Posts

Prices Aside, Crypto's Tech Stack Is Steadily Improving

A look at the headlines of late may leave you with a familiar conclusion – with all the ups and downs in the market, it's just too early to take crypto seriously. And it's true, despite the best efforts of even the industry's most notable developers, the world's largest cryptocurrencies remain not just volatile, but difficult (and risky) to use, at least in a way that their creators' intended. Still, heading into 2018, enthusiasts the world over are hard at work on improvements. As such, there's optimism advances could start to compound, creating a user experience that finally starts to transcend the issues – namely, the high fees and long wait times – users of most blockchains have become all too accustomed to. In fact, in the year ahead, blockchain users could see exciting new features and scientific firsts that just might help push the industry closer to that vision: 1. Off-chain channels What if it was possible for blockchain-based tr

Into the Dark Pool: $30 Million ICO Could Pave Way for Huge Crypto Trades

The term dark pool might sound ominous, but investors think building one could prove to be a boon for the crypto market. Announced today, Republic Protocol has officially completed an initial coin offering (ICO) for its REN token, raising 35,000 ether (roughly $30.5 million at current prices) from lead investors Polychain Capital and FBG, as well as funds like Huobi, Hyperchain Capital and Signal Ventures. Along with retail investors, the participants above are betting big on a way to execute large trades without spooking the market. At least, that's the argument advanced by Taiyang Zhang, CEO of Republic Protocol, who sees the project as a trustless alternative system for crypto trading. Zhang told CoinDesk: "One of the biggest problems is there is a huge price slippage with any of these cryptocurrencies, especially when you are trying to trade large amounts." In other words, if a whale goes to move an unusually large quantity of bitcoin or ether

Redvolution

What is the purpose of Redvolution ?  Redvolution's main goal is to create an innovative and multiplatform "wallet" for the different ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. It will implement different communication features such as P2P public messaging, channels and some other projects which will remain undisclosed for now. Why did you create a token ? This token has three uses : first, it is the fuel that can be used for our wallet (examples : a small amount of REDV must be sent with each message in order to avoid spam, buying/selling channels). Second, this token can be traded on the different marketplaces and, thus, allows the developing team to get funds in order to run this project (we didn't raise funds through an ICO and airdropped the tokens). Finally, there is such a hype around tokens and cryptocurrencies lately : issuing a token raises awareness about the project that is behind. Why a dedicated wallet ? An easy-to-use and secured wallet allows you to hav

Wall Street Vets Raise $50 Million for Crypto Fund of Funds

Sitting at his desk at Credit Suisse, Sina Nader watched the bottom fall out of the global economy. As a junior associate helping manage a $100 million portfolio of equities, he had a first-hand view of the 2007-2008 collapse from the Swiss bank's Los Angeles offices and recalls frantically taking screenshots of the price as Lehman Brothers' stock collapsed to "essentially zero." "My first thought was, 'Holy shit, some traders just took out Lehman,'" Nader told CoinDesk. "My next thought was, 'Holy shit, if the fifth-largest investment bank in America can be taken out like this, is the banking system actually safe?'" ADVERTISEMENT Likening it to the feeling kids get when they learn Santa Claus isn't real, Nader says that the day changed him forever – and eventually sent him into the wild world of cryptocurrency. After going down the crypto rabbit hole, Nader, who's also worked for Morgan Stanley, tea

The Periodic Table of Blockchain

Dr. Pavel Kravchenko holds a PhD in technical sciences and is the founder of  Distributed Lab . For many years, people used to believe that the Earth consisted of an amalgam of four elements – earth, fire, water and air. It took until nearly 1750 for scientists to realize that fire isn't an element, but the result of a process. Later, in 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev unveiled his Periodic Table of Elements, which showed which chemical elements could actually exist, including those not present here on Earth. Mendeleev's work led to a purposeful search and a synthesis of elements, resulting in breakthroughs in many different industries. There's a feeling that people today are doing the same with digital assets – naming them as traditional cryptocurrencies, ICO tokens, utility tokens etc. This leads to the confusion for the media and the wider crowd. They start to believe that everything containing crypto – or token – is magic and possesses some kind of new fea

A Haven for Blockchain: The Case for Wyoming

Rep. Tyler Lindholm is a rancher in Sundance, Wyoming, and a Republican member of the Wyoming House of Representatives . Caitlin Long, a Wyoming native, is former chairman and president of Symbiont and a former managing director of Morgan Stanley. Wyoming is stepping up to welcome the blockchain community with open arms. A grassroots group, the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition , has garnered significant momentum to pass a package of legislation that would bring significant benefits to both the blockchain community and the State of Wyoming. The package of blockchain bills, which will be introduced during the upcoming session in February, will build on two characteristics of Wyoming that make it particularly attractive to the blockchain industry: zero corporate income or franchise taxes, and strict privacy laws governing LLCs formed in the state. Companies don't need to move to Wyoming physically to take advantage, just as most Delaware corporations aren't loca