Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson predicts crypto interoperability converging to a “Wi-Fi” moment

IOHK CEO and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently spoke with Forbes to give a rundown of progression in the crypto space. Of interest was Hoskinsons prediction that blockchain interoperability will see easy migration from one system to the next.　　The technical challenges of blockchain interoperability　　In simple terms, interoperability refers to ways in which two different blockchains can exchange information. The current problem is that interoperability is swamped with technical complexity.　　This means its difficult for an Ethereum smart contract to verify whether a Bitcoin transaction has been sufficiently confirmed. To overcome this, developers have approached the issue from multiple angles, including decentralized exchanges, federated sidechains, and intermediary networks like Cosmos and Polkadot.　　Rehashing rivalries, Hoskinson took the opportunity to tear into Ethereum by saying the platform locks users into its ecosystem. He believes users and information should be “liquid,” which is why he focuses on cross-chain compatibility with Cardano.　　“Like Ethereum says, ”Hey, we‘re open source, we’re an open ecosystem. But by the way, we want to be like Microsoft, with Internet Explorer and ActiveX, lock everybody into our ecosystem!“ Shouldn‘t users be liquid？ Shouldn’t information value be liquid？ So what we focus on is our cross-chain communication protocols,” he said in the interview.　　Hoskinson:

2021-04-28Deep Dive

Iran set to fund imports with legally mined cryptocurrencies

Iran has always had a strenuous relationship with cryptocurrencies and activities related to it like mining. The nation has been cracking down on illegal crypto mining operations, but has also tried to benefit from the introduction of legal cryptocurrency mining. Now, the nations central bank wants to use cryptocurrencies mined by licensed miners to pay for imports.　　According to a recent report from the Financial Tribune, The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has now given banks and licensed currency exchangers the green light to use cryptocurrencies mined by licensed miners in the nation to pay for imports.　　“The central bank says that lenders and licensed currency exchange offices have been notified about the regulatory framework for crypto payment,” the report said.　　The plans to fund imports started last year in October after the government changed regulations that allowed legally mined Bitcoin in the country to be used by the Central Bank to fund imports. The Iranian Ministry of Energy and the Central Bank of Iran were responsible for enacting the changes to local legislation. These licensed miners are required to sell their cryptocurrencies to the central bank directly.　　In January 2020 the Iranian government began issuing cryptocurrency mining licenses to operators in the country.

2021-04-27Deep Dive

Tesla Sends Bullish Bitcoin Signal To Global Corporates

The bitcoin (BTC)-keen carmaking giant Tesla has sent a bullish signal to the global business community, with its chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn claiming that BTC has “long-term” worth and could be used to solve cash liquidity problems.　　In an earnings call to investors reporting on FY2021 first-quarter results, Tesla confirmed that last month it sold 10% of the BTC holdings it had bought at the start of the year. But the automaker justified the sale, claiming that the firm wants to use BTC to boost its liquidity as and when it needs to.　　Kirkhorn, a.k.a. Master of Coin, stated,“From a corporate treasury perspective, weve been quite pleased with how much liquidity there is in the bitcoin market. Our ability to build our first position happened very quickly. When we [made] the sale in March we also were able to execute on that very quickly. As we think about global liquidity for the business and risk management, being able to get cash in and out of the markets is something that is exceptionally important for us.”　　The CFO also explained that Tesla‘s and its CEO Elon Musk’s rationale in foraying into the BTC market earlier this year was partially based on the firms

2021-04-27Deep Dive

Ethereum Tokens Coming to Tezos, Thanks to WRAP Protocol

Ethereum tokens will now be available on Tezos thanks to a new development by Bender Labs. This will be done through the release of the WRAP protocol which is a bridge protocol from Bender Labs and is hoping to contribute towards a more open financial system.　　What this means is that ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens from the Ethereum blockchain can now be transferred into the Tezos blockchain as FA2 tokens. Bender Labs specializes in creating DeFi platforms and thus, WRAP acts as a decentralized bridge between various blockchains.　　UnWRAPing New Concepts　　The biggest benefit of this new development is that users of both platforms will be able to wrap their tokens. Wrapping, in this case, refers to getting representations of ERC-20 and ERC-71 tokens on the Tezos blockchain while still maintaining a pegged value to the original tokens.　　This means that token conversions do not need to take place and instead, transactions can be carried out seamlessly. WRAP, which is the native token of the ecosystem, is both an ERC-20 and FA2 token and this makes it operable on both platforms.　　According to the management of Bender Labs, the purpose of this new partnership as well as their general mission statement is to create a

2021-04-27Deep Dive

The Global Economy Comes Before Savers: ECB Christine Lagarde Defends Negative Interest Rates

The European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is keeping the central bank‘s monetary easing policies unchanged according to her statements from a press conference last Thursday. Moreover, the central bank’s Twitter account recently shared a video of Lagarde defending negative interest rates, as the banks President stresses that they “support companies and people in the eurozone.”　　ECB President Christine Lagarde Wants to Preserve Favorable Financing　　Since well before Covid-19, a great number of central banks started to initiate monetary easing practices and pushing interest rates down to zero or below. On Thursday, Lagarde spoke during a press conference after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep policies the same after keeping rates below zero and issuing lots of fiat. Lagarde says that the financing conditions must be maintained to fend off the economic effects of the global pandemic.　　“Preserving favorable financing conditions over the pandemic period remains essential to reduce uncertainty and bolster confidence, thereby underpinning economic activity and safeguarding medium-term price stability,” the ECB President Lagarde emphasized on Thursday to members of the press.　　The ECB also said last month that the central bank was planning on increasing government bond purchases and data shows the bank did just that. Statistics from Deutsche

2021-04-27Deep Dive

Staking on Polkadot (DOT): How do users pick a validator to nominate?

Staking using a crypto protocol is not that straightforward. But this guide helps you.　　Polkadot has become one of the most popular staking platforms, and with returns of over 13%, its not hard to see why.　　So if you‘ve stocked up your wallet with DOTs and read the staking guides, you’re probably now wondering how to choose which validator to nominate. Heres what you need to know.　　 How Will Your Rewards Be Calculated？　　First, some general information about how the staking rewards work. The rewards are spread proportionally among validators according to their stake, which also applies to the nominators who have bonded their DOT to each validator. You can view the validator list on the Polkadot.js.org website.　　So let‘s say a validator is currently staking 900 DOT, and you stake a further 100 DOT. You’ll get 10% of the nominator rewards. Therefore, you want to nominate a validator who will receive a decent proportion of the rewards, but where your stake also represents the highest possible percentage of that validators rewards.　　However, there are only a fixed number of slots available for validators, and you want to offset the risk that your chosen validator won‘t make the cut. After all, if they aren’t validating,

2021-04-27Deep Dive

Biden’s proposed capital gains tax rise will hit only richest 0.3%

Only 0.3% of taxpayers in the U.S. would be hit by higher levies on their investments under the new capital tax plan, a senior Biden administration official said.　　Following major sell-offs in cryptocurrency markets amid reports of United States President Joe Bidens capital gains tax rise proposal last week, the Biden administration defended nearly doubling tax levies for only the “very, very richest.”　　A senior Biden administration official claimed that only 0.3% of taxpayers in the U.S. would be affected by higher levies on their investments under the new capital tax plan.　　“Theres increasing evidence that over recent years in fact many, many of the returns at the very top are what they call above-market rates of return, rents and so on. Taxing the people who are doing extremely well in the economy is one way of asking somewhat more from that,” the Biden administration official said in a Monday interview with the Financial Times.　　Under Bidens plan, the capital gains tax rate for wealthy individuals will rise to 39.6% from the current base rate of 20%. For those earning $1 million or more, the new top rate will be accompanied by an existing surtax, bringing the U.S. capital gains and dividends tax rate

2021-04-27Deep Dive

Chinese online retail giant JD.com adopts digital yuan for salary payments

Chinese e-commerce company JD.com has upped its support for the countrys central bank digital currency.　　JD.com has been using Chinas Digital Currency Electronic Payment, or DCEP, system to pay the salaries of some employees since January.　　The e-commerce firm revealed the news on Sunday while announcing its participation in the one-year DCEP trial show at the fourth Digital China Summit in Fuzhou slated for Sunday and Monday.　　Commenting on its digital yuan adoption journey, the company stated that apart from paying staff salaries, JD has also utilized the DCEP in business-to-business payments to partner firms as well as cross-bank settlements.　　As previously reported by Cointelegraph, JD Technology and Digital Currency Research Institute — the company‘s fintech arm — has been a DCEP development partner with the People’s Bank of China since September 2020.　　In December, the online retailer began accepting the digital yuan as a payment method on its website. According to a previous Cointelegraph report, JD.com received almost 20,000 DCEP-funded orders during the first week of adoption.　　JD has also supported DCEP trials, contributing about $4.6 million to Suzhou‘s second public lottery event back in February. Commenting on the company’s continued support for the digital yuan, Fei Peng, DCEP head at JD Tech, said: JD

2021-04-27Deep Dive

Don-key Is Gearing Up To Launch It’s Yield Farming App

Don-key.finance, the yield farming social network, has recently raised $2.2 million in a strategic funding round led by macro investors. They include Black Edge Capital, AU21. Genesis Block Ventures, Spark Digital, Solidity Ventures, MoonWhale, MarketAcross, and Morningstar Ventures.　　Designed for both the retail and institutional market, Don-key enables global yield farmers to enjoy a seamless, gamified crypto-asset management experience. The offering caters to investors who are looking for ways to passively earn on the crypto assets they want to hold long-term.　　Don-Key aims to become the eToro of yield farming by reducing entry barriers for both yield farmers and liquidity providers. Its automated platform allows DeFi farmers and traders to get access to the best DeFi farmers strategy and simply mimic their trades in a completely automatic manner.　　As such, Don-Key solves the pain points of this industry, including for those who don‘t master the skills to create their own yield farming strategies or know how to allocate their crypto assets. Other Defi farmers and traders simply don’t have the time to follow every single market development as being a successful farmer is a full-time job on its own. The platform will offer a frictionless way to pool their liquidity by copying the

2021-04-27Deep Dive

MyCryptoParadise Crypto Trading Signals: How Accurate Are They?

This unbiased review attempts to decode all those factors contributing to the rise of MyCryptoParadise (MCP) as a popular go-to destination for premium crypto trading signals.　　Choosing the best crypto trading signal group on Telegram is no longer an easy endeavor in 2021. The platform is literally teeming with hundreds of these crypto groups. Some provide paid crypto signals, some are free, but each claim to be led by superstar traders.　　In fact, the task is even tougher now that we‘re in a bull market. After all, making profits in a bull market usually tends to be somewhat easy – relatively speaking. This is why if you’re looking to join a paid crypto signal group, it makes good sense to stick only to the groups with a proven track record. Especially those that also offer active free channels with free crypto analysis and updates.　　And this is where a Telegram group like MyCryptoParadise grabs your attention with its original approach to delivering premium crypto trading signals and daily insights of the market so you can learn at the same time.　　MyCryptoParadise: An Overview　　Why do so many people say that MyCryptoParadise is among the best crypto signals providers in 2021？ From the looks of it,

2021-04-27Deep Dive

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