Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

What is a smart contract?

If you googled for “Smart contracts meaning”, here is a smart contract tutorial, which could be easily titled Smart contract for dummies‘’ and will provide simple answers for you.　　Smart contract is a computer code that simplifies the execution of certain agreements and eliminates the need for a middleman. Smart contract and blockchain are related technologies, as the latter is a smart contracts platform. In other words, smart contract is on blockchain.　　There are myriads of smart contract applications and smart contract use cases.　　Delivery services could be among the smart contract examples: a smart contract can automatically transfer money to a courier once a parcel is delivered. Theres no need to sign any traditional contracts – the sender just fills smart contracts with cryptocurrency and then the smart contract uses coins (bitcoin and smart contract could be an example) in order to handle everything.　　In other words, a smart contract executes what‘s written into its code when certain conditions are met. It makes transactions transparent, fraud-resistant, faster, and irreversible, and doesn’t require a central authority. Its just code that helps two parties collaborate without a middleman.　　The notion of smart contracts has been talked about for more than 20 years. But it was only

2021-03-08Deep Dive

Fidelity International Increases Stake In A Hong Kong Cryptocurrency Exchange Operator

BC Group, the company operating the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange for professional investors OSL, has received another nod of approval from Fidelity.　　Less than a year after acquiring a substantial portion in the Hong Kong-based crypto-focused firm BC Technology Group, Fidelity International has upped its stake. The investment subsidiary of the Boston-based mutual fund giant has allocated nearly $7 million more for a total stake of 6.29%.　　Fidelity Doubles-Down On Investing In A Crypto Firm　　Bloomberg reported in February last year that Fidelity International had acquired a $14.2 million stake in BC Technology Group Ltd. – the operator of one of Asias largest digital asset platforms for professional investors, OSL.　　At the time, Fidelity purchased 17 million shares for an average price of $0.85 per one, and the company received a 5.6% portion.　　Earlier today, Singapores financial media outlet Business Times reported that the investment arm of the US-based mutual fund behemoth had increased its stake. Fidelity had allocated another $6.71 million and now owns 6.29% of BC Technology Group.　　BC Group announced earlier that it had signed an agreement to raise nearly $120 million in a top-up share placement that included undisclosed institutional investors.　　Hong Kongs Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) granted OSL licenses for Type

2021-03-08Deep Dive

Bidding Reaches $2M as Twitter’s Dorsey Highlights NFT Version of First-Ever Tweet

Bidding on the genesis tweet is heating up.　　On Friday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called attention to a tokenized version of his first tweet on the non-fungible token (NFT) platform Valuables. Even though the 2006 tweet was minted in December 2020, Dorsey‘s Friday tweet has ignited a bidding war, reflecting today’s frothy market for crypto collectibles.　　As of Saturday morning, the high bid was $2 million, made by Justin Sun, the founder of TRON and the CEO of BitTorrent. Sun has been vying for the historic tweet with Sina Estavi, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as CEO of Malaysia-based (and TRON-affiliated) Bridge Oracle.　　Valuables is an Ethereum-based platform created by the social network Cent that allows users of Twitter to authenticate their tweets for sale to others (think of them as digitally signed copies). The tokenized tweets are only sold when the author of the tweet accepts a bid.　　Anyone can offer to buy a tweet on the platform. For example, the first bid for the tweet in question was $1 from @TheGaloisCxn on Dec. 15, 2020.　　This is the tweet that Sun now thinks is worth $2 million:　　Dorsey is a well-known fan of bitcoin, making multiple forays into the space. Cash App, from his

2021-03-08Deep Dive

How Paradox Group Is Helping DeFi

Created in 2018, The Paradox Group is the current number one blockchain advertisement agency in the UK. The purpose of the company is to offer high-quality marketing services, geared towards crypto entrepreneurs and established companies in the crypto and fintech industries. Projects in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), recent innovations in the crypto sphere, are currently among the top priorities of the Paradox Group.　　What is DeFi？　　Thanks to smart contract technology, introduced with the release of Ethereum back in 2015, the crypto space flourished with new possibilities and potential applications. Many innovations in financial technology followed, but none can compare with DeFi.　　DeFi, also known as decentralized finance, offers the same services as traditional finance. This includes crypto-backed loans, savings through yield farming protocols, or even insurance services. The only difference is that the services are decentralized, meaning there arent any banks or financial institutions acting as middlemen. The financial services are provided by decentralized platforms in a transparent and cost-effective manner.　　Decentralized exchanges (DEX) are an excellent example for illustrating how DeFi works. Unlike all the major centralized exchanges, which act as intermediaries whenever any crypto asset is bought or sold, in DEX the network is peer-to-peer, meaning that traders

2021-03-08Deep Dive

DeFi Deep Dive: Yearn Finance, Cronje’s Diamond in the Rough

IN BRIEF　　Yearn Finance is considered one of the DeFi spaces first movers.　　Its lead developer, Andre Cronje, popularized the “test in prod” approach to DeFi development.　　As the DeFi space continues to experiment and evolve, Yearn Finance is likely to continue to play a leading role.　　As part of BeInCrypto‘s decentralized finance (DeFi) deep dive series, we’ll take a look at one of the space‘s first-movers: Andre Cronje’s Yearn Finance (YFI).　　The cryptocurrency and decentralized ledger technology (DLT) space is heating up right now, both in terms of value and development.　　The markets total market capitalization reached $1.7 trillion, last month. Bitcoin (BTC) alone hit $1 trillion market cap. Moreover, the number of cryptocurrency projects now sits at 8,697 according, to data from CoinMarketCap.　　Furthermore, a recent analysis by The Block Research revealed that the DeFi space was the markets fastest-growing area. This is after the Total Value Locked (TVL) in the space tripled this year.　　Indeed, the DeFi space‘s surge in popularity stems from the impressive development in the space, led in part by Andre Cronje’s Yearn Finance. The committed DeFi developer was also named by DeFi Prime as DeFi Person of the Year 2020.　　In this article, BeInCrypto takes a deep dive into Cronjes flagship project,

2021-03-08Deep Dive

Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week

Bitcoins (BTC) fundamentals received a boost as the U.S. Senate passed the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill on March 7. If traders react to this bill in the same way as they had done to the first stimulus package in April 2020, then the crypto markets may witness a strong rally.　　The stimulus package also intensifies the focus on the devaluation of the U.S. dollar. These concerns could lead some investors to park their money in hard assets or Bitcoin instead of keeping them in fiat currencies, according to veteran trader Peter Brandt.　　Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360　　In addition to investors, a growing number of listed companies are choosing to protect their fiat reserves by buying Bitcoin. After the high-profile purchases by MicroStrategy, Tesla, and Square, a Chinese listed company called Meitu revealed that it had acquired $40 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether.　　If other companies across the world also follow this lead and invest a portion of their treasury reserves in Bitcoin, that could create a massive supply and demand imbalance, sending prices through the roof.　　Lets study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may resume their uptrend in the short term.　　BTC/USD　　Bitcoin dipped below the 20-day exponential moving average ($48,484)

2021-03-08Deep Dive

Bidding Reaches $2.5M as Twitter’s Dorsey Highlights NFT Version of First-Ever Tweet

Bidding on the genesis tweet is heating up.　　On Friday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called attention to a tokenized version of his first tweet on the non-fungible token (NFT) platform Valuables. Even though the 2006 tweet was minted in December 2020, Dorsey‘s Friday tweet has ignited a bidding war, reflecting today’s frothy market for crypto collectibles.　　As of early Saturday afternoon, the high bid was $2.5 million, made by Sina Estavi, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as CEO of Malaysia-based (and TRON-affiliated) Bridge Oracle. Estavi has been vying for the historic tweet with Justin Sun, the founder of TRON and the CEO of BitTorrent.　　SUBSCRIBEBy signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.　　Valuables is an Ethereum-based platform created by the social network Cent that allows users of Twitter to authenticate their tweets for sale to others (think of them as digitally signed copies). The tokenized tweets are only sold when the author of the tweet accepts a bid.　　Anyone can offer to buy a tweet on the platform. For example, the first bid for the tweet in question was $1 from @TheGaloisCxn on Dec. 15, 2020.　　This is the tweet that Estavi apparently

2021-03-07Deep Dive

Ethereum’s ‘EIP 1559’ Fee Market Overhaul Greenlit for July

One of the most significant and contentious alterations to the Ethereum blockchain in recent memory is now scheduled for inclusion into its codebase.　　Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 will be packaged with the London hard fork this coming July regardless of the mining industrys discontent with the proposal, according to the All Core Developers call Friday. At least five other EIPs are likely to join EIP 1559 in London.　　EIP 1559 flips a typical blockchain transaction on its head in order to fix numerous issues with Ethereums user experience. Traditionally, a user sends a gas fee to a miner for a transaction to be included in a block. That gas fee will now be sent to the network itself as a sort of “burn” called basefee with only an optional tip paid to miners. The burnt fee is algorithmically set as well, ostensibly making it easier for users to pay a fair fee.　　The proposal has garnered some of the largest support to date from Ethereum application creators and users alike, given the current difficulty of selecting a correct transaction fee. Miners and mining pools, on the other hand, have been gathering in opposition against the proposal as it progressed toward mainnet.　　Mining gold

2021-03-06Deep Dive

Cardano Becomes Crypto Valley's Second-Biggest Unicorn: Report

Following its torrid price rally, Cardano is now the second-biggest cryptocurrency unicorn that has a presence in Switzerlands “Crypto Valley” (behind only Ethereum), according to this years CV TOP 50 report that was compiled in partnership with accounting giant PwC.　　It is currently valued at $40.6 billion, followed by Polkadot ($29.3 billion) and Aave ($3.9 billion).　　Image by cvvc.com　　Last year, for comparison, Cardano did not even make the list of unicorns. Its valuation was only $869 million.　　Presently, Zugs Crypto Valley has 11 unicorns, having added five more of them since the previous report.　　The most attractive place for crypto companies　　The total value of the top 50 companies that are based in the worlds biggest crypto hub is close to $255 billion. They received $3.7 billion in funding from investors as of late February 2021.　　Regulatory-friendly Crypto Valley—which also includes Liechtenstein—is now home to 960 companies. Despite significant challenges presented by the pandemic, they have increased the total number of employees to 5,180.　　Cryptocurrency brokerage and custodian Bitcoin Suisse remains Crypto Valleys top employer, with its headcount now exceeding 100 workers.　　Image by cvvc.com　　Last month, it announced its partnership with the Zug canton that lets all citizens and local companies pay taxes in Bitcoin and Ethereum.

2021-03-05Deep Dive

User Data Issue Threatens to Blight New South Korean Crypto Regulation

A South Korean regulator has warned of a wrinkle in forthcoming crypto exchange-governing – just days from its promulgation. At worst, the issue could leave sensitive data about customers compromised due to a legal problem.　　As previously reported, a key amendment to the existing Act on Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Transaction Information will come into force on March 25, forcing exchanges to abide by anti-money laundering protocols and use real-name banking platforms that are verified by social security numbers.　　This will require users – even existing customers – to submit their real names, proof of identity, and social security details to exchanges later this month. However, the amendment also requires exchanges to apply to the regulatory Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) for operating permits. The FSS will review applications in a six-month process that concludes in September.　　But per a report from Kookmin Ilbo, another financial regulator, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which will police exchanges as of March 25, is concerned about the fate of user data from exchanges who ultimately fail to obtain licenses. South Korean law requires that companies purge their databases and safely delete sensitive user data within six months of no longer needing to access it.　　However, in

2021-03-05Deep Dive

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