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Tag: Cryptocurrency

Gitcoin and ConsenSys Labs partner for Beyond Blockchain hackathon

Gitcoin and ConsenSys Labs partner for Beyond Blockchain hackathon

                           

Gitcoin and ConsenSys Labs will host a three-week virtual hackathon called Beyond Blockchain

from June 24–July 10. The event gives participants the chance to win prizes in Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens posted as bounties on Gitcoin. According to the announcement, the event focuses on bringing blockchain tools and technologies to a wider audience.

Funding open-source projects

$10,000 in prizes are up for grabs in categories like media, healthcare, and decentralized finance and more sponsorships and bounties will be announced as the event approaches. Prizes will be offered as bounties on Gitcoin’s platform using a featured hackathon prize explorer. The virtual hackathon continues efforts by Gitcoin and ConsenSys to develop funding for open-source projects. Interested developers, designers, and entrepreneurs can sign up here. Organizations interested in pitching sponsorships related to the event’s theme of increasing the adoption of blockchain tools and technologies can contact alex.voto@consensys.net. Gitcoin has promised to deliver more announcements regarding prizes and bounties in the weeks approaching the hackathon.

Previous events

The announcement comes just over a month after the close of the Ethereal Virtual Hackathon, and Ethereal Summit New York. Held in partnership with Microsoft, the hackathon saw over 600 participants competing for $67,000 in prizes offered by 14 different companies. Gitcoin offers a crowdfunding platform connecting projects with software developers. The project boasts 20,000 developers who have completed over 4,000 projects for a total of more than $1.5 million using the platform. Gitcoin’s hackathons give participants the opportunity to meet and work with important figures in the open source ecosystem. ConsenSys Labs is the venture arm of Consensys, supporting projects in the Ethereum ecosystem through seed and pre-seed investments and their accelerator.

Article Produced By
Seth Goldfarb

Seth is a Seattle-based writer who helps businesses using blockchain tell the stories of their success. His work has been published in CryptoSlate, Hacker Noon, and Coin Review and clients have included Evernym and Aave. Seth also maintains a calendar of Seattle-area blockchain events at www.pnwblockchain.com.

https://cryptoslate.com/gitcoin-consensys-labs-partner-beyond-blockchain-hackathon/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

3 Reasons why BitMesh’s Removal of XRP Won’t Matter Much

3 Reasons why BitMesh’s Removal of XRP Won’t Matter Much

                              

There are dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms around the world.

Some companies have a better reputation and reach than others, which is only normal in this nascent industry. BitMesh, while not the most popular exchange, will delist various trading pairs. One of them is XRP, which raises a fair few questions.

The Surprising Removal of XRP from BitMesh

In an email sent out to its customers, the BitMesh team explains how several altcoins, tokens, and assets will be removed from the platform over the next few days. While most of these offerings will not cause anyone to lose sleep whatsoever, the removal of XRP is a rather noteworthy development in its own right. It is one of the top markets in this industry, thus one has to wonder what has driven this decision exactly. There are many different reasons which may contribute to such a turn of events. At this time, it is evident XRP is one of the least liquid markets on the Bitmesh trading platform. It is only traded against Bitcoin, which will not exactly get too many people excited right away. This trading pair is also available on virtually all major trading platforms, where volume is not an issue whatsoever.

No Real Impact on Trading Volume

With the low trading volume offered by Bitmesh, it seems this delisting will not cause any major concerns in that regard either. Ripple’s native asset can be traded across roughly 400 trading pairs, which doesn’t even include BitMesh. There are also quite a few other exchanges which don’t node any real trading volume for this asset right now, yet they show no indication of removing this pair anytime soon. It is rather remarkable to see how much trading volume XRP can generate these days. A fair few trading pairs focus on the USDT market or fiat currency pairs, which are a lot more popular than trading the asset against Bitcoin these days. Albeit Bitmesh also provides USDT and USDC trading, it never allowed Ripple’s asset to be a part of that select club, for some unknown reason.

Price Impact Should be Minimal

While it is never good to learn a particular market will be removed from an exchange without much of an explanation, this decision will not disrupt XRP’s overall price trend. The exchange in question is too small to have any notable effect in that regard, although there might be a few panicky Tweets and other social media messages moving forward. For most users, it is best to ignore any panic-spreading attempts or FUD regarding Ripple’s asset. After all, this is a very minor exchange taking a course of action which has seemingly everything to do with liquidity rather than anything else. It is still advised BitMesh users withdraw the to-be-removed assets in the next two weeks, as no further withdrawals will be honored afterward.

Article Produced By
JP Buntinx

JP Buntinx is a FinTech and Bitcoin enthusiast living in Belgium. His passion for finance and technology made him one of the world's leading freelance Bitcoin writers.

 

https://nulltx.com/3-reasons-why-bitmeshs-removal-of-xrp-wont-matter-much/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Coinbase, Spotify and eBay Reportedly Among List of Corporate Giants Backing Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency

Coinbase, Spotify and eBay Reportedly Among List of Corporate Giants Backing Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency

  •                   

 Facebook’s upcoming cryptocurrency, aka “GlobalCoin” and “Libra”,

will reportedly be governed by a new consortium of corporations and non-profit organizations. The social media giant established the Libra Association to include over a dozen companies that will act as founding members of Project Libra to launch Facebook’s new stablecoin. GlobalCoin, pegged to multiple currencies, is expected to debut early next year. The Block has published a list of the consortium’s founding members who will reportedly invest $10 million each.

Founding Members of Facebook’s Libra Association

Anchorage, Andreessen Horowitz, BisonTrails, Booking Holdings, Calibra (Facebook subsidiary), Coinbase, Creative Destruction Lab, eBay, Farfetch, Iliad, Kiva, Lyft, Mastercard, MercadoLibre, Mercy Corps, PayPal, PayU, Ribbit Capital, Stripe, Thrive Capital, Uber, Union Square Ventures, Visa, Vodafone, Women’s World Banking, Xapo

Unlike other cryptocurrencies that are trying to spur adoption and build recognition, Facebook’s coin will capitalize on its household name and the ability to eventually leverage its user base of 2.5 billion monthly active users. According to reports about Project Libra’s GlobalCoin, which has been under wraps for months, it’s designed to spawn a global network of crypto transactions including cross-border and domestic payments among friends and family with PayPal-like ease and Facebook-friendly features. The network, if successful, could power a global platform for e-commerce transactions among merchants worldwide. It could also position Facebook to offer more financial services and compete with banks.

Article Produced By
Daily Hodl Staff

https://dailyhodl.com/2019/06/15/coinbase-spotify-and-ebay-reportedly-among-list-of-corporate-giants-backing-facebooks-new-cryptocurrency/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Cardano Updates Its Roadmap – What’s In For Investors?

Cardano Updates Its Roadmap – What’s In For Investors?

                             

Cardano (ADA), the proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network built on peer-reviewed academic research,

is being developed into a decentralized application (dapp) development platform with a multi-asset ledger and verifiable smart contracts. Cardano’s blockchain aims to be highly scalable, interoperable, and sustainable for real-world applications on an enterprise level to build the economy of the future. While that all sounds amazing, the project still has a lot of work to accomplish, and IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong), the parent company of Cardano, has released an updated roadmap outlaying progress towards its 2020 vision:

Cardano’s 5 Eras

Cardano’s roadmap can be broken down to 5 eras, namely Byron (Foundation), Shelley (Decentralization), Goguen (Smart Contracts), Basho (Scaling), and Voltaire (Governance). Each of the eras is centered around a primary goal with various releases and developments throughout the era to achieve this goal. The eras are completed sequentially, with research and development of future eras overlapped with one another (some of the work is being done in parallel). The first era (Byron) was officially completed this year, and now the primary focus is on completing the Shelley era. Currently, Cardano is in the Gougen era but is still very much focused on Shelley, which is supposed to be completed by the end of the year. Shelley’s mainnet is now live, and as its development continues, research and development for Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire will begin in parallel. Cardano’s roadmap is only updated until the end of 2020. By this time, Cardano’s development is expected to be vastly completed, and the focus will be on the blockchain’s governance (the Voltaire era).

Final Thoughts

As seen in the image above, the era we are currently in (Goguen) is right in the middle. It is intended to be one of the most formative eras of Cardano’s roadmap, as it’s tipped to be the one that brings mass adoption. However, IOHK is still working on finalizing Shelley, and then Goguen is set to be completed in the first half of 2020. By then, it’s expected that Cardano will have achieved a sufficient level of adoption with real-world use cases. A competing cryptocurrency project that has already achieved real-world adoption is Ethereum (ETH), which is being adopted by enterprise businesses such as Deloitte, Microsoft, Amazon, Ernst & Young, and others. Therefore, Cardano has some serious competition, and it will be interesting to see how these two projects compete once their roadmaps and blockchain technology are completed.

Article Produced By
Jeremy Wall

https://www.investinblockchain.com/cardano-updates-its-roadmap-whats-in-for-investors/

 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Facebook’s Crypto Division Brings on Uber, Visa & PayPal as Backers as Globalcoin Nears

Facebook’s Crypto Division Brings on Uber, Visa & PayPal as Backers as Globalcoin Nears

                              

Facebook Bags Investments With Uber, Visa, PayPal For Venture

Traditional fintech firms, save for Bitcoin pundit Jack Dorsey’s Square, have been slow to adopt cryptocurrency. While PayPal has dabbled in the arena, purportedly launching a digital token for internal testing last year, firms like Visa, Mastercard, and their ilk have been hesitant to take the plunge. In fact, an executive — the chief executive — from Mastercard called crypto “junk” last year, citing the lack of transparency and their non-conformity to traditional finance. This is quickly changing though, with news that the aforementioned firms are investing in Facebook’s digital asset play. Reported Tuesday first by The Wall Street Journal, three major fintech companies are looking to invest a likely competitor to their own services. This competitor, as aforementioned, is Facebook’s foray into the cryptocurrency industry. The Journal, citing sources familiar as normal, claims that Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, the recently-‘IPOed’ Uber, Stripe, and other big names in finance/tech will be contributing around $10 million to an entity that governs the coin.

This capital will be used to purchase assets meant to back the cryptocurrency, which is most likely going to be a stablecoin tied to a basket of fiat currencies. This $10 million lines up with recent reports that revealed Facebook will be charging that eight-figure sum to those looking to run nodes for the cryptocurrency. This recent report, which comes after rumors indicated Facebook has been in discussion with giants like Visa, was dropped just ahead of the supposed June 18th release date of the whitepaper of “Globalcoin”, the name of the cryptocurrency. As Blockonomi has covered extensively, Globalcoin will likely be a private cryptocurrency that allows for low-cost, rapid, and borderless value transfer between Facebook’s billions of clients.

Globalcoin to Boost Crypto, Aid Bitcoin Adoption

Anyhow, regardless of Globalcoin’s exact nature, some have ventured that its launch will be the largest catalyst for Bitcoin adoption — and thus price — in this industry’s history. Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart broke down his thoughts on the matter in an extensive Twitter thread. Put short and sweet, the stablecoin is “among the most bullish external tailwinds for Bitcoin in 2019/2020”. Bogart adds that the only bigger catalyst for BTC growth will be quantitative easing (an inflationary fiscal policy), which he calls a “reinvigorated push among central banks for easy-money globally”. Explaining the importance of Facebook’s Globalcoin, Bogart explains that the corporate cryptocurrency “eases the biggest friction in acquiring digital assets”, in that it makes getting fiat into this ecosystem extremely easily. Once fiat is allocated towards Globalcoin, the investor assumes that value can flow easily between the Facebook ecosystem and something like, let’s say, Bitcoin or Ethereum.

He writes:

“Facebook making a concerted push for digital asset adoption and creating a circular economy is great because it solves that friction point. Once people are holding/earning a digital asset, it’s relatively trivial to go from, for example, USDC to BTC.”

Also important is that Globalcoin will catalyze growth in cryptocurrency infrastructure, pushing companies to build everything from custody and wallet services to compliance measures and exchanges. In fact, the investor postulated that once Globalcoin hits the mainstream, “large financial institutions” will be incentivized to join in on the bandwagon.

Not Flawless

Many still see issues with Globalcoin, however. Most notably, issues with privacy and governmental oversight. Just the other day, Mark Zuckerberg was thrown into yet another scandal involving the privacy of his creation’s users. Emails published by the Journal on Wednesday revealed that Zuckerberg has been involved in “potentially problematic privacy practices”. More specifically, the Silicon Valley all-star mentioned issues with privacy in emails, evidently accentuating that he has been following these situations closely. The thing is, for the longest, Facebook has been slow to act in terms of stemming privacy issues. And some fear that this seemingly negligence may continue with Globalcoin.

Article Produced By
Nick Chong

Nick has been enamored with cryptocurrencies since finding out about them in 2013. He now reports on crypto- and blockchain-related news for a number of leading outlets.

https://blockonomi.com/facebook-crypto-uber-visa-paypal/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

‘Decentralization Is the Essential Foundation of Blockchain’, Exclusive Interview With Cudo Ventures’ Matt Hawkins

‘Decentralization Is the Essential Foundation of Blockchain’, Exclusive Interview With Cudo Ventures’ Matt Hawkins

                            

Matt Hawkins is a serial entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Cudo Ventures,

a company whose GPU mining software is running on machines in over 130 countries around the world. We sat down with Matt to have a chat about crypto mining, the future of Proof of Work, and his views on the dominance of ASIC mining rigs.We all know that Proof of Work coin mining can be easily dominated by ASICs and larger mining companies. How can you compete with them?

Matt Hawkins: While ASICs are highly efficient in certain circumstances, their Achilles Heel is that they can only mine coins on a single algorithm. When the dominant coins change their Proof Of Work algorithm, or drop their block reward as Ethereum did joining the hard fork, the hardware instantly becomes unprofitable and the ASIC unit redundant. In response to this wastefulness, communities have long fought ASIC dominance–Constantinople disappointed Ethereum GPU miners by not proceeding with Progressive Proof of Work, which would have readdressed the ASIC-GPU balance, and other crypto assets such as Monero have declared war on ASICs and are resisting ASICs by changing their algorithm every 6 months.

Many other algorithms are substantially harder to build ASICs for, such as X16R, which changes between 16 algorithms, mining in a different order each time. For this reason, FPGAs have become more attractive for those who can afford the capital expenditure and obtain the Bitstreams required to reprogram them. Cudo Miner is currently focused on mining with GPUs, which have the advantage of being highly flexible and adaptable to changes in workload. Our software helps GPU and CPU miners to adapt to changes on a daily basis–from switching algorithm in the event of a fork, to mining the most profitable coin based upon market dynamics.  In the current climate, most people will buy a GPU for gaming and choose to mine. But for the same reason, building a GPU mining rig offers a greatly reduced risk because the graphics cards have a substantially higher aftermarket value than ASICs.

What’s At Stake For Proof of Work?

PdH: Is Proof of Work going out of favor? And if so, will that impact Cudo?

MH: There’s a lot of enthusiasm for Proof of Stake, as proposed by Vitalik Buterin for the Ethereum Istanbul hard fork. NEM’s Proof of Importance is also interesting because it’s designed to be energy efficient and doesn’t require specialist hardware–and its ‘Delegated Harvesting’ rewards contributors for consistent support of the network rather than raw compute power.  But that doesn’t mean that Proof of Work is dead. The new Mimblewimble coins Grin and Beam are more lightweight than bitcoin, but they still chose to employ Satoshi Nakamoto’s Proof of Work to create distributed trustless consensus and solve the double-spend problem.

Cudo Miner’s focus is on Proof of Work because mining provides users with monetization of their hardware, but if they are offered alternatives that are more profitable and satisfy their broader aspirations, they will try something new. All decentralized networks rely upon computing resources, and provided there are incentives for participation, there are ways software such as Cudo Miner can help make it easier for enthusiasts who want to support those networks to get started, and for bigger commercial operations to easily manage how their resources are utilized. The crypto technology market is evolving and how you earn revenue is evolving. Cudo is already developing solutions which are not typical Proof of Work. This will make substantially better use of hardware. 

                              

The User Friendly Interface of Cudo

PdH: Your interface is very user friendly, and your closest rival lacks the ability for users to adjust the percentage power of their CPUs/GPUs dedicated to mining. Is that a technically difficult feature to add? Because it seems intuitive and obvious, but you’re the first to my knowledge to do it.

MH: We come from a service provider background managing environments supporting hundreds of thousands of servers and millions of users. We see this as how the industry should be, so we designed everything from the ground up this way.  It’s about making life as easy as possible for the user. What you see at the moment is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the features we have coming out in the next few months. It’s always a lot harder to retrofit these types of solutions in.

PdH: What are your thoughts, generally, on mining centralization? Is this a threat to the integrity of the network? Is it just capitalism at play? Do you think it’s healthy?

MH: Decentralization is the essential foundation of blockchain, and block rewards are what made it reach critical mass. However, as the market value of bitcoin soared it attracted huge capital investments in ASIC mining which caused centralization of hashing power. This had a knock-on effect making it impossible for widespread GPU miners to compete for a slice of the rewards, so they moved on to mining other currencies. This, as was widely reported, threatened bitcoin with a 51% attack scenario, where the entire validation of a decentralized network is lost.

But as more players come into the space and there is more choice, then greater decentralization follows. Decentralization is key to blockchain. You need people developing platforms and solutions that make life easier for mass adoption of mining and cryptocurrency. As the cryptocurrency ecosystem grows over time, the stability of the networks and their mining foundations is what will bring further adoption. I think designing and nurturing a distributed network is one of the biggest challenges for any crypto asset network, and we will see a lot more innovation because blockchain networks are still very much a technology frontier.

Mimblewimble–Hype or Real Promise?

PdH: What are your thoughts on Mimblewimble coins? Are you excited by the scalability possibilities they offer? Or is it all meaningless hype?

MH: For me, Mimblewimble is an exciting protocol! The confidential transactions enable an improved level of privacy compared to many of the current privacy coins. One of the issues with many of the blockchains is the growth of the size of the blockchain, and specifically the size of the locally stored file. Mimblewimble has a level of pruning built in which will help alleviate this. This can enable faster transactions with less impact on blockchain size.

Of course, at present it has a few drawbacks. For example, it currently does not support scripting, and if this is implemented it would be a substantial benefit. The Beam project has put forward suggestions around this. For the rest of the crypto community, the immediate difficulty is in transferring funds. With GRIN, for example, the receiving wallet must be online at the same time to receive funds. This can be inconvenient, but it also has a security benefit because it reduces the risk of someone managing to get your private key. It’s still early days, but I think the protocol and the current coins have great potential.

PdH: Cudo–I’ve used it myself–is not profitable unless you get free electricity and don’t mind burning through your laptop’s lifespan. Is Cudo addressing this conundrum somehow, or just waiting for the next bull market like everyone else?

MH: The profitability of mining varies hugely depending on what hardware you’re using, how much you’re paying for your energy, and of course what the market is doing. For popular crypto assets, you will need more than a laptop to mine–a gaming rig with a powerful modern graphics card such as a NVIDIA GTX 1070Ti is really the baseline for profitability and new cards such as the NVIDIA GTX 2070 or Radeon 7 are particularly strong for mining.

Right now, the markets aren’t favorable. Ravencoin is currently one of the most profitable coins to mine, but it changes daily, and new coins can present a strong initial reward. There are lots of people equipped with the right hardware and energy tariff, for whom it’s about eking the best out their rigs during the bear run. Anyone who is mining will tune their GPUs and overclock for maximum performance per Watt, within safe heat constraints! The miner’s priority is keeping everything ticking over and having the confidence that they are earning day and night, and not losing money from their mining software crashing or because they joined a dodgy mining pool.

Commercial mining farms tend to cash out in fiat as they go, or at least enough to cover their fees, but GPU rig miners are typically more engaged in the community and choose to mine and hold their preferred currency during the downturn, waiting with the rest of the crypto community for the market to pick up. People need to make their own good choices, and Cudo makes it easier to mine new coins and automatically switch to the most profitable coin. While the market is down, everyone is waiting for it to rally, but Cudo will always give the most transparent and accurate projected earnings for miners, with constant developments coming out and improving profitability every week.

Article Produced By
Paul de Havilland
 Paul de Havilland is a fan of disruptive technologies, an active VC investor in promising startups (with exits exceeding $10M), and has experience covering both traditional and emerging asset classes. His passion is violin and opera – he is a long-time student of a protege of Placido Domingo.

https://bitsonline.com/decentralization-essential-foundation-blockchain-interview-cudo-matt-hawkins/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

9 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges In The World To Buy Any Altcoins

9 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges In The World To Buy Any Altcoins

Here is a consolidated list of best cryptocurrency exchanges with my comments:

  1. Binance:Offers mobile app and probably the fastest growing exchange. If you need to pick only one, this is the best and #1 in 2019.
  2. Bitmex: Very popular with high volume
  3. KuCoin: One of the strongest exchange that also offers a mobile app (Android and iOS). They have been constantly updating their mobile app to make it one of the best in the industry.
  4. CEX: My favorite
  5. CoinMama: Old but gold and let you buy BTC and ETH instantly.
  6. Bittrex: Another high-quality exchange with a lot of coins
  7. Changelly: Instantly convert any cryptocurrency to any of your choices. Great for instant conversion

                              Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Slowly and steadily, Bitcoin and altcoins are getting attention from more investors

all around the world. And why not? These cryptocurrencies are time and again proving themselves to be a safe haven against government’s inflationary policies. That’s why some people are even securing cryptocurrencies as their retirement funds, while some are doing pure speculation with short-term trading (i.e. buy low, sell high). And let’s not forget about those who are just starting off by looking around to find the answer to questions like:

  • Where do I buy such currencies?
  • What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges?

But before we talk about the best exchanges out there, I need to tell you that it’s not too late to get invested in cryptocurrencies. At the time of this writing, the Bitcoin and altcoin market is at an all-time high, with a market cap of $166 billion. I believe we will cross the $250 billion mark later this year. So now that you know you should invest, here’s where you need to go to do that.

Note: This list is starting from easy to use exchanges and moving towards some of the advanced exchanges.

9 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges for Trading Cryptocurrency

1. Binance

Binance is a rapidly growing exchange that concluded its ICO a few months back. Though it is based out of China, it doesn’t serve its native country but is open to almost all countries around the world. Since its ICO to till date, it has grown tremendously and is now placed in top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. It now has more than 140 altcoins listed on it which are only increasing as the days are passing. Binance being a centralized exchange has taken a unique take to expand its business and also provides a decent discount for day traders if they use BNB coins. BNB is Binance Coin which is the native currency of this platform. Binance’s fee structure is also unique. To start with they have 0.1% standard trading fee which is already quite less than other peers. You can even reduce your fee further if you pay your trading fee in BNB according to the below-shown structure.

To get started with Binance you need to register using your email ID and the process is quite simple & fast. Moreover, you get 1 QTUM coin as a kind gesture for registration which is limited to 10,000 QTUM coins on first come first basis. Binance is one of the few exchanges that offers mobile app for iOS and Android. Being using it for a while, I find it too easy to trade cryptocurrency while on the move. You can watch this video to learn how to use their mobile app. They also have aggressive plans like multi-lingual support, mobile apps for both iOS and Android users, Binance Angel Program,  and the Community Coin Per Month etc for more adoption of their platform.

BitMex is high volume crypto exchange created by a talented team of economists, high-frequency traders and web developers for the crypto community. Here you will never find any issues regarding the liquidity of your cryptocurrencies. The primary currency traded on this exchange is Bitcoin and its future contracts. Apart from Bitcoin contracts, one can also play around with future contracts for altcoins such as Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Cardano, Litecoin, Ripple. The registration process on BitMex is quite simple where you just need to register through your email ID and their fee structure is also quite straightforward as shown below: Trade On BitMex

3. KuCoin

KuCoin is another easy and hassle-free cryptocurrency exchange. KuCoin offers many popular and unique coin such as DragonChain, $KCS, and many others. Just like Binance, they offer a fully functional mobile app for Android and iOS. To get started with KuCoin, you can deposit any crypto of your choice ex: BTC and start trading. Personally, I have been using KuCoin since last quarter of 2017 and they are getting popular day by day. Get started with KuCoin

4. Changelly

Changelly is one of the easiest ways to get ahold of various cryptocurrencies. Changelly has a proven track record of consistently good products being put out into the crypto-space. One of the best things about Changelly is that you don’t need to go through any lengthy verification or registration process. You just log in with your email ID (or any email ID) and start exchanging! Currently, it supports more than 35 cryptocurrencies along with fiat pairs such as USD/EUR. It is one of the best and easiest to use exchanges out there. If you want to know more, check out Harsh’s review on Changelly.

When you use Changelly to exchange cryptocurrency, Changelly bots connect in real time to some of the best and busiest cryptocurrency exchanges in the market to get you the best price. Usually, when using Changelly, a crypto-to-crypto exchange takes 5 to 30 minutes. They charge a commission fee of 0.5% on each trade, which I think is minimal in exchange for the volatility and risk that they bear on behalf of their users. In addition to the commission, a miner’s fee is also paid by the user and is deducted directly from their crypto balance. But all you need in order to buy from Changelly is a VISA/MasterCard (credit/debit card) or any Changelly-supported cryptocurrency and a wallet where you want to receive your new coins. The procedure is very simple. Head toward CoinSutra’s Cryptocurrency Exchange – Changelly, and follow the steps given in this guide.

Note: Though this guide shows how to buy Ripple in exchange for BTC, the process is exactly the same to buy any other Changelly-supported cryptocurrency. And if you want to buy cryptos using a VISA/MasterCard, then here is their official step-by-step guide on doing that. (Even though this guide is for buying BTC using a VISA/MasterCard, the process is the same as buying any other Changelly-supported cryptocurrency.)

5. Huobi Pro

Huobi Pro is an international cryptocurrency exchange that originated in China but now has moved across the world to serve a maximum number of investors. It is based out of Singapore and has been operating in this space successfully for the last five years.

As we speak, it occupies the #3 spot on CoinMarketCap’s list of exchanges by volume and has 244 cryptocurrency pairs. Hence, needless to say, of this, you will never face liquidity problems on this exchange. They also have mobile apps for both Android and iOS for users who want to trade cryptos on the go. Their registration process is also pretty simple and straightforward, so go ahead and do the needful. Oh, and just so you know, the exchange fee is also pretty low. Have fun. Do read, Huobi Exchange Review & Benefits of HT token: Can It Pull Off Another Binance?

  • Join Huobi Pro

6. Bittrex

Bittrex is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange that provides you the option to trade more than 190 cryptocurrencies at a time. They are well-regulated and compliant with all of the current US rules, so crypto users need not worry about the safety of their funds. Bittrex handles one of the largest BTC trading volumes out of all the exchanges in the world.

Here, the users (buyers/sellers) decide the rates in which they want to trade, and Bittrex charges them a small service fee for providing this platform (0.25%). To get started with Bittrex, you need to register and log in through your email ID, but to withdraw funds, you need to do a KYC by submitting your ID documents and phone number, as well as enabling two-factor authentication for higher limits. But one good thing about Bittrex is the account verification happens quite fast.

Bittrex supports two types of accounts:

  • Basic Account – withdrawal funds worth up to 3 BTC/day.
  • Advanced Account – withdrawal funds worth up to 100 BTC/day.

Bittrex is a “crypto-only” exchange, meaning it doesn’t allow you to deposit fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. They provide access to advanced trading tools like candlestick charts and crosshairs, but the user interface is quite clean and intuitive, so newbies should have no problems. You can visit Bittrex and open a Bittrex account by following this official step by step guide here.

7. Poloniex

Founded by Tristan D’Agosta, Poloniex has been operational since January 2014 and is undoubtedly one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. It is based out of the United States and offers +100 cryptocurrencies to its users to trade. When you talk about trade volumes, nothing beats Poloniex. In 2017, Poloniex had the highest volume for ETH because it supports an independent Ethereum market as well as a BTC market.

It is a crypto-only exchange, but you can start trading easily by depositing USDT (Tether dollars). Poloniex also has zoomable candlestick charts for 5-minutes, 15-minutes, 30-minutes, 2-hours, 4-hours, and 1-day, along with a stop-limit feature for advanced cryptocurrency traders. Poloniex charges a fee of 0.15% to 0.25% on all trades depending upon whether you are a maker or a taker. So if you are looking to trade a variety of altcoins, then you should give Poloniex a shot. To get started with Poloniex, follow this official guide. Remember: As soon as you sign up for Poloniex using your email, do make sure to enable two-factor authentication! Check out Poloniex

8. Bitfinex

Bitfinex is another one of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges out there. Based out of Hong Kong and operational since 2014, it gives its users the option to trade the following 13 cryptocurrencies in exchange for USD or BTC:

  • Bitcoin
  • Bcash
  • Dash
  • Ethereum
  • Zcash
  • Monero
  • Litecoin
  • Ethereum Classic
  • OmiseGO
  • EOS
  • IOTA
  • Santiment
  • Ripple

Update: They have added a lot more cryptos recently. Unlike Bittrex and Poloniex, you can trade using USD (with a wire fee of at least $20). Also, users will need to pay a trade fee which varies from 0.1% to 0.8%

Also, whenever you withdrawal or deposit anything, you are charged a certain fee:

On Bitfinex, if you are a pro-trader, you will find advanced trading tools such as limit orders, stop orders, trailing stop, fill or kill, TWAP, and others, along with different market charts. To get started on Bitfinex, you need to register, verify your ID, and authenticate yourself. It typically takes 15-20 business days after submitting valid ID proof before you’re accepted into the platform. And whenever you get bored with the web version or want to trade on-the-go, you can use Bitfinex’s Android and iOS mobile apps.

The Best Crypto Exchanges

Using the above cryptocurrency exchanges will allow you to buy almost all of the cryptos you could ever want to buy. However, there are a few more cryptocurrency exchanges that you should have an account with, as there are a few coins that are only available there. It’s a good idea to have an account on most of these, which will save time when you discover a winning coin.

Some of those exchanges are:

  • Gate.io
  • YoBit

I will update this post as I find other trustable and feature-rich cryptocurrency exchanges. For now, you can consider joining our Telegram channel to stay updated with all the latest info. I hope these insights help you in choosing the best cryptocurrency exchange for you to use.

But one word of caution:

  • Don’t use these exchanges as a wallet to HODL your cryptos.

If you are storing cryptocurrencies on these exchanges for a few hours or even a few days for the sake of trading, then it’s probably OK. Otherwise, this is a bad practice. Large-scale hacks like Mt. Gox can happen at any time. I would strongly recommend you to use the Ledger Nano S or a wallet like Exodus, where you can store a lot of different cryptos and control your private keys.

Article Produced By
Harsh Agrawal

Howdy, Welcome to popular Cryptocurrency blog 'CoinSutra'. I'm Harsh Agrawal, a tech enthusiast & Digital nomad from New Delhi, India.I started CoinSutra to help users around the globe to learn about popular Cryptocurrencies.Here at CoinSutra I write about Bitcoin Wallet, Cryptocurrency wallets, Online Privacy & Security, VPN experiences & making money from Crypto.

https://coinsutra.com/best-cryptocurrency-exchanges/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

ADN Coin CEO Confirms Listing on BitForex Exchange by June 9, 2019

 ADN Coin CEO Confirms Listing on BitForex Exchange by June 9, 2019

                            

ADN Coin, a project spearheaded by finance and cryptocurrency experts

Ron Lim and Jon Ban, announced that they will be listing ADN Coin on several of the top cryptocurrency exchanges starting on June 9, 2019. The first exchange that will list ADN Coin is BitForex. The ADN Coin project also confirms that it is slated to be listed on at least six other exchanges in the next fifteen days, shortly following the BitForex listing. The names of the other exchanges remain a mystery, but will be revealed soon enough.

According to Mr. Ron Lim, Chief Executive Officer of ADN Coin:

“The project is going smoothly. We have confirmed the listing of ADN Coin with BitForex. We are finalizing the listing details with other exchanges and will be able to announce the names of these exchanges soon. We want to thank our development team and our supporters who continue to believe and invest in this revolutionary project.”

Most recently, Tad Einstein, a descendant of the great Albert Einstein, has publicly announced that he has partnered with ADN Coin and will serve in the capacity of Chief Information Officer and Strategic Advisor. Mr. Einstein believes in the innovative mechanisms and disruptive technology that the project proposes. He said “ADN Coin is a project that my team and I are devoting significant time and resources to. For too long, the ICO market has widely been used as a vehicle for fraud and deception, until now. ADN Coin and its underlying ecosystem are purpose built to re-instill investor confidence in the ICO process as well as provide the platform which will power real-world e-commerce leveraging cryptocurrencies. The ADN team is proud to be the leader in this revolution and is excited to deliver these necessary industry innovations to the world.”

BitForex Announced the Launching of ADN Coin with the details below:

  • ADN deposit will be available on 2019/06/09 16:00 (GMT+8)
  • ADN/BTC trading pair will be available on 2019/06/10 16:00 (GMT+8)
  • ADN withdrawal will be available on 2019/06/11 16:00 (GMT+8)

Token Info

Project Name: Aladdin
Token Symbol: ADN
Official Website: https://adncoin.com/
Total Supply: 100,000,000,000 ADN

According to ADN Coin’s website, the platform is a “Powerful ICO Security Platform.” One of the core tenants of ADN Coin is their proprietary blockchain-supported technology which offers transparency, security, and accountability throughout the Initial Coin Offering process. The ADN Coin ICO security platform will also implement “high-throughput, high scalability, and high availability solutions for Decentralized Applications (DApps) running within in the ADN ecosystem.” The project has very promising points that they highlighted on their site. ADN Coin mentions that the platform will have a secure environment and decentralized ecosystem, which is widely accessible and provides economic solutions which will empower business innovation, increase investor confidence, and benefit humans at the core.

ADN Coin is also developing a main network that is “specifically designed to protect ICO participants from fraud, scams, and other heinous activities which have been commonly associated with ICOs.” The platform is also proud to announce that their team will be the first to implement an ICO Wallet, in which funds cannot be accessed by ICO-holding companies except those approved by the participants. These capabilities will usher in a new generation of investor and participant confidence surrounding the ICO process. Another exciting development surrounding the ADN Coin is their promise of e-commerce integration. The team posted, that aside from securing ICOs, another one of the network’s main value propositions is its seamless integration as a payment solution to an online shopping mall platform where users can use cryptocurrencies as a payment method for consumer products.

Article Produced By
News BTC

https://www.newsbtc.com/press-releases/adn-coin-ceo-confirms-listing-on-bitforex-exchange-by-june-9-2019/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Morgan Stanley Upgrades AMD, Says ‘Table Is Set Well’ For 2020

Morgan Stanley Upgrades AMD, Says 'Table Is Set Well' For 2020

A cautious stance on Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD)
over the past year was "obviously" the wrong call but the "table is set well" for 2020, according to Morgan Stanley.

The Analyst

Morgan Stanley's Joseph Moore upgraded Advanced Micro Devices from Underweight to Equal-Weight with a price target lifted from $17 to $28.

The Thesis

Investors had reason to hold a bearish stance on AMD over the past year as the Street's estimates looked too high around graphics inflation, Moore wrote in a note. This scenario played out over the year as most of the Street's downward revision in estimates is due to graphics and a notable decline in the cryptocurrency industry.

Much has changed in AMD's favor, Moore said, including continued delays from rival products at Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA)'s heavy investments in ray tracing. As such, AMD faces an opportunity to enter an era of "sustained profits." AMD has multiple near-term catalysts to spur growth, including a cloud gaming opportunity where the company has a key advantage over rivals. Specifically, Nvidia is showing an interest in pursuing higher margin GeForce Now implementations and AMD boasts a strong relationship with console developers. Aside from gaming, AMD continues to seek "creative" ways of monetizing its graphics chips.

Price Action

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices were trading higher by 4.5 percent to $30.84 Thursday morning.

Article Produced By
Jayson Derrick

Benzinga Staff Writer

https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/19/06/13873974/morgan-stanley-upgrades-amd-says-table-is-set-well-for-2020

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

EU: Malta Needs to Improve Readiness to Respond to Cryptocurrency Crime

EU: Malta Needs to Improve Readiness to Respond to Cryptocurrency Crime

                                

The European Union has told Malta it needs to improve the resources

it has to fight potential financial crime as a result of cryptocurrency popularity, local daily news outlet Malta Today reported on June 5. In a letter to member states advising how to spend EU funds, the European Commission flagged Malta’s burgeoning cryptocurrency sector as a potential weak link in the fight against financial crime.

“The Commission, in its recommendations to member states for the use of EU funds, said that the size of Malta’s financial and gaming sector, and the efforts to attract crypto-currency operators required an effective anti-money laundering enforcement,” Malta Today summarized. Additionally, possible conflicts of interest in government should be addressed regarding corruption, while tax obligations should also be reassessed. “Furthermore, the police’s Economic Crimes Unit is currently understaffed,” the Commission added.

It continued:

“In this context, it is important to couple a strengthened legislative framework with timely and thorough implementation.”

Malta continues on its path to create a haven for cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses. As Cointelegraph reported, some of the industry’s biggest names, including exchange Binance, have made the country their home under the government’s highly-publicized “Blockchain Island” plans. At the same time, authorities are getting to grips with controlling the sector, creating both vetting structures and releasing information for consumers, such as the risks associated with crypto asset investment. Silvio Schembri, Junior Minister for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation within the Office of the Prime Minister of Malta, wrote a dedicated article for Cointelegraph last month in which he discussed the current state of the “Blockchain Island” project.

Article Produced By
William Suberg

William Suberg got into Bitcoin while completing his Masters degree and hasn't looked back since, writing about anything crypto-related which makes him sit up and pay attention. He started working with Cointelegraph in October 2013.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/eu-malta-needs-to-improve-readiness-to-respond-to-cryptocurrency-crime

 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden