Category: Crypto

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Crypto News

How to Make the Best of Cryptocurrencies and the Innovative Blockchain Industry

The cryptocurrency and blockchain space has been gaining more popularity recently, even though the crypto market has been embraced by a bearish trend this year. Regardless of the prices’ fall, the companies behind the cryptos have continued to work on their projects, developments and important partnerships. More and more financial institutions teamed up with crypto and blockchain companies because everyone understands that instead of fighting innovation, it’s best just to ride this amazing wave of new tech and solutions.

Bitcoin was launched back in 2009, and by now, when 2018 is about to end, the crypto space has evolved significantly. Today, there are more than 2,000 cryptos on the market and, as expected, the number continues to grow. But in such rich scenery, it’s important to know a few things before making an investment, and usually, the decision can be quite challenging. However, we have a few tips that will definitely turn out useful for potential future investors in crypto.

Do your homework to avoid scams

Let’s say that you purchased one Bitcoin back in 2011 for $100. Now, you’re the lucky owner of a Bitcoin that’s valued today at $3,426.35, according to CoinMarketCap. Despite the recent fall of Bitcoin’s price, according to expert opinions, owning BTC is always a good choice. But you can also invest in other cryptos as well, just make sure to do your homework in order to be able to avoid scams and worthless tokens. You can start by checking out Trybe, a useful website which explores the most important cryptos and the opportunities that they have to offer.

Consider dip investment

Besides the traditional way of investing in crypto, you can also consider dip investment. This simply means buying cryptos at a low price and then selling them high. So, this strategy involves selling your crypto when the price reaches a peak. It all depends on your risk comfort. Experts usually recommend having a conservative strategy which consists in waiting to purchase a token until the price starts rising after a dip and only sell it when the price starts to go down again.

Become a part of the industry

This might be the lowest-risk choice of getting involved with crypto. There are lots of investment companies and startups as the crypto and blockchain industry continue to flourish. There are a lot of positions that you could consider hunting, and they include blockchain engineer/developer, community manager, content marketer, business developer, tech writer, and even a meme specialist.

Closing words

The crypto and blockchain wave is getting stronger and stronger, and the best thing you can do is find the best way to ride it. Investing in crypto is one of the best choices, but with one condition: always stay informed and set your goals and levels of risk.

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Crypto

A Simplified Guide to Understanding Cryptocurrency Trading Pairs

Cryptocurrencies are inherently difficult to understand; you’ll need to first understand the complexities of the underlying blockchain technology, and then, you’ll need to learn the basics of technical and fundamental analysis. The worst part is that you’ll still need to deal with the incredibly volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market because of its high degree of speculation.

Thankfully, tons of resources, online and offline, have been devoted to demystifying the cryptocurrency trading process. However, of the core tenets of cryptocurrency trading; the cryptocurrency trading pair has not received much attention. This piece provides a simplified overview of cryptocurrency trading pairs for people who don’t have prior experience in trading stocks, forex, or other financial instruments.

Fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies

Fiat currencies are the common government-minted currencies such as the USD, GBP, Euro, and Yen. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized currencies that are not subject to the monetary policies of governments or their agents. To start trading cryptocurrencies, you’ll need to first convert your fiat currency into a cryptocurrency. There are more than 2,000 cryptocurrencies in the market but only a handful of them can be bought directly with a fiat currency.

The “conversion” of fiat currencies to cryptocurrencies is typically done on cryptocurrency exchanges. You should be able to convert fiat to crypto if you start trading on eToro, or other exchanges. In most instance, you’ll only be able to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash with your fiat currency.

Base cryptocurrencies and altcoins

A base cryptocurrency is the cryptocurrency against which all other altcoins are quoted on an exchange. The most popular base cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). Most of the exchanges where you can buy altcoins typically won’t allow you to buy them directly with fiat currencies. After you must have bought BTC or ETH with fiat, you can use the BTC or ETH to buy the other altcoins that you may want to trade.

The price of base cryptocurrencies is usually quoted against the price of your home/domestic currency.  In the chart below, the price of Bitcoin is quoted against the USD, and this is true for other base cryptocurrencies on other exchanges.

In contrast, the price of other altcoins is usually quoted against BTC, ETH, or other base cryptocurrencies as seen in the chart below. The price of Ripple (XRP) is 0.00008895BTC, the price of Stellar (XLM) is 0.00002996BTC, and the price of EOS is 0.00059530BTC.

The simplest way to understand the price of altcoins when quoted in a base cryptocurrency is to think of the quoted price as a ratio. The USD value of BTC is about $3,280 and the USD price of Ripple is about $0.29, which gives us a ratio of about 1: 0.00008895. In the chart above, it will cost 0.00008895BTC to buy 1 XRP.

Calculating the value of your cryptocurrency gains/losses

The first way to calculate the value of your cryptocurrency gains/losses is to use a tool that shows you the relative value of the coins in USD or your native currency. Coin Market Cap shows the price of all listed cryptocurrencies, their 24-hour volume, their market cap, and their price charts, and their ranking among other cryptocurrencies.

The second way to calculate the value of your cryptocurrency gains or losses is watch the movement in value of your altcoins relative to the value of the base currency. When for instance, if you bought 1 BCH at 0.025TC, if 1BCH now becomes 0.050BTC, it means that the value of your BCH has jumped 50% against Bitcoin and selling your BCH now will net you 0.050BTC as opposed to the 0.025BTC you had when you originally spent to buy 1 BCH.

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Crypto News

Blockchain Technology Innovations Lead the Gaming Industry into the Future

Our world is gradually unraveling innovative ways of using the blockchain industry. There’s more to this technology than just finance and cryptocurrencies because it’s penetrating more and more sectors and industries. For instance, art, agriculture, energy and more have been already starting to integrate the blockchain into their operations.

Online gaming is another player that got on board, and there are a lot of projects which are already picking up. The gaming sector is thriving, and the revenue is projected to grow from about $94.4 billion to $128 billion in yearly volume by 2020.

The gaming business is one of the fastest developing tech industries in the whole world, and the developments of more sectors and industries only come to support it.

Blockchain gaming is morphing the gaming sector and brings an avalanche of enthusiast gamers and investors as well who are enjoying the massive number of opportunities that the blockchain technology has to offer.

More gaming companies are developing games based on the blockchain

Gamers have begun more and more acclimated with the digital economies, and they’re rushing to adjust to innovation. Mobile gaming companies are already producing digital resources, and the blockchain tech seems the natural step in these developments.

More mobile companies are developing great mobile games which are based on them, and the association between the blockchain and gaming enables developers to have an approach to monetize. Organizations are also able to save a lot in terms of payment processing because payment fees become almost inexistent via the use of digital currency. This leads to distributors’ opportunity to investigate new adoption models.

Digital assets in gaming

Virtual weapons, accessories, tools, and costumes will hold an expanded value because the blockchain facilitates their purchase, sharing, trading, and gifting. Users can offer in-game items, and this only gives such things actual financial value.

For instance, Gods Unchained is the world’s first blockchain based eSport produced by Fuel Games. Players can enjoy trust-free ownership of the items they’re buying or earning in the game. Such proprietorship is adding an entirely new measurement to gaming.

What does the future of blockchain-enabled gaming industry hold?

Blockchain-enabled games offer gamers the ability to pay for everything with crypto and even if the digital assets’ value is volatile, gamers are still appreciating the flexibility that stems from this.

Each activity and data is verified via smart contracts, and you can build a character that can be used over a large number of gaming systems.

The risk of hacking in minimum due to the high security enabled by the blockchain technology. Game developers will be able to incorporate blockchain nodes into the design and play structure of the games that they’re developing.

The blockchain technology will eventually change the way in which data is stored for gamers, and it will change the whole way in which games are developed. These are just a  few ways in which the innovations of the blockchain technology will disrupt the gaming industry leading it into the future and presenting it with new opportunities.

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Crypto News

Crypto Exchanges With No Gas Limit Set On Ethereum (ETH) Transactions Are Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks

On November 21st, researchers revealed a vulnerability in crypto exchange platforms with no gas limit established for outgoing transactions related to Ethereum (ETH) smart contracts. According to a Level K publication, since November 9th, several crypto exchanges have been alerted about this security flaw that could empty their hot wallets by the permanent collection of commissions or gas in Ethereum network.

Level K explained that this is because, in smart contracts (from tokens ERC20, tokens ERC721 like CryptoKitties and others), the receiving addresses are the ones that arbitrarily set the gas limit to carry out a transaction, which is paid by its initiators, in this case, the crypto exchange platforms.

When cryptocurrency exchanges have not established a well-defined gas limit for Ethereum (ETH) smart contracts, malicious users can set high gas costs to process their transactions and withdraw more funds than necessary from the hot wallet used by the exchange platforms. This scenario could be even worse if a crypto trading platform does not have KYC standards.

Crypto Exchange Platforms With No Gas Limit Set On Ethereum (ETH) Transactions Are Vulnerable ToCyber Attacks

Many cryptocurrency exchanges allow the withdrawal of Ethereum (ETH) to arbitrary addresses with no gas limit. Since sending ETH to a contract address performs its backup function, attackers can make these crypto exchange platforms pay for commissions. That allows cyberattackers to force exchange platforms to burn their own Ethereum (ETH) at high transaction costs. Hackers can even benefit economically by using GasTokens.

Keep in mind that GasToken is a smart contract that could be used to further exploit this vulnerability by conducting a “profitable attack.” GasToken functions as a gas bank, the fundamental resource for transactions in the Ethereum network. So, users can buy representative GasToken and store them when this resource is at low prices.

Also, through GasToken, users can benefit from Ethereum (ETH) storage rebate. This rebate only applies to contract transactions, when these remove storage elements that otherwise must be housed in the blockchain. The advantage of this type of reimbursement is that it can represent up to half of the gas in a contract transaction.

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Crypto Markets News

VanEck Subsidiary Launched Bitcoin (BTC) OTC Market Index

MV Index Solutions, a subsidiary of New York-based investment and financial analysis company, VanEck, announced on Tuesday the launch of an OTC (over-the-counter) Bitcoin (BTC) market index, using Circle Trade, Cumberland and Genesis Trading as the primary sources for its information.

According to the press release, this is the first index of Bitcoin (BTC) OTC index market. OTC trading involves the exchange of goods, commodities and any other investment asset outside the books of purchase and sale of a particular investment firm, with a broader portfolio that can handle different types of prices and more substantial investments.

“We are very happy to be the first provider to launch a Bitcoin (BTC) index based on OTC trading desk prices. This allows over-the-counter clients to use this index as a reliable benchmark for their transactions or possible investment products,” said Thomas Kettner, the General Manager at MV Index Solutions.

VanEck Subsidiary Launched Bitcoin (BTC) OTC Market Index

VanEck is a significant company in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Its Bitcoin (BTC) ETF application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is still under evaluation by the authority, while the final decision on that is expected in March 2019.

Executives from Circle, Genesis, and Cumberland assured that with the creation of this Bitcoin (BTC) OTC index, the investors have access to an instrument that will be extremely useful for this type of over-the-counter investments. According to VanEck’s Chief Strategy Officer, Gabor Gurbacs, this may help new institutional investors enter the OTC Bitcoin (BTC) market.

Similar to the creation of this Bitcoin (BTC) OTC market index, other instruments and investment assets linked to cryptocurrencies would be gradually incorporated into the more conventional stock market. This week the Swiss stock exchange Six Exchange received authorization to trade one ETP (exchange product) of five cryptos in a basket that includes Bitcoin (BTC), XRP (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash ABC, and Litecoin (LTC).

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