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Bitcoin (BTC) may be testing $10,000 but further losses would not be unusual, says an asset manager on the 90th anniversary of the Wall St. Crash.

In a tweet on Sep. 4, Raoul Pal said that the past 24 hours BTC price declines were nothing out of the ordinary.

In the post-Halving bull cycles, bitcoin can often correct 25% (even 40% + in 2017), throwing off the short-term traders (or giving swing traders a shot at the short side), he wrote.

Each of those was a buying opportunity. DCA opportunity ahead?

Pal was referring to dollar-cost averaging investing, which involves buying a set amount of Bitcoin at regular intervals to slowly build up a portfolio.

As Cointelegraph noted, the practice has seen proven profitability for BTC, and payment network Square rolled it out as a consumer feature this year.

Comparing Thursdays losses even to recent drawdowns from local highs, Bitcoin has fared less badly in context than price indices would suggest.

Bitcoin price drawdowns comparison. Source: ChartsBTC/ Twitter

A knock-effect of the losses was nonetheless a dramatic shift in investor sentiment, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index. The Index, just days ago firmly in its greed zone, fell by more than 30 points out of 100 on Friday to stand at 40 or fear for the first time since July.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index as of Sept. 4, 2020. Source: Alternative.me

While analysts continue to eye the potential for BTC/USD to drop to fill a futures gap at $9,700, across macro markets, eerie historical signs are appearing.

As noted by commentator Holger Zschaepitz on Friday, Sept. 4 marks 91 years to the day that markets began their rapid descent during the Wall. St. Crash.

Just to put things into perspective: After the fabulous gains on the stock market in the 1920s, the crash began just on Sep4th, 1929! he tweeted.

Just like 2020, the event followed several months of recovery in equities, with economist Irving Fisher infamously saying just beforehand that stocks had reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

Zschaepitzs words come as others warn about the health of gold, silver and the U.S. dollar currency index. In the case of the latter, after days of gains which coincided with Bitcoin price selling pressure, resistance is incoming, Cointelegraph Markets analyst filbfilb says.

Careful with this dump, he cautioned subscribers of his Telegram trading channel.

The other markets are on their last legs. If they survive then we probably do OK here. If they mega dump; you do not want to be heavily leveraged to the longside.

U.S. dollar currency index daily chart. Source: TradingView

At publication time, Bitcoin traded at around $10,400 after a modest rebound from lows of $10,090, with daily losses still at almost 9%.

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Bitcoin market index back to fear on 91st anniversary of 1929 crash - Cointelegraph

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The race for blockchain interoperability was very much a trending topic during the bull market of 2017. Back then, we witnessed the birth of very promising projects like Fusion and Wanchain. Then the bear market started, and interoperability was no longer as hot as it once was, similar to every other topic related to blockchain development. However, these two projects continued to develop their respective ecosystems; they were even joined by a third project in this same niche, Ren.

However, there is still no single project that can be considered as the leader of the interoperability niche, and which links all blockchains and facilitates their communication despite the architectural differences between them. Needless to say, sooner or later, the blockchain space will need such a project!

This need arose even more during the recent DeFi boom, where the majority of the tools and applications used were limited to the Ethereum blockchain, with the involvement of only a small portion of Bitcoin (somewhat above 0.1% of the circulating BTC). At the same time, the other giant blockchains like Ripple and Litecoin are almost totally absent. Billions of dollars are locked in these blockchains and they cant be used in the DeFi space.

In this article, we will review Fusion, Wanchain and Ren, three potential projects that could solve these DeFi limitation issues, and take this space to the next level. The projects will be compared based on essential criteria and other aspects, then we will determine which project has the highest chance to become the blockchain that connects all the blockchains. But before that, lets just first explain why these three projects in particular were picked.

Why Fusion, Wanchain and Ren?

It is true that there are many projects that specialize in the interoperability niche, but having considered several factors like technology, a teams experience, a projects quality, its development, and its community; these three projects stand out as the main potential projects that could become the internet of blockchains.

Many people in the crypto space think that projects like Cosmos or Polkadot specialize in interoperability, while in fact, they use a compatibility model. The main difference between interoperability and compatibility is that the communication between parachains in the compatibility model is made possible through a central Hub which forces a certain standard, and other chains have to stick to it in order to be part of the ecosystem. It seems that the top priority of these two projects is more to replace Ethereum and attract new chains and projects to build on their platforms than it is to connect the different blockchains.

Fusion, Wanchain and Ren on the other hand, use a true interoperability model based on cryptographic concepts. These three projects aim to create ecosystems that facilitate a trustless decentralized communication between different blockchains.

These cryptographic solutions aim to use a decentralized technology for custody. The process of cross-chain communication is similar to existing models such as WBTC (minting assets with 1:1 ratio on other blockchains). However, unlike WBTC which keeps your original assets in a centralized entity (BitGo) and requires KYC, the three projects in our comparison use very advanced solutions to hold your assets in a fully trustless and decentralized way.

Fusion

Fusion is a fully decentralized smart contracts platform. The primary goals of the project are to become an ecosystem that links the different blockchains, allowing them to communicate with each other, and to connect global finance to blockchain technology. Fusion was founded by DJ Qian, one of the pioneers in blockchain research and mining in China.

The main component of Fusions technology is the DCRM Decentralized Control Rights Management. It uses the private key sharding concept to secure users assets. Fusion has also introduced the Time-Lock function. It is the first blockchain to use the concept of time in its smart contracts. This will open the door to complex financial transactions involving time such as derivatives, loans and mortgages.

The Fusion ecosystem is growing fast, with new projects joining the DCRM Alliance and decentralized applications being launched on the platform, such as WeDeFi and Anyswap.

WeDeFi: It is an easy-to-use wallet that is available on Android and iOS. It allows users to store and manage their assets. WeDeFi offers a no-loss lottery where users can deposit their FSN coins and participate in the lottery. They will get back their coins no matter if they win or lose.

Anyswap: It is currently the only swap protocol in the blockchain space that can carry out cross-chain transactions. Anyswap has its own automatic pricing and liquidity systems, and it uses Fusions DCRM as a cross-chain solution. Therefore, it will support all the coins and tokens that the DCRM technology can integrate, including: BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, ADA, ERC-20 tokens and many other coins and tokens. Anyswap introduced its governance token ANY and has recently added USDT to the platform and announced a strategic partnership with Hotbit.

Wanchain

Wanchain is another smart contracts platform project specializing in blockchain interoperability. It allows the exchange of data and value between private, consortium and public blockchains. The platform supports private transactions based on ring signatures.

Wanchain uses secure multiparty computation and Shamirs Secret Sharing concepts to ensure the safety of users assets. This cross-chain solution has already integrated Bitcoin, Ethereum and EOS blockchains into its ecosystem, with future plans to create direct bridges between these different blockchains.

Earlier this year, two projects built on Wanchain were launched:

Rivex (RVX): It is an interoperable and scalable layer-2 solution that aims to combine the strengths of public and side chains to empower the next generation of decentralized applications.

FinNexus (FNX): It is a DeFi focused project specializing in building open finance protocols. FNX has released its first product which is a decentralized options protocol powered by a single liquidity pool on both Ethereum and Wanchain.

Ren

Ren is a protocol that enables permissionless and private transfer of values between different blockchains. The core product of the project is the virtual machine RenVM, a trustless custodian that brings interoperability to DeFi on Ethereum.

Cross-chain communication is handled by RenVM. It holds the assets that users want to transfer, and mints an ERC-20 wrapped token to be used within the Ethereum blockchain. RenVM allows the minting of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Zcash on the Ethereum blockchain, with future plans to mint coins on the Polkadot blockchain.

For example, if you want to use BTC in the Ethereum blockchain: You hand it to RenVM, it holds it and mints that BTC as an ERC-20 token (RenBTC) on Ethereum with 1:1 ratio. This process is secured by youve probably guessed it Shamirs Secret Sharing and secure multiparty computation.

RenVM can be used as a plugin for decentralized applications built on Ethereum. Once integrated to a smart contract, users will be able to benefit from cross-chain liquidity provided by Ren.

Ren cryptocurrency is an ERC-20 token. It is used to run the dark nodes that are entirely governed by code.

Comparative Analysis

Fusion, Wanchain and Ren are three projects that are focused on connecting siloed blockchains using cryptographic interoperability. However, there are some fundamental differences between these projects, starting with their nature.

Fusion and Wanchain are infrastructure projects. In addition to their interoperability components, each project has its own mainnet and its own smart contract platform for dApps development and token issuance, while Ren is an interoperability protocol built on Ethereum.

In addition to its cross-chain solution based on the DCRM technology, the Fusion team developed unique concepts to create a convenient ecosystem for DeFi. For example, the Time-Lock function allows users to perform complex financial transactions that involve time by using the Multi Triggering Mechanism, which is considered as the next generation of smart contracts. Fusion offers many other DeFi-oriented features such as quantum swap and USAN swap. Currently, there are two projects that are built on the Fusion platform. WeDeFi, and Anyswap.

Wanchain is also an interoperability project, it has already integrated Bitcoin, Ethereum and EOS blockchains into its ecosystem. So far, two DeFi projects have been built on Wanchain: FinNexus and Rivex.

Interoperability and Decentralization

Now lets talk about the interoperability of these three projects!

Through DCRM, Fusion has created an ecosystem that supports the integration of blockchains that have ECDSA (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc) or EdDSA (Cardano, NANO, Stellar, WAVES, and even Facebooks Libra!) as signature algorithms. This means that almost every blockchain out there could be integrated into Fusions ecosystem.

DCRM has currently around 45 working nodes. Once a user locks-in his assets in the Fusion blockchain, these nodes will only receive shards of his private key, and will never have access to other shards, so assets are completely safe. The majority of DCRM nodes do not belong to the Fusion Foundation. Fusions cross-chain solution is therefore fully decentralized.

Wanchain is another blockchain that aims to create an ecosystem to connect all the blockchains. The process is somewhat slower, and blockchains are integrated one by one. However, according to the roadmap released recently, Wanchain started working on direct bridges between blockchains, and will launch their first two-way bridge later this year.

Wanchain interoperability uses storeman nodes (equivalent to Fusions DCRM nodes). These nodes still belong to the Wanchain foundation, but their decentralization is under testing and the full storeman nodes decentralization is planned to be finished in 2021.

Ren does not offer an ecosystem where it can connect all the blockchains. Instead it offers interoperability through its core product, RenVM. This virtual machine is used to create direct bridges between different blockchains. Currently, RenVM brings liquidity from BTC, BCH and ZEC to Ethereum applications, with possible support for ECDSA blockchains. Ren has future plans to bring liquidity to the Polkadot blockchain.

Currently in Mainnet SubZero, RenVM cross-chain technology is still centralized. The team claims to offer a semi-decentralized solution due to the fact that no KYC is required, however, Ren nodes (called Darknodes) are run by the Ren team and other partners from the Ren Alliance.

Another important point to mention is that Fusion and Wanchain code are open-source, and can easily be accessed. On the other hand, some important parts of Rens code are closed-source, and a lot of questions are being asked about the reasons behind this decision. No clear answer has been given by the team.

The use cases of a certain token are definitely an important factor to estimate its real value. Markets are not always rational, but sooner or later, tokens usually end up reaching their real value depending on the quality of the services they provide to users.

Fusion coin (FSN) has many use cases within Fusions cross-chain DeFi features and applications. FSN is used to pay network gas fees and to run DCRM nodes. It can be used in the different Time-Lock transactions: such as borrowing, lending, loans, etc. FSN holders can also stake their coins and earn passive income.

FSN coin can also be used within Fusion dApps. WeDeFi allows coin holders to use their Safebet no-loss lottery and to borrow Time-Locked FSN. The other dApp on Fusion is Anyswap, and Fusion coin was the only way to get its governance token ANY.

Wanchain coin (WAN) has similar use cases to FSN, it is used to pay gas fees for network transactions including Rivex and FinNexus transactions. It can also be used in the different dApps of Wanchain. Wan holders can stake their coins to earn passive income, or run nodes as validators. Wancoin will also be required to run the upcoming cross-chain storeman nodes.

Ren is a protocol, not a platform, therefore, Ren token has much less use cases than FSN or WAN. The main use case of the Ren token is to run a Darknode. Around 100k Ren tokens are required to run a node, this large number has been chosen to increase the amount of locked tokens, and the effect it could have on token price.

Speaking of price, lets take a look at the current prices and market caps of the three projects and determine which coin or token offers the best buying opportunity right now.

Of the three projects, Ren is the one that has been in the spotlight during the DeFi boom. Mainly because the DeFi space has been limited to Ethereum, a blockchain to which Ren provides liquidity. The current market cap of Ren is around $ 400 M, Wanchains market cap is around $ 54 M, and surprisingly, the market cap of Fusion is only around $ 26 M.

Yes, Fusion, the decentralized cross-chain platform that offers unique DeFi features such as Time-Lock, and dApps like WeDeFi and Anyswap is the one that has currently the lowest market cap. It is without a doubt the most undervalued project of the three, but even beyond our comparison, it is one of the most undervalued cryptocurrencies in the whole market. According to CoinStats, Fusion has the second highest adoption score in the crypto space. It is a score that compares the adoption of a certain project to its market cap, it helps investors to find the projects that could potentially take off at any moment.

Fusion, Wanchain and Ren are three interesting projects working on a fully decentralized cryptographic interoperability. The other solutions that are currently available in the market include centralized custodians such WBTC, or hub and zone models such as Cosmos and Polkadot that force new chains to adopt a certain standard.

The three projects in this comparison have a lot of features in common, but they are also different in some important aspects. Fusion and Wanchain are smart contracts platforms, they both have their own blockchains, and allow issuance of tokens. Ren is a protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, with RenVM as a core product.

Fusions cross chain solution is based on the DCRM technology, it offers more integration possibilities. It is currently the only fully decentralized technology out of the three cross-chain solutions. The adoption of Fusion is increasingly growing after the launch of decentralized applications and platforms such as WeDeFi and Anyswap, and the implementation of convenient features for decentralized finance such as the Time-Lock function.

Surprisingly, Fusion has the lowest market cap out of the three projects. This can be seen as an excellent opportunity to invest in a project that offers a better technology than some of the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

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Why Fusion's DCRM is The Best Option for DeFi Users | Sponsored Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

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Wasabi Wallet users need to upgrade to the latest version if they want to continue using the CoinJoin feature to keep their Bitcoin transaction histories private.

Thats because those running older iterations of the wallet can no longer use this feature to mix their coins with users who have the newest version.

The Wasabi Wallet team hard-forked the wallet Thursday to address a vulnerability discovered by a team member at Trezor, a leading maker of hardware wallets. A hard fork is a code change that makes older versions of a software incompatible with newer ones.

The flaws discovery is another example of the open-source communitys camaraderie and cooperation. Developers are constantly tinkering to improve their peers software, and many vulnerabilities have been responsibly disclosed during these processes to patch flaws before they can be exploited by bad actors. (Sometimes, however, the disclosures by rival teams are less-than-cordial, as evidenced by the long-running tensions between Wasabi and rival Samourai Wallet.)

According to a Wasabi Wallet blog post, Trezor hardware wallet developer Ondej Vejpustek responsibly disclosed the potential denial-of-service (DoS) attack to the Wasabi team on May 10 (a DoS attack entails an attacker spamming a network or protocol with the hopes of stymying its operations, hence denial of service).

Vejpustek has been very cooperative since the beginning and left us total freedom on how to manage the disclosure, both in terms of time and communication. This demonstrates the importance of proper communication between security researchers and dev teams. This is how a responsible disclosure should be, Wasabi Wallet contributor and marketing strategist Riccardo Masutti told CoinDesk, adding that Vejpustek was paid a bitcoin bounty for his efforts.

This hypothetical DoS attack, which Wasabi Wallet assumes has never been carried out, would have interfered with the wallets implementation of CoinJoin, a privacy protocol that allows users to mix their bitcoin with others to obscure the coins transaction histories.

Wasabi WalletsCoinJoin implementation requires each participant to take out as much as they put in. If, for instance, 10 participants join a mix for 0.1 BTC, then each user must send exactly that amount (plus a miner fee) and must receive that exact amount for the mix to be successful and to retain CoinJoins privacy protections. Mixing coins makes it harder for blockchain snoops and nosy parkers to pin bitcoin transactions to known addresses and their owners identities.

The disclosed DoS vulnerability would have halted the mixing process. The attacker would register bitcoin for a mix without that bitcoin being signed (verified) by the mixs coordinator, while at the same time submitting a real, verified transaction to the mix.

The result would be an incongruity between the total value of inputs made to the CoinJoin and the value of expected outputs. As a result, the coordinator would unwittingly build a transaction that cant be valid, since the sum of all inputs is less than the sum of all outputs, according to Vejpusteks analysis.

If the attack were pulled off, it would foil the CoinJoin, though it would not have given the attacker the ability to steal any coins nor could they deanonymize any peers in the mix.

Wasabi Wallet patched the fix with the hard fork deployed Thursday. This upgrade was applied to v.1.1.12of the wallet, which was released on Aug. 5.

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Wasabi Wallet Patches Flaw That Could Have Thwarted Bitcoin Privacy Feature - CoinDesk - Coindesk

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