drop

Following BTC’s Price Drop, Bitcoin Miners Benefit From a 2.35% Difficulty Reduction

22/06/2022 by Idelto Editor

During the past week, Bitcoin’s hashrate has dropped a few percentages after reaching 288 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 8, 2022. Bitcoin miners, however, got a break on Wednesday, June 22, as the mining difficulty dropped by 2.35% making it easier for miners to find blocks. The 2.35% drop brings the difficulty down to the 29.50 trillion range for the next two weeks.

Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Drops 2.35%

On Wednesday, June 22, at block height 741,888, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty decreased 2.35% lower than two weeks ago. At that time, the difficulty rating was 30.28 trillion and today it is 29.50 trillion. Furthermore, bitcoin’s fiat value dropped to a low of $17,593 on June 18.
Essentially, Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) shifts every 2016 blocks and the changes are based on the amount of time it took to find the previous 2016 block subsidies. The difficulty is meant to keep block times consistent at roughly 10 minutes in between each BTC block found.
The last difficulty change at block height 739,872, two weeks ago, increased by 1.29%. That means the previous 2016 blocks before block height 739,872 took less than two weeks to find, which means miners were faster during the period. This means while the DAA shift dropped by 2.35% today, the previous 2016 blocks were found at a much slower rate.
A 2.35% reduction makes it 2.35% easier to find BTC blocks than it was during the past two weeks or 2016 blocks found. BTC’s block reward halving is expected to occur on April 23, 2024, and is less than 100,000 blocks away.
While the hashrate tapped 288 EH/s on June 8, the network’s hashrate dipped during the crypto market rout and it hit a low of 164 EH/s on June 18. At the time of writing on Wednesday, June 22, the hashrate is coasting along at speeds just below 200 EH/s.
Over the last three days, the top five BTC mining pools include Foundry USA, F2pool, Antpool, Poolin, and Viabtc. The aforementioned five BTC mining pools command 72.8% of the global hashrate today.

During the last month, 4,271 BTC blocks were mined into existence and Foundry discovered 959 of those blocks. Antpool found 636, F2pool discovered 591, Poolin found 457, and Viabtc found 434 bitcoin (BTC) block rewards.
Over the next two weeks, it will be 2.35% easier to find BTC blocks than it was the two weeks before block height 741,888. With the price being lower, miners will benefit from the DAA reduction on Wednesday.

What do you think about Bitcoin’s difficulty reduction on Wednesday afternoon (ET)? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Crypto Businessman Disappears as ‘First Greek Cryptocurrency’ Collapses

24/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

The man who was at the helm of the company behind what’s become known as Greece’s first cryptocurrency has allegedly caused the coin’s price to sink as he disappeared this month. The executive was off the radar for about two weeks before finally telling the press he will soon return, rejecting accusations he has crashed the market of the crypto.

Hellenic Coin Plummets Amid Crypto Investors’ Worries About Whereabouts of Coin’s Creator

Vangelis Tsapas, someone with various business interests and a sponsor of a basketball team in Greece, upset investors in a cryptocurrency he created when he suddenly vanished earlier in November. The price of Hellenic Coin (HNC) plunged as he became unavailable – from over $1.20 on Nov. 8, to under $0.34 at the time of writing. That’s after reaching its all-time high of $4.84 on June 14, 2021.

Speculations emerged that Tsapas had sold his HNC stash causing the slump, an accusation he has denied. Before his recent resignation, the entrepreneur was the CEO of HNC Revolution, the company managing the coin which was launched by a group of blockchain developers and finance experts in 2015 as the “first Greek cryptocurrency,” the business news portal Newmoney.gr recalls. It was conceived both as an investment vehicle and a payment instrument aimed at facilitating digital transactions for the Greek tourism industry and has since been bought by people from around the world.

While raising concerns among HNC Coin holders, his disappearance alarmed players and other staff at Ionikos Nikaias B.C. too, as he has been supporting the club financially. Tsapas, who is involved in catering and shipping as well, has also reportedly angered Qatar’s prime minister as his company hired to manage Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani’s superyacht, Al Mirqab, failed to pay its crew their wages.

Despite the HNC Coin clearly starting to lose value after Mr. Tsapas stopped answering his phone, he has recently rejected allegations he has caused the drop by selling his coins. Speaking to the Proto Thema newspaper this week, the “phantom” businessman insisted he had actually given away the Hellenic crypto for free, blamed his close associates for the “noise” and announced he will soon return to his business obligations. Claiming media reports are were responsible for the plummeting price, he insisted his absence didn’t play any role and stated:

It’s falling, right, in which I, of course, have no involvement. Because I have never sold a single cryptocurrency. I do not have any, because I transferred everything last Friday for free, as I have the right, without taking a single euro.

Tsapas added he’s holding talks with a new management team to ensure the viability of the crypto. Meanwhile, HNC Coin’s current leadership has refuted him and informed the public that he is not heading the project anymore. A released statement emphasized that following the recent events, Tsapas is no longer the CEO and is not involved in decision-making regarding the cryptocurrency’s operation and development.

In the interview with Proto Thema, meant to “restore the truth,” Vangelis Tsapas cited “serious health reasons” for his temporary retreat out of Athens and public sight but he also said he took the step on advice from his lawyer. “By the way, I have not been called by a prosecutor for any reason,” Tsapas pointed out. The publication notes that Greek law enforcement authorities have been discreetly monitoring developments in the case.

What do you think will be the fate of Greece’s first cryptocurrency and its creator? Tell us in the comments section below.

Bitcoin Price Drops 18%, Fed Discusses ‘Soft’ Inflation, Analyst Says BTC Sell-Off Attracts More Investors

23/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

Digital asset markets are seeing some turbulence on Tuesday as the entire crypto market capitalization has lost 11% in value during the last 24 hours. Bitcoin has slid to a low of $44,846 during the morning trading sessions (EST) losing more than 18% during the last day.

Bitcoin Price Dips Over 18% and Quickly Regains Some of the Losses

Cryptocurrency proponents are watching markets closely after the price of bitcoin (BTC) started sliding early Sunday morning after coasting along at the $55k range. 12 hours prior the crypto asset had reached an all-time high at $58,354 per unit. Since then BTC touched a low of $44,846 on Tuesday and has been very volatile during the last 24 hours.

Today, BTC’s market valuation is under the $1 trillion mark it once held at $909 billion at the time of publication. There’s a whopping $47 billion in global BTC trades among the overall $177 billion in swaps across the entire crypto economy.

The second-largest market cap is still held by ethereum (ETH) but ether is down 8% at the time of writing. Currently, ETH is swapping for $1,576 per coin and has a market valuation of around $180 billion.

Tether has regained the third-position in the top ten rankings, while binance coin (BNB) now holds the fourth spot. BNB is down 14% and trading for $227 per token. The fifth position is held by polkadot (DOT) which is down over 5% and swapping for $34 per unit.

‘Soft’ Inflation, Fed Could Scale Treasuries Purchases Fueling Bitcoin

Meanwhile, as crypto assets took a dive during the last 24 hours, stocks have slid as well while the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified to Congress. Powell didn’t seem phased by the dreadful U.S. economic outlook and rising bond yields.

The Fed Chair noted that inflation was “soft” and the central bank would be there with continued fiscal policy. The cryptocurrency analyst Ben Lilly explained in a recent blog post that this is bullish. “If the Fed does scale up their purchase of Treasuries, then this can be bullish for bitcoin,” Lilly stressed.

‘Sell-Off Will Attract More investors Long-Term’

Simon Peters, the crypto-asset analyst at the multi-asset investment platform Etoro also says the sell-off is part of a global downfall. Today’s correction for crypto assets is part of a wider sell-off in markets globally,” Peters wrote in a note to investors.

“Being driven by profit-taking,” Peters continued. “Investors are closing positions, which will have generated significant gains for many of them. However, as positions are being closed and prices fall, Etoro data shows even more new investors are coming on stream for the first time and buying bitcoin, with 26% more opened positions than closed ones in the last seven days (to Monday).”

Peters continued by adding:

The sell-off will attract more investors long-term. However, in the short-term some we will see some volatility, as we are today. We still see great potential for bitcoin and peers as we move through the year.

Meanwhile, after the fall under the $45k handle, BTC has managed to jump back above $48k for the time being. So far, people are curious as to where the crypto asset will be headed next after a crazy run-up to the $58k+ territory last week.

What do you think about this week’s crypto sell-off? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Yearn Finance Token Value Slides 67%, While Locked Value Loses Over $300M

08/10/2020 by Idelto Editor

Yearn Finance’s native token YFI has been seeing significant capitulation as the price has dropped from an all-time high (ATH) of $43k in mid-September to today’s $13,875 USD value. Despite the -67.7% loss since the token’s ATH, the Yearn Finance project still has around $624 million total value locked into the platform.

Yearn Finance and the native token YFI has been a hot topic during the latter half of 2020. This is because the YFI token went from an all-time low of $739 on July 21, 2020, to reaching an ATH of $43k on September 12. In between that time, YFI saw a whopping 5,718% gain for anyone who held YFI at those times. Additionally, on August 29, the Yearn Finance project had around $967 million locked into the protocol according to Defipulse.com stats.

However, since these recent ATHs, both the project’s TVL (total value locked) and the native token’s value has plummeted. The project’s TVL has slid to $624 million in assets locked on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. That’s a large decent of around -35% since the August 29 TVL-ATH locked into the Yearn Finance project. The coin itself, YFI has lost a critical -67.7% since the September 12 ATH and has been sliding relentlessly since that day.

Some people blame the drop on the lack of trust in Yearn Finance founder Andre Cronje. Not too long ago the decentralized finance (defi) crowd witnessed a mishap with Cronje’s secret Eminence (EMN) project. “YFI has been getting creamed,” tweeted the crypto proponent Alex Krüger in regard to the declining YFI value. “Recent underperformance relative to other cryptos has been notable. One could argue it is the chart. But it is not. One can find plenty of equally poor charts across crypto. This IMO is the marketplace punishing YFI by removing the Cronje premium,” Krüger added.

Krüger also said:

The main reason IMO was Yearn’s blatant negligence around the EMN launch, and how poorly the aftermath was handled. Said so when it happened, not in hindsight later. Many exited/reduced YFI positions because of it.

The Eminence (EMN) project was considered “bizarre” as the unfinished project was hacked for $15 million before it even launched. Even after the incident, Cronje said that he was going to continue building Eminence.

“I am still building [Eminence],” the Yearn Finance developer wrote on Twitter. “I love the metaverse and metaconomy. I am also going to continue deploying test contracts. I have over ~100 deployed contracts, of which probably >half have vulnerabilities.”

Still, Cronje was criticized for putting unfinished work on the main network instead of using an Ethereum testnet.

“Why put unfinished code on mainnet to be tested?” an individual asked Cronje after his statement. “The contract should have been on a testnet. Any noob programmer knows not to test on a live server. With great reputation comes great responsibility. You need to own this and return funds fully before the hack.”

What do you think about the Yearn Finance and YFI decline, as well as the Eminence controversy? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Yearn Finance Token Value Slides 67%, While Locked Value Loses Over $300M appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Honk Launches Token Sale to Fund SLP-Powered Sports Betting Site

07/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

The team behind one of the most active tokens in the SLP ecosystem is launching a crowd sale to fund the development of a new sports betting site. The platform will require no identification from either users or investors, and will pay dividends directly in bitcoin cash and a number of supported SLP tokens.

Also Read: SLP Token Ecosystem Built on Bitcoin Cash Continues to Blossom

Honk Launches SBS Token Sale

Honk is a popular SLP token based on the ‘Clown World’ meme, which features a tipping bot and a sports wagering bot on the Telegram messenger as well as a dice game website. Now the team behind the token is launching a sports betting platform and funding it via the issuing of a new token to investors at the SBS Token Sale page.

The team explains that half of the profits from the betting platform will be paid out as dividends to these token holders, showcasing how SLP tokens are enabling the creation of new forms of private and secure business models. The remaining half of the profits is reserved for growth and continued development of the platform.

The new site will be called ‘Honk-a-bet’ and will support bitcoin cash (BCH) as well as popular SLP tokens such as SPICE, HONK, and DROP. The system will be based on an established sports betting API so that it can feature all sorts of sports for users to wager on from football, basketball and other popular choices to alpine skiing and crossfit for more varied options. It will also enable real time betting during live sports events. The system has no Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements so no identification is needed from either users or investors.

“There are a lot of gambling sites out there, but this will be the first SLP gambling site with a full API to bet on pretty much anything,” commented Honk Project Manager Keith Patrick. “What we are most excited about is getting our shareholders paid out via dividends. This is a new use-case for SLP and I’m glad to be a part of it. The lack of KYC will be a huge selling point for a lot of investors and customers of the site.”

The Simple Ledger Protocol Ecosystem

Simple Ledger Protocol (or SLP) is an easy to use, robust and extensible token management system that allows anyone to create tokens on the Bitcoin Cash network in a permissionless way. It has helped the development of an ecosystem for BCH that replicates the variety of ERC20 tokens on the ETH network.

SLP tokens can easily be created, traded, and managed on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain within seconds, while costing users only fractions of a penny for each transaction. All transactions are recorded on chain, and custom token behavior can be defined using a bitcoin Script developing language.

SLP token adoption has grown rapidly during the last year, with support integrated by the likes of Cybavo – a cybersecurity firm providing secure private key management to some of the biggest exchanges in the world. This is in part thanks to Bitcoin.com Exchange which has started listing SLP tokens for trading on its platform. These include assets such as Gocrypto’s GOC, a token that enables online or physical merchants to accept crypto payments and receive settlement in their local fiat currency.

Other examples of SLP-based token adoption are the launch of an SLP token called ACD issued by the Tokyo-based ANA Holdings subsidiary Alliance Cargo Direct, and a local token built for the city of Dublin, Ohio. More than 6,400 tokens have been created using the SLP framework so far.

Is this development good for the ecosystem? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Honk Launches Token Sale to Fund SLP-Powered Sports Betting Site appeared first on Bitcoin News.