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Is Facebook’s Libra The Future of Cryptocurrency?

Posted on July 4, 2019July 3, 2019 by Kelley N.

Mid last month, Facebook finally revealed the details of Libra, its digital currency that will allow users to not only make purchases but also send money to each with close to zero costs. On paper, the cryptocurrency is a near perfect iteration of the concept of digital currencies especially because it bears many of the traits of ideal cryptocurrencies while at the same time being backed some of the top players in the financial sector. Yes, that is right. Libra will not be under the full control of Facebook – instead, the company will have just a single vote in the governance of the currency alongside other members of the Libra Association who will include Uber and Visa among others, each of whom have invested no less than $10 million in the project.

The Libra Association will be responsible for the promotion of the open-sourced Libra Blockchain and eh developer platform with the Move programming language in addition to signing up various businesses to accept Libra for various payments. Libra users will be able to use pseudonyms to buy or cash out their Libra both online and at grocery stores after which they can choose to spend it using third-party wallets apps or the Calibra wallet that was created by Facebook themselves.

What This Means for Bitcoin

Ever since it was announced, Libra has generated a tremendous amount of hype and this makes it less of a competition for other digital currencies like bitcoin. In fact, the international debate over Libra has, in a way, elevated the conversation around digital currencies as a whole and since bitcoin is the most popular one, a lot of attention has been shifted towards it.

Furthermore, regardless of how everything turns out for Facebook’s Libra, it will be a confirmation that blockchain-based solutions will definitely have a lot to do with the future of currency.

Lawmakers Ask Facebook to Freeze Libra Project

Barely a month after its announcement, Facebook’s Libra seems to have finally met its first hurdle after United States lawmakers formally called on the company to halt all development of the project. The House Democrats who sent the letters said that the company will need to wait until both Congress and the regulators get time to formally investigate the possible risks that the digital currency poses to the world’s financial system.

“If products and services like these are left improperly regulated and without sufficient oversight, they could pose systemic risks that endanger U.S. and global financial stability. These vulnerabilities could be exploited and obscured by bad actors, as other cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and wallets have been in the past,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee wrote in the letter.

The Facebook executives have not responded to the letter but when they do it is speculated that they will be able to able to offer clarifications some very important issues especially with regards to the potential risks to data privacy. It is even more serious in this case since Facebook has a rather skewed reputation when it comes to data protection.

Online Crypto Sportsbook and Gambling Platform Goes Beta

Posted on April 4, 2019April 2, 2019 by Kelley N.

Wagerr, a new generation online cryptocurrency sportsbook and gambling platform has recently opened access to its 3.0 testnet in private beta, that is, this is now available to a small group of customers – 50 to be more precise. The expansion will allow the core group of valued users within the crypto community to test the company’s new 3.0 mainnet fork before it is finally released.

Wagerr’s new version 3.0 upgrade includes a complete redesign of the website interface and the backend betting protocol – these are meant to not only improve scalability but to also assist in making the overall system much more efficient than it was before.

More About Wagerr

Wagerr is a decentralized online gambling platform that touts itself as the blockchain for betting. The platform uses its native WGR token to facilitate payments made within the Wagerr ecosystem thus providing its users with fast, extremely affordable and effortless payouts – the token is a proof-of-stake coin which uses coin “weight” and a randomization system to calculate the chance of rewards staking. To provide its users with the highly secure and fair betting services it boasts of, Wagerr utilizes various forms of blockchain technology including master nodes and smart contracts. In addition to that, the gaming platform has recently made significant upgrades to its Oracle Masternode system.

Oracle master nodes use Application Specific Smart Contracts (ASSC) to ensure both stability and security on the network and this, in turn, provides platforms such as Wagerr with a secure and decentralized network that assists in keeping the sportsbooks updated while also verifying the bets made through the smart contracts. Moreover, the system includes a revenue model that allows the customers to make a bit of additional income through the Wager platform by becoming one of the masternodes on the Oracle system.

Lightning Spin Becomes First-Ever LApp to Sell

In other stories, Rui Gomes, the creator of Lightning Spin which is one of the pioneering Bitcoin Lightning Network’s pioneering lightning applications (Lapps) also recently announced that he was selling it. With the Lapp players “could pay 6¢ for a single spin, (1 BTC was around $6,000 back then) and withdraw your winnings in seconds — something that would be impossible with the fiat system and would be increasingly difficult on Bitcoin’s base layer.”

While very little details have been disclosed about the buyer of the gaming app, Gomes assured fans of the game that the new owners shared his vision and therefore they can expect the same features and perks as they did before.

Crypto Mining Businesses in Japan and China Close Up Shop

Posted on January 4, 2019January 3, 2019 by Kelley N.

The world of crypto had its fair share of lows in 2018 and, even though it did not seem like it at the time, the effects of the year-long bear market of the last year affected much more than the prices of the digital currencies. Some of the worst-hit sectors were those that had a direct link to crypto, that is, related businesses such as large-scale mining businesses suffered greatly. This was primarily because the crypto market was beginning to become less appealing to some of the largest firms in the world and they began to slowly pull the plug on what were once some of the most lucrative operations in the industry.

China’s Bitmain to Pull the Plug

Crypto mining giant, Bitmain was once considered a titan in the digital currency mining business, not just in China but in the whole world as well. In fact, the company controlled close to 80 percent of all the hardware that was used in the generation of new digital currencies. Well, not anymore. The company is no longer as highly regarded as it was a short while back and there are even reports that it is planning to lay off between 50 and 80 percent of its staff. This is despite the fact Bitmain controls some of the largest mining pools on the planet and is the leading supplier of the mining equipment, both of which gave it significant control over the bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash networks.

Unfortunately, as the prices of the digital currencies continued to dwindle in 2018 and the level of difficulty in minting new digital coins remained high, there was a significant drop in profitability. As a result, a number of companies including Bitmain have chosen to exit the large-scale cryptocurrency mining business which is no longer viable since the cost of hardware and power is much higher than the value of the digital currencies that are mined.

The Situation in Japan

According to Japanese media, GMO, one of the country’s retail giants, is pulling out of the bitcoin mining hardware industry in Japan citing increased pressure on the profitability of the business due to increased hash rates and mining competition. The move, as it turns out, reportedly cost GMO a whopping 25 billion Yen. Despite exiting the crypto mining hardware business, GMO will still continue to mine and also plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in the near future.

Japanese e-commerce company DMM is also reportedly leaving the business through the closure of its crypto mining firm in Kanazawa. As expected, the company also cited declining profits as the main reason for the move. The company now intends to focus on its crypto exchange platform that has already achieved full regulatory and license status in Japan.

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