Archive: July 27, 2020

Another Crypto Crackdown Hits China amid Tether’s Massive Popularity

Tether is the flourishing cryptocurrency that is gaining huge popularity in the virtual world. There is a lot of capital that is flowing into the network. This is one more time the cryptocurrency market has put into the chaotic situation.

Massive problems and big implications

Many investors are showing interest in buying Tether stable coin (USDT) to hedge their portfolio in various countries where the usage of USD is limited. There is a high growth of stable coin in the market. Its investment is increasing at a rate of 100% since the start of this year. The funds are flowing into this stable coin from China. It is the part that is wondering many investors. With a lot of hedging with USDT, there is a new wave that China wants to create in the cryptocurrency world to keep its money in its country without letting it go outside.

Reignite the fire of Dragons

Based on the reports received from reliable sources, China’s government has zeroed in OTC trading. Many companies are connected to the government have tried hard to put an end to the crypto trading. The primary purpose of releasing USDT in China is to launder money, which is not a good thing to look at.

USD is known for its secure currency. The whole world looks up to the currency as highly reliable. When investors hold this currency, they remain safe even though the economy is turbulent. The best example of such economic chaos would be the COVID pandemic. It has collapsed the world like knocking down the building.

COVID raised the market

Market stability depends on its strength and size. You can gain stability only when the central power bank holds it. The bank’s responsibility is to keep the currency at its peak level. These are a few factors that have made USD currency to be highly stable in the world. Today, it is found to be the largest fiat currency that has not stumbled even with the COVID-19 pandemic

Many citizens of China have embraced crypto-based solutions for hedging their portfolio with the help of stable coins. Tether is gaining is huge popularity in the crypto world. There is a large inflow of traffic for this coin. With the increase in popularity for this type of cryptocurrency in China, this type of cryptocurrency market cap has increased to USD 9.2 billion. However, it was just USD 4.6 billion until the first half of January 2020.

The best part of Tether is that it allows you to use the traditional currency as an electronic currency. These coins are also developed using blockchain rather than using other platforms. It will enable the users to add the currency and withdraw USD using the bitcoin blockchain, which is highly secure and performs the transactions at a brisk pace. It is a promising cryptocurrency for the people who are new to crypto trading and investing. You can depend on customer support to get things done.

DeFi offers potential investment opportunities said HyperChain Capital

For companies, it is necessary to remain technically updated and be a leader in this market to have better prospects. Those who want to create more opportunities in the market with technology bring new features with the help of which better opportunities can be available. For the DeFi investments also, the scenario is something like this only. There is good news for decentralized finance, also called DeFi investments. HyperChain Capital said that DeFi offers good growth opportunities in the long run, and many companies are interested in blockchain-based projects and digital currencies. The overall market for cryptocurrencies is increasing at a rapid pace as more and more investors are getting confidence in such projects. Even companies are looking forward to implementing blockchain-based projects, as this will make it easy for them to scale the projects in the long run.

In a press release, the CEO of HyperChain, Stelian Balta, said that there is good potential with a decentralized financial system as it allows companies to manage digital assets with a lot of efficiencies. Besides, it also provides security for digital assets, and this can be used to make international transactions without worrying about too many regulations. Hence the use of technology can be in the interest of the customers also. It will help them to have stored the assets without any hassle and compromise with their security.

Growing demand for Kyber Network

Kyber Network is one of the big names in the DeFi market, and it has got trading volume of more than $ 1 billion in recent times. Not only that, it has also crossed the $300 million mark when it comes to market cap and this shows the amount of confidence investors are having on this project. Even at this rate, most experts believe that the digital asset is undervalued, and there is good potential for growth in the near future.

Topps trading cards and collectibles

There is a growing demand for Topps, which produces trading cards and digital collectibles in the market. It is especially used for MLB, Star Wars, WWE, and other such popular trades in the market. Such digital games have a lot of digital collectibles that have good value in the market. The platform is making rapid progress in this area, and it is likely to be associated with more such popular sports platforms soon.

HyperChain investments on blockchain projects

Experts in this segment believe that having bitcoin investments in the portfolio is very beneficial as many currencies are giving negative returns in recent months. In this situation, it will reduce the risk by a decent margin, and this has given confidence to the crypto ecosystem. Many investors are now looking at cryptocurrencies for better returns.

Future of blockchain investments

As investors get savvy about using digital currencies all over the world, cryptocurrencies will become the obvious choice for many transactions. It removes so many regulations and provides an opportunity for private transactions. In this way, your identity can stay secure, and you will still be able to make payments for your transactions without any hassles. These benefits are bringing a lot of tech-savvy investors into the cryptocurrency market.

HyperChain has made lots of investments in various cryptocurrency-based projects and blockchain projects. Its recent investment in Fantom that is close to $2 million, has boosted the spirits in the crypto world. It now has the most significant number of Tezos tokens in the world. Apart from that, they are also working on incognito features within the Kyber Network that will provide additional security to users. Hence the users can use it without any compromise to safety.

PayPal Will Support Direct Cryptocurrency Transactions

As per the reports received by CoinDesk, it is being said that the online payment giant, PayPal, would soon allow its customers to transact in cryptocurrencies on its platform. With the client base of over 320 million, PayPal boasts of being one of the largest online payment facilitators globally. Along with PayPal, its affiliate Venmo would be offering the cryptocurrencies as well for the buy or sell option. However, it is not yet clear as to which cryptocurrencies would be supported on the platform. As per the source, the company would be working with multiple coin exchanges to ensure options as well as liquidity for the clients. One of the sources also confirmed that PayPal and Venmo would supposedly have a wallet-like feature that would help with the storage of the cryptocurrency.

While no official announcement has been made from the PayPal front, the sources at CoinDesk reports that PayPal is planning to launch the functionality in the next three months itself, or even sooner. The online payment industry has been gradually waking up to the emergence of cryptocurrencies as one of the mainstream contenders. It has forced PayPal to take note of the changing trends and consider adding crypto offerings for its massive client base. Until recently, Paypal’s stance on the crypto ecosystem was that while the company did support blockchain technology and its advantages, it wasn’t really into cryptocurrencies.

Just last year, PayPal CFO John Rainey, said to the media that the teams at PayPal are closely following and working on blockchain technology as well as for cryptocurrencies. He added that while the company would love to be a part of this ecosystem in any way possible, it would be too early to start trading in Bitcoin. The ambitions of PayPal on the blockchain front took a major blow when it became the first company to pull out from the global coalition of firms associated with the cryptocurrency initiative led by Facebook, the Libra Association.

At the time PayPal left the coalition, it didn’t offer any credible reasons for its decision. However, with time, the company started to drop hints of its interest in the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. One of the hints that PayPal dropped recently, showcasing its interest in the cryptocurrencies is the investment it made in TRM Labs, which is a crypto-currency compliance and risk management platform. The payment giant is investing a lot in research and development, and it is seen by the recent patent it filed to make Bitcoin transaction processing time faster through its proprietary cryptocurrency payment system.

As the world of cryptocurrencies gets wider acceptance globally, PayPal doesn’t want to be left behind. It is especially true because one of the major rivals of PayPal, Square Inc, founded and headed by CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has been involved in the cryptocurrency from much earlier. Square Inc also received the license last year in New York to deal with cryptocurrencies. Another London based company named Revolut that partnered with Bitstamp has been able to collect more than $500 million till February 2020.

As per the rumors, it is being reported that PayPal would likely include multiple crypto-exchanges in its cryptocurrencies’ ecosystem, including Coinbase and Bitstamp. However, nothing has been officially announced by the company. CFO of PayPal, John Rainey, said recently that digitization of financial and payments industry can make a huge difference for over 2 billion people across the globe that doesn’t have a savings or checking account.

It is worth mentioning here that Coinbase and PayPal shared a working relationship since as early as 2016 when the payment giant offered fiat withdrawals on its platform for its US customers. Last year too, PayPal offered its Canadian and EU Coinbase customers to withdraw to PayPal. One more hint that PayPal is venturing into the crypto world is its recent hiring spree. The company has been listing the need for cryptocurrency engineers and technical lead in India. The company reportedly has an in-house Crypto engineering team, which PayPal says is responsible for the development of crypto-based products and features that are viable for its PayPal platform. The crypto enthusiasts world over are excited with the news and believe that it is going to change the crypto market for good as it is would definitely help the retail outreach of the cryptocurrencies.

Public vs. Private Blockchain

Blockchain is taking the world by storm. There are two types of blockchain available. These include- public and private blockchain. As the name suggests, the public blockchain does not need permission, while the private blockchain needs permission to access the network place.

In the public blockchain, anyone can join the network without the permission of the other user or the admin. You can read, write, and take part in the transactions when you are in the public blockchain. It is a decentralized system that no third party would have control over the network. When the data is verified on the blockchain, you cannot change or delete the entry. No one has control over the data.

On the flip side, the private blockchain would need permission to participate in the blockchain activities on the network. There are restrictions on the type of transactions you can carry out and who all can take part. The worst thing about the public blockchain is that any individual can come and write the data on the blockchain, and the other individual can view it.

Examples of public blockchain platforms include Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. These are permissionless, but it protects the identity of the user by keeping them anonymous. There is a discussion that the Ethereum blockchain cannot be used to control the permission to the data. In the actual scenario, you can give permissions to the people who all can access the data, but you are not provided with the required tools that you find on the private blockchain platform.

In the public blockchain, everyone must follow the rules and stay transparent. Honest participants also get rewards. In the private blockchain, people who misbehave have to suffer.

In the public blockchain, the bitcoin system transactions that are carried out would remain public. You can view the address of the sender’s wallet, the amount that is transferred, the wallet address of the recipient, and the time at which the transaction took place.

Businesses and individuals use a private blockchain. All cannot view the details of the transactions. The private blockchain would allow only the authenticated machines to join the network and carry out the ledger process. You can only carry out the transactions that are approved on the blockchain. There is an institution that governs and runs this blockchain. Due to this, it has become an ideal choice for business people to use blockchain. The transactions they are carrying out, and the transaction amount would remain secure.

Benefits of public blockchain

Here are a few benefits you can reap by using public blockchain:

Read and write the data

Anyone can take part and carry out the transactions on the blockchain. All can view the transactions.

Distribution of ledger

There is no centralized database available. Every node would take part in the verification of the transaction.

Immutable

When you write something to the blockchain, you cannot change it.

Highly secure

The public network is highly reliable compared to the private. Yes, you heard it right. This is due to decentralization. There would be no third party involved in between the transactions that are carried out between the sender and recipient. There will be many nodes, so the unethical people find it tough to attack the system and gain unauthorized control. The private blockchain gives more scope for hackers to attack and steal valuable data. There are high chances for the bad actors on the network to pose a serious threat to others on the network.

Benefits of private blockchain

Few of the benefits that you can reap using private blockchain include:

Enterprise controls the blockchain transactions

The resources are under the control of the authorized enterprise, and only authorized users can access the blockchain to carry out the transactions.

Quick transactions

The nodes are distributed locally, so there would be very less number of nodes to take part in the ledger, and therefore the transactions would be quick.

Highly scalable

You can add the nodes on-demand with the increase in the number of users and transactions.

Stay compliant

The enterprise must adhere to the compliance requirements. When you have control over the infrastructure, it becomes easier for you to stay compliant.

Consumes less power

The public blockchain would use a lot of electricity to run as there will be a lot of nodes connected to the network. The best part of using private blockchain is that you can save big on the electricity bills.

Trustworthy

Anyone can verify the records on the public blockchain. However, with a private blockchain, the records cannot be verified independently. Network integrity depends on the authorized nodes.

Conclusion

Public and private blockchain would work on the same technology, but the public ones would maintain transparency in the transactions performed. In contrast, private ones would avoid others from accessing your information and misuse it.

Craig Wright Owns Bitcoin Address with Stolen Mt Gox Funds

The ex-CEO of Mt Gox has tweeted about Craig Wright. In the tweet, is it clear that there are some legal documents that his legal team is sending to a few of the selected people? The legal team stated that Wright owns the bitcoins and has the bitcoin address with him. However, the funds that are in the bitcoins are stolen through the defunct crypto exchange.

Crypto communication is informed of transactions.

Craig Wright is known to be the actual Satoshi Nakamoto. There were never any valid points from this person to argue on his statements. His claims were submissive to the crypto community. The new controversy arose with Mark Karpeles, who the ex-CEO of Mt Gox is discussed being called up by the lawyers of Wright. Many letters are sent to different crypto communities by the firm that is based out of the UK, SCA Ontier, stating that they would act for the people. Earlier, they have acted for the Tulip trading limited, and now they would want to act for Dr. Craig Wright, who is another Satoshi Nakamoto. This person is the creator of bitcoin. In the letter, it is clear that both the Tulip and Wright have 79.900 BTC of bitcoins worth USD 755 million. This price is quoted based on the current price of bitcoin in the market. Many people have shared the same kind of letter from different parts of the world.

What does the letter claim?

There are two different addresses of the bitcoins that are owned by Tulips as per the letter. One of the unsplit addresses is 1Feex. It is the address of the bitcoin that is taken from Mt Gox in 2011 unethically. According to Craig Wright, he owns this address until today. He owns the legal rights for its damages.

Adam Back and Samson Mow, who is from Blockstream, spoke about this 1 Feex address. As per Ricardo Spagni, Craig Wright is the one who stated that he stole the money from Mt Gox. There is a screenshot regarding the same shared by Karpeles in a private discussion channel held on Slack. It is the discussion that happened between them. In the debate, he stated that no funds were being stolen.

The accusations look not as real as the credibility of the London based firm is not validated. However, for now, Craig Wright is thrown out from Twitter for some time. Due to the suspension from this social media channel, he shared the information through Slack and the personal blog.

Mt Gox incident

There were only a few exchanges that were selling and buying bitcoins a few years ago. There is only one reliable platform called Mt Gox, and it is owned by Tibanne limited. It is in Japan. Mt Gox handled around 70% of bitcoin transactions. Not many showed interest, which resulted in losses for the company, and this platform went into oblivion in 2014. There were many hacks, and thefts took place. Around 850,000 BTC were stolen. Few are recovered, but there is no proof 600,000 BTC till today.

Controversial king of bitcoin

Craig S. Wright, known to the most contentious bitcoin personality, is known to be claiming ownership on two other bitcoins. He has filed the legal case. The 1Feex address has funds that he stole from Mt Gox. This person is unintentionally pulling himself into the bitcoin crime. He is recognized as another Satoshi Nakamoto for his dubious activities.

The reason why Craig Wright claimed that he stole the bitcoin

Craig Wright presents himself to be the creator of bitcoin like Satoshi Nakamoto. The claim is dubious. There are many scenarios where this person has claimed to own many bitcoin addresses. The 1Feex bitcoin is stolen from Mt Gox. However, it is found to be receiving in March 2011. The current worth of the bitcoin is USD 755 million. When he claimed to own the bitcoin, he also admitted that he is involved in the theft of Mt Gox in 2011.

However, the letter claims that the 1 Feex bitcoin address belongs to Tulip trust, which is known to be the company that unethically controls the bitcoin money. Wright wants to get all these funds and therefore claimed it to be stolen.

Does Wright own this bitcoin address?

It is not true that Craig Wright owns 1 Feex. Many other bitcoin addresses were claimed to him in the past. However, the bitcoin owners have come ahead to prove their ownership on the bitcoins with proper proofs such as signing messages and keys.

In the letter, he claimed that the key for 1 Feex is stolen in February. When there is no key, he would be unable to transfer funds or sign the messages from the bitcoin address. The person who owns the key would be able to transfer funds.

However, there is no concrete proof that he owns this bitcoin. This person makes many arguments.

Is it tough to stop Craig Wright?

Wright unintentionally put himself in trouble through this bitcoin crime. It resulted in the damage of this reputation in the crypto community and world. This news will not have any kind of impact on the pending court cases. The irony is that these claims will not further stop him from filing the lawsuits. There are a few people who want to sue this person for claiming to steal funds, but there is no clarity on suing him would be practical.

Conclusion:

Craig Wright claims to be the creator of Satoshi Nakamoto by giving some invalid evidence. SCA Ontier law firm that is represented Wright in the court contacted the Block stream team. This person is claiming to own two specific bitcoin addresses. There are no concrete proofs for claiming the ownership of those addresses with Craig.

Liechtenstein Bank Can Now Custody Crypto

In partnership with Hong Kong-based Hex Belief, Mason Privatbank Liechtenstein AG is the newest addition to the list of banks that can hold digital assets for its customers. The Chief Markets Officer of the Liechtenstein Bank, Hubert Buechel, said that the bank has many high-net-worth individuals as its clients across Europe and Asia. They are curious about expanding their portfolio and investing in stable coins, cryptocurrencies, and digital tokens. The bank has decided to go ahead with minimally invasive integration because the transaction numbers are not high at the moment. 

Hubert Buechel said that while the customers of the bank do have an ongoing interest in investing in digital assets, there are no day traders in the list of bank’s customers as of now. In the future, the Liechtenstein Bank may consider joining hands with Hex Belief by way of SWIFT integration. The bank may also push for developing an API interface that would connect Hex Belief with the core of the bank. 

Hubert Buechel joined the Liechtenstein Bank in July after a long stint at the Liechtenstein-based Bank Frick. The Bank Frick is one of the household banks in the country that was amongst the first few banks globally to allow its customers to invest in cryptocurrencies directly. Mason Privatbank Liechtenstein aims to attract clients looking to hold, invest, and in the future, trade in cryptocurrencies and add digital assets to their portfolio. The CEO of Hex Belief, Alessio Quaglini, said that Mason Monetary Holdings, the parent company of Mason Privatbank Liechtenstein, is the first Asian bank that Hex Belief has partnered with. 

The bank’s shoppers would even get the facility to borrow, lend, stake, or sell the cryptocurrencies, facilitated by Hex Belief. Quaglini said that his company aims to integrate and interconnect the world of traditional assets and digital assets to create an ecosystem that is mutually beneficial for all parties involved. In the second half of 2020, Hex Belief is planning to increase its outreach in Europe by setting up offices in Germany and Italy. 

Hex Trust holds the TCSP or Trust or Company Service Provider license that comes under the statutory financial Hong Kong law of Anti-Money Laundering plus Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance. The company has even moved to gain the capital markets custody license in Singapore and has entered the Monetary Authority of Singapore sandbox as well. 

Hex Belief, for the time being, is provisionally authorized to provide crypto custody services as permitted by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Germany. In the near future, the company is planning to apply for a crypto custody license in Germany. 

The financial world has changed dramatically in the last couple of decades, and with the advent of cryptocurrencies, it seems the transformation is far from over. Many new avenues are opening up for the consumers to invest, hedge, and trade, which may potentially be better than the traditional options available. With the banking world slowly embracing the world of digital assets and integrating cryptocurrencies custody and trading services to its list, the future seems bright for the cryptocurrencies.  While it may take a long time for the digital assets to become as mainstream as traditional financial assets, the process has begun. The crypto-world has come too far too soon, and it won’t be wrong to say that it is still in its nascent stage. The experts believe that as the blockchain technology evolves, it offers endless possibilities of what can be achieved through it, and not only in the financial world but in other sectors as well.