For the average millennial or at least anyone that pays attention to the business world, the term “cryptocurrency” would not seem like such a strange word. If that is, then the terms Bitcoin, Ethereum or at least Blockchain should ring a bell. One might wonder, why are these terms suddenly so prevalent, especially cryptocurrency news? Computing is getting rather pervasive and the society is leaning towards digital services. The finance world too isn’t spared as the disruption of technology into this sector has fostered the birth and development of Fintech organizations.
These Fintech organizations look to digitize payments and transactions, offering the same services that are currently in existence but in a better, efficient and more effective way.
Blockchain is the network upon which most of these cryptocurrencies operate on. The history of blockchain and bitcoin, in particular, does not have a definite story. In 2009, an individual or group of individuals known to be “Satoshi Nakomoto” developed and published the technology to allow people make digital payments between themselves anonymously without having an external party to verify or authorize the transfer of the currency being exchanged.
Although technologies like this might seem rather complex, understanding how Blockchain works is quite easy, given that one has a basic idea of how networks work. Blockchain is simply a database shared between several users, containing confirmed and secured entries. It is a network, where each entry has a connection to its previous entry.
This technology affords a very secure model whereby every record in the database cannot be tampered with. Apart from the stellar security that this network offers, the transparency and speed at which the network operates give it an edge over the conventional way of conducting transactions.
In simple terms, cryptocurrencies are just monies in digital form, transacted via digital means and over a digital network. The transfer of these currencies is utilized with cryptography and the aforementioned blockchain network. Up until the 2010s, cryptocurrencies were not really known until Bitcoin made its breakout and this gave rise to the birth of new cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies have had their fair share of bullish and bearish trends, going to show how unstable they can be. The latest cryptocurrency news reports lots of people predicting prices for various cryptocurrencies in the years to come but no-one can say for sure.
Blockchain, on the other hand, is making its way into pervasive computing, especially IoT, giving way for the development of new solutions that embrace data security and transparency.
In spite of a very unstable situation on the crypto market, the world’s largest virtual currency exchange expects $1 billion of profit this year.
Another crypto exchange has hired an institutional trading executive. Former NYSE chief information officer soon will join cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.
The FSC revised its rules to apply strengthened policies in order to prevent or detect money laundering and illegal activities because they aren’t opposed to cryptocurrencies.
The initiative comes despite a decline in the prices of cryptocurrencies and overall trading volumes since the beginning of the year.
From now on the cryptocurrency exchanges of South Korea form a new industry named “Cryptocurrency Exchange and Brokerage” able to operate at a large capacity with full government support.
3 transactions per second – that is the current capacity of Bitcoin. The price of the cryptocurrency is closely tied to its ability to process at least as many transactions as the traditional financial services. The Lightning Network may be the solution, but the mass adoption of this technology is likely to face some problems.
Having successfully closed a Series B round funding, the China-based cryptocurrency industry giant Bitmain is valued $12 billion.
Huobi Australia (HuobiAU) is a joint venture between Huobi and Blockchain Global. The new exchange now supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and other cryptocurrencies.
Thomas Lee has updated his Bitcoin price forecast for this year. Now he predicts that it will reach $22,000 in 2018 instead of $25,000.
The Dutch Flow Traders is expanding its trading products to exchange-traded notes (ETNs) based on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The opposition party has accused the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party of being involved in money laundering activities using Bitcoin.
The services of the cryptocurrency exchange will be initially focused only on the EU market with a plan to extend them to other qualified regions on the globe, ahead in the future.
As a part of new regulations, ICO issuers will have to undergo a thorough screening by the SEC before being launched and open to retail investors.
Ripple has probably the best chance for recovery across all major cryptos. On Thu, July 5, Ripple is trading at $0.4900 and going down slightly.
Thanks to amendments that the government plans to make to the Banking Act, Bermuda is to become a new destination for fintech innovation.