BitGo, a leading blockchain security and cryptocurrency custodian based in California, has formed a strategic alliance with the Universal Protocol Alliance. The partnership will enable BitGo to offer support for the latter’s cryptoassets, including its U.S. dollar (UPUSD) and euro-pegged (UPEUR) stablecoins, according to a Business Wire press release on December 6, 2018.

BitGo Supports Universal Tokens

Per sources close to the matter, BitGo, a highly-reputed cryptocurrency custodian and institutional cryptocurrency financial services company is now offering support for all tokens from the stables of the Universal Protocol Alliance (UP).

In a bid to make it possible for different blockchains to interact with one another in a frictionless way, Universal Protocol Alliance has developed the Universal tokens.

The team claims its Universal Tokens break all the barriers hampering the seamless interoperability of blockchain-based virtual currencies and allows all digital assets to become accessible on a single network.

BitGo clients will now have access to Universal Protocol’s innovative tokens, including the Universal Bitcoin, which the firm says is an Ethereum-powered version of bitcoin, the Universal Dollar (UPUSD) and the Universal Euro (UPUSD) stablecoins which are pegged to the U.S dollar and the euro, respectively.

Commenting on the development, the CEO of BitGo, Mike Belshe noted that the firm is excited to work with Universal Protocol in solving the interoperability issues plaguing the cryptospace:

Quote:“We’re pleased to be supporting a standard that can move the cryptocurrency ecosystem forward by solving issues of interoperability and the safeguarding of cryptos.”

Built on a Solid Foundation

At a time when stablecoins have begun gaining significant traction in the digital currency space, as crypto holders see it as a tool for circumventing the wild volatility of bitcoin and altcoins, the Universal Protocol team claims to have mapped out ways to succeed where Tether (USDT) has failed.

UP says it will continuously publish the value of all its digital assets in custody on a public blockchain in real-time, and third-party auditors will be engaged to audit its fiat reserves and share the financial status of the platform with its community.

The Universal Platform was reportedly formed by a group of distributed ledger technology (DLT) firms including Uphold, Cred, Brave, Blockchain at Berkeley, and FBG capital. The primary objective of the Universal Protocol is to enable instant conversion of tokenized digital assets including cryptocurrencies, securities, and private equities.


source btcmanager.com
by Ogwu Osaemezu Emmanuel

F.A. Hayek was a Nobel-prize winning economist. In the 1970s, in the middle of a punishing recession and inflationary period that lasted into the beginning Ronald Reagan’s presidency, Hayek proposed that the solution to government-caused inflation and its associated problems was to allow the issuance of private, irredeemable money to compete with fiat issued by governments in a book called “The Denationalisation of Money.” Decades before Bitcoin or anything like it had been conceived, at a time when even online checking would have seemed futuristic to everyday people, Hayek believed that private currency would encourage competition and that a variety of sound money options would arise as a result.

William J. Luther, the director of the American Institute for Economic Research’s Sound Money project, writes in a recent article that in many ways Bitcoin and the crypto market generally fulfill the vision that Hayek had. He notes that critics of the “denationalization” plan were correct in some of their assumptions, like the fact that once a lot of people are using a given private money, there’s a high incentive to inflate the currency, i.e., sell more notes without real accountability.

However, blockchain-enabled cryptocurrencies solve this problem, by and large, with a fixed issuance schedule that cannot be altered by a single participant. Indeed, for an inflation plan to ever succeed in something like Bitcoin would require the collusion of nearly all its participants. Not that it hasn’t happened before, but in that case, as expected, the participants hard-forked away from the chain that had been victimized.

And just as Hayek believed, such a move would only make alternatives which had not succumbed to such debasement that much more attractive. Alternatively, coins like Monero, which have fixed scheduled inflation eternally might then be more attractive for their predictability. Therefore the market of private monies, where users have a wide array of choices based on their goals and needs, is working as intended – Bitcoin has an incentive to stick to its principals and maintain its network effect, while others have an incentive to develop superior alternatives and attempt to capture some or all of said network effect.

Luther writes:

Quote:“In some sense, cryptocurrencies have put Hayek’s thought experiment into practice. Privately issued cryptocurrencies compete directly with traditional government-issued monies. Unlike gold, silver, and salt, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ether, and dash have no obvious non-monetary use. They are not commodities, nor are they redeemable for commodities. Rather, they are privately issued irredeemable monies, much like Hayek envisioned.”

He notes that most cryptos do not currently have a “stable purchasing power.” Due to the volatility of markets, it’s difficult to know from one day to the next what a given number of satoshis will get you at the store, leaving cryptocurrencies largely in the land of speculative assets. Stablecoins are growing faster as more people get into crypto trading, but they remain primarily a trader’s tool, not intended for day-to-day purchases.

All of which is to say that as far as actually revolutionizing the economy and healing the wounds of bad policy, cryptos have some ways to go. The importance of stable purchasing power cannot be understated. If someone earns X value, they need to be able to translate that value to the grocery store and pay their bills. The possibility that their paycheck might have much greater value down the road does not solve immediate problems.

As Luther concludes, experiment and innovation are the only way to find workable solutions moving forward.

Quote:“So it is probably too early to say how things will shake out. Hayek was clearly onto something with potential when he proposed allowing private alternatives to poorly managed government monies. But as Hayek wrote elsewhere, competition is a discovery procedure: we need to let it work to reveal what types of money people most want and how best to provide them. As cryptocurrency pioneer Nick Szabo has written, the unsettled questions about cryptocurrency ‘can only be settled by actually fielding them and seeing how they work in practice.'”

Indeed, blockchain forever surprises us all. In the space of a few months, traders and everyday users were presented multiple new options for denominating their crypto in US dollars in the form of stablecoins. As the demand for solutions that service the economy in the same ways that fiat is able to do emerge, the potential that actual, world-shifting technology rises to the challenge also increases.


source ccn.com
by P.H. Madore

While there is a growing number of fiat based-payment processors with a variety of practical tools and methods of payment, adding cryptocurrency payments into the mix provides consumers and merchants with unparalleled benefits. Some of these benefits include simplicity, lower overall cost, security, privacy and a greater level of control over one’s funds. 



Cryptocurrencies are numerous and versatile and can be utilized as entirely private bank accounts and payment cards for almost any occasion. They offer a multitude of ways to earn a form of interest with little or no effort and help users protect sensitive data and holdings on the go 24/7.

There was a time, not that long ago, when cash was king and financial institutions gave generous incentives to people who chose to put their cold hard cash into institutional coffers. Today, bank accounts of all sorts, as well as debit and credit cards, have fees associated with them — money that goes down the drain and provides no benefit, never mind interest earned. There are debit and credit card fees, ATM fees, merchant fees, checking account fees, overdraft fees, paper fees, check fees, transfer fees, change fees, charge-back fees, foreign transaction fees, minimum balance fees, inactivity fees, false decline fees, et cetera, et cetera.
In comparison, popular cryptocurrency payment gateways like Bitpay and Coinpayments charge between 0.5 perecent and 1 percent per transaction. In most cases, a cryptocurrency account in the form of a digital wallet is entirely free and unless one chooses to invest in cryptocurrency hardware wallets or prepaid cards, other than the transaction fee, using cryptocurrency as money costs absolutely nothing.


Banks and credit institutions, as well as retailers and service providers, obtain and retain too much of their customers’ personal and financial information. Details including our name, address, employers, social security number, net worth, assets, investments, account balances, credit score, credit line, and transaction history, along with everything we do and buy, who we associate with, when, where, etc. comprise our personal, professional and financial data sets. With traditional financial institutions and traditional fiat currency, we can no longer preserve our privacy. 
Cryptocurrency transactions provide an alternative by limiting the amount of transaction data to mere numbers also known as cryptocurrency wallet addresses and transaction IDs confirming that a wallet-to-wallet transaction took place. A cryptocurrency payment processor acting as a third party will typically require your name (and shipping address for the delivery of physical goods), but the rest of your information will remain private as long as you don’t connect your bank or credit card account and transact solely in BTC and altcoins.


Cryptocurrencies are a borderless means of exchange allowing for instant and cost-effective transactions across the world. There is no waiting, no international fees and no limitations as to who can or cannot send funds to whom or when and where those funds can be accessed. All that is needed is an internet-enabled device like a cellphone and someone without access to a banking institution is given an alternative solution with which they can pay bills, earn income, safe-keep their funds, make purchases and conduct business.
Using cryptocurrencies while traveling adds an extra layer of security and can be used as a remote source of emergency funds that can be accessed without an ID, a bank account, credit cards, a wire transfer or even a personal computer device.


Accepting cryptocurrency online has never been easier. Shopify and Etsy merchants can select to accept BTC, BCH, and altcoins. Woocommerce and Easy Digital Downloads vendors can use WordPress plugins like Mycryptocheckout for the purpose. And then there’s Shapeshift which gives customers the choice to pay with dozens of cryptocurrencies. Shapeshift is integrated with cryptocurrency payment processors like Bitpay and Coingate, and cryptocurrency wallets like Coinomi and Keepkey.
Moreover, there is Purse.io, an online platform where users can buy items from Amazon with cryptocurrency and it is also integrated with Shapeshift, as are Magento and Openbazaar. Setting up cryptocurrency payments is super simple and quick and merchant transaction fees are 60-70 percent lower compared to fiat transaction fees.


Unfortunately, there are customers who make a purchase, receive the items they ordered and, perhaps, even use them only to cancel their payment. They can do this because fiat payments are not instant.
With cryptocurrencies, things are quite different. Once a transaction has occurred, there is no turning back. Funds ‘travel’ from one wallet to another, the transaction is recorded and it cannot be reversed. This is not to say that a customer cannot return an item and request a refund by communicating directly with the vendor. Of course they can. What they cannot do is place an order, pay for it, receive it and then get the sum they paid back on their account because of money back policies overseen by online payment processors and credit card companies.
Charge backs are meant to prevent fraud and yet they often accomplish the very opposite. In this instance, cryptocurrency works the same way as cash. After you’ve taken the item you paid for with cash, you can’t go back to the store with a damaged or used item, never mind empty-handed, and demand your money back.


Mobile payments have become all the rage. Being able to use a smartphone in place of a credit card is awfully convenient.
From Paypal and Apple Pay to Mastercard’s Paypass and Visa’s Paywave with near-field communication (NFC) technology and modern POS terminals, getting the check has never been easier. And yet the same privacy and security issues arise as with the rest of traditional, fiat-based financial transactions, namely too much data in one place. All currently available mobile fiat payment processors store credit card information which include all of our financial information and more. Not to mention that all that data is online and on our mobile devices everywhere we go.
Cryptocurrencies are a safer digital cash option and are ideal for mobile payments by default due to their virtual, decentralized nature.


Bitpay, one of the most successful crypto payment gateways, is processing $1 billion worth of transactions annually at a rate of a quarter million transactions per month. Coinpayments already serves millions of vendors in 200 countriesand has just integrated with Bittorrent to give its 100 million users the option to pay with BTC and altcoins. Coingate serves 50,000 merchants and has processed hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency payments, and Utrust just partnered with Payrexx and its 10,000 European merchants.
More integrations and partnerships between cryptocurrency payment processors and fiat payment processors are in the works and the market is expected to grow by 50 percent in the next two years. In particular, Fotonannounced plans to attract 100 million users by 2020 and offer competitive features including its own stablecoin, fiat pairs, atomic swaps, a loan and escrow service, and a payment card with loyalty rewards and cash back. 
So there is no doubt: millions of merchants all over the world accept cryptocurrencies, as do tens of thousands of websites.


It has been estimated that some 20 million people worldwide own cryptocurrency. Most others have heard of bitcoin and many plan on adding it to their portfolio.
Square, a credit card payment processor serving merchants, employers and mobile payment users, is gradually out-competing Paypal while also increasing its profits through BTC sales. The majority of Square’s merchant customers have expressed interest in accepting bitcoin core and a 2017 Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance study confirmed that 40 percent of consumers would, indeed, like to be able to make purchases with BTC.
Countries with weaker than average fiat currencies tend to favor the use of cryptos. Turkey, Venezuela, Brazil, Australia and South Africa appear to have large numbers of cryptocurrency users. In fact, a whopping 80 percent of Australians would like to use cryptocurrencies for daily purchases. Merchants in Eastern Europe and small western European towns seem more open toward adding bitcoin as a method of payment. Even before the 2017 cryptocurrency bull market, more than 10 percent of Eastern Europeans reported using cryptocurrency in place of fiat for everyday purchases.


Nowadays, almost anything can be paid directly with cryptocurrencies: homes, condos, boats, cars, clothing, electronics, health and pet products, food, wine, accessories, plane tickets, vacations, tools, musical instruments, as well as dating services, professional services, internet services, and, of course crypto gear.
Without pointing out the obvious, let’s look at the most interesting things digital currencies can buy you:

•  Enjoy a Thai or Indian restaurant in Montreal or have Dutch pancakes in Aruba
  
  
•  Buy vintage furniture in Massachusetts or rent an office in Miami
  
  
•  See the Cerro Negro volcano in Nicaragua or charter a yacht in South Florida
  
  
•  Buy a Benz or a Beamer in California or a Rolex in Europe
  

In January, a company called Bakkt, owned by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) which also owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), will launch bitcoin futures which will be settled in BTC, not cash. Its partners include Microsoft, Starbucks and Pantera Capital. There will be no leverage trading, meaning that actual bitcoin will have to be bought and owned for the duration of the contract. Given that these are institutional investors, BTC’s volume is expected to reach new heights. The CEO of ICE and NYSE chairman Jeff Sprecher stated that digital assets are here to stay and that they “have a future in regulated markets.”
It is evident that the cryptocurrency industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 10 years since Bitcoin was born. Fintech is transforming the financial industry and more and more people are getting onboard. Shopping in-store and online is going fully digital but raising cyber security fears, which can be drastically reduced with a broader acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.


source news.bitcoin.com

Politics, trade conflicts, and concerns about higher interest rates dominated 2018 and are bound to affect 2019 as well. However, the economic cycle will remain the key driver of markets. Although growth is likely to slow in 2019, we believe that the momentum is solid enough to support further economic expansion.

Typically, in late stages of past expansions, equities have outperformed other asset classes, while bond yields have risen and yield curve flattened. We therefore maintain a growth tilt in our strategy and recommend a small overweight in equities. While being mindful of risks, we also favor uncorrelated and convex return strategies. Our key investment themes for 2019 are interest rate normalization; regional economic divergence; and new geopolitical regimes.

AAUC RESEARCH / CIO view

Waypoints for 2019

From technology and USD stability to China’s management of its increasingly tricky relationship with the USA, we review six key market drivers and risks in 2019 with special attention given to implications for Asia.



Keeping inflation under control

Growth momentum in advanced economies seems strong enough to extend the cycle into 2019 and beyond. The more important question for markets is whether inflation will remain as benign as it has been. If inflation rises significantly more than what markets (and we) currently expect, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will be seen as being behind the curve. Bond yields would further increase significantly, while equities and other risk assets would likely decline substantially. Barring an unlikely surge in productivity, wage growth should be the key driver of inflation.

In a largely oil-importing Asia, there is an additional element of supply-side inflation from a potential rebound in the price of oil. Although the current levels do appear somewhat oversold, we do not expect a sustained and excessive rise that will contribute meaningfully to imported inflation. If this plays out, then inflation across the region is likely to remain fairly benign, except for possibly in India and Indonesia. China is likely to see inflation easing to around 2%, which should give authorities a much-needed wiggle room to deploy further monetary easing if needed.

Find out more in https://www.aaunioncapital.com/

GIven the dire situation of the crypto markets at present, with a recovery to December 2017 prices potentially still years away, Coinbase could be looking to XRP as a way to catalyze further growth to its exchange in providing users with higher market cap coins.


source ethereumworldnews.com
by Michael Lavere

Quote:Coinbase is exploring the addition of 30+ new digital assets. It’s our goal to offer support for all assets that meet our standards and are compliant with local law.

Quote:

Cardano (ADA), Aeternity (AE), Aragon (ANT), Bread Wallet (BRD), Civic (CVC), Dai (DAI), district0x (DNT), EnjinCoin (ENJ), EOS (EOS), Golem Network (GNT), IOST (IOST), Kin (KIN), Kyber Network (KNC), ChainLink (LINK), Loom Network (LOOM), Loopring (LRC), Decentraland (MANA), Mainframe (MFT), Maker (MKR), NEO (NEO), OmiseGo (OMG), Po.et (POE), QuarkChain (QKC), Augur (REP), Request Network (REQ), Status (SNT), Storj (STORJ), Stellar (XLM), XRP (XRP), Tezos (XTZ), and Zilliqa (ZIL).

However, in our attempt to explain how and when Coinbase will list XLM, XRP or ADA, we have missed the obvious: that the future holds the possibility of more digital assets being listed on the platform.


source ethereumworldnews.com
by John P Njui

BitGo recently announced that they are going to support Stellar Lumens (XLM) making it the first multi-signature wallet and custodial solution to support XLM.

Quote:
BitGo@BitGo

Today we’re pleased to announce support for Stellar! With the addition of lumens (XLM), we now support 115 digital currencies - read more: https://blog.bitgo.com/bitgo-launches-support-for-stellar-78dd0546f3d1 … @StellarOrg #digitalcurrencies #custody #XLM
262
2:46 AM - Dec 6, 2018
Twitter Ads info and privacy

BitGo Launches Support for Stellar – BitGo for Business
Stellar Lumens available immediately on BitGo Custody and BitGo Business Wallet
blog.bitgo.com

With Lumens added to the list of tokens and coins on BitGo, the custodial solution now supports a grand total of 115 virtual currencies. It offers the best security for institutional investors who have an eye for investing in different cryptocurrencies to deal-out the risks involved.

BitGo is a cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure provider that has taken a focus on asset management, allowing exchanges and institutions to store their hard-earned or customer-owned crypto tokens on BitGo’s custody and wallet product. Its influence over crypto shouldn’t be counted out, with the firm reportedly being the largest Bitcoin processor in the world. It processes over $15 billion in transactions in a month from its 300+ clients that operate in over 50 countries and regions.

Quote:

“We’re continuously adding support for digital currencies that our clients express interest in, and lumens are a natural next addition. The Stellar network offers BitGo clients access to a public financial structure for cross-border transfers, making XLM an important new asset for investors,”

said Ben Chan, CTO of BitGo.

The CEO of BitGo, Mike Belsche, has the opinion that their network serves its users with this unique payments system. The network’s infrastructure permits cross-asset transfers of value which includes cross-border payments and brings to its clients an instant clear, execution, and settlement platform.

Jed McCaleb, co-founder of the Stellar Development Foundation revealed that

Quote:

“as the leading institutional custodian service and business wallet in the market, BitGo provides a broad range of options for anyone interested in holding lumens. BitGo broadens institutional client exposure to Stellar by making it significantly easier and more secure to hold XLM.”

source bitcoinexchangeguide.com

The biggest crypto exchange in Canada, Coinsquare, has acquired BlockEQ. The information was confirmed via the Twitter profile of the company that was bought. Coinsquare has decided to purchase the Stellar wallet, which was the first occasion ever that the Canadian blockchain company has used cash to buy out a smaller company in the blockchain space.

Quote:
BlockEQ@block_eq

We are excited to announce that BlockEQ has been acquired by @Coinsquare for $12 million! https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/coinsquare-acquires-blockeq-to-expand-its-cryptocurrency-offerings-702057631.html …
221
9:07 PM - Dec 6, 2018
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Coinsquare acquires BlockEQ to expand its cryptocurrency offerings
The acquisition was closed for $12 million CAD and brings the leading cryptocurrency wallet on the Stellar platform...
newswire.ca

BlockEQ is a Stellar Lumens (XLM) wallet that can be used as a decentralized network and has the option for making P2P crypto payments. It is interesting that the company has bought this wallet especially because the Canadian crypto exchange does not have the technology to offer a wallet for its clients before the sale.

At the moment, all Coinsquare customers have to rely on the custodial services of the company, but not a lot of people like this. A custodian keeps the assets for the holders and, while this may be a good idea for institutional clients who want things solved for them without any hassle, many crypto retail investors are not so keen on other companies holding their funds.

A decentralized wallet like BlockEQ would completely change this dynamic as it would let the users hold the cryptos directly and use their own private keys to secure their money.

Both services have their advantages and problems as decentralized wallets may provide for more security or less, as it depends a lot on the user. How well do you trust yourself to store your money? That’s the question here.

Coinsquare will also have the wallet brand now and all its technology, so it was a good business to acquire the technology and clients will still be able to leave their tokens at the custodial services of Coinsquare in the future.

As the company is thinking about creating and launching a stable coin soon, there is probably some relationship between this fact and the acquisition of this new company.

The Deal

BlockEQ was bought by $12 million CAD (which is about $9 million USD). At this point, we are sure that the company will retain its original employees and its name. However, the control over the development of the core products of the company is still somewhat unclear, as nobody knows if the new owner will take over the process.

Coinsquare, which is based in Toronto, has over 100,000 customers and claims that it has a volume of over $5 billion USD in cryptos yearly. The company has recently been able to raise $23.63 million USD recently and it is eyeing an Initial Public Offering (IPO), which could help in the financial overseas expansion of the company and in having more funds.

As the company has plans to become a global force in the crypto market and will start to work within the European Union until the end of the year, both the IPO and the acquisition of BlockEQ are very important pieces for the development.

Another target that Coinsquare is eyeing is Japan, one of the largest crypto markets in the world. The company intends to open a new crypto exchange there soon, which would be involved in a partnership with DLTa21, an investment bank focused on the blockchain of the country.

The CEO of Coinsquare, Cole Diamond, has affirmed that BlockEQ has one of the best tech teams in Canada and their product is very valuable, so this is why they decided to buy the company to combine both technologies and to have the opportunity to create even better products.


source bitcoinexchangeguide.com

On the 6th of December 2018, almost all the cryptocurrencies on the CoinMarketCap’s list were trading red against the USD. BTC fell by almost 11% and dragged the entire market with it. Just like BTC, ETH and XLM also fell dramatically against the USD. The price crash led $10 billion out of the industry within a 24 hour period. BTC fell as low as $3,300 against the USD. This is the first time it is trading this low this year. But this article isn’t about BTC. It is about ETH and XLM.

Ethereum (ETH) And Stellar (XLM) Against The USD

As BTC fell against the USD,. Ethereum and Stellar lost 12% and 13% respectively. The third largest cryptocurrency per market capitalization entered into the double digit territory for the first time in a long time. Even if the price has been on a decline since after the bull rally in January, investors were hoping that the price will not fall as low as this.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Today – BTC / USD

Name                  Price     24H (%)

Ethereum (ETH) $88.23   2.85%

At the time of writing, Ethereum (ETH) was trading in green against the USD. However, it was trading at $88.80.

This shows that it was up by 2.93% and up by 3.97% against BTC. The trading volume over a 24 hour period is $2,084,715,629 and the market capitalization is $9,206,639,793.

Stellar (XLM) Price Today – XLM / USD

Name               Price             24H (%)

Bitcoin (BTC)   $3,365.19     -1.24%

Stellar (XLM)   $0.112729      0.67%

Stellar Lumens (XLM) was also trading in green against the USD at $0.114869. This shows that it was up by 2.00% against the USD and up by 2.95% against Bitcoin. The 24 hour trading volume is $168,621,733 and the market capitalization is $2,201,443,512.

How Is The Wider Market Faring

The downtrend that was initiated at the beginning of the week is still strong. BTC, the first largest cryptocurrency per market capitalization has still not bottomed out as it continues to reach new lows with each price struggle. The crash that occurred during the BCH fork war was like a nail in the coffin. Ever since BTC broke the support at $6000, it hasn’t been able to regain or hold above that level.

At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $3,394.63. It is down by 0.93% against the USD. Even if it was trading in green this morning, the price seems to have started a downward correction.

The fact that the price started falling suddenly after many months of relative price stability came as a shock to investors. Some have even speculated that the cryptocurrency industry is coming to its premature end.

The most recent speculation in the industry is that Bitcoin was technically and fundamentally supposed to be trading below the $6000 level a long time ago. However, the increase in trading volume recorded on cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb may have served as support. Since the trading volume was fueled by promotions, the end of the promotions led to a drop in trading volume which saw the price of BTC fall below the $6000. For more information about this read this post by smartereum.com. 

The date this crypto-winter will come to an end cannot be determined. The only things left for investors to do are to either sell-off or remain patient as they wait for the prices to bounce back. It is going to take a lot of faith in the industry for anyone to buy in at this time.


source smartereum.com
by Uma Johnson

Al Hilal Bank has become the first Islamic bank in the world to use the blockchain to settle an Islamic bond worth $500 million. This is according an announcement made by on Nov.26. The bank is an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government.

Al Hilal Aims To Transform The Islamic Bond Market By Embracing The Blockchain

The distributed ledger technology was used to transact a secondary market deal worth $500 million. The bond will mature in September 2023. The transaction marked the first time the blockchain has been used to execute a Shariah-compliant bond around the globe.

The report goes on to state that Islamic bonds are becoming more successful and they are one of the fastest growing asset classes.  In 2017, bonds worth $97.9 billion were issued — a figure that represents a 50 percent increase from 2016.

By embracing the distributed ledger technology, Al Hilal Bank hopes to transform the Islamic bond market by integrating them into their infrastructure. They hope this will pave the way for innovative digitized Islamic bonds (which they have dubbed smart bonds).

The transaction was possible thanks to Jibrel Network, a fintech startup that is based in the UAE. It assisted the bank with the necessary DLT tools and infrastructure to facilitate the bond.  Additionally, the collaboration between the startup and the bank was possible thanks to the support of the Abu Dhabi Global Markets’ (ADGM).

Commenting on the historic event, Alex Coelho, the CEO of Al Hilal Bank said:

“We are proud to be the first bank to launch a ‘Smart Blockchain Islamic Sukuk; once again the bank has demonstrated that it has the capabilities of leading in the competitive market of Islamic banking. The advantages of using smart contracts range from safer transactions with robust Shariah compliance to the unlocking of new opportunities. The partnership between Al Hilal Bank and UAE incubated startup, Jibrel, highlights ADGM’s success in attracting, nurturing and fostering innovation.”

source usethebitcoin.com
by Basil Kimathi

At the beginning of November, wallet provider Blockchain.com announced an airdrop of Stellar Lumens tokens worth the equivalent of 125 million US dollars. An airdrop is essentially a donation of free coins to users of crypto currencies. The blockchain.com started to distribute the crypto currency to millions of users. Each of these users receives a gift of Stellar worth about 25 US dollars. The whole process will take several months and the amount of Stellar distributed to individual users will vary depending on the region. The Blockchain Airdrop is considered to be the largest of its kind ever. The occasion was the introduction of Stellar in the Blockchain Wallet.

Effects of the Airdrop on the price of Stellar

The idea for the Airdrop was probably not only to celebrate the introduction of the Stellar Lumens currency at Blockchain, but also to increase users’ interest in the Stellar Lumens (XLM) currency in general and to encourage them to continue buying Stellar. In the end, one reason was probably the increase in Stellar’s exchange rate. But was this successful? A look at the share price performance provides clarification:

On November 6th, the day of the announcement of the Airdrop on the Blockchain blog, the Stellar price was about 0.2511 USD. At that time, the price was already in an upward leading curve. Perhaps triggered by the news, it jumped briefly the day after the announcement to 0.2643 USD and then fell slightly the next day to around 0.22 euros (0.2481 USD).

Fluctuations, a High and a Decline

With slight fluctuations, however, the price continued to climb and reached a high of USD 0.2798 on 12 November 2018. Although the crypto currency was distributed on the first day of the announcement, the price fell afterwards and has continued to fall since then with a few exceptions. On the 25th, it reached a low of 0.1333 USD, then recovered briefly to 0.1589 USD and on the 27th it is back at about 0.12 Euro (0.1356 USD). According to CoinGecko, the XLM price has fallen by 38.6 % in the last 30 days (as of 27.11.2018). Over the course of a year, however, the price has risen by 136.2 %, which in turn offers reason for hope.

“Stellar has a superior blockchain,” says Blockchain CEO

The Stellar Lumens currency is currently the sixth largest crypto currency in the world by market capitalization. Its market capitalization is just under USD 3 trillion. One reason for the collaboration between Blockchain and Stellar is the confidence that it is a superior Blockchain that can handle a very large number of transactions, Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, told Fortune. Stellar was developed by Jed McCaleb, who was also responsible for the development of Ripple. The Airdrop runs through the Wallet Blockchain, but is paid by Stellar alone. Stellar wants to use the wallets of about 30 million Blockchain users for this.



source captainaltcoin.com
by Rene Peters

As a high-tech hub known for its consumer electronics, tech giants, esports, and global innovation, perhaps it’s not surprising that a report by Cindicator revealed that South Korea will play a major role in cryptocurrency adoption. By reviewing existing data on exchange volumes, recent economic history, regulation, and trends, the tokenized fintech asset management company came to some interesting conclusions.

Based on existing evidence, the country of 50 million inhabitants and one of the world’s top 15 economies is poised to play a major role in embracing cryptocurrencies. This is due to a combination of factors such as exchange infrastructure, a high level of tech adoption, and the country’s regulatory and tax framework.

A Crypto-Friendly Population

When listing the top crypto-friendly countries in the world, rarely does South Korea make the cut. Malta, Singapore, Switzerland, and Estonia are usually more top-of-mind. However, South Koreans with their insatiable appetite for high-tech take the cake in terms of the population’s attitude.

South Koreans, in fact, account for approximately 30 percent of total cryptocurrency trading worldwide, with some 30 percent of all salaried workers owning and trading crypto assets of some kind. Certainly, the country’s recent economic history and growth is a factor, but for a fairly small country, it has a highly developed cryptocurrency exchange scene.

The South Korean Exchange Infrastructure

South Korea has a very developed cryptocurrency exchange scene with Bithumb, the biggest Korean exchange, ranking in the top spot over the last 30 days in terms of trading volume in USD, (data from November 22). There is also Upbit, Coinone, and Korbit. 

Most of the market is cornered by Bithumb and Upbit (86 percent).



According to the report, there have been plenty of cases in which just the announcement of an altcoin getting listed on either of these exchanges saw its value rise by ridiculous proportions. When tron (TRX) was listed on Bithumb in April 2018, its price went from $0.03 to $0.05 in as little as three hours.

The Cindicator report states:

Quote:“There is no doubt that Korean exchanges are a key element in trying to analyze the crypto phenomenon in the Asian.”

Leading Crypto Projects for Mass Adoption

Coinone is working on a blockchain project to make money transfers easier around the globe, while Bithumb also recently announced a payment service in partnership with Qoo10. This company is widely known as the “Asian Amazon.”

There are also plenty of other businesses that are taking blockchain tech to the mainstream, including accelerator projects like Deblock.

Regulation is Coming Around

South Korea was particularly plagued by Ponzi schemes and other sophisticated crypto scams. This, coupled with a large trading volume that caught the attention of regulators, lead them to take an initially strict stance on cryptocurrency. In fact, from September 2017 through March 2018, both ICOs and the anonymous trading of crypto were banned.

These restrictions saw plenty of subsidiaries and projects heading offshore to Singapore to launch ICOs, although the cost of doing this was prohibitive to startups.

Regulation in the country is starting to thaw, however, and appears to have been an initial reaction to address the rampant problems in the ecosystem, such as scam ICOs, and hacks.

The Korean government recently announced 1 trillion won (USD $880 million) to spend on blockchain development in 2019 as part of a 5 trillion won package to stimulate the economy through innovation.

This is a telling indicator that South Korea is changing its stance and creating a more favorable climate for blockchain technology and the legitimization of cryptocurrency.

Taxation

South Korea has a very high taxation rate. However, since 2013, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are exempt from capital gains tax. This is significant for traders and investors since they can keep 100 percent of their profits. It also makes navigating crypto taxation much more simple. While there are rumors that this tax haven on crypto may be about to change, no official line has been taken.

Head of Analytics at Cindicator Simon Keusen commented that their research indicates that South Korean influence in the global blockchain industry will continue to increase:

Quote:“The country is very open to new technology. The enthusiasm for crypto assets is palpable. Latest legislative initiatives show that the government understands the potential of blockchain technology.”

He concluded that:

Quote:“South Korea will play an important role in driving the adoption of cryptocurrencies globally.”

source ccn.com
by Christina Comben

Security tokens are being advertised as the next big thing in the world of cryptocurrency. While the SEC has basically said that every token issuance is a security even though the company’s claim to be a utility token.
 
Security tokens

Security tokens may represent shares in a company or provide dividends and are generally thought of as being much more similar to traditional shares. Basically, an investment of money where there is some kind of expectation of a profit on the other end.

The big difference between security tokens and the utility tokens maybe that the securities fall under a very heavy scrutiny and regulation than the utility token industry. Many Initial Coin Offerings do have a hard time finding the actual difference and are almost always somewhere in the middle of those two definitions.
 
Blockchain and Securities Market

The potential for Blockchain to disrupt the Securities Market is massive. Firstly, Blockchain will offer complete transparency for regulators who can verify transactions on the blockchain, thus making KYC and AML much easier. Blockchain will also reduce the market manipulation due to increased transparency of who has what. Blockchain can lower the friction cost by 90% and also massively lower the transaction time. This offers a potential to have a massive influx of liquidity coming to the securities market by tokenizing everything.

Security tokens will make capital investing truly global by inviting a much wider range of investors. It will introduce a huge degree of multi-asset interoperability which will all be storable on your ledger. The disruption of blockchain to the securities market could be compared to what email did to the postal system.
 
While there is a lot of hype about security tokens, the industry is still in its absolute initial stages. However, the Security Token Offering boom could be much bigger than the Initial Coin Offering boom ever was.



source coinnounce.com
by Joyce Lang

I think most people now starting to learn that doing Crypto trading with brokers is more suitable and beneficial than any other way. However, it often is very challenging and we need to be wise with our decisions to manage things accurately. 

The selection of broker is the biggest task but often is not put right due to lack of knowledge. However, now it’s becoming easier to spot the right Cryptocurrency Broker for futures trading with Cryptolinks, so what’s your view?