Crypto Currency

An overview of the worst and most outrageous Bitcoin price predictions of 2019. To prophesize is a natural human tendency. Humanity applauds those who make the right prediction and also love to hate on people when they miss the mark, especially by ridiculously large amounts. For many years, the crypto industry has been prone to high fluctuations and volatility . Nobody can actually predict what will unfold in the upcoming seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months... let alone the years.  Once when everyone predicted that Bitcoin ( BTC ) would die, its price nearly hit $20,000. Conversely, when people thought that it would hit $1 million, it plummeted to a meager $3,200. As 2019 comes to its end, the price of Bitcoin is hovering around $7,300 mark. There were many predictions that were off this mark, especially from Bitcoin evangelists that were way too optimistic with their estimates. Predictions that went wrong Mike Novogratz: $20K  Starting off the list is a leve...

Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo predicts that technology will enable efficiency and greater returns for banks this decade. Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo announced during a Dec. 30  CNBC news segment that “this is the golden decade of banks and technology.” Mayo explained that while the 1990’s had record bank consolidation (banking businesses merge with each other), systems were never integrated. He then explains that in the “aughts” decade – the 2000s – banks saw excessive growth, which unfortunately ended in “tears” due to the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Mayo pointed out that the financial crisis was cleaned up this decade, twenty-five years after national banking first permitted banks to leverage their scale and growth. He noted that  technology better enabled for banks (which could include emerging tech such as blockchain, machine learning and mobile banking) will ensure efficiency and better returns this decade, stating: “Technology is the enabler that will take ba...

‘Shitcoin Wallet,’ an Ethereum wallet available as a Chrome Browser extension, is injecting malicious javascript to steal user’s data. An Ethereum (ETH ) wallet known as “Shitcoin Wallet” is reportedly injecting malicious javascript code from open browser windows to steal data from its users. On Dec. 30, cybersecurity and anti-phishing expert Harry Denley warned about the potential breach in a tweet : – Source Twitter According to Denley’s tweet, Chrome browser crypto wallet software Shitcoin Wallet is targeting Binance, MyEtherWallet and other well-known websites containing users’ passwords and private keys to cryptocurrency. The Shitcoin Wallet Chrome extension – ExtensionID: ckkgmccefffnbbalkmbbgebbojjogffn – works by downloading a number of javascript files from a remote server. The code then searches for open browser windows containing webpages of exchanges and Ethereum network tools. The code attempts to scrape data input into those windows. Once it does, the informati...

A French tech entrepreneur has been nabbed for allegedly stealing over 1 million euros in Bitcoin from his former colleagues in what is purported to have been an “act of revenge.” A French tech entrepreneur has been nabbed for allegedly stealing over 1 million euros in Bitcoin ( BTC ) from his former colleagues in what is purported to have been an “act of revenge.” On Dec. 22, the unnamed man was indicted by a judge in Paris on charges of theft, money laundering and fraudulently accessing data processing systems, local newspaper Le Parisien reported on Dec. 28. “Washing away the humiliation” The suspect’s motivation for the theft — his spoils totaling 182 Bitcoin (BTC), worth ~$1.3 million by press time — is purported to have been a thirst to “wash away the humiliation” of his redundancy.  The man is reportedly a former employee of a French tech start-up, one whose founding in 2013 Le Parisien attributes to a desire to join the “closed club of overvalued unicorns” in the 2.0...

Imagine that Bitcoin made itself some promises for the upcoming year — what would they be like? Most of us believe in the “New Year — New Me” rhetoric”: I'm going to lose weight, quit smoking, eat healthy, stop being lazy, spend more time with family and whatnot. Yet, losing weight usually only turns into losing motivation instead. But then, it doesn't really make sense to laugh at our absurdities, as we humans have plenty of them. Not when it comes to New Year’s resolutions, at least. I mean, we can mostly agree that it’s just a hefty to-do list for the first week of January. Now, what if it were the same for the disruptive and revolutionizing technology of blockchain? Does it hold the same stereotypes as us humans when it comes to New Year’s resolutions? Let’s find out. The United States Federal Reserve promises a more stable economy for its New Year’s resolution (did I just hear bailout?) by printing $425 billion by the middle of January 2020. Alongside an ever-increa...

Ripple’s XRP token had a dismal 2019, losing half its value in USD and two-thirds of its value against Bitcoin, but will 2020 finally break the downtrend? Bitcoin ( BTC ) price has seen a significant increase in 2019 (by more than 100%), while altcoins are actually down significantly from the beginning of the year.  Moreover, most altcoin/BTC pairs have been hitting new lows, and many of the coins are still trending downwards, looking for potential support. Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360 One of these coins is XRP ( XRP ), which has seen a decrease of 50% over the year, going from $0.39 to $0.195. Will 2020 be a similar year for XRP and altcoins, or can we see a switch in momentum? A new analysis is warranted.  XRP hitting new lows in USD value It was a bad year for the XRP investor, with the price hitting new lows over and over again.  XRP USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Price held the $0.30 support throughout the beginning of the year. H...

The Ethereum network was reportedly the target of an attacking focusing on Parity Ethereum nodes. The Ethereum ( ETH ) network was apparently the target of a coordinated attack, according to several analysts. Following reports that some Parity Ethereum nodes lost sync with the network, on Dec. 31, core blockchain infrastructure company Parity Technology said it believed there was an attack underway and subsequently released network upgrades to protect against it.  According to cryptocurrency security consultant Sergio Demian Lerner, the attack was implemented in a simple way, wherein “you send to a Parity node a block with invalid transactions, but valid header (borrowed from another block). The node will mark the block header as invalid and ban this block header forever but the header is still valid.” Software developer Liam Aharon analyzed the attack, concluding that it was close to taking down the entire network and that Ethereum could become much more vulnerable to simi...

Turkish Takasbank has launched its BiGA Digital Gold platform to provide banks with a blockchain-based system for digital gold transfers. Turkey's Istanbul Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank) announced that its blockchain-based, physical gold-backed transfer system is now live. Turkish Takasbank launched BiGA Digital Gold to provide banks with a blockchain-based system for the issuance, repayment and transfer of digitized gold, according to an announcement on Dec. 30.  The BiGA system — first announced in September 2019 — enables participating banks to use blockchain tech to transfer digital assets representing a quantity of physical gold. Each asset represents a gram of gold that is physically stored in vaults of the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Turkish stock exchange. The BiGA project aims to "establish an infrastructure that will allow for the execution of the transfer of dematerialized gold at certain standards with their physical equivalents kept in safe cus...

BitMEX’s insurance fund now holds nearly 0.2% of all Bitcoin in circulation after growing 61% in 2019, but what exactly is it for? The BitMEX Insurance Fund has added nearly 13,000 BTC in 2019, reaching a total of just over 33,491 BTC as of Dec. 30. This is equivalent to 0.19% of the total Bitcoin in circulation, based on the data available at Blockchain.com.  The fund, which the cryptocurrency exchange set up to ensure that liquidation orders related to leveraged positions are filled, ended 2018 with almost 20,800 BTC. This means that the fund has seen a 61% increase since the start of 2019. How does the BitMEX Insurance Fund work? Crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX set up the fund to give margin traders more certainty that they will receive their winnings. Here’s the logic behind the fund. In leveraged trading, market participants are allowed to make bets that the price of an asset will either rise or fall in multiples (that could be as high as 100x) of the amount they d...

Blockchain funding has decreased substantially in 2019 when compared to 2018, even though adoption is increasing. Blockchain has become a buzzword in the startup ecosystem and multinationals alike. Numerous benefits provided by the technology has incentivized businesses and governments to adopt, explore or invest in it.  However, a surprising turn of events took place in 2019 when it comes to the amount invested into blockchain technology and companies behind them. After the incoming funds peaked in 2018 with $5.5 billion in capital raised, this year saw a sharp decline — with less than $3 billion of capital flowing into the ecosystem.  There are numerous reasons to explain this, however. The bullish hysteria around Bitcoin was over with the value of Bitcoin falling from an all-time high of around $20,000 to a low of $3,100.  Another explanation could be that initial coin offerings lost their charm. There were other external factors, such as the overall decline ...

TRON CEO Justin Sun explains how cryptocurrency will help reduce carbon footprints after pledging $1 million to Greta Thunberg campaign. On Dec. 18 Cointelegraph  reported that Tron ( TRX ) founder Justin Sun publicly pledged to donate $1 million to Swedish activist Great Thunberg to raise global awareness of the climate crisis.  Following the COP25 UN Climate Conference in Madrid, Sun tweeted: Although Sun has pledged a donation of $1 million to Greta Thunberg’s campaign, it was left unclear as to how cryptocurrency would help reduce carbon footprints through the creation of decentralized settlements. Regarding this, Sun told Cointelegraph that decentralized settlements and decentralized finance platforms are run by computers on cloud computing systems. In turn, this eliminates the need for paper documentation. “Decentralized settlement and decentralized finance are completely run by computers on cloud computing systems, thus eliminating the need for ledger documenta...

DLive joins BitTorrent ecosystem to bring blockchain-based content sharing to 100 million monthly active users. Peer-to-peer filesharing giant BitTorrent announced on Dec. 30 that DLive, the blockchain-based live streaming platform, will be joining its ecosystem. Through this partnership, DLive will bring peer-to-peer content sharing and live streaming capabilities to BitTorrent's 100 million monthly active users. DLive, which was launched nearly 2 years ago, already has over 5 million monthly active users and a passionate live streaming community. In April 2019, one of the world’s most famous YouTubers, PewDiePie, conducted his first live stream on DLive. PewDiePie has since co-streamed on DLive with famous YouTubers like Ninja, James Charles, and Jack Black. BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun explained that DLive is one of the leading blockchain-based platforms for live streaming.  "DLive is one of the best real-world examples of what is possible when you combine blockchain an...

Amid volatility and regulatory uncertainty, some projects and individuals came out on top in 2019 while others faltered. Even though the cryptocurrency industry is not new to ups and downs, 2019 has turned out to be the year with the most surprising reveals. The long-lasting bear market of 2018 moved market analysts to call it the year of regulatory reckoning, leaving many jurisdictions uncertain about how to treat cryptocurrencies. However, 2019 also turned out to be the year of the comeback, as big tech giants like Facebook moved from banning crypto to embracing it.  Escalating global events such as the trade war between the United States and China have shifted investors’ point of view on the utility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but there is still a lot to be done even as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continues to turn down every other Bitcoin ETF proposal.  As the year comes to a close, here is a look at the companies, individuals and various crypt...