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Is hybrid cloud the future of cloud hosting? – KnowTechie – KnowTechie

May 16, 2017 | Author: admin

Cloud hosting service is a hosting option for websites or business entities with dynamic needs. Under the purview of cloud hosting, a website draws its computing resources from a network of physical servers across the web. Therefore, there are no hardware or infrastructural restrictions as is in the case of a traditional web hosting environment. Companies can easily upscale or downscale their server requirement as the needs of their website modify. They dont have to worry about the migration cost as demand can be raised in real time and payment is determined as per the usage of the cloud computing resources.

The scalability and flexibility offered by cloud hosting are driving more and more businesses towards it. Businesses looking to transition towards cloud hosting are faced with three options: the public, private and hybrid cloud. All three platforms have pros and cons, and a careful analysis is relevant to get an answer to the question Is hybrid cloud the future of cloud hosting?

Amazon Web Services or AWS, Google AppEngine, and Windows Azure Service Platforms are examples of public cloud platforms. Providing infrastructure as a service or IaaS, these platforms offer the perfect solution for a dynamic web hosting need. The end user gets a piece of the bandwidth space, hardware resources and applications of a larger infrastructure that is run, managed and maintained by major stakeholders in the cloud hosting world. Therefore, the public cloud is one of the most inexpensive and suitable cloud hosting options.

On the other hand, private cloud has a very dedicated and closed environment. The infrastructure of private cloud is used by a single company or organization. All the resources, disk space and bandwidth of the private cloud is used to store up information of a given enterprise. Private cloud is regarded very safe, however, to run this massive and technical infrastructure requires both money and resources. This is the primary reason why only big companies, Government agencies, financial institutions, research labs and hospitals can afford private cloud hosting infrastructure.

Finally, Hybrid Cloud is a mix of both public and private cloud. Each platform has a distinct use within a single organization or enterprise. While sensitive and critical company data is secured on a private cloud, less sensitive information is put away in a public cloud platform. There are more than one-way hybrid cloud can be incorporated within a companys infrastructure:

According to a survey conducted by Hybrid Hive, a news and views platform that digs the latest developments from the world of Hybrid cloud to assist IT decision makers across the globe predicts that many enterprises will rely on Hybrid Cloud. The survey that included the participation of 1,050 ITDMs (IT decision makers) across seven countries revealed the following

Taking the cue from the above revelation, lets focus on the next segment.

The Benefits of Hybrid Cloud

Through Hybrid cloud hosting enterprises can benefit from the best of both worlds. While private cloud offers greater level of granular security and control, public cloud is regarded more scalable, flexible and affordable. But what about the security aspect of public cloud? Although public cloud is traditionally considered less secure, the advancement in cloud technologies and attaching of big names like Amazon, Google and Microsoft has made the public cloud space also reliable and safe.

Having stated that, certain agencies or companies deal with highly classified data on behalf of their business and clients or have a data protocol to follow. In such a scenario, private cloud is a more viable option.

Therefore, a mix and match approach works best for dynamic and ever changing needs of enterprises today.

In comparison to the public cloud, companies can have a far greater control over their IT Infrastructure in the case of Hybrid Cloud. All the sensitive data can be stored on the private cloud which has multi layers of encryption, while not so critical information can be secured on private cloud setup. Enterprises can identify critical and non-critical data and allocate resources accordingly, without incurring unnecessary expenditure.

The network of hybrid infrastructure can be configured in such a way that all the important or critical data are pushed to private cloud in a very secured manner. If the infrastructure of a private cloud is built optimally through periodic software and hardware up gradation, it fosters business efficiency. The load time of the website will improve, and server requests will process faster.

Cutting down the cost of IT operations is the biggest challenges for enterprises today. Through the Hybrid cloud, companies can cut down on the cost of operation to a large extent, without compromising on network security. Enterprises that only rely on private cloud, overtime will face a situation wherein the cost of upgrading the infrastructure of private set-up is very expensive. On the other hand, there is no such compulsion on a public cloud platform since cost of ownership is less on public cloud. Therefore, dividing company data on both platforms will be cost effective.

Limitations of Hybrid Cloud

To run a hybrid cloud infrastructure requires skills and resources. If an enterprise is considering adopting hybrid cloud it is imperative to look for system administrators with requisite skill set to oversee the transition.

This will depend upon that existing IT infrastructure of the company. If an enterprise is moving to Private cloud to Hybrid, the cost is likely to reduce. However, if its the opposite case, the cost can escalate. So, unless there is an extreme security concern, moving to hybrid cloud is a waste of resources.

The network of hybrid cloud is very complex. A greater level of data management in terms of security and deployment is important to understand the distribution of information over public and private cloud set-ups.

According to RightScale, a cloud management platform, the Hybrid cloud will be a preferred enterprises strategy. However, there are parallel trends that will impact the growth and popularity of Hybrid cloud infrastructure. As per RightScale 2017 State of the Cloud Report

The study also revealed that cost optimization would be the primary focus of cloud spending, which is currently estimated to be around 30 to 45%. Therefore, the future of Hybrid cloud will depend upon the sophistication and advancement of public cloud domains and criticality of data that enterprises are dealing with individually. Public Cloud may well be the entry product for Cloud Hosting and then companies may evolve to a hybrid or private cloud of their choice over time.

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United VARs Selects Symmetry to Provide Global Cloud Platform for SAP HANA(R) – Marketwired (press release)

May 16, 2017 | Author: admin

Symmetry to Provide Next Generation, Secure and Scalable SAP HANA Cloud Hosting Services for United VARs Customers in over 80 countries

ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwired - May 16, 2017) - SAPPHIRE NOW - United VARs, the world's largest alliance of SAP channel partners, today announced it has selected Symmetry as its worldwide infrastructure partner for the United VARs Cloud Solution for SAP HANA, a globally connected cloud hosting platform engineered specifically for mission-critical enterprise SAP applications. Symmetry brings more than 22 years of SAP expertise to host and manage deployments of the United VARs Cloud Solution for SAP HANA on its expanding global cloud platform.

The United VARs Cloud Solution for SAP HANA will offer its embedded base of over 8,000 customers a cohesive cloud services platform for SAP HANA and SAP applications, including disaster recovery, state-of-the-art monitoring and 99.999% uptime Service Level Agreements. The purpose-built, high-performance cloud architecture provides self-healing features at the storage, compute, security and network levels; a user portal; proactive monitoring of hosted environments; and 24x7x365 global support. With United VARs' and Symmetry's deep SAP expertise, customers can more effectively manage cost and complexity concerns associated with migrating legacy SAP applications to the new SAP HANA architecture and tuning both traditional SAP and SAP HANA environments for optimal performance.

"There are serious capital and operational expense considerations when migrating to SAP HANA on-premise, due to the system's need for a complete hardware and architectural upgrade as well as new management software and skills," said William Fellows, Founder and Research VP, 451 Research. "451 Research believes the cost and complexity of on-premise SAP HANA implementation will accelerate SAP customer migration to the cloud."

The United VARs Cloud Solution for SAP HANA is being deployed on Symmetry's expanding converged cloud infrastructure platform through a network of certified Tier 3 data centers with multi-path connectivity to all major network providers, and built-in flexibility for dynamically allocating resources as needs or priorities change. For United VARs' member companies, this infrastructure helps them drive new revenue streams by adding a global cloud platform option to expand their portfolio of capabilities for a more comprehensive, end-to-end solution aimed at driving customers' migration to SAP HANA.

"The United VARs Cloud Solution for SAP HANA will be a strategic driver for United VARs - providing our 40-plus member companies with the best possible cloud deployment option for SAP HANA, with a cost structure that creates a competitive advantage in the market," said Detlef Mehlman, Director of United VARs and Head of Business Development International at All for One Steeb AG, a founding member of United VARs and SAP Platinum Partner. "This new global solution is also a major differentiator for United VARs -- we are now the only organization in the world that can combine the localized expertise of a regional specialist with the global resources of a large consulting company, covering SAP application management and cloud infrastructure. This is a particularly compelling value proposition for international enterprises."

Symmetry has more than 22 years of experience in SAP technical management across on-premise, hosted, cloud and hybrid cloud environments. The company has a strong track record of hosting successful SAP cloud implementations for enterprises across diverse industries including: Steel and Pipe Supply Company, Inc. (SPSCI); Everywhere Global; Karma Automotive; Carlisle Interconnect Technologies (CarlisleIT); and New England Biolabs.

"For SAP customers looking to fully realize the business-transformational effects of SAP HANA, United VARs and Symmetry deliver far greater SAP-specific expertise than can be found with general-purpose cloud service providers," said Kurt Andersen, Chief Marketing Officer of Symmetry. "Over the last 22 years, we have developed a deep understanding of SAP customer needs and a proven track record of managing, tuning and hosting the most complex SAP environments. This experience, combined with a global cloud footprint that can support any business, anywhere, will provide United VARs with a true competitive advantage in the market and a compelling value proposition to their customers."

About United VARs United VARs is the world's largest global alliance of SAP channel partners. Functioning as a single SAP Platinum Partner, United VARs includes more than 40 resellers in 80+ countries serving more than 8,000 customers.

About Symmetry Symmetry is a leading application management and hybrid cloud hosting solution provider with deep expertise in SAP application management. An SAP partner since 2005, Symmetry is certified in SAP Hosting, Cloud and SAP HANA Operations. As a true extension of your IT team, Symmetry places a laser focus on the customer's experience and offers highly flexible, tailored solutions to meet the unique business needs of enterprise clients. Symmetry supports global enterprises across all industries through a customer centric high-touch approach that delivers deep technical expertise combined with scalable, redundant, high availability cloud infrastructure supported by a 24x7x365 operations support model. With a long history and proven methodology for delivering hybrid solutions comprised of managed private cloud hosting infrastructure with enterprise application management services, Symmetry delivers IT solutions that help reduce the total cost of ownership and maximize the performance and security of our customers' most mission critical systems.

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Another crypto bubble and the rise of altcoin markets – Brave New Coin

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

The crypto markets seem to be in another bubble, orders of magnitude bigger than the last. However, this time a lot of the money is flowing into altcoins interestingly enough. How this situation will play out and where the market will stabilise at will be a really interesting story to watch unfold - whether Bitcoin will re-capture the market, or will some other crypto take its place. I would like to take this time to go over some of the history that brought us here however, as it's also a fascinating tale (if you like graphs).

Here is a short version of the story, in one graph by Woobull:

Bitcoin network congestion, market dominance, and altcoin marketcap

This is a cautionary tale for Bitcoin, but before we can really talk about how Bitcoin might be impacted, we have to talk about some altcoins. So strap yourself in for this whale of a tale in 9 charts...

The story of this bubble really starts around 2015, when some Bitcoin core developers wanted to address the network congestion they saw coming in Bitcoin. This was the start of the Bitcoin scaling debatethat gave rise to BitcoinXT, Bitcoin Unlimited, SegWit, UASF, etc. The writing was on the walls - if Bitcoin continued to grow in popularity, soon the blocks would be full and we would have to deal with the consequences. Two years have passed, and no consensus has been reached, thus priming us for the current events.

The bubble proper was started by the disagreement on how to scale Bitcoin. At the moment, there were two major solutions being proposed to address the issue - SegWitand Bitcoin Unlimited. Perhaps tired of waiting for consensus to emerge, perhaps prompted by Roger Ver's ambitions, Bitcoin Unlimited started to rally people behind its hard fork. Those came in two main waves - around October 2016, and March 2017, increasing both node count and number of blocks mined.

Bitcoin Unlimited node count

Bitcoin Unlimited mined blocks (green)

The fact that Bitcoin Unlimited was gaining momentum, coupled withrumours of a planned 51% attackto culla network splitmade serious waves in the community. We were faced with a real possibility thatthe network will fork and perhaps split. Every major player was taking sides in the discussion, and the tensions kept rising. The problem got exacerbated by the Covert ASICBOOST scandal. If Bitcoin had a doomsday clockfor the network splitting, it would probably be uncomfortably close to midnight.

With the uncertainty of Bitcoin's future and the rising tensions, other events started to take place.

2016 has been a bit of a rollercoaster for Ethereum. The year started at a sub-dollar price per ETH, reached about 20 USD/ETH due to The DAO, then slumped to about 7 USD/ETH after its hard fork and network split. The new year started on a positive note with a roadmap for the future of Ethereum. ETHs were sitting comfortably at #2 market spot by market cap, increasing a bit with Bitcoin price increases (1, 2, 3, 4) as you'd expect in a calm market.

Then March came along. Bitcoin Unlimited started gaining popularity, and the fear of a potential Bitcoin network split started shaping the market. While historically Bitcoin has been seen as the stable gold standard among cryptos, the safe heaven you'd park your money at if you didn't want to cash out into fiat. However, with the future of the network being uncertain, some people decided to move their wealth elsewhere.

March was the month where Bitcoin slumped and Ethereum was there to pick up the money moving away (1, 2, 3, 4). You can practically see the ~21B USD market cap shifting gently towards Ethereum, giving it a boost from 1.6B USD to 4.6B USD in that month, while Bitcoin went from 20B USD to 15B USD.

Bitcoin price chart

Ethereum price chart

In April the Bitcoin situation started to calm down. Bitcoins started to recover along with their market cap going back to 21B USD by the end of the month (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). However, another important development started brewing elsewhere...

Litecoin has always been "silver to Bitcoin's gold", its shadow. Sometimes outperforming Bitcoin price increases percentage-wise, but rarely making a big splash overall. Seeing Bitcoin stumble with its scaling solutions, it seized on the opportunity to make a name for itself.

What is important to remember, is that Litecoin can be classified as a "copycoin" - a cryptocurrency largely operating similar to Bitcoin, on a pretty similar codebase with minor tweaks. It's so similar, that by chance or negligence, Litecoin's multisig addresses have the same prefix as Bitcoin. Copycoins in general operate on hype and innovation (real or manufactured) - there are so many similar coins that if you don't stand out from the crowd, you're going nowhere.

While Litecoin did not have the network congestion issues of Bitcoin, it still decided to improve its network and push for SegWit adoption. While it looks like the process started in February, there was a considerable rally for SegWit in late March, as indicated by the sudden jump in SegWit blocks and market activity.

Litecoin SegWit adoption

Litecoin price chart

The process was spearheaded by Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin. A notable opposition to the SegWit progress were Bitmain and Antpool. Supposedly they were blocking Litecoin's SegWit activation to prevent further SegWit adoption on the Bitcoin blockchain, where they are allegedly profiting from Covert ASICBOOST. After a long ordeal, Litecoin finally locked in and activated SegWit mere days ago.

There have been some other altcoins that also followed Litecoin's SegWit adoption, but their stories aren't that interesting.

The price also reflected that - going from under 5 USD/LTC at the start of the year with about 220M USD market cap, to a high of 35 USD/LTC and 1.8B USD market cap in the recent weeks. While this would normally allow it to take #3 spot on the crypto market cap list, another network had a meteoric rise that came largely out of nowhere...

Ripple has had a mixed reputation in the Bitcoin community. It's the oldest and one of the most prominent Crypto 2.0 networks. It has been caught the ire of bitcoiners in 2013 for being seen as "pro-regulation" during US Senate hearings,declared dead in 2014(Bitcoin has been declared dead over 100 times now), has been fined by FinCEN for Bank Secrecy Act Violations, etc. Ripple Labs have developed essentially a competitor to its own network - the Interledger Protocol.

However, more recently it looks like the company is going back to its roots and focusing on the Ripple network. It stated publishing quarterly market reports on XRPsand talking about its plans for the future. There are more and more news about various banks using its network. All in all, it looks like the market has warmed up to the currency:

Ripple price chart

While we see a small blip on the chart in early April when it crossed 1B USD market cap, the currency started to enter a meteoric rise around the start of May (1, 2, 3). The year started with a market cap of 220M USD and a price of 0.006 USD/XRP, while currently it sits at 8.4B USD and 0.22 USD/XRP.

Now, let's look at how this all comes together.

At the time of writing, we this is how the market looks like:

#1 Bitcoin - price: 1813 USD/BTC, market cap: 29.6B USD #2 Ripple - price: 0.22 USD/XRP, market cap: 8.4B USD #3 Ethereum - price: 90.8 USD/ETH, market cap: 8.3 BUSD #4 Litecoin - price: 29.6 USD/LTC, market cap: 1.5B USD

Total market capitalisation of all coins: 55B USD, of which 25B USD are in altcoins. This means Bitcoin's market dominance is under 55%, while at the start of the story, it was about 85%:

Market dominance

Bitcoin has historically been the "gold standard" for crypto. The market leader, the first mover, the biggest whale. However, it seems like in this market if you're standing still, you're moving backwards.

Since the start of our story, Bitcoin has periodically dipped in its price, but overall we're seeing all-time high price. The recovery was probably due to people worrying less about the potential network split that might come from Bitcoin Unlimited. Bitcoin is certainly stronger than ever, but there might also be blood in the water - despite the price of bitcoins rising, so too did the altcoin markets grew in leaps and bounds.

Whether this bubble we're in right now (and it certainly has the look of a bubble) will pop hard and the market will rebound in Bitcoin's favour, or whether a new paradigm will be made where bitcoins play less of a dominant role, only time will tell. It is very unlikely Bitcoin will ever sink too deep into the coin list, but if the scaling stalemate continues, Bitcoin's advantage will be eroded over time.

For years one could easily dismiss altcoins as being a fad, nowhere near as mature as Bitcoin. But at some point you have to realise you might have to compete for your top dog spot. We're living in a market that is used to exponential growth, and Bitcoin's market cap is "only" two doublings away from its next competitor.

We are probably in the biggest crypto bubble to date. Not only has once again reached its all-time high price recently, but the altcoins have also grew by leaps and bounds. In the near future, I would expect some large contraction, especially in the alt market. Litecoin will probably dip back down now that SegWit is activated and its rally is over. It will be interesting to see where the money will flow if the value of bitcoins will pop - whether people will be cashing out to fiat, or altcoins. The biggest threat for Bitcoin is still the scaling issue - if that's not dealt with soon, the issue might just go away... along with many Bitcoin users that will switch to some of the alternatives.

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All About Bitcoin, the Mysterious Digital Currency – New York Times

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

New York Times
All About Bitcoin, the Mysterious Digital Currency
New York Times
While real-world transactions have been slow to take off, Bitcoin has continued to be popular for black market uses like ransomware. Credit Danny Ghitis for The New York Times. As the hackers behind the global ransomware attack demand payment in ...
AP Explains: What is bitcoin? A look at the digital currencyABC News
Zim's growing bitcoin communityThe Zimbabwe Standard
Here's a brief look at bitcoin:Windsor Star

all 96 news articles »

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What you need to know about bitcoin after the WannaCry ransomware attack – Washington Post

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

Bitcoin is in the news again after Friday's worldwide ransomware attack. The malicious software locks down victims' computers and refuses to grant themaccess to their files unless they agree to pay at least $300 in bitcoin. Which may have you wondering: What is bitcoin? And why do the attackers want payment in that currency?

Here's a refresher on bitcoin and how it's connected to the ransomware threat.

What is bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a kind of digital currency. You can buy it with dollars or euros, just like you can trade any other currency. You store it in an online wallet. And with that wallet, you can spend bitcoin online and in the physical world for goods and services. Even PayPal supports bitcoin.

And, of course, bitcoin has a valuation, which you may have heard aboutbecause bitcoin's price has fluctuated up and down.

[How to protect yourself from the global ransomware attack]

What's different about bitcoin?

Usually, if you pay for something on the Internet, you use a credit or debit card. That card is connected to information about you, such as your name and billing address.

You can use bitcoin the same way, but unlike with a credit card, the transactions you make with the currency are completely anonymous. They can't be used to identify you personally. Instead, whenever you trade in bitcoin, you use a "private key" associated with your wallet to generate a bit of code called an address that is then publicly associated with your transaction but with no personal identifying information. In that way, every transactionis recorded and securely signed in an open ledger that anyone can read and double-check.

So you can use bitcoin to protect your privacy. Is that why the WannaCry attackers picked it as a form of payment?

Possibly. Bitcoin has certainly gained prominence in the news mediaas a technology that can facilitate crime. But even though the identities of people in a bitcoin transaction may be hidden, the public ledgerhas increasingly helped law enforcement trace the movement of bitcoins from place to place.

The Justice Department has successfully prosecuted online criminal operations that used bitcoin.In 2013, the government arrested Ross Ulbricht, the founder of a major underground drug market, and seized more than $3.5 million worth of bitcoin. Two undercover FBI agents associated with the investigation werelater accused of stealing some of thatcurrency.

Could law enforcement wind up doing something similar with WannaCry?

The government is already investigating. On Monday, White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert told reporters that attribution the process of figuring out who was responsible for the crime is generally pretty tough incomputer attacks. Often, the attackers are located beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement or have shrouded their activities behind multiple layers of security. But, Bossert said, I don't want to say that we have no clues.

How much money have the attackers collected?

So far, it looks to be about $55,000, according to a bot designed by the news site Quartz that is tracking the amount of money in the attackers' wallets.

Considering that Europol, the European Union law enforcement agency,has said that more than 200,000 computers have been infected with the malware, that doesn't seem like a lot of money.Still, the value of a single bitcoin has risen steadily in recent years. Hours before WannaCry began spreading last week, the price of one bitcoin hit an all-time high of $1,830. Some analysts predictthat it could break $3,000 by year's end although the price fell by $200 after the attack was revealed.

In light of how cheaply and easily hackers can push out ransomware, winning even a handful of bitcoins and holding onto them for a while could make the cyber-thieves a large sum of money.

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What is bitcoin, how do I buy it and why do ransomware criminals want them? – Metro

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

Metro
What is bitcoin, how do I buy it and why do ransomware criminals want them?
Metro
Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency, meaning neither does it exist in the physical world, nor does it have a central bank such as the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England. There are also a finite number of bitcoins in the world, according to ...
Bitcoin: the anonymous way to payThe Times (subscription)
10 facts that you may not know about bitcoinTechSPARK (blog)
Bitcoin link could lead to hackers: UNNEWS.com.au

all 7 news articles »

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Bitcoin bubble fears as online currency now more valuable than GOLD – Express.co.uk

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

The currency has risen by 55 per cent this month and pushed it past the $1,900 mark on the Bitfinex exchange on Friday.

Gold is currently trading at $1,232.90, with the highest price of gold in the last 10 years hitting $1,905.10 on September 5, 2011.

The rise of bitcoin in recent weeks is helping the overall soar in so called alt-coins which has been fuelled by frenzied speculation with some values rising by a staggering 500 per cent in the past week alone.

Getty

There are more than 830 alt-coins ranging from Litecoin, a rival to bitcoin, to MiketheMug, a coin that promises to make weekly payouts to holders.

Bitcoins are discovered in a process of mining, rather than being printed, in a process where transactions are verified and listed in a public ledger, known as the block chain.

People send bitcoins to each other over the bitcoin network all the time, but unless someone keeps a record of all these transactions, no-one would be able to keep track of who had paid what.

Getty Images

1 of 7

Five pound notes with low serial numbers, especially those beginning with AA01, can be worth 200

The bitcoin network deals with this by collecting all of the transactions made during a set period into a list, called a block.

Its the miners job to confirm those transactions, and write them into a general ledger.

The process is largely unregulated with anyone with access to the internet and the right hardware can participate in mining.

Speculation in the market is said to have benefitted anonymous payment systems, which are believed to be used by cyber criminals who are executing attacks such as the ransomware hack that spread across the globe on Friday, hitting more than 200,000 victims such as the NHS.

Reuters

The rise in these initial coin offerings (ICOs) - unregulated issuances of cryptocurrencies where investors can raise money - has drawn the attention of both lawyers and financial analysts.

Some believe the issuing of ICOs could be being used as a way of raising cash for businesses while circumnavigating existing securities laws and regulations.

Ajit Tripathi, a director in fintech at PwC, said: An ICO issues crypto tokens rather than stocks and bonds, but thats irrelevant to the substance of the activity, which is raising capital from the general public.

Capital raising activities need to be regulated to protect investors.The question is, how sophisticated are these investors?

Regulators have been slow to react to the rise of cryptocurrency trading, with Japan only moving to tighten regulation of trading last month.

Getty

Observers say individuals are trading in alt-coins from corporate IT departments, mainly in the financial sector, but have fallen under the radar of senior executives.

Brian Lord, former deputy director for intelligence and cyber operations at GCHQ, the UKs electronic surveillance agency, said: Systems are being used here by employees to increase their own individual wealth. In the process, corporate systems are coming into contact with the fringes of the criminal world.

ICOs are also beginning to gain attention from venture capitalists such as billionaire and early bitcoin supporter Tim Draper, who announced plans to invest in the highly anticipated launch of Tezos this month.

The token is expected to pick up widespread support from the sectors many unregulated exchanges, many who have the capacity to make or break a new coin.

Bitmex trader Arthur Hayes, said: We are just looking at whether they are going to be popular, they are selling you a dream.

"The dream is either going to happen or not and thats why they are exciting for people. That tension is great for an exchange.

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Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap Surpases US$55bn as Alternative … – newsBTC

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts will have noticed how the total market cap continues to grow. For the first time in history, it surpassed the US$55bn mark. Considering how this cap was just above US$40bn around a month ago, things have certainly changed quite a bit. Even though Bitcoins value is still high, it is not the determining factor for this increase either. A lot of other digital assets are gaining traction, yielding some interesting results.

Bitcoin remains the market leader for the time being. With a US$28.88bn market cap, things are looking quite good. Every individual Bitcoin is valued at US$1, 768 at press time. That is a bit lower compared to the value last week, although a correction was to be expected. Digital assets cant maintain indefinite value increases without some resistance along the way.

However, other digital assets are making some waves too. We now have five different assets with a market cap over US$1bn. That is quite a significant development. It also highlights show cryptocurrency investors diversify their portfolio. NEM Is the latest addition to the US$1bn club, and they may overtake Litecoin in the coming weeks.All of these shows there is room for more than just one digital asset.

Another interesting development comes in the form of Ripple being the number two digital asset by market cap right now. Ripple overtook Ethereum this weekend and has a US$800m lead as of right now. Do keep in mind these valuations tend to change a lot during the day, though. Many people see this as a surprise, although it was only a matter of time. Ripples blockchain and the XRP asset have real-life use cases. Things are heating up in Japan for Ripple, and a few Asian exchanges enabled XRP trading last week.

One would expect established digital assets such as Dash or Monero to be above US$1bn in market cap. Oddly enough, that is not the case, nor are they close to changing that. Both assets saw some value gains over the past few weeks. However, their market caps sit at US$630m and US$401.5m respectively. It will take a lot of money to turn them into billion-dollar market caps. Then again, anything can happen in the world of cryptocurrency.

In the end, it is important to remember things are heading in the right direction. More money is coming into the digital asset industry on a daily basis. Diversification of assets is a smart decision for any investor. There are many different offerings out there, each of which has its own appeal and use cases. Do not be blinded by what other people tell you to do, and conduct your own research at all times.

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Celery Cryptocurrency Platform Suspends Operations, Updates Awaited – newsBTC

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

Cryptocurrency exchange platform suspends deposits, withdrawals, and orders as users continue to wait for an update regarding the situation. Read more...

In the past few days, the internet is in chaos, thanks to the WannaCry ransomware wave. While those with obsolete and out-of-date operating systems found their computers infected, and files encrypted, a section of Bitcoin community has been facing an entirely different yet serious issue since May 4, 2017. For some, their favorite cryptocurrency exchange Celery froze its operations without offering any explanation.

It has been over a week now, and the cryptocurrency platforms page continues to read the same message,

All withdrawals, deposits, and orders are currently halted. For further updates, please visit our company updates.

Anyone looking for a reason behind the sudden suspension of activities by visiting the company updates section is none the wiser, for they come across a different version of the same message which goes on to say,

All withdrawals, deposits, and orders are currently suspended. Please refer to this page for all further updates.

These messages have gotten people worried, for this is not the first time the community has come across such words. On multiple occasions, the message was a sign of something worse to come. However, users hope that the things are different this time and everything will go back to same as before, soon.

Celerys social media accounts arent of much help either as the company doesnt seem to be that active on Twitter. It is about time Celery updated the community about whats happening, along with an estimated timeline for resumption of services.

There might be many reasons behind the recent developments, starting with something as simple as liquidity issues to serious things like problems with the regulatory authorities or even hacking incidents. However, with no official word from the platform, it is not wise to jump to conclusions but patiently wait for answers.

Meanwhile, it will be great if the Celery team decides to spare a few minutes and share an update or show at least some signs of activity so that the affected community members can breathe easy.

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Celery Cryptocurrency Platform Suspends Operations, Updates Awaited - newsBTC

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Palestine May Launch Its Own Cryptocurrency as Sovereign Legal … – Bitcoin Magazine

May 15, 2017 | Author: admin

Palestinian officials are planning for the region of Palestine to receive its own digital currency within the next five years. The motivation for this stems from concerns about potential Israeli interference, Azzam Shawwa, Governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA), told the news agency Reuters.

Palestinians have no sovereign currency of their own and use a combination of different currencies, including the euro, the dollar, the Jordanian dinar and the Israeli shekel, to conduct their daily financial transactions.

Due to the lack of a sovereign currency, Palestinian officials have little control over money supply and inflation. This is why the Palestinian Monetary Authority wants to introduce a bitcoin-like digital currency as the territory's new legal tender, which will be called the Palestinian Pound, according to Shawwa.

It is the Palestinian Monetary Authority's goal to become a fully-fledged and internationally recognized central bank for an independent Palestine. However, it is still unclear how a digital sovereign currency for Palestinians would sit with the 1994 Paris Protocol agreement. The protocol agreement gives the Palestinian Monetary Authority the functions of a central bank; however, it has not granted the institutions the right to issue its own currency. The Paris protocol recommends the use of the shekel in the region and, thereby, effectively provides Israel with a veto over the establishment of a Palestinian currency.

A sovereign digital currency, though, would make sense for Palestine. Not only would it allow the PMA to have more control over the countrys money supply and inflation, but it would also circumvent the practical challenges of delivering hard currency into the country as the PMA has no money-printing facilities.

"If we print currency, to get it into the country you would always need clearance from the Israelis and that could be an obstacle. So that is why we don't want to go into it," Shawwa explained to Reuters.

While the digital Palestinian pound is planned to be issued within the next five years, this will be no easy task for Palestinian authorities, given that the Palestinian Monetary Authority has been trying for over a decade to become an internationally recognized central bank.

Another option for the Palestinian monetary situation would be to keep the current status quo of the four above-mentioned currencies in use or to officially recognize one of the these currencies as the territorys legal tender. However, a digital sovereign currency would be the preferred choice for Palestine, according to Shawwa.

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