While some universities are turning to crypto staking to fund research, others are receiving crypto directly from anonymous philanthropists.
Donation Will Fund Innovation In Finance
The University of Pennsylvania has announced that they have recently received an anonymous donation of $5 million worth of BTC. The donation was facilitated by NYDIG, an institutional finance company that facilitates the transfer of cryptocurrencies even to traditional banks that may not accept crypto directly.
The donation was acknowledged by Penn State President Amy Gutmann, who thanked the anonymous benefactor and commented on the changing nature of charity.
“As the nature of philanthropy continues to evolve, Penn stands at the forefront of innovative ways to make a difference in the world. I am deeply grateful for this creative and groundbreaking gift to support the important work of the Stevens Center. At the Center, the intersection of finance and technology is being reinvented through research, exploratory projects, and engagement with industry leaders, to make the greatest global contributions.”
All funds will go to the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School. The Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance was established with the support and partnership of undergraduate alumnus Ross Stevens. The faculty is currently a hotspot for students eager to get into fintech, and other non-traditional areas of finance.
Erika James – the dean of the Wharton School – also expressed her gratitude for the unexpected funding, and promised that it will be put to good use.
“With finance at the heart, history, and future of the Wharton School, we are honored to receive this incredible gift. This investment marks a new era and mode of giving to the University and lifts up opportunities for students to become tomorrow’s leaders in finance—through exceptional coursework and transformative interactions with policymakers and industry experts.”
In a time when many donations are simply PR moves, this anonymous donation – possibly from former alumni who may have gotten into crypto early thanks to what was taught at the Wharton School – is a heartwarming reminder that random acts of kindness can go a long way.
Pi Network, a mobile cryptocurrency mining app that leverages social connections, has been connected to a personal information data leak.
The Know Your Customer (KYC) checks of Vietnamese citizens were put up for sale on a hacker forum last week.
Personal Information Leaked
A local news outlet in Vietnam reported that an estimated 10,000 identity card information, home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses were put up for sale on RaidForums, a database marketplace of breaches and leaks. The account selling the data admitted to accessing the data via Pi Network, and was selling the information for $9,000 USD payable in Bitcoin (BTC) or Litecoin (LTC).
The Vietnam Ministry of Public Security’s cybersecurity division has since launched an investigation into the matter, also making remove the post from the site in the meantime. An estimated 17 GB worth of Vietnamese personal information was put on the marketplace, potentially connected to up to 10,000 people according to a cybersecurity expert that contacted the account.
Leak Might Not Be From Pi
Some proponents of the network don’t believe that the Pi Network is to blame for the data breach, since the platform doesn’t directly verify its users’ info nor does it require pictures of identity cards. But basic information is required when registering on the Pi app.
The KYC of the Pi Network is processed through a third party called Yoti. The digital verification site accepts passports from 200+ countries, and Vietnam is indeed one of them. However, Vietnamese identity cards are not accepted.
To perform KYC verification on Pi Network, Vietnamese would need to use their passports. Only some users who used earlier versions of Pi could perform KYC verification using their driver licenses, but so far the system has yet to accept Vietnamese identity cards.
Phien Vo, Pi Network group moderator
This means that the identity card information could also have been leaked from another source. Authorities are trying to uncover the mystery.
Is The Network a Pi In The Sky?
Pi Network proposes a new method of mining its own cryptocurrency, using social connections rather than a Proof-of-Work approach like Bitcoin.
Instead of burning energy as proof of work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin do, Pi secures its ledger when members vouch for each other as trustworthy. This forms a network of interlocking “security circles” that determines who can execute transactions. This novel approach allows crypto mining on your phone by leveraging your existing social connections, with no financial cost, no battery drain and a light footprint on the planet.
Users have no access to their private/public keys (until mainnet launch)
Mining rates increase by referring other people and earlier members benefit from a higher mining rate (MLM-esque approach)
Pi app is designed to collect personal information (requires email, cellphone number, full names to register) and Pi crypto can only be claimed after successful KYC (with ID or Passport)
Pi Network’s data collection approach is similar to other social networks like Facebook in the sense that they collect almost all data they can get from users and use them in optimizing advertising.
However, some of these issues are addressed in the white paper, for instance the token will be launched on exchanges when mainnet is launched. According to the community Pi is now in Phase 2, busy testing the Pi wallet.
17m+ Million Engaged Pioneers!
Mine at a higher rate while you can. The mining rate may halve or fall to zero at Mainnet and when Pi reaches 100m engaged Pioneers. Don't miss out! pic.twitter.com/ku9mIatsT7
The paper also stipulates that “Pi Node uses a different consensus algorithm based on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP). In SCP, nodes form trusted groups (quorum slices) and only agree to transactions that those trusted nodes agree to.“. This is how your mining rates increase by adding contacts (people you know) to a larger security circle to form these trusted groups.
There seems to be a lot of speculation about the Pi Network, but it seems only time will tell how much utility the network actually has with the launch of its mainnet.
Following on from my article about 5 Crypto Coins That Could Have a Great 2021, I’ve had a lot of questions lately about what cryptos I like at the moment. So here is the shortlist, and the reasons why I like them.
Disclaimer: Before you continue reading, please note that I am not a financial advisor, nor do not recommend you buy any of these cryptos mentioned below. I also change my positions constantly and may or may not be holding these coins. This is just a list of those coins which I like at the moment and providing some commentary for educational purposes only to help people learn about these exciting projects.For the latest coin prices see the cryptos page.
BTC is the first cryptocurrency and the godfather driving the market. Over the years, I’ve learned that it is foolish not to have some BTC in the portfolio, because it tends to act independently to the other cryptocurrencies. What percentage of BTC of the total portfolio is totally up to you, something around 50% is not unusual to see.
With its inelastic supply and growing demand, it’s hard not to see continued upside as it averages around 200% per year over the past 10 years. We’re also seeing lots of institutional money flowing into BTC as big companies add BTC to their balance sheets as a “hedge” and “store of value”.
I would also say that there is also speculation that BTC may eventually replace the US Dollar and become unit of account for the worldwide economy. Could we be comparing the price of goods in Satoshi’s in future years to come?
While Bitcoin is seen as a “store of value”, Ethereum is powering the new crypto economy. Bitcoin currently has scaling and environmental issues while Ethereum is quickly evolving to address those issues.
As a computer programmer myself, as soon as I heard “Ethereum is programmable money”, my eyes opened wide and I saw the potential of cryptocurrencies for the future of the economy.
Ethereum has some very promising use cases especially with Decentralised Finance (DeFi), Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), and Decentralised Exchanges (DEXs).
Compared to Bitcoin’s 200% average return per year, Ethereum has averaged 400% per year so far and is on target to outperform BTC once again this year.
Binance has evolved into a worldwide cryptocurrency exchange juggernaut since it started in 2017. At the moment, it is the easiest and best place to do your crypto trading. Before it came along, other platforms were terrible and hard to use with high fees.
They are also starting to expand their services into other markets such as DeFi with Binance Smart Chain, crypto loans, and crypto debit cards coming to Australia later this year.
It’s crazy to think that BNB was only $2 back in 2018 and now it is over $600. I can only see upside for Binance as their ecosystem expands rapidly as they buy up big companies such as CoinMarketCap and are set to Acquire 20-30 Crypto Startups Yearly.
Chilliz launched in 2020 to power the new sports fan token economy. These tokens act like a royalty program for fans and also can provide other benefits such as voting, connecting fans directly with clubs and players.
Since launching, CHZ has already increased over 7,000% in price and I can only see more upside for the project. My research into this coin revealed that there are currently no major competitors in the space. Their business model also looks quite clever, as they list new tokens (like in the case of UFC) on pre-sale, then the coin is actually added once the partnership is officially approved.
As clubs see the potential to raise funds through this new revenue stream, they will launch their tokens and form partnerships with Chilliz and Socios as a way to not only raise funds but engage with their fans. We’ve already seen big football clubs join such as Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus and other sports such as UFC and Formula 1.
Chainlink is a project that connects real-world data with blockchain data. As a computer programmer, I can see the power of this technology and the need for timely, accurate, and trusted data.
Moving forward I can see a huge demand to sync the real world and the virtual world. This could be something simple like a weather forecast, or more complicated like tokenized partial ownership of real estate.
Together with this and its exceptionally regarded oracles that manage the security and integrity of the network it can only be a very strong “middleman” for the further advancements of blockchain and decentralized finance.
Basic Attention Token is a decentralized platform built on Ethereum. It rewards you for your attention, if you see an ad, you get paid in BAT through the Brave Browser.
The utility of rewarding people for their attention is quite a powerful concept, especially if you are shown the ads your interested in.
The project is currently advancing by developing a DEX (decentralized exchange) which should add tremendous value to the project’s already 3 million monthly users.
Theta is one of the leading projects that is providing decentraliszed bandwidth through peer-to-peer networking. Other features of Theta include Decentralised Video Streaming, Staking, Theta TFUEL, Guardian Nodes, CDNs, Voting, and more.
As more adoption comes to cryptocurrencies and blockchain, one would assume we will need more bandwidth to support scaling worldwide. Theta software was also included in the new Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones to assist with video streaming and rewarding watchers with TFUEL tokens.
The hypothesis is that as crypto usage grows, then Theta adoption should grow with it.
Cardano is a decentralized blockchain platform, similar to Ethereum. It’s already a proof-of-stake platform which is more environmentally friendly and has implemented further unique scaling technology.
The QTUM project is a decentralized platform and blockchain similar to Ethereum. Its purpose is not to compete with Bitcoin and Ethereum, but to bridge the gap between them helping scale transactions at low cost.
The project is heavily committed to DeFi and supporting DeFi projects offering $1 million dollars in rewards to developers who build applications using the Qtum blockchain.
Personally, I think Decentralised Finance (DeFi) is going to be a huge disrupt to how we currently do finance worldwide. Frameworks like Ethereum and Qtum, which support DeFi projects can only have an upside in the future as they contribute to the rise of DeFi.
Ripple (XRP) is a cryptocurrency platform and blockchain similar to Ethereum. The project is attempting to become the facilitator for global payments between financial institutions.
XRP has had both good and bad press over the years. Initially, the sentiment was very bullish due to the rumors that banks may use it for liquidity and large global transactions. However, since then, it has been involved in lawsuits lessening its appeal.
Recently they announced plans for Ripple To Go Public After Lawsuit Settlement which has shed some light that there may be some potential for a comeback in sentiment. After running crypto news for the past few years I’ve seen that the 2 most popular coins in Australia are DOGE and XRP.
Dogecoin (DOGE) started as a joke when a developer cloned Bitcoin’s code and stuck a dog meme as the logo, back in 2013. Since then it has gained tremendous popularity and it seems you can’t go a single day without seeing that cheeky dog face.
I generally don’t invest in “jokecoins”, also referred to as “shitcoins” that have little to no utility. However, DOGE is an exception, due to its strong social appeal. Its “meme value” is so high within the crypto community and this provides free marketing for the coin.
Back in 2017, I underestimated the power of social media when DOGE was only $0.00023, and this year it almost reached $1 earlier this year – that’s over 400,000% gain in just 3-4 years.
As the crypto market grows and more people join in the frenzy, DOGE could be the one they buy as a speculation. However, I think it will only end badly for those people buying DOGE at all-time high prices, when the market turns, the shitcoins could drop to nothing, only the quality projects will survive long term.
Conclusions
It’s crazy how back in 2016 the prices were so low compared to now. I wonder if we will be shocked again in another 4-5 years from now…
If you’re interested in buying any of these coins then head over to one of our trusted Partners: CoinJar, Swyftx, or Binance to get started. You can compare the exchanges here.
Stock and Crypto Market Values https://unsplash.com/photos/fiXLQXAhCfk
After more than a week of Bitcoin losing value, a report by Glassnode shows that Monday saw the biggest sell-off since March 2020.
That was when panic selling occurred due to fears about the market brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Such event subsequently became known as Black Thursday in the crypto scene.
Retail Investors Sell vs. Institutions Buy
Despite the massive sell-off, prices haven’t tanked as much as one would expect. In total, 30,749.89 BTC were sold on Monday. But as retail investors sold their BTC, companies and institutions have taken the opportunity to buy it.
As a result, Binance – a popular exchange especially between private traders – registered an inflow of around 26,000 BTC. Coinbase, on the other hand – one of the exchanges preferred by institutional investors – registered a net outflow of 146 BTC.
Although 146 BTC isn’t an enormous amount, it shows that, overall, more BTC is being bought than sold on the exchange often preferred by institutional investors. At current daily transactional volumes, Coinbase is still seeing more BTC being bought than sold.
Coinbase has seen almost entirely net outflows of BTC since breaking last cycles $20,000 USD all-time high, a trend that has continued this week. Coinbase is the preferred venue for U.S. institutional accumulation and given the scale of typical daily withdrawals (10,000 to 20,000 BTC per day), it suggests that larger buyers remain in active accumulation during this correction.
It’s also worth mentioning that the sale of BTC to Binance and other exchanges does not necessarily mean that people are looking at getting rid of their cryptocurrency. Many of the Bitcoins sold may simply be exchanged for other cryptos, given the gains Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies have also made recently.
This provides further indication that the recent inflows are likely to be driven by both new market entrants (panic sellers) and potentially due to capital rotation into other crypto assets.
Glassnode “The Week On-chain (Week 20, 2021)”
Overall, more Bitcoin is being sold across all exchanges – This data seems to suggest that the market may start recovering sooner rather than later, possibly thanks to institutional support.
While tumbling in price, Bitcoin (BTC) has taken the vast majority of cryptocurrencies with it. Outside of Solana, AAVE and a few others weathering the storm, everything looks in the red.
The chart may be looking quite grim now – after a rough week that sent the price of 1 BTC plummeting from $59,434 USD to $43,974 USD (at the time of writing). Although Bitcoin price fall doesn’t seem to have come to a halt yet, this is not the first time it happens to BTC and in the past it has always recovered, eventually.
Routine Blow-Offs Of Around 30%
Below is a table showing that drastic drops in value are recurrent events.
Date
BTC price % drop
January 2017
35%
March 2017
33%
May 2017
32%
July 2017
40%
September 2017
41%
November 2017
30%
December 2017
21%
December 2017
23%
December 2018
84%
January 2021
31%
February 2021
26%
May 2021
32%
A drop in value almost as big as the current one took place as recently as January – and the market promptly pushed the price to a new all-time high not long after.
Of course, cryptocurrency trading remains high-risk, high-reward – and panic selling may not be the best move, as we see big corporations continue buying the dip.
Based out of Sydney, a new DeFi platform called Marhaba will be working to explore ways to bring decentralised finance to over 2 billion Muslims in a way that does not contradict Islamic laws on usury and investments.
Marhaba – which means “Welcome” in Arabic – is a new DeFi platform started by Naquib Mohammed, after noting the moral dilemmas many Muslims face when thinking about getting into cryptocurrency.
“We are building a platform that aims at the inclusively of the community and a trusted place where faith-conscious Muslims can be onboarded without any hesitation or doubt.”
Solving Religious And Moral Dilemmas
Set of Elegant Ramadan Kareem Lantern or Colorful Lights in Islamic Pattern
Since Islam prohibits high-interest loans, aggressive derivatives and excessively risky investments, one can see how cryptocurrency may put devout Muslims in a bit of a pickle when considering whether to get into crypto and decentralized finance.
“In the Muslim countries, we found that 99% of the time, people ask: ‘Is this token Halal? Is this token Shariah-compliant?’ […] Question number two is: ‘Where do you buy this? The reason that Bitcoin is still under discussion by some scholars in the Islamic ecosystem is because nobody knows who the creator of Bitcoin is. If you don’t know who created it — that means the thing is under doubt.”
Additionally, artistic depictions can also be tricky to deal with due to religious laws concerning idolatry. However, as anyone familiar with mosques such as Nasir al-Mulk in Shiraz can tell you, abstract patterns are fair game – which allows for the creation of NFTs that do not conflict with Sharia Law.
Marhaba Finance aims to solve both of these issues by collaborating with Islamic scholars to create their platform according to the precepts of Islamic law. They will also launch a non-custodial “Sahal” wallet, which will allow for transfers and custody of “Shariah-screened NFTs and tokens”.
Ethical Wallet and Trading Platform
According to the whitepaper, the project will launch in 2021 both a “Sahal Wallet” and Ethical Trading Platform and other features through the Marhaba Decentralized Financial Platform (MDFP).
The project will launch the $MRHB ERC-20 token using Ethereum with a supply of 500 million tokens (see the whitepaper for token allocation).
The NFT marketplace is scheduled for launch later this year. With a sharia-compliant version of yield farming will also be coming to the platform – as well as ways to donate to charity, fulfilling another obligation to the five pillars of Islam.
The project is also supported by Blockchain Australia and Neo Legal to assist with crypto regulations.
In a report recently published by Cornerstone Research, the US financial watchdog has stated that they’ve gathered $1.7 billion in crypto-related penalties since 2013.
This sum has been gathered from a total of 75 enforcement actions, 70% of which have been settled. Unsurprisingly, a significant number of these enforcement actions took place in 2017, right in the middle of the ICO boom.
Claiming Main Regulator Status
According to Simona Mola – the publisher of the report in question – the SEC’s actions have placed the organization firmly in the lead when it comes to crypto regulation.
“In the last seven years or so, the SEC has established itself as one of the main regulators policing the cryptocurrency space.”
While a number of these actions have resulted in a win for the SEC, other cases have not been quite as cut-and-dry – most notable among them being the ongoing Ripple court battle – who seems to be gaining the upper hand.
The main offences that garnered the interest of the SEC were unregistered securities offerings and fraud.
Unregistered securities offerings made up 69% of allegations made by the SEC, and fraud accusations were present in 52% of cases. 37% of cases laid out by the SEC accused the recipient of both.
However, the crypto space has come a long way since the days of “unfortunate hacks” on crypto exchanges and high-profile rugpulls.
As crypto-related startups are finding new ways to finance themselves aside from IPOs, regulatory authorities will allegedly look for ways to allow these new companies to find their footing in order to promote innovation, according to Cornerstone Research VP Abe Chernin.
“While the SEC will continue to focus on fraud, there is an increasing expectation that the new administration develops a clearer regulatory approach and pursue greater interagency coordination to foster innovation in cryptocurrency markets.”
Although a certain amount of regulation is necessary in order to keep earnest investors safe from unscrupulous blockchain projects, it’s important that fraud allegations be investigated on a case-by-case basis – a little communication can often clear things up.
The supply of Bitcoin available on exchanges has risen after a long slide that started more than one year ago.
Data from the blockchain analysis firm Glassnode shows that the balance of Bitcoins on exchanges has experienced a recovery to hit 2,461,801.581 BTC – the highest level in a month.
📈 #Bitcoin$BTC Balance on Exchanges just reached a 1-month high of 2,461,801.581 BTC
In a recent weekly report, Glassnode also found that the Bitcoin supply at Over-The-Counter (OTC) exchanges has declined to just 6,000. OTC desks allow investors to buy crypto without making orders on the public exchange and causing price disruptions.
The total balance held by the three OTC desks we track has continued to decline throughout 2021, reaching local lows of only 6k BTC this week. This suggests demand by larger buyers exceeds available supply at these OTC desks. Furthermore, this trend clearly commenced starting in Dec 2020 at which time miners were distributing heavily. This aligns with the strong growth in institutional interest in the asset as a macro scale investment.
Glassnode
In other words, Glassnode analysis suggests that institutional adoption of Bitcoin has increased, as confirmed by multiple banks and big companies getting involved in the crypto space.
What Does The Drop In Bitcoin Balance On Exchanges Mean?
It is hard to say exactly why the supply on all exchanges has been dropping. Investors may be holding onto their Bitcoins, which could mean that another bull run is on the way.
As previously discussed, it is also important to remember that the Bitcoin protocol include halvings, which by definition reduce the issuance of new coins.
All of the above factors could be linked to the price of Bitcoin (BTC) increasing over the same period to reach a price of around $65,000 AUD.
Hitman or assassin holds pistol with silencer in hands
https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-hitman-assassin-holds-pistol-silencer-hands-image77972286
A man from Tennessee attempted to hire someone to murder his wife, paying in Bitcoin. Fortunately, his plans have been ruined by the BBC, who promptly informed the authorities.
A Nefarious Crypto Plot
According to FBI Special Agent Clay Anderson, Nelson Replogle allegedly paid Bitcoin to someone in an effort to get rid of his wife. The recipient contact came from a murder-for-hire forum, buried in the more obscure corners of the Internet.
After finding a person allegedly willing to carry out the crime, things were set in motion. The hit on his wife Ann was supposed to be carried out while she was on her way to the veterinarian with their pet.
It is not known how staff members of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) learned of the plot, nonetheless they informed the authorities. The sheriff of Knoxville, TN in turn involved the FBI. Investigations quickly led from the crypto transaction, identified to have happened on Coinbase exchange, to Nelson Replogle – separate warnings have been sent to both him and his wife.
Crypto Transactions Not So Anonymous After All
Cryptocurrency transactions seem to have a degree of anonymity depending on the specific platforms and procedures used. Commercial exchange services require their customers to comply with KYC (Know-Your-Customer) regulation.
That might be the reason why the FBI managed to retrieve a lot of data related to the transaction, including name, photos and bank account of Mr Replogle, as well as a confirmation from the Internet Service Provider that the connection happened from his home.
On the contrary, the identity of the hitman remains a mystery at this stage – possibly due to using a personal wallet, disconnected to exchanges requiring KYC and detached from personally-identifiable information.
Criminal Activities Using Bitcoin
Stories like this one show once more that cryptocurrencies could be used for illegal activities, for example involving drugs or guns. Criminals however don’t seem to always know how blockchain technologies work.
It seems also worth mentioning that the portion of the crypto market used for such purposes is relatively quite small and has dropped significantly over the years.
Crypto prices and market caps, 2016 (left) vs 2021 (right) [CoinMarketCap]
A lot has changed in the cryptocurrency market over the past five years. There have been many coin ranking reshuffles, with massive growth in the global market capitalization as more people got to know and invest in digital currencies.
Back in 2016, the top-ten digital currencies by market capitalization (according to data from CoinMarketCap) and their corresponding prices were:
At the time, Bitcoin was only a three-digit price cryptocurrency ($455 USD), with a total market valuation of $7.075 billion USD. Also, Ethereum was less than $10 USD, while XRP traded around $0.006 USD, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Crypto prices and market caps, 2016 (left) vs 2021 (right) [CoinMarketCap]
As of May 2016, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization was $8.449 billion USD.
Crypto total market capitalization [CoinMarketCap]
The Crypto Market is up by Over 29,000% Since 2016
Fast forward to today, the crypto market has seen immense growth of over 29,000 percent in the market cap – in other words, more than 290 times. The total valuation of global cryptocurrencies now sits around $2.47 trillion USD compared to $8.4 billion USD cap in the past five years. This follows the wake of more retail and institutional investors.
The leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) saw over a 12,300 percent increase from 2016 to date, with a market capitalization of over $1 trillion USD. This means that a $100 USD investment in BTC over the past five years would be worth more than $12,000 USD in today’s value. At the same time, the second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) surged by over 41,000 percent, which is a much higher return compared to Bitcoin.
Some of the top-ten coins in 2016 are no longer ranking high on the list today, including DigixDAO and FedoraCoin. It remains to be seen how the list will change in the next five years. Do you think Bitcoin and Ethereum can be overthrown by the likes of Binance Coin (BNB) or even Dogecoin (DOGE)?
