Category Archives: Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin Sells All his $500K+ MKR Tokens; A Retaliation? – The Coin Republic

In a recent statement, the founder of MakerDAO, Rune Christensen, advocated for the consideration of Solana as the potential foundation for his protocols upcoming blockchain, NewChain. He cited Solanas technical excellence and optimization as compelling reasons for this proposition.

Shortly after the blog post, Buterin liquidated his entire holdings of 500 MKR tokens using the CoW protocol. According to data from the Arkham Intelligence dashboard, these sales resulted in a total of 353 ETH being acquired.

This sale marks the first instance of Buterin selling MKR tokens since 2021 when he made a charitable donation of 100 MKR tokens to the Indian Covid relief fund.

In April 2018, Buterin acquired 1,071 MKR tokens when they were valued at $905 each. Given the current trading price of $1,127 per token, its evident that Buterin has realized a substantial profit on his holdings.

While theres speculation that this sale might be a retaliatory action, it seems unlikely, especially considering Buterins past support for the Solana network. It appears that Buterins move was, ostensibly, a response to a blog post by MakerDAOs co-founder.

In the blog post, Christensen conveyed his interest in potentially forking from the Solana blockchain, which utilizes a Rust-based codebase, indicating a potential shift away from the existing Ethereum platform, which is based on Solidity.

Christensen laid out three key rationales for favoring Solanas codebase for NewChain.

First and foremost, he lauded the technical quality of Solanas codebase, highlighting its efficiency and optimization. He argued that this aligns seamlessly with the goals of NewChain, which is dedicated to resolving the technical challenges faced by MakerDAO.

He further explained that the Solana codebase is well-crafted and benefits from being developed after the complexities and challenges inherent in blockchain technology have already been well-understood. This aligns perfectly with the primary goal of NewChain, which is to rectify the technical issues and debt within the MakerDAO ecosystem.

Additionally, Christensen emphasized Solanas resilience and its track record of successfully overcoming challenges, such as the recent FTX incident. He noted that the Solana ecosystem offers access to a high-caliber talent pool and presents cost-effective avenues for the development and long-term maintenance of NewChain.

Lastly, Christensen pointed out that Solanas codebase has already been effectively forked and adjusted to operate as application chains. He proposed that MakerDAO could consider a similar approach when developing NewChain.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has a track record of selling his digital asset holdings. In August, he sold 600 Ether, valued at around $1 Million, using Coinbase. This action garnered significant attention from market observers, who speculated that it contributed to downward pressure on Ethers price, especially during a period when the cryptocurrency was facing challenges.

Earlier in March 2023, Buterin transferred 200 ETH to Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange. During this same period, he also disposed of several unwanted altcoins, trading them for a total of 439.25 ETH.

Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.

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Vitalik Buterin Sells All his $500K+ MKR Tokens; A Retaliation? - The Coin Republic

Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple: Possible moves as BTC goes back to consolidation mode – FXStreet

Bitcoin (BTC) price is back to consolidation after the recent Grayscale-infused data provided market impales. Ethereum (ETH) price is following in a path almost similar to BTC, but Ripple (XRP) price would not yield.

The developer or creator of each cryptocurrency decides on the total number of tokens that can be minted or issued. Only a certain number of these assets can be minted by mining, staking or other mechanisms. This is defined by the algorithm of the underlying blockchain technology. Since its inception, a total of 19,445,656 BTCs have been mined, which is the circulating supply of Bitcoin. On the other hand, circulating supply can also be decreased via actions such as burning tokens, or mistakenly sending assets to addresses of other incompatible blockchains.

Market capitalization is the result of multiplying the circulating supply of a certain asset by the assets current market value. For Bitcoin, the market capitalization at the beginning of August 2023 is above $570 billion, which is the result of the more than 19 million BTC in circulation multiplied by the Bitcoin price around $29,600.

Trading volume refers to the total number of tokens for a specific asset that has been transacted or exchanged between buyers and sellers within set trading hours, for example, 24 hours. It is used to gauge market sentiment, this metric combines all volumes on centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges. Increasing trading volume often denotes the demand for a certain asset as more people are buying and selling the cryptocurrency.

Funding rates are a concept designed to encourage traders to take positions and ensure perpetual contract prices match spot markets. It defines a mechanism by exchanges to ensure that future prices and index prices periodic payments regularly converge. When the funding rate is positive, the price of the perpetual contract is higher than the mark price. This means traders who are bullish and have opened long positions pay traders who are in short positions. On the other hand, a negative funding rate means perpetual prices are below the mark price, and hence traders with short positions pay traders who have opened long positions.

Bitcoin (BTC) price has fallen back to its longstanding range bound movement, coiling up around the $25,824 level. Two outcomes are likely after such a move, a break north or south. Currently, the odds favor the downside and BTC could draw nearer to the $24,995 support level and extend the losses to the psychological $24,000.

In the dire case, Bitcoin price could dip into the demand zone between $21,711 and $20,155. This outlook draws inspiration from the Relative Strength Index (RSI), currently declining to show falling momentum. Similarly, the histogram bars of the Awesome Oscillator flash red to suggest a presence of bears in the market.

BTC/USDT 1-day chart

Conversely, a renaissance by the bulls could alter the impending fate for Bitcoin price, with a possible foray back above the psychological $28,000, level last tested on August 29. Increased buyer momentum could send the flagship crypto past the $29,692 barricade, or in a highly bullish case, shatter the $31,518 obstacle.

Also Read: Bitcoininvestors expect more downside, Vitalik Buterin sells his MKR holdings

Ethereum (ETH) price is barely holding above the $1,630 support level, even as BTC shows weakness. Increased seller momentum could send the price lower, potentially breaching the $1,522 support level. A decisive flip of this buyer congestion level into resistance would solidify the downtrend for the short term and mark a 5% landslide.

Like BTC, the momentum indicators point to a similar outcome as momentum is steadily declining and the RSI could soon activate a signal to sell ETH when it crosses below the signal line (yellow band). Traders heeding this call would bode poorly for ETH.

ETH/USDT 1-day chart

On the other hand, late or sidelined investors could salvage Ethereum price from the impending slump, with a possible move above the $1,701 resistance level. Increased buying pressure from this level could see ETH ascend to confront the mid-August highs around $1,835, or in the highly ambitious cases, attempt to break from current gloom by making a strong reach above $2,008.

Also Read: EthereumCancun upgrade development is on track, testing phase comes next

Ripple (XRP) price is nurturing a uptrend that could materialize if early profit takers keep their profit appetite in check. The token boasts three successive green candlesticks, pointing to bulls gaining ground.

Increased buying pressure could sustain the uptrend, sending Ripple price above the immediate hurdle at $0.5667, which stands as multi-month resistance level barring two equal highs and therefore significant.

Higher, Ripple price would have a shot at reclaiming the ground lost after the July 13 ascent, first breaching the $0.6840 level before taking back control with a solid move above the $0.8193 resistance level.

Noteworthy the RSI had executed a bullish crossover, moving above the signal line in an attempt to siren a buy signal. Traders harkening to this call could enhance the uptrend for Ripple price. The AO makes the bullish outlook stronger, with the histogram bars soaking in green and edging toward the midline. This adds credence to the bullish outlook.

XRP/USDT 1-day chart

On the other side, early profit takers from XRP holders who are incurring losses at current price or breaking even and looking for early exits to escape losses could sell the remittance token, so much so that the demand zone between $0.5040 and $0.4600 fails to hold as support. A decisive break below the mean threshold (midline of demand zone marked in blue) would invalidate the bullish thesis, exposing XRP to an extrapolated slump toward the $0.4191 support level.

Breaking:Ripple files opposition to SECs motion to certify interlocutory appeal

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Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple: Possible moves as BTC goes back to consolidation mode - FXStreet

Why The Shiba Inu Price Cannot Realistically Get To $0.001 – NewsBTC

In the last crypto bull market spanning from 2020-2021, the price of Shiba Inu ran as high as $0.00008. Due to the high euphoria at the time, expectations rose rapidly around the meme coin, leading to calls for SHIB at $0.001. However, this target remains as unrealistic today as it was back then and this report dives into the reason why.

The Shiba Inu community officially kicked off its burning initiative back in 2022 which SHIB tokens being sent to dead addresses weekly. However, despite being roughly a year in the making, the total number of SHIB tokens burned so far has been next to negligible in the grand scheme of things.

Shibburn, a Shiba Inu burn tracking website, shows that a total of 410,658,326,324,061 tokens have been burned since the first burn. This accounts for a little over 46% of the maximum total supply of more than 999 trillion tokens. But even more interesting is the fact that the community burn makes up less than 1% of the total burned figure.

The vast majority of the burned figure mentioned above comes from the burn carried out by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. The Shiba Inu founders had sent half of the tokens supply to Buterin, who then donated 50 billion SHIB to an Indian COVID relief fund and sent the rest to a burn address.

Buterins transaction carried over 410 trillion tokens and was the first-ever recorded SHIB burn event. Given that the SHIB burned so far is sitting at 410,658,326,324,061, it means the community burn over the last year makes up around 0.15% of the total burned tokens.

The point of the Shiba Inu community burn was to encourage the rapid reduction of the SHIB supply. With the supply of the token so high, it has served as a hindrance for it to reach higher prices compared to its fiercest rival Dogecoin.

The community burn is not removing tokens from circulation as fast as is needed, stalling the potential of SHIBs price hitting $0.001. Realistically, for SHIB to rise as high as $0.001, at least 80% of its supply would have to be burned to make this an attainable goal. This means removing hundreds of trillions of tokens from circulation just like Buterin did with his burn.

However, given that most of the remaining SHIB supply is already in circulation, meaning in the hands of millions of holders, such a large burn is impossible. This is because investors would not want to burn large chunks of their holdings, which is the same as throwing dollar bills in an open flame.

Unfortunately, this means the price of the meme coin will likely not reach $0.001 given that its current circulating supply sits at over 579 trillion, even more than the portion of supply already burned.

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Why The Shiba Inu Price Cannot Realistically Get To $0.001 - NewsBTC

Shiba Inu: New Theory Emerges About Creator Ryoshi % – Watcher Guru

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has come a long way in its three short years of existence. Much like Bitcoin (BTC), people do not know who the creator of SHIB really is. All we know is that the person, or persons, are known as Ryoshi. However, a new theory has emerged about the identity of Ryoshi.

Wait until I show you that Ryo Suzuki, who I believe is the real founder of $SHIB, visited MIT's media lab in 2019. Yeah, this same media lab that links Gensler, Epstein & Gates? What if I told you the Canadian Ryo Suzuki was also an intern for Microsoft when Shiba Inu launched? https://t.co/H2PM5FNkLb pic.twitter.com/nwkUz27Cu4

According to crypto researcher TruthLabs, Ryoshi could be a combination of two individuals: Ryo Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Maruyama. Suzukis first name and Maruyamas last three letters of his first name together make up the word Ryoshi. The researcher pointed out that both individuals are connected to the B2C2 Group. B2C2 is a known crypto liquidity provider.

Also Read: Shiba Inu: Investor Tests Shibarium, Heres the Speed, Cost & Much More

According to TruthLabs, Ryo Suzuki resigned as an advisor from B2C2 Group on 4/27/21, the exact same day Tsuyoshi Maruyama was appointed as an advisor for B2C2 Group.

Whats interesting about the B2C2 Group is that it is the current market maker for the popular crypto exchange Robinhood. Robinhood once held over 25% of the total Shiba Inu (SHIB) supply. However, although most advisors are listed on the firms site, Ryo Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Maruyamas names remain absent. The researcher further added,

While this conclusion may seem far-fetched to many, and its possible the founder is just Ryo (or someone entirely different), I do tell you all that my thousands of hours of blockchain, on-chain investigations have led me to believe Market Makers are behind many of the tokens, exchanges, etc.

Also Read: Shiba Inu: How To Stake BONE on Shibarium For Passive Income

The researcher also suggested that Suzuki may have had links to important individuals, including Gary Gensler, during his 2019 visit to MITs media lab. They further added, What if I told you the Canadian Ryo Suzuki was also an intern for Microsoft when Shiba Inu launched?

Additionally, the researcher asserted to have proof connecting the SHIB Deployer wallet to an NFT Voxel project and Vitalik Buterin as far back as 2018, two years prior to the release of Shiba Inu (SHIB). Nonetheless, the pseudonymous founder, Ryoshi, has not confirmed any of these findings. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that he ever will.

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Shiba Inu: New Theory Emerges About Creator Ryoshi % - Watcher Guru

Ethereum Handled Friend.tech Frenzy Without ‘Gas Fee’ Spike. Why Thats a Big Deal – Yahoo Finance

Vitalik Buterin and other top Ethereum developers have repeatedly made the case that so-called layer-2 projects secondary systems that operate atop a blockchain to provide faster and cheaper transactions could help to reduce congestion on the main network, and therefore fees.

The de-congestion plan might actually be working, possibly aided by the recent rollout of the U.S. crypto exchange Coinbases new layer-2 project, Base.

This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Ethereum, which saw its transaction fees known as gas fees reach a yearly high in May following a meme-coin mania, has witnessed the fees drop significantly in the past few weeks, with some analysts attributing the decline to the increasing availability of layer 2s, and thus the benefits of the scaling architecture.

The decline is remarkable given the recent runaway success of the crypto-fueled social marketplace Friend.tech, a web3 app that went live earlier this month. Friend.tech quickly attracted more than 100,000 users and generated more than $25 million in fees.

In the past, a fad of that magnitude might have come with extreme congestion, and a rapid surge in fees. But Ethereum has seen its gas fees drop in no small part due to the projects existence on the Base sub-network, rather than the blockchain's main layer. Since the launch of Friend.tech, Ethereums daily gas fees have averaged 26% lower than they did in the year up to that point, according to data from FalconX Research.

Several older and larger layer-2 networks, including Arbitrum, Optimism and zkSync, are now handling a large chunk of the transactions happening on the overall Ethereum ecosystem.

The L2 scaling vision is being realized," said Kunal Goel, a senior research analyst at Messari.

Ethereum average gas prices have been stable for the past few months even as transaction activity picks up. (YCharts)

In the past, increased activity on the Ethereum network has resulted in the blockchain becoming temporarily clogged, and high demand usually means higher fees.

Story continues

In December 2017, when CryptoKitties, a project built on Ethereum where users could buy, collect and breed digital cats, first launched, the network saw gas fees reach above 900 gwei.

High gas fees also spiked in April 2022, when Yuga Labs released Otherdeeds non-fungible tokens that represented digital real estate. Ethereum average gas fees soared to about 7,600 gwei ($439 at the time). A more typical range is 15 to 30 gwei.

In early May of this year, Ethereums gas fees what users pay to perform functions on Ethereum, such as sending or receiving the cryptocurrency ether hit a 12-month high, as the blockchain became costlier to use from investors trading millions for a frog-themed token called pepecoin (PEPE). On one day in May, the fee shot to a median price of 155 gwei.

Now, with the Friend.tech crypto craze peaking, the median gas fee on Ethereum is around 13 gwei. And that's partly because the explosion of activity is actually happening off the main Ethereum chain, on Base.

Friend.tech drove transaction count on Base to a record high of 15.88 transactions per second (TPS) over 24 hours on Aug. 22, exceeding even Ethereum, along with rival layer-2 blockchains Arbitrum and Optimism, according to the website L2beat.

During the peak of the Friend.tech frenzy, Ethereum gas fees actually dropped to an average gas price of 18 gwei.

And the heaviest of Friend.tech traffic appears to have now passed, with transactions down 95% from the peak of 38,000 on Aug. 21, according to data from Dune analytics.

Data from IntoTheBlock shows that over the past few months, the number of combined transactions on Ethereum and optimistic roll-ups has climbed near an all-time high. But the growth came mainly on the layer 2s; the level of transactions on Ethereum, by itself, has stayed relatively stable.

The dynamic has allowed Ethereum fees to remain at sustainable levels.

Earlier, gas fees on Ethereum would spike during periods of high activity (high volatility events, NFT launches)," Messaris Goel said. Now, the overall Ethereum ecosystem broadly writ, including its associated layer-2 networks "is able to support much higher transaction volume.

Matt Kunke, a senior research analyst at GSR, said he expects the trend to continue as Ethereum undergoes an upcoming upgrade known as proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), which will make it cheaper for layer-2 networks to store data on the main blockchain.

It's "an improvement that will materially increase L2 throughput and lower the cost of transacting on rollups, Kunke said.

The graph shows average transaction fees on Bitcoin and Ethereum. We can see here that transaction fees on Ethereum have been generally less volatile since last July (2022) and lower recently (July / August) than just a few months ago (Mar / Apr / May) (Amberdata)

The graph shows the number of transactions between Bitcoin and Ethereum. From this graph we can see that Ethereum transaction counts are on a slow decline since last year, while Bitcoin transaction counts are on a large incline in recent month (Amberdata)

Christopher Martin, Amberdatas director of research, notes that Bitcoin transactions have increased since the launch of Bitcoin Ordinals (a method of generating NFTs through a process called inscribing), which may have taken some volume away from Ethereum, further alleviating pressure.

Layer 2s have been more interesting lately, according to Martin. Meme tokens such as BALD and social dApps like Friend.tech provide traders with an opportunity to earn high yield, and the ongoing bear market is still unable to draw in users or rebuild traction.

All of these factors together seem to have pulled out a lot of the excitement that NFT collections were able to generate just a few years ago, which were able to cause extremely high gas and transactions, according to Martin.

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Ethereum Handled Friend.tech Frenzy Without 'Gas Fee' Spike. Why Thats a Big Deal - Yahoo Finance

Ethereum (ETH) Price Likely to Bounce Due to This Key Factor: Report – U.Today

Yuri Molchan

Recent analytics report suggests that price bounce for Ethereum may be coming soon

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Santiment on-chain analytics company has posted a tweet to encourage the part of the crypto community that is holding ETH.

Currently, the tweet states, ETH is trading at the $1,700 level, and a lot of traders are growing impatient about it. The recent price drop from the $1,741 mark may indicate that a large number of wallets are dropping ETH now and are continuing to do it as ETH is sitting at the current price mark.

However, citing similar situations in the past, Santiment stated that when traders begin to dispose of their cryptos at lower values, the chances of a price rebound grow higher.

As reported by U.Today earlier this week, a cofounder of the Ethereum chain and its frontman, Vitalik Buterin, transferred 3,000 Ethereum (worth approximately $4.95 million at the time of the transaction) to a wallet labeled Vb2.

This transaction sparked a wave of curiosity and heated discussions within the crypto community. Some believe that this could have been Buterin redistributing his crypto riches to protect them against possible hacks. The second version assumed that Buterin could cash out these $5 million.

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@lookonchain tracker of "Smart Money" wallets, who regularly shares data on the transactions they make and how much money they lose or earn, announced that a few hours ago, a whale that had remained dormant for two years had awakened and deposited 6,087 ETH to Binance.

This is quite a large amount in fiat, too, since it is worth $10.23 million. Now, Ethereum is changing hands at $1,715 after the recent price fall. It is quite likely that this whale may be either selling at a loss or he could be moving funds to Binance, expecting the ETH price to rebound soon and only then make a sale on Binance.

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Ethereum (ETH) Price Likely to Bounce Due to This Key Factor: Report - U.Today

Ethereum Stakers Agree to 22% Self-Limit Seeking Decentralization – The Coin Republic

One of the perennial issues with blockchain networks is keeping decentralization intact. With crypto staking coming into play with the expansion of decentralized finance (DeFi), centralization over networks such as Ethereum became an issue. The notion of self-limiting the staking to 22% was introduced to ensure no staker holds prominence over the blockchain. Ethereum staking pools are taking interest in the initiative now.

Ethereum Beacon chain community health consultant, Superphiz, brought to attention that several major ETH staking pools are committed or in the process of committing the validators self-limit to 22%. These stakers include Rocket Pool, StakeWise, Stader Labs, and Diva Staking.

In addition, Puffer Finance also reported to come forward to participate in the Ethereum validator 22% self-limiting initiative.

Decentralization is among the crucial characteristics of blockchains that sets them apart from traditional systems and gives them an extra edge. The community members ensure that it does not get breached or hampered by any means.

Since the second largest cryptocurrency network, Ethereum (ETH) transitioned from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) following the Merge upgrade last year, the staking activities increased heavily over the network. Though the upgrade was meant to enhance the blockchain for good, increase transaction speed and scalability, and bring down the gas fees. The threat of networks moving towards centralization started surfacing.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin explained this as the blockchain trilemma where in an ideal blockchain network, it is difficult to hone security, scalability, and decentralization at once. One of the three always gets compromised in order to seek the others.

Though many blockchain networks in general seek to solve the blockchain trilemma in order to set up an ideal blockchain, the industry is yet to see one.

However, Superphiz brought the solution to counter the increasing threat of centralization on Ethereum. He proposed the idea of validators limiting their staking to 22%.

The Ethereum network requires 66% of validators to agree on proposals. If the upper limit is set to 22%, it would need at least four big staking pools to come to a consensus to make the blockchain racing finalization.

The crypto community might find it comforting that staking pools are accepting the self-limiting to 22%, but the elephant in the room still can not be left unnoticed.

According to the Dune Analytics data, Lido Finance holds the position of top Ethereum staker. It holds 8,516,934 ETH at the moment which accounts for 32.4% of all the stake in cryptocurrency. This is way higher than the anticipated staking limit.

For context, Coinbase is at the second spot with 2,289,369 ETH, 8.7% of the overall stake in Ethereum.

On top of that, the real issue is that Lido Finance showed no signals if they are considering self-limit. The Ethereum liquidity staking provider asked the community to vote on whether the platform should go with self-limit. In the result, 99.81% of the votes were in favor of no self-limiting.

So, if Lido continues to stay in line with the communitys expectations, it might not see a limit of 22% anytime soon.

Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.

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Ethereum Stakers Agree to 22% Self-Limit Seeking Decentralization - The Coin Republic

3 Millionaire-Maker Cryptos to Hold Through Thick and Thin – InvestorPlace

Source: Have a nice day Photo/Shutterstock

After peak euphoria in 2021, the cryptocurrency market has witnessed an extended bear market. I believe that was necessary to flush out the excesses in the system. The number of listed coins and tokens had surged, and there was more speculation than promising long-term projects.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) witnessed a sharp reversal in 2023 and this might signal the end of the bear market for cryptocurrencies. Its possibly the best year to consider long-term crypto investments. If the bull market is back in the coming quarters, multibagger returns will come quickly.

This article focuses on crypto investments worth holding irrespective of bull and bear phases. If we look at equity markets, there have been sustained value creators among stocks over the last few decades. The same is likely to hold true for cryptos where a selected number of assets will create immense value in the long-term.

Lets discuss three long-term crypto investments that could make you rich by holding until 2030.

Source: Sittipong Phokawattana / Shutterstock.com

Without a doubt, my first investment in the cryptocurrency space would be Bitcoin. The digital asset can be likened to a blue-chip stock. Its worth noting that after remaining in a downtrend for an extended period, Bitcoin has surged higher by 56% year-to-date.

I believe the cryptocurrency will trend higher in the coming quarters. One reason to be bullish is the point that Bitcoins halving is due in 2024. In the past, this event has been associated with a big rally in the cryptocurrency. Standard Chartered expects Bitcoin to touch $120,000 by the end of 2024. Given the intensity of the rally in the past, I would not be surprised if the crypto reaches this target.

Another reason to be bullish on Bitcoin is the wider adoption of cryptocurrencies. Some estimates suggest that the number of crypto users could touch 1.2 billion by 2025. For new investors, considering exposure to Bitcoin is an obvious choice. With limited supply, the digital asset will trend higher as demand swells.

Source: Thaninee Chuensomchit / Shutterstock.com

If I had to consider exposure to only two cryptocurrencies, it would be Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH-USD). Ethereum has underperformed in 2023 as compared to Bitcoin. However, I would not be surprised if Ethereum is an outperformer in the next five years.

With the Ethereum merge completed, the networks energy usage is likely to decline by 99%. I believe that this factor is still to be discounted in the asset. In July 2022, Vitalik Buterin clearly stated that Ethereum development would likely be only 55% completed following the merge. As the roadmap progresses in the next few years, Ethereum is likely to trend higher.

I believe there are two big impending catalysts for Ethereum price action. First, if the network fee is reduced, its likely to have a big impact on blockchain usage. Further, the transaction speed needs to increase through sharding. Overall, Ethereum seems poised to be a multibagger over the next few years.

Source: Shutterstock

Zilliqa (ZIL-USD) is another name among long-term crypto investments that could deliver multibagger returns. ZIL has remained sideways year-to-date, even as the bigger names surge higher. I believe a big breakout on the upside is imminent.

As an overview, Zilliqa is the worlds first sharding-based blockchain. Parallel transaction verification in sharding allows for faster transaction speed. At the same time, the transaction cost is significantly lower as compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum.

When it comes to generating returns, there is another benefit thats worth discussing. ZIL coin currently offers an APR of 13.08%. Robust! According to data, around 30% of the circulating supply is already staked.

The supply will further tighten as the number of dApps on the blockchain increases. In my view, Zilliqa can deliver 10-bagger or 20-bagger returns from current levels if Bitcoin trades above previous highs.

On the date of publication, Faisal Humayun did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

Faisal Humayun is a senior research analyst with 12 years of industry experience in the field of credit research, equity research and financial modeling. Faisal has authored over 1,500 stock specific articles with focus on the technology, energy and commodities sector.

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3 Millionaire-Maker Cryptos to Hold Through Thick and Thin - InvestorPlace

From Ethereum to Bitcoin Spark: How This New Cryptocurrency is … – Blockzeit

Technology has surged in users and real-world applications exponentially. From Web 1.0, when the internet was a hub for large chunks of information (Wikipedia), Web 2.0, where the users were the product as their information was taken and regulated to a certain degree, to the current Web 3.0 involving advanced decentralized finance.

Blockchain technology has also had its inaugurations, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have played a pivotal role in creating awareness. Bitcoin has witnessed whales such as the Winklevii twins and Ethereum Donald Trump, who put money into the niche. Nevertheless, Bitcoin Spark is the new digital platform leading to swifter development in the crypto industry.

Developed by Vitalik Buterin and his compatriots, Ethereum is a blockchain network that seeks to amend challenges within the Bitcoin ecosystem. The platform launched smart contracts to allow programmers in DeFi to develop decentralized applications. The latest upgrade, ETH 2.0, has also generated attention as the platform transitioned from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake blockchain.

Blockchain technology needs a network that proposes security, low transaction costs, and high efficiency. Bitcoin Spark is the new platform with all the traits required for the potential application in decentralized finance. The project aims to solve pertinent and paramount challenges, including lowering transaction costs, improving scalability, and applying a smart contract layer that vast developers can utilize to create layer-2 dApps. Bitcoin Spark will have a potent rate of attracting venture capitalists and individual investors.

In the Web3 community, platforms with diverse revenue sources always get massive attraction from potential Web3 clients. In this case, Bitcoin Spark aims to improve blockchain technology through its two-way income streams: decentralized processing power rental and advertisements. A small, unused space within the projects application and home website will be used for advertising, and brands will be required to pay for the slots in BTCS tokens, the native crypto asset of this new Web3 platform.

Bitcoin Spark team members will take 50% of the revenue from promotion for maintenance and upkeep. Advertisements will work on an elastic mechanism involving supply and demand, whereby the advertising fee will increase when the market is high. When demand plunges, the costs will reduce.

The platform also advocates for community policy that encourages partakers to vote against an advert that is vulgar and non-conforming with the required standards and terms of service. The team will also conduct a manual check-up on the advert to process the flag when the dispute reaches the consensus stage.

Miners and validators will provide processing power to the network that individuals and organizations will use to solve intricate programming equations and render video. From this method, the team will take 3% of income.

Mining should be decentralized in cryptocurrency since it incentivizes the confirmation of new blocks and the generating of new coins. The mechanism, therefore, leads to improved security of a network. Bitcoin Spark aims to strengthen the mining capabilities of individuals in the ledger technology.

The incentive will work in a new mechanism peculiar to the industry called proof-of-process that integrates PoW and PoS. Moreover, the platform has a systematic tool that prevents unequal reward allocation based on stake size and raw processing power. It enhances the small scale and large partakers to earn in a linear method. Being on its last laugh of the ICO phase three, blockchain enthusiasts are acquiring BTCS at a cheaper rate of $2 with a 12% bonus. Once the next phase begins, the BTCS price will increase, and the bonus will subsequently reduce.

Website: https://bitcoinspark.org/

Buy BTCS: https://network.bitcoinspark.org/register

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From Ethereum to Bitcoin Spark: How This New Cryptocurrency is ... - Blockzeit

Crypto: Binance at the forefront of the fight against ISIS – The Cryptonomist

Recently, the crypto exchange Binance and the intelligence firm TRM Labs played a key role in identifying a number of individuals connected with the ISIS terrorist movement.

Their work helped Tajikistan law enforcement agencies arrest several people from Khorasan province including Shamil Hukumatov, a leading member of the Islamic State.

This news confirms the commitment of the two companies to work with local authorities around the world to combat crime within the blockchain landscape.

Below are all the details.

A few days ago crypto exchange Binance and forensic analysis firm TRM Labs worked together with Tajikistans financial monitoring department to identify and arrest a number of individuals linked to the terrorist organization ISIS.

Binance officially communicated its involvement in the matter through a blog post, which highlighted its key role in enabling local law enforcement to intervene within the province of Khorasan (IKSP).

A daily routine scan on threats in the open source world allowed the exchanges investigative team to notice a strange Telegram group that terrorists were using to communicate.

Through that information, Binance analysts were able to identify a crypto wallet that was being leveraged by ISIS to receive donations.

It is unclear how they then came to locate members of the Islamic State, but presumably consulting the KYC information of the platforms suspicious clients and tracking their linked IP addresses led to their capture.

Those arrested include a prominent ISIS figure, namely Shamil Hukumatov, who has been engaged in recruiting new recruits for the paramilitary organization and money laundering in recent years.

Hukumatov was apprehended in Istanbul along with his wife through a police raid on his home, where documents and information related to the Afghan groups activities were found.

Once again, Binances dedication and commitment to fighting financial crimes within blockchain environments is confirmed, with a view to making the crypto ecosystem a safer place.

The exchange itself commented on the accomplishment of their work this way:

These ISKP members have been actively involved in planning upcoming attacks, and their arrests are considered a huge win for counterterrorism efforts both regionally and globally.

Markus Thielen, head of research at Matrixport, believes that as a result of Binances numerous interventions in collaboration with law enforcement to block illicit activity, malicious users will begin to use decentralized mixers like Tornado Cash more frequently to protect their privacy.

The blockchain is a public place and totally traceable, but these platforms allow users to lose track of their movements in crypto by increasing the privacy of transactions.

In any case, authorities may soon block these kinds of platforms: last year Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the US Treasury and a few days ago the last two founders of the project were arrested.

TRM Labs has played a crucial role along with Binance in the affair involving the arrest of several members of the ISIS terrorist group in Tajikistan and Turkey.

Specifically, the intelligence firm, through monitoring transactions on blockchain and linking the flows to suspicious activity, has been able to identify a number of suspicious movements that took place on the Tron network.

Forensic work has revealed that many areas stretching from Syria to Central Asia have been the focus of a number of terrorist activities that have been financed through crypto donations with the USDT stablecoin.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, crypto wallets were unearthed that recorded donations with the Islamic group, with respective volumes of $40,000 and $10,000.

In Indonesia, several addresses were held responsible for transiting approximately $517,000 at an exchange based in Indonesia with the goal of facilitating the paramilitary groups funding in Syria.

By contrast, several pro-ISIS addresses in Tajikistan have been traced using cryptocurrency, including to recruit fighters to join the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan (ISKP).

A fundraising campaign included in this network had received about $2 million in USDT on Tron throughout 2022.

By tracking the movements of the address and alerting the partner Binance, it was possible to block the assets in question and trace the identity of the campaigns active party.

Trons blockchain is confirmed as one of the preferred cryptographic networks for users to transfer USDT, given the speed of execution of orders and the low cost in terms of fees.

Of course, it is not only terrorist groups such as ISIS that use the decentralized infrastructure, but also and especially ordinary users who take advantage of the benefits of the crypto world in a legitimate way.

Just think that there are more USDT on Tron than on Ethereum. In particular, Tethers stablecoin has a supply of 42.83 billion units on Justin Suns network and 39 billion on that of Vitalik Buterin.

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Link:

Crypto: Binance at the forefront of the fight against ISIS - The Cryptonomist