Sony has developed a contactless cryptocurrency hardware wallet.

MrCoin

Weekly Crypto Recap

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” ~ Henry Ford

Market State

BTC: €5,533.05 | -2.04% since last week

ETH: €171.88 | -1.34% since last week

BCH: €364.49 | -4.45% since last week

LTC: €42.94 | -4.87% since last week

In the previous week Bitcoin stayed between €5,600 and €5,700. The overall crypto market hovered around €185 billion. Until monday afternoon when prices started to drop sharply despite the good news that have been coming to the market. The crypto market is known for its volatility and has been unnaturally stable for weeks. When Bitcoin drops altcoins follow it. Currently Bitcoin is heading to €5,400 breaking out of its several month range.

Quiz of the week

What is ‘change’ in Bitcoin transactions?

Unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions
Bitcoins returned to the sender's address in the same transaction
Same as transaction fee

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

Top stories of the week

Contactless Hardware Wallet By Sony

Sony has developed a multi-purpose cryptocurrency hardware wallet. Sony announced that its new hardware wallet is more convenient to store Bitcoins and other digital assets. Unlike traditional hardware wallets that use USB cords to be connected to a computer, Sony hardware wallet would use a contactless card. The device uses IC smart card functionality to connect to blockchains. It is not yet known when the product will be available. Sony is an electronics giant with a trusted brand name, a big name come into the market is another big step for crypto enthusiasts.

Bitcoin on Ethereum Blockchain

A new token is coming to Ethereum in January 2019 which is fully backed by Bitcoin. “Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)” is launched to increase the liquidity of ERC20 tokens on decentralized exchanges that had only Ether and other stablecoins as a trading pair until now. Each WBTC token is backed by one Bitcoin. Bitgo, The US crypto wallet service company will the primary custodian in charge of holding the Bitcoin reserves to back WBTC. Since WBTC runs on the Ethereum blockchain it has ERC20 token properties so it can be integrated into smart contracts and decentralized applications.

China Allows Merchants to Accept Crypto

China previously implemented a ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017. Last week Bitcoin has been officially recognised as a “property” in China thus allowing individuals and businesses to own and transfer Bitcoin. This means merchants can now freely accept Bitcoin and people can use Bitcoin for payments. It’s a huge news that the Chinese government remains open to crypto and the usage of the blockchain. Many people believe that the decision will encourage Chinese crypto enthusiasts to get back into crypto. Also Andreas Antonopoulos’ book “Mastering Bitcoin” was translated into Chinese.

Starlight, Private Payments On Stellar

Stellar Lumens launched Starlight, a bidirectional payment channel on the Stellar network, similar to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Payment channels allow users to transact privately, instantly, and securely, while paying zero fees. Starlight locks up Lumens for channels that participants use. After the channel has been closed, funds are forwarded to the respective users’ Stellar account balance. Only the final settlement balances are revealed to the network when the channel closes. Currently Starlight only support Lumens. The developers are planning to integrate all other tokens trading on the Stellar network.

Bitcoin volume in LocalBitcoins

LocalBitcoins is the most popular local Bitcoin market where sellers and buyers directly trade with each other. Data from LocalBitcoins can give a good insight into demand for Bitcoin in a specific country. If we breakdown volumes by country Russia is dominating LocalBitcoins volumes with 26.5%. Venezuela makes up 12.2% of volume on LocalBitcoins trailed by the US with its 11.8% volume. According to the data demand for Bitcoin is growing and becoming more important in developing countries.

Coinbase adds USDC stablecoin

Stablecoin competition is becoming more intense. US crypto exchange Coinbase has launched support for USDC stablecoin that is fully backed by the US dollar. USD coin was created by Circle, a cryptocurrency finance firm. It is an Ethereum token that is always equal to one US dollar. Customers around the world can now send and receive USD coin (USDC) on Coinbase. Though stablecoins are a great compliment to the crypto market, they are centralized. Your USDC account can be frozen and censored any time.

Tweet of the week

Meme of the week

Crypto word of the week

Extended public keys also known as xpub keys are a security feature of HD wallets (Hierarchical Deterministic). HD wallets extend a parent public key to derive child public keys. Extended public keys can generate “receive addresses” any time, without knowing the private keys. This is especially useful for a web store that has a lot of traffic. A merchant only needs to install their extended public key on their web server. The website doesn’t contain any private key but can produce unique addresses for each purchase. Despite its name extended public addresses should not be shared. They are only used for generating addresses. If your extended public key is made public all your previous and future transactions will be visible.

Quiz answer

What is ‘change’ in Bitcoin transactions?

The correct answer is : “B”

Bitcoin transactions are created in a way that your whole balance of the input transaction must be used as an input to spend your Bitcoins. This is because transaction inputs cannot be divided. If you buy something for 20 euro bill note and pay it with 50 euro bill you expect to receive 30 euro bill. Bitcoin transactions work the same way. In this case, the transaction input is 50 euro bill and the outputs are 20 euros for the item and 30 euros back to you as change. Bitcoin transactions contain outputs, both for the new owner and for the current owner which is called ‘change’.

Thank you for reading :)

Have a great day!

MrCoin

MrCoin

96 Kensington High Street, London, W8 4SG, UK

+36 1 655 5333

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

Privacy