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DISH becomes one of the earliest mainstream company to accept Bitcoin

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In the past, skeptics have disputed the fact that Bitcoin as a currency has no distinguished value, due to the fact that it hasn’t been widely accepted as a means of payments. Indeed, Bitcoin arrived at the international and financial scene when the world’s financial markets were witnessing a slump.

For many, Bitcoin is relevant and a game-changer for the financial industry. It is now seen as a store of value – somewhat a digital gold which also has the potentials of being a reserve currency. Even as Bitcoin’s use-cases increase and continue to go against all odds, one of the biggest pay-Tv provider, DISH, is making use of Bitcoin as a means of payment for subscribers.

Not only that, DISH is known to be the first pay-tv provider to offer cryptocurrency as a means of payment for subscriptions. However, DISH executive vice president and chief operating officer, Bernie Han had something to say:

“We always want to deliver the best and deliver choice and convenience for our customers and that includes the method they use to pay their bills. Bitcoin is becoming a preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommodate those individuals.”

DISH Network Corporation offers more than 14 million pay-tv subscribers with the best technology and programs with a great value as of 2014. Subscribers on DISH are offered more than 200 channels with high-definition programs. The network also prides itself by supplying 110,000 hours of disaster relief in the form of broadband and TV-services.

Additionally, Coinbase has been the medium chosen by DISH to process BTC payments from subscribers who wish to pay their TV subscriptions from their BTC wallet. Bitcoin payments on DISH is being facilitated by Coinbase’s Instant Exchange™ to U.S dollars.

DISH subscribers are given the opportunity to choose between Bitcoin as a payment option or debit cards or bank account for their TV-subscription. These mediums are to provide an easy way for subscribers that want to make an instant payment online.

No doubt, cryptocurrencies are gradually becoming an important means of payments, thus, getting the same recognition as fiat currencies. Cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) reduces credit card fraud and they are inexpensive for merchants who want to make payments.

Bitcoin’s use-cases are significantly increasing and people are starting to pick up the notion that the digital asset is real and can make a huge change in the second and third-world countries dealing with hyperinflation.

Notable crypto-enthusiasts: Anthony Pompliano and James Anthony Williams have quoted the significance of Bitcoin’s use-cases and other cryptographic technologies. Also saying that Bitcoin will one day be some sort of a store of value very soon.

Bitcoin can be used a means of payment; in making donations, tips and so on. This, however, has opened doors to its numerous use-cases nowadays and it keeps spreading day-by-day.

Undeniably, Bitcoin’s utility as a means of exchange keeps increasing despite its price swings and volatility. The cryptocurrency still has more potency to bring a positive change to every economy; it will become apparent as new use-cases become prevalent and widely known.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Meet DarkMatter (DMX), an exciting Tron-based token by Moon Marketing

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DarkMatter is the way in which Moon Marketing will blend gamers with Tron’s blockchain’s tech.

It’s inspired by astronomical dark matter which was first observed in the early 1930s by Fritz Zwicky who first observed clusters of dark galaxies (which means that those galaxies were composed mainly of lightless matter).

Those galaxies have been the driving force behind astronomy for decades right until now. Especially since 1998 when those observations (centered in supernovas) told us all that most of the universe is dark matter and/or dark energy.

So now, Moon Marketing is merging the average gamer with blockchain technology. Sounds idealistic? It is. It’s also plausible as a bridge that can exist between the Tron network and gamers. It’s accessible, exciting and rewarding for the average Tron gamer.

DarkMatter has already many use cases designed to reach the aforementioned goal, and it will cater to gamers of all kinds. If you are among the largest e-sport players in the world or if you just enjoy playing one or two of Tron’s main dApps occasionally, this token will have something to offer to you.

What will those use cases be?

As a currency:

  • It will be a form of currency every bit as much as a way to acquire benefits in many different apps that run on the Tron network.
  • When it comes online, a private sale of DarkMatter will let you know of an important partnership with a colossal crypto app that is available on Android and iOS.

Social media mining:

  • Interaction with MOON will earn you small DarkMatter tips.
  • Members will have a room of their own that will reward their social media interactions (such as RT, shares, likes, etc.).
  • The room will have weekly and monthly rewards for all those who interact with the community and with our partner’s social media. Other projects will also be present to create awareness.

Gaming and DarkMatter:

  • Moon Marketing will host to which will be for the players and by the players. They will be open to everybody as long as there are slots available.
  • If you hold some DarkMatter but can’t join a tournament, you’ll still be able to place wagers on the tournament, sponsor a team or a player, and buy ad-space during streamed events.
  • We will work with LFG (Looking for group) which will allow our community members to link up amongst them and play many different games while earning some passive income.

Physical MOON branded products:

  • Moon Marketing has an apparel line comprised of limited edition products. They will be available at their online store and will be announced in the near future.
  • The products won’t be offered arbitrarily, but they will be picked by the Moon/DarkMatter community from a design pool provided by the community.

The token’s ICO started yesterday already, and it will offer several million tokens at different rates.

The DarkMatter (created by Moon Marketing) is a TRC10 token (which means it will be based on Tron’s token technology and TRX). 100 Billion tokens were created by the issuer, so the plan’s ambitions are met. 70 Billion of the tokens are already burnt, so the current total supply is of 30 Billion DMX.

For your general information, you can burn any TRC-10 token by just transferring it to Tron’s Foundation official burning wallet ( TLsV52sRDL79HXGGm9yzwKibb6BeruhUzy).

So now you know about DarkMatter (DMX)! Share and enjoy!

To learn more, please stop by Moon Marketing’s Telegram at https://t.me/MOONMarketingfirm

Tron launches another development tool, Tron-Station

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The crypto market is struggling for quite long now, not a secret – eve Bitcoin, Ripple, and Tether, which are usually considered as the giants of the crypto-verse are trying to find their way back on. It is more than more than a year now since the market fell into the trap of barbaric bears and it’d be fair to say they are injured so badly now that when the next bull run comes everyone might undoubtedly take some time to reach back to their original potential.

But guess which cryptocurrency is the one who not just managed to tighten its grip on the ongoing repetitive devastating circumstances but has also taken phenomenal measures to make sure that it would recognize itself as the dominant while reaching the new unimaginable heights when the clouds of this violent bearings shatter and provide a real sense of the new morning after a really long night of horrors . Yeah, you guessed it right. We are talking about Tron.

We’ll get a look at those developments a bit later, first, we ought to talk about the new addition to the Tron’s armor. This Tuesday, the Tron Foundation announced that they have made another development kit for developers to ascertain the crypto’s energy, bandwidth and maximum energy limit to deploy a smart contract. The announcement was made using the foundation’s official Twitter account as follows:

What is Tron Station?

It is actually a web application and Javascript API Library for calculating energy and bandwidth consumption that is based on Tron network. With the help of it, developers can quickly review energy and bandwidth related information before making a transaction or deploying a smart contract through it.

Now calculating units, bandwidth, energy, and SR vote reward on the crypto Network has become quite easy by using Tron Station Web Application’s simple user interface.

The announcement brought overwhelming responses from the crypto enthusiasts, and they have appreciated the additional feature provided for the developers and investors to research before they invest their time and money in Tron.

Remember, it is not the only development tool kit provided by the foundation. A few months back, the foundation provided the first development tool kit comprised of TronBox, TronGrid, TronStudio, and TronWeb – to assist programmers in creating content, smart contracts, applications and all kinds of other superb things on the Tron Blockchain.

Now let’s talk a bit about those developments and landmarks it achieved during this long bearish period. Though the list is quite long, we start mentioning the launch of BitTorrent’s token BTT to streamline the process of peer-to-peer data sharing on BitTorrent platform.

Another cool stride of Tron has been the success in attracting many top application developers to use the network’s blockchain to develop their decentralized apps as well as convincing many to transfer their applications from other networks onto Tron.

Sun-led blockchain company also did a great job at developing the real-life use cases’ roadmap with BitTorrent, one of the famous data sharing platforms by forming a project dubbed as the Project Atlas, which will go a long way in realizing Tron’s vision of forming a decentralized web.

The accomplishments mentioned above are the ones that have gained recognition by many experts and are considered to be the key ones to take the crypto onto new heights when the next bullish trend comes.

Image courtesy of PixaBay.

Tron’s BitTorrent adds another feather to its cap; records sixth highest market volume

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Tron and its partnerships have created a storm in the cryptocurrency space with several updates and developments coming from the Justin Sun led cryptocurrency company. This move has only been overshadowed by Tron’s recent bullish surge on the charts, making it one of the biggest gainers on the charts.

Latest reports show that Tron’s acquisition BitTorrent’s BTT token has grabbed the sixth position on the cryptocurrency charts in terms of trading volume. The coin which was just released last month is also closing in on six times the pricing of is Initial Coin Offering [ICO] a week ago.

Recently, BitTorrent recorded a flash hoke where it pumped by over 50% within hours. At press time the token is valued a $0.009611 while recording a market cap of $546 million. What made the volume figure jump out was the fact that it as more than that of popular cryptocurrencies like XRP, Tron, Stellar and Bitcoin SV.

The BitTorrent token was also in the news recently when its public sale got over in record time on the Changpeng Zhao led Binance. A total sale of 59.8 billion tokens was made during the sale. The timing could have been cut short if not for a technical glitch that was pointed out by both Changpeng Zhao and Justin Sun. Sun had tweeted:

“I would like to explore the possibility with @binance to giveaway free $BTT to everyone on launchpad fails to get #BTT today. #BitTorrent community wants you! Not 100% guarantee. Need to figure out detail. BUT RT if you agree! @cz_binance #TRON $BNB $TRX”

The Tron CEO had also revealed that 5000 BTT tokens were successfully transferred in an airdrop. He further said:

“#BitTorrent (#BTT) has completed an airdrop of 5,000 $BTT to all users that were eligible but unsuccessful in purchasing BTT on @binance Launchpad. #TRON #TRX $TRX”

Image courtesy of PixaBay.

How can you support Tron (TRX)?

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If you’re interested in supporting Tron, then you probably already know all about the project and its ambitions, but we’ll review the basics anyway.

Tron is a third-generation blockchain programmable platform that became independent from Ethereum some seven months ago. It includes a native token (TRX or Tronix) but also a lot of more sophisticated features like the ability to deploy centralized apps, smart contracts and to create new cryptocurrencies based on Tron’s token technology (Tronix itself started life as an Ethereum-based token).

It’s probably the most versatile project in crypto along with Cardano, EOS, Ethereum, and Stellar Lumens. But Tron has a very specific goal to achieve: to decentralize the web in full.

Total web decentralization is a very ambitious goal. It means that the whole of the web will, slowly but surely, move to Tron’s blockchain in which no central authorities (Google, Amazon, Youtube, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.) will be able to dictate terms in the way the content is produced, published or consumed. This will, in turn, enable content producers to monetize their work directly from users using Tronix as a real-world currency.

This is, in fact, already happening. As you probably know, Tron bought BitTorrent a few months ago. A few weeks after the operation was completed, Justin Sun (Tron’s CEO and founder) announced Project Atlas.

The new project will merge the current BitTorrent network (which is the largest decentralized P2P network in the world) into Tron’s network. BitTorrent has recently issued a token called BitTorrent Token (BTT) which will be used to reward those BitTorrent users who use their own resources to seed their files.

The longer you seed a file, or a set of files, the more BTT you will earn. Then you can go to one of Tron’s decentralized token exchanges and trade them for TRX or any other of the manifold cryptocurrencies based on Tron technology that is already available. You will even be able to trade your BTT for TRX and then use your TRX to buy Bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency you fancy, but you will probably have to use a different exchange for that.

It’s a very promising project that has delivered every promised milestone on time, and working correctly. The network has grown in size, user base, and transfer volume dramatically over the last few months while being submerged in a very pessimistic crypto environment. The token also has found ways to grow in value. Over the last few weeks, it’s gong from 11th to 9th place in market capitalization, and it’s grown 40% only this year.

So we go back to our initial question: how can you support Tron’s growth, price, and success? There are a handful of very concrete actions you can take easily to do that. Here they are:

  • Freeze your TRX tokens every now and then. Why? Read the next point.
  • Vote for Super Representatives who contribute the most to the network’s growth. Super Representatives (SR’s) are the nodes in the network that produce blocks. They’re the engine that keeps the project going, and they’re not elected arbitrarily but by popular vote from the Tron community. But in order to vote for SR’s you need to freeze your TRX for a while. Every Super Representative has a different agenda, and each one offers different things to the network. So find out which one is the best for everybody and vote. Also, voting can often get you a reward in TRX.
  • Re-invest the rewards you’ll earn from voting, and keep freezing some and voting many times over.
  • Use Tron’s decentralized apps. Many of them are a lot of fun, and some even will provide you with some passive income. By using the apps, you help to create trade volume for TRX (hence, value) and you support the project.
  • Educate yourself. Read the white papers about any of the individual Tron projects that catch your imagination so you can talk with authority about them to your friends, co-workers, and family and encourage them to join.
  • Fight FUD whenever you see it arise in any forum or conversation.

So now you know. Tron is not in Justin Sun’s hands. It’s in yours, and you can make it work by just having your fun around the Tron ecosystem.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Tron keeps making right moves and securing accountable accomplishments

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If we look at the first month of this year, the reports are kind of scary in general for almost all of the digital currencies followers. Where bears had continued to tighten their grip on the major cryptocurrencies one day or the another, genuinely testing the faith they have had develop within their communities. When it comes to Tron though, the matter has not been the same for the 8th largest cryptocurrency in the world, in many regards.

It’s not that the Sun-led cryptocurrency completely saved itself from getting affected from the bearings, but the effect it has had on Tron is nothing compared to what it had on the top 10 cryptocurrencies of the crypto-sphere.

In fact, Tron is the only digital currency in the top 10 list which has had a significant positive ride in the past month. Tron managed to gain 35% in the meantime where other giants of the market struggled.

Compared to Tron, Bitcoin dropped 9%, Ethereum lost 23%, XRP fell 14%, EOS dropped down by 12%, Litecoin managed to rise by 1%, Stellar dipped 29%, and Bitcoin SV lost 29%. In the course of its gains, Tron also managed to secure the 6th spot, temporarily, leaving Litecoin and Tether behind.

To talk about the developments and accomplishments which caused Tron to secure such magnificent results during the time when all other major cryptocurrency struggled, the first thing that outshines all is the Dapps influx.

The lucrative offers it ensures such as no GAS fees and higher TPS (Transaction Per Second) have caught the attention of the Dapps creators who were getting sick of the overcrowding on the Ethereum platform. Because of this, a considerable number of the Dapps moved onto the Tron Network along with six applications which are rating in the top 10 at the moment.

On the other hand, the BTT token of the Tron’s acquired BitTorrent is also one of the favorite gossips of the sphere. Tron’s Project Atlas looks promising to encourage seeding on the BitTorrent network, which has a massive base of 100 million, by linking it with BTT token which is hosted on the Tron network and will serve as the payment instrument on the Torrent Network. Tron hopes to increase its adoption further and attract more famous applications to move onto the network.

Can Tron maintain its magnificent stride?

Yes, Why Not? Having Justin Sun as a CEO, whom energetic marketing skills of keeping the community well informed about the upgrades and potential partnerships through his timely tweets on twitter won’t just let the hype subside. Also, there is massive support around for Tron no matter if it’s on Twitter, Telegram or Reddit.

And of course, selling the BTT token on the Binance Launchpad in a record 14 minute, raising over 7 million dollars is not something you can ignore easily.

There were lots of negativity about the project when it started, many people were accusing it to be a scam, but over the period of time, they have changed their minds now. Interestingly, the prominent rating agency Weiss Crypto rating, who was among those haters, also confessed that Tron truly has become as one of the most popular currencies in the world, which undoubtedly negate their initial opinions about the project.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Duel arrives in TronBet, here’s all you need to know

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TronBet is turning the decentralized application world upside down. It’s become the world’s most important app by trading volume (from 6 to 24 Million USD daily according to dappradar.com), and it’s changing the way in which games and bets are done online around the world.

OK, let’s start at the beginning. TronBet is a decentralized app running on Tron’s network. It’s a betting app that includes three games: dice, moon, and ring. Many features put TronBet in a different league than any other traditional or decentralized betting platform.

For a start, it offers mathematically fair odds to every player. This is anathema in most gaming platforms. Traditionally, the house always has an edge. That’s how it makes a buck by allowing you to play without commissions. The platform’s games are as simple as they are entertaining and they’ve been gaining a loyal userbase very quickly.

So how can TronBet be profitable if it pays fair odds? Well, every prize won pays a 5% “tax,” that’s how it can manage to stay in business and earn some tokens. The good news is that the TronBet team is willing to share the profits with you. That’s why the project includes a Tron-based token called Ante.

Every 1000 TRX you bet at TronBet will get you an Ante token. And holding that coin is going to earn you the right to participate in TronBet’s profits. The more Ante you hold, the bigger your share in the site’s profits. This is an online casino that plays fair and is also willing to reward you for playing via a custom token and profit sharing. This is nothing short of revolutionary in the gaming world, be it traditional or blockchain-based.

And now the platform has increased its product offer by releasing a new game called “Duel.” The new game is an extension of sorts to the previously existing “Ring” (which was released last December 28th). The game is as simple as it is addictive.

You start with a ring-shaped roulette (hence, the name) in which you choose one of four available colors. Then the wheel spins, and a color wins. Then, in the next stage, you make a numerical guess. And that’s it.

Duel is even simpler. You open up a challenge by placing a bet and choosing a color. Then another player in the system can accept your challenge, and play against you for the amount of TRX you placed by choosing a different color. When the duel is set, the system chooses the winner randomly.

There are other new features at Tronbet such as the daily tasks. Every task you complete earns you points, rewards, and you can raise through the site’s levels so just joining the platform becomes something of a game in itself.

The tasks are things that you’ll probably complete anyway at some point like winning 30 times at Dice, or at Moon, or Ring, just to give you a simple example, but there’s a variety of goals to complete.

Joining TronBet is exceedingly easy. All you need is to have a Tronlink wallet (which is a chrome extension) and own a few TRX coins, which are also useful in many other platforms in the Tron network.

So TronBet gives you the chance to play a bit, have some fun, and earn a little passive income by accumulating Ante. It’s very original and convenient which is why it’s one of the world’s top ten decentralized applications.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

An exclusive interview with Chibi Fighters core developer, a blockchain-based game that’s expanding to Tron after Ethereum

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The blockchain undoubtedly is disrupting the whole gaming experience effectively and quickly. We’ve seen some blockchain games that have grown in popularity in no time, and now, it seems there’s another elephant in the house, Chibi Fighters.

Chibi Fighters gives you an incredible, fun-filled survival game (where you need to secure your pet dragon) to enjoy and a platform to make handsome money through cryptocurrencies (you earn real crypto rewards, in TRX).

The game had been running on Ethereum for some time already but the developers decided to expand to Tron recently (the game will be fully-launched on Tron by coming March). Powered by the Tron blockchain technology now and with cool graphic designs, the core developer will be telling us in detail about himself, Chibi Fighters, why they chose Tron, and more in this interview.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and experience?

I started programming in a time where bulletin boards and aol existed. Back then there was this nifty little program called 3D Studio Max, which of all the 3D programs had a German translation. Btw. That’s why it’s still super popular in Germany.

Anyway, long story short: Making art for my games was more fun than trying to write them so I studied Digital Arts, became a digital artist, left Germany, worked at Weta Digital in New Zealand and was living my personal dream.

While working on Avatar, Hobbit and the likes was an amazing time, crypto was also very interesting. And with it being new, hyped, interesting, I decided to quit my day job and have a go at this bitcoin thing.

My ASIC became my best friend.

How did you meet with crypto and blockchain?

Being surrounded by passionate digital artists, rumors about Bitcoin traveled fast. It soon became office talk #1.

Tell us about how you came up with the idea of Chibi Fighters.

Originally it was the art that convinced me. Asa is such a talented artist, not to forget Kiwi of course, who is also very amazing. The original wave of Chibis was just a game asset. I needed to work on an incredibly low budget. I knew something could be done with those little fighters. While back then there was no animation or even RPG elements planned and soon grow big.

YouTube video

What are the biggest challenges when working on blockchain gaming projects?

The blockchain, interaction, updates. The area is so vast and new, it is impossible to keep up. You would need at least one programmer exclusively dealing with blockchain stuff, per blockchain.

Ethereum is super relaxed. Things hardly ever break. So, we can use our energy and focus on Tron.

Why you chose Tron (also, why you decided to move from Ethereum)?

First of all, it is important to me that we are not moving blockchains. We are expanding. Since we are a fighting game we thought it would be fun to have cross blockchain battles. The Tron server will be completely separate from Ethereum. However, markets will be merged where possible. That way players benefit from each other while still maintaining a friendly hostility.

The move, of course, was a similarity between the chains. It’s basically a clone of Ethereum. So easy to move over, or so we thought. Tron has various benefits over Ethereum, like no gas prices and no annoying ABIs to deal with. But their tech is very very new and is updated constantly.

We see you’ve got a referral program, would you please mind providing some details about that to our readers?

Yes, we do. Everyone can create a referral and receives 20% of sales created with their ref link. It is hardcoded into the contract so no requesting anything from us is needed, you get auto-paid.

What are your future plans or projects?

We just released a multiplayer module for Chibis. Moving forwards we are missing raids and a new clan system. Basically expanding multiplayer, and go from there.

Last, in your opinion, how will the blockchain change computer games from the way we’ve known them for years?

Difficult question. Of course, we all hope to Moon no matter what blockchain it is, but let’s be serious here for a moment. Games run on tight budgets (yes even a AAA title have tons of expenses, one bad choice, and the studio is bust) so adding on top of that the additional hassle of dealing with a fragile very volatile software and the market scenario is a decision, not one CFO will approve.

That being said though, this is exactly the strength of the new medium. Giving players ownership of their goods. You can dump 1000h in your WOW warrior, Blizzard laughs their ass to the bank and might just ban your account because why not.

Same goes for Magic, introducing their Duels where you can’t even trade cards anymore, an odd choice for a trading card game. Hearthstone etc. Studios will suck you dry.

Now actually owning your characters, assets and being able to sell them is something that is, of course, great for players, so this will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

In addition, it is easier to offer ingame revenue. Normal payment processors like PayPal would block your account if you dare to give the player a profit. Or fees will just kill you.
Pyramid schemes are fun, but having a quick game of something, and even if you just make some cents, it’s some cents you made by having fun, this will be interesting to see where it will take us.

Head over to https://trx.chibifighters.io/ for more details.

Discord: Chibi Fighters

Ripple approaches mainstream as now users can use it through CoinGate in 4500 businesses

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Ripple and its coin (XRP) have been a blockchain project with a very specific purpose. Unlike Bitcoin (mother of all cryptos), or Litecoin (which has been pushing hard for adoption) or almost any other cryptocurrency in the crypto verse Ripple’s XRP has never been meant as a retail coin.

That means that you and I are not supposed to use it at, say, Amazon or e-bay to buy stuff we want or to pay for our newspaper subscription, etc. The whole idea behind Ripple and XRP is to be a technology (and a coin) that eliminates the friction in international transfers inherent to the outdated (but still standard) SWIFT system. So XRP is not for you or me to use in the same sense as Bitcoin.

And it’s hard to argue with Ripple’s position on the subject because both the company and the altcoin have been quite successful by sticking to their focus. Just think about this: XRP was the most profitable coin during 2017, the year in which almost every digital asset was profitable. And during 2018, which was an unmitigated disaster for most blockchains, XRP managed to grow as the market was shrinking and losing value. It dethroned Ethereum as the second cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

But Ripple has seen the writing on the wall and it’s come to understand that being a retail-coin for “ordinary” crypto maniacs is not such a bad thing. Every use case for Ripple’s XRP (or any other cryptocurrency, for that matter) means demand for the token and it’s demand and usefulness that provides the fundamentals for any blockchain project that end up driving up the price because of authentic economics instead of mere speculative pressure.

So now there is a debit card that uses your XRP to pay for anything you want (your coffee, your cigarettes, your beer or your cart at Amazon). This shows how Ripple is expanding its horizons beyond the world’s banking system. And today, they took a further step in that direction.

Recently, coingate announced a new payment option for its merchants. And, their own words “this time it’s a big one! Due to very popular demand by the community, our next cryptocurrency on the list – XRP!”

And what does that mean? It means that if your digital wallet includes any XRP, then now you can use that currency to pay for goods and services in any of the 4,500 online shops that do business using the CoinGate platform. So you need to pay for your VPN (which you should because free VPNs are a security threat)? A video game? You name it, if it’s within the Coingate ecosystem, then you can pay for it with XRP now.

This is a wise move by Coingate. Even if Ripple’s XRP hasn’t been the most useful currency as a payment system for mortals, the community is very enthusiastic and bullish about it. They trust the system and the coin’s future as you can see for your own in many YouTubers who are sure that it will be the next big thing in Crypto (if it isn’t already). So the platform will profit by the community’s enthusiasm while, at the same time, expanding the use cases for XRP and increasing its demand and real-world utility.

And it will serve merchants well too because it’s the most important coin by market capitalization in the world after Bitcoin. So XRP holders will get more opportunities to use their digital assets and merchants will have access to customers that would otherwise not be in their radar.

The platform’s vendors will be able to settle their payments in realtime in many different currencies fiat and digital as Euros, Bitcoin, Ether. But they could also keep their revenue in XRP if they so choose.

Why XRP?

Well, according to Coingate, because Ripple is different. It’s as simple as that. How is it different, I hear you ask? Let’s see.

The XRP ledger (called “ledger history” too) is validated by several XRP Coingate validators which are decentralized and distributed all over the world! Ripple’s protocol consensus (RPCA) guarantees that every node agrees on everything as new transaction are processed.

As long as every node has the same information, the transaction is good and safe. And XRP tokens do not need mining (like Bitcoin, for instance) which means that the new blocks in the chain are produced very rapidly, and everything is verified and secured very quickly, cheaply and reliably.

Decentralization has been a contentious issue at Ripple. Let’s keep in mind that Ripple is not a non-profit project driven by a community (like Bitcoin, or Litecoin, or several others) but a private company which is trying to make a buck by implementing blockchain-based services for the banking industry. And it’s the main owner of most of the XRP in the world.

As such there’s been suspicion about the company’s intentions, about the fact that it could control every single node (which would beat the point in decentralization). But that’s actually not the case at all. Ripple cares deeply about the network’s decentralization and it has a plan to guarantee it now, and also as the network keeps growing.

In a nutshell, more new third-party validators will join the network so the ledger will be more distributed and reliable. For every two trusted and secured nodes, Ripple will remove one maintained by developers. The escalation will also improve performance and transfer speeds (which are already among the highest in the industry).

As a matter of fact, Coingate has joined the network as an XRP ledger validator in order to facilitate the decentralization process.

So what is the point in the XRP ledger, anyway?

The ledger in question is optimized for ordinary, run-of-the-mill payments domestic or international. That’s why it improves liquidity for banks and remittance services. It’s particularly well-suited to exchange money across borders when you send a particular fiat currency but the other party needs the payment to be settled in the local fiat.

Not all fiat currencies in the world have trading Forex pairs so settling that kind of transference is not always very direct. That’s where XRP becomes useful. With XRP the sender can exchange the local fiat into crypto, send the crypto over Ripple’s network, and then the receiving party just uses XRP to buy local currency.

It’s faster, cheaper, more reliable, and banks don’t need to keep lots of non-local fiat currency that they can’t use at all until an international transfer arrives. And that’s why xRapid is being so well received among Ripple’s 200+ partners.

It’s not that xRapid does something that can’t be done in some other way. There is the SWIFT system which is 43 years old and it’s still the standard among banks when it comes to international transfers. But it does it better. In minutes instead of days, for fractions of a cent, instead of 25 USD or a percentage of the transfer, and it’s a lot more reliable as well.

More than two hundred banks in the world have adopted Ripple’s technology at least at a testing stage, and a handful among them have already deployed them at the production stage. Banco Santander (which is ranked as the world’s best bank) already has a mobile app in selected countries that is powered by Ripple.

Why use XRP?

Because it’s a good way for exchanging value. It’s safe, it’s quick, it’s reliable. A payment done using XRP takes about 4 seconds to settle (Bitcoin, for instance, remains rather slow even as the new lighting network is active). The Ripple Network is good for more than 1,500 transactions per second and very few other blockchains can boast that kind of transfer speeds.

If that’s not enough to persuade you, then think about how much Ripple will charge you for a transference. It’s not even a cent. It’s not even a tenth of a cent. As a matter of fact, the figure is $0.00001 exactly. It’s probably the cheapest payment system available in the world today. And that’s one of the many reasons for which Coingate chose to go with XRP as the next step.

The adoption of XRP by Coingate opens new opportunities for XRP as a token, for its users, and for the platform’s vendors and clients. And it provides the cryptocurrency with 4,500 new use cases in a single go. This is an instance in which everybody involved wins.

So you need some XRP?

And more XRP-based services are available for you at this platform. It’s never been easier to get some of Ripple’s tokens.

You don’t need to buy XRP at, say, Binance and then bring them over through your digital wallet to CoinGate. That’s easy, safe but bothersome. You can buy XRP directly from CoinGate using any of their supported payment methods. You need to be a registered user for that but, if registering is too much of a pain in the butt for you, there are other ways in which you can still get the XRP you want using the very same platform. So they really give you no excuse not to own some.

Debit and credit cards are supported if you just comply with an easy KYC verification, which is becoming the rule everywhere anyway. Netteller or Skrill are also welcomed. Just give the site your XRP address, provide your credentials and get your tokens! No, it’s actually not publicity. But getting ahold of XRP coins can be such a difficult process at times that it’s worth it to tell you when it’s easy and where it’s easy.

CoinGate ended its announcement (which we have covered in full for you in this article) by asserting the belief that XRP can indeed become one of the payment’s industry biggest players. Yes, for banks and remittances for sure but also for end-users such as you and me. And the platform is trying to facilitate and accelerate the mass adoption of digital assets that can really make a difference for everybody in the world, not just for Wall Street and friends.

So make no mistake. Ripple has been unpopular among crypto fans in the past because it works along with the financial system instead of trying to undermine it (which, after all, was Satoshi’s vision for Bitcoin as he brought blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to the world). But it’s kosher, it’s decentralized, it’s valuable and it’s moving forward faster than most other blockchain projects. So even crypto purists are starting to see the point in supporting it.

XRP is at $0.303546 as we write this and it’s trading in green numbers. It’s cheap, it’s undervalued and there’s every chance that when the next bull run comes to Crypto, XRP will lead the way because developments as the one we describe in this article make the project’s fundamentals very strong even as technical price analysis can be doubtful at times.

And that is very good news indeed because it will help us all (and crypto) to bring the new digital economy forward and, in the process, make value and currencies less dependent on politics, central authorities, and the traditional financial system. Keep an eye out for Ripple. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Tron becomes a privacy coin by introducing ZK-Snarks

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Tron has made lots of progress in all regards since it became independent from Ethereum by launching its own Main Net. The project and the community keep delivering and innovating, and they’re not about to stop. There’s a new development because Tron wants to make Tronix (TRX) a privacy coin.

That would break new ground for Tron, of course, but for the cryptosphere as a whole too because that would turn Tron into the only smart contract and decentralized platform with privacy features because neither Ethereum nor EOS are there.

And how will they achieve that, I hear you ask? Using cryptographic technology, as is usually the case in blockchain technology. More specifically, a technique called ZK-SNARKS. Let’s find out what that means.

ZK-SNARKS, what is it?

Let’s be quick and to the point. ZK-SNARKS is a bit of cryptographic trickery that’s already in use by Zcash, and it enables to wallets to transact between them without disclosing the transaction’s information.

In other words: you can perform a transaction that cannot be traced back to you or the other party while keeping the blockchain’s protocol-specific consensus mechanism. This is one of the ways in which a technology called “Zero Knowledge Proof” can be implemented.

This is one of the most impressive applications in cryptography as it allows somebody to share a specific bit of information without actually showing it or disclosing it. Even professional specialists consider this mathematical technique closer to magic than to math. But it’s there, and it works.

It’s all up to you

The new feature won’t be mandatory, so not every TRX transaction in the network will be private. Every individual user will be free to choose if they want to transact privately or not. Both the “open” and “private” modes will be available at all times, and every TRX holder will be able to switch between modes for any reason whatsoever.

There are circumstances in which the open mode can have advantages as keeping a traceable record would help very much with total transparency (like if you’re running for public office, or are already there). Starbucks, on the other hand, doesn’t need at all to know the way in which you and I have been using our beloved TRX tokens.

Why privacy matters

Everything we do online or offline is tracked in some way. Our banks keep a detailed record of every movement in our credit or debit cards, for instance. That’s been the traditional way of doing things for ages but think about the way in which Facebook, Google or some other third parties also keep track of everything you do and all the information you access over the web.

Justin Sun, Tron’s CEO and founder, referenced this as he was interviewed at the Bad Crypto Podcast “[People] don’t want their privacy stored by Facebook or Google because those people can more easily manipulate the data so they can push ads to you.

You don’t want to share those data with them. That’s why I think the decentralized way becomes a good way to do that [and limit how much data you are required to share].”

The Tron Foundation used its official Tweeter account to announce it’s tackling the privacy problem a couple of months ago:

Tron: The future in crypto disruption

A decentralized smart contract and decentralized application platform that supports private transactions could do away with the monopoly that tech and data companies have over us.

That would go a long way in achieving Tron’s stated objective which is to decentralize the world wide web and get rid of central authorities. It remains a very ambitious goal that still looks very far away from completion. But Tron is just getting started, and this is the kind of news and technological developments that can turn that kind of dream into the new reality.

Image courtesy of PixaBay.