Aurelia Butler

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Crypto Flipsider News – Crypto Execs Get Hearing at Capitol, Reddit Crypto Rewards Expand, France & Switzerland CBDC, Cardano Stakers Pass 1 Million, Kickstarter Will Move to Blockchain

    Top Crypto Execs Ask for Clearer Rules, U.S. Comptroller Backs Crypto to Enhance Financial SectorWednesday, December 8, was a big day for the crypto industry as top execs from six major companies, including Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and Circle, were granted a hearing at the Capitol. This is the first hearing between crypto execs and U.S. lawmakers.At the hearing, the execs explained that while they understood more regulation is coming to the $3 trillion industry, they want clearer rules that won’t squelch or send crypto firms to other countries. Some lawmakers praised the crypto execs for leading the way on what could be a pivotal technology. Representative Pete Sessions said,”I am tremendously impressed. I see a lot of ingenuity, a lot of entrepreneurial spirit. We need to be supportive of you.”
    In a win for the crypto industry, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has noted that cryptocurrencies can enhance the functionality of financial services. While advising caution for banks involved in crypto-related activities, in the Semiannual Risk Report, the OCC opines that the adoption of cryptos can lead to improved financial services and can offer many benefits to both banks and their customers.Flipsider:Why You Should CareCryptocurrencies have come a long way since they were first introduced, and clearer, more favorable rules could guide the development of the industry.
    Reddit Crypto Rewards Expands, Cryptocurrency Most Talked About Topic, Dogecoin and Ethereum Trending in 2021Two years after launching an Ethereum-based crypto token reward, Reddit has expanded the initiative to a larger audience. Reddit has launched a new website for its Community Points beta program, allowing users to request the reward feature for their community or subreddit.Cryptocurrencies have enjoyed remarkable growth in 2021, and Reddit is one platform that played an important role. Confirming this, Cryptocurrency has emerged as the most talked-about topic across the 100,000+ active communities on Reddit. In addition, GameStop (NYSE:GME) stole the top three upvoted posts on Reddit.Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trends, a website that analyzes the popularity of top search queries, has confirmed the increasing search for crypto. “Dogecoin” and “Ethereum Price” were on the list of top 10 trending hot news for 2021. Dogecoin made the list at number four, while the Ethereum price was the 10th most searched topic in 2021.
    Flipsider:Why You Should CareThe growth of cryptocurrencies across multiple platforms confirms it is slowly gaining mainstream interest and adoption.
    France and Switzerland Were Successful in Multi-Currency Wholesale CBDC TrialJoining the growing trend of countries experimenting on a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the Banque de France and the Swiss National Bank have shared the results of Project Jura, a joint CBDC project involving both central banks.Project Jura is the first time a digital euro and Swiss franc were fully tested as a CBDC. Jura aimed at testing wholesale instant foreign exchange settlement in the euro and Swiss franc. It also experimented with wholesale CBDC as a payment option for tokenized commercial paper transactions. Benoît Cœuré, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub, said: “Project Jura confirms that a well-designed wholesale CBDC can play a critical role as a safe and neutral settlement asset for international financial transactions.”Flipsider:Why You Should CareWith projects like Jura, it won’t be long before central banks find more use cases for CBDCs and begin to implement their adoption.
    Unique Cardano Addresses Grow by 7%, with More than 1 Million StakersTechnology-driven project Cardano has reached yet another milestone, with its network now home to more than 1 million active stakers. According to data from Staking Rewards, the number of unique addresses staking Cardano (ADA) has grown nearly 7% in the last 30 days. As of December 9, 1,008,241 unique wallet addresses were staking ADA.Cardano now has one of the most active staking pools among crypto projects. 70.34% of its current market cap has been staked, $32.594 billion has been staked out of a $43.848 billion market cap.
    Cardano is now the third-largest staking network, trailing only Solana ($72.788 billion staked) and Ethereum 2.0 ($36.283 billion).Flipsider:Why You Should CareCardano’s growth is a result of the dedication of the IOHK to continually improve and add new features to the network
    Kickstarter Plans to Move Its Crowdfunding Platform to BlockchainGlobal crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, is betting big on blockchain technology, as it announced plans to create an open-source protocol that will create a decentralized version of Kickstarter’s core functionality.When the building of the crowdfunding blockchain platform is ready, Kickstarter.com will transition to the new infrastructure. The company says the goal is for multiple platforms to embrace the protocol. Development is scheduled to begin in Q1 of 2022, with Kickstarter.com aiming to transition sometime in 2022. Kickstarter will leverage the Celo blockchain, which uses a less energy-intensive consensus mechanism.To oversee the blockchain platform development, Kickstarter has launched a new organization called Kickstarter PBC. The company also established an “independent governance lab” to publish research and get community feedback on protocol governance.Flipsider:Why You Should CareThe use of blockchain is spreading across traditional tech giants, with many firms now seeing the benefits of running an open-source protocol.EMAIL NEWSLETTERJoin to get the flipside of cryptoUpgrade your inbox and get our DailyCoin editors’ picks 1x a week delivered straight to your inbox.[contact-form-7]
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    BitMart Exchange Tightens Its Security Protocols After Its Severe Hack

    BitMart exchange said they have put measures in place to strengthen their security protocols after their hacking incident. They revealed the self-defense measures on how they managed to fight back the notorious imposter for further loss. According to BitMart, before eliminating the perpetrators, they conducted a careful in-depth investigation all over their networks before they were able to stop the culprit.To reinforce and enhance stiff security, BitMart has replaced a new deposit address for all tokens on its platform including BTC, ETH, and SOL. BitMart advised that users have to log into their account and verify the new deposit address before they start depositing.Meanwhile, the BitMart security team is working seriously to investigate the cause of the breach. Interestingly, the post noted that BitMart is now working hand-in-hand with cybersecurity specialists to track the hacker. Doing this will further strengthen their defense against any possible future attack.Additionally, the exchange said it has collaborated with law enforcement agencies and one other crypto platform to mitigate any risk. BitMart cited that they are not the only crypto exchange that has suffered this kind of security breach, rather, lots of many heavyweight exchanges have been in their situation.Furthermore, the company expressed how grateful they are to their users, partners, and friends for standing by them despite this crucial situation. They have pledged to work extra harder to resume operations soon.Continue reading on CoinQuora More

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    SpiderDAO Participates in MEXC Global’s Kickstarter Program for Exchange Listing

    The process is simple. Users stake MX tokens to vote for the listing of a new Kickstarter project. If the voting targets are met (typically set at a 500% participation rate), then the project is listed. If not, the voting tokens that were locked are returned to the owners.This approach is commonly used for exchange listing and making other project, platform, and exchange decisions across many users and participants within an ecosystem. It is a fair and effective way to vote and reach consensus on projects, initiatives, or decisions that public platforms wish to undertake.As the world’s first hardware-enabled DAO, SpiderDAO brings dual-governance and combines hardware and software tools with on-chain elements to create a whale-resistant DAO governance solution – a vast improvement over current solutions that can be manipulated by whale activity or the unilateral movement of tokens by large holders. Entering the Kickstarter campaign can help the project gain exposure to a wider user market and bring the SpiderDAO token to MEXC users across the globe.At the commencement of the Kickstarter event, users had the opportunity to vote and win free project airdrops by staking their tokens for voting for the listing of SpiderDAO on the MEXC exchange. Voting was held on December 8 between 03:00 UTC and 11:50 UTC. Assessment details of the SpiderDAO Kickstarter event and other project listings can be found here.At the time of this writing, the SPDR token reward pool held 3,890,000 tokens, with over 18 million MX tokens staked for voting. A target voting participation rate of 500% is required for listing, and this target was achieved. Participants will be excited to learn that SpiderDAO’s Kickstarter campaign generated a reward-to-voting token rate of over 120,000%, even though a voting cap of 500,000 MX was put into place.Airdrop rewards will now be distributed proportionally based on each user’s total votes, and there is a special bonus for 500 users with assets exceeding 1,000 USDT who will be randomly selected to receive a 10 USDT Futures Bonus. This bonus will be airdropped to the winners within 7 working days as long as they have an active Futures Account to receive the reward.Details regarding SpiderDAO’s listing on MEXC will be communicated once all administrative, security, and review steps for the Kickstarter are completed, so stay tuned for updates on the team’s official channels, the team announced yesterday.The SpiderDAO team uses the Polkadot consensus mechanism to build new for Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs). These standards are scalable, interoperable, stable and address issues of unfair distribution of voting power in DAOs. Continue reading on CoinQuora More

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    in Economy

    China raises banks' FX reserve requirements for 2nd time this year

    The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it will raise the foreign exchange reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 200 basis points (bps) to 9% from 7% from Dec. 15 to strengthen FX liquidity management at financial institutions.The move would force banks to set aside more of their FX deposits, which stood at $1.02 trillion at end-November, and markets widely believe the decision is intended to slow the yuan’s recent rapid appreciation.The yuan has risen more than 2% against the dollar since late July. In trade-weighted terms it is at its strongest since late 2015.”The hike in FX RRR shows the PBOC thinks the appreciation of the RMB is too strong and too quick,” said Gary Ng, economist at Natixis in Hong Kong.”The move will increase the cost of speculation and forces banks to hold more foreign currencies instead of converting them into the RMB. With the upcoming downward economic pressure, a excessive strong RMB may not bode well for growth, especially with the high base in Q1 2022.”With the adjustment coming into effect on Dec. 15, the PBOC’s decision earlier this week to cut the RRR in local currency deposits for banks by 50 bps would also be effective to free up 1.2 trillion yuan ($188.20 billion) in long-term liquidity to bolster slowing economic growth.However, some market analysts and traders said the PBOC’s move caught them off guard as the authorities have appeared to have a higher tolerance for a stronger yuan over the past few months.”It was a surprise as the U.S. Federal Reserve is already on course for the first post-pandemic interest rate hike next year,” said Ken Cheung, chief Asian FX strategist at Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong”The PBOC’s insistence on raising the RRR for FX deposits suggested it is keen to stabilise the FX market.”Still, some traders said the move showed the authorities have become uncomfortable with pace of recent yuan appreciation, especially at a time corporates had higher demand for yuan towards the year-end.”It’s just freezing about $20 billion and should not pile too much downside pressure,” said a trader at a Chinese bank.”We believe that companies’ FX settlement into yuan has not yet come to an end,” said Marco Sun, chief financial markets analyst at MUFG Bank, expecting the yuan to trade in a range of 6.34 to 6.40 per dollar in the near term.The PBOC previously raised the FX reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions by the same margin in June to make it more expensive for banks to hold dollars. ($1 = 6.3762 Chinese yuan) More

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    7 Reasons Why Bitcoin and Crypto Bull Run To Do Well in 2022

    With the previous market correction and the current consolidation, investors and traders alike are on pins and needles as to the future of the crypto space. That said, crypto trader and market analyst Lark Davis give 7 positive reasons as to why Bitcoin (BTC) and the crypto market bull run can do well into 2022.1. US SEC to Approve SEC Bitcoin ETFDue to market manipulation concerns, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been hesitant about approving a spot Bitcoin ETF. However, the pressure is starting to build on the SEC’s shoulders as even lawmakers are calling them out for their indecision. These indecisions, eventually, have led to funds moving out to overseas locations.The crypto analyst believes that a spot BTC ETF will probably arrive in 2022 and that the market will stay bullish until then. In addition, he gave a fair warning that a bear cycle will happen once SEC gives the go signal.2. Bull Run Cycles Appear to be LongerDavis explains that the bull run cycles appear to be getting longer as more institutional money pours in and the crypto market matures. Compared to the previous cycles that lasted for 1 to 1 and a half years, the present cycle can extend further into 2022.3. Major Upgrades in Ethereum to Happen in 2022Crypto traders are slowly getting enthusiastic about Ethereum’s transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) that’s expected to happen in mid-2022. New updates like limited sharding rollout and triple halving can increase triple or quadruple the transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.4. DOT and ADA Continue to GrowEthereum’s main competitors like Cardano (ADA) and Polkadot (DOT) are stepping up to fulfill market needs while gaining higher market prominence. Likewise, other projects like Avalanche, Polygon, ETH L2, and Solana will continue to grow.5. NFT Market to Get BiggerThe year 2021 can be marked as the year of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as they continue to grab the public’s attention. A few prominent global brands have been extremely utilizing the power of NFTs recently.Moreover, Davis believes that NFTs could be the “first access point for millions into crypto”.6. Gaming and Metaverse to Boom in 2022The crypto world has witnessed the booming growth of gaming and metaverse, as well as their integration into different industries. Davis believes that both will generate millions of dollars and new users. He also stated that there is a lot to look forward to in 2022.7. Big Money Continue to Pour InAccording to Davis, institutional money flowing into cryptocurrency will continue to increase as they are slowly realizing that this is the “best tech investment class of this decade.” With inflation rising steadfast, they will be left with no choice but to invest in crypto.Lark Davis concluded his thoughts in one final tweet:Continue reading on CoinQuora More

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    Indian trade group recommends ‘special class security’ status for crypto

    The trade association released a report titled “Cryptocurrencies, Crypto Tokens/Assets & Regulations: The Way Forward” where it advocates for regulating the crypto market instead of outlawing it, reported Business Line. The report highlighted substantial technological innovation that the core technology of blockchain can bring in the payment and remittance sector.Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More

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    Packaging boss launches attack on UK energy policy

    The head of Britain’s largest packaging company has launched a stinging attack on UK government policies that have resulted in significantly higher energy costs than the rest of Europe.Miles Roberts, chief executive of DS Smith, said that at a time of huge growth in online shopping the UK’s paper industry had shrunk significantly over the past decade while Germany’s sector had doubled in size because power costs were much higher on the island nation compared with the EU.“The fundamental issue is energy costs for heavy industry users are nearly double the average of Europe,” he told the Financial Times. “It’s quite a disadvantage relative to other countries. Government has put more and more taxes on businesses.”DS Smith has announced big investments this year to build new production sites in Italy and Poland and expand in Germany.Germany’s paper industry has grown from three to seven times the size of the UK’s because of Berlin’s policies that help industry with the additional costs associated with decarbonisation, according to Andrew Large, director-general of the Confederation of Paper Industries, a trade group.Roberts is the latest industrialist to urge the UK government to take action to rein in costs for manufacturers after a global surge in gas prices hit the country particularly badly because of a lack of gas storage and reliance on weather-dependent wind power.The monthly average UK wholesale cost of electricity reached £200 per MWh in September, almost double the French and German averages of £110 per MWh, according to the Energy Intensive Users Group.The lobby group is calling for a reduction in network costs, a cost containment mechanism for the surge in gas prices and measures to alleviate some carbon costs. The government has offered loans to help weather the crisis.Roberts highlighted as problematic the UK’s emissions trading scheme that launched in May and puts a price on carbon emissions, which has risen near to £75 a tonne, a premium to Europe.Paper is a £12bn industry in the UK, employing 62,000 people. Roberts said if government policy did not become more supportive it faced a further decline and the UK would become more reliant on imports for a product undergoing immense growth in domestic demand.“We are committed to becoming carbon-neutral. Various governments have been very supportive of that in Germany, France and Spain,” he said, adding that he would ideally like to keep investing in the UK. “We just have to understand what the UK government policy will be.”The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Not everyone in the packaging industry agrees with Roberts. Tony Smurfit, chief executive of Smurfit Kappa, Europe’s largest paper-based packaging group, told the FT last month that industrial companies should fight their own battles to deal with higher energy costs.“Where the government needs to step in is to protect poorer people faced with massive energy bills. Industry should look after itself,” he said.DS Smith, which supplies the UK with 28 per cent of its cardboard boxes, is benefiting from the pandemic-induced surge in ecommerce. It is managing to keep in check rising fibre, energy and logistics costs through price rises, hedging arrangements and an in-house fleet of drivers. The FTSE 100 group increased its dividend on Thursday after reporting an 80 per cent year-on-year rise in pre-tax profit to £175m in the six months to the end of October, on revenues up 16 per cent to £3.4bn. Shares in the group were flat in late-morning trading on Thursday. More