FOUR KEY THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE CHOOSING A BITCOIN EXCHANGE

Choosing a bitcoin exchange is the most important task that traders and investors must complete. Picking the wrong platform may lead to several problems for traders. If you are an interested trader, then you should look for the top best bitcoin exchange. You can easily find various types of crypto exchanges on the internet, but all of them are not created equal. Instead of making your decision in a hurry, you should spend a significant amount of time to do proper research.  

With the help of knowing the services and features of different bitcoin exchanges, you can make the right decision. The interested investors or beginners can also get recommendations from others to narrow down the search options. By making a list of the top best bitcoin exchanges, you can easily pick the one as per your requirements. Always give preference to the bitcoin exchanges that offer advanced-level security and the best customer support. 

You also need to consider some other crucial factors for making your final choice. Without having an account on a bitcoin exchange, you are unable to buy bitcoins. Give you the best during the selection of a bitcoin exchange to make the right decision. In the upcoming paragraphs, we are going to describe some imperative factors that should be considered while selecting a bitcoin exchange. 

The reputation of the bitcoin exchange 

As you know, cryptocurrency is large as well as a new industry which means you can also meet some scammers and hackers here. You need to be aware of them; otherwise, you may face several issues while investing your money in bitcoins. The easiest method to do the same is checking the reputation of the bitcoin exchange before creating your account. 

You can easily get an idea about the reputation of a crypto exchange by reading the reviews of other traders or checking vital details provided on the home page of their websites. You should also conduct research on various exchanges to know about their reputation. Taking help from the internet can help you to evaluate the results in a better way.

Security features 

Not all bitcoin exchanges are providing the same level of security for investors and traders. It is the reason why you should check out the methods of security used by a bitcoin exchange before going to choose the same. You need to check whether a bitcoin exchange is offering two-factor authentication or not. You should also check out the other security measures for making your final decision. 

Make sure you are checking the security features provided by bitcoin exchanges for making your final choice. It is an important factor that you should never ignore.

Exchange fees 

While picking a bitcoin exchange, you should pay equal attention to some crucial factors, including the exchange fees. It is not good to make your final decision only on the basis of exchange fees, but you should give it importance during the selection process. Every bitcoin exchange charges a different fee from the traders and investors, and you need to know about the same.  

Do research about the fees of different exchanges, and then you can go for the one that suits your requirements. You also need to check whether a bitcoin exchange charges an additional fee or not. By checking out the additional fees or hidden charges, you can make a final decision.  

Location of the exchange 

When you decide to pick a bitcoin exchange, you should give your best. Otherwise, it may result in a bad choice. You need to do research and know where the exchange is located. As you know, the laws and regulations always vary from country to country. It would help if you always gave preference to buy bitcoin in your home country. 

Due to this, you need to check the location of a bitcoin exchange you are choosing to get started. Make sure the bitcoin exchange is accepting multiple currencies, including your local currency. With the help of this, you can save up the additional fee, which is usually required for currency conversion.  ...

HOW THE CENTRALIZED WORLD IS MEETING THE DECENTRALIZED FUTURE

DeFi has unquestionably become the latest allure of the crypto world. These innovative financial products powered by smart contracts have effectively removed the middleman (traditional banks) from the borrowing-lending equation and created a truly permission-less economy. By empowering people to be their own bank and getting rid of identification or credit check protocols, DeFi projects have opened up a basket of financial products to anyone around the world that has a smartphone and an internet connection. 

Each day, multiple decentralized finance projects are springing up with ingenious techniques that let anyone lend, borrow, stake digital assets with high APY rates that were unheard of until now. The Total Value Locked into DeFi projects surpassed the $1 billion milestone earlier this in June. As of this writing, a phenomenal $11 billion has been locked into DeFi smart contracts of various kinds. This level of monetary activity has captured the attention of an increasing number of people looking to make a quick buck but, on a brighter note, it has also democratized finance for the billions of people that remain unbanked even in 2020.

Why DeFi? 

Traditional banks are notorious for bogging down customers with a bevy of formalities that need to be completed before they can see any money. If a person does not have a credit history, or if they have no identification (as is the case with millions across the globe), they are instantly denied access to essential capital at these banks.

DeFi is on the verge of transforming this deadlock by introducing self-perpetuating systems that need no approvals. Smart contracts based on Ethereum govern this entire process and allow anyone to stake collateral in the form of digital assets to gain access to loans, derivatives, and other financial instruments. In a short span of less than two years, this novel technology has introduced techniques such as yield farming and liquidity mining that let users compound their returns through reinvesting their rewards. 

Of course, this may seem convoluted to the majority of people not familiar with cryptocurrencies, but there is a new wave of startups that have made it their mission to demystify the complexities of this nascent concept. 

Consider PlasmaPay for example — a digital payments company that has optimized the fiat-crypto-fiat conversion process for millions of people from over 165 countries. The PlasmaPay app lets users purchase digital assets with virtually any Visa/MC card. In other words, you could deposit money from your bank account and instantly spend.

To make this possible, PlasmaPay is branching out to its own blockchain, called Plasma Chain, which effectively merges the worlds of centralized finance and DeFi using the power of distributed ledger technology. Developers can utilize the fundamental fiat on/off ramp gateways and payment processing systems on the Plasma Chain to build new dApps or protocols.

This will help tap into benefits such as seamless cross-border payments, sending or receiving money regardless of card provider or bank, all with zero commissions and instantaneous transaction speeds. PlasmaPay is also on track to release its own virtual card that will enable users to spend not only popular cryptocurrencies but also DeFi tokens, with the add-on benefit of ATM withdrawals. This should truly be a game-changer, since there is no option in the market for people to pay for transactions using DeFi tokens. 

A new wave of innovation

Companies such as PlasmaPay are making great strides towards achieving mainstream adoption by making it easier than ever to onboard new users, but the DeFi space certainly needs some fixing before the technology can be implemented to its full potential. 

Since January 2020 alone, the space has seen multiple hostile attempts to hack various protocols such as bZx, Balancer, YAM Finance among others resulting in losses upwards of $26 million.There is no hiding from the fact that trading DeFi tokens comes with exorbitant gas fees and drastically slow transaction speeds. These problems have largely kept the average user at bay, and forced anyone willing to participate in the system to go through a steep learning curve. 

Hopefully, the newfound interest from able people and agile companies in the traditional markets will usher the much-needed security, interoperability, and scalability upgrades that will ultimately contribute to DeFi’s mission of taking over the centralized world of finance....

TOP 5 CRYPTOCURRENCIES THAT WILL SHOW EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN 2021!

If you ever decide to invest in cryptocurrency, first of all, you should choose what to buy. Of course, you need to know the basics of the blockchain technology, be able to create crypto wallets and correctly execute transactions. But still, it is important to determine whether this cryptocurrency is profitable and if it will be possible to sell it later at a higher price.

There is no definite answer to the question “What cryptocurrency to invest in?”. Before investing funds, you need to do a market research and analyze the prospects of a certain project. Pay attention to the following indicators:

 The popularity rating in the blockchain community. If the trading ticker of this crypto coin can be found on most major crypto exchanges and the news related to its peer-to-peer network is published by a respected blockchain publisher, then it means that it is one of the most promising cryptocurrencies.

Convenience of transfer. Reputable blockchain startups release several types of crypto wallets, moreover their coins are supported by many third-party multicurrency storage companies. It is quite an important for an investor, to have a reliable crypto wallet (ideally a hardware wallet).

Safety. From the above said, the conclusion suggests itself that a promising network should be protected from hackers on a high level. The best cryptocurrencies working on POW have to have quite a strong network so that this can minimize the chance of 51% attack. And if yhe project you chose uses an alternative consensus algorithm, it should have a well-thought-out scheme, which will have protection against unscrupulous validators.

So which crypto coins will grow in 2021?

Fifth place – Bitcoin

Bitcoin is at the top of the cryptocurrency Olympus and is the best digital coin for investment. It exists for more than 10 years, and the whole blockchain industry started with it. Satoshi Nakamoto’s digital coin was hardly worth a cent 11 years ago, but today you can get $9000 by selling it. Those who bought 1 BTC during the crypto winter of Dec 2018 – Feb 2019 from $3200-3500, could sell it for $11,000 in summer, receiving over 200% of net profit. According to one of the pioneers of the crypto industry, Hal Finney, the final cost of one BTC coin should be around $10,000,000.

Fourth place – Ethereum

The second largest digital currency in terms of capitalization does not have hard emission limitations. The ETH staking will be launched in 2020, which will certainly cause a new round of demand for this digital asset. Ethereum staking income can be calculated with the help of a special calculator. The mastermind behind this project is Vitaly “Vitalik” Buterin, a Canadian programmer with Russian origin.

Thanks to his enthusiasm and dedication, thousands of developers joined the team. This year, the team has launched a test version of the Ethereum 2.0 network upgrade. The system is constantly shifting from the POW algorithm to staking, which will reduce emissions by up to 2,5% and boost long-term storage of ETH tokens. Moreover, Ethereum serves as the digital fuel for the DApp ecosystem.

Third place – Neo

Neo crypto platform (formerly called Antshares) is a Chinese version of Ethereum. During the rebranding process, the developers completely renewed the project. They didn’t only change the name, but also the blockchain nodes settings and technical documentation, and also launched the NEO 2.0 smart contract support system. The Neo cryptocurrency is in the TOP-50 Coinmarketcap rating and, unlike Ethereum, this project’s maximum amount of coins is limited. Its ecosystem is actively developing, the cooperation with popular blockchain startups like Bancor, Coindash and Agrello has already been established. Chinese crypto project Red Pulse has announced that it will create a financial research platform using NEO 2.0 smart contracts system. The NEO team takes part in creation of the Elastos OS, designed to explore the technological value of blockchain application in new Internet operating systems for further development of cyber economy.

Second place – Tron (TRX)

The Tron (TRX) digital asset appeared in September 2017. At the time of writing this review, the market capitalization of this project has reached $1,000,000,000. Many expect the coin to take off this year. According to the most daring forecasts, 1 TRX will be equal to 1 USD, but more real will be the rise to the value of TRON coin to 0,1 USD (current rate of 1 TRX is 0,02 USD). The Tron blockchain should become a global digital content exchange system, which is in a high demand in the current environment. The Tron ecosystem gives an opportunity for gaming projects co conclude smart contracts and create decentralized applications. This platform is already used by hundreds of developers, including gaming industry leader like Bitguild, Game.com and Xu Le. The Tron company has acquired BitTorrent and signed a network agreement with Oracle and Swisscom service providers.

First place – VectraCoin (VTC)

VectraCoin is a fast, secure and anonymous cryptocurrency developed by a UK team led by Marshall Ross. The development started in 20018, and the token sale began in October 2020. 

VectraCoin combines the strengths of all major cryptocurrencies:

Vectra has the Bitcoin-like acceptance, Ethereum-like smart contracts, one-time ring signature and anonymity like Monero. And it also has the lowest transaction fees and the highest speed up to 1000 transactions per second thanks to the innovative VectraNetwork. In addition to the coin itself, the company has developed their own network and a wallet for instant transfers.

We don’t think that it’s worth saying that the coin is going to have a huge growth. At the moment, the company is selling tokens at a price of $100 for 1 token. Almost all investors expect that the $100 invested today will turn into at least $1000 by mid-2021.

Summarize

It is not possible to cover all promising cryptocurrencies in just one review. In addition to the above startups, there are still some confidential cryptocurrencies that deserve attention: Zcash, Dash and Monero, as well as promising young digital coins on the MibleWimble protocol, and also a number of other altcoins. When choosing a cryptocurrency for investment, take other projects into account, no matter how attractive the chosen project is. Also, do not expect its price to double tomorrow and never panic at the first drawdown....

ARE REGULATORS READY TO GET ON TOP OF CRYPTO

The ever-changing cryptocurrency space has been one that has forged ahead of its own boundaries, especially in relation to regulators and the governance of this new financial space. Since Bitcoin broke out, and ICOs came in, there has been a slow uptake from regulators. 

However, the latest batch of regulatory crackdowns on OKEx and BitMEX seem to suggest that there is a bigger drive from regulators to stamp their authority and put crypto businesses to the sword. 

The moves taken by regulators are interesting as they seem to suggest that businesses like OKEx and BitMEX are in the wrong, but more based on confusion in the law and regulations. A question of compliance over full regulation comes to the fore. 

More so, there is evidence out of Coinbase that suggests even law enforcement around crypto assets is on the rise with the major US company reporting an influx in law enforcement requests in the first half of 2020. 

Major crackdown

The quick succession in which OKEx and BitMEx fell to regulatory crackdown, as well as the precarious position some of the heads of these companies find themselves in seems to suggest that the crackdown by regulators has come to a new height. 

 OKEx suspended all cryptocurrency withdrawals, citing that it can’t get in contact with one of its key holders. This caused widespread panic within the crypto community and had similar feelings to BitMEX.

For BitMEX, they were BitMEX headquartered in the Republic of Seychelles with offices operating outside of the country in a play that might have been set to avoid stringent regulation.

“They will soon learn the price of their alleged crimes will not be paid with tropical fruit, but rather could result in fines, restitution, and federal prison time,” FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said in a statement.

Coinbase helping the law

Coinbase has also recently revealed that it has been compiling with law enforcement around crypto assets as it received more than 1,800 requests for information from law enforcement in the first half of 2020, largely in the form of subpoenas, the company announced in a new transparency report.

“As a financial institution with a duty to detect and prevent prohibited activity on its platform, we respect the legitimate interests of government authorities in pursuing bad actors who abuse others and our platform,” the company wrote in a blog post.

“Yet we do not hesitate to push back where appropriate, even when it is inconvenient or costly to do so. That’s why each request we receive is handled by a team of experienced specialists in accordance with set procedures to confirm the validity of the request and narrow or object to requests that are overly broad.”...

ETHEREUM 2 IS ON TARGET TO LAUNCH THIS YEAR

Ethereum has been making headlines a lot lately due to all kinds of achievements.

For instance, the other day, it’s been revealed that the Ethereum community is celebrating something really massive, something that will definitely boost the whole Ethereum ecosystem and, hopefully, the price of ETH as well.

 CFTC chairman Heath Tarbert just addressed the other day some important subjects such as Etehreum, DeFi, and more.

“Let me just basically say how impressed I am by Ethereum, full stop, period,” he said, among others.

 Ethereum 2.0 will launch this year

According to the latest reports coming from the online publication, the Daily Hodl, Ethereum 2.0, is currently on target to launch in 2020, according to Danny Ryan, the lead coordinator for the project.

It’s been revealed that in the Ethereum Foundation’s official broadcast of the Zinken launch during the past Monday, Ryan shared his insights as to whether ETH 2.0’s launch is on track for this year.

“That’s my impression. This is an ongoing dialogue with client teams, and we need to take a second to look at this testnet, but my understanding is that this will trigger the next series of things. There are always blockers that might show up. We need to do this responsibly…” he said.

He continued and said: “Us coming up with a launch date – it’s not me, it’s not [Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin], [rather] it’s this synthesis of everything that’s going on, conversations with engineering teams, and doing the best we can.”

It’s also important to mention the fact that the term Zinken is referring to the final preparations that devs use as practice for the mainnet launch.  At the beginning of this week, the testnet was launched flawlessly. Check out more details in the original article on the Daily Hodl. ...