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Ripple Officials Build xSongs, a Platform Dedicated for Musicians and Artists

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Craig DeWitt, director of product at Ripple has built a dedicated platform for musicians and artists. The platform dubbed “xSongs enables artists and musicians to sell their music in XRP”.

xSongs Connecting Musicians Directly to Consumers

DeWitt considers xSongs as his personal project and has been working on it for a couple of months. However, he said that xSongs will cut out the middlemen between digital content creators and end consumers. More so, he is enabling musicians and artists to keep “100% of revenue”. With xSongs, artists can upload and sell their music directly to users against XRP. It was also stated that as soon as artists upload music on xSongs, the platform will then run a series of checks that also include “copyrights”.

Ripple has been working to bolster the XRP ecosystem either by funding for blockchain projects or by integrating XRP as a payment form. The nib of the matter is that the XRP cryptocurrency is profoundly known for its speedy settlement of transactions, presumably within 4 seconds. Nonetheless, consumers can buy songs by paying XRP which can be payable using Payburner noncustodial crypto wallet or any other wallet. Notably, Payburner is built by DeWitt on top of XRP ledger.

“We’ve built a wallet experience designed to allow artists to accept payments from anywhere in the world and for buyers to have that ‘one click’ experience anywhere on the web,” said DeWitt.

While he has said that he is personally funding the project, he also mentioned that he is currently looking to “monetize” the platform. He has personally funded about 10,000 XRPs which currently worth around $1970. He elaborated that;

“I’m personally covering the costs…I think when you build something that people love, then monetization stuff will take care of itself in time.”

xSongs is currently available in the beta version. However, the beta version already covers around 100 artists and about 500 songs on xSongs and moving forward DeWitt intends to bring at least 1000 artists and 10,000 music sales by the second half of 2020.

“Once we have a following and are seeing some real scale, we’ll start adding the same kind of artist-centric marketing and content that Bandcamp offers today,” DeWitt told The Block.

XRP fails to break bearish lull as the new year dawns

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XRP was on a constant uphill battle with the bear over the course of twenty nineteen and the price depreciation is evidence of that. The third-largest cryptocurrency hopes to alleviate its problems in 2020 with the bull shining light on it in sporadic moments. At press time, XRP was trading for $0.19 with a total market cap of $8.391 billion.

1 hour:

xrp 1 hour

On the one hour chart, the immediate support was at $0.189 while the resistance held at $0.197, The trend lines showed that the price movement was upward, a glorious sign for the ‘XRP Army’.

The Parabolic SAR was below the price candles after staying above them for a sustained period of time. The hold below the candles signified that the cryptocurrency was going through bullish terrain.

The MACD indicator was predominantly bearish as denoted by the red clutters of the price candles. The signal line and the MACD line had both crossed over the reveal a slight increase in prices during the first day of 2020.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator was below the price candles. The CMF points to the capital accumulation in a particular cryptocurrency market and for XRP, the CMF stated that the capital leaving the market was much more than the capital coming into it.

1 day:

xrp 1 day

The immediate support on the one day chart was at $0.1896 while the resistance had not climbed above the $0.2 mark in over a month.  The third-largest cryptocurrency was trading for $0.192 with the last candle being red.

The Parabolic SAR was above the price candles which meant that XRP had a tough bearish season ahead in the long term.

The MACD line was below the histogram with the signal line crossing over the MACD line. The bearish crossover was another marker in XRP’s struggle against the bear.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator in the long term was just below the zero line. The capitulation below the line had started during the middle of December which meant that capital influx from institutions had reduced.

Conclusion:

XRP still has a long way to go before it can break its all-time high records. In the current scenario, the cryptocurrency’s main mission is to break out of the bearish rut and head back to its earlier price hold within the $0.25-$0.3 range.

 

BitTorrent Ecosystem Gets Another Member in DLive as The Tron Family Grows

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The adoption of new services by blockchain companies has been seen as a mark of increased industry growth. This mantra was again put to action when DLive, the popular blockchain-based content sharing platform announced that they would be joining the BitTorrent ecosystem. DLive’s entry will also mean that the organization will begin its migration to the Tron blockchain.

The content-sharing platform will use the much-lauded BitTorrent File-Sharing System [BTFS] to ensure that the content uploaded on DLive moves to a more secure and decentralized system.

The partnership will also allow BitTorrent’s user base [which amounts to more than 100 million] to gain access to DLive’s live streaming offerings. An official press release from DLive said:

“Starting today, DLive and its blockchain development team will collaborate with the BitTorrent team to bolster its products and services. BLive, the live streaming platform introduced by BitTorrent in early 2019, will be merged into the DLive platform, and their team will join the DLive team. DLive has grown in strides over the past 15 months. The streaming platform boasts a passionate community, a niche product-market fit, and strong adoption has grown to over five million monthly active users.”

Tron Foundation CEO Justin Sun had also heaped praises on DLive by calling it one of the best real-world examples of what is possible when an organization combines blockchain and digital media. The CEO was confided that with the DLive-BitTorrent collaboration, content creators will get a proper chance at launching their stuff. DLive had first migrated to the Lino blockchain in September 2019 and their last major update was introducing the IDA-Lemon as the platform currency on the Lino blockchain.

Dlive
Credit:dlive.tv

Charles Wayn, the CEO of DLive further opined that Tron’sn advancements in the digital asset space go hand in hand with DLive’s goal of empowering creators and rewarding communities with amplifying their capabilities. The organization has revealed that it will begin to offer rewards and benefit points to already existing users to move from Lino to the BitTorrent ecosystem. According to DLive officials, once all users transition from the Lino blockchain, it will no longer be used.

Despite the developments on the Tron blockchain, the cryptocurrency has still not witnessed marked upkeep in its price with the bear market not doing it any favours. At press time, Tron held a value of $0.013 and a total market cap of $890.8 million, a far cry from its range in the billions. The 12th placed cryptocurrency held a 24-hour market volume of $1.15 billion.

Swiss President Claims Facebook’s Libra has Failed 

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Ever since Facebook announced its libra project, it has received several criticisms from regulators and policymakers across the world. However, Switzerland was one country that favoured Facebook’s effort of launching stablecoin, Libra but it looks like the country is now realizing facebook needs reworking.

Libra Needs Reworking To Be Approved – Switzerland

Switzerland’s finance minister and outgoing president, Ueli Maurer thinks that Facebook’s Libra needs reworking to be approved. He went on to say that;

“I don’t think (Libra has a chance in its current form), because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it,” said Ueli Maurer, “The project, in this form, has thus failed”. 

While Facebook has set 2020 as a planned year to launch the most anticipated Libra project, Libra’s Calibra wallet CEO David Marcus had mentioned that the launch may be delayed due to regulatory hurdles. Other dark incidents revolve around Facebook’s Libra was the withdrawal application of major companies like Paypal, Mastercard, eBay and Visa from the Libra Association. The Association members had a charter meeting in Geneva in October this year despite some of the top players pulling out.

Facebook seeks to change the global financial landscape by launching Libra, a stablecoin backed by baskets of reserve currencies. However, as per Maurer who spoke in an interview with Swiss broadcaster SRF on Dec. 27, Libra didn’t have a central bank backing henceforth didn’t stand to become a successful digital currency. He further provided reasoning to his view, saying “Because the basket of currencies that are deposited in this currency is not accepted by the national (central) banks”. However, he went on to add “The project in this form has actually failed”.

In an earlier report, Reuters mentioned that the Patrick Ellis, Libra Association board member claimed the Libra project lacks a clear strategy. He further stated that the project “at this stage has no strategy set in stone for the markets or the product, or how it will actually get rolled out”.

Crypto Exchange Huobi Launches Fiat-Currency Gateway for Indonesia

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Huobi Global recently announced that it is launching a fiat-to-crypto gateway for its Indonesian subsidiary, Huobi Indonesia. Accordingly, Indonesians can now access crypto services by using the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) via Huobi Indonesia.

Huobi Sets Up Fiat-To-Crypto Gateway in Indonesia

Announced on December 27, Huobi Global is tapping the Indonesian crypto market as the exchange said that users can use IDR and Tether (USDT) to trade over 250 cryptocurrencies directly via Huobi Indonesia.

As per David Chen, senior director of Huobi Cloud, the new fiat gateway is a part of the company’s global expansion. He went on to add;

“By continuing to add new fiat/crypto pairs for Huobi Cloud 2.0, we want to make it frictionless for investors anywhere in the world to trade digital assets on a trusted and proven platform said, David Chen. The new fiat gateway reflects our ongoing commitment to working with strong local partners in key markets across the globe,”

According to Huobi, Indonesia presents “a major opportunity to contribute to the growth of the greater blockchain community and help drive crypto adoption globally”.

However, Xiong Dan, CEO of Huobi Indonesia says that the new fiat-currency door is “an exciting milestone” for Huobi’s Indonesian team. More so, he also adds that the exchange will continue its effort to “expand the Indonesia market, consolidate and improve service quality”.

Huobi has been on top bulletins with the new expansion quite often this year. The exchange has also begun its crypto effort to the Turkish crypto market as a part of its global expansion.

Moreover, it was said that Turkey is a promising prospective market for Huobi exchange and the exchange’s CEO Livio Weng had elaborated his view to bringing the Huobi ecosystem there. In fact, the exchange has also hired a crypto veteran, Alphan Gogus as a new general manager for Huobi Turkey.

Bitcoin maximalist claims that comments made on Ethereum were not ‘attacks’

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The rivalry between individual cryptocurrencies has been a driving force in organizations ramping up developments in the space. This competition has also resulted in the formation of dedicated communities for each crypto with the Bitcoin and Ethereum armies constantly at war with each other.

In a recent series of tweets, WhalePanda, the popular Bitcoin maximalist wrote that the Bitcoin community only call out Ethereum’s flaws rather than launch blatant attacks. He said:

“Bitcoiners don’t “attack” Ethereum. They point out their flaws, inconsistencies and spreading of false informations. For example: – change of narratives (world computer, ICOs!, dapps!, defi!,…) – trying to rewrite history (DAO, premine, scalability promises, PoS promises,…).”

The world computer reference was made in connection to the comments made by Vitalik Buterin during earlier interviews. Buterin had claimed that the Ethereum computer would act as an interface for global functions on the internet. The Ethereum co-founder’s power and influence were also considered as some of the network’s faults which included governance issues.

Ethereum’s price has not been much of a help in improving its name as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency was trading for $127.94 at press time. The asset held a market cap of $13.9 billion at a 24-hour market volume of $8.4 billion. Another major fault that was pointed out in the Ethereum ecosystem was the sheer number of hard forks. The network has been struggling to launch hard forks after developmental delays and errors in the coding.

This increase in hard forks was evidenced recently when Ethereum decided to launch another one a month after the launch of its last fork, Constantinople. The fork, tentatively set to launch ion January of 2020, will combat the Ice Age phenomenon on the Ethereum blockchain. Tuur Demeester, the founder of Adamant Capital had also commented on the difficulty bombs situation, tweeting:

“My take on ethereum’s Ice Age difficulty bombs: it’s the equivalent of the Senate writing in the constitution “this country will transition to communism in XX days” in order to ensure that the constitution be regularly “updated”, thus conveniently turning senators into oligarchs.”

Coming back to WhalePanda’s comments, the Bitcoin enthusiast further added that the routine stalling of updates for Ethereum 2.0 was also a big issue. He reiterated that the comments were not attacks and that they were just objective observations. The Bitcoin supporter pointed out that there were some people in the Ethereum ecosystem who recommend to users that putting their entire life savings into ETH was “a good idea”.

World’s Largest Exchange Binance Supports Visa Cards To Buy Cryptocurrencies

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Binance has undoubtedly won the major portion of the market traders and investors. In fact, the exchange is always on a run to excite its audience with new features and functionalities and this time, Binance is now enabling visa debit and credit cards on its platform to buy leading cryptocurrencies.

Binance Excites Visa Users

As per the announcement, users can enable visas with their binance account and buy leading cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance’s native token (BNB) and XRP. However, the platform is currently enabling users to buy crypto using debit and credit cards integrated with the third-party payment processors. But the new feature lets you do so directly via Binance.

“Binance will now allow users to bind their Visa cards to their accounts and purchase crypto using this card, directly on Binance.com. To access this service, users can visit the ‘Buy Crypto’ page, select an amount of EUR or GBP, click next, and then click “Add Card” to bind their Visa card.”Binance said in an announcement.

More so, Binance notes that the support for Mastercard and other crypto tokens will be integrated “in the near future”. Per the announcement, exchange covers total of 31 countries of the European Economic area including United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

Despite the announcement, Binance’s native token Binance Coin (BNB) is trading with the red figures. At the time of reporting this, BNB is currently plunging by 0.14 percent within the past 24Hrs. As a result, the token is valued at $13.27 against USD which counts the market capitalization of $2,064,124,782.

Google Suspends Ethereum Dapp Browser MetaMask Android App 

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No, it wasn’t only YouTube that removed crypto-related videos from its platform; Google is also on a crypto purge. A recent tweet by Ehtereum Dapp browser MetaMask reveals that Google play store suspended its android app citing “deceptive services”.

Google Rejects MetaMask’s Appeal

On December 26, MetaMask elaborates that their appeal was rejected as Google claims that MetaMask violated Google’s financial services policies. The tweet reads that Google cited “their policy that bans mining on mobile” but MetaMask denied Google’s claim.

However, the nub of the matter is that MetaMask is an Ethereum application browser and it essentially doesn’t offer mining activities. Taking up this stance, MetaMask writes;

 

“I very much hope that this was an honest mistake on the part of Google’s reviewers, but in combination with all the crypto YouTube bans, it definitely puts me at disease about how Google is engaging with decentralizing technologies. If people accept this behavior from a mobile monopoly like Google, we may not deserve something better.”

More so, the platform covers 264,000 monthly active users. It was the pioneer opera browser in 2018 which had introduced Web3 capability to their desktop browser and mobile app. Nevertheless, this isn’t the first of its kind for MetaMask, previously its chrome browser extension was temporarily delisted. The news came in a wake of YouTube’s hype of removing crypto videos from several popular Youtube channels.

Interestingly, the entire YouTue scene is slowly turning into a nightmare as its representative claimed that the removal was an error. YouTube officially announced it as follows;

 

Hey there, this was an error on our side during the review process – your video should be reinstated and strikes resolved. Let us know if you’re seeing otherwise!

These recent incidents with centralized platforms like Google and YouTube are directing users to find the most viable “decentralized-based approach”.

Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity gets another user in InstaReM as ‘Army’ continues to be on bullish lookout

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Partnerships between cryptocurrency organizations have been the norm of 2019 and users have seen to it that the ones that occur are always pushed to the forefront. Ripple, XRP’s parent company is one major example of a crypto organization taking control of the tie-up atmosphere and it has reaped dividends again. NIUM, a RippleNet member which has a major reach in South Asian countries has revealed that it has started using Ripple’s popular On=Demand Liquidity [ODL].

Prajit Nanu, the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of NIUM had stated:

“Super excited to end the year with the announcement that we have got our FTSP license in Japan and registrations will happen this week. It’s been a 2 year process and we are excited to launch in Japan by end of Q1. Both NIUM and InstaRem will be active brands in Japan.”

Ripple’s liquidity parameter has been the talk of the cryptocurrency town for quite some time now and many proponents have pitched in their own comments about the feature. Despite garnering acclaim from many sectors of the digital assets industry, it has still received some criticism from members such as Nicolas Steiger, the CEO of FlashFX. Steiger was of the opinion that Ripple’s ODL technology needs more time to gain acceptance among the general public. He further added that until the ODL feature becomes mainstream, SWIFT will reign supreme.

There is a general consensus within the Ripple partner community about the risk appetite in the ODL space. This included regulatory perspectives as well as sudden decisions made by overwatch bodies. InstaRem adopting Ripple’s technology comes right after the Brad Garlinghouse led company had invested in the Singapore based FinTech startup. Ripple received a boost at the close of the year as the company reached a valuation of $10 billion after a $200 million Series C funding round.

Despite the latest update, members of the XRP community were on the fence about the latest developing having a positive impact on the cryptocurrency’s price. At press time, XRP was trading for $0.19 with a total market cap of $8.249 billion. The cryptocurrency held a 24-hour market volume of $1.105 billion after a minuscule 0.01 percent price increase on the daily chart.

The love affair between the XRP ‘Army’ and the cryptocurrency continued unperturbed after analysts pointed out that the third-largest digital asset in the world had a growth potential more than any other coin. CryptoWelson, a popular crypto Twitteratti said:

“It’s not a coincidence it’s been in the top 3 for several years. People want fast, and safe transactions on blockchain, and this offers a lot that ETH/BTC can’t.”

 

Russian Central Bank To Dive in Stablecoins, Testing in the Regulatory Sandbox

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As per the latest report, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is checking how stablecoins can work. It was reported that the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina said the bank has begun testing stablecoins in the regulatory sandbox.

Russia Starts Testing of Stablecoins in Regulator Sandbox

Stablecoin has undeniably been the trend of 2019, major market players and central authorities caught up researching different types of stablecoins, and the most widely known is the one that is pegged to fiat currency. However, the most recent in this race is Russia. Consequently, Nabiullina, the head of the Central Bank of Russia says that they are also at the stage of studying this topic. She elaborates that the country’s upcoming stablecoins are designed for companies that want to issue digital assets backed by real assets.

“First of all, we need to understand what will be the advantages to our citizens, for business, for example, compared to instant payment systems, because the issue of the digital ruble can have serious consequences leading to changes in the structure of the financial market, deposits outflows, and funds redistribution,” Nabiullina added.

According to her, the interest graph of cryptocurrency in Russia has decreased in the last few years but Russians are still doubling down on the future of cryptocurrency. She adds that the people in Russia believe cryptocurrency could be “the creation of a system of private money without government intervention”.

This being said, companies with the help of sandbox are now able to test their products and services under the purview of government. Nabiullina went on to add that they have tested stablecoins in their regulatory sandbox and continued;

Companies that want to issue tokens secured by some real assets. We in the ‘sandbox’ look at how they can work, but we do not assume that they will function as a means of payment and become money surrogate,”