Day: May 20, 2019

Stellar’s Blockchain Briefly Goes Offline, Confirming the Project Lacks Decentralization

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Recently, blockchain-powered network Stellar stopped confirming transactions for more than one hour, effectively going offline. Although no money was reportedly lost as a result, Stellar’s major issue has now been highlighted publicly: The project is not decentralized, at least not to the extent expected at this point. Notably, the offline scenario was predicted by researchers earlier last month. Brief introduction to Stellar and its network Stellar is a platform for money remittance. It was launched in 2014 by Jed McCaleb, founder of Mt. Gox and co-founder of Ripple, and former…

New Research Shows Bitcoin (BTC) Conversation Has Matured Dramatically

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The recent price rally for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency has a number of analysts and investors scratching their head and asking the question: what’s different between now and 2017? While coin prices fell through the majority of last year, leading analysts to label 2018 a crypto winter, the market reached an all-time high in late 2017 following a massive bull rally for Bitcoin. Despite currently trading at under $8000, the price of BTC reached an all-time high of $19700 in the final weeks of December 2017. At the time, it appeared…

Banks Love Ripple (XRP), Demand Could Drive Prices $0.80

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Ripple (XRP) up 27.3 percent Brad Garlinghouse says Ripple ready to work with banks and regulators In an interview with Recode Decode podcast, Brad Garlinghouse once again reiterated their will of working with regulators and not against them. Meanwhile, prices are stable with XRP trading below Q1 2019 lows. Fundamentals By design, Ripple Inc solutions are meant to meet the demands of Banks and financial institutions. That is a goal Brad Garlinghouse is working towards achieving. Although there are regulatory challenges, especially on the interpretation of whether Ripple (XRP) is…

Senior Official in Russian Parliament Says That Cryptos Can Ruin Governments

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A senior official in Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, has argued that cryptocurrencies have the potential to ruin governments, Russian financial media agency Rambler reported on May 20. Nikolai Arefiev, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and vice-chairman of the Duma’s committee on economic policy, innovative development and entrepreneurship, claimed that cryptocurrencies were created in order to hide large offshore assets from the government. If cryptos such as bitcoin (BTC) had emerged by 1994, Russia would have been “fully destroyed” so far because it would have…

Does Blockstream Hold Backdoor Keys to Bitcoin on Liquid?

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This week, Blockstream launched the Liquid Network, a sidechain built on Strong Federation technology to facilitate quick and seamless transfer of bitcoin (BTC) between exchanges. Their website indicates they hold “emergency keys” to bitcoin held on Liquid, but there’s more to it. A Reddit thread offered both sides of the story; the anti Liquid and clarification from the top of Blockstream’s pecking order. On Blockstream’s published FAQ for the Liquid Network, they state that there are emergency keys that can access bitcoin held on the network if the network is down…

Bitcoin Beats Other Cryptos in ‘Smarter’ Bull Market, Says Billionaire Investor

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By CCN: Mike Novogratz, the billionaire CEO of Galaxy Capital and a former hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, believes alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, will be outperformed by bitcoin in the bull market. Not this time. Market getting smarter. $btc will outperform. — Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) May 19, 2019 The statement of Novogratz comes after the bitcoin price risen by more than 115 percent year-to-date against the U.S. dollar, leading the crypto market to add $124 billion to its valuation. Will bitcoin continue to outperform altcoins? Historically, altcoins have…

Bitcoin Beats Other Cryptos in ‘Smarter’ Bull Market, Says Billionaire Investor

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By CCN: Mike Novogratz, the billionaire CEO of Galaxy Capital and a former hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, believes alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, will be outperformed by bitcoin in the bull market. Not this time. Market getting smarter. $btc will outperform. — Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) May 19, 2019 The statement of Novogratz comes after the bitcoin price risen by more than 115 percent year-to-date against the U.S. dollar, leading the crypto market to add $124 billion to its valuation. Will bitcoin continue to outperform altcoins? Historically, altcoins have…

Scaling Bitcoin: Is the Lightning Network a Viable Solution?

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In laymen’s terms, the Lightning Network (LN) is a protocol built on top of the Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero blockchains; these protocols are called “layer two protocols” because they run on top of an existing network. By moving away from the main chain, layer two protocols help the overall network experience less latency as it utilizes its consensus tools and can delay the need to be verified on the main chain. This improves the speed of transactions and ultimately leads to adding more users who can continue to use the…

UK-Based Global Funds Network Calastone Switches Entire System to Blockchain

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London-based global funds network Calastone announced that it switched its entire system for fund trade clearing services to its blockchain Distributed Market Infrastructure (DMI) in a press release published on May 20. Per the release, the migration of the company’s over 1,800 customers over 41 markets “represents the largest community of global financial services organisations connecting and transacting via distributed ledger technology.” In the announcement, the institution also forecasts that the resulting savings for the mutual funds market will amount to over £3.4 billion per year ($4.33 billion). The release…

ECB: Cryptocurrencies Pose No Threat To Euro Zone Financial Stability

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The European Central Bank (ECB) said cryptocurrencies do not pose any threat to the financial stability of the euro zone. This was the conclusion of an analytical study conducted by ECB’s Internal Crypto-Assets Task Force (ICA-TF). The task force was established to analyze crypto assets’ potential implications for ECB’s monetary policy and the risks they may entail for the smooth functioning of market infrastructures and payments, as well as for the stability of the Euro area’s financial system. The study finds that the combined value of crypto assets is small…