Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 12–18: BTC Premiums, Coinbase Blow, Binance Revival

This past Thursday, the crypto community started buzzing about a whale sighting. Rumors abounded. It was a big one, one of the biggest whales they’d ever seen. 

What does that mean? Well, for those of you who haven’t gotten off the trad finance boat completely yet, whales are the big movers and shakers in the crypto industry. While most daily activity that occurs on crypto exchanges is comprised of small-fry daily traders, when whales move, they have the power of changing tides in the market. 

When considering role whales play in the digital economy, it is important to note that the disparity of Bitcoin distribution is remarkable. One percent of Bitcoin wallets possess 55 percent of the Bitcoin in circulation. To put that in perspective, in the US, where wealth inequality is often the subject of political debate and considered a problem that needs to be addressed, the top one percent is in possession of 35 percent of the nation’s wealth. 

Now, one could rightly object that comparing Bitcoin wealth distribution to US wealth distribution is apples to oranges. They are totally different things based on circumstances and factors of an entirely different scale. However, we are talking about a lot of money, whichever way you cut it. And for an economic system that is often portrayed as a remedy to the problems associated with the traditional financial system, Bitcoin wealth inequality is nothing to scoff at.

The Four Species of Crypto Whale Now, in terms of the whales themselves, typically, crypto analysts have identified four kinds of whales. There are traders, early adopters and miners, wallets with lost private keys, and criminals. 

Concerning the traders, analysts have estimated that about 33% of the whales are active traders. These traders vary from individuals who have personally accumulated massive wealth to institutions that collectively work the market. In terms of their specific trading tendencies, trader whales buy the dips. These guys have bought in to Bitcoin for the long term. This is significant because whenever there is a significant downturn in the market, the first instinct of many in the industry is to blame the whales for selling out. However, research has shown otherwise, and as it turns out, big traders tend to operate against the grain, striking when the little fish are panicking. Their effect then is a stabilizing one more often than not. 

The next group of whales are the early adopters and miners, These people tend to have gotten in on the ground floor years ago. The wallets associated with these accounts were created in the early years of Bitcoin. These whales believed in Bitcoin early and were able to acquire vast sums of the currency by spending a relatively small amount of money, or mining when it was much easier. Early adopter whales tend not to trade much of their holdings. Some of them cashed out in 2017 and 18 and made huge fortunes for themselves. 

The third group of whales are a sad, sad lot. The wallets tied to this group are generally classified as belonging to people who have lost their private keys for good. There are a substantial number of these people. An estimated 212,000 bitcoins are stuck in wallets that have been completely inactive since 2011. At the time of writing, that comes to over $2 billion. 

The last group of whales garners the most attention. These are the cyber criminals. These people have acquired their digital fortunes via hacking and other illicit methods. Just three of the 32 largest Bitcoin wallets have been positively linked with criminal activity, but even with just three, the collective sum at press time is more than a billion dollars. 

The Big Time CrooksI have used this space before to talk about how the perception of Bitcoin (and by extension all cryptocurrency) as a tool for criminals is not really justified. Since its inception, Bitcoin has been mistakenly characterized as an anonymous digital currency, which has positioned it — in the minds of the press and others who don’t know better — as the ideal solution for criminals looking to hide their tracks. 

Much has specifically been made of cryptocurrency being used by terrorist organizations. When you look at the facts however, this line of thinking just doesn’t hold up. As numerous stories in the press will attest to, Bitcoin is not an anonymous cryptocurrency. Two of the whale criminal wallets have been identified as being connected with the Silk Road dark web marketplace, and the third has been linked to money laundering activities. 

The prevalence of crime connected with Bitcoin is not much different than that of crime connected with the US dollar or any other asset or item of value. Criminals tend to use whatever tools are available to them in order to achieve their ends. 

It is convenient for lawmakers and others whose vested interest is in keeping the current economic system in power to paint cryptocurrency as something dangerous. If it is dangerous, it is only really dangerous to the old guard, who have no problem with chaos and tragedy just as long as it happens to their neighbor and not them. Economic rights are not something a state should have the power to give and take away, not in today’s world. That is why at Bytecoin we fight to push back against the institutional overreach that has defined that has come to define modern life. 

Consider the act that we can identify the biggest whales in the crypto industry and keep tabs on when and where they move their money. Can we do that in traditional finance? Are we ever allowed behind the veil?

Thursday’s SurfacingGetting back to last Thursday’s whale sighting, the party responsible moved 94,505 bitcoins which comes to just under a billion dollars at press time. There were three possibilities that emerged as sources of the transaction. The first is that the wallet is connected to the Huobi Exchange, which is tied to many of the wallet’s previous transactions. Outside of that, commentators have suggested that the funds belong to the new Bakkt Warehouse project or represent a partial cashing out of the PlusToken ponzi scheme. As of now it is still unclear what exactly happened, and it should be interesting to see what new information comes to light.

The start of the new week came as a sad one for traders as the bears take over the cryptocurrency market, correcting Bitcoin price to below the $9600 region. At the time of writing, the coin is trading at $9,627.

The current volatility in the market could be tied to the ongoing selling pressure and transfer of 600 BTC ($5,753,286) to BitMEX, which took place at block 617782. If the bearish movement continues, Bitcoin could dip further to $9170 and even $9000. At the time of this writing, however, BTC managed to recover and is pushing up to $9,700 once again. 

Our bot just picked this up. Volatility incoming 📈📉

💵 A $5,753,286 (600.0000 BTC) deposit into #BitMEX has been confirmed at block 617782.

— TokenAnalyst (@thetokenanalyst) February 17, 2020

Altcoins, on the other hand, are facing significant price crashes and recorded significant losses. Although the market has started recovering from the sudden slump, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ripple (XRP) are the biggest losers in the top 10. XRP retraced to $0.281 while BCH plunged to ($404). The crash in the altcoin markets briefly pushed Bitcoin dominance to over 63%. As the market started to recover, however, altcoins seem to reclaim grounds as the dominance is currently at 62.4%. 

It’s interesting to see where the market goes from here. It appears that it may have been a healthy correction as over the past couple of weeks bulls were in complete control.  

Total Market Cap: $276 B | Bitcoin Market Cap: $174 B | Bitcoin Dominance: 62.7%

Major Crypto Headlines Binance Applied For Operating License In Singapore, Confirms CEO Changpeng Zhao. Just a month after Singapore released its comprehensive regulation for crypto businesses, Binance has filed for operating license in the country, CZ revealed. 

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IOTA Releases Safe Version of Trinity Desktop But Mainnet Remains Suspended. IOTA Foundation has launched a safe version of the Trinity wallet that will enable users to see their balances and transactions on Desktop. However, the Mainnet remains suspended until the project team finalizes their remedial plans.

Significant Daily Gainers and Losers Hedera Hashgraph (19.82%) HBAR, the native cryptocurrency of the Hedera Hashgraph, emerged as the most significant winner in the top 100 with 19.82% gains on the trading session. The coin’s performance today will definitely leave HBAR day traders basking in euphoria considering the current market situation. At the time of writing, the coin is trading at $0.051 with a market cap of $164,993,621. The Hedera Hashgraph network is growing rapidly, and research shows that the platform processed over 36 million transactions over the last six months. 

Centrality (9.63%) With a 9.63% gain on the trading day, CENNZ wins the spot as a top performer over the last 24 hours. The increase in value today has pushed the coin’s price to $0.100654 and its market cap to $84,797,804. CENNZ is ranked as the 72nd largest cryptocurrency in the world according to market cap. The project has made a lot of progress since its launch. Centrality recently completed its Habanero stage on its roadmap and they are moving to the next phase known as Scotch Bonnet.

Bytecoin (-11.24%) On February 15, BCN made a significant price move and traded as high as $0.000690. However, following the bear market, the coin has slumped to a current price of $0.000456. 

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Binance Coin (BNB), created and issued by the exchange Binance has suffered a massive drop in its price action.  The crash follows an investigation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against crypto firm Paxos, which supports Binance stablecoin’s BUSD.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the SEC has told crypto firm Paxos that it plans to sue the company for “violating investor protection laws.” This investigation follows a last week’s settlement with crypto exchange Kraken over its staking program in what appears to be a regulatory escalation against the industry.

BNB Affected By The Ongoing SEC Enforcement Actions The US government’s watchdog has told Paxos in a Wells Notice that Binance USD is an unregistered security. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has stated on several occasions that crypto companies must provide “full disclosure information about their financial products.”

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordered Paxos in a blog posted on the official page to cease minting Paxos-issued BUSDs due to “several unresolved” issues related to Paxos’ oversight of its relationship with Binance for Paxos-issued BUSDs.

The Department of Financial Services is currently monitoring Paxos to verify the company’s redemption in an “orderly fashion subject” to enhance risk-based compliance protocols.

Paxos has informed its customers that it will no longer be minting new BUSD tokens. The regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform recently announced that it would end its relationship with Binance for the BUSD-branded stablecoin.

Effective February 21, Paxos will cease issuing BUSD tokens in close coordination with the New York Department of Financial Services. The firm stated the following in a blog post:

Paxos has always prioritized the safety of its customers’ assets. That was true at our founding and remains true today. BUSD will remain fully supported by Paxos and redeemable to onboarded customers through at least February 2024. New and existing Paxos customers will be able to redeem their funds in US dollars or convert their BUSD tokens to Pax Dollar (USDP), a regulated US dollar-backed stablecoin also issued by Paxos Trust.

In this matter, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao “CZ” has addressed the case on social media Twitter, stating that as a result of Paxos’s recent decision against issuing BUSD, the token’s market cap will only decrease over time.

In addition, CZ said that he foresees users migrating to other stablecoins over time. For CZ, If BUSD is ruled as a security by the U.S. courts, it will have a profound impact on how the crypto industry will develop or not in the jurisdictions it’s ruled as such. The Binance CEO stated:

Given the ongoing regulatory uncertainty in certain markets, we will be reviewing other projects in those jurisdictions to ensure our users are insulated from any undue harm.

BNB retracement in the four-hour chart. Source: BNBUSDT TradingView BNB is currently trading at $285.9, representing a decline of over 11% in the last 24 hours and 13% in the last seven days.

After the latest news, BNB’s price has plummeted, and if it fails to hold the support at the $260 level, it may face a further retracement to the $219 level, which could operate as the next support line for the Binance token.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.

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According to the latest on-chain data, the Layer-1 network Solana has hit a significant milestone in terms of the transfer volume of stablecoins this month.

Solana Overtakes Tron In Stablecoin Transfer Volume Data from the blockchain analytics platform Artemis shows that the stablecoin transfer volume on Solana has already surpassed $300 billion in January. This is the largest transfer volume recorded by stablecoins on the Layer-1 blockchain in a single month.

To put this figure into context, the Solana network registered $297 billion in stablecoin volume in the entire December. Meanwhile, the blockchain’s stablecoin transfer volume was about $11.56 billion in January 2023, reflecting an over 2,500% growth in the past year.

Stablecoin transfer volume across various blockchains in the past year | Source: Artemis From the chart above, it is clear that Solana’s stablecoin activity has been on a steady rise since October, increasing by more than 650% in the past few months.  This growth has also impacted the network’s share in the stablecoin market, with Solana now boasting about 32% market share.

Unsurprisingly, Ethereum leads the market for stablecoins, with its transfer volume already reaching almost $317 billion in January. Meanwhile, the Tron network trails Solana in third place, with a stablecoin volume of roughly $240 billion.

On Thursday, January 18, Paxos revealed the launch of its regulated stablecoin, USDP, on the Solana network. According to DefiLlama data, USDC remains the dominant stablecoin on the Layer-1 network, with a market cap of over $1 billion.

Paxos is thrilled to share our regulated stablecoin USDP is now live on the @solana blockchain! This integration makes it easier for anyone to access and use the safest, most reliable stablecoins in the market. Learn more here: https://t.co/0j4Kj0yyPk pic.twitter.com/1doexKvVmY

— Paxos (@Paxos) January 18, 2024

SOL Price Overview Despite Solana’s burgeoning network activity, the price performance of its native token SOL has somewhat dampened in the past few weeks. As of this writing, the Solana token is valued at $92, reflecting a 0.6% decline in the last 24 hours.

This sluggish performance in the past day underscores the altcoin’s challenges since the turn of the year. After reaching a multi-month high of $124 at the end of 2023, the SOL price has largely struggled to hold above the $100 mark.

According to data from CoinGecko, the Solana token is down by more than 5% in the past week. Meanwhile, the coin has declined by about double that figure since the beginning of 2024.

Nevertheless, SOL maintains its position as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency in the sector, with a market capitalization of more than $40 billion.

Solana price faces downward pressure on the daily timeframe | Source: SOLUSDT chart on TradingView Featured image from Dreamstime/Aivaras Sakurovas, chart from TradingView

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Bitcoin (BTC) price slipped below $67,000 on April 2, falling roughly 2.8% in 24 hours and extending a year-to-date decline that now sits near 23%.

The drop aligns with a pattern forming across on-chain data, chart structure, and derivatives positioning. One cohort of buyers has been steadily exiting since January, and the technical picture now threatens a 14% correction if a key level fails.

The Buyers Who Bought the Dip Are Walking AwayBTC HODL waves, an on-chain metric that tracks the percentage of supply held by different age groups, show a dramatic exit from the 1-month to 3-month cohort. On January 14, this group controlled 14.67% of the total Bitcoin supply. By April 1, that figure had fallen to 8.19%, its lowest reading of the year.

The decline accelerated in two distinct waves. The first came post mid-February, when the cohort’s share dropped from 12.72% on February 15 to single digits by February 22. A second aggressive leg down arrived around March 22, when the reading slipped from 9.44% and continued falling without recovery.

BTC HODL Waves 1m-3m Decline: GlassnodeWant more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.

This group represents participants who accumulated during the Q1 drawdown, expecting a bounce. Their persistent selling over nearly three months signals that short-term conviction has evaporated. When recent buyers distribute at a loss rather than averaging down, it typically reflects capitulation rather than healthy rotation.

That behavioral shift is visible on the Bitcoin price chart as well. Since late February, the daily timeframe has been forming a head and shoulders pattern. The pattern validates the weakness that the HODL wave data already flagged.

Head and Shoulders Formation: TradingViewHowever, whether the pattern triggers depends on how the derivatives market is positioned around the breakdown zone.

Leverage Leans the Wrong WayDespite bearish signals from both on-chain behavior and chart structure, the BTC derivatives market has not adjusted defensively. Over the past seven days on the Binance BTC/USDT perpetual pair, cumulative long liquidation leverage totals $1.44 billion in active positions.

Short liquidation leverage sits at $1.03 billion. The roughly 40% skew toward longs means the market remains positioned for upside while the technical picture deteriorates.

Binance BTC/USDT Liquidation Map: CoinglassThe Binance BTC liquidation map sharpens the risk further. Of the $1.44 billion in total long exposure, approximately $1.13 billion clusters at a single level near $64,533. That concentration means nearly 80% of all long positions opened over the past week would be forcibly closed if price reaches that zone.

Liquidation Map Key Cluster: CoinglassHigh-leverage positions using 25x and 50x multipliers dominate the cluster.

Even a modest push into that range could trigger cascading forced selling, turning a controlled decline into a liquidation-driven flush. The mismatch between bearish structure and bullish leverage is where the greatest Bitcoin price risk builds. The BTC price chart now becomes the final arbiter of whether that risk materializes.

Bitcoin Price Prediction and One Critical LineThe daily chart confirms the head and shoulders pattern with Fibonacci (Fib) levels mapping every critical zone. The Fib levels are drawn from the head of the pattern to the completed swing low.

Bitcoin currently trades near $66,425, having already lost the 0.236 Fib level at $67,510.

The measured move from the pattern projects a 14.16% decline, targeting approximately $60,024 on the way down. However, the path runs through $64,888, a level that is slightly above the neckline area for the pattern.

Losing $64,888 would place price directly into the $1.13 billion long liquidation cluster at $64,533 identified in the derivatives section. That overlap transforms the neckline break from a technical event into a leverage-driven cascade. From there the full 14% target, under $60,000 becomes realistic.

For the bearish thesis to fail, Bitcoin price needs a daily close above $69,132 to begin neutralizing the right shoulder. Strength only returns above $71,750, the 0.618 level, and a move past $75,997 would invalidate the head and shoulders entirely.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: TradingViewHead and shoulders patterns do not always resolve in the expected direction. A sudden demand surge or macro catalyst could reverse the structure before the neckline is tested. However, the convergence of capitulating short-term buyers, long-heavy leverage, and declining price structure lowers the probability of that outcome.

A daily close below $64,888 separates a measured pullback from a leveraged flush toward the $60,000 zone, while reclaiming $69,132 would be the first signal that sellers are running out of momentum.

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editor-in-chief

Posted: April 24, 2020

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has once again breached the $7000-mark, with the king coin’s performance giving an incentive to all the other alts in the market as well. However, whether or not, Bitcoin will manage to sustain itself above $7k, with the crypto failing to do so the last three times.

Bitcoin [BTC]

The past few days have been very fruitful for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, with Bitcoin recording a growth of over 13% over the past 10 days. With a press time price of $7536, Bitcoin was at its highest price point since the crash on 12 March. However, what would be crucial to see is whether the king coin is successfully able to sustain itself in that range this time.

The aforementioned surge also corresponded to a similar surge in the number of active entities on the Bitcoin network, with the figure having risen to a high unseen since July 2019.

The technical indicators suggested a bullish market too. While the Bollinger Bands highlighted the market’s upside volatility, the Chaikin Money Flow was well above zero and implied capital inflows into the market.

Tron [TRX]

Tron, once a regular in the top-10 of the cryptocurrency charts, now languishes way down in the 16th position. Like most altcoins in the market, TRX has been slow to recover from its fall following the market crash in March. However, the past 10 days have been good for the alt, with the price having surged by 16%. The token particularly benefitted from Bitcoin’s breach of $7000 a few days ago.

This bullishness was evidenced by the indicators. While the Parabolic SAR’s dotted markers were below the price candles, the Awesome Oscillator presented a green candle, despite low positive momentum in the market.

The improving fortunes of TRX come on the back of Tron’s blockchain recently recording the highest-ever daily increase in the number of new accounts.

Steem

While a glance at STEEM’s charts would suggest that there hasn’t been a lot of movement on the charts, the token did record 9% gains over the past 10 days. This might come as a relief for many in the STEEM community as the token was underperforming in the face of competition from Hive. In fact, a few weeks ago, witnesses on Steem’s blockchain froze 8 accounts and pushed over $3.2M into limbo.

The technical indicators did, however, imply some hesitance in the market. While the MACD indicator was barely above the signal line on the charts, the Relative Strength Index was right between the oversold and overbought zones.

Posted: March 5, 2020

Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency back in 2009. Today, there are a total of 5,164 cryptocurrencies. To say that the cryptocurrency market has grown is, therefore, an understatement.

With new coins being developed every day, two major exchanges based in South Korea namely, Bithumb and Upbit, have started delisting coins left, right, and center.

According to a recent report, Upbit has delisted or suspended about 17 coins already in 2020, with 7 tokens delisted by Bithumb as well.

One of the major reasons for such a mass delisting was the lack of communication between the exchange and the token developers. A representative from the Upbit team stated,

“Due to difficulties in communicating with the project’s tech team, there might be problems related to tech support. Liquidity is small, making the coin/token vulnerable to price manipulation. Therefore, to protect the investors, an investment warning has been issued.”

Bithumb released a similar statement after the exchange announced that it had flagged Populous and Cybermiles as “investment warning cryptocurrencies,” with regards to their own exchange policy.

Previously, Binance had also delisted several trading pairs, with the number rising to 30 in September 2019. The exchange had then argued that it was de-listing certain pairs to improve liquidity within the platform, while improving user trading experience. Hence, the act of removal or delisting isn’t new to the ecosystem.

Delisting of coins- necessary act amidst regulations?

According to the cases cited above, quality control has been a top priority for exchange platforms in 2020. The exchanges have developed and are now strictly adhering to policies meant to protect investors and the credibility of crypto-assets.

And, many of these policies actually make sense. Consider this – Exchanges like Upbit and Bithumb can review crypto-assets for potential delisting if there are questions to be raised about its exposure to the market or there are allegations of market manipulation. There are other reasons too, such as the lack of real demand and volume in the market.

These reasons make sense because they lend a degree of institutional credibility to these exchanges. I mean, would you trust an exchange that continues to list a questionable asset?

Many argue that this is a positive move as many of these crypto-assets are unlikely to raise collective demand. It is not important to have 1000 different assets, 1000 assets out of which half of them will be illiquid. Such a step, therefore, is crucial towards improving the general mindset of the people towards the cryptocurrency space.

In fact, such steps have been accelerated by the G20 adopting the Financial Action Task Force’s new crypto-asset guidelines, adoption meant to make sure that investors are not exposed to scam tokens which may affect the credibility of digital assets and exchanges as a whole.

With Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Japan already abiding by FATF’s guidelines, the filtration of coins by these exchanges is a move in the right direction. 5000 coins is already a number too big for such a niche financial sector, hence, rooting out the redundant tokens can be beneficial in the long-term.

PANews reported on May 20th, citing Cointelegraph, that the Tor Project, in partnership with Funding the Commons, launched a Web3 crowdfunding campaign to support 10 non-profit projects dedicated to privacy, anti-censorship, secure communications, and digital infrastructure for the public good. The campaign, launched on May 19th, accepts donations in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Monero, and Golem. Using a quadratic funding model, the $115,000 matching fund pool is provided by Cake Wallet, Zcash community funding, Logos, and Octant, and will run until June 18th. David Casey, Project Director at Funding the Commons, stated that quadratic funding is one of the solutions Web3 offers for financing critical infrastructure. Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director of the Tor Project, stated that the campaign aims to support organizations building tools to resist censorship. A Freedom House report indicates that global internet freedom has declined for 15 consecutive years, and by 2025, internet shutdowns and systemic censorship will affect more than half of the world's population. The United States withdrew from the Free Online Coalition in January.

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Blockchain is a decentralized, secure and very fast technology that is already making waves in the business world. The blockchain is beginning to run the world with numerous blockchain projects being developed and deployed on the internet. There are companies already trying to build on what other people developed. All of these blockchain developments are done in different programming languages, some of which are explained below. 

1. JavaScript 

This is a high-level programming language and more importantly, it is a weakly typed, dynamic, prototype-based and leading web technology in the world. This programming language is very popular, and there are already new frameworks being created for javascript, which can be used to develop codes. 

Javascript is very easy and you only need to understand the basics to start to work on this language. It is mostly used in blockchain development in ethereum.js and web3.js which are used to connect the application frontend with smart contracts and ethereum networks. It is also used for node.js in the Hyperledger Fabric SDK which is the framework that many big companies use. Another blockchain you can use javascript for is the NEO. 

2. C# 

C# is an object-oriented, compiled and high-level programming language that was created for Microsoft late into the 90s/the early ‘00s. Numerous ivory research has shown that this language is similar to C++ or Java, and it is more difficult to learn this language than the Javascript language. Although, it is also not as complicated as some other languages such as Go. 

There are a number of popular blockchain projects that the C# language is being used for. The most popular of such blockchain project is the NEO, something that’s popularly referred to as the Chinese rendition of Ethereum. Another popular blockchain project it is used for is IOTA, zero-fee transactions and highly scalable projects centered on IoT (Internet of Things). 

3. C++ 

This is an object-oriented, high speed, strongly static and compiled programming language. This language has access to hardware and high-level efficiency. Even though it was developed back in the 70s and 80s, as an extension of the C language. 

This language is quite complicated and is more difficult to learn than the C language, as some top writers have noted. And if you are a beginner or just learning to code, this language is not for you. 

Interestingly, it has been used in many popular and important blockchain cryptocurrencies and projects such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, Eos, Monero, QTUM, Stellar, Cpp-ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, etc. 

4. Python 

Python is a dynamically typed and trendy high-level programming language that supports functional programming and is also object-oriented. This programming language is growing in popularity than before and is the ideal language to use in developing artificial intelligence and machine learning features. 

Many big IT companies create frameworks and smart tools to support Python, and it’s often used to create chatbots. 

This very easy and popular language has also been used for numerous projects in the blockchain. One of such examples is its implementation of Ethereum, known as pythereum. It can also be used to create smart contracts for Hyperledger as well as NEO contracts. Python also has its own implementation of steemit known as steempython. 

5. Golang 

This language called Go for short, is a compiled, statically typed programming language that was developed by employees from Google. The idea of Golang is to have a combination of the efficiency of a compiled language such as C++ and the ease of developing codes such as Python. 

This language is quite complicated and developers at papersowl are of the opinion that it is very difficult to learn this language. However, most of the developers with this opinion are python and javascript developers. Developers on C++ will find it easier to learn Go. 

There are a lot of blockchain projects that Go has been used for. One of such is the Go-Ethereum blockchain written in this language. Another one is Hyperledger Fabric which is the blockchain solution that big organizations opt for.  

6. Solidity 

Solidity is a statically typed and contact-oriented programming language developed by the developers of Ethereum. This language was created the main language for the development of the smart contract, and is, therefore, the ethereum’s smart contract primary language. 

Solidity is like a smaller copy of javascript with little changes. It is therefore not very complicated. So if you’re a mid-level developer, it’ll take you just a few days to learn this language. 

This language is used primarily in the development of Ethereum smart contracts. 

7. Java 

This programming language, developed by Sun Microsystems, is a strongly typed language, based on object and class. Java is an object-oriented language popularly used in many big companies.

The difficulty level of java can be compared to that of C#, which is quite complicated and harder to learn than python or javascript. But still, this programming language is still very popular and there are numerous custom papers to help if you are just learning to code. But it is difficult to tell which is easier, Java, C++ or Golang? 

Java is also used very widely in the blockchain industry. It is popularly used in IOTA, P2P cryptocurrency and NEM platform also uses java. Other objects where java is being used in the blockchain are the IBM blockchain, NEO contract, Ethereum, Bitcoin J, Hyperledger’s contract. 

8. Rust 

Rust is a strongly typed and compiled programming language that has been sponsored by Mozilla since 2009. This language is very similar to the C++ programming language, so you really can’t say that it’s a language that can be learned easily. The entry level for this language is high as it has a very small community, so we can safely rate its difficulty as hard. 

There are only very few blockchain projects using this programming language. Parity is one of the few. A secure and fast ethereum client written in Rust. The most popular blockchain project written in Rust is the Ethereum Classic, a cryptocurrency birthed after Ethereum was hacked. Exonum, a security-oriented blockchain framework is also written in Rust. 

9. Ruby 

Ruby was developed in Japan by Yukihiro Matsumoto in the 1990s. This programming language is purely object-oriented. In fact, everything is an object in Ruby apart from the blocks, and they also have their replacement in procs and lambda. 

Ruby was developed to act as a buffer between the underlying computing machine and human programmers. The syntax of this programming language is similar to other languages like Java and C, so it’s easier to learn this language for C and Java programmers. 

10. CX

CX gives pointers, propelled cuts and array, and it also possesses the simple error control highlights which makes it convenient to design any blockchain with it. It was assembled over Go initially, and this stops the frameworks of CX from performing discretionary codes, which is a problem associated with business programming. 

This programming language was made for the blockchain development of Skycoin, with a capacity for it to work as an intermediary for digital contracts. 

CX integrates with Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) and uses the capacity of the GPU proficiently. 

11. Simplicity 

This is a relatively new programming language birthed in late 2017. It was designed mainly for blockchain development and smart contracts. It helps to increase productivity by hiding low-level logical components. 

This language is object-oriented, similar to C++, and it uses blockchain principles to prevent data changes and errors. 

The developers are still working on expanding the capabilities of this language, the features are going to be finalized and it will be added to bitcoin. So, we expect that from mid-2020, Simplicity should have more applications. 

Conclusion Blockchain technology which makes it possible for us to have cryptocurrency exchange is, without doubts, here to stay. Blockchain developments are getting better with languages such as simplicity being specifically to make blockchain development a smoother process. 

Shrikar Parashar Posted On May 11, 2019

Crypto wallet and trading platform Abra recently enabled access to 17 Altcoins.Abra which is led by Bill Barhydt added native support to 17 altcoins including Digibyte (DGB), Dogecoin (DOGE), Dash (DASH), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Neo (NEO), 0x (ZEX), OmiseGo (OMG), Qtum (QTUM), Vertcoin (VTC), Zcash (ZEC), Golem (GNT), Stratis (STRAT), Augur (REP), Ethereum Classic (ETC), TRON (TRX), Lisk (LSK) and Status (SNT).

In addition to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) users will soon be able to deposit and withdraw an additional 17 Crypto assets.

Native withdrawals for the other cryptocurrencies will be turned on in the coming days.

— Abra (@AbraGlobal) May 8, 2019

Abra is a non-custodial wallet meaning the private keys will not be held by the company but within the user’s device instead. The firm has also previously announced that it will enable users to buy synthetic equivalents of stocks and ETFs using Bitcoin smart contracts.

Abra Partners with Plaid to connect to “Thousands of banks”Abra has partnered with San Francisco based Fintech firm Plaid to connect user accounts to thousands of US banks. App users had to use bank transfers to deposit into their wallets, but with the new feature, they will able to connect to their bank accounts directly in-app using their API.

Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra said:

“The addition of these new liquidity enhancements in our app gives users more ways to move between crypto and fiat. We’re particularly excited about our partnership with Plaid, which brings thousands of additional financial institutions into the Abra ecosystem for US customers.”

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Disclaimer: Blockmanity is a news portal and does not provide any financial advice. Blockmanity's role is to inform the cryptocurrency and blockchain community about what's going on in this space. Please do your own due diligence before making any investment. Blockmanity won't be responsible for any loss of funds.

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Shrikar Parashar Shrikar is a Blockchain evangelist. He is a die-hard fan of security tokens. He follows the market closely but does not trade. He believes in Hodling.

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In this Zcoin review we will be taking a look at another interesting anonymity coin that has been rolling out developments recently.

ZCoin is one of the major privacy coins that attempts to establish anonymous transactions, fungibility and decentralization of mining in a unique and scalable way.

Originally the Zerocoin protocol was developed to be an extension of Bitcoin, but when it wasn’t adopted by the community it was released as a coin and blockchain of its own.

With ZCoin you can spend without any transaction history or link to your identity. This is a dramatic improvement on privacy versus Bitcoin, where addresses are made transparent to combat the double spending problem.

Zcoin and the Zerocoin ProtocolImage via Wikipedia

The idea for the Zerocoin protocol came from Johns Hopkins professor Matthew D Green and two of his graduate students – Ian Miers and Christina Garman. While it was proposed as an improvement for Bitcoin, it never gained consensus, and so in September 2016 Poramin Insom released a blockchain and cryptocurrency using the idea of the Zerocoin protocol.

Zcoin is unrelated to other cryptocurrencies utilizing the Zerocash Protocol. Although Zerocash is a development from Zcoin’s old protocol Zerocoin, their respective implementations are not simple forks of each other, but rely on different cryptographic assumptions with various tradeoffs

Because it was developed as a Bitcoin improvement, sending ZCoins works exactly like Bitcoin and the transactions are recorded in a public ledger. However the Zerocoin protocol uses minting to make these transactions anonymous. Basically, ZCoin requires that you mint Zerocoin before you are able to spend.

These new Zerocoins have no transaction history, and because there are so many users minting coins at the same time it becomes impossible to trace the newly minted coins to any particular user. It has been likened to a type of money laundering, where the old coins are destroyed, and the newly minted coins are untraceable.

The Sigma ProtocolThe Sigma Protocol was implemented in July 2019 and replaced the Zerocoin Protocol.

Zcoin is the first full implementation of the Sigma Protocol, which allows users to have complete privacy via zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs. One of the main benefits of the Sigma protocol is that it has removed the need for the trusted setup.

The trusted setup is something that other cryptocurrencies such as ZCash have had to rely on through their "Ceremony". This has also been one of the major bones of contention for the security of the ZCash blockchain. You will really have to believe that the setup was done correctly in order to trust it.

By removing this trusted setup, the Sigma protocol places Zcoin at a unique advantage.

The Sigma Protocol is a precursor to the next-gen privacy protocol Lelantus being developed by the ZCoin cryptographer Aram Jivanyan which will further build on Sigma and greatly expand its functionality and privacy features by removing the need for fixed denominations in minting and spending.

You can learn more about the Sigma Protocol here.

Zero-Knowledge ProofsZerocoins uses something known as Zero-Knowledge Proofs to help maintain anonymity. Cryptography defines a zero knowledge proof as a method for one party to prove to another party that they know what the value of x is without having to share any additional information aside from the fact that they know what the value of x is.

One simple way of demonstrating this definition is to prove to a friend that you know your Gmail password without telling them what it is by logging into your Gmail account. This would prove you know what the Gmail password is, without giving any additional information.

Image Source: Zcoin Blog

Zero knowledge proofs work for ZCoin in showing proof you own the Zcoin you are sending, without letting anyone know the source of those ZCoins.

How Zerocoin Achieves AnonymityWhen a Zerocoin is minted it destroys a ZCoin in the process. When this occurs the Zerocoin protocol generates a random serial number “R” and a secret number “s”. These randomly generated R and s are then used in a cryptographic function to generate a value “V”, which you become committed to.

The V value is posted to the blockchain to prevent it from being changed in the future. This value V is publicly viewable, as are all the other V values being created by people who are minting.

Now to spend the Zerocoin R a zero knowledge proof is given showing your R value corresponds to the public value of V. This zero knowledge proof only shows that there is some V corresponding to your R, but it doesn’t reveal which one. This allows Zerocoins to be spent without anyone being able to determine their origin.

To avoid double spending of Zerocoins, Znodes verify that the zero-knowledge proof was valid and that Zerocoin R was not previously spent.

Mining ZCoinZcoin began using the Lyra2z algorithm for proof of work, but recently moved to the Merkle Tree Proof of Work algorithm (MTP) to address several problems.

MTP Compared to Other Algorithms. Image Source: YouTube

MTP is known as a memory hard algorithm and it has several benefits, one of which is the prevention of the development of ASIC chips which could lead to centralization of mining. It also helps prevent infecting computers and making them part of mining botnets. The founder of ZCoin has the following to say:

The basic concept is that it should establish the same price/cost for a single computation unit on all platforms meaning that there is no single device that should gain a significant advantage over another for the same price hence promoting egalitarian computing

So, the goal is to keep ZCoin feasible for CPU mining as a way to decentralize the security of the network. The MTP being used by ZCoin has also been made less memory intensive than previous versions, and it is less vulnerable to DOS attacks. That said, the ZCoin team isn’t against GPU mining, but with MTP CPU mining remains competitive even if GPU mining is also utilized.

If you want more information then you can read our comprehensive guide on mining ZCoin.

Founder’s RewardThe Founder’s Reward was implemented to fund the development of ZCoin, and it specifies that for the first four years 14% of mined ZCoins will go to the Founder’s Reward pool. That 14% will be split as follows:

ZCoin Team received 6%Seed Investors receive 6%ZCoin Founder Poramin Insom receives 2%Once the first four years have passed (in September 2020) the block rewards will revert to going entirely to miners and Znodes.

ZnodesZnodes are similar to master nodes in that they are computers on the ZCoin network that are running a full copy of the blockchain, and are working to process transactions. The Znodes are incentivized by receiving 30% of newly minted ZCoins, currently 7.5 per block.

Those running Znodes are required to stake 1,000 ZCoins however, as a way to prove that they are highly invested in the ZCoin network. The stake is an incentive to keep the network running honestly and with consistent uptime.

Before & After ZNodes on ZCoin

As of August 30, 2019, the rate of return for running a Znode is roughly 15.8% based on data from Masternodes.online. It estimates that a node will receive a reward every 17 days 7 hours 50 minutes.

With the price of XZC currently at $5.82 monthly income for running a Znode is roughly $75. This is based on 4,990 active master nodes. If the number of master nodes increases the payout would decrease and vice versa.

Coin Supply and SustainabilityBecause ZCoin was based on Bitcoin, there were 21 million coins originally meant to be created, however, a bug in the code led to the creation of an additional 388,450 coins. That bug has been fixed and the maximum supply of ZCoin is now set at roughly 21.4 million. As of August 2019, the circulating supply of ZCoin is 8,261,093 XZC.

Like Bitcoin, ZCoin began with a block reward time of 10 minutes, however, that was decreased to 5 minutes as of June 2018. Currently, there are 25 coins awarded per block. This award will halve roughly every 4 years until all of the ZCoins have been minted. Once all coins have been minted miners will continue to be rewarded through transaction fees.

Zcoin TeamWhile Matthew Green originally came up with the idea for ZCoin, the implementation was the work of Poramin Insom. At the time he was working under Matthew Green at Johns Hopkins, which made for a perfect mentor relationship.

Prior to developing ZCoin, Poramin developed Vertcoin, but he moved to work on ZCoin as he saw a need for anonymous transactions in the cryptocurrency space. He plans to eventually return to the development of Vertcoin, but is fully focused on ZCoin for the time being.

From Left: Poramin Insom (Founder), Peter Shugalev (Lead Dev), Tadhg Riordan (Solidity Dev), Snguyen (Dev)

The lead developer of ZCoin is Peter Shugalev, a software architect and programmer who brings over 15 years of experience to the ZCoin project. Based in Moscow, he has a Masters degree from Moscow State University in Computer Science and Mathematics and has even created his own programming language which was used in a signature-based intrusion detection system.

On the business side, the COO of ZCoin is Reuben Yap, a corporate lawyer for 10 years, who joined ZCoin in October 2016 and has been pivotal in shaping the vision and direction of the ZCoin project.

He is very well-versed in blockchain privacy protocols and spends a good deal of time traveling and speaking about them in a simple and easy to understand manner. He has long been a proponent of privacy and was previously the founder of one of the top VPN services in SE Asia (bolehvpn.com).

The XZC TokenThe XZC token got off to a strong start, opening in October 2016 at just above $0.90 each. Within a week it was trading above $5, and at the end of the second week, it had rallied to $8. It couldn’t hold those levels, however, and by November it had slid back down to trade under $1.

It continued to slide throughout the remainder of 2016, although there was also a good deal of volatility, and the price was apt to change by as much as 30-50% within a matter of days.

As 2017 got started XZC had rallied back above the $1 level and was soon trading back above $2 as well. It continued climbing and June/July 2017 saw it trading in a range of $10-$20. There was a drop back under $7 in August, but XZC soon recovered, trading from $10-$15 throughout the autumn of 2017.

XZC Price Performance. Image via CMC

Price really began to take off in November 2017 and as is the case with most cryptocurrencies, ZCoin saw a huge run-up in price during December 2017, hitting a high of $169.99 on December 26, 2017. Since then the price has retraced quite a bit, and with the exception of a bounce in April 2018 has been steadily moving lower.

As of August 2019, one ZCoin (XZC) is worth $5.83, with price moving steadily lower for most of 2018, with a low of $4.21 hit in December. Price recovered in early 2019 and by June was trading near $15. It spent June and much of July trading in a range of $10 to $13 but then retreated along with the broader crypto markets.

Buying & Storing XZCThe largest trading volume for ZCoin (XZC) can be found on MXC, although there is also a good amount of trading volume on the CoinEx platform. CHAOEX also has a good deal of volume, and beyond that, you can get XZC at Binance, DigiFinex, Huobi Global and a number of other smaller exchanges.

In terms of volumes, it is relatively well split out on the exchanges although over 80% is concentrated in the top 3. There is decent liquidity though with healthy order books that are quite deep. This means easy execution for the large block orders.

Register at Binance and Buy XZC Tokens

The ZCoin project does have an official desktop GUI wallet, which is probably the best choice since it has built-in mint and spend functions. There is also an Electrum light wallet available.

For those who prefer mobile wallets, there are a number of choices including the Trust Wallet, Coinomi, Edge Wallet, Cobo Wallet and a number of others.

Plus the ZCoin developers are working on a native mobile wallet that is expected to be released by the end of 2019. Both popular hardware wallets, the Ledger and Trezor, also support XZC.

ZCoin Developement & RoadmapSomething that I sometimes like to do in order to determine the development progress on a project is to look into their GitHub repositories. By observing how much code is being pushed, one can get a good idea of exactly what is being done.

Hence, I decided to jump into Zcoin's official GitHub. Below are the code commits for the top three most active repos in their GitHub. These are the total number of commits pushed in the past year.

Commits to select repos over past 12 months

As you can see, they have been quite active with a regular stream of commits. There are also a further 66 other repositories with varying degrees of activity.

This level of development is more than we have seen on other projects at similar stages. In fact, if we were to compare Zcoin to other projects based on the total number of commits, it comes in at number 52.

This of course makes sense given that there were a number of updates that the Zcoin developers have recently been working on. The prime among these is of course the Sigma protocol which is finally out.

There are also some really exciting updates that are planned in their roadmap. Below are some of the most notable updates still planned for 2019.

Overhaul of User Interface: A new GUI wallet is on the way that will be based on Vue.js.RAP: Receiver Address Privacy: This will allow users to share one static public address that will route transactions to brand new addresses. This will preserve privacy and has not been used by any other privacy coin.Encrypted Node Communications: This encrypted node communication will allow Zcoin traffic to be censorship resistant.MTP Revamp: They will improve on MTP in order to further the ASIC resistant featuresNative Mobile Wallet: Launch of a mobile wallet that will have full privacy supportThen, heading into 2020 one can expect to see research on scaling, governance and quantum resistant algorithms. If you wanted to keep up to date with the development then you can head on over to their official blog.

ConclusionZCoin sees some advantage from having code that is based on Bitcoin’s core code. It makes it easier for the project to implement changes that Bitcoin makes. And the anonymity factor is certainly a big deal, especially in countries such as China, where privacy is difficult to come by.

As Western nations begin to regulate cryptocurrencies there is a good chance that privacy will become increasingly important across Europe and in the U.S.

While some have complained about the Founder’s Reward being included in ZCoin, there are other cryptocurrencies out there who have implemented similar features.

After all, the development team needs funds if they are to continue working on ZCoin, and Insom himself admitted that the reason he had to halt work on Vertcoin was from lack of funds. In any case, there’s only one more year until the Founder’s reward is done, and I’m betting five years from now no one will even remember the Founder’s reward.

A dedicated founder and lead developer, combined with funding for development, and a solid roadmap makes ZCoin’s future look bright.

Disclaimer: These are the writer's opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.

Coinbase, Kraken and other cryptocurrency exchanges are taking positions on proof-of-work consensus and Bitcoin mining. Despite criticisms against proof-of-work, they argue there is little risk of centralization-induced attacks.

Proof-of-work is one of Bitcoin’s core features which allows to reach consensus and keep the blockchain secure. Miners are responsible for finalizing transactions and generating new Bitcoins. However, proof-of-work isn’t perfect – to its critics, it’s a system that results in centralization of power.

Though there are alternatives, proof-of-work is here to stay as far as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero and many other cryptocurrencies are concerned. Proof-of-work largely operates behind the scenes, but it can have far-reaching effects — which has led some exchanges to weigh in on the matter.

Coinbase Endorses ASIC Mining Coinbase has recently argued that proof-of-work networks can benefit from ASIC mining. This is a controversial claim — it’s widely held that ASICs bring about monopolized ownership because they are specially designed to mine certain coins. CPUs and GPUs, by contrast, are general purpose chips that are available to anyone who owns a computer.

However, Coinbase sees things differently. It argues that general purpose hardware is a greater threat to centralization. There are many GPUs and CPUs that are not being used for mining, and these could suddenly be harnessed to attack a mining network. ASIC devices, which are only useful for certain types of mining, can’t suddenly join a network en masse.

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Coinbase adds that Bitcoin Gold, Vertcoin, and Verge have fallen victim to 51% attacks despite attempts to become ASIC-resistant. The company suggests that coins should bring about decentralization in a different way — they should instead turn to ASIC-friendly algorithms that support affordable manufacturing and turn ASICs into a widespread commodity.

Coinbase concludes that ASIC mining is inevitable: “Participants have to ask themselves if the industry is going to be secured by hobbyists running old laptops,” it insists. “Every at-scale, professional industry utilizes specialized equipment — it is naive to think that cryptocurrency mining will or should be any different.”

Kraken Argues Mining Pools Are Secure Kraken has published its own in-depth report on mining mentioning centralizing effects of mining pools. At the time of its publishing in April, many people were concerned that a few major mining pools could coordinate a 51% attack due to their hashrate dominance. That fear has intermittently come and gone.

Kraken argues that there is little reason to fear such an attack. It believes that heavily invested miners cannot carry out an attack sustainably as the effects on market price would devalue any profits. “We believe there is a greater incentive for [pools] to conduct honest operations and uphold the value of the network,” Kraken says.

Citing rules of game theory, Kraken suggests that dishonesty is a poor strategy for miners: “Any deviation will certainly result in short-term cost with unpredictable compensation.” It also notes that pools don’t have guaranteed dominance —since users can switch between pools, new pools can form to deter collusion.

Other Exchanges Are Also Getting Involved Some exchanges have attempted to get involved in mining more directly. Huobi, for example, runs a mining pool that accounts for 6% of Bitcoin’s hashrate, while OkEX runs a much smaller pool. Though they are not very significant, their existence does indicate that exchanges are interested in taking on big, Bitmain-owned mining pools.

BitMEX, meanwhile, is trying to keep mining security in check. It runs Forkmonitor.io which scans Bitcoin and its forks in real time for unusual activity. BitMEX Research also covers various mining-related issues, some of which are quite obscure and gain very little coverage elsewhere.

Finally, Binance has courted controversy by overstepping boundaries. After it suffered an attack in May, Binance briefly considered incentivizing miners to undo the theft. Binance eventually refrained from pursuing that plan — while miners showed no interest in complying. However, the event did raise the question of whether mining is truly irreversible.

Why Exchanges Care About Proof-of-Work Exchanges typically have no direct influence over mining and proof-of-work. They can only suspend trading activity and block bad actors if an attack or vulnerability occurs. Coin developers are ultimately responsible for designing proof-of-work schemes that produce a decentralized, accessible, and secure mining network.

Instead, exchanges are concerned with mining because they adjust their services around each coin’s proof-of-work model. For example, Coinbase recently decided that it is safe to reduce its confirmation times for Bitcoin, Zcash, and Ethereum Classic. On the other hand, exchanges like Bittrex have delisted attack-prone coins entirely.

Some investors make decisions about which coins to invest in based on technical matters such as proof-of-work. Though exchanges are naturally concerned with market data, they often tend to keep investors informed about technical matters — a level of dedication to the public that often goes unnoticed.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Mike Dalton. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.