Join the annual Proof of Keys celebration by removing all your Bitcoins from exchanges

MrCoin

Weekly Crypto Recap

"Bitcoin for me is not an instrument for financial investment. Bitcoin is a declaration of our monetary independence” ~Nick Spanos

Market State

BTC: €3,153.04 | 2.23% since last week

ETH: €84.18 | 4.67% since last week

BCH: €77.46 | -10.89% since last week

LTC: €25.85 | 18.66% since last week

The crypto market has crashed hard. However, it’s not stopping companies to push forward with mass adoption and developing the underlying technology. In terms of price action, it wasn’t a too exciting week. Bitcoin has been trading between €2800-€3150. The total market capitalization dropped to a week low of €88.6 billion before gradually recovering throughout the weekend to €100 billion. Bitcoin Cash continued to drop, which is down by 11% since last week. For the first time in history, the price of Ether has surpassed Bitcoin Cash. Litecoin generated a gain of 18.66% due to its launch on one of the biggest payment gateways, CoinGate.

In the midst of the bear market the crypto industry is expanding, continuously building infrastructure. According to LinkedIn, blockchain developer is the biggest growing job sector in 2018. In spite of the prices, one of the top questions on Google Trends in 2018 is “What is Bitcoin?”. People still want to know what Bitcoin is and educate themselves, which is a good sign.

Quiz of the week

When was the first Bitcoin block mined?

On 3 January 2009
On 12 December 2008
On 9 January 2009

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

Top stories of the week

The First Atomic Swap on Lightning Network

The world’s first ERC20 to Bitcoin swap has been done on Lightning Network by CoBloX, a TenX research and development lab. At the TenX Summit on 7th December 2018, the CoBloX team showed a live demonstration where they swapped TenX’s 10 PAY token on Ethereum for 71240 Satoshi on the Lightning Network. The swap was only one way, it was executed from ERC20 to Lightning and not the other way around. The team is still looking at ways to make the swaps bidirectional. They used COMIT protocol to swap the coins, which is an open source software. TenX aims to connect all the blockchains in a decentralised manner. COMIT will act as a bridge between blockchains to facilitate cross-chain asset swaps.

Built-In Ethereum wallet in Opera Browser

Good news for Android smartphone users. Web browser company, Opera launched its Web 3-ready or blockchain ready browser. Web 3 refers to the decentralized web of tomorrow where browsers bridge the gap between cryptocurrency wallets and browsers where decentralized applications exist. The new browser has a built-in Ethereum wallet which requires no extension or additional application and allows users to transact with Ether and access decentralized applications. The Android browser is now available on the Google Play store. Opera plans to add similar updates to its full desktop browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux sometime in 2019.

Join Proof of Keys Celebration

A new Bitcoin cultural tradition has started, which is called “Proof of Keys”. Every 3rd January as a celebration of the genesis block the Bitcoin community participates in a Proof of Keys celebration by withdrawing all Bitcoins held by trusted third parties on their behalf. Despite the prices, a lot of new people are joining the crypto community. Trace Mayer, Bitcoin hodler initiated the tradition to help all the newcomers. “Not your keys; not your Bitcoin” means if you don't hold your keys, it's not your Bitcoin. Join the annual Proof of Keys celebration by removing all your Bitcoins from exchanges to a software where you hold your private keys and be your own bank.

HTC Blockchain Phone Uses Brave Browser as Default

HTC, a Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer, has created HTC Exodus 1, the blockchain smartphone. Exodus 1 uses Android operating system and comes with a built-in cryptocurrency wallet called Zion which supports Bitcoin and Ether. The blockchain phone is available for pre-order and can be purchased with Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin. HTC is partnering with blockchain based Brave browser which will be the default browser on Exodus 1. Brave browser blocks ads and website trackers and uses Basic Attention Token (BAT) which allows users to reward websites they visit.

German Stock Exchange to Launch Crypto Trading Platform

Germany’s second-largest stock exchange, Boerse Stuttgart Group, is planning to launch a cryptocurrency trading platform in the first half of 2019. Boerse Stuttgart has partnered with a local fintech company solarisBank as a technology and banking partner. Together with solarisBank, Boerse Stuttgart Group is developing the trading system for its crypto trading platform. Initially, Bitcoin and Ether will be available on the crypto platform. The stock exchange is also developing an ICO platform to allow crypto companies conduct token sales with standardized and transparent processes. Once Boerse Stuttgart’s ICO platform has gone live, tokens issued there will also be available for trading in the secondary market.

TenX Announces Airdrop For Its Crypto Debit Card

TenX is a Singaporean-based startup that provides debit cards to users for them to be able to spend their crypto-assets. In 2017 TenX has raised $80 million through its ICO. Investors received the startup’s own PAY token in return for their Bitcoin and Ether. Last week TenX announced an airdrop. Their new token is called TenX token which has features of ERC-1462. ERC-1462 is a new security token standard that provides compliance with security regulations. TenX will take a snapshot of all PAY token holders on the 30th of December 2018. PAY token holders must provide their documents and verify themselves in order to receive TenX token.

Tweet of the week

Meme of the week

Crypto word of the week

Atomic swap is a smart contract that allows two users to directly exchange two different coins belonging to separate blockchains without the need of any intermediary or crypto exchanges. The first atomic swap was completed between Decred and Litecoin in September 2017.

Quiz answer

When was the first Bitcoin block mined?

The correct answer is : “A”

The first Bitcoin block is known as the “genesis block”. The genesis block was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto. It generated the very first 50 BTC as the block reward which was given to address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa. Unfortunately the 50 BTC is unspendable. Satoshi Nakamoto intentionally created the first 50 Bitcoin unspendable. Since then the address received 16.9 Bitcoin from random people as a tribute to Satoshi.

Thank you for reading :)

Have a great day!

MrCoin

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MrCoin

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