By Shashidhar K.J. and Srinath Sridharan

Headlines have been awash with Bitcoin’s 15 percent crash last week as the price of the cryptocurrency fell below US$ 49,000.

Consequently, other cryptocurrencies like Ether token saw its price fall by 20 percent. The fall in price came coincidentally with two key statements.

• The first from Janet Yellen, the current United States treasury secretary, who called Bitcoin an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions and called its price highly speculative.

Predictably, there have been sharp reactions from proponents of cryptocurrencies, as well as from those who oppose it or politely advise caution. Calmer minds need to prevail to understand the situation deeper.

Bitcoin’s history has seen much worse. There have been about 13 major crashes since 2011 and the crash in December 2017 saw the price of Bitcoin to plummet by 83.7 percent. These crashes were faced by individual investors called “Bitcoin-whales,” who hoarded the asset and drove up the value. These whales hyped other retail investors to participate and eventually cashed out at a peak. And one must remember that correlation does not mean causation and that Janet Yellen and Elon Musk’s statements might not have contributed to the fall in price. It is more likely that this was profit-booking by some investors and a price correction.

Bitcoin’s price is falling but believers in the community are still ‘hodl’-ing and waiting for the day when the price ‘reaches the moon.’ Volatility and speculation must be considered while dealing with cryptocurrencies. This is not a game for the faint-hearted.

Broadly, the interest of institutional investors in cryptocurrencies is a good thing and will act as a bulwark against retail whales in the cryptocurrency market and bring more accountability on the trades. But with more institutional investors taking an interest in cryptocurrencies, it becomes crucial that there is prudent-risk-management as asset management companies (AMCs) invest people’s savings and pensions in volatile cryptocurrencies. The government’s hands-off approach/hostile approach to cryptocurrencies cannot work here and they will have to build in protections for investments in cryptocurrencies, in the case of unforeseen externalities.

However, institutional investors coming into the picture also puts additional pressure on cryptocurrencies to find a purpose for themselves.

Janet Yellen is right — cryptocurrencies are not a viable currency due to their volatility. Companies like Stripe and Valve’s Steam games marketplace, which did accept Bitcoin as a form of payment have reversed their position considering the volatility of the Bitcoin while processing a transaction.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin do not work securities as they do not make a promise of a fixed return. The former United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Jay Clayton explains well why Bitcoin cannot be considered a security since it never sought public funds to develop its technology, but what it does is replace the value in fiat-currency and, therefore, it works a “store of value.”

The SEC said the same cannot be said of cryptocurrencies like Ripple’s XRP token where there was an initial buy in by early adopters who were given tokens that were already mined. Further, the token was advertised that it would give guaranteed returns on the buy in. This led to an investigation by the SEC, which filed a case against the company and its promoters for running an unregistered security. Since the XRP tokens were already mined and some were held by the promoters, it presented an information asymmetry allowing them profit as more people bought the token driving up its value. Therefore, cryptocurrencies have largely been operating akin to a commodity like gold, considering the limited number of tokens that can be mined or acquired.

Commodities too are subject to an immense speculation over their usage and its subsequent trading reflect that. During the COVID-19 pandemic, oil futures collapsed since all economic activity ground to a halt and the price of crude oil at one time was zero. However, oil’s usage would return and, therefore, it still held value. Similar speculation can be done with other commodities like steel, coffee, aluminum etc.

Gold is an interesting commodity since its real-world applications are limited. It derives its value due to its rarity and its non-corrosive properties. Therefore, it functions as a store of value and medium of exchange during uncertain times. But more importantly, now that the world has abandoned the gold standard for the convertible fiat-currency system after the Second World War, it now functions as a “hedge against other financial bets” in an investment portfolio for investors. If there is a crash in the equities market leading to a broad fall in the stocks invested, the value of the gold investment offsets the losses in the portfolio.

Cryptocurrencies function in a similar manner as gold right now, where its main use seems to be a hedge against other financial bets and the current inflationary regime. Asset managers who are not averse to decentralised finance advise investors to keep 1-2 percent of their portfolio in cryptocurrencies as a thumb rule.

However, on the flip side, a more bearish view on cryptocurrencies is worth keeping in mind. In the event of catastrophic events like war or climate-related calamities where electricity and Internet connectivity goes down, gold still has value as a medium of exchange. Bitcoin stored in a digital wallet will be useless in this scenario (of no electricity or internet access). This scenario, therefore, works as a sharp critique of the anarcho-capitalist philosophy the cryptocurrencies base themselves on. It becomes very crucial for regulators to understand the underpinnings of this philosophy.

This idea blends elements of the political philosophies of anarchism and capitalism.

Anarchism promotes the notion of stateless societies and no hierarchies in the power structure. While there are no power structures or governments, it doesn’t mean that there is no governance. Anarchism promotes self-governance (however good, bad and ugly) and the notion of non-aggression; it requires all individuals to act as rational actors, where competing self-interests will maintain order.

Anarcho-capitalists support the idea of a stateless-society, but also promote the idea of owning private property and support free-markets. All functions of society will be fulfilled by competing private companies and enforced by voluntary contracts.

Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto developed the first cryptocurrency as a critique on the inefficiency of central banks and monetary authorities, which debased currencies and criticised banks as they held people’s money but lent indiscriminately with very little reserve. Coupled with neo-liberal policies adopted through the the 1980s to the present time — which advocate for economic growth through debt — we saw the rise of income inequality where ordinary people were unable to generate wealth for themselves and move up the socio-economic ladder.

Bitcoin presented itself as a solution where the limited number of tokens that could be created would limit indiscriminate lending. Thus, people or entities who could contribute processing-power for mining Bitcoin would be rewarded with tokens and its value would only be dependent on “supply and demand dynamics.” The blockchain technology decentralised finance by keeping an immutable record of tokens mined by users and their subsequent transactions. In contrast, central banks control the production and issuance of money and centralise finance through monetary policy. It solved trust-issues with transactions in a limited way, as the blockchain was an immutable record of transactions which needed to be authenticated by all nodes in the system.

However, for this system to work, it requires a wholesale-rejection by citizens on the role of central banks and governments. Governments are loathe to give up power, particularly something as powerful as money.

Cryptocurrencies also relies on public goods provided by governments such as cheap electricity for mining and are beholden to corporations that provide Internet connectivity that must abide by rules set by the government. In countries such as India where the Internet is frequently snapped, the operation of cryptocurrencies is frequently disturbed.

Cryptocurrencies are also curtailed by the state in a much simpler manner: Bans through legislation. The Indian government is getting ready to pass a legislation which bans all cryptocurrencies, save for a virtual currency backed by the government. The Reserve Bank of India is reportedly working on building a central bank digital currency (CBDC) using many of the properties of cryptocurrencies including the blockchain technology.

CBDCs are uncharted waters again and there are several questions that need to be answered for acceptance, including state overreach and privacy where it would have a complete view of all transactions, the role of banks in this scenario, and if it really needs a decentralised system of money.

CBDCs conducting centralised finance operations is at odds with the idea of blockchain which seeks to promote decentralised finance. Permissioned-blockchains will limit the number of nodes, but the question remains: Who controls those nodes and what would be their objectives?

Despite varying views on policies, political power reigns supreme and it will be better to accept this reality. The State will want to have its influence in the society, especially in a socialist-democracy like India. It will have to take care of larger sections of the population, especially the vulnerable segments. Hence, the narrative of what’s good for the economy could be the prerogative of the State at its own discretion and decision.

However, the relationship between governments and cryptocurrencies need not be so antagonistic. Decentralised finance offers a great opportunity for better financial outcomes for people and addressing income inequality needs fresh ideas. The Indian government also needs to understand that cryptocurrencies have been regulated in other jurisdictions globally by applying existing frameworks to regulate them in some fashion.

Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, must realise that they gain legitimacy as more governments and markets are accepting of them. Governments, ultimately, must realise that cryptocurrencies were created as a reaction to neoliberal policies and wholly strive to understand how the state can build better outcomes for citizens. And accept new processes, however inconvenient it is politically.

The opportunity is now — to show how much transparency we can build, as we develop our policies of digital-finance, in this century dominated by the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Beginner Sep 11, 2020 Cryptocurrencies are known to be completely transparent and that all transactions are verifiable. However, not everyone might know exactly how this works. Today, we’d like to show how you can start verifying your transaction history and balances for yourself through a block explorer. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are very unique when comparing them to traditional money. They make use of a technology called blockchain. This is, in short, a distributed ledger of all transactions. What this means is that all the transactions ever made for each cryptocurrency are recorded on a single blockchain, holding its entire history.  Remember how you would keep your receipts and check your bank account each month, just to make sure that all transactions on it were correct? Or perhaps you just trusted your bank instead. Well, with cryptocurrencies, you don’t need to trust anyone – there are no third parties involved. Nearly all cryptocurrencies use public blockchains, where every detail of each transaction ever made can be seen.  What does this mean for you? Well aside from being able to see how much richer others might be than you, it actually serves a very valuable purpose: you can verify each transaction you’ve ever sent or received. If you feel like the service you are using isn’t showing the correct amount of Bitcoins, you can take a look for yourself and see whether it matches. Also if your friend “promised he made the transaction already” even though you haven’t received it, you can check the validity of their claim directly on the blockchain itself. As the famous saying goes: “Don’t trust, verify” – with cryptocurrencies, you can verify everything relating to transactions. So how can you check the entire history of a blockchain? Block explorers are your entry point into seeing all transactions that have ever existed on a blockchain. From here, you can check the balance of each address, see the details of each transaction and more. There are a lot of different block explorers out there, which makes sense: there are also a lot of different cryptocurrencies out there. Most often, a block explorer only caters to a single crypto asset. Some common block explorers include:– Bitcoin: blockchain.com & blockstream – Ethereum & ERC20 tokens: Etherscan & Ethplorer – XRP: Bithomp & XRP Charts What these block explorers allow you to do is look up the balance of individual addresses that you enter, or transaction details of any Transaction ID that you fill in. Once entered, you’ll see all the details. For addresses, this includes every incoming and outgoing transaction that the specific address has ever seen. For Transactions, it shows you who sent the transaction, how much has been sent, its destination and the fees that were paid for it. In short, a block explorer is kind of like an encyclopedia for blockchain transactions and addresses – its entire history can be looked up. Now to the practical part: let’s analyze a transaction on a block explorer. For those unfamiliar with cryptocurrency transactions, this might seem quite confusing. A mishmash of numbers and letters. Let’s break this down into smaller sections, and go over each separately. Here’s a screenshot from the blockchain.com block explorer for a Bitcoin transaction: 1. The transaction Hash ID The transaction hash, also known as the Transaction ID, is the identifier of this specific transaction. In simpler words: it’s the code associated with this transaction. If you ever want to look up the details of a certain transaction, you’ll need to enter this string of code into a block explorer. 2. The sending address(es) This section shows which address is sending cryptocurrencies associated to it, as well as how much it is sending. You can also click on the address to see its incoming and outgoing transaction history.  When you make a Bitcoin transaction, you will automatically send the full amount from your address with the rest sent to your change address. Let’s take a closer look at that: In this example, your address has a balance of 1 BTC. You want to send 0.1 BTC to a friend of yours. When you create a transaction, you will send the entire balance of your address. Of course, this doesn’t all go to your friend. They receive the 0.1 BTC as intended. The remaining 0.9 BTC is sent to your change address. This address is fully in your control. This is unique to Bitcoin and its derivatives – Ethereum and XRP wouldn’t send out the entire balance of an address, for example. 3. The fees Most cryptocurrency networks have fees associated with transactions. Bitcoin is no different in this. In this section, you can see how much the transaction has cost in fees. These fees are paid to those validating blocks for the network, which are filled with transactions. 4. The receiving address(es) In this section, we can see which addresses are the intended destination of a transaction. For each address, we can see how much they are receiving. Similarly to the sending address, you can click on the receiving ones to see their transaction history. Usually the bottom of these addresses is the previously explained change address.  5. The transaction’s status An often overlooked, yet very important part of a transaction: its status. For a transaction to be completed and considered valid, it first needs to be confirmed by those validating them. An unconfirmed transaction like the one shown above can still be ruled invalid or cancelled. It’s best to consider unconfirmed transactions as “not received yet” and wait till it’s actually confirmed. It is possible to see more than one sending or receiving address as well. This’d be through a more advanced feature known as “Transaction batching”. This is a commonly used feature by cryptocurrency exchanges, where they’d send cryptocurrencies to multiple people through a single transaction to reduce fee costs.  Whenever you start up Ledger Live, it synchronizes with blockchains to check for any new transactions or changes to your balance as well as how much your cryptocurrencies are currently worth. It updates this frequently when in use as well, to make sure it remains up to date.  However, it’s also important that you can check all the details of your past or incoming transactions. When you click on any transaction shown in Ledger Live, it will already show you the details. We do, however, also give you the opportunity to check a block explorer here so you can verify it there as well. This can be done by clicking on “View in Explorer”. You can from there also continue to check your address’s balance and verify that Ledger Live is showing the correct amount. In case of any outage in Ledger Live, a block explorer will always be able to show you how much of a certain cryptocurrency you currently have. With Ledger Live, we empower you to easily look up your balances – even when not using your hardware wallet. And it can do so much more – learn more about its powerful features here.  Share this article Related article

By Andre Kalinowski, founder at blockchain monitoring platform PARSIQBeing able to monitor and query public blockchains is one of the fundamental properties of cryptocurrencies. Publicly verifiable transactions are what proves that a transfer of value occurred. Even in so-called privacy coins, there still needs to be a mechanism to prove value has been moved from one address to another.The first block explorers were basic, used to verify a transaction had been added to the blockchain and not much more. The latest generation of blockchain monitoring such as PARSIQ offers something different. They are helping to make crypto safer, reduce market manipulation and increase transparency.Heres how:1. Making Crypto Safer by Tracking Stolen Funds There have been plenty of well-publicized hacks in recent years but its getting increasingly hard for the criminals to get away with the crime. This is because most cryptocurrency transactions are not completely anonymous, theyre merely pseudonymous, so once identified, stolen funds can be tracked, even when they are split up and sent to different addresses.Taking Bitcoin as an example, a Bitcoin address has no name or identity directly attached to it, yet if someone has knowledge of the connection between you and an address then every transaction youve made to and from it is there to be seen on the blockchain.This means that as soon as the funds are sent to an exchange, with the intention to convert the funds into fiat currencies, they can be frozen and recovered. In addition, once bitcoins are sent to a crypto exchange, a paper trail is created that can be linked to an individual. This is because every account on an exchange should theoretically at least be subject to KYC (Know Your Customer), and therefore have the ability to be tracked back to a particular person.Even without sending cryptocurrencies to an exchange, so-called Blockchain forensics has become big business both in the law enforcement and private sectors in recent years, and specialist techniques can be used to trace movements.2. Democratizing Information Market manipulation has long been a problem for cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency trading doesnt have the same level of regulatory oversight as traditional markets. Some of the more common practices of market manipulation are:Spoofing this is where a large order is placed to create the illusion of market optimism or pessimism, but it gets cancelled before the trade is filled.Front-running this is the act of getting advance knowledge of a trade that will influence the price, and taking advantage of that knowledge a type of insider trade.Wash trading this is where a market participant trades with itself in order to drive the price up or down, or just create the illusion of trading volume. Most wash trading is executed by automated bots, its sometimes used by exchanges to artificially inflate their daily trading volumes.These issues are made worse by the fact that crypto market volumes are small in comparison with traditional markets therefore small manipulations can have a large impact, especially outside of the top few cryptocurrencies.However, because blockchains are completely open, the movement of large amounts of funds to exchanges can be tracked and used to anticipate trades. By reacting quickly to these moves, the information can be used to reduce the impact of big trading events, or to take advantage of the resulting volatility of cryptocurrency markets.3. Utilize the Mempool to Provide an Early Warning System The Mempool which is short for Memory Pool is a holding area for pending transactions which are waiting to be added to the blockchain by the miners.When a transaction is transmitted to a blockchain network it first must get verified by all of the nodes which run the network. Once it passes verification, it sits inside a nodes Unconfirmed Transactions database, otherwise known as the Mempool. The transaction waits there until a miner picks it up and includes it in the next block.The Mempool is often considered to be the blockchains backlog, its also where any scaling problems manifest itself if the network cant keep up, the Mempool will keep queuing transactions. This the reason Bitcoin forked into Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in August 2017 - Bitcoin Cash increased the blocksize in order to prevent potential backlogs and delays in the network.If something significant is happening, such as a large amount of crypto going to an exchange, the Mempool is where youll see it first. Its cryptos early warning system, and were on the cusp of being able to use it to give extra level of insights into trading activities, alert for crypto hacks, or predict high trading volumes and potential volatility.Conclusion Although blockchains are - by their nature - open for everyone to see, the transparency is clouded by size and complexity. To date, there has been a lack of sophisticated tools that have the automation and deep analytics necessary to perform monitoring of at scale and in real-time. This has meant that a small number of bad actors have been able to manipulate it to their advantage.However, a new generation of tools are coming to the market. These tools will make crypto safer, they will reduce the volatility of cryptocurrencies, and reduce manipulation. Its another step towards opening up crypto, and encouraging widespread adoption.

-Bitcoin news, price, information & analysis Most people see blockchain technology as a way to reduce costs in the financial ecosystem. While it is certainly true Bitcoin technology can help institutions save a lot of money, there are other technologies which can be beneficial as well. Machine learning can help reduce costs on transaction monitoring, which is quite an interesting strategy to consider. Regardless of how people want to look at things, the financial world will be undergoing some changes shortly. Fighting crime, money laundering, and terrorism financing all hinges on new technology and digitization. Using blockchain technology to achieve these goals is only a logical conclusion. At the same time, it is important to keep an eye on other emerging technologies. Machine learning can play a significant role in automating the future of finance, especially when transaction monitoring is concerned. That is, assuming financial institutions can overcome the challenges associated with this process. Up until this point, a lot of false positives have been generated as far as fraud prevention is concerned. Transaction monitoring is not as easy as it may sound, as it is difficult to determine illicit patterns. Coming up with new and accurate solutions is direly needed, but there is only so much the human element can do. Ensuring the accuracy of data, as well as streamlining downstream reporting for transaction monitoring, can benefit from machine learning. Since most companies and enterprises use multiple systems for different products, the results need to be consistent across all platforms. Automating these efforts seems to be the only right way forward in this day and age. The transaction monitoring industry is particularly ripe for automation, even more so than other financial industries. Machine learning offers a robust solution in this regard, and the software can learn from its mistakes moving forward. In the long run, this should reduce the risk of error. Combining machine learning with blockchain technology for transaction monitoring could lead to a very potent combination. With the transparent and real-time nature of blockchain-based transactions, and using machine learning to monitor everything, the number of false reports should eventually be reduced to zero. Header image courtesy of Shutterstock Gaming Platform with Mass Gambling Games framework for blockchain based business integration Blockchain rewards and loyality platform TRADING PLATFORM AND CRYPTO NEWS TV CHANNEL Virtual reality concerts broadcasting Blockchain platform for investment in neuro-medicine and neuro-technologies. Blockchain-enabled business platform CRYPTOCURRENCY LENDING, TRADING AND EXCHANGE platform NewsBTC is a news service that covers bitcoin news, technical analysis & forecasts for bitcoin and other altcoins. Here at NewsBTC, we are dedicated to enlightening people all around the world about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We cover news related to bitcoin exchanges, bitcoin mining and price forecasts for various virtual currencies. Featuring live charts, price analysis, breaking news, currency converter and more. The only bitcoin app you need! © 2018 NewsBTC. All Rights Reserved.

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Businesses interested in working with Ethereum on AWS can now do so as Amazon has announced that Ethereum support is now generally available on the Amazon Managed Blockchain.

First announced back in 2018, the Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service that allows users of Amazon's cloud computing platform to set up and manage a scalable blockchain network with just a few clicks. The service also eliminates the overhead required to create a blockchain network and can automatically scale to meet the demands of thousands of applications running millions of transactions.

For those unfamiliar, Ethereum is a popular decentralized blockchain framework that establishes a peer-to-peer network that allows participants to make transactions without a trusted central authority. It enables a number of popular use cases including decentralized finance (DeFi) which is a network of financial applications built on top of blockchain networks.

As organizations build Ethereum-based applications, they often find it to be complicated and time-consuming to operate and manage their Ethereum infrastructure due to data reliability as a result of out-of-sync nodes, data scaling challenges and time-sensitive Ethereum software upgrades.

With AWS' new launch, its customers can now easily provision Ethereum nodes in minutes and connect to the public Ethereum main network in order to test networks such as Rinkeby and Ropsten.

Amazon Managed Blockchain provides customers with secure networking, encryption at rest and transport, secure access to the network via standard open source Ethereum APIs, fast and reliable syncs to the Ethereum blockchain and durable elastic storage for ledger data. The web hosting giant's blockchain service also monitors node health, replaces unhealthy nodes and automates Ethereum software upgrades in order to improve the availability of customers' Ethereum infrastructure.

In addition to DeFi applications, customers building smart contract monitoring tools and fraud detection software can also benefit from this scalable and fully managed Ethereum service on Amazon Managed Blockchain.

Ethereum on Amazon Managed Blockchain is now available in the US East (N. Virginia), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Seoul), Europe (Ireland), and Europe (London) AWS regions.

Amazon Web Service (AWS) has made a very interesting announcement today. From now on, Ethereum will be made available by way of Amazon Managed Blockchain. Through this, Amazon will provide the world with a new managed and scalable solution.

It’s a safe assumption to make that Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency out there, and certainly is so when looking at the market caps. Recently, Etheruem has gained a significant amount of support and recognition, with Amazon’s newfound support for it only piling on top of that. It seems that Bitcoin has, more or less, been taken in by the institutions, and now they’re looking for the other big fish in the crypto space to invest in.

The announcement from AWS is a very big event for Ethereum in general. It will allow developers within Ethereum to have a better general time in the creation of automatic software upgrades, general application, and scaling solutions to meet demands.

Indeed, Amazon highlighted that customers of AWS will now be capable of providing Ethereum nodes within a matter of minutes and with great ease. From there, the users will easily be capable of connecting with the various public networks of Ethereum, either the test nets, like Ropsten or Rinkeby, or the main net itself.

AWS was quick to praise its own new service, highlighting the many features it promised would be absolutely amazing. It highlighted how Ethereum users will now gain access to secure encryption and networking, be it at rest or at transport. Users will be able to access this network through any standard open-sourced Ethereum API, and AWS boasts reliable, quick syncs with the Ethereum blockchain at large. Furthermore, this new service also boasts elastic storage within the ledger storage.

Another feature of Amazon Managed Blockchain is the monitoring of node health and the automatic replacement of unhealthy nodes. It automates the upgrading process for Ethereum and gives an overall availability increase when it comes to the infrastructure for customers.

Users in the process of developing various solutions for the Ethereum network, be it fraud detection software, smart contract monitoring tools, or just general analytics products, will be able to benefit greatly as well. Amazon Managed Blockchain boasts to be widely available, highly scalable, as well as fully managed.

Time will tell how successful a service this will be, but it’s clear that Amazon wants a piece of the Ethereum pie. Indeed, the mainstream players are all starting to take notice of various other forms of crypto besides Bitcoin, as the world’s greatest cryptocurrency managed to propel the rest into the mainstream’s eyes, as well.

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency based on blockchain technology that uses cryptography as a means of security. Possibly, Satoshi Nakamoto is a brilliant person or a pseudonymous name for a team of geniuses that created the first bitcoin in 2008.

Cryptocurrency is simply a medium of exchange. It is a digital asset, which is designed to ensure financial transactions are safer using strong encryption, to track the output of additional units and to monitor asset transfer. Unlike centralized controlling and regulatory networks of digital currencies and banking, cryptocurrency uses decentralized monitoring systems.

The demand for cryptocurrencies is rising every day. Bitcoin is the most widely used form of cryptocurrency. Inspite of rising in popularity, cryptocurrencies are banned in some countries. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bolivia to name a few.

Let us see why come countries consider bitcoin as a threat to the nation;

In some countries, Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies are considered troublesome as they cannot be monitored or regulated by the government and financial institutions. Whatever justification a nation provides for banning crypto, it is all about keeping control of its own financial system.

The cryptocurrency market attracts people and criminals associated with tax evasion and money-laundering.

Our traditional banking institutions, which are recognized by most governments, are being challenged by the cryptocurrency sector. This means, transactions take place outside our normal banking system and can be carried out by someone who has not used the bank before, making it difficult to track the transaction.

For religious reasons, Saudi Arabia has outlawed Bitcoin, arguing that it is incompatible with Muslim law. Iceland forbade Bitcoin to protect itself against too much money leaving the country. On the simple ground that it does not control, it was forbidden by the Bolivian Government.

In 2015, Ecuador issued its own national cryptocurrency as a compliant scheme connected to the local currency, adding convenience to regular transactions. Many countries have lined up to launch their own digital currency.

Since there is no centralized database, the loss of a digital wallet could lead to a permanent loss of virtual currency. The presence of a digital wallet makes it more vulnerable to theft, such as robbery, hacking and malware. Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile in nature because there is no protection asset backing them.

Because of its anonymous function, there is a risk of violating laws against money laundering and countering the funding of terrorism.

The topic of taxation is one of the many issues that emerge from enabling investment in and the use of cryptocurrencies. In this regard, the problem seems to be how to categorize cryptocurrencies for tax purposes and the particular activities involving them.

Is banning crypto a solution? When other countries worldwide are exploring and using the cryptocurrency market to build their economy.

GoodReturns.in

How’s the first registered offering of security tokens in the U.S. going? See for yourself.

In the two weeks since INX Ltd. commenced its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), more than 350 investors’ Ethereum addresses have been added to the “white list” of approved buyers. You don’t need to take the company’s word for it, it’s all on the blockchain, viewable through block explorer sites like Etherscan. 

The public data doesn’t show who these approved investors are or how many of the tokens, priced at $0.90 each, any of them has agreed to buy. (On Thursday, the company announced that registrations – investors who have signed up but not yet been whitelisted – had passed 3,000 in the first three days of the sale and that it had secured the minimum $7.5 million needed before it could start accepting crypto from investors.)

But doing an IPO on-chain gives the public, and INX itself, a novel vista on the process, which traditionally has been a back-room affair. 

Traditionally, to get information on who beneficially owns an interest in securities held at central securities depositories like The Depository Trust Company, investors or issuers would have to go to the investment banks or broker-dealers who coordinated the sale, said Lewis Cohen, a principal at DLx Law.

INX claims the additional transparency will change how issuers relate to investors. 

“Never before has an issuer had such a transparent view of who its ultimate beneficial owners are,” said Jonathan Azeroual, co-founder and vice president of INX, in one of the first interviews given by company executives since it came out of its pre-IPO quiet period. “The value relies on the ability to connect with your token holders in a way never experienced before.” 

The shared ledger could also open a window onto trading patterns after the INX tokens have been distributed. 

See also: INX Scales Down US IPO Target to $117M – Still Set to Be Crypto’s Largest

“A potential benefit of using a blockchain is that data service companies could conceivably build models to try and analyze movements in the security tokens on-chain and start to create data that is interesting to investors, correlating the timing and amounts of transfers to sales and other events,” said Cohen, who is not involved in the INX transaction.

However, the ability to accurately track share transfers will be diminished if investors are allowed to have two or more whitelisted addresses, added Cohen, who made his bones as a securities lawyer and now specializes in blockchain work. Azeroual said INX hasn’t opened the ability to whitelist multiple addresses, but expects to after the offering ends. 

Rarefied as it may sound, the whitelist is not some exclusive country club. On the contrary, unlike previous unregistered security token sales, which were open only to well-heeled investors in the U.S., INX is soliciting the general public. (INX is seeking to raise $117 million through the sale, which is expected to take several weeks to complete.)

Whitelisting simply means Tokensoft, INX’s transfer agent, has verified investors’ identities and made sure they are not on a government sanction list. If an address isn’t on the list, the smart contract will not allow it to receive tokens.

“In this token contract, we want to do what we call preventative compliance,” said James Poole, chief technology officer at Tokensoft. “We want to set it up so the rules are enforced on the blockchain and there doesn’t need to be anybody sitting between these transactions in a peer-to-peer fashion.”

INX stressed the time it has been working with regulators on the sale – two and a half years – which is also reflected on the blockchain. The 200 million INX tokens were minted 218 days ago, according to the INX token tracker on Etherscan.

Looking at the main token contract on Etherscan, anyone can see the full supply of INX tokens that Poole said were minted before the sale but have yet to be distributed as outlined in the prospectus, At some point in the future, the INX tokens will be distributed to the buyers. 

So far, transactions on the blockchain are only additions of whitelisted investors. Soon they’ll be interspersed with transactions, transfers and distributions, Poole said. 

Counting the whitelisted investor transactions on Etherscan gives observers a rough estimate of how many investors have registered for the sale. Given the lengthy process investors have to go through to register, there could be more investors in the pipeline, said Poole. 

“The number of people who are interested in this is higher than the number of people [visible] on the blockchain,” he said. 

On-chain smart contracts give regulators assurance that know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) rules are being followed with an easily accessible audit log to prove it, said Douglas Borthwick, chief marketing officer and head of business development at INX. 

“One thing that folks have always been anxious about when it comes to crypto has been anonymity,” said Borthwick. “Obviously that’s a problem in the securities market as well. Now, we’re adding KYC/AML on a smart contract and whitelisting on the smart contract so that it allows you to trade things without having to worry about moving it into the wrong hands.”

A blockchain doesn’t remove every compliance hurdle, however. INX’s prospectus notes that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) views the Ethereum blockchain as only a courtesy record and that either Tokensoft’s or INX’s records will be the primary ones.

“What counts when it comes to determining share ownership, what counts is what [INX calls] the ‘INX Registry,’” Cohen said. “The INX Registry does not appear to utilize the Ethereum blockchain … To [its] credit, INX is paving the way for when on-chain transfers become the definitive record of ownership.”

Azeroual said that while the transfer agent is the final system of record for U.S. regulators, “the Ethereum blockchain is what is used by the transfer agent to get those records as a reliable source of truth.”

At the same time, unlike stocks, which traditionally list on a single exchange, INX tokens will be tradeable on any digital platform that can handle blockchain securities 24/7, Borthwick said. 

“Stocks do have multiple listings sometimes – say NYSE and LSE – but it is a time-consuming process, and expensive,” Borthwick said. “Whereas a security token like INX can trade and will trade on multiple exchanges at once, and all that is required is some lines of code.”

With a direct relationship between issuers and holders, the need for third parties to handle dividend payments and ownership discovery could disappear, Borthwick added.

Since INX is not going public on a national exchange, its IPO will last for weeks and possibly months because the company has to comply with Blue Sky Laws, which are state-level, anti-fraud regulations for security issuers. 

“The Blue Sky Laws means we have to apply to each state,” Borthwick said. “We have to show them our F-1,” the prospectus for issuers outside the U.S. (INX is based in Gibraltar.) “The state then looks at the F-1 and asks us to add in different sections to protect the citizens of their specific states.” (Eventually, there will be secondary trading of the INX token on crypto exchanges, he said, declining to name any.) 

So while INX has been given approval by the SEC, the exchange has to apply for a permit from each state to sell the securities. Some states may restrict the sale to accredited investors or institutions, and some will allow INX to sell to anyone, he added.

Read more: INX Crypto Exchange to Launch $117M IPO Next Week

To get the SEC on board, INX and Tokensoft had to get the regulator comfortable with the latter company being the transfer agent, said Mason Borda, CEO of Tokensoft. If someone loses their wallet, Tokensoft can freeze the token, investigate it, revoke the token and assign it to a newly generated wallet. 

Since there are transfer restrictions on securities, the token had to use the ERC-1404 standard, which allows an issuer to impose said restrictions, Borda added. (ERC-1404 is a layer on top of ERC-20, the standard that spawned the initial coin offerings of the 2017 bull market.) The INX  token also allows for adding administrator accounts in case INX wants to use a different transfer agent.

INX plans to use the sale proceeds to build an exchange for trading cryptocurrencies, security tokens and derivatives; the tokens will be redeemable for trading fees and entitle holders to a cut of the future exchange’s profits.

While some of the rowdier voices on crypto Twitter have criticized INX for not using the Bitcoin blockchain (even though INX’s early investors and advisers include stalwart Bitcoiners like Samson Mow and Jameson Lopp, respectively) Borthwick said Ethereum was the only blockchain regulators were comfortable with in 2017 when INX embarked on its journey. 

“The cryptosphere has no comprehension of this,” he said. “There are certainly lots of shortcuts and ways that we could make things more efficient, but that doesn’t cross the t’s and dot the i’s.”

Cohen, the lawyer, compared the innovations of tokenization and subsequently INX’s blockchain IPO to the centuries-old invention of the joint-stock company, which made it possible to own an indirect interest in a business that continued after its founder died. 

“If one of the things that INX does is provide investors with an enhanced relationship with itself through the use of the token, I think that would be a real game-changer,” Cohen said.

UPDATE (Sept. 10, 13:17 UTC): Added new information about status of sale to third paragraph.

Based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) topology, blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT). This technology allows data to be stored globally on thousands of servers, with any network user being able to see all the entries that appear at any time. This makes it nearly impossible to gain control of the network.

Blockchain aims to provide transparent transactions for companies, including the ability to create secure networks and real-time communications with partners around the world.

The process of installing and setting up nodes is quite laborious and time-consuming, though, which paved the way to node providers, companies that provide services to other startups or businesses looking to use the blockchain.

In our work at GetBlock since 2019, we have seen various companies that have chosen blockchain as the direction of their business development turn to specialized blockchain service providers to set up nodes.

Blockchain providers offer nodes to enterprises and individual developers as a tool that helps them build decentralized applications faster, so they don’t need to spend engineering time maintaining and managing nodes themselves.

A blockchain node is an open-source, cross-platform runtime that allows developers to create various services. The P2P protocol allows nodes to communicate with each other within the network and transfer information about transactions and new blocks.

Network nodes are responsible for the correctness and reliability of storing the entered data in the distributed ledger. Each node can store a complete copy of the distributed ledger. Thanks to the blockchain nodes, any user can access the data and can view all transactions conducted or stored on the network.

Launching a network node used to be practically the only way to connect to the blockchain. Each new node contributes to the decentralization of the blockchain network, shortening the transaction time, and reducing fees.

By setting up your node, you receive a small income from the transactions that go through your channels.

Nodes participate in consensus, share information about transactions and the number of funds, confirm transactions and store copies of confirmations, participate in the building of new blocks in the chain, for which they receive a reward.

A business using nodes is built on receiving commissions for transfers, purchase/sale of cryptocurrency assets on the exchange.

To deploy a full node, a number of requirements must be taken into account. If earlier it was possible to launch a node on weak equipment, now, when blockchains have grown into popular networks, memory and processor power are a decisive factor in the successful deployment of a node.

Before starting to deploy a node, you need to clarify the minimum hardware requirements. They may differ for each of the currently existing cryptocoins. For example,  the minimum requirements for installing a Bitcoin node are:

Running your own Ethereum node requires system administrator skills. Synchronization of an Ethereum node is possible in three modes: fast, full, and light. By default, fast is used. In this mode, there is no download of transaction history, wallet balances, smart contract codes.

The most expensive is full mode as it requires powerful hardware: 16 Gb of RAM and a capacious SSD disk. Synchronization of the Ethereum archive node with tracing can take several weeks, and even then, on an SSD disk. In case of an error in the client/software version for a node, it is necessary to re-synchronize the node from scratch. This can be an expensive process. You should also take care of the security of your site, which will require cybersecurity skills.

If you start synchronization from the HDD (hard disk), the node may not "sync" due to the difference between the speed of blockchain creation (as a rule, it is higher) and the speed of writing to disk. Both the speed of the network connection and the power of the equipment are important.

The Ethereum light node synchronization mode has the most complaints. Errors often occur, although this mode is one of the most balanced: fast synchronization, less resource use, wallet balances, and smart contracts are pulled up.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin network is supported by over 11 thousand nodes. Most of them are deployed in North America and Western Europe. There are 6447 active Ethereum nodes, according to the statistics of 10 countries with the highest number of nodes.

You can connect a node either to the main network or run it on a test network for any of your purposes: testing, development.

The standard Ethereum node runs right in the console by default. It runs as a background process by writing service in the system or starting a node on the screen. You should carefully monitor in which mode the node is started. If the node is run in test mode, then you will not be able to track transactions.

To install a Bitcoin node, you need to create a folder to store blockchain data somewhere in your filesystem. To sync the full bitcoin blockchain, 380 GB is required today.

The process can take a long time. Hardware problems can also be detected, and an interrupted download will resume from the moment it was interrupted. After a successful copy, the client starts the blockchain synchronization process. Further, to start the node, you need to allow an incoming connection through port 8333 in your firewall.

The next step is to check if the node is working. To do this, send a request to the node with any information about the service, or request data from the blockchain.

You will also want to monitor the node, for which you can use a standard service availability check on the TCP port. If the node crashes, you will have to restart it manually.

Problems you may face when deploying a node yourself:

As a summary, launching a full node on your own requires you: financial costs for purchasing equipment complying with that node requirements, ensuring uninterrupted Internet connection, and the ability to use the command line.

As we have already found out, you can install the node yourself, only lack of experience and technical difficulties can significantly complicate this task.

To resolve technical issues, there are blockchain-as-a-service companies that manage all the necessary tasks and activities to keep the blockchain infrastructure operational. The node provider deploys the core resources and uses the necessary technologies and infrastructure to set up and maintain the nodes connected to the blockchain.

Based on the needs of your business, the provider can provide access to the networks of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Litecoin, and others. The provider assumes responsibility for all actions related to the node.

For the client, the node provider is a means of entering and exiting the blockchain at any time.

By using the services of blockchain providers, you can focus on your core business and strategies, trusting professionals to manage the blockchain infrastructure and its performance.

On-premises blockchain may be much more expensive than cloud offerings.

In the first case, the high cost is due to:

With such resource costs, the cost of the service can be quite high at the initial stage.

The actual costs of using cloud solutions depend on additional factors:

For those interested in blockchain and considering the option of developing their business using decentralized distributed ledger technology, the following is a list of 5 popular node providers that offer access to the nodes of the most popular cryptocurrencies:

You choose the provider and the required node, and the supplier company will carry out all the settings and installation.

In the following section we will show how you typically interact with a Blockchain-as-a-Service provider at the API level by taking the stack we developed at GetBlock as a reference.

If you have been integrating services with crypto exchanges at least once, tried to deploy a Bitcoin or Ethereum node, or set up a multicurrency wallet yourself, then you probably know all the complexities of these processes.

Using the services of the GetBlock company, you get the opportunity to use a ready-made service without thinking about manual configuration and constant maintenance of the relevance of the data. The service is responsible for handling any hardware issues, synchronization, and interoperability across multiple nodes.

GetBlock solves many of these problems by providing API access to most of the popular cryptocurrencies. APIs add efficiency to business models by streamlining and simplifying the developer's work, giving them flexibility and new perspectives. You don't need to think about your host and its network connectivity. The service provides the smooth operation and maintenance you need so you can fully focus on your business.

Information on node endpoints and supported API methods can be found in Documentation provided by the service. At this level, GetBlock uses several popular methods: REST, JSON-RPC, and WebSockets.

Rate limits, the number of API calls an app or user can make within a given time period, are set to a minimum of 10 requests/second. The limits can be exceeded due to overall usage (autoscaling).

Availability for each node is displayed in real-time on the Nodes page of the website (later on, availability will be displayed on the node specification pages provided for each node, for example, BTC).

To start using the platform, a user has to register an account and receive an API key – a unique identifier that authenticates requests associated with the project. This API key will be displayed on the dashboard together with the statistics such as available requests, bandwidth usage, and most common API methods:

For example, if you are interacting with the Ethereum data, you can make a JSON-RPC request over HTTP. To send JSON RPC over HTTP, it is required to send the request using POST to URL eth.getblock.io with the headers Content-Type:application/json and x-api-key:your-api-key, and also, the request body.

Here is an example of retrieving the last block number:

Benefits of using a node service provider versus running your own node through the example of GetBlock:

In this article, we have reviewed the concept of a blockchain node, the problems a developer might face while deploying a node, and the working principle of node service providers. We found that developers don’t need to use complex software to integrate the blockchain into their products, maintain wallets, or download terabytes of raw blockchain information as there is an alternative.

Even if you are a novice coder who has no practical experience in creating blockchain-related programs, you will be able to easily apply APIs in their line of business – all you need to do is to choose a blockchain API provider. An account on GetBlock or other Blockchain-as-a-Service provider can become an effective tool for obtaining analytics of your applications on the blockchain through the nodes serviced by the platform.

Whale activity is on the rise as the large crypto entities relocate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP.

In a flurry of tweets, the blockchain monitoring tool known as Whale Alert reports dozens of large BTC, ETH and XRP transactions in the past day.

One of the largest transactions involved one whale moving 1,500 BTC worth $71.13 million US-based crypto exchange Coinbase to a wallet at the digital asset storage company Xapo.

Tx: https://t.co/KcOPDAurBK

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 15, 2021

Additionally, 100 BTC worth $4.8 million suddenly came to life after the crypto moved from a wallet that was last active in 2014.

As for whales of XRP, the big-time crypto investors transferred a total of 435,196,907 XRP worth $241.38 million. Four transfers moved large amounts of the asset from crypto exchanges to unknown wallets while one transaction shifted XRP from one wallet of unknown origins to another unknown wallet.

Here’s a summary of large XRP transactions in the past 24 hours:

Looking at Ethereum whales, the large crypto entities moved a total of 94,126 ETH worth $168.9 million in the past day.

Four transactions shifted ETH from a crypto exchange to unknown wallets. In addition, two transactions relocated ETH from a crypto lending platform to wallets of unknown origins while three whales moved ETH between unknown wallets.

Here’s the summary:

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Oliver.zs

Amazon Web Services has announced that its Ethereum service is now accessible through its Amazon Managed Blockchain.

The news was confirmed in early March 2021 by AWS, giving users the ability to set up Ethereum nodes and connect to the Ethereum main network and its test networks through the Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB).

The Amazon Managed Blockchain allows users to join public networks and set up or manage private networks using open-source frameworks like the Hyperledger project.

“With this launch, AWS customers can easily provision Ethereum nodes in minutes and connect to the public Ethereum main network and test networks such as Rinkeby and Ropsten. With Amazon Managed Blockchain, customers get secure networking, encryption at rest and transport, secure access to the network via standard open-source Ethereum APIs, fast and reliable syncs to the Ethereum blockchain, and durable elastic storage for ledger data,” the statement from AWS explained.

The announcement noted that a driving factor behind providing an onramp to the Ethereum ecosystem was the growth of the blockchain and growing number of decentralized applications (Dapps) powered by its smart contract functionality.

As more developers begin building applications on the Ethereum blockchain, they face teething problems managing the infrastructure needed to run their Dapps. Data reliability caused by out-of-sync nodes, scaling challenges, node crashes, and software upgrades are noted by AMB as areas of concern that developers face and may be solved by its newly-launched Ethereum compatibility.

AMB reportedly monitors node health, replaces unhealthy nodes and carries out Ethereum software upgrades to improve users access to its infrastructure. Users that are building smart contract and blockchain monitoring tools can also make use of the AMB Ethereum service.

The initial launch of Ethereum support through AMB will only be available in specific regions around the world. This includes North Virginia in the USA, Singapore, Japan’s capital city Tokyo, South Korean-capital Seoul, Ireland, and London in the UK. 

Scalability is one of the crypto industry’s most obvious issues. Difficulty scaling poses an even bigger problem for Ethereum, which is among the most-used blockchain networks.

According to YCharts, daily transactions on Ethereum reached an all-time high in September 2020 at 1.4 million transfers, surpassing its previous record of 1.278 million from January 2018. With the DeFi space booming, this number is expected to increase further, with Ethereum currently processing over 1.3 million transactions (as of February 10).

To enable further growth, the OMG Network (formerly OmiseGo) has introduced a scalability solution for Ethereum, which we will explore in this article.

Formerly OmiseGo, the OMG Network is a layer-two scaling solution for transferring value on Ethereum.

Simply put, a layer-two scaling solution is a blockchain (the OMG child chain) based on top of another blockchain (Ethereum).

Moving transactions to a faster chain with a higher throughput frees up valuable block space on the main blockchain while speeding up and lowering costs.

The OMG Network does exactly that while preserving the security and trustlessness of layer-two transactions.

The OMG Network is compatible with both ETH and ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, and the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has already integrated it for its native USDT stablecoin transfers, withdrawals, and deposits.

Before deep-diving into how the OMG Network works, let’s take a brief look at the blockchain scalability problem with a focus on Ethereum.

While centralized systems, such as Visa, PayPal, or MasterCard, can process thousands of transactions per second, decentralized networks often struggle with limited scalability.

The main reason behind the issue is the intensive mechanisms needed to reach consensus and verify data on blockchain networks, which are key to maintaining a high level of decentralization and security.

For that reason, every validator in the network has to reach a consensus to verify transactions and add new blocks to the chain. Bitcoin can handle only around 5 transactions per second (TPS), while Ethereum can process up to 15 TPS.

When scalability is limited and the network experiences high demand, it can easily get congested, leading to excessive transaction fees and processing times.

Currently, due to the heavy use of decentralized finance (DeFi) apps, Ethereum is under significant load. As a result, the network is getting increasingly congested, with the average gas price reaching $24.67 on February 9.

To free up block space on the Ethereum chain, OMG uses More Viable Plasma (MoreVP), an update of the Plasma layer two scaling technology.

Here, the OMG Network bundles transfers together, compresses them into a single transaction, and moves it to the OMG child chain (the layer two chain on top of Ethereum) for verification.

As the last step, the child chain sends the verified transfers back to the Ethereum main blockchain for final verification.

Due to the scaling technology’s efficiency, the OMG Network is able to process thousands of transactions per second, with every transfer routed through OMG costing exactly one-third of what it would cost on Ethereum.

The reason why the OMG child chain can scale so well is due to the fact that there is only a single node, called the operator, in the network. For comparison, there are around 8,000 nodes on Ethereum.

While the single-node structure makes the OMG child chain more centralized than Ethereum, it allows it to achieve much higher transaction throughput than the main blockchain.

However, despite the operator’s centralized nature, a network of decentralized computers, called the watchers, are constantly monitoring the operator for suspicious or malicious activity to ensure the data submitted to the Ethereum blockchain is correct.

Furthermore, since validators on the Ethereum blockchain have to finalize transactions routed through the OMG Network, a similar level of security and decentralization is achieved during the whole process as with standard transfers on the main chain.

Also, the OMG child chain is non-custodial, which means that the users’ funds never actually leave the Ethereum network but instead are put into a smart contract. For that reason, even if OMG goes offline or suffers a major attack, users will be able to recover their funds.

The OMG token (OMG) is the native token of the OMG Network that is used to pay the fees of layer-two transfers with the opportunity for watchers to stake the coin.

The OMG Network held an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) back in June 2017, in which it collected $25 million from investors. Interestingly, OMG is one of the few crypto projects that have managed to survive 2017’s ICO boom with significant price appreciation.

In fact, the OMG token has surged from its initial $0.35 valuation to $5.68, representing an all-time ROI of 1,520% as of February 10, 2021.

The OMG Network is an exciting cryptocurrency project that seeks to provide a viable solution to one of the blockchain space’s most important problems by enhancing Ethereum’s scalability.

In June 2020, the project released the beta version of OMG Network, which has been deployed on the Ethereum mainnet.

Since its launch, OMG has integrated its layer two scaling solution with multiple cryptocurrency services, including Bitfinex for USDT transfers as well as the Ledger hardware wallet, with the project looking to strike new partnerships with more digital asset enterprises.

In the meantime, be sure to check out the next-generation, LSEG-powered cryptocurrency exchange AAX to trade OMG.

Let’s find out some interesting crypto news for today.

ENJIN announced the listing of ENJ on Japan’s GMO Exchange. Moreover, GMO provides financial services fostered by GMO Internet, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It provides a secure and robust ecosystem for cryptocurrency transactions. Apart from crypto-assets investment, GMO Coin also provides leverage trading options.

Notably, crypto-collectibles and NFTs are exploding nowadays and gaining popularity. Further, Enjin empowers game developers by allowing game items to be tokenized and incorporated into their own games without any knowledge of blockchain. Hence, this news will open new opportunities for the Enjin project to explore more markets. Additionally, this fueled the price of ENJ to over $1. At the time of press, it is trading at $1.12, which is amounted to over a 200% rise in the past 30 days.

PAID Network partnered with DAO Maker to fuel the IDO launch on the Ignition launchpad. Moreover, DAO Maker supports projects to obtain a community and then uses the project’s token in adding value to those communities. As per the tweet, DAO Maker will boost the PAID ecosystem by identifying and incentivizing the best behavioral fits of Ignition participants. Furthermore, Shadows, the first project launched on Ignition, aims to be a decentralized financial hub that facilitates trading, issuing, lending, and borrowing synthetic assets.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the general availability of Ethereum on Amazon Managed Blockchain. As per the official blog, AWS users will get the facility to provision Ethereum nodes in few minutes and connect to the public Ethereum main network, as well as test networks such as Rinkeby and Ropsten. Moreover, Amazon Managed Blockchain provides secure networking via Ethereum’s open-source APIs to the customer. Besides this, Amazon Managed Blockchain provides services such as nodes management, automation of Ethereum software upgrades, and more. Additionally, this will also empower developers to build smart contracts and monitoring tools through its scalable and fully managed Ethereum service.

MANTRA DAO announced its support of Polygon for multi-chain expansion. Moreover, Polygon is an easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development that connects secured chains. This expansion will boost the Polygon version of dApps that will feature payments of MATIC tokens while processing on-chain transactions. In addition, MANTRA DAO will utilize the Polygon SDK to create complex and scalable dApps to enhance their product offerings.

Power Ledger partnered with Tata Power-DDL and India SmartGridF to launch the first live solar energy trading project in Delhi. According to the official blog, Power Ledger will facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) trading of solar power, which is a pilot project currently testing in India’s capital city, Delhi. In addition, TPDDL’s 150 sites and their customers will use this platform to sell excess energy to other commercial and residential sites. This whole transaction process will occur on Power Ledger’s blockchain which takes near-time settlement with complete transparency. Additionally, this P2P trading trial will continue till June 2021, which will go through different trading algorithms.

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