Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Only A Matter Of Time Until ETH Flips BTC, Says Raoul Pal

Real Vision Chief Executive Raoul Pal has stated that he is confident that Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin to become the leading crypto in the market. Pal made these comments in an interview with The Stakeborg Talks. 　　According to Pal, at its current speed and growth, the Ethereum network looks set to outperform Bitcoin in the not-so-distant future. BTC And ETH Prices Stagnant 　　Raoul Pal analyzed the markets in detail on Twitter and stated that data volumes for Bitcoin and Ethereum have been “stagnant since the run-up to 2022.” He stated that his statement holds true for Bitcoin more than Ethereum because the former has seen little growth during the year. According to Pal, Bitcoins growth can be attributed only to large investors and institutions joining the network. 　　Pal demonstrated through charts that these large investors and institutions had taken their profits in the first half of 2021, and very few of them have returned to the market. Benefiting From Metcalfe‘s Law 　　Pal stated that he believed BTC and ETH benefit from Metcalfe’s law. Metcalfe‘s law states that any network’s value is proportional to the square number of nodes present in the network. In simpler terms, any network benefits from adoption,

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Crypto community shows lack of empathy for victims of MetaMask token scam

Up to 400 people fell victim to a scam involving the yet-to-be-released MetaMask token, resulting in the loss of hundreds of Ethereum. An exact figure is not known at this time, but estimates range from $1 million to $1.8 million.　　The victims were fooled into believing they were buying legitimate $MASK tokens. A deeper analysis of the situation revealed that scammers had injected code into DexTools application front end to give a “verified” tick mark for the Uniswap WETH/MASK trading pair on Uniswap.　　“Code was injected into the title and description of the token on DexTools which the website executed, resulting in the token displaying a ”verified“ status.”　　One victim recounts the situation, saying, “everything always seems obvious in hindsight.” However, social media comments, in general, show an overwhelming lack of sympathy for the victims.　　MetaMask and DexTools have yet to make a public response to the situation.The MetaMask token　　The founder of Ethereum devs ConsenSys, Joseph Lubin, teased a MetaMask token during a Twitter exchange some two months ago.　　Surging growth in the number of monthly active users in 2021 has made MetaMask the most popular wallet in crypto circles.　　“MetaMask had 545,000 monthly active users in July 2020, but that shot up to 10.35 million

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Bitcoin and Web3: Why the Beef?

As predictable as night following day is that an overload of hype and excitement will soon run into a reactive wall of snarky cynicism, and therell be handbags on Twitter.　　And so, it is proving to be with web3 which after months of excitement, because were all going to be free, frivolous and fabulously rich, has suddenly been under attack from Jack Dorsey, formerly of Twitter, now to be found on Twitter.　　Jack is freshly emancipated from the restraining shackles of his own business, that he actually co-created and was the boss of, and so is now free to speak his mind, knowing that he is not being watched over by himself.　　He got into several exchanges, but one of his tweets seems to articulate his position succinctly,“You don‘t own ’web3‘.”“The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”“Know what youre getting into…”　　Additionally, in an exchange with Elon Musk, he made what reads like a disparaging reference to venture capital firm a16z (founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz), which is heavily invested in crypto and web3 projects.　　It is easy to be cynical about the cynicism. Here is a guy who

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Crypto Firm Santo Blockchain Buys 50 Bitcoin ATMs

Santo Mining announced the purchase of 50 Bitcoin ATMs today. According to the details shared by the company, the purchased BTC ATMs will be shipped to the companys office in the Republic of Panama by the end of the first quarter of 2022.　　Over the next 12 months, Santo is planning to buy 300 Bitcoin ATMs through an investment of more than $1 million. Santo Pay de Panama, a subsidiary of the company, will be developing a multinational rollout plan for Panama, Colombia and Costa Rica.　　“2022 will be a non-stop year of growth for Santo, as I personally plan for the companies 2022-year workload schedule. Santo is on a journey to help bring a new wave of crypto banking, investment and commerce to over 400,000,000 people in Latin America that are unbanked or unbankable, including 10%-15% of the Hispanics in the USA that also are unbankable,” Frank Yglesias, the CEO of Santo, said.Bitcoin ATMs　　With growing adoption, the demand for BTC ATMs has increased significantly this year. The United States has the largest number of crypto ATMs in the world. In April 2021, Coinme installed more than 300 BTC ATMs across Florida. The company is now operating over 6,000 crypto ATMs in

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Gamers have a new way to mine cryptocurrency with their high-powered PCs

Formed in 2017, GamerHash is a well-established project with just under 1 million users and a solid commercial base. In fact, given the commercial premise of the project, it is surprising there are not more copycat companies following their business model. However, it would be hard to catch up now given their early player advantage.　　In a nutshell, GamerHash combines unused CPU and GPU of gamer devices to mine cryptocurrencies. It only works on gamer devices with their powerful graphics cards. No extra electricity is consumed; it takes advantage of the electricity already being used. The software automatically selects which cryptocurrencies to mine from a basket of twelve. The user is unaware of the details but receives a reward in Bitcoin.　　The cost of these gamer machines is typically between $4000 and $5000. The more powerful machines are capable of mining more cryptocurrency, but an average machine can generate approximately $100 a month – enough to pay for bills or purchasing digital services or items, while the more powerful machines can earn around $250 per month, providing a possible decent payback of just over a year.　　So, the gamer who typically has the machine on 24×7 can earn a passive income without expending

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Reddit’s co-founder agrees that blockchain technology is not going anywhere

Alexis Ohanian, Reddits co-founder, has agreed that blockchain technology is here to stay. His remarks echo what leading financial institutions have noted, as they agree to the future of blockchain technology compared to individual crypto assets.　　In an interview with CNBC, Ohanian noted that he had already made strategic investments in some of the leading firms operating in the blockchain sector. Ohanian is also the founder of Seven Seven Six, a venture capital firm.Ohanian says blockchain technology is here to stay　　During the interview, Ohanian noted that he had been in the blockchain space for a while, and he believes that the underlying technology is here to stay. Ohanian was one of the seed investors in Coinbase in 2012, in the early years of one of the leading crypto exchange platforms.　　Ohanian also talked about the volatility of cryptocurrencies in general. He noted that while cryptocurrencies were highly volatile, and most of them could not last into the future, blockchain technology was “real” and was gaining adoption from some leading technology companies.　　He also added that with any new technologies, there were the initial stages, where most of the innovations consolidate, and while some could fade, there were those that could become successful. As

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Thailand’s small entrepreneurs tapped into lucrative Bitcoin mining–buying up rigs from China

Lucrative Bitcoin mining is reportedly on the upswing in Thailand–thanks to cheap leftover hardware purchased from China, Al Jazeera reported. 　　Over 50% of the industry was forced to relocate in May after China imposed a ban on mining crypto, and while big operations found their new bases in countries like the US, Kazakhstan, and Canada, smaller players sold their gear to Thai entrepreneurs.Seizing the opportunity 　　According to the report, retail crypto miners in Thailand are buying mining rigs in large amounts.　　“Chinese miners got rid of their machines and the price collapsed by 30 percent,” explained Thai entrepreneur Pongsakorn Tongtaveenan.　　Tongtaveenan is one of many small investors who were snagging up redundant computer processors needed for mining Bitcoin and shipping them to Southeast Asia.　　“Theres around 100.000 Thai miners now,” according to the 30-year old entrepreneur, who was able to sell hundreds of units across the country, as small players jumped into the mining business.　　“The moment China banned crypto, we were ecstatic,” another Bitcoin miner, running a small solar-powered processor from his garage in eastern Thailand, told Al Jazeera.Crypto mining cottage industry　　“Bitcoin is the gold of the digital world. But a mining rig is like gold mining stocks: youre paid dividends according to

2021-12-30Deep Dive

El Salvadorians Tweet Combined Loss of $90,000 in Bitcoin from Their Government Chivo Wallets

Over the past few weeks, dozens of citizens of El Salvador have taken to Twitter to complain about the mysterious loss of funds from their Chivo wallets. In September, El Salvador‘s government accepted Bitcoin as legal tender, and it awarded fractional amounts of Bitcoin – approximately worth $30 – to all citizens who signed up for the government’s preferred digital wallet Chivo.　　In mid-December, Twitter user @_elcomisionado_ created a thread comprising dozens of examples of tweets from people claiming losses from their Chivo wallets that range between $61 to $16,000. The total amount of the consolidated losses exceeded $96,000. This translated post from Twitter user @designvbt was one of the largest purported losses, equivalent to more than $16,000.　　Another 131 complaints of identity theft were reported over the last week, bringing the total number of formal complaints to more than 880, said Zaira Navas, an attorney and victim.　　“We represent a group of people who reported to our digital platform, but there are many other people who went to the Prosecutor‘s Office on their own or to the company’s headquarters to complain,” Navas said after bringing the cases to the Attorney Generals office, La Prensa Grafica reported.　　El Salvador is the first country to

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Who is the Cardano DeFi Alliance and why does it matter?

In line with standardizing practices for the up-and-coming Cardano DeFi ecosystem, the Cardano DeFi Alliance (CDA) offers a framework for protocol developers to work together on critical issues and strategic development.　　First announced in mid-December, the CDA sets out to promote the benefits of the Cardano blockchain with a view to setting DeFi industry standards.　　“The primary mission of the CDA is to provide collaboration among leading DeFi protocols, provide open-source libraries, craft best practices, and innovate within the Cardano DeFi ecosystem.”　　Formally structuring Cardanos DeFi ecosystem seems like a step in the right direction as far as collaborative development goes. But, critics maintain that fifteen weeks since Alonzo smart contracts rolled out, there is still no dApp ecosystem.Who is the Cardano DeFi Alliance？　　The CDA comprises DeFi developers, infrastructure providers, and Plutus engineers. They intend to “communicate, educate, and innovate through this organization.”　　Part of their vision is to share information and solutions. More so, to establish a platform for opinions to be heard and debated in the spirit of “cooperative competitiveness.”　　“Members are committed to participating in the CDA with a spirit of openness, collaboration, and cooperative competitiveness.”　　To that end, the CDA encourages all Cardano DeFi projects to sign up. As they say, every

2021-12-30Deep Dive

S Korea Now Has 24 Licenced Crypto Exchanges

Medium-sized South Korean crypto exchanges are gunning for the “big four” trading platforms vice-like grip on the industry – but vital banking breakthroughs are still proving elusive.　　Last week the regulatory Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) granted over a dozen crypto exchanges operating permits, EDaily reported, taking the number of registered crypto operators (e.g., exchanges, wallets) in the nation to 29. This number includes five wallet operators and the “big four” crypto trading platforms: Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone. These four firms have obtained the banking partnerships that allowed them to offer fiat on/off ramps.　　The remaining 20 firms are exchanges that failed to obtain real name-authenticated banking deals prior to a September 24 registration deadline that forced a slew of exchanges to shut in the days following.　　These 20 exchanges are now stuck in a vanishingly small crypto-to-crypto-only market, frozen out of their once-lucrative KRW pairings – and are legally prohibited from offering fiat KRW markets.　　This situation has forced firms into a form of crypto-to-crypto purgatory, which forces them to offer customers bitcoin (BTC) pairings that can only tap into fiat markets via the services of the won-trading “big four.”　　Their number includes Flybit, which received its own permit around a month ago, and

2021-12-30Deep Dive

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