Litecoin Was The Top Performing Cryptocurrency In February (CryptoDaily.co.uk)
2018 has not been a good year for cryptocurrencies. 2017 ended on a high, when prices saw a steep increase, but as quickly as they rose, they came shooting back down again, showing just how volatile the cryptocurrency market could be. Although the majority of them have started to pick up in value again, there is one that has really shone through and that is Litecoin. It is one of the few cryptocurrencies that will be leaving February in the green. Litecoin is a leading altcoin, which is the fifth largest virtual currency by market capital in the world. During the past month, it has increased in value by more than 21% which is far more than the number one cryptocoin, Bitcoin, which saw a 4% drop in value.
OTPPAY – The Crypto To Fiat Payment Solution (EthereumWorldNews.com)
Nowadays, one of the biggest issues that the cryptocurrency market faces is crypto to fiat or fiat to crypto transfer. Using a fiat to crypto exchange leads to extra fees that the buyer is paying. Another issue is the fact that merchants cannot accept cryptocurrency payments without of exposing themselves to the risk of losing a certain amount in USD. This is where OTPPAY wants to make a change. Their mission is to create a world class cryptocurrency exchange where you can easily transfer fiat to cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency to fiat and even fiat to fiat. OTPPAY thrives to bridge the gap between Crypto to Fiat. Their main focus is to take the crypto to the common people day to day life. Moreover, their protocol will address the Transactions Per Second (TPS) & Cost Per Second (CPS) through value equalization techniques and smart swapping procedures.
Pixabay/Public Domain
Report Finds Millennials Want to Use Cryptocurrency in their Favorite Games (DigitalTrends.com)
A recent report published by Worldwide Asset Exchange states that millennials want to see cryptocurrencies become a normal part of gaming. The report stems from 1,000 gamers located in North America that have already purchased, sold, and traded virtual items online at least once. According to the report, 75 percent of the 1,000 gamers surveyed want to exchange virtual goods into currency they can use to buy and sell items on other platforms. Two-thirds of those surveyed want more opportunities to use cryptocurrency within popular gaming networks, such as Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network.
Litecoin Booms in February But ‘Golden’ Crypto Takes Price Podium (CoinDesk.com)
Dismal? Not quite, but the crypto markets had a rough ride in February. What began with a sell-off in bitcoin, one that pushed the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies to a 10-week low of $276 billion, has ended in a seeming recovery, with the total value hitting $450 billion Thursday to end February trading. However, the numbers don’t exactly tell the whole story. Comparing performance to January, the market saw a decline of 8.5 percent month-over-month, and a decline of 45.78 percent from its 2018 record high of $830 billion. But that’s not to say there weren’t gains to be had. Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, saw a “V-shaped” recovery, while fifth-place litecoin notched monthly gains.
Over 100 Firms Seek Licenses to Operate Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Japan (News.Bitcoin.com)
There are over 100 companies reportedly waiting for the Japanese Financial Services Agency to approve their registrations to operate cryptocurrency exchanges. While only 16 exchanges are fully licensed in Japan, the agency has allowed another 16 to operate without a license for the time being. However, going forward, only those with sufficient safety and customer protection measures are likely to be approved.
The SEC is Probing Cryptocurrency Companies with Initial Coin Offerings (TheVerge.com)
This surplus of power is usually exported for profit, but it has recently been used as a marketing tool to draw in new high-energy businesses to Quebec. “We have made a lot of effort with the data centre industry to promote our own energy internationally and to present the benefits of our energy (clean, renewable, low rates, reliable grid),” said a Hydro-Québec spokesperson, in an email to MobileSyrup. “Cryptocurrency companies saw the advantage to come [to] Quebec.” Cheap hydro and reliable electricity is a must for miners because the rigs that mine cryptocurrencies need anywhere from 30 to 300 megawatts of electrical capacity, depending on the size of the mining operation.
Researchers Explore Eclipse Attacks on the Ethereum Blockchain (BitcoinMagazine.com)
An eclipse attack is a network-level attack on a blockchain, where an attacker essentially takes control of the peer-to-peer network, obscuring a node’s view of the blockchain. In a new paper titled “Low-Resource Eclipse Attacks on Ethereum’s Peer-to-Peer Network,” Sharon Goldberg, an associate professor at Boston University; Ethan Heilman, a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University; and Yuval Marcus, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, describe a way to carry out an eclipse attack on the Ethereum network.
Bitcoin Is ‘Gigantic Ponzi Scheme’ Used To Fund Terror, Says Diane Abbott (HuffingtonPost.co.uk)
Abbott said: “We are looking at the Bitcoin issue. One of the problems with Bitcoin is the extent to which it is just a gigantic Ponzi scheme. “And if everyone took their Bitcoin money and tried to buy a new car all at once the whole thing would collapse. “So, we are worried about the extent to which Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme but we are certainly worried about how in the here and now it is being used to fund terrorist activity and that is something we are looking at. “I think the people best placed to resolve some of the problems around Bitcoin will actually be people in the Treasury and people in the banking sector but I can’t say more than that.”
BTC Global Said to Have Scammed more than 27,000 Bitcoin Investors (BusinessLive.co.za)
More than 27‚500 people‚ including South Africans‚ Americans and Australians have been duped by the one of biggest bitcoin scams to hit SA. On Thursday, Hawks spokesperson Capt Lloyd Ramovha confirmed that the serious commercial crimes unit was investigating complaints against BTC global‚ a company in which thousands invested cryptocurrency valued at more than $50m by transferring bitcoin into an online wallet address. “I have spoken to one of the investigators in our team and he has confirmed that this matter came to them about two weeks ago. There are in excess of 25‚700 complainants with many outside SA.
Ripple’s xRapid to be Used by Cambridge for Faster Global Payments – Market Sentiment Turns Bullish! (Ambcrypto.com)
Cambridge Global Payments aims to provide faster global payments using Ripple’s xRapid technology. Cambridge is a subsidiary of Fleetcor Technologies and facilitates payments in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Australasia. Ripple, a remittance network written using C++, is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS). Its digital currency (XRP) is an open payment network where the currency can be transferred. David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Cryptographer explained, “Payment systems today are where email was in the early ’80s. Every provider built their own system for their customers and if people used different systems they couldn’t easily interact with each other. Ripple is designed to connect different payment systems together.”
