Blockchain News and Discussion

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Touches $8,400 After Iran Missile Attack
[link to u.today (secure)]

"...the prices of gold and oil grew in tandem with BTC, which highlights the demand for safe-haven assets.""

Last Edited by syncro on 01/08/2020 08:51 AM

"The #LightningNetwork's theoretical throughput exceeds that of any "next-gen" #blockchain and even payment systems like Visa or Alipay. We've reached an inflection point where decentralized systems can outperform centralized systems."
[link to twitter.com (secure)]

Nasdaq Trade Talks interviews Alex Mashinski of Celsius Network who predicts Bitcoin ATH this year of ~$35k. Also talks about blockchain banking giving depositors some real interest for their capital in contrast to regular banks.

Tether Launches Gold-Backed Stablecoin and Begins Trading on Bitfinex
[link to cointelegraph.com (secure)]

"Tether is now supporting a gold-backed stablecoin, Tether Gold (XAUT), according to a Jan. 23 press release. One token represents ownership of one troy fine ounce of physical gold, currently worth approximately $1,550.

The new product is available as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, as well as a TRC20 token on Tron (TRX).

The funds are said to be backed by physical gold held in a “Switzerland vault,” the press release reads. According to Tether, its gold offering is the only product among its competition that does not charge custody fees." < 50%

Celsius to Begin Offering Compounding Interest on Crypto Deposits
[link to cointelegraph.com (secure)]
"Cryptocurrency lending and borrowing platform Celsius announced that it would be implementing compounding interest on cryptocurrencies deposited in its wallet, starting Feb. 1. The announcement came with a number of other updates in a Twitter AMA (ask me anything) with founder Alex Mashinsky on Jan. 22.

Compounding interest was a feature requested by the Celsius community, and brings the community-driven app in line with venture capital-backed competitors like BlockFi, and traditional financial services."

Fastest growing crypto-lender
"As Cointelegraph reported lin August 2019, Celsius Network became the fastest growing crypto-lender with $2.2 billion in coin loan origination. By November, the total loan amount had almost doubled again, reaching $4.25 billion."

Bitcoin solves all those problems and more. Supply is solved by the code and the halving process. Demand is solved by the use cases for many business problems and societal problems. Utility is provided in the examples use cases. Speed and scalability are solved by lightening and other 2nd layer solutions. Perception is solved by demonstrating the use cases and value propositions. Delivering the use cases will naturally cause the price to rise. Some of problems bitcoin and blockchain solve are...

1. Need for trusted intermediaries (built in bitcoin with no intermediaries)
2. Need for permissions for access as in banking (anyone can access bitcoin globally for free)
3. Transaction processing and settlements (in bitcoin the transaction is the settlement)
4. Centralized control (bitcoin is totally decentralized)
5. Fake records and fake transactions (bitcoin is immutable and transactions are permanent)
6. Cross border delays and cross border fees (no such thing in bitcoin)
7. Closed systems for the elite (with bitcoin anyone can participate at any level down to microcents. benefits the global unbanked who are currently shut out)

Let's face it. Any system run by man will be corrupted in the end. That's been proven. A properly designed and implemented blockchain is what's required to bring back integrity to a corrupted global system.

Now you're talking!
Tie that to world accessible distribution and i'm in.

It's that foreseeable?

Right now it looks like you can only get it in large amounts on a commodities platform, but fractions should be available as exchanges add it.
[link to gold.tether.to (secure)]

Since it's already on Bitfinex I assume it's available in fractions already. Anyone have a Bitfinex account? It's not available for US customers.

What would it take to build a gold backed coin, accessible and competitive world wide?

And what is the reason that's not already a thing, you suppose?

I think putting it on a crypto token is a great start. Decentralized transmissible gold, that's if you trust the backing. That may take time especially with the recent apparent paper gold scandal.

Tether has already had a rocky past. But they are thriving.

Tether Launches Gold-Backed Crypto, Do You Trust Them with Your Bullion?
[link to www.newsbtc.com (secure)]

Lack of transparency... US dollar tethered, and then supposedly gold backed?

75G buy in?

Seems like a scam trying to cash on the Bitcoin bonanza, looking for "prestigious" investors, hoping for healthy payouts, while simultaneously tying itself to the US Dollar with the idea of hard gold in Switzerland as the bait

They're getting chewed to pieces on twitter.
[link to twitter.com (secure)]

fractional reserve gold coins

Last Edited by syncro on 01/24/2020 07:09 PM

Blockchains aren't invulnerable to attack, and quantum computers will just make it even easier.

How safe and legit is celsius network?

They use Bitgo for custody, insured, institutional grade security, largest processor of Bitcoin transactions, 15% of all Bitcoin transactions. $100 million of insurance per wallet.

I found out about Celsius when Litecoin Foundation announced their endorsement and investment with them.
[link to www.businesswire.com (secure)]

I suggest familiarizing yourself with the aim of Celsius and their team. They are all out for bringing major adoption into the space and getting people "unbanked". They pay interest every Monday on stablecoins and crypto.

Celsius youtube channel
[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Among more recent announcements, starting sometime next month, we will be able to buy coins right on the Celsius app rather than going through an intermediate exchange.

Very interesting.

Recent talk by Alex Mashinski, head of Celsius. Giving the banks what for, and talks about the major use case for mass adoption in the crypto space being interest income on stablecoins primarily.



Last Edited by syncro on 01/25/2020 07:49 AM

Celcius looks meh, to me... But the "borrow against your crypto balance" is a freaking good idea.

"The NYFed injected $500B into the Repo market to stabilize inter bank lending rates...which tells you one of the big banks is in trouble. Meanwhile the public markets are celebrating new highs feeding on all this fresh liquidity. You better have some $BTC when the music stops..."
[link to twitter.com (secure)]

British Court Freezes $860,000 in Bitcoin Linked to Ransomware Payout
[link to www.coindesk.com (secure)]

"A U.K. court has ordered Bitfinex to freeze bitcoin worth $860,000 after the crypto exchange and blockchain sleuthing firm Chainalysis traced the funds to a ransomware payment.

The victim of the ransomware attack had paid $950,000 in bitcoin to the perpetrator through an insurance company, according to a filing published last week by the England and Wales High Court (Commercial Court) and first reported by New Money Review. While some of the bitcoin was converted into fiat currency, the remainder appears to have been sent to an address on the Bitfinex platform.

The court ordered Bitfinex to freeze the address and share its know-your-customer (KYC) information about the account's owner.

The victim, an unnamed firm, had been told to pay $1.2 million in bitcoin after its computers were hijacked by ransomware. The company's insurer, which filed the court claim, ultimately paid $950,000 in the form of 109.25 BTC, according to the filing. While some of these funds were converted into fiat and are not traceable, 96 BTC (worth $861,200 at press time) were sent to an address owned by Bitfinex.

New Money Review claims this ruling marks the first instance of the U.K. High Court endorsing bitcoin as property." < 50%

Cool, I'll leave this here then.

Thread: I'm Going to Try to Make a Case for Blockchain Healthcare on GLP

Yeah, no credit checks/rating obstacles, and avoiding capital gains taxes not selling the crypto.

Security Token Issuer Vertalo Dumps Ethereum for Tezos Blockchain
[link to btcmanager.com (secure)]

"Vertalo, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based security token issuance platform, broker and investor onboarding firm, has announced its migration away from the Ethereum (ETH) smart contracts blockchain to Tezos (XTZ). Vertalo says it has chosen Tezos over the Ethereum network due to a number of reasons, including network stability, faster transaction speed and more, according to reports on January 27, 2020.

Vertalo Adopts Tezos
At a time when a vast array of firms as well as financial institutions across the globe are latching onto blockchain technology for tokenization of real-world assets, Texas-based transfer agent and security token issuance firm has picked Tezos as its network of choice, instead of Ethereum, the king of DeFi.

Per sources close to the matter, Vertalo has stated categorically that the Tezos blockchain offers faster transaction speeds, network stability, support for multiple programming languages, staking, and more.

Founded in February 2017, with a mission to solve some of the critical issues plaguing the digital asset economy, Vertalo reportedly has 18 customers already on its platform and is now encouraging its clients to transition from Ethereum to Tezos." < 50%

Bitcoin going bullish as Coronavirus death toll exceeds 100
[link to www.cryptopolitan.com (secure)]

"As Coronavirus keeps spreading across the world, the toll has exceeded over 100 individuals now. With the global outbreak of the virus, the market has gone down with the majority of stocks plunging. While this was expected, there was something which was not expected by most – Bitcoin going bullish. Along with BTC, gold prices also went up.

In the past 24 hours, BTC has gone up by more than 4% and crossed the $9000 mark. Not only BTC, but other cryptocurrencies in the top 10 have surged 5-10% in the time frame. This is the second time in 2020 already when Bitcoin has behaved like gold and risen in miserable conditions."

Today, 1/30/20, apparently is the last day to withdraw coins from Poloniex. I had no idea it was possible to do this late. Last chance, save your coins!

Last Edited by syncro on 02/04/2020 02:32 PM

Kraken Cracks Trezor’s Flagship Bitcoin Wallets in Just 15 Minutes
[link to www.cryptoglobe.com (secure)]

"The post identifies a “critical flaw” in Trezor’s products, which allowed the security team to extract seeds from both models of the hardware wallets. The attack required 15 minutes of physical access to the device, exposing the vulnerability of users who lose or misplace their wallet.

The post reads,

'This attack relies on voltage glitching to extract an encrypted seed. This initial research required some know-how and several hundred dollars of equipment, but we estimate that we (or criminals) could mass produce a consumer-friendly glitching device that could be sold for about $75.'

From there the security team was able to crack the encrypted seed, which uses a 1-9 digital PIN number, using a typical brute force method."

DASH Added To Over 11,000 ATMs In Mexico, Is DASH Crypto Taking Over The Americas?
[link to coingape.com (secure)]

"After spiking over 10% in a day and the wallet adoption in Venezuela spiking to five times the number in a year, DASH is once again on the victory trail.

Over 11K traditional ATM will add Dash to their network following the partnership between crypto firm, Tauros and Dash Pay. The former is a Mexican based cryptocurrency remittance organization with a wide network of ATMs across Mexico to help users easily buy crypto."

Take notice, that there are only 6400 BTC ATMs total worldwide, which means Dash is now the most adopted cryptocurrency at the ATM.

6350 Crypto ATMs Globally
[link to medium.com (secure)]

"The easiest way to find a Bitcoin ATM near you is by using the aforementioned Coin ATM Radar service, which offers the option of searching cryptocurrency ATMs by location. Most crypto ATMs are specialized to allow you to buy Bitcoin, while some also offer you the option to buy a wider array of coins and may support cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Dash(DASH), etc.

The number of cryptocurrencies automated teller machines (ATMs) installed worldwide has grown substantially over the years. According to the latest updates by the Cryptocurrency ATM tracking website Coinatmradar, there are currently 6350 crypto ATMs located in 74 countries, which is 46% more than the 4,113 machines reported by the site on Jan. 1."

Dash is available at 2x the total number of ATMs than BTC is now.