Month: August 2020

The winds have favored Bitcoin as well as other crypto-assets, and investors’ sentiment has been expecting another surge in its valuations. All watchdogs that have been looking for essential signals in a crypto talk on public platforms online, price fluctuations, and trading amounts indicate that we may experience a much sought-after bull run shortly. This new development has made the greed meter high among veteran traders, and with such high hopes, mistakes will undoubtedly be committed, and fortunes may even be lost. Thus experts urge all traders to maintain dignity and question all possible angles before jumping into the pool of hungry Bitcoin investors.

Think like a Hoarder:

 A reputed industry expert advises Bitcoin enthusiasts to hold their horses and think before leaping. She postulates that the time to dig deep and gather altcoins is long over, and now it is time to be happy with what you have. The best thing to do is to put more than three-fourth of your amassed crypto wealth into a secure vault and swallow the key. Use only the remaining bit to play around and trade if you incur losses, tough luck, but do not try to throw up that key and eat into the savings that should remain untouched.

Don’t Be Hasty:

Another veteran realizes how difficult it will be for some to show restraint after the hullabaloo that occurred three years back when bitcoin was in every conversation around the streets. With a similar bull run on the horizon, the craze may be even bigger and wilder that will fulfill some dreams and shatter others. This will lead to hasty purchasing without proper research and then equally rapid selling with every careless whisper of a self- declared “crypto guru.”

It is essential to realize that wild talks about the Bull Run will push your twitchy investor brain, but it pays to be cautious, especially the second time around, and play the game where it’s okay if you lose and fantastic if you win. Do not plunge into debt to find out all of that advice you got about trading from your cousin’s friend was foolish.

It is best not to trust the advice from influencer-type crypto enthusiasts whose interests lie in their trading plans instead of promoting reliable information for their followers. Do ample research from diverse and verified sources before deciding to put your hard-earned money into a market known for its volatility.

Once again, the use of virtual currency is in controversy, and now a court of law is approached to have intervention in the matter. Recently on the video platform YouTube, there was a promotion of the use of bitcoin.

Steve Wozniak has filed a lawsuit against YouTube for allegedly allowing scammers to use his name for phony bitcoin giveaways. In a series of videos that recently emerged on YouTube, scammers targeted YouTube users into giving away bitcoins claiming that Wozniak will return double the amount. The promotions went viral, and many users were scammed in this way.

The lazy approach of YouTube

The lawsuit also has support from many other tech entrepreneurs, as even their names were used similarly. The videos advertised 5000 and 10000BTC giveaways from Wozniak and other tech entrepreneurs. Most people believe that YouTube is not taking the scams seriously and indirectly encouraging the scammers to get away with such fraudulent activities.

YouTube has always been slow in responding to such complaints by individuals. This time also, it continues the same lazy attitude even when high profile names are involved in the scams. The lawsuit filed by Wozniak claims that he has suffered irreparable harm to his reputation due to these scams.

YouTube responds to allegations

Officials from YouTube had claimed that they are serious about the abuse of the platform, and they had always taken timely action when they detected any violation of their policies. Such violations include scams and impersonation. Even after such assurance from YouTube, many market participants are not sure about such scams not happening in the future.

Bitcoin scam on Twitter

Recently, several high profile accounts were hacked on Twitter, and scammers used them to collect bitcoins as investment from unsuspecting victims. This has not gone down well with users, and many are lashing out at Twitter for these scams. Responding to these happenings the CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey said that they are investigating the hacking attempt and finding ways to fix them at the earliest. Hackers had managed to break into several high profile accounts on this platform.

Such scams have become common, especially after the pandemic broke out in the early part of this year. Many scammers are now finding it easy to target novice investors into giving away bitcoins and cryptocurrencies for such phony schemes. Investors have to be aware of such scams and stay away from them.

The Bitcoin market is getting quieter with the passing time, and it has started to worry about the investors and traders. The volatility levels of Bitcoin trading have touched the levels not seen since the year 2017. One of the reasons behind Bitcoin falling behind in the race with other cryptocurrencies is because the investors are diversifying their crypto portfolio. Many investors are now looking at altcoins, such as Cardano and Chainlink. 

One other reason that has contributed to the consolidation of Bitcoin lately is the enhanced presence of HFT firms in recent months in the crypto space. A popular name in the Bitcoin world, Paolo Ardoino, who is currently the Chief Technical Officer at Bitfinex, said that the presence of High-Frequency Trading firms has majorly contributed to the low volatility of Bitcoin in recent months. He said that the HFT has the potential to earn a lot of money because, in the crypto world, it is yet to reach the stage of a zero-sum game, as is the case in the traditional trading platforms. The simple and straightforward trades, such as taking advantage of the spread between two exchanges as well as cross-exchange arbitrage, makes HFT firms highly profitable. 

High-frequency trading does so with the use of advanced technology and pre-set algorithms that have the ability to process high volumes of orders in seconds. Even though it has been present in the crypto world for quite some time, the influx of new investors has been staggering in recent times. The reason behind new HFT firms opening up at a rapid pace is estimated to be triggered by a showcase of Bitcoin holdings by a famous billionaire, Paul Tudor. Bitfinex, one of the big names in the HFT space, recently revealed that above 80 to 90 percent of their revenue is generated through the HFT firms. 

Bitfinex joined hands with Market Synergy recently to offer a high level of cryptocurrency connectivity to its clients. Bitfinex said that the increased presence of HFT firms in the crypto space is a good sign as it showcases the maturity of the digital assets world. If you’re still wondering as to how Bitcoin will lose the market volatility due to the use of HFT, the answer is increased liquidity caused due to high HFT transactions. It is known to push the volatility levels down.

With time, as Bitcoin establishes itself as one of the mature asset class in the market, the volatility it has been witnessing for long would start to mellow down. The CTO of Bitfinex said that liquidity and volatility always share an inverse relationship, and thus, more liquidity stabilizes the volatility and helps to consolidate it. The presence of HFT firms in the crypto space has helped tremendously in flooding the market with liquidity, which has helped balance the buy and sell orders. It is what helps in stabilizing the Bitcoin volatility as well as boosting the overall market efficiency. 

Last year, Bitcoin gained more in ten days than it did the entire year. It has been well-known for its aggressive upward movement in a short period. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee also said that the majority of gains achieved by Bitcoin mostly come in any ten days of the year. However, this ten-day rule seems to be changing with the increasing presence of HFT firms. 

Given the illicit operation of crypto-mining throughout 2018, the Republic of Abkhazia is seeing an increase in bitcoin-mining operations. Over the last six months, the Customs has registered mining materials estimated at more than $589,000.

The importation of crypto mining plants is still legally permitted as per Nuzhnaya Gazeta. Taxes equal to 1 per cent of the hardware volume and VAT of 10 per cent are charged by importers. After early 2020, Georgia has received over $84,100 in taxes only from crypt mining plant imports. It is generally overlooked by most countries in the South Caucasus as an “autonomous republic” in Georgia.

Catching Illegal Crypto Miners

The chairman of the national Customs Committee, Guram Inapshba, claimed that imports are permitted to “hunt” illicit crypto-miners.

In Ashba states, however, in Abkhazia, “some many dozen people” are involved as regards the operating or financing of the crypto mining sites, within the region.

The government prohibited all crypto mining operations in December 2018, citing a lack of power in the electricity grid of the country. They also pointed out the need to have the people of Abkhazia with ‘priority control.’

Recent times, 315 Bitcoin ( BTC) mining devices developed by Bitmain were confiscated by the Bolivarian security forces of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. This was told to the founders of the mining plants that they do not own and use the facilities.

Crypto-Currency: A bitcoin exchange symmetric cryptographic allows the network administrator transactions safe and difficult to falsify is the interpretation of cryptocurrency. The most critical characteristic in a crypto-monetary network is that no central body governs it: the decentralized essence in blockchain technology renders crypto-monetary structures inappropriate for the old forms of government regulation and intervention. Cryptocurrencies ease the operation of all transactions and facilitate payments for protection and privacy reasons by using public and private keys. Such transactions will be carried out at low payment costs so that consumers escape the high costs that conventional financial institutions impose. But the current cryptocurrency news suggests that, since bitcoins are devoid of a central registry, a computer crash, a hack and other unpredictable incidents will wipe out the weighing balance.

Mining: The way it functions will be suggested when describing crypto-monetary mining. To me, a peer-to-peer data network must be built such that activities can be carried out using their shared computing resources. The faster activities would be carried out more and more computer systems and the less organized the system. Any device in the blockchain is called a host, and the system operates based on an encrypted configuration.

Famous endorser of gold, Peter Schiff was once again toppled by Bitcoin investors. In a survey conducted by Peter on Twitter on July 14, almost 60% of investors said that they would hold Bitcoins until it crosses $10,000.

Peter Schiff, a famous financial analyst and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, always advocates for gold. He is very active on different social networking sites and advocates for gold investments. He also provides brokerage services for gold and silver bullions through his company, Schiffgold. He always advises his clients to invest in gold. He opines that long term investments in the precious metal always beat inflation.

Peter Schiff has been skeptical about Bitcoin investments and is vocal about the cons of the decentralized digital currency. On his Twitter account, he posted a survey question on July 14 for all Bitcoin investors. He asked them how much longer Bitcoin’s price has to stay below $10000 before they sell this cryptocurrency. His question had four choices – “1 year, 3 years, 10 years, and I’m taking it to my grave”. The survey results shocked Schiff. Majority of the 13000 participants chose the last choice. According to around 60% of the Bitcoin holders, they will hold on to their Bitcoins till their death if the price doesn’t cross $10000.

Actually, this was not the outcome he was expecting. Peter Schiff regularly conducts online surveys for investors’ opinion and to prove his point. Earlier, the renowned gold investor and Bitcoin critic conducted another survey for investors. In that survey, the question was about the performance of cryptocurrencies and gold. The majority of investors who participated in that survey were of the view that the prices of both would reach a new high. A clear decision came out from that survey in support of gold investment.

It is true that twitter surveys are not reliable and the opinions may be biased. There is always a chance that Bitcoin promoters have chosen an option just to prove Peter Schiff wrong. On the other side, Peter Schiff’s is also doubtful. There is a possibility that he is using Bitcoin’s popularity to bring more customers to his own gold company. These surveys pitting gold against Bitcoins will make investors consider Peter’s Schiffgold as a safe place to harbor their funds.

According to reports of financial news sources, Peter Schiff has invested in Bitcoins also. Schiff himself has once mentioned that he had lost his Bitcoin wallet password and was making efforts to reset it. So, in spite of being a vocal cryptocurrency denigrator, Schiff himself has allocated a part of his portfolio to Bitcoin.

It may be added here that everyone in the financial market does not agree with Peter. Famous author, businessman, and financial educator, Robert Toru Kiyosaki said in an interview that Bitcoins would replace gold in the near future. He also added that gold promoters would slowly phase-out, and cryptocurrency will take center stage.