Ethereum ATM, Centralized Bitcoin and Waves of Crowdfunding. Cryptospace News for March 6 – 12

13.03.2016

This week’s overview is dedicated to good and not-so-good news about bitcoin, further rise of Ethereum, interesting findings of blockchain researches, and other things.

Bitcoin Price

Comparing to last week’s values, Bitcoin price has grown a bit, with the exchange rate sitting at $414 at the time of writing. Last Saturday, the rate dropped to $400, and went even deeper on Sunday, when it reached $394. However, the cryptocurrency managed to win back what it had lost; as early as Monday it was traded over $410 threshold, while on Friday the price exceeded $420 for a short while. Anyway, the weekend started off with another exchange rate decrease. Saturday morning the cryptocurrency was worth $412, but the price has dropped a bit by the same evening.

In the News

It is a well-established fact that news agenda may define cryptocurrency’s exchange rate; last week was a full-fledged evidence thereto. Bitcoin price’s decrease was echoing statements by Blockchain.info concerning the record-breaking amount of complaints for delays in transaction confirmation and increased fees. However, later on, Japanese authorities stated they intend to treat cryptocurrencies similarly to regular money; in addition, a researchÂ depicting record-breaking amount of venture investment in bitcoin-related companies last year was published. The markets reacted respectively, and the cryptocurrency’s price arose again. Saturday has brought on some news again, with the one concerning cutting off bitcoin support at Microsoft Store being the most noteworthy.

Bitcoin Popularity on the March

Anyway, there’s no sign of decrease in interest for cryptocurrency. The industry is saturated with big money, and no one is going to brake. Thus, the week brought tidings of opening of Africa’s first mining farm, while Scandinavia’s first real estate transaction has been effected with bitcoins.

Bitcoin continues extensively propagating across the Atlantic. Bitcoin sales have been launched in Canadian retail stores, while in the USA one may use cryptocurrency to pay for precious metals bought at a renowned online store.

Finally, Japan-based company Raimu Inc. has significantly contributed in further popularization of Bitcoin by presenting a physical bitcoin dubbed Satori Coin. The coin is available in Japan only for now, however, it may end up in other countries as well.

Blockchain 2020

According to Deloitte, blockchain-based payment systems will have their transactions volume significantly increased by 2020, and will become able to compete with the ACH, which processes up to 23 billion transactions annually.

One of basic advantages of distributed ledger technology is impossibility to falsify transactions history and significant decrease of processing time. It was confirmed by Mizuho Bank and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd upon completion of three months-long test of the technology.

Impossibility of corruptive practices and transparency of elections are the things that blockchain technology may give Ukraine, the country whose attempts to carry out reforms meet desperate resistance from officials unwilling to lose their tried and tested channels of illicit wealth accumulation. Ukrainian bitcoin entrepreneur Mike Chobanyan expressed that opinionÂ in a comment for ForkLog, and one could hardly object to the statement.

Finally, another interesting blockchain-related news came from AirBnB. The online booking platform is seriously concerned with imperfection of mechanism for securing deals between parties, and may use blockchain as a solution to cover the issue this year.

Just Like Bitcoin, Butâ€¦ More Centralized

The Bank of England has earlier been vocal about its intents to create a digutal currency; now the system dubbed RSCoin has been finalized. Similar to bitcoin in a way, RSCoin allows one to move digital values safe and fast. However, as opposed to bitcoin, RSCoin is centralized. It is completely controllable by central banks and regulators.

Meanwhile, Russia-based payment processor QIWI continues its efforts to create digital currency known as BitRuble. Notwithstanding several obstacles the project has faced, the company hopes it will be successfully finalized.

New Peaks of Ethereum

Ethereum has become the talk of the town. The DApp platform and eponymous cryptocurrency became a true discovery of recent days promising fantastic opportunities. While the platform is being under development of a new stable version, the cryptocurrency used in smart contracts has done something no one could even dare to expect even a few months ago.

Thus, on Saturday night ETH has surpassed an important watershed by increasing its market cap in excess of $1 billion. The token’s price continues growing as well. At the moment of writing, it comprises 0.032 BTC ($13.18).

As of Monday, March 14, one of the world’s most popular exchanges Bitfinex will addÂ ETH/USD and ETH/BTC pairs along with CHBTC adding ETH/CNY trading pair. Meanwhile the Indian Exchange BTCXIndia has silently launched a separate Ethereum exchange with ETH/INR trading pair presented.

Main page of the new exchange

Further popularization of Ethereum could benefit from a product by a Canada-based startup KryptoKit. The company founded by one of masterminds behind Ethereum offers a multi-currency wallet Jaxx, with a new update rolled out last week.

Meanwhile, Ether Camp developers have altered settings of a Lamassu’s BTM causing him to sell ETH tokes. The very fact that the experiment was successful, combined with impressive pace of Ethereum growth, may cause BTM manufactirers to add ETH support in a short while.

Interviews and Comments

ForkLog readers could familiarize themselves with BitFury CEO Valery Vavilov’s discourse on ‘political’ processes within the bitcoin community, possibility of consensus and future of the cryptocurrency. If, for some reason, you have missed the interview, you may remedy the situation right now.

Additionally, you may be interested in commentsÂ from developers of a new decentralized crowdfunding platform Waves. According to the creators, the platform will provide users with a wide range of cryto-tokens application, including issuance and exchanging, a decentralized exchange, a reputation system, and a solution for decentralized voting.

Stay tuned!
by Andrew Asmakov

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Tags: Bitcoin, blockchain, fintech