Author: Brad Berbari

The Crypto Fam

To fully understand altcoin market cycles, it is imperative to understand the Bitcoin dominance metric. Previously on our Twitter account (@thecryptofam), we posted threads dealing with the following topics: A potential indicator for the beginning of alt season, and how a bear market might affect the altcoin markets. For those who may not know, Bitcoin dominance is a percentage that measures Bitcoin’s share of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization. It is not a perfect metric, but it helps to analyze the macro-market. We can observe capital flowing between alts and BTC with this chart and make some conclusions about the market’s current state.

Check out the full Analysis here:
https://www.tokens24.com/exclusive/when-will-alt-season-end

The number of blockchain projects and decentralized apps is increasing at a tremendous pace; however, few projects are trying to do away with the way the digital works as of now.

Pillar is such a project. It offers a wallet for storing Pillar coins, data and other assets as well. As everyone knows, a huge chunk of your personal data circulates the web without even your knowledge. Therefore, Pillar aims to give you back control over your personal data.

Read More:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/coin-guides/what-is-pillar

2017 showed us the potential of the fledgling crypto industry. We saw the total market capitalization rise from $17 billion in January to eclipse at $800 billion by the end of the year. However, so far this year it seems crypto markets had been in a downward spiral- losing over $500 billion in value. Numerous factors can contribute to this volatility including market equilibrium, increasing regulator interest, tax obligations, lower ICO activity, waning sentiment, and significant market sell orders.

Despite this, we see more and more governments and legacy institutions get involved in the crypto space. This bear run is different in several ways than in 2014. VC activity indicates this emerging asset class has more to offer than what’s seen on the surface. Meanwhile, companies like Coinbase, BitPay, and Robinhood are racing to produce value to keep steadfast growth in this young industry. The brain drain from Wall Street and Silicon Valley is climbing. Narratives are also changing again. Whereas there were a fixation and emphasis on ‘blockchain’ over cryptocurrencies in the past months, the interest is now in security tokens. And new exchange registrations are still scarce.

These solid fundamentals keep me enthusiastic and optimistic about the direction in which crypto is heading. It’s an ever-expanding social, interdisciplinary field presenting chances for involvement. Crypto is a melting pot of economics, finance, philosophy, game theory, psychology, networks, politics, cryptography, history, and many other disciplines. It presents an opportunity for continuous research and learning for the eager mind.

Crypto gets compared a lot with the dot-com era, so I think it’s worth mentioning a parallel that I see. When Cisco went public in 1990, it had a market cap around $224 million. It peaked in 2000 commanding a $515 billion market and more than 10% of the entire internet ecosystem. The explosion of the internet can be attributed to Cisco’s routers. Specifically, it addressed the internet’s problems of scaling and interoperability. Today, these same problems can be linked to impeding crypto adoption and integration. Blockchain technology can’t easily scale, rendering it secondary to companies because it can’t operate at the speed they require. Also, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto networks all speak different languages and can’t understand each other. As networks transition from centralized to decentralized ledgers, technologies will need to be developed to address interoperability and get these different networks communicating with each other.

Keep Reading:
https://www.tokens24.com/exclusive/cryptobonapartes-outlook-on-the-cryptosphere-and-crypto-exchanges

Bitsquare is a peer-to-peer open source system. It allows people to sell Bitcoin in exchange, regular currencies or altcurrencies. Manfred Karrer founded Bitsquare and its beta version was released in the spring of 2016.  Bisquare is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) whose ownership is distributed among the contributors to the project.

Trading
First, you’ll have to download their software, that doesn’t require any details from you. Then you need to register a password for your wallet and you’re ready to go. You can trade among a decent list of altcoins; you can also choose your regular currency among few fiat currencies.

Read more:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/trading/bitsquare-a-different-way-to-trade-cryptos

The Bancor protocol is a platform to help create smart coins and give these coins liquidity and asynchronous price discovery. It allows users to create smart coins which can be traded for other crypto coins right away. There is no need to look for a buyer or seller who has a matching need. Also, it lets new coins to be traded right when they are created. New coin creators don’t have to wait for them to be listed on an exchange and an interest in their coin to be generated. Bancor is paving the way for smart coin exchange.

Continue Reading:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/coin-guides/what-is-bancor

Zcash is a digital currency that has been designed with the concept of privacy and identity protection. Zcash allows traders to carry out anonymous transactions while still delivering the advantages of the blockchain. The ZEC token, as we know it today, is the result of the project that was originally referred to as ZeroCoin. At first, ZeroCoin was intended to help enhance anonymity for traders who had adopted bitcoin before it transformed into the heavyweight cryptocurrency that it is today.

Zcash utilizes an extensive system of zero-knowledge cryptography. As a result, the coin allows the network’s consensus protocol to verify fully encrypted transactions. ZCash is itself a fork of the Bitcoin protocol, as it was built off of the bitcoin core code. Nevertheless, Zcash maintains its own blockchain and is a separate digital coin from Bitcoin. Initially released in October 2016, Zcash is believed to have been created by Zooko Wilcox.

Keep Reading:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/mining/a-complete-guide-on-how-to-mine-zcash

The feasibility of smart contracts has seen them adopted with great enthusiasm by people around the world. This has led to a large number of smart contracts being written each day. However, writing smart contracts is a difficult job and one that can potentially have hazardous effects. Instances like the DAO hack spring to mind.

While the Ethereum network itself is secure, smart contracts written on it might have vulnerabilities. This is where Quanstamp places itself. It is an automated security auditing protocol that checks for security flaws and bugs in smart contracts to aid both the developers and users.

Keep Reading:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/coin-guides/what-is-quanstamp

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Iryo, a new blockchain startup creating a globally participatory healthcare network will soon provide a modern electronic health record system for refugee camps in the Middle East as their first real-world use case.

All across the world, patients currently have little or no control in regards to how they interact with their medical records. A patient may have to see multiple specialists and carry around paper copies of his records as they travel from one healthcare provider to the next. Medical information is one of the most sensitive forms of data, not only publicly, but also when it comes to high-profile individuals, governing individuals, professionals, etc. However, not only do patients lack easy access to their data they also don’t have a say in how the data is used. At the moment, the patient is entirely left out of the equation of medical data monetization. The data is locked in hospitals and healthcare IT systems, and it’s either the hospitals or the healthcare providers that directly use this data to create new solutions that bring profit.

Keep Reading:
https://www.tokens24.com/exclusive/iryo-the-slovenian-based-health-blockchain-startup

In 2014, Evan Duffield created Dash in order to address the three problems, in his opinion, of the Bitcoin network:

- Insufficient transaction speed
- Governance troubles
- Lack of privacy

As of today, Dash is one of the most successful cryptocurrencies out there.

Dash Origin
Dash originated from a fork in the Bitcoin/Litecoin codebase. Its initial name was Xcoin which then became Darkcoin; it changed to Dash (digital cash) to change people’s mind about its use for illicit transactions. Dash focused on offering a faster alternative to Bitcoin that could also have cheaper fees and ensure privacy.

Read More Here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/coin-guides/dash-what-are-the-reasons-behind-its-2017-success

Centralization vs. Decentralization is a frequent topic in the world of Blockchain. However, with so much uncertainty around regulation, laws and government intervention, many often wonder how the path to decentralization will ever eventuate.

What people fail to realize, is that the path is already being walked. We are much closer to decentralization than we think, and a long way ahead of the mass adoption of Blockchain technology.

The blockchain is blazing the path and creating new global standards when it comes to the way we work, the way we think and the way we operate. The very structure of modern day companies is being redefined due to a varying number of factors, including the global Cryptocurrency markets being open for trading 24/7.

Keep Reading:
https://www.tokens24.com/exclusive/the-path-to-decentralization-by-bitcoin-benny

Antminer S9 is the world’s most powerful Bitcoin miner, which is smaller in size than many other portable boom boxes available. The Antminer S9 has a form factor similar to the very popular Antminer S7. The only difference associated with Antminer S9 is that it has three times more power than that of Antminer S7 and has double efficiency. Each Antminer S9 has 189 chips, which help in delivering more hashrate and efficiency as compared to any other Bitcoin miners till now.

Check the full review here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/mining/antminer-s9-review

Asicboost Mining Technology is a carefully ‘worked-out hoax or trick’. The expertise of Bitmain attracted a big storm in 2017. Most people, including Gregory Maxwell, Chief Technology Officer of Bitcoin, believe that Asicboost mining has a non-competitive feature; it took advantage of an error or weakness that had occurred within the Bitcoin’s mining system giving the company a huge upper hand against its competitors. Thus, this notes an important factor; Asicboost mining is just an upgraded version of an existing technology. This technology appeared in March 2016. Dr Timo Hanke was involved in its white paper as well as in its official patent together with Sergio Lerner.

Read more here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/mining/asicboost-mining-technology-how-does-it-work

The fact that the future of the internet currently looks very promising is undeniable. Aelf is a blockchain site that is turning the potential of the internet a notch higher, by introducing devolved cloud computing. The main purpose of the project is the creation of a ‘linux bionetwork’ for blockchains.

Read More Here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/coin-guides/what-is-aelf-how-it-works

The cryptocurrency market is a decentralized ecosystem. So, it needed an innovative way for verifying payments in real time for fast and secure transactions. Individuals on a digital currency platform help in the verification process through mining; no single unit is charged with this responsibility. This often involves the use of computers to find solutions to sets of complex mathematical equations. This is a very intensive process that requires the use of special computer technologies for a faster and efficient process; delays would slow down transactions and limit the effectiveness of the blockchain. Antminer X3 is the latest ASIC device manufactured by Bitmain and specialized for mining. It is slated for release in May 2018.

Check out the full review here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/mining/antminer-x3-review

When it comes to tax regulations in the USA, virtual currencies are judged as assets. In particular, cryptos are handled as capital assets; they include bonds, stocks and other forms of investment properties. In 2014, the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a notice; as long as cryptocurrencies can be converted to fiat currencies, they shall be in the same category as assets for the tax filing purposes. Therefore, capital gain taxes ought to pay by any individual trading with cryptocurrencies. It is also important to realize that fiat currency is the only acceptable form of tax payment.

Read More Here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/basics/usa-cryptocurrency-taxation

Enigma is a network protocol. It operates to complement the blockchain network; it has another layer of data storage (other than the blockchain) and data computations. Its biggest advantage is the highest privacy and security in comparison to the ordinary blockchain. In a nut-shell, Enigma uses secret contracts technology; hence, the data kept in the blockchain network is privatized. However, it allows users to interact on the same platform at the same time.

Read the full guide here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/coin-guides/what-is-enigma

The scalability trilemma involves Decentralization, Scalability, and Security. To achieve proper Scalability for the global usage, one has to include all three factors. Decentralization has to evolve while the system has to ensure security against attackers. The full nodes are able to process the increased number of transactions. Thus, running them would tackle the issue of decentralization and security.

In fact, there is an increased pressure on blockchain network’s developers to improve scalability. However, Ethereum developers have come up with two main ways to tackle this.

Read the full Report here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/blockchain/ethereum-scalability

Ardor brings something very essential to the cryptocurrency table; a blockchain-as-a-service podium. The digital ledger technology has spurred interest in corporations and institutions globally. However, most institutions, despite having a great interest in blockchain technology, do not wish to develop their own ledgers. So, Ardor swoops in to remedy this situation. There are also other companies that do the same, with Microsoft currently being the leading provider of baas solutions.

Read More Here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/coin-guides/what-is-ardor/

Just one week into the mainnet launch, the Bitcoin Private community and contribution team has a lot to be proud of and a lot that needs to be worked on. The mission of bringing privacy transactions to a critical mass, and to a mainstream audience is critical and one that Bitcoin Private has set out to accomplish.

Following the mainnet launch on Friday, the BTCP contribution team had its first post-fork strategy meeting, and most of what was discussed and concluded can be found in the Bitcoin Private community update from this past Tuesday.

Read the full report:
https://www.tokens24.com/exclusive/bitcoin-private-one-week-into-mainnet-launch/

DigixDAO (DGD) was launched in Singapore in 2014. DigixDAO (DGD) is a computerized сrурtосurrеnсу backed by a gram of LBMA (the London Bullion Market Association) gold that is stockpiled in a safe house repository in Singapore. The blockchain keeps the digital proof of the asset. It is deployed by DigixGlobal and is decentralized. In March of 2015, the Digix network has joined Ethereum’s blockchain after the collaboration between the Ethereum Foundation and DigixGlobal.

Read more here:
https://www.tokens24.com/cryptopedia/basics/what-is-digixdao/