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Cardano’s OBFT Hardfork Completed, a Step Closer to Phase Shelley

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On 21st February, Cardano, IOHK, claimed their OBFT hardfork to be completed successfully. The hardfork is a step towards Shelley – the era of growth and development for the network.

Unlike the Byron [previously] era, which began at a single point in time when the mainnet was launched, the transition to Shelley is designed to “achieve a smooth, low-risk transition without service interruptions”. That said, no complaints of the upgrade have been recorded yet. Even the largest crypto exchange Binance has provided support for Cardano as they’ve updated their system accordingly.

Cardano used a Proof of Stake [PoS] algorithm called Ouroboros, which determined how individual nodes reach consensus about the network. Being more energy-efficient than PoW [Proof-of-Work], PoS still has some drawbacks which can result in a catastrophic system failure while running complex systems on the PoS blockchain. To fight this, IOHK built a better solution in phases.

In the Shelley phase, they are transitioning to OBFT [current consensus mechanism] from Ouroborous Classic and will finally convert to Ouroborous Genesis; this will be the very first implementation of the most secure stake-based blockchain protocol to ever be engineered.

Things to note about the hardfork:-

  1. From a PoS consensus mechanism, the network will now switch to use a BFT-based mechanism.
  2. The hardfork was a system upgrade and no effect of it will split the main chain.
  3. The ADA tokens of Cardano are unaffected and stay the same.
  4. Exchanges have to update the system and provide support for the OBFT hardfork.
  5. The hardfork is a step towards making Cardano fully decentralized.

The team at Cardano has also strongly urged and recommended upgrading to Cardano 1.6.0 13 for no issues and disruption. As well as Daedalus [Cardano’s official wallet] users need to use the latest version 0.15.1 to ensure their wallet supports the OBFT hard fork.

For users who have their ADA stacked on exchanges just make sure your exchange supports the upgrade. 

The Shelley era includes the basic early strides in Cardano’s excursion to streamline decentralization – and like any initial steps, these will be continuous yet significant. In the previous era Byron, the network was federated. As the nodes incorporate the Shelley era, a multitude of nodes will be shifting to the community-driven segment of the process. When the majority of nodes are run by the network participants, Cardano will become more decentralized than it has ever been; opening doors for higher security and robustness.

Cardano expects the project to be “50-100 times more decentralized” than any other blockchain network. The incentive structure is designed to reach an “equilibrium of 1,000 stake pools” while the current prominent blockchains are controlled by 10 or less mining pools.

As the hardfork was recorded to be completed, Charles Hoskinson – CEO at IOHK tweeted,

 

To this, the community responded with positivity:

 

 

FSB Chair Makes It Clear That Banks Need To Improve Their Crypto ‘Know-How’

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Nowadays, it has become common to hear than central banks were considering the idea of the dabbling in the digital asset world. This comes after a decade of speculation and discussion about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Despite these, there are still regulators who are on the fence about the industry.

In a recent discussion, Randal Quarles, the Chair of the Financial Stability Board [FSB] stated that regulators need to improve their knowledge about cryptocurrencies.

According to Quarles, regulators across the globe had to ensure they do not fall back on the technological developments that were occurring on a daily basis. He specifically stated that in the coming years, developments like stablecoins and cryptocurrencies would become necessary for societal advancement.

Quarles stated:

“FSB (Financial Stability Board) members recognise the speed of innovation in the area of digital payments, including so-called ‘stablecoins’. We are resolved to quicken the pace of developing the necessary regulatory and supervisory responses to these new instruments.”

The FSB official also serves as a United States Federal Reserve governor and holds multiple connections with influential members. His keen eye on stablecoins has resulted in the formation of a working group that will look into assets like Tether. The group is also tasked with addressing the risks and benefits of stablecoins so that they can have the potential to be integrated into mainstream society.

The FSB has not settled on a timeline for the release of regulatory clauses, although sources close to the body say that it may be as early as April.Stablecoins were also a pivotal point of discussions among the G20 finance ministers. The top financial honchos met in Riyadh to discuss and mitigate the risks posed by stablecoin adoption.

According to banking officials, there were several loopholes in the current financial ecosystem.Stablecoins also fall under the category of cryptocurrencies, and so far there have been no stringent laws or regulations. This comes at a time when banks were transitioning from the existing London Interbank Offered Rate [LIBOR] to a new method.

Feds across the globe have decided that the LIBOR will be phased out by 2021, by which time they plan to introduce more efficient systems. The FSB has assured everyone that they plan to keep a watch on assets such as stablecoins and stop the vulnerabilities in them.

The Bitcoin Gold Pump: Report Talks About Massive Whale Movement

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Bitcoin Gold was one of the hard forks of the original Bitcoin and many have claimed that the cryptocurrency has not fulfilled its potential. At the same time, members of the community have stated that BTG was just a ploy to scam people off their profits.

In a recent report, Only Foresight claimed that there was an exit pump persistent in the Bitcoin Gold blockchain. The research also pointed to how several tokens were being taken off the Bitcoin Gold blockchain. 

Bitcoin Gold went through an accumulation period for eleven months between August 16, 2018, and July 22, 2019. During the accumulation, Bitcoin Gold hit a peak of 1.9 million tokens in the Bitfinex margin long position. The report added that in the past year, almost 11 million BTG was not moved.

The research then talked about the price pump that triggered the scare of an exit pump phenomenon. At the start of this year, Bitcoin Gold jumped by 150 percent when it was trading below $5 to settle near the $15 mark. Although this pump was massive [almost 150 percent], the price hike did not last very long.

Looking at Bitfinex wallets during the price hike, it was noticed that the long charts were falling off significantly. At the same time, the wallet balances were also falling by an equivalent amount. This shocked a lot of the members of the community, triggering several to sell. The report said:

“This is no coincidence; mark-up and distribution are starting. BTG will see a price increase that will attract thousands of retail investors to buy up the bags that this huge market participant needs to get rid of.Since the “whale” largely controls where the price goes due to owning such a big piece of the supply, the coin can be wash traded up to any price he wants to exit at.”

What caught many people by surprise is that Bitfinex is usually not a place for retail investors. The exchange had only recently announced that they would remove $10,000 capital requirement to trade on the exchange. The analysis of the report then revealed that the whale responsible for the pump was Korean. It was then spotted that the whale had tried to suppress the price for later purposes.

If Bitcoin Gold’s price rises way too quickly, then it would lead to a massive downtrend where people would make losses. Some claim that the breakeven price for the Bitcoin Gold whale was at $22.86. But then again, that is speculative and bound to the market conditions in the future.

The report said that the whale owns an estimate of 45 percent of the total BTG supply. During the 340 days of accumulation, there were 280 days of purchases. During the same period, there were 145 days where users bought more than 5000 tokens.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin Gold was trading for $10.16 with a total market cap of $177.99 million. The 24-hour market volume was at $27.769 after an 8.2 percent price drop over the previous day.

Visa Accords Coinbase the Power to Endow Debit Cards

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According to an announcement made on February 19, Coinbase is now a principal member of Visa. The credit card giants officially granted Coinbase that status back in December 2019. However, the status was not disclosed to the public until today.

Moreover, the new membership status eliminates quite a significant and expensive middleman off the process of issuing debit cards. The cryptocurrency firm used to work with Paysafe to issue Coinbase cards. Following the new membership status, Coinbase can now stop relying on Paysafe and control a large stake of the card payment stack; to issue debit cards that allow users to spend their own bitcoin, ether, and XRP anywhere Visa is accepted.

In particular, principal membership has given Coinbase a significant advantage as it is the first cryptocurrency firm; with the power to issue debit cards to others, including other digital currency firms and even other traditional firms. Visa confirmed Coinbase’s new membership status but reiterated the company itself won’t accept digital currencies when the project launches later in the year.

Moving forward, Coinbase says it will not issue cards to others anytime soon. Nevertheless, the principal membership status presents Coinbase with a new significant income source. The membership status simplifies the process of spending digital currencies anywhere a Visa card is accepted. In addition, the principle membership establishes a platform for the likely explosion of BTC, ETH, XRP, and many other digital currencies.  According to Zeeshan Feroz, CEO of Coinbase UK:

“Your Bitcoin holdings have never been liquid because you have to sell them, you have to go through a process, withdraw the money, and then spend it. It’s never been an instant, “Oh, I’ll buy this cup of coffee with bitcoin.” What the card is trying to change is the mindset that crypto is tucked away, takes two days to access, and can actually now be spent in real time.”

Coinbase Visa Debit Card not Available to U.S. Residents

Coinbase Visa cards will enable users to spend their cryptocurrency holdings in purchasing everyday items; regardless of whether the merchant accepts crypto. Moreover, the Coinbase card was initially launched in the U.K. but it is currently available in 29 other European nations. The Coinbase card can practically function anywhere in the world; however, it cannot be ordered by people outside the supported countries.

Nonetheless, the Coinbase Visa debit card will not be available to residents of the United States. The card that automates the conversion of cryptocurrency to the one preferred by the merchant; will go live later this year and will be managed by Coinbase’s U.K. subsidiary. It will be first issued to the 29 supported countries. The debit card will support nine cryptocurrencies which will include litecoin, bitcoin cash, Brave’s BAT, Augur’s REP, 0x’s ZRX, and Stellar’s lumen. The digital currencies will not be subject to capital gain taxes; since in Europe, users are not required to pay additional taxes; on price differences between when the crypto was purchased and sold like in the U.S.

In Conclusion

More than half the number of users who initially ordered the Coinbase card is still active. The U.K hosts the majority of the users followed by Italy, Spain, and France, according to Coinbase. Bitcoin and the digital currencies may not or are yet to replace MasterCard and Visa, leaving traditional debit cards as the only viable alternative.

 

IOTA Releases Updated Trinity Version after Security Breach

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Cryptocurrency companies have been known to experience problems and social media has helped them in informing its users of what to expect. IOTA, the cryptocurrency based on the Internet of Things [IoT] recently witnessed a suspicious attack on Trinity following which the organization solved it. 

When the activity was first detected, IOTA warned users to not open or use Trinity on their desktops. This was still not enough to stop the attackers from stealing funds off the blockchain. So what has finally been done about it?

Latest updates stated that the coordinator was halted until further notice to investigate reported issue with the stolen funds. All Trinity wallets have also been asked to be not used. To combat the security lapse, IOTA released a new version of Trinity that allows users to check their balance and transactions.

IOTA has stated that with the new update, users will be able to remove the aforementioned vulnerability. In a report released by the company:

” …we will release a seed migration tool that will allow users to transfer their tokens to a safe seed. We strongly recommend that ALL users who have opened any version of Trinity (Desktop or Mobile) since the 17th of December 2019 utilize the tool and migrate their tokens to a new, safe seed during the soon-to-be-announced migration period BEFORE the coordinator is re-started.”

The seed migration tool was created to render the attacker incapable of making unauthorized transfers of a user’s token. The release also talked about the number of bundles that were stolen from Trinity.

According to IOTA, only a very few were transferred successfully by the attacker to another wallet. The company has stated that it will repay all stolen tokens by considering the snapshots of the wallet before the attack. All the affected customers will be receiving more news from the company soon.

IOTA furthermore explained that it was in the midst of creating a set of remediation tools and processes to prevent similar attacks in the future. This was part of the community-centric workaround where IOTA has asked members to help.

The news of the attack did have a small impact on IOTA’s price as it fell by 15.14 percent over the past week. At the time of writing, IOTA was trading for $0.29 with a total market cap of $808.8 million. The 24-hour market volume was slowly on the rise and had settled at $15.3 million.

Bitcoin.com CEO Reveals The Details of The Upcoming Tether-BCH Partnership

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Cryptocurrency proponents have been a major driving force in asset adoption and they ensure that they utilize the public stage to its optimal capacity. One of the more popular figures in the industry is Roger Ver and he recently announced some major news related to Bitcoin Cash. 

In a recent interview, Chief Executive Officer [ CEO ] of Bitcoin.com spoke about updates on Tether and how Bitcoin Cash could become the world’s cryptocurrency.

Ver started by saying that Bitcoin Cash was always made to be fast and reliable as opposed to what he believed Bitcoin had become. In his view, Bitcoin no longer followed the route of its original white paper and was currently slow and cumbersome.

The Bitcoin.com official then went on to reveal the news about Tether on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. He did not reveal the full details but promised that the network would use the $4 billion Tether market cap. Ver had earlier commented on the usefulness of stablecoins and how people have starting adopting it. He believed that Tether’s tie-up with Bitcoin Cash would pave the way for a faster adoption rate. Ver added:

“Tether’s use case hs surpassed expectations. Because it is linked to the US dollar, some people who talked about the market instability can also be brought in. In some countries like China, people have already started using Tether as cash.”

Roger was confident that the Tether venture would take off despite the counterparty risk that is involved in the process. Bitcoin.com is all set to launch a feature called Cash Fusion that will be tasked with improving the privacy of the Bitcoin Cash network. Ver added that with the latest addition, the BCH blockchain would become as secure as privacy-oriented cryptos such as Monero.

The Cash Fusion feature will be turned on by default on the Bitcoin.com wallet because they believe “fungibility is key in creating a safer environment”.

Ripple CEO Makes Surprising Comment about Adopting a Hypothetical ‘FedCoin’

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Ripple has been in the news multiple times recently because of its efforts to improve the cross border transaction industry. This has been done by taking initiatives with other banking partners or cryptocurrency companies.

 

Garlinghouse frankly admitted that China’s efforts in the virtual assets space have been commendable. According to him, the United States could look at China and take a few notes about blockchain adoption. China’s crypto push is no longer a secret as reports recently pointed to the multiple blockchain patents being filed in the country.  In Garlinghouse’s words:

 

“What China has been doing is fascinating, If you look at the factors necessary for cryptocurrency adoption, China leads there too. The country has a majoritarian hold on the mining power and have been very strategic about working to create a better economic powerhouse.”

 

The Ripple CEO was confident that if a country like the US would adopt China’s model, it would attract a lot of new users to the crypto wave. Garlinghouse then talked about how central banks were getting into decentralized technology.

He was again positive about the developments as he believed in its long-lasting run. Reports about China’s proposed digital coin have been doing the rounds of late and some believe that it would ignite the spark of adoption.

Brad Garlinghouse was also asked if Ripple would ever adopt a FedCoin if the US Federal Reserve were to release one. For the first time in public, the CEO admitted that Ripple would be open to that idea. He continued that any asset that adds traction to the cryptocurrency revolution would be accepted.

Ripple’s ongoing partnership updates began a trend where other coins were ready to jump on board. Garlinghouse stated that any new central bank backed digital currency must be more accessible and efficient than existing assets. This was his segue into Ripple’s other pipeline plans.

Garlinghouse informed users that just like Amazon, Ripple would also be diversifying into other verticals. This would allow digital assets such as XRP to penetrate other sectors of the market.

 

XRP Receives Australian Love as Market Volume Overtakes Bitcoin’s

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The latest bull rise in the market has caused a substantial increase in prices with several cryptocurrencies climbing in value. Apart from the price, other factors such as market cap and 24-hour market volumes have also taken a bullish tangent.

XRP enthusiasts would have been enthused over the weekend when they discovered that the cryptocurrency’s volume was 4 times higher than that of Bitcoin on BTCmarkets, a popular Australian cryptocurrency exchange. 

Market volumes have usually been considered a key metric in judging the performance of a cryptocurrency. In the wake of this, several enthusiasts made it a point to clock the volumes during peak bullish hours. On February 16, it was spotted that XRP’s volume had trumped that of Bitcoin’s to reach 7.244 million AUD on BTC Markets.

At the same time, Bitcoin’s volume on the Australian exchange was 1.772 million AUD after a 2.11 percent drop in value. Ethereum came in third place with a total market volume of 999.567 million AUD. Smaller cryptocurrencies such as POWR had also jumped on the list to overtake bigshots such as Litecoin, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash.

POWR had witnessed a 14.67 percent surge in price which also caused its market volume to rise to $477.768 million. Many members of the cryptocurrency community have come forth and commented on the volume spike because of it affects the trading markets. It is also a known fact that BTC Markets is one of Ripple’s ODL exchange partners.

BTC Markets successfully partnered with RIpple for the On-Demand Liquidity platform in Australia which leverages XRP. The third-largest cryptocurrency in the market was set to act as a bridge currency to eliminate the need for pre-funding in cross border payments. The organization had also announced a new CEO Caroline Bowler three weeks ago to set higher goals for the exchange that trades crypto worth $8 billion. She had said:

“Our clients are assured by our complimentary asset protection fund, safe in the knowledge their crypto assets are secure. Our on-going priority is to look after the interests of our loyal customer base with continuous innovation and valued partnerships. My experience will drive our strategic direction, and ultimately our growth strategy for Australia and beyond. I look forward to working with industry stakeholders as we continue our key role, leading Australia towards a digital economy.”

XRP, in general, has had a rollercoaster ride over the past few weeks. The cryptocurrency was now trading for $0.28 with a total market cap of $12.42 billion. XRP’s total 24-hour market volume was $43.71 billion after a 4.08 percent price increase in the last 7 days.

Ripple Partner MoneyGram Joins Forces With Visa for FastSend launch

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Cross border transactions have become the norm with several mainstream companies taking the route. Ripple has been one of the several companies taking an initiative from the cryptocurrency sphere and that has shown with the partnerships.

Just recently, one of Ripple’s major partners, MoneyGram, announced a new service that is not using Ripple’s technology, but rather that of its rival, Visa

MoneyGram claimed that FastSend was developed keeping in mind the quick and easy access that people need to money. The service will enable users to send money to a phone number in real time using their particular website or mobile app. Since investing $50 million in the remittance company, Ripple owns 10 percent of MoneyGram.

During the launch, Kamila Chytil, the Chief Operating Officer [COO] of MoneyGram stated:

“Today, MoneyGram is utilizing Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity product which allows MoneyGram to trade FX at a corporate level using XRP. It’s a back-end treasury function that’s not consumer facing. The technology is helping to solve the most expensive and time consuming aspect of the current process by reducing the amount of money the company needs to park around the world, which will eventually reduce working capital needs.”

The service is intended to be cheap to ensure everyone uses it. The cost of individual transactions will be $1.99 with the cap limit set at $10,000. FastSend will be supported by Visa Direct rails with the market expecting that it will draw customers into the market. This can probably result in more people learning about Ripple and the cryptocurrency cross border transaction department.

Alex Holmes, the CEO of MoneyGram stated that users will be able to send money as easily as sending a text. Chytil added that the company will use direct original credit transaction to send funds. This mode of transfer will not use Distributed Ledger Technology [DLT] but will instead use open-source cloud services.

At the same time, Ripple uses blockchain-based products extensively to service other products as well. Officials close to the company stated that FastSend functions as a back end treasury function that is not consumer-facing. This also reduces the amount of capital that the bank needs to park around the world. Ripple saw this as the major factor in controlling the amount of liquidity in the market.

Liquidity is seen as the main problem that a lot of banks seems to face With XRP and the company’s proprietary technology, Ripple plans to rid the issue of circulating currency. Once the liquidity for trading increases, the remaining capital can be used for other purposes such as margin trading. According to MoneyGram, the latest feature will utilize the blockchain to change the financial world.

Alex Holmes led the company aims to increase blockchain adoption among financial institutions and believes that it will come to fruition soon. Ripple’s influence had also penetrated into the Asian market recently. The popular Bangladeshi organization Bank of Asia had just announced that they had joined the RippleNet.

The news about Bank of Asia was first discovered by a Twitter user who had noticed the bank’s logo on a Ripple document. The bank now joins the likes of Santander, American Express, Send Friend and Standard Chartered.

Is High Remittance Charges an Opportunity for Ripple and Crypto?

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Ripple is currently the second most valuable fintech company in the United States. Ripple and everyone else is now looking for a piece of the $1 trillion remittance market. Ripple’s main goal right now is to allow people to make cross-border payments fast and at a low cost. The remittance industry is gradually growing in volume and the number of active users. Standard remittance service providers, however, charge a lot of money for a transfer process. Due to this fact, it is the time for cheaper alternatives platforms such as cryptocurrencies like Ripple (XRP); and other digital platforms to grab this opportunity.

Indeed, data gathered by the market data provider, Statistica depicts that the total transaction volume of cross-border money transfers; through the internet is nearly hitting $95.96 billion this year. This figure represents a year-after-year rise of approximately 21%. On the same token, the total number of users in this remittance section is approximately 8.5 million users worldwide. These two figures are gauged to rise by the year 2023. The total volume is expected to grow to over $143 billion while the number of users is expected to rise to 13.2 million.

Moreover, the data by Statistica shows that the majority of these digital remittance users are within the labor-active age. About 32% of the users are aged between 25 and 34 years while 25 percent were aged between 35-44 years. In addition, the average transaction per head of digital remittance users is approximately $11,233 annually.

The United States Tops Digital Remittance Chart

According to the data, five nations top the charts of the digital remittance transaction value. These countries include the United States, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and the People’s Republic of China.top 5 states These five nations have a total transaction value of $40.801 billion. The United States tops the chart with a transaction value of $21.297 billion followed by Switzerland at $7.969 billion.

 

High Fees an Opportunity for Alternatives Such as Crypto?

On the same token, the report published by Statistica highlights cross-border money transfer often happens on a regular basis. It adds that most users are not prone to regular change in their transfer service provider. The sector is currently dominated by established players such as banks, money transfer firms such as MoneyGram and Western Union; and post offices. However, all these players tend to charge very high fees to process cross-border payments.

According to Statistica, the relatively high fees charged by the traditional institutions has created a way for other alternatives. Digital platforms such as  Worldremit, Remitly, Transferwise that have significantly reduced the fees by optimizing the use of digital infrastructure; become cheaper alternatives.

Ripple Spreading its Remittance Solution to the World

Nevertheless, Ripple has been making developments of late and some of these developments have been positively impacting the XRP market. Ripple has just announced two significant collaborations this month on offering remittance services. Recent developments have sharpened XRP’s price from a $0.2678 low on Feb. 11 to a $0.3288 peak early on Feb. 14.

Furthermore, according to reports, Ripple partnered with Egypt’s largest bank, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE). The new agreement will see NBE open a channel with Ripple to facilitate remittance from Egyptians that work and live in diaspora. The bank claimed that Ripplenet will facilitate its development of remittance business and support transfers from all over the world.

In conclusion, looking at how things stand currently in the digital segment of the payments market, the opportunity for digital currencies to explore is crystal clear. Certain regions such as Africa can benefit significantly from the reduction in transfer fees. According to the study, Africans sent 46 billion dollars to their homelands in 2018