Users found a publication from 1999 that Satoshi Nakamoto could write – Sunriseread

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On September 19, 1999, an nameless consumer printed a submit on digital cash within the cipherpunk mailing record. Some members of the neighborhood imagine that Satoshi Nakamoto could write it, studies Cointelegraph.

It isn't identified for sure whether or not Nakamoto was within the distribution of cipher banks, however a number of representatives of the latter are talked about within the whitepaper of bitcoin, together with Dr. Adam Beck and Wei Day. One other distinguished cipherpunk, Hal Finney, was one of many first Bitcoin customers.

An nameless creator emphasised that transactions in digital cash ought to be irreversible. He talked about a sure blinding, in all probability referring to the blind signatures developed by David Chaum.

He additionally described a doable answer to the issue of double spending by creating a public database. The creator acknowledged that a secure cost system may be constructed on the idea of b-money gives and the HashCash algorithm. These applied sciences are additionally talked about within the whitepaper of bitcoin.

Recall, the creator of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, believes that Nakamoto may be found utilizing a stylometric evaluation of the bitcoin code.

Examine all variations concerning the identification of the creator of the primary cryptocurrency in our materials.

From the drug vendor to Ilona Masks: how Satoshi Nakamoto managed to stay nameless after ten years of looking

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Users found a publication from 1999 that Satoshi Nakamoto could write - Sunriseread

What Is Bitcoins Stock-to-Flow? – Crypto Briefing

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In an era ruled by infinite-supply currencies, the stock-to-flow model offers a refresher on the value and meaning of scarcity. The model also offers one framework for evaluating an asset in terms of sound money. Key Takeaways

Most digitally-native products and items arent valuable because they can be reproduced at little to no cost. In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto solved this problem by devising the first decentralized network protocol that produced a scarce digital asset, Bitcoin.

Measuring this scarcity, as well as its potential value, has been the primary thrust behind the stock-to-flow (S2F) model. This framework, however, isnt without its limits.

For money to be considered sound, it must be durable, portable, divisible, fungible, easily-verifiable, and widely-accepted as a medium of exchange.

Sound money must retain its scarcity to remain valuable over long periods. In the past, sound money was born out of peoples need for protection against the princely practice of debasing money or coinage.

Toquotethe famed Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises:

It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments.

Since the dawn of time, humans perhaps instinctively have always opted for gold, silver, or other precious metals to serve them as sound money. These compounds are hard to find in nature and costly to forge and reproduce. It is for this reason that many governments adopted the gold standard.

By basing a states money on a scarce resource, one separated the monetary units purchasing power from the policies of the worlds governments and the elite.

It meant that governments and central banks couldnt print money out of thin air.

Bitcoins have value primarily because more people recognize Bitcoins as sound money.

This recognition stems from Bitcoins inherent scarcity, and whatNick Szabo, an early proponent of digital cash and a cryptographer,callsunforgeable costliness.

Bitcoin, like gold, antiques, and fine alcohols, is valuable because it is very hard to create the work needed to produce it. It is costly and time-consuming to mine gold, and a finely-aged wine is far more expensive than freshly-pressed grape juice. There are other factors to consider, of course, but there is no replacing the value of time itself

Bitcoins market value also hinges on features of supply and demand.

Bitcoins total supply is capped at 21 million coins, and itsreal supplyis much lower. Moreover, Bitcoins deflationary monetary policy is hardcoded into its protocol. New BTC are issued every ten minutes at a predictable, decreasing rate.

Critically, these components cannot be changed unless users decideto fork the protocoland create a new cryptocurrency. At the time of press, the price of a Bitcoin fork has never overtaken the price of the original Bitcoin.

From this, one can begin to see the relationship between Bitcoins supply-side mechanics and its market price. The independent researcher and investorPlanB took this a step further when creating the stock-to-flow model.

They begin their thesis with a question that many have asked:

Surely, this [Bitcoins] digital scarcity has value. But how much?

The stock-to-flow hypothesis states that the scarcity of Bitcoins as measured by SF, where SF = stock/flow directly drives the market value of Bitcoins.

Stock is the total size of the existing stockpiles or reserves of the asset, while flow signifies the yearly production. Consider the following illustration.

There are currently 185,000 metric tons of gold in the world. Thats the stock.

The annual supply of gold or how much gold is mined every year in the world equals 3,000 metric tons. Thats the flow.

In other words, the annual supply growth of gold equals 1.6%.

To get the SF ratio of gold, one would divide the stock with the flow and arrive at an SF ratio of 62.

An SF of 62 means that, at the current rate of production, it would take roughly 62 years (185,000 / 3,000 = 61.6) to replenish the existing stock of gold in the world.

In comparison, Bitcoins current stock is 16.8 million (for more on how this figure was determined, please readthis article), while the supply of new Bitcoins, or the flow, is 0.7 million a year.

This puts bitcoins SF ratio at 24.

Given that the flow of Bitcoins is fixed, and it halves every 210,000 blocks or roughly every four years, with the nexthalvingevent, Bitcoins current SF of 24 will double to 48. This will bring Bitcoins value proposition closer in line with that of gold.

Bitcoins halving event is predicted to occur on May 12, 2020.

According to PlanBsstock-to-flowmodel, there is a statistically significant relationship between Bitcoins SF and the market price of bitcoins.

To quote PlanB directly:

The likelihood that the relationship between stock-to-flow and market value is caused by chance is close to zero.

PlanBs stock-to-flow model predicts a stunning Bitcoin market capitalization of $1 trillion in the one to two years following the next halving event in May.

A market cap of $1 trillion would put the price of one bitcoin at $55,000. With such a generous price tag on the worlds most unpredictable digital asset, PlanBs analysis has been criticized often.

Thelatest criticismcomes from Eric Wall, the CIO of Arcane Assets.

Wall claims that the S2F model is flawed insofar as it relies too heavily on supply and demand narratives as well as ever-changing statistical models. Instead, he proposes an alternative called the Rainbow Chart.

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.

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Stream It Or Skip It: Bad Education on HBO, a Funny White-Collar-Crook Bio Featuring Hugh Jackmans Best Performance Yet – News Lagoon

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Writer Mike Makowsky was a firsthand witness of sorts to the real-life events inspiring Bad Education, which debuted at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and now sees wide launch via HBO. He was a six-year-old student in Roslyn Public Schools when he first met Frank Tassone, and witnessed firsthand how revered and influential the superintendent was until he was busted in 2004 for embezzling millions from the district, engineering the largest school theft in American history. With Makwoskys close ties to the saga, and Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney cast as leads, will the movie be more than just another based-on-a-true-story story?

The Gist: Roslyn High School is fourth in the country in college-acceptance rates. Fourth! And its all due to Frank Tassone. He meticulously grooms himself in the morning, spritzing cologne on his neck and plucking stray nose hairs. He walks into his office, decorated with silver balloons shaped like 4s, a snow day magic wand and issues of Life Extension magazine. He says absolutely perfect things to a helicopter parent hyperventilating about her sons troubles in school. He inspires a young journalist from the school paper to write more than just a puff piece about the schools multimillion-dollar skywalk project. Hes thanked with a basket of candy from local real estate developers, who love him for making the district great and therefore inspiring skyrocketing property values.

At lunchtime, Frank sits in the football-stadium bleachers with assistant super/business manager Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney). He laments the health-food smoothie hes consuming. I would kill somebody for a carb right now, he says, and she feeds him a big honking bite of her pastrami-on-rye. He leads the local ladies book club, and attendees didnt even read the selection. Theyre in awe of him, in his crisp light-blue oxford with white collar and cuffs adorned with fancy cufflinks. He offers to help with the dishes, and the hostess leans in, but he leans away. The memory of his late wife is too fresh, he says.

He goes to Vegas for a conference, and dutifully attends snoozy lectures while his colleagues gamble. Afterward, he sits down for a drink and recognizes the bartender: Kyle Contreras (Rafael Casal), a former student from 15 years ago when he taught English. Frank remembers his name, because he remembers everybodys name, because he and Gluckin stay at work late so she can quiz him on everybodys name. He and Kyle have dinner, and then go back to Franks hotel room and make out and then the movie cuts away. Hey now.

So about that young journalist, Rachel (Geraldine Viswanathan). Shes no longer OK with writing a crappy puff piece, so she confidently plops down in Gluckins office and asks about project budgets and contractor bids. Gluckin is only slightly icy when she tosses Rachel the key to the firetrap basement records room, although if Rachel saw Gluckins seaside near-manse and Corvette convertible, she might have even more questions about how a public school administrators humble salary can indulge such extravagant tastes. I mean, Gluckins husband is a car salesman. Gluckins niece (Annaleigh Ashford) is the office secretary who helps Rachel make a zillion photocopies of school records with some big numbers on them, and it seems like only a matter of time before some of the people in charge around there are something that rhymes with glucked.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Remember how Philip Seymour Hoffman totally owned Owning Mahowny, playing a buttoned-up gambling addict who bilked big stacks of cash from the bank he worked for? You dont? (Does anybody whos not a movie critic remember?) Well, watch the damn thing, and youll see a character whos pretty much the opposite of Frank Tarrone in a similar stressful situation.

Performance Worth Watching: This is easily one of Jackmans best performances possibly THE best, especially in the first act, when hes sparklingly charming. And the second act, when he tries to keep all the squirming puppies in the box And in the third act, when he shows how a life of subterfuge sad on one hand, infuriating on the other can quickly crumble, and he makes a hard left into villainy.

Memorable Dialogue: Skywalk is big. Gets us to first!, Frank chirps.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Director Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds) and Makowsky initially strike the perfect, slyly satirical gettin-away-with-it tone, then, as soon as Gluckin goes up in flames and locks angry eyes with Frank for throwing her under the bus, seamlessly segue to I-feel-like-Im-sitting-on-an-atomic-bomb-waiting-for-it-to-go-off suspenseful drama. They nurture uniformly excellent performances, from Jackmans multifaceted charisma to Janneys trademark irascibility to Ray Romanos fluster as the school-board president to Viswanathans earnestness, which anchors the story.

The filmmakers cleverly embed character bits in the movies little visual details. The way Frank is yanked off a beanbag chair while chatting with sixth-graders so he can be informed of Gluckins malfeasance, for example. Or, in a touch of shrewd symbolism, how he carefully applies concealer to his eye wrinkles. Or how Rachel spreads out the schools sketchy budget paperwork on the floor of her bedroom with a pile of period-specific Beanie Babies watching. This is a terrific movie, smart, character-driven, frequently funny and highly entertaining.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Bad Education bullseyes the sweet spot between realism and elevated drama, making it several cuts above the usual based-on-a-true-story fodder.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

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Norway proposes extension to its Arctic oil exploration boundary – Reuters

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OSLO (Reuters) - Norway plans to extend its no-go zone for oil exploration in the countrys Arctic waters but stopped short of areas for which licences have already been granted to oil companies.

The government on Friday proposed an extension of the so-called ice edge boundary to the constantly changing southern fringe of the permanent ice sheet. Anything north of that line is considered off-limits for oil drilling.

However, the new line remains sufficiently far north that it does not affect existing exploration licences.

Its a good compromise, Oil and Energy Minister Tina Bru told a news conference.

The centre-right minority government is expected to gain cross-party support for the proposal, which has been under consideration for months, with the right-wing Progress Party having expressed fears that oil companies could be robbed of existing exploration acreage.

This is a better starting point for negotiations on a compromise, Progress Party MP Jon Georg Dale told broadcaster NRK on Friday.

The Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, an industry lobby group, welcomed the proposal ahead of a new oil exploration licensing round that the government plans to hold after the ice edge plan is approved by parliament.

But the news was less well received by environmentalists.

Greenpeace said the government has put the interests of the oil industry ahead of the science.

The Norwegian Polar Institute and the Norwegian Marine Research Institute had proposed the ice edge be moved even further south than in the governments plan.

The proposal was based on scientific research showing that sea ice has a more widespread impact on Arctic life than previously thought.

When spring comes, the area covered by drifting ice becomes abundant with life, with algae bloom supporting zooplankton growth, which in turn attracts fish, birds and sea mammals.

If they do not listen to the scientific advice in this incredibly important matter, they cannot say that they are taking climate and the green transition seriously, Frode Pleym, the head of Greenpeace in Norway, told Reuters.

The new line is drawn where sea ice appeared 15% of the time in April, its maximum winter extent, from 1988 to 2017. The previous line was based on 30% probability and the years between 1967 and 1989.

Editing by Gwladys Fouche and David Goodman

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Norway proposes extension to its Arctic oil exploration boundary - Reuters

Senators hope ECQ extension will be the last – Philippine Star

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MANILA, Philippines Senators are hoping that cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would continue to taper off and that the latest extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will be the last so that enough resources would be left to jumpstart economic recovery.

The lawmakers also supported President Dutertes decision to extend the lockdown in Metro Manila and other high-risk areas while easing restrictions in others.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the entire country must exert all efforts to help contain the spread of COVID-19 in the last 21 days of ECQ even as he warned that the Filipinos way of life may not be the same again or a new normal may be enforced after restrictions are lifted.

Lives and health before economy. The economy can be revived later but a life lost cannot be resurrected. Only Jesus does that, Sotto said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the extension was expected but the governmentwill eventually have to allow people to get back to work little by little, and plan for the next three years.

Expect a new normal with physical distancing, wearing masks, lack of consumer confidence, worker confidence and investor confidence. The government must prepare for mass testing, isolation and treatment. Invest more on healthcare infrastructure. Incentivize health workers, nurses, doctors etc. and provide worker subsidies, interest free loans for businesses and repurpose industries, Recto said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the country wasstill a thousand miles away from flattening the curve and despite the missteps and shortcomings of some government agencies, it cannot be denied that ECQ has contributed its share in minimizing the spread of the virus.

As the country takes the cautious, calculated step of extending quarantine, the government must at the same time expedite relief and succor to the vulnerable sectors, Sen. Grace Poe said.

She said poverty has been exacerbated by this pandemic, thus concerned agencies should work double time so that all forms of assistance reach target families who are in need.

Congressmen also welcomed yesterday the decision of President Duterte to again extend quarantine.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the quarantine has been effective in preventing spread of the disease so far.

The ECQ is working, so lets help one another in making it successful, he told reporters in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City where he donated food supplies for police Special Action Force.

Valenzuela City Rep. Wes Gatchalian, House trade and industry committee chairman, said the health of the people is the primary concern of the government but he also urged the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases to consider adjusting rules on specific trade sectors in order to sustain the needs of communities under the extended quarantine.

Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co, one of the original proponents of the selective and modified quarantine scheme, lauded the decision of President Duterte to extend the ECQ in Metro Manila and other provinces while gradually easing stay-at-home orders in areas with zero or very few cases of COVID-19.

Last April 14,Co pushed for conditional quarantine lifting to restart economic activities in select areas and help ease governments burden during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include island-provinces with zero to one case of COVID-19 in the last 15 days or in the case of municipalities only those with zero cases.

The objective of quarantine lifting is to allow people, albeit in limited numbers and in select localities, to return to their jobs. Were fighting a protracted war and until no vaccine is invented, governments limited resources cant support and feed all those who were displaced. We need to save government funds for the longer battle, Co said.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said the ECQ extension is necessary to save lives at the expense of large economic losses that could anyway be recovered in years to come.

Salceda explained that while the two-month quarantine could result in P1.2 trillion in economic losses, health standards should first be met before ECQ could be lifted.

The health outcomes will decide everything. Any temporary recovery that takes place when we lift the ECQ prematurely is illusory. We need sustained recovery, because certainty is the foundation of lasting economic recovery. Thats why I support the decision tool that the IATF is adopting, he pointed out.

Salceda suggested four measures to be put in place during the extended ECQ period comprehensive measures to protect at-risk and vulnerable population, strict compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions like wearing face mask and social distancing, full protection for frontliners and readiness for peak capacity and mass testing of at least 0.22 percent of pupulation.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. backed yesterday the extension of ECQ in Metro Manila and other high risk provinces until May 15.

What a relief. I believe in it and advocated it, Locsin said in a post on Twitter.

He said he has informed his counterparts from the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) about the extension of the ECQ in some parts of the country during their recent videoconference.

The DFA said 818 more Filipino workers were repatriated from the United Kingdom, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo and Australia and arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Thursday afternoon and early yesterday morning.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) yesterday lamented that thebiggest problems right now under the COVID-19 quarantine are inadequate mass testing, slow social amelioration for the poor, the economic slowdown and relentless assaults on human rights. With Edu Punay, Helen Flores, Rhodina Villanueva, Czeriza Valencia

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Senators hope ECQ extension will be the last - Philippine Star

Power shortages will remain a big challenge in a post-COVID-19 South Africa – The Conversation Africa

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The decline in economic activity precipitated by the spread of COVID-19 and ensuing lockdown in South Africa is also affecting the countrys electricity supply dynamics. The power outages that were disrupting the economy just a month earlier are suddenly contained. Electricity demand in the lockdown period has decreased by about 7,500MW, corresponding to almost a quarter of its normal peak capacity.

Given that Eskom, the national power utility, is using the lockdown period for some of its regular plant maintenance routines, more reliable supply can be expected in the latter part of the year. Electricity demand is likely to remain suppressed after the lockdown but this relief wont extend for more than a few months.

The utility has had some success in keeping many of its vulnerable generating plants operational, and is adopting a more rigorous maintenance regime. But electricity production capacity remains critically low.

When the country finally emerges from COVID-19, it will face a severely damaged economy requiring a massive rebuild. The electricity supply shortage will once again rear its head.

Some help could be provided by renewable energy projects scheduled to come on stream this year.

These include 12 solar farms and 12 wind farms. The first two developments were completed in February.

Construction for these plants was initiated in 2018 following the leadership change in the ruling African National Congress, after a three-year delay.

While the 2,177MW of power provided by these 24 new solar and wind projects appears to be substantial, one must remember that this output corresponds to optimal generating conditions (fresh winds and an overhead sun). In reality, in view of variable weather conditions and the day/night cycle, these plants produce roughly the same amount of electricity as just one of the six units of a large coal plant such as Duvha running non-stop. This is less than the 1,000MW that corresponds to stage one of loadshedding (the phased limitation of supply).

Its therefore essential to expedite the process leading to the development of more generation capacity beyond those currently under construction.

One important hurdle that has been cleared is the adoption of the updated Integrated Resource Plan for electricity last year. This blueprint, which is supposed to be revised every two years, had previously not been updated since 2011.

Several drafts had been produced in the interim, but none were adopted by government. This was presumably because these interim drafts recommended an energy mix that excluded any new nuclear build, a programme that the administration of former president Jacob Zuma was strongly in favour of.

The now official Integrated Resource Plan envisages the steady growth of the renewable energy fraction at the expense of old coal plants, which would gradually be decommissioned.

In particular, the plan would add 1,600MW of wind power each year from 2022 to 2030, as well 6,000MW of new solar energy for that period (starting with 1,000MW in 2022).

Also envisaged for this nine-year time span are two new 750MW coal plants, with the first up and running in 2023, a total of 3,000MW from gas plants (the first of which is supposed to be operational in 2024), and 2,500MW from the Grand Inga dam on the Congo river.

Some relief of the power shortages will come from the presently partly operational Medupi and Kusile megaprojects, whose much-postponed commissioning is expected in the coming few years, and the planned life extension of the Koeberg nuclear plant (which will however not provide extra capacity). But these measures wont suffice to mitigate the closures of the old coal plants.

Some of the new builds are already in doubt. The Grand Inga project, tentatively scheduled for completion in 2030, is facing serious challenges. The future of the newly planned coal plants is also in question. As a primary driver of global warming, coal power is being increasingly maligned, and a large number of potential funding agencies now have policies not to support any coal project. That means that, at least in the medium term, newly initiated projects will be restricted to renewable energy and gas.

Solar and wind projects have a short construction time. The challenge is the regulatory and administrative hurdles that must be cleared before a project can go ahead. These relate to bid submission, review and selection, financial closure and signing of contracts with Eskom. Before the stalling of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme in 2015, the time between the bidding call and plant commissioning was typically three years. That would make the projected 2022 completion date for the next batch or projects practically unachievable.

There are also concerns that the government and the electricity regulator arent demonstrating the required urgency to kickstart a new round of projects. Renewables are perceived as a direct threat to the coal industry, and trade unions allied to the governing party organising in the coal sector are particularly anxious about the inevitable energy transition. Theres also a feeling in some quarters that the mining and energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, a former mining sector unionist, is siding with the coal sector.

But there is a glimmer of hope. Mantashe has just issued two determinations for the procurement of considerable additional power generating capacity.

The first determination is for 2,000MW of emergency power of any technology. Its 2022 completion deadline cannot realistically be met by new builds, so it remains to be seen if the targeted capacity can be achieved by innovative short-term solutions, such as increasing the maximum capacity of existing plants.

The second determination is guided by the Integrated Resource Plan 2019: 4,800MW wind and 2,000MW solar required between 2022 and 2024, 3,000MW gas and 1,500MW coal up to 2027 and 513MW in storage capacity. With several procedural steps still required that show no sign of being expedited, its unlikely that proposals for new power plants will be requested before much later this year.

These plants will then most likely only become operational in late 2023, meaning that the power system will remain vulnerable until then.

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Power shortages will remain a big challenge in a post-COVID-19 South Africa - The Conversation Africa

A Brexit extension wouldn’t be the end of the world – Spectator.co.uk

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Is there going to be an extension to the Brexit transitional period during which the UK must obey EU rules and keep stumping up cash for Brussels? The answer may appear obvious: David Frost, the UKs chief negotiator, has unequivocally and publicly ruled it out. As he tweeted on 16 April: 'Transition ends on December 31 this year. We will not ask to extend it. If the EU asks we will say no.'

But, this being politics, Frosts statement leaves a key question unanswered. Namely: Is there going to be an extension to the Brexit transitional period? I do not mean to cast aspersions on Frosts integrity here, but I merely note that in his early months as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson promised that we would leave the EU on 31 October, 2019 'come what may'. And then we didnt.

Few blamed him, recognising that the failure to leave was not his fault and that the strength of his public commitment had shaken Brussels out of a complacent belief that Britain would never leave without a deal, causing it to reopen Theresa Mays flawed deal.

So it would be a perfectly respectable negotiating tactic to publicly claim there are no circumstances in which an extension will be considered in order to pile more pressure on Brussels, while privately holding a slightly less unequivocal position.

The downsides of allowing an extension, which technically would need to be requested by the end of June, are many and obvious. First, it could shatter confidence in the Government among pro-Brexit voters given that the Tory manifesto of December categorically ruled it out. That could in turn reignite Nigel Farage, breathing new life into his defunct Brexit party and smashing the monopoly over Eurosceptic opinion that is the foundation of current Tory fortunes.

Secondly, for the UK to request such an extension by the middle of this year would be rightly seen as a huge sign of weakness, throwing us onto the defensive in future relationship negotiations. In effect, Boris Johnson would be re-running the horrible political half-life of Theresa May, degrading before our eyes from a supposedly decisive leader into a sad and useless remnant.

As people around Johnson have been saying, an extension would not appear to solve any fundamental problem with reaching a stable agreement on trade or anything else. Either each side is ready to do a deal, or it isnt. If the latter is true then far better to halt our contributions to the EU budget, move to WTO terms and negotiate mutually beneficial evolutionary improvements to terms of trade from there rather than just drift on in a morale-sapping stalemate.

So I do not, for a moment, expect the UK either to ask for or agree to an extension by the end of June, as stipulated in the Withdrawal Agreement. And neither should it. The British Government will instead keep the pressure on Brussels all the way through summer and autumn. And this time there will be no stitch-up between Hilary Benn, Dominic Grieve and the Commons Speaker to lessen the pressure on the EU by outlawing a 'no-deal' outcome.

However, if negotiations proceed well, with concessions being made to Britain by Brussels and it just turns out that the coronavirus pandemic really has compressed timelines to the point that otherwise-attainable beneficial outcomes are ruled out then are we really to believe that there will be no 'give' whatever in the 31 December deadline?

I think under those circumstances, were Boris Johnson to wish it, he and he alone could sell to the British public an extension of a few weeks certainly no more than three months to make up for lost time and allow the final loose ends to be tied up.

The media would, as they did in autumn 2019, no doubt try to bash him over the head with his own unmet deadline. But the public would see that it had, once again, concentrated minds across the Channel and would put up with it so long as they were confident Johnson was closing in on the Brussels jugular and about to deliver a winning hand for Britain.

So will there be an extension? Its unlikely but actually not impossible in spite of the words of David Frost. If there is one it will be declared at the eleventh hour. And the British public will tolerate it so long as it embodies the essential characteristics of life without legitimate government as identified by Thomas Hobbes in his poem Leviathan. In other words, it would need to be nasty, brutish and short.

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A Brexit extension wouldn't be the end of the world - Spectator.co.uk

Simon Walker writes: Feeding the habit in times of social isolation – Newcastle Herald

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news, local-news,

Lockdown has created some routine challenges in our household over the last month which we've been rising to with varying degrees of success. Problem drinking hasn't been one of them. That's because I stockpiled the minute I realised this pandemic thing was going to get serious. Beer, wine, cooking sherry - I'm not proud. It was more a practicality thing. But it's interesting what a prepper will hoard when they sense the apocalypse is nigh. Fair to say I was probably less concerned about a water outage, and by the way, is it beer o'clock yet? The fear at the outset was that along with everything else they would close my local bottlo. Turned out bottle shops were deemed not places of social congregation, leading me to wonder if authorities had ever been to my local bottlo. Staying home, shopping less but buying more has extended into fruit and veg too, leading to concerns about problem eating. Someone's got to chew down the pantry. No sooner do we finish one meal then word goes out about what's for dinner tomorrow. You've got to have something to look forward to in social isolation. Unfortunately this puts pressure on the lockdown chef, most of whom only have a limited number of deadset, sure-fire, crowd-pleasing winners in the cooking repertoire. That well can run dry pretty quick as days and meals roll into one. Before you know it, the rotation is back to ground zero - potato. And with repetition comes the risk of copping heat from your captive eating audience. Problem drinking helps ease the sting of criticism, but as a rule, it's recommended most of the sauce goes in the actual sauce, not the sorcerer. Maintaining the kitchen magic has led to another questionable method of breaking routines in our household - problem baking. It's an extension of problem eating that's evolved to fill the gaps round morning and afternoon tea. And when I say "fill the gaps", I mean "pack the saddle bags". Biscuits, cakes, fondue, a straight packet of castor sugar guzzled like a can of Solo - anything to tame those sweet-tooth receptors. All in the name of a cup of tea. I don't mean to make light of the situation because that's not where this is heading. After a month of problem drinking, eating and baking, lockdown has led, inevitably almost, to problem exercising. A challenge at the best of times. But the mirror doesn't lie - there's clearly another curve that needs flattening and we've been giving it a crack every afternoon. Exercise I mean. And when I say crack, I also mean groan, because exercise hurts after being cooped up all day. There's a worry we've all grown a bit too. And not just spiritually. Taking the edge off lockdown routine has made us more rounded human beings in many ways. More from Simon Walker: The complete That's Life archive

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OPINION

April 26 2020 - 4:00PM

Lockdown has created some routine challenges in our household over the last month which we've been rising to with varying degrees of success.

Problem drinking hasn't been one of them. That's because I stockpiled the minute I realised this pandemic thing was going to get serious.

Beer, wine, cooking sherry - I'm not proud. It was more a practicality thing. But it's interesting what a prepper will hoard when they sense the apocalypse is nigh.

Fair to say I was probably less concerned about a water outage, and by the way, is it beer o'clock yet?

The fear at the outset was that along with everything else they would close my local bottlo.

Turned out bottle shops were deemed not places of social congregation, leading me to wonder if authorities had ever been to my local bottlo.

Staying home, shopping less but buying more has extended into fruit and veg too, leading to concerns about problem eating. Someone's got to chew down the pantry.

No sooner do we finish one meal then word goes out about what's for dinner tomorrow.

You've got to have something to look forward to in social isolation.

Unfortunately this puts pressure on the lockdown chef, most of whom only have a limited number of deadset, sure-fire, crowd-pleasing winners in the cooking repertoire.

That well can run dry pretty quick as days and meals roll into one.

Before you know it, the rotation is back to ground zero - potato. And with repetition comes the risk of copping heat from your captive eating audience.

Problem drinking helps ease the sting of criticism, but as a rule, it's recommended most of the sauce goes in the actual sauce, not the sorcerer.

Maintaining the kitchen magic has led to another questionable method of breaking routines in our household - problem baking.

It's an extension of problem eating that's evolved to fill the gaps round morning and afternoon tea. And when I say "fill the gaps", I mean "pack the saddle bags".

Biscuits, cakes, fondue, a straight packet of castor sugar guzzled like a can of Solo - anything to tame those sweet-tooth receptors.

All in the name of a cup of tea.

I don't mean to make light of the situation because that's not where this is heading.

After a month of problem drinking, eating and baking, lockdown has led, inevitably almost, to problem exercising.

A challenge at the best of times.

But the mirror doesn't lie - there's clearly another curve that needs flattening and we've been giving it a crack every afternoon.

And when I say crack, I also mean groan, because exercise hurts after being cooped up all day. There's a worry we've all grown a bit too. And not just spiritually.

Taking the edge off lockdown routine has made us more rounded human beings in many ways.

View original post here:

Simon Walker writes: Feeding the habit in times of social isolation - Newcastle Herald

Covid-19: NCDC hints at extension of lockdown – Vanguard

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NCDC DG, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu*As Labour warns FG against using Pension Funds as Palliatives*We wont touch it, SGF assures*5, 000 health workers get Life Insurance Cover*FG asks farmers to get ready for farming seasonBy Omeiza Ajayi

Barely two days to the end of the second round of a 14-day shutdown of the nations capital, Abuja as well as Lagos and Ogun states, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control NCDC has hinted at the likelihood of the extension of the current lockdown, saying Nigeria has not gotten to the point where its containment protocols could be relaxed.

This was even as the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC warned the federal government against deploying the Contributory Pension Fund as Palliatives in the fight against the Novel Coronavirus.

On its part, the Federal Government which promised not to touch the pension fund, announced that Nigerias insurance industry has offered a life insurance to 5, 000 health workers who are in the front line of the fight against Covid-19.

Government also asked farmers in the country to get set to return to farm as the planting season begins, saying the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has put in place several farming incentives.

These were some of the disclosures yesterday in Abuja at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19.

Lockdown continues

Speaking at the event, Director General of the NCDC, Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu said while relevant authorities are working hard to get to a point where the restriction measures can be eased, the country was yet to get to that point.

He said; I will like to start by thanking everyone for their continued sacrifice on this journey and their continued cooperation with the lockdown as advised and instituted by Mr President and many other Governors across the country.

As we travelled round the country over the last four days, we could really see how difficult it has been and how hard Nigerians have been trying to do their best. We know it is a difficult journey but we also know that we will eventually exit this stage and we return to our normal lives, but that stage is still a while to come and I ask for your endurance, your support, your patience. A lot of efforts are going on across the world to find new therapies, to find vaccines and everybody is pushing very hard in this direction. So, we need to stay firm.

Spreading the virus, we do when we go out. We are an outgoing society. We live and work outdoors. So, staying at home and thinking about every movement we make is very important especially when we feel the need to travel. I recognize how difficult these things are at the moment. Many families I know personally have not been able to bury their dead, they have rescheduled their marriages, baptisms and everything they are doing. So, in a way it feels like life has been suspended or we have suspended so many of the things that we hold dear. I am sure that as leaders, we recognise the sacrifices being made by all Nigerians but we have to encourage each other to continue. Continue until we get to the position where we can relax some of that, but to get to that place, we have to continue in the short term, he added.

Life Insurance

In his opening remarks, Chairman of the Taskforce and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha said the paperwork for several allowances meant for health workers have been concluded.

He said; Today, the welfare of our front line heroes, the health workers came to the front burner. I am pleased to inform you that the Federal Ministry of Health working in conjunction with other MDAs and the Health sector professional bodies have signed an MOU for various allowances and other incentives. The full details will be unveiled to you by the Hon. Minister of Health soon.

I am however pleased to inform you that, in addition to what the Federal Government is doing, the Insurance Industry has responded massively to the call for support. The PTF has received the Life Insurance cover to the frontline workers on COVID-19 for a maximum of 5000 health workers who are employed to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The premium in the sum of N112,500,000 for the cover has been fully paid by the Nigerian Insurance Industry in line with the principle of No Premium, No Cover.

The PTF wishes to thank the Insurance Industry immensely and calls on other sectors of the economy to rise up to support the efforts to fight COVID-19. I also call on our frontline health workers to double their efforts just as we assure them of our determination to protect them, he added.

Agric incentives

I also wish to use this opportunity to restate that food security and self-sufficiency remain important to our national life. I therefore urge all our farmers to begin to prepare for their return to the farms as the planting season begins. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has put in place arrangements for access to farm inputs, extension and other services, Mustapha added.

Nine Nigerian infected in China

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama dismissed reports that 72 Nigerians had tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus in Guangzhou, China, saying official figures indicate that those affected are only nine. He however conceded that Nigerian Consular officials in the Chinese Province explained that some Nigerians were asymptomatic.

He said; We have been in touch with our Consulate in Guangzhou which is the epicentre of this whole thing happening in China regarding Nigerians and Covid-19, and the official figure that was given was nine Nigerians. They added that a number of Nigerians were asymptomatic but the figures that we have are nine, he said.

On his part, Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire said the ministry has already deployed Covid-19 starter packs to all tertiary health institutions in the country.

We have now deployed Covid-19 starter packs to all tertiary institutions and Federal Medical Centres, to complement what was earlier sent to each State. The starter packs consist of medical consumables and disposables, to ensure that our frontline healthcare workers are protected.

The Covid-19 capable national laboratory network led by NCDC has capacity to test over 1,500 samples per day in 13 laboratories, but the present utilization is barely 50%, since we averagely test about 600 samples daily, being the samples receivied per day. Efforts are on to increase the number of functional laboratories in the country, however, we need to meanwhile improve surveillance, sample collection strategy and transport logistics to laboratories and reduce the turn around time for the tests. In our strategy, testing positive is followed by Isolation and treatment, as needed, he added.

Pension Fund

President, Nigerian Labour Congress NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba warned the federal government against touching the Contributory Pension Fund in its bid to galvanise resources against Covid-19.

He said; The Contributory Pension Fund is the money that belongs to the Pensioner. It is in the Pensioners Retirement Savings Account and it is structured in such a way that he would continue to draw this money through out his life. So, we need to control those funds and we need to also make sure that the workers who are contributing this money, at the end of the day when they are no longer working, they should be able to have something to rely on. So, clearly, I think it should not be used for this purpose (Covid-19), he said.

Responding, the SGF said the federal government will not touch the said funds.

He said; We have looked at the issue of the Pension Fund. As a matter of fact, we even got the Minister of state, Education, to do us a position paper and our conclusion was that the time is not even right for us to go there because the entire world, in terms of our economy, health system has been disrupted by Covid-19 and the consequences, nobody can imagine until probably when the dust is settled. I am being honest with you. The consequences are all over the world.

Vanguard

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Covid-19: NCDC hints at extension of lockdown - Vanguard

Latest Litecoin price and analysis (LTC to USD) – Yahoo Finance

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With volatility slowly but surely creeping out of the cryptocurrency market, Litecoin has continued to consolidate in a sideways pattern above the $39.54 level of support.

It has now been trading with in a 10% range for the past fortnight as it struggled to makes its way towards the psychological level of resistance at $50.

As noted on Coin Rivets previous analysis, the daily 200 moving average is posing a key hurdle for a number of top cryptocurrencies, including Litecoin.

It is currently coming in at $52.60, which means if it can breakout above $50 it could well be met with another stumbling block.

The bullish narrative that is circulating among long-term Litecoin investors relates to the upcoming Bitcoin halving, which is expected to commence in 19 days.

Historically when Bitcoin underwent a halving it acted as a catalyst for a series of bull markets, causing altcoins like Ethereum and Litecoin to rally significantly in the following months.

The theory is that as Bitcoins price will surge as new supply coming onto the market gets slashed. Investors and traders will then take profits and diversify into more speculative assets, causing the notorious altcoin season that many have been waiting for.

However, the Bitcoin halving being a bullish event is far from certain this year as a result of the economic downturn the entire world is suffering.

The coronavirus pandemic caused the stock market to suffer its worst slide since the 2008 financial crisis, while the likes of oil momentarily traded at a negative due to oversupply.

Another decline like this would certainty have an impact on cryptocurrencies as investors attempt to liquidate assets as panic sets in.

For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, clickhere.

Litecoin was released in October 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee. It is a fork of Bitcoin, with the main difference being a smaller block generation time. The protocol also increased the maximum number of coins and implemented a different script-based algorithm.

Litecoin is one of the leading cryptocurrencies and is one of thetop 10 cryptocurrenciesby market capitalisation.

If you want to find out more information about LTC orcryptocurrenciesin general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Heres an article to get you started:

https://coinrivet.com/litecoin-becomes-official-cryptocurrency-of-the-miami-dolphins/

As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not.

You may be interested in our range ofcryptocurrency guidesalong with the latest cryptocurrencynews.

Read more:

Latest Litecoin price and analysis (LTC to USD) - Yahoo Finance

Litecoin News Today – Litecoin LTC Climbs to $42 As Altcoin Market Resumes Recovery – April 23rd, 2020 – Smartereum

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Litecoin news today After the bulk of altcoins in the digital asset market experienced massive losses last month and in recent days, today these tokens are making strides towards recovery. They are all following Bitcoins footsteps. At press time almost every top digital asset is recording gains. One of these tokens is LTC. The Litecoin price has now climbed from the $41 (the position in the late hours of April 22, to its current location of $42. This move is an increase of 2.5% in the past 24 hours. Let us see more about how Litecoin performed since yesterday.

A look at the charts shows that the price of LTC looks good in the short-term outlook. However, the coin may be facing strong resistance above its current position. At least thats what one crypto analyst thinks. According to digital currency analyst David Smith, after looking at the technicals for LTC/USD, the markets current performance is set to continue although LTC might face resistance. Per his analysis, Litecoins price retraced from its lower boundary.

Litecoin (LTC) Price Today LTC / USD

If LTC/USD can pass its midline channel, it will be more likely to see sustained growth. Hence, investors can take a long position. Alternatively, there could be another opportunity if there is a correction at the lower boundary after a retracement. Another analyst called, Alex Clay is equally bullish as well. He stated that the Litecoin price has broken the ascending triangle. According to him, currently, LTC prove now faces strong resistance. If the digital asset can push through this resistance, then investors can take a long position as well. Finally, if the price of LTC undergoes a correction after a retracement, there will be another opportunity to take a long position.

Despite the bullish outlook of most analysts, others still think LTC is still bearish and speaks against long positions. Analyst Oguzhan Sengor analyzed the long-term price of Litecoin. He has reached the bearish. A look at the monthly chart shows that the Tom Demark indicator (the signal that measures the demand for an underlying instrument) has entered the red region for the past month, which is a bearish sign for the medium-term outlook. Additionally, the price of Litecoin is below its monthly moving average, which another strong bearish indicator. Hence, the cryptocurrency analyst believes that the price of Litecoin will drop to the $13 area in the medium-term.

Ufuoma Ogono is a cryptocurrency writer with over 3 years experience in the cryptocurrency industry. She dedicates her time to sharing valuable information to members of the cryptocurrency community.

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Litecoin News Today - Litecoin LTC Climbs to $42 As Altcoin Market Resumes Recovery - April 23rd, 2020 - Smartereum

0x Is Now The Longest Held Cryptocurrency, Litecoin And Ethereum Follow – CryptoTicker.io

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CryptoDiffer released new data on Apr 24 detailing the comparison between the average holding time period of different crypto-assets. The list was curated based on top 15 crypto-assets, which are popular on Coinbase. The data revealed that 0x (ZRX) is the longest held cryptocurrency at 137 days, Litecoin (LTC) came second with an average holding period of 130 days and Ethereum came third at 106 days. Ethereum Classic (ETC) took the fourth position at 98 days and Bitcoin (BTC) surprisingly could manage only the fifth position at 94 days.

TOP 15 Cryptocurrencies according to @Coinbase users in April@0xProject remains to be the leader with 137 days of holding period. @LitecoinProject and @ethereum still have the holding period > 100 days$BTC $ETH $LTC $BCH $XRP $XLM $BAT $ZRX $EOS $XTZ $ETC $LINK $DAI $OXT $ZEC pic.twitter.com/be41dVCZJH CryptoDiffer (@CryptoDiffer) April 24, 2020

On the contrary, the shortest holding period was 2 days for the Dai Stablecoin (DAI), Orchid (OXT) came second at 5 days average holding period. EOS (EOS) managed third position with 8 days. Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Tezos (XTZ) jointly shared the fourth position at 29 days. Stellar (XLM) bagged the fifth position with 35 days.

The average holding time period is a significant indicator of investorss confidence or lack of it, in any project. Generally, the more confident and trustful people are about a project, the longer they hold it for, hoping for further increase in the value and price of a project. On the contrary, the more unconfident and distrustful people are about a project, the shorter they hold it for, fearing a further decrease in the value and price of a project.

However, there are exceptions. For instance, DAI is a stablecoins, they are by the nature of their utility, act as a precursor for other activity and hence arent generally held for long. Further, the coins with staking or masternode feature are also kept for long periods of time, since they return profits in exchange for a holders contributions to the network.

In order to support and motivate the CryptoTicker team, especially in times of Corona, to continue to deliver good content, we would like to ask you to donate a small amount. Independent journalism can only survive if we stick together as a society. Thank you

Instant Crypto Credit Lines from only 5.9% APR. Earn up to 8% interest per year on your Stablecoins, USD, EUR & GBP. $100 million custodial insurance.

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Disclaimer: The authors of this website may have invested in crypto currencies themselves. They are not financial advisors and only express their opinions. Anyone considering investing in crypto currencies should be well informed about these high-risk assets.

Trading with financial products, especially with CFDs involves a high level of risk and is therefore not suitable for security-conscious investors.CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of losing money quickly through leverage. Be aware that most private Investors lose money, if they decide to trade CFDs. Any type of trading and speculation in financial products that can produce an unusually high return is also associated with increased risk to lose money. Note that past gains are no guarantee of positive results in the future.

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Constellation team announced the launch of their Hypergraph mainnet on April 29 and migration of network's native Directed Acrylic Graph

According to areportreleased by Richard K. Lyons and Professor of Finance Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj, both from the University of California Berkley,

Enjin team announced on Apr 13 that its native wallet has received a major update, focusing on improvement of user

Read more:

0x Is Now The Longest Held Cryptocurrency, Litecoin And Ethereum Follow - CryptoTicker.io

Litecoin, Stellars Lumen, and Trons TRX Daily Analysis 22/04/20 – Yahoo Finance

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Litecoin

Litecoin rose by 1.09% on Tuesday. Partially reversing a 4.80% slide from Monday, Litecoin ended the day at $40.70.

It was a mixed start to the day. Litecoin rose to a mid-morning high $41.06 before sliding to a late morning intraday low $40.15.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $38.76, Litecoin rallied to a late afternoon intraday high $41.40.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $42.56, Litecoin fell back to sub-$41 levels late in the day.

At the time of writing, Litecoin was flat at $40.70. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall to an early morning low $40.33 before striking a high $40.96.

Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Litecoin would need to move back through to $40.80 levels to support a run the first major resistance level at $41.35.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to breakout out from the morning high $40.96.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $41.35 would likely limit any upside on the day.

Failure to move through to $40.80 levels could see Litecoin struggle later in the day.

A fall through the morning low $40.33 would bring the first major support level at $40.10 into play.

Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Litecoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $39.50.

Major Support Level: $40.10

Major Resistance Level: $41.35

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $62

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $78

62% FIB Retracement Level: $104

Stellars Lumen rose by 1.52% on Tuesday. Following on from a 0.94% gain on Monday, Stellars Lumen end the day at $0.051014.

A mixed start to the day saw Stellars Lumen rise to an early morning high $0.050722 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.05162, Stellars Lumen slid to a late morning intraday low $0.049320.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $0.04805, Stellars Lumen rallied to a late intraday high $0.051774.

Stellars Lumen broke through the first major resistance level at $0.05162 before easing back to sub-$0.05110 levels.

At the time of writing, Stellars Lumen was up by 1.54% to $0.051798. A bullish start to the day saw Stellars Lumen rise from an early morning low $0.050892 to a high $0.052117.

Steering clear of the major support levels, Stellars Lumen tested the first major resistance level at $0.05209 early on.

Story continues

Stellars Lumen would need to move back through the first major resistance level at $0.05209 to take a run at $0.053 levels.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Stellars Lumen to breakout from the morning high $0.052117.

Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, the first major resistance level would likely limit any upside on the day.

Failure to move back through the first major resistance level could see Stellars Lumen hit reverse.

A fall back through to sub-$0.05070 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.04963 into play.

Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Stellars Lumen should steer clear of sub-$0.050 levels.

Major Support Level: $0.04963

Major Resistance Level: $0.05209

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1051

38% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1433

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.2050

Trons TRX rose by 0.84% on Tuesday. Partially reversing a 3.38% slide from Monday, Trons TRX ended the day at $0.012512.

A bullish start to the day saw Trons TRX rise to an early morning high $0.012611 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.01303, Trons TRX tumbled to a late morning intraday low $0.012346.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $0.01208, Trons TRX rallied to a late afternoon intraday high $0.012715. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.01303, Trons TRX slid back to wrap up the day at $0.01250 levels.

At the time of writing, Trons TRX was up by 0.55% to $0.012581. A mixed start to the day saw Trons TRX fall to an early morning low $0.012462 before rising to a high $0.012592.

Trons TRX left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Trons TRX would need to move through to $0.012580 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.01270.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Trons TRX to break out from the morning high $0.012592.

Barring a crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $0.01270 would likely limit any upside.

Failure to move through to $0.012580 could see Trons TRX hit reverse.

A fall back through to sub-$0.01252 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.01233 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Trons TRX should steer clear of sub-$0.012 levels. The second major support level at $0.01216 should limit any downside.

Major Support Level: $0.01222

Major Resistance Level: $0.01270

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0322

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0452

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0663

Please let us know what you think in the comments below

Thanks, Bob

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

Link:

Litecoin, Stellars Lumen, and Trons TRX Daily Analysis 22/04/20 - Yahoo Finance

Litecoin, Stellars Lumen, and Trons TRX Daily Analysis 23/04/20 – Yahoo Finance

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Litecoin

Litecoin rose by 2.92% on Wednesday. Following on from a 1.09% gain on Tuesday, Litecoin ended the day at $41.88.

A bearish start to the day saw Litecoin fall to an early morning intraday low $40.33 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $40.10, Litecoin rallied to a late afternoon intraday high $42.38.

Litecoin broke through the first major resistance level at $41.35 and the second major resistance level at $42.00.

A late pullback saw Litecoin fall back through the second major resistance level to wrap up the day at sub-$42.00.

At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.17% to $41.81. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall to an early morning low $41.65 before striking a high $42.30.

Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Litecoin would need to move back through to $42 levels to support a run the first major resistance level at $42.73.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to breakout out from Wednesdays high $42.38.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $42.73 would likely limit any upside on the day.

Failure to move back through to $42 levels could see Litecoin fall deeper into the red.

A fall through to sub-$41.50 levels would bring the first major support level at $40.68 into play.

Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Litecoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $39.48.

Major Support Level: $40.68

Major Resistance Level: $42.73

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $62

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $78

62% FIB Retracement Level: $104

Stellars Lumen rallied by 7.88% on Wednesday. Following on from a 1.52% gain on Tuesday, Stellars Lumen ended the day at $0.05490.

Bullish throughout the day, Stellars Lumen rallied from an early morning intraday low $0.050892 to an early afternoon intraday high $0.05497.

Stellars Lumen broke through the first major resistance level at $0.05209 and the second major resistance level at $0.05316.

In spite of a brief pullback to sub-$0.054 levels, Stellars Lumen held above the second major resistance level before breaking back through to $0.054 levels.

At the time of writing, Stellars Lumen was up by 2.91% to $0.056497. A bullish start to the day saw Stellars Lumen rally from an early morning low $0.05500 to a high $0.057648.

Stellars Lumen broke through the first major resistance level at $0.05628 to test the second major resistance level at $0.05767.

Story continues

Stellars Lumen would need to hold above the first major resistance level at $0.05628 to take a run at the second major resistance level at $0.05767.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Stellars Lumen to breakout from the morning high $0.057648.

Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, the second major resistance level would likely limit any upside on the day.

Failure to hold above the first major resistance level could see Stellars Lumen hit reverse.

A fall back through to sub-$0.05360 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.05220 into play.

Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Stellars Lumen should steer clear of sub-$0.050 levels.

Major Support Level: $0.05220

Major Resistance Level: $0.05628

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1051

38% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1433

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.2050

Trons TRX rose by 3.92% on Wednesday. Following on from a 0.84% gain on Tuesday, Trons TRX ended the day at $0.012991.

A bearish start to the day saw Trons TRX fall to an early morning intraday low $0.012462 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $0.01233, Trons TRX rallied to a late afternoon intraday high $0.013129.

Trons TRX broke through the first major resistance level at $0.01270 and the second major resistance level at $0.01289.

In spite of a late pullback, Trons TRX held above the second major resistance level until the day end.

At the time of writing, Trons TRX was up by 1.38% to $0.013170. A mixed start to the day saw Trons TRX fall to an early morning low $0.012976 before striking a high $0.013170.

Trons TRX left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Trons TRX would need to avoid sub-$0.01290 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.01326.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Trons TRX to break through to $0.01320 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $0.01326 would likely limit any upside.

Failure to avoid sub-$0.01290 levels could see Trons TRX struggle later in the day.

A fall back through to sub-$0.01290 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.01259 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Trons TRX should steer clear of sub-$0.012 levels. The second major support level at $0.01219 should limit any downside.

Major Support Level: $0.01259

Major Resistance Level: $0.01326

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0322

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0452

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0663

Please let us know what you think in the comments below

Thanks, Bob

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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Litecoin, Stellars Lumen, and Trons TRX Daily Analysis 23/04/20 - Yahoo Finance

Litecoin, Stellars Lumen, and Trons TRX Daily Analysis 21/04/20 – Yahoo Finance

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Litecoin

Litecoin slid by 4.80% on Monday. Following on from a 4.39% slide on Sunday, Litecoin ended the day at $40.27.

A bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rise to an early morning intraday high $43.33 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $43.93, Litecoin tumbled to a late intraday low $39.53.

Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $41.10 and the second major support level at $39.91.

Finding late support from the broader market, Litecoin broke back through the second major support level to wrap up the day at $40 levels.

At the time of writing, Litecoin was up by 0.20% to $40.35. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin rise from an early morning low $40.15 to a high $40.90.

Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Litecoin would need to move back through to $41 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $42.56.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to breakout out from the morning high $40.90.

Barring an extended crypto rally, resistance at $41 would likely leave Litecoin short of the first major resistance level at $42.56.

Failure to move through to $41 levels could see Litecoin struggle later in the day.

A fall through the morning low $40.15 would bring the first major support level at $38.76 into play.

Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Litecoin should steer clear of sub-$39 levels.

Major Support Level: $38.76

Major Resistance Level: $42.56

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $62

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $78

62% FIB Retracement Level: $104

Stellars Lumen rose by 0.94% on Monday. Reversing a 3.28% fall from Sunday, Stellars Lumen ended the day at $0.049483.

A bullish start to the day saw Stellars Lumen rise to a mid-morning high $0.052323 before falling back to $0.050 levels.

Stellars Lumen broke through the first major resistance level at $0.05025 and the second major resistance level at $0.05148.

Recovering from $0.50 levels, Stellars Lumen rallied to a late afternoon intraday high $0.053109 before sliding back.

Stellars Lumen broke through the second major resistance level at $0.05148 before tumbling to a late intraday low $0.048749.

While falling back through the major resistance levels, Stellars Lumen steered clear of the first major support level at $0.04822.

Finding late support, Stellars Lumen broke back through the first major resistance level before easing back to sub-$0.050.

At the time of writing, Stellars Lumen was up by 0.49% to $0.049723. A mixed start to the day saw Stellars Lumen rise to an early morning high $0.050722 before falling back to a low $0.049723.

Stellars Lumen left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Story continues

Stellars Lumen would need to move back through to $0.050 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.05162.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Stellars Lumen to breakout from the morning high $0.050722.

Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $0.051 would likely leave Stellars Lumen short of the first major resistance level.

Failure to move through to $0.050 levels could see Stellars Lumen hit reverse.

A fall through to sub-$0.04950 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.04805 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Stellars Lumen should steer clear of sub-$0.048 support levels.

Major Support Level: $0.04805

Major Resistance Level: $0.05162

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1051

38% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1433

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.2050

Trons TRX slid by 3.38% on Monday. Reversing a 3.42% fall from Sunday, Trons TRX ended the day at $0.012477.

A bullish start to the day saw Trons TRX rise to an early morning intraday high $0.013180 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.01333, Trons TRX tumbled to a late intraday low $0.012231.

Trons TRX fell through the first major support level at $0.01272 and the second major support level at $0.01246.

Finding late support, Trons TRX broke back through the second major support level to wrap up the day at $0.01247 levels.

At the time of writing, Trons TRX was down by 0.13% to $0.012451. It was a mixed start to the day. Trons TRX rose from an early morning low $0.012408 to a high $0.012611 before easing back.

Trons TRX left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Trons TRX would need to move through to $0.01265 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.01303.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Trons TRX to break out from the morning high $0.012611.

Barring a crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $0.01303 would likely limit any upside.

Failure to move through to $0.01265 could see Trons TRX see red for a 3rd consecutive day.

A fall back through the morning low $0.012408 would bring the first major support level at $0.01208 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Trons TRX should steer clear of the second major support level at $0.01168.

Major Support Level: $0.01208

Major Resistance Level: $0.01358

23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0322

38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0452

62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0663

Please let us know what you think in the comments below

Thanks, Bob

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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Litecoin, Stellars Lumen, and Trons TRX Daily Analysis 21/04/20 - Yahoo Finance

Litecoin (LTC) Up $0.46 in Last 4 Hours, Outperforms All Top Cryptos to Start the Day; Entered Today Up For the 4th Day In A Row – CFDTrading

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Litecoin 4 Hour Price Update

Updated April 25, 2020 07:18 AM GMT (03:18 AM EST)

Litecoin closed the last 4 hour candle up 1.03% ($0.46); this denotes the 2nd candle in a row it has gone up. Out of the 5 instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Litecoin ended up ranking 3rd for the four-hour candle in terms of price change relative to the last 4 hour candle.

Litecoin came into today up 3.58% ($1.54) from the open of the day prior, marking the 4th day in a row an increase has occurred. As for how volume fared, yesterdays volume was up 19.63% from the previous day (Thursday), and up 114.76% from Friday of the week before. On a relative basis, the day prior was pretty good: Litecoin bested all 5 of the assets in the Top Cryptos class The daily price chart of Litecoin below illustrates.

Notably, Litecoin is now close to its 20 day averages, located at 42.68 respectively, and thus may be at a key juncture along those timeframes. Trend traders will want to observe that the strongest trend appears on the 90 day horizon; over that time period, price has been moving down. Traders will also want to note, though, that a counter trend meaning a trend going up can be seen on the 30 day timeframe. If youre looking to trade the primary trend, this may be a good opportunity to sell rallies created by the counter trend. For additional context, note that price has gone up 7 out of the past 14 days.

Behold! Here are the top tweets related to Litecoin:

Fundamentals & long term strategy are more important than a price.#Litecoins fundamentals & strategy are like a garden. Most of what happens, happens out of sight.If you need to constantly complain about what you cannot see before it is ready, you dont know how to garden.

In March #quickbit generated most trx in the on #Litecoin (LTC) network 2nd time in QB history. Why LTC? Speedy confirmations & trx coupled with lower costs allowing high velocity volumes. The for @Quantoz, the #blockchain tech and our partner in achieving this is real

@MASTERBTCLTC @CashApp @CashSupport @johnkim77 @AltcoinDailyio @SatoshiLite @LTCFoundation @Benaskren @jonnylitecoin @aantonop @TheCryptoZombie @jack Everyone should add Litecoin to everything. Its on every exchange, actually USED as a currency. Im more concerned about why it wasnt put on there by default?

As for a news story related to Litecoin getting some buzz:

Litecoin Movie We Summon the Darkness Crypto Berita

Crypto Berita Informasi Currency Cash Market Bitcoin Blockchain Uang Digital Litecoin Movie We Summon the Darkness diprakarsai oleh Foundation LTC.Movie We Summon the Darkness membuktikan Litecoin mampu merambah dunia produser movie atau film cinema.

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Litecoin (LTC) Up $0.46 in Last 4 Hours, Outperforms All Top Cryptos to Start the Day; Entered Today Up For the 4th Day In A Row - CFDTrading

Litecoin Foundation Co Founder Pointed Out USDT Could Shake The Crypto Market – The Coin Republic

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Today, the Director of the Litecoin Foundation and CEO ofCoinut exchange Xinxi Wang advises the crypto users by sharing his views on Twitter saying the whole crypto market capitalization is now built on sands, by sands he is pointing towards the USDT.

He further states that USDT is just like Heroin, and there is no other method for the Tether to stop minting. Moreover, the US will not let to increase it forever and will pull it down and till then, the whole market cap will crash.

This statement generated by Wang seems that if USDT is dragged down, it will affect the entire market cap to crash.

The market will witness crash

Tether (USDT) is a dollar-pegged token, which means 2.2 billion USDT is actually equivalent to 2.2 billion USD. The token can be freely exchanged to USD and its market cap is completely different from all other tokens.

Some of the crypto advocates state that believing in Tether is similar to believing in US dollars. In crypto ecosystem, the Tether is valued like a real dollar. In order to mint more USDT could be unsafe if Tether Limited does not hold the corresponding amount of USD in its bank.

Thus, it is assumed that the valued cryptocurrency USDT is just like a ticking bomb on the crypto market where if the USD is pulled out then the entire crypto market will be shattered.

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Litecoin Foundation Co Founder Pointed Out USDT Could Shake The Crypto Market - The Coin Republic

Litecoin, Ripple among coins that have lost the most supporters – finder.com.au

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According to an analysis of Telegram crypto chat group numbers posted on Twitter, Litecoin and Ripple are among the biggest losers of users since June 2018.

Part of the reason these coins were hit so hard might be because both lean on the same "it's valuable because we agree it's valuable" narrative as Bitcoin, but they don't have the same price performance to back it up.

XRP was about 60 cents in mid June 2018. Today it's under 20 cents.

Litecoin was dropping from $120 to $80 in June 2018, and today it's about $40.

Bitcoin, by contrast, was bopping around $6,000 to $7,000 in June 2018, and it's still about the same, or slightly higher, these days.

The Bitcoin and altcoin markets tend to mirror each other on a day to day basis, but when you look at the long term they can end up in very different places.

Litecoin, despite its "silver to Bitcoin's gold" schtick, doesn't really capture any value proposition that Bitcoin doesn't already offer. It simply offers the exact same thing, except with substantially less likelihood of success and worse historical performance.

Price performance is pretty much the only thing that matters for these kinds of coins, and it's a metric that can't be convincingly faked for extended periods of time.

These days volunteer Litecoin developers are working to implement confidential transactions into LTC, to give it a level of privacy and fungibility that Bitcoin lacks.

On the one hand this would, if it ever happens, give something to set Litecoin part from Bitcoin. On the other hand Litecoin's market cap already looks to be about as big as that of every major privacy coin combined, so it probably doesn't pay to expect too much from confidential transactions in Litecoin.

Ripple is perhaps in even more dire straits, because it was actually trying to run a business and create a working product, but at the end of the day its product is not being used. After more than half a decade of trying to sell the idea of XRP Ledger to financial services with no clear success, you eventually have to eventually concede that it's missing the mark.

What financial institutions and other businesses want from blockchain is considerably more complex than what Ripple can provide, and it's quite clear that if Ripple was going to take off, it would have happened by now.

In the absence of customers, Ripple's big revenue generator is dumping XRP on its community, who has been increasingly unhappy with the arrangement, and realising that the entire thing smells a lot like a MLM scheme; a company manufactures the product (XRP) and then sells it to affiliates. The affiliates then set about evangelising the product and trying to profitably sell it onwards at a higher price.

It almost certainly started with the best of intentions, but right now that vision of future adoption is just about all that separates Ripple from being a multi-level marketing scheme.

And as the shrinking base of XRP supporters suggests, it's a an increasingly thin line.

Whether XRP suddenly implodes one day, or just gradually deteriorates into irrelevancy, probably depends on whether an external factor can hit it before the internal ones.

Disclosure: The author holds BNB, BTC at the time of writing.

Disclaimer: This information should not be interpreted as an endorsement of cryptocurrency or any specific provider, service or offering. It is not a recommendation to trade. Cryptocurrencies are speculative, complex and involve significant risks they are highly volatile and sensitive to secondary activity. Performance is unpredictable and past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Consider your own circumstances, and obtain your own advice, before relying on this information. You should also verify the nature of any product or service (including its legal status and relevant regulatory requirements) and consult the relevant Regulators' websites before making any decision. Finder, or the author, may have holdings in the cryptocurrencies discussed.

Picture: Shutterstock

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Litecoin, Ripple among coins that have lost the most supporters - finder.com.au

What Is Blockchain Technology? How Does Blockchain Work …

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Blockchain is most simply defined as adecentralized, distributed ledger technology that recordsthe provenance of a digital asset.What is Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain, sometimes referred to as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT),makes the history of any digital asset unalterable and transparent through the use of decentralization and cryptographic hashing.

A simple analogyfor understanding blockchain technology is a Google Doc. When we create a document and share it with a group of people, the document is distributed instead of copied or transferred.This creates a decentralized distribution chain that gives everyone access to the document at the same time. No one is locked out awaiting changes from another party, while all modifications to the doc are being recorded in real-time, making changes completely transparent.

Of course, blockchain is more complicated than a Google Doc, but the analogy is apt becauseitillustrates three critical ideasof the technology:

Blockchain is an especially promising and revolutionary technology because it helps reduce risk, stamps out fraud and brings transparency in a scaleable way for myriad uses.

The whole point of using a blockchain is to let people in particular, people who don't trust one another share valuable data in a secure, tamperproof way. MIT Technology Review

Blockchain consists of three important concepts: blocks, nodes and miners.

Every chain consists of multiple blocks and each block has threebasic elements:

When the first block of a chain is created, a nonce generates the cryptographic hash. The data in theblock is considered signed and forever tied to the nonce and hash unless it is mined.

Miners create new blocks on the chain through a process called mining.

In a blockchain every block has itsown unique nonce and hash, but also references the hash of the previous block in the chain, so mining a block isn't easy, especially on large chains.

Miners use special software to solve the incredibly complex math problem of findinga nonce that generates an accepted hash. Because the nonce is only 32 bits and the hash is 256, there are roughly four billion possible nonce-hash combinations that must be mined before the right one is found. When that happens miners are said to have found the "golden nonce" and their block is added to the chain.

Makinga change to any block earlier in the chain requires re-mining not just the block with the change, but all of the blocks that come after. This is why it's extremely difficult to manipulate blockchain technology. Think of it is as "safety in math" sincefinding golden nonces requires an enormous amount of time andcomputing power.

When ablock is successfully mined, the change is accepted by all of the nodes on the network and the miner is rewarded financially.

One of the most important concepts in blockchain technology is decentralization. No one computer or organization can own the chain. Instead, it is a distributed ledger via the nodes connected to the chain. Nodes can be any kind of electronic device that maintains copies of the blockchain and keeps the network functioning.

Every node has its own copy of the blockchain and the network must algorithmically approve any newly mined block for the chain to be updated, trusted and verified. Since blockchains are transparent, every action in the ledger can be easily checked and viewed. Each participant is given aunique alphanumeric identification number that shows their transactions.

Combining public information with a system of checks-and-balances helps the blockchain maintain integrity and creates trust among users. Essentially, blockchains can be thought of as the scaleability of trust via technology.

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What Is Blockchain Technology? How Does Blockchain Work ...

Report on Asias Blockchain Industry Weathering the Storm of COVID-19 – Cointelegraph

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The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to plunge the world into the deepest crisis since the Great Depression and could deprive global economies of $5.5 trillion over the next two years. Chinas economy shrank for the first time in 44 years, and their gross domestic product fell by 6.8% in the first quarter compared with last year. The pandemic was, naturally, to blame. More worryingly, year-on-year retail sales fell drastically in March. Shops, offices and factories are now starting to reopen, but people remain anxious and movement is restricted.

However, businesses in Asia are currently recovering from the horrible financial hangover caused by the virus. In this report, Cointelegraph Consulting talks to some of the leading players in the blockchain industry to find out whether the surge is relevant for them or not.

Bitcoin (BTC) and other currencies have bounced up and down since the pandemic started, yet it might be white noise hiding the real change in the crypto landscape: surging interest both from the masses and governments.

The pandemic has highlighted the fragilities in the traditional financial market, so users may shift their attitudes toward cryptocurrencies. Rather than being alarmed by the crypto market, people can anticipate it. There are three main reasons for wider crypto adoption: inflation of traditional money, decrease of the interest rates of traditional assets and greater control of the levers of the economy by authorities.

As governments pump billions of dollars into their economies, inflationary pressure will grow in the next few months. For the population, it means their money will gradually depreciate. Naturally the question arises, how do I maintain the value of my assets? said Josh Goodbody, the director of growth and institutional business for the European and Latin America regions at Binance. He added that people will start seeing crypto as a viable solution to this problem.

Many governments have eased their monetary policies in response to the coronavirus crisis. Central banks have cut interest rates to zero or near-zero rates, and investors who eke out greater returns might turn to the world of crypto. More assets will shift from low interest-bearing traditional investment vehicles to crypto ones for higher returns potential, said Alysa Xu, the chief strategy officer of OKEx.

The need for serious government intervention in the economy is currently justified by the conditions the crisis dictates. Governments all over the world have taken control of areas that have been liberalized, from prices of specific products to the selection of industries that are allowed to continue working during quarantine. However, the reverse measures might not be that rapid. Cryptocurrencies may be a silver lining to this.

As for the authorities, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the development of central bank digital currencies. While cash and ATM use is plunging due to the potential infection risk factor, government stimulus packages imply cash giveaways. Looking for the alternative to cash, authorities have been reevaluating their strategies in favor of CBDCs. Politicians in the U.S. and Europe think about how a central bank digital currency could work in practice this is hugely encouraging for the crypto industry, said Goodboy.

Blockchain has been a part of Chinese news coverage since October 2019, when President Xi Jinping backed the technology and set a course for the country to seize the opportunity presented. The virus has failed to slow this notion down, with major national initiatives regarding consortium chains and a central bank-issued digital currency continuing the enthusiasm.

One major announcement came in the form of a national blockchain network set to launch in April, as it was initially scheduled. The Blockchain-based Service Network was backed by an alliance of Chinese state-owned companies, government agencies, banks and technology companies. The BSN is expected to reduce the costs of doing blockchain-based business in China by 80%. By the end of 2020, the project may cover more than 200 cities and become an example for a global standard.

Chinese authorities are also steaming ahead with their plans to launch their own digital currency. The Peoples Bank of China has already completed basic function development for a digital yuan. This past week, images of its new digital currency/electronic payment wallet leaked on social media, indicating that it has every intention of pushing the digital currency into institutional and consumer markets.

Despite the economic fallout, China has also been continuing the intellectual race. While major multinational companies including Microsoft, Walmart, Mastercard, Sony and Intel had applied for a total of 212 blockchain patents as of the end of March, their number of patents was inferior to the number from Chinese companies in 2019, and it is expected that this trend will continue. The overall number of blockchain patent applications might not exceed last years result of 5,800 filings, yet getting close to that figure in such a turbulent year would testify to the healthy development of the technology.

Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial also grabbed the spotlight by announcing its new consortium chain called OpenChain. It is targeting the highly competitive consortium chain market, which includes nearly all the major tech companies in the world. Ant Financials platform Alipay is one of the largest mobile payment processors in the world, with a well-established offering of financial services.

Overall, the pandemic hasnt hindered the development of the Chinese blockchain industry severely, so a quick recovery will happen easier than for other industries. However, a deeper dive into the sectors can reveal the effects and responses of businesses there.

The COVID-19 crisis gave platforms a strong wake up call regarding risk and budget management. For those that fail to adequately manage the situation, the threat of insolvency is a strong possibility. In early April, the public blockchain platform Factom failed to receive additional funding and was moving toward a possible liquidation of assets.

For other platforms with better-managed cash flows, the COVID-19 crisis has been less detrimental. Heres a closer look at how four platforms with offices in China have managed the crisis:

With a focus on enterprise use cases, VeChain has acknowledged the challenge that COVID-19 is posing to many of its clients. The virus had an unavoidable impact on client development, allowing teams to turn resources toward other areas of growth. VeChain took the opportunity to focus on its core software offering, such as a new version of its ToolChain blockchain-as-a-service platform, which helps clients verify products and grant insight into a products data, manufacturing and supply chain processes. VeChains chief operating officer, Kevin Feng, told Cointelegraph that:

The COVID-19 outbreak has raised public awareness on product authentication and transparency of the supply chain management especially on those products that are related to consumer daily life. We have observed a significant shift in consumer behavior, and people now have a greater appetite for buying products online and mobile applications.

Feng also recognized that the COVID-19 crisis was exposing pain points in industries all over the world, especially in areas like management, digitalization and implementation. Even with the increasing awareness of blockchain adoption, Feng believes that the financial challenges of the pandemic will make pouring more investment into new technologies a tough decision for businesses to make. This operational freeze gives VeChain more time to secure its position in the market and prepare for when businesses decide to move on innovation. Feng concluded:

Under the unprecedented demand for cloud-based services and IT services, the blockchain technology that serves as the underlying infrastructure powering digital transition has emerged as an advanced option for enterprise decision-makers.

Ontology is another major platform tackling enterprise blockchain use cases. During the initial outbreak in China, the company swiftly adopted a work-from-home strategy and relied on its global network of offices and partners to continue operations with minimal disruption. Its decentralized project structure meant staff were already accustomed to working remotely, which helped maintain stability. Like most of China, Ontologys employees are currently required to disinfect offices, wear face masks and record temperatures daily.

From an operations perspective, Ontology is committed to completing its 2020 technical roadmap. Named Aristotle, it includes many important milestones such as cross-chain functionality with Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin, distributed identity solutions and making sure its blockchain virtual machine is compatible with the latest smart contract frameworks, such as Wasmjit.

Ontologys co-founder Andy Ji believes that the lockdown in China may have created physical distance compared to office work, but on the other hand it surprisingly has brought more motivation, efficiency and energy to its daily operations and has allowed the company to be more focused on achieving its goals.

Ontology took up the fight against COVID-19 by sending masks to worldwide blockchain charities and joining the #cryptoCOVID19 campaign promoting measures to bring the crisis to an end. In addition, the company has continued to offer online courses to developers and students worldwide and even partnered with freelance work platform Microworkers to speed up workers payments.

PlatON is a public blockchain platform with a focus on data exchange and privacy. During the initial outbreak in Wuhan, around 5% of its team was locked down without access to proper working facilities. The team developed an online control system to make sure it was on track while working remotely. It also recognized that a lot of community and freelance developers were available, so it aggressively adjusted its development grants.

The companys chief technology officer, James Qu, believes that the decentralized culture of blockchain helped make the transition smooth. The company focused on stability and technical upgrades early on, helping to get its operations up to speed. It has also been eyeing the lucrative consortium market now that government and enterprise demand in China is continuing to rise. Its technology has already been used in a number of successful consortium chain projects in the country.

QuarkChain provides an underlying technical solution for blockchains based on sharding technology. As a technology-driven company, it has managed to maintain operations while its 40 employees spread around the world have continued to work on an infrastructure that connects both consortium and public chain technology. QuarkChains chief marketing officer, Anthurine Xiang, reported that despite some client-side delays, it has had more time to invest in research and development.

Xiang said that following the outbreak, countries like China began to rethink how to build up more advanced infrastructure to better respond to large scale events like a public health crisis, adding: We are providing the government with multiple project solutions for the public health system, such as blockchain solutions, resource management, and trading platforms.

The pandemic threatens the sustainability of many physical business models, but for online models it has been an opportunity to connect with their user base and expand. Given the worldwide lockdowns, customer demand has been pushed from offline to online. OKExs chief strategy officer, Alyssa Xu, believes this will lead to wider acceptance of digitalization and ultimately benefit the popularization of the blockchain-driven economy. She stated in a conversation with Cointelegraph:

Since the virus outbreak in January, the exchange has a steady growth in constant, while it estimated a 19% boost in terms of trading volume during early March.

Xu believes that the pandemic is a test of how urgently a company can respond and adapt to changes in the market conditions of its customers. She was very pleased with how OKExs platform responded to the Black Thursday market crash on March 12. Despite a huge decline in the prices of crypto, the trading system maintained zero clawback and withstood the volatility and chaos. Xu now wants to take advantage of increased user volume to widen the companys range of services, including crypto derivatives products and public chain-based decentralized finance applications.

Binance is a global company with a strong community in Asia. Despite the chaos in worldwide markets, Binance reported a robust first quarter performance, attributing it to the record high volume across its platform and the crypto market in general. With the strong user activity, Binance has responded by increasing its team across all regions by 100 employees.

Goodbody, Binances director of growth and institutional business, felt that the quantitative easing and stimulus packages from central banks could lead to economic instability. Politicians and world governments could turn to CBDCs as a method of distributing stimulus packages, which he believes is an encouraging sign for the industry.

With everything running smoothly, Binance was able to turn to philanthropy. Binance Charity launched the Binance for Wuhan initiative and donated $1.5 million worth of medical supplies to hospitals, medical centers, etc. In March, Binance Charity launched the Crypto Against COVID initiative, aiming to raise $5 million for countries worst affected by the virus.

As the global lockdown continues to last, company revenues can be undermined or cut off entirely. This is where venture capital firms and incubators become more important than ever, as access to cash and investments can be the difference between insolvency and survival.

Shanghai-based venture capital firm Hashkey Capital observed that many enterprises are struggling to raise capital, forcing them to lower fundraising targets. Its investment director Yu Zongmin noted that: It is a great opportunity for us to find better value in the current market. For the operational strategy, we may raise the bar higher for recent investments and focus more on the commercial maturity and cash flow of the projects. He went on to add that:

A positive outcome from the crisis is the rising participation and connectivity of people in the digital world. People are minimizing in-person contact through mediums such as e-commerce, e-school, e-clinic and e-cash. This has played a pivotal role in containing the virus spread. The blockchain sector may greatly benefit from the booming development of the global e-cash ecosystem. We are very optimistic about this industry as always, and will continue to actively search for high quality and value driven projects to invest in.

China-based technology incubator New Chainbase was working to accommodate many of its projects. Its operations levels have returned to normal, but it is offering a relief plan for start-ups renting office space from it. New Chainbase has a long-term financial interest in the blockchain space and has remained optimistic that industries will see the trust that blockchain provides as an essential technology moving forward.

Fenbushi Capital, a global industry player with offices in Shanghai, New York and Silicon Valley, is no stranger to working in a decentralized manner. Its operations have remained quite stable, but it has observed that companies in its portfolio have been performing certain cost controls, including staff reduction and lowering their operating costs. Fenbushi Capital partner Rin Huang attributes this to two factors: First, the crisis has forced a reduction in business volume and the companies do not need so many people. Second, the overall economic situation is uncertain due to the crisis and companies need to maintain sufficient cash flow.

Huang noted that for her daily role, the crisis has had little impact. With traffic jams already back in the streets of Shanghai, her routine has returned, with the exception that many processes are now conducted online. She sees blockchain having more opportunities in enterprise situations such as traceability of medical supplies: In order to prevent possible counterfeit medical device products, the government began to vigorously promote the supply chain of medical device products to be traceable on the blockchain. Additionally, the technology can help in digitizing the industries:

The digitization of the consumer industry in China has been well developed, and the emergence of the crisis has further promoted the electronic communication system within the management process of the enterprises. The main role of the blockchain at this stage is to hash the important information for internal communication on the chain.

The Bitcoin mining hash rate has been climbing consistently, but the upcoming halving event and macroeconomic instability has led to uncertainty in the mining community. Nathaniel Yu, the international marketing manager of mining leader Bitmain, understands the importance of normalizing operations right now. He stated that while Bitmain is following professional advice for dealing with the pandemic, it is also exploring alternate methods of working in order to meet demand for its Antminer products. In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Yu stated:

During these uncertain times, the best way ahead for the mining industry is to continue to adapt their operations to ensure the safety of all employees comes first. Miners will also need to assess their operations to ensure they are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible during this time.

Like other online business models, many media sites are reporting a jump in viewers as people generally have more free time on their hands. Two major Chinese blockchain media sites, 8btc and Odaily, confirmed in interviews that they are both optimistic about the industry moving forward.

Gavin Qu, a partner of 8btc and the CEO of ChainNode, believes that the current situation can be advantageous for online companies with a healthy cash flow. Qu explained how ChainNode moved quickly to develop an online product release conference service to help business partners bring their offline conferences and product announcements online through live video on the platform. He believes that the importance of online events will become greater even after the pandemic, as Chinas mobile internet infrastructure continues to move toward 5G technology.

Mandy Wang, the CEO and co-founder of Odaily, talked about how the company has shifted much of its operations to an online model since the pandemic began. One of her editors was initially locked down in Hubei province, unable to return to the companys Beijing offices. She spoke about the challenges of conducting all interviews over the phone and moving all offline events online. On April 10, Odaily held an all-day conference with over 30 guests in an online streaming format.

With chaos gripping the global markets, she reported an increase in views by around 20%. She accredited part of that success to increasing the companys operating efficiency and risk control management policies, which she believes will become a greater subject of focus for enterprises in China moving forward.

For an industry built on a decentralized emerging technology, its no surprise that the blockchain world has embraced the remote working and video conferencing reality. Technology and agile management has managed to normalize many business processes, but disruption to other industries has made it difficult to raise funds, develop new clients and oversee physical implementation of enterprise services.

Outstanding issues in the aforementioned areas should be addressed as soon as possible to prevent the loss of clients and ensure budgets can withstand an extended period of reduced revenue and third-party investment.

With the bulk of major offline events in quarters one through three wiped out or moved to an online format, its up to marketing teams to find new ways to promote their businesses. After the initial shock and subsequent organizational restructuring, theres been heavy interindustry collaboration in Asia, with platforms, media and exchanges organizing online events to connect with new users and their existing communities. R&D and technical development teams have remained mostly unaffected by the virus, needing only minor adjustments to organizational processes.

Rather than panicking at the thought of a potential economic recession, most industry players are optimistic about the long-term outlook, especially considering the reactionary fiscal stimulus policies that are being put in place by nearly every major government.

The companies see digital currencies as both a potential solution to monetary distribution as well as a sanctuary from inflationary currency policies. Finally, with Chinas central bank and government agencies continuing to restate their commitment to blockchain technology and a national digital currency, theres very little doubt that the companies that adapt and survive will find themselves in a very active and healthy industry in the future.

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Report on Asias Blockchain Industry Weathering the Storm of COVID-19 - Cointelegraph