The price of Bitcoin has risen by more than 13% in the last few days. Bitcoin is just above 3% of its all-time high.

The price of Bitcoin is currently on course towards its all-time high (ATH). On this November, it momentarily broke the USD 19,000 barrier for the first time since December 2017.

That same day, the price of the pioneering cryptocurrency narrowly exceeded USD 19,000 before dropping to USD 18,800 again. The value of the Bitcoin is USD 18,992 at the time of writing this article, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

With that price, the foremost cryptocurrency on the market has risen just above 1% in 24 hours. Meanwhile, the increase has been higher than 13% in the weekly range. In that period, the price of the cryptocurrency has increased by more than USD 2,000.

The price of Bitcoin has gained around 45% in one month. This behavior has brought to memory the bullish run of 2017. That year, the cryptocurrency doubled in price and reached its all-time high so far in just one month.

Due to the momentum that the first cryptocurrency has gained in the market in recent weeks, there has been a lot of speculation about the arrival of a new all-time high. The cryptocurrency is currently struggling hard to regain the USD 19,000 level; a figure that the cryptocurrency for a very short time in December 2017.

With the current bullish momentum, Bitcoin has gone from USD 11,700 to USD 18,800 in a matter of just three months. Taking into account the fall that Bitcoin price suffered at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been a remarkable behavior. At the time, it was even below USD 4,000.

Broad interest from institutional investors in the pioneering cryptocurrency, as well as its adoption by large companies like PayPal, may have contributed to the performance of Bitcoin in recent times.

The cryptocurrency market has historically followed the behavior of Bitcoin. However, this year, the pioneering cryptocurrency has broken all-time highs at a rate that altcoins have not been able to follow.

Currently, while the price of BTC is just over 3% of its all-time high, those of major cryptocurrencies are much further away from their all-time highs. For example, native Ethereum’s cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) is still at more than 50% away from its all-time high of USD 1,400.

Bitcoin has been able to do what many experts have predicted for years. The foremost cryptocurrency of the market has managed to recover its all-time highs even during the worst crises. Even though some people have expressed opinions against it, it has proven to be the best option for investors seeking a store of value to safeguard their funds.

By Willmen Blanco

Storing private data on a blockchain does not comply with Spanish legislation. The report highlights that a blockchain depends on other mechanisms to achieve its optimal security.

The Spanish Agency for Data Protection, an official government body, does not recommend using a blockchain or distributed databases to record sensitive personal data. Sensitive data must remain away from blockchain.

The comments on blockchain and the handling of personal data appear in a report on how different technologies serve as tools in public administration for the protection of data of the civilian population.

Even if the agency considers that blockchain could adapt well to the appropriate provisions and protocols, “It is neccesary to avoid the publication of personal data on the blockchain, it should be hosted off-chain, in traditional databases or other information systems of the person in charge “.

In case there is no possibility to avoid the registration of personal data on a blockchain, the appropriate cryptography must serve as a tool to encrypt the data and guarantee the confidentiality of the information.

However, it is recommended to limit the information inserted in to the blockchain as much as possible so that the data remains protected by default in the data insertion protocol but not entirely supported by the technology that should store it.

This observation points out the consideration of the fact that a distributed network requires constant configuration and evaluation. Both, the consensus mechanisms, the cryptography, and the interaction parameters between participants, must be clear to reduce the risk of data manipulation.

The report also indicates that a distributed database does not necessarily work on its own in terms of protecting embedded data. Blockchain must fuse with other technological implementations to be completely secure, they claim.

Legal Regulations, a Great Question

According to the report, blockchain compatibility with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, which governs this activity, should receive constant testings.

The AEPD suggests paying attention to the legal section “Responsibility for treatment”, where the responsibility of those who coordinate the insertion of data in a registry is determined.

The organization notes that blockchain makes it difficult to identify its participants; this is an issue that would not be desirable since, in the case of personal data, one must know who handles the information inserted there.

Another relevant aspect that AEPD asks to be clear about is that personal data should not be visible longer than necessary.

The immutability of some blockchains and their transparency makes it difficult for these data to remain hidden once they are definitively registered by whoever operates them.

They also talk about confidentiality as a crucial factor in making it possible to record personal data on the blockchain. The reason is implicit since the information would arrive at several network participants.

However, for this same reason, the availability of the nodes will determine how accessible the information is at times since there is usually no guarantee that the nodes will remain connected and with this information available to those who need it when they need it.

Finally, they point out that the connectivity between the nodes of the network can lead to an international transfer of data, which conflicts with the legislation. The agency recommends establishing the principles of privacy and confidentiality of the initial design of the network, as well as the governance model.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Justin Drake believes that in less than one year a proposal to reduce commissions would be ready.

According to the estimate of developer Justin Drake, the EIP-1559 proposal, which seeks to reduce fees on Ethereum, could be ready to see its incorporation into the network in less than a year. He said in the last AMA session (“Ask me anything”, for its acronym in English) that took place on Wednesday on the Reddit platform.

For this researcher from the Ethereum Foundation, “it has improved a lot lately” in the development of this proposal. The organization he works for, he explained, supports the advancement of EIP-1559 “with a significant grant.”

None of the developers, who participated in the AMA, among whom was the co-creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, explained the reason for the delay. The proposal saw the light in March 2019 and, since then, it has been under development and discussion before being incorporated into the protocol.

The problem of high fees in Ethereum increases when the network suffers some congestion. This situation happened on numerous occasions this year. The massive use of decentralized finance protocols (DeFi) and the UNI token airdrop, for example, caused network congestion.

Why some mining pools reject this proposal on Ethereum

EIP-1559 is rejected by some mining pools. There is uncertainty about how miners might incentivize users to tip higher. Is that EIP-1559, unlike the current protocol, adjusts the base commission according to the demand of the network and sends a single commission offer per transaction. This base commission does not go directly to those responsible for mining but is burned. The miners receive what is called a “tip” as an incentive.

To avoid a possible “bidding war” with tips, such as with commissions, the Ethereum Foundation proposes solutions from the side of the wallets. These could detect network congestion; in that case, it offers users the ability to set a low or high priority for the transaction.

EIP-1559 and Ethereum 2.0: complementary developments

During the AMA, Ethereum developers also referenced EIP-1559 within version 2.0 of the network. There anyone can find the proposal by default. “EIP-1559 is part of the Ethereum 2.0 specification,” confirmed developer Danny Ryan. He added that there “similar mechanics will serve to burn commissions and establish the price of gas” and explained that the investigations in both networks complement each other.

There is a lot of overlap from the theoretical point of view, so most of the research and development for the EIP-1559 on the Ethereum 1 mainnet lays on the design and understanding of the use of this tool for Ethereum 2.0 data markets, Said Danny Ryan, developer of Ethereum Core.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The new function, called Hooks, allows operating the basic functions of a smart contract. Hooks anticipates the XRP project with Flare Networks to execute ETH smart contracts.

A new function that enables the execution of smart contracts enters on the Ripple blockchain (XRP Ledger or XRPL). It is about “Hooks”, a code that since November 18 is available to developers and operators of nodes on the platform.

A piece of information posted on Twitter by Wietse Wind, Head of Development at XRP Labs, explains that the launch of the new feature occurs after testing the alpha version last October. The manager adds that with this new functionality he expects the deployment of new use cases for the Ripple blockchain, as well as the attraction of more users.

In his message, the developer shares the new code along with a series of different commands for Docker, an application that runs the smart contract software packages on the XRP ledger. It also provides a Github link with all necessary instructions for implementation.

Among some of the instructions, there’s an order to execute smart contracts on the Ripple blockchain, developers must follow two basic steps: operate a node to view the logs, and another to implement the commands.

Smart contracts in Turing not complete

Hooks consist of a series of small band assembly modules, specifically designed for the XRPL, that run on the Ripple ledger at layer 1 (chain). “This means that they have the ability to control, with atomicity and purpose, the logical flow and execution of transactions in the accounts to which they are configured,” according to the developer.

Wind adds that these modules can be written in any language (compilable in WebAssembly binary code format). This makes it possible to implement most of the business logic and smart contract concepts in a hook.

The hooks are deliberately written in non-complete Turing language. “While often touted as the holy grail of smart contracts, Turing-Completeness is inappropriate for smart contracts,” says the developer, alluding to the language used to encode smart contracts in Ethereum.

The launch of Hooks becomes the first proprietary functionality that enables smart contracts in the Ripple ecosystem. It is one of the most anticipated implementations by the community that revolves around this project.

In that sense, Ripple keeps collaborating with the team of the new Flare Networks platform for about a year to allow the execution of Ethereum smart contracts in XRPL. As published in CryptoNews, the plan is being conducted through Xpring, Ripple’s investment wing, and technology incubator.

Within the framework of this idea, Ripple made a strategic investment in Flare Networks in 2019, which already published its white paper last August. It explains in detail how XRPL will be added to the Flare ecosystem. This network will integrate the Ethereum Virtual Machine, allowing public and private networks to use and execute smart contracts.

The project is currently heading to the launch of its native cryptocurrency (Spark) for December 12.  There will be a distribution of the new token will among the holders of the XRP cryptocurrency who participate in the allocation.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Grayscale is the company that handles the most BTC in the entire market. The firm also increased its ethers pool, capitalizing $ 1.1 billion in ETH.

Grayscale, one of the largest digital asset management companies in the United States, this week celebrated the arrival of half a million bitcoins in its investment fund.

With more than seven years of operations in the United States, Grayscale holds the title of the company with the largest number of bitcoin under its custody. And now that the firm owns about 500,000 BTC in its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust fund, it would be handling almost 3% of the bitcoins issued and just over 2% of the total supply of the network.

Bitcoin is programmed to issue a finite number of bitcoins, the round number of 21,000,000 coins. Grayscale has built a good chunk of the Bitcoin pie over the years, although 2020 turned out to be a prolific year for the company. In the last six months, the amount of bitcoins under its custody increased by 50%, according to records from the firm.

Grayscale reported last week of November as the one with the highest influx of bitcoins in the fund. The firm moved about 15,907 bitcoins by the end of November 15, according to studies by the company. The ethers fund that the company owns, Ethereum Trust Grayscale, also registered an increase in holdings for 2020 that reached 1.1 billion dollars in ethers.

Bitcoin catches the attention of companies and institutional investors

This behavior reveals that institutional investors are increasingly interested in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general since Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and its other funds are products designed for the traditional financial market. When the Bitcoin fund debuted in 2013, The main plan was to set it as a private cryptocurrency investment project where only a few accredited investors could participate.

Over the years, the fund opened up to public listing, consolidating its operation in 2020 with its registration with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its regulated operation. While all this was happening, the interest in bitcoin among institutional investors just exploded, becoming adopted by figures of great importance in the financial world such as Stanley Druckenmiller and Bill Miller.

While Grayscale continues to be the largest Bitcoin whale among publicly traded companies in the United States, other firms have also decided to participate in the cryptocurrency market. firms like CoinShares, Microstrategy, and Square also trust in the future of Bitcoin.

Despite the vast difference in the funds they handle, all of these institutional bitcoin purchases helped push the price of the cryptocurrency in the current bull rally. A green market that continues to inflate thanks to initiatives such as Paypal, which already allows the purchase and sale of bitcoins on its platforms for all residents of the United States.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

This digital yen probably set its bases on Blockchain, and it intends to serve as a bridge between the traditional financial ecosystem and the dawn of new technologies in Japan.

A group of more than 30 reputable financial institutions in Japan indicated that they will participate in a local experiment, in which they will test the usefulness of a digital yen for institutional operations.

This is a report by Reuters news agency, in which they indicate that the group of institutions would be made up of several banks, brokerage companies, public sector companies, representatives of the telecommunications ecosystem, and some entities retailers.

Institutions to test yen digital in Japan

In this regard, the president of the group of institutions that will participate in this experiment, Hiromi Yamaoka, indicated that private banks will be in charge of issuing the digital currency, among which are institutions such as MUFG, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho in charge of this responsibility.

In this vein, Yamaoka assured that the idea is to streamline and make the process more practical since the country has other digital payment platforms that, by themselves, do not meet the expectations to put aside payments with cash:

“What we want to do is create a framework that can make various platforms compatible with each other… [but] The fundamental and the more delicate question is how to ensure that private deposits and a CBDC coexist. We do not want money to rush out of private deposits, and it would not make sense to issue a CBDC if it’s not widely used. “

Regarding this initiative, Yamaoka said that due to the existing problems and challenges surrounding a CBDC, the idea is to guarantee cooperation between the central bank and the private sector to conduct this initiative.

 What are the expectations for Japan?

Although the country appears as one of the most technologically prominent nations in the world, economists and analysts emphasize that in financial matters, the Asian nation has found it difficult to put cash as a second option since the digitalization of payments is not yet widely adopted by residents.

There are currently several operating companies for digital payment services but the group expects is to generate something enough competitive to displace the latter, managing to generate greater traction than applications such as PayPal, which operations go mainly through smartphones.

Among the challenges in the prevention from becoming a data silo, which is why there is talk of a two-layer digital currency that bases its policies on the use of Blockchain, without neglecting aspects that involve the use of smart contracts to maximize other types of financial court use cases.

A statement published by the group reads:

“This two-layer digital currency will not conflict with existing payment instruments … It is expected that this initiative can improve interoperability between these platforms by creating bridges”.

By: Jenson Nuñez.