Are you tired of worrying about the security of your cryptocurrency investments? If so, you’re not alone. As a crypto enthusiast myself, I’ve experienced the anxiety of potential loss or theft due to insecure seed phrase backups. That’s why I was excited to try out the Cypherock X1 hardware wallet, a solution designed to address these concerns and provide peace of mind for crypto investors like me.

Addressing Concerns

Let’s face it—seed phrase backups are a headache in the crypto space. Whether it’s the fear of losing a wallet or its backup, the vulnerability of the seed phrase on paper or metal poses a significant barrier to mass adoption. Even after taking precautions with seed phrase backups, many people have experienced financial losses due to wallet hacks. But with the Cypherock X1, these concerns have become a thing of the past.

Key Features That Impress

One of the standout features of the Cypherock X1 is its decentralized key storage. Unlike traditional wallets that centralize private keys, the X1 decentralizes them, providing 10x more security by splitting keys into five parts stored in different tamper-proof hardware. This innovative approach eliminates the need for insecure seed phrase backups, offering a stress-free solution for users like me.

Cypherock X1 splits the crypto private keys into 5 shards cryptographically and these are stored in 5 hardware components – 4 X1 cards and 1 vault device. These are tamper resistant. The fact that we need only 1 X1 card and 1 vault device for making a transaction, makes this wallet a convenient one to use! All 5 components can be stored in different locations as per user’s choice. This is cool, isn’t it? Also, losing any 2 or 3 of these components doesn’t mean losing funds. This is a huge advantage.

Key Features of Cypherock X1

1. Decentralized Key Storage: Cypherock X1 decentralizes private keys, providing 10x more security by splitting keys into five parts stored in different tamper-proof hardware.
2. No Need for Paper Backups: Eliminates the need for insecure seed phrase backups like paper or metal, enhancing security and peace of mind.
3. Comprehensive Asset Support: Supports over 3000 crypto assets across 10 different blockchains, ensuring compatibility with various investment portfolios.
4. Non-Custodial Beneficiary Service: Upcoming service allows users to transfer digital assets to loved ones securely, addressing inheritance concerns.
5. Open-Source and Audited: Cypherock X1 is fully open source and has undergone security audits by reputable firms, ensuring transparency and authenticity.
6. Multi-Wallet Support: Users can create and manage up to four distinct BIP-39 wallets, streamlining portfolio management.
7. Secure Seed Phrase Vault: Functions as a seed phrase backup for other popular wallets like Ledger, Trezor, and Metamask, enhancing overall security.
8. Aggregated Portfolio Management: The cySync companion app allows users to manage their entire crypto portfolio across different wallets securely.

Setup and Working

– Onboarding: Installation of the cySync companion app prompts users to set a password and provides email-based 2-factor authentication for added security.

– Authentication and Pairing: Pairing X1 cards with the vault is simple, requiring a tap on each card to complete the setup.

– Creating Wallets and Adding Accounts: Users can generate new wallets and add accounts for sending and receiving crypto securely.

– Sending and Receiving Coins: Seamless process facilitated by the cySync app and X1 vault, ensuring transaction details are verified before signing.

– Seed Phrase Recovery and Backup: Users can reconstruct the original seed or master private key using a two-of-five threshold scheme, ensuring access to funds even if components are lost.

Comparison with Other Products

– Cypherock X1 vs. Other Wallets: Decentralized key storage eliminates single points of failure present in traditional wallets.

– Cypherock X1 vs. Ledger: Cypherock X1 offers superior security through multi-part key distribution and secure elements, setting it apart from competitors like Ledger and Trezor. In fact, Cypherock X1 has been audited by Keylabs, a security firm that has found vulnerabilities in Ledger and Trezor in the past.

– Cypherock X1 vs. Tangem: Cypherock X1 hardware wallet integrates a trusted display for verifying transaction details, reducing the risk of remote attacks.

Conclusion

Overall, my experience with the Cypherock X1 has been outstanding. Its innovative approach to key storage, comprehensive feature set, and rigorous security measures make it the ultimate solution for safeguarding crypto investments. If you’re serious about protecting your assets and maintaining peace of mind, the Cypherock X1 is the way to go. Don’t take chances with your crypto security—trust Cypherock X1 to keep your investments safe and secure.

The post Review of the Cypherock X1 Hardware Wallet: Peace of Mind for Crypto Investors appeared first on Bizznerd.

Can I Buy BTC in Person? Where to Buy

Can I buy BTC in person? As mentioned, you can buy BTC by yourself. The options are many, and we will focus on the main ones.

• Buying from an online exchange – The best option to buy BTC is through a reliable exchange such as NakitCoins. You need to access the web platform through a computer or an app through a mobile phone. You then need to register for an account and fill in your details to purchase the digital assets. Crypto exchanges accept a variety of payment methods such as bank transfers, debit or credit cards, and payment apps, which you can use conveniently from the comfort of your device.
• Physical exchanges – Another option to buy Bitcoins in person is through a physical exchange. These are office outlets where the buyer walks in and purchases the digital assets they want. It is one of the best options for everyone who is wondering, “Can I buy BTC in person?” They are also very affordable and secure.
• Bitcoin ATMs – This is another physical option where BTC investors can transact fast and conveniently. Today, you will find many Bitcoin booths in major cities, and they are easy to use. Buying Bitcoin from these machines is simple and straightforward; the instructions are easy to follow.

Can I Buy BTC in Person? How to Buy

Are you still considering, “Can I buy BTC in person?” After looking at popular platforms for this, then you need to know how to do it. Basically, BTC and all other cryptocurrencies are virtual currencies, and you cannot hold them. They are stored in a digital wallet, which allows you to access your cryptocurrency on the blockchain. It should be hosted by a secure and trusted device or platform. Users are given a wallet address to give those who want to send them cryptocurrency and private keys to access the wallet. Before you buy for the first time, you need to have a digital wallet.

You also need fiat money or other cryptocurrencies to pay for Bitcoin. Crypto trading, especially through major platforms, is flexible, and they accept a variety of payment options. So, check well to ensure the platform you use accepts the finances that you have.

You also need a secure internet connection to transact through an online exchange. Hacking and malicious infiltration are still a significant risk in crypto trading. Actually, you might lose your investment in the blink of an eye.

Conclusion

Can I buy BTC in person? Yes, you can, and now that you have the options, it is time to do it. You also know how to go about it, and it is the perfect time to give it a try. It is one step towards achieving your cryptocurrency investment goals.

The post Can I Buy BTC in Person? Great Insights You Should Know appeared first on Bizznerd.

But the question remains: where do you start? Today, we’re walking you through everything you need to know about minting your first NFT and building your collection.

What is an NFT?

First let’s define what we’re talking about: An NFT (non-fungible token) is a digital token that exists on the blockchain in a format that makes it unique from other digital tokens. Each NFT is unique and completely different from any other token. Unlike most, each one has its own history, its own attributes, and its own relationships with other entities on their respective blockchains.

NFTs can be expressed as unique, non-copyable tokens that exist on Ethereum’s blockchain. This means that they are one of the first functional digital assets on it; they represent a particular unit of value and have their own source code that can be used to create new NFTs, trade them, and do other things with them.

NFTs can also exist outside of Ethereum and on other blockchains. You can read more about what that means in our original article which walks through the creation of an NFT on a Bitcoin-based blockchain.

What are the Benefits?

There are plenty of great benefits to creating and managing your personal collection of NFTs. First and foremost, we love seeing the ways people use their collections to support causes they believe in while earning crypto at the same time. Second, you can use them to create a gift that’s uniquely yours, which increases the likelihood that they’ll be used and appreciated. Finally, they are a great way to start earning crypto and fiat currency.

How to Mint Your First NFT

Now that you know what they are and why they’re great, let’s go over the steps of actually minting them. By now, you may be asking yourself what we mean by “minting” an NFT, and that’s a valid question. When creating an NFT, you’re basically creating an instance of a unique, non-copyable digital asset.

The process for creating these instances varies slightly depending on the resource you are using to mint, but the general process is simple:

Step 1: Decide on Your Concept

Before you start the process, you will need to think about what exactly your NFTs will be. Identifying your idea can be a challenging part of the process, but it’s worth taking the time to figure it out.

Your first step is to think about what you want to represent with your collection. Some people choose to represent their favorite sports team, while others are using their NFTs to support charities or causes they care about. Still, others use them as a form of self-expression or even just for fun. The options are unlimited and depend on how creative you want your collection to be.

Step 2: Pick a Platform

Be sure to make sure you use the proper platform for the steps ahead. If you’re using an Ethereum-based platform, like MetaMask, you will need to make sure your wallet address is compatible with the NFT platform of choice.

Step 3: Connect and Build a Communit

Before you start selling your NFTs, you want to immerse yourself in the community to gain traction. This way, when you offer your NFTs for sale, other users will recognize your attention to detail and the dedication you put into each token.

Once you’ve proven yourself in the community, it’s time for the hard work to begin.

Step 4: Create Your Artwor

Now that you’re established, it’s time to start getting creative. Whether you decide to hire someone to create the artwork for you, or you decide to do it yourself, make sure it’s a labor of love. NFT collectors value uniqueness so make sure you pour as much of yourself into it as possible.

Step 5: Mint It

Now that your artwork’s ready, it’s time to mint it on the platform of your choice. Each platform has a different process for minting NFTs so make sure you thoroughly research the requirements and fees associated with minting NFTs on the platform you choose.

The Takeaway

There are plenty of reasons to start creating your own NFTs, so get started today! Whether you decide to make unique tokens for your sports team, create artwork for an upcoming concert or rally, or just want to support a cause you believe in, it’s never too early (or too late) to start. Happy minting and we’ll see you in the next article.

The post How to Build Your First NFT Collection appeared first on Bizznerd.

What does it look like? The most basic crypto graphs will have three lines: one for the price (in USD), one for volume (in BTC), and one for the market capitalization (in ETH). Additionally, you may see other line items such as hash rate, difficulty level, and more.

Reading Graphs

If you’re new to the crypto world and want to learn how to read graphs, don’t worry! It’s pretty easy once you have the basics down.

Graphs are a great way to understand the price of a coin over time, as well as see sudden price changes. This is useful when trying to assess if a coin has gone up or down recently, or how much it has risen or fallen from its previous value.

As an example, let’s say that you invested $100 in Bitcoin 5 years ago and now it is worth $500: if your graph shows that there was no growth between then and now then this would be bad news! However, if your graph shows steady growth throughout those years (even if there were slight dips) then this would be good news.

It means that while there might be some bumps along the way, overall Bitcoin will continue rising due to its popularity within society today which leads me to my next point.

Select a Time Frame to Look At

The first thing you need to do is select the time frame you want to look at. You will be able to see the big picture, the long-term trend, and all other types of trends if you look at a longer period (think year or decade). But if you want to see how your crypto performs over shorter periods (like days or hours), then there are different graphs available for that.

These are:

• Daily
• Hourly
• Minute
• Second

The “second” graph takes into account all transactions with a value of less than $2 per transaction. This value was chosen because most exchanges charge fees that make it impossible for micro-transactions on their platforms.

Your Time and Energy

The first step in reading graphs is to decide where you want to put your time and energy. If you aren’t clear on the purpose of the graph, it can be difficult to determine what information is important and how that information relates to everything else.

A good way to start is by asking yourself these questions:

• What is the goal?
• Why was I asked to look at this graph?
• What am I supposed to learn from it?
• What outcome am I looking for?
• Is there an expected result, or am I just trying out new technology with no real expectations for anything specific?

Look for Trends That You Can Use

• Look for consistent trends
• Look for trends that are not too far in the future
• Look for trends that are in the same direction as the trend you are trading, especially if your trade has a lot of risks involved

These will help you better understand the cryptocurrency markets. Therefore, you will be able to make sense of the cryptocurrency price movements. Thus, helping you with an opportunity to create cryptocurrency value.

Knowing What Your Indicators Are Telling You

If you want to become a better crypto trader, you need to know how to use indicators. They help you understand what is happening in the market and predict future price movements. These are some of the most common indicators:

• Moving averages – This shows the average price over some time and allows you to see where prices are headed next. You should look at both short-term and longer-moving averages when trading with this indicator.
• Bollinger bands – This indicator consists of two lines: one above and one below an average price for a chosen period. When prices move outside these lines, it means there is increased volatility in the market and could signal an opportunity for profit or loss depending on your trade strategy.
• Candlestick charts – These charts display candlesticks (rectangles with lines) which show how much each asset opened at, its high point during that day/week/month, etc., as well as its low point during that same period.
• Parabolic SAR (Stop And Reverse) – When used correctly this oscillator can help you determine whether or not an asset will increase or decrease in value based on previous performance levels.
• Relative Strength Index (RSI) – RSI measures momentum by comparing upward movements within an asset’s price range relative to downward movements within that same timeframe; similar comparisons between other assets are also possible using relative strength index calculations.
• Telegram Groups – When it comes to staying ahead in the crypto world, one tool that can greatly enhance your trading strategy is using the best Telegram signals. These signals are alerts sent through Telegram channels or groups, providing valuable information about potential buying or selling opportunities. By joining reliable Telegram signal groups, you gain access to expert analysis, market insights, and real-time trade recommendations from experienced traders.

Be Patient

This is a good time to start learning and understanding the basic concepts. You can’t expect to be able to read graphs for cryptos if you haven’t been taught how to read them. There are many software solutions available that will do it for you automatically, but these tend not to be reliable, so it’s best if you learn how yourself first.

If you want to make money from this activity, then take your time and learn about things like trend lines and indicators so that you know when it’s best for them (or not).

Reading Steps

You can read graphs for Crypto by following the steps here or look for software that does it for you automatically.

This is a great way to get started because you will likely be able to find an app that has all of your favorite coins in it already.

In addition to just reading price charts and checking out what they look like over time, there’s also more advanced information you can use as well.

Some people are trading manually (which means buying and selling on an exchange) while others are using automated software to trade their money for them.

The post Reading Graphs for Cryptos – How Do You Do It? appeared first on Bizznerd.

Educate First

The very first thing you have to do is to focus on educating the people. Instead of trying to sell a product in a space virtually no one truly understands, it would be better for you to become the authority on web3.

One thing we would suggest you do would be to build an informational website on web3 only. Make it completely free of ads. You don’t need to market your product aggressively; only mention it when needed. This will allow you to build a solid community.

It’s very important to have a system in place to gather people’s contact information. You should at least have an email capture page on your site and try offering some sort of report. It could be an extensive study on the future of web3 or a simple introduction piece. From then on you should start gathering a good list of subscribers and let them know about your product through email.

Use Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is probably the single most powerful tool anyone in the web3 space can use to market their product. Pick an influencer with a sizable audience that is into web3, blockchain, or crypto. You also have to pick influencers that are respected by the public and make sure that they are great at vulgarizing very complex concepts.

Finding a good influencer on your own may be a bit difficult, however. This is why we would suggest that you speak with a Web3 marketing agency that specializes in influencer marketing. They can connect you with the perfect type of influencer for your project. An agency can find an influencer that fits your brand, product, and budget and manage your relationship with them. They can track results for you and help in the content creation process as well.

Boost Your SEO Efforts

Mastering SEO will be very important at the moment. Since web3 is still largely unknown and trending, you have the opportunity to rank high for some very popular high intent keywords with little competition.

So, if you haven’t been concentrating on SEO, you need to right away. Start with an SEO audit and see how you could integrate highly searched keywords in a natural and meaningful way into your content. Also, work on improving your site’s performance and navigation while beefing up your content.

Marketing web3 projects is different from marketing anything else, so do your homework on different marketing strategies and try different ones until you find what works. Don’t be afraid to ask for outside help too.

The post 3 Tips for Marketing Web3 Products appeared first on Bizznerd.

As people become more excited about the possibility to make astronomical profits, the cycle of greed blinds the to the equal possibility of their investment sinking into an abys of valueless decimals shown on their screens – a reality that exists in with every asset class you can invest in.

Whe unfortunate investors fell victim to the now infamous SquidGame Token – a scamcoin that shamelessly rode the coattails of the popular South Korean series by copying its name, the only ones who saw any real gains where the scammers behind the subterfuge.

Decpite having made away with roughly $3,4 million – which is by no means an insignificant sum, the SquidGame Token Rug-pull is not the biggest cryptoscam to have ripped off investors this year. However, the brazen use of them of one the most popular shows on Netflix was always going to draw a lot attention – that’s probably why the scammers did it.

The immoral developers behind this sham marketed it as a token that would function in the burgeoning segment of play-to-earn gaming – titles like Axie Infinity and Decentraland fall into this category, a nother aspect that the scammers derived directly from the hit series.

This strategy worked like a charm, furled by a flood of money from “naïve retail investors” as per Eswar Parsad – a Cornell University told the BBC,  the Squid Game inspired scamcoin took just under a week to soar more than 70 000% in a hasty climb from $0.01 to a high of roughly $2,860.

However, the euphoric feelings that come with watching your money grow would be just as be just as short-lived as the price rises they stemmed from. The lie began unraveling when many investors reported of being unable to move their funds, and as the alarm bells rang, CoinMarket Cap published a notice to its users that only corroborated their fears.

And a cofounder of CoinGecko, Bobby Ong, told a notable news media outlet – “The scam has completed its cycle, and the price has just dropped significantly,” . That “significantly” was a bit of an understatement, it took only a few minutes for the scamcoin’s value to drop back down below the dollar mark.

The Squid Game token debacle serves as a reminder to those who have been in the crypto currency market for some time and a lesson to those who are just getting started, in this market, stay vigilant and do your own research – what goes up must come down.

Ups and downs are a normal part of how markets move, however, the one thing that nobody wants is to get caught in an asset that is destined to dip perpetually because the creators went for the door.

The post SquidGame Token: The Most Publicised Rug-pull Of 2021 appeared first on Bizznerd.

The biggest issue regarding the Ethereum blockchain is scalability. As the network grows its user base, the process of validating transactions starts to become more expensive and time consuming. To deal with this problem, Vitalik Buterin and his team have started the roll out of Ethereum 2.0 – however, a full migration to the new and improved Ethereum will only be realised next year.

With the crypto market moving closer and closer to mainstream acceptance through NFTs and Crypto gaming, other blockchains have come up to challenge Ethereum’s dominance. All these blockchains promise faster transaction speeds at a significantly reduced cost when compared with the number 2 blockchain – without the need to add a second layer to relieve network congestion.

Though Ethereum remains a prominent figure in the push for decentralization, the competition – dubbed the Ethereum killers – have been making massive gains all throughout the year and increasing their user bases enough to possibly pose a threat to Buterin’s baby. So without further ado, here are the blockchains that look well suited to dethrone Ethereum.

Avalanche (AVAX)

Just like Ethereum 2.0, Avalanche runs on the more energy efficient Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. The biggest difference is that AVAX does it a whole lot faster, claiming a capacity to process more than than 4500 transactions per second.

Apart from the high speeds and lower costs, another advantage of the Avalanche network is it’s compatibility with Ethereum’s Solidity – making migration from Ethereum a simple process.

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance is a name that is more synonymous with the act of trading cryptocurrencies in order to profit from their price fluctuations, after all, it is the world’s largest digital assets exchange. However, Binance also runs a programmable blockchain –  the Binance Smart Chain, which isn’t too dissimilar to Ether’s.

The BSC has been around since 2019 and offers significantly cheaper transaction fees than Ethereum at $0.01-$0.05 while managing up to 39.2 transactions per second.

Solana (SOL)

If the speed at which a blockchain network runs is its most valuable asset, then Solana is king in this department having claimed an ability to process up to 50 000 transactions per second. Thanks to those speeds, Solana has become home to Circle’s USDC stable coin and has had the value of its native token SOL increasing by more than 10,000% this year.

Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR)

Hedera is not one of the most renowned crypto projects out there, however, there are a few things about this coin that make it a noteworthy competitor in the tussle to be the number one programmable crypto currency network. 

Firstly, Hedera runs a unique Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism that is powered by their proprietary hashgraph and boasts more than 10 000 transactions per second. Secondly, Hedera has also gained a lot of support from major corporations like Google, IBM, LG and TATA Communications – to name just a few, which puts Hedera a step ahead of Ethereum when it comes to attracting institutional investment.

The post The Ethereum Killers: List of Chains that may pose A threat to ETH appeared first on Bizznerd.

The device is one of the more steeply-priced crypto storage devices that Bizznerd has encountered and, at first glance, the product seems to justify the price. The device features a 3.97 inch – full color – touch screen, and a single side button for powering up. It also comes in a metallic cover, which offers one a degree of ease of mind, knowing that the valuable crypto assets stored in the device are in less jeopardy than with flimsy-looming competitors, Trezor, or Ledger’s offerings.

Ellipal’s focus on product design is geared towards the modern crypto user, who would be keener to interact with their crypto assets on a smartphone, then via a bulky PC, or laptop. The Elliptical Titan is designed with this in mind, featuring an air-gapped security system which keeps one’s private keys from ever connecting – and being intercepted – via the internet.

The Ellipal Titan supports over 41 blockchains and can store a variety of digital assets, over 10 thousand in total. Moonpay and Simplex partnerships also enable users to purchase – using a credit, or debit card – crypto assets directly from the Ellipal ecosystem. Allowing crypto enthusiasts to build up their portfolios without ever needing to connect to a 3rd party crypto service.

In addition to enabling users from about 173 countries (at time of writing) to purchase crypto by payment card, Ellipal has also partnered with Changelly and Swift, to allow for the on-wallet swapping of different assets, so reveallancing one’s portfolio, directly, from the Ellipal system is a synch.

The full metal-cased, $169 device – available for purchase, exclusively, from Ellipal – also enables users to grow their funds by staking a few popular assets, Cosmos, Tezos, Polkadot, Kusama, and Cardano right on the device. This Is in addition to being connected to Decentralized Applications (Dapps) and Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) from the wallet ecosystem.

Security

The Ellipal Titan’s security relies, mostly on the fact that the device cannot connect to the internet, and only uses a microSD slot for firmware updates. The device is air-gapped, meaning that it is incapable of connecting to the internet, and only interacts with the supporting mo old app via QR codes.

Setting Up

The Ellipal Titan is quite straightforward to set up. This is, in part, owing to the device’s large – full touch – color screen, and intuitive design.

First, one has to select a language to operate the device with. Then one will be asked to scan a QR code, which will direct one to a direct download of the app. Alternatively, one can go to the Ellipal website and download the app directly.

One can create, or import a wallet, or simply import a private key. After selecting your account type, you will be asked to select which crypto assets the wallet should hold. From there, one will be required to choose an alphanumeric password.

Following this step, one will have to backup their wallet by recording the 12 phrase seed which appears on the device. Once it is properly recorded, one will be asked to confirm the seed phrase by

placing the words in the correct order that they first appeared. Then one is good to go.

Transaction confirmation, and signing – between hardware wallet and app – will require a 2-factor authentication (2FA) process. This means one will be required to scan QR codes, on either, depending on where one is sending or receiving funds.

Conclusion

The Titan’s easy-to-use design, and air-gapped security system offers an advantage over many other hardware wallet makers. The fact that it offers a complete cryptocurrency-based suite of services, from card purchases to interacting with popular Defi services like Compound Finance, or Uniswap are an added bonus.

What lets the device down is the fact that it only supports the BIP44 Bitcoin address system (making for more expensive transactions) and offers no support for privacy-focused coins. It also only generates 12 word seed phrases, which first it on the security front. It could also stand to be a little more affordable, as it’s price is on the high end, compared to other cold storage devices.

The post Ellipal Titan Cold Storage Wallet Review appeared first on Bizznerd.

Since the mobile device is – almost by default – the primary device that most digital asset enthusiasts use to store and transact their crypto holdings, one would likely need a secure storage option that operates in tandem with a mobile. SafePal offers one such hardware wallet, in it’s SafePal S1 offline digital asset storage device.

Then Shenzhen, a China-headquartered firm launched their first product – the SafePal S1 – in January of 2019. The fledgling firm is backed by the world’s most successful digital assets exchange platform, Binance’s venture wing, Binance Labs, which may offer – at least for a good number of crypto enthusiasts –  some degree of trust in the company’s product.

SafePal’s sleek and fun-sized initial offering, the S1 comes packing a 1.3 Inch IPS screen, and a few physical buttons. This bad boy offers storage of assets native to 19 blockchains and can store a whopping 10,000+ crypto assets. It even offers storage of NFTs.

The SafePal S1 – as a result of the Binance Labs backing – also supports Binance Chain, and Binance SmartChain (BSC) tokens, offering a secure offline wallet for Binance blockchain assets. The crypto storage product even has it’s own native BSC-based digital asset, SafePal Token (SFP) which holds utility functionality with the SafePal ecosystem. The are 500 million (hard capped) SFP tokens in circulation.

SafePal Token holders can use the digital asset to pay for the transaction – and other – fees within the SafePal ecosystem. Individuals who invest in SFP can even derive the additional benefit of reaping rewards from staking the asset, in addition to being first in line for bonuses and airdrops. The SFP utility asset goes as far as having governance token functionality, allowing holders to vote on, or submit, proposals geared towards ionroving the SafePal ecosystem.

The little device also offers financial-industry level encryption at an inviting price point. Usually going for $59.99, the SafePal S1 can – currently – be acquired for the promotional price of $39.99. The device can either be purchased through Amazon, or directly from SafePal. For an extra $10 one could even make off with a protective leather case – with velvet interior, to protect the device’s speak glossy finish – which doubles as a card holder (for that sophisticated vibe.)

Security

On the security front, the device comes packing some serious heat. As mentioned above, the SafePal S1 comes equipped with a financial industry-level – claimed to be hack-proof – EAL5 encryption chip. The EAL5 chip stores private keys and comes with self-destruct function, should someone gain unauthorized access to the device.

The SafePal S1 provides the user with 12 or 24 phrase encryption keys. These should be written down and stored in a safe place. Every transaction to, and from, the S1 to the SafePal mobile app is designed to be signed through a QR code-based 2-factor authentication system. The system requires no internet connection, Bluetooth, or NFC, and is completely offline – reducing the risk of transactions being intercepted over the air.

 Setting Up

First impressions? The SafePal S1 is an incredibly aesthetically pleasing device. The sleek gloss finish of the front cover really complements the decently sized screen. The screen is also large enough to read.

The first step to getting your device setting is selecting a language (either English or a host of Asian languages at this point,) then pressing the OK button. Then one has to create a wallet by generating a mnemonic phrase. The private key can either be 12, or 24, phrases in total -/as the user chooses.

The S1 then offers up a quick read on mnemonic phrases, their uses, and a few  warnings regarding the encryption technology. Getting through this helpful feature takes one to the mnemonic phrase. Which should be written down in the provided note, and stored safely.

After verifying the private key, one can move on to the next phase of the set up process, which is to create a PIN. The difficulty with which one sets up their six-digit PIN depends entirely on the size of their fingers. Either way, it’s minor inconvenience on the way to the ultimate goal of securely storing one’s crypto.

Once that is done, one gets to name the wallet, and download the SafePal mobile app to their mobile. Signing, and confirming, transactions that go between the S1 and one’s mobile will require a QR-based 2FA process, which operates completely offline.

The Verdict

The SafePal S1 is simple and straightforward to set up, and use, the accompanying mobile app also offers no trouble. It offers great securety, while being speak and stylish. The device’s price is also a great plus.

The post SaefePal Hardeware Wallet Review appeared first on Bizznerd.

The decision from Valve – which was taken sometime in October – came as a surprise to many, especially when one considers the massive growth that’s been happening on the back of a sharp rise in the popularity of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). These NFTs, coupled with an in-game cryptocurrency, play a central role in the economics of the vast majority of blockchain built games.

Valve’s decision to ban crypto games as a whole was brought to the public’s attention by SpacePirate, a game developer directly affected by the new rules. Using Twitter as a voice, the developer behind the blockchain game, Age of Rust, reiterated Valve’s new publishing guidelines which do not want blockchain built games that “that issue or allow the exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs’ ‘.

With Steam being one the biggest distribution points for the gaming industry, SpacePirate’s views the new rules as having the potential to create significant disruptions for crypto gaming.

“While I’m disappointed for Age of Rust being removed, the point is more to the fact that Blockchain games as a whole are going to be removed. This is a setback for all.” As SpacePirate explained on Twitter, “While I respect their choice, I fundamentally believe that NFTs and blockchain games are the future. It’s why I started this journey with all of you.”

Though Valve themselves have avoided giving the public any kind of rationale regarding the changes, there have been a few speculative ideas that have done the rounds. One of those being that the company would like to avoid the possibility of getting pulled into some of the bad press that’s been associated with the NFT market,  with the evolved apes debacle being thrown around as an example.

However, according to Space Pirate Games, Valve’s reasoning is as simple as “items [NFTs and in-game cryptocurrencies]  have value and they don’t allow items that can have real-world value on their platform,”.

It’s not game over yet

Though the decision to ban crypto games on one of the most popular game distribution platforms made ripples, the blockchain built games and in-game cryptocurrencies is a concept that’s been gaining momentum for a few years now, and riding the wave of an all-round bull was an added bonus for this segment blockchain technology.

Beyond the general resilience and willingness to adapt that is seen in legitimate blockchain projects and the cryptocurrency market – which have been called scams a countless number of times, one should also consider the fact that Steam has competition, it has competition that is always looking to get an upper hand.

One of those competitors is Epic Games, also a bug name in the gaming industry, Epic believes that NFTs and crypto gaming pose no real threat to their business and are open to having them hosted on their distribution platform. However, the company had previously stated that they currently have no desire to incorporate crypto or NFTs in their own games.

What to take home

Steam’s ban on crypto and NFT infused games was never really going to cripple the new segment, however, it does point to a problem that has been with the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector since the heyday of ICOs – something needs to be done about the scams.

On one hand, decentralization has always been one of the most attractive attributes of blockchain and crypto, however, this leaves the sector quite exposed to the potential threats that look to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. This is not to say that the more centralized approach is flawless, scams have been around before cryptocurrency – in an endless game of cat and mouse with authorities.

Realistically, this is probably the fate of crypto gaming as well. The developers and the public will have to constantly adapt to threats that will consistently do the same and a failure to do so means losses. This is especially true for the public as they are the scammer’s main targets.

The post Valve’s Ban On Crypto Games, How Bad Could It Be? appeared first on Bizznerd.

How did Shiba Inu start?

Issued by an individual, or group, going by the name of Ryoshi, Shiba Inu (SHIB,) came into existence at a time when the crypto industry seemed to be proliferating with dog-themed crypto-assets – all touting themselves as the next Dogecoin. One could not be faulted for lumping the digital asset with the rest of the hyped-based doge-themed meme coins in the market. 

Philosophy of the Shiba Inu coin

The asset’s creator’s philosophy behind the existence of the asset, however, seems to have struck a chord with crypto investors, as the token has enjoyed a meteoric rise since its inception in August of 2020. The philosophy asks a simple question of investors, what could a token become if it was fully controlled by its community? 

The token aims to be a more useful Doge, by giving full say in how the ecosystem develops to the asset’s holders. The idea behind it, as it seems, is to achieve a fully decentralized ecosystem. Opting to create the coin on the Ethereum blockchain – claims the creator – will help achieve this, as Ethereum features one of the most developed decentralized ecosystems available in space today. 

Shiba Inu started as a simple Ethereum-based ERC20 token, Shiba Inu – In the year since its creation – seems to have become more than just my crypto, and Is now the operating token for a Defi and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) ecosystem. All made possible through little input from the creator, its developments have mostly been community-driven. 

Costing – at time of writing – a mere fraction of a cent ($0.0004040), the coin, which once had a circulating supply of 1 quadrillion coins, has risen – in value – to the point that its market capitalization challenged that of original canine-coin, Dogecoin. The coin’s recent run, back in October, saw the asset log over 700% in gains – this, after experiencing a 7000% rally earlier in the year.

The token’s creator, Ryoshi, disposed of his SHIB holdings – which equated to half of the total 1 Quadrillion Shiba Inu tokens in existence – by giving them to Ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin. The Ethereum founder promptly sold a billion dollars worth of the crypto asset and gave it to charity; he burned the remaining 40%. The resulting scarcity drove up demand for the token as speculative hype around the asset reached a fever pitch.

Just Another Dog Coin?

Well, not exactly, the Shiba Inu token has developed into a gateway to what is developing into a veritable ecosystem with Defi, and NFT functionality. The SHIB ecosystem houses three tokens within it, each serving a certain function. 

SHIB is the principal token of the – Japanese Shiba Inu – themed ecosystem. There’s about 50% of a quadrillion of these bad boys out there – since Buterin helped out with a massive token burn – and serves as the main incentivized asset on the Shiba Inu Decentralized Exchange (DEX.)

LEASH is the second asset on the Shiba Inu ecosystem’s roster of proprietary assets and also serves an incentivized asset function. With a total supply of 107,646 tokens, the token offers favorable potential rewards for users who utilize it to supply liquidity. 

BONE, on the other hand, exists for ecosystem governance purposes. This asset enables members of the ecosystem – the ShibArmy – to vote on upcoming proposals. There are 250 million digital assets in circulation. 

These tokens do not, merely, exist by themselves. They are attached to a vibrant ecosystem that recently reported a milestone of 1 million active wallets. The Shiba Inu ecosystem currently stands on the following pillars:

Shibaswap is the ecosystem’s DEX platform. This platform holds the ecosystem’s Defi functionality, allowing users to trade digital assets in a decentralized manner. Providing liquidity for the transactions executed on the ecosystem, in SHIB or LEASH, unlocks potentially lucrative rewards for participants.

Shiba Inu Incubator is an art-focused platform. The platform is designed to help the discovery and “incubation” of artists who operate outside of the orthodox artforms. 

Shiboshi is NFT generated through the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Compared to the Ethereum blockchain, each Shiboshi contains – within its code – unique attributes which distinguish it from any other. 

Closing

From the looks of things, Shiba Inu, and its cohort of supporters seem to be building out a legitimate ecosystem. The project – at present – shows a lot of promise, as they have, recently, gone as far as pointing out a Shiba Inu scale to protect user funds. 

The project’s value, however, still falls within the realm of speculation. Investors ought to practice caution when buying into the asset, and only spend what they are comfortable with losing – should the whole thing fail to usurp Dogecoin which it seems close to doing. 

The post Shiba Inu: Is It More Than Just a Dog Themed Meme Coin? appeared first on Bizznerd.

With the cryptocurrency market in a hot frenzy of bullish action, it’s only natural that a good number of people would be interested in BTT Token. Especially when considering BitTorrent’s impressive user base and extensive history of favoring the decentralized approach to the internet.

It leaves a number of pressing questions like: did BitTorrent ever actually need an in-house cryptocurrency? Does BTT Token have any real use or is it purely speculative? Does Token economics make it a worthwhile buy from an investor’s perspective? To answer these questions, let’s take it back to the beginning.

BitTorrent’s history

BitTorrent’s life began when developer Bram Cohen, the founder of Torrent inc, started designing the protocol in April 2001 before the launch of version 1.0.0 a few months later on the 2nd of June.

In its earliest iterations, BitTorrent was free software that was released with no licensing whatsoever and remained this way until the release of version 6. From then onwards, BitTorrent evolved into a rebranding of torrent and is no longer open source.

It was designed to let users take advantage of a peer-to-peer network in order to share pretty much any content for free, which is probably why it grew so large. However, BitTorrent was not without its own flaws.

Using BitTorrent was risky business, one of those being the risk of your device catching a virus. Another one was the lack of anonymity involved. Because people were required to share their IP addresses for it to work, only those who were tech-savvy enough to mask their IP addresses were truly safe.

However, this did deter users. In fact, BitTorrent continued to grow and It was this growth that would bring about the first major problems for the company. The popularity of BitTorrent coupled with the fact that content was distributed for free caught the attention of the entertainment industry, leading to threats of legal action for reasons related to piracy.

BitTorrent and the BTT Token

And then came the cryptocurrency era, and BitTorrent was not about to get left behind. So, they launched their very own BitTorrent Token. The token has a market cap of over $2 billion and saw a massive spike in the earlier part of the year,  going as high as $0.01269 before crashing to $0.004238.

As for practical use cases, “BitTorrent’s original goal was to disrupt the legacy entertainment industry and how consumers obtain content.” as per CoinMarket cap.

However, there is a long way to go before achieving this. Furthermore, to get a better reading of whether or not BTT is a good buy, one has to properly consider the fundamentals. Yes, BitTorrent has a major user base. However, the token’s total supply sits at 990 billion – with more than 600 billion of that already in circulation.

Though it may have a valid use case, the true value of BTT is subject to the cycle of supply vs demand. Furthermore, to truly gain ground BitTorrent has to work more actively in pushing forward their own idea of disrupting the entertainment industry. Only then that we might see the true potential of BTT.

The post BitTorrent & BTT Token; The History & The Way Forward  appeared first on Bizznerd.

How did the NFTs start?

Like every other innovation that came with blockchain and cryptocurrency, this string of three characters that can now arguably be described as mainstream started out in what some may see as an obscure corner of the web. With only those involved in the digital assets space being aware of the disruptive potential of this specific application of decentralized ledger technology.

That disruptive capability is the ability to authenticate the scarcity and originality of artworks, designs, and practically anything that can be digitized- without the need for a middleman.

This concept of verifiable uniqueness in a realm where anything can be copied caught on very quickly in the world of digital art. So much so that established auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s were drawn into the new NFTs art frenzy. The former made a massive $68 million sale on a piece titled “Everyday’s” by a digital artist who goes by the alias, “Beeple”.

Trouble on the horizon

However, long before the vast amounts of cryptocurrency exchanged hands for Beeple’s digital artwork, there was a contingent of onlookers (participants as well) who felt that the world of veritable digital art buying fever that sent prices higher and higher was rapidly losing stability and was due to come crashing down.

Even the buyer of Beeple’s record-breaker NFT, Vignesh Sundaresan, was counted among them after saying that investing in NFTs was “even crazier than investing in crypto”. For many of them, this new craze was reminiscent of the build-up to when the Dot com bubble burst.

However, during that very same period in recent history, many disregarded and laughed off the rapid growth of tech startups prior to the market crash. Only to eat their words when the dust had finally settled and the true value of the technological innovation began to show.

This story played out again in the broader cryptocurrency market. The build-up to the highs of 2017, which were followed by a sharp correction in prices. From there, many detractors foretold the impending end of the cryptocurrency market.

However, what we see today is the exact opposite of the doomsday predictions. Most assets have recorded new all-time highs, institutional interest is growing and of course, the newest innovation – NFTs – is a hot topic of discussions across a broad spectrum of different people.

A bright future ahead

Though NFT art sales have slowed in tandem with the rest of the market as it cooled down from the price highs achieved during the early stages of the year, the NFT revolution is far from over.

It found its footing in digital art and then moved on to sports memorabilia like digital trading cards while grabbing the attention of the music and fashions industries- This gives the NFT market a lot of room for growth.

As the innovative technology swept through these industries, it received a lot of media attention as big names in entertainment like Paris Hilton, Mila Kunis, and Grimes got involved. The biggest growth of NFTs outside of visual art happened quietly in the gaming industry.

NFTs and gaming

With the growth of blockchain-based gaming, NFTs have found very fertile ground. In the gaming world, the Non-fungible tokens take the form of rare and unique in-game items and avatar skins which are traded on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarify. The very same ones where most digital artworks are sold.

For the gaming industry, the idea of rare and unique items in a digital world has been around for some time. However, the advent of NFTs turns this idea into a reality. This makes the world of video games a perfect match for NFTs, now and in the long run.

The marriage of NFTs and gaming is fueling the rise of new economies built on developing and trading these in-game items and people are actually making a living from this, which further validates the productive potential of NFTs.

Closing thoughts

Nevertheless, gaming is just the start of the NFT revolution’s expansion beyond art. There is still a lot of room for growth in the music, film, and fashion industries – where collectibles from celebrities have been valued by fans for many years.

The post The NFTs Revolution’s Extension Beyond Art appeared first on Bizznerd.

For these financial institutions, the growth of cryptocurrency represents an opportunity to remodel their approach to banking and financial services in the hopes of getting ahead of the bigger banks, which have been the most reluctant to embrace blockchain-based finance. To that end, here is a list of the best cryptocurrency-friendly banks and financial service providers for 2021 – in no particular order.

The Best Crypto-Friendly Banks Right Now

Wala

Because one of cryptocurrency’s biggest selling points is the democratization of finance, a banking service like Wala fits perfectly in this list. Wala, being based in one of the most unbanked regions in the world, Africa, positions the bank well to be a future leader in both traditional finance and digital assets in the territory.

Solaris 

The German-based bank is a fine example of a financial institution going all-in on digital assets. Apart from joining forces with a number of cryptocurrency platforms to build end-to-end infrastructure for seamless digital assets transactions, SolarisBank also offers a fully compliant crypto custody service with an integrated brokerage.

Ally 

The United States has one of the largest and most active cryptocurrency communities in the world. However, there are still many concerns, especially the question of regulation. To tackle these burdens, Ally Bank worked to ensure that it is fully regulated by the relevant authorities and offers its clients both traditional and cryptocurrency-related financial services.

Multis 

Multis’ main focus is to offer cryptocurrency banking services that are tailored to suit businesses. The San Francisco-based company allows its clients to securely deposit, store, trade, and withdraw digital assets through the services it offers. Furthermore, Multis helps its customers with managing their portfolios through tools like signals and indicators. It even goes as far as offering a payroll management service.

Revolut

Revolut is a UK-based bank that offers a wide range of digital asset-related services. For starters, Revolut’s app is a one-stop-shop where customers can buy, sell and withdraw crypto directly through the bank. Second, the bank also offers a profitable nominee service – an old method used by stockbrokers to protect their clients against them [Broker] going insolvent.

Wirex

Wirex is probably the most renowned of the financial institutions on this list and it is probably one of the oldest. Through a solid partnership with MasterCard, Wirex customers are able to use the debit card that is provided to directly spend their digital assets in exchange for goods in the real world – with the comfort of knowing that the company is fully regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

The post Best Cryptocurrency Friendly Banks In 2021 appeared first on Bizznerd.

Changes to Ethereum

Over the past two months, important changes have taken place on the Ethereum network. In early August, the London update was released. It launched the token burn mechanism. Thanks to this, on September 4th, for the first time in the history of Ethereum’s existence, the emission of the altcoin became negative. More digital coins were burned that day than new ones were issued.

Burning is the destruction of a certain number of tokens to reduce their number in circulation. This method is used to combat inflation and increase the value of cryptocurrencies. All coin-burning operations are recorded on the blockchain as a transaction. Anyone can verify that the coins have been destroyed.

At the same time, in the blockchain of the first cryptocurrency, the deflationary model was initially laid down, since the number of bitcoins is limited to 21 million (at the moment, almost 19 million have been mined). It is also worth considering that about 20% of the bitcoins already mined ($ 158 billion at the current exchange rate as of September 28) are on wallets that were irretrievably lost. This reduces the amount of Bitcoin in circulation.

In November of this year, the Taproot update will be released on the bitcoin network, which will add the ability to create smart contracts on the blockchain of the main cryptocurrency.

How Bitcoin differs from Ethereum

Bitcoin was created as a peer-to-peer payment system. The performance of it depends entirely on its users. The creator of bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto argued in the “white paper” that the main advantage of the cryptocurrency is its decentralization and the absence of privileged users who could somehow influence the network.

Ethereum also has the structure of a decentralized peer-to-peer payment system. However, altcoin developers have gone further and developed a virtual machine that allows the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). The technology has proved to be so successful that it is already being used by major companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Sberbank, Lufthansa, the international charity UNICEF, and others.

At the moment, many different projects are working on the Ethereum blockchain: from games (CryptoKitties, Axie Infinity) to NFT marketplaces (OpenSea) and decentralized crypto exchanges (Uniswap).

The first cryptocurrency is based on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm, which requires a lot of computing power from miners to keep the network operational and conduct transactions. The PoW algorithm was also used to create Ethereum, but at the moment the altcoin is in the active phase of switching to another algorithm – Proof-of-Stake (PoS), which completely excludes mining. In PoS, the network is ensured by the cryptocurrency holders and rewarded for this. This process is called staking.

Not competitors

Bitcoin and Ethereum were initially positioned as completely different projects, says Mikhail Karkhalev, financial analyst at Currency.com crypto exchange. According to him, Ethereum is more of a technology for creating decentralized applications, while Bitcoin has become a vehicle for transferring and storing value.

“There is no point in treating them as competing products,” the analyst explained.

Ethereum has already confidently taken its place in the market, but other similar projects will appear that can compete with it, said Karkhalev. He also added that there are more and more other blockchains for creating decentralized applications since the creation of Vitalik Buterin is far from ideal.

Last week, buyers of TIME magazine’s non-fungible tokens spent four times as much on commissions as buying the NFTs themselves. One of the users paid a commission of more than $ 70K when buying 10 NFT tokens from TIME, the cost of which was 1 ETH ($ 3.1K at the time of purchase).

Rivals to Bitcoin

According to Karkhalev, at the moment there are no projects on the crypto market that could make real competition to bitcoin. A similar project is Litecoin, but if Bitcoin is “digital gold”, then LTC is “digital silver,” the analyst summed up.

Litecoin is a digital coin that was created on the basis of the bitcoin blockchain. It differs from the first cryptocurrency in its low commission and fast transactions.

Different statuses in the industry

Ethereum is the backbone of blockchain products and, in principle, the foundation of the modern blockchain industry. Bitcoin, however, is an exchange-traded investment asset with a limited supply and characterized by deflationary properties, said Viktor Pershikov, lead analyst at 8848 Invest.

These assets can be compared if we consider them as digital tokens, but from the point of view of their fundamental characteristics, these assets differ dramatically.

In the future, we should not expect any confrontations between Bitcoin and Ethereum, since the main cryptocurrency has taken its niche “whipping boy” from the standpoint of regulators and financial authorities, as it identifies the entire sphere of digital assets in its person

The post Why Ethereum is not a rival to Bitcoin appeared first on Bizznerd.

Filed in a Manhattan Federal Court on the 22nd of December 2020, the SEC’s 70-page complaint against Ripple Labs and two of its executives – Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen – accuses the company and executives of illegally selling a security when XRP tokens were distributed.

More specifically, the court document filed by the SEC points to a sum of approximately $1.4 billion. The company acquired them through what the securities regulator has labeled as an “ongoing sale” of unregistered securities. Furthermore, the SEC accuses the two executives of secretly selling off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of their own XRP holdings, while promoting the tokens as a good long-term investment.

“While he was selling millions of XRP, Garlinghouse frequently told investors that he was invested in XRP and that he was bullish on the investment,  he also encouraged investors to be patient and look at the price of XRP on a longer time horizon,” as per SEC complaint.

Two Sides To A Story

Unlike the majority of other companies that find themselves in the SEC’s firing line – usually opting for a quiet submission through settling – Garlinghouse, Larsen, and Ripple Labs have opted to go toe-to-toe with the regulator.

Ripple is backed by an all-star team of legal professionals that includes names like, Stuart Alderoty and Mary Jo White. They and its executives plan to hit back at the SEC’s complaint on a number of grounds.

One is the approach that the SEC has taken when dealing with cryptocurrency-related cases. According to Alderoty – who spent close to two decades as legal counsel for traditional banks, one of the main reasons that the SEC’s case is fundamentally flawed is that firstly, the regulator failed to give fair notice and secondly, in doing so has created regulatory confusion instead of clarity.

Aldetory started “Not only have they failed to provide fair notice, we believe and we’ve alleged that they’ve actually created mass confusion in the marketplace.”

Another point that the defense is looking to exploit is the SEC’s timing. According to White, the SEC’s decision to take time in going after Ripple calls into question the regulator’s fairness.

“When it takes that long to figure out a case, you shouldn’t be bringing it. It’s not something I would do walking out the door,” said White.

She made her statement against the backdrop of the SEC’s earlier actions against EOS. It ran a year-long ICO that attracted roughly $4 billion in investment. That included Ethereum, and the ICO’s of chat apps Telegram and KIK. Despite that, Ethereum walked away from the court case.

In her opinion, these are major inconsistencies in how the SEC has approached different Cryptocurrency related cases.

What to Expect Next

The SEC continues its fight to have the court label Ripple Labs as securities violators. Ripple maintains its defensive position as a victim of an unfair and incompetent regulator. New York Federal Courts will have to decide the outcome of this encounter.

The SEC usually doesn’t bring a case to the court unless they are confident of a victory. The agency has also recently had faced scrutiny from Capitol Hill about their handling of so-called ”meme-stock” trading. This to some observes may present as an opportunity for Ripple Labs.

To further complicate the matter, a legion of about 12 000 XRP retail investors and users have decided to have their say in the matter. According to a filing they made on the 19th of April, the XRP holders are looking to join the proceedings as third-party defendants. Though firmly on the side of Ripple Labs, and working to “protect their interests”, they have not made any claims and/or counterclaims against the SEC.

There are many variables at play here. Observers and investors are certain of one thing, and the stakes are high for both sides. Gensler, the current chair of the SEC, has a losing outcome in this case. He has been slowing down his planned crackdown on Stable Coins and the Defi market. On the other hand, a victory could lead to an increase in his tempo.

For Ripple – which has faced strain on its relations with key partners like, MoneyGram and Tetragon – and the rest of the cryptocurrency market, the results of this case will have a far-reaching impact on the digital assets environment. A loss could dampen spirits and set off a downward trend. Though, a win would be a boon to confidence – only time will tell which it will be.

The post A Court Battle That Could Shape Cryptocurrency Regulations appeared first on Bizznerd.

As more and more people become aware of and interested in the digital assets market, one can expect nefarious opportunists to take notice and do the same. Unfortunately, this has been the case for the growing blockchain and crypto market. Not too long ago, we saw many reports of ICO’s (Initial Coin Offering) skating off with investor funds. After gaining traction in the Defi scene, investors kept the possibility of getting “rug pulled” in mind, not to mention the constant threat of exchanges getting hacked.

Now the bad behavior spotlight seems to have shifted focus towards cloud mining. But, IQ Mining seems to be the star of the show. Including many bad reviews from individuals stating how they had lost their funds to the operation.

“Bunch of scammers. Not allowing me to withdraw my funds for the last 6 months. Keep on saying our legal team checking your papers.”.  One Twitter user wrote in a response to one of IQ Mining’s most recent tweets.

A Closer Look At IQ Mining

When one looks into the company, potential investors cant find much verifiable information available. This should be one of the first red flags. From the company’s website, the only intel one gets about IQ Mining and the team behind it is vague, to say the least.

“IQMining was founded at the end of 2016 by a team of experts in blockchain programming and IT engineers. The current members of our altcoins mining team come from different scientific disciplines, but our common faith in cryptocurrencies has brought us together” 

Suspicious background of IQ Mining

And that is the long and short of any description you’ll get from IQ Mining. People can get other useful information from the website. Such as a corporation called IQ Mining operates by a corporation named, Tuwo Limited. This is another potential red flag as the Marshall Islands is a secrecy-prone tax haven state. They don’t keep a public registrar of company shareholders.

In the words of Off-Shoreprotection.com,

“The Marshall Islands has outstanding asset protection legislation and has long declined to collaborate with the OECD on any tax information exchange agreements. Non-Resident Companies are also not required to file audited accounts, annual returns, or submit any financial records, details of its owners or any shareholder of the company, all the details of which are kept confidential.”

This may not be such a good thing for those who have lost their funds. As some of these laws would actively work against their efforts.

Learning our lesson

We’ve probably all heard this one before, “if something seems too good to be true, it usually is”. The only way we can protect ourselves from similar situations in the future is to stay vigilant. Look for the names of people said to be behind a project. Do some background checking where you can, be on the lookout for promises of market-beating returns, and look into them. At this point in time, being aggressive about information gathering is the only way to stay safe.

The post IQ Mining: The Most Talked About Scam In Cloud Mining appeared first on Bizznerd.

Before diving into the nitty-gritty details of the title in its contemporary state. Let’s run a quick recap and explainer of what it is and how we got to where we are today.

Cloud Mining From The Beginning To Now

In the years leading up to the 2017 bull run, the cost of cryptocurrency mining saw a steady and steep increase. That is due to the popularity spike. As the networks grew their user bases the hash rate demands increased. This in turn fueled an ever-increasing appetite for more specialised and more expensive crypto mining equipment. Furthermore, many saw the rise of mining firms like Bitmain as the end of Bitcoin’s freedom from centralized control.

Cloud Mining presented a potential remedy to the soaring costs and plummeting profits for small-scale mining operations. As the crossroads where blockchain-based transaction validation and cloud computing meet. Cloud Mining is intended to lower the financial threshold to entry through a business model. That will allow interested parties to rent the computing power from cloud services.

They offer these services in two distinct packages: Hosted Mining and Leased Hash power agreement. The former being the most popular model of Cloud Mining.

Hosted Mining

In the instance of Hosted Mining, a customer invests towards purchasing or leasing mining hardware that Cloud Mining service’s facility houses and operates. The mining services main responsibility is to ensure that the equipment is always running under optimal conditions, leaving direct control of the digital assets to the customer. The biggest drawback to this business model is the relatively steep cost of entry.

Hash Power Leasing Agreements

The approach here is very straight forward, users pay to lease hash power from a cryptocurrency mining farm and in return take a portion of the mining operations’ overall profits. Those people who are interested Altcoin mining are also usually interested in this form of Cloud Mining.

What To Look Out For

Though the cost reductions associated with Cloud Mining are very attractive, there are a number of potentially serious issues that one should always be on the lookout for.

Apart from the worrying proliferation of outright scams in this segment, the growth of cryptocurrency adoption will only make this field more competitive. If users or mining farms fail to keep up with the growing hash rate demands, diminished gains and fruitless harvest is all they’ll have to look forward to.

On that note, paying a lot of attention to the prospect of long-term profitability is a very good idea. Due to the fact that the mining farms can’t bear the financial burden of running the hardware, this means that a company that plans to stay afloat over the long run may have to take a slice of the profits as regular user fees alone might not be enough to keep the company viable. This dynamic will definitely have an impact on user profitability.

It is also important to note that the state of the market intertwines with cryptocurrency mining profitability. So, if investors fall out of favor with a particular digital asset, then the fixed nature of some of these lease agreements could betray an investor.

Is It Viable In 2021

As with every other cryptocurrency-related investment, due diligence is king. As for profitability, corporations like Bitmain tend to have better-looking financials during bull market cycles. Whether it works out the same or not for Cloud Mining investors is a matter of each investor crunching the numbers and working from those results.

It would also be wise to note that it is only a matter of time before regulators and tax authorities come strolling down this avenue of crypto investing.

The post Cloud Mining;  Is It Viable In 2021? appeared first on Bizznerd.

When blockchain technology gave the world a clear opportunity to change the financial sector, and many others as well, Brendan Eich – creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla (Firefox) and Brian Bondy teamed up when they saw an opening that could be used to change how the everyday user experience the Internet.

“With your old browser, you paid to browse the web by viewing ads with your valuable attention. You spent your valuable time downloading invasive ad technology that transmitted your precious private data to advertisers — without your consent.” reads their webpage.

Brave Browser – available on Windows, Mac OS, IOS, and Android – gives users who value their personal data the option of earning BAT rewards. It is through their Brave rewards program – which is completely optional.

So How Do You Start Earning?

Installing & using Brave Browser

This is by far the easiest route to your free crypto. All one needs to do is install the browser and use it for 30 days to earn free BAT.  They give out monthly grants of 25 – 40 BAT to users randomly.

Watching ads on Brave

Another simple way Brave users can earn rewards is by opting to view advertisements. Opposed to blocking them. To start, you need to click on the BAT triangle log, then turn on rewards and ads. From there, you choose the maximum number of ads

Brave Rewards For content Creators

This is probably the most exciting of the Brave rewards options. Through this program, content creators like YouTubers, Bloggers, and Podcasters can now earn BAT tips directly through their preferred content-sharing website.

To get started, one will have to add their site/channel to the Brave rewards program. From there, fans and followers can start typing creators directly in BAT. Even create a monthly schedule to support their favorite content.

Referrals

Lastly, Brave users can also earn up to $7.50 worth of BAT by referring other users. With using a referral link that they give to all users who sign up for the Brave Creator program.

That said, giving users the opportunity to get some free crypto while they surf the web is not the only reason that Brave could be the next best browser. It also promises to smooth out one’s experience of the web by “reimagining the broken surveillance economy” that dampens the experience.

“The ads and trackers used to monopolize your attention drain your computer’s resources, resulting in a browsing experience that’s not only less private, but considerably slower.”  as per Brave.

In dealing with these issues, the Brave browser promises to remove a significant amount of latency to the Internet experience and also makes your browsing more secure.

The post Here’s How To Earn Free BAT When Using Brave Browser appeared first on Bizznerd.

Traditional Mining Remains Expensive

Cryptocurrency mining doesn’t only apply to top assets, but much more than that. Being involved in mining Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or other assets can prove very expensive. Acquiring the necessary hardware to begin the mining operation often requires a steep upfront investment, furthermore, nothing can be worse than Making the maintenance fees related to traditional mining.

Electricity is the core in mining cryptocurrencies. The Proof-of-Work algorithm employed by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others requires significant mining capacity over time.

Powering those machines means using more electricity, a concept that has gotten plenty of scrutiny lately. Even Elon Musk criticizes the Bitcoin network for its severe impact on the environment, even if most Bitcoin mining electricity comes from renewable sources.

Yes, it can be expensive, competitive, risky, and yet, the mining concept goes well beyond Proof-of-Work these days, creating new and exciting opportunities for onlookers and enthusiasts. It is crucial to compare the different options on the table and figure out which approach will work best.

The Traditional Mining Route

For those users who want to opt for a more traditional option and mine cryptocurrencies with their graphics card (GPU), there are several options to explore. It all comes down to finding a GPU capable of ming at competitive speeds and finding the right network to maximize profits. That latter option can be a bit tricky, though, although there are noteworthy options that might surprise a few people.
As things stand, the most profitable currency to mine with a GPU is Ravencoin. That may be a bit surprising, although the X16 algorithm is quite user-friendly and approachable by anyone with a recent graphics card. Rewards usually depend heavily on the RVN price, yet the currency has a 5,000 RVN block reward. Depending on how much one pays for electricity, it is relatively straightforward to earn a few dollars per day by mining this altcoin.

Another favorable option is mining Ethereum. Although there is a lot of network competition, it remains one of the more popular crypto assets on the market today. Moreover, with the upcoming switch to proof-of-stake, people expect the value of ETH to go up in the coming months.  There is no guarantee of that happening, however, but exploring the different opportunities can prove worthwhile. It is unclear when the switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake will occur, however. Ensuring a return on investment for people who begin to mine Ethereum today might be impossible, depending on the developers’ timeline.

For those who want to get in on the GPU mining action, finding the right card is of the utmost importance. Per WhatToMine, the most lucrative card is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, with a maximum profit of $7.23 per day. Finding such a card at average prices is currently impossible, however. The AMD Raden VII is still competitive, despite being launched in 2017.  No one should expect to get rich overnight from cryptocurrency mining, however. The costs will not always outweigh the earnings.

Exploring Alternative Options

Rather than opting for GPU mining or buying special hardware to mine Bitcoin, there are other options to explore. One currency, named Crypton, provides a solution that involves the Utopia Mining Bot. Contrary to what one might think, this Bot does not participate in cryptocurrency trading, Instead, it supports the network by operating a node to collect rewards. It provides a different spin on the traditional mining concept while still incentivizing users. More importantly, the network prevents selfish mining.

For those looking to maximize their mining returns, the only requirement is running the Mining Bot 24/7. Nodes are tasked with providing RAM, packet routing, and generating “bogus” packets to cover up real data packets. All transactions occurring over the Utopia network via Crypto are confidential and untraceable. To provide that functionality, nodes are essential, making them eligible for a reward. As users provide resources in exchange for these rewards, one can make a point they are “mining” rewards, even if it doesn’t involve regular mining software or hardware.

The best way to keep the node running continuously is by running a Virtual power Server, or VPS. Installing the Utopia Mining Bit on a VPN should give node owners the best chance at maximizing their returns and profit. Using other hardware, such as a computer or smartphone will not guarantee 100% uptime on the node. Thus opting for a different approach that requires less maintenance and upkeep can prove beneficial.

It is worth noting that the Utopia Mining Bot is not a feature one can enable in the native application. It is an entirely separate application that users can download manually. Opting for this approach makes the engagement in Crypton mining a conscious and deliberate one, further empowering users who want to be part of this ecosystem.

Conclusion

The concept of mining cryptocurrencies comes in many different forms. Some people prefer the traditional option of buying a GPU or dedicated mining unit to compete for a share of the block rewards. Others will try their hand at something more accessible that requires far less expertise and hassle while still providing acceptable results.

There is no right or wrong approach when it comes to cryptocurrency mining. The approach by utopia is different from what people might be used to today, but running a node, providing rewards, and using resources – hardware and bandwidth – to empower a network can be considered “mining”, even if it isn’t in the traditional sense. Thinking outside of the box is never a bad idea, especially if it can make cryptocurrency more appealing and accessible.

The post Mining, Crypto,and industry Best practices appeared first on Bizznerd.

Over the past year, the interest in decentralised applications has skyrocketed – led mainly by Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and the growing popularity of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). With that being the case, it might be safe to assume that new entrants to the cryptocurrency space might also find these emerging fields interesting.

With that in mind, one easily notices the importance of security and ease of use as more and more people start to get involved.

As For MetaMask

Very Popular among early adopters, MetaMask is a champion decentralisation. MetaMask is both an open sourced and non-custodial ETH wallet and Ethereum dapp browser, staying true to the idea of a minimalist approach to intermediary involvement. This means that users retain full control of their private keys –  its open source nature means that anyone can scrutinise and submit suggestions regarding the program’s underlying code (which are subject to the scrutiny of the maintenance team).

MetaMask came to life in 2016 and is the brainchild of developer duo, Dan Finlay and Aaron Davis. It started out as a web-based wallet that also acted as a browser extension to help users interact with the decentralised web. MetaMask is compatible with Chrome, Brave Browser, and FireFox, and was purposefully created to streamline interactions between the Ethereum network and everyday users. 

Fast forward to today and one sees that MetaMask has grown, even adding a mobile app for dapp browsing on the go.

Using MetaMask

The very first thing we need to do here is either download and install the mobile app or desktop based extension/add-on for the relevant Browsers. Once that’s done, the next step is setting up your user profile. This is as easy as following the given prompts – like agreeing to the terms and choosing a password.

What follows is possibly the most critical points of the setup process. This is when you have to record and store your 12-word backup phrase. This phrase is how you will regain access to your user account should you forget your password.

Having completed these steps, you should see MetaMask’s main wallet interface displayed on screen. From here on out, you are free to interact with the world of Ethereum – so long as you have the necessary ETH to pay for the transaction fees. 

Funding Your MetaMask Wallet

MetaMask supports ETH and all tokens related to Ethereum’s ERC protocols. Therefore, getting funds into your MetaMask wallet is as simple as visiting an exchange like Binance, buying ETH and/or ERC-20 tokens, then transferring them to your MetaMask wallet address.

Interacting With Dapps

Without the need for enduring the rigours of signing up again and again, users can interact with any dapp on the Ethereum network by simply clicking or tapping on their screens.

One other neat feature that MetaMask has is that users are able to adjust gas fees to suit their needs. If you need your transactions to happen quickly, then you’ll be expected to pay a higher gas fee in order to facilitate that.

Pros

MetaMask supports all Ethereum related tokens and services and the open source nature adds a layer of transparency, which fosters trust between the users and the team of developers – this is especially reassuring for those who like decentralisation, but don’t know which wallet services and dapp browsers to trust. 

The addition of a mobile app is also a win.

Cons

Though the interface is simple, some may feel it is not necessarily the most intuitive interface available on the market. Another issue is that lesser known coins need to be added manually. This is not an impossible task for a beginner, but could be a deterrent for irritable users.

The post Review: MetaMask appeared first on Bizznerd.

Volatility and risk tend to be white and rice in the minds of traders across markets. This psychological paring of the two, mutually exclusive, concepts plays into why the bulk of institutional capital remains on the sidelines, regarding cryptocurrencies being an asset class they would dip their toes into. A study by Fidelity Digital Assets – performed early in 2020 – came to findings of similar effect. Which offers an idea of the influence the phenomenon has on trader behaviour.

What Is Volatility?

Institutional traders – who are usually handling a ton of other people’s money, and have set targets that allow for minimal risk taking – tend to equate volatility with risk. So much so that the CBOE Volatility Index, which gives a reading of the S&P 500’s implied volatility (more on that in just a bit) is nicknamed the Fear Index. The term, volatility, is nothing to be feared though. Now that we’re certain of what it is not, let us now turn our attention to what it is.

Volatility, by virtue of its psychological relationship with risk, usually implies loss of funds, to the typical trader. However, risk and volatility are in fact, quite separate from one another. The key separating factor between the two concepts is that volatility is measurable, while risk – on the other hand – is the result of innumerable variables. A thing of chance. Therefore, immeasurable.

Volatility – in purely formal terms – denotes just the degree of movement in an asset’s price, in any direction. When besuited market whizzes speak of volatility, they are generally referring to Realized Volatility. Market Volatility’s second head, Implied Volatility – on the other hand – gives a measurement of what the market expects future volatility to look like. This particular sentiment is expressed in Options prices.

The two heads of the beast known as Volatility interplayed, usually offer reliable insight into impending market moves. When  Implied Volatility is at a higher level than Realized Volatility, that usually denotes an increase in volatility. Digital Asset market volatility dynamics are, interestingly, different to what is typical of classic markets.

In the incumbent market system, volatility tends to move inversely to price, with the VIX typically going in the opposite direction of S&P 500 price trends. Whereas with Bitcoin, volatility tends to trend in unison with price moves.

Order In The Chaos?

While many traders fear volatility, an increasing number of institutional traders have begun to dip their toes into the crypto pond. Thy brings increased liquidity, which narrows spreads, and matures the space.

While stablecoins have done a great deal to offset the trepidation of many traders – causing an increase in crypto in trading volumes since inception in 2018 – there is still room for growth. Major companies seem to be stepping up to offer digital asset-related services, under regulation, to more users.

Crypto volatility, however, could be something traders will simply have to become accustomed to, as most markets allow for a stabilization period, by operating within certain hours. Crypto – on the other hand – trades 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Volatility could simply be endemic to crypto markets.

The post Crypto Market Volatility: A Misunderstood Opportunity For Traders? appeared first on Bizznerd.

The question has been on the minds of speculators – the world over – since  the end of the last bull run at the close of 2017. A number of pundits have come forward with predictions, some as far fetched as $1 million, and others based on the asset’s past performance.

Financial Analyst and face of the Keiser report, Max Keiser predicted a $400,000 top for Bitcoin, while Internet Entrepreneur and Investor, foresaw a $75,000 top. Dutch trader, and Crypto Twitter personality, PlanB – based on his Bitcoin Stock-To-Flow model – believes Bitcoin may go as far as $300,000.

Experience market operator Josh Rager, in January of 2020 predicted that this bull run would end with Bitcoin at a price range of about $85,000 – $100,000. Leveraging his prediction on Bitcoin’s historical price action, he realized Bitcoin ATH’s drop by a certain percentage Bizznerd caught up with him to get details on his opinion.

Bizznerd: What do you consider when making predictions?

Josh Rager: The most important thing is to zoom out and look at the macro trend of the market. Start on the monthly chart, and work your way into the weekly/ daily and from there you can see whether an asset is in an uptrend, downtrend, or sideways market – that will give an idea of what’s likely next. Then you can look at the market structure and define key levels of resistance and support using past price history,  I personally like to use Volume profile. I look at areas where the most volume was traded (these tend to be areas of supply/demand). Other charts I pay attention too are the 4 hr 1 hr and 15 minute charts.

I also like to pay attention to the funding rate, and the sentiment of the market. So based on trend, market structure, price action, and sentiment, I tend to make predictions on what’s likely to happen next (or possibilities as there are no certainties ever.)

Bizznerd: Your prediction is more moderate than most analysts, which is why I asked the first question. Why do you think most analysts make high predictions about Bitcoin’s future prices? What do they miss?

Josh Rager: Many people are chronically bullish because of the type of gains Bitcoin has made over the past 10 years and they want to be a part of the next big bull run to new highs. The fundamentals with Bitcoin being scarce, deflationary, and sound money also have people hoping for high prices. Many of these high predictions are based on bias as the return on investment from each cycle low to each cycle high is reduced by almost 20% each time. So when I look at the next peak for Bitcoin, I take that into account and I’m predicting much lower prices for the next high than most.

Everyone also likes to follow a bullish perspective. It makes them feel good so analysts sometimes lean bullish to get followers. Nobody likes to be told that they’re going to lose money. But this can lead to nonsensical speculative price predictions.

Bizznerd: How about halving rallies? Are they really a demand/supply phenomenon, whale activity, or just unfounded hype?

Josh Rager: While the block reward reduces, the overall supply of Bitcoin doesn’t reduce post halving (though I think demand will continue to go up after halving)  But we’ve seen Bitcoin rally into halving and then drop/go sideways afterward… only to rally back and push to new highs.

It’s hard to say but the sample size is very small and to be honest, I personally think it’s already somewhat priced in as we’ve rallied from mid $6k to almost $10k (at time of interview in late Jan 2020). I think it moves up a little higher still from here and naturally price will need a pull back in the next couple months, and that could likely be around the halving. So, I would say it’s overhyped right now.

Bizznerd: What do you believe the next decade has in store for crypto markets?

Josh Rager: Long term, I’m bullish on digital assets,especially Bitcoin with its fundamentals. I think we truly can see more adoption of blockchain technology that will certainly have a positive impact on long term price of a few assets. I also believe that we see heavy regulation, and that’s going to allow more users and adopters. Which is a good thing overall and will bring more volume and liquidity in to keep the long term uptrend prices for Bitcoin going.

______

Rager, has since updated his prediction. He now believes that the current bullrun could extend as far as 2023, and that $150, 000/BTC is in play. It remains to be seen, which of the numerous projections made will hold, but with Bitcoin comfortably halfway to $100,000 at time of writing, we may be well above $100,00 by year-end alone.

The post What Price Will Bitcoin Peak At, This Bull Run? appeared first on Bizznerd.

The move by FTX, to tokenize real-world assets, having them represented by digital assets which allow for fractional ownership, is in keeping with a growing trend in the digital asset arena. The timing of the offering could be construed as genius too, with the popularity of Bitcoin in institutional circles being near fever pitch lately.

FTX’s Chief Executive Officer, Sam Bankman-Fried stated that the offering was geared towards making Equities trading more accessible to individuals who would, traditionally, be kept out of these particular markets by high entry barriers;Investor Qualification requirements, costs, trade execution times, and what have you? Of trading Equities the traditional route, “for a lot of people it’s a hassle” remarked the trading platform’s CEO, alluding to the broad access to financial markets asset tokenization affords to retail traders. Now the lay investor can have a go at assets that are, classically, available to an elite few.

“These products demonstrate a powerful future, in which assets are digitized and traders have unlimited creative potential to express their beliefs about the markets,” – Bankman-Fried, CEO, FTX.

The equity tokens, each, represent a fraction of a share of the underlying asset, and operate as ETF’s (Exchange Traded Funds) or depository receipts, as Bankman-Fried put it. Users who are interested in partaking of the offering will be required to perform a KYC verification process administered by CM Equity, and will also have to go through CM Equity, should they want to cash out their position. 

“These fractional stock products reflect the reality that today’s traders are industry and sector spanning and want trading opportunities that fully match their interests and mindset” – Bankman-Fried 

There will be no fees associated with holding the assets, trading however, comes with certain fees attached. Trading in the tokenized Stocks will be available to all FTX customers, but with be restricted in the United States, and several other restricted jurisdictions.

By listing tokenized securities, FTX joins, AplhaPoint, Fusang, STO Global-X, tZERO, and a host of other firms putting in concerted efforts towards convincing the traditional financial world to pivot in the direction of blockchain and tokenization. One can see why, as tokenization carries with it the potential, not only to allow Joe Average a shot at more sophisticated wealth building opportunities, but to – in turn – open firms and asset markets up to greater capital potential, by not being as jurisdictionally restrictive as traditional asset markets have been. 

The sole fault one could, possibly, find with FTX’s equity token listing is the limited number of Equity assets on offer, but it’s still early days. One important thing is that they have helped prove that asset tokenization is indeed possible, and may go on to offer more tokenized assets in future. Perhaps, they might even go as far as offering securities that are exclusively, and wholly, listed on the platform. Though that is probably dependent on how far the practice of asset tokenization develops.

The post FTX Derivatives Exchange Lists Tokenized Equities appeared first on Bizznerd.

Yet, over the past few years, Bitcoin has massively outperformed all investment markets. While its market cap is still low, we have seen it perform better than stocks, precious metals, and real estate on a year-over-year basis.

Aside from that, buyers can now use their cryptocurrency to generate stable passive income through a number of different financial products, all from the comfort of their computers. This makes the crypto industry at least equal in cash flow opportunities as compared to the real estate market. So where should you invest in?

Real estate is going nowhere, but is it the best option?

Let’s face it – real estate is one of the most proven investment markets in the world. It is one with a lot of security, steady cash flow, and ever-increasing demand due to inflation rates.

A house that costs $100.000 today will nearly certainly cost 10% more in the next 5-10 years. This is because the money supply continues to increase on a steady basis, while housing value remains stable.

Real estate provides the strong upside of both value preservation and cash flow generation – While your money remains stored in a rental property (which you can sell at any point in time), you can generate at least 6-8% returns per annum simply by renting it out.

Aside from that, real estate property can be used as collateral when trying to take out loans for further investments.

So, long story short, real estate is a great investment opportunity – this is why it is a $10 Trillion dollar market. But there are also several drawbacks to consider:

• Short-term rentals (like Airbnb) are not sustainable as they can be banned on a state by state basis.
• Long-term rental agreements favour the tenant and you could end up losing money while the latest stays in your apartment without making payments.
• Geopolitical situations can heavily affect the pricing of homes, as well as the demand to obtain them.
• Taxes, fees, and repairs are all paid from the landlord’s pocket, which can take a large bite from your profits.
• Requires sizeable upfront investment.
• Offers low returns compared to other investment opportunities.

Cryptocurrency as a new investment opportunity

Cryptocurrency is not tangible. It is also a lot more volatile than the real estate market. For many, the price swings and uncertainty experienced in the markets make it impossible to transition from real estate – a proven and long-standing investment vehicle – into crypto.

However, it might be smart to allocate a small amount of your portfolio to cryptocurrency investments, and there are multiple reasons for that. Let’s describe them one by one:

• Cryptocurrency is an investment market in its infancy and still at a price discovery phase. While its fundamentals are stronger than many established markets, the public is still hesitant to invest, which would make you an early adoption, making the biggest upside.
• Much like real estate, cryptocurrency investors can earn a cryptocurrency cash flow by “staking” their coins. This is currently possible only with coins that run on PoS blockchains.
• On the contrary PoW coins can be stored in high-yield savings accounts on insured platforms, offering annual returns that nearly match that of the real estate industry. Among these platforms, BlockFi is about to go public, with a very high valuation. For reference, the platform offers an annual return rate of 8,6%, which is paid out weekly, thus taking the compound interest rate to nearly 10% at year’s end.
• Many low-cap cryptocurrencies pose a short-term money-making opportunity. For those who are aware of market cycle dynamics, technology trends, and sentiment conditions, crypto investing can be more rewarding than any other form of investing.

That being said, there are also some drawbacks to crypto as compared to real estate:

• ROI fluctuates massively, and so does the value of your investment.
• Regulations around crypto investments are constantly changing, and so does its taxation.
• Self custody (which is highly promoted in the crypto space) can be risky for non-tech savvy investors.

You could start your investment in crypto straight away. Just create a secure Bitamp bitcoin wallet and start your crypto journey with bitcoin.

So what is a better investment option?

In our opinion, both real estate and cryptocurrency should be part of a balanced portfolio. While real estate should form the majority of your investments (due to its low-risk and moderate returns), it would be unwise to disregard the growing industry of cryptocurrencies. Even a small, 1% allocation of your portfolio could quickly turn into 10% when cryptocurrency prices decide to (once again) go parabolic. And given the bull market, we are currently in, this is more likely than some tend to think.

The post Is it better to put your money in real estate or in cryptocurrency? appeared first on Bizznerd.

Founded in 2018, by technology and financial industry veteran, as well as current CEO, Thor Chan, AAX offers traders exposure to digital assets in an institutional level package. Having been the first digital assets focused exchange platform to join the illustrious, London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) Partner Platform, AAX may be an under celebrated benchmark, in what digital asset exchanges ought to offer, regarding performance, security, and regulatory compliance.

The AAX platform is powered by The London Stock Exchange’s patent LSEG technology Millennium Exchange trading infrastructure –  delivering similar performance to 40+ of the world’s top capital markets (This includes, The London Stock Exchange, The Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange, and Johannesburg Stock Exchange, among others.) Backboned by LSEG technology, AAX boasts multiple asset support, an army of trade matching algorithms, market maker protection, and pre-trade ‘risk filtering’, all in a low-latency (virtually none) package, specially upgraded to go round the clock with almost no downtime.

Designed to withstand the rigors of digital asset trading, and enable market participation related activity that is on parr – in terms of performance – to the most traded exchange platforms in the world, 24/7. There is method to the madness, in the exchange’s approach to the technology – as well as other partnerships the firm has inked – it relies on to deliver its services. AAX, in utilizing a system designed to facilitate high volume market activity, aims to be the exchange of choice in the – as yet unrealized – crypto-centric future.

The platform’s CEO, Thor Chan, has a decorated background in leading equities, derivatives, and other trading operations in addition to stints at multinationals, Microsoft, HSBC,App Annie, and Publicis. The chief executive has gathered a similarly skilled team to aid him in positioning AAX as the premier cryptocurrency exchange platform.

The exchange’s greatest claim to glory is that trading on the platform is backboned by a world class, low-latency, high execution-speed piece of software. Not at all, hot air – as some of the biggest capital markets on earth utilize the very same infrastructure. In addition to the bells-and-whistles that come loaded on the Millennium Exchange platform infrastructure, AAX provides user friendly Over-the-Counter crypto trading, as well as – lighting quick – Spot and Derivatives trading of over 50 pairs. With user convenience a priority on the platform, AAX also sports a simple fiat-crypto onramp/offramp feature, direct to users’ bank account.

Typical of Cryptocurrency exchange platforms nowadays, AAX comes with a native exchange token, AAB. With a constantly shrinking supply, and 50-100% discounts on Spot and Derivatives trading fees, the ABB exchange token saw 9 million coins sold within 48 hours of release back in March of 2020. This, despite a serious Covid-19 influenced, worldwide stock market downturn.

In terms of partnerships, Thor Chan, and his team’s efforts have gone a long way towards positioning the exchange for more sophisticated investors. AAX stands with a top-grade set of allies to aid it with operational, and compliance focused tech that certainly sets it apart from the common crop of digital asset exchanges.

Aside from LSEG Group, AAX has formed working ties with Solidus Labs, who provide the platform with market surveillance software, aimed at spotting unsportsmanlike activity on the exchange; Money Laundering, Market Manipulation, that sort of thing. On the security front, the firm has enlisted Kroll and Refinitiv to handle customer screening, risk assessment, as well as crisis management.

The people behind the AAX exchange have developed one of the unsung gems of the crypto exchange ecosystem. The platform delivers on all of it’s promises, and then some. Users are able to perform exchange transactions – at high speed -on a smooth, user friendly platform. Perhaps, with an influx of professional traders into the crypto space, we may see AAX become one of the more talked-about exchange platforms.

The post AAX: The First Digital Assets Exchange To Spot Institutional Grade LSEG Technology, Executes Trades 24/7, No Downtime appeared first on Bizznerd.

Contrary to what most people would think, decentralized finance isn’t a single product neither is it particularly a silver bullet — a fix-it-all to longstanding issues plaguing the traditional finance industry. Rather, DeFi represents a collective movement of various products leveraging two key technologies: blockchain technology and smart contracts.

The end goal of decentralized finance (aka open finance, fittingly) is to “open up” the current closed financial system. This would ultimately make financial services accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world at almost no cost.

Decentralized finance takes traditional financial services like lending, borrowing, trading and asset management up a notch. The fast-growing DeFi industry now fosters a booming ecosystem of DEXes, lending and borrowing protocols, derivatives trading platforms, staking dApps, prediction markets, investments, and oracles among others.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the demand for decentralized financial products has skyrocketed since DeFi became popular in 2018. According to DeFi Pulse data, the DeFi space is now valued at more than $11 billion, with over a hundred protocols launched already — all in three years! Fyeth is one of the lending and borrowing protocols aiming to provide hassle-free crypto loans to users.

What Is Fyeth Finance?

Fyeth is a non-custodial asset management platform with a truly decentralized lending, borrowing and saving protocol built on the Ethereum blokchain. By depositing your cryptocurrencies on Fyeth, you can earn interest on your deposits and open collateralized debt positions (CDPs), using your crypto assets as collateral.

Fyeth Finance originally started out as a decentralized platform offering non-custodial asset management services to its users. Through the crypto asset custody, users are able to maintain perpetual control of their funds, as all user crypto holdings are stored offline in cold, multi-signature wallets.

However, after recognizing the poor experience associated with obtaining loans in a traditional financial setup, the platform has evolved into a DeFi protocol, offering peer-to-peer crypto-backed loans to customers.

How Fyeth Crypto Lending and Borrowing Works

Fyeth Finance has recently created a new service on their platform that will allow users to borrow money via the blockchain network. This newly launched service was announced in November 2020, and it is sure to become one of the best lending solutions ever.

Since Fyeth Finance is a decentralized platform, this service will be available to users anytime, anywhere in the world. The protocol supports borrowing with ETH, BTC and yETH (the native token of the Fyeth blockchain) as collateral.

Regardless of the amount of money you might need, it will be made available as soon as you’ve deposited your crypto assets as collateral. And even better, each loan transaction and repayment is settled on-chain. This will help to guarantee fairness and transparency when obtaining and repaying collateralized loans.

For instance, once a borrower opens a CDP, their crypto collateral is held in a smart contract to prevent them from defaulting on loan commitments. Also on the lender’s part, they can’t modify the loan terms since the details of the loan transaction is made available as a transparent, tamper-proof record on the Fyeth blockchain.

On Fyeth Finance, you can define your loan terms and obtain a loan-to-value ratio ranging from 30% up to a maximum LTV of 90%. To receive personalized offers from lenders, you have to register on Fyeth Finance.

Fyeth Finance adopts a customer-first philosophy in its business process, offering users the best custodial, trading and lending services compared to other platforms. The lending mechanism employs bank-grade security and one-of-a-kind flexibility, allowing users to obtain loans in different fiat currencies.

Why You Should Choose Fyeth Finance

Fyeth Finance was created to help investors (particularly borrowers and lenders) maximize profits through decentralized lending and borrowing and margin trading services with low risk and near-zero transaction fees.

On the borrowers’ part, users can unlock the value of their crypto assets. Instead of selling those assets and losing on unfavourable rates and taxation, yETH allows borrowers to access loans easily by holding their assets as collateral. Besides, they can use their crypto-backed loans as leverage for various trading strategies.

For lenders, yETH is a perfect opportunity to invest in fiat or crypto with minimal risk since all loans are overcollateralized by crypto. Choose your desired interest rate and earn returns without worrying about the borrower’s solvency.

The foremost priority of Fyeth Finance is to offer premium crypto-based financial services to everyday users, thereby solving key issues with traditional financial platforms. Here are some other reasons why you should choose Fyeth Finance.

P2P Crypto Collateralized Loans Made Easy

Besides competitive interest rates on deposits, Fyeth also generates better returns through compound interest, allowing you to grow your crypto holdings faster over time. Fyeth charges zero fees for lenders and borrowers; just a 5% withdrawal fee. Also, several payment methods are supported for deposits and withdrawals. You can choose from Visa/MasterCard, SEPA, SWIFT and several other payment methods.

On yETH, the interest rates are determined by a variable interest model which is a function of the current demand and supply (i.e., borrowers and lenders, respectively) on the platform. As such, there are no fixed interest rates and historically, there have been loans borrowed under 5% only and some loans lent under 22%.

The liquidation algorithm allows us to provide one of the highest LTV ratios in the DeFi lending market — 70%. The loan limit will rise to an 80% collateral factor once the platform gains huge traction. The liquidation point comes only when the LTV ratio is higher than 90%.

You’re free to repay your loan at any time without attracting any penalty. You can choose from two repayment options for your loan: pay the interest only, or repay the full principal and interest.

First-movers in Crypto-backed Lending

Fyeth Finance can easily be considered as the first platform to pioneer and successfully implement P2P crypto-backed lending. The project started as far back as 2018; at the time, almost no one understood the concept of crypto-backed lending.

However, the co-founders of the platform recognized the possibilities crypto collateralized loans offer and began their research on the concept.

Better Returns on Your Investment

With Fyeth finance (yETH), users will actively earn compound interest and create passive income on their account balances. Compounding generates a better return on your deposit, allowing you to increase your holdings over time.

Fyeth Finance offers higher-than-market interest rates compared to the majority of crypto lending platforms. Typically, you’ll earn between 12%-18% returns on your investment.

Full Regulatory Compliance

Fyeth Finance is a subsidiary of the global fintech group Investment Evolution, and the company is incorporated in Tallinn, Estonia. Similar to Switzerland, the north-European country is one of the world’s most crypto-friendly environments. yETH’s operations are totally within a legal framework, with two European financial licenses to boot: FVR001444 and FRK001329.

Client-oriented, yETH offers a lending mechanism with bank-grade security and one-of-a-kind flexibility. The expansion services target crypto holders in more than 200 jurisdictions who can borrow in several fiat currencies.

Military-grade Security

A very important factor with decentralized Finance platforms is that it has top-notch security. Similar to other DeFi platforms, FYETH is built on the Ethereum blockchain, which happens to be the most secure crypto network. Plus, with less third-party restrictions, there is no room for infiltrations.

All in all, FYyeth Finance provides a valuable point of contact for borrowers who want to leverage their crypto assets for financial commitments without selling them off and lenders who want to gain high yield interest with minimal risks. With this platform, you can earn interest on your deposits and borrow money on a secure and decentralized environment easily.

The goal of Fyeth Finance is to put you back in control of your crypto assets and unlock their full value to bring you closer to financial freedom.

The post Fyeth Finance: P2P Lending Platform for Convenient, Crypto-backed Loans appeared first on Bizznerd.

As the adoption of blockchain technologies has steadily increased, the most popular of them have all found themselves inundated with the high transaction volumes. In their current state, there are no blockchains that truly exhibit the three characteristics most needed for mass adoption – in line with Satoshi’s vision. These are decentralization, security, and scalability.

To address this, developers working on the two most capitalized cryptocurrencies have come up with a solution tailored to fit their respective blockchains. First up were the Bitcoin developers who proposed – and implemented – a layer-2 protocol called the Lightning Network. Then we have Ethereum who see Sharding as the most promising path to scalability.

What Are The Differences?

Beginning with Ethereum, Sharding refers to a process where the entire Ethereum blockchain is partitioned to multiple lesser chains known as “shards”. This is planned as part of the Ethereum Network’s migration to ETH2.

Upon successful deployment, each individual Ethereum shard will be responsible for its own unique set of smart contracts and transactions.

As for the Lightning Network, one could think of it as a second layer of micropayment channels that increase the Bitcoin network’s transaction speed while reducing the cost of each transaction by taking them off-chain. This is where one of the most obvious differences between the two can be found.

The Juicy Little Details

Nodes on the Ethereum blockchain carry the burden of verifying the work of miners and compliance with the network’s consensus rules. To achieve this, each node has to record and store a copy of the entire ledger. With Ethereum’s rapid growth, the network runs the risk of sacrificing decentralization as the cost of running a node out pace the everyday user.

The Sharding approach to solving this problem works by separating the blockchain into smaller chains – rather than going the off-chain route. This means that a node will no longer need to process every transaction, only the ones on the specific shard it is attached to.

With each shard still cryptographically connected to the main chain, the ETH2 blockchain will be like an archipelago of blockchains.

The Lightning Network – on the other hand – tries to solve the scaling problem by adding a second layer to Bitcoin’s blockchain. This layer is not a lesser blockchain, but rather a network of transaction channels between the network’s users. Through these channels, users are able to transfer funds between themselves without the need to have the transaction data immediately communicated to the blockchain – this data is sent to the main network once the channel is closed.

Difficulties Faced by These Innovations

For the Lightning Network, one of the most notable risks is that the network needs to be online all the time. This means that users are not afforded the option of cold storage.

Another potential pitfall for Bitcoin’s layer-2 solution is the risk of losing decentralization due to the potential of nodes belonging to businesses with more active channels starting to resemble the “hub-and-spoke” system used in the incumbent financial sector. A malfunction of one such node could interrupt or damage a significant portion of the network.

Sharding may not be a silver bullet solution either. The first challenge faced by Ethereum developers is that fact that a successful is best executed on a Proof-of-Stake blockchain. This is because of a Proof-of-Work blockchain’s vulnerability to a 51% attack. Theoretically, a shard on a PoW blockchain would face the same risks.

The other challenge isa shard getting taken over by a malicious node, which could lead to a permanent loss of all information regarding the transactions on that shard. To combat this, Ethereum is working on a system of randomly assigning nodes to shards – known as random sampling.

“The idea is to make it difficult for an attacker to predict, or force, which shard their (malicious) node gets assigned to. This makes it more difficult to get a Byzantine takeover of any one shard,”  as per David Huseby, a cyber security expert at the Linux foundation.

The post Ethereum Sharding VS Lightning Network: A Comparative Review Of Blockchain’s most Popular Scaling Solutions appeared first on Bizznerd.

A Little Background On Huobi Global

Having come to life at around the same time as the now defunct, Mt Gox, the now gargantuan might have proven itself a more than capable competitor by simply lasting as long as they have in this notoriously fast-paced market.

Right from the very beginning, Huobi wasted no time in so far as catering to Asia’s demand for a digital assets exchange. This was proven when Huobi reported a $4 billion turnover within a quarter of a year after opening for business. By the following year – in 2014 – that figure had quadrupled.

However, the cryptocurrency market is just as fast-paced as it is unpredictable. The years 2014 and 2015 brought about a bearish market that saw the likes of Mt Gox evaporate into a haze of legal claims and a missing founder. Huobi survived all to come out stronger than before. In 2016, Huobi reported a turnover of $247 billion.

Suddenly, as everything seemed to be going smoothly for the exchange, Chinese authorities took a hostile stance towards digital assets exchanges – forcing Huobi and counterparts to temporarily halt operations while looking for refuge in less hostile states like Singapore.

However, there was a silver lining. Prior to the crypto clampdown in China, Huobi had focused its efforts solely on satisfying the Chinese market. Now, expansion into the international market was no longer an option but a necessity to keep the company going.

Again Huobi rose to the challenge. The digital assets exchange powerhouse relied on  a winning formula of optimal security, an intuitive – clutter free – user interface, and speedy trading engine to fuel its expansion into Japan, Korea and Russia – this complemented by a main international exchange. A well played move considering the over $1 trillion turnover the following year in 2018.

Taking A Closer Look At Huobi Global Exchange

As one would expect of a top tier exchange like Huobi, there are a good number of services and features to enhance the all-round experience a trader gets from the platform.

Let’s take a closer look.

Coins, Tokens & Trading Pairs

First up are the coins and tokens. Huobi boasts a wide selection of both popular and newer, less popular, tokens. One should take note that Huobi puts a focus on Asian projects, so one will encounter a lot of tokens associated with projects they’ve never been exposed to. This is not necessarily a bad thing when you consider how up to speed with technological advances Asia tends to be.

Derivatives & Margin Trading

As the cryptocurrency market has matured, the adding of margin and derivatives became somewhat of a standard among the major exchanges. So it was to be expected that Huobi would start to offer futures trading.

Institutional Trading Accounts

Because of the growth of  the digital assets market and its consistency as a top player in the space, Huobi Global attracted the profit seeking attention of institutional traders. To keep up with the new demand, Huobi runs a separate trading desk for OTC (Over The Counter) and darkpool trading.

User Protection Fund

This adds a sense of comfort and security for the exchange’s users. A portion of Huobi’s profits are redirected towards a User Protection Fund that serves as an insurance policy against Cyber attacks and thefts.

Quick Response Customer Service

Huobi’s customer support is widely recognized as one the quickest to respond to customer queries. Oftentimes they respond within an hour, that says a lot about Huobi’s dedication to being the best in the business.

Conclusion

All in all, the Huobi experience is a pleasant one that justifies its reputation as one of the best. However, there are some aspects that might need a little work. One being the unnecessarily complicated VIP membership system and the otue being the multiple domain names, as they can be a little confusing to some. Beyond that, it is quite an impressive offering.

The post Review: Huobi Global appeared first on Bizznerd.

The Story Of KuCoin

Kucoin’s story is quite different from those of its counterparts. For those who were in the cryptocurrency space prior to the 2017 Altcoin craze, you might recall that KuCoin just appeared out of the woodwork.

KuCoin launched hot on Binance’s heels – a month later – in September 2017 with no anticipated major launch event. Only a winning strategy.

At the time, established exchanges like Coinbase, Poloniex, Bitfinex, and Kraken did not offer investors much variety in terms of the lesser known Altcoins. A buyer interested in these would have to rely on exchanges like EtherDelta, and Liquid.io – which were not as reputable.

Kucoin’s Founder, Michael Gan, saw this opportunity and created a more trustworthy platform for Altcoins traders to buy and sell a wide range of different crypto assets. The strategy has proven successful, however, the shift from shady exchanges to KuCoin was not immediate. This was because a number of other exchanges – veterans and newcomers – had seen the same opportunity.

However, “the people’s exchange” proved itself worthy of the moniker by paying close attention to tthe user experience. Add to this the unique and very successful referral program that saw KuCoin deliberately limit their own intake of new users.

Since then, KuCoin has grown to become one of the most trusted and most used exchanges in the cryptocurrency market.

The Stand-out Features

Over the years, KuCoin has added a number of features to keep up with developments in the rest of the market. These include margin trading, passive earning through staking, and an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) crowdfunding platform.

Here’s a closer look.

Spotlight IEO Platform

KuCoin was among the first digital assets exchanges to offer this service when the market started to move away from the ICO (initial Coin Offering) model.

This gives users a simpler and more trustworthy means of getting in on new projects before they gain momentum.

Margin Trading

KuCoin launched this service in the last quarter of 2019. It was initially launched with a margin of up to 10x. Today a KuCoin user has the option of going up to 100x leverage.

This service also plays into KuCoin’s passive earning services as users are able to lend out their assets to other users who want to leverage their trades.

OTC Trading Desk

As institutional interest in digital assets has increased, Over The Counter trading desks have become somewhat of a standard feature among the top ranked exchanges. KuCoin is no exception in this department.

A Wide Variety of Coins and Trading Pairs

KuCoin offers a more than decent selection of trading pairs to choose from. This always was – and still remains – one of it’s biggest attractions. Interesting to note, a KuCoin listing tends to be a key step towards big league adoption for new digital assets.

24/7 Support And A Relaxed KYC Policy

KuCoin’s support staff is available all the time to help with whatever issues a user may encounter. They can be  contacted by email and via the exchange’s website.

One other feature that users may find interesting is that KuCoin does not impose trading restrictions on unverified accounts as harshly as other major exchanges. For example, an unverified user is able to withdraw up to 2 BTC every 24 hours – while an unverified account might not even be able to trade on another exchange.

Security

This recently became a bit of a touchy subject, and still is for many people. On the 25 September, hackers gained access to KuCoin’s hot wallets, allowing the bad actors to get away with approximately $150 million worth of crypto.

KuCloud

Always up to speed on developments, KuCoin followed Binance’s example by creating a platform where developers can build their own exchanges using KuCoin as a blueprint.

Conclusion

Is easy to see why KuCoin is a top contender, given the variety and attention paid to user experience. As for getting hacked, KuCoin is not the first exchange to suffer a security breach. The real question is, will KuCoin survive in the aftermath of the Cyber attack.

The post Review: KuCoin appeared first on Bizznerd.