Crypto is becoming available for more people.

MrCoin

Weekly Crypto Recap

"We never fixed anything that happened in 2008, what we did was destroy currency in order to preserve the illusion of economy, and that's going to come back and bite us." ~ Andreas M. Antonopoulos, author of “The Internet of Money”

Market State

BTC: €6,367.04 | +5.93% since last week

ETH: €250.51 | +1.64% since last week

BCH: €563.27 | +16.95% since last week

LTC: €59.71 | +13.60% since last week

We have enjoyed an upward market during the last week. It is difficult to tell whether the bear market is over or not. We will have to wait for a few more weeks to be certain. The overall market increased by 6.09% to €207.24 billion. Bitcoin price remained above €6,200 for three days and is up by 6% since last week to €6,367.04 while Ether gained 1.64% currently sitting at €250.51. Altcoins have performed quite well this week, especially Dogecoin and Dash. There were two major news that had positive impact on the crypto market last week. The first one is that Yahoo Finance integrated Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin trading on their iOS app. The second good news is that the Korean exchange Bithumb has resumed new user registration. As crypto enthusiasts say mass adoption is coming, the virus is spreading.

Quiz of the week

How many confirmations are needed until a transaction is safe from a double spend attack?

Scroll down to see the answer at the end of the newsletter.

Top stories of the week

Yahoo Finance Integrates Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin Trading

You can now buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin on Yahoo Finance. The feature is only available in the United States. Yahoo Finance has 165 million active users of which 69% of traffic is from the US. US citizens can now see buttons for direct purchase and selling for these three digital assets. The buy and sell option is provided through a third party (Tradelt) in partnership with two cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Robinhood. Currently, Yahoo crypto trading service is available on its iOS app only. Desktop, mobile web, and Android versions will be available in the coming weeks. This step will help gain mass adoption and bring crypto available for more people.

Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb to Restart User Registrations

Bithumb, Korea's 2nd biggest crypto exchange is now allowing new user registration. A month ago Bithumb disabled new user registration after it failed to renew its contract with its partner bank. A South Korean crypto exchange can’t issue new user accounts if the exchange does not have a banking partner. The Bank didn’t want to renew Bithumb’s contract due to a $30 million hack Bithumb suffered in June. Bithumb and Nonghyup Bank reached an agreement to allow real name virtual accounts. This means each user account on Bithumb exchange must be paired with their verified identities to avoid money laundering.

Ethereum Block Reward to Be Reduced to 2 ETH

Last week Ethereum developers held a meeting in which they decided to implement EIP 1234 (Ethereum Improvement Proposal). With this Ethereum network is preparing for the upcoming Constantinople hard fork. The hard fork is designed to increase efficiency and lower transaction fees, and also it will be the final step before Ethereum shifts into the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm. EIP1234 will slow down Ethereum’s inflation rate by reducing the mining reward from 3 ETH to 2 ETH per block. By reducing the mining reward to 2 ETH, Ethereum is forcing small miners out of the network, which can lead to centralization. Still, in the long, run reducing the supply of Ethereum by lowering inflation will have a beneficial effect on the value of ETH.

The EU to Discuss Cryptocurrency Regulations

The Finance Ministers of 28 European countries will meet in Vienna on 7 September to take a look at crypto regulations. During the two day informal gathering they will discuss the lack of transparency and potential misuse of cryptocurrency in money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing. Europe as a whole supports cryptocurrency and considers transactions on Bitcoin network to be relatively secure and fast. The European Parliament even published a report titled “Virtual currencies and central banks monetary policy: challenges ahead”. Still, the nature of cryptocurrency is to avoid centralized governance. Will the European ministers find a way to regulate cryptocurrencies? Let’s wait and see.

Polish Legislators Clarifies the Taxation on Crypto Incomes

Polish legislators have introduced a new bill after receiving criticism from crypto advocates on their first tax proposal. The new bill simplifies taxes on crypto which states crypto to crypto transactions will not be taxed for both individuals and businesses. It also outlines that miners who mine for themselves won’t be charged, while others who work for entities or individuals must pay taxes. Income from selling services, property, and goods will be treated like revenue for taxation purposes. The bill is expected to be adopted later this year.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Sister Joins Huobi Cryptocurrency Exchange

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s elder sister Randi Zuckerberg has joined the advisory board of the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi. Huobi is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, with a trading volume of over $1billion. Mark’s sister Randi also happens to be an entrepreneur, an investor, a bestselling author, and a tech media personality. She is the founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media. Randi will be working on Huobi’s public chain, which will provide individuals and organizations with a reliable financial protocol for value exchange, fundraising, securitisation.

Tweet of the week

Meme of the week

Crypto word of the week

Bits is a Bitcoin denomination. It represents 100 Satoshis or one-millionth of a Bitcoin. Bits is described in BIP176 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) by Jimmy Song. The unit value was created to avoid decimal mistakes when making transactions with Bitcoin. For example, instead of typing 0.000976 BTC, it is much easier and convenient to type 976 Bits. Also with the Bitcoin price growing fewer and fewer people afford to buy 1 Bitcoin. Bits is a perfect reminder that you can always buy a fraction of a Bitcoin.

Quiz answer

How many confirmations are needed until a transaction is safe from a double spend attack?

The correct answer is : “C”

After 6 confirmations it is impossible to reverse a Bitcoin transaction. Since you need a massive amount of computing power to add a block to the blockchain it is difficult to undo them. This is because bitcoin blocks are built on the previous blocks and in order to reverse them you also need to undo the previous 6 blocks. It would take an unimaginable amount of computing power, so your Bitcoin transaction is as secure as possible after six confirmations.

Thank you for reading :)

Have a great day!

MrCoin

MrCoin

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MrCoin will be more than happy to answer your questions at hello@mrcoin.eu

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