Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Searching deep: The quest for Bitcoin scalability through layer two protocols

As the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoins (BTC) effectiveness as a medium of exchange is still a matter for debate. Unlike fiat money that is inherently infinite in supply and must be managed by a central bank, Bitcoin is akin to gold in that it is commodity money with a finite supply of 21 million.　　However, the supply cap is not the major stumbling block for BTC as a medium of exchange, but rather, the transaction throughput. While Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system capable of facilitating online payments without a central counterparty, seven transactions per second on average is hardly the standard for scalability.　　Indeed, scalability is only one of three major metrics required for any currency system to succeed as a medium of exchange along with adoption and liquidity. There is an argument to be made of Bitcoins growing adoption around the world across several strata of the global economy.　　Price volatility that has seen Bitcoin peak at $58,000 and then briefly fall below the $30,000 mark within the first two months of 2021 likely indicates lingering issues with liquidity. However, it‘s important to note that the current period is being characterized by a bullish advance

2021-03-08Deep Dive

UFC announces regional partnerships with top crypto-only sportsbook

Ultimate Fighting Championship, the worlds leading mixed martial arts, or MMA, organization, has announced an exclusive partnership with Stake.com — a leading crypto-powered online casinos and sportsbook.　　The partnership announced on March 7, will see Stake become UFCs “First Official Betting Partner” in Asia and Latin America. However, the deal will exclude UFCs key market in Brazil.　　The two firms began working together on March 3 — with Stakes customers receiving access to unique digital content surrounding the promotional “fight week” for UFCs March 6 pay-per-view. An announcement states the companys will also developer exclusive promotions, VIP experiences, and social content for Stake users.　　UFCs vice president of global partnerships, Nick Smith said:　　“Were thrilled to partner with an exciting and emerging platform like Stake.com to offer exclusive digital and social content to our fans, as well as an innovative gaming experience,”　　Stake is a crypto-only casino and sports betting platform that is licensed in the carribean island-nation of Curacao. Since launching in 2017, the platform claims to have turned over $35 billion worth of bets. Stake supports nine crypto assets including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Tron, and EOS, and Dogecoin.　　In January, Stake announced it had partnered with UFC Middleweight champion Israel

2021-03-08Deep Dive

Redefining the Future of Global Finance with DeFi

Decentralized, peer-to-peer, and borderless, digital assets and open networks offer a promising alternative to the way money and value has traditionally been transacted — but what is the true economic relevance of decentralized finance (DeFi), and how can it shape the future of global finance？　　In many ways, DeFi could provide us with an early window into what the future of global finance should look like. As the total value of assets locked in DeFi platforms surpasses USD 40bn, it seems more and more users are now buying into the unique features of DeFi: high yield, liquidity, flexibility, and transparency.　　Shaping the future of finance in the new normal　　While some may refer to the income earned via yield farming or liquidity mining as passive income, I prefer the term ‘coded income’, since DeFi income is hard-coded into smart contracts. Although DeFi yields are paid out in highly volatile tokens, its returns are generally significantly higher than those earned from centralized finance products.　　Interoperability is the core philosophy of the DeFi space. The flexibility of DeFi platforms comes from the technology stack composability in which new DeFi services are developed using previous tools as building blocks. Reminiscent of the popular childhood toy, these ‘money

2021-03-08Deep Dive

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

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