Litecoin’s $70,000 Mimblewimble Development Plan Has Begun @crypto_briefing #Uncategorized #Litecoin

Private transactions are closer than ever.

Litecoin’s Mimblewimble-based privacy efforts are finally underway. David Burkett, the...

Private transactions are closer than ever.

Litecoin’s Mimblewimble-based privacy efforts are finally underway. David Burkett, the developer behind the subproject, has announced that he has completed the first month of development. “After months of planning, development of the Mimblewimble extension block has officially started,” Burkett posted to Litecointalk on Dec. 29.

This project has been in progress for nearly a year. In January 2019, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee announced plans for private transactions. In August, the project recruited David Burkett, who is known for his work on Grin, a Mimblewimble-based privacy coin. Specifically, Burkett develops Grin++, a wallet and implementation for Grin.

Progress So Far

Burkett announced several details in early December. At that time, he noted that he had redesigned Grin++ for easier integration with Litecoin. He also confirmed that the feature would be integrated via Litecoin’s extension blocks, eliminating the need for a time-consuming hard fork. Finally, he introduced Tor and CoinJoin as extra privacy features.

In this week’s update, Burkett revealed that he has restructured and standardized parts of the project. He added that he will determine a build method, define Litecoin models, migrate database implementations, and speed up sync time in January. The end result seems to be that development on Litecoin and Grin++ is closely interrelated.

Plenty of Funding

Burkett is being paid at a rate of $6000 per month. So far, Litecoin’s community has donated $18,500 worth of cryptocurrency to a development fund, which it intends to grow to $72,000. Much of this amount has come from Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, who has also donated 1.5 BTC ($10,000) to Grin++ to help fund the project’s security audit.

Litecoin is arguably spending a lot of money on a minor side feature. However, its efforts could benefit Mimblewimble greatly. Grin and Beam, the two largest Mimblewimble coins, both have sub-100 market caps. Along with similar integration efforts from Monero’s Tari sidechain, Litecoin’s efforts could help Mimblewimble climb higher.

The post Litecoin’s $70,000 Mimblewimble Development Plan Has Begun appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Crypto Briefing/litecoins-70000-mimblewimble-development-plan-has-begun-5e0c338176237754012db630

Bitcoin Starts 2020 With Bearish Bias But Downsides Remain Limited @newsbtc #Analysis #Technical #bitcoin #btc #btcusd

Bitcoin price is slowly declining and recently tested $7,100 against the US Dollar. The price is currently recovering, but likely to face hurdles near $7,280 and $7,320. There was a break above a major bearish trend line with resistance near $7,185 o...Bitcoin price is slowly declining and recently tested $7,100 against the US Dollar. The price is currently recovering, but likely to face hurdles near $7,280 and $7,320. There was a break above a major bearish trend line with resistance near $7,185 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken). The pair might slide further towards $7,000 unless there is a break above the $7,320 resistance. Bitcoin price is struggling to hold key supports against the US Dollar. BTC remains at a risk of more downsides towards $7,000 and $6,880 before a decent upward move. Bitcoin Price Analysis In the past few sessions, there was a steady decline in bitcoin price below the $7,320 support against the US Dollar. Moreover, BTC settled below $7,320 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. The recent decline was such that the price even traded below the $7,200 and $7,150 support levels. A new weekly low is formed near $7,109 and the price is currently correcting higher above $7,150. Besides, there was a break above a major bearish trend line with resistance near $7,185 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair. Bitcoin price is now trading near the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $7,531 high to $7,109 low. It seems like there is a short term ascending channel forming with resistance near $7,250. The first key resistance is near the $7,275 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. The next major resistance is near the $7,320 level. Additionally, the 50% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $7,531 high to $7,109 low is near the $7,320 resistance area. A successful close above the $7,320 resistance might set the pace for a strong upward move. In the mentioned case, the price might continue to rise towards the $7,400 and $7,500 resistance levels. On the other hand, the price might fail to continue higher above $7,275 and $7,320. In this bearish case, the price might extend its decline below $7,150. An immediate support is near the $7,100 area, below which there is a risk of a breakdown below $7,000. Bitcoin Price Looking at the chart, bitcoin price is showing bearish signs below the $7,320 level and the 100 hourly SMA. Therefore, there are chances of more losses this week unless the bulls push the price above $7,320. Technical indicators: Hourly MACD – The MACD is currently moving in the bullish zone. Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is now just below the 50 level. Major Support Levels – $7,100 followed by $7,000. Major Resistance Levels – $7,275, $7,320 and $7,500. The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/bitcoin-starts-2020-with-bearish-bias-but-downsides-remain-limited-5e0c2b1076237754012db62f

Ethereum (ETH) Price Downside Thrust Possible Before 2020 Reversal @newsbtc #Analysis #Technical #ETH #ethereum

Ethereum is slowly moving lower towards the $125 support area against the US Dollar. The price is likely to extend losses as long as it is below the $132 resistance. There is a key declining channel forming with resistance near $131 on the hourly cha...Ethereum is slowly moving lower towards the $125 support area against the US Dollar. The price is likely to extend losses as long as it is below the $132 resistance. There is a key declining channel forming with resistance near $131 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken). ETH could decline in the near term before it starts a strong rally towards $150 and $175. Ethereum price is correcting lower versus the US Dollar, while bitcoin is consolidating. ETH price must stay above $120 this week to start a fresh increase. Ethereum Price Analysis After forming a top near the $138 level, Ethereum price started a downside correction against the US Dollar. ETH price broke the $135 and $132 support levels to enter a short term bearish zone. Moreover, there was a close below $132 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. Recently, there was a break below the $130 support and the price traded close to the $128 support. A low is formed near $128 and the price is currently recovering. It is trading near the $130 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. Besides, it is testing the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $138 high to $128 low. On the upside, there are two key hurdles forming near $131 and $132. Additionally, there is a key declining channel forming with resistance near $131 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The main hurdle for a trend change is near the $132 resistance. It is close to the 50% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $138 high to $128 low. Therefore, clear break above the $132 resistance might start a decent upward move towards the $135 and $138 levels. If the bulls gain momentum, Ethereum might rise steady towards the $150 resistance area. On the other hand, there are chances of more downsides below the $128 support area. The next major support is near the $125 level, below which there is a risk of a sharp decline towards $120 or $115. Ethereum Price Looking at the chart, Ethereum price is slowly moving lower towards the $125 support area. The main support is near the $120 level, below which the price is likely to remain in a sustained downtrend in the coming days. Conversely, a clear break above $132 and $135 could start a strong rally. ETH Technical Indicators Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETH/USD is slowly moving into the bullish zone. Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETH/USD is currently just below the 50 level. Major Support Level – $125 Major Resistance Level – $132 The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/ethereum-eth-price-downside-thrust-possible-before-2020-reversal-5e0c1df076237754012db62e

Third of Tron Supply Unlocked, 33B TRX May Flood Market @crypto_briefing #Analysis #Business

A third of Tron’s supply, worth over $400 million at current prices, unlocked on New Year’s Day. These coins may flood the market and further harm TRX’s struggling price.

A third of Tron’s supply, worth over $400 million at current prices, unlocked on New Year’s Day. These coins may flood the market and further harm TRX’s struggling price.

The enormous hoard of Tron tokens were quietly locked in December 2017, six months prior to the launch of project’s mainnet. These funds were locked by the Tron Foundation to “protect the vital interests of our supporters.”

These funds have once again become available to the foundation, the single-largest holder of TRX tokens. These 33.25 billion tokens are worth approximately $445 million at current prices.

Official communication channels for Tron made little mention of the unlocked tokens, potentially because of the adverse impact it would have on coin’s price. That said, the Tron Foundation may choose to lock these funds again ⁠— or even burn them ⁠— to help preserve its value. 

However, the most likely scenario is the majority of these coins would be used for “ecosystem development” to prop up its sponsored projects. Over time, these coins would get sold on exchanges, increasing the available supply of TRX and suppressing its price.

Initial Tron Token Distribution

According to the original Tron whitepaper, the allocation of the 100 billion TRX supply was as follows:

• Public ICO ⁠— 40 billion
• Tron Foundation ⁠— 35 billion
• Private token offering ⁠— 15 billion
• Payment to Peiwo corporation ⁠— 10 billion

At the height of the ICO mania, Tron raised $70 million in September 2017 from its public sale. Meanwhile, the details behind the private token offering and the payment to Peiwo, a Chinese dating app owned by Tron founder Justin Sun, are still unclear to this day.

Journey Behind the Funds

In June 2018, Justin Sun, the CEO and founder of Tron, burned 1 billion tokens from Tron Foundation wallets to celebrate the launch of the blockchain’s mainnet, officially separating the platform from its original ERC-20 Ethereum token used during the ICO.

A week later, these funds were split across 1,000 separate addresses to reduce the risk of loss, presumably from hacking. That said, it also makes it more difficult for the community to track these funds.

TRX Price May Suffer

Over 2019, the Tron token lost 39% of its value against the dollar. Compared to Bitcoin, its performance is even worse, having lost nearly 67% of its BTC value.

TRX/USDT by TradingView

There are many possible reasons for the coin’s poor performance. A variety of different scandals have emerged around founder Justin Sun ⁠— most notably, his deteriorating relationship with Chinese authorities and his yet to materialize lunch with Warren Buffett.

More recently, additional evidence surfaced that Tron is able to effectively censor projects on its platform, entirely defeating Tron’s mission of “liberating” the internet from censorship. The potential to dump another 33 billion TRX on the market certainly doesn’t help its price, either.

The post Third of Tron Supply Unlocked, 33B TRX May Flood Market appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Crypto Briefing/third-of-tron-supply-unlocked-33b-trx-may-flood-market-5e0c176176237754012db62d

John McAfee announces new X-Rated presidential platform @MICKYNewsOz #Cryptocurrency #Featured #John McAfee

Bitcoin bull John McAfee has announced an X-rated presidential platform – and called for senior citizens to be able to shoot people at will.

WARNING: This story is not suitable for anyone easily offended … or most othe...

Bitcoin bull John McAfee has announced an X-rated presidential platform – and called for senior citizens to be able to shoot people at will.

WARNING: This story is not suitable for anyone easily offended … or most other people either.

Anti-virus pioneer and cryptocurrency investor John McAfee has been tweeting up an X-rated storm to his 1.1 million followers over the Christmas period.

McAfee is once again running for US President, following his unsuccessful attempt to secure the Libertarian Party nomination in 2016.

His 2020 Presidential campaign is being conducted from exile as he’s been forced out of the US, Bahamas, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic all within the past year.

Although his official McAfee 2020 website says he’s running on a freedom from Government platform, McAfee now says his campaign will be based entirely around … anal sex.

This is the time to stop reading

On December 29, he released a video on Twitter with a warning it was FOR ADULT MEN ONLY.

In it he revealed he’d been a ‘butt man’ since the age of 7 when his baby sitter bent over to pick up some shoes and he went on to extol the virtues of anal fisting with a very graphic description of the act.

The video has been seen by 656,000 people so far and racked up 1400 comments and 12,000 likes.

Rather than transcribe it in gory detail here, you can watch it if you want, but he finished by saying:

“Now my presidential campaign is going to be based entirely on anal sex. You’ve got to have some platform, and quite frankly I couldn’t think of one. so this is mine.”

In a further tweet he also shared way too much information that he’d also been on the receiving end of such nocturnal activities.

In a follow-up video seen by 112,000 viewers, with a warning it was FOR THOSE 65 AND OLDER, McAfee announced he will also lobby for a new law “for everybody over the age of 65 that gives us the right to shoot whoever we want for whatever f— reason.”

“Just imagine this you’re in the steakhouse and there’s a 10-year-old boy just annoying the shit out of everybody and an elderly grandmother gets up, pulls out a .38 special and pops him. F— me. Too late for that kid but every other kid a) will pay attention and b) better behave.”

He suggested that as Congress is composed of elderly people, this would help the policy get over the line.

** A PRIVATE VIDEO FOR THOSE 65 AND OLDER **

If you are younger than 65, you have absolutely no right to invade the privacy of us elderly folks.

Do NOT even THINK about watching this video if you are 64 or less.

I F**king mean it!! pic.twitter.com/cVUUIo8acl

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 29, 2019

“I’m going for a record of the most “OK boomer” comments in a single post” he tweeted afterward.

In other “eccentric” tweets he also called for old people to be allowed to “drive even if blind and deaf” and for a special pass to allow selected white people to use the ‘N word’.

Controversy follows McAfee

While he’s treated as an eccentric and somewhat humorous figure in the crypto community for his $1 million Bitcoin price prediction, there is a darker side to the story.

He is currently on the run from US tax authorities after having refused to pay taxes since 2010. In July 2019 he was arrested and held for four days in the Dominican Republic on suspicion of carrying high caliber weapons.

The 2016 Netflix documentary Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee also looked into his possible involvement in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull in Belize.

While he was never charged with the crime and describes the documentary as ‘fiction’, in March 2019 he was hit with a $25 million wrongful death judgment in a lawsuit brought by Faull’s estate.

McAfee said he had not responded to the lawsuit and would not pay the judgement.

The Estate of Gregiry Faul was just awarded a $25 Million judgement against me: https://t.co/OZ65Jirsb3
Here is my formal response to the media (who will spam my phones tomorrow and who are responsible for most of my 200+ lawsuits.) pic.twitter.com/Bsde9plr03

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) March 20, 2019

The post John McAfee announces new X-Rated presidential platform appeared first on Micky.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Micky/john-mcafee-announces-new-xrated-presidential-platform-5e0bfa5276237754012db62b

Fractal Signals Bitcoin to Drop to $6,600 in Near-Term; Will the Downtrend End There? @newsbtc #Bitcoin #Crypto #bitcoin #btc #crypto

Bitcoin’s recent series of rejection within the mid-to-upper $7,000 region has resulted in BTC’s bears gaining an edge over bulls, as the cryptocurrency is now retreating down to its key $7,000 support level, which appears to be growing increas...Bitcoin’s recent series of rejection within the mid-to-upper $7,000 region has resulted in BTC’s bears gaining an edge over bulls, as the cryptocurrency is now retreating down to its key $7,000 support level, which appears to be growing increasingly weak. Importantly, one analyst is now noting that Bitcoin could be on the verge of seeing significantly further near-term losses that could send it reeling back towards its multi-month lows, but this drop may be followed by a large upwards movement. Bitcoin’s Current Downtrend May Extend Further, But What Comes After Favors Bulls At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading down 2% at its current price of $7,190, which marks a notable decline from its daily highs of $7,400 that were set during a fleeting rally earlier this morning. It is important to note that this morning’s rejection at $7,400 marked the latest in a series of rejections that BTC has faced over the past several months, signaling that the upper-$7,000 region is currently an insurmountable level that could continue suppressing its price. One analyst is now noting that a fractal signals that the ongoing downtrend may extend until Bitcoin reaches $6,600, which could be followed by a significant rally. Financial Survivalism, a popular trader, spoke about this in a recent tweet, explaining that a fractal and Wyckoff Accumulation pattern both point to the possibility that BTC will dip as low as $6,600 before it reaches a level that could help spark the next uptrend. “$BTC 12h fractal points to a $6,600 retest in the first week of January, which would match up very nicely with the Wyckoff Accumulation pattern that is starting to form,” he said while pointing to the chart seen below. $BTC 12h fractal points to a $6,600 retest in the first week of January, which would match up very nicely with the Wyckoff Accumulation pattern that is starting to form. pic.twitter.com/VdBLQmGBRN — Financial Survivalism (@Sawcruhteez) December 31, 2019 How Bitcoin responds to its support at $7,000 in the near-term will likely offer significant insight into whether or not this fractal is valid, or if it will continue consolidating around its current price levels before climbing higher. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/fractal-signals-bitcoin-to-drop-to-6600-in-nearterm-will-the-downtrend-end-there-5e0bec4176237754012db62a

John McAfee announces new X-Rated Presidential platform @MICKYNewsOz #Cryptocurrency #Featured #John McAfee

Bitcoin bull John McAfee has announced an X-rated Presidential platform – and called for senior citizens to be able to shoot people at will.

WARNING: This story is not suitable for anyone easily offended … or most othe...

Bitcoin bull John McAfee has announced an X-rated Presidential platform – and called for senior citizens to be able to shoot people at will.

WARNING: This story is not suitable for anyone easily offended … or most other people either.

Anti-virus pioneer and cryptocurrency investor John McAfee has been tweeting up an X-rated storm to his 1.1 million followers over the Christmas period.

McAfee is once again running for US President, following his unsuccessful attempt to secure the Libertarian Party nomination in 2016.

His 2020 Presidential campaign is being conducted from exile as he’s been forced out of the US, Bahamas, Cuba and the Dominican Republic all within the past year.

Although his official McAfee 2020 website says he’s running on a freedom from Government platform, McAfee now says his campaign will be based entirely around … anal sex.

This is the time to stop reading

On December 29, he released a video on Twitter with a warning it was FOR ADULT MEN ONLY.

In it he revealed he’d been a ‘butt man’ since the age of 7 when his baby sitter bent over to pick up some shoes and he went on to extol the virtues of anal fisting with a very graphic description of the act.

The video has been seen by 656,000 people so far and racked up 1400 comments and 12,000 likes.

Rather than transcribe it in gory detail here, you can watch it if you want, but he finished by saying:

“Now my presidential campaign is going to be based entirely on anal sex. You’ve got to have some platform, and quite frankly I couldn’t think of one. so this is mine.”

In a further tweet he also shared way too much information that he’d also been on the receiving end of such nocturnal activities.

In a follow up video seen by 112,000 viewers, with a warning it was FOR THOSE 65 AND OLDER, McAfee announced he will also lobby for a new law “for everybody over the age of 65 that gives us the right to shoot whoever we want for whatever f— reason.”

“Just imagine this you’re in the steakhouse and there’s a 10 year old boy just annoying the shit out of everybody and an elderly grandmother gets up, pulls out a .38 special and pops him. F— me. Too late for that kid but every other kid a) will pay attention and b) better behave.”

He suggested that as Congress is composed of elderly people, this would help the policy get over the line.

** A PRIVATE VIDEO FOR THOSE 65 AND OLDER **

If you are younger than 65, you have absolutely no right to invade the privacy of us elderly folks.

Do NOT even THINK about watching this video if you are 64 or less.

I F**king mean it!! pic.twitter.com/cVUUIo8acl

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 29, 2019

“I’m going for a record of the most “OK boomer” comments in a single post” he tweeted afterwards.

In other “eccentric” tweets he also called for old people to be allowed to “drive even if blind and deaf” and for a special pass to allow selected white people to use the ‘N word’.

Controversy follows McAfee

While he’s treated as an eccentric and somewhat humorous figure in the crypto community for his $1 million Bitcoin price prediction, there is a darker side to the story.

He is currently on the run from US tax authorities after refusing to pay tax since 2010 and in July 2019 he was arrested and held for four days in the Dominican Republic on suspicion of carrying high caliber weapons.

The 2016 Netflix documentary Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee also looked into his possible involvement in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull in Belize.

While he was never charged with the crime and describes the documentary as ‘fiction’ in March 2019 he was hit with a $25 million wrongful death judgement in case brought by the estate of Faull.

McAfee said he had not responded to the lawsuit and would not pay the judgement.

The Estate of Gregiry Faul was just awarded a $25 Million judgement against me: https://t.co/OZ65Jirsb3
Here is my formal response to the media (who will spam my phones tomorrow and who are responsible for most of my 200+ lawsuits.) pic.twitter.com/Bsde9plr03

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) March 20, 2019

The post John McAfee announces new X-Rated Presidential platform appeared first on Micky.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Micky/john-mcafee-announces-new-xrated-presidential-platform-5e0be79276237754012db629

Bitcoin in 2019: Positive BTC Performance Across the Board @bitcoinist #Bitcoin #Bitcoin News #Bitcoin Price #News #News teaser #bitcoin #Bitcoin bull market #Bitcoin fundamentals #bitcoin hash rate #Bitcoin lightning network #bitcoin price #hodling

With 2019 ending in a number of hours, here is a look at the positive performance for Bitcoin (BTC) across several network and market parameters. Bitcoin Price up 95% YTD At press time, the Bitcoin price is up by about 95% year-to-date (YTD). After a difficult 2018 that saw the top-ranked crypto drop 72%, BTC began the year slowly before entering a massive bull phase in Q2 2019. This bullish run saw Bitcoin surpass $13,000 in late June 2019 for the first time since January 2018. BTC would, however, fail to maintain these heights as the expected Summer decline interrupted the developing parabolic advance, with Bitcoin unable to sustain a push beyond the $10,000 price mark. Network Fundamentals Go Sky High Despite the bearish market conditions of 2018, network fundamentals were on the up until a Bitcoin Cash civil war triggered a hash rate death spiral that saw many mining nodes capitulating. 12 months on from that period and the picture is significantly different, with the BTC network hash rate growing by more than 120% throughout 2019. As previously reported by Bitcoinist, the network hash rate was approaching 120 million TH/s. This rapid increase in hash rate continued unabated even during periods of price slumps in the Bitcoin spot price. On the layer 2 side of things, Lightning Network (LN) capacity grew from 515 BTC to 850 BTC. The argument for LN as Bitcoin’s optimum scaling solution also gained more ground in 2019 with further increases in public nodes from 4,800 to 10,900. LN public channels also more than doubled in 2019 from 16,000 to 35,000. LN also saw adoption on Blockstream’s Liquid via the c-lightning implementation back in July 2019. Increase in Institutional Bitcoin On-Ramps On the institutional side, CME Bitcoin Futures set numerous records in 2019, even as Cboe discontinued its BTC Futures offering. After navigating regulatory hurdles, Bakkt finally launched its physically-settled Bitcoin Futures in late September 2019. Despite a slow start, Bakkt’s BTC derivatives product did eventually begin to post record numbers with the exchange announcing plans to roll out Bitcoin options. However, as reported by Bitcoinist, the hope that Bakkt’s physical BTC delivery would lead to more institutional Bitcoin ownership hasn’t exactly panned out. More Active Addresses, More Hodling In its 2019 market report, Santiment — a crypto data tracking and analysis firm revealed that the number of Bitcoin daily active addresses (DAA) increased by about 7% in 2019. The report also stated that more than 60% of the BTC circulating supply remained inactive during the year as against 54% in 2018. These figures may indicate more Bitcoin ‘hodling’ or an increase in the number of lost BTC. Earlier in the year, Bitcoinist reported that ‘whale wallets’ were seeing more inflows than outflows, suggesting a deliberate hodling trend. While Bitcoin enjoyed a stellar 2019, the same cannot be said for the altcoin market. Apart from exceptions like Tezos (XTZ), Chainlink (LINK) and Binance Coin (BNB), the bulk of the altcoin market saw further declines in 2019. Will Bitcoin’s 2020 performance surpass all the growth figures seen in 2019? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, Tradingview, Blockchain.com, and Santiment. The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/bitcoin-in-2019-positive-btc-performance-across-the-board-5e0b528276237754012db613

Why the UN Secretary General wants to embrace blockchain @decryptmedia #Business #Blockchain #crypto #un

António Guterres thinks that blockchain can help the United Nations with its Sustainable Development Goals. But the UN already has plenty of projects on the go.

The post Why the UN Secretary General wants to embrace blockchain appeared first on Decrypt.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Decrypt/why-the-un-secretary-general-wants-to-embrace-blockchain-5e0b528276237754012db614

BitMEX Insurance Fund Seems To Be Working As Intended: CryptoQuant @bitcoinist #Bitcoin #Bitcoin Exchange #News #News teaser #bitcoin #BitMEX #BitMEX Insurance Fund

Following the BitMEX Insurance Fund’s continued growth throughout the year, data provider, CryptoQuant, took a deeper look at the derivatives specialist’s on-chain data. Insurance Fund Now Holds 0.18% Of All Bitcoin Over the past 12 months the BitMEX Insurance Fund grew to almost 33.5k BTC, representing a 62% increase from the 20.77k BTC it held at the start of the year. This means that 0.18% of all bitcoin so far mined is now in the fund, up from 0.15% in August as Bitcoinist reported at the time. Total BTC Held By BitMEX Goes up To 400k CryptoQuant then looked at the total amount of bitcoin held by BitMEX. This is now over 400k BTC, or more than 2% of the current total supply. CryptoQuant suggested that this represented growth of over 500% this year, although the chart presented along with this statistic would seem to disagree. It seems more like a rise from around 240k BTC to 440k BTC, or growth of around 83% during the year. Fluctuating Proportion Of Total Reserves In Insurance Fund Combining the charts gave a ratio of what proportion of BitMEX’s total BTC reserve was held as part of the insurance fund. In August this rose to be as high as 14%, although in the latter part of the year, this proportion dropped back to around 7.5%. A fluctuation in this ratio is to be expected, as the insurance fund covers unfilled liquidations before they are taken over by BitMEX’s auto-deleveraging system. As the funds held were used in this manner on several days, it would suggest that the system works well. However the peak of 14% would seem to be more of an anomaly than an expected outcome, due to the timing. The month before the August peak saw a mass exodus of funds from BitMEX, following an alleged probe into the firm by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Supposedly the CFTC were to investigate whether US citizens were circumventing measures to stop them from using the service. As Bitcoinist reported, back in January the BitMEX insurance fund held enough BTC to fund a 51% attack on Bitcoin Cash for an entire year. By now we are looking at 19 months and counting. Do you think BitMEX’s insurance fund is sufficient? Add your thoughts below! Images via Shutterstock, chart by CryptoQuant The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/bitmex-insurance-fund-seems-to-be-working-as-intended-cryptoquant-5e0b591176237754012db616

Nigeria’s telecom regulator invests in blockchain startup Wicrypt @TheBlock__ #Blockchain #Cryptocurrency #Investments #Funding #Nigeria #Wicrypt #wifi

The Nigerian Communications Commission, the country’s telecom regulator, has invested 2 million nairas (~$5,500) in blockchain startup Wicrypt.

Wicrypt facilitates blockchain-based WiFi sharing service, which allows users to earn money by sharing their internet connection. Users can register via Wicrypt’s mobile app and deposit funds using fiat currency, as well as three cryptocurrencies - bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and Binance coin (BNB). Hosts, on the other hand, can withdraw their earnings in fiat or cryptocurrency.

Wicrypt says it has an inbuilt wallet that verifies a beneficiary has enough funds to start using the service. “Wicrypt automatically cuts off a beneficiary when his money is exhausted. It allows automatic connection between user and beneficiary once the beneficiary has enough funds to start using the service,” it added.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/The Block/nigerias-telecom-regulator-invests-in-blockchain-startup-wicrypt-5e0b438176237754012db611

How Dash's testnet will "dramatically improve" its capabilities @decryptmedia #Business #Blockchain #crypto #Dash

Dash Platform will start as a decentralized storage layer and a name service.

The post How Dash's testnet will "drama...

Dash Platform will start as a decentralized storage layer and a name service.

The post

How Dash's testnet will "dramatically improve" its capabilities appeared first on Decrypt.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Decrypt/how-dashs-testnet-will-dramatically-improve-its-capabilities-5e0b672276237754012db618

The 7 biggest ideas that will change crypto in 2020 @decryptmedia #Long Reads #2020 #bitcoin #Blockchain #cryptocurrency #prediction

States getting into crypto, bitcoin’s halvening, Ethereum’s evolution and more in our predictions for the 12 months ahead.

The post The 7 biggest ideas that will change crypto in 2020 appeared first on Decrypt.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Decrypt/the-7-biggest-ideas-that-will-change-crypto-in-2020-5e0b528276237754012db615

Could this be China’s first blockchain ETF fund? @decryptmedia #Business #Blockchain #china #crypto #ETF

If the Chinese authorities accept its application, the Shenzhen-based Penghua Fund could have the first-mover advantage.

The post Could this b...

If the Chinese authorities accept its application, the Shenzhen-based Penghua Fund could have the first-mover advantage.

The post

Could this be China’s first blockchain ETF fund? appeared first on Decrypt.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Decrypt/could-this-be-chinas-first-blockchain-etf-fund-5e0b609276237754012db617

Warning: Ethereum Wallet Injects Malicious Javascript To Steal Data @bitcoinist #Ethereum #News #News teaser #Chrome Spyware #Ethereum Wallet

An Ethereum wallet available as a Chrome browser extension has been found to be injecting malicious javascript code. ‘Shitcoin Wallet’ tries to scrape data from other open windows and send it to a remote server. MyEtherWallet And Binance Among Those Targeted The code was identified by security and anti-phishing expert, Harry Denley, who warned about the potential breach in a tweet. A browser crypto wallet is injecting malicious JS to steal secrets from @myetherwallet @idexio @binance @neotrackerio @SwitcheoNetwork Extension-native wallet create also sends secrets to their backend! Bad guys: erc20wallet[.]tkExtensionID: ckkgmccefffnbbalkmbbgebbojjogffn pic.twitter.com/TE2iw5d8Md — harrydenley.eth ◊ (@sniko_) December 31, 2019 The ‘Shitcoin Wallet’ Chrome extension (ExtensionID: ckkgmccefffnbbalkmbbgebbojjogffn) downloads a number of javascript files from a remote server. This code looks for other browser windows, open on the webpages of a number of exchanges and Ethereum network tools. It then attempts to scrape data input into these windows and send it to a remote server, erc20wallet.tk. ‘.tk’ is the top-level domain address for Tokelau, a group of South Pacific islands which is a territory of New Zealand. The code targets the websites of MyEtherWallet, IDEX, Binance, NEO Tracker, and Switcheo, specifically looking for passwords and private keys. Ethereum Shitcoin Wallet Is Pretty Nasty! According to its website, Shitcoin Wallet is available as a Chrome browser extension and a Desktop app for Windows, although goodness knows what additional mischief the app might get up to. It claims to be ‘Covered By Insurance’, although of course this is not explained or substantiated further. The website also makes a big thing about your private key only being stored on your local PC, and not needing to ‘worry about assets loss due to any hacker attack to ShitcoinWallet servers.’ Riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, it suggests that users will ‘receive many tokens everyday by our team and our partners’. This includes an alleged, ‘AIRDROP 0.05 ETH FOR FIST (sic) 500 USERS’. Finally, as a ‘Fun Fact’ it claims that ‘Shitcoin wallet is pretty good!’ Google Chrome Removes Meta Mask Last year a number of Chrome browser extensions were identified which enabled cryptojacking, or the secret mining of cryptocurrency through a users machine. Just last week, Google removed the Ethereum wallet app MetaMask from its Google Play App Store. The reason cited was that the app enabled cryptocurrency mining on mobile devices, which the developer denies. What do you make of this latest Ethereum malware? Add your thoughts below! Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @sniko_ The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/warning-ethereum-wallet-injects-malicious-javascript-to-steal-data-5e0b1a4176237754012db60b

Ethereum Client Requests Users to Update Nodes Due to Potential Attack @bitcoinist #News #News teaser #Ethereum #Muir Glacier #Parity

According to a recent warning by Parity, the fastest Ethereum client, it seems that Parity Ethereum nodes may be under attack, and users need to implement new updates. As the last day of 2019 took off, a new announcement was published on the website of Ethereum client, Parity. The announcement says that the company, Parity Technologies, received and investigated reports of some Parity Ethereum nodes that were not syncing properly. We have received multiple reports that @ParityTech nodes are randomly falling out of sync on the #Ethereum mainnet. See https://t.co/5cJRh4YtoO for more information. If you are using Parity as mining node we recommend to switch to geth as soon as possible. — Bitfly (@etherchain_org) December 30, 2019 Parity’s team concluded that there may be an attack underway, which is why they quickly published two new updates named v2.6.8-beta and v2.5.13-stable. The updates should implement changes that could protect the nodes from the attack — if there truly is one — and Parity urges users to implement them as soon as possible. We have investigated reports of some Parity Ethereum nodes not syncing and believe there may be an attack underway. New releases v2.6.8-beta & v2.5.13-stable protect against this. *Please update ASAP.* https://t.co/t2bJLNuyZVhttps://t.co/483J7ziS0g — Parity Technologies (@ParityTech) December 31, 2019 Further, the team urged everyone to implement these patches, whether or not they experienced any issues up to this point. Both new releases can be found on Github. What is Parity? As many might already know, Parity is an Ethereum client that allows for speedy synchronization to the Ethereum’s blockchain and network. Further, it maximizes uptime for those who use the network, including various service providers, crypto miners, and even digital currency exchanges. As such, it provides a core infrastructure that is crucial for reliable, fast services. What is the problem? According to what is known, about 20 hours ago one Ethereum user called Peter Pratscher, reported experiencing issues while using Parity client v2.5.12. The Parity team investigated the report and noticed problems on block $11355. The team identified that their client had stopped syncing and that it displayed errors, which, naturally, should not have happened. Furthermore, the client would not return to work without resyncing, which is a serious issue for all of its users. As mentioned, Parity quickly published two updates that can supposedly fix the problem, and the team urged everyone to update the patches as soon as possible. The same warning was issued by ETC Cooperative, which helped spread the word to Parity users via Twitter. URGENT: ETC Parity-Ethereum node operators should upgrade *immediately*. A vulnerability affecting Parity-Ethereum and Nethermind just took down a large number of ETH mainnet nodes. ETC is vulnerable as well. @ParityTech have already fixed the issue.https://t.co/QOJ6eDZa6G — ETC Cooperative (@ETCCooperative) December 31, 2019 Another issue emerges on Ethereum As many in the crypto community are aware by now, Ethereum was recently supposed to receive a major update via Ice Age. Unfortunately, the update had some unforeseen issues, which threatened to slow the entire network, which is why a hard fork known as Muir Glacier was proposed. Supposedly, the hard fork would solve the Ice Age problems, and the network would continue operating properly. However, the hard fork will not take place before block 9,200,000, which is expected to arrive on January 2nd, 2020. Meanwhile, Ethereum clients — Parity included — needed an upgrade that would prepare them for the hard fork, which Parity already performed. But, in doing so, it had to rebuild the chain history, as explained on Github by Brian Venturo. With 4 nodes now dead, the client was allocating so little hash rate to ETH that no one noticed the issue until the logs were already rotated out. Did you experience issues on Parity? Let us know what you think about the issue in the comments below. Image via Shutterstock, Twitter @etherchain_org @ParityTech @ETCCooperative The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/ethereum-client-requests-users-to-update-nodes-due-to-potential-attack-5e0b31b176237754012db60f

Justin Sun adds one more firm to his portfolio, this time blockchain streaming platform DLive @TheBlock__ #Blockchain #bittorrent #DLive #Justin Sun #mergers and acquisitions #PewDiePie #Tron

Justin Sun, founder of Tron and CEO of peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent, has added one more firm to his portfolio: blockchain-based live streaming platform DLive.

BitTorrent announced Monday that DLive will begin migrating its platform to the Tron blockchain from the current Lino blockchain. As part of the deal, BitTorrent’s live streaming platform BLive will also be merged into DLive.

“DLive is a great solution for live media producers,” said Sun, adding: “Think of how valuable live streaming content is already to centralized social media platforms who take ownership and advantage of their users’ hard work. We look forward to DLive bringing value to the entire world with the addition of TRON and BitTorrent’s global community of passionate creators.”

Kyle Lu, founder and CEO of Dapp.com, described the deal as “great.” He said top streamer PewDiePie, the world’s most popular YouTuber by subscriber numbers, is already on DLive and other YouTubers will also join the platform since YouTube recently temporarily removed crypto-related videos from its platform. 

Both DLive and BitTorrent teams will work together to bring blockchain-based peer-to-peer content sharing, including live streaming, to everyone, per the announcement.

Founded last year, DLive claims to have over 5 million monthly active users, while BitTorrent claims to have over 100 million monthly active users.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/The Block/justin-sun-adds-one-more-firm-to-his-portfolio-this-time-blockchain-streaming-platform-dlive-5e0b2b2176237754012db60e

Is Bitcoin Resilient Enough to Take on Cyber Threats in 2020? @bitcoinist #Bitcoin #Bitcoin Security #bitcoin #blockchain #crypto #Cyberattack #cybersecurity

Experts p...

Experts predict that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will gain momentum in 2020 and therefore will become increasingly pervasive in all industry sectors. There will also be an explosion of cybersecurity threats targeting all verticals worldwide next year, they say. Bitcoin Transactions and Data on the Blockchain Are Safe Just like other industries, the crypto industry must also prepare to respond to the ever-changing crypto-security threats. Bitcoin’s resiliency resides in the randomness of the data exchanges within the blockchain, and the use of strong encryption. As a result, the blockchain and its data cannot be duplicated or infiltrated using malware or other malicious technology. Nevertheless, transactions executed in the periphery of the blockchain are less resilient to cyberattacks. Indeed, every industry is under threat. A FitSmallBusiness.com report underscores that “preparation is the only way to handle the types of yet-to-be-defined problems that will hit millions of businesses in 2020 and beyond.” The Five Greatest Cybersecurity Threats The report concludes that the most frustrating factor is that “hackers’ tactics are constantly evolving and adapting,” complicating the implementation of adequate security controls. FitSmallBusiness.com identifies the five greatest cybersecurity threats to businesses, summarized as follows: 1. Corrupting Government. Microsoft-sponsored research indicates that there were 800 political cyberattacks in 2019. And, for 2020, “the politically-targeted cyberattacks will continue in full force.” 2. Exposing Healthcare. According to the Center for Strategic Studies and International Studies (CSIS), cyberattacks are also concentrating on the healthcare industry, which is rich in personal information and health data. Protenus points out that there were 32 million breached patient records in the first half of 2019, which is double the total for all of 2018. 3. Breaching Social. Social media platforms have become so widespread that they are also massive targets for hackers. In effect, a Bromium report highlights that already, “20% of organizations are infected by malware from social media connections.” 4. Targeting New Tech. The advent of 5G in 2020, among other things, will provide new opportunities to hackers. The FitSmallBusiness.com report, citing CheckPoint conclusions, indicates, “The reason 5G will make everyone more vulnerable to cyberattacks is that it enables such a diverse range of devices, making it difficult to create and provide security measures that can serve all.” 5. Hacking Your Home. As your home gets smarter, it becomes more vulnerable to cyberattacks. The FitSmallBusiness.com report warns, “While the technology was created to simplify our lives, devices like the Google Home and Amazon Echo are turning into smart spies.” Digital Money Forum: 2020 Will See New Currencies Work Alongside Traditional Counterparts The end of paper cash is coming. Crypto assets will gain momentum in 2020. As a result, Bitcoin will become even more pervasive in every business. Hence, the crypto industry must also enhance cyber-security awareness. In this regard, The Digital Money Forum predicts, “This will be the year where you’ll see new currencies working alongside traditional ones, and new asset classes born as the digital tokens go mainstream.” How do you think cybersecurity threats will affect Bitcoin in 2020? Let us know in the comments below. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Images via The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/is-bitcoin-resilient-enough-to-take-on-cyber-threats-in-2020-5e0b285176237754012db60d

Bitcoin Price Poised to Jump 40% Towards $10,000; Here’s Why @newsbtc #Bitcoin #bitcoin #bullish #Cold Blooded Shiller #divergence

While Bitcoin saw a strong rejection at $7,500, with the price of the leading cryptocurrency rapidly plunging to $7,200, leading some to suggest that an extended bearish reversal was possible, analysts remain bullish on BTC. A prominent cryptocurrenc...While Bitcoin saw a strong rejection at $7,500, with the price of the leading cryptocurrency rapidly plunging to $7,200, leading some to suggest that an extended bearish reversal was possible, analysts remain bullish on BTC. A prominent cryptocurrency trader recently remarked that his analysis of Bitcoin’s chart over the past few months shows that a key bullish divergence is forming, which implies that the price of the asset could surge by 40% in the coming weeks. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price to Soon Go Parabolic? Analysts Say It’s Possible Bitcoin Ready to Hit $10,000? Full-time trader Cold Blooded Shiller recently posted the below analysis of Bitcoin’s Renko candle chart, which shows the price action over the past three years. While there is little on the chart, the trader drew attention to two previous bouts of price action in BTC’s history, during which the price rallied by 32% and 40%, respectively, after a bullish divergence was formed between his indicator and the price. The same divergence is forming yet again, implying that BTC could soon rally by up to 40%, which would mean the price of the asset would take $10,000. Do with this chart whatever you please $BTC bulls. pic.twitter.com/5hADWZJb5B — Cold Blooded Shiller (@ColdBloodShill) December 31, 2019 It isn’t only this divergence pointed out by Cold Blooded Shiller that suggests Bitcoin is on the verge of bursting higher by 40%. Earlier this year, Filb Filb posted the below chart, showing that he expected for BTC to jump by dozens of percent to near $10,000, then collapse to the low-$6,000s to interact with the “miners bottom range.” While some laughed this off as pure bearish sentiment at the time, FilbFilb’s prediction was proven to be nearly 100% accurate, with Bitcoin surging past $10,000 in a temporary relief rally, then crashing the mid-$6,000s just earlier this month. The chart now predicts that Bitcoin will form an Adam & Eve-esque bottom in the $7,000s, prior to breaking to the upside, rallying to $10,000 (40% above current levels) by the time of the halving in May 2020. Related Reading: Four Signals Suggesting Bitcoin Price On Verge of Bull Trend Downtrend Not Over Yet? Although Cold Blooded Shiller’s analysis seemingly implies a bounce is on the horizon, it may not be a bounce that will take Bitcoin out of the bear trend formed after the $14,000 peak established in June. The trader noted that as it stands, Bitcoin is in a “markdown from distribution” near the $13,000-$14,000 top, a markdown contained by a descending channel that has existed since the top of the recent bull run. When the top of the channel is hit, sellers dump their coins; when the bottom of the channel is touched, buyers step in, pushing the price back towards the middle of the channel. I'll cover this off in a thread as I've been tagged in two threads asking for thoughts on $BTC Wyckoff schematics at this stage. Let's explore it, I'll give you some education, things to look for and determine if we may be at a bottom. pic.twitter.com/a5FxQrkD00 — Cold Blooded Shiller (@ColdBloodShill) December 7, 2019 As it stands, Bitcoin at $7,200 is in the middle of the channel, seemingly in no man’s land, thus not close to a bottom. “From a volume perspective, there is nothing to me that screams “THIS IS THE BOTTOM.” For both markdowns and markups we typically expect to see “climactic” volume,” Shiller wrote, trying to accentuate that there are no concrete signs the bottom is in for the Bitcoin market. He later remarked that for him to conclude that the bottom is in, BTC will have to rapidly move out of the abovementioned descending channel on a large influx of volume, implying a selling climax, to fall into support, bounce, then continue sideways in preparation for the next macro move. Related Reading: Why a Top Analyst Believes XRP Price Bottomed and Will Burst Higher Featured Image from Shutterstock The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/bitcoin-price-poised-to-jump-40-towards-10000-heres-why-5e0b13b176237754012db60a

Bitcoin Bulls Not Out of Woods, Wait For Break Above $7.5K @newsbtc #Analysis #Technical #bitcoin #btc #btcusd

Bitcoin price is currently consolidating above the $7,200 and $7,150 support levels against the US Dollar. The price is likely to climb higher again unless there is a daily close below $7,000. There is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance...Bitcoin price is currently consolidating above the $7,200 and $7,150 support levels against the US Dollar. The price is likely to climb higher again unless there is a daily close below $7,000. There is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance near $7,240 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken). The pair will most likely break $7,240 and $7,300 to start a fresh increase heading into 2020. Bitcoin price is showing signs of a renewed upward move against the US Dollar. BTC must stay above $7,150 to prepare for another push towards the $7,500 barrier. Bitcoin Price Analysis After forming a new weekly high near $7,531, bitcoin price started a downside correction against the US Dollar. The price declined below the $7,400 and $7,300 support levels. Moreover, there was a close below $7,300 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. Finally, the price dived below the $7,200 support level, but it stayed above the $7,150 support area. A low is formed near $7,179 and the price is currently consolidating losses above the $7,200 level. An immediate resistance is near the $7,240 level. Besides, there is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance near $7,240 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair. The next resistance is near the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent slide from the $7,531 high to $7,179 low. However, the first major hurdle is near $7,300 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. A successful break above the $7,300 barrier might push bitcoin price towards the $7,400 resistance level. An intermediate resistance could be $7,355 or the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent slide from the $7,531 high to $7,179 low. Finally, a follow through above the $7,400 resistance might set the tone for a larger upward move towards the $7,500 and $7,600 resistance levels. Any further upsides may perhaps call for a push towards the $8,000 level. Conversely, the price might struggle to climb above the $7,300 resistance area and the 100 hourly SMA. In the mentioned case, there is a risk of a bearish breakdown below the $7,200 and $7,150 support levels. Bitcoin Price Looking at the chart, bitcoin price seems to be preparing for an upside break above the $7,240 and $7,300 resistance levels. A successful close above the $7,300 level will most likely lead the price towards $7,400 and $7,500. Technical indicators: Hourly MACD – The MACD is moving back into the bullish zone. Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is now climbing towards the 50 level. Major Support Levels – $7,200 followed by $7,150. Major Resistance Levels – $7,240, $7,300 and $7,500. The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/bitcoin-bulls-not-out-of-woods-wait-for-break-above-75k-5e0ada8176237754012db609

Arrested Ethereum Foundation Researcher Released on $1M Bond @crypto_briefing #People #Ethereum #North Korea

Bitcoin And Crypto Market Eyeing Fresh Increase: BCH, BNB, EOS, TRX Analysis @newsbtc #Analysis #Technical #BCH #Bitcoin Cash #BNB #btc #btcusd #eos #Litecoin #ltc #TRON #TRX #XLM

The total crypto market cap is holding an important support area near the $185.0B level. Bitcoin price is struggling to continue higher and trading close to the $7,200 support. EOS price is down 2% and it is now trading near the $2.600 support area. ...The total crypto market cap is holding an important support area near the $185.0B level. Bitcoin price is struggling to continue higher and trading close to the $7,200 support. EOS price is down 2% and it is now trading near the $2.600 support area. Binance Coin (BNB) is down 3% and it failed to stay above the key $14.00 support. BCH price is declining towards the $205 and $200 support levels. Tron (TRX) price is facing a strong resistance near the $0.0136 and $0.0138 levels. The crypto market cap and bitcoin (BTC) are holding important supports. Ethereum (ETH), binance coin (BNB), ripple, BCH, tron (TRX), litecoin and EOS are struggling to continue higher. Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis After a fresh increase above the $205 resistance, bitcoin cash price found resistance near $215 against the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair failed to continue higher and started a downside correction below $210. It is now moving closer towards the $205 support area, below which it might test the $200 support. Any further losses could restart downtrend and the price might slide towards the $185 support level. Binance Coin (BNB), EOS, Tron (TRX) Price Analysis EOS price climbed higher recently above $2.600, but it faced resistance near the $2.700 level. A high was formed near $2.700 and the price started a downside correction. The price is now trading near the $2.600 support, below which it may perhaps test the $2.500 support area. Tron price is struggling to gain momentum above the $0.0136 and $0.0138 resistance levels. The main resistance is still near $0.0140, above which the price might continue to rise in the near term. On the downside, the key support is near $0.0130, below which the price could decline heavily. Binance coin (BNB) struggled to climb above the $14.40 area. As a result, BNB price started a fresh decline and broke the $14.20 and $14.00 support levels. The price is now approaching the $13.75 support level, below which it might even test the $13.50 area. Crypto Market Cap Looking at the total cryptocurrency market cap 4-hours chart, there was a downside correction from the $195.0B resistance area. The crypto market cap declined below the $190.0B support. However, the $185.0B level and a connecting bullish trend line are providing support. Therefore, there are chances of a fresh increase in bitcoin, Ethereum, TRX, LTC, EOS, ripple, ADA, XLM, WTC, BCH, and ICX in the near term unless the market cap slides below $180.0B. The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/bitcoin-and-crypto-market-eyeing-fresh-increase-bch-bnb-eos-trx-analysis-5e0ac9a176237754012db607

Ethereum (ETH) Could Dive If Bitcoin Continues To Struggle @newsbtc #Analysis #Technical #ETH #ethereum

Ethereum is down around 4% from the $138 high and tested the $130 support against the US Dollar. The price is currently consolidating above the $130 support, with a few bearish signs. There is a connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance n...Ethereum is down around 4% from the $138 high and tested the $130 support against the US Dollar. The price is currently consolidating above the $130 support, with a few bearish signs. There is a connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance near $132 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken). Bitcoin failed to stay above $7,300 and it is now trading near the $7,240 support area. Ethereum price is facing an increase in selling versus the US Dollar due to a steady decline in bitcoin. ETH price could dive below the $128 level, if bitcoin slides below $7,200. Ethereum Price Analysis After a strong upward move above $135, Ethereum price faced resistance near the $138 zone against the US Dollar. ETH price topped near the $138 level and recently corrected below $135. Moreover, there was a break below the $132 support, plus the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the latest rally from the $127 low to $138 high. The price tested the $130 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average. It seems like Ethereum is currently consolidating near $130 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. An initial resistance is near the $132 level. Besides, the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $138 high to $130 low is also near $132. More importantly, there is a connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance near $132 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. Therefore, a clear break above the $132 resistance might start a strong increase towards the $135 and $138 resistance levels. An intermediate resistance could be $134 or the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $138 high to $130 low. Conversely, Ethereum might struggle to gain momentum above the $132 and $133 levels. In the mentioned bearish case, the price could struggle to stay above $130 and the 100 hourly SMA. If there is a close below $130 and the 100 hourly SMA, the bears are likely to gain traction and the price may perhaps slide towards the $125 support area. Ethereum Price Looking at the chart, Ethereum price is back to the main $130 support area. If bitcoin slides below the $7,200 support area, there is a risk of a sharp decline in ETH in the near term. If not, it might start a fresh increase towards $135 and $138 in the coming sessions. ETH Technical Indicators Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETH/USD is slowly moving into the bullish zone. Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETH/USD is currently moving higher towards the 50 level. Major Support Level – $130 Major Resistance Level – $132 The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/ethereum-eth-could-dive-if-bitcoin-continues-to-struggle-5e0abb9176237754012db606

IOTA Halts for 15 Hours from Coordinator Bug @crypto_briefing #Technology

IOTA was unable to process transactions for 15 hours due to a bug with its “Coordinator,” a centralized node which determines which transactions are confirmed.

On Dec. 2...

IOTA was unable to process transactions for 15 hours due to a bug with its “Coordinator,” a centralized node which determines which transactions are confirmed.

On Dec. 29 around 11 a.m. the IOTA Tangle stopped processing transactions. The bug was identified and fixed 15 hours after the stoppage, as first reported by The Block. During the outage, the system could still transfer data and users could still read transactions. 

David Sønstebø, IOTA’s co-founder, described the bug as “minor.” The issue will be addressed when the project moves away from using the Coordinator, in an upgrade known as Coordicide, he added.

“Whatever the bug is, there is no reason to panic over such a minor issue pre-Coordicide. This is precisely why Coordicide takes time, one can’t execute it until all possible kinks have been ironed out.”

Unlike other systems, IOTA uses a directed-acyclic graph, or DAG, rather than a blockchain. This system presents unique challenges and potential, though still experimental, advantages over a blockchain. Instead of mining or staking, transactions are validated by confirmation from at least two other transactions.

However, for these transactions to get properly validated a centralized node controlled by the IOTA Foundation, known as the Coordinator, is necessary. Further development is needed for a DAG to work without such a bottleneck. 

In May 2019, the IOTA Foundation announced it was pushing to remove the Coordinator in an upgrade called Coordicide. Coordicide is scheduled for completion in late 2020.

According to the bug fix, the IOTA Reference Implementation “didn’t account for a transaction that was shared between two distinct bundles. Once it marked it as ‘counted’ in one bundle, it was ignored for the next bundle. This lead to a corrupt ledger state.”

Regardless of the reason behind the issue, the stoppage highlights centralization and reliability issues the IOTA Foundation must address before it’s ready for meaningful adoption.

The post IOTA Halts for 15 Hours from Coordinator Bug appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Crypto Briefing/iota-halts-for-15-hours-from-coordinator-bug-5e0aaab176237754012db604

Decentralized Social Media: Classifying Sites In Five Categories @crypto_briefing #Analysis #Blockchain #Decentralization #Social Media

Social media censorship has become a pressing issue in the crypto world. Last week, YouTube banned several crypto-related channels. Though the site quickly rolled back its ...

Social media censorship has become a pressing issue in the crypto world. Last week, YouTube banned several crypto-related channels. Though the site quickly rolled back its decision, other companies still apply harsh policies. Twitter has allegedly banned crypto-related accounts, while China’s WeChat has banned some crypto transactions.

Of course, the problem goes beyond cryptocurrency. Social media sites have targeted users across the political spectrum. High profile bans have concerned left–wing, right-wing, and international groups alike. Even users who believe that some content should be banned might find themselves on the wrong side of an overreaching policy.

The result is that many decentralized platforms are aiming to reform social media from its current state. Anti-censorship is just one part of this trend: some projects are striving for more open moderation, while others are aiming for better revenue distribution. With that in mind, platforms can be classified in at least five categories, as follows.

1. Centralized Platforms

First, it is important to consider how centralized social media platforms operate. Google, which owns YouTube, operates several data centers, each of which houses thousands of servers. Facebook does the same. Twitter relies on third-party cloud storage as well as data centers, but each company has direct control over data and accounts.

At the same time, centralized sites can defer some control to users. Reddit, Disqus, and Discord rely on centrally-owned servers and platform-wide rules, but they also allow communities to self-moderate.  It is unclear whether these companies have a lighter touch, but they share qualities with federated social networks (discussed below).

Additionally, some centralized social networks have a semi-distributed infrastructure. Telegram houses its servers in different legal jurisdictions, and its encryption model prevents it from censoring private chats. However, Telegram can ban public channels, and though it primarily targets ISIS content, it could in theory close any channel.

2. Blockchain-Powered Social Networks

Some social networks are turning to blockchain for decentralization. Users send messages, and a distributed network writes that information to a blockchain transaction permanently. This process typically allows crypto tips and payments as well. The Twitter-like Memo.cash, the blogging site Steem, and the media site LBRY fall in this category.

Unfortunately, blockchains are not scalable for mass data storage, so some blockchain-integrated social networks rely on other systems. Peepeth, DTube, and SocialX store minimal data on their chosen blockchains. Instead, they rely primarily on IPFS for data storage — which is faster, but less permanent, than blockchain-based storage.

Both approaches have a major point of centralization: a front end that can choose to show or hide content. For example, Peepeth does not delete data, but it explicitly moderates content on its website. Since most users will not turn to alternative front ends, a single site can effectively censor content for the general public in some cases.

3. Decentralized Transactions

Many new social networks integrate cryptocurrency payments, which can solve the problem of demonetization — they can compensate users who have not been banned, but who cannot receive funding. Whereas YouTube and Patreon can prevent users from receiving ad revenue and donations, cryptocurrency is relatively unstoppable, KYC aside.

For instance, the crypto-monetized blogging platforms Minds and Publish0x host their content centrally and have control over that content, but pay out Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens. Coil is similar, but pays out XRP via Interledger. Block.one’s Voice network will also follow this model initially, though it may move to a decentralized content model.

It is also possible to integrate crypto rewards with traditional social networks through a browser plugin. Brave’s Basic Attention Token has been linked with seven social networks — YouTube, Reddit, GitHub, Twitter, Reddit, Vimeo, and Soundcloud. Though Brave requires KYC for withdrawals, BAT can be circulated freely within the Brave ecosystem.

4. Federated Social Networks

Some decentralized social networks do not rely on a blockchain. The Twitter-like Mastodon, the video site Peertube, and other Fediverse projects take this approach. They allow users to create “instances” that are run by servers that only store their own data. Each instance can apply its own moderation rules and block other instances.

The result is a politically intricate system. Mastodon and much of the Fediverse have earned a left-wing reputation while many of their competitors tend to be right-wing. However, the right-wing network Gab has decided to join Mastodon — something that Mastodon cannot prevent. It can only denounce Gab and encourage instances to block it.

The Fediverse is also highly interoperable. Mastodon and other Fediverse apps run on a protocol called ActivityPub, which allows member platforms to communicate with each other. Some have noted that Twitter’s plans for a decentralized social media protocol is very similar. Other related standards, such as OStatus, exist as well.

5. Self-Administered Social Networks

Some decentralized social networks are very modest projects; they can be self-hosted and administered by a single user. Projects that fall into this category include Ethertweet, Newebe, Twister, pump.io, and Libertree. It is also possible for a single user to create a Fediverse instance, so federated platforms arguably fall into this category as well.

These social networks have one major feature: maximum control for the individual. They are virtually uncensorable, with no terms of use, unless law enforcement decides to intervene. The downside is that self-administered social networks have a fairly high barrier to entry in terms of setup, resulting in low usership and small networks.

Facing the Competition

Each style of decentralized social network has its own advantage. Blockchain-based networks provide a solution to bans and content deletion, while crypto payments provide a solution to demonetization. Federated and self-administered social networks, meanwhile, give communities and individuals control over content and moderation.

Unfortunately, all of these alternative social media platforms will probably find it difficult to gain traction. Social networks — especially Twitter-like discussion platforms — need plenty of users to thrive. Video and streaming-oriented social networks may not need as much adoption, assuming they are used for content storage rather than networking.

The numbers are certainly in favor of traditional platforms. Facebook and YouTube attract about 2 billion active users per month, while Twitter attracts about 330 million active users per month. Mastodon, probably the best-known decentralized social network, has 1.3 million active users. In short, alternative platforms have a long way to go.

The post Decentralized Social Media: Classifying Sites In Five Categories appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Crypto Briefing/decentralized-social-media-classifying-sites-in-five-categories-5e0a9f7176237754012db603

$400 botnet could bring down Bitcoin’s Lightning Network @MICKYNewsOz #Blockchain #Cryptocurrency #Security #bitcoin #botnet #hackers #Lightning Network #Malware

If you have any Bitcoin locked on Lightning, it’s worth considering taking it out, with researchers demonstrating funds are at risk.

Researchers Florida International University have demonstrated Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is...

If you have any Bitcoin locked on Lightning, it’s worth considering taking it out, with researchers demonstrating funds are at risk.

Researchers Florida International University have demonstrated Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is the perfect breeding ground for malware botnets – leaving the $6.3 million of Bitcoin currently locked on the network vulnerable.

A worrying paper released by the researchers on Christmas Eve maps out exactly how the attack could occur – essentially providing detailed instructions for would be malicious actors to follow.

The researchers have even built their own covert hybrid botnet called LNBot to demonstrate how easy and cheap it is to do.

Botnets are large numbers of malware infected computers that a botmaster controls using Command and Control (C&C) servers.

LNBot’s 100 C&C servers are running on the Bitcoin testnet right now. That’s enough to control a couple of million infected computers.

It’s not expensive to do either, with the cost of running 100 C&C Servers around $400.

What does this mean for the Lightning Network?

Malicious botmasters would be able to make Bitcoin payments from any Lightning nodes under their control, which if it happened, could lead to a collapse in user trust in the network.

With the attack vectors laid out, the race is now on for the Bitcoin community and developers working on the Lightning Network to come up with counter measures to thwart the attack.

We’ve seen similar occurrences in the past few weeks.

It took just two weeks after Blockonomics identified a simple Bitcoin doublespend exploit using the Electrum wallet in early December, for Bitcoin Cash proponent Hayden Otto to use the attack against payment network rival TravelByBit.

But the very strengths of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network – anonymous transactions that are censorship resistant – mean that effective countermeasures are extremely difficult to implement.

What makes Lightning so susceptible for botnet armies then?

In the paper the researchers note that it’s difficult for hackers to maintain control over  centralised C&C servers without getting caught, due to security measures.

They also detailed other research that attempted to use the Bitcoin or Ethereum networks for botnets however both of these proved to be impractical.

In the case of Bitcoin it was because transactions are exposed on the blockchain making it difficult for botmasters to operate in secret and with Ethereum, a botnet could easily be shut down.

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network however offers mostly anonymous transactions that are not available on a ledger – the transactions are faster and are at low cost.

What the researchers concluded

“In addition to anonymity, LN reduce the fees by performing off-chain transactions,” the paper notes.

“This provides a perfect opportunity for covert communications as no transactions are recorded in the blockchain.

“The idea was to control the C&C servers through messages that are sent in the form of payments through the LN.

“Furthermore, we designed a novel one-to-many architecture for communication. The proof-of-concept implementation of this architecture indicated that LNBot can be successfully created and commands for attacks can be sent to C&C servers through LN with very high anonymity.

“We have also shown that LNBot is resilient to the attacks (countermeasures) assumed in our threat model.”

The researchers said that the decentralised architecture of Lightning means that communications from the C&C server to the botnet army cannot be censored because there’s no one in charge to shut them down.

While its likely the C&C servers on LN will be detected at some point, even if the C&C server is seized it would not reveal the location of/IP address of the botmaster or reveal the other C&C servers (unlike on centralised systems).

All of which makes Lightning the perfect place to build a botnet army.

“For 100 servers, this cost is equal to 0.060462 Bitcoin (around $400 at current Bitcoinprice of $6700).

“This is a one time non-recurring investment cost of forming LNBot with 100 C&C servers which is a very small amount considering the fact that each C&C server can control tens of thousands of bots.”

That’s $436 at today’s Bitcoin price.

‘Don’t put more money on Lightning than you’re willing to lose’

This is not the first time the trouble plagued Lightning Network has had security issues.

Back in September Lightning Labs told users ‘don’t put more money on Lightning than you’re willing to lose’ after a vulnerability was exploited by hackers.

This is also a great time to remind folks that we have limits in place to mitigate widespread funds loss at this early stage. There will be bugs.

Don't put more money on Lightning than you're willing to lose!

— Lightning Labs (@lightning) September 10, 2019

The post $400 botnet could bring down Bitcoin’s Lightning Network appeared first on Micky.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Micky/400-botnet-could-bring-down-bitcoins-lightning-network-5e0a98e276237754012db602