Following last year’s very well publicised crisis moment for Bitcoin, it’s very tempting to believe that the moment for cryptocurrency has passed. Confidence in these new technologies has waned significantly, and there’s a general understanding of how volatile the market is. But though it is still true that cryptocurrency is not as stable as more established currencies, the technology isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
So while you may have missed the first major boom in digital currency, there is a likelihood that we are going to see some interesting developments in 2019. Here are some cryptocurrencies to watch this year.
Ethereum works not just as a digital currency but as a platform for users to build their own cryptocurrency. Users take the building blocks provided by Ethereum’s blockchain and create their own application so that it can be used to manage things like supply chain.
At the end of 2018, Ethereum had started to show growth again after the 2017 peak. At it’s highest peak, it had grown around 3000%, the second largest after Bitcoin. “During the course of this year,” says Jay Stokes, author at researchpapersuk.com, “ Ethereum is expected to continue to rise in value, as plans roll out to improve its technology.”
Launched in 2016, Decred has become a well regarded currency that aims to democratize its model. There’s a focus on the actual work of data mining, with partial rewards going back to those who can offer proof of work. These individuals can have a direct say in the management and direction of the project.
To facilitate this decentralized governance, the developers have created an efficient and simple voting system to achieve consensus. Utilizing smart contracts the model is resistant to any potential outside parties that would seek to influence votes being cast.
Founded by Ethereum’s Charles Hoskinson, Cardano works through a smart contract platform. The developers take remarkable care to maintain the platform, and seek to standardise and promote Cardano’s protocol technology.
Charles Hoskinson claims that Cardano is the next stage in evolution for blockchain technology. It is built on meticulous academic and scientific research in order to combat issues surrounding blockchain technology, including scalability, interoperability and sustainability.
Created in 2014, Dash is a decentralized autonomous organization as well as a cryptocurrency. As an open source asset, it works on a principle of self-governance. In its early days, it was known as Xcoin, a ‘fork’ of the Bitcoin protocol, but as an altcoin, it earned a bad reputation as the cryptocurrency used on the dark web.
However, following a rebrand as Dash (Digital Cash), it ceased operating on the dark in 2016. Payments via Dash are almost instantaneous, and through user engagement protocols, the community which uses it are all geared towards improving its development.
Developed in late 2016, ZEC is geared around security and transparency. The two main protocols of Zcash involve either shielded or transparent pools.
Private transactions can be disclosed to aid transparency, allowing users to prove payments in order to comply with governmental regulation and tax services. In this way, Zcash has been at the forefront of creating a sustainable future for cryptocurrency.
“The developers of ZCash have been very public in meeting with law enforcement agencies” says Carina Rodriguez, contributor to draftbeyond.com, “This, finally, is a bid to show a united front against illegal cryptocurrency activity.”
Monero has had a somewhat controversial year. Some studies during the year showed that around 4.3% of the total supply of XMR had been mined illegally. For many, this is a worrying part of cryptocurrency. However, as the industry as a whole move towards a more legitimate, less shady mode of practice, it is interesting to note that during the time these studies were published, XMR’s value seemed to have fluctuated very little. It is based on the CryptoNight ‘Proof of work’ algorithm, pushing miners to seek legitimate sources of data.
Unlike, for instance, ZCash, Monero is developed around utter financial privacy, allowing payments and balances to remain hidden. Though it remains a controversial choice of Bitcoin, it continues to be a versatile crypto asset used across the world.
Benjamin Schmitt is an experienced lifestyle writer and app developer. He writes on app development and a range of other topics for Gum Essays and Lucky Assignments.
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You know about Bitcoin: The original digital currency based on blockchain. Every transaction is written to a shared ledger and verified by the rest of the network. Each set of approved transactions is a “block” added to the chain.
But you may have missed the buzz on Bitcoin mining. It’s not just for web geeks or digital currency traders. There are thousands of people around the world looking to profit in this way.
What is Bitcoin Mining?
Participants try to guess a random number generated by the system. Those who get the answer “own” the next block of transactions and collect a reward; currently 12.5 bitcoins. If you manage this, you can also collect fees on transactions in the block you created.
This number comes from a complex equation. In the early days it was handled by ordinary computers, and then GPUs (graphics processing units), which were better suited to the task. Over the years the equation has evolved in difficulty to regulate the rate of discovery.
Technology
Bitcoin miners now rely on hardware-intensive systems known as ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), which appeared in 2013. If you own or can get access to such a system, you stand to guess a fair amount of numbers on the blocks constantly taking shape.
If this sounds like an easy way to profit, it is. Many people have joined the ranks of digital currency miners. However, with so much competition, the big question is whether there are still decent profits to be made.
Can You Still Make Money?
The more computers that are trying to capture the number, the harder the equation becomes and the fewer numbers you get.
But Bitcoins also tend to go up in value. It was a price spike in 2013 that launched mining as a popular investment option. Speculators agree that the value of Bitcoin should continue rising as its popularity grows.
Investments Required
To maximize your return on Bitcoin mining, you need an ASIC system. These computing solutions utilize high-end hardware that generates a lot of heat. Such a setup requires state-of-the-art cooling and ventilation systems along with higher utility bills to operate all of this.
Without an ASIC of your own, your odds of scoring aren’t good. It is possible to save some money by leasing an ASIC rather than buying one outright.
Other Options
Fortunately for the smaller investor, recent years have seen the rise of cloud mining, or cloud hashing. This response to growing demand is basically another cloud service where you get to lease a portion of someone else’s ASCI-enabled data center.
A cheaper option, albeit with smaller potential rewards, is a mining pool. This is a third-party service that uses investor funds to do their own mining and shares out the profits. The upside of this is that you don’t need technical or financial knowledge at all; you just need to come up the minimum investment required by the service.
Profit Potential
You can join some of these investment pools for as little as $500. Some of these third-party services state that you could earn your investment back in as little as two months or so, and start seeing profit after three. When these claims are legit, or even close to it, you’re seeing a remarkable and fairly consistent ROI better than most forms of investment.
However, transaction fees are currently voluntary on the part of individual users of Bitcoin, as is whether the transaction should even be included in a block. This is encouraged as the transaction is more quickly verified if it’s part of a block. Even so, your profit depends on the current value of Bitcoin, the number and size of transaction fees involved, and the number of people sharing the rewards.
Federal Regulation
In 2015 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) declared that digital currency trading is legal and subject to fair trading laws. However, this doesn’t guarantee that you’re protected. Prudent investors always do the homework: Know who you’re dealing with and determine realistic expectations.
Risks in Bitcoin Mining
The Bitcoin reward is halved every 210,000 blocks, or about four years. As the reward approaches zero, it may not be profitable at all unless transaction fees are increased and enforced. And while the general trend is up, there’s also fluctuation in Bitcoin value.
There’s also a question of integrity. As more cloud services spring up, you’ll have a widely varying scenario of payouts, contract stipulations, and the potential for dishonest reporting; even outright fraud. Also, on the downside: The IRS says that mining profits may be taxed as individual investment gains!
Is Bitcoin mining still a good investment? At the present time, yes, and hopefully for years to come with appropriate changes. Are you ready to sit back and let the computers make you bitcoins?
Jen McKenzie is an independent business consultant from New York. She writes extensively on business, education and human resource topics. When Jennifer is not at her desk working, you can usually find her hiking or taking a road trip with her two dogs. You can reach Jennifer @jenmcknzie
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Today we come back to talk about ICO, Initial Coin Offering.
As we mentioned in our previous article here , an ICO is a way for companies to attract investors by offering their cryptocurrency tokens in exchange for support and funding. ICO are also similar to initial public offerings otherwise known as IPOs.
Despite being just a couple of years old, ICOs have managed to attract a lot of attention. It seems that in the past few months every news outlet had something to say about them, both good and bad. To avoid future confusion and to help our readers, here at HolyTransaction we decided to publish this amazing infographic by Btxchange which will support you to understand the basics of ICO, its advantages, recent developments and future predictions.
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Cryptocurrency is no doubt the latest innovation and revolution in banking in the world today. It gives people the power to take full charge of their wealth, how it is stored, what happens to it and so on. However, with new invention comes new challenges and as the world slowly but gradually accepts Cryptocurrency as the new way of storing money there is a need to simultaneously adjust the way we secure it. For the vast majority of people who store their money in banks, there is little or no worries in terms of security as ideally, the banks have insurance cover against a breach in their security system, theft, and lastly potential hacks. This is not the case for Cryptocurrency as funds are only as safe as we want them to be. Basically, private keys show where your wealth is located and if anyone has access or knowledge of them you can kiss your money goodbye.
Many Folks trading cryptos from their laptops in their bedrooms, office or elsewhere may feel a false sense of safety and security as they cannot physically sense that they are being watched. The fact is people using the internet today are rarely alone. It may simply be an autonomous piece of code monitoring your activities online or someone somewhere in a government basement or Private Corporation physically monitoring you while you go about your crypto trading business. It may as well be someone else somewhere with the skills and knowledge to do so. Regardless of who and what is monitoring you the fact is your Crypto is almost always at risk.
Many ideas have been put forward about the best and most effective way of protecting Cryptocurrency. Many experts believe that one of the worst ways to protect a crypto wallet is to put it on the exchange. The ‘million dollars’ question now is what is the safest way of protecting your private key and Cryptocurrency?
Now imagine for a second that you do not have to worry much about this risk, imagine that every bit of information you send and receive is encrypted, and imagine that only the sender and receiver of any information can have access to it. Would that not be great? Read an expert review on saferVPN which is one of the most popular VPN services here: bestvpn24.com/safervpn-review/.
More Reasons to Protect Yourself While Crypto-Trading
A Digital Trail: Everything digital leaves a trail. Cryptocurrencies are basically electronic cash. Traders typically make use of an electronic wallet that sends electronic cash to another wallet. Bitcoins are not anonymous as we all would love them to be, they are simply pseudonymous. Crypto- Traders who use pseudonym addresses are more like writers who go by their pseudonyms. If their true identity/name were to be uncovered all their previous works under their pseudonyms will be linked to them. In the same way, all Bitcoins transactions are stored up in a blockchain and regardless of whether you use a pseudonymous address or not if that address can be in any way linked to you everyone will know the entire history of transactions you have made.
A school of thought argues that using a real name/identity for trading Cryptocurrency anonymously is not necessary since you have a Bitcoin wallet address; however, this is only true if that address is unique and changes for each transaction.
Stores can uncover real identities: Folks who are a bit conscious of how the security risk of trading crypto has ingeniously adopted means sure as having more than one wallet, making multi-input transactions, using web-hosted ‘eWallets’ to conceal identity and so on.
The truth is these methods are not very effective as online retailers and stores have access to their Bitcoin address when they make transactions with them. In addition, the payment processor which retailers utilize can also be used to uncover their real identity.
The bottom line is users are made to reveal their identity in order to get good and services when making payments online which consequently implies that Cryptocurrencies are not really anonymous.
Cryptocurrencies do not encrypt traffic: The basic system employed by Cryptocurrencies is such that when coins are sent, they are first taken to the Bitcoin’s nodes where they are encrypted. Furthermore, the communication between nodes is encrypted but that is about it. There is no encryption of the internet traffic which means that ISPs can collect information on the origin and destination of any transaction.
How VPNs Help Crypto-Trading
• Using a VPN mask the IP address from a computer which is very useful to stay secure from government agencies and corporations.
• With a VPN you can trade anywhere in the world. The best VPNs are capable of unblocking geo-locked websites. Traders who are blocked from local websites due to government policies can easily access those sites with a VPN.
• Even while making online transactions with your bank, you are made to provide some vital information about yourself. Similarly, trading platforms also request some personal information and bank details; a very good VPN will protect this data from hackers and other third parties.
• With a VPN, traders can enjoy faster internet connections while performing their transactions. Time is a vital component of trading online and a few seconds or minutes lost due to speed and connection issues can be very costly.
• To avoid taxes and government surveillance: The number of countries and financial markets that still prohibits the trading of digital currency is still much. Without a VPN it will be difficult to safely enter financial markets where trading is both legal and illegal.
The government of some developing countries impose enormous taxes on financial transactions, having a VPN will ensure that you are able to avoid paying such taxes on.
• You can avoid legal issues: Legal issues can arise in countries where trading Cryptocurrency is illegal. With VPNs, traders can go about their business anonymously.
Conclusion
Using a VPN to protect your digital cash by securing your personal and banking details is really something that is paramount. Some of the best VPNs are cheap and readily available just make sure you check out some of the amazing features and services before you pick one.
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With the first creative campaign “Not a Myth”, we at HolyTransaction target the new Crypto-generation with an almost-irreverent and fresh concept, while blinking an eye to our fellow old-school Believers.
It’s the year 9 after Bitcoin.
And today, we are proud to stand still in front of all our customers and supporters, announcing a new era for our common venture. Launching our first creative campaign. Reaching out to new shores.
We are here to empower people, and engage the world in the greater adoption of this new and exciting technological revolution. And so far, we made the most popular digital currencies accessible, storable, tradable, and secure for every user in our community, all from one single account.
Now, it’s time to celebrate.
Follow us on our official twitter account @holytransaction and get to know everyone in the Crypto-Pantheon at https://holytransaction.com/landing/not-a-myth.html
Holy transactions are not a myth anymore.
About HolyTransaction:
HolyTransaction SA was launched in 2015 and since then it provides crypto enthusiast with the most complete and user-friendly platform to store and exchange multiple currencies. Indeed, in its first five years of business HolyTransaction already managed to make 25 of the most popular digital currencies accessible, storable, tradable, and secure for every user in our community; all from one single account.
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Blockchain technology has often been confused with cryptocurrencies.
This is the reason why people barely understand this crazy crypto world.
Indeed, we can say cryptocurrencies are projects born and raised on the Blockchain technology. We have to look at them as startups, which try to transform a sector or an industry providing a solution based on their coin.
In fact, the core strength of Blockchain lies in the capability to allow the exchange of data securely, anonymously and in a decentralized way; keeping them unchangeable.
Data mean money, votes, info, intellectual property and so on.
This is precisely why it is a revolution. Now maybe you can better understand why some fundamentals values of the blockchain scares government and authority. Being decentralized means NO MIDDLEMAN.
Moreover, we are glad to provide the more curious ones, with this compelling infographic which explains the transformational impact of the Blockchain Revolution on various industries.
Thanks BitFortune for sharing it with us.
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Bitcoin rose from unknown to mainstream recognition largely thanks the incredulous surge in value it saw in 2017. But then the price went down, sparking yet another heated discussion about the volatile unpredictability of the bitcoin.
Nowadays, discussions are all at their all time hype, but worth just as long as the participants know what they are talking about; and the audience has at least some grasp of the matter. But it rarely happens, as the vast majority of experts are as clueless about the intricacies of the crypto markets as is the general audience.
The infographic below, provided by our friends at BitcoinPlay, will not make us all marketing gurus but will give you a much better understanding about the driving forces behind the world’s first cryptocurrency, how it came to be, who embraced it first and how countries are handling it.
Here’s a selection of our favourite ones:
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HolyTransaction FAQ and Support Center. Before sending us an email, please read our HolyTransaction FAQ below.
You might find the answer you need.
How can I open my wallet?
It’s easy and free to open an account. Visit HolyTransaction.com, click “sign up”, fill out the form, and log in. Then you may want to add funds to your account.
Click “balance” in the main menu and deposit your favorite digital currencies.
How can I show a new wallet?
If you want to add a new digital currency to your wallet, you just need to visit the balance page and then click on the plus button to add more wallets to your account.
What’s the minimum deposit amount?
We don’t have a minimum for incoming deposits. However, in order to withdraw your coins, you need to meet our fees. So please read our fees list below.
Are there fees for using HolyTransaction?
We charge fees only for withdrawals and transactions to other wallets. There are no fees for deposits. For withdrawals, there is a transaction fee required by each network as indicated on our withdrawal page. Also, here you can read a full list of these fees.
How can I get a coin listed on HolyTransaction?
We don’t have a definitive set of criteria as each project is unique. We listen to the community and select projects that we believe are unique, innovative, and that our users would be interested in trading. Please send us an email at support@holytransaction.com with the info about your coin.
Can I change the email address associated with my account?
You cannot change the email address that was used to create your account at the time of registration. If you are no longer able to access the email account for any reason, please open a support ticket by sending us an email at support@holytransaction.com
Does HolyTransaction have an API?
Yes, and you can check our APIs here.
How many addresses can my account have?
You can create only one address per digital currency.
How quickly are outgoing payments processed?
We make payment instantly, however, each transaction usually needs some time to gain a minimal number of confirmations. Minimum confirmations required varies in every wallet and website.
Can I use HolyTransaction address to play crypto dice games or to mine?
Your deposit address is bound to your account forever. All deposits made to this address will be added to your account balance. However, we don’t guarantee that coins will reside at this address. Due to our system architecture and security measures, coins will be moved to other addresses shortly after deposit, but it does not affect your account balance.
You can still spend all your money anytime.
Should I use HolyTransaction as my only wallet?
We use advanced security mechanisms. However, it is important to take additional steps to ensure that your login details remain protected from users other than yourself.
How do I know my coins will be safe?
We use multiple layers of security:
– cold storage backups
– 2-factor authentication
– regular security audits
Also, we added a new tool we call “the padlock” (you can read more about it here) and other exciting things that are currently in development.
Where do I obtain my two-factor authentication code?
You need Google Authenticator application in order to obtain a two-factor authentication code. Click here to read the step-by-step guide to set it up.
I forgot my password, how can I reset it?
Automatic password recovery is unavailable at this point. Send an email to passwords@holytransaction.com from the mailbox that you have used for signup and we’ll recover it manually.
Do you have a tesnet/UAT version?
We don’t support testnet. Use small amounts of money for test purposes. You can always withdraw them.
When are you going to offer feature X? I would like to access my wallet in my language, can you add it? How can I contribute?
We encourage you to use our feedback widget to ask about features and report bugs. We are implementing them according to demand. Feel free to contact us at support@holytransaction.com if you want to help with translation or something else.
Do you have a donate button for linking to user’s payment URLs?
Not yet.
Why don’t I see “Buy” page?
Due to regulatory constraints, we don’t provide the exchange for US residents and customers that currently located in the United States.
If you have questions that you would like to be answered, submit them at support@holytransaction.com
I made a wrong transaction. Can you delete it?
No, we cannot delete any transactions.
Can you disable my 2fa? I cannot have access to my Google Authenticator App.
Yes, we can do it. Please send us an email at support@holytransaction.com from the same email you use to login into your wallet. We will disable your OTP in 1 week in order to respect our security standard.
How can I delete my account?
Please send us an email at support@holytransaction.com from the same email you use to login into your wallet. We will delete your account as soon as possible. Of course, it has to be empty.
Can I increase my daily limit for transactions and withdrawals?
Sure, please read this guide.
Why has my account been locked?
It could happen if your padlock is active. Please read this guide to deactivate it.
How can I exchange my cryptocurrencies?
If you need to convert your digital currencies into fiat currencies, please use our service called HolyTransaction.trade.
If you need to convert your crypto into another crypto, please follow this guide.
What is Flyp.me?
Flyp.me is our latest project for your accountless exchange. Read more here.
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Yesterday we published the image below on Facebook, related to UASF Bitcoin we support. But what does it mean?
UASF is an abbreviation that stands for User Activated Soft Fork.
It’s a mechanism for the activation of a soft fork that might occur on a specified time enforced by full nodes, a concept that is also called “economic majority”.
In the past years, a UASF was successfully developed to activate the P2SH soft fork (BIP16).
Instead, currently, the UASF is combined with the so-called SegWit activation in the BIP148 proposal you can read here: github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0148.mediawiki.
MASF means Miner Activated Soft Fork. It’s a system by which miners can trigger the activation of a soft fork when a majority decides to execute an upgrade. This allows a faster activation of the soft fork, leaving full nodes to upgrade when they decide to do it.
This mechanism is a tradeoff because it puts trust in the hash power, enforcing the new rules. Conversely, it can cause invalid chains. This was the case with BIP66.
BIP148 is a UASF designed to run the current SegWit MASF deployment in order to activate it in all the existing SegWit capable node software (80% + at this time).
From August 1st, 2017, miners have to signal their readiness for SegWit creating blocks with the version bit 1.
SegWit is an upgrade to the bitcoin blockchain that might be able to solve the so-called block size debate, by increasing the capacity of each block of the digital currency chain in order to allow more transactions in less time and with fewer fees to be executed and registered on the blockchain itself.
Right now, Bitcoin supports up to 2000 transactions per block in 10 minutes, but SegWit will be able to double this capacity up to 4000 transactions.
Read this infographic to know more about SegWit.
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While Bitcoin price is experiencing a new growth after the almost 50% drop from its all-time high, a few analysts of the crypto market suggest that bitcoin price at $4000 is in the air.
And this moment seems to come sooner than expected.
“When added to the professed agreement for major players to work together on the Bitcoin scaling issue starting September – if it becomes a reality, the price could see between $4,000 and $5,000 before the year ends,” said an expert to Cointelegraph.
2017 has been a good year for bitcoin price, as it traded at about $950 back in January and it reached its new all-time high a few months ago in June with a value of $3011: this means that bitcoin price grew of more than 3000% in a six-months period.
Compared to the all-time high we quoted above, the current price decrease is maybe due to the uncertainty around the upcoming SegWit activation that will take place on August 1st, 2017.
For those who are unfamiliar with this, SegWit is a new upgrade to the Bitcoin blockchain that will increase the block size to support more transactions and allow a faster confirmation for transactions.
At the moment, the blockchain supports up to 2000 transactions per block in 10 minutes and SegWit will double this capacity to 4000 transactions.
Also, Segwit2x will increase the size of each block from 1MB to 2MB.
SegWit will be implemented on August 1s, while it is not sure yet if Segwit2x will be implemented too.
That said, the real reason of uncertainty is caused by the hard fork needed to implement SegWit.
This might create two different chains in a similar way to what happened to Ethereum in 2016 with the DAO and Ethereum Classic.
According to many experts in the industry, while this event might create panic sell and uncertainty within the community, will not be a real problem in the next future.
Kumar Gaurav of Cashaa explained to Cointelegraph:
“When looking at 2017 so far, it still has been a good year for Bitcoin, starting just below 1000$ and now standing just below $2,000. Whether and to which extent this overall trend will continue will be seen more clearly after some crucial dates such as 1st August. If 80% of the Bitcoin community adopts the updates all should be fine. It seems most likely this will be reached, as the current signaling of intended support is at 87.8 percent, an increase from 83.28 percent in May. Comparable to when in May, following the New York agreement on SegWit2x, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $2,160, it can reach new all-time highs after a successful activation as Bitcoin will be more attractive again and bring users of other cryptocurrencies back to Bitcoin.”
Another reason that might be influenced the price is the growing number of Bitcoin-based ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings.
ICOs managers might have cashed out during those days and this drove the prices because a huge amount of bitcoin appeared on the market.
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