Canada and the USA Could Become New Destinations of Bitcoin Mining from China

Alexander Salazar
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Canada and the USA Could Become New Destinations of Bitcoin Mining from China

The founder of Grayscale Investments has observed movements for 3 months. China currently controls much of the processing power of the network.

Barry Silbert, Founder of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency management companies, said last February 18th that he noticed efforts to move the production of Bitcoin from China, which currently dominates cryptocurrency mining, to North America.

The founder of Grayscale Investments, which is based in New York, observed whilst delivering an online presentation to some investors, without explaining why the transfer might be taking place.

Many of the major investors, among which are pension funds and asset managers, have been reluctant to adopt Bitcoin (BTC), concerned about its volatility, security breaches and lack of transparency in the markets.

However, it is important to note that Bitcoin is strongly favored by enthusiasts and retail investors. Since it was created, more than a decade ago, it has gained increasing interest from risk funds and business companies. Many people are attracted by its potential for high returns in an era when there are very low-interest rates.

For their part, the miners from China control about two-thirds of the processing power of the cryptocurrency network, according to research studies conducted last year. This dominance has allowed Chinese miners to produce a greater number of cryptocurrencies and has also fueled the demand for mining equipment produced in the country.

In that regard, Silbert stated that what he has seen in the last three to six months is a real growing change that has been moving much of that mining activity out of China, specifically to Canada and the USA.

Mining Farms Earn Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin farms are usually firms that handle large groups of high-power computers connected to cheap and abundant electricity. It should be highlighted that they compete with each other on the Bitcoin network to solve complex mathematical puzzles and earn new cryptocurrencies.

Last February 18th, the price of Bitcoin was about USD 10,300, while miners recorded annual earnings from the production of bitcoins for a value of USD 6.7 billion.

Profit activity usually takes place in cold climates or sparsely populated areas. The Chinese firm Bitmain has become one of the largest miners and manufacturers of Bitcoin mining equipment on a global scale. Another manufacturer, Canaan (CAN.O), launched an initial public offering (IPO) last November but received a little enthusiastic response from investors.

The cryptocurrency management company Grayscale, which supervises around USD 3.1 billion in cryptocurrencies, has struggled to attract large investors to the sector of cryptocurrencies.

Last January, it became the first cryptocurrency investment vehicle to reach the status of a reporting company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This means that its cryptocurrency products are subject to the same regulations as the products traded in the main exchanges.

Despite major investors’ reluctance to adopt Bitcoin, this cryptocurrency is strongly favored by enthusiasts and retail investors for its potential for high returns. Besides, the fact of reaching about USD 10,300 and rendering USD 6.7 billion to miners in recent days proves that it is still the best investment option.

By Alexander Salazar

According to Venezuelan Business Union Leader, Petro Is Not a Cryptocurrency

Willmen Blanco
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According to Venezuelan Business Union Leader, Petro Is Not a Cryptocurrency

Felipe Capozzolo, from Consecomercio, indicated that Petro does not meet the conditions to be considered a crypto asset. The business union leader believes that the free convertibility of PTR would allow its acceptance in stores.

The president of the National Council of Commerce and Services (Consecomercio) of Venezuela, Felipe Capozzolo, highlighted at a press conference on February 19th that Petro (PTR) cannot be considered to be a cryptocurrency as it does not meet the required characteristics. For that reason, he said that the crypto asset promoted by the Venezuelan government has no solid foundations that could generate confidence in the population.

During the meeting with the media, Capozzolo clearly stated that Petro cannot either be used as an exchange token since the traders that receive it still do not know how to exchange it. He mentioned that there are still business people that have not received the payments for the sales made in Petro last December through the Banco de Venezuela “bio-payment” points of sale.

The president of Consecomercio explained that the main problem generated by the Venezuelan government’s cryptocurrency project Petro is that traders still do not know how to exchange it for either US dollars (USD) or bolivars (VES). Besides, he noted that the procedure has not yet been clearly defined, which has led them to reject payments with Petro until the exchange conditions are properly established.

According to Capozzolo, the national government should provide Petro with the necessary elements that help it generate confidence in the population and traders. For example, the free convertibility of Petro in bolivars or US dollars would allow using it in the best way. However, the business union leader stressed that the current reality of Venezuela is still not ready for that.

Capozzolo’s statements are in the same vein as those made by Consecomercio as a business organization. It should be noted that he complained last November that there is not a consistent and harmonious economic policy behind Petro, which increases the levels of uncertainty and doubt regarding the project.

The same as Consecomercio, leaders of the other business union of Venezuela, the civil association Fedecámaras, have also ruled on Petro and the national government’s intentions to massify its use throughout the country, keeping a distance from the country’s official fiat currency, the bolivar.

Last January, the president of Fedecámaras Carabobo, Jhonatan Aldana, said that the use of Petro as a system was not viable and that it would be detrimental to trade in general and services. A similar point of view was that of Ricardo Cusanno, president of Fedecámaras, who explained in recent weeks that Petro causes further confusion among Venezuelans.

It is worth mentioning that Petro was officially announced by Nicolás Maduro’s socialistic government in December 2017. It was intended as a mechanism to obtain new forms of international financing and circumvent the financial blockade imposed by the United States. However, it has not yet generated the necessary level of confidence among traders and the population, such as other well-known cryptocurrencies worldwide.

By Willmen Blanco

Cardano’s Consensus Algorithm Is Upgraded by Its Fork

Willmen Blanco
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Cardano’s Consensus Algorithm Is Upgraded by Its Fork

The network will work with a new participation test algorithm (PoS) called Ouroboros BFT. The upgrade will improve the network’s scalability and capacity for consensus, according to its representative in Spain.

After having waited over a month for its fork, the network automatically changed last February 20th its consensus algorithm. The Ouroboros BFT upgrade is the new participation test (PoS) to create and validate transaction blocks in the Cardano blockchain.

Widely known for being one of the first blockchains with a scientific approach, Cardano is still committed to improving its smart contract system. For this reason, they decided to launch a new client version of their nodes, identified as Cardano SL 3.0.3, which incorporates the new consensus algorithm.

The administrators of nodes and users of wallets had to upgrade to this client when the network reached epoch 176, on February 20th at 21:44 UTC, as previously estimated by the board.

Fork without Competition

Cardano conducted a hard fork since the client of the nodes was changed and all users had to upgrade their devices to stay in the mainnet. However, this does not mean that a currency other than ADA or a blockchain parallel to Cardano was created. Antonio Sánchez, Cardano’s representative in Spain, explained that this update would give way to Shelley in the future, that is, it is a fork without competition.

When this event occurred, Cardano’s mainnet left behind a stage known as Byron and prepared for the inauguration of another one called Shelley. Both stages are distinguished by the fact that the nodes of the network stopped using the Ouroboros Classic consensus algorithm to incorporate a new one known as Ouroboros BFT.

The acronym BFT means “Byzantine Fault Tolerance”, a concept on which Cardano’s team relied to create the new algorithm. This is the capacity or resistance of a fault-tolerant distributed computer system, which is the key point for the security of a blockchain, according to Sánchez. In this sense, the Ouroboros BFT algorithm emphasizes functions such as consensus, validation, data verification, and protocol.

The reinforcement of these key points can allow improving the performance of a blockchain at the level of scalability and consensus. In other words, the network can process transactions much faster and validate blocks more securely.

Cardano’s ambassador explains that this consensus algorithm can help solve various problems that are currently found in blockchain technology. For that reason, it was necessary to have this upgrade so that the project would move towards Shelley in the most secure way possible. He believes that BFT allows managing the right state of the chain better, compared to other kinds of consensus. Most importantly, its honesty also adds the very important advantage of scalability.

Sánchez notes that the new fork does not incorporate other changes to the network. However, all users must comply with the call to upgrade their nodes so that they will continue to process transactions in the mainnet. It is known that customers of the Yoroi wallet do not have to worry about any changes, but those of Daedalus has to perform manual upgrades.

By Willmen Blanco

Russia’s Central Bank Proposes New Token Framework While Considering Crypto-Transactions as Suspicious

Maria Rodríguez
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Russia’s Central Bank Proposes New Token Framework While Considering Crypto-Transactions as Suspicious

This bank has a platform that allows users to tokenize assets, including currencies, although the sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies could be considered suspicious activity.

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has formally proposed a legal framework for tokenization but also plans to label cryptocurrency transactions as suspicious activity.

The information was known through a press release issued by the bank. In the release, the financial institution explained that it has a platform that allows users to tokenize assets, including currencies to issue them to investors.

Ivan Zimin, Director of the CBR’s Financial Technology Department, said in the release that the bank had now proposed using the platform as a framework in the country’s upcoming cryptocurrency law, which will act as guidance for legitimate businesses wanting to tokenize assets.

“Based on the results of the piloting, the Bank of Russia proposed to include in the draft federal law On Digital Financial Assets the provisions necessary for the introduction and development of such decisions in the emerging digital assets market, which were supported by government bodies and businesses”, Zimin said.

Suspicious Operations

But both the sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies could be considered suspicious in the new guidance of Russia.

Local media reported that the CBR is planning to update on the bank guidance what is or not a criminal activity.

As part of the proof of concept, which still undergoing in-house assessment, the guidance would ask commercial banks to flag activity and authorizes them to block the transactions they consider as “suspicious”.

CBR’s move has been met with some pushback from industry figures. Don Guo, CEO of Technology and liquidity provider Broctagon, has criticized the fragmented approach.

“Russia seems to have taken one step forward and two steps back when it comes to crypto”, Guo said. He added it would leave “Russian traders scratch their heads” as other major economies in the world.

“Where China has been advocating for Bitcoin and creating its digital currency, other countries like the US seem to be fighting a losing battle to squash it”, Guo said.  He also considered that whether regulators like it or not, the adoption of digital currencies will continue so “dismissing cryptocurrencies comes with an opportunity cost”.

Regulating Cryptocurrencies as ICOs

Since 2017, the Russian government has been drawing up a bill that would regulate cryptocurrencies and related activities such as initial coin offerings (ICOs) and trades with fiat currencies like the ruble.

Although officials previously indicated the bill was nearing completion, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, hinted in a speech last October that Russian officials were being indecisive.

Local media suggests Russia is now trying to create a regulatory distinction between asset tokenization.

Other Inconvenience

Last October, the CBR backed a potential ban on cryptocurrency payments, claiming they represent significant risks and could not be equated with legal tender.

As it was reported, one of the largest projects to ever come out of CBR’s regulatory sandbox since it launched in April 2018, the tokenization platform was developed by Nornickel, a Russian mining and smelting company.

It also allows organizations to mint “hybrid tokens” backed by different assets simultaneously. The platform will go into operation once Russia’s cryptocurrency bill passes into law so all these changes could be considered. Using tokens would be something allowed, but financial institutions will be careful with the use of cryptocurrencies and with related transactions.

By María Rodríguez

Binance Updates Its Platform to Allow 15 Fiat Coins for the Purchase of Cryptocurrencies

Maria Rodríguez
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Binance Updates Its Platform to Allow 15 Fiat Coins for the Purchase of Cryptocurrencies

Binance promises to continue expanding its portfolio options for its clients in the future.

Since February 14th, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange house, Binance, has added 15 new options for the purchase of cryptocurrencies using fiat money. The exchange mode will accept purchases from financial platforms such as MasterCard and Visa. The new alternative is supported by Simplex, which supports the purchase of virtual currencies in many countries.

On the one hand, the update yielded a wide number of options that allow people from all over the world to access the exchange from their local currency. The list shows the options in fiat currencies: the South Korean Won, the New Zealand Dollar, the British Pound Sterling, the Australian Dollar, the Swiss Franc, the Russian Ruble, the Swedish Crown, the Turkish Lira, the Polish Zloty, the South African Rand, the Israeli Shekel, and the Hungarian Forint.

On the other hand, this new purchase option manages to expand the possibilities of acquiring cryptocurrencies that Binance already offered. The cryptocurrencies that can be accessed through the “Buy Cryptography” option are Ether (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP and Lite Coin (LTC).

Although this initiative can mean a substantial improvement for users around the world who want to acquire cryptocurrencies, using the Simplex tool is very expensive, calculating the commission per exchange at 7%. If compared with a cash advance for traditional bank credit systems, it has a much higher cost.

Despite this, Simplex manages to settle all transactions made with the currency selected for purchase, instead of using US dollars or other money. In this way, all users who buy cryptocurrencies using Simplex will not have to pay the conventional exchange rate on their credit cards, which will exceed 2% or up to 3% commission.

Options that Surprise Users

The cryptocurrency exchange house Binance has been working to expand its client portfolio regardless of the countries of origin. The inclusion of fiat currencies such as the Russian Ruble has caused great surprise among users of that country, who also see that this currency will enjoy much lower rates than other currencies.

The support of this fiat currency has been, for Binance, an important advance, since they consider the Russian market as potential and growing. According to the exchange page, Binance manages to convert 17,200 rubles (equivalent to 0.27 US dollars), for every 1 ETH, Including the Simplex option.

Besides, according to data of the platform, the system searches for independent peers to facilitate exchange, which simplifies the options and allows a more free exchange.

Binance is not only making great efforts to include more fiat currencies, but they have also started with the program, since last January 2020, to add more cryptocurrency and merchant options that contribute to the growth of the platform.

Global adoption of virtual currencies is making significant progress on platforms such as these that are facilitating ample liquidity management potions; thus, helping to make this market more recognized and accepted.

Achieving wider commercialization of goods and services with cryptocurrencies for citizens would boost the sector for the acquisition of products regardless of borders, something that would be another important step towards cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology adoption.

By María Rodríguez

Rutanio, the New Token Used In Colombia by a Blockchain ​​Ecosystem for Online Purchases

Maria Rodríguez
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Rutanio, the New Token Used In Colombia by a Blockchain ​​Ecosystem for Online Purchases

The token will facilitate trade within the ecosystem, possibly even buying outside of Colombia.

A blockchain ecosystem that works in the city of Medellin, in Colombia, will use a new token for online purchases. The token is called Rutanio and it will work for commercial exchange. This was reported by local media last Thursday, February 13th.

The initiative for the use of tokens within a blockchain ecosystem in Colombia, according to the article of the local media, starts from the need for new commercial methods that inspire confidence in users. “It is a project inspired by transparency, simplicity, and trust, articulated by Ruta N”, says the press.

This token will work within the ecosystem itself and will serve as a traditional currency to determine the price of the items. “In this ecosystem, each participant defines the value of their product or service in Rutanio, the token that governs the commercial exchanges that take place there”.

The article detailed that, for example, a professional can offer his services on the platform and value his work in the amount of Rutanios that he considers. Once the offer is in the ecosystem, another member who needs the job can accept it, or even propose to change it. This could be considered a free market that will be supported by the platform token.

A representative of the Blockchain Centre Latam, Felipe Cano, mentioned that the project is a particular and novel initiative in his country and that, thanks to it; new technologies could be promoted, as well as the ease, security, and freedom offered by the ecosystem.

In another comment, the International Public Relations Manager of the project, Policarpo Guerrero, commented that this platform was built thinking of a virtual market where users can trade products and services using new rules and digital methods.

The use of Rutanio, a token created for this ecosystem, would be present to facilitate commercial operations among its users although this will be the official currency of the new digital market supported by blockchain. Neither the article nor a representative clarified anything about the equivalence of this asset with the Colombian Peso. Until now, the value of Rutanio compared to the local currency is not known.

About the Token

A few details of the token that the ecosystem will use to simplify trade on the platform are known, but according to the Rutanio website, the purpose of this token is to internationalize the novel ecosystem that prepared Route N, in Colombia. This is a token that helps to make purchases on the platform from any country, and perhaps, from any other currency.

“Ruthenium is proposed as a medium of exchange and a complimentary token for the innovation ecosystem articulated by Ruta N. It is a digital asset native to the local innovation ecosystem”, the company emphasized on the official website.

The use of token within a virtual purchasing platform represents a breakthrough for the crypto world, even in Latin America, where blockchain projects arise despite not having clear rules and regulations by the authorities.

By María Rodríguez

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