The Commodity Futures Trading Committee (CFTC) is moving to address industry-wide concerns over its oversight responsibilities for cryptocurrencies, the burgeoning asset class that has quickly moved into institutional investment circles. According to The Wall Street Journal, two CFTC advisory committees will meet later this month to discuss oversight of cryptocurrency exchanges, the processing of bitcoin […] The post CFTC Plans to Address Growing Concerns Over Cryptocurrency Trading appeared first on Hacked: Hacking Finance. The post CFTC Plans to Address Growing Concerns Over Cryptocurrency Trading appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/cftc-plans-to-address-growing-concerns-over-cryptocurrency-trading/
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Mark Zuckerberg, founder, chairman, and CEO of social media platform Facebook, has posted his annual challenge. It’s often a look back at major events, taking stock of the year, and appraising what’s ahead. This year, he ended his note with a pointed call to “take power from centralized systems” by employing uses for “encryption and cryptocurrency.” Also read: African Central Banks Should Ditch Dollar, Buy Bitcoin Zuckerberg Gets ReflectiveMark Zuckerberg believes a great challenge, perhaps the most important, facing tech companies is centralization versus decentralization. Before getting to the meat of his annual statement, however, Mr. Zuckerberg reflected on the obstacles facing his company. “Every year I take on a personal challenge to learn something new,” Mr. Zuckerberg posted 4 January 2018 just before 8am PST. He continued, recalling how challenging himself in this manner began in 2009 during the Great Recession. Facebook had yet to turn a profit, and Mr. Zuckerberg, 33, remembers it being “a serious year, and I wore a tie every day as a reminder.” Facebook started from Mr. Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room in early 2004. It quickly expanded due to popularity, and by later the following year had millions of members. As of 2017’s final quarter, the social network boasted over two billion registered users. The site ranks third both in the US and globally, behind Google and Youtube respectively. “The world feels anxious and divided,” he wrote, “and Facebook has a lot of work to do.” Acknowledging the company’s limitations, Mr. Zuckerberg went on to explain “we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools.” Decentralization versus CentralizationFor Mr. Zuckerberg, “one of the most interesting questions in technology right now is about centralization vs decentralization,” he began. “A lot of us got into technology because we believe it can be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people’s hands. (The first four words of Facebook’s mission have always been ‘give people the power’).” Reports daily about his and other technology-based companies potentially cooperating with authorities, helping them to gather large nets of personal information, have taken a toll on the average person’s confidence in using such sites. Indeed, Mr. Zuckerberg notes “many people have lost faith in that promise. With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it,” he lamented. As a possible answer to centralization, he ends his statement with a provocative call to “counter-trends.” Through “encryption and cryptocurrency,” which can “take power from centralized systems and put it back into people’s hands,” Mr. Zuckerberg is “interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services.” It’s difficult to know exactly what he’s getting at, but a platform such as Facebook embracing any cryptocurrency, or creating its own, would be a dramatic market entrant. This appears to be one of the few statements Mr. Zuckerberg has made on cryptocurrency. Loads of rumors have spread through the ecosystem for years about his possible involvement in this or that project or coin. None of them have been formally confirmed. What are your thoughts on Facebook? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Facebook. Developer David Shares contributed a source for this article. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Resolution: “Give People the Power” via Cryptocurrency appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-resolution-give-people-the-power-via-cryptocurrency/ Mixed trading continued in the cryptocurrency segment today, with the latest beneficiaries of the capital rotation such as Ripple, Cardano, NEM, and Stellar entering a short-term correction, while some of the most established coins continuing their correction despite a late-day bounce. Ethereum provided the most stable uptrend so far this year, and the currently third […] The post Technical Analysis: Ethereum Price Flirts with $1000, as Bitcoin Stuck near $15,000 appeared first on Hacked: Hacking Finance. The post Technical Analysis: Ethereum Price Flirts with $1000, as Bitcoin Stuck near $15,000 appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/technical-analysis-ethereum-price-flirts-with-1000-as-bitcoin-stuck-near-15000-2/ Mixed trading continued in the cryptocurrency segment today, with the latest beneficiaries of the capital rotation such as Ripple, Cardano, NEM, and Stellar entering a short-term correction, while some of the most established coins continuing their correction despite a late-day bounce. Ethereum provided the most stable uptrend so far this year, and the currently third […] The post Technical Analysis: Ethereum Price Flirts with $1000, as Bitcoin Stuck near $15,000 appeared first on Hacked: Hacking Finance. The post Technical Analysis: Ethereum Price Flirts with $1000, as Bitcoin Stuck near $15,000 appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/technical-analysis-ethereum-price-flirts-with-1000-as-bitcoin-stuck-near-15000/ AdvertisementGet Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. The cryptocurrency market cap achieved a new all-time high on Thursday, briefly rising above $770 billion amidst a widespread altcoin rally. The ethereum price rode this wave across the $1,000 threshold, while the ripple price appears determined to extend what has been a remarkable rally. After entering the day at $683 billion, the cryptocurrency market cap climbed as high as $772 billion — an intraday increase of 13 percent. Following a Thursday morning dip, the combined value of all cryptocurrencies is now $753 billion. Source: CoinMarketCap Bitcoin Price Dips Below $15,000The rally was accomplished without the help of bitcoin, which posted a daily decline of approximately one percent. This forced the bitcoin price below $15,000, a mark to which it had recovered on Tuesday following a report that a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm had made a major bet on bitcoin. At the time of writing, the bitcoin price was trading at $14,445 on Bitfinex — about $400 below its global average — reducing bitcoin’s market cap to $249.6 billion. 24-Hour Bitcoin Price Chart The day’s movements also reduced bitcoin’s market share — often called the bitcoin dominance index — to another all-time low. At present, bitcoin accounts for just 33.1 percent of the cryptocurrency market cap, while altcoins comprise the other 66.9 percent. Ethereum Price Cracks $1,000 While Ripple Adds 33 PercentThe ethereum price made an impressive advance on Thursday, but ripple continued to consolidate its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency. Ethereum, long the second-most valuable cryptocurrency but recently forced into third, rose by 11 percent, bringing the ethereum price to a present value of $937 on Bitfinex. Thanks to Korean premiums, the global ethereum price rose to an all-time high of $1,045 as ETH briefly became the third cryptocurrency to achieve a market cap of $100 billion. 24-Hour Ethereum Price Chart As impressive as this rally was, however, ethereum actually lost ground against second-ranked ripple, which exploded by another 33 percent to raise its price to $3.16 on Bittrex and $3.63 overall. Ripple now has a market cap of $140.6 billion, which is 56 percent as large as that of bitcoin. 24-Hour Ripple Price Chart Altcoins Peak at $520 BillionUnsurprisingly, the ripple and ethereum rallies lifted the altcoin market cap to a high-water mark. The combined value of altcoins peaked at $520 billion this morning — a mark it achieved just two days after reaching $400 billion for the first time. Source: CoinMarketCap Though led by ripple and ethereum, the altcoin advance was spurred by strong showings from a number of other altcoins, even though several large cryptocurrencies posted single-day declines. Source: CoinMarketCap The bitcoin cash price was one of those outliers, plunging 13 percent to $2,388. Cardano, on the other hand, leaped by 27 percent to raise its market cap to $32 billion. NEM and stellar also posted double-digit increases, rising 52 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Litecoin and IOTA, meanwhile, each declined for the second consecutive day, falling seven percent and four percent. The day’s most impressive performance came from TRON, a token that is likely unfamiliar to many investors. Marketed as a decentralized content distribution platform, the TRON price rose by 107 percent on Thursday, raising its market cap to $10.4 billion and storming into the 10th spot in the market cap rankings, supplanting dash, which has been a top-10 stalwart for years. Write to Josiah Wilmoth at josiah.wilmoth(at)ccn.com. Featured image from Shutterstock. Follow us on Telegram. Advertisement The post Ethereum Price Cracks $1,000 as Crypto Markets Surpass $750 Billion appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/ethereum-price-cracks-1000-as-crypto-markets-surpass-750-billion-2/ AdvertisementGet Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. The cryptocurrency market cap achieved a new all-time high on Thursday, briefly rising above $770 billion amidst a widespread altcoin rally. The ethereum price rode this wave across the $1,000 threshold, while the ripple price appears determined to extend what has been a remarkable rally. After entering the day at $683 billion, the cryptocurrency market cap climbed as high as $772 billion — an intraday increase of 13 percent. Following a Thursday morning dip, the combined value of all cryptocurrencies is now $753 billion. Source: CoinMarketCap Bitcoin Price Dips Below $15,000The rally was accomplished without the help of bitcoin, which posted a daily decline of approximately one percent. This forced the bitcoin price below $15,000, a mark to which it had recovered on Tuesday following a report that a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm had made a major bet on bitcoin. At the time of writing, the bitcoin price was trading at $14,445 on Bitfinex — about $400 below its global average — reducing bitcoin’s market cap to $249.6 billion. 24-Hour Bitcoin Price Chart The day’s movements also reduced bitcoin’s market share — often called the bitcoin dominance index — to another all-time low. At present, bitcoin accounts for just 33.1 percent of the cryptocurrency market cap, while altcoins comprise the other 66.9 percent. Ethereum Price Cracks $1,000 While Ripple Adds 33 PercentThe ethereum price made an impressive advance on Thursday, but ripple continued to consolidate its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency. Ethereum, long the second-most valuable cryptocurrency but recently forced into third, rose by 11 percent, bringing the ethereum price to a present value of $937 on Bitfinex. Thanks to Korean premiums, the global ethereum price rose to an all-time high of $1,045 as ETH briefly became the third cryptocurrency to achieve a market cap of $100 billion. 24-Hour Ethereum Price Chart As impressive as this rally was, however, ethereum actually lost ground against second-ranked ripple, which exploded by another 33 percent to raise its price to $3.16 on Bittrex and $3.63 overall. Ripple now has a market cap of $140.6 billion, which is 56 percent as large as that of bitcoin. 24-Hour Ripple Price Chart Altcoins Peak at $520 BillionUnsurprisingly, the ripple and ethereum rallies lifted the altcoin market cap to a high-water mark. The combined value of altcoins peaked at $520 billion this morning — a mark it achieved just two days after reaching $400 billion for the first time. Source: CoinMarketCap Though led by ripple and ethereum, the altcoin advance was spurred by strong showings from a number of other altcoins, even though several large cryptocurrencies posted single-day declines. Source: CoinMarketCap The bitcoin cash price was one of those outliers, plunging 13 percent to $2,388. Cardano, on the other hand, leaped by 27 percent to raise its market cap to $32 billion. NEM and stellar also posted double-digit increases, rising 52 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Litecoin and IOTA, meanwhile, each declined for the second consecutive day, falling seven percent and four percent. The day’s most impressive performance came from TRON, a token that is likely unfamiliar to many investors. Marketed as a decentralized content distribution platform, the TRON price rose by 107 percent on Thursday, raising its market cap to $10.4 billion and storming into the 10th spot in the market cap rankings, supplanting dash, which has been a top-10 stalwart for years. Write to Josiah Wilmoth at josiah.wilmoth(at)ccn.com. Featured image from Shutterstock. Follow us on Telegram. Advertisement The post Ethereum Price Cracks $1,000 as Crypto Markets Surpass $750 Billion appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/ethereum-price-cracks-1000-as-crypto-markets-surpass-750-billion/ U.S. stocks surged on Thursday, extending a new-year rally to three days as investors cheered better than expected private payrolls data. Dow Hits New Milestone All of Wall Street’s major bourses reached new highs on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing above 25,000 for the first time. The blue-chip index added 152.45 points, […] The post Dow Jones Blows Past 25,000 as Stocks Resume Record Pace appeared first on Hacked: Hacking Finance. The post Dow Jones Blows Past 25,000 as Stocks Resume Record Pace appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/dow-jones-blows-past-25000-as-stocks-resume-record-pace/ This week the founder and CEO of the trading platform BTCC, Bobby Lee, was featured on the broadcast ‘Squawk Box’ and spoke about last year’s banning of Chinese bitcoin exchanges. Lee believes that it’s “only a matter of time” until the central bank will allow cryptocurrency exchanges to open up shop again. Also Read: These Dutch Researchers Are Mining Cryptocurrencies With Body Heat BTCC’s Bobby Lee Is Optimistic About the PBOC Lifting the Cryptocurrency Exchange BanLast year during the first month of 2017 China’s central bank initiated its first crackdowns against domestic bitcoin exchanges. At first, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) implemented a variety of regulatory guidelines but then a few months later they banned the trading platforms from trading digital currencies against the renminbi. At one time the trading platforms were the largest in the world, but Chinese exchanges haven’t traded virtual currencies in months, and the country’s leading position is now gone. However, the founder of the Chinese exchange and mining pool, BTCC, explains the PBOC will eventually lift the crypto-ban. “In this world, nothing is ever permanent,” explains Bobby Lee on the video broadcast ‘Squawk Box.’
Many Chinese Exchanges Have Moved Operations AbroadDomestic exchanges trading digital currencies is now virtually non-existent according to the world’s trading engine statistics. Many of the Chinese exchanges positioned themselves in other countries like Hong Kong. Just recently the former largest Chinese bitcoin provider in the world, Huobi, announced starting two exchanges in Japan. BTCC’s Bobby Lee says his firm has removed themselves from the Chinese bitcoin exchange realm, and the company is focused on its international payment project Mobi. Lee Believes Bitcoin’s Digital Scarcity Will Likely Continue to Grow Valuable“The more the governments and the regulators tried to put a squeeze on bitcoin, the more we see that bitcoin is actually resilient,” Lee details to the show’s host. The BTCC co-founder also thinks bitcoin’s value will continue to soar due to its digital scarcity. “Today we’re at only 1,800 of newly mined bitcoin [per] day — That used to be 7,200 as recently as five years ago. So in just a few short, maybe two and a half more years, we’ll see the supply go down again to only 900 bitcoins a day,” Lee emphasizes.
Lee Doesn’t Know When the PBOC Will Lift the Ban, But BTCC Is No Longer Focused on Just Being an ExchangeEven though Lee is optimistic about the PBOC reinstating domestic exchanges in China after licensure, his firm is “no longer focused on just being an exchange business.” He also says right now it’s still hard to tell when the government in China and the central bank will lift the cryptocurrency exchange trading ban. “Frankly speaking, I don’t know what kind of time frame that is, whether it’s a few months, a few years or even a few decades, so it’s hard to tell,” Lee concludes. What do you think about Bobby Lee’s opinions about the PBOC lifting the crypto-exchange ban? Let us know what you think about the situation in China in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, the PBOC, and Twitter. Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history. The post BTCC Founder Positive the PBOC Will Remove China’s Exchange Ban appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/btcc-founder-positive-the-pboc-will-remove-chinas-exchange-ban/ On Wednesday, the tech world was rocked by revelations of a computer chip vulnerability that exposes critical data. Meltdown and Spectre are the names assigned to the newly discovered flaws which primarily affect Intel chips. From a security perspective, the bug concerns everyone who uses an Intel-powered device to connect to the internet, which is pretty much everyone. But from a practical perspective, the bug is already making its presence felt: today Bittrex exchange was forced to take numerous wallets offline while Azure servers were patched. Also read: Ripple Gateways Can Freeze Users’ Funds at Any Time A Bug in the SystemComputer bugs and vulnerabilities are discovered all the time, but the Intel one is particularly nasty. It risks leaving passwords and other critical data exposed on billions of internet connected devices, from smartphones to PCs. While patches are being rushed out for the major operating systems, hackers are trying to find ways to exploit the vulnerability, which could provide them with complete system access. Spectre forces programs to leak confidential data, while Meltdown noses around in the system kernel for the same purpose. Cryptocurrency holders, who already face a heightened threat from hackers, have good reason to be concerned. In addition to affecting personal computers, Spectre and Meltdown spell danger for cloud-based systems. Cloud computing providers store data from multiple clients on the same server. If that server were to be exploited, it would theoretically be possible for an attacker to access multiple accounts. A Dark CloudCryptocurrency exchanges, whose websites carry a heavy load, are reliant on the cloud. While the likes of Amazon have been rushing to patch their servers, exchanges have been affected by outages and reduced service. Earlier today, Bittrex tweeted:
At present, withdrawals and deposits for around 30% of the coins traded on the exchange are unavailable. Bittrex wallets today. Several other exchanges were temporarily taken offline, with some platforms specifically referencing the patch, and others simply referring to maintenance. Among those affected were Einstein Exchange, CEX.io, and Kucoin. Hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger also updated concerned customers on the situation, tweeting: There is an added issue regarding the Intel bug: as a consequence of patching it, system performance will be reduced by as much as 30%. Cryptocurrency miners are unlikely to be badly affected, as the process doesn’t involve making a high number of kernel requests. But for anyone who prides themselves on running an overclocked PC with a high benchmark, the slowdown may be hard to stomach. Are you concerned by the Intel bug and do you think cryptocurrency holders should be worried? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Tired of those other forums on the subject of Bitcoin? Check forum.Bitcoin.com. The post Bittrex Wallets Are Taken Offline as Companies Scramble to Patch the Intel Bug appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/bittrex-wallets-are-taken-offline-as-companies-scramble-to-patch-the-intel-bug/ AdvertisementGet Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party and the biggest newspaper group in China, recently published a piece calling bitcoin a bubble, and comparing the cryptocurrency to the 17th-century Dutch tulip bulb bubble., just like JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon did. The piece initially mention’s bitcoin’s growth in 2017. The cryptocurrency surged from under $1,000 to over $19,000 last year, before it plunged back to $13,000. It has since recovered and is currently trading at $14,599, according to CCN’s price index. Taking into account its volatile price and astounding growth, the People’s Daily asserts it’s a fact bitcoin is a bubble
Per the piece, bitcoin’s bubble was created by a combination of speculation, hype, mystery, and decentralization. The piece’s author, Wei Liang, even hints at possible insider trading, suggesting bitcoiners with a large amount of bitcoin manipulated investors to fuel speculation and further drive the cryptocurrency’s price up. It adds that bitcoin isn’t recognized as a currency throughout the world, and that financial regulators “naturally do not regulate bitcoin as much as they do other currencies,” leaving the cryptocurrency in a “special gray area,” and uses bitcoin futures on regulated exchanges as an example of how the cryptocurrency is being protected. The People’s Daily then compares the cryptocurrency to the Dutch tulip bulb bubble, implying bitcoin’s bubble will burst once governments around the world start regulating it. As such, caution is advised as bitcoin’s price has in the past seen sharp falls and its “future direction is particularly alarming.” This isn’t the first-time Chinese officials express their aversion to bitcoin. Last month, as reported by CCN, a People’s Bank of China (PBoC) official stated he thinks bitcoin will end up floating down a river, as a dead body. The piece comes at a time in which it’s been revealed Chinese authorities won’t ‘ban’ bitcoin miners, but will remove their preferential treatment in local provinces. This means preferential policies in electricity consumption, land use, and tax cuts may soon be gone for Chinese bitcoin miners. Last year, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, enforced a blanket ban on all initial coin offerings (ICOs), a day after the Leading Group of Beijing Internet Financial Risks Remediation mandated the shuttering of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. Since then, investors reportedly started using unregulated peer-to-peer exchanges. According to the South China Morning Post, the number of peer-to-peer exchanges in the country surged from four in October to 21 by the end of November. Interestingly, bitcoin’s price seems to be mostly unaffected by China’s recent moves. When news of the crackdown first came out, the cryptocurrency’s price crashed. As reported, a ‘crackdown’ on bitcoin mining could be beneficial for the wider ecosystem, as it could decentralize the majority of the mining hashrate. Featured image from Shutterstock. Follow us on Telegram. Advertisement The post China’s Biggest Newspaper Calls Bitcoin a Bubble appeared first on Crypto Currency Online. from https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/chinas-biggest-newspaper-calls-bitcoin-a-bubble/ |
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