Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Blockstream buys $25 million worth of bitcoin mining hardware from MicroBT

Blockstream announced Wednesday that it bought $25 million worth of WhatsMiner Bitcoin mining equipment from MicroBT, a Shenzhen-based hardware manufacturer.　　“We‘ve been extensively testing mining hardware since the launch of our mining hosting service in 2017, and right now, we’re confident saying there‘s no better mining hardware on the market than MicroBT’s WhatsMiner miners,” Blockstream said in a statement.　　Blockstream offers colocation services for clients, essentially outsourcing mining equipment and upkeep for their clients, allowing them to mine Bitcoin. Blockstream maintains 300-megawatt operations in North America and says they plan to grow “aggressively” throughout 2021, according to the statement. The company launched a mining pool in 2019.　　The development comes amid broadening institutional interest in the mining space, as well as a high-demand market for mining hardware, as previously reported.　　Earlier this week, the mining sector saw a long-lasting feud at the top of major manufacturer Bitmain come to a close, according to a statement from co-founder Jihan Wu.

2021-01-28Deep Dive

Bitcoin ‘Underperforms’ During Tax Time: Analysis

January ushers in a new tax season. It is also, historically, a time when bitcoin underperforms relative to the other months of the year. Some analysts say that may not be a coincidence.　　From 2014 to 2020, bitcoin was down in four out of seven Januarys and six out of the past seven Marchs. According to Delphi Digital, average losses for those months were 5.24% and 12.59%, respectively.　　“As we enter tax season, [a period when] bitcoin has historically underperformed other months, this by no means is predictive on a stand-alone basis but important to note,” Paul Burlage, analyst at Delphi Digital, told CoinDesk.　　At the press time, bitcoins price was at $31,571.54, down 1.22% in the past 24 hours. The No. 1 cryptocurrency by market cap fell below $30,000 briefly earlier Wednesday, according to the CoinDesk BPI.　　According to Delphi Digitals January bitcoin outlook report, one of the biggest reasons for the drop is that “those [investors and traders] who realized significant gains trading various crypto assets last year will likely have to sell at least a portion of their holdings to cover expected tax liabilities.”　　Data compiled by Delphi Digital shows that bitcoin/usd pair returns in January and March since 2014 have been

2021-01-28Deep Dive

Reddit To Expand Points With Ethereum Foundation

Social media site Reddit is partnering with the Ethereum Foundation to scale up its Community Points infrastructure.　　Reddit Embraces Ethereum　　Reddit says that through the partnership, it “will be increasing [its] commitment to blockchain, accelerating scaling and resources for the Ethereum ecosystem, and bringing the value and independence of blockchain technology to millions of redditors.”　　The company notes that its collaboration originated with its Scaling Bake-Off, which began in June 2020. That effort sought to use blockchain to handle the sites community points system. Twenty-two blockchain projects submitted proposals to the site.　　Eventually, Ethereum-based points were introduced to two subreddits: r/CryptoCurrency and r/FortNiteBR. Points represent each users ownership in a community and serve as rewards.　　Today‘s announcement suggests that Community Points will be expanded across Reddit, and that the tools used to introduce these features will be open-sourced for the public. However, the company’s precise plans and its timeline are still unclear.　　Aya Miyaguchi, executive director at the Ethereum Foundation, stated in a Reddit comment that the group is “excited to have an ongoing relationship with Reddit and more collaboration as we work together to improve Ethereum for the entire ecosystem.”　　Blockchain and Social Media　　Reddit is not the only social media platform embracing blockchain. Twitter is looking

2021-01-28Deep Dive

Bitcoin Falls Below $30,000 – Will it Survive the GameStop Reddit War?

While bitcoin has been the darling of non-traditional investments for a while, enticing the digital generation to invest and trade, there is a new movement on the block as GamStop stocks become hot property.　　This seemingly obsolete stock has gained massive traction in defiance of a big Wall Street call, but it seems that the war between Redditors and Wall Street has taken its toll on Bitcoin as the price of the coin has dipped below $30,000 again.　　This fall in price means that there is another retest of the floor needed, it could be a telling one for the continued rally of the cryptocurrency. The GameStop War could well have catalysed this drop in price, but will these Redditors come back to Bitcoin when the battle is done？　　Riding it out　　The impressive rally of Bitcoin from the latter end of last year through January has rightly cooled for a number of reasons. This latest fall, while a test of its levels, does not seem to have too many analysts too fearful.　　“Another $30,000 retest for #Bitcoin,” Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe summarized.　　For fellow trader Scott Melker, it was a case of “wait and see” until the longer time frames completed.　　“6 hour

2021-01-28Deep Dive

University Endowments Have Been Quietly Buying Bitcoin for a Year: Report

According to a report published by CoinDesk, citing two people familiar with the matter, Harvard, Yale, Brown, and the University of Michigan as well as several other colleges have been buying bitcoin directly from cryptocurrency exchanges after several Ivy League endowments took an interest in blockchain technology via a crypto-focused venture capital funds back in 2018.　　One of the sources was quoted as saying there are “quite a few” university endowments allocating funds to the cryptocurrency space, but noted these are “allocating a little bit to crypto” only, which presumably means most are allocating small fractions of their portfolios to the space.　　Some of the university endowments, according to the report, have held accounts with Coinbase for up to 18 months and could have started investing since mid-2019. The source added:　　“Most have been in at least a year. I would think they will probably discuss it publicly at some point this year. I suspect they would be sitting on some pretty nice chunks of return.”　　Its worth noting university endowments are pools of capital academic institutions have accumulated, often in the form of charitable donations. These funds support teaching and research, and can be allocated to various assets as investments.　　Harvard has the largest

2021-01-27Deep Dive

Japanese Card Giant JCB Readies Crypto Interoperability Pilot

In a press release, the Japanese card firm said that it had begun working on a pilot with Cowry, a Tokyo-based payments and blockchain startup that was set up in 2017. The firms, they said, would begin on a demonstration experiment involving interoperability solutions for tokens, making use of “existing cryptocurrencies and other blockchain networks” on Cowrys own blockchain platform.　　The two companies struck an initial partnership deal back in August 2019, and agreed to work on token economies such as local currencies, stablecoins, and more.　　However, it appears this partnership has finally borne fruit, and another conventional business giant, the IT behemoth Fujitsu, is also aboard – the pilot will make use of interoperability solutions developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, a research arm of the tech firm.　　JCB and Cowry claim that they have developed solutions that will allow them to settle payments immediately by using technology that “partially centralizes” when confirming new transactions – rather than force buyers and merchants to wait for blocks to be mined on their respective blockchain networks.　　In theory, this innovation could allow merchants and buyers to receive or make transactions even if they were using different tokens to do so – for instance, a token X-holding customer

2021-01-27Deep Dive

Philippine Central Bank Widens Cryptocurrency Regulation

Philippine Central Bank Introduces New Rules for Crypto Service Providers　　The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippines central bank, announced Tuesday that it has established new guidelines on virtual asset service providers.　　“The Monetary Board (MB) approved the guidelines on virtual asset service providers (VASP), or entities that facilitate financial services through the conduct of virtual asset (VA) activities, to cover new business models and activities,” the central bank explained.　　BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno commented:　　“We have seen accelerated growth in the use VCEs in the past three (3) years and it is high time that we broaden the scope of existing regulations in recognition of the evolving nature of this financial innovation and set out commensurate risk management expectations.”　　The new guidelines amend the existing regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges that were issued in 2017. The central bank says that the new regulatory framework “is aligned with fintech industrys best practices and is consistent with risk management standards set by international standard-setting bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)” on anti-money laundering (AML), combating the financing of terrorism (CFT), and proliferation financing (PF).　　“The MB-approved framework expanded the activities subject to the licensing regime of the Bangko Sentral from initially covering

2021-01-27Deep Dive

Here’s the Key Level Bitcoin Needs to Reclaim for Bulls to Take Control

Bitcoins appears to be caught within a firm bear trend, with the cryptocurrency being wholly unable to see any sustained rebounds　　Each rally over the past week has been firmly rejected, with BTC rallying to highs of $34,500 yesterday before facing a rejection that sent it down towards $30,000 today　　Where the entire market trends next will undoubtedly depend on whether or not bulls can guard against a dip below $30,000　　The selling pressure that caused the recent dip is showing few signs of letting up anytime soon and may cause further near-term losses　　One trader is optimistic, however, noting that bulls could still take back control if they can break above one crucial level　　Bitcoin and the entire crypto market have been facing some intense selling pressure as of late that has hampered the uptrend BTC formed throughout the past couple of months.　　It remains unclear whether this trend has been invalidated, but bulls certainly have some serious work in front of them if they want to reverse the recent selloff.　　One analyst is pointing to $34,500, noting that this is a crucial level that bulls need to break for the market to see further upside. Once claimed, he is setting his sights on a move

2021-01-27Deep Dive

EMURGO, Ergo, and IOHK announce AgeUSD, the first stablecoin that will come to Cardano

A new type of stablecoin to launch on the Ergo blockchain　　EMURGO, a multinational blockchain company tasked with developing solutions for the Cardano blockchain, has announced the launch of a new stablecoin called AgeUSD. The stablecoin, however, wont be launched on Cardano, but on Ergo, a decentralized blockchain platform.　　Announced during the “Ergo Summit 2021” on Jan. 24, the stablecoin will be based on a novel algorithmic design developed on the Ergo blockchain. AgeUSD is a result of a joint partnership between the Ergo Foundation, EMURGO, and IOHK, the company behind the Cardano blockchain platform.　　What makes AgeUSD different from other stablecoins on the market is the fact that it‘s not a fiat-pegged token, but a crypto-backed algorithmic stablecoin protocol. This means that AgeUSD doesn’t rely on collateralized debt positions (CDPs), essentially making liquidation events impossible.　　The protocol will see a significant portion of its mathematics as automated as possible and stop relying on dynamic transaction posing. And while EMURGO noted that AgeUSD is still far away from solving all of the problems stablecoins experience, it represents an important attempt at creating a highly secure alternative to the current market offering.　　With Goguen, AgeUSD could also see the light of day on Cardano　　The significance of

2021-01-27Deep Dive

Ethereum’s realized cap spikes to record highs as capital floods in: Report

Ethereums realized capitalization has increased by nearly 50% in January so far to tag new all-time highs above $70 billion, according to CoinMetrics.　　The data shows that Ethereum‘s realized cap has more than tripled since dropping below $25 billion in during March 2020’s “Black Thursday” crash..　　Ethereums realized cap: CoinMetrics　　The realized capitalization metric calculates the value of a crypto assets supply according to when each unit last moved on-chain. The indicator seeks to estimate the price actually paid for each ETH in circulation — rather than simply multiply the current price by the total supply as market cap does. However, realized cap cannot account for coins that are only traded on centralized exchanges and do not move on-chain.　　The indicator is designed to offer a way to compensate for lost or unclaimed coins by ignoring their appreciation from the time each unit was last transferred on-chain.　　By ignoring the fluctuating capitalization of dormant coins, realized cap offers a signal for when new capital is flowing into a given market, with CoinMetrics inferring that many new investors may have been buying the bags of seasoned ETH whales during Januarys bull market.　　The report also noted a 5% spike in the number of Ethereum addresses holding more

2021-01-27Deep Dive

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