data is securely stored and transparently managed, boosting the overall effectiveness of clinical trials.
Blockchain acts as a robust protective layer for AI systems with its encryption-backed, decentralized structure. This allows AI developers to set specific access parameters for AI, enforced by private keys and tamper-proof infrastructure like blockchains and smart contracts. Unlike centralized systems vulnerable to a single point of failure, a decentralized blockchain system is spread across multiple nodes and keys, making it harder for a single attacker to compromise the system.
This synergy between AI’s utility and blockchain’s security reduces attack possibilities, enhancing the safety of AI applications. It empowers organizations to harness AI’s full potential while maintaining high security standards supported by cryptographic assurances.
Blockchain also plays a vital role in verifying the authenticity of different media types, an aspect particularly crucial with the rise of deep learning models that can generate images and media from text prompts. These models, while promoting productivity and creativity, could be misused to spread misinformation or create deceptive synthetic media.
Blockchain technology, backed by cryptography and encryption, can validate the authenticity of a piece of content by verifying its origin and any alterations. Cryptographic watermarking, for example, can ensure tamper-proof timestamping.
In a future where distinguishing between AI- and human-generated content is crucial for societal stability, blockchain could facilitate the creation of decentralized platforms for content verification and distribution. It ensures that the spread media is unaltered, authentic, and has a transparent, verifiable history.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), unique digital assets on the blockchain, can also help verify the authenticity and provenance of digital content. NFTs can represent ownership and verify the origins of various media forms. When content is minted as an NFT, its origin, ownership history, and modifications become transparent and easily verifiable. This adoption can enhance online content accountability, helping differentiate between genuine and tampered content.
AI (artificial intelligence) plays a significant role in the world of cryptocurrencies by aiding in market analysis, enhancing monetization insights, automating trading strategies, and predicting market trends.
Firstly, AI uses sentiment analysis to gauge public feelings towards specific cryptocurrencies. Using natural language processing, AI can sift through large volumes of data from the internet and blockchain, and analyze the sentiment—negative, neutral, or positive—quickly. This can help predict potential price changes, offering valuable insights for investors.
Secondly, AI can provide more profound insights into cryptocurrency monetization. Given the vast amount of unstructured data online, AI assists data scientists in producing clean, relevant data for traders, making it easier to spot valuable investment opportunities.
AI also plays a role in fully automated trading strategies for cryptocurrencies. High-frequency trading, in which a computer executes numerous orders in fractions of a second, often relies on AI to mimic human intelligence. This speedier trade execution gives investors an edge over slower competitors.
Lastly, AI aids in accurately predicting cryptocurrency market trends. With the increasing number of investment options, AI is becoming an essential tool in the financial industry.
Large financial firms already use AI in their workflows to discover new investment opportunities and buy/sell signals, with smaller businesses following suit. Combined with blockchain, AI becomes an even more powerful tool for predicting market trends.
Blockchain technology can significantly enhance AI in several ways. Firstly, by boosting trust. Blockchain’s permanent, transparent records can help explain how AI algorithms work and reveal the source of their data, enhancing people’s confidence in AI’s data integrity and recommendations.
Secondly, blockchain’s decentralized data storage can increase data security and integrity. It acts as an audit trail, allowing users to understand how their data is used. If AI models are stored on blockchains, their decisions become more accountable and transparent.
Thirdly, blockchain can help AI expand by providing access to both internal and external data. This enables more actionable insights, better data management, and shared models, potentially creating a more trustworthy and transparent data market.
Fourthly, the fusion of AI and blockchain can automate multiparty business processes, reducing the need for human intervention. Blockchain technology can eliminate unnecessary third parties from transactions, accelerating their speed and efficiency. This reduces transaction friction and enables individuals to own their data, while blockchain secures the transaction process.
Lastly, blockchain can assist with AI’s high computational power demands. As a distributed ledger technology, it can utilize the computing power of multiple machines, an asset that centralized data servers may struggle to provide. In essence, integrating blockchain with AI can lead to more trustworthy, transparent, efficient, and powerful AI systems.
According to this report from Fortune Business Insights, the blockchain and AI market is expected to grow to over $973.6 million in 2027, “at a CAGR of 23.6% in the 2020-2027 period.”
In a groundbreaking development, a judge ruled that XRP is not considered a security in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against Ripple. This ruling has significant implications for the future of XRP and the broader crypto industry.
On July 13, 2023, Ripple Labs won against the SEC, and XRP was declared to not be a security.
The company achieved a notable win in the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York when Judge Analisa Torres issued a partial ruling in favor of the company. This ruling pertained to a case brought against Ripple by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that dates back to 2020.
Based on documents filed on July 13th, Judge Torres granted summary judgment in favor of Ripple Labs.
The ruling clarified that the XRP token should not be considered a security, specifically in relation to its programmatic sales on digital asset exchanges.
However, the SEC also secured a victory of its own as the federal judge determined that XRP qualified as a security when sold to institutional investors. This classification was based on the conditions outlined in the Howey Test.
The SEC’s lawsuit aimed to compel Ripple to cease offering its XRP token, arguing that it qualified as a security and, therefore, required additional regulatory measures.
According to court documents, the motion for summary judgment by the defendants has been granted for Programmatic Sales, Other Distributions, and the sales made by Larsen and Garlinghouse. However, it has been denied for Institutional Sales.
This means that the XRP token is not considered a security when sold through retail digital asset exchanges.
After this news broke, the price of XRP surged from $0.45 to $0.61 within a few minutes.
The legal case against Ripple began in December 2020 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple and its two top executives, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.
The SEC alleged that the company was offering an unregistered security.
Throughout the past three years, the case has been filled with dramatic twists, including the release of the “Hinman Documents” and Garlinghouse’s ongoing defiance in response to the SEC’s accusations.
In addition to the noticeable price movement of the XRP token following this news, the general sentiment within the cryptocurrency community seems to be one of celebration and joy.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is confident that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will face a lengthy process before being able to appeal the recent ruling in its case against Ripple Labs.
During an interview with Bloomberg on July 15, Garlinghouse downplayed the significance of the ruling regarding institutional sales, referring to it as “the smallest piece” of the overall lawsuit. He expressed his belief that if the SEC were to appeal the ruling on retail sales, it would only serve to reinforce Judge Torres’ decision.
Despite acknowledging that it may take a considerable amount of time before the SEC can file an appeal, Garlinghouse firmly stated his belief in the current legal status of XRP: “Based on the current law of the land, XRP is not classified as a security. Given the lengthy process required for the SEC to file an appeal, which could take years, we maintain a high level of optimism.”
Garlinghouse emphasized that this marks the first instance where the SEC has faced a setback in a “crypto case.” He openly criticized the SEC, referring to them as “bullies” who target players in the crypto industry unable to mount a strong defense.
He highlighted the initial response of various U.S. crypto exchanges when the lawsuit against Ripple was initially filed.
Many took a cautious approach, waiting to observe the outcome due to the uncertainty surrounding the case. Consequently, exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken decided to delist XRP entirely.
Garlinghouse accused the SEC of deliberately creating confusion in the market. He claimed that the SEC was aware of the existing confusion and intentionally engaged in actions that further exacerbated the situation.
According to Garlinghouse, this deliberate confusion was a means for the SEC to exert its power, hindering innovation within the United States. He criticized the SEC for prioritizing power and politics over the establishment of clear regulatory frameworks, resulting in difficulties for entrepreneurs and investors seeking to participate in the U.S. crypto market and blockchain industry.
