Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Dash trade volumes soar 282% in 2020 as commercial adoption grows

Dash, a cryptocurrency analog for electronic cash, recorded impressive growth in 2020 as average daily trade volumes, users and retail payments grew considerably.　　During its fourth-quarter livestream on Thursday, Dash Core Group reported that average trade volumes jumped 282% year-over-year, from $9.8 million to $37.4 million. On a quarterly basis, average trade volumes increased by 48%.　　The total volume of payments hit $916 million, up 80% from the previous year. Commercial payment values rose 37.3% year-over-year, exceeding 22,000 transactions per day, which is reportedly higher than Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH)　　The quarterly report indicated that DASH is currently accepted as a payment method at thousands of stores, which is a reflection of growing mainstream adoption. “In January, Dash outperformed Bitcoin in terms of the number of brick-and-mortar retailers accepting digital payments in the United States,” Dash Core Group said.　　Merchant adoption got a boost in January after Dash partnered with CrayPay, a U.S. loyalty program, to enable Dash spending at major retailers, including American Eagle, CVS, Dominos Door Dash and Gap, among others.　　Dash‘s quarterly results follow a rare exchange delisting in January over the cryptocurrency’s alleged privacy features. Dash was grouped alongside Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) as a privacy coin that

2021-02-05Deep Dive

Argo Blockchain Buys 172.5 Bitcoins as Reserve Asset, Monthly Revenue Soars 52%

Argo Blockchain said Wednesday that it bought 172.5 bitcoins in the second half of January as part of its asset management strategy.　　In a trading update, the London Stock Exchange-listed bitcoin miner also reported strong revenue growth during the review month, climbing 52% to £2.48 million ($3.37 million) from £1.63 million ($2.21 million) in December.　　Argo did not reveal how much it spent buying the reserve BTC, but bitcoin prices during the last half of January oscillated between $30,000 and $38,500. The company said it now holds the equivalent of 501 in bitcoin, as of the end of January.　　For the month in review, Argo Blockchain mined 93 bitcoins, down from 96 BTC in December. Mining output appears to have progressively declined at the London firm over the last few months. In November, Argo extracted 115 BTC, falling from 126 BTC mined in October.　　Peter Wall, chief executive officer of Argo, said: “I am thrilled that Argo has delivered our best month in the companys history in both mining revenue and profits. The year has started off very strong.”　　Argo operates 16,000 bitcoin mining rigs located throughout North America, with a capacity of 645 petahash per second (PH/s) in bitcoin mining hashrate. The company also

2021-02-05Deep Dive

Deloitte releases its own Bitcoin guide on the back of MicroStrategy’s “playbook”

The guide from the “big four” accounting firm wants to cater to new clients and businesses considering a Bitcoin investment.　　Guide for Bitcoin　　Deloitte, the international accounting part of the reputed “big four,” released its Bitcoin guide earlier this week on the back of enterprise business analytics firm MicroStrategy putting out its own “playbook” for companies considering investing a part of their treasury funds in the asset.　　It started off its guide with a mention of the risk involved in punting on the infamously volatile and “risky” crypto sector, “Tolerance for risk, depending on the stake and type of digital asset, may well have to be modified and periodically adjusted.”　　Some of these risks, the firm pointed out, were the amount of free cash on hand after a business purchased Bitcoin and the range of risk a firm was comfortable with. On the other hand, some considerations for firms were the use of digital assets in everyday operations, such as payrolls and vendor payments, and even cross-border transactions.　　In terms of actually holding Bitcoin on one‘s books, Deloitte cautioned that there was currently no legal ability for companies to accurately mark up the value of a company’s crypto.　　However, it added that if the company believed

2021-02-05Deep Dive

Blocked by Iran, Signal App Moves to Decentralize Servers

In brief　　Iran last week reportedly blocked traffic to private messaging app Signal.　　Signal has created a workaround: TLS proxies.　　Its asking privacy advocates from around the world to run proxy servers.　　When in doubt, decentralize.　　Open-source messaging app Signal today encouraged privacy proponents to run proxy servers to overcome censorship in Iran.　　Signal has recently run afoul of Iranian authorities because of what it represents: an encrypted communications tool for sending messages the government cant access. The Iranian government, eager to limit access to platforms frequented by protestors, blocks most major social media platforms, with the exception of Instagram and messaging competitor WhatsApp.　　But after WhatsApp changed its privacy policy to allow users personal info to be shared with parent company Facebook, privacy-conscious users migrated to Signal. As popularity surged, according to reporting from al Jazeera, Signal users in Iran began having trouble logging on. According to Signal, the Middle Eastern nation was “blocking all Signal traffic in the country.”　　Now, its hit upon an interim solution: proxy servers from all around the world.　　Its updated the Signal Android beta to support TLS proxies, which essentially divert traffic around the censors and back to Signal. TLS (short for Transport Layer Security) proxies are often used to protect against

2021-02-05Deep Dive

Grayscale Report highlights key considerations for Ethereum’s rise in value

Digital assets management firm Grayscale Investments has outlined the key investment considerations of Ethereum in a new report.　　Grayscale Researchs Valuing Ethereum report delves into the details of how investors can truly gauge the value of the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization by outlining three key properties of the blockchain and its token (ETH).　　The report highlights the difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin value proposition. The latter is a ‘global verifiable accounting system’ running on the ‘most powerful computing network in the world’ according to Grayscale and draws value from the fact that is ‘hardened and relatively inflexible’ which means that users can trust that the system wont change.　　Meanwhile Grayscale describes Ethereum as the opposite – adaptive and flexible. This allows for an environment of ‘innovation and iteration’. The report notes that Bitcoin and Ethereum have a symbiotic relationship, with the former being the ‘preferred store of value in the digital ecosystem’ while Ethereum has ‘emerged as the leading financial infrastructure’ and settles around $12 bln worth of daily transactions.　　Grayscales report highlights three metrics that are key in giving the Ethereum blockchain and ETH some sort of accuracy in its valuation. The paper considers Ether as money, a consumable commodity and

2021-02-05Deep Dive

New antitrust legislation aims to put an end to tech monopolies in the US

The Senate sees new legislation aiming to update antitrust laws for new technologies.　　Senator and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Amy Klobuchar is introducing the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act today, Cointelegraph has learned.　　Sen. Klobuchar, who heads the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, is looking to put new burdens on companies seeking to acquire competitors. An announcement of the bill noted that it aims to “Shift the burden to the merging parties to prove their merger will not violate the law.”　　The bill would also provide broad new legal authority and resources to the Justice Departments Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission, the countrys civil antitrust regulator, including annual budgets of $484,500,000 for the DoJs antitrust and $651,000,000 for the FTC — increases of some $300 million each.　　Within the FTC, the bill looks to establish an “Office of the Competition Advocate,” which would in turn host a new Data Center that would collect information about mergers and acquisitions.　　Just yesterday, Klobuchars counterpart in the House Antitrust Subcommittee, Representative David Cicilline, signaled interest in similar legislation. On his Facebook page, Cicilline wrote: “Last year, the Antitrust Subcommittee conducted the most sweeping congressional antitrust investigation of its kind in a half century.

2021-02-05Deep Dive

E-Money And Royale Finance Team Up To Disrupt IGaming

E-Money, a leading issuer of stablecoin, announced on Twitter that they would be partnering with Royale Finance to disrupt iGaming by lowering the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs.　　“E-Money has joined forces with #iGaming finance experts @Royale_Finance to help iGaming companies to bankroll their platforms.”　　How Is This Partnership Going To Work？　　Entrepreneurs in the iGaming space have to continually bankroll their platforms to create new products and services. This partnership with e-Money will help Royale to bring in more fairness and transparency to their financial mechanisms. Through this partnership, iGaming companies can finance their platforms via the infrastructure provided by e-Money. While Royale Network already funds its companies with stablecoins, through e-Money, they will be able to issue a variety of stablecoin backed by different global currencies.　　Avron Goss. Royale Finance CSO said about the partnership:　　“e-Money is creating the tools that will bring more adoption to the crypto world. Converting ones native currency into a stablecoin to access financial services is mandatory for people to embrace the DeFi services. As a global platform, we want to trigger innovation around the world, and being able to propose various stablecoins to iGaming companies to fit their needs is essential for us!”　　What Is E-Money？　　e-Money aims to

2021-02-05Deep Dive

Bitcoin Saves Luxury Wine Retailer During Crisis

As the wine industry is struggling to recover from its pandemic-induced crisis, one luxury retailer is thriving.　　In an article published by Drinks International magazine, Bordeaux-based BTC Wine is doing “very well” after Bitcoin shot up to an all-time high of $42,000 last month.　　It was launched by French fine wine trading firm Lasserre s director of sales.　　“We have a new kind of customer. They have a lot of Bitcoin, and they want to spend it. Fine wine is a status symbol. They have bought the cars and the real estate, and then they go directly to the fine wine, so its a good market for us.”　　Exclusive Burgundy wines as well as top Spanish wines are among the merchants most notable offerings, which include 200 items in total.　　Apart from Bitcoin, those who want to get a taste of a purple-hued 2005 Latour can also pay in Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. All payments are processed by crypto old-timer BitPay.　　Exploring more opportunities　　BTC Wine wants to go beyond accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, exploring the possibility of integrating the blockchain technology into the supply chain. As reported by U.Today, IBM and eProvenance introduced a blockchain-powered product for tracking the entire process of winemaking last

2021-02-05Deep Dive

Norwegian Oil Giants To Incorporate Blockchain Technology

Norwegian oil giants, Equinor, announced that they would be incorporating blockchain technology to drive down costs and promote green practices.　　The government owns 70 percent of Equinor, so they need to make oil production complement the Scandanavian countrys environmental policy. CEO Anders Opedal aims to make Equinor a carbon-friendly, “net-zero” oil company by 2050.　　Equinors Involvement With Blockchain Technology　　Back in 2019, Equinor did a pilot project with blockchain technology. After its success, they decided to invest $6 million in Data Gumbo – a startup based in Houston that runs its own blockchain ledger GumboNet.　　Johan Sverdrup, Equinors 300-foot-tall platform, integrates blockchain technology and conducts vital operations, such as tracking the drilling of new wells, measuring the quantity of oil being produced, and many other core functions. The information is all being transmitted to Data Gumbo. Following Johan Sverdrups success, Equinor will roll out this tech to 10 of their other projects. In its first year of operations, Equinor expects to save $20 million.　　Blockchain Picking Up Popularity Among Oil Companies　　In 2020, several oil companies already started adopting the technology. The formation of the OOC Oil s success, 2021 could see several major oil companies follow suit.

2021-02-05Deep Dive

DeFi Adoption: How Wall Streets just made a case for it

The early weeks of 2021 have been filled with unprecedented drama, but one is standing heads and shoulders above the rest. It is a rehash of the David vs. Goliath Bible story, but this time, there are no stones or slings; it is all about a battle of wits between Wall Streets big hegemony against a bunch of “amateur” traders.　　It all started when some traders on a subreddit known as WallStreetBets noticed that a top Wall Street firm was shorting Gamestop shares, this alerted the traders to start buying up the shares. Before anyone could tell what was happening, the stock price had risen beyond what the hedge funds and brokers had in mind, leading to tons of losses for the Wall Street firm.　　Wall Street has claimed that this was pure market manipulation and even called for such trading to be outlawed. The retail investors, however, would consider it as an economic victory because it is simply a case of the amateurs beating the professionals on their turf.　　While the Gamestop situation drew attention to the stocks market, its aftermath will help the crypto industry, further making a case for a decentralized finance (DeFi) system.　　For several years, financial liberalization and DeFi

2021-02-05Deep Dive

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