Category: Crypto

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BTCC Crypto Exchange, the First Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange In China, Plans to Relaunch in South Korea

China’s first Bitcoin (BTC) exchange, BTCC, formerly known as BTC China, is ready to launch new trading services in South Korea, as The Investor reported yesterday, October 16th. BTCC, currently based in Hong Kong, will begin marketing its facilities in South Korea later this month via a Beta phase, while it would make its official debut in November.

According to BTCC’s website, the South Korean service, headed by Lee Jae-Beom, would comprise a new crypto exchange platform, a wallet service, a mining fund, and a service to enable consumer payments.

“BTCC is establishing an online/offline payment system using cryptocurrencies, and is expanding services for use in real life,” BTCC stated.

BTC China (BTCC) established in 2011 and was previously one of China’s top-three crypto exchange platforms, before intensified pressure from the country’s regulators and central bank, amid signs of imminent crypto repression, forcing BTCC to announce its closure in September 2017, while China’s national regulatory banned Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) at the same time.

BTCC Crypto Exchange, the First Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange In China, Plans to Relaunch in South Korea in November

In January of this year, however, the company was acquired by a Hong Kong-based blockchain investment fund. Subsequently, a new BTCC project continued to develop with improvements on its mining pool and its Mobi software crypto wallet, that before relaunching its trading platform in July.

Crypto exchange platforms in South Korea have also come under considerable scrutiny by national watchdogs, which have intensified markedly in the wake of high-profile checkpoints and allegations of fraud. This year, however, China has been working to reclassify the exchanges as “crypto assets and brokerage exchanges,” thereby “recognizing them as regulated financial institutions.”

A decision is expected to be announced next month following officials’ deliberation on the possible repeal of South Korea’s ban on ICOs, which has also been in effect since September 2017. At the time of going to press, BTCC is recording about $170,000 in daily trading volumes.

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Ethereum (ETH) Constantinople Hard Fork Might Be Postponed For 2019

The next Ethereum (ETH) hard fork, the renowned Constantinople, could be postponed to 2019, due to operational problems in the test network. As reported by the Infura project through Twitter, there was a problem in the consensus mechanism of the Ropsten network, which made it obsolete, so the community of developers of Ethereum (EHT) is investigating what happened and make a call to use other systems for testing until further notice.

On October 13th, at the block height of 4,230,000, the protocol was activated in the Ropsten test network. However, then, there began to appear some faults. Next Friday, on October 19th, it was deliberated to postpone the implementation of Constantinople Ethereum (ETH) hard fork.

In the sector of crypto mining, the ASIC equipment is increasingly sophisticated and could put at risk the decentralization of blockchain networks, as some analysts indicate. Thus, the change of consensus mechanism in Ethereum (ETH) network seeks to test other models to validate the confirmation of transactions and make the process physically lighter, leaving the security of the network in the cryptographic and virtual environment.

Ethereum (ETH) Constantinople hard fork postponed for 2019

Platforms such as SIA have already announced updates to address the monopoly of crypto mining equipment of Innosilicon and Bitmain, although in this case there is no need to change the Proof of Work for another mechanism for blockchain validation, only to annul the competition they consider unfair.

Bitmain, primarily, has shown to have more power to control a part of the crypto mining equipment market and, therefore, they can give certain Ethereum (ETH) mining pools the ability to mine more and dominate the blockchain.

In turn, the Ethereum (ETH) network is designed as a platform that provides smart contracts, which, at least in theory, should be increasingly accessible by the user. The cost of ERC-20 tokens’ transactions, for example, is considered very high, an impediment to their wider adoption, and accessibility for users of customized cryptocurrencies.

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Bitfinex To End Fiat Deposit Freeze, While Tether (USDT) Fell Below The $0.90 Mark

Tether (USDT), the most popular USD-backed “stablecoin,” just fell below the $0.90 mark on Bitfinex as the regular investors turned to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, worrying about the USDT reserves. At the same time, Bitfinex announced it would end its fiat deposit freeze.

According to CoinMarketCap, Tether (USDT) experienced a drop, reflected by a 5% increase in Bitcoin (BTC). However, at the moment of this writing, Tether (USDT) trades at $0.965, falling by about 2.5% over the last 24 hours. On the other hand, Bitcoin (BTC) sells at $6,624 after surging by about 5% in the previous day.

Bitfinex paused deposits in fiat currency for “certain customer accounts” after they suffered some “processing complications.” However, Bitfinex announced that they would end fiat deposits freeze, about at the same time Tether (USDT) dropped below the $0.90 mark.

“How any rational party can claim insolvency when the opposite is there for all to see is interesting and, once again, perhaps indicative of a targeted campaign based on nothing but fiction,” Bitfinex representatives stated.

Bitfinex To End Fiat Deposit Freeze, While Tether (USDT) Fell Below The $0.90 Mark

Last Thursday, when Bitfinex revealed that fiat deposits are paused, some investors became suspicious due to the lack of details from Bitfinex regarding the mentioned “complications” that made the exchange halt fiat deposits.

“We are working to implement a new and increasingly robust fiat deposit system to be available in the next 24 hours, by Tuesday, October 16th, 2018, to allow for the efficient processing of the fiat deposits,” reads the latest update on the situation, offered by Bitfinex.

However, the Bitfinex decision to pause fiat deposits triggered some reactions in traders who turned to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, concerning the Tether (USDT) reserves. The movement caused Tether (USDT) to drop below the $0.90 mark on Bitfinex, eventually, and to generate a slight surge in Bitcoin (BTC) value against the US Dollar.

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0x (ZRX) Included On the Coinbase Pro Platform, Finally

On Thursday, October 11th, 0x (ZRX) experienced a significant price increase after the crypto token got listed on the Coinbase Pro trading platform. According to the Coinbase Pro general manager David Farmer, trading activities with the new 0x (ZRX) pairs will only be available within a day.

Although the cryptocurrencies market is experiencing another significant correction, the inclusion of the ZRX token on Coinbase Pro boosted the digital asset’s market capitalization, as well as its value against the US Dollar. At the moment of this writing, 0x (ZRX) totals a market cap of $412,261,486. Also, at this moment, 0x (ZRX) trades at $0.76 after surging by about 15% in the last 24 hours.

The exchange of 0x (ZRX) for USD, EUR, or Bitcoin (BTC) on Coinbase platform would become available after the digital asset reaches a specific level of liquidity. However, it won’t yet be available on the regular Coinbase or in the crypto exchange’s wallet app, according to the statement, published this Thursday.

Coinbase Pro platform added 0x (ZRX)

“We will accept deposits at least 12 hours before enabling commerce. Once sufficient liquidity is established, trading will begin on the ZRX/USD, ZRX/EUR and ZRX/BTC trading pairs. 0x (ZRX) trading will be accessible to users in most jurisdictions, but initially will not be available to residents of New York State,” said David Farmer, Coinbase Pro General Manager.

Trading pairs involving 0x (ZRX) would be in a limit mode for a minimum of 10 minutes. Finally, all the trading options will be activated, with all the services of the platform, as well as limit orders, market orders, and scheduled purchases or sales.

0x project is a decentralized protocol based on Ethereum (ETH) network. In August last year, it raised $24 million during its Initial Coin Offering (ICO), despite criticism regarding its protocol. Back then, the researchers from Cornell Tech carried out an investigation and pointed out some shortcomings, both in the cryptocurrency and the 0x protocol.

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Petro (PTR) New White Paper Clears Up Some Aspects Regarding The Venezuelan National Cryptocurrency

The Venezuelan government has been developing a price structure that uses Petro (PTR) as a unit of measure. Bank balances have begun to show their equivalence in Petro cryptocurrency and, little by little, the prices of products and services are made public with their equivalent in this crypto. However, Venezuelans still do not have precise information about the payment process that will be followed using this instrument, nor about the technological infrastructure that will be used for this purpose.

Although Petro (PTR), the Venezuelan cryptocurrency backed by oil, has been developing since last year, there is still no clarity as to how it would be implemented in the national economy. A new version of the White Paper was recently published, revealing technical details and the ecosystem of consumption and flow of this cryptocurrency.

In some shopping centers in the city of Caracas, Venezuela, the price of parking fees has been published in Petro (PTR), while the government of the South American country also published a table of certain products’ costs and their equivalent in Petro (PTR).

So far, the Venezuelan government has not informed its citizens about the digital payment platform that will use this cryptocurrency. And although a version of the Petro (PTR) wallet was launched, until now, it has not been possible to carry out operations with the cryptocurrency.

The new Petro (PTR) White Paper clears up some aspects regarding this Venezuelan cryptocurrency

According to the latest version of the White Paper, in addition to using a “hybrid consensus” and the X11 algorithm, it was established that its price would not be backed only to oil, but also to other Venezuelan commodities. 50% of PTR value will depend directly on oil, 20% on gold, 20% on iron, while 10% on diamonds.

As explained in the document, the cryptocurrency will have its own blockchain, which will use a hybrid consensus mechanism between Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), and will have blocks of 4MB, which will be generated every 60 seconds. All these features are very similar to the current operation of Dash (DASH).

The confirmations of the transactions with Petro (PTR) will be made after 10 blocks, and the cryptocurrency will boast the InstanSend feature to guarantee the immediate sending of the operations.

Despite all these technical details, there are still not enough practical elements for Venezuelan citizens to know for sure how the Petro (PTR) cryptocurrency transactions will work.

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