Bitcoin Rises Footsie Falls as UK Heads to Snap Election

Bitcoin Rises Footsie Falls-as UK Heads to Snap Election

Bitcoin Rises, Footsie Falls, as UK Heads to Snap Election

Theresa May, the British unelected current Prime Minister, has surprised and at the same time excited everyone by all the sudden calling a snap election in what may be an historical two months of campaigning.

“It was with reluctance that I decided the country needs this election, but it is with strong conviction that I say it is necessary to secure the strong and stable leadership the country needs to see us through Brexit and beyond,” May said according to Reuters.

No one was expecting the British election as May has univocally stated there will not be one, but the surprise u-turn sent FTSE down some 2.46%, Pound is up to months high and so is Bitcoin, rising slightly around 1.50%.

The outcome of the election is currently seen as somewhat certain because the Labour leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, is generally seen as unelectable. Moreover, Theresa May is 20 points ahead of Labour, but will there be a twist?

All eyes are now on Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats. The party rose to power in a coalition in 2010 with the conservatives. Voters, however, severely punished them in 2015 because they rose student fees when they said they would not.

However, now the times are very different. Britain has as good as no official opposition. The only real choice is the Liberal Democrats, a coalition of social liberals and classic liberals. They usually strongly appeal to students, while also attracting libertarian-leaning voters.

In this election, their main selling point would probably be their pro-EU stance. Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of lackluster campaigning for remaining in the EU prior to the referendum. Some speculate he is secretly in favor of Brexit.

The only voice, therefore, for some 48% of voters who wished to remain, may be Tim Farron. It is far too early to say what exactly he will promise, but if the party accepts the referendum’s results and campaigns on a soft-brexit, it may actually have a real chance of providing a third political earthquake in just months.

The election may then be given some meaning, instead of being just a coronation, as the public debates whether they wish to hard or soft Brexit in potentially the biggest decision this nation has faced in almost a century.

We should, however, expect Tim Farron to botch it all and say we should have a second referendum, something which would probably take them off the election map and relegate them to a joke party.

Britain has voted to leave. The will of the people must be upheld. The question now is how, not if. The nation demands an opposition. Who wants the position is now the question everyone is asking.

David Ogden
Entreprenuer

David

Should You Accept Cryptocurrency In Your Small Business?

should you accept cryptocurrency in you small business

Should You Accept Cryptocurrency In Your Small Business?

Despite the controversy and challenges that occur — small-business owners are embracing cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin. The main reason, according to the more savvy entrepreneurial-types, is that by using the latest technology they can stand out from other businesses.

Does that mean that accepting cryptocurrencies is the right fit for your business? It actually depends on your business’s particular situation and needs, but for the most part, cryptocurrencies can offer the following advantage for business owners.

In years past U.S. merchants have had to pay over $78 billion in credit and debit card processing fees. Since cryptocurrencies are decentralized, meaning that they don’t require a bank to verify each transaction, you can eliminate those transaction fee which normally cost 2 percent up to 5 percent for each transaction.

In other words, it costs almost nothing for your customers to transfer funds to you. As for you — as a business owner — don’t have to share your hard-earned revenue with that third party financial institutions.

More privacy and security for your customers.

According to a research by Statista, 17 percent of shopping cart abandonment is over payment security concerns, with another 18 percent is due to excessive payment security checks.

With cryptocurrency transactions, customers don’t have to share personal data when making purchases because they rely on a send-only protocol, meaning that counterfeiting and identity theft are decreased because there aren’t any number for hacker to steal.

Transactions are processed quickly.

Waiting for a funds to become available in your bank account isn’t just frustrating, it can negatively impact your cash flow. That’s not the case with cryptocurrency transactions. In most cases, these transactions occur in real-time because there aren’t multiple banks holding-up the payment process.

Even if it’s not that quick — funds are typically available in just a couple of minutes.

It’s an international currency.

If your business exports goods and services, or purchases supplies or materials from other countries, then cryptocurrencies like bitcoin can help you get around those expensive foreign transaction fees, exchange rates, or currencies.

Since eCash, like bitcoin, is a global currency and it’s not tied to any single government or company. In other words, it ignores border restrictions. So as long as both parties accept bitcoin, you’re good to go.

No fraud, no chargebacks.

Cryptocurrencies are similar to cash, in that you either have it or you don’t and all transactions are final. This is because transactions are added to the blockchain via a complex system called mining.

This system verifies funds and makes it pretty much impossible to spend more than you own. Also, since both parties must approve the transaction, there aren’t any disputes to worry about it. This means that chargebacks don’t occur and are a thing of the past.

Acquire new customers.

There are serious die-hard fans of cryptocurrencies. Having your customers already familiar with cryptocurrencies is a plus and can be a major assist for your business since they actively seek out businesses that accept digital currencies.

Of course, that’s a niche market. However, as a general rule of thumb, when you offer more payment options the more customers you’ll be able to attract. In fact, it’s been found that up to 28 percent of shopping cart abandonment is caused by the lack of a payment option a shopper prefers to use.

We’re moving away from paper.

Both cryptocurrencies and digital wallets are continuing to grow. In fact, both the blockchain and bitcoin had banner years in 2016. Bitcoin was the top currency in 2016 and is being valued at around $1,000.

It’s expected this trend will continue in 2017 and and began a high growth beyond 2017 as people become more familiar with this digital currency.

Instead of resisting this change, it would make more sense for your business to become an early adopter and embrace cryptocurrencies so that you can set yourself apart from your competitors.

The bottom line.

While accepting cryptocurrencies can set you apart as an innovator and an early adopter of fintech. Cryptocurrencies are faster and cheaper than processing traditional payments, and are relatively secure.

As yet, cryptocurrency is not equally regulated. Some countries are working to restricted cryptocurrency use.

If is not considered as stable, yet. Cryptocurrency isn’t as regulated as the price of eCash and it can fluctuate suddenly.

Limited scaling. The system is designed to only process so many transactions at this time. However, the fintech revolution is solving many of the issues surrounding the scaling.

Lack of applications. There aren’t as many applications to process virtual currencies as compared to apps that can process credit or debit cards. However, several companies are in the race to come up with the MVP app for cryptocurrencies.

Security. While identity theft and counterfeit can be greatly reduced with this type of system, there’s no system in place to prevent human error, technical glitches, or fiduciary fraud. (Of course, there never has been anything to stop those very same issues in traditional banking, either. Cryptocurrency still remains the most secure banking method as a result of the blockchain process.)

Makes planning more challenging. Since cryptocurrencies are decentralized, and 100 percent digital, it can make preparing financial statements, determining taxes, and figuring out your prices difficult.

If you do decide to start accepting cryptocurrencies after weighing the pros and cons, you can easily get started by using digital wallets like Due and Coinbase.

There’s also POS systems like XBTerminal that allows customers to pay from any mobile bitcoin wallet by using NFC or QR code.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

This article was originally published on Due.com.

David

3 Simple Ways for Earning Cryptocurrency From Home

3 simple ways of earning cryptocurrency from home

3 Simple Ways for Earning Cryptocurrency From Home

Cryptocurrencies represent awesome payment systems that enable anyone to send and receive money to and from anyone in the world; convert it to fiat currencies easily and use it to buy whatever one might choose whether online or offline. However, one of the drawbacks of cryptocurrencies is that it can be somehow hard to buy them, especially in selected countries where it is difficult to open a bank account.

Throughout this article, I will show you three ways to make money online in the form of cryptocurrencies using just your laptop/PC and an internet connection:

1-Blogging on Steemit.com

Steemit.com is a blockchain based social network, that incentives its users for posting and curating (upvoting) content. On Steemit, you can make money online, in the form of crypto, for posting new content and/or curating (up-voting) the content of others. The social network has three forms of currencies/tokens:

STEEM: which represents a cryptocoin that is tradable on a number of exchanges such as Poloniex.

Steem backed dollars (SBD): whose value is linked to the USD. SBD is also tradable on cryptocurrency exchanges.

STEEM Power: which are influence tokens that give users control over the amount of earnings they gain by posting and curating content.

When you publish a post on steemit, you will receive rewards for it after 24 hours depending on the number of upvotes it received by other users, who create content. Your earnings will be divided into 3 portions

a. 50% will be in the form of STEEM Power

b. 25% will be in the form of STEEM

c. 25% will be in the form of SBD

STEEM and SBD can be instantly transferred to an exchange and sold for Bitcoin, while you can only convert STEEM Power to STEEM, to be able to sell it, through a complex process known as “Power Down”.

2- Mining Altcoins Via Minergate:

Even though I remember that I used to mine around 1 whole Bitcoin every 36 hours in 2010,using just my PC, it is now impossible to mine Bitcoin and most major altcoins using a PC, as the networks of all these coins have grown massively and their networks’ difficulties have skyrocketed too. However, there are a handful of altcoins that you can still mine using a PC with reasonable specifications.

Minergate provides a descent service that enables you to mine a number of altcoins using your PC or laptop including Monero, bytecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum classic and others. The software also has a great option; “Smart mining”, which automatically picks up for you the best coins to mine according to market prices and network difficulties.

With a few clicks, you can download, install and start mining cryptocurrencies using your laptop. The higher the specifications of your PC (processor, RAM) and GPU, the bigger the amount you can make via Minergate’s mining software. Roughly speaking, a dual core i5, 8 GB RAM PC with a 1 GB Nividia Geoforce GPU can mine what is worth around 10 cents per day.

3- Donating your PC processing Power for Gridcoin GRC:

Gridcoin Research (GRC) is a cryptocurrency network that is created to facilitate multi-party computing and reward volunteers who donate their computing power to BOINC projects with GRC. You can make between 8-30 cents per day via donating your PC’s processing power to the gridcoin network.

Follow the BOINC client and gridcoin installation guides on gridcoin’s official website and in less than 20 minutes, you will be earning gridcoin for donating your computer’s processing power.

David Ogden

Entrepreneur

Author Dr Tamer Sameeh

David

Cryptocurrency Creates New Opportunities

cryptocurrency creates new opportunities

Cryptocurrency Creates New Opportunities

Over the last few years, the Cryptocurrency industry has been gaining popularity, and for a good reason. With the complexity that goes into making physical dollars, it’s clear now why people are opting to print a new form of currency. Making a digital currency is quite easier for someone with basic coding skills. Most are turning to the internet to gain ground and understand its use and value. Before, the concept was unfamiliar and scary just like the credit card some years back.

You might have come across the terms Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ether. These are cryptocurrencies that use the Blockchain Technology to ensure this currency and technology is safe. Here we look at the some of the new opportunities created by cryptocurrency versatility in different fields. But before that, let’s look at the basics.

WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

A cryptocurrency is an encrypted digital currency that is created using advanced encryption techniques commonly known as cryptography. The concept became a reality upon the creation of Bitcoin in 2009. It captured the attention of significant investors in April 2013 when it recorded a price of $266 per bitcoin. So, will the currency eventually unseat the ruling currencies such as dollars and euros? The answer lies with the Bitcoin. That said, what are the new opportunities being created by the cryptocurrency? Find out.

IMPROVEMENT IN EDUCATION

According to Gigaom reports, university students can now receive bitcoin once they enroll in school, and some universities are even accepting the currency as a form of payment for tuition. Dan Elitzer, the President of the MIT Bitcoin Club, and Jeremy Rubin, a computer scientist at MIT, successfully raised about half a million dollars for the enrollment of more than four thousand students worldwide in tech institutions.

The team together with the bitcoin community managed to provide students a chance to develop their own bitcoin wallets. This seems like a clever plan judging from the recent advancements in Bitcoin where they have developed the new Xapo Wallet.

Today technology has enabled students to access different services including essay services and now cryptocurrency. Providing college students with access to bitcoin is a great step in cryptocurrency especially since universities are now accepting alternative currencies such as Bitcoin as payment for tuition.

ENTREPRENEURIAL INNOVATION

The improved growth in the use of cryptocurrency leads to entrepreneurial innovation and it is said to foster growth in traditional banking infrastructure. Once the infrastructure is built and there is mass distribution of the currency, new businesses can build financial services without having to invest in expensive infrastructure. They just have to build applications and supportive services aside from the cryptocurrency system and they conduct their business without building a data center, huge hardware, and an IT department.

The ability of an entrepreneur to access a source of payment method has fueled innovations in the financial services. These services are beneficial to the constituencies and areas that are underserved by the traditional banking providers.

FACILITATES ESTABLISHMENT OF CUSTOM DESIGNED CURRENCIES

Cryptocurrencies are the latest technological advancements that have enabled groups to create custom designed currencies. Today we see banks and other institutions working hard to establish their digital currencies and this is a new chance to experiment new technology.

Bitcoin has already set ground and proven to be quite dynamic and resilient amongst other currencies. It has undergone massive criticism but it has proven it’s powerful on the global perspective. Being an example of a successful digital currency, it is completely public and can be used in peer-to-peer transactions. It is a global financial utility that is accessible to anyone provided you’re connected to the internet.

Those who say that Bitcoin and Ethereum may become irrelevant may be surprised. Cryptocurrencies are high-grade financial tools that are made for legitimate and exciting function with a sense of global financial services that bypasses the infrastructure of traditional banking. Some experts even suggest that blockchain payment systems may beat the mighty U.S. Automated House financial transactions system come 2020.

With the technological advancement that is being experienced now, it is not a surprise to find that the cryptocurrency usage may accelerate to greater heights. The blockchain technology is expected to form a great part of the coming internet generation with massive transformation in commerce and overall structure of corporations and many other institutions across the globe. Be ready for this radical transformation. It’s worth checking out.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

Author Laura Buckler

David

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency on the rise in South Africa

bitcoin and cryptocurrency on the rise in south africa

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency on the rise in South Africa

Since the meteoric rise of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency has become increasingly popular across the world.

While Bitcoin is the largest and most widely-used cryptocurrency on the market, there are other currencies experiencing steady growth – such as Ethereum and Dash.

These cryptocurrencies also use a blockchain, or distributed ledger system, but feature different mining techniques and additional features.

Mining is the process of earning cryptocurrency based on the work done to confirm transactions and add them to the blockchain.

The earning efficiency of this process is generally based on hardware processing power, and mining different currencies can require different hardware.

While mining Bitcoin in South Africa generally requires a large investment, mining alternative cryptocurrencies can be a cheaper option for enthusiasts.

Cryptocurrency popularity in South Africa

BitMart CEO Jacques Serfontein told MyBroadband that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are becoming increasingly popular in South Africa.

“The popularity of cryptocurrencies has increased tremendously in South Africa, and with the weakening rand it’s a great investment option – giving returns of between 6-15% per month,” said Serfontein.

BitMart is a local online retailer which sells cryptocurrency mining hardware and hosts cloud mining services.

Serfontein said Bitcoin mining rigs remain the most popular choice among South Africans, despite the rise of alternative cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum.

“Ethereum mining hardware is becoming more and more popular as the price gains value, but Bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency among miners,” he said.

“We deliver two Bitcoin miners for every other miner we sell.”

Dash follows closely behind Ethereum in terms of popularity and is gaining rapidly on its competitors.

Mining alternative cryptocurrencies can be more viable than Bitcoin mining for beginners, and Serfontein recommends they purchase a GPU-based mining rig which allows them to mine a number of different coins.

“We recommend the Thorium 2480 rig for beginners, as it is cheap and can mine Zcash, Ethereum, Monero, and various other coins,” said Serfontein.

“You can choose to either mine the coin directly and keep it, or have our pre-loaded software convert the coin to Bitcoin.”

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken adds Dash to Listings

cryptocurrencey exchange kraken adds dash to listings

Dash, the fifth most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap, has announced its partnership with Kraken Digital Asset Exchange – one of the world’s oldest bitcoin exchanges with the largest selection of digital assets and national currencies.

The partnership comes in the wake of a record surge for the cryptocurrency, which experienced a 6x increase in price per ($11 to $72 USD) and a 10x increase in trading volume ($3 million to $30 million USD) across Q1. Dash is now open for trading on the platform with buy and sell pairings including DASH / EUR, DASH / USD, and DASH / BTC. Kraken is expected to offer Dash margin trading in the near future, the release said.

“Kraken is excited to offer Dash on their trading platform and our teams are working closely to ensure clients can begin trading the currency immediately. Kraken is an incredibly well established and well structured organization, and amongst the best in the exchange business. In terms of reputation, they represent the highest standard for client satisfaction. Dash is a project that has implemented very original ideas that resonate well with the market, and as a top tier exchange, Kraken’s mission is to provide clients with access to digital currencies that are in demand and provide value”, Dash VP of Business Development, Daniel Diaz, said.

Following several business partnerships around the world, the implementation of the Sentinel software upgrade and the announcement of revolutionary decentralized payments system called Evolution, Dash has been on record breaking trajectory. Its total market cap skyrocketed from $78 million USD (January 1st) to an all time high of $835 million USD (March 18th), with new international markets unlocked alongside user demand.

“As the leading exchange in the Euro market, Kraken’s global reach helps Dash successfully meet the needs of our users and investors. The entire integration experience was very positive and we have high expectations for the partnership going forward. This is a significant achievement for Dash because our ecosystem needs high quality and trustworthy exchanges like Kraken to thrive, and we know they will play an important role as a fiat gateway”, Diaz continued.

Founded in 2011, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange is based in San Francisco, with offices around the world. Trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders, institutions, and authorities, including Germany’s BaFin regulated Fidor Bank, Kraken is the first exchange to display its market data on the Bloomberg Terminal, pass a cryptographically verifiable proof-of-reserves audit, and one of the first to offer leveraged margin trading. Kraken investors include Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Hummingbird Ventures, Money Partners Group, and SBI Investment.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David

India sets up high level committee to study cryptocurrency

high level committee set up to study cryptocurrencies

India sets up high level committee to study Cryptocurrency

The Indian government will setup a high level inter-disciplinary committee to take a close look at the circulation of crypto currencies in the country.

“The circulation of Virtual Currencies which are also known as Digital/Crypto Currencies has been a cause of concern,” said a finance ministry press release on Wednesday. The ministry said that the committee will take stock of the present status of Virtual Currencies both in India and globally, examine regulatory structures and tackle issues like consumer protection and money laundering.

The committee, comprising of top officials from the department of economic affairs, financial services, revenue, home affairs, Reserve Bank of India, NITI Agog and the State Bank of India, will submit its report in three months.

India’s central bank had earlier cautioned that virtual currencies, including bitcoins could be risky. However, the Reserve Bank of India has also been studying blockchain technology and bitcoins closely. Blockchain is a database that acts as a digital ledger for transactions.

There are four major bitcoin exchanges in India: UnoCoin, CoinSecure, ZebPay and BTCXIndia. These are mostly startups and operate within the banking system by asking buyers to submit ‘know your customer’ documents before they can trade on the platform. According to one estimate, India has only 50,000 bitcoin enthusiasts and users.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David

Russian Plans to Legitimise cryptocurrency by 2018

ï¿¼ russia plans to legistimise cryptocurrency by 2018

Russia Plans To Legitimize Cryptocurrency By 2018

Russia is a country has never seen eye-to-eye with bitcoin up until now. Several legal proposals have been drafted which could have lead to jail time. Thankfully, it appears regulators have come to their senses, as bitcoin users in Russia no longer need to fear jail time. In fact, the country may turn bitcoin into a legitimate financial instrument as early as next year.

This U-turn by Russian legislators has quite a lot of people stunned in disbelief. Just a year ago, it seemed using cryptocurrency in the country would lead to jail time. While that is still a distinct possibility right now, things are going to change very soon. The Russian Finance Ministry wants to accept bitcoin as a way to fight money laundering. An interesting stance, as most countries feel bitcoin facilitates money laundering, even though there is no evidence.

If all things go according to plan, bitcoin will become a legal instrument in Russia as soon as 2018. Government officials want to combat illegal money transfer. As a result, the Russian central bank and government are working together on getting this new legislation approved as soon as possible. A positive stance towards digital currencies can benefit the country, that much is evident.

Russia Looks Differently At Bitcoin All of a Sudden

One thing bitcoin provides is absolute transparency regarding transaction participants. To be more specific, transactions can be seen by the public in real-time. Through the banking or other financial systems, there is little to no transparency. This effectively facilitates money laundering, costing the Russian government millions every year. Bitcoin transfers show which address is the sender and the recipient. It is anything but an anonymous payment method.

Do not be mistaken in thinking Russia will effectively regulate bitcoin, though. Despite what governments may think, it is impossible to regulate cryptocurrency in any way or shape. Legalizing bitcoin will force companies dealing with cryptocurrency to conduct additional AML checks. A similar scenario is playing out in China right now, with exchanges introducing additional verification requirements.

Russia has been battling money laundering for quite some time now. Hundreds of lenders lost their banking license in the past few years. Legalizing bitcoin is a direct result of investors looking for alternative solutions. Additionally, it will also help give bitcoin a better publish image moving forward. After all, once bitcoin is a legal currency, activity will be monitored even further. That is not necessarily a bad thing as long as people use it for legal purposes. Anyone conducting illegal activity with cryptocurrency will have to find other solutions, though.

For the time being, the first deadline to mark on the calendar is mid-2017. Around that time, legislators will decide if digital currencies are an asset in Russia. This will be an important day in the history of bitcoin, that much is certain. After Japan legalizing bitcoin, it appears other countries are scrambling to do the same. An interesting development, yet it shows how mature bitcoin has become over the past few years.

David Ogden
Entreperenuer

David

All You Need To Know About Dollar-Denominated Cryptocurrencies

dollar denominated chryptocurrency

All You Need To Know About Dollar-Denominated Cryptocurrencies

A well-known obstacle to the greater popularity of Bitcoin as a medium of payment is the high volatility of its exchange value. This volatility results from its built-in quantity commitment: because the number of Bitcoins in existence stays on a programmed path, variations in the real demand to hold Bitcoin must be accommodated entirely by variations in its unit value. When demand goes up, there is no quantity increase to dampen the rise in price; and vice-versa for a fall in demand.

Not surprisingly, several cryptocurrency developers have thought of creating a cryptocurrency with a price commitment–namely a pegged exchange rate with the US dollar–rather than a quantity commitment, in hopes of greater popularity. The aim is to create a system in which dollar-denominated payments can be made with the ease, security, and low cost of Bitcoin payments, but without the exchange-rate risk.

New Digital Assets

The development of “Blockchain 2.0” platforms has enabled the launching of a variety of new digital assets, including such dollar-pegged (and euro-pegged and gold-pegged) currencies. As we will see, the histories of early (2014-2016) dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies show a series of flops. But one project, Tether, has become a late-blooming success.

Tether had $55 million in circulation as of March 29, 2017, making it the #13 largest cryptocurrency. To keep this size in perspective, a brick-and-mortar US institution with $55 million in deposits is a tiny bank or a mid-size credit union, and Tether is currently only 1/300th the size of Bitcoin.

The Tether white paper explains in more detail the motivation for developing a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency by listing advantages to individuals using it for dollar-denominated transactions rather than using dollars held in “legacy bank” accounts:

Transact in USD/fiat value, pseudonymously, without any middlemen/intermediaries

Cold store USD/fiat value by securing one’s own private keys

Avoid the risk of storing fiat on [cryptocurrency] exchanges–move cryptofiat in and out of exchanges easily

Avoid having to open a fiat bank account to store fiat value

In sum, “Anything one can do with Bitcoin as an individual one can also do with” a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, namely, “avoid credit card [or debit card] fees,” maintain greater privacy, “remit payments globally” more cheaply, and access blockchain financial services.

But what is the claimed advantage over using Bitcoin? It is the expectation of wider acceptance in payments, because of the advantages to merchants of accepting a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency over accepting Bitcoin in a US-dollar-dominated economy:

Price goods in USD/fiat value rather than Bitcoin (no moving conversion rates/purchase windows)

Avoid conversion from Bitcoin to USD/fiat and associated fees and processes

The Flops

First we consider the projects that have flopped. Three projects were launched in September 2014: CoinoUSD, NuBits, and BitUSD. Their pegging mechanisms were different, and are difficult to describe briefly (partly because they were not all entirely transparent), but two common features are important to note.

The rate-pegging mechanisms were not programmed into a source code, like Bitcoin’s quantity commitment, but relied on non-programmed policy actions by a trusted central authority.

None used the traditional currency pegging method of having the issuer hold reserves in physical dollars or dollar-denominated debt securities. (On the NuBits mechanism see this critique by a BitUSD promoter. On the BitUSD mechanism see this critique by the CoinoUSD developer.)

We can examine the fortunes of each project by looking at its price and “market capitalization” (value-in-circulation) history on the cryptocurrency tracking site CoinMarketCap.com.

CoinoUSD

CoinoUSD, which began trading in December 2014, was developed by a for-profit payments firm called Coinomat and built on the blockchain of the NXT cryptocurrency. (In November 2014 NXT was the #6 cryptocurrency with a market cap of $19 million; currently it ranks #38 with a market cap around $13 million.)

CoinoUSD reached a market cap plateau of $2.7 million in early 2016, but shut down in early 2016, due to a “payout glitch” that flooded customers with free CoinoUSD units, making it impossible to maintain the exchange value at $1. Coinomat announced a reboot in which the erroneous payout would be reversed and said, “NXTUSD will replace CoinoUSD completely, and enhance it,” but this appears not to have happened. Since then it has had a market cap of zero, and its webpage at the Coinomat site declares it “disabled until further notice.”

NuBits

The history of NuBits, also a for-profit enterprise, shows that it gained only a similarly small market foothold. Its market cap plateaued early on below $2.5 million, and since April 2015 has remained below $1 million. In June 2016 NuBits had a devaluation crisis, with the price falling to 20 cents. Its rate-pegging intervention mechanism, despite claiming many layers of reinforcement, was not robust and failed.

Although the price later returned to par, today NuBits shows very little market activity. Since January 2017 the market cap has hovered around only $135,000, with daily trading volume in the neighborhood of $2000.

BitUSD

BitUSD is built on the blockchain platform of the cryptocurrency BitSharesX. Its highest market cap plateau was around $1 million soon after introduction, but it fell to below $200,000 in April 2015 and is currently less than $110,000.

BitUSD uses a novel pegging system that so far has proven robust. A piece promoting BitUSD emphasizes that “the bitUSD is an asset that is not backed by real dollar in someone’s bank account.” (It claims this a virtue: “We cannot trust anyone to hold and secure a physical asset so that people can redeem it eventually. History has repeatedly shown: It doesn’t work!” In fact, history shows the major banks in unhampered banking systems routinely justifying the public’s trust by redeeming their liabilities on demand for decades. Paypal works on the same supposedly non-working model, backed by Paypal’s dollar deposits at Wells Fargo Bank.)

By contrast, BitUSD are created through collateralized forward currency contracts. The network provides an escrow service that credibly ensures repurchase (or “redemption”) of the BitUSD at or near par. Someone who wants to acquire BitUSD, say in order to buy from a seller who prefers a dollar-denominated medium of exchange, offers a contract: so many BitShares (hereafter BTS) for a certain amount of new BitUSD.

Under the BitShare network rules, the acquirer must not only pay at the outset in BTS but also agree to post collateral in BTS equal to the value of the bid. If the bid is accepted by another network participant, explains the BitUSD white paper, “the collateral and purchase price are held by the network until the BitUSD is redeemed” by some third party repurchasing it. The acquirer of BitUSD thus puts 200% collateral into a contract “that only allows access to these BTS when the BitUSD are paid back.” In effect the acquirer is shorting the dollar price of BTS.

“BitUSD is an asset used to hedge a position in BitShares against changes in the price of USD and is not supposed to have an exact 1:1 exchange rate with USD.”

Note that the new BitUSD units are initially 200% collateralized not in dollar-denominated assets, but in BTS. If BTS fall 25% or more against

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David

Majority of Nigerians Have Faith in Bitcoin

majority of Nigerians have faith in bitcoin

Majority of Nigerians Have Faith in Bitcoin

A recent survey indicates that Nigerian trust Bitcoin more than gold when it comes investments.

Bitcoin is rightly deemed as the “Digital Gold”. The cryptocurrency, introduced to the world in 2009 has all the properties of gold, except for the weight and these features aren’t lost on the Nigerian cryptocurrency community. Bitcoin has a huge presence in African nations, and Nigeria is one such African country which recently ranked high in Google Trends for Bitcoin-related searches. The extent of faith in the cryptocurrency among the community is now known to the world, thanks to a recent survey conducted by Luno — a cryptocurrency platform serving the region.

As a part of this survey, Luno sent a series of questions to all its Nigerian customers, and the results didn’t come as a surprise. The report states that the trust factor in Bitcoin among Nigerians is at an all-time high, as over 59% of the participants in the survey responding positively to the cryptocurrency. The untrusting ones were about 17% of all survey respondents while the remaining preferred to be neutral.

One of the leading African tech magazines quoted a representative from Luno describing the survey process saying,

“We shared a survey with our Nigerian customers which went out to all of our customers. We then reviewed the results for statistical significance, outliers, and errors and compiled the infographic from the data… Note that it was only sent to Luno customers, so the data might be slightly skewed towards our customer preferences (as opposed to all Nigerian Bitcoin users), but we enjoy the highest trading volume of Nigerian Bitcoin exchanges – as per publicly available volume data – so it should be somewhat similar across the board. We aim to do much more research and share the results with the media and Bitcoin community in the coming months.”

While the results may not be 100% accurate as those participating in the survey were already onboard Luno platform, which makes them existing cryptocurrency users, potentially having a biased opinion towards their favorite digital currency. Also, many of these respondents were found to be in favor of purchasing Bitcoin over gold as they expect the cryptocurrency’s value to appreciate much faster than that of the yellow metal.

The results of the survey were published by Luno in the form of an infographic, along with a promise to provide more information as soon as it finishes in-depth research and analysis of not just the platform’s users but other individuals as well.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David