- ZCash uses Nuclear Waste from Chernobyl to generate random Numbers!
- Facebook & Instagram: Advertising for Cryptocurrencies & ICOs prohibited!
- Will the Ripple Price be soon at € 100?
- Samsung is starting to produce Bitcoin Mining Chips!
- Kazakhstan: First Traffic Ticket paid in Bitcoin!
- The Highest Bidder pays $ 87,000 for Meetings with Roger Ver!
- Russia wants to find Crypto-Miner!
At the recent ZCash event, the organizers processed nuclear waste from Chernobyl to generate random series of numbers.
That security and anonymity in the crypto ecosystem does not always work as foreseen, the attacks on Coincheck from the weekend. The convenience of some IOTA users who generated their seeds online was also punished by hackers recently. ZCash takes on this problem in an innovative way.
Admittedly, it seems a bit over the top. In a plane, selected developers and employees of ZCash meet and generate radioactive random sequences of numbers. However, her approach is always interesting.
For example, developers of the cryptocurrency ZCash took the word "coincidence" to a new level in their "Powers of Tau" event. The event took place more than 1,000 meters above sea level in an airplane - a first hurdle for potential attackers.
As a next hurdle, they used graphite from a former nuclear reactor in Chernobyl for their extraordinary project. The graphite moderator was the source of low gamma and beta radiation here. These have then been coupled to a Geiger counter, which in turn is combined with a number generator. In the end, numbers were generated by the radioactive rays, which are no longer so easy to understand.
Additional random measures
As can be seen from the developers, the graphite emitted a very low level of radiation while remaining consistently below the threshold, which could cause health risks. Ryan Pierce, on whom the idea goes, explained in this context that this radiation did not exceed the usual radiation on the earth.
But that was not enough for the ZCash team. To paradoxically check the randomness of numbers, they ran a battery-powered number generator parallel to their instrument to compare the data collected. To top it off, the participants still want to destroy all the hardware involved in the process - for sure.
The new Facebook and Instagram policy prohibits the publication of any advertisements for cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and other digital financial products that are "often associated with misleading or fraudulent practices." For many advertisers, this is a setback in view of the large market share and the intensive use of social networks.
Bad news for all companies who want to advertise their services or products on Facebook or Instagram. According to the company's previous guidelines, a new one was added yesterday, according to the blog entry. Since you want to avert any harm from its users, since yesterday, no videos and banners are allowed, which act on cryptocurrencies, ICOs or other digital financial products. In addition, the users of Instagram and Facebook are called to report even advertising that attracts them negative.
Although you want to continue to deliver advertising to the Facebook and Instagram users, as it says in the blog post. But not as far as digital financial products are concerned, because these are currently often offered "not in good faith". The social network operating company has narrowed the scope of content until it is better able to distinguish legitimate from misleading advertising. Until then, such ads are also prohibited in the company's own advertising network, the "Audience Network". Once it is possible to better distinguish the advertisements in terms of their seriousness, the locked-out business area should be narrowed down again. Whether ads for products from the crypto sector will be allowed again remains to be seen. Further details will not be published in yesterday's blog post by Rob Leathern (Product Management Director).
Spoiler: Probably not. If you look at the structure of Ripple, it can be shown that excessively high price increases in the Ripple price are unlikely.
Which trader does not know them, the enthusiastic glances into the crystal ball: Ripple will reach € 100 in April, the € 1000 mark comes next year! The opposite of FUD is HEC: Hype, Enthusiasm and Certainty. From hype, enthusiasm and (deceptive) security, you get carried away just as fast as your opponent. But especially at Ripple some reasons against a too rapid rise in price, especially the sheer amount of circulating XRP.
Why are there so many XRPs at all?
At 38, 7 billion XRP, the circulating amount of the ripple token exceeds that of Bitcoin by more than 2000 times. In addition, Ripple still holds some (to be more precise about 61.4 billion) tokens in the hindquarters.
This high amount of existing tokens is due to the intended use cases. Ripple is not geared towards the end user, such as Bitcoin, but to companies such as payment services, financial institutions and banks. XRP, the currency itself, is more of a service provider than a means of payment: it transfers any kind of value.
The infrastructure of the network will also secure 1,500 transactions per second. So Ripple is a network that wants to guarantee fast transactions. Users then pay a fee to complete the transactions, but they are not collected directly; instead, the XRP tokens are destroyed.
Pseudo decentralized
In the past, the company was repeatedly criticized - with a total contingent of 100 billion tokens more than half, 61.4 billion in the hands of developers. According to their own information, they have withheld these in order to guarantee liquidity, trust and applicability.
To better guarantee this, they introduced an escrow system at the end of last year. To that end, they have deposited in a, say "digital bunker" the number of 55 billion XRP. These have in turn divided into 55 packages, of which they distribute a maximum of one per month. Among other things, to compensate for burned Ripple (which are only a fraction of the total amount), but also to create incentives for new investors. All XRPs not needed for this purpose will be fed back into the escrow system and repealed for later.
Will the Ripple price be € 100?
Due to the intended use cases and to guarantee a high degree of liquidity and thus stability, the Ripple network needs a high volume of tokens. And it is this very point that makes it unlikely that the Ripple price will rise to € 100. (The possibility of inflation is here aside).
So what would happen if a Ripple is worth € 100? Here are some simple steps to do.
At the time of release, nearly 38.7 billion XRPs are priced at € 1.01, with market capitalization at € 39.1 billion.
At a price of € 100 per ripple, we would have a market capitalization of € 3.8 trillion (that's 12 digits behind the 3). That's about 25.5 times more money than Bitcoin's current market capitalization.
In other words, to make a Ripple price of € 100 possible, all cryptocurrencies currently listed on Coinmarketcap would have to lump their money together and multiply by an eight-fold to make enough money available to pay for all existing Ripple , Unlikely.
But let's take a look out of the crypto world and look at the stock market. If you look at the market capitalization here, the following companies (not a joke!) Would have to add up their market capitalization to come to € 3.8 trillion: Apple (702.35 billion), Microsoft (584.14 billion), Amazon (543.87 billion), JP Morgan Chase (324.9 billion), Nestle (217.37 billion), Shell (241.2 billion), BP (234.1 billion), Coca Cola (166 , 45 billion), Boeing (164.55 billion), Disney 136.05 billion), McDonald's (114.46 billion), SAP (112.68 billion), Siemens (102.9 billion), Loreal (102.23 billion) and Netflix (95.66 billion). Pretty unlikely.
Conclusion
It is therefore above all the applicability in connection with the infrastructure of the network, which makes all-too-large price increases unlikely. After all, Ripple competes with major payment processors like Visa & Co by guaranteeing low transaction costs. Since these are calculated from the course, it is not in the interest of Ripple, this to drive up. By shedding additional tokens, they can prevent that. Finally, it's the relationship between circulating token and market capitalization that makes it realistic to look at the matter.
Understandably, one wonders which prospects are realistic. If Ripple were to slip into the first place in terms of market capitalization and catch up with Bitcoin, the market capitalization of Ripples would have to increase by a factor of 3.8. The Ripple rate would then be € 3.88.
South Korean electric giant Samsung has reportedly started producing Asic chips for bitcoin mining. This gives the Chinese Asic smiths competition from South Korea.
Several South Korean magazines report that Samsung has already begun production of Asic chips and is targeting their sale by the end of January. The technology group is already under contract with a hitherto unnamed Chinese manufacturer of Asics in order to manufacture the chips for them as a so-called "foundry".
Samsung has one of the largest and most advanced semiconductor factories in the world, although production is still a long way from the world's largest foundry of TSMC, which recently made headlines that Bitcoin mining is one of the growth drivers of semiconductor manufacturing. It is striking that Samsung's Foundry is already able to produce 10 or even 8 nanometer small chips and plans for 2018 series production of 7nm chips. With Bitmain's most up-to-date Bitcoin miners, the S9, still building on 16nm chips, the foundry factories could trigger a new performance boost for the mining industry. Whether Bitmain itself is still the unknown mining manufacturer, and thus its market power will continue to expand, or whether another company, such as the makers of the Dragonmint Miners, with Samsung chip maker Bitmain competition - this is currently still in the stars.
The production of Bitcoin-Asic chips is the most decided step of the South Korean technology group towards cryptocurrencies. However, not the first: Already in the fall of 2017, the company has demonstrated that you can turn old Samsung smartphones into a mining rig. Some Samsung engineers have demonstrated how to recycle 40 S5 smartphones in such a way that the devices mine cryptocurrencies. At this time, Samsung has also announced that it will supply the Russian mining manufacturer Baikal with Asic chips. Unlike Bitmain, Baikal specializes in Asics, which do not generate bitcoins but coins with other algorithms like X11 or Blake.
In addition to the Asics Samsung already earned by DRAM for graphics cards in the mining boom. The company has begun mass-producing 16GB DRAM chips (GDDR6) with a size of 10nm. This memory is twice as fast as the previous GDDR5 chips. Graphics cards that want to keep up in the mining gold rush, these need exclusively manufactured by Samsung chips.
In addition to Samsung and TSMC, a third technology giant from Asia is currently penetrating into bitcoin mining: The leading Japanese Internet corporation GMO announced in September 2017 that it would produce 7nm Asic chips in order to build a large mining farm in To operate Northern Europe. Thus, there should be a race in the next few years, who exhausted Moores Law in Bitcoin mining first, by driving the Asic chips to the physical minimum. It could also be said that bitcoin mining has become a technological ode to the hash algorithm SHA256.
Bitcoin continues to be mainstream. With the help of a mobile app, traffic offenders in Kazakhstan can now settle their fines with the cryptocurrency.
The start-up OKauto.kz has developed a mobile app that will allow the payment of traffic fines with Bitcoin. The app has been available since May 2017 and has been installed 200,000 times. According to the release notes on the iTunes and Google Play app stores, the latest update on January 24th prepared the way to pay with Bitcoin. The payment in Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Monero should be possible soon, according to Coinidol. The first Bitcoin payment amounting to the currently good 60 euros has already been received via the app of OKauto.kz. However, a representative of the start-up told Coinidol to consider:
A direct payment in cryptocurrency is not possible without the app. Kazakhstan, however, was already crypto-affine last fall when it was announced that it wanted to launch its own cryptocurrency.
The idea of paying fines with a cryptocurrency is not new: at the end of last year I already reported on a similar project from South Africa. The company Fines4U makes it possible to pay traffic tickets with Bitcoin, which the company passes on to the competent authority as a fiat currency. However, the first crypto payment is still pending there. The company still receives many requests for Bitcoin, but only for interest in the cryptocurrency itself.
On January 25, the Charitystars auction ended, offering a meeting with Bitcoin pioneer Roger Ver. The company said the highest bidder paid $ 87,000 for the meeting on St. Kitt. The proceeds go to the website Antiwar.com, a platform that opposes military operations and is committed to world peace.
Meeting with Roger Ver
The platform Charitystars was founded in 2013 by three Italian entrepreneurs. Francesco Nazari Fusetti, Manuela Ravalli and Domenico Gravagno wanted to create an online platform that promotes philanthropy, using the foundations of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Bids for meetings with stars, art objects, autographs and luxury cars can be placed on the website. The proceeds go to a selected social project.
The auction for the meeting with Roger Ver achieved one of the highest bids in the company's history. "Ironically, we have reached the same price for a meeting with former Italian President Silvio Berlusconi," said co-founder Francesco Nazari Fusetti.
A total of 87,000 US dollars were taken. Bidders could choose between different cryptocurrencies (BTC, BCH and ETH). The proceeds go directly to the website Antiwar.com. This will use the money to promote world peace by refusing military service. The winner of the auction is a user named "DenNCS", who had a head-to-head race with another user. The highest bid of the other bidder, however, was worth $ 85,000.
Ver: "Bitcoin has the power to end conflicts and wars."
"The phenomenal expansion of the crypto market and the unprecedented ability to harness that energy to support key issues is one that is truly revolutionary. We are glad that Roger Ver so generously accepted our invitation to support this remarkable event, "said Francesco Nazari Fusetti.
Roger Ver, CEO of Bitcoin.com, was "astonished and honored" by the result. In addition, he is pleased that the proceeds go to the platform Antiwar.com. After hearing about the auction results, he said:
What do you think about the auction with Roger Ver raising $87K for Antiwar.com? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
According to various Russian media, the Moscow Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Media wants to develop its own detection system for crypto miners. The signals from the ministries are very uneven. In part, there is talk of tax relief, either from increased electricity tariffs or a maximum electricity quota, which may not exceed the miners in the Russian Federation.
Currently, according to media reports, preparations are under way for new bills, which will probably be tabled in the Russian parliament on 1 February. In addition, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Media (Minkomswjas) wants to recognize miners because of their power consumption and the data volume typical of their activity. Also, the approximate extent of mining cryptocurrencies supposedly be recognized. How this should be technically implemented is unfortunately not carried out in the publications available online. Already in October 2017, Russian regulators announced such recognition systems. Given such exceptional power consumption, it would not be difficult to uncover the miners, the new measures were announced in the fall.
According to the news agency RIA Novosti, executives of the Ministry of Energy have now announced that they consider the identification as possible as well as very time-consuming. The ministry proposed to limit the measures to those who carry out mining on a commercial scale and thus on a very large scale. There are also people who consume a lot of electricity per month in other ways. What the power is consumed, you can not see from the outside. The inspection of the data streams is also very time-consuming. One can not automatically call every user of streaming services a miner, just because it transmits a lot of data. As soon as the data is encrypted, for example, with a Virtual Private Network (VPN), the discovery of the miners is almost impossible.
There are also considerations that crypto miners are released from the payment of taxes for two years after registration. In principle, they are not supposed to pay sales taxes, but after the expiry of the two-year period income taxes due to the increase in value of their wallets. Also regarding the tax break, the situation is not assessed uniformly. Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev told RIA Novosti that he could see no reason for a multi-year tax break. The Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Media currently varies between a quota system on the one hand and special electricity tariffs for miners on the other. A spokesman for the Department of Energy, on the other hand, slowed expectations at a meeting last week. So far no one has been able to explain to him why there should be discounted tariffs for this group of people. Within the Russian Federation, prices are already extremely cheap, which has greatly boosted mining there.
At the moment it therefore remains to be seen whether at the end of the deliberations of the ministries a relief, a neutral regulation or even a kind of state blockade policy will emerge. If Ministers agree to a blockade, this, by its very nature, should have a very strong negative impact on the cryptocurrency market.
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