🗞 Daily Crypto News, May, 11th 💰

Quantitative Hardening: Dissecting the Third Bitcoin Halving, 3 Key Data Points to Watch ;
Award-Winning Filmmaker Torsten Hoffmann Launches Bitcoin Documentary Cryptopia ;
Bitcoin Miners Sell BTC Months After Halving, On-Chain Data Suggests ;
Is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Ready to Replace Altcoin Use Cases? ;
Bitcoin Dominance Is Making Investors Rich, Thanks to Crypto Hedge Funds ;
🗞 Daily Crypto Calendar, May, 11th 💰
Bitcoin Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

🗞 Quantitative Hardening: Dissecting the Third Bitcoin Halving, 3 Key Data Points to Watch

In a touch more than 24-hours time, the third bitcoin halving will take place on May 12, 2020, on or around 9:50 p.m. ET. Miners will see their revenues slashed in half from 12.5 coins to 6.25 BTC after the halving and speculators wonder what will happen after the event. Currently, according to Google Trends the term “bitcoin halving” is one of the most searched topics within the crypto ecosystem today.

On Saturday evening give or take a few hours and minutes, the BTC network will experience the third block reward halving in its history. The first two halvings correlated with gigantic price surges and speculators are assuming the next “quantitative hardening,” will produce the same effect. The first block halving occurred in November 2012 and the price per BTC jumped from $11 per coin, to around $1,150 toward the end of 2013. Similarly, the second halving, which took place in July 2016 also saw a massive spike in bitcoin’s value. The price immediately after the 2016 halving was around $650 per BTC and the price surged to $19,600 on December 17, 2017. There has always been a great number of people who theorize that the third halving will produce the same outcome, but there are many skeptics who disagree.

This process, sometimes referred to as “quantitative hardening,” is of stark contrast to quantitative easing (QE) practices central banks partake in. The system will continue to produce block rewards and halve every four years, until on or around the year 2140.

🗞 Award-Winning Filmmaker Torsten Hoffmann Launches Bitcoin Documentary Cryptopia

This week filmmaker Torsten Hoffmann launched the cryptocurrency-infused documentary “Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet.” Cryptopia discusses the powerful economy and flourishing ideas that stemmed from Satoshi’s invention through the eyes of some of the industry’s well known movers and shakers.

.The three-time award-winning filmmaker Torsten Hoffmann is back again after his acclaimed film “Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know It.” Hoffmann’s latest picture stars people like Andreas Antonopoulos, Roger Ver, Charlie Lee, Samson Mow, Preethi Kasireddy, Wences Casares, and Laura Shin. The film discusses how bitcoin and the technology and applications that stem from it, have and continue to transform our world for the better. Further, the film touches on web 3.0, decentralized finance, and a few different themes than the last documentary. Anyone can visit the official website and watch the movie for a ticket price of $5.88 (5.40 euros) or 0.0007 BTC.

Bitcoin Miners Sell BTC Months After Halving, On-Chain Data Suggests

Bitcoin’s third halving is less than a day away and the cryptocurrency community remains divided on whether the price will rise or drop after the event. Interestingly, on-chain data from previous halvings suggests that after the halving Bitcoin price may not see an immediate drop.

Google Trends data shows that searches for the halving have already surpassed previous all-time highs, and the crypto community has been issuing a variety of price estimates for the post halving price.

Some analysts have pointed to the Efficient Market Hypothesis to support their view that the halving is already priced in, meaning it’s a foreseeable event investors can take into account early. Even a prominent Bitcoin whale who’s known as Joe007 recently argued that the price of Bitcoin would crash after the halving.

🗞 Is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Ready to Replace Altcoin Use Cases?

For many, Bitcoin’s (BTC’s) Lightning Network (LN) is viewed as a way for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency to enable faster, cheaper payments. While many altcoins, such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC), have specifically focused on low transaction fees for smaller cryptocurrency payments, the idea with the LN is to enable this functionality for the world’s most widely-used and liquid cryptocurrency— removing the need to create an alternative cryptocurrency network with a new token.

Defining how long the Lightning Network has been around depends on one’s definition of the true launch date of the second-layer payments protocol, but Lightning-enabled bitcoin wallets have been available for a few years now. So, has the LN replaced the need for altcoins focused on lower transaction fees? Let’s take a closer look.

In January 2019, it was reported that Bitrefill, which sells gift cards and mobile prepaid cards as part of its business, had already seen the LN overtake all of the individual altcoins in terms of payments.

Since then, it has mostly been ethereum (ETH), not the Lightning Network, that has seen some growth relative to other payment options on the platform. According to Bitrefill CEO Sergej Kotliar, the cryptocurrency payments breakdown for the online retailer is currently as follows:

80% on-chain BTC,
7.5% ethereum (ETH),
4% Lightning-based BTC,
7.5% other altcoins LTC, dash (DASH), and dogecoin (DOGE)).

“Everything is growing, but in share, Lightning is currently not growing at [the] expense of other payment methods,” Kotliar told Cryptonews.com.

🗞 Bitcoin Dominance Is Making Investors Rich, Thanks to Crypto Hedge Funds

National economies are sinking into a recession but the bitcoin economy remains healthy and is still growing throughout the coronavirus crisis, even surging to $10,000 on May 7.

Crypto hedge funds, in particular, are reaping the benefits of volatility. For example, Eric Ervin, co-founder of Blockforce Capital in San Diego, said his fund’s returns are up 18% so far in 2020.

“In these wild months, we’re capturing half of the upside,” Ervin said, referring to the economic rollercoaster that took off in March. “Bitcoin’s really taken a lot of market share back from Ethereum … really dominated as Ethereum tries to figure itself out.”