MainBloq to present with FRST at Chicago Ethereum Meetup today
Join FRST + MainBloq 6pm tonight at WeWorks in Chicago. MeetUp info HERE
Blockchain technology is complex, dynamic, and ever-evolving, which is why we’re thrilled to be presenting at the Chicago Ethereum Meetup about blockchain analytics alongside our partner FRST enterprise-grade trading tools for digital assets.
The FRST team members Karl Muth, Patrick Gorrell and Jonas Frost will be presenting about the personification of wallets and how their platform allows research into the history, trading strategies, holdings, and relationships of wallets and have that data can be applied to public blockchain transactions. We think FRST’s data is impressive and we’re excited to be presenting with them.
I will be presenting the first ever public look at our Smart Order Router — a piece of technology that we believe will revolutionize the trading of digital assets. We allow traders to access deeper pools of liquidity faster than anyone else through our direct, streaming connections to dozens of exchanges. I’ll also be talking about our development of trading algorithms—TWAP, VWAP, IWAP, Iceberg, et cetera.
At Mainbloq we’re all about making cryptocurrency trading smarter. These are just some of our first steps. Going to be in Chicago? Come to the Ethereum Meetup and say hello! See details below.
Samsung Galaxy S10 includes storage for digital currency private keys
Samsung’s latest flagship phone will include a dedicated secure storage function designed for cryptocurrency private keys.
CoinDesk - Samsung Confirms Galaxy S10 Will Include Private Crypto Key Storage
CryptoNews - The Mystery of Samsung's Galaxy S10 Private Key Storage Remains
Forbes - Samsung Confirms Galaxy Fold And S10 Security Surprises
The news that Samsung added a private key storage to its new Galaxy S10 smartphone shook the crypto world, as many have taken it as a sign of endorsement from the South Korean tech giant. However, as details are scarce, many are wondering what “hardware storage” the company announced and why it wasn’t mentioned during keynote presentations.
Samsung announced in February that their newest phone, the Galaxy S10, will include secure storage for its users’ cryptocurrency private keys.
The company made a press release detailing the phone’s many features, notably including Samsung’s proprietary defense platform, Samsung Knox, which will feature secure private key storage that it claims is specifically “for blockchain-enabled mobile services.”
Baked-in support for cryptocurrencies in smartphone platforms is not completely unique to the space, although this initiative by Samsung represents a major step for the technology’s integration into mainstream products. As it stands, there are currently two smartphones that support crypto assets: HTC’s Exodus 1 and Sirin Labs’ Finney.
These two phones have seen much more limited adoption than any product Samsung could release for several reasons....
Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian says "Bitcoin winter is great for crypto industry"
Cryptocurrency investors “should have been thinking long term,” says Reddit cofounder and Coinbase backer Alexis Ohanian.
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and known crypto bull, claimed that the crypto hype is gone, leaving space for true crypto believers. Ohanian spoke on the subject in an interview with YahooFinance released on Feb. 22.
Alexis Ohanian Sr. (u/kn0thing) - Redditt
Alexis Ohanian Sr. - alexisohanian.com
Bitcoin investors should not be discouraged by the brutal Crypto Winter because the mass purge is actually good for the long-term health of the industry. That’s the observation of Coinbase investor Alexis Ohanian, better known as the founder of social media network Reddit.
‘This Is the Spring of Crypto Innovation’
Ohanian — the husband of American tennis star Serena Williams — admits that bitcoin is experiencing a prolonged market slump.
However, despite the Crypto Winter, he says now is actually the “spring of crypto innovation.” Why? Because the people that remain in the industry after the market crash are die-hard enthusiasts, not flaky, fair-weather speculators.
“This is the Crypto Winter, no doubt,” Ohanian told Yahoo. “But a friend of mine, Brian Armstrong — who’s the CEO of Coinbase — said, ‘This is the spring of crypto innovation.'”
“What he means is, ‘Yes, the prices are depressed. The speculators have fled, and that’s great.’ Because the people who are now building on crypto are true believers. They’re actually building the infrastructure that it’s going to take to really make this happen.”
Market Attrition Reveals the True Believers
While naysayers point to the market slump as evidence that bitcoin is dead, Ohanian says nothing could be further from the truth.”
“Some of the smartest people I know in tech are still working on solving these problems. They’re building companies that are built on blockchain.”
“The hype is...
The best Bitcoin Lightning apps live today
So we continue our journey into the wonderful (and sometimes weird) world of Lightning Apps (LApps). And as a testament to how far the market has come, my quick ‘listicle’ has morphed into a two-part behemoth.
If you haven’t already, then check out Part 1, covering wallets, marketplaces, content monetization, and tip jars. If you have, then let’s get on with the ride.
Messaging via Lightning Network
International SMS messages cost a small fortune, but with Insms, the price comes down to that of a small lightning transaction. Ideal for anonymously stalking someone in another country. Or, if you need to receive an SMS, but don’t want to reveal your mobile number, Receive SMS has you covered. Temporary numbers to receive messages are currently available only in the US, with more countries coming soon.
But if you think terrestrial messaging is just a little passé, why not send a message via satellite.
I've written a tool to relay messages via the @Blockstream satellite. Data rate is charged through lightning network. https://t.co/FJnMYmpGtI pic.twitter.com/bzuERkEWFJ
Gaming and Gambling
Hammerland is a MineCraft lookalike MMORPG, using lightning for in-game payments (and rewards). Or if you prefer your MineCraft to be more… MineCraft, then BitQuest is...
Digital currency markets road to recovery has obstacles
Crypto markets witnessed a sizable pullback on Sunday, as bitcoin lurched back below $3,600 and major altcoins registered slight to moderate declines. Although 2019 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for cryptocurrencies, the path to recovery is riddled with obstacles, chief among them being damaged investor sentiment and a myriad of regulatory issues.
Market Update
With the exception of Tron, all major cryptocurrencies have registered declines in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market cap and trading volume, swung back below $3,600 through the early part of Sunday. The bitcoin price reached a session low of $3,567.25, according to CoinMarketCap. At last check, it was down 0.3% at $3,595.25.
XRP fell 1.8% to $0.3111, where it was approaching several bearish technical confluences. This comes despite Ripple announcing it had sold $535.6 million worth of XRP last year.
Ethereum declined 1.9% to $114.89. Bitcoin cash was nursing a loss of 2.8% to trade at $123.97. The value of EOS fell 2.1% to $2.40.
After peaking north of $0.03, Tron was back trading around $0.0290, having gained 1.2%. TRX has gained a whopping 21.4% over the past seven days. Read more: TRX Price Explodes While Tron’s Justin Sun Implodes on CNBC; BTT Token Will Be ‘Hybrid’.
Outside the top ten, Binance...
“Blockchain is a Natural Technology for Banks” - Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang
Jerry Yang, Co-Founder of Yahoo!, has revealed that he believes blockchain holds significant importance if applied to traditional banking and finance.
Read more Technology pieces here.
Yahoo! Co-Founder and experienced entrepreneur, Jerry Yang, has announced that he believes blockchain has some serious potential when it comes to the world of banking and finance.
Giving his thoughts on a panel at the Nikkei Innovation Asia Forum, titled "Rising Tides of Innovation in Asia" taking place in Japan, Yang explained how the adoption of blockchain was at a "critical juncture". First reported by Finews Asia, Yang went on to explain that:
"...as the hype surrounding blockchain and cryptocurrencies is falling away, and while it remains to be seen if it survives this post-hype phase, blockchain technology has important applications to banking and...
Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal Co-Founder Backed Crypto Custodian Launches
The Anchorage cryptocurrency custodian for institutional investors launched following a $17 million funding round led by venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, a press release states Wednesday, Jan. 23.
According to the announcement, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin’s SciFi VC, venture company Khosla Ventures, Mark McCombe of investment firm Blackrock, and others also took part in the series A funding round.
The developers claim they intended to make a custodian that would be more secure than cold storage in order to better support institutional investments, along with enabling active on-chain participation.
Anchorage claims to be based on the principles of easy access to assets, voting, auditing proof of existence, and quick transactions. Anchorage believes that large scale investments in digital assets, such as those from institutional players, will bring new growth...
Educating the Next Wave of Bitcoin & Blockchain Developers
Hyperbitcoinization enthusiast and writer
Educating the Next Wave of Bitcoin Developers
Bitcoin is an open-source protocol that anybody can interact with. It is getting attention and attracting participation in different ways, whether it is through speculation, investing and sending money, all the way to contributing to what’s underneath the hood. The entire Bitcoin repository is on GitHub, inviting any developer to see the protocol’s code and perhaps contribute toward solving existing problems if they can.
A noteworthy fact, however, is that the pool of developers today is quite small.
“It's not an easy field to get into,” Jimmy Song, author of Programming Bitcoin and instructor at Programming Blockchain, told Bitcoin Magazine. “Interestingly enough, the thing that makes Bitcoin hard to get started on is the cryptography, and that's hard because the math is not familiar to developers. Specifically, finite fields and elliptic curves.”
Some would argue, though, that the small number of developers in Bitcoin today is not too small. In fact, it’s perfectly fine at the size it is for such a new industry.
“Bitcoin has only been around for 10 years, and it only started getting a lot of mainstream attention in 2017, so it hasn't been a long time to build up an ecosystem of developers,” said John Newbery, a Bitcoin Core developer and Bitcoin engineer at Chaincode Labs.
“It’s something that we hear a lot, that it is difficult to find experienced Bitcoin engineers … [Bitcoin] really only started getting mainstream attention two or three years ago, so it’s as expected. We’re doing everything we can at Chaincode to widen and deepen that pool.”
Even outside of developer knowledge, there are many aspects of various fields of expertise that require a significant level of understanding in order to grasp Bitcoin all around. Since there are so many paths that need to be explored, the question is: Where do you start?
It is important to be realistic and realize that a complete understanding of the digital currency will always be unreachable.
“I don't think it's possible to understand all aspects of Bitcoin,” Newbery said. “The frontiers...
Cardano ADA jumps 5% as crypto attention grows
Cardano’s recent run of good fortune continued on Friday, as the multi-asset chain protocol emerged as one of the market’s top performers. The public blockchain project has been riding a wave of positive momentum thanks to an active developer community and optimism concerning the evolution of Internet 3.0.
ADA Approaches Two-Week High
The value of ADA rose 5.3% on Sunday to reach $0.0473, its highest since Christmas Eve. The coin that powers the decentralized platform has returned 9.3% over the past seven days, placing it among the top performers for the week. by comparison, bitcoin traded flat for the week while XRP lost nearly 3%.
At current values, the Cardano blockchain is worth $1.2 billion, placing it 11th among active projects. Six months ago, the cryptocurrency was worth nearly $5 billion and was ranked eighth by market cap. Over that stretch, ADA has dropped more than 70%.
The latest run of good fortune has been accompanied by a notable rise in trading volume. Since last Tuesday, ADA trades have increased by 200%, according to CoinMarketCap. Nearly $44 million worth of ADA was transacted on virtual currency exchanges in the last 24 hours. ZBG and Binance each...
Bitcoin Оver $3,850 as top Cryptocurrencies see mixed trading signals
Sunday, Jan. 6 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are seeing a mix of moderate gains and losses on the day to press time. Bitcoin’s (BTC) price is currently hovering over $3,850 again, according to Coin360 data.
At press time, Bitcoin is up just a fraction of a percent on the day, trading at around $3,870. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price has come full circle from $3,867 on Dec. 30. The current price is lower than the intra-week high of $3,946 on Jan. 2, and notably higher than the low of $3,710 reported on Jan. 1.
Ethereum (ETH) remains the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The divide between ETH and Ripple (XRP) — the third-largest crypto by market cap — is increasing. Ethereum’s market cap is currently $15.9 billion, while Ripple’s market cap is $14.5 billion.
Ethereum has seen its value decrease by nearly 3 percent...