Bitcoin has been experiencing some lackluster price action throughout the past several days and weeks, with the crypto hovering around the $7,000 region as its bulls and bears reach an impasse.

This boring price action has not corresponded with the massive issuance of stablecoins like Tether (USDT) leading some analysts to deem this as Bitcoins Tether printer divergence.

The phenomenon has been seen in the past and is historically followed by intense uptrends.

Bitcoin has been seeing some choppy trading between the upper-$6,000 region and the lower-$7,000 region for the past several days.

This has marked what appears to be a temporary end the cryptos firm uptrend that was sparked when it dipped to lows of $3,800 in early-March.

One interesting thing to be aware of is that the issuance of new stablecoins and USDT in particular has ballooned in recent times, signaling that these newly minted tokens will ultimately be cycled into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The demand for these stablecoins could be coming from a myriad of difference sources, and one analyst believes that there are three primary suspects including wealthy Chinese, institutions looking to de-risk, and smart money accumulating a fixed supply hedge.

An unprecedented flood of stablecoin is being issued. Its likely liquidity for: -Chinese wealth bypassing capital controls -Institutions thatll de-risk on the next leg down -Smart money accumulating a fixed-supply hedge against collapse, he said while pointing to a chart showing the growth in USDT issuance.

Image Courtesy of Cole Garner

As for how this could impact the benchmark cryptocurrency, the same analyst refers to a phenomenon called Tether printer divergence to explain how it could be bullish.

BTC is experiencing Tether printer divergence. That story always seems to end the same way, he said while referencing the below chart.

Image Courtesy of Cole Garner

While looking at this chart, it does appear that USDT issuance front runs Bitcoins price action.

If history repeats itself, this means that the cryptocurrency could be poised for a major rally that is fueled by investors funneling these stablecoins into BTC.

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Bitcoin's Tether Printer Divergence is Immensely Bullish; Here's Why - Bitcoinist

Are you able to noticeBitcoin SVs signals? If not, you have a problem. You might get left behind.

Whether you consider yourself an investor, user, developer, customer, speculator, business owner, influencer, or generally digital asset affine personBitcoin SV is whispering and screaming at you at the same time.

Bitcoin SVs signals to businesses

Bitcoin SV has set its protocol in stone, which means there is no need for businesses to worry about future protocol changes that might affect already built applications and implementations concerning Bitcoin SV. Businesses are safe to spend resources building on or using BSV.

All other digital assets not only plan to change their protocol but already alter it at this very moment, leaving businesses in danger to waste spent resources.

This is what developers do not understand inBTC,ETH, and other digital assets: businesses need stability.

Digital asset developers need instability though

There is a crucial discrepancy between the interest of businesses and the interests of developers concerning digital assets. While companies seek stability in digital assets, developers need instability to remain relevant for fixing the instability. Developers have no interest in building a set in stone protocol, as a once established protocol makes developers almost obsolete.

Bitcoin SV has managed to take away power from developers with its set in stone protocol. Therefore, the signal Bitcoin SV is sending out to businesses is: build here, we serve stability.

There is much more to know for businesses about Bitcoin SV, though. For example, BSV offers limitless scalability with unbelievably low transactional costs. Bitcoin SV is also not only a digital asset, but a computing network in general.

Ryan X. Charles, founder and CEO of Money Button, has pointed out Bitcoin SVs ability to become a computational beast:

Bitcoin is going to be by far the largest computer ever () And what you can do with the biggest computer in the world is: you can actually compute bigger numbers.

Listen, businesses. If you do not get this signalBitcoin SV being the largest computer everwe cannot help you. Nobody can.

What Bitcoin SV signals to investors and speculators

Speculating and investing in the digital currency sphere has since at least three years ago been nothing but gambling. People read one single tweet about this or that nonsense-coin and bought in to sell minutes later to an even greater fool.

Why has investing and speculating in digital currencies never been a real thing, though?

It is due to the lack of utility in all digital assets except for Bitcoin SV. Speculating and investing makes sense, as long as you speculate on or invest in assets that have a use case for something. If there is no use case in an asset, is it even an asset? Come on.

How is speculating on the Bitcoin SV satoshis different? Those BSV satoshis are connected to the Bitcoin SV network, which processes transactions. Unlike other digital currencies, which have no serious transactional volume, Bitcoin SV is set up to process billions of transactions per year.

Why do Bitcoin SVs satoshis have a value, unlike all other digital currencies?

This is what the BSV satoshis are going to be needed for: transactions in the Bitcoin SV network by using apps and services, not trading on shady exchange servers.

Investing in Bitcoin SV is not limited to buying satoshis though. It is interesting to pay attention to the BSV ecosystem as a whole. For example, publicly traded TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. has recently filed a patent concerning a blockchain computing device.

Bitcoin SVs network will not only be about processing payment transactions but also serve as a blockchain computer (such as described by Ryan X. Charles in the quote above). This is where TAAL seems to identify never seen before market opportunities.

This is what Bitcoin SV signals to investors and speculators: invest and speculate, but it is not about gambling.

What Bitcoin SV signals into the social media sphere

Nonsense-coins such as BTC, ETH, and the like desperately needsocial media, because they have to lure in new buyers to stabilize or pump the price. Bitcoin SV has no interest in being pumped or stabilized concerning fiat money, as it offers unique use cases, low-cost transactions, and stability. Anyone is free to make use of BSV in whatever way, but Bitcoin SV does not depend on social media influencers and bot-like social media users.

There have been vicious attacks on Bitcoin SV in social media, even in cooperation with crypto news sites and shady exchanges. We saw fake news, personal attacks, and delistings happening with an unprecedented intensity towards Bitcoin SV and its proponents. Thecrypto cartelspends millions to hinder Bitcoin SVs growth.

Does it work, though? Was the crypto cartel able to hold Bitcoin SV down? Good one. While crypto Twitter was tweeting, Bitcoin SV was building.

You may tweet all day long, that does not make you a user of Bitcoin. A user of Bitcoin is someone or something that generates a transaction on the Bitcoin network. Babbling on Twitter does not generate a Bitcoin transaction. You are helping Twitter, not Bitcoin.

Bitcoin SV signals to social media: we do not need you, but you can join the network.

Receive the signals, act accordingly

If you can hear Bitcoin SVs signals, you are already in the network. Prolific Bitcoin thinkerDaniel Krawiszhas stated:

Everything is falling into the Bitcoin SV black hole

for a reason. Utility, growththose are the keywords you need to figure out.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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What Bitcoin SV signals to businesses, investors and social media - CoinGeek

The number of bitcoin email scams has been growing in 2020 and the authorities in several countries have warned of new blackmail tactics used in threatening email scams asking for bitcoin. As the world scrambles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, email scams are taking advantage of peoples fear to extort bitcoin.

The coronavirus crisis has caused a lot of panic and scammers are taking advantage of peoples fear. Those looking to blackmail victims for bitcoin know no borders as bitcoin blackmail email scams have been reported in a growing number of countries.

Fraudsters are leveraging increased fear and uncertainty during the covid-19 pandemic to steal your money and launder it through the complex cryptocurrency ecosystem, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently warned. The federal agency has seen a rising number of email scams asking for bitcoin payments. Noting that these email scams attempt to blackmail victims using various alarming tactics, the FBI described:

With the advent of covid-19, there is a new twist on this scam. The correspondence claims that the writer will both release your information and infect you and/or your family with coronavirus unless payment is sent to a bitcoin wallet.

Besides the emergence of coronavirus-focused email scams, sextortion email scams asking for bitcoin have also been on the rise in 2020, even though they are not a new tactic. People have shared their stories on social media of receiving bitcoin sextortion emails, such as on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. The U.K. and Canada are among the latest countries to see a rising number of sextortion email scam complaints asking for bitcoin.

With sextortion, scammers threaten to release steamy videos of the victim online. They may claim to have placed malware on a porn website visited by the victim, allowing them to record the targets screen with a webcam. The blackmail email then requests bitcoin or the steamy videos of the victim would be posted on social media. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Center recently explained:

A common sextortion email claims to have proof of you visiting a pornographic site and requests a bitcoin payment within 24-48 hrs or the content will be shared with your contact list.

In Canada, Halton regional police recently warned of fraudulent emails circulating in Southern Ontario attempting to extort bitcoin from residents. Investigators said that they have received more than 30 complaints about the same email, which reveals the recipients current or previous passwords and demands bitcoin. The email threatens to post an explicit video of the recipient online if a bitcoin payment is not made.

Besides sextortion, a bitcoin blackmail email scam can also threaten to spill the victims dirty secrets. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) previously described this email scam tactic: Someone says they know about an alleged affair, or something else embarrassing to you, and demands payments with bitcoin or another cryptocurrency in exchange for keeping quiet. According to the FBI:

Threatening emails or letters in which scammers claim to have access to your personal information or knowledge of your dirty secrets and demand payment in bitcoin to prevent release of this information have been circulating for years.

There are several other threatening tactics that email scammers often use to extort bitcoin from victims. Ransomware scam emails used to be more prevalent but research has shown that its popularity has dwindled lately. Some scammers attempt to blackmail victims into handing over a bitcoin password to give them access to the coins.

Scammers will try to intimidate the victim, using threats and high-pressure tactics, to acquire immediate payment. The FTC said this action is not only a scam, but it is also a criminal extortion attempt. The agency urges anyone coming across such a scheme to report it to the authorities, such as local police, the FBI, the FTC, or their counterparts in other countries.

What do you think about all the bitcoin email scams in 2020? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Bitcoin Email Scams 2020: Threatening Blackmail Tactics Used to Demand BTC | Featured - Bitcoin News

Investors appear to be growing optimistic about the future of the cryptocurrency market, which could lead to more upside price momentum. Key Takeaways

The cryptocurrency market is back in the spotlight after a bullish impulse pushed up prices for most digital assets. Indicators show further upward potential for Ethereum, XRP, and Litecoin, though important resistance levels are holding them down.

Since the Mar. 12 crash, Ethereum has been making a series of higher highs and higher lows. The bullish momentum has taken its price up more than 117%.

The smart contract giant surged from a low of $90 to a recent high of $190.

Despite the substantial price recovery over the last month, the TD sequential indicator estimates that Ether may have more upwards potential.

This technical index presented a buy signal the moment the current green two candlestick began trading above the preceding green one candlestick. If the bullish formation is validated by a further spike in demand, ETH could enter an upward countdown all the way up to a green nine candlestick.

Such a positive scenario seems likely given the amount of interest returning to the cryptocurrency industry, especially as Bitcoins halving event approaches.

Nonetheless, IntoTheBlocks In/Out of the Money Around Price model suggests that for Ether to continue reaching higher highs it would first need to move past the $200 resistance level. Approximately 1.2 million addresses bought nearly 7.8 million ETH around this price level.

An increase in the buying pressure behind Ether could allow it to break above this massive supply wall. If this happens, the bulls will likely take control of ETHs price action, validating the outlook presented by the TD sequential indicator.

Under such circumstances, the next levels of resistance to watch out are provided by the 127.2% and 161.8% Fibonacci retracement levels. These resistance barriers sit around $223 and $260, respectively.

Although everything seems to indicate that Ethereum has more room to go up, the global economic environment tells otherwise. Thus, an important support level to pay close attention to sits around the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level and the rising trendline.

A daily candlestick close below $172 may invalidate the bullish outlook and increase the odds of a further decline towards $155 or $142.

For the first time since December 2018, the TD sequential setup suggests that it is time to buy XRP based on the 1-month chart. This technical indicator presented a bullish signal in the form of a red nine candlestick that has morphed into a green one candle due to the price action seen this month.

If Mays candlestick manages to move above Aprils monthly close, the bullish formation would likely be validated. This would indicate that XRP may surge for one to four monthly candlesticks or begin a new upward countdown.

Adding credence to the bullish outlook, the parabolic stop and reverse, or SAR, presented a buy signal on XRPs 1-day chart. Every time the stop and reversal points move below the price of an asset, it is considered to be a positive sign.

The parabolic SAR flip estimates that the direction of the trend for the cross-border remittances token changed from bearish to bullish.

Now, XRP would have to close above its 75-day exponential moving average to continue advancing further. By turning this resistance level into support, the odds for a move towards the 200-day exponential moving average, which sits around $0.23, increases substantially.

It is worth mentioning that XRP has been in a multi-year downtrend since the January 2018 peak. Since then, this altcoin is making a series of lower lows and lower highs. As a result, until it closes above the Feb. 15 high of $0.35, every bullish signal must be taken with caution.

Like the altcoins previously mentioned, Litecoin is also signaling that it is ready to resume its uptrend and climb higher. However, the 50-day exponential moving average is holding strong, preventing LTC from achieving its upside potential.

Since the beginning of the month, this barrier has been able to reject the price of Litecoin twice. Considering that resistance weakens the more times it is tested, sooner or later it could turn into support.

Breaking above the 50-day exponential moving average might send LTC towards the 100 or 200-day exponential moving average. These resistance levels sit at $49 and $54, respectively.

On the downside, however, investors pay close attention to the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level since failing to hold could jeopardize the bullish outlook.

An increase in the selling pressure behind LTC that allows it to close below this support level could trigger a sell-off among market participants. Such a bearish impulse would likely send Litecoin down to try to find support around $39.

Regardless of the havoc that the pandemic has caused in the global financial markets, investors appear to be growing optimistic about what the cryptocurrency industry has to offer. Now, even Bloomberg analysts are bullish on Bitcoin, stating that this year it could transition toward a quasi-currency like gold.

The TIE has also seen an impressive rise in the number of Bitcoin tweets mentioning the halving. The cryptocurrency insights provider affirmed that halving mentions on Twitter surged over 63%. Meanwhile, the overall conversations on social media about BTC are up 6%.

As the block rewards reduction event approaches, the focus appears to be shifting towards Bitcoin. Nonetheless, the high levels of correlation in the cryptocurrency market suggest that an increase in the price of the flagship cryptocurrency could see the entire market following suit.

The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.

You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.

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Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin Turn Bullish on Bitcoins Strong Performance - Crypto Briefing

Source: iStock/da-kuk

The market sentiment looks improved today compared to seven days ago. Following a small drop to 5.2/10 last week, the combined moving average 7-day market sentiment measure, sentscore, for the top 10 coins surpassed its highest level in the past five weeks - that of 5.27 from two weeks ago - and now stands at 5.37, as crypto market sentiment analysis service Omenics shows.

The week brings good news for all but one coin - only Tether (USDT) is in red this Monday. Meanwhile, after several weeks, we have two coins in the positive zone, these being first two coins by market capitalization: Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Five cryptos have sentscores above 5, three are above 4, and there are no coins in the negative zone.

The 24-hour time frame looks even better. This Monday is showing five out of ten coins in the positive zone, with Bitcoin reaching 6.9. Four are in the 5-5.9 range, and only Tether has a score of 4.7, but it too has gone almost 6% up today. In total, the combined sentscore for these 10 coins today is even closer to the positive zone: 5.86.

Sentiment change among the top 10 coins in the past week*:Interpreting the sentscores scale:- 0 to 2.5: very negative- 2 to 3.9: somewhat negative zone- 4 to 5.9: neutral zone- 6 to 7.49: somewhat positive zone- 7.5 to 10: very positive

Though the difference between them is small, three coins have seen green double-digit percentiles next to their names this week: Bitcoin Cash (BCH), EOS, and Stellar (XLM), respectively. BCH's highest score is in news (5.6). It got some lower scores in social and technicals (4.6 and 4.3), as well as negative scores in buzz and fundamentals (3.6 and 2.7). Similarly, EOS has a high score in news, with 6.4, as well as neutral scores of 5.4 in technicals and 4.6 in social, while its buzz and fundamental received 3.5 and 3.2, respectively. Stellar is a double winner today. Not only is it among the coins with the highest rise in sentscore this week, but that rise enabled it to push Chainlink (LINK) out of the top 10 list and take its place. It has two quite high scores of 7.1 and 7 in technicals and news, as well as a neutral 5.4 in social. Its buzz and fundamentals have negative scores though: 3.9 and 3.6.

Daily Bitcoin sentscore change in the past month:

The one coin that saw a percentile in red next to its name is today's losing coin. Tether's strongest point is news, which has a positive score of 6.3. It's followed by 5.5 in buzz, as well as 4.7 in technicals and 4.3 in social. Its weakest point this week is fundamentals, which got a negative score of 3.8.

Lastly, taking a look at the rest of Omenic's list besides the top ten coins over the course of the past seven days, we find an improved situation here as well. Compared to most of them last week, only 10 saw their sentscores drop this time around. Ten - one less than last week - have scores above 5, and one is even in the positive zone with a sentscore of 6: Nano (NANO). Two are in the negative zone, Komodo (KMD) and Steem (STEEM), and the rest are in the 4-4.9 range.

___

* - Methodology:

Omenics measures the market sentiment by calculating the sentscore, which aggregates the sentiment from news, social media, technical analysis, viral trends, and coin fundamentals-based upon their proprietary algorithms.As their website explains, Omenics aggregates trending news articles and viral social media posts into an all-in-one data platform, where you can also analyze content sentiment, later adding, Omenics combines the 2 sentiment indicators from news and social media with 3 additional verticals for technical analysis, coin fundamentals, and buzz, resulting in the sentscore which reports a general outlook for each coin. For now, they are rating 39 cryptocurrencies.

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Crypto Market Sentiment is Back Up; Bitcoin, Ether in the Positive Zone - Cryptonews

LONDON, April 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Bitcoin Association the global industry organization that works to advance Bitcoin SV publishes its first annual report, covering its operations from February 2019-20. The report highlights the rapid growth and development of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem, as well as the work the Association has undertaken in its first year of operations to support the network's underlying technical infrastructure and business expansion.

Interest in Bitcoin Association has rapidly grown as Bitcoin SV has captured the digital currency spotlight.The BSV blockchain has seen application development explode globally, as developers and businesses make use of BSV's superior scaling, data capacity and micropayment capabilities. Growing usage - particularly at the enterprise level - has led to a rise in the number of daily transactions and average block sizes seen on the network to now regularly surpass BTC on most days and BCH every day.

This growth of the Bitcoin SV network and ecosystem is reflected in Bitcoin Association's Year 1 annual report.Featuring a comprehensive description of the Association's mission to accelerate the business use of Bitcoin SV both as a blockchain and digital currency the report illustrates the multi-faceted approach that the organization has pursued under the leadership of Founding President, Jimmy Nguyen.

Split into 12 sections, the report looks at the great strides made by the Bitcoin SV network during the past year proving that Bitcoin can massively scale as Satoshi Nakamoto always intended and restoring the technical power of Bitcoin's original protocol.As summarized in the report, Bitcoin Association supports the Bitcoin SV Node team which works on the network infrastructure, is establishing a Technical Standards Committee, and is launching educational material and programs to train BSV developers.Bitcoin SV development activity has been robust with over400 known BSV ventures and projects around the world.

Additionally, the report recounts the Association's remarkable membership growth; its global ambassador and events programs; the contributions it is making to academia and public policy; as well as a look at its quickly growing team.

Speaking on the release, Mr. Nguyen commented: "Looking through the Annual Report, it really brings home just how much Bitcoin Association has accomplished in its first year. In such a short time, the Bitcoin SV network has experienced serious development and transaction volume increase demonstrating why it is the only blockchain with the capabilities required for enterprise use. We have been thrilled to see the Bitcoin SV community grow rapidly alongside us, with start-up entrepreneurs and now major enterprises alike demonstrating new use cases for BSV technology at an incredible rate. It's been a fantastic first year for the Association, but we're just getting started. We have an even bigger year planned for 2020 to bring Satoshi Vision to the world."

The report is available to download from Bitcoin Association's website.

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Associationis the global industry organization which advances Bitcoin SV. It brings together enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners),and others in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem to advance the growth of Bitcoin commerce. The Association seeks to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while enabling digital currency innovation.

SOURCE Bitcoin Association

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Bitcoin Association Publishes First Annual Report Highlighting Rapid Growth of Bitcoin SV Ecosystem - PR Newswire UK

Despite being over a decade old, Bitcoin (BTC) is still not particularly easy to understand. Even major BTC bulls like Tim Draper have admitted that Bitcoin still lacks ease of use for mainstream adoption.

In the same vein, two key figures in the community held an informal Twitter debate over Bitcoins complexity today.

Mark Cuban, one of the most well-known Bitcoin sceptics, prefers to own bananas than invest in bitcoins. Cuban previously criticized Bitcoins complexity in an interview with Anthony Pomp Pompliano on April 15. In the interview, the owner of the NBAs Dallas Mavericks reiterated a common Bitcoin complexity narrative, arguing that Bitcoin needs to be easy enough that grandma can use it before mass adoption will occur.

When asked about what would have to happen for him to change his mind about Bitcoin, Cuban answered that it should become easy, elaborating on Bitcoins complexities:

Itd have to be so easy to use, its a no-brainer. Itd have to be completely friction-free and understandable by everybody first. [...] Theres so many peculiarities to Bitcoin: the halving, the mining.

While some in the crypto community agreed that BTC is quite difficult to use, Tyler Winklevoss, a co-founder of major crypto exchange Gemini, decided to weigh in. Winklevoss argued that, for someone without preexisting knowledge of the game, basketball is at least as peculiar as Bitcoin. He tweeted:

Theres so many peculiarities to Bitcoin: the halving, the mining." - @mcuban The rules of basketball are far more peculiar, but that doesn't seem to be holding it back.

It was not long before Cuban reacted to the Winklevoss remark, tweeting the following counter-argument in less than 10 minutes:

One was started by a guy named James in a gym with a peach basket and a ball to entertain kids. The other was started by a guy no one can find, that hundreds claim to be, with a computer and an algorithm to give millions something to argue about. Which is simple?

Winklevoss subsequently argued that both of these origin stories are interesting from a historical perspective,. He then firing out another argument, hinting that nobody really cares about basketball:

My bet is that if you took a poll of all the basketball fans that buy tickets to watch @dallasm games, less than 1% would know that the game they are watching was started by a guy named James trying to entertain kids and 0% would actually care.

After years of scepticism, Cuban delivered a mixed message about Bitcoin in late 2019. As Cointelegraph reported in December, Cuban admitted that Bitcoin could become a reliable financial instrument.

In September 2019, billionaire investor and major Bitcoin bull, Tim Draper, declared that people still prefer fiat money over Bitcoin. He reasoned that fiat money seems to be an easier option to pay for services. According to Draper, Bitcoins inherent difficulty is the main impediment to mass adoption. He further claimed that engineers have not made it that easy enough for everyone to use Bitcoin.

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Mark Cuban and Tyler Winklevoss Squabble Over Bitcoin Complexity - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin is often described as gold 2.0; a superior system of storing and transferring value. It has seen a rapid increase in market capitalization since its introduction in 2009, with strong custodial, exchange, and futures infrastructure.

Yet, one cryptocurrency analyst known as cryptocomicon recently laid out a series of compelling reasons why one should not invest in Bitcon. The three that stood out most were limited privacy, centralized mining, and the lack of scalability.

Despite each of these being valid points to consider, they can also be seen as advantages for BTC.

Up until 2018, governments and various financial bodies criticized the anonymous nature of Bitcoin, stating that it poses a risk to the global financial system. But, as reported by Cointelegraph, South Korea recently cracked down on a large-scale sex crime ring earlier this month through tracking Bitcoin addresses.

One could argue that the lack of privacy measures on the Bitcoin network has actually improved the image of the dominant cryptocurrency.

Previously the public and governments perceived Bitcoin as the currency most preferred for use in criminal activities and terrorist financing, but this view appears to have changed in recent years as sophisticated blockchain analytics companies who offer crypto transaction tracking services emerged.

Following the release of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)s revised guideline on crypto assets on February 22, 2020, it has become even more challenging to launder money using Bitcoin than ever before.

Thus, the lack of privacy can also be viewed as increased transparency and this could eventually prevent governments from over-regulating Bitcoin-related companies.

The low scalability of Bitcoin is similar to the no privacy argument in the sense that it can be comprehended in two ways: it can make transactions expensive when the network reaches its peak, but it can also encourage second-layer scaling.

Some state that the relatively high fees on the Bitcoin network would push for the use of second-layer scaling solutions, which many believe to be inevitable if public blockchain networks are eventually used by billions of people worldwide.

Other major public blockchain networks with high scalability like Ethereum are exploring second-layer scaling solutions such as plasma, indicating that second-layer scaling is necessary for any large blockchain network.

According to a report from CoinShares Research, up to 65 percent of the Bitcoin network hashpower comes from China, a level unseen since 2017. While the level of mining centralization in China is currently high, over time it is expected to become more distributed across the world.

To date, large mining centers in China have been able to access cheap electricity in mountainous regions of the country, operating ASIC miners at low costs with natural cooling. Consequently, the level of mining centralization in China reached unprecedented levels in December 2019.

Additional data from CoinShares explained that:

While we expect this ratio to fall again as latest generation hardware further makes its way into the non-Chinese market, at the time of writing, as much as 65% of Bitcoin hashpower resides within China the highest weve seen since we began our network monitoring in late 2017.

The researchers also said:

We have reasons to believe the lions share of the newly deployed hardware has been predominantly installed in China. There could be many reasons for this, but Occams Razor suggests that it is likely an effect of relational and geographic proximity to manufacturers making barriers to business comparatively lower.

Chinas Bitcoin mining equipment access and hashrate. Source: CoinShares

Currently Chinas mining sector has two clear advantages over the rest of the world, cheap electricity and direct access to new mining equipment. Eventually, lower electricity rates and better access to newer mining equipment could push the global mining industry to expand outside of China in the years to come, reducing the level of centralization.

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Crypto Analyst Cautions Investors Against Bitcoin for 3 Key Reasons - Cointelegraph

HONG KONG, HONG KONG - NOVEMBER 9: As a visual representation of the digital Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin ... [+] with US Dollar on November 9, 2017 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, have seen unprecedented growth in 2017. (Photo by studioEAST/Getty Images)

Bitcoin remains a controversial asset with most people either believing it as doomed to be valueless or set to be worth $1 million a coin. As such it is probably a fair bet to say it will do neither.

Here is the state of play:

The Bitcoin chart as the 'halvening' approaches

This is what happened last time:

Here's what happened to the Bitcoin price after the last 'halvening'

The idea is that the price will go up because the supply of new coins will halve, so on an even keel basis there will be the same demand but less supply. The increase of bitcoin supply will half but interestingly it will also fall below the recent rate of U.S. dollar inflation. So the thinking goes: supply of new bitcoin down + supply of bitcoin less than U.S. dollars (substantially less since the recent titanic stimulus packages) + ever increasingspread of acceptance = significant price rise.

Doomsters say that miners will flee as they can no longer make money mining and the blockchain will seize up. However, every two weeks the mining difficulty retargets to take that into account, so this scenario simply wont happen and in the end transaction costs would make up for any drop in new coin rewards if the situation became difficult. A $6 per transaction fee would fill the gap, which is super pricey, but not when large transactions are at stake.

The halvening wont break bitcoin, but will it be the beginning of the next leg up?

I think so.

Will it catapult bitcoin to $100,000 a coin? It could happen but I want to believe because I have a pile of bitcoins.

The key factor will be the shape of the developing coronavirus recession. The outcome of these huge stimulus packages are impossible to predict. Not only is their effect utterly unpredictable but even their scale is uncertain. Bitcoin (BTC) is just a tiny sideshow to all these goliath moves.

The only outcome that would hurt BTC is deflationary depression and with trillions of cash being helicoptered in to bailout everyone, at least the deflationary part seems hard to imagine.

What isnt so hard to imagine is something the ex-Federal Reserve Chairman brought up: Hysteresis. Thats not the electrical thing, its the political type. Hysteresis is what Marxists use to explain away the fact that their fabulous theories never seem to be adopted or work. Its a shock to the system that is needed to create the momentum for a sudden and irreversible change. That Ben Benenke should bring up the prospect for that is enough to make your ears burn. Bitcoin $1 million is totally ridiculous but then.

A Zimbabwe one hundred trillion dollar note

Whether hysteresis would mean a trillion dollar bill or something else entirely, it wont do bitcoin any harm.

Love it or hate it, in times of hysteresis a bitcoin wallet would be a prized possession. Even without the halvening, bitcoin looks good as a haven/flight asset in very uncertain times.

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Clem Chambers is the CEO of private investors websiteADVFN.com and author of 101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners and Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginners Guide.

Chambers won Journalist of the Year in the Business Market Commentary category in the State Street U.K. Institutional Press Awards in 2018.

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Bitcoin: The Halvening Cometh - Forbes

Investors may be accumulating bitcoin ahead of next month's miner reward halving.

The seven-day moving average of the total number of bitcoin held in exchange addresses fell to 2,214,365 on April 14 the lowest level since last June according to numbers from blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode.

As of Tuesday, the average was down nearly 8 percent from a high of 2,404,786 registered on Jan. 17, 2020.

The decline in exchange balances suggests a shift to longer-term holding strategies, according to Glassnode.

That's because investors usually withdraw coins from the exchanges to hold in their personal wallets when prices are expected to rise. Conversely, they tend to move their balances to exchanges in preparation to sell when a price drop is expected or during a price crash.

For instance, bitcoins price fell by 33 percent in the seven days to March 15. At the time, the seven-day average of coins held on exchanges rose from 2,333,279 on March 11 to 2,350,795 on March 18.

However, the spike was short lived and the downturn in exchange balances resumed from March 19.

The increased levels of holding may be associated with bullish expectations tied to bitcoins mining reward halving, scheduled to take effect in just 27 days. The process, aimed at controlling inflation, will reduce rewards per block mined from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

Essentially, miners will be adding fewer coins to the ecosystem following the halving. Some analysts think that would create a supply deficit and push up prices.Once bitcoin has its halving next month, we expect prices to rally, carrying the rest of the market with it, said Richard Rosenblum, head of trading at GSR.

Meanwhile, some stock-to-flow models indicate the halving could send bitcoins price to $100,000, as noted in the cryptocurrency platform Lunos weekly market report.

Further, the coronavirus-induced global economic recession and resulting unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus launched by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government, respectively, are widely expected to boost bitcoins appeal as a safe haven asset and a hedge against inflation.

However, some observers have been skeptical about the bullish narrative surrounding bitcoins halving. Bitcoin halving in May 2020 wont do anything to the price. It will be a non-event, Jason Williams, co-founder of digital asset fund Morgan Creek Digital, tweeted in December.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency has so far failed to perform as a safe haven asset and has largely moved in line with the equity markets. Since the beginning of March, bitcoins correlation with the S&P and Dow has been unusually high at approximately 0.82, Nicholas Pelecanos, head of trading at NEM Ventures, told CoinDesk.

If the decline in exchange balances is a guide, though, the investor community looks to have some belief in the bullish halving narrative and the long-term value of the cryptocurrency as an inflation hedge.

From a technical analysis standpoint, the cryptocurrencys recovery rally from the March low of $3,867 looks to have run out of steam.

Weekly chart

Bitcoin has failed three times in the last month to keep gains above the 100-week moving average, currently lined up near $7,060.The repeated failure is suggestive of buyer fatigue.

That, coupled with the rising wedge breakdown seen on the daily chart, suggests scope for a downside break of the recent trading range of $6,600$7,200. A range breakdown, if confirmed, would open the doors to $6,100, as discussed Tuesday.

Bitcoin has enjoyed an over-50-percent rally from its mid-March low. The bulls now must sustain the rally at an equal or greater pace in the short term or the bears might take back some serious ground," said NEM Ventures Pelecanos. "Indicators from one of our momentum-based strategies are beginning to show a serious bearish setup that could lead to a 50-percent sell-off, sending prices into the low $3,000s."

Disclosure:The author currently holds no cryptocurrencies.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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More Investors Are Holding Bitcoin Ahead of the Halving, Data Suggests - CoinDesk

Geoffrey Schwartz

Bitcoin (BTC) price prediction, Binance (BNB) smart chain white paper released, and Nassim Taleb recommends cryptocurrencies.

The last day of the workweek ended in the green for the three major indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rocketed up 704.81 points (about 3%) to close at 24,242.49. The S&P 500 went up 75.01 points (about 2.7%) to close at 2,874.56. The NASDAQ Composite advanced 117.78 points (about 1.4%) to close at 8,650.14. All of this optimism and hope was based on a drug report published by Gilead Sciences, which showed some promise for treating the coronavirus.

As for news within the crypto world, some of the major headlines include a price prediction for Bitcoin (BTC), the release of a Binance (BNB) Smart Chain white paper, and Nassim Taleb recommending the use of cryptocurrencies.

Yesterday morning was strong bullish impulse for the average price of Bitcoin (BTC). As a result, this pushed the BTC/USD pair above the $7,026 mark. By the end of the day, the price of BTC was able to gain a foothold above this support level.

Overnight growth was not supported by large volumes, and a local maximum was set around the $7,224 area. The next morning, the priced rolled back from its maximum.

Looking at the lines from the Stochastic Relative Strength Index (Stoch RSI), the price of BTC is now in the overbought zone. A rollback to the average price region can therefore be expected in the near future. If the 2H EMA55 provides support, then growth may continue to the $7,300 mark.

Yesterdays growth to $7,190 mark closed above $7,000 with a full candle, indicating buyer strength. It is likely not the usual removal of short positions. For the moment, the big picture is an upswing. To confirm this, the bulls need to keep the price above $6,900 and pass the $7,150 resistance level. If that is the case, then traders can expect a significant increase to its previous local maximum of $7,459 or higher.

Binance has broken into the decentralized application market by creating the Binance Smart Chain, a special parallel blockchain to land smart contracts. The Binance Smart Chain, which will be cross-chain interoperable, will use a Proof-of-Stake Authority consensus. As a result, staking the Binance Coin (BNB) will be available to all users.

According to the recently released white paper, the reason a separate chain was required was because:

The execution of a Smart Contract may slow down the exchange function and add non-deterministic factors to trading

While Binance (BNB) is aware of the situation in the dApps market, EOS (EOS), Ethereum (ETH), and Tron (TRX) have managed to address the needs of dApp developers.

With developed countries announcing one stimulus package after another to counteract the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, some governments are screwing over its citizens. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, highlighted the importance of cryptocurrencies as a tool for cross-border remittances.

According to Pierre Madani, Chief Financial Officer of Kafalat S.A.L., BDL has begun to confiscate hard currencies from over-the-counter remittances because of hyperinflation for the Lebanese Pound (LBP) and the national banks losing credit. Instead of acquiring stable foreign currencies, beneficiaries can only obtain the worthless LBP.

Taleb, a major advocate for Bitcoin (BTC) and other financial institutions involving cryptocurrencies, believes that they could replace the classical remittance and exchange tools in emerging markets. He also applauded the anti-authoritarian nature of Bitcoin (BTC) and other major cryptocurre

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TOP 3 Bitcoin and Crypto News for Today: 17 April - U.Today

Alex Dovbnya

$50,000 or Beanie Babies? Here's what the future holds for Bitcoin, according to Peter Brandt

Peter Brandt has shared his latest take on the Bitcoin (BTC) price, predicting that ithas a 50 percent chance of shooting up to as high as $50,000.

However, this price target is not set in stone since there appears to be the same possibility that the orange coin ends up being just 'another pet rock or Beanie Baby.'

Bitcoin has been likened toBeanie Babiesby everyone and their mother -- from permabears in the likes of Peter Schiff to "Last Week Tonight"host John Oliver.

These chictoysare the ultimate fads of the dotcom bubble in the 1990s.During the peak of the craze, some people were willing to fork out their life savings to buy exclusive items that were nothing but stuffed animals. One Beanie Baby was sold for as much as $15,000.

Whether you believe in the future or Bitcoin (BTC) or not, comparing a decentralized cryptocurrency to a toy bubble might be a bit of a stretch. Besides, there are some exclusive Beanie Babies that will now set you back more than $500,000.

As of recently, Brandt has been sending mixed signals about Bitcoin. The prominent chartist who predicted that BTC could conquer $100,000 this year rapidly changed his tune after the March crash.

Following the events of "Black Thursday,"when BTC erased 50 percent of its value, Brandt tweeted that it was more likely to go to zero.

Moreover, he recently argued that the much-anticipated May was highly overrated.

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Bitcoin Price Predicted to Go to $50,000 by Trading Guru Peter Brandt (but Don't Get Too Excited) - U.Today

Niklas Nikolajsen, the founder of Swiss crypto broker Bitcoin Suisse, predicts that Bitcoin (BTC) will move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) once the Ethereum (ETH) network has proved the algorithms success.

Bitcoins current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm the pioneering concept which in fact pre-existed Bitcoin, but has since come to be indissociable from the cryptocurrency will probably change in the future, Nikolajsen argued.

In outtakes from an interview conducted for a German TV documentary recorded back in October 2019, but uploaded on April 6 Nikolajsen said:

[Bitcoins move to Proof-of-Stake] is not planned, but the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, will move to a Proof-of-Stake concept that demands vastly less electricity, already in a few months. Im sure, once the technology is proven, that Bitcoin will adapt to it as well.

Once its proven that Proof-of-Stake works well, its a superior system to Proof-of-Work, he said.

In blockchains that use a PoS system, nodes in the network engage in validating blocks, rather than mining them, as in PoW. For PoS, a deterministic algorithm selects block validators based on the number of tokens a given node has staked in their wallet i.e. deposited as collateral in order to compete to add the next block to the chain.

Nikolajsen's prediction that Bitcoin will eventually migrate to a PoS system was made in the context of a discussion of the notoriously high levels of electricity needed to sustain mining on the current network.

He dismissed claims that mining Bitcoin consumes levels of electricity comparable to small nations and also emphasized that mining's energy-intensity is less of an issue than where that energy is produced and how sustainably it is generated.

Moreover, the energy consumption of producing gold Bitcoins proverbial predecessor must be equally acknowledged, Nikolajsen states, as does that in the existing banking system and tech industry:

Which metropolis in the world doesnt have 100-story-high banking towers, glowing in a million different colors all night, and their financial systems, their computers, server rooms. How much energy does Facebook consume? They have 21 huge data centers worldwide, Id say probably more than Bitcoin. The banking system for sure consumes a lot more energy.

The common perception that high energy consumption is an Achilles Heel for Bitcoin has been critiqued by some proponents of clean energy, who, like Nikolajsen, place an emphasis on the sources of power, rather than levels of consumption.

Beyond the energy problem, the PoS vs. PoW debate engages questions of economic fairness, barriers to entry, network security and decentralization.

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Bitcoin Will Follow Ethereum And Move to Proof-of-Stake, Says Bitcoin Suisse Founder - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) price has been a sight to behold over the last week. After successfully breaking through the resistance of $7,200 on Monday, April 6, all eyes were on the leading digital asset to hold $7K as fresh support, but as soon as the weekend was upon us, the price fell through this floor finding a new temporary bottom of $6,750.

So are these weekend dumps a sign that interest in Bitcoin is waning? Or is this simply whales taking advantage of thinner weekend volume to accumulate before the next big run?

Daily crypto market performance. Source: Coin360.com

BTC USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin keeps finding itself in a descending channel that formed 10 months ago. The last time the king of cryptocurrencies broke out of this channel, it encountered fierce resistance at 5 different levels ranging from $8,750 to $10,500.

Currently, Bitcoin is once more above this channel, with a new ascending channel taking form.From here Bitcoin needs to form support by closing the daily above $7,100 for history to start repeating itself, and this is not the only pattern repeating itself this year.

BTC USD weekly MACD chart Source: TradingView

The Moving Average Divergence Convergence (MACD) indicator on the weekly timeframe looks almost identical to that of Jan. 14, which is when Bitcoin last closed above the descending channel. This resulted in a rally from $9,000 to $10,500.

However, much like the last few days, Bitcoin did fall back into the channel before pushing forward to the yearly high.

At the time this was attributed to the mining difficulty increasing every 2 weeks, a trend that seems to be returning.

BTC mining difficulty. Source: BTC.com

After the Black Thursday event, which saw the price of Bitcoin plummet by 50%, the mining difficulty adjustment dropped by nearly 16%. This was one of the largest drops in a single period that Bitcoin had ever seen.

However, last week saw the difficulty increase by nearly 6% and the next adjustment is already looking to increase by 7%. With only 8 days left to go, its highly probable that this will wipe out the negative adjustment seen this year, so does that mean that price will follow?

If the price action at the beginning of 2020 is anything to go by, it might suggest another big price surge is due over the week ahead.

BCH hashrate chart. Source: BITINFOCHARTS

Last week Bitcoin Cash (BCH) had its halving and this caused a lackluster price spike of about 11% before the digital asset slowly settled back to its pre-halving price. However, as a result of the halving, the hash rate dropped off a cliff as can be seen in the chart above.

The most likely reason for this drop is due to the fact that those mining Bitcoin Cash use exactly the same hardware as Bitcoin miners. So when faced with a 50% reduction in profitability it would make more sense to point your miners to the real Bitcoin.

With more miners heading to the Bitcoin network, it would entirely make sense that the difficulty would start to rise. This is something that I expect to continue happening over the next 30 days ahead of the real Bitcoin halving.

However, this will also lead to the difficulty in mining BCH to plummet, so this little dance is something that will cause some very interesting price action over the coming weeks.

If Bitcoin closes above $7,100 it will be incredibly bullish for the week ahead. Once more $7,200 is the first level of resistance, however, $7,400 and $7,700 are the next two levels holding Bitcoin back from breaking $8,000.

With the growing number of miners driving up the difficulty on the Bitcoin network, a run to $9,200 isnt something that would be unreasonable to expect before the week is over.

It still feels like Bitcoin is recovering too soon and the pullback this weekend doesnt seem like it was enough. Should the weekly candle close below $7,100 I would first be looking at $6,750 and $6,500 as the last levels of support before opening up mid $5k range for buyers to step in.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of @officiallykeith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Are Bitcoin Cash Miners Driving Up the Price of Bitcoin? - Cointelegraph

Hut 8 Mining Group, a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining firm, is concerned about coronavirus-related delays of new machine deliveries from potential suppliers such as Bitmain and MicroBT.

During an earnings call last week, CEO Andrew Kiguel said his firm was grappling with a vague timeline for the delivery of crypto mining machines to support its farms, saying that while in February, you thought machines could be delivered between March and April, these timelines have since shifted due to the ongoing pandemic. He did not have a revised timeline either.

His remarks follow guidance from competitor Riot Blockchain, which also warned the novel coronavirus outbreak would impact its business operations.

Three or four weeks ago, nobody thought these things would be an issue, and the world is grappling right now with different supply chain issues like getting ventilators and masks around the world as opposed to bitcoin mining machines, Kiguel said.

Bitmain was one of several Chinese miner manufacturers that warned as far back as January close to eight weeks ago it would be forced to delay deliveries due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Bitmain has since resumed operations, though its delivery timetable is still unclear.

Hut 8 Mining Group, one of the few publicly traded mining firms in the U.S., is also closely watching the upcoming bitcoin halving in hopes of appropriately scaling the size of its mining farm.

The Canadian firm is set to have a higher stake in the bitcoin market after launching its core operation in the middle of 2018 and acquiring facilities to boost its mining power last year. According to its year-end report for 2019, released on Monday, Hut 8 saw $58.6 million in revenue, up by 66 percent from the prior year, thanks to larger capacity and higher bitcoin price.

This places it as one of the productive miners in North America among its competition, including the Colorado-based Riot Blockchain.

Hut8s coronavirus concerns come as the firm prepares for bitcoins hotly anticipated halving, tentatively set to occur in mid-May.

There's a lot of different scenario planning that we've done, Kiguel said.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Another Bitcoin Mining Firm Warns COVID-19 Pandemic May Harm Its Business - CoinDesk

When Bitcoins price fell sharply four weeks ago network activity dropped as investors began to put their coins into storage. This trend is reversing as the daily transaction number is once again increasing, and coins are on the move.

Glassnode has posted a chart of active Bitcoins that shows how the number moving across the network began to accelerate rapidly last August, only to level off last month. Now, this number is once again picking up.

Overall network activity is also once again increasing after a sharp drop in March, as seen in this chart from Blockchain.info:

The key takeaway from this information is that the flagship cryptocurrency is once again on the move. The changes in activity on the network may be relatively small, but they still demonstrate a shift away from hodling Bitcoins to using them.

In all likelihood, these increases are due to an uptick in trading, which will no doubt take place as prices rise. Many investors see the market recovery as an opportunity to make a quick profit from what is clearly a growing demand for cryptocurrency.

It is worth noting that the upcoming block halving is also providing a strong incentive to acquire Bitcoin now before the supply drops in mid-May. Also, fear of inflation and a continued global economic slowdown is driving many to put their assets into safe havens, for which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are ideally suited.

Whereas activity volume on the Bitcoin platform ebbs and flows from month to month, it is worth noting that the network continues to work as designed. Fees remain low, and confirmation times are relatively quick.

The network will begin to show signs of congestion at around 400,000 transactions per day, which is substantially more than the present number. This last happened in 2017, resulting in slow transactions and high fees. The Lightning Network now exists to help prevent such problems from ever happening again, yet needs more work to make it reliable and user friendly enough for mass use.

It is reasonable to assume that the number of active Bitcoins will continue to increase along with overall crypto adoption. Activity across the blockchain space is accelerating, much of which is taking place in areas such as decentralized finance and supply chain tracking. Present data clearly indicates that interest in this new asset class continues to grow.

IsBitcoin trading activity up? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Glassnode, Blockchain.com

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Bitcoin Active Supply Touches 3-Year High, But What Does it Imply? - Bitcoinist

Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of New York-based crypto exchange Gemini, is calling out Chainlink (LINK) and its potential to break out as one of the next big altcoins.

The billionaire crypto entrepreneur and early Bitcoin investor says the smart contract project is built with quality technology and supported by a following thats reminiscent of the early BTC and Ethereum evangelists.

I really appreciate the passion of the LINK Marines. Their fervor and dedication reminds me of the early Bitcoin and Ethereum communities. Unlike many other crypto armies, they are dedicated to a project that has real promise and technical merit.

Gemini recently announced the addition of trading and custody services for LINK, as well as Dai and Orchid (OXT). Winklevoss says he doesnt own any Chainlink but thinks its a fantastic project that demonstrates one of the many great promises of crypto.

Chainlinks main goal is to give enterprises a simple and seamless way to take data and place it on the blockchain. The token is designed to reward people who run nodes and power the network.

LINK outperformed Bitcoin in 2019 and was one of the most successful crypto assets of the year, rising from around $0.29 last January to about $1.80 by the end of December, according to CoinMarketCap.

After reaching an all-time high of $4.95 on March 4th, it crashed in mid-March like the rest of the crypto industry. It has bounced back from its March low of $1.64 and is currently trading at $3.47 at the time of writing.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Liu zishan

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Crypto Billionaire Says One Altcoin Reminds Him of Bitcoin and Ethereums Early Days - The Daily Hodl

BTCPay, a popular open source tool for accepting bitcoin payments, is turning to PayJoin for preserving the privacy of those transactions.

PayJoin (also called P2EP) is a relatively new way to send private transactions in bitcoin and may offer better privacy than current popular alternatives such as CoinJoin. Having BTCPay on board gives PayJoin a major boost in recognition that could translate into broader use of the privacy technology by other firms.

BTCPay developer Andrew Camilleri told CoinDesk the company plans to release an "initial" version of the P2EP privacy feature built into BTCPay on Thursday. He and BTCPay lead developer Nicholas Dorier have been the main contributors to the code.

Open source BTCPay is used by a range of merchants as a way of accepting bitcoin and lightning payments.

"Our mission is financial sovereignty for everyone and PayJoin is a great tool to help break blockchain analysis heuristics and achieve that. Since BTCPay is so widely used, it should help jumpstart usage," Camilleri told CoinDesk.

The work has been sponsored by Blockstream for the past several months to help Camilleri focus on the PayJoin changes.

"We're hoping to improve the privacy and fungibility of bitcoin by accelerating the adoption of P2EP. If enough wallets and businesses support P2EP, it could provide the critical mass needed to achieve widespread financial privacy," said Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow.

Not as private

CoinJoin is the main privacy tool used these days, in part because it is used by wallets Wasabi and Samourai, making it much easier for people to use.

CoinJoin allows multiple people to mix their bitcoin transactions together, making it less obvious who owns which bitcoin. While it helps users to maintain their privacy, one of the main issues is it's easy to see when a bunch of users have done a CoinJoin simply by looking at the blockchain.

Bitcoin researcher Paul Sztorc likened the technology to "wearing a ski mask to an indoor mall."

The main benefit of PayJoin's ConJoin implementation, on the other hand, is that once done, the transactions look the same as other transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.

So instead of many senders mixing their transactions, only the sender and receiver mix a transaction.

Ultimately we need to make a choice on what kind of world we want to live in, one where there is financial privacy or one where there isnt.

It "breaks blockchain analysis heuristics," Camilleri said. Blockchain analytics companies are able to glean certain transaction criteria to guess (often correctly) if bitcoins belong to the same owner, or to see if the transaction was a part of a CoinJoin.

"Bitcoin's our chance for a logical and fair form of money. Companies that offer services that enable others to discriminate are essentially destroying that chance," Camilleri said.

One disadvantage, however, is both the sender and receiver have to support PayJoin.

"Merchant payment processor support for P2EP made perfect sense. P2EP requires the sender and receiver to both be online. If you're sending, you're naturally online, and merchants have to be online all the time," Mow said.

What's next

PayJoin has been around since 2018, but not a lot of services have added support for it yet. Both the sender and receiver need to support the standard, but most wallets don't support it right now.

"The current active implementations only allow you to do PayJoins between the same wallets, which is a bit too restrictive for widespread usage. There's nothing stopping any wallet or service from adding support for a universal PayJoin protocol now," Camilleri said.

This is one problem the project Snowball is trying to solve by creating code allowing for PayJoin transactions that can be easily added to any bitcoin wallet. The developers behind it plan to eventually open "pull requests" with suggested code to popular bitcoin wallets, to help get the ball rolling by encouraging them to adopt the privacy feature, and making it as easy as possible to do so.

Blockstream plans to further spur adoption of PayJoin. For now, it is working on adding PayJoin support to the bitcoin wallet Blockstream Green.

"The next interesting step would be for an exchange to support P2EP. Ultimately we need to make a choice on what kind of world we want to live in, one where there is financial privacy or one where there isn't," Mow said.

"Money needs to be private and fungible in order for it to be a 'good' money," he added. "With bitcoin, every transaction is open for anyone to see, so we still have a lot of work to do to get it there. Without privacy and fungibility, money can be used as a tool for oppression or financial surveillance. Bitcoin is the future of money and the future of money shouldnt be Orwellian."

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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BTCPay Looks to Anonymize Bitcoin Transactions With PayJoin Integration - CoinDesk

More analysts than ever are encouraging young people to take advantage of the current market dip and begin investing in Bitcoin for retirement. Whereas this idea is nothing new, current forces in the legacy financial space are making it more appealing. At least one analyst asserts that a mere one Bitcoin will provide a vastly better long-term return than traditional savings.

Over the course of the past forty years retirement plans in developed countries have gradually shifted from fixed benefit programs, such as standard pension plans, to defined contribution programs, such as 401ks. Whereas the wisdom of this transition is subject to debate, there is no question that millions now rely on some form of personal savings for most, if not all, of their retirement income.

For those with ample nest eggs, this arrangement has been fine. However, decades of low inflation and brief recessions have played a role in this success. Should the current global financial crisis result in a surge of inflation, retirees could find themselves in serious trouble.

For those still in the workforce, long term devaluation of fiats such as Dollars and Euros could be devastating. Years of prudent investment could disappear as the earning power of retirement savings evaporates. Analyst Davincij15 has pointed this out in a recent tweet:

Simply put, he acknowledges the wisdom of beginning to save while young, yet notes that all may be for naught if inflation becomes a problem. Not surprisingly, he advocates Bitcoin as a possible hedge.

Much has been said of Bitcoin as a potential safe haven during the current economic meltdown. However, the long-term consideration of this idea is far more notable. The fact that crypto ownership skews toward the young is well-known, and more than ever workers under 35 are choosing to add blockchain assets to their retirement portfolios.

Part of this trend is, of course, related to the belief that crypto will continue to vastly outperform traditional investments. However, these young investors may now be making this choice to protect their retirement from inflation or other economic downturns. In other words, crypto is likely to be added to hard assets like gold and treasury bonds as a component of a properly managed portfolio.

There is little doubt that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a permanent element of the global financial landscape. Now, more than ever, current events are giving legitimacy to this new asset class.

Do you think Bitcoin is the nest retirement investment option available to us? Share what you think in the comments below.

Images via Aaron Burden from Unsplash, Twitter: @Davincij15

Continued here:

Is 1 Bitcoin Enough for You to Retire On? This Analyst Thinks Yes - Bitcoinist

Yesterday's strong bullish move has paused near the resistance level, as profit-taking has dragged the action following the upward thrust. Still, cryptos are advancing steadily, as Ethereum (+1.45%) continues bullish, and Bitcoin(+0.83%) buyers don't allow drops below $7,000. Among the leading coins, Tezos(+6.01%) us the best performer of the last 24 hours, with a special mention to DigiByte's 17 percent gain. Among the leading Ethereum-based tokens, ChainLink(+3.87%) continues growing, followed by MKR (+2,21%), with special mentions to NEXO(+6%) and WTC(+28.68%).

The Market capitalization of the cryptocurrency sector has moved slightly above the $200 billion, breaking the descending channel.

The volume traded in the last 24 hours is 39 billion, 20 percent less than yesterday's 45.75 billion. Still, Bitcoin dominance stays stable at 64.22%.

Dow Futures sprang up after a study by a Chicago hospital indicated that Gilead's Remdesivir trial sowed rapid recovery from severe symptoms on 125 SARS-CoV.2 patients. Gilead shares surged over 16%.

Binance is going to launch a new Ethereum-compatible blockchain. The blockchain's native token will be BNB in a move qualified as an Ethereum competitor, as it will support smart contracts besides BNB staking.

Bitcoin could be holding up to 5 percent of the BTC current supply, or about 360,000 BTC, according to the data supplied by a crypto blogger.

The Libra Association made new updates to the white paper with amendments to the original concept, including the introduction of stablecoins pegged to different currencies, to avoid interfering with the monetary sovereignty of the countries.

On Thursday's morning, Bitcoin has bounced off the lower side of an ascending linear regression channel, after the corrective action made in the past days. The movement created an engulfing figure in the daily chart and a Morning Star pattern in the 4H chart. The rest of the day and early morning today has been spent consolidating levels around 7,100, after being rejected by the $7,200 level.

The price moved away from overbought levels and is now moving along the +1SD Bollinger line, confirming the upward trend. MACD is also bullish. The price needs to break the $7,200 level soon to continue and test the $7,400 level that many traders eye as the next target.

Support

Pivot Point

Resistance

6,625

7,041

7,330

6,344

7,740

5,934

8,028

Ethereum's reversal action has been quite bullish in the last 24 hours. After a strong Morning Star figure, the price continued moving upwards to challenge the 174 level. After being rejected there, ETH has been moving in a tight range its action approaching the +1SD Bollinger line on decreasing volume. The $174 Breakout will signal its next challenge towards the $180 and 194 targets. $164 may act as support.

Support

Pivot Point

Resistance

142

159

175

125

193

108

209

Ripple has been following the overall crypto market trends, but behaving weaker. XRP is having difficulties to cross the $0.19 level. Nevertheless, the asset has managed to create a new consolidation above the previous one, but limited to the upside by $0.193.

After the bounce to the upper limit of the descending channel, XRP has crossed it and currently moves near the+1SD Bollinger line, as the bands spread and move slightly up, which is my definition of an uptrend. Buyers may consider entering positions on the breakout of the $0.193 level with a potential target at 0.205 level, the last swing high made on April 07.

Support

Pivot Point

Resistance

0.1770

0.1910

0.2030

0.1650

0.2170

0.1500

0.2300

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Ethereum leads the advances as bitcoin moves back above $7k - FXStreet