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Facebook’s Libra Project is Developing a Governance Model that will Disrupt the Remittance Space

January 28, 2020 by Arnold Kirimi

The controversial Facebook’s Libra project has been 2019’s biggest story. However, it is not the only payments project hoping to transform the payments sector, when still ripe to throw into disarray.

As per the most recent statistics, the remittance course leading to low and middle-income nations is predicted to extend to $574 billion in 2020; and $597 billion by 2021. However, this is a sector that has been pestered by carelessness, which has been an expensive occurrence to some. The high cost on top of the rigorous laws and regulations, continue to bear an impediment to the payments sector.

Dante Disparte, the Head of Policy and Communications at the Libra Association, likens the current payments system as “walled gardens.” He notes that the current 230 million economic asylum seekers are the individuals that propel the GDP of their mother countries. This is bigger than the p2p payments, foreign direct investments or even official government aid and development assistance. However, he adds that there is no way to achieve this in a less expensive and systematic way.

Libra Tapping Payments Space

Moreover, Disparte claimed in a recent interview that the competition in the payments space is minimal; and the existing methods are “one big monopolist player or there’s a duopoly operator” running the remittance sector. He also touched on the Libra project exploring this opportunity. He said:

“If we introduce the opportunity for digital wallet providers to emerge that are interoperable, that’s a big game-changer for the world. To do that right, of course, means you have to go through the process we’re going through now – build a governance model that can withstand the the the vagaries and the vicissitudes of any one organizations and association but also build a model that could achieve a regulatory standard that protects consumers.”

In addition, the lack of infrastructure has led to slow digital currency and remittance engagement. However, in the case that Facebook’s Libra project receives regulatory approval, it will go head-to-head with an experienced figurehead in the industry; Ripple. The blockchain firm has multi-partnerships under its wing.

Will Libra Disrupt the Remittance Space?

As per the initial expectations, Facebook expects the Libra cryptocurrency to launch within the first half of 2020. The global stablecoin is designed to enable users to be able to initiate payments using Facebook and WhatsApp and stored in its digital wallet called Calibra.

The main focus of the Libra project is on developing countries and the unbanked. However, it remains to be seen which companies the project will partner within these regions because their targets are not expected to book Uber or buy hamburgers. The ineptitude to bring value is expected to make make it hard to sell in the particular regions especially; since it will disrupt the local players on top of limiting the government’s oversight on the banking system.

In addition to this, Libra will facilitate payments regardless of whether the parties involved are criminals or not; whether they are under sanctions or not. Facebook will have to provide good proof that it will not facilitate terrorism. Given how the social media giants handle their social network, this will be a difficult task.

In conclusion, the stablecoin will have to get rid of many middlemen (in this case banks) from the market. However, they still need banks in their loop. In order for Libra users to use it, they will have to convert fiat into Libra. Additionally, if its target is the over $500-billion-dollar remittances market, there is a need for a smooth transition from Libra back to local currency. These are the areas where banks will be required.

Chinese New Year to Have Significant Impact on Bitcoin, Predicts Proponents

January 28, 2020 by Ketaki Dixit

The start of the Chinese New Year has sparked a large chunk of Bitcoin enthusiasts to predict a volatility downturn.

The past week also saw major network updates in the Bitcoin industry with a JP Morgan spinoff project beginning a serious push into crypto. This occurred during a week when Bitcoin’s value fell by 10 percent.

Bitcoin had a low-performing week between January 21 and 27. The cryptocurrency lost its footing from the $9000 mark and was currently trading in the mid-$8000 range. Some Bitcoin enthusiasts have claimed that this dip may be because of the advent of the Chinese New Year. Even Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes stated:

“The Year of the Rat starts this weekend. Time for bitcoin volatility and volumes to nose dive.”

The Bitcoin price fluctuation was a testament to the growing dominance of the Chinese market. Experts have stated that while the cryptocurrency may face losses in the short term, it’s long run will be greener.

Time Enneking, the managing director of Digital Capital Management has been one of Bitcoin’s most vocal supporters. He claimed that the downward price corridor of the past six months has been pretty solidly broken to the upside.

Although the price of Bitcoin was acting volatile, the rest of the industry seemed to be developing at a brisk pace. According to Chainstack, a Singapore based blockchain startup, there has been a massive increase in the number of people working in the fintech industry. Platforms like Hyperledger Fabric, Quorum and Corda have been the biggest employers in this case, resulting in a 12x growth.

This data was elucidated in a report titled ‘Enterprise Blockchain Protocols Evolution Index 2020’. According to the release, the number of engineers in the fintech industry grew to 28,000 between Q3 2016 and Q4 2019.

The industry is waiting to see how this information translates to developments in the industry. While the Bitcoin industry was still waiting for an influx of institutional investors, one company was taking matters into their hands. Just last week, two JP Morgan alumnus launched Kadena, a hybrid blockchain.

Kadena has been touted as the world’s first hybrid blockchain with the ability to give enterprises the power of a public blockchain with the security of a private chain. The Kadena founders have claimed that using their technology, allows organizations to work around the scalability issues of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Bitcoin and Blockchain Are Superstars In Latin America; Here’s Why

January 27, 2020 by Akash Anand

The impact of the cryptocurrency field has been felt in developing nations who have lost faith in their own native currencies. The promise of a decentralized economy that will ensure an individual’s capital is safe has always been an alluring factor of the industry.

Over the past couple of months, it was noticed that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin had a growing fanbase in Latin America. This has occurred in conjunction with regional revolutions and inflated economies.

Citizens of many unstable regions have turned to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies during times of need. Despite the rumors and misconceptions about Bitcoin, millions of people use the cryptocurrency every day for day to day activities. Latin America has always been known as a volatile region but the increasing number of conflicts has turned it into ground zero for a new economy.

Studies have shown that crypto attracts the young crowd who are invested in developing an economy that can be sustained easily. Citizens in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela are all hot spots for crypto and there were multiple reasons behind it. Countries in Latin America have been plagued by inflation lately, with Venezuela becoming infamous for hyperinflation.

To counter the crumbling economy, the Nicholas Maduro led government even launched their own crypto called Petro, but to no avail. Instead of opting for the state-backed ‘Sovereign Bolivar’, Venezuelans were still using Bitcoin and Dash to bypass the government. According to LocalBitcoins, Venezuela remains one of the world’s top markets for cryptocurrency P2P transactions.

Even mass-market chains such as Burger King have embraced the change by allowing Bitcoin payments in their Venezuelan stores. The cryptocurrency usage in the country had taken a hit due to the persistent black-outs. Despite this, the amount of Bitcoin used to conduct cross border transactions has only grown. The remittance market has hence grown steadily in Latin America.

PlataForma, a blockchain startup has devised ways to conduct cross border transactions between Chile and Venezuela. This occurred in spite of all the government regulations present in Venezuela. A large number of unbanked people in these regions have utilized blockchain technology to take the power back from ‘the man’.

There are some positive developments in the region though. Just last year, Brazil considered cryptocurrency transactions as part of their national inflow and urged users to reveal their holdings. This allowed Brazil’s Recieta Federal to calculate that there were transactions worth $3 billion active in the region.

Colombia, on the other hand, has decided to utilize the core idea behind cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology. To move forward in new financial avenues, the Attorney General of Colombia has proposed new plans to track payments. Blockchain technology is aimed to improve transparency in fund allocation by the state to school canteen programs.

Bitcoin vs Alts: How did XRP, LTC, TRX and XMR fare at the start of the week?

January 27, 2020 by Akash Anand

The price of cryptocurrencies has been in a stagnant state for extended periods of time now. This hold came days after Bitcoin had almost surged towards the $9000 mark, after which the market went lull.

At the start of the new week, let us look at how Bitcoin’s price action compares to altcoins such as XRP, Litecoin, Tron and Monero.

Bitcoin:

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has been waiting to deliver to its investors after weeks of buildup. Although the asset is in a much better place now than it was at the close of last year, investors expect more. After a week of slow growth, the past 24-hour have been surprisingly good to Bitcoin.

At press time, Bitcoin was trading for $8661.94 with a total market cap of $157.511 billion. This is the first time since October 2019 that the market cap has stayed above $150 billion for more than two weeks. Bitcoin’s 24-hour market volume had increased to $24.656 billion after a 3.35 percent increase in the daily spectrum.

Looking at Bitcoin’s price action over the past 2 days, it was evident that Bitcoin was in bullish territory. Since January 25, Bitcoin’s price moved from $8331.4 to its current hold at $8657. This rapid increase in price was also reflected in the altcoin resurgence.

XRP:

Ripple’s native cryptocurrency has been trying to solve its own problems in the price spectrum. Despite its community fully supporting it, the third-largest cryptocurrency has yet to show some grit on the charts. As the indicators flashed green, some members expected XRP’s price to shoot up greatly.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading for $0.229 with a total market cap of $10.009 billion. After a volatile day, the 24-hour market volume for XRP had risen to $1.643 billion. Over the past week, XRP decreased by 7 percent which brought the cryptocurrency back beneath the 100 days EMA. XRP’s immediate support was holding at $0.209.

Litecoin:

Litecoin or ‘Bitcoin Silver’ as it is popularly called has a very sombre 2019. With a lack of major price fluctuations, it was evident that the 7th ranked cryptocurrency was more focused on network developments. That theory, however, did not stop Litecoin from following in Bitcoin’s bullish footsteps.

Litecoin suffered its worst dip in a week on January 24 when the price fell to $51.7. This crash came unannounced as the LTC value was holding steady at the $58 before it. Since that dip, Litecoin has gone from strength to strength on the charts. Currently, Litecoin was trading for $56.64,a marked increase from its 2019 lows.

The LTC market cap was at $3.626 billion while the 24-hour market volume was $3.409 billion. Since Sunday, Litecoin has been growing at a steady rate of more than 4 percent.

Tron:

The Justin Sun founded cryptocurrency had fallen to 13th place, just days after settling at number 11. This occurred due to rapid pushes made by its compatriots with which TRX could not keep up. The new week, however, was proving to be positive for Tron because it too had jumped aboard the price bandwagon.

Tron showed similar patterns to that of other altcoin surges. All altcoin price surges started sometime after January 25, with no explanation whatsoever. The Tronics has rallied behind Tron completely and were expecting an imminent price hike. After the 24-hour surge of 3.62 percent, Tron was trading for $0.016. Tron’s market cap was had fallen to $1.125 billion while the 24-hour market volume was at $1.216 billion.

Monero:

Monero was in the thick of the price action for the first time in months. Despite its approach towards network developments, XMR investors have demanded a price increase for months. Jut like its compatriots, Monero too had a tough 2019. The cryptocurrency has been trying to shake off the bull since then and the latest hike may help it do so.

Monero’s current price point of $64.53 was still lower than its January 18 price of $69.46. Even then, Monero was steadily climbing on the charts with its latest 3.84 percent growth helping it out. The 14th placed cryptocurrency held a market cap of $1.12 billion and a 24-hour market volume of $61.775 million.

Conclusion:

The top cryptocurrencies on the charts have their hands full with the bear. The week has started positively for them and holders would love to see the current price action continue.

Is a New Deal on the Cards? Tron’s Founder Holds Meeting With Litecoin’s Charlie Lee

January 27, 2020 by Arnold Kirimi

With the year 2019 now well gone, the Tron community is certainly expectant of more deals and partnerships but no ploys in 2020. Recently, Tron’s CEO Justin Sun tipped on a new alliance with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak when the pair took a meal together. As usual, critics ridiculed Sun over the move. However, others, among them icons in the digital ecosystem deemed it a shrewd move.

Just yesterday, Sun via a tweet revealed he held a meeting with Litecoin’s CEO Charlie Lee. The caption on the shared picture on the tweet claimed that the two discussed their respective blockchains and Bitcoin generally. In addition, the Tron CEO added an enigma that the two discussed “some secrets.” Usually, Justin Sun’s tweets always draw speculations and this one was no different. The tweet raised many speculations regarding a possible collaboration with Litecoin.

While Both Tron and Litecoin communities are optimistic about some sort of partnership between the Tron foundation and the Litecoin foundation; maybe the latest meeting was just a meeting. In addition, Sun did not disclose if a partnership had been initiated between Tron Foundation and Litecoin Foundation.

Moreover, we cannot just ignore the fact that the two have held talks in the past to improve blockchain and cryptocurrency sector. In addition, the increased adoption of digital currencies to the general world has played a major role as a morale booster for both of them throughout their blockchain careers.

Sun’s Dodgy Announcements

Over the years, the Tron founder has been making headlines in all the mainstream press globally. However, he’s been creating a mixed atmosphere within the digital currency community. Many have acknowledged him for drawing as much attention as possible to Tron and the cryptocurrency sector in general; with his unconventional skills. However, others have despised him and branded his methods as misleading. Well, it is understandable for both parties considering Justin’s history of making announcements about bigger announcements.

Possibly, the canceled luncheon with the legendary billionaire investor Warren Buffet is the most notable one. Sun unexpectedly canceled the meeting after paying top dollar and apparently inviting a few guests over. He later apologized for the inconvenience and admitted that he was overindulgent in marketing the lunch.

Tron Advised on How to Become as Big as Apple

A few weeks back, Sun met the co-founder of American tech giants, Apple’s Steve Wozniak. This caused a frenzy amongst the cryptocurrency community. The expectation was that soon Tron may partner with Apple in the same way it did with Samsung.

Later on, Justin Sun revealed that he had received shrewd wisdom from Steve on how to prime his blockchain project. He claimed it was a huge pleasure to receive counsel from Steve on how to grow Tron Blockchain project like Apple.

Charlie Lee Suggests a BCH-Like Approach

Litecoin’s founder Charlie Lee, had earlier suggested a BCH-like development approach to create the Litecoin blockchain. As per him, mining pools contributing a chunk of the block reward voluntarily is a huge way to fund a project. He said:

“Currently with merged mining of Dogecoin and other Scrypt coins, miners make 105%+ of block rewards. So 1% is a reasonably small amount to give back towards funding a public good.”

Conclusion

TRX has not reacted to Justin Sun’s latest announcement. The altcoin latterly shited to position No. 10 on CoinMarketCap’s rankings. However, it has since slipped to spot 12. Tron (TRX) is currently valued at $0.016234 with 1.53% losses on the 24-hour modified timeframe.

Top 10 Cryptocurrencies With Real Life Use Case

January 26, 2020 by Richard M Adrian

Top 10 Cryptocurrencies: Experts believe it’s about time people began associating digital currencies with their utility, rather than the hype of blockchains. Bitcoins and other digital assets might be fading into proportionate loss of confidence in cryptos as a store of value. Meanwhile, this loss of interest may not necessarily affect the advancement and improvement of blockchain technology. But could impair the gradual process of adoption. Only an irrefutable proof of value to consumers and enterprises will drive the next phase of growth.
The short term wins of the crypto-verse are over. Cryptos with real-life use cases will drive crypto growth in 2020. If we look more carefully into the market we can definitely find a few blockchain projects, the ones created to be useful in real life. In this article, we will tell you about the top10 cryptos, the ones you can use in your real life.

Bitcoin

A factual study was going round that Bitcoin can outweigh digital gold. However, this is only possible if Bitcoin could spawn a barrel of real-life use cases. ARK, a prominent investment research firm noted three feasible Bitcoin user cases that could drive Bitcoin to a trillion-dollar capitalization. One such example is the use of bitcoin as a form of non-seizable offshore wealth asset. The aggregate net worth of High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) purportedly neighbors $50 trillion figures. Would Bitcoin secure a small percentage of this aggregate, then the asset could attain a trillion-dollar valuation.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum’s utility goes beyond the financial world. While it is simple to categorize both Bitcoin and Ethereum as one, Bitcoin lacks an actual use case besides being a digital currency. However, the main agenda of Ethereum was to create a programmable layer of smart contracts for deploying decentralized applications.

The utility aspects of the ethereum blockchain range from organizations and enterprises intending to deploy their ethereum blockchains.

Ripple

Ripple’s entry into the crypto market was to solve the challenges of blockchain scalability. This aspect would form the basis of the Ripple Network’s major selling point. The platform has a throughput capacity of at least 50,000 transactions per second. Additionally, XRP coins were meant to facilitate real-time transactions with negligible transaction fees. Ripple’s target market are institutions such as banks. The network would help increase its efficiencies. Furthermore, the network describes its native network – XRP as the world’s fastest and reliable digital currency for making payments.

Apollo

The Apollo Currency (APL) is a privacy coin dubbed as the all in one decentralized token. APL boasts of being the only cryptocurrency that combines almost all the features of existing altcoins into one platform. Noteworthy, APL is built upon proof of stake consensus mechanism and also allows holders to forge new tokens through its wallet software. The total supply of APL altcoins is 21 billion and there at least 15 billion coins in circulation.

Tron

Myriads of scalability issues plagued Ethereum since inception. Tron benefits from the disadvantages of Ethereum. Note that the creators behind Tron wanted to inspire all Ethereum features but a level of boosted scalability. Tron does not charge any costs for executing smart contract transactions, unlike Ethereum. However, the Tron network promises a remarkable throughput of 2,000 transactions per second. Striking similarities with Ethereum include the ability to create smart contracts by implementing Solidity. Tron founders recently outlined plans of providing additional privacy layers to transform the currency into a privacy coin.

Monero

A privacy coin at the center of all financial transactions, Is what comes to mind at the mention of Monero. Privacy makes monero such a valuable asset for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Financial analysts believe that monero would be such a favorable store of value for people during oppressive regimes. While Bitcoin’s first impression was providing anonymity in a world of centralized data systems, Bitcoin’s blockchain would still store a record of transactions. Hence failing to achieve anonymity. Monero solved this problem by coming up with multiple stealth addresses, ring signatures, and permanent IP obfuscation.

Dash

Dash came into existence as an altcoin for making cryptocurrency easier and paved the way for mainstream adoption. Instant confirmations and ability to solve the problem of double-spending positioned Dash among the most revolutionary projects. Take the instance of a cafeteria vending machine accepting bitcoin payments. Would it not take forever given Bitcoins long confirmation times. Not forgetting high transaction fees.

Factom

Factom came to birth in 2014 as the undisputable record keeper of immutable and trustable data. Once a record is placed on Factom, changes are impossible to make. Therefore, an essential record would act as trust against which future verifications can be executed. Peter Kirby, the founder of the platform, had noted significant constraints on the bitcoin blockchain, barred the scope for innovation and prominent solutions. Meanwhile, the Factom ecosystem implements both its blockchain and Bitcoin to achieve the following:

Proof of Audit
Proof of Existence
Proof of Process

Gollem

Gollem is an open-source, decentralized supercomputer built on the Ethereum blockchain. The native cryptocurrency of the Golem network is called Golem Network Tokens or GNT. Supply of these coins is fixed, and the price would likely increase with further adoption of the platform. It is easy to liken Golem to the AirBnB in computing. A place where technologies can power their websites, execute CGI rendering, conduct energy-intensive calculations and execute long lines of code. Golem’s computation resources could also enable you to mine other cryptocurrencies.

IOTA

IOTA is the first of its kind cryptocurrency that does not use a blockchain. The coin implements what it calls the Tangle technology. These projects will power the next generation of the internet of things. Transactions are entirely free. An aspect that is impossible with other altcoins. On the low side of things, the adoption rate for IOTA is quite low. However, the coin has great potential to go mainstream.

Bottom line

The utility is the most important question one would ask when it comes to technology. It is fair and reasonable that technology goes mainstream because its impacts could touch lives. Therefore, this aspect of use case is a core concern while assessing the future of any innovation.

Peter Schiff – “My Bitcoin Mystery is Solved”

January 23, 2020 by Tabassum Naiz

CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, Peter Schiff who reportedly lost all his Bitcoins due to the wallet corruption on January 19 is now claiming that he mistook his pin for a password. He quickly notes “My bitcoin mystery is solved”

Schiff Makes Yet Another remark on Bitcoin

Tweeting on Sunday, Schiff bashed at Bitcoin and informed community that he lost all his Bitcoins due to the wallet corruption having remembered his wallet password. However, the case looks quite funny for many after Schiff posted yet another tweet on January 23. He tweeted about his wallet password explaining his bitcoin mystery and said he mistook his pin for his password. The tweet goes as follows;

“My #Bitcoin mystery is solved. I mistook my pin for my password. When Blockchain updated their app I got logged out. I tried logging back in using my pin, which was the only “password” I had ever known or used. I also never had a copy of my seed phrase. An honest but costly mistake!”

According to his anti-bitcoin views shared on Sunday, he had lost all the bitcoin which he had ever owned. It was stated that he had used a correct password but was unable to access his bitcoin, an extremely worst situation to worry about for people entering the crypto world. Right after his tweet, in which he blamed wallet for not accessing bitcoin, he was mocked by crypto geeks. A few developers who did not believe such an argument by Schiff said that a wallet cannot become corrupted.

Peter Schiff further stated that many people are puzzling his pin with his password and mocking him. He made a mistake and it cost him his bitcoin, “But confusing bitcoin for money is a much larger mistake and those who are making it will lose far more than I did!” added Schiff.

On criticism by people Peter Schiff said that his wallet was set up by Eric Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, that is the reason that he does not know his private key for wallet restoration.

Moreover, in a reply to Schiff’s tweet, Eric Voorhees said that he had gifted $50 of bitcoin and told Schiff for securing the wallet if he wanted to hold a great amount on it. The irony is that he did not save the private key and forgot the password. However, in his latest post, he argues that;

A lot of people are making fun of me for confusing my pin with my password. I made a mistake and it cost me my #Bitcoin. But confusing Bitcoin for money is a much larger mistake and those who are making it will lose far more than I did!

Furthermore, his anti-bitcoin views appear in 2X; consequently, he backlashes Bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano and other community members who certainly admiring the crowning cryptocurrency.

Noticeably, Schiff shouts at Bitcoin believer who tweeted Bitcoin is not just money, it is a Digital gold and store of value. Schiff went on to say;

That's nonsense. Digital gold is not gold. No more than a digital house is a real house. Bitcoin is not a store of value, as it has no value to store. Just like a digital house does not provide real shelter.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 23, 2020

Swiss Banks to Support Cryptocurrencies Including Bitcoin

January 23, 2020 by Tabassum Naiz

SEBA Bank AG took its start in November 2019 with a versatile banking license and a suite of services such as fiat storage, crypto custody, and a crypto-connected debit card that converts to fiat for shopping daily and crypto trading through the mobile app of the bank.

As said by Guido Bühler, CEO SEBA BANK AG, the bank accumulated an estimated $103.4 million from angel investors like Guy Schwarzenbach, who founded Black River Asset Management. Schwarzenbach added that the pricing for trades in the SEBA app, permitted by the process of API integrations with exchanges functioning globally, provided the most competitive pricing compared to over-the-counter trades. He further said:

“What I am really excited about for SEBA… is their upcoming deployment of a margin and lending business, including options and derivatives.”

SEBA bank was the first bitcoin-backing Swiss bank. However, Falcon, a private bank, in 2017 started offering bitcoin management services. Monetary Systems Lead of World Economic Forum, Matthew Blake called crypto-based and licensed banks as:

“A rising trend and something institutions can do to hedge.”

Similarly, a crypto startup of Switzerland, Bitcoin Suisse also registered for a versatile banking license to offer several services from staking to loans.

Marketing Lead of the startup said that Suisse was not applying for a banking license just to be like every other bank, we were pioneers at heart. He further said that they would, of course, offer cash accounts for their clients in their name. More importantly, they would be capable of start trading crypto securities, stablecoins, and synthetics like mini-futures and products to short the major crypto assets.

Among crypto-based banks so far, SEBA Bank provides a unique ability to acquire several kinds of fiat currencies which include US dollars, Hong Kong dollars, and Singapore dollars, and trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar.

CEO SEBA Bank Bühler stated:

“You can open an account over the phone in 15 minutes, for an accredited investor, you don’t have to go to Switzerland. There’s always going to be aspects that banks are required for, and the first one is the storage of your private key.”

As per Bühler, excluding the United States, the young bank already offers services to individuals having high net worth and institutional investors from all over the world, and a few blockchain startups.

To Schwarzenbach, bitcoin banking makes sense for security profits. He would not desire the risk of someone to hurt him to get his bitcoin stash. He added that open source decentralized finance (Defi) platforms eventually and comparatively provide financial infrastructure to both the general and proverbial population.

WorldPay Joins Visa To Become African Fintech Giant Flutterwave’s Latest Partner

January 23, 2020 by Ketaki Dixit

Several institutional players have taken a keen interest in cryptocurrency organizations after realizing that using digital assets was the way to go. This sudden boom was earlier focussed in regions such as the US and Europe but now countries in Africa were also giving it a run for its money.

Just recently, Flutterwave, a fintech company headquartered in San Fransisco announced that they had completed a massive $35 million fundraising round, The company also partnered with two major companies.

On January 22nd, Flutterwave revealed that they had partnered with Visa and WorldPay to expand in Northern and Francophone Africa. The $35 million funding round was expected to fund this very expansion. Flutterwave was founded by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Olugbenga Agboola, two entrepreneurs from Nigeria who wanted to contribute towards Africa’s booming fintech economy.

Visa and WorldPay first took interest in Flutterwave because of the wave it specialized in individual and consumer transfers. The company was one of several organizations in Africa which aimed to solve real-world problems using blockchain and crypto. Following the partnership announcement, Agboola stated:

“For us at Flutterwave, we have been focused on enterprise clients and now we are going to deepen that and also show how we can help small businesses scale their business when they use us as their payment partner. That’s a major goal for this investment for us.”

The partnership entails Flutterwave becoming the sole African payment provider for Worldpay’s worldwide client base. Worldpay had earlier stated that it trusts Flutterwave’s proprietary technology to allow it to penetrate the African market. With Worldpay’s involvement, Flutterwace will become the latest organization to open up the world of digital assets for Africa.

Flutterwave follows in the steps of cryptocurrency companies like Electroneum who have solidified their African foundation. Electroneum has also gone as far as improving mobile connectivity in countries such as Nigeria and Uganda.

Visa’s interest in Flutterwave started way back when the latter began its services. The credit and debit card giant was one of the first buy-ins to Flutterwave. Visa had joined Flutterwave on a consumer payment platform called Barter in 2019 with an aim to boost the cross border transactions sector.

Flutterwave is expected to continue raising the bar with Visa and even have plans to launch physical and virtual Visa cards. The Flutterwave co-founders were confident that the company can function as a bridge to connect multiple regions, regardless of boundaries. This rampant development has been one of the main reasons why Flutterwave’s backers include Green Vison, Greycroft & eVentures and CRE Ventures.

Countries in Africa are now being looked at as prospective regions for massive growth. Some financial analysts claim that opening up the developing countries in Africa can result in a GDP jump of $3.7 trillion. They also expect more companies to expand their services in Africa by first making it easy to use.

Source:TheNewYorkTimes

Cardano [ADA] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency rallies as long term bearish dips undergo reversal

January 22, 2020 by Akash Anand

The bull may have returned to the cryptocurrency market again as a majority of the assets were blinking green on the charts. This positive run has not just boosted Bitcoin but also altcoins such as Ethereum, XRP, and Cardano.

Cardano, currently ranked 11th on the charts had a tough 2019 in terms of price. But at the same time, Charles Hoskinson claimed that internal developments were going on in full swing which will enable the cryptocurrency to grow in the months to come. At press time, Cardano was trading for $0.046 with a total market cap of $1.196 billion. The IOHK founded cryptocurrency held a 24-hour market volume of $86.003 million after 11.4 percent climb over the previous week.

1 hour:

Cardano [ADA] Price Analysis: Cryptocurrency rallies as long term bearish dips undergo reversal — One Hour Chart

The hourly chart for Cardano showed a steady increase in its value over the past few days. ADA has been waiting for this climb and investors will be relieved to see that a bullish run was upon them. The immediate support was at $0.041 while the ADA resistance held at $0.046.

Cardano’s upper and lower Bollinger band moved parallel to each other after a bearish outbreak on January 19th. The parallel movement meant that the cryptocurrency was going through a sustained hold, mostly skewed towards the bullish territory.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator was below the zero line for the first time in two days. The graph staying below meant that the capital coming into the Cardano market was lesser than the capital leaving it. Investors have been on the fence about diving into the sector because of rapid fluctuation, but the small rise indicated that ADA’s fortune may be turning.

The signal line and the MACD line both showed a bearish connotation. At the same time, the MACD histogram blinked red. Prior to this, Cardano enjoyed a more bullish atmosphere according to the MACD graph.

1 day:

Cardano’s one-day graph painted the picture of a cryptocurrency escaping from the bear’s clutches. The analysis showed that Cardano was enjoying a significant price climb for the first time since October 2019. The immediate support in the long term was at $0.041.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator had shot up massively above the zero line for the first time in a long time. The CMF was now at its highest point since June 2019.

The MACD indicator witnessed a bullish crossover in the long term. The upward rise on the chart went hand in hand with the bullish MACD histogram.

The Bollinger bands for Cardano reactivated recently after a sustained price hold. The upper band and the lower band diverged from each other, indicating a bull run. This was also the first major Cardano bull run in 5 months.