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Rakuten, an eCommerce giant based in Japan, is going crypto

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Rakuten

You probably have never heard about Rakuten because it operates in Asia mainly. Mostly in Japan. It’s an e-commerce firm founded in 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani. It’s Japan’s largest e-commerce, and it’s among the largest in the world by sales.

It also owns and operates the country’s largest internet bank and the credit card company with the highest transaction value. And if that wasn’t enough, the firm has a lot of fingers in lots of other pies (fintech, digital content, communications) and it operates in 29 countries. It’s been dubbed “Japan’s Amazon.”

While the company was heavily focused on the domestic market in the beginning, it started to expand overseas in 2005, mainly through acquisitions and joint ventures. The company bought e-commerce platforms in the US, France, Brazil, Germany, the UK, Spain, and Canada. And that was just the start. The company’s growth has been strepitous.

This year will see Rakuten expand its operations into a new realm: the digital asset exchange game.

Authorization comes through

Last March (last month) 29th it was reported in Japan that the company will launch a new service called Rakuten Wallet, which will be the firm’s very own cryptocurrency exchange. It will go online later this year, in June. But you can send your application for a new account as early as April 15th, if you’re the kind of cryptonaut who likes to get in the action first.

Rakuten explained that a mobile app will enable customers to trade in cryptocurrencies. Accounts will be free, and all funds will be stored in cold wallets.

Rakuten’s new service has been in the works for some time now, but it had not made a move to actually launch it because it was waiting for regulatory approval from the Financial Services Agency (the Japanese financial markets regulator agency), which it finally received last March 25th.

That wasn’t the only permit granted by the FSA as it gave the green light to DeCurret to go online next April.

Rakuten already owns a cryptocurrency exchange called Everybody’s Bitcoin for USD 2.4 million last August, and it’s not clear how both exchanges will relate to each other.

Not many details are known about the new exchange. We don’t know if it will be decentralized, nor how many (and which) coins will be included in the platform for a start. But there’s plenty of time for news about Rakuten to develop from here to June, and we’ll be sure to report new details as they become available.

Rakuten has had great success in every business it has ever attempted, and we have no reason to doubt that if it goes into the cryptocurrency exchange market, the results will be equally successful.

This is good news for the crypto verse as a whole, not just for Rakuten or for Japanese traders. Big corporations, such as Rakuten, have been thoroughly skeptic about the digital asset world for almost a decade. So to see even a handful of them get their feet wet in the crypto waters shows that Bitcoin and all its descendants are gaining a good reputation among those who, in the past, didn’t like them at all.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

India’s Federal Bank joins the blockchain era

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Federal Bank is a traditional financial institution from India. The name alone makes it sound huge and vital. And it is. This particular bank (headquartered in Aluva, Kochi, Kerala) is one of the subcontinent’s leading institutions with 1251 branches and 1665 ATMs scattered all over the country. It also operates in Duba and Abu Dhabi.

Because of its sheer size and market penetration, Federal Bank manages about 15% of all remittances arriving in India, so it’s a critical player in the market.

And it’s looking to modernize and get up to date. Last Thursday, it brought online two new remittance services in the UAE in close association with partner exchanges and banks so that remittances to India through Federal Bank become a better option for customers and partners alike.

The bank is making this move in the hopes that offering better solutions based on new technologies will improve the customer experience thus increasing its share in the market.

Shyam Srinivasan, MD & CEO, Federal Bank, explained,

“Federal Bank is an important part of the remittance eco-system to India, so, it is only natural for us to offer the latest technology to our customers and remittance partners such as exchange houses and banks”

One of the new solutions the bank is working with is blockchain technology, which it recently updated. The new platform it adopted is easy to use.

It’s the plug-and-play of international transactions, and it allows exchanges, remittances, and banks all over the Middle East to connect among themselves and transact in a seamless and fast (almost real-time) way. Lulu Exchange, for instance (based in the UAE), has implemented this cross-border payments platform recently as well.

NRI’s are also in the bank’s mind as it launched the platform. Beneficiaries can get their money using a memory-friendly Virtual Payment Address (VPA).

This platform complies with the UPI 2.0 standards, which are the currently valid upgrade to the Unified Payment Interface by National Payment Corporation of India. And this system enables customers to send money into India employing VPAs.

But the most exciting part is that the bank is partnering up with none other than Ripple. Ripple is a blockchain technology company which has been trying precisely to take advantage of its blockchain network, software platforms, and digital currency to remove as much friction as possible from the hassle of settling international payments.

“For long Federal Bank has endeavored to bring our non-resident clientele closer to their homes. Each of our digital offerings has been designed with this objective in mind,” explained Srinivasan.

Federal Bank is growing in two-digit rates in loans and deposits.

Times are good for Federal Bank. Just last December, it reported that its loans and deposits business had grown y more than 20% each. This is in an industry in which low single digits are celebrated when it comes to growth. The bank’s CEO said that,

“Both credit and deposit growth for the bank over last many quarters has been well into the 20s. Both the low cost and the overall deposit growth has been quite good. We have close to 1 percent overall deposit market share and we are growing close to 2 percent. On the incremental deposit addition in the market, we are getting close to 2 percent of the share.”

This hasn’t been fortuitous. The bank’s credit has been expanding consistently for ten quarters in a row, and it expects to keep growing at high rates in the near future too.

The bank’s health is beyond questioning. Its NPL (non-performing loans ratio) is around 3% only “For many quarters now; we have maintained consistent asset quality. We expect to maintain the cost of credit at around 65 basis points, in line with our earlier guidance,” according to Mr. Srinivasan.

But further expansion for this already large bank can only be possible by focusing on digital financial technology. “The theme is branch light and distribution heavy. We have put in more relationship managers, so we go out more than the clients come to us.”

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Biggest Japan railway firm plans crypto payment system for its 70M card holders

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Ever since the inception of cryptocurrency in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, who developed the first ever digital currency, bitcoin, and devised the very first blockchain database, the whole world has taken a new turn in terms of businesses affairs. Although the phenomenon of digital assets is still not understood by a large range of people, governments, and banks – but many renowned companies are starting to recognize its importance.

Japan, among various other first world countries, has always been a firm supporter of the digital economy and has a strong inclination towards technologists and innovation generally.

Last week on March 27, DeCurret, a year old cryptocurrency exchange from Japan, announced the introduction of a new payment system for the railway commuters of the country. The announcement unveiled onto the crypto mania by Kazuhiro Tokita, president, and the director of the exchange, during a business presentation in Tokyo.

The presentation was reported by the Cointelegraph Japan the same day.

According to the report, JR Group (Japan Railways Group), the country’s largest railway operator, is planning to establish a cryptocurrency payment facility for its commuters which will in result witness millions of individuals use digital currency as a mean for their transportation.

Once established, millions of commuters will be able to recharge their Suica payment card which is issued by the JR Group using digital cash. Although the report reveals that there are no tangible plans yet and the company is primarily intending for the implementation only at the moment.

It is worth noting that as of the end of March last year, the company issued about 70 million Suica cards.  For this reason, many crypto experts are rooting for this move as it will ensure the massive adoption where millions of active clients of the railway group would use the cryptocurrencies for the payments and the services provided by the group.

According to the CoinTelegraph Japan, the exchange, DeCurret has been given permission by the country’s financial regulator FSA (Financial Services Agency) to operate in the country and is set to start trading from 16th of April.

The exchange plans to introduce Bitcoin, XRP, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash at the time of launch and hinted about the inclusion of Ethereum by the early summer. Consequently, if JR Group goes forward with its plan of integrating the direct cashless payments system, the cryptocurrencies mentioned above will be the ones supported by it.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Tron Acquires CoinPlay to Boost its Ecosystem

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Tron is one of the biggest projects in the crypto market; after its acquisition of P2P giant BitTorrent, the Sun-led initiative has acquired an emerging project, CoinPlay, a blockchain application store.

Today, Tron’s CEO broke about the new acquisition through a tweet on his official Twitter page. The tweet is:

Tron is motivated in stepping up its game and making sure the followers have the best. CoinPlay is the first blockchain global store focused on offering the best and most up-to-date blockchain applications.

It is worth noting that blockchain applications are very difficult to get on various app stores online and if seen, these blockchain apps are very hard to monitor the source for a secured download. In view of this, Tron and CoinPlay are poised to make sure all that does not occur again, and that blockchain apps would offer the best experience for crypto-enthusiasts all over the world.

Ever since Tron was created, it gears towards making a decentralized internet. Its BitTorrent’s acquisition was regarded as a big feat in the crypto space. With BitTorrent acquisition, Tron is one of the most decentralized projects. Moreover, the acquisition of CoinPlay also boosts Tron in progressing the crypto space.

It is important to know that CoinPlay offers different varieties of blockchain applications and Dapps through downloads, and offers guidelines, ratings, as well as practical guilds. Besides, CoinPlay will also offer support for multi-platform and GitHub query in the future for these blockchain games. The platform will also provide GiThub query for these apps and articles on cryptocurrencies plus links to quality projects and digital assets.

Concerning the acquisition of CoinPlay, Justin Sun stated this:

“TRON recently completed its MainNet upgrade v. 3.5. As a blockchain-based entertainment ecosystem, we will continue focusing on content and entertainment. The recent acquisition of CoinPlay aims to better serve the blockchain industry. The year 2019 will be the year of exponential growth for the TRON ecosystem.”

In other news, Tron is now in collaboration with Tether to issue USDT tokens, which will also offer great incentives for early owners of the tokens, thus equaling 100 million RMB, “to get existing USDT holders to transition to TRC20-based USDT and advance the potential of decentralized finance.”

Justin stated,

“We believe that with a faster, more economic and concrete stablecoin payment experience, more ordinary people will start to pay attention and use DAPPs. In addition, we will offer attractive incentives for early adopters, totaling the equivalent of 100 million RMB, to get existing USDT holders to transition to TRC20-based USDT and advance the potential of decentralized finance.”

Tron, founded in 2017 by Justin Sun, is motivated in creating a decentralized internet – we all know that. It is also known as the most decentralized project in the world. Justin Sun is now the Chief Executive Officer of BitTorrent Inc. based in San Francisco, too.

And now, BTT, BitTorrent’s token, will help link BitTorrent users to blockchain thus enabling faster downloads. Moreover, the Sun-led blockchain platform also connects lots of developers and content creators all over the world through its incentivized ecosystem based on Dapps and blockchain.

Consequently, Tron has made a good number of achievements in its short life so we can keep talking about them all day long. For now, let’s see how this new acquisition works out for Mr.Sun and his company.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Tron gets a step closer to mass adoption as eToro officially lists TRX

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Down but not out. The 10th position might have been taken already, but it seems like it will not be long enough before the previous owner reclaims it.

eToro Lists Tron

The United Kingdom-headquartered and leading social trading platform, eToro has announced support for Tron (TRX). By being listed on eToro, it means that now Tron (TRX) will become available for trading to more than 10 million users who are present on the platform. Previously, the platform had announced that it would provide crypto trading services to users across 32 states in the US.

Besides, the addition of Tron to the company’s platform means that now eToro has a total of 15 crypto assets available for trading. The other assets include bitcoin, bitcoin cash, Ethereum, XRP, Ethereum classic, Litecoin, Stellar, Dash, Cardano, NEO, EOS, BNB, IOTA, and ZCASH.

So now, the users will be able to sell and buy TRX easily with fiat through the likes of PayPal, VISA, UnionPay, MasterCard, Yandex Wallet, and Webmoney among other significant payment platforms available.

Moreover, there’ll be an addendum for TRX as it will be added to eToro’s Crypto Portfolio which then will enable the investors to diversify crypto holdings across other available crypto assets in the platform.

The Ambitious Tron

Apparently, the reason for adding Tron to their trading platform is because the team behind eToro believes that Tron is an ambitious multi-faceted project which is striving to ensure a decentralized internet.

According to the CEO of eToro, Yoni Assia, Tron has already an evident success behind and that it’s making rapid progress towards lofty ambitions as well as already garnered the crypto community’s attention.

The Salient Reason to Reclaim Its Position

Over the past months, Tron has not failed to hit the headlines with a development. Rightly, there have been many partnerships flowing in. However, the asset also witnessed a setback in its ranking. Tron was outstripped 10th position by Cardano (ADA).

Interestingly, the contest seems not to be over yet.

Tron CEO Justin Sun knows well like everyone that gibbering more moves is the only way of getting back their position or even moving further up. At the moment, the contest is close as Tron has a market cap of $1.537 billion while Cardano is at $1.54 billion. Currently, Tron trades at $0.023 which is up by 1.3% over the last seven days. Things are within reach of Tron.

The listing by eToro means Tron is open to new users who are over 10 million on the platform and given that Cardano had been enjoying that advantage, Tron matching it as well gives it an extra push for mass adoption.

Furthermore, Tron planning to add 1 billion BitTorrent users to its network is a massive potential boost that will plainly see it overtake Cardano soon (again). Tron Founder and CEO, Justin Sun is not concerned about the drop in ranking as he points that trading on eToro platform gives investors a reason to Hodl TRX and hence help in its growth as well as expansion.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Tron and Tether join forces: The benefits of Tron-based stablecoin

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The largest stablecoin

An expression like “stable cryptocurrency” could seem like a contradiction in terms. That’s, of course unfair, since the cryptocurrency market has been less volatile over the last ten years than, say, Forex or the stock market if you go by objective indicators.

Nevertheless, crypto has developed that reputation, and it’s going to be years before it can leave it behind. But we digress. Within crypto, there is such a thing as a “stablecoin” which is a cryptocurrency whose value is not supported only by its blockchain and speculative forces, but also by being pegged with some physical thing that guarantees at least a minimum value.

Case in point: the Tether blockchain project issues a cryptocurrency called USDT which is pegged to the USD. In other words, according to Tether, each USDT is backed up by an actual dollar, besides the additional value that speculation and the blockchain’s value can confer to it.

The main point is that the USDT price can’t go below USD 1.00 even during crypto winters as harsh as the current one. And the market seems to bear this out. As we write this, USDT is trading at USD 1.01, and it’s the ninth cryptocurrency by market capitalization. USDT is not the only stablecoin in the industry (IBM, for instance, is working with Stellar Lumens to come up with one as well) but it’s the largest one by far.

While there are distinct advantages to a project that combines the power of the blockchain technology with the alleged stability of the world’s most crucial fiat currency, the Tether network is far from perfect. The system is exceedingly slow, and transfer fees are quite expensive. But not to worry, all of the Tether blockchain challenges are about to be solved by Tron.

Tron and Tether

This March 4th, the Tron Foundation announced it would join forces with Tether in a strategic partnership that would allow the Tron network also to issue USDT tokens. It’s going to be a spectacular crossover, and it will go live by the end of the year’s second quarter.

As USDT is issued using Tron’s TRC20 token technology, it will be fully compatible with Tron’s network, decentralized applications, and smart contracts. The collaboration will enhance both Tron and USDT in many ways:

  • The Tron network is very fast. Payment solutions in Tron are instantaneous and so cheap that they’re practically free (there is a cost for gas, but it’s very low indeed). So as the partnership matures, USDT will find a network in which its transactions will be equally fast and low cost.
  • USDT will be able to take advantage of Tron’s smart contract technology.
  • Tron will adopt USDT in full, almost as if it was the network’s native token. This won’t create competition with TRX, but it will allow USDT holders to use Tron’s wide variety of decentralized applications.
  • Liquidity will improve for both TRX and USDT.
  • It will increase confidence in TRX among potential institutional investors.
  • This is an exciting development for Tron and the cryptoverse which will undoubtedly yield fascinating results.

Image courtesy of PixaBay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Can Tron’s partnerships simulate the competition with Ethereum?

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Ever since Vitalik Buterin brought online the first blockchain-based smart contracts platform in the world, there’s been competition between decentralized application systems to become the cryptosphere’s leader in the area.

We’re still nowhere near mass adoption of blockchain platforms. The cryptoverse remains something of an arcane realm that interests mainly people with at least some degree of expertise in computer technology. That means that crypto projects which feature dApps and smart contracts (Ethereum, Tron, EOS, Cardano, and many others) still have plenty of time to fight it out.

The prestige is Ethereum’s. It’s the consequence of being the first one (very much like Bitcoin’s prestige is also, but not only, due to its pioneering status) in a new industry. But as Ethereum’s network has grown, it’s been plagued with problems that put doubts into the developer’s minds.

The network is slow, it lacks scalability, and the gas prices are relatively high. As Ethereum shows its weaknesses, the one project that has exhibited the potential to compete with it is Tron. That’s why some observers call Tron “the Ethereum killer.”

Last year, just as the crypto winter was getting colder, the Tron Foundation made one intrepid move. It bought BitTorrent, the file-sharing protocol which has been the world’s largest decentralized network for years now. Then Tron issued a Tron-based token (BTT) to power the BitTorrent environment and, sometime soon, the P2P service will merge into Tron’s blockchain.

Tron’s transaction volume is way higher than Ethereum, and it’s giving it a serious run for its money when it comes to adoption. Several projects initially deployed at Ethereum are moving to Tron because it’s faster, scalable and so cheap that it’s almost free.

Meaningful partnerships also make a big difference in any project’s success (just ask IBM and Microsoft, or Google and Linux) and Tron’s leadership (commanded by Justin Sun, the project’s CEO and founder) has worked very hard to secure many of those.

While several new strategic partnerships have been announced during Q1, 2019 (which still has about a week and a half to run) the highlights are surely those with CoinGate, Oracle, and Tether which will use Tron’s token technology and network to keep issuing its USDT stablecoin thus taking advantage of Tron’s token technology (TRC20), superior performance, and almost non-existent costs.

What is Tron anyway?

We’re glad you asked. Tron is a third-generation blockchain network. That means that it’s a decentralized network based on blockchain technology that is not solely focused on producing and supporting a digital asset’s existence, the way Bitcoin or Litecoin do. It’s also a programmable platform capable of deploying decentralized applications as well as smart contracts.

Tron has a very clear aim in mind. It’s lemma “decentralize the web,” says everything you need to know. Tron wants to disrupt the world wide web by turning it into a decentralized blockchain network.

Should it succeed, the web would radically change because central authorities such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Microsoft, or any other of the big boys would become utterly irrelevant. Thus the web’s power would be back in the user’s hands, more or less as it was in the beginning when the web -was a tool for researchers and commercial interests had not discovered the internet’s potential.

And since we’ve talked about a prospective rivalry between Ethereum and Tron, know this: Tron came online at first as an Ethereum-based project. Then it became independent last June 25, when it launched its very own Main Net.

The Tron network is managed and operated by the Tron Foundation, which is a non-profit organization based in Singapore.

Tron has been snowballing in terms of the number of apps it supports, money (digital, of course) flow, daily transactions. Over the last few weeks, it’s become the world’s premier decentralized application platform by the number of dApp users. Dappradar recognizes 195 decentralized apps deployed over the Tron network, and about twelve of them serve at least a thousand users every day.

Last February 28, Tron deployed a hard fork to upgrade the network. New features include multi-signature addresses and a better account management system and interface which is designed to be friendly for prospective institutional investors.

The Q1 partnerships

Within the cryptoverse, partnerships with prominent players can go a long way. It brings attention and interest to a project, and it motivates users and developers to join the project in some way. Tron is successfully offering dApps that need a high transaction volume. The platform is exceedingly cheap for users. It’s scalable. It’s fast. And those are all things that Ethereum is lacking.

Earlier this year, Coingate let the world know that it would be supporting Tron’s coin (called Tronix or TRX). So now you can use your TRX tokens to have fun within the Tron network, but also to make payments to merchants through Coingate’s services.

Because Coingate is somehow more of a payments system that a crypto exchange (though it is an exchange indeed), this partnership is very relevant as it promotes TRX adoption in the real world.

Then, the ABCC exchange announced that it would support tokens based on Tron’s TRC10 technology. Here’s the tweet they issued:

Also this year, Tron held a summit in San Francisco. It was called niTRON, and it featured plenty of exciting announcements. Partnerships with Aurora, Pantera, and Steemit were on the agenda. And the cherry on top of the cake was naming none other than Oracle as a Tron partner. This is quite relevant because of two reasons.

Firstly, Oracle is one of the world’s most outstanding players in the software industry. Secondly, Larry Ellison (Oracle’s founder) is known to be very skeptic about anything and everything.

Except for Justin Sun and Larry Ellison, nobody really knows what this partnership is all about as no goals were stated at all. But it’s still an exciting prospect, and it could very well render some fantastic fruits in the future. The Oracle deal was in the works since last October, when Mr. Sun announced that a team from Oracle had visited Tron’s headquarters.

But Tron’s partnership with Tether could turn out to be even more relevant. Tether is the blockchain project that issues the USDT stable coin (a cryptocurrency which is backed by actual dollars, and not only its blockchain network). This partnership will see USDT launched as a Tron-based TRC-20 token, which means that it will be fully integrated and compatible with all things Tron. The new stable token is expected to come online by next quarter.

Final thoughts

Tron’s blockchain can manage a whopping transaction speed of 2,000 transactions every second. But Ethereum’s prestige is still, and many of their users remain in that network in spite of the problems it has. But many other users (former Ethereum users and developers as well as new ones) are opting for Tron because it’s just too good.

Tron is Ethereum’s worst nightmare as things stand. It can really compete against it and, possibly, beat it, and it already has more than two million users in its relatively new Main Net. At the same time, Ethereum remains slow, expensive, and lacking in scalability.

A hard fork was scheduled for Ethereum earlier this year, but it wasn’t deployed because the developer’s community realized in time that it didn’t work. So while Tron keeps growing, Ethereum’s leadership is seemingly doing nothing to face and overcome all the challenges it’s suffering.

If Ethereum doesn’t do something about this quickly, it could be in serious trouble. Prestige matters indeed. But even the greatest prestige can’t support a deficient product for very long.

Tron is more advanced in almost every regard: technology, speed, costs, and now, partnerships. So it has everything it needs to beat Ethereum once and for all. And when BitTorrent finally merges into Tron’s blockchain, Tron will be, by far, the world’s largest blockchain network, with more than a hundred million users.

So don’t be fooled if Tron’s price isn’t hunky dory right now. The project’s fundamentals are, and that will drive the price up sooner or later. Remember, Tron is not about the token, but about decentralizing the web.

Image courtesy of PixaBay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Gambling and cryptocurrencies: Is this a legal match? It depends

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Unless you spent the last few years marooned in an abandoned island, you must have noticed how the online gambling industry has exploded. In fact, it’s one of the industries on the internet with the highest degree of expansion. And it’s happening everywhere, not just in the world’s traditional gambling hubs (Curacao, Monaco, Las Vegas, etc.).

This is happening over the internet, which is to say that it’s occurring in the whole globe at the same time, it’s becoming something of a headache for many of the world’s governments who know they have to do something about it but don’t have the first idea of where to start.

The problems have to do with legal voids regarding the lawfulness of online betting in different jurisdictions which sometimes are national, but sometimes are regulated by states within a country and not by the federal government.

Very few individual states in the US allow gambling activities (Delaware, Las Vegas, and New Jersey) which is slightly weird as the US is probably the world’s largest consumer of gambling products.

The recent months and years have seen some of the states adopting a more progressive position on the subject and legalizing online casinos and sports betting for residents. This is not an altruistic move.

Keep in mind the colossal tax revenue advantages that such a move gives each state. It’s to be expected that, sooner or later, every state in the union will legalize online gambling in some way.

Digital Assets and Online Gambling

If finding the correct way to deal with online gambling wasn’t tricky enough for the world’s governments, there’s a new ingredient that could potentially make things even more intricate.

Over the last decade, all kinds of new technologies have appeared in the world. Chief among them has been the advent of cryptocurrencies, courtesy of Satoshi Nakamoto, and since digital assets are meant to fulfill the same uses as physical money, betting is one of the things you should be able to do with them. The question then becomes: is funding a gambling account with a digital asset legal?

Let’s explore a little context. Cryptocurrencies are produced by a technology called “blockchain technology.” That’s what you find if you look under any digital asset’s hood.

In a very concise definition, a blockchain is a decentralized database (or ledger) distributed uniformly over a network of computers. This database keeps the record of the coin transactions in the system, and it can’t be revised or tampered with because every node in the network maintains a full copy.

The blockchain way of doing things makes a lot of people nervous. It bothers governments because there is no room in a blockchain for central authorities. Things just can’t be steered in a particular direction.

It also bothers traditional financial institutions such as banks, or credit card processors because cryptocurrencies do away with conventional banking services. Each country has to decide whether the use of altcoins is legal or not within its national territory, and the positions taken so far by many governments in the world go from the very friendly (Malta) to the openly hostile (China). Some countries are struggling to find a balance, but most of the nations of the world are still undecided (or indifferent) to the subject.

The online gaming industry is a microcosmos of the same phenomenon since it’s also trying to find a way to deal successfully with the very same issues regarding digital assets. It’s entirely possible (even probable) that conventional gaming sites will start accepting Bitcoin soon, and that it could become the casino cryptocurrency of choice.

That would make sense because it’s convenient for the gambling sites as the fees are low, transactions are fast, and anonymity is virtually guaranteed by the blockchain technology.

Legality in some key countries

While it’s impossible to anticipate the future, one thing we can do for sure is taking a moment to review the current positions on gambling and crypto by some of the most critical countries in the world.

The United Kingdom: gambling is an old and honored British tradition. The English invented insurance as bets, for instance, so betting is regulated but allowed. There is the UK Gambling Commission which supervises the industry.

First and foremost, if you want to operate an online gambling site in the UK, you need to have a proper license (issued by the UKCG). If you hold the license, you are free to accept digital assets as a means of funding betting accounts.

Australia and New Zealand: Not a single country, of course, but they share similar policies. In Australia, there is the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 (IGA) which regulates all online gambling operations. Under that law, online sports and race books are legal but other than that, the law forbids to operate online casinos within the country.

Australian residents can, however, use offshore services if they so wish. Also, most Aussies can use digital assets when the local jurisdiction allows it, and not all local authorities are friendly in that regard.

The Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) has banned all use of cryptocurrencies by its residents. In New Zealand, all residents are allowed to gamble offshore (as stated by the Gambling Act of 2003). But cryptocurrencies are not regulated (which seems to mean they’re legal just because they’re not explicitly banned), so the decision of using alternative coins rests with the offshore service providers mainly.

The United States of America: the legal status of gambling (online or offline) is very frustrating. The authority to legalize these kinds of activities doesn’t belong to the federal government, but it’s decided by each individual state, which complicates things very much. Most states sill hold an exceedingly conservative position on this issue.

Gambling is legal in three states only so talking about using digital assets for gaming is little more than merely academic as the notion can’t really be tested under the current conditions. In 2006 the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) made it clear that banking electronically is downright illegal.

This position is clearly anachronistic, and it doesn’t mention cryptocurrencies at all. How could it? This law was promulgated in 2006 and Bitcoin came online only three years later, so it wasn’t under the law’s scope at all.

So the legality of betting with digital coins is somewhat undefined. But the best bet would be to play it safe and assume that, since digital money is indeed a form of electronic banking, it’s not legal.

Canada: the Canadian laws are quite similar to those in Australia and New Zealand. No law is in place that forbids Canadian citizens or residents from using cryptocurrencies to fund offshore gambling accounts (offshore being the key word) as long as the appropriate jurisdiction considers it legal.

As you can see, there are all kinds of positions about cryptocurrencies and gambling from country to country. Let’s remember that governments have never been able to legislate ahead of technology.

It’s always been the other way around, and the cryptosphere is a relatively new development on the planet as it’s barely a decade old. Governments usually take longer times even to notice (let alone acknowledge or legislate) new technologies and their consequences.

The way things are right now, the responsibility is yours. You will need to find out all the legal information relevant to your country or state of residence, read it, understand it. If you choose an offshore gaming service (which would be the natural choice since most betting websites are headquartered in only a handful of countries), you’ll also need to understand the laws of the website’s country. And then you’ll be able to decide if using digital money to fund a gambling account is a legal activity for you.

Gambling online can be a lot of fun, and using cryptocurrencies for that makes it even more enjoyable and exciting. But it’s crucial to decide prudently, in a way that will keep you out of trouble.

Image courtesy of PixaBay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Tron (TRX) makes it to leading UAE crypto exchange Adax

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What is Adax?

ADAX stands for Arab Digital Asset Exchange. It’s a cryptocurrency trading platform based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and powered by Arabitzor Holdings, and it’s one of the leading exchanges in the Middle East.

The company aims to provide market technology tools, such as their online trading platform, for a rather extended list of digital assets from all around the planet. The company seems to believe that demand for cryptocurrency can only go up in the future and it wants to be one of the leading players when it happens.

Adax boasts the most advanced virtual trading room in the Arab world which is designed to enhance the user’s trading experience and, according to the company, it’s based on blockchain technology so it could be decentralized, but don’t quote us on that.

It’s no surprise at all that an advanced crypto exchange should be based in Dubai. After all, over recent years the city has become one of the world’s foremost financial hubs. That being said, developments in crypto that originate in the Middle East rarely get noticed compared to things that happen in, say, Asia or Europe.

Nevertheless, Adax is there, and it’s a player. With all the money that is always floating around that geopolitical zone, it’s merely a matter of time before the trading volume becomes enormous. And now there’s an additional reason for that.

Tron’s Tronix (TRX) joins the Adax platform

A couple of days ago, Adax announced the inclusion of Tron’s Tronix (TRX) cryptocurrency in its platform. The token will be available in three trading pairs: TRX/USDT, TRX/BTC, and TRX/ETH. The company’s official Twitter announcement was particularly enthusiastic, calling TRX one of the “leading digital assets listed.”

Tron’s leadership (headed by Justin Sun, the project’s founder and CEO) has been very consistent in getting TRX listed in many of the world’s most important cryptocurrency exchanges, which is very good for the project.

The more platforms that offer TRX trading pairs to customers, the easier it is to get ahold of some of Tron’s coins and join the endless fun that the Tron network offers, especially now that it’s become the world’s busiest decentralized applications network. And that will be nothing when, finally, the BitTorrent network is merged with Tron’s network and blockchain.

There’s another advantage for TRX (or any other digital asset) in being listed in as many exchanges as possible, and that is trade volume. In crypto, as well as in Forex, the stock market or the commodities market, higher trading volumes support the asset’s prize by creating additional demand thus strengthening its fundamentals.

And strong fundamentals are the only way in which cryptocurrencies will stop being slaves to sheer speculative forces. Just as important, strong fundamentals will be one of the exit doors from the current crypto winter, which has lasted for more than 15 months so far.

And Tron has an additional advantage: it has a very bullish community which is very interested in supporting the token. Many Tron-based projects are issuing their own tokens which are based in Tron’s token technologies and are tradeable for TRX, and they all have clear use cases within the Tron network from gambling and having some fun to paying for advertising.

Tron keeps growing. The token’s price hasn’t been precisely peachy over the last few days, but keep an eye out for it anyway. Tron is a useful project with clear aims and, sooner or later, the token’s price will reflect that.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

What’s up with the crypto? News from the cryptoverse

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The cryptosphere is always awash in news. From strategic announcements to the daily prices of hundreds of cryptocurrencies, there’s always something interesting to notice or talk about with fellow cryptonauts. Some of that news is relevant because of the way they affect the markets, and some are relevant because they bring perspective into a project or the overall crypto-situation.

In this article, we’ll inform you about the recent declarations given by a few of the most important personalities in crypto. As stated before, these statements won’t change the market anytime soon, but it’s still good to know what’s in the mind of the people who are behind the scenes in the cryptoverse.

Rippe’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse

Mr. Garlinghouse gave an interview recently in which he explained how Ripple is working with regulators in the US and elsewhere to advance Ripple’s cause, and to ensure a smooth market experience.

Additionally, he talked a little about the Ripple’s XRP price, which is currently of USD 0.318886 (0.81%) (and trading in green numbers).

He described how Ripple’s technologies and digital asset are solving real problems in real life, especially when it comes to settling international payments quickly, safely, and cheaply. If Ripple indeed solves those problems for their clients and strategic partners, the XRP price will reflect it, sooner or later, according to Ripple’s CEO.

EOS’ co-founder and CEO Brendan Blumer

Mr. Blumer made a very bold prediction recently. He said that over the next twenty years BitCoin will become the world’s preferred option for wealth storage, instead of gold. That would break millennia of tradition.

Is that just unbridled optimism? It could be, but EOS’ founder is not alone in this conviction. Other leaders in the technology and the cryptocurrency world have expressed similar views over the last months, even as the market remains receding and under the control of the bears. Time will tell if Mr. Blumer is right.

Barry Silbert, CEO for the Digital Currency Group

The Digital Currency Group is involved as an investor with almost every digital asset there is.

Mr. Silbert explained that institutional investors are still trying their best to stay away from digital money, so their money has yet not arrived in the cryptocurrency market. That is a shame because many observers believe that the next bull run (whenever that happens) will be driven by a big shower of money coming from institutional investors precisely.

But the executive remains optimistic in that regard as he’s sure that the money will roll in for sure at some point during the next 2-3 years.

David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO

Mr. Schwartz attended the SXSW 2019, in which he gave an interview with an audience.

He detailed his love affair with Bitcoin, which started in 2011 and how he became involved with Ripple.

He explained how he came to realize what made Bitcoin such a great project and his opinion is not exactly the usual one. Mr. Schwartz believes that Bitcoin’s power derives from the sheer transparency in its blockchain, and not from the Proof of Work protocol which is the “secret ingredient” that most observers consider Bitcoin’s hallmark and main advantage (and challenge since it takes such vast amounts of energy to calculate it).

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.