Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

[입출금] NEO N3 네트워크 계열 디지털 자산 입출금 일시 중단 안내

PANews, July 10 – Humanoid robot R&D company 1X Technologies announced the launch of its new-generation NEO humanoid robot hand system, featuring 25 degrees of freedom, a tendon-driven design, and gear ratios of approximately 5:1 to 15:1. All joints support force control and are fully back-drivable, achieving near-human levels of dexterity and force control. The hand is equipped with high-resolution tactile sensing capable of detecting normal force, contact position, and shear force, and meets IP68 waterproof and dustproof ratings along with food-safety standards.

In terms of performance, the thumb CMC joint delivers a peak torque of 3.5 Nm, the finger MCP joints reach 2.6 Nm, distal flexion force hits 45 N, wrist torque is 17.75 Nm, and positioning accuracy is ±0.2 mm. The hand is mounted on forearm motors and driven by tendons routed through the wrist, enabling delicate operations such as assembling LEGO bricks, picking up coins, screwing in light bulbs, operating zippers, sorting fruit, pouring tea, plugging in USB-C connectors, and holding wine glasses. 1X stated it already has the production capacity to manufacture 10,000 hand units per year.

Institutions: Micron’s long-term agreements reduce industry cyclical volatility.

Quilter Cheviot strategist Ben Barringer said that Micron Technology’s extremely strong earnings show that the traditionally cyclical memory chip market is becoming more reliable. This performance further confirms the fact that demand for memory chips far outstrips supply. More importantly, Micron’s shift toward signing long-term agreements with clients provides the group with more stable profitability and makes it less vulnerable to sharp demand fluctuations. These long-term agreements actually set price ceilings and floors, require clients to commit to taking supply, and smooth out the historically highly cyclical market.

1 seconds ago

Analyst: Micron’s financial report indicates short-term fluctuations can be ignored as long as earnings prospects underpin its high valuation.

Senior Market Analyst Daniela Hathorn stated, "As Micron Technology's earnings report once again confirms that the AI investment cycle remains solid, the U.S. stock market has recouped some of its losses. This has boosted market sentiment across the entire semiconductor sector—after high-growth individual stocks underperformed earlier—indicating that as long as profit prospects continue to support high valuations, investors are still willing to overlook short-term fluctuations."

1 seconds ago

Circle partners with Nomura Securities to enter the Japanese yen foreign exchange settlement service market.

Stablecoin issuer Circle plans to collaborate with Nomura Securities to launch instant foreign currency settlement for Japanese corporate clients as early as 2027. The initiative will enable large cross-border transactions to be completed immediately, aiming to boost cross-border investment and trade. This will mark the first entry of a major stablecoin issuer into Japan’s corporate transaction market, allowing companies to convert yen into US dollar-denominated stablecoins for investment and instant transfers.

1 seconds ago

Institutions' Preview: Overview of US May Core PCE Price Index Monthly Rate

The US May core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index monthly rate will be released tonight at 20:30 (UTC+8). Below are the forecasts from multiple institutions: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation: 0.2%; Royal Bank of Canada: 0.2%; JPMorgan Chase: 0.3%; Goldman Sachs Group: 0.3%; Bank of Montreal: 0.3%; Moody's Corporation: 0.3%; Standard Chartered: 0.3%; UniCredit: 0.3%; ING Group: 0.3%; HSBC Holdings: 0.3%; BNP Paribas: 0.4%; Wells Fargo: 0.4%; Capital Economics: 0.4%; Citigroup: 0.4%; Deutsche Bank: 0.4%; Nomura Securities: 0.4%; Pantheon Macroeconomics: 0.4%; Société Générale: 0.4%; Scotiabank: 0.4%; Morgan Stanley: 0.4%

1 seconds ago

DA Davidson Raises Micron’s Price Target to $2,000, Retains Buy Rating

U.S. investment bank DA Davidson released a research note stating that Micron Technology has entered a new phase with one of the best performance visibility in the semiconductor industry, a stark contrast to its past standing in the sector. Driven by another quarter of results that handily exceeded expectations and positive forward guidance, Micron’s stock price surged sharply. These signals indicate that the current memory chip boom cycle is far from over. While the company is ramping up capacity investments (with capital expenditure (CAPEX) projected to hit $10 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, which will bring additional supply), management expects the memory market to remain tight on supply and demand at least through 2027. Against this backdrop, DA Davidson reiterated its "Buy" rating on Micron and raised its price target from $1,500 to $2,000, equivalent to a 20x price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio based on the company’s 2026 calendar year expected earnings per share (EPS).

1 seconds ago

Morgan Stanley raises Micron's price target to $1,200, maintains 'Overweight' rating.

Morgan Stanley released a report raising Micron Technology (MU.O)’s price target from $1,050 to $1,200, while maintaining an "Overweight" rating. The investment bank lifted its fiscal 2027 earnings per share (EPS) forecast for the chipmaker by roughly 40% to $168, and upgraded its free cash flow (FCF) projection from $104 billion to $140 billion. Aligning with Micron’s management, the bank holds that AI will push DRAM demand to consistently outpace supply significantly after 2027. Micron’s last fiscal quarter results matched this trend, with both its quarterly performance and outlook showing notable upside potential.

1 seconds ago

Institutions: Micron’s long-term agreements reduce industry cyclical volatility.

Quilter Cheviot strategist Ben Barringer said that Micron Technology’s extremely strong earnings show that the traditionally cyclical memory chip market is becoming more reliable. This performance further confirms the fact that demand for memory chips far outstrips supply. More importantly, Micron’s shift toward signing long-term agreements with clients provides the group with more stable profitability and makes it less vulnerable to sharp demand fluctuations. These long-term agreements actually set price ceilings and floors, require clients to commit to taking supply, and smooth out the historically highly cyclical market.

1 seconds ago

Analyst: Micron’s financial report indicates short-term fluctuations can be ignored as long as earnings prospects underpin its high valuation.

Senior Market Analyst Daniela Hathorn stated, "As Micron Technology's earnings report once again confirms that the AI investment cycle remains solid, the U.S. stock market has recouped some of its losses. This has boosted market sentiment across the entire semiconductor sector—after high-growth individual stocks underperformed earlier—indicating that as long as profit prospects continue to support high valuations, investors are still willing to overlook short-term fluctuations."

1 seconds ago

Circle partners with Nomura Securities to enter the Japanese yen foreign exchange settlement service market.

Stablecoin issuer Circle plans to collaborate with Nomura Securities to launch instant foreign currency settlement for Japanese corporate clients as early as 2027. The initiative will enable large cross-border transactions to be completed immediately, aiming to boost cross-border investment and trade. This will mark the first entry of a major stablecoin issuer into Japan’s corporate transaction market, allowing companies to convert yen into US dollar-denominated stablecoins for investment and instant transfers.

1 seconds ago

Institutions' Preview: Overview of US May Core PCE Price Index Monthly Rate

The US May core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index monthly rate will be released tonight at 20:30 (UTC+8). Below are the forecasts from multiple institutions: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation: 0.2%; Royal Bank of Canada: 0.2%; JPMorgan Chase: 0.3%; Goldman Sachs Group: 0.3%; Bank of Montreal: 0.3%; Moody's Corporation: 0.3%; Standard Chartered: 0.3%; UniCredit: 0.3%; ING Group: 0.3%; HSBC Holdings: 0.3%; BNP Paribas: 0.4%; Wells Fargo: 0.4%; Capital Economics: 0.4%; Citigroup: 0.4%; Deutsche Bank: 0.4%; Nomura Securities: 0.4%; Pantheon Macroeconomics: 0.4%; Société Générale: 0.4%; Scotiabank: 0.4%; Morgan Stanley: 0.4%

1 seconds ago

DA Davidson Raises Micron’s Price Target to $2,000, Retains Buy Rating

U.S. investment bank DA Davidson released a research note stating that Micron Technology has entered a new phase with one of the best performance visibility in the semiconductor industry, a stark contrast to its past standing in the sector. Driven by another quarter of results that handily exceeded expectations and positive forward guidance, Micron’s stock price surged sharply. These signals indicate that the current memory chip boom cycle is far from over. While the company is ramping up capacity investments (with capital expenditure (CAPEX) projected to hit $10 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, which will bring additional supply), management expects the memory market to remain tight on supply and demand at least through 2027. Against this backdrop, DA Davidson reiterated its "Buy" rating on Micron and raised its price target from $1,500 to $2,000, equivalent to a 20x price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio based on the company’s 2026 calendar year expected earnings per share (EPS).

1 seconds ago

Morgan Stanley raises Micron's price target to $1,200, maintains 'Overweight' rating.

Morgan Stanley released a report raising Micron Technology (MU.O)’s price target from $1,050 to $1,200, while maintaining an "Overweight" rating. The investment bank lifted its fiscal 2027 earnings per share (EPS) forecast for the chipmaker by roughly 40% to $168, and upgraded its free cash flow (FCF) projection from $104 billion to $140 billion. Aligning with Micron’s management, the bank holds that AI will push DRAM demand to consistently outpace supply significantly after 2027. Micron’s last fiscal quarter results matched this trend, with both its quarterly performance and outlook showing notable upside potential.

1 seconds ago

BLOG March 18, 2026

We are releasing Neo X TestNet v0.5.2, a patch version introducing several improvements and scheduled upgrades for the network. The new version will be deployed to MainNet shortly. 

This patch release introduces several improvements to align Neo X with the v1.15 Geth implementation. Without creating a new consensus client program or performing a “Merge”-like consensus algorithm change, our nodes now switch to the CL-EL model and support post-merge behaviors. A configurable blob file system for EIP-4844 data persistence is also added, along with JSON APIs for related queries.

This version does not introduce any hard fork in the genesis file or database changes that would require reinitialization or resynchronization. However, there is a protocol migration of the P2P network. As a result, nodes running versions before v0.5.2 will no longer receive EL block broadcasts for synchronization. Please perform this upgrade as soon as possible.

The new blob storage may require up to approximately 288GB of disk space. Please ensure your running machine meets this requirement.

Upgrade Instructions Follow the instructions below to upgrade your node from v0.5.1 to v0.5.2:

Gracefully stop the node.

Replace the old binary with the new binary.

If you are running a validator node, rename the --miner.etherbase flag in your start script or command to --miner.pending.feeRecipient.

Start the node.

New Features Support EL-level blob data storage and JSON APIs for EIP-4844

Behavior Changes Add a minimal CL implementation and switch to post-merge mining

Introduce a beacon protocol and move the block broadcast message to the CL

Remove EL reorg judgment and other deprecated pre-merge behaviors

Improvements Improve snap synchronization for short chains

Bug Fixes Fix possible panics in gas price queries caused by uninitialized variables

Fix DKG synchronization failure caused by old blocks

Fix DKG synchronization failure caused by missing group initialization

​​If you have further questions regarding the upgrade, please ask in our Discord community. Follow our official account for future updates.

A major dispute between the two co-founders of the NEO project has drawn widespread attention within the cryptocurrency industry. Founded in 2014 and renowned among blockchain initiatives originating from China, NEO enables the development of decentralized applications. The ongoing conflict between Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang, notably over governance and asset management, reached a boiling point as it became clear that the foundation’s assets were, for a long time, handled through personal wallets.

Hundreds of millions under personal authorityAccording to Da Hongfei, the majority of the foundation’s native tokens—NEO and GAS—have been stored in Erik Zhang’s personal wallet for years. These funds have remained under single-signature control, with no corporate oversight or multi-signature security systems in place. Da estimates that about 85% of the NEO and GAS reserves—currently worth between $200 million and $250 million—are managed solely by Zhang, a figure exceeding NEO’s current market capitalization of $197 million.

In contrast, NEO’s other treasury assets—including bitcoin, ether, stablecoins, and various fund investments—are managed by NGD, a division led by Da Hongfei. The early investments in BTC and ETH have appreciated significantly over recent years, pushing this segment beyond the $200 million mark. As a result, NEO’s treasury is now split: native tokens remain primarily with Zhang, while crypto funds fall under NGD’s management.

Internal rift surfaces publiclyThe governance disagreement between Zhang and Da has become increasingly visible on social media and public forums since December. While Zhang has accused Da of inadequate transparency in past asset management, Da has firmly rebuffed the allegations as unfounded.

Da Hongfei, responding to claims of corruption and misconduct, stated, “These are very harsh and baseless accusations. There is no corruption or inappropriate use of funds.”

Amid this turmoil, the two co-founders attended a failed reconciliation meeting in Hong Kong. On April 9, Da Hongfei proposed a restructuring that included moving the Neo Foundation from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, both founders stepping away from management for two years, and distributing $66 million in crypto assets back to token holders. Zhang, in contrast, opposes the Cayman move, seeks to keep the foundation Singapore-based, and advocates a thorough review of past financial management, emphasizing greater transparency in handling community assets.

Critical step towards resolutionThe core issue behind the dispute lies in how NEO’s treasury should be governed. For Da Hongfei’s restructuring plan to move forward, Zhang would have to transfer his personally-held NEO and GAS tokens into a secure multi-signature address. Da has affirmed his readiness for such a move, but it remains unclear whether Zhang intends to cooperate.

Highlighting the central reform, Da commented, “We must sacrifice our individual control for the sake of restructuring. I am ready; I’m just unsure whether Erik is as well.”

Da further stressed that community input will play a decisive role in shaping the outcome. Yet, the immediate priority is shifting assets from the single-signature wallet to a decentralized, multi-signature custody system to enhance security and trust.

With treasury assets currently divided between two individuals, investor and community anxiety has mounted. Notably, NEO’s market value has plunged by 98% since its all-time high in 2018.

Looking ahead, Da suggested that a new governance structure could be implemented within one to three months, provided Zhang cooperates. So far, Zhang has made no public statement regarding his stance on the proposal.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

COINTELEGRAPH: 53 DeFi projects infiltrated, 50M NEO tokens could be 'given back': Asia Express

Binance will delist several spot trading pairs, including BAND/BTC and BAT/BTC, on May 1st.

PANews reported on May 22 that, according to an official announcement, Coinbase will suspend trading of TRIA-PERP, NEO-PERP, and IMX-PERP perpetual contracts around 21:00 (UTC+8) on June 4, 2026. Any remaining open positions will be automatically settled upon suspension, with the final settlement price calculated based on the average index price over the 60 minutes prior to the suspension, and the final funding rate set to zero. Coinbase reserves the right to suspend trading and adjust the final settlement price to a reasonable level at any time.

BLOG June 11, 2026

We are releasing Neo X TestNet v0.6.0, introducing support for the Ethereum Osaka upgrade and Geth v1.16.9.

This release primarily includes the Execution Layer (EL) upgrade of the Fusaka roadmap, with the implementation of EIP-4844 further improved.

This version is fully compatible with Neo X v0.5.3 and does not require node resynchronization. However, it includes a protocol migration for the P2P network. Support for the old protocols will be removed in future versions, so please perform this upgrade as soon as possible.

Upgrade Instructions

Follow the instructions below to upgrade your node from v0.5.3 to v0.6.0:

Download the new binary and the new genesis configuration file from the release page.

Gracefully stop the node.

Replace the old binary with the new binary.

For TestNet nodes only: do not remove the database. Reinitialize the database using the new binary and the new genesis configuration file with the following command: ./geth init --datadir ./node-datadir ./config/genesis.json

Start the node.

Behavior Changes

New BEACON/2 protocol for improved transaction, block, and blob synchronization

The Osaka fork will be enabled at timestamp 1781500000 on TestNet

Improvements

Base Geth source code updated to v1.16.9

Upgrade the EL downloader to support post-merge backfilling

Implement light verification for the CL beacon trust extension

Remove unused compatibility code

Improve the initial fetch height in the sidecar fetcher

Refactor node synchronization status checks

Bug Fixes

Remove redundant artifact uploads from the build workflow

Fix unexpected CVs caused by transaction replacement

Enforce hashDB for PrivNet state storage

Correctly enable blob synchronization as configured

Fix the RPC error response for under-policy-priced transactions

Fix missing dBFT error returns and seal hash computation

Fix argument mismatches between the CL miner and EL engine APIs

BLOG June 24, 2026

This patch release introduces several improvements and fixes for v0.6.0 and schedules the Osaka upgrade for MainNet. Upgrading from v0.6.0 is highly recommended, especially if you are running a Consensus Node (CN) or relying on the metrics service.

Upgrade Instructions Follow the instructions below to upgrade your node from v0.6.0 to v0.6.1:

Download the new binary and updated genesis configuration file from the release page.

Gracefully stop the node.

Replace the old binary with the new binary.

For MainNet nodes only: Do not remove the database. Reinitialize it using the new binary and updated genesis configuration file with the following command:
./geth init --datadir ./node-datadir ./config/genesis.json

Start the node.

Behavior Changes The Osaka fork will be activated on MainNet at timestamp 1782700000.

Improvements Improve beacon synchronizer status checks and apply choice pruning.

Migrate and improve the CI.

Bug Fixes Fix a possible status inconsistency during beacon synchronization.

Remove the irregular metric counter from the dBFT static pool.

If you have any questions regarding this upgrade, please reach out in our Discord community. Please beware of scammers impersonating Neo via DMs. Follow Neo for future updates.

Crypto markets hit another new 2019 high yesterday; Bitcoin holding gains, TRX moving up ETH, XRP, LTC, BCH and EOS falling back.  Market Wrap It has been a wonderful weekend for crypto markets, the best so far this year. Bitcoin’s push through five figures has lifted total market capitalization to a one year high of over $325 billion. Monday morning markets remain buoyant as BTC has held on to most of its gains yet again.

The Bitcoin parabola has continued as it topped out at $11,250 during Sunday trading. It was the second time over the weekend that BTC broke above $11k but it could push no further and fell back twice. Bitcoin is currently starting to consolidate around the $10,750 level during Asian trading today. Daily volume peaked at $30 billion over the weekend which pushed market cap to $200 billion.

Ethereum also got a lift from its big brother as it finally broke above the $300 barrier. ETH hit a top of $320 yesterday before pulling back a couple of percent today to settle at around $305. Gains were solely on the back of Bitcoin as ETH remains slow to recover in comparison.

Altcoin Outlook The crypto top ten is starting to correct during Monday trading across Asia. Most altcoins are shedding their weekend gains with XRP, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and EOS dropping 4 percent each. Only Tron has made a gain today with 4 percent added to reach $0.038. Justin Sun did not miss the opportunity to point out that TRX has flipped Stellar for a top ten slot as market cap topped $2.5 billion:

Back to Top 10 now. #TRON #TRX $TRX #BitTorrent #BTT $BTT pic.twitter.com/0OevisDE6M

— H.E. Justin Sun 👨‍🚀 🌞 (@justinsuntron) June 24, 2019

The top twenty is all red today as altcoins drop gains and remain weak. Cosmos and IOTA have dumped over 4 percent while Stellar and NEO are close behind. Monero and LEO have remained flat on the day.

FOMO: Lambda Launches Today’s crypto top one hundred pump is going to LAMB which has surged by 48 percent to reach an all-time high of $0.17. The Chinese decentralized data storage token has recently been listed on Bittrex and OKEx which is likely to be driving momentum.

Aeternity is also spiking at the moment with a 13 percent boost and Hedge Trade is the third altcoin with a double digit gain. Insight Chain is getting dumped hard as it falls to the bottom of the pile losing 30 percent. MaidSafeCoin and KuCoin Shares are also in pain with 10 percent dropped a piece.

Total market cap 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market capitalization hit a one year high of $336 billion yesterday. Bitcoin’s push above $11k has contributed to most of it and altcoins dumping today has dropped total cap back to $324 billion. Daily volume peaked at almost $100 billion on Sunday but has since cooled off as markets correct slightly.

‏Market Wrap is a section that takes a daily look at the top cryptocurrencies during the current trading session and analyses the best-performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.

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. 

[adinserter block="1"]

Crypto analyst Scott Melker is bullish on Bitcoin, XRP and the crypto markets at large.

The founder of Texas West Capital is revealing his outlook on Bitcoin and a list of altcoins. In a new note on the state of crypto, Melker says BTC is looking bullish on the daily, weekly and monthly charts – with the monthly looking especially enticing.

“[Monthly chart is] incredibly bullish. Anything above the most recent support at $9,243.83 remains as such.

The last monthly candle engulfed the previous 2, with a hammer at the bottom – arguably a morning star reversal. There is quite literally nothing bearish about the chart on this time frame.”

Source: Scott Melker/TradingView Melker says he began buying BTC when it was in the $6,400 range, and he sees no evidence that BTC’s rally above $10,000 is finished.

[adinserter block="1"]

As for the altcoin market, Melker says he’s eyeing XRP, Stellar (XLM), NEO and Holo (HOT).

$XRP

I didn't need a chart to predict this, but it's nice to look at one for confirmation. Blast off. pic.twitter.com/Ow7uY995vE

— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) February 13, 2020

$XMR / $BTC

Continuing to consolidate against major resistance. I am expecting a major pop if it breaks. pic.twitter.com/Nue2We0tHY

— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) January 30, 2020

$NEO / $BTC

Holy mother. Confirmed breakout of an inverse head and shoulders that has existed for almost 10 months. This should pull a 50% move up just on that pattern. Expecting to see NEO take flight. pic.twitter.com/iGSsUt4I6R

— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) February 13, 2020

$HOT / $USDT

This looks crazy bullish. Broke descending support and has now flipped horizontal resistance to support and moved away on strong volume. pic.twitter.com/nFsWTcrjqL

— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) February 12, 2020

In the end, Melker says it’s easy to ride a wave in a bull market, but smart traders will take profits and incrementally sell their positions as the price of an asset rises.

“Everyone is a genius in a bull market. We will see how many people actually make it out with their profits…

– Scale out of your trades. This will help remove the pressure of deciding when to exit.
– Take profit often, there’s always another trade. Don’t worry about what happens after you exit.
– Use trailing stops to lock in gains and make sure you never turn a winner into a loser.”

[adinserter block="1"]

Although Melker joins a number of analysts who are bullish on the state of the market, veteran trader Josh Rager says the bullish sentiments may be too good to be true.

Rager confirms a sudden influx of messages from people asking him for trading advice. The last time this happened, he says, the market was hit with a major pullback.

The Komodo platform is many things – a unique blockchain, a coin that pays interest, a decentralized exchange, a development blockchain with many additional features being planned for the future.

The Komodo blockchain is a fork of the ZCash blockchain, which itself was forked from the Bitcoin blockchain, making Komodo a descendent of Bitcoin. It includes the zk-snark technology that Zcash was built upon, and adds a delayed proof of work consensus algorithm to make Komodo more robust and secure.

The ultimate goal of Komodo is to create an entire ecosystem comprised of diverse partnerships that will send the platform forward into the future. Because it was designed to be used by developers of any level and in any industry it is extremely versatile.

In this comprehensive review, I will give you everything that you need to know about the Komodo platform.

How Komodo WorksThose doing development on the Komodo platform are not building onto the blockchain, but are instead building their own standalone blockchains. It’s not a fork or sidechain, and the Komodo platform doesn’t act as a parent to the new blockchain.

Each project is an independent blockchain that becomes connected to the Komodo ecosystem. This is crucial because the fact that each blockchain is independent means that future development won’t be limited by Komodo in any way.

Benefits of the Komodo Platform

Komodo was also designed from the ground up as a modular ecosystem. This allows developers to choose which technologies they wish to use in their own projects.

Perhaps most importantly, Komodo was developed with security as a top priority. In addition to using the Zcash zk-snark protocols for anonymity and privacy, Komodo uses a delayed proof of work (PoW) protocol to provide Bitcoin level security to even the smallest blockchains and projects. As stated on the Komodo website itself:

Komodo’s innovative dPOW (delayed proof of work) provides a security layer that creates backups of your blockchain’s data and notarizes it to Bitcoin’s blockchain, providing even the smallest of blockchains with Bitcoin-level security.

In essence, Komodo is using Bitcoin’s hashrate to ensure immutability for the Komodo blockchain.

Komodo PrivacyKomodo was created as a form of the Zcash blockchain, using their technology known as ‘Zero Knowledge Proofs’. This technology allows each transaction on the blockchain to be 100% anonymous or as transparent as necessary given the requirements of each situation.

Anonymous transactions are important to many users because they hide the amount, sender and recipient of the transaction, but still make it possible for miners to verify that the transaction is valid and without any double-spending. Alternatively transactions can be left transparent, in which case information shows just as it would for a Bitcoin transaction.

Anonymous transactions help protect user privacy, but they provide a more important function, and that is to preserve fungibility, which is a basic requirement for any currency.

Komodo SecurityAfter including privacy by forming from Zcash, the developers of Komodo provided for enhanced security of the blockchain in a unique manner. They created a proof of work token, but modified it to be Delayed Proof of Work, allowing it to recycle Bitcoin’s hashrate to ensure immutability of Komodo’s blockchain.

Komodo does this by using 64 “notary nodes” that work to notarize blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain. This provides protection for Komodo because an attacker would have to alter both the block in the Komodo blockchain and the block in the Bitcoin blockchain.

Steps in the Komodo Delayed Proof of Work

As long as the Bitcoin blockchain is secure, so too will Komodo – and all the other blockchains built using Komodo – remain secure.

This mechanism can now be used by any cryptocurrency that wishes enhanced security. By using Komodo the new blockchains are connected to Bitcoin, benefiting from the security of the Bitcoin blockchain, while also saving on transaction costs.

Komodo TeamThe Komodo project is based on anonymity, so it comes as no surprise that many of the Komodo team members initially chose not to reveal their identity. The founder and one core developer of Komodo went by the moniker JL777, but is now known as James ‘JL777’ Lee.

The CTO of the project was known as CA333, but we now know him as Kadan Stadelmann. This increased transparency has come about as Komodo grows in size and scope and is attracting more investors.

The full team is now nearly 30 members spanning leadership, development, marketing, and community development. And speaking of community, there are numerous contributors from the community, both developers and community outreach ambassadors.

Some of the Komodo Team Members

Currently, the general manager of Komodo is Ben Fairbanks, who is also the founder and CEO of RedFOX Labs, an incubator that is helping to launch Komodo based companies in emerging markets. Prior to joining Komodo and launching RedFOX, he served as COO at the ride-hailing service Grab. He brings extensive business and marketing experience to the project.

The CTO of the Komodo project, almost since the very beginning, has been Kaden Stadelmann. He also serves as CTO of RedFOX Labs. He previously worked as an IT security analyst and software developer, and founded the company satoshihack back in 2011, making him a pioneer in the blockchain space.

Core development is led by founder James Lee, and he is joined by Adam Bullock and Mihailo Milenkovic as well as roughly a dozen full-time developers and another dozen community volunteer developers.

KMD CoinThe Komodo native currency (KMD) was launched in an ICO in February 2017 at a price of $0.10. Since then the price of the coin has risen and fallen with the fortunes of the project and the markets. As of mid-March 2018 it was trading at $2.73 and was ranked the #48 coin by market cap on Coinmarketcap.com.

Even though 2018 saw many coins losing 90% or more of their value, KMD held up fairly well in the face of the bear market. It rallied in April, topping $4 and slowly sank from that level, finally dipping under $1 in November 2018 and hitting a low of $0.492329 on November 25, 2018.

It slowly recovered from that low and by February 2019 had doubled in price as it traded back above $1. It remained above $1 for nearly all of 2019, and nearly hit $2 in July 2019, but the price has recently dropped and as of August 9, 2019 stands at $0.863399.

KMD Price Performance. Image via CMC

The fundamentals for the coin continue to look solid thanks to the 5% annual interest rate paid to KMD holders, and the current low price is more a reflection of broad-based weakness in the cryptocurrency markets.

There are currently 115,389,114KMD in circulation, with a planned total supply of 200 million coins, which is projected to be reached in 2031. Until that time, KMD holders will continue to receive a 5.1% annual interest payment (called Active User Rewards) on their KMD holdings, so long as they keep more than 10 KMD in a wallet where they control the private keys. The KMD had an all-time high of $12.54 on December 21, 2017.

Buying & Storing KMDKMD can be purchased on a good number of exchanges, with the largest volume on CoinBene. There is also good volume at Binance, CoinEx, and HitBTC. Other good choices for buying KMD include CoinEx and Bittrex.

Given that there is strong volume across a number of exhanges, it bodes well for the liquidity of KMD. Improved liquidity means that you can execute large block orders on these books without much slippage in the price of the coin.

Register at Binance and Buy KMD Coin

In order to earn the 5.1% annual interest users must hold their KMD in a supported wallet. The top two based on the Komodo website are the Verus Agama wallet, which is a multi-coin wallet from the Verus Coin project, or the native Komodo OceanQT wallet. Other options include the Guarda Wallet and the ZelCore wallet.

Development & RoadmapWhen it comes to determining the amount of work that has been done by a project, there are a number of metrics one can look at.

However, one of the most effective that I have found is to take a look at the coding activity in the project's public repositories.

Therefore, I decided to jump into the Komodo GitHub to get a better sense of what the developers have been pushing over the past year. Below is the total code commits to two of their development repos.

Commits for Select Repos over past 12 months

As you can see from the above, the team has been quite active pushing code to their core repository over the past year. It is also worth pointing out that there are a further 56 other repositories with varying degrees of activity.

This is more development activity than we have seen at most other projects. In fact, if we were to compare Komodo to its peers, it is ranked 30th in terms of commits and 12th for overall coding activity on coincodecap.

This perhaps makes sense when viewed in the context of the numerous projects being built on the Komodo platform (more below). 

In terms of the upcoming roadmap, the two most important remaining milestones for 2019 are the release of the developer portal as well as the GUI for the fully mobile-ready wallet/DEX hybrid.

If you want to keep up to date with development on the project then I suggest you jump into their discord and meet the team. They also encourage community developer contributions to the core.

Komodo Platform ProjectsThere are a number of standalone projects that were developed for the Komodo platform. Those that are farthest along in development and have been released as at least betas include Decentralized ICOs, BarterDEX along with a built-in “tumbler” service called Jumblr.

However, as of July 2019 Komodo has launched its Antara Framework, which is the basis for nearly all current services on Komodo.

Decentralized Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)The Decentralised ICO concept was meant to be an exciting option for startups as it would mean that they could launch their process much easier. It would also have given them access to the Komodo technology, marketing channels, and consultants.

However, given the regulatory pressure that has been placed on ICOs recently, this initiative seems to have fallen by the wayside. Of course, the lackluster performance of most recent ICOs has not helped the process.

The Komodo team had plans to launch a number of Decentralised ICOs. In May of last year they planned to release their first with the BlocNation dICO. However, this did not seem to materialize and the Blocnation project seems to have gone dead (with the site down).

The dICO that never materialized... Image via Komodo Blog

Despite this though, Komodo will accept pre-existing blockchain projects on other platforms that would like to migrate to Komodo to receive your own fully customizable, high performing independent blockchain.

As of August 2019 there are a number of projects that have launched on Komodo.

JumblrJumblr is a cryptocurrency anonymizer developed by Komodo which is decentralized and open-source. It can be used to increase privacy when using the Komodo platform.

Anonymizing funds is actually a fairly straightforward and simple practice. The Jumblr will take KMD tokens from a non-private address and send them through a number of zk-snark addresses.

Once these untraceable addresses have processed the coins they are sent to a new address where they are completely anonymous. The fee for using the Jumblr service is 0.3%, which is payable in KMD tokens.

BarterDEX Rebranded to AtomicDEXBarterDEX was previously called EasyDEX but was rebranded in July 2017. It is a decentralized exchange utilizing atomic swaps, and more recently etomic swaps, which bridge the gap between Bitcoin and Ethereum based blockchains.

The use of atomic swaps and etomic swaps lower counterparty risk, transaction fees and speeds the transfer of assets. BarterDEX can support trading of any cryptocurrency, and will also support fiat in the future. Already the decentralized exchange is capable of performing swaps for 95% of the cryptocurrencies in existence.

BarterDEX also solves the liquidity problem encountered by most decentralized exchanges by producing Liquidity Nodes that stabilizes prices by buying and selling assets in the order books.

Screenshots from the AtomicDex App. Image via atomicdex.io

In July 2019 the BarterDEX platform got another upgrade and rebrand and has been re-launched as AtomicDEX in a closed public beta. AtomicDEX provides a secure, reliable, and completely decentralized method for trading digital assets.

Trades no longer have to pass through an intermediary but are done from wallet to wallet. AtomicDEX will act as a multi-currency wallet and as a fully decentralized trading platform. At its beta release, AtomicDEX has support for 13 different coins, but can technically support 99% of all existing cryptocurrencies. New coins will be added with each update to the DEX.

The Antara FrameworkThe Antara Framework was launched on the Komodo mainnet on July 15, 2019, completing a rebrand that stretched out for nearly a full year. This relaunch has included several new developments, such as the beta release of the Antara Smart Chain Composer, which allows anyone to launch their own SmartChain blockchain in just minutes, including full seed nodes and mining nodes.

The Antara Framework is an adaptable framework for simple, end-to-end blockchain development. Antara makes it easier than ever before to launch a chain, activate modules, and start building blockchain-based applications.

Antara has maintained the independence and privacy of building with Komodo. Each independent chain has its own consensus rules, hashing algorithm, decentralized network, and coin. Blockchains launched with Komodo’s technology never depend on the KMD chain, network, or platform.

Antara Network Recently Going live. Image via Komodo Blog

It’s an open ecosystem so there is no vendor lock-in. Creating a chain from the CLI is permissionless and free. The Komodo team is not informed when a chain is created so there's no way to track a chain after launch.

The framework also comes with built-in modules, making development speedy and easier. This allows developers to natively support any software, dApp or blockchain-based games.

With 18 different customizable Smart Chain parameters, any blockchain can be built to serve any business need. The Antara Integration Layer also offers several white label products such as a multi-coin wallet, block explorers, full seed nodes, a branded DEX, a crowdfunding app and integration with SPV Electrum servers.

CompetitionBecause Komodo is involved in so many aspects of the blockchain it is facing competition from many different directions.

Decentralized exchanges are becoming increasingly popular, and the AtomicDEX exchange is in competition with BitShares, EtherDelta, and Waves, as well as many other smaller players.

As a privacy coin, KMD competes against the larger Dash and Monero coins, and of course against the Zcash that it was forked from.

Komodo faces stiff competition from Ethereum as it is the leader in the ICO and smart contracts field, but other established blockchains such as NEO, NXT and Waves are also competing for ICO traction.

And now we also have initial exchange offerings (IEOs) from the likes of Binance and other exchanges growing in popularity. Smart contracts have also found their way into most projects. One strength for Komodo is that it is the first to offer a fully decentralized exchange with atomic swap capabilities.

ConclusionThe Komodo project is an extensive and ambitious large-scale project that aims to solve many issues that centralization of cryptocurrencies and blockchains face.

In addition to being its own blockchain and coin, it is also tackling the decentralized exchange, atomic swap, and decentralized ICO space. It includes options for anonymity and has a unique proof of work consensus algorithm that promises enhanced security, even for new blockchains based off Komodo.

Needless to say, that’s a lot to bite off, but the Komodo team has shown itself to be up to the challenge time and again. In a world where deadlines are often missed by months, the Komodo team has not only delivered but also delivered early and with few bugs. The team also takes user feedback into consideration and has been known to pivot quickly based on the needs of the community.

If the Komodo team continues to deliver it could make a long-term lasting impact on the cryptocurrency space, but it is too early to tell if this will be the case. In any event, it is certainly a project worth watching.

In the roughly 18 months since this review was first prepared the Komodo team has continued to deliver an exceptional product, and with the July 2019 release of the Antara Framework, it has advanced to the first composable SmartChain platform in the industry. This first-mover advantage keeps Komodo on the cutting edge of blockchain development.

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

Crypto markets remain sideways; Litecoin still surging, BNB and Cardano doing well, Bitcoin and ETH flat.  Market Wrap As the crypto consolidation continues markets have fallen back again following a day of minor gains. There is still no sign of this correction that everyone is expecting as total market capitalization remains above $250 billion and Bitcoin remains sideways.

Bitcoin fell back to $7,780 yesterday before recovering back to $8,050 during Asian trading today. As was the case yesterday, BTC dropped back below $8k pretty quickly and is still trading there, flat on the day. Unless the bulls can take it above $8.2k BTC will remain range bound.

Predictably Ethereum has also done absolutely nothing and remains trading at $248, a fraction higher than it was this time on Tuesday morning. ETH is still hopelessly tied to Bitcoin and is likely to remain so until some fundamentals kick it into gear.

The top ten is a mixed affair during the morning’s trading session. Many altcoins have not moved at all since yesterday but one is showing a lot of strength with a 34 percent gain on the week and another 9 percent added today. Litecoin has turned $125 from resistance into support and has surged to $140 as the halving fomo heats up. Analysts expect LTC to reach $150 before traders start taking profits and it retraces a little.  Binance Coin is the only other one moving with a 4 percent gain to reach $33.

The top twenty is looking equally mixed today with Cardano leading things adding 5 percent to $0.088. Tron, IOTA and NEO have notched up a further 2 percent each but the rest remain flat, unchanged from yesterday.

FOMO: Egretia Emerges Entering the crypto top one hundred with a spike of 30 percent is EGT which is now priced at $0.015. OKEx is driving momentum for this Singapore based video gaming token with a series of giveaways.

A Breaking News: 5 Million EGT Giveaway!!!
11:00 am June 11th - 11:00 am June 18th in OKEx
More details: https://t.co/jn3pTaOv17 #egt #okex #airdrop #gaming #blockchain pic.twitter.com/DOFzalUUKz

— Egretia (@Egretia_io) June 10, 2019

Zcoin is also on a pump today as XZC adds 20 percent largely driven by crypto exchanges in Thailand. WAX is the third best performer today with a rise of 11 percent. Such a surprise at the red end – it is Aurora again dumping 23 percent; this altcoin is so predictable that everyone should be trading it.

Total market capitalization 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market capitalization is up a tiny fraction from yesterday at $256 billion. The mini $6 billion dump was quickly recovered meaning that markets are still at the same level and still consolidating. Nothing is likely to happen until Bitcoin makes a bigger move, its dominance has been steadily eroding this month and it is now down to 55.4%.

Market Wrap is a section that takes a daily look at the top cryptocurrencies during the current trading session and analyses the best-performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.

Crypto markets reach 2019 high; Bitcoin still in charge, XRP and BNB pumping, LTC retreating slowly. Market Wrap Crypto markets have reached their highest level since July 2018 in terms of market capitalization. The momentum has come from Bitcoin hitting another 2019 top, and Ripple’s XRP pumping on a new partnership announcement.

Bitcoin has been grinding higher for the past 24 hours until it topped $9,400 briefly marking its highest price since early May 2018. There is heavy resistance above this and BTC quickly started to retreat back to the $9,200 area where it was trading this time yesterday. According to coinmarketcap.com daily volume dumped 25% in an unnatural looking spike so the figures could be spurious.

Ethereum has been static again and remains at $270 where it was this time yesterday. Without any solid fundamentals ETH remains sluggish and unable to push towards $300. It is still 80 percent down from its all-time high and ‘altseason’ has yet to materialize.

The top ten is a mixed affair during Asian trading today but the top performer is XRP. The Ripple token surged 9 percent after the announcement that the company was partnering with MoneyGram. The deal would involve the deployment of xRapid for cross border transfers using XRP. After topping $0.46 XRP corrected to $0.44 where it currently trades.

An industry defining milestone: together, @MoneyGram and @Ripple are solving the challenges with cross-border payments using the speed and efficiency of #XRP. https://t.co/xIfeJJgSy7

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) June 17, 2019

Binance Coin is also doing well today adding 5 percent as the exchange announced that it will issue a number of crypto-pegged tokens on Binance Chain in the coming days, starting with $BTCB, a BEP2 token pegged to $BTC. BSV is up marginally and Litecoin is starting its pullback, dropping 3 percent back towards $130.

The top twenty is also mixed but red is dominating over green as altcoins slide again. NEO and Tezos are dumping 5 percent a piece right now and IOTA and NEM are not far behind dropping 3 percent. Only Cosmos is making anything with 3 percent added on the day.

FOMO: Chainlink Churning Higher Today’s top one hundred top performer is LINK which has cranked 18 percent to hit $2. The fomo is still lingering from the Google Cloud tie up as this altcoin climbs the charts to 24th with a market cap of $700 million. Japan’s Monacoin is also on a roll today adding 15 percent, unsurprisingly most of it on Bitbank in JPY. Zcash is the third most popular altcoin today making 13 percent.

The two usual suspects are at the bottom end of the performance pile, Maximine Coin and Aurora.

Total market cap 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market cap hit a new 2019 high of $290 billion a few hours ago. The move was driven by BTC and XRP which both pumped within a few hours of each other. Market cap is currently back at $286 billion where it was this time yesterday. BTC is still in the driving seat.

Market Wrap is a section that takes a daily look at the top cryptocurrencies during the current trading session and analyses the best-performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.

This week, NEO joined Microsoft’s .NET Foundation, serving as a major asset to Microsoft’s blockchain efforts.

Mainline Blockchain Efforts From Microsoft Following the integration, NEO will be able to introduce a new set of tools for Microsoft Visual Studio, making it easier for mainstream developers to create NEO dApps. This news comes just months after NEO expressed interest in the .NET stack.

This isn’t Microsoft’s first time using blockchain. Over the past few years, Microsoft has allowed enterprises to make use of various blockchains through its Azure services. Azure provides access to popular chains like Ethereum, Quorum, and Corda, as well as obscure blockchains like SIMBA Chain, Rootstock, Stratis, and more.

Microsoft’s most frequent collaborator, though, is JPMorgan. This year, Microsoft introduced Quorum as Azure’s first fully-managed blockchain, offering a more simplified blockchain experience. Microsoft also uses Quorum in-house to manage XBOX royalties. A strategic partnership is ongoing, so there may be more to come.

Advertisement

Microsoft’s blockchain efforts don’t stop there: the company is also a member of several blockchain groups, such as the Hyperledger Foundation, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, and the Token Taxonomy Initiative. Microsoft hasn’t produced much in the way of products with these groups; rather, it is contributing to standards.

The company has also developed ION, a Bitcoin-based decentralized identity system, covering the costs of the project through its Identity Division.

Funding, Acceptance, and Other Efforts Microsoft is also pouring funding into blockchain projects. Notably, it has contributed funds to events like the Ethereal Virtual Hackathon, which took place in April.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Research’s blockchain division has contributed to a handful of research papers over the years. Microsoft Research was responsible for Microsoft’s first foray into blockchain: in 2012, the group published “On Blockchain and Red Balloons” with Cornell University, describing a Bitcoin information propagation system.

Finally, casual crypto users might be interested to know that Microsoft accepts Bitcoin in its stores. You can deposit Bitcoin into your account and receive credit in return.

Are Microsoft’s Blockchain Efforts Overrated? Blockchain endeavors are sometimes exaggerated in the media, and Microsoft is no exception. In 2017, a Microsoft representative mentioned a partnership with IOTA before both companies denied it. Although Microsoft was indeed participating in IOTA’s IoT marketplace, there was no formal partnership.

Likewise, Microsoft may never live down Bill Gates’ attacks on Bitcoin: he has called it a “greater fool” investment. Gates is now only minimally involved in Microsoft, and current reps have made more positive comments. Some have even said that blockchain is “at a tipping point.”

Despite a few disappointments, Microsoft’s blockchain efforts make it one of the most pro-blockchain companies. Ultimately, the company must change with the times: other tech giants like IBM and Amazon have made their own blockchain breakthroughs, while Microsoft is just getting started.

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

Binance Launches Staking, Faces Sharp Criticism From Crypto Community

The value of the cryptocurrency Tezos rose by 26 percent last night, the slow-burning result of Coinbase’s announcement that it would reward customers for "staking" the cryptocurrency on its platform. But what does that actually mean?  

In practice, staking allows customers to earn what is essentially interest on any cryptocurrency they hold, rewarding HODLers with a stream of passive income. Coinbase’s estimated annual return for users staking Tezos is 5 percent. 

To earn rewards, customers must first stake Tezos for around 35-40 days, after which they will start to be rewarded with interest every three days. 

Tezos is a proof-of-stake coin, meaning it has no miners. Instead, those who verify transactions stake coins on the validity of the transaction to help keep things running smoothly. Those who stake the coin have the chance to generate new Tezos, and provide the liquidity that underpins the network. Previously, Tezos users had to set up a “baker”—the proof-of-stake equivalent of a “miner”, to earn rewards. This was a relatively complicated process, requiring specialist knowledge. 

On Coinbase, staking rewards are issued automatically, and customers do not have to take any further action to enter into the program. “This makes earning staking rewards much easier,” Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures tells Decrypt.

Tezos, which is similar to Ethereum and allows distributed applications to be built on its blockchain, was started in 2014 by Kathleen and Arthur Breitman, a married couple who had significant fintech experience on Wall Street and beyond. The company raised $232 million in a 2017 ICO in Switzerland—which was a record fundraise at the time. In a long feature about the internecine struggles of the young company, "Inside the Crypto World's Biggest Scandal," Wired said that "the name 'tezos' became crypto-world shorthand for ICO avarice."

The company has since recovered from its governance crisis.

Interestingly, though Coinbase announced the Tezos staking program late morning California time, it didn’t start to surge until around 7:30PM PST. Then it took off like a rocket as traders raced to get in on the action. Carter said he couldn’t find any specific reason that the price jumped so dramatically so late in the day.

“Markets aren’t particularly good at incorporating information,” he said. That's particularly true in the crypto market, which Carter says is especially slow to respond to news.

For Coinbase, encouraging staking of Tezos could supply its exchange with a steady stream of the coin, adding liquidity to its exchange. This is helpful for the exchange, which Carter says is transitioning to being the equivalent of a “crypto native bank with a full custody offering.” Carter says the announcement is “a good incentive to have retail owners of Tezos deposit them with Coinbase.”

(We reached out to Coinbase and Tezos to understand more about the deal and will update the article when we have more information.)

Coinbase’s announcement follows rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who launched its own staking platform last month. It supported the following eight cryptocurrencies: NEO (NEO/GAS), Ontology (ONT/ONG), Vechain (VET/VTHO), Stellar (XLM), Komodo (KMD), Algorand (ALGO), Qtum (QTUM), & Stratis (STRAT). Stellar staking has finished, but several more pairings have been added: TRON, Elrond, Fetch.ai, and ONE. 

Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao has previously hinted at Binance’s future support for Tezos staking.

Of course, though stakers might be consistently rewarded with 5 percent of the coin’s value—the value of the individual coin is still subject to fluctuation. Binance estimates that staking Algorand, for example, will yield over 15 percent, but Algorand is a more volatile cryptocurrency. The Algo, worth $0.26—down from highs of $3.28 in June—has netted investors minus 92 percent in returns.

And, as Carter tells Decrypt, staking comes with risks: staking funds on Coinbase requires customers to keep funds on Coinbase. If the exchange—or the customer—gets hacked, then they could lose their Tezos. 

Additionally, Carter says that staking on large exchanges means that “Coinbase and other exchanges will come to own a huge fraction of supply for these staked coins.” This, says Carter, is a potential risk: “the security model ultimately could degenerate into a few large custodial institutions signing blocks.” 

Crypto analyst Eric Wall echoed Carter's caution: “I'd keep a worried eye on this. It's about time Proof-of-Stake really gets battle-tested in the context of a fully matured industry. We’ll soon see which tools and services become popular—then we can work out which threats are the most concerning, the same way we've done for Proof-of-Work.”

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

The crypto market is constantly in flux: brand-new cryptocurrencies regularly appear at the top of the charts, while older coins slowly fade away. While Bitcoin has been a consistent leader, the market is littered with former runners-up.

All it takes is a trip through the historical rankings to see just how transient cryptocurrencies can be. Here’s the top ten cryptocurrencies on August 25th, 2013: just about six years ago.

Via CoinMarketCap Some of these early cryptocurrencies are far more important than they seem, and today’s most popular coins owe a lot to their ancestors. Here’s a few old projects that pioneered some of today’s most popular crypto trends. We’ll start at the very beginning with the digital currencies (and proposed currencies) that preceded Bitcoin.

DigiCash And More: The BitGold To Bitcoin’s Gold Bitcoin was released in 2008, but it wasn’t the first digital currency. One of Bitcoin’s most notable precursors is David Chaum’s DigiCash, which was active from 1990 to 1998. DigiCash had cryptographic elements similar to those of Bitcoin, but it lacked Bitcoin’s defining features. Unlike Bitcoin, DigiCash didn’t use a blockchain, and it didn’t rely on mining (aka proof-of-work).

Proof-of-work grew fast, though: in the years leading up to Bitcoin’s 2008 launch, several mining-based digital currencies were suggested. Wei Dai proposed bMoney in 1998, and Nick Szabo proposed BitGold in 2005. Neither of these proposals came to fruition. However, Hashcash, a proof-of-work system dating back to 1997, was eventually used in Bitcoin’s mining scheme.

Advertisement

Bitcoin’s blockchain also has a number of important ancestors. In 1991, Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta developed an early distributed ledger. It was intended as a timestamping tool, and it took the form of hashes printed in the New York Times. Prior to this, Ralph Merkle invented hash trees, a key part of every blockchain.

Peercoin: An Early Proof-of-Stake Coin In 2012, Sunny King and Scott Nadal created Peercoin, the first cryptocurrency with a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Peercoin partially relies on mining to create tokens, just like Bitcoin does, but it also distributes tokens to coinholders through its staking model. This provides extra security: Peercoin’s reliance on staking reduced the risk of mining centralization and 51% attacks.

Naturally, Peercoin’s early staking model was extremely basic, and it doesn’t solve the nothing-at-stake problem. In other words, validators have no reason not to behave maliciously.

Newer coins try to solve this problem: NEO and EOS allow stakeholders to vote for just a few trusted validators, for example. Ethereum, meanwhile, plans to keep validators in line with complex incentives and penalties as it transitions towards proof-of-stake.

Colored Coins: Tokenization Before Ethereum Long before Vitalik Buterin dreamed up the word “Ethereum,” simple tokens already existed on Bitcoin. The most elemental forms were “colored coins,” which allow users to represent assets as custom tokens.

Early implementations for Bitcoin-based colored coins began to appear in 2012. More popular implementations appeared later, including EPOBC, Open Assets and Coinprism. The Omni Layer also provides a basis for custom Bitcoin tokens, but it isn’t always considered a colored coin system.

In any case, Bitcoin’s colored coins were quickly overshadowed by Ethereum. Since 2015, over 200,000 tokens have been created on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard. Ethereum also offers token standards for special assets, such as security tokens and cryptocollectibles. Countless other blockchains, such as Binance Chain, are also aiming to provide similar tokenization features.

Devcoin: Crypto Rewards Before BAT and Steemit Devcoin was created in 2011 as a reward token for developers, artists, and content creators. Although Devcoin is produced through mining, like Bitcoin, it also offers built-in features that facilitate payments to creators. In particular, Devcoin coordinates payments through “receiver files,” which are hosted by creators who release their work under free licenses.

Devcoin is no longer popular, but some of its features can be found in other crypto reward projects. Brave, for example, requires websites to host special files in order to receive Basic Attention Token payouts. Meanwhile, Coil, which relies on XRP and Interledger, requires content creators to edit their web page’s metadata. Steemit is also a popular crypto-based reward platform.

Are Classic Coins Still Relevant? Some of these projects are still active – but they’re not very prominent. In January 2014, there were just 67 cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap. Peercoin ranked #4, Omni was at #5, and Devcoin was at #19. But now, there are thousands of coins, and competition is brutal: Peercoin currently ranks at #245, Omni is at #750, and Devcoin doesn’t even get a number.

It’s possible that this pattern will repeat itself—perhaps in five years, people will forget about many of today’s most popular cryptocurrencies. But for all the talk about Bitcoin killers and Ethereum killers, today’s market leaders don’t seem to be under threat. Only time will tell whether the top coins can maintain their lead.

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

Does Correlation Between Bitcoin Price and Altcoins Mean Buy the Dips?

Market Wrap Crypto markets consolidating again; Binance Coin, Dash and Maker are moving, the rest slipping slowly. As widely predicted the crypto market pump was just that as things are starting to dump again today. The movements have been minor but the majority are in the red at the moment as market capitalization slips back to $120 billion.

Bitcoin did not get close to $3,700 today so new resistance levels are forming lower again. Around $3,650 seems to be its stability point for the time being but dips are not being supported and Bitcoin could drop lower, it is currently down half a percent on the day.

Ethereum has held on to second place by not moving over the past 24 hours. Still trading at $120 ETH could get some momentum from the Constantinople hard fork which has been delayed until the end of the month. XRP has lost a little more ground today and the gap between the two is currently just over $200 million.

Most of the top ten are falling back during the Asian trading session today. Tron has dropped the most despite the BTT airdrop today as TRX loses 3.5%. Bitcoin Cash is not far behind with a 3% slide. Only Binance Coin is making progress today adding another 2.5% as it closes the gap on Stellar in ninth which has dumped another 2%.

There are two big movers in the top twenty at the moment. Dash and Maker have added a further 7% on the day trading at $83 and $495 respectively. The Maker dev fund was moved to a new multisig wallet two days ago which caused the CMC market cap spike and the flipping of ETC and NEM. NEO and Zcash have also added 3.5% each to their prices over the past 24 hours but IOTA and NEM continue to slide.

There are no major pumps occurring in the top one hundred at the time of writing. Huobi Token is the best performer adding 15% followed by MOAC with a 12% rise. Getting bashed is yesterday’s pump; Quant followed by Revain both shedding 10% in predictable dumps.

Total market capitalization has not really moved overnight and is still at $120 billion. No further gains for the big cap coins look likely so further consolidation is expected in this channel for the time being. Volume is still at $20 billion and markets are still 6% higher than they were this time last week.

Market Wrap is a section that takes a daily look at the top 20 cryptocurrencies during the current trading session and analyses the best-performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals

Crypto markets pulling back sharply; Litecoin, EOS, Bitcoin Cash and SV getting smashed, Crypto.com gets fomo. Market Wrap As expected crypto markets are finally dumping as we end the week. Over $16 billion has been lost as markets fall from their 2019 high back to $170 billion or so. Bitcoin initiated the dump but so far has remained above key support levels. It is the altcoins that are bleeding today.

Bitcoin fell below $5,000 for the first time in a week and settled at $4,950 before recovering slightly. The failure to break resistance at $5,400 has sent BTC back down as it drops around 4% on the day. Many had predicted this pullback and foretell further losses back to major support at $4,600 where the 200 day moving average is.

Ethereum has fallen harder as expected with a drop of 5% back below $165 again. There was no push to $200 for ETH which is still rising and falling along with its big brother. The gap between it and XRP in third is now much larger though at almost $4 billion market cap.

The top ten is a sea of red during today’s Asian trading session. The altcoins are getting hammered, some by double digits. Litecoin is losing 9% today as it falls back to $77, EOS and Bitcoin Cash are not doing a great deal better with 24 hours loses of 6 – 7 percent. Stellar and Cardano have both dumped 5% as Tether moves back up the chart.

The top twenty is awash with equal pain as Bitcoin SV, Ontology and Maker dump ten percent a piece. Close behind is Tron, NEO and Ethereum Classic with losses of over 6% on the day.

FOMO: Crypto.com Crushing It Despite the massive market correction Crypto.com’s Chain is flying today with a 25% fomo pump to $0.093 (1860 satoshis). There does not appear to be much driving the fomo, the only recent news is that the company donated $500k to Binance charity. South Korean markets are dominating trade in CRO with Upbit taking 40% of the total volume.

TrueChain is also getting fomo today with a 20% pump and Lambda is the third altcoin in double digits at 17%. KuCoin Shares are still getting dumped with a further 11% lost today. ABBC Coin and Revain, the usual suspects, are also dumping 10% each following recent pumps.

Total market capitalization 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market capitalization has lost 5.5% in 24 hours falling from around $180 to just below $170 billion. Markets reached a new 2019 high on Thursday with a brief surge to $186 billion but since then $16 billion has been wiped out. This could be a short term pullback or the beginning of a final capitulation that so many analysts have been talking about.

Market Wrap is a section that takes a daily look at the top cryptocurrencies during the current trading session and analyses the best-performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.

Mastercard, Binance X and Ripple's Xpring Join the Blockchain Education Alliance