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It can be difficult to choose a cryptocurrency to invest in from the tens of thousands of cryptocurrency available in the market. What if you could look to the stars to guide you? Here’s a list of cryptocurrency tailored to your zodiac traits. Just don’t think of them as sound investment advice.
- Capricorn – Capricorn is disciplined and financially prudent. You will never catch a Capricorn making irresponsible money decisions. They are most suited for Bitcoin investments.
- Aquarius – Aquarians should look to Decred, a modernized descendant of BTC. Like Aquarians, they are quite unique themselves.
- Pisces – Pisces are not money-minded at all. Infact, this zodiac sign thinks of money as a means and not the end. Qtum is a cryptocurrency with some honest prospects which can resonate with the Piscean.
- Aries – NEM is the cryptocurrency of choice for Aries. NEM’s high performance resembles Aries’s hardworking nature.
- Taurus – Taurus is a monetary sign. Wealth and property is important to them. AION should be the cryptocurrency they should consider investing in.
- Gemini – Gemini’s take on money depends on its mood. Gemini borns are usually born under the Chinese zodiac sign of the Rooster. NEO is a crypto also born under the Rooster sign and would be a perfect symbolic fit for the Gemini.
- Cancer – Cancer is thrifty and money-wise. You can always trust a Cancer to put away their money for a rainy day. Ethereum is a wise crypto investment choice for the crab-signed.
- Leo – Leos are big spenders, no doubt about it. They live extravagant lives and spend lavishly. Bitcoin Cash reflects the strength and ambition found in Leos and should be the crypto they favor.
- Virgo – Another thrifty zodiac sign, Virgos like to save no matter how financially well off they might be. XRP is the cryptocurrency Virgos should look towards for investments.
- Libra – Libras view money with good reason. They value affordability and don’t like splurging needlessly. Litecoin is a nice crypto representative for Libra’s balanced nature.
- Scorpio – Scorpios are motivated and ambitious individuals who have their eyes on the price. They should choose the crypto Tether for their cryptoverse dealings.
- Sagittarius – The Sagittarian’s carefree nature often comes in its way of making sound financial decisions. The Dogecoin is quite like a Sagittarian with its fun and playful personality.
That said, your zodiac shouldn’t dictate your crypto investments.
Gustavo Fonseca loves anything digital and crypto-related which makes him sit up and pay attention. He got into the world of digital marketing and business digital transformation career in 2010. Some time later he got into Crypto, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Gustavo joined TheDailyCoins in September 2018.
Can cryptocurrencies be used for microtransactions?
Cryptocurrencies have been in the play for quite some years now. Almost everyone is aware of Bitcoin. However, blockchain technology has only just started to create a space for itself in public consciousness. Cryptocurrency may be gaining popularity over time but the decentralized digital currency hasn’t yet been able to seamlessly integrate with everyday life transactions.
It could all soon change. A number of companies are now racing to develop the world’s first cryptocurrency vending machine. For the longest time, cryptocurrencies were believed to be largely inaccessible for the layman on the streets – used to trade in thousands of dollars. However, crypto vending machines can change this. You could then use cryptocurrency to buy low-cost and even age-restricted items.
Don’t expect to be underage and still be able to buy alcohol using crypto-vending machines though. These machines will utilize blockchain technology to verify whether a customer is of legal age to buy these goods.
At the 2018 CoinDesk Consensus summit in New York, San Francisco-based start-up Civic showcased a crypto-based beer-vending machine. The objective was to show how easily an age-restricted item could be sold without involving human intervention.
The vending machine is app-controlled. Any individual wishing to operate the machine will first have to sign up on the app and verify their age before they can proceed to make a purchase from the machine.
Civic isn’t the only company to have realized the potential for using cryptocurrency to validate micro-transactions. Many companies are now beginning to develop blockchain-infused machines which will allow the use of crypto for everyday transactions.
How secure are these vending machines?
Vending machines have been disappearing at an alarming rate. They have been slow to adapt to a paperless economy. They are also very limited as to what they can sell due to lack of human supervision. If blockchain technology can be used correctly to allow users to buy age-restricted items, then we could be staring at a revival of the good old vending machines. The only bit that needs taking care of now is the speed and security of such transactions which developers are focusing their attention on.
Conclusion
Crypto-vending machines could pave the way for cryptocurrency to be used in micro-transactions. Blockchain technology can ease the process of making in-store purchases and in the sale of tickets to events. What with blockchain technology overseeing our crypto-transactions, using crypto for making commonplace purchases may no longer be a distant dream.
Gustavo Fonseca loves anything digital and crypto-related which makes him sit up and pay attention. He got into the world of digital marketing and business digital transformation career in 2010. Some time later he got into Crypto, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Gustavo joined TheDailyCoins in September 2018.
Crypto Mining Firm’s IPO Application on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) Lapses
Bitmain, the cryptocurrency mining equipment maker’s application for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) has officially expired which means no such transactions are going through any time soon.
An update on the HKEX’s website mentioned that Bitmain’s case has been transferred to a group of “inactive” applications as is currently labeled as lapsed. The update comes six months after the company filed the prospectus back on September 26.
If Bitmain intends to pursue a listing, it can re-file the application with updated financial records beyond the documents presented during the initial filing.
A listing rule from HKEX states that the last financial period reported on by the reporting accountants for a new applicant can’t have ended before six months from when the documents are listed. Bitmain’s last public filing extends till June 30, 2018.
The company’s application had drawn widespread attention last fall as it revealed figures corresponding to its surprising profit growth over the past couple years. Here’s an example to illustrate the picture better – The mining giant made a net profit of $1 billion in 2017, and it had made almost the same amount in profit by the first half of 2018.
Yes, there was rapid growth experienced in the bottom line, only testifying to the surge in the cryptocurrency market from 2017 – still HKEX wasn’t entirely convinced. It remained reluctant to approve applications from Bitmain, Eband, and Canaan Creative because it felt threatened by the industry’s volatility.
One couldn’t say these fears were unfounded as there was a market slump in 2018 and Bitmain went onto lose $500 million in the third quarter of 2018.
It is yet to be seen whether Bitmain is attempting again to go public anytime soon. The company came out with a statement on Tuesday, confirming the expiration of its listing application with HKex in September 2018 and promised to restart the listing application work at a more convenient time in the future.
Management Shake-up
The same announcement also stated that company CEOs Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan have resigned as co-CEOs. They will be succeeded by Hiachao Wang, who had been working as director of product engineering thus far.
Bitmain would do good to try going public again as it would otherwise have to shell out upwards of $700 million to its venture capital investors.
Andrej Burcev got into Crypto while completing his Bachelor of Science at Kingston University in London. Andrej now works as Senior Software Engineer. He is currently collaborating and writing articles for TheDailyCoins with his focus in innovative technology and its cultural and social influence.
Bitcoin Moghul Changpeng Zhao Defies Reputation and Gets Involved in Twitter Brawl
Chanpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance used to enjoy the reputation of being friendly and easygoing along with the skyrocketing success of his cryptocurrency exchange. However, this persona may just be a sham. At least, onlookers to the Twitter exchanges Zhao had with reporters over the last weekend would testify so.
Bitwise Reports Majority of Spot Bitcoin Trading Value to be Fake
All of this noise started with Zhao rushing to defend accusations put forward by Bitwise reporters that 95% of all spot bitcoin trading volume is fake. In reply to Bitwise’s tweet, Zhao wrote ironically that most investors won’t have the patience to go over the detailed report shared.
Analyst Urges Zhao to Encourage Clean Industry Practices
Around the same time, the CEO to the crypto exchange was hauled up for not using his influence in the crypto space to call out on industry websites who seem to be promoting fake trading volume data by Larry Cernak – an analyst with TheBlock, a crypto news website.
In his defense, Zhao said that was not part of his job. However, he went on to accuse TheBlock of attacking him and his company.
Additionally, he managed to include the idea that since he had granted TheBlock several interviews in the past, he expected more positive coverage from them. It is true, TheBlock has, on several occasions, waxed eloquent about Zhao’s achievements. This doesn’t warrant the hyper-defensive behavior Zhao exhibited on the slightest note of criticism coming his way.
Cernak’s Colleague Steps In
Cernak’s colleague at TheBlock, Frank Chaparro, decided to step in at this point and pointed out Zhao’s responses as being a little too sensitive to received feedback. In the process, he also made a dig at the industry players, saying that they were, perhaps, too touchy about any negative criticism coming their way.
Not the First Media Outlet to Have Faced Zhao’s Wrath
Changpeng Zhao had made similar allegations against the crypto news website CCN.
Neither the Only Overly Sensitive Bitcoin Bull
Zhao has company in this space. Tom Lee, Fundstrat’s bitcoin cheerleader, is much the same when it comes to handling the scrutiny. Lee blocked the CCN reporter who scripted a story on Lee’s ongoing off-the-mark bitcoin price predictions. Now, if that isn’t touchy what is? As adults, we are supposed to be able to handle a certain amount of criticism and learn from it. The Bitcoin industry doesn’t seem to quite have adulted in those terms yet.
Andrej Burcev got into Crypto while completing his Bachelor of Science at Kingston University in London. Andrej now works as Senior Software Engineer. He is currently collaborating and writing articles for TheDailyCoins with his focus in innovative technology and its cultural and social influence.
Bitcoin Approaches Historical Resistance Level and then Drops Below 4,000
Bitcoin had formed a trading range a couple of weeks ago which was established to be between $4000 -$4,100 but has broken this very recently. It is true that BTC has kept away any volatility, but traders should be wary all the same as the cryptocurrency is known to make a significant price swing after sustained bouts of sideways trading.
Currently, Bitcoin is trying to push against a key resistance line that the cryptocurrency has failed to transcend above on multiple occasions over the last year.
It is trading downwards by 1.5%, presently valued at $3,960 and has in fact dropped beyond its crucial support level which had been previously fixed at $4,000.
The past week witnessed the cryptocurrency coiling itself tight within the approximate bracket of $4000-$4,050 before dropping again today. Although the drop today was rather insignificant, the lack of volatility experienced lately will most likely be temporary. History can testify that BTC has made some pretty significant price swings after long periods of sideways trading.
Founder-CEO of BitOoda, the cryptocurrency trading platform – Tim Kelly, informed MarketWatch how he believes the market will shape up next. He expressed confidence that BTC will probe its formerly established resistance level at $4,200.
He explained that right now BTC was just exploring how strongly the resistance level holds as it is now. Large buying volumes need to come into the market for it to be able to topple this resistance level.
The resistance level was established at $4,200 in late-February with BTC surging from $3,600-$4,200, only to plunge to $3,800.
The Need for BTC to Overcome this Resistance Level
BTC is at a stable current price as of now, but it is nearing a critical resistance level that had remained unchanged over the past year and has not been broken above from when the cryptocurrency spiraled from its approximately $20,000 high in late-December 2017.
A cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter expressed hope that it wouldn’t be the same hereon.
BTC could look ahead to significant losses if the resistance level fails to be broken soon. Bitcoin’s price could slide down to $3,200 as it once was in 2018.
The coming week will show if BTC has a chance of breaking this resistance level. In the incidence that it doesn’t, the whole crypto market would be affected. Bitcoin, after all, is hands down an essential cryptocurrency in the cryptoverse.
Gustavo Fonseca loves anything digital and crypto-related which makes him sit up and pay attention. He got into the world of digital marketing and business digital transformation career in 2010. Some time later he got into Crypto, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Gustavo joined TheDailyCoins in September 2018.
The institution of banking has traditionally been the regulatory body that has overseen the economy of a country. Its role solidified further with the introduction of paper money as official currency. Now, with the entry of cryptocurrency in the economy – where do banks stand with it?
Cryptocurrency was devised to improve upon the flaws in traditional currency. When Bitcoin was minted first in 2009, it was done in response to the economic crisis of 2008 as a viable alternative to the existing banking system.
How Banks Responded to Cryptocurrency in the Heydays
When cryptocurrency was first introduced, the banking sector refused to give it any importance as they expected it to fizzle out. But it didn’t. It grew in popularity and is now a safer currency alternative to traditional currency. Many cryptocurrencies have developed since Bitcoin and registered a growth in value. Banks around the world have now woken up to the disruptive power of cryptocurrency, reacting differently in different parts of the world. Certain countries like China have clamped down on crypto-exchange operations while others have been quite receptive as has the Netherlands and other Nordic countries.
How Can Banking Regulate Cryptocurrency?
Prima facie, banks have little space to regulate the minting or trade operations of cryptocurrency. Why? Cryptocurrency is based on a decentralized system where individuals can transact amongst themselves without involving a third party. Secondly, it is highly volatile and so is unlikely to replace flat money anytime soon. Of course, the market value of the regular currency is subject to ups and downs as well, but these aren’t as sharp as with crypto. Naturally, if cryptocurrency is to become the primary currency in our society – banks will have little role to play as they will be helpless in the face of such volatility.
All hope isn’t lost though. If the banking system was to modernize itself by adopting blockchain technology, it could function the same way a crypto exchange does.
Additionally, if cryptocurrencies became more media-reliant than simply value-reliant, banks would find it easier to deal with them.
It is too soon to rule out the bank’s role in a world dominated by cryptocurrency. At the same time, traditional banking as we have known it may be looking ahead to a decline. Nations, now, should probably mull the idea of introducing cryptocurrency for official monetary exchange to draw it into the folds of the banking system.
Gedi is passionate about fast cars, video production, travels and the Internet. He has years of experience working as User Interface Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the information services industry. Skilled in Web Applications, NodeJS, React, Redux and UI. Growing interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, he joined TheDailyCoins as a writer.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the US is all set to hit the road, hoping to meet crypto entrepreneurs who may not be so keen on interacting with the regulator otherwise.
The SEC’s branch, i.e. dedicated for such interactions with tech-startups – FinHub, sent out a notice informing that it would visit major US cities and facilitate face-to-face interactions between interested individuals/teams and agency staffers. They could then use this interaction to clarify their doubts and give necessary feedback on how tokens are issued or other related issues that fall under the regulator’s jurisdiction.
The road trip flags off on March 24 from the SEC’s local office in San Francisco and heads to Denver.
FinHub staff present at these meetings will be able to answer questions with regards to startups’ projects but won’t be able to lend legal counsel as affirmed by SEC’s senior advisor for digital assets and innovations and associate director of the Division of Corporate Finance – Valerie Szczepanik. She will be present at these meetings with her team and prepared to offer any other guidance that the audience may require.
Gladius Network LLC is among the crypto startups who have undergone SEC’s enforcement actions after they reported possible security lapses to the regulatory body. It settled the charges of operating a security offering yet to be registered without admitting/denying the allegations. The SEC took no action against them as they had personally reported themselves to the agency.
CoinAlpha – another startup that came into similar trouble was slapped a $50,000 fine for running unregistered security offerings. The company, however, chose to settle this amount without picking to acknowledge these allegations.
The penalties imposed upon firms that co-operated with the SEC were far more nominal when compared.
What spurred the SEC to take such a step
The SEC wants to put a face to it, inspiring trust among crypto-startups engaging with it. It is still unclear how many startups have established contact with FinHub in hopes of having their token offerings reviewed or to seek advice. As for startups that have provided feedback to the agency – there have reportedly been five or six. More feedback would be welcome. It would allow the SEC to mold their regulatory responses accordingly. However, they are satisfied with the engagement that FinHub has received up until now and wholly appreciative of it.
Andrej Burcev got into Crypto while completing his Bachelor of Science at Kingston University in London. Andrej now works as Senior Software Engineer. He is currently collaborating and writing articles for TheDailyCoins with his focus in innovative technology and its cultural and social influence.
Evrofinance Mosnarbank, the Moscow-based bank has been sanctioned off by the United States Department of Treasury. It was alleged to be financing Petro, i.e. Venezuela’s much-hyped oil-backed cryptocurrency. March 11 saw the DoT come out with an official statement announcing the same.
The statement accused Evrofinance, co-owned by Russian and Venezuelan state-owned companies of helping launch the controversial cryptocurrency. At the same time, it designated the efforts to have gone in vain.
The treasury perceived Evrofinance’s role in financing Petro as a clear statement on Maduro’s part that Petro would somehow enable Venezuela to work around U.S. trade sanctions.
As per the statement issued, Hugo Chavez – Maduro’s predecessor in the government, owns a 49% stake in the Moscow bank since 2011 utilizing the Venezuelan National Development Fund.
When Evrofinance was being incorporated, Russia’s Gazprombank, owned for the most part by the Russian state-owned gas producer – Gazprom and the nation’s second-largest bank, VTB held a 25% stake in it.
How is Evrofinance still operating?
Evrofinance manages to reap in profits due to its association with the Venezuelan government despite having major European and American banks sever ties with Maduro’s rule.
The US is prepared to take action against foreign financial institutions that back the illegitimate Maduro government, in a way contributing to the economic collapse and poor humanitarian standards of living that prevails in Venezuela.
Petro and PDVSA
On top of that, Evrofinance is also accused of maintaining an alliance with PDVSA, i.e. a Venezuelan state-owned oil company under US sanction from earlier this year. The Petro was introduced by the PDVSA last fall as a unit to enable trading of Venezuelan crude oil.
Jorge Farias, CEO of Cryptobuyer, a Venezuelan crypto start-up has stated that Petro is in fact financially backed by the PDVSA, which has its debts to take care of.
The fate of the Venezuelan cryptocurrency continues to unfold in a politically and economically turbulent climate. Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and a self-declared interim president who enjoys the support of countries like Canada, U.S. and Germany had called out Maduro-backed Petro to be a scam as far back as December 2017.
Petro’s involvement with PDVSA is made quite clear by the fact that early investors into the cryptocurrency were invited to make their purchase by wiring money to a Venezuelan government account at Evrofinance. Evrofinance’s actions in supporting Petro have rightly landed it in trouble with the US treasury law.
Gustavo Fonseca loves anything digital and crypto-related which makes him sit up and pay attention. He got into the world of digital marketing and business digital transformation career in 2010. Some time later he got into Crypto, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Gustavo joined TheDailyCoins in September 2018.
A New York investment firm, Shuttle Holdings, is all set to launch the beta version of a custody solution designed for digital assets built on IBM’s encryption technologies and private cloud platform. While the company will not be storing or otherwise dealing with cryptocurrencies and tokens by themselves – they will be equipping others with tools to do so.
Shuttle’s chief investment officer, Brad Chun, expects banks, brokers, family offices, funds, custodians and high net-worth investors wishing to engage in self-custody and exchanges to figure among potential users.
Chun also specified that they already have a list of the client that they intend to launch limited services this month. The service hasn’t been opened up to the public yet, and there’s a waiting list if somebody wants to get into their beta.
The “Think 2019” Conference that was held last month in San Francisco is where IBM first showcased this solution. CTO and Director of Cloud Security, IBM, Nataraj Nagaratnam recognized crypto-storage as a primary use function for Big Blue’s cloud platform. Nagaratnam stated that there couldn’t be a better time to engage with financial technology that is slowly gaining traction all over the world. Players in the finance industry worry equally about their data security. The Digital Asset Custody Service chose IBM as the platform to offer their services due to its advanced encryption capabilities.
IBM seems to be taking slow but decisive steps into the crypto universe – First, it developed the Hyperledger Fabric private blockchain for enterprises and then, it got involved with cryptocurrency through its work with Stellar Foundation.
Once, solely the territory of crypto exchanges and wallet providers, the prospect of institutional investment stepping making an entry to the digital assets space has prompted many to devise secure industrial-grade solutions the usage of which large players are acquainted with.
Crypto Custody, i.e. Not Cold Storage
Most crypto custodians offer cold storage solutions with private keys held in a device without any connections to a network. Shuttle and IBM’s crypto custody service functions differently. Their solution is constructed on a hardware security module, i.e. a type of lockbox which keeps digital keys safe in a tamper-proof environment. Unlike with cold storage solutions, can acquire their data and assets more readily from these. IBM’s technology has ensured that this custody storage solution is equally as secure if not an improvement upon the security provided by cold storage wallets.
Gustavo Fonseca loves anything digital and crypto-related which makes him sit up and pay attention. He got into the world of digital marketing and business digital transformation career in 2010. Some time later he got into Crypto, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Gustavo joined TheDailyCoins in September 2018.
Dogecoin is an easier and accessible cryptocurrency alternative to the older and more popular Bitcoin. Originally born out of an Internet meme in 2013, it has a significant sized active community in the crypto universe today. The community has often funded many charitable projects amongst themselves, even sponsoring a NASCAR event.
The cryptocurrency is most commonly used for tipping other users for interesting posts on services like Reddit. It hasn’t seen any major updates since 2015. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin is inflationary rather than deflationary. Dogecoin’s creators understood the problem inherent in having a supply cap of coins which would prevent miners from mining further profitably once this limit is reached. So they did away with this coin cap, ensuring that Dogecoin miners would always have access to new Dogecoins – giving them an incentive to mine more. It wouldn’t involve long transaction times or high fees for encouraging mining as with cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Dogecoin adopted an inflation-based approach instead to maintain its value at 100 billion coins by replacing lost coins.
Dogecoin thrives not on the technology it is built but the community that it has been able to build around the cryptocurrency.
Dogecoin is built on the same technology as Litecoin. LTC miners are able to mine Dogecoin for this reason if they use an Auxiliary Proof of Work (POW). When a Litecoin miner solves a complicated equation, a new block is added to the Dogecoin network and rewarded a Doge enabling them to process Dogecoin transactions.
How does this reward system work? Well, it serves a dual purpose – One, it inspires miners to use computing power to be able to complete transactions on the
Dogecoin blockchain, and the other is to control the creation of new Dogecoins.
What is the value of a Dogecoin?
The market value of all cryptocurrencies is prone to extreme surges and dips. The market value of any cryptocurrency is characteristically volatile. Dogecoin, in particular, has been subject to a history of very abrupt price changes since its inception.
The price driver for Dogecoin as with other cryptocurrencies is media attention. It surged in value around early 2018 as news circulated that it had reached a market cap of over $2 billion. Media stories like this encourage new traders to invest in these cryptocurrencies. The surges though are inevitably followed by market crashes due to the traders who reap the profits. You can always try to predict this market, but it is quite risky as you may end up losing more money than you’d bargained for.
Gustavo Fonseca loves anything digital and crypto-related which makes him sit up and pay attention. He got into the world of digital marketing and business digital transformation career in 2010. Some time later he got into Crypto, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Gustavo joined TheDailyCoins in September 2018.
Eleanor B. Stonebridge is a New York Times best-selling author renowned for her engrossing fantasy novels. With her masterful storytelling and vivid world-building, she has captivated readers worldwide and has won numerous awards in the literary sphere.
