cryptos

Free from Tron: Steemit’s Blockchain Fork Hive Outperforms Steem Token Value

29/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

For weeks now, the cryptocurrency community has been fervently discussing the recent acquisition of the Steemit blockchain. Skeptics believe that the Tron takeover has shown significant vulnerabilities with delegated-proof-of-stake (DPoS) projects. Following the takeover, the community still managed to fork the protocol and the new hard-forked blockchain dubbed ‘Hive’ has seen its token price outperform the value of Steem tokens.

Also read: In-Between Bitcoin Halvings: Analyst Proves Bitcoin’s Price Not Bound to 4-Year Cycles

A slew of Steemit proponents believe the Steemit protocol was rescued from centralization and Justin Sun’s Tron project. On March 3, news.Bitcoin.com reported on how the first community-led fork had failed because a few exchanges used large swathes of DPoS tokens in order to stop the attempt. Then on March 20, community members forked the Steemit protocol and relaunched under the name ‘Hive’ using its own blockchain. Although after the fork took place, Hive’s project leaders had issues with moving steem tokens into the Hive chain. Further, the team discussed blacklisting certain Tron proponents who have a significant stake in the project. Today, hive tokens (HIVE) are trading for $0.21 per coin and steem tokens (STEEM) are selling for $0.17 per unit.

Steem trade volume, however, reported by exchanges has been around $2.3 million during the last 24 hours. Hive volume is considerably lower at the time of publication, with only $53K worth of 24-hour swaps. Despite the fork last week, the Tron-backed Steemit project hopes to convince users to come back to the Steemit project. Additionally, Steemit operators also admitted to censoring Steemit-based articles that discuss the Hive project. Essentially, the Tron-owned Steemit project leaders told the community that if they are divided, the project’s original goals will fail. The blog post states:

We listened to the Steem community, and we always will. While we do not agree, nor obviously support the recent hard fork, we continue to find ways to show our commitment to developing our Steem ecosystem with the support of our great community. We love Steem and we are always supporting a united community since we believe that united we stand, divided we fall.

When Steemit’s new owners confessed to censoring posts they said: “Would any commercial website support a post that encourages all users to migrate to another one? No. That would not be in the best interest of the community and the Steem ecosystem.” Meanwhile, the Hive blockchain community is positive about the new project and the lessons learned. “Hive is unique in that it’s a social blockchain. Bonds have been built over the years. Lives have been changed, saved and improved. Lessons have been learned,” one Hive supporter wrote on Twitter. “Open source so your contributions are immutable — Hive is an idea and no amount of money, government or corporations can kill it,” he added.

While speaking of the situation on social media about Steemit’s new project leaders censoring posts and the centralization issues, another Hive supporter tweeted: “Woah, this is scary. Over 4,500 posts and comments, just gone. What’s supposed to be a decentralized social network, has become dangerously centralized. They’re still on Steem, but [they are] censoring me just because I was heavily involved in Hive?”

What do you think about the hive token outperforming steem tokens? Let us know in the comments below.

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Can’t Lock Down Bitcoin: Trump Ponders Halting Stock Trading, Grounding US Passenger Flights

21/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and a looming recession, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration are contemplating halting stock markets next week. The White House is currently considering grounding all passenger planes and ordering a nationwide shelter. However, bureaucrats from the White House believe that the grounding of U.S. passenger planes and the execution of a federal lockdown order will wreak havoc on Wall Street. In order to curb panic, bipartisan U.S. representatives are considering plans to temporarily stop stock trading.

Also read: US Real Estate in Jeopardy – Analysts Predict Housing Market Crash to 29-Year Lows

Trump Considers Stopping Wall Street Trades and Grounding US Passenger Flights

Reports on Saturday, March 21, note that U.S. President Donald Trump is contemplating drastic measures in order to combat the covid-19 outbreak. According to various publications, including the Washington Examiner, Trump and his team are thinking about announcing a nationwide shelter-in-place order in the near future, if the virus grows more persistent. Basically, a shelter-in-place order means residents will be asked to stay home and not leave their residence to travel unless it’s an emergency.

Can't Lock Down Bitcoin: Trump Ponders Halting Stock Trading, Grounding US Passenger Flights — Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard writes that “Trump eyes grounding jets, halting stock trading, and ordering shelter-in-place.” The report notes that in order to combat a financial fallout, the Trump administration also has plans to close Wall Street for an unspecified time frame.

In order to make the executive order stick, Trump is also considering grounding all U.S. passenger planes. No one will be allowed to take a plane to another state and sources familiar with the matter say the measure being considered is for an unspecified time frame. Moreover, the U.S. President and bipartisan members of Congress have already enacted several executive orders like forcing corporations to produce certain goods. Trump and his team understand that grounding U.S. passenger planes might send shock waves through financial markets and they are prepared to tackle this issue.

From FDR to George W. Bush – Presidents in the Past Have Shut Down Stock Trading

Key officials and unnamed sources told the Washington Examiner that the Trump administration is seriously considering to shut down the stock market at the same time it grounds the U.S. passenger fleet and Trump orders a nationwide shelter-in-place, the report notes. Places like California have already enacted shelter-in-place orders throughout the entire state. It’s not the first time an American President has shut Wall Street down either, as Wall Street was closed for a whole week right after the 9/11 attacks.

In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) also stopped Wall Street with the Emergency Banking Act, which shut down the banking system, Wall Street trading, and the Federal Reserve’s operations. FDR initiated the Glass-Steagall Act too and broadened the powers of the acting president more than any of his predecessors. Furthermore, FDR banned gold hoarding and ordinary people’s stashes of gold were stolen and repatriated. All the legislation FDR created under the ‘New Deal,’ made it so government examiners could investigate bank reserves and as soon as a bank was deemed “financially secure” it could reopen.

Bitcoin Network Commands 99.9% Uptime Since 2009

One thing that President Trump cannot do, however, is stop the censorship-resistant cryptocurrency networks fueled by millions of peers. Unlike Wall Street trades, no one can stop people from transacting on the BTC network, which has been operational for 99.9849602734% of the time since its inception on Jan. 3, 2009. Trump can’t create a ‘Bitcoin Holiday’ and make it so people will stop trading bitcoins and other digital assets. Moreover, there are 5,000+ cryptocurrency protocols in the wild today that will simply continue operating no matter how hard the president or any bureaucrats try to stop them. For instance, right now people can start using bitcoin cash (BCH) in a permissionless manner that’s free from bank charges, delays, and fraud.

After FDR stole gold from hard-working American citizens and froze America’s financial markets in its tracks, people had often said it would never happen again. Individuals thought that after FDR gave the American people a solution to the financial woes, they would be well protected from future financial catastrophes. The 9/11 attacks had proved them wrong, as they learned that Wall Street could be closed again in the face of an emergency. Once again and especially in 2020, people are swiftly learning that the American government will do whatever it wants when there’s a crisis.

The state of American affairs today and what’s happened so far indicate that it’s not out of the question that Trump and his administration will ground passenger planes and halt stock trading. What is out of the question is the fact that no politician, government, corporate entity, or group can stop the cryptoconomy and bring it to a halt. While Wall Street traders twiddle their thumbs and wait for the markets to reopen, crypto advocates will know they can trade and swap value without any third-party interference.

What do you think about President Trump contemplating grounding passenger planes and temporarily closing Wall Street? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Coronavirus Prompts Fed to Slash Interest Rate – Stocks Slide, Gold Spikes, Bitcoin Uncertainty

04/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

Coronavirus Prompts Fed to Slash Interest Rate - Stocks Slide, Gold Spikes, and Bitcoin Uncertainty

The U.S. Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by 50 bps on Tuesday citing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak against the bleak economy. The last time the central bank slashed rates by leveraging an “emergency rate shift” by half a percentage point was after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The announcement didn’t have a favorable effect on the stock market and the Dow shed close to 800 points after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced the cut.

Also Read: This Is How Much BTC You Need to Enter Bitcoin’s Elite 1% Club

50 bps: The Federal Reserve’s First Emergency Rate Cut Since 2008

It’s safe to say that global markets have been shaken by the coronavirus crisis and governments and central banks worldwide are reacting. Last week U.S. stock markets were extremely bloody and assets like precious metals and cryptocurrencies took a hit too. On Monday the Dow Industrial Jones saw a 1,200-point advance as it seemed like a recovery was on the cards.

Coronavirus Prompts Fed to Slash Interest Rate - Stocks Slide, Gold Spikes, Bitcoin Uncertainty — After the Fed announced slashing the interest rate, the top three indices dropped like a rock. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw close to 800 points shed almost erasing the 1,200 points it gained on Monday.

However, on Tuesday as coronavirus fears continued to extend across the globe, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 bps and explained it was due to the coronavirus crisis and the overall “outlook” of the economy. Almost immediately after the Fed’s announcement, all three major stock indices dropped significantly percentage-wise and the Dow lost close to 800 points.

“We saw the risk to the outlook to the economy and chose to act,” Powell told reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t think anybody knows how long it will be,” he added. “I know the US economy is strong and we’ll get to the other side of this and return to solid growth and a solid labor market as well.”

Lehman Brothers Crash, 9/11, and ‘Undermined Confidence’

Since September 2019, the Fed has been feeding private banks with billions in overnight repos and it has cut rates three times already but not nearly as much as Tuesday. In fact, the last time the Fed cut rates by half a percentage point was during the 2008 economic crisis. One month before the “emergency rate shift” on September 15, 2008, the U.S. saw the largest bankruptcy in the country’s history. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the Fed decided to take action. Roughly three weeks later on October 8, 2008, the Fed used an emergency rate shift and cut rates by 50 basis points (bps) to 1.5%. “The Committee took this action in light of evidence pointing to a weakening of economic activity and a reduction in inflationary pressures,” the Federal Open Market Committee explained at the time.

Of course, the Fed did more than just that as they opened the floodgates of quantitative easing and stimulated private banks while the taxpayers had to foot the bill. 2008 saw massive bank bailouts and the Fed ultimately slashed the interest rate as low as 0.25%. Prior to the Lehman Brothers collapse, the Fed cut rates on January 22, 2008 by 75 bps and 50 bps in August 2007.

It was six years before the 2008 financial crisis when the central bank slashed interest rates by 50 bps because of the 9/11 attacks. On September 17, 2001, a few days after the World Trade Center bombings, the Fed told the public the central bank would offer “unusually large volumes of liquidity.” The Fed’s interest rate cut of 50 bps on Tuesday didn’t have much of a favorable outcome on the New York Stock Exchange and Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi said it “undermined confidence.”

“Cutting rates was the right policy choice, certainly the right thing to do, but doing it the way they did was a mistake,” Zandi explained during an interview on Tuesday. “Certainly we know that in hindsight,” Zandi added. “It didn’t do what it was supposed to do and that was instill confidence. It, in fact, undermined confidence.”

Gold Prices Soar

Following the Federal Reserve’s surprise interest rate cut on March 3, the price of the precious metal gold surged by $49 on Tuesday to $1,638 an ounce. Economist and gold bug Peter Schiff commented on the Fed’s move and said: “Lower interest rates will do nothing to alter coronavirus related consumer behavior.”

“The Fed’s real concern was the reverse wealth effect lower stock prices would have on consumers and the economy. So the rate cut was not really about the coronavirus, but the stock market,” Schiff added. Schiff also got some press for predicting the current economic downturn and the 2008 financial crisis as well. While gold investors were pleased with the price of gold spiking after the Fed’s announcement, cryptocurrency markets remained lackluster.

Cryptocurrencies and Coronavirus

Crypto markets did erase some gains on Tuesday but not nearly as close as the lift gold saw. While there are some people who believe a financial crisis would be good for BTC prices and the Fed’s surprise cut was a cherry on top, other speculators believe the opposite. A survey from the Twitter account Crypto Kanoon says: “There is a common narrative floating in the industry that coronavirus will take the stock market down hence it will lead to [a] bitcoin pump. Is there a correlation between [the] stock market and crypto?” There are four answers that could be picked which include: “stocks up and BTC down, stocks down and BTC up, it is random, and no correlation.” With over 630 votes and more than 37.4%, the “no correlation” choice led the vote, but “stocks down and BTC up” followed slightly behind.

Blockchain angel investor Qiao Wang also discussed BTC’s performance during a possible global recession. “Sorry to put a pin in the bubble, but Bitcoin traded like an absolute sh**coin over [the] last couple of weeks,” Wang tweeted. “If you are a crypto business or hold a large amount of crypto, you should probably start thinking about hedging against a mild global recession.” Wang added:

Every short-term time frame I look at, be it 1 minute, hourly, or daily, Bitcoin looks depressingly correlated with [S&P 500]. I’m not saying Bitcoin will necessarily get crushed by a mild recession, but you probably want to update your Bayesian probabilities.

Former Bitcoin Foundation director Bruce Fenton tweeted the situation as well. “I’d take some crypto off the table until this shakes out — Even Bitcoin will likely be hit by this — Long term fundamentals should be solid still,” Fenton stressed. “The use case of limited supply money could be even more appealing. But a speculative and volatile asset will have a hard time,” he added. Still, there are many people that believe BTC will perform as well as gold has in the last few days or fulfill everyone’s uncorrelated asset theories.

“[S&P 500] and Google Trends for ‘coronavirus’ are almost mirror images of each other – SPX is nearly completely tied to coronavirus fear — r = -0.9,” tweeted Cane Island Alternative Advisors’ Timothy Peterson. “Bitcoin is [the] least correlated (-> BTC doesn’t care). Gold has been the best hedge: +0.6 correlation.”

What do you think about the Fed’s interest rate cut and the effect on the stock exchange on Tuesday? What do you think about cryptocurrencies and how they will perform if the world is hit by a financial crisis? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Images credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, Fair Use, Jerome Powell, Wiki Commons, goldprice.org, Google stocks, CNBC, and Pixabay.

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Institutional and Retail Bitcoin Futures Demand Continues to Climb

12/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

2019 saw significant bitcoin derivatives action from firms like CME Group and Bakkt. This year, demand for CME’s bitcoin futures remains strong and the firm’s options products may be available this week. Additionally, Bakkt’s physically-delivered bitcoin futures have consistently seen growth in daily volumes and open interest in 2020. Despite the growth, institutional futures have a long way to go to catch up to the trade volumes retail bitcoin derivatives platforms have seen.

Also Read: Mining Report Highlights China’s ASIC Manufacturing Improvements and Dominance

Regulated Bitcoin Futures Products See Increased Demand Into 2020

The global markets company Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has been providing cash-settled bitcoin futures contracts now for more than two years. A number of people believe mainstream and institutional investors became aware of cryptocurrency markets in 2017, because curiosity was largely driven by bitcoin futures products launched by CME and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). Since then, CBOE stopped offering bitcoin derivatives products, but CME Group has seen consistent demand. In addition to CME’s cash-settled crypto offering, Bakkt started providing physically delivered bitcoin futures contracts in September 2019. Despite the slow start, Bakkt’s futures have broken new records as far as open interest and daily volumes are concerned. Both Bakkt and CME Group’s numbers show that investors are very interested in these offerings and derivatives money from bitcoin continues to flow into the first month of the year.

For instance, Bakkt’s BTC futures volumes touched an all-time high (ATH) on December 18, 2019, and came awfully close to the ATH on January 7. That day in mid-December, there were 6,601 traded contracts and on Tuesday, January 7, Bakkt saw 4,823 ($40.75 million) traded contracts. CME volumes and open interest have seen steady demand as well, as the Twitter account @ecoinometrics noted this week. The following day after Bakkt’s $40 million in trades, Ecoinometrics explained in its “CME Bitcoin Futures Activity Report” it’s noticed that “strong trade volume and open interest are staying above average compared to the past few months.” Additionally, news.Bitcoin.com reported on CME announcing that it would soon offer options on its bitcoin futures products and options trading might begin this week. CME explained that “increased demand” made them file to twofold the 30-day open positions threshold to 10,000 BTC.

JP Morgan Executives Anticipate CME’s Bitcoin Options Launch, While Retail Crypto Derivatives Volumes Outpace Regulated Products by a Long Shot

Financial columnist Joanna Ossinger noted that if CME’s options products are approved by regulators, trading could begin as early as January 12 through 14. Ossinger’s report also claimed that “institutional interest in bitcoin-related contracts appears to be building” according to JP Morgan Chase & Co. Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a strategist for JP Morgan, wrote in a note on Friday that CME’s bitcoin futures have seen more interest.

“There has been a step increase in the activity of the underlying CME futures contract over the past few days,” Panigirtzoglou explained. “This unusually strong activity over the past few days likely reflects the high anticipation among market participants of the option contract,” the analyst added. Panigirtzoglou’s report also said that BTC’s “intrinsic value has been rising” but at the moment it “remains below the market price following a significant divergence in the middle of last year.” Panigirtzoglou concluded:

The market price has declined by nearly 40% from its peak while the intrinsic value has risen by around 10%, [but] the gap has not yet fully closed, suggesting some downside risk remains.

Institutional derivatives trading still pales in comparison to the trades taking place on Bitmex, Bitfinex, Okex, Coinflex, Binance, and Huobi. The researchers from @skewdotcom witnessed “serious bitcoin futures volumes” when on Thursday more than $20 billion in BTC-based derivatives were swapped. A chart showing aggregated open interest indicates open interest in crypto-based derivatives from 12 different exchanges is on the rise. Bitmex, Huobi, and Okex continue to dominate the BTC futures landscape and as far as volume is concerned, CME and Bakkt have an extremely long way to go to catch up to the money being swapped on those exchanges.

What do you think about CME Group launching bitcoin options products in the near future? What do you think about the volumes of other exchanges compared to the institutional BTC derivatives offerings from CME and Bakkt?

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any ideas, software, mining rigs, mining rig manufacturers, websites, concepts, content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Image credits: Shutterstock, @Bakktbot, @skewdotcom, @ecoinometrics, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, CME Group, Bakkt, and Pixabay.

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Russia’s Supreme Court Recognizes Tokens as Assets Like Money and Property

26/12/2019 by Idelto Editor

A phenomenon like bitcoin can gain recognition, including regulatory, in many different and often unexpected ways. Governments that hesitate to accept cryptocurrencies as legal tender, sometimes validate their existence indirectly and even acknowledge they can be used for payments. Taxing crypto incomes and profits is one such example. Russia has just provided another one by admitting that coins and tokens can be used in bribe payments.

Also read: New Ukrainian Law Says ‘Virtual Assets’ Can Be Used for Payments

Tokens Can Be Subject of Bribe, Supreme Court Says

Although many of them are still wary about legalizing decentralized digital money, governments around the world are nevertheless tempted to tap into incomes from the cryptoconomy or feel obliged to prevent illicit uses of cryptocurrencies. With each step authorities take to achieve their goals in either of these directions, however, they inevitably add another layer of legitimacy for cryptos, gradually shaping their legal status even if that wasn’t the intended result.

Money and other financial assets can be used for various noble causes but their qualities are sometimes exploited for illicit purposes as well because their value is universal and impartial. Cryptocurrencies and digital assets in general are no different. It’s taking some time for regulators to realize that but they are getting there. The ‘moneyness’ of bitcoin is being constantly recognized one way or another, often indirectly but also indisputably.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has clarified that “digital rights,” the term currently used to describe coins and tokens in Russian law, can be a subject of bribes, just like regular fiat money, property and other assets. That’s according to a recently adopted amendment to а resolution issued by the authority in July 2013, Forklog reported. It provides the court’s stance on the judicial practice in cases of bribery and other corruption crimes.

Russia is yet to legalize and regulate cryptocurrencies while various institutions in the country, including courts, have previously characterized them as “money surrogates” which are banned by Russian law. Despite that, Russian citizens are expected to report gains from crypto-related activities like trading and mining and pay a flat 13% tax rate on their incomes and profits.

‘Digital Rights’ Are Like Money and Property

According to the revision, along with money, securities, and other property, the illegal provision of property-related services and property rights can now be considered part of a bribery offence. “In cases where the subject of the bribe is property rights, an official has the opportunity to receive income from the use of uncertified securities or digital rights,” the clarification details.

“Digital rights” is currently the only legal description of cryptocurrencies provided in Russian law. The term was introduced with amendments to the country’s Civil Code adopted as part of a package of draft laws designed to regulate the country’s digital economy including the crypto space. The final adoption of the main bill, the law “On Digital Financial Assets,” has been postponed multiple times since last spring.

If a corruption case under investigation involves the transfer of digital rights, their value has to be estimated by experts employed to conduct a monetary assessment, the court remarks. Its decree also explains that the transfer of such assets to an “electronic wallet” is to be considered as the exact moment of the bribe that has been paid.

The concept of “digital rights” was incorporated into Russian law in October when the law “On Digital Rights” entered into force. It established the legal definition of rights in the digital space determining their status under Russia’s civil rights law. The scope of the term can be interpreted to include coins and tokens such as those used in the crypto sector, legal experts commented at the time. Another bill that deals with the issuance of tokens, the law “On Attracting Investments Using Investment Platforms,” was adopted in August. The “crowdfunding law” will enter into force on Jan. 1, 2020.

What’s your opinion about the amendments adopted by the Supreme Court of Russia regarding digital rights? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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