Despite the volatility in the market, cryptocurrencies still witnessed a strong year, with some currencies posting gains of at least 5,000 per cent in market value, bringing huge profits to investors.

The total market capitalisation was around US$771 billion at the beginning of the year and it’s now at $2.2 trillion.

Some popular coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have climbed by 35-45 per cent in value in 2021. However, before reaching the current stable state, Bitcoin had seen some strong corrections.

In mid-February, Bitcoin surpassed US$1 trillion in market value for the first time as some major companies like Tesla started using their balance sheets to buy Bitcoin. The biggest crypto in market capitalisation hit $65,000 in April before plunging more than 50 per cent in May. The downtrend continued in June following Elon Musk’s tweets concerning the environmental impact of mining and China’s tightening of crypto transactions.

The sell-off caused the prices of some currencies to drop as much as 30-40 per cent in a few hours. But Bitcoin buyers returned in September and the crypto price broke over the $69,000 level, then Bitcoin recorded the longest losing streak. Bitcoin is gradually climbing back in the last days of 2021, trading at around $51,000.

The cryptocurrency market also received a lot of positive news, including the largest US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase successfully listing on Nasdaq, partly affirming the position of cryptocurrencies in the investment market.

Some coins have posted extraordinary gains this year, up over 5,000 per cent such as BakeryToken (BAKE), up more than 6,000 per cent, Fantom (FTM), up over 7,500 per cent and Gala (GALA) – a community-based blockchain gaming platform – even rising over 40,000 per cent.

Therefore, it is not exaggerating to say crypto is the most impressive investment channel of the year.

Phan Dung Khanh, Head of Investment Advisory at Maybank Kim Eng, said that there are two popular investment channels in 2021, which are securities and digital assets.

“Digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, are a trading channel that has not been recognised by law, but the number of investors participating in the market is still very large,” Khanh said.

A report from Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, showed that Viet Nam ranks fourth among the largest countries in terms of profits earned from cryptocurrency, behind China, Japan and South Korea.

Of which, Vietnamese investors have earned $400 million in 2020 from investing in Bitcoin alone, ranking 13th in the world. Previously, according to a survey by Finder and Statista, Viet Nam also became the world’s top country in terms of the percentage of the population owning cryptocurrencies.

Dao Tuan Anh, a banker, said that he has invested around $3,000-4,000 in cryptocurrencies since May. “Because of social distancing, I can’t go to work and have a lot of free time, so I looked for investment channels and the crypto market is quite popular now,” Tuan Anh said.

“I don’t spend much on this channel since it is still new to me. I choose to allocate my capital in different virtual coins, including Bitcoin.

“Even though the crypto market was highly volatile and Bitcoin has dropped recently, I still gained 15 per cent.

“With other coins, some I gained 30 per cent, but some lost up to 50 per cent.”

Although there are forecasts about the downtrend of cryptocurrencies next year, many experts still believe that the market will continue to be active.

As the crypto market is very risky, with many fake crypto exchanges in Viet Nam, investors should learn and understand the assets they are going to invest in. Meanwhile, picking the right time to join the market is also a crucial factor.

@ VNS

The post Cryptocurrency will continue to be attractive investment channel in 2022 appeared first on Crypto Insider.

After a decade of milestone sales at exclusive auctions, The Dalmore delves further into the world of cryptocurrencies

The Dalmore, a brand of single malt Scotch whisky synonymous with refinement and whisky craftsmanship is riding the waves of success in the investment sector. Following the success of The Dalmore Decades Collection, the brand recently launched first NFT with BlockBar – one set of the Decades No.4 Collection lately was offered as an exclusive NFT at BlockBar.com, bridging the physical and digital worlds for the first time in the brand’s 180-year-old history.

The NFT initiative follows the recent record-setting sale of The Dalmore Decades No.6 Collection in October, which achieved a record $1.1 million USD at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. Collectors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the UK competed to secure the six-bottle collection, with the winning bid going to an Asian private collector. The sale price represents the highest value for a whisky lot sold at Sotheby’s in 2021 and the most valuable whisky lot ever sold by Sotheby’s in Asia. The Dalmore, at the pinnacle of luxury scotch category, is enjoying its moment in the spotlight with the success of its rare Decades Collections.

The Dalmore Decades is a masterpiece of time: a unique selection of exceptional single malt whiskies that tells the story of The Dalmore’s relentless pursuit of excellence through six decades. Three once-in-a-lifetime collections carefully curated by Richard Paterson, Master Distiller of the Dalmore, bring together the quintessential DNA of The Dalmore with bottlings from 1951 to 2000. This Dalmore Decades No. 4 Collection for NFT on BlockBar.com, is part of the three collections launched in September 2021.

The growing appetite for fine and rare whiskies as part of an investor’s portfolio continue to gain momentum with The Dalmore at the forefront of the movement, thanks to its renowned rare releases. The Dalmore remains the fastest growing of all spirits brands by volume over the last 2 years (IWSR 2021). This accolade comes at a time when, according to the 2020 Knight Frank Wealth Report, with a 582% increase in value make rare whiskies one of the most lucrative investments.

The post The Dalmore, the luxury Scotch icon continues to shake up the investment sector appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Theo dữ liệu từ CoinMarketCap, giá của đồng Shiba Inu (SHIB), bật tăng từ 0,00002516 USD và lập đỉnh mới ở mốc 0,00005918 USD vào trưa ngày 27/10. Gần đây, nhiều tin tức tốt đã khiến giá của đồng SHIB lập kỷ lục.

Trên Twitter, quản trị viên của dự án này thông báo rằng họ sẽ phát hành sản phẩm sàn giao dịch phi tập trung (DEX) có tên ShibaSwap trong tương lai. Điều này cũng đã góp phần thu hút thêm nhà đầu tư và dòng vốn đổ vào, khiến giá Shiba Inu tăng trưởng mạnh. Bên cạnh đó, hiện có hơn 326.000 nhà đâu từ tham gia kiến nghị sàn giao dịch tiền số Robinhood mở giao dịch đồng Shiba Inu.

Giám đốc Điều hành của Robinhood, Vlad Tenev cho biết họ đang xem xét kỹ để bổ sung đồng tiền này vào danh sách niêm yết trên sàn. “Các đồng tiền mã hóa được niêm yết trên sàn Robinhood đã qua thẩm định rất kỹ. Các dự án tiếp theo cũng vậy, cần có sự bình đẳng trong khâu thẩm định này”, Tenev nói. Trước đó, vào tháng 9, Coinbase, sàn giao dịch lớn nhất nước Mỹ đã niêm yết loại tiền meme nổi tiếng. Giá đồng SHIB cũng bật tăng mạnh sau tin tức này.

Hiện tại, dự án này đang đứng vị trí thứ 11 trên bảng xếp hạng vốn hóa của thị trường coin. Loại tiền mã hóa meme nổi tiếng đã tăng hơn 6 lần trong vòng một tháng. Giá của đồng Shiba Inu dao động ở mức 0.00005404 USD vào chiều ngày 27/10. Thông tin từ CoinGecko cho thấy SHIB từng được giao dịch ở mức 0,000000000077 USD vào đầu tháng 1/2021.

So với thị giá hiện tại, meme coin này đã tăng trưởng tới 500.000 lần. Đồng Shiba Inu từng bị nhiều người dùng cho là “bong bóng” đầu cơ. Gần đây, nhà đầu tư nổi tiếng người Mỹ, Michael James Burry chia sẻ trên Twitter bài mô tả của Coinbase về token meme Shiba Inu. Ông nhấn mạnh rằng nguồn cung của loại coin này đã vượt quá 1 triệu tỷ đồng. Michael nhận định Shiba Inu không phải là một khoản đầu tư hấp dẫn vì nguồn cung quá lớn khiến đồng tiền meme này sẽ khó tăng giá sau khi được bơm thổi.

Thông tin về loại coin trong bài viết không phải là lời khuyên đầu tư từ. Hoạt động đầu tư tiền số chưa được pháp luật Việt Nam công nhận và bảo vệ. Các loại tiền số luôn tiềm ẩn nhiều rủi ro tài chính.

@ Zing

The post Tại sao đồng SHIB tăng giá liên tục, phá vỡ mọi kỷ lục? appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Bitcoin (BTC) sees a volatile start to a new week and a new month after its first-ever monthly close above $60,000 — what’s next?

After a highly anticipated end to “Uptober,” bulls are looking to November to provide the next phase of what they hope — and sometimes promise — will be a BTC price surge like no other.

The timing varies, and so do the predictions. In store for BTC/USD this month could be a monthly close of nearly $100,000 — but also a dip to near $50,000.

With everything to play for and solid buyer support in the upper $50,000s holding, Cointelegraph takes a look at what could help shape Bitcoin price action in the coming week.

October 2021 becomes best month since 2020

Regardless of what comes next, market participants are in a celebratory mood this week as Bitcoin sees the highest monthly close in its history.

Not only $60,000 but $61,000 has now become the target to beat for November.

Bitcoin is anything but “up only” on short timeframes, however, and Sunday’s close was met with noticeable downside volatility post factum — a trip to $59,500 — before another surprise took it above $62,000 hours later.

Perhaps slightly nervous are fans of PlanB’s “worst-case scenario” price predictions, these calling for at least $63,000 for the end of October.

While still more or less on track, for the series to continue its historical accuracy, $98,000 needs to be on the table by the end of this month.

For PlanB himself, however, the results have been more than satisfactory.

“Yes, Bitcoin might not close above $63K this month,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, meanwhile, added about the situation.

“However, @100trillionUSD his hitrate on the stock-to-flow model is way better than your trading performance, so I wouldn’t really roast him at all. Bitcoin at $61K is just as fine and close enough.”

After a correction from overnight lows, BTC/USD is trading at around $62,000. October, then, was its best month since December 2020, with returns just shy of 40%.

Difficulty lines up eighth straight increase

Those looking for something that truly is in “up only” mode need look no further than Bitcoin network fundamentals.

This week, difficulty will put in its eighth consecutive positive adjustment — something which has not happened since 2018.

Reflective of the increasingly competitive mining arena, the mining difficulty has now all but made up for the losses it necessarily inflicted after China forced miners to down tools in May.

Difficulty will increase to 21.89 trillion this week, just over 3 trillion below all-time highs.

The hash rate — the measure of processing power dedicated to mining — tells a similar story.

Despite being impossible to “measure” in definitive terms, the hash rate is still trending toward new all-time highs, estimates show.

Raw data trends up and down, and different estimates often end up with considerably different readings. The weekly average hash rate, however, now stands at around 159 exahashes per second (EH/s) — closer than ever to the 180 EH/s-record from April.

Hodlers hodl on

September provided a golden “buy the dip” opportunity for Bitcoin buyers, and October was likewise not without its brief retracements.

Did you buy the dip? If you did, you added to the increasingly strong cohort of long-term hodlers whose conviction has only increased in October.

As noted in research from major exchange Kraken last week, the price gains and run to $67,100 all-time highs have failed to tempt hodlers to sell BTC.

“Notably, while long-term holders were unfazed by the retracement last month and used it as an opportunity to continue accumulating, this trend has not changed despite a significant rebound in price to new all-time highs near $67,000,” researchers concluded.

“In other words, the supply shock bought by long-term holders last month has only grown stronger this month.”
It is these entities, rather than short-term speculators, who are driving price performance in Q4 this year, they add.

This chimes with a previous analysis, notably by analyst Willy Woo, showing that the so-called “hodlers of last resort” or “Rick Astley” investors remain committed to their investment. Among the long-term holders, since 2020, are miners themselves.

“Since 2020 miners have been HODLers (and buyers) of BTC, this is a sea change in behaviour,” Woo noted this weekend.

“Miners have not been in sustained accumulation behaviour since the 2009–2014 era.”

Exchange balances lowest since October 2018

On the topic of a supply shock, the picture from exchanges is grim — from the perspective of a Bitcoin bear.

According to fresh data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, exchange BTC reserves are now at their lowest in three years.

At that time, in late 2018, Bitcoin was heading into the pit of its previous bear market, which bottomed out in December at $3,100.

Since then, price action has changed by an order of magnitude, but balances are still dwindling — all pointing to the scale of the potential shock should demand increase heavily from here.

Exchanges now control 2.47 million BTC. While at its peak in April 2020, over 3.1 million BTC stood on their orderbooks.

Balance changes can vary considerably among exchanges. Over the past 24 hours, for example, Coinbase Pro led the decrease, down almost 20,000 BTC, while some other players saw slight increases in their balance.

Markets expect Fed tapering announcement

The coming week could produce some familiar trends on traditional markets — and their traditional knock-on impact on crypto markets.

These could come thanks to fresh comments from the United States Federal Reserve on coronavirus management Tuesday and Wednesday as markets expect further cues on asset-buying tapering.

This comes as inflation ramps up worldwide, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell previously admitted that the accompanying narrative — supply chain crisis — will likely persist “well into next year.”

“I think the Fed has pretty well determined to start the taper pretty quickly. We expect them to announce it next week and then start it soon thereafter, so that’s pretty well carved in stone,” Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab, told Yahoo Finance last week.

“I think the big debate now is how quickly the Fed moves toward actually raising rates. The expectation in the market has really shifted to expecting as many as two rate hikes in 2022 and 2023… that’s a pretty aggressive pace of tightening.”
Such conditions serve to increase Bitcoin’s attractiveness as an inherently deflationary asset class with a mathematically verifiable supply cap.

Institutional inflows into extant Bitcoin investment products, along with the newly launched futures exchange-traded funds (ETF), highlight growing demand.

By WILLIAM SUBERG

The post Top 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week as ‘Uptober’ closes at record high appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Đối với những người mới đến với tiền điện tử, hai thuật ngữ trên có thể khá khó hiểu và thậm chí gây hiểu nhầm.

Một số người đề cập đến Bitcoin khi nói về công nghệ blockchain, trong khi những người khác sẽ đề cập đến blockchain khi nói về tiền điện tử nói chung.

Tuy nhiên, các thuật ngữ này không thực sự hoán đổi cho nhau: chúng là các khái niệm riêng biệt nhưng có sự kết nối với nhau. Vì vậy, điều quan trọng là phải hiểu sự khác biệt giữa chúng. Trong bài này, chúng tôi sẽ giới thiệu cho bạn những kiến thức cơ bản về công nghệ blockchain, tiền điện tử và Bitcoin.

Cơ bản là giống nhau?

Hãy xem xét ví dụ sau:

• Website là một công nghệ dùng để chia sẻ thông tin.
• Công cụ tìm kiếm là một trong những cách phổ biến và được biết đến nhiều nhất để sử dụng công nghệ website.
• Google là một trong những ví dụ phổ biến và nổi tiếng nhất về công cụ tìm kiếm.

Tương tự như vậy:

• Blockchain là một công nghệ dùng để ghi chép thông tin (các khối dữ liệu).
• Tiền điện tử là một trong những cách phổ biến và được biết đến nhiều nhất để sử dụng blockchain.

Bitcoin là ví dụ đầu tiên và phổ biến nhất về tiền điện tử.

Blockchain: Khái niệm của nó là gì?

Hầu hết các blockchain được thiết kế như một sổ cái kỹ thuật số phân tán và phi tập trung. Nói một cách đơn giản, blockchain là một sổ cái kỹ thuật số, hay về cơ bản là phiên bản điện tử của sổ cái trên giấy có vai trò ghi lại danh sách các giao dịch.

Cụ thể hơn, một blockchain là một chuỗi tuyến tính gồm nhiều khối được kết nối và được bảo đảm bằng các bằng chứng mật mã. Công nghệ Blockchain cũng có thể được áp dụng trong các lĩnh vực khác không nhất thiết phải có các hoạt động tài chính. Trong bối cảnh tiền điện tử, blockchain có vai trò lưu giữ hồ sơ vĩnh viễn của tất cả các giao dịch đã được xác nhận.

‘Phân tán’ và ‘phi tập trung’ đề cập đến cách thức tổ chức và duy trì của sổ cái. Để hiểu sự khác biệt, hãy nghĩ về các hình thức sổ cái tập trung phổ biến như hồ sơ công khai về mua bán nhà, hồ sơ rút tiền ATM của ngân hàng hoặc danh sách các mặt hàng đã bán của eBay. Trong mỗi trường hợp ví dụ đưa ra, chỉ có một tổ chức kiểm soát sổ cái: một cơ quan chính phủ, ngân hàng hoặc eBay. Một yếu tố phổ biến khác là chỉ có một bản chính của sổ cái và bất cứ bản nào khác chỉ đơn giản là bản sao lưu chứ không phải là bản chính thức. Do đó, sổ cái truyền thống mang tính tập trung bởi vì chúng được duy trì bởi một tổ chức duy nhất và thường dựa vào một cơ sở dữ liệu duy nhất.

Ngược lại, một blockchain thường được xây dựng như một hệ thống phân tán có chức năng như một sổ cái phi tập trung. Điều này có nghĩa là có nhiều bản sổ cái (phân tán) và không có tổ chức nào nắm quyền kiểm soát duy nhất (phi tập trung). Nói một cách đơn giản, mỗi người dùng tham gia vào mạng blockchain sẽ giữ một bản sao điện tử của dữ liệu blockchain. Dữ liệu blockchain được cập nhật thường xuyên tất cả các giao dịch mới nhất và đồng bộ với bản sao của người dùng.

Nói cách khác, một hệ thống phân tán được duy trì bởi công việc tập thể của nhiều người dùng trên khắp thế giới. Những người dùng này còn được gọi là các node mạng, và tất cả các node này đều tham gia vào quá trình xác minh và xác thực giao dịch theo các quy tắc của hệ thống. Do đó, quyền lực là phi tập trung (không có cơ quan trung ương).

Blockchain: Thực tiễn ra sao?

Blockchain (chuỗi khối) có cái tên này là do cách thức tổ chức các hồ sơ: một chuỗi các khối liên kết. Về cơ bản, một khối chính là một loại dữ liệu, trong số các loại hình khác, chứa danh sách các giao dịch gần đây (giống như một trang in gồm các mục nhập). Các khối, cũng như các giao dịch, được công khai và có thể nhìn thấy, nhưng chúng không thể bị thay đổi (giống như việc cất mỗi trang in vào một hộp kính kín). Khi các khối mới được thêm vào blockchain, một bản ghi liên tục gồm các khối liên kết sẽ được hình thành (giống như một sổ cái vật lý có nhiều trang). Đây là một ví dụ đơn giản để dễ hình dung, nhưng thực tế thì quá trình này diễn ra phức tạp hơn nhiều.

Một trong những lý do chính tại sao blockchain có khả năng chống sửa đổi là do các khối được liên kết và bảo đảm bằng các bằng chứng mật mã. Để tạo ra các khối mới, những người trong mạng cần tham gia vào một hoạt động tính toán tốn kém và có cường độ lớn được gọi là đào. Về cơ bản, các thợ mỏ chịu trách nhiệm xác minh các giao dịch và nhóm chúng thành các khối mới được tạo rồi sau đó đưa thêm vào blockchain (nếu đáp ứng được các điều kiện nhất định). Họ cũng có trách nhiệm đưa các coin mới vào hệ thống, được phát hành như một phần thưởng cho công việc của họ.

Mỗi khối mới được xác nhận sẽ liên kết với khối ngay trước nó. Điểm hay của thiết lập này là không thể thay đổi dữ liệu trong một khối một khi khối được thêm vào blockchain vì được bảo đảm bằng bằng chứng mật mã. Quá trình tạo ra một khối mới rất tốn kém và việc hoàn tác là cực kỳ khó.

Tóm lại, một blockchain là một chuỗi liên kết gồm các khối dữ liệu được sắp xếp theo thứ tự thời gian và được bảo đảm bằng các bằng chứng mật mã.

Tiền điện tử, hiểu thế nào cho đúng?

Nói một cách đơn giản, tiền điện tử là một dạng tiền kỹ thuật số được sử dụng như một phương tiện trao đổi trong một mạng lưới người dùng phân tán. Không giống như các hệ thống ngân hàng truyền thống, các giao dịch này được theo dõi thông qua một sổ cái kỹ thuật số công cộng (blockchain) và có thể được thực hiện trực tiếp giữa những người tham gia (ngang hàng) mà không cần trung gian.

‘Crypto’ dùng để chỉ các kỹ thuật mã hóa được sử dụng để bảo mật hệ thống kinh tế và để đảm bảo rằng việc tạo ra các đơn vị tiền điện tử mới và việc xác thực giao dịch diễn ra suôn sẻ.

Mặc dù không phải tất cả các đồng tiền điện tử đều có thể đào được, nhưng rất nhiều đồng tiền, giống như Bitcoin, phụ thuộc vào quá trình đào, có sự tăng trưởng chậm và được kiểm soát về nguồn cung lưu hành. Vì vậy, đào là cách duy nhất để tạo ra các đơn vị mới của các đồng coin và giúp tránh được rủi ro lạm phát vốn là mối đe dọa của các loại tiền tệ fiat truyền thống, nơi mà chính phủ có thể kiểm soát nguồn cung tiền.

Túm lại, Bitcoin là cái gì?

Bitcoin là đồng tiền điện tử đầu tiên được tạo ra, và theo lẽ tự nhiên, là một trong những đồng tiền điện tử nổi tiếng nhất. Bitcoin được giới thiệu vào năm 2009 bởi nhà phát triển với danh xưng Satoshi Nakamoto. Ý tưởng chính là tạo ra một hệ thống thanh toán điện tử độc lập và phi tập trung dựa trên các bằng chứng toán học và mật mã học.

Mặc dù là đồng tiền điện tử nổi tiếng nhất nhưng Bitcoin không phải là duy nhất. Có nhiều đồng tiền điện tử khác, mỗi loại có các tính năng và cơ chế riêng. Hơn nữa, không phải tất cả các đồng tiền điện tử đều có blockchain riêng của mình. Một số được tạo ra trên nền của một blockchain đã tồn tại, trong khi những đồng tiền khác được tạo ra hoàn toàn từ đầu.

Giống như hầu hết các đồng tiền điện tử, Bitcoin có một nguồn cung hạn chế, điều đó có nghĩa là sẽ không có thêm Bitcoin nào được tạo ra bởi hệ thống sau khi đạt được nguồn cung tối đa. Mặc dù điều này là khác nhau giữa các dự án, nguồn cung Bitcoin tối đa được đặt là 21 triệu coin. Thông thường, tổng cung là một thông tin công khai được xác định khi tiền điện tử được tạo ra.

Giao thức Bitcoin là mã nguồn mở và bất kỳ ai cũng có thể xem hoặc sao chép mã. Sự phát triển của dự án nhận được sự đóng góp của nhiều nhà phát triển trên khắp thế giới.

The post Dành cho người mới: Blockchain và Bitcoin là gì? appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Brazilian retail giant Via Varejo has partnered with blockchain payment service Airfox, according to a September 12 press release.

Via Varejo, which owns home appliance and furniture chain Casa Bahia, is integrating Airfox’s digital banking platform on its e-commerce platforms, as well as in nearly 1,000 of its offline shops.

As the press release notes, customers will be able to purchase goods in Casa Bahia by paying directly via Airfox, or will be able to use microloans provided by the retail group. Customers can also reportedly use the app for personal finance, such as depositing and withdrawing cash, at the chain’s location.  

Airfox is a mobile financial service launched in February 2018 that includes fiat and blockchain payments via its AirToken (AIR) coin, an ERC-20 based token.

The press release outlines the importance of the collaboration for mass adoption of blockchain-powered payment services, letting the Airfox “extend its mobile digital wallet to Via Varejo’s national customer base and drive mainstream adoption.”

Via Varejo is one of the largest consumer electronics and home appliance retailers in Brazil, reaching 60 million customers in Brazil via its brands Casas Bahia and Pontofrio. The company owns over 900 stores in 350 Brazilian cities, reportedly making as much as 1 million deliveries per month.

According to the recent press-release, Via Varejo handled approximately $6.3 billion sales in 2017.

Last week, U.S. luxury automobile retailer Post Oak Motor Cars became reportedly the first Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Bugatti dealership in the country to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as payment.

By

The post Brazilian Retail Giant Partners Via Varejo With Blockchain Payment Service Airfox appeared first on Crypto Insider.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has approved a draft of regulations governing Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), local media outlet WAM reported Sunday, September 9 citing government sources.

The reported move comes in addition to lawmakers in the country adopting plans for a regulatory sandbox aimed at attracting greater fintech activity.

“The sandbox will act as an environment that attracts innovators to test innovative products, services, solutions and business models in a controlled space,” a report from the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) published September 4 reads, adding:

“This can be achieved by adopting an approach of relaxing and / or waving regulatory requirements for participants in the sandbox, while at the same time, ensuring that appropriate consumer protection safeguards are in place.”

The regulatory proposals regarding ICOs gained approval from the SCA in July, while WAM now reports the agreement will enter into law upon its imminent publication in the UAE’s Official Gazette, an official periodical containing all the country’s legislation.

“The SCA Board of Directors has approved the SCA plan to regulate the ICOs and recognise them as securities,” WAM stated, noting:

“The Board of Directors, having reviewed a study on the best international practices in this regard, has issued a directive that the procedures for trading digital token are to be regulated. The plan developed by the SCA includes a set of mechanisms as part of an integrated project to regulate digital securities and commodities.”

The UAE has pursued an in-depth policy of fintech integration in recent years, with a particular emphasis on blockchain at both municipal and state level.

The post UAE approves a draft of regulations governing Initial Coin Offerings appeared first on Crypto Insider.

On Aug. 31, Line, Japan’s most widely utilized messaging app with more than 200 million active users, revealed the launch of its own cryptocurrency called LINK.

Upon its announcement, Line immediately listed LINK on its digital asset exchange BitBox, which it launched back in July of this year.

Uniquely, as Cointelegraph reported, Line has decided not to conduct an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to raise a significant amount of capital in exchange for the distribution of its token. Instead, Line utilized a mechanism called ‘airdrop’ to give users LINK as compensation for utilizing products within the Line ecosystem.

Essentially, LINK is a token that is designed to increase the adoption of decentralized applications (DApps) deployed by the Line development team by incentivizing users accordingly based on their activity on the Link blockchain network.

In the near future, the Line team revealed that it will release DApps and services related to content, commerce, social, gaming and exchange — all of which will rely on LINK as the main payment method.

In concept, Link is similar to EOS, ADA and Ethereum in the sense that it powers DApps and a wide range of services offered by its network of blockchain platforms.

Line’s story

In 2011, Japan was hit with the fourth deadliest earthquake in history. The Tōhoku earthquake, with a recorded 9.1 magnitude, led to more than 20,000 deaths. The Japanese economy was hugely affected by the 30-foot tsunami that triggered a nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daichi plant.

At the time, NHN Japan, a subsidiary of South Korea’s search engine operator Naver, envisioned the deployment of a messaging network that was independent of the cellular network so that families and friends could communicate in periods of crisis.

Line was launched in June of 2011, three months after the earthquake, garnering 50 million users within a 12-month period. It is said that Line surpassed Facebook in growth rate, as Facebook needed three years to secure 58 million users.

Since 2011, Line has continued to lead initiatives to assist families and households affected by natural disasters. In late 2013, Line utilized its revenues generated from stickers and emoticon sales to donate $500,000 for hurricane relief in the Philippines.

Line’s initial interest in crypto and blockchain

The Japanese messaging giant initially disclosed its intent to focus a large portion of its resources and developer capacity to blockchain development on April 20, 2018, at the 2018 Dev Week conference held in Seoul, South Korea.

At the time, Line chief technology officer Euivin Park discussed the future of IT in front of the company’s 1,000 developers and engineers, as well as the long-term development roadmap of Line that will allow the messaging app to evolve into an all-in-one communications platform.”

During the conference, Park placed heavy emphasis on blockchain technology, stating that the Line umbrella will continue to accelerate the process of creating a blockchain-based tokenized economy that operates on top of a Line-specific blockchain mainnet.

“But Line also will go even further, with plans to support accelerating the development of DApp services outside of the Line platform and develop its own blockchain mainnet in the near future. To achieve this, Line is actively setting up developer bases and speeding up talent acquisition in other regions, as well as adding to Unblock and Blockchain Lab in Korea and Japan.”

While Line has been based in Japan throughout the entirety of its existence, its parent company is Naver — South Korea’s largest search engine. Due to its connections with Naver and South Korea-based internet companies, Park disclosed that two blockchain labs will be set up in South Korea and Japan, with the intent of collaborating with local blockchain projects in the two countries in order to speed up the deployment of a stable blockchain mainnet.

Strategic partnership with Korea’s largest blockchain network to deploy DApps

Naturally, the establishment of Line’s first blockchain lab in Seoul led to the conglomerate cooperating with several blockchain projects created by entrepreneurs and developers based in South Korea. In May, Line officially secured a strategic partnership with ICON, the largest blockchain project in the country (based on market valuation), creating a joint venture called Unchain to develop DApps based on the Link blockchain network.

In May, through an official announcement, the ICON team stated that it had formed a joint initiative with Line due to the shared vision between the two projects in creating a transparent and secure, tokenized economy that incentivizes users based on their contribution to the ecosystem.

The ICON team further emphasized that to streamline the process of DApp adoption, a large network and ecosystem of users is necessary. Considering the 200 million active user base of Line, the ICON development team said that the integration of a blockchain by the Line ecosystem would result in a wider and faster blockchain adoption:

“Unchain will create a blockchain ecosystem fueled by a token economy, where the users are rewarded for their contributions to the network. DApp services discovered through ICON and Unblock, a subsidiary of Line dedicated to blockchain research and to accelerate DApp projects, will be integrated with Unchain.”

In an interview with local publications, Unchain CEO Lee Hong-kyu stated that Line was interested in the interoperability benefits of the ICON network and the team’s technical capabilities. Similar to most next-generation blockchain networks, the ICON blockchain is designed specifically to support many blockchain networks in a single, unified protocol — a structure that is similar to Ethereum’s Plasma scaling solution in the way that many blockchain networks rely on each other to process information in a more efficient manner.

The partnership with ICON allowed Line to speed up the process of DApp deployment and, eventually, the creation of its own cryptocurrency, as the conglomerate garnered all of the technologies and development teams required to sustain a blockchain network.

But, as Line CTO Park said in April, the establishment of the Line blockchain mainnet is only the first step toward the actual initiative of the messaging giant, which is to create a tokenized economy — wherein users are compensated for all sorts of contributions, like content creation, social media presence, digital asset exchange and gaming.

In the years to come, the Line developer community will have to actively develop DApps and various blockchain solutions to ensure that its ecosystem can remain sufficient for hundreds of millions of global users.

Viability and practicality of Line’s independent cryptocurrency

A small portion of the cryptocurrency community questioned the viability and necessity of LINK, the native cryptocurrency of the Link blockchain network, at this stage of development.

In its official announcement, Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa disclosed the intent of the company to create an ecosystem of DApps that will be easy to utilize on a daily basis but did not offer a specific use case of Link, at least in the short-term:

“Over the last seven years, Line was able to grow into a global service because of our users, and now with Link, we wanted to build a user-friendly reward system that gives back to our users. With Link, we would like to continue developing as a user participation-based platform, one that rewards and shares added value through the introduction of easy-to-use DApps for people’s daily lives.”

According to The Verge, in the months to come, users will be able to use LINK to purchase stickers and webtoons on the platform, before the primary use case of the token shifts to become the main incentivization and transaction method of the Line ecosystem.

Unlike open-source apps — like Telegram, Line, KakaoTalk and others — for-profit messaging apps have built-in marketplaces that sell stickers, emojis and themes to users. In the foreseeable future, Line expects LINK to be used for small purchases — like the aforementioned items — and, as its DApp and blockchain ecosystem grows, LINK is expected to have a more profound impact on Line.

Line could have utilized existing cryptocurrencies — such as Ether, EOS or Cardano’s ADA — as the primary method of incentivization. But, the Line team explained that the long-term strategy of the company has been to create a blockchain network built from scratch that is specifically designed and structured to facilitate DApps applied to the Line messaging platform.

Based on its partnership with ICON and its decision to create its own blockchain network, it is likely that the core infrastructure of the Link blockchain network will evolve around scalability and multi-chain protocol.

A highly scalable, multi-chain protocol would allow the Link mainnet to process more transactions than other public blockchain networks, similar to VeChain and WaltonChain — two Internet of Things (IoT) blockchain protocols that have implemented their own unique consensus algorithms to maximize the transaction capacity of their blockchains.

Facebook’s potential blockchain launch rumors, stance of WeChat

In May, around the same period in which Line started to explore the blockchain sector, sources close to Facebook revealed the social media conglomerate has been considering the launch of its own cryptocurrency that could be utilized by billions of its users worldwide.

However, speaking to Cheddar, David Marcus — the former vice president of Facebook Messenger who was asked to lead a team of 12 developers in a division focusing on blockchain development — said that Facebook is looking into ways that can leverage the potential of the blockchain.

“Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. This new, small team will be exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share,” Marcus said, adding that payments in crypto are expensive due to scaling issues and that the company will only consider adding cryptocurrencies onto its platform once it is cheap and efficient to send digital transactions:

“Payments using crypto right now [are] just very expensive [and] super slow. So, the various communities running the different blockchains and the different assets need to fix all the issues, and then, when we get there someday, maybe we’ll do something.”

While the stance of Facebook and Marcus on cryptocurrency integration was made clear through his interview, rumors around a potential cryptocurrency launch by Facebook intensified when Marcus left the board of Coinbase, the world’s largest cryptocurrency brokerage and wallet.

Last month, Coinbase stated that Marcus had left the company’s board to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest and, in a statement provided to Business Insider, Marcus said that the establishment of the 12-developer blockchain team at Facebook led him to resign from his position as a board member.

In the past several months, almost every major messaging application, from Line to Facebook, disclosed their interest in utilizing blockchains or integrating cryptocurrencies to their platforms, apart from one messaging platform: WeChat.

As China’s most frequently utilized messaging app, with nearly a billion users — fivefold the active user base of Line — WeChat has not shown any interest in integrating cryptocurrency or leveraging the blockchain to improve the usability of its platform, primarily due to the Chinese government’s encouragement to ban everything related to cryptocurrencies.

More than that, as Cointelegraph reported last week, WeChat has cracked down on cryptocurrency businesses and publications on its platform, permanently suspending the accounts owned by major cryptocurrency-related ventures that utilize WeChat to spread information about the cryptocurrency sector.

ICO regulation in Japan and South Korea

Kakao, the largest internet conglomerate in South Korea — which operates KakaoPay, KakaoTaxi, KakaoStory, KakaoStock and KakaoTalk, all under the Kakao banner — with nearly 90 percent dominance in every sector it operates in, also announced its plans to release a cryptocurrency earlier this year.

But, the initiative of Kakao was shut down by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which publicly stated that Kakao is not permitted to conduct a token sale inside or outside of South Korea:

“Even if there is no prohibition on cryptocurrency or digital asset trading, there is a possibility that it [Kakao ICO] may be regarded as fraud or multi-level sales according to the issuance method. Since the risk is very high in terms of investor protection, the government has a negative stance on the ICO.”

Since then, regulatory frameworks around ICOs and cryptocurrency trading in both Japan and South Korea have significantly improved, and the positive change in cryptocurrency regulation may have contributed to the early launch of Line’s native cryptocurrency, LINK.

It is possible that, as regional governments — like South Korea’s Jeju Island — enable ICOs and token sales, Kakao will pursue its previous plan of a token sale and a cryptocurrency launch, directly competing against Line and Naver, the messaging app’s parent corporation.

The active blockchain development division in Facebook led by Marcus, who has been involved in the cryptocurrency sector for many years, could also lead to Facebook, Kakao or others exploring the potential of leveraging blockchain technology, which may place Line in direct competition with the global market’s largest social media platforms.

The post Biggest Messaging App Line Decided to Create Its Own Crypto. Here’s Why appeared first on Crypto Insider.