Fees for Ethereum Miners Are Better than for Those of Bitcoin

Alexander Salazar
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Fees for Ethereum Miners Are Better than for Those of Bitcoin

For the first time in months, Ethereum miners have received higher fees than Bitcoin miners. This type of event does not occur very often.

In recent days, Ethereum miners received 60% more fees than those of Bitcoin. This is a steady increase, possibly related to a higher demand for smart contracts and the increase of transfers on the network.

This event, which occurred on May 6th, had not been repeated for months. Furthermore, it could lead to the price of ETH to go up considerably.

It is worth saying that this event is not very frequent on the network. The fact that this cryptocurrency gets higher fees than Bitcoin means that it offers great opportunities for investors.

Increase in Fees for Ethereum Miners

Ethereum showed on its Twitter account the details of the frequency and magnitude of the event. In recent days, Ethereum daily fees exceeded Bitcoin daily fees. Ethereum fees were 498k, whilst Bitcoin fees were 308k. Until now, this has happened 141 days (8%).

One of the reasons behind this event is that the demand for transfers has grown, due to the volatility of the cryptocurrencies. Another reason is that ponzi schemes may be regaining popularity on Ethereum.

A subject that derives from the previous one is that stablecoins are growing. The demand for stablecoins by crypto traders has increased.

It Has Happened Before

This is an unusual event. However, on previous occasions, Ethereum miners have received better fees than those of the main cryptocurrency.

This first occurred between February 16th and 22nd, 2018. In that period, fees for Ethereum miners exceeded those of their Bitcoin rivals, with 724k for the former and 482k for the latter.

The fees for Ethereum miners reached their highest peak on July 2nd, 2018. Ethereum fees exceeded 2.7M, while Bitcoin fees remained at 151k.

The last time, before now, that the fees for Ethereum miners won the rally was last May. On the 12th of that month, they reached 799k, while Bitcoin miners received 397k.

The Most Important Altcoins

Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum looks like a small cryptocurrency. According to data from the CryptoCompare website, the market capitalization of Bitcoin exceeds USD 179 billion, whilst that of Ethereum is USD 27 billion.

However, Ethereum has become the most important altcoin. The difference is obvious when compared to Bitcoin Cash since this cryptocurrency has a market capitalization of USD 4.6 billion.

Another Ethereum’s Prominent Feature

The growth in the usability of the Ethereum network could lead to something positive for its price. In this sense, Ryan Sean Adams, founder of Mythos Capital, explained that the price and fees for Ethereum miners have shown a consistent relationship, in the last four years.

He explains that there is a strong historical correlation between both factors, the price of the asset, and the fees. Even though there is currently a “rare exception” in which block fees rise faster than the price, the community expects an adjustment that balances them.

The high use of the Ethereum network could increase the price of ETH in the medium term. Adams said that this is how scarcity mechanisms are designed in the Ethereum game, that is, utility drives value.

By Alexander Salazar

Private Transactions in Dash and Zcash Can Be Tracked, according to Chainalysis

Alexander Salazar
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Private Transactions in Dash and Zcash Can Be Tracked, according to Chainalysis

The firm indicated that it can obtain information on protected transactions in Dash and Zcash. They will investigate about USD 1.5 billion of the daily trading volume.

In recent days, the blockchain intelligence and research firm Chainalysis reported that it will track private transactions in the cryptocurrency projects Dash and Zcash.

The company said on its website that it already offers “investigation support” on its Reactor platform and the “Know Your Transaction” (KYT) protocol. This means that they will be able to investigate the transactions of both currencies in the market, with an estimated volume of USD 1.5 billion, in case one of their supervisory customers requires it.

Chainalysis explains that mixed transactions are very easy to detect and identify on the Dash blockchain. Since the said transactions are still public and transparent, the same techniques used to analyze CoinJoin transactions in Bitcoin can be used in the case of Dash. In other words, whilst PrivateSend increases the privacy of its users, a successful investigation is still possible.

Regarding Zcash, Chainalysis reported that 0.9% of all transactions are protected at all levels, that is, the sender, the receiver, and the amount of the transaction. The percentage of use of PrivateSend in Dash is 9% of the total transactions.

Concerning the protection that the protocol uses, the lack of clarity in Zcash is stronger due to the zk-SNARK encryption. However, Chainalysis can still provide the transaction value and at least one address for over 99% of ZEC’s activity.

The company reminded us that shielded or private transactions are optional in both systems. Furthermore, the objective of these encryption functions is to make the tracking process more difficult.

Customer Reviews

On the Dashpay Reddit, an enthusiast expressed his doubts about whether Dash’s privacy feature is really useful. He also questioned the fact that that a company can determine information about transactions that should be kept private.

User gz335o noted that non-owners of masternodes can read that information. This shows that PrivateSend is very weak, and so its use makes no sense. Dash Core Group may spend months preparing a proposal to give owners of masternodes a raise, but they will not be able to provide resources to improve the financial privacy of the end-user.

There were also reactions to Zcash regarding the service that Chainalysis already provides. Twitter user @ahmed_tomic referred to the rights that users have to keep their data secure. He posted on the social network that the Zcash shielded addresses should be able to protect people, as that is their right.

Last May, Daniel Cartolin, Chainalysis business representative for Latin America, talked about regulators, regulatory authorities, and financial institutions. He said that these organizations must relate to a regulated cryptocurrency ecosystem to have the option to expand their potential.

The company noted that financial institutions were a growing vertical in its customer portfolio and that governments issued 50% of the requests for an investigation.

By Alexander Salazar

Institutional Adoption Is Reach USD 300,000, according to Adam Black

Alexander Salazar
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Institutional Adoption Is Reach USD 300,000, according to Adam Black

Back believes that Bitcoin may reach the price of USD 300,000 in five years. Retail investors, rather than institutions, could be leading its growth.

In recent weeks, Bitcoin’s price has failed to stay above USD 10,000 per unit. The main cryptocurrency has climbed about 30% since the beginning of the year, but it is still far from its all-time high.

Cryptocurrency pioneer Adam Back has predicted that Bitcoin’s price will skyrocket to USD 300,000 per unit in the next five years, even without Wall Street’s institutional adoption.

Back said that Bitcoin may not need additional institutional adoption to reach USD 300,000. The current environment is leading more individuals to think about covering and retaining value when many countries are printing large amounts of money.

Last May, a statement by legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones led to a big increase in the price of the cryptocurrency. He revealed that he was buying Bitcoin as a hedge against the inflation that he predicts, due to the unprecedented levels of money printing by central banks.

Besides, Back said that this is causing people to think about the value of money and to seek ways to preserve it, in a difficult environment to obtain any return.

This cryptographer was the inventor of Hashcash, a verification system that Bitcoin uses. He was forced to deny that he is the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, after several complaints in recent weeks.

At the beginning of the year, Back talked about “hyper-bitcoinization” and “the argument of Modern Monetary Theory for high inflation”. He said that these could theoretically mean that Bitcoin will someday be worth USD 10 million.

On his Twitter account, he stated that Bitcoin at USD 100,000 does not seem to be that far away. He noted that the cryptocurrency has already exceeded the USD 10,000 threshold repeatedly, even when few expected it to go above USD 1,000 a few years ago and USD 10,000 was unthinkable.

Even though Wall Street appears to be approaching the cryptocurrency, the institutional adoption of Bitcoin is still very poor.

JPMorgan, which was once described as “Bitcoin’s biggest enemy,” has added its first cryptocurrency exchange customers. It seems that CEO Jamie Dimon held secret meetings with the head of the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase.

Goldman Sachs investors strongly criticized a report made by that institution, as it told the cryptocurrency community that the Wall Street giant was about to dive into cryptocurrencies last May.

Back’s most recent prediction about Bitcoin occurs as the Donald Trump administration considers another massive series of stimulus measures, possibly adding another USD trillion.

The USA has already approved the issuance of USD 3.5 trillion this year, as a relief measure to fight the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Likewise, they have implemented blocking measures to contain the virus.

The stimulus measures, as well as the fact that the Fed is moving towards supporting financial markets, mean that stocks and shares will resume their rising trend after an all-time decline in March.

Bitcoin’s price has also risen but has failed to break recent highs set in February. However, it is now more in contrast to fiat currencies due to the halving that took place last May. With this, the amount of Bitcoin that miners receive went from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block mined.

By Alexander Salazar

Partnership between Nasdaq, IBM, and Microsoft to Give Stability to the Tokens-Based Crypto ecosystem

Alexander Salazar
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Partnership between Nasdaq, IBM, and Microsoft to Give Stability to the Tokens-Based Crypto ecosystem

The alliance established 3 different areas to achieve the objectives.

An alliance between the companies, IBM, Microsoft, Nasdaq, and 29 other firms is now a reality. The main objective of this alliance is to create an ideal environment for the operation of token-based systems. The group will receive the name of the InterWork Alliance (IWA)and will function as a catalyst to keep stable a new ecosystem that will be fundamentally working with tokens.

The companies that participate in the project announced the alliance last June 2nd. This announcement revealed that the companies will register the group with a non-profit organization and design it to keep stable the value of the tokens used in exchanges.

The IWA group commented that these distributed property applications are strong enough to change important aspects of the global economy. They added that the current number of platforms that have different characteristics have hit the adoption of this type of tokenized assets.

In a press release that IWA issued, the group gives more details about what it hopes to accomplish within the industry. The main intention of the group is to create a stable market for token trading and the use of these assets.

“What is required is standardization at the commercial level, which would allow companies to agree on distributed business models without first choosing a platform. The InterWork Alliance will set the standards for creating distributed applications, including appropriate frameworks for tokenization of items of value, drafting contracts on those tokens, and analyzing the preservation of the privacy of multi-party data.”

Among the goals that the alliance hopes to achieve is to promote a guiding status for companies that have not been able to create their tokens. Besides, they will focus on developing a unique concept of what tokens are and the technology that makes them up. This action will help facilitate adoption among companies that want to enter the crypto ecosystem.

Three Different Areas for Tokens Standardization

According to the announcement, IWA mentioned that it is working to divide the processes into 3 different areas. Doing this will help maintain control over the contracts made with tokens and the exact definitions of the aspects of the technology.

The alliance also explained that the developers of the ecosystem will receive more information about these areas. In this way, the developers will be able to create the areas within the platform that the company chose to start using tokens.

The name of the first area for ​​platform standardization is token taxonomy. This framework will seek to define concretely and uniquely, the basic concepts of the ecosystem. In this way, the group will define what a token is, how the exchanges will be made, or what its value is.

Working issues at InterWork is the name of the second area, which will seek to establish a set of standards and steps of a global nature. This will deal with aspects such as communication between peers, among other forms of action for commerce.

Finally, the third area is the analytical framework, which will conduct studies on the evolution and changes in the crypto-market. This area will make available to the participating companies a complete analysis that they can use to establish performance and privacy.

Other companies that are part of the Alliance include Hyperledger, Digital Asset, and the World Economic Forum (WEF). These organizations give more relevance to the project that seeks to reinforce the current crypto-ecosystem.

By María Rodríguez

Spanish Technological Company Creates Blockchain ​​Tool to Improve Its Supply Chain

Maria Rodríguez
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Spanish Technological Company Creates Blockchain ​​Tool to Improve Its Supply Chain

The project improved efficiency in different supply chains by 35 %.

ChainGo Tech, the Spanish technological company, announced the creation of a system that will use blockchain technology to improve and facilitate management and administration processes in supply chains. 

The objective of this company starts with simplifying internal processes, improving the traceability of the documents involved, and allowing the exchange of information between authorized agents.

According to company data, the system will use Freight logistics software, a platform where users can conduct complex calculation processes, which, according to ChainGo Tech, are strictly necessary for the viability of the sector.

According to a press report from the Spanish news media Innovadores, the Freight platform can work through the Restful application, where different blockchain networks are interconnected to manage work in the supply chain faster.

Some records detail that important companies in the sector have already used this system on other occasions. One of the most important companies that have used the platform was Cemex, which greatly improved its internal and external processes.

Another important client has been the logistics company Carex Logistics, where Andrés Garrido, CEO of ChainGo Tech, mentions that ChainGo was able to increase the capacity of Carex Logistics and improve its efficiency.

“In the case of Carex Logistics, we were able to increase the capacity of an agent to manage documents from eight to 18 weekly exports. In turn, in the project developed with JCV Shipping within the Blockchers Program, we were able to increase the efficiency of the process by more than 35 % in the documentation management time.”

A Solution for Transport in Air, Land, And Sea

The ChainGo designed the solution to apply it in transport systems, both in sea, air, or land. According to the Spanish company, the system allows prioritizing the most important documentation and acting accordingly, managing the requested orders.

Regarding the current situation that the Covid-19 pandemic has generated, the representative of the company mentioned that the situation is very critical for the sector and has caused serious losses. The developer of the project also said that they have tried to mitigate the impact of the pandemic by adapting the system so that the work that users can do at home is in perfect operation.

“We are making a great effort by offering our blockchain technology software for free for two months so that all logistics operators who now work from home can do their jobs while maintaining efficiency and preserving the productivity and visibility of their operations.”

The Future of the Blockchain ​​in the Supply Chain

In a report that the University of London Blockchain Technology Center published, the University established that whilst blockchain technology brought significant benefits to the supply sector, the industry still has significant challenges to overcome. Therefore, it could take a while for this solution to be the most viable on the market.

Despite this, in a study that the firm Ametic conducted, the technology market in Latin America and Spain will experience exponential growth during the rest of the year 2020, and until the year 2023. According to projections, this year investment by over 100 million dollars.

By María Rodríguez

Trading with Bitcoin Increases in Russia During the Quarantine for Covid-19

Maria Rodríguez
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Trading with Bitcoin Increases in Russia During the Quarantine for Covid-19

According to data from the main crypto exchange platforms in Russia, trading with Bitcoin has been increasing since January 2020.

In a recent study by the exchange company Cripotomoneds, in Russia, the recent Covid-19 outbreak, as well as the quarantine period, has caused bitcoin trading to increase in recent months.

The company published the study last June 4th. This study explained that, since March, businesses conducted through trading with bitcoins (BTC) have had a significant increase, highlighting that the blockade due to the pandemic could be the main cause.

According to the RBC media review, local representatives of cryptocurrency exchange houses and commercialization companies, such as Binance, EXMO, and Garantex, commented that the market has had a sustained growth in Russia since last March. These companies say that the number of users has also had the same volume of growth. The exchange houses admit that the use of trading tools has generated an increase in transactions with bitcoins.

About the increase in the number of active users on exchange platforms in Russia, Head of the representative office of Binance in the country, Gleb Kostarev, commented that, even, the growth of users doubled in April, if compared with the figures registered in December 2019.

Kostarev added that growth is increasing over the months and that it is the first time that the country reached these numbers. “It should be mentioned separately that the popularity of futures trading is growing among Russians. In April and May, the trade volumes of these instruments are greater than in March and five times that of January.”

In another sense, the founder and spokesman of Garantex, Sergey Mendelev, commented that the increase in the activity on crypto platforms “is not associated with people who withdraw money from deposits or receive payments from the budget.” For that reason, he clarified that it is about records of different activities.

However, experts conclude that the recent Covid-19 crisis could be the main trigger for the number of people in Russia using cryptocurrency trading tools. They also argue that some of the sanctions that Russia imposed could be a cause for this growth.

One expert of this team is Fedor Anaschenkov, who is an analyst at United Trading. The specialist believes that the quarantine has forced Russian citizens to seek quick and forceful solutions to help them solve some of the financial limitations that the pandemic has caused.

On the other hand Sergey Zhdanov, EXMO CEO, also gave his opinion and revealed figures that could reinforce his comment. According to his records, this activity grew between 15% and 20%. Besides, active users also had a 12% growth between March and May.

Although in Russia there is legal bewilderment regarding cryptocurrencies, this has not stopped the volume of users from increasing in recent months. Authorities in Russia have not yet established a legal framework to guide this activity. However, there is no prohibition on the use of cryptocurrencies in the country.

By María Rodríguez

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