Bitcoin: Where is the journey going? The situation on Wednesday

A look at the share price pages over the past few weeks may not be exactly inspiring for Bitcoin investors. Even though the Bitcoin share price currently stands at EUR 3,570 (USD 4,054), a slight plus of just under six percent, it has fallen sharply over the past few months measured against its all-time high. The situation is very similar for the entire crypto market. One wonders:

Where is the journey going, Bitcoin Revolution?

The Bitcoin revolution situation on Wednesday. If Bitcoin revolution investors are currently looking at their portfolio, they should not only enjoy it. Whether Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum or IOTA: Prices were clearly closer to the moon. And this despite the fact that the technology – compared to November 2017 – has made significant progress. But that could actually be the „problem“. If the market was completely overheated last year, it still seems to be cooling down. The big ICO hype seems to be over. No wonder that Prince Michael of Liechtenstein says: „Now comes a disappointment phase“.

A necessary Bitcoin loophole?

During this phase, established Bitcoin loophole projects have the opportunity to assert themselves. Shitcoins, on the other hand, finally have the opportunity to dissolve. As is currently the case with Bitcoin loophole. It was one of the most successful ICO projects on German soil, but had neither a product nor a technology. The only thing that the German start-up seems to leave behind are investors who have been put off. The idea was a good one, as was the execution – at least from the point of view of the profit-oriented initiators.

However, it is such projects that ultimately help the ecosystem (at least that is to be hoped) to extend the trimmed decentralised wings. The scene is still struggling with fraud. But in the end it can learn and reach a consensus.

This was demonstrated by the trench warfare over Bitcoin Cash. Some of them were undoubtedly led at a questionable level. Nevertheless, the war is (for the time being) over and we have a new old crypto currency in the top 10: Bitcoin ABC. Whether Bitcoin Cash ABC will prevail or turn out to be a Shitcoin, remains to be seen: Every further development of the ecosystem has its part to play in the progress of the technological revolution.

Crypto currencies grow with their adaptation
Finally, crypto currencies (if they are suitable) also grow with their adaptation: In Ohio you can pay your taxes with Bitcoin, in France you can soon buy the crypto currency together with a pack of cigarettes. For a short time, such progress may seem marginal (in terms of price slides). In the long run, however, it is such small steps that bring Bitcoin forward with big leaps. It must find its way into society in order to move away from the object of speculation and become what it wants to be: a global monetary system based on technology. Then the course will work out again.

Litecoin (LTC) overvalued? Charlie Lee defends himself

Litecoin (LTC) overvalued? Charlie Lee defends himselfLee sees this as part of a concerted action by hedge funds that bet on falling LTC prices. On Twitter, Lee has now tried to refute the arguments of LTC critics.

Is there a conspiracy going on against Bitcoin secret?

Charlie Lee faces massive criticism for his Bitcoin secret invention. He suspects behind it an agreed attempt to manipulate the share price. The alleged culprits are individuals and funds who either sell LTC short-selling or perceive the litecoin as a threat. In an 11-part tweet on Twitter, Lee dealt with the argumentation of the other side. Here is the review about the Bitcoin secret.

The structure of Lee’s tweets suggests that they respond to a particular article: a contribution from Crypto-Hedge-Fund Multicoin. In the article entitled „Debunking Market Narratives: Litecoin Edition“ the writing manager Tushar Jain does not leave good hair on Litecoin.

Criticism: Litecoin profiteer of false cryptosoft

Jain considers the litecoin to be a „relic“ from pre-Smart-Contract times, whose age is often misunderstood as a sign of value. LTC benefits from various narratives that give cryptosoft supporters a misguided view of the reality (of the market). Jain makes four main narratives, which are unjustly attributed to onlinebetrug.de.

1. litecoin as medium of exchange
The first myth that Jain wants to expose is that of the functionality of Litecoin as a medium of exchange (MoE). It is a widespread opinion that Litecoin is better suited as a medium of exchange than the parent currency Bitcoin due to low transaction fees and higher transaction speeds; not least because traders prefer LTC because of these advantages.

Jain argues that Litecoin does not have a unique selling proposition. There is strong competition in the MoE sector, notably from the Lightning-Network and Bitcoin Cash. The entire Ethereum ecosystem should also be regarded as competition from the MoE point of view. In addition, Bitcoin’s transaction fees have fallen sharply.

Jain wants to refute the argument that merchants prefer Litecoin to other crypto currencies: When merchants accept crypto currencies, they are not arguing for or against a particular coin. Rather, they use the services of payment service providers who generally accept different coins.

2. litecoin as a store of value
„If Bitcoin is gold, then Litecoin is silver“: This is another misjudgment of the LTC community. The intention is to express that Litecoin has an inherent function as a store of value.

Jain considers the comparison of crypto currencies with precious metals to be problematic. Thus there are concrete applications for silver in the industry, which Litecoin cannot claim of itself. Furthermore, LTC does not differ sufficiently from its competitors, which will „erode“ the Litecoin brand in the long run.

3 Litecoin as Bitcoins Testnet
In the eyes of its followers, the LTC network should also have a right to exist as an experimental laboratory for Bitcoin. Updates such as SegWit or the Lightning Network are usually implemented faster than in the BTC network.

Jain also puts this argument into perspective. It is „nonsensical“ for Bitcoin to maintain a $3 billion (market capitalization of LTC) expensive test network. The assumption that BTC-Hodlers would voluntarily exchange BTC for LTC to support the test network is „ridiculous“. In addition, Jain doubts LTC’s innovative strength. Not even from the corner of the Litecoin cops can he be told that the LTC will at some point take a new, independent path. The Testnet argument is therefore not an investment case, but is based on a false narrative, which presumably can be traced back to the lack of Bitcoin alternatives.

Ethereum has discovered electricity trading for itself

Two residents of Brooklyn used the Ethereum Blockchain to trade electricity with each other.

This was made possible by the Green Energy Startup LO3, which wants to change the electricity market with the help of the blockchain. This will open up a new market for the blockchain in addition to the banking sector.

LO3 co-founder Lawrence Orsini says the exchange was made to demonstrate how easy it is for everyone to use the blockchain for peer-to-peer exchanges.

So says Orsini to CoinDesk about the Bitcoin revolution:

„In all Bitcoin revolution projects we have a clear focus on the emerging decentralized economy, i.e. peer-to-peer concepts. They all focus on the distribution and decentralisation of resources and goods in communities and between people themselves – the new economy of the Bitcoin revolution future is not a scam“.

This cooperative approach is called TransActice Grid and is made possible by LO3 and decentralized applications of the start-up ConsenSys. This allows Brooklyn-based Eric Frumin to sell his solar panel-generated electricity directly to Bob Sauchelli, a former manager of EnergyStar, a publicly funded green energy initiative.

Every single unit of electricity generated by Frumin is counted and logged by the Ethereum blockchain. Programmable Smart Contracts are used to make individual power units available to the energy market.

Ethereum enables a new kind of Bitcoin revolution partnership

With the installation of the power grid in its neighborhood, Frumin is able to offset its Bitcoin revolution power consumption with some solar panels on its roof. He can sell any surplus energy he produces to an energy supplier at wholesale prices and not as a scam.

Sauchelli tells CoinDesk:

„Through this arrangement, I pay him the entire premium for the electricity and it costs me nothing more than to buy the electricity from the large corporation. But he gets the whole premium for it and not only a part of the wholesale price.“

The last point was decisive for Sauchelli’s decision to participate, he tells CoinDesk. While it is important to him to obtain green energy, the acquisition must be just as easy as with a classic power company.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of TransActive Grid and ConsenSys, goes on to explain this point:

„The electricity market is becoming more and more decentralized due to low-cost photovoltaic systems, increased consumer awareness and efficient regulation. But so far it has not been possible to feed the electricity it generates into the grid and sell it directly to other people living on the same street.“

Ready to expand
Currently, environmentally conscious electricity consumers have the opportunity to purchase renewable energy certificates to support renewable energy production around the world. But with TransActive Grid and another LO3 project, Brooklyn Microgrid, both electricity and money remain local.

„The benefits of producing electricity here in the neighborhood are significantly higher than in Nebraska, for example. So there is no incentive to buy electricity from Nebraska.“

Especially for Germany, the country of the energy revolution, the presented approach is almost predestined. After all, the German government has set itself the target of increasing the share of renewable energies to 55 to 60 % by 2035. Correspondingly, the autonomous and decentralized generation of electricity by private households will also increase, above all through solar systems. As a result, the demand for intelligent and economical power solutions will increase.

The project from Brooklyn also presents a solution with the Ethereum blockchain and Smart Contracts. Just as the blockchain calls into question the necessity of banks or certain financial services, it can also make the established power companies a bit redundant.

The promoted expansion of storage technologies and smart grids (intelligent power grids) in Germany would benefit greatly from using blockchain solutions, especially on an ethereal basis. Initial approaches are already underway. For example, the startup slock.it is working together with the RWE Innovation Hub on charging stations where ether can be used to charge cars (click here for the complete article).

BREAKING: Problems with Bitcoin debit cards – what is behind them?

Since yesterday evening several sites report that there are problems with Bitcoin debit cards like Bitwala, TenX, Mobi – what’s behind it.

Bitcoin debit cards are very popular shown in the Bitcoin loophole

Because they are easy to use as a means of payment at any debit card accepting location. Accordingly, cards from various providers such as Bitwala, TenX and BitPay are widely accepted by people who see the Bitcoin loophole by onlinebetrug as scam Bitcoin not just as a store of Bitcoin loophole value, but as a real means of payment.

For such debit cards to be used like other cards, their providers must cooperate with credit card service providers. VISA and MasterCard are the two largest companies, which is why cooperation with them is an option.

Of course, this leads to a dependency on these service providers on the part of the companies behind the Bitcoin debit cards. This dependency has now become a major problem and Bitwala has made a statement to BTC-ECHO:

„Visa’s decision today is a clear sign that traditional financial services providers are not interested in contributing to the growth of the crypto industry and the crypto economy. Right now, our customers are our top priority and we are working to help the affected users.“

But Bitwala is not alone with the news spy

TenX also seems to be affected by the news spy. This morning they wrote that payments with the TenX card are currently not possible. They refer to discussions with their issuing bank WaveCrest, which is responsible for the European Bitcoin debit cards. In a recent announcement, Julian Hosp, CEO of TenX, explained that Visa WaveCrest had withdrawn its licence to activate the cards. However, this problem is not supposed to be dramatic; after all, TenX has been looking for the news spy a new issuing bank for quite some time. All in all, it looks like there is a problem between Visa and WaveCrest. To what extent the involvement of crypto currencies plays a role cannot be assessed beyond doubt at this point in time.

BitPay has issued a longer statement according to which the BitPay Card cannot be used outside the United States. BitPay also attributes the problems to the provider WaveCrest, which has been ordered by Visa to stop all Visa debit accounts. However, the American Bitcoin debit card provider is closing its announcement hopefully:

„We expect to be back in your country soon. As part of our commitment to BitPay Card users, we will send you an email when the BitPay Card becomes available in your country again.“

Addendum: The BTC-ECHO editorial staff has now received a comment from the VISA Deutschland press office:

„Visa’s decision relates exclusively to WaveCrest, and by no means to the entire crypto industry or crypto economy. We can confirm that Visa’s license agreement with WaveCrest will be terminated and that all Visa card programs of WaveCrest will be discontinued. Visa is committed to the security of its payment system. Compliance with the Visa rules is crucial to ensuring the security and integrity of the Visa payment system. The card programs of our issuers must comply with our license terms and all applicable laws.“

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple – Course analysis – Soil formation shows initial effect

The response, which started last week, is still valid. Those who have followed the updates should have invested „long“. As always, the crucial question is:

Will there be more about the cryptosoft?

To give an overview of the top 3, here https://www.geldplus.net/en/cryptosoft-review/ are the developments of Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP course presented. If possible, we will also refer back to previous cryptosoft price analyses and look at what has happened since then.

Bitcoin (BTC/USD)
The US$ 6,000 mark still holds at the Bitcoin exchange rate. The process of the „bearish variant“ offered the perfect long entry. The book profit at the Bitcoin course increased to ten percent at the top. The cloud of the Ichimoku-Kinko-Hyo-indicator is still around 550 US dollars away. The short-term upward trend will cause greater difficulties. This is currently accompanied by the medium-term downward trend. If further price increases occur, the Bitcoin price runs into a multiple resistance range.

The moving averages are about to confirm a crypto trader

Bullish variant: The Bitcoin price continues to show a crypto trader and again overcomes the short-term downward trend. With prices above 7,000 US dollars, the medium-term downward trend has also been significantly overcome. The cloud of the Ichimoku-Kinko-Hyo-Indicator is overcome with courses over 7.600 US Dollar – tendency falling. The next important hurdle is crypto trader around 7,700 US dollars. Price increases above 7,961 US dollars activate larger upward targets:

9,261 US dollars
9,726 US dollars
11,540 US dollars
Bearish variant:

The bottom formation was only a return in the superior downward movement. The multiple resistances on the upper side cannot be taken. The 23.6 percent Fibonacci retracement confirms the price weakness of the Bitcoin price and from here a new low follows. With the break of 5,877 US dollars, the next price target is 5,428 US dollars. If this is not enough, there is a threat of exchange rate losses to around 5,000 US dollars.

Ethereum (ETH/USD)

The price target around the US$ 241 mark was already reached last week. A 25 per cent book gain was to be won here. In the end, however, the Ethereum exchange rate is still very sluggish and weak. Significant price gains are sold off again and again in the daily chart. The cloud of the Ichimoku-Kinko-Hyo-indicator is insanely 120 US dollars away from the current exchange rate and underlines the weakness of the Ethereum exchange rate.

Bullish variant:

The current setback can only be seen as a return to support. Prices above 241 US dollars are used for long positioning. The Ethereum rate is recovering and rises above 365 US dollars to confirm the bottom formation. The resistance range, which goes hand in hand with the short-term downward trend, is overcome with prices above 460 US dollars – with a downward trend. In addition, the cloud of the Ichimoku-Kinko-Hyo-indicator is then outbid. From there, a short-term rise in the exchange rate to 624 US dollars is to be expected.

Larger price targets require a significant rise of more than 684 US dollars to be activated. The following targets are thus activated:

897 US dollar
1,021 US dollars
Bearish variant:

The decline in the Ethereum rate already signals a lack of buying interest. Not even the 23.6 percent Fibonacci retracement was able to reach the high of 321 US dollars. Prices below 241 US dollars are accompanied by further losses to 196 US dollars.

Ripple (XRP/USD)

Bitcoin ATMs: Robocoin in the global fast lane, Altcoins follow suit

After today’s fall in prices, you may no longer be able to buy Bitcoins with your Chinese bank account, and the local Bitcoin dealer will probably have taken the plunge. But maybe some of you will be lucky enough to be able to use the nearest Bitcoin vending machine.

Every week the number of new Bitcoin machines grows. The weekly Bitcoin ATM overview includes some new exotic locations, unexpected events and last but not least 3 new old coins.

Bitcoiniacs and Cointrader.net

The Canadian companies Cointrader.net and Bitcoiniacs, who already inaugurated the world’s first Robocin Bitcoin vending machine in Vancoouver, announced a global campaign and reported on partnerships with various Bitcoin groups worldwide. Below are the new locations of the vending machines.

London, England
One of the partnerships was with the English company QuickCoin, who launched their first Robocoin vending machine near Liverpoll Station in a coffee shop called The Vape Lab. The machine is already the third Bitcoin machine alongside another Robocoin and Lamassu machine. Co-founder of Cointrader said:

„It becomes easier every day to buy Bitcoin in England“

We now offer our customers four different ways to trade Bitcoin.

Bucharest, Romania
Another Robocoin machine was installed in cooperation with Bitcoin Romania on April 18th in Bucharest. It is the first machine in continental Europe.

The group says the machine is currently undergoing some testing and they hope to be able to put the Bitcoin machine into operation soon.

Texas, USA
Businessman Sheldon Weisfeld of Coinvault also took the Robocoin vending machine with him and is now promoting it in Texas. Coinvault has already installed two Robocoin machines in Texas, one at Texas Gun Works in Austin and one at Brave News Books, a bookstore near Austin.

Bitcoin ATMHong Kong
Hong Kong has already installed two Lamassu machines, but wants to take the next step. Coinnect commissioned a Genesis1 two-way vending machine at 100 Cyberport Road in Hong Kong on April 25.

Whistler, Canada
Logicoins has also installed a Genesis1 machine in a therapy centre at a tourist resort in Whistler. The vending machine, which also trades Litecoins and Dogecoins, is part of the Logicoin „Resort Project“ which aims to install Bitcoin vending machines at locations where people quickly get tempted to use digital currencies: Especially in holiday regions.

Moscow, Russia
It may not be installed yet, but for a country teeming with regulations, it’s just the beginning. At the Bitcoin conference on 23 April in Russia, the local company CoinSpot demonstrated a Lamassu Bitcoin vending machine to its visitors.

Bitcoin vending machine

Enough of Bitcoin machine stories?
Then we have a little bonus. Not only London has three working Bitcoin vending machines, it also looks like the Altcoins want to share the fun with the Feathercoin.