Big news for the digital currency economy with Paypal payments integrating with CoinBase. Growing the bridge between cryptocurrency and digital payments for consumers.
Major American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has introduced free of charge cash withdrawals to online payment system PayPal, according to an announcement published Dec. 14.
From now on, Coinbase’s United States-based customers are able to withdraw their cash balances to Paypal. The service for other countries will reportedly be rolled out some time in 2019.
Coinbase and PayPal previously integrated in 2016, when Coinbase added support for the payment platform in addition to major credit cards. At the time, Coinbase users were able to sell Bitcoin (BTC) and have their fiat funds deposited to a PayPal wallet. The integration was subsequently terminated due to technical difficulties.
With this move, Coinbase has enhanced its range of services,...
Mike Novogratz, Jim Breyer, and Tim Draper are some of many billionaire investors in the traditional financial market who remain optimistic towards the long-term trend of digital currencies.
How are these investors able to maintain their positive stance in regards to the growth of the cryptocurrency sector following an 85 percent decline in valuation across the board?
It’s About Cycles
For the most part, high profile individual investors are able to handle severe losses in emerging asset classes and high-risk assets like cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) because they account for a small part of their wealth and portfolios.
As is the same in real estate and other traditional markets, wealthy investors have the ability to hold onto assets and properties even during the event of an unexpected market crash or the occurrence of a bear market.
But, normal retail investors and individual traders who need quick cash to cover day-to-day operations and expenses have no other option but to sell most of the high-risk assets they hold in their portfolios.
Over the last 24 hours, the crypto market has added $5 billion to its valuation, demonstrating a slight recovery from $106 billion to $111 billion. Despite the recovery of the market, Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) continue to fall in value, both recording a three percent drop against the U.S. dollar.
On December 9, the Ethereum price fell by around three percent from $97 to $93, failing to sustain the short-term momentum it garnered from an unforeseen recovery it experienced on Saturday. Since its daily peak, Ethereum has declined by more than six percent against the U.S. dollar, from $100 to $93.
Bitcoin Cash has also demonstrated a weakness in its short-term price trend as it lost nearly half of its value within a two-week period. Since November 6, the Bitcoin Cash price declined from $200 to $100, by exactly 50 percent.
Why is Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash Dropping So Rapidly?
The gap between Ethereum and Ripple, which recently took over Ethereum as the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the global market, has increased to more than $3 billion within a three-week span.
Technical indicators demonstrate oversold conditions but the sheer intensity of the drop in the price of the two cryptocurrencies have created...
Bitcoin price just pulled off a nice 10% bounce with the next level of resistance at $3,700. Let’s take a look at what can happen next?
Bitcoin Price: Market Overview
Bitcoin price $3645.85 +0.59% dropped to a new yearly low at $3,210 and the overall market cap now rests at $110.6 Billion. Clearly, bears are still running the show for BTC and the SEC’s final postponement of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund decision didn’t seem to help.
Crypto-fanatics will now need to wait until January 24th for the launch of Bakkt and February 26th for a final approval or denial of a Bitcoin ETF from the SEC. If the cryptocurrency markets’ trend reversal is dependent upon either of these events then we’ve got a long way to drop waiting on the unpredictable outcomes of each of these events.
4-HR Chart
Bitcoin $3645.85 +0.59% broke below the $3,550 and $3,400 supports and the cryptocurrency will likely mean that $3,700 will post a stiff resistance to overcome. However, at press time, BTC price has managed to break above the $3,600 mark and now looks poised to test $3,700.
Editor’s Note: This piece constitutes the views and opinions of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the beliefs of CoinCentral.
Bitcoin vs. fiat is more than an academic argument. It’s a fierce battle between a manipulated monetary regime and one of honest weights and measures. It’s time for you to envision the benefits of a decentralized, non-manipulated monetary system.
Out of Thin Air
Fiat currency is any medium of exchange the government deems as legal tender. A $20 bill in your pocket buys $20 worth of goods and services. It’s only paper (muslin) with ink and a special electronic doodad embedded in it. Probably costs pennies to make. It’s backed by nothing of tangible value (gold, silver, land, etc). It’s money only because the US Treasury and Federal Reserve (Fed) say it is.
From Sound Money to Broken Promises
Before 1913, only the US Congress had currency creation authority. Every new dollar was backed by gold and silver in Fort Knox. This backing of USD with gold and silver ceased on August 15, 1971. That’s when President Nixon refused to honor France’s demand for physical gold in exchange for its USD reserves. The USD has been decoupled from the gold standard ever since. Worse, the national debt is now in a nonstop, parabolic ascent.
Dialing for Dollars
When the US Treasury needs money, they give the Federal Reserve (Fed, a privately owned, for-profit corporation) a ring. Say the Treasury needs $50 billion dollars. The Fed creates an electronic checkbook with a $50 billion account balance. In exchange for the cash, the Treasury gives the Fed $50 billion dollars of Treasury bonds. You can learn more about this financial alchemy in Robert Prechter’s book, Conquer the Crash.
The Fed has controlled the US monetary system since 1913. Will Bitcoin eventually become a superior alternative in the 21st century? Graphic credit: Pixabay
Taxpayers on the Hook
You’re probably wondering who pays the interest on that $50 billion batch of bonds, right? Surprise! You’re the one who pays the interest, via your US federal tax bill.
“….100 percent of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the federal debt and by federal government contributions to transfer payments. In other words,all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services [that] taxpayers expect from their government.”
Let’s say your Federal income tax bill is $9,000 for 2018. Most of your tax liability will pay the Fed interest on the bonds. Part of it will cover federal pension payments. None of your tax payment will pay for any government services.
So far, this year has been marked by bad news for institutional investors interested in pursuing cryptocurrencies.
One of the most lauded and most highly anticipated crypto investment instruments, the crypto Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), has faced steady regulatory headwinds as the SEC continually rejects attempts to bring ETFs to market.
Since many crypto enthusiasts see institutional investment as the next frontier for crypto adoption, these setbacks are frustrating. However, that doesn’t mean that all opportunities for institutional investors are impossible.
In that regard, it’s been a big week for Bitcoin as a series of leaks reveal that major financial institutions, including Morgan Stanley and Citibank, are creating or developing investment products intended to provide their substantial customer base with access to digital assets.
Morgan Stanley is preparing a crypto product
This week, Bloomberg reported that Morgan Stanley is preparing an investment product that will provide their customers access to Bitcoin derivatives. Citing an anonymous source, Bloomberg contends that Morgan Stanley will provide customers with “synthetic exposure” to Bitcoin markets by enabling investors to take long or short positions on the digital currency.
In this way, Morgan Stanley is joining several other mainstream financial institutions striving to produce mechanisms for their clients to trade in Bitcoin without providing direct access to digital currencies. Bloomberg’s source notes that Morgan Stanley will charge spread fees to accommodate the inherent risks in brokering Bitcoin products.
Tezos is a distributed, peer-to-peer, permissionless network that seeks to improve on older blockchain protocols such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
One of its differentiating features is its on-chain governance that promises a self-amending blockchain – the protocol can evolve by upgrading its own code after coin holders have approved the changes.
This avoids some of the political and technological issues that have affected other blockchains, such as the Ethereum hard fork following the DAO hack, and the hard fork drama that happened in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
The project had a two-week uncapped ICO in July 2017. It collected approximately $232 million worth of cryptocurrencies and set a record for the largest ICO at the time. It currently has a market cap of over $782 million (as of October 31, 2018) and ranks among the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the world in terms of market cap.
There are 3 key layers in Tezos – network layer, transaction layer, and consensus layer. The components are modular, which makes it easy to upgrade by swapping modules in and out seamlessly. Other networks, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, can be represented within Tezos by implementing the proper interface to the network layer.
Self-amending: Tezos can be upgraded without the need for forks in the blockchain because of its self-amending feature. On-chain governance also means XTZ owners vote on the direction of the blockchain – the election cycle provides a formal process for any proposed protocol changes.
Liquid Proof-of-Stake: Tezos uses a proof-of-stake consensus model where every stakeholder can participate in validating transactions on the network and be rewarded accordingly.
This table summarizes the differences between Tezo’s proof-of-stake consensus model and delegated proof-of-stake:
Tezos Comparison
Formal verification: The Tezos blockchain facilitates formal verification, a technique which mathematically proves the correctness of the code governing transactions. This helps secure smart contracts and avoid bugs in the code.
Turing complete smart contracts: Tezos supports Turing complete smart contracts and provides a platform for building smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps).
It should be noted that in the original white paper, it was stated that the Tezos network would launch in “summer 2017”. However, the network was not launched until June 30, 2018, almost a year after the initial promise.
The delay was partly due to the infighting between the foundation board members which led to the ICO funding being unutilized for a while.
XTZ is the native cryptocurrency for the Tezos blockchain. With Tezos, any coin holders can participate in the validation process by making a security deposit. This is a process calling “baking”. They are rewarded for contributing to the network and ensuring its security and stability and can lose their deposit if they exhibit dishonest behavior.
Initially, the inflation of the circulating supply is set at a maximum of 5.5% per annum. Each block is “baked” by a stakeholder and endorsed by 32 other random stakeholders. Coin holders can delegate their stake to a baker who can bake the coins for the holders for a fee. Click here for a list of bakers.
Transaction fees on the Tezos network are optional and users can send transactions with zero transaction fee. However, we believe that if the network is congested, bakers will prioritize transactions with higher transaction fees.
Part of the newly minted XTZ coins will be rewarded to the contributors that won the proposals voted on-chain. The contributors will use the funding to execute the proposals.
Tezos was created by Arthur Breitman and his wife, Kathleen Breitman. They released the position paper and whitepaper in 2014 and the project had been in development ever since. The biographies of the two co-founders are summarized below:
Arthur Breitman – Arthur was born in France and studied at École Polytechnique in math, physics, and computer science. He went on to a career in quantitative finance, working in various positions at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He also worked as a portfolio manager for White Bay Group, a family office.
Kathleen Breitman – Kathleen co-founded Tezos in October 2016. Prior to that, she worked in strategy and consulting at R3 CEV (a distributed ledger startup), Accenture, and De Dicto and in various positions at Bridgewater Associates, The Wall Street Journal, etc. She obtained her BA from Cornell University in...
Bitcoin is not without its vocal band of critics and naysayers. The Nouriel Roubinis and Paul Krugmans of this world would have you believe that Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation is 100 percent doomed to fail.
Bitcoin Doesn’t Need Men with Guns
Earlier in the year, Bitcoinistreported on Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times where the Nobel Prize winner in Economics took aim at cryptocurrency asking what problems virtual currencies solve. This week, Economics professor Saifedean Ammous offered a robust reply to the flawed rhetoric espoused in Krugman’s piece.
For starters, Bitcoin $6393.00 +0.02% doesn’t need men with guns to enforce its value. According to Krugman:
Fiat currencies have underlying value because men with guns say they do. And this means that their value isn’t a bubble that can collapse if people lose faith.
If the above is true then the current situation in places like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Iran, Turkey, and even Argentina shouldn’t be happening. This author is going out on a limb to say each of...
Based on market cycle psychology, depression is the state where people have lost all hope in the market. They believe that the downtrend is a bottomless pit and the market will never again reach its former glory. This discourages everyday investors from entering the market when in fact, this is the point of maximum financial opportunity. Time and time again, markets bottom out when ordinary people have abandoned them.
This is exactly what we’re seeing in Bitcoin (BTC/USD). The hype that surrounded the cryptocurrency almost a year ago is completely gone. The interest over time, when looking at google trends, is at its lowest in 12 months. More importantly, many people believe that it can go significantly lower.
Current market sentiment maybe depressive but the charts show that the end is almost near. In this article, we show how Bitcoin may be transitioning from depression to disbelief.
A Comparison of Market Cycle Psychology Chart and Bitcoin Chart
Disbelief is the state where the market shows signs of life but participants ignore them. They do so because they think that the downtrend is not yet over and the rally is just another pump and dump scheme to slaughter newbies.
We believe Bitcoin is getting ready to make you a non-believer. To understand why we have this point of view, allow us to first show you the market cycle psychology chart.
Disbelief comes after a boring and depressed market. If you’ve been following Bitcoin’s price action since September, you’d know that the past few months have been the longest. Volatility has been almost non-existent. There were times when Bitcoin traded within a $10 range. At that point, we knew that Bitcoin was in a state of depression.
If you’re skeptical, the next chart should help alleviate your concerns.
Bitcoin daily chart over market cycle psychology chart
We overlayed the Bitcoin daily chart on top of the market cycle psychology chart and we have an almost perfect representation of market sentiment over the last twelve months.
It’s been ten years since Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin White Paper and introduced cryptocurrencies to the world. His radical vision of a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system was groundbreaking, as it sought to rebuild the structures that upheld our global financial institutions. A decade on, the cryptocurrencies market is now worth $209 billion globally, and there are more than a thousand separate tokens in circulation.
[Note: This is a guest op-ed article submitted by Samuel Leach, Founder of Yield Coin]
Despite this success, Nakamoto’s vision is yet to be fully realized. Although “cryptos” and associated phrases have entered the popular language, and awareness of them is at an all-time high, uptake has been restricted to a narrow subset of society.
Bloombergestimates that around a thousand users own approximately 40 percent of all bitcoin currently in circulation and cryptos have failed to supplant fiat currency. Before we see the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, there are a number of obstacles that first need to be overcome.
While regulation is often treated as a pariah among many in the crypto community, if executed properly, it will bring beneficial change for all. Cryptocurrencies have only been in existence for a relatively short amount of time meaning many governments are still figuring out the best way to regulate them. The result of this has been a crypto market structured in a laissez-faire fashion. While it can be argued that this has fostered further innovation, it has undoubtedly led to several negative side effects.
At present, anyone could set-up a new cryptocurrency and raise significant capital without having to face repercussions if they fail to implement their plans. This has reduced overall confidence in the market, as it can be difficult to differentiate legitimate projects from nefarious ones. This is also preventing many institutional investors from entering the market, as the lack of regulatory guidelines will lead to compliance issues on their part.
A daily price swing of 10-20 percent is not uncommon among most cryptos, making them exceptionally volatile in comparison to fiat currencies; in comparison, the pound lost 4 percent of its value against the dollar on the infamous Black Wednesday. Finding a way to temper this instability would go some...
