Bearish Analysts Expect a Bitcoin Price Drop to $2,800 104

Depending on whom you pose the question to, Bitcoin will either rebound or meet its demise. As of right now, some analysts are convinced the Bitcoin price will drop well below $5,000 pretty soon. If Market Securities Dubai’s Paul Day is to be believed, we will hit $2,800 in the not so distant future.

The Bitcoin Price Decline So Far

Anyone who has paid attention to Bitcoin this year may have noticed a peculiar trend. After hitting nearly $20,000 in late 2017, that same Bitcoin is now worth just over $8,200. Such a price trend is not uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency, though. The Bitcoin price goes through a bearish cycle virtually every year. Each time this happens, the value retraces from an all-time high by up to 90%. Right now, we are looking at a 53% decline with little improvement in sight.

Despite this negative trend, some speculators remain optimistic. John McAfee is a permabull when it comes to the Bitcoin price. His prediction of a value of $500,000 in the next two years still holds true to this date. Whether or not such a price goal is even remotely possible, is a different matter altogether. It will depend on merchant adoption, payment integrations, and new regulatory measures being deployed all over the world.

Speaking of regulation, things remain uncertain in this regard. South Korea still keeps an open mind, which is good to see. Additionally, we see India contemplating regulation of cryptocurrencies, yet no one knows how things will play out. In the US, cryptocurrency remains largely unregulated as well. The European Central Bank has no intention of intervening in this regard, which is rather interesting. A mixed bag of regulatory measures, as one would come to expect at this point.

The Bearish Bitcoin Price Outlook

Despite there being no real reason for it, the Bitcoin price is still struggling for traction. Bloomberg analysts are concerned this may only be the beginning “of the end”. More specifically, a prediction is made which puts the Bitcoin price at $2,800 in the very near future. This trend is known as a “death cross”, although it remains to be seen how things will play out.

According to the analysts, the chart trend paints a worrisome outlook. The “bubble” of 2017 has triggered a massive sell-off, although this trend could have materialized without such a big bull run last year as well. Market Securities Dubai’s Paul Day fears a  major Bitcoin price dip is looming just ahead. That is, assuming the current trends of 2018 will continue to repeat themselves in the coming weeks and months.

This prediction does not take any of the positive Bitcoin developments into account, though. A lot of things are happening behind the scenes. All of those developments can have a positive impact on the Bitcoin price in the long run. Charting and technical analysis are valuable tools, but they only tell part of the story. For now, we have to wait and see where the Bitcoin price will head during the remainder of 2018.

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Bloccelerate VC Closes Fund I 3167

Bloccelerate VC, a Seattle-based VC firm focused on early-stage investments in blockchain technology startups, closed a $12M Fund I to support the enterprise and institutional adoption of blockchain. The Bloccelerate VC fund is actively investing in blockchain-powered applications that enable trustless automation of business processes within trillion-dollar industries — such as trade finance, financial services, and supply chain. The fund has already deployed capital into 5 companies, including Blockapps, Symbiont, MakerDAO.

Over the next 2-3 years, Bloccelerate will deploy capital into 10-15 emerging winners in the blockchain space. Bloccelerate invests in Seed, Series A, and Series B stage companies through its main fund, along with a co-investment vehicle. The average investment amount ranges from $500K-$2M.

Founded in 2018, Bloccelerate VC is led by General Partners Kate Mitselmakher and Sam Yilmaz. Having personally experienced the volatility of the emerging market economies, both Mitselmakher and Yilmaz have developed an appreciation for the disruptive potential of blockchain in the financial world.

Professionally, Mitselmakher brings a decade-long expertise in the enterprise technology space, having worked for a global publicly traded technology market research firm, Gartner (NYSE: IT). Yilmaz brings operational know-how and entrepreneurial expertise, having started and exited an AI company, prior to co-founding the Decentralized Application Fund in 2014. The DApps Fund divested all of its assets in 2017 — at the peak of the blockchain hype cycle.

While the recent adoption of digital assets by institutional investors has been great for the blockchain industry as a whole, Mitselmakher and Yilmaz firmly believe that many still misinterpret blockchain by deeming it primarily restricted to payments, or “money-as-a-service” use cases. In reality, blockchain has numerous other applications.

In fact, by 2030, Gartner estimates that the business value added by blockchain will surge to exceed over $3.1 trillion, with the vast majority of value created in use cases outside of “digital gold” (Source). Large Fortune 500 companies — like Walmart, Bayer, Vanguard, Anheuser Busch, and others — all announced successful blockchain implementations. Mitselmakher believes that “the era of futile experimentation is behind us, as a larger number of POCs are successfully going to production.”

Bloccelerate’s investment thesis specifically focuses on revenue-generating use cases that enable trustless “consensus over the wire” for multiple stakeholders who do not necessarily know or trust each other. Examples from Bloccelerate portfolio include BlockApps’s solution tracking multiple billions of dollars worth of highest-value stewarded products for Bayer Crop Sciences (Source), and Symbiont’s solution successfully managing $1.3+ trillion worth of passive index data for Vanguard (Source). Bloccelerate VC believes that, ultimately, blockchain solves the “single source of truth” problem – permeating virtually every sector and every geography.

Blockchain-Based E-Contract Startup FirmaChain Announces Partnership With ‘DTT Alliance’ 3594

South Korea based FirmaChain, a blockchain-based global electronic contract platform, announced that it has joined the DTT Alliance (Decentralized Trusted Timestamping Alliance), an alliance of blockchain-based decentralized TSA (Time Stamping Authority) and data verification companies. FirmaChain plans to work together with DTT Alliance to build a blockchain-based decentralized TSA service ecosystem and overcome the limitations of existing processes. FirmaChain is also considering collaboration with DTT Alliance partners in the future for the scalability of the blockchain network.

DTT Alliance was formed to jointly address opportunities and barriers in diverse markets of data authentication and distribution in line with the amendment of the Basic Act on Electronic Documents and E-Commerce, enactment of Three Data Bills, and the abolition of public authentication certificates in South Korea.

DTT Alliance has already confirmed participation from 15 corporates, including CJ OliveNetworks, Daebo Communication & Systems Corporation, Lotte Data Communication, Bespin Global, Busan International Film Festival, Argo, eXsoft, Initech, Xangle, Chain Partners, Topedo, Fujitsu Korea, and Hyundai AutoEver.

Shin Jae Hyuk, Secretary-General of DTT Alliance, shared, “Together with blockchain-based electronic contract platform FirmaChain, it will be possible to record and verify corporate core data including e-contracts using blockchain.”

Young Yoon, CEO of FirmaChain stated, “We hope that our participation in DTT Alliance activates the use of a more transparent blockchain-based e-contract platform like FirmaChain in the contactless and private authentication markets. Participation by various corporates in DTT Alliance will lead to the formation of a highly scalable network.”

Currently, FirmaChain is striving to expand the blockchain ecosystem by actively accepting blockchain-based technology that can be used in various industries, for example, joining MYKEEPiN ALLIANCE, one of the four major DID (Decentralized IDentifier) associations in Korea.

FirmaChain Overview

FirmaChain seeks to replace all written contracts governing social and legal issues by using an electronic contract platform based on FirmaChain’s data blockchain. Since traditional written and electronic documents are easy to forge, and the verification procedures are complicated, blockchain’s decentralization is used to solve the problem. FirmaChain can check the contract’s validity through its hash function, which can be verified in an independent node. This verification process can be used as a means to resolve legal disputes. Blockchain is an effective technology that eliminates the risk of forgery of such documents, and it is applied to the first DApp (decentralized application) of FirmaChain – the duite service.

Duite is a blockchain-based electronic contract solution that changes contracts, signatures, and management methods, focusing on solving forgery problems such as signature forgery and document falsification. The user’s contract data is encrypted using Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) to guarantee the document’s security, and the encrypted document is uploaded to the server owned by FirmaChain and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to ensure the safety of the user’s contract data. The double-posting security mechanism provides technically enhanced assurance that signed contract documents are kept in inviolable document storage.

The DApp implements a reliable contract-making procedure between parties. It reduces the processing cost for international contracts through contract writing using fewer resources and simplifying the process. FirmaChain is creating a service that overcomes the limitation of written contracts. Visit FirmaChain’s website https://firmachain.org/ for more information.

How One Crypto Player’s Winnings have Reached $275k at CryptoSlots in Two Years 3928

CryptoSlots

Ever wonder if players really do get lucky from crypto casinos? Maybe not all, but we found one CryptoSlots casino player whose winnings have added up to a substantial $275k in wins in just two years of playing ($276,200 to be exact). David C is from California, and wisely started investing in Bitcoin in 2016 – in 2018 he decided to play at Bitcoin casinos with some of his savings, and the rest is history. Read our interview with him below.

Bonus code COINAD100 is valid for 100% match on deposits $25 – $500 until Dec 31st, 2020.

Do you have a strategy?
I only put in what I got out of crypto investing, I don’t play for hours on end – you have to be smart. I won a few thousand on the Jackpot game early on, got a huge win on Olympus High Limit version at one point. With bigger wins I like that I always set the money aside. Quit when you’re ahead.

But a lot of it as learning how the games work. I count the medium wins rather than hold out for bigger ones. And, at CryptoSlots, save up Jackpot Tokens and then play Jackpot Trigger for longer all in one go.

Have you always played online? 
I’ve played slots online a lot before – only been to two actual casinos in my life to be honest with you. You have more control over what you’re doing when you’re online.

What do you like about playing with Bitcoin?
When playing at btc casinos, I don’t have to get my bank involved or wait for payments to come through – I know exactly where my money is at all times.

Last but not least, what do you spend your winnings on?
Well some of it goes back into playing, some I keep in crypto, some I spend. Last year we did a trip around Asia. We went jungle trekking in Malaysia, I got my diving certificate in Indonesia, stayed a few days in Singapore. It was out of this world, such a vacation. We were planning on heading to Norway this winter to see the Northern Lights but, unfortunately, that will have to wait thanks to this coronavirus.

When asked about his favorites among Cryptoslots’ Provably Fair casino games, David said he largely alternates between the slots to diversify his crypto bets. So we took a look at his top ten games over the last six months and analyzed his payback ratio on each:

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Interestingly, the High Limit games seem at a glance to be most volatile – offering the lowest payback ratio (Vegas Vibes High Limit at 72.5%) and the highest (Blazing Wilds High Limit at 179.1%). His standard video slot play produced more reliable wins but less chance of huge paybacks (e.g. Coin Rush at 105.8% and Vegas Twin at 99%).

Of course, it all depends on how much is bet and for how long the game is played. David bet the least on both Jacks or Better and Pyramid Plunder High Limit – maybe his inclinations warned him that luck was lurking elsewhere, maybe he quit too soon and longer gameplay would have increased his payback ratio! A significant win can make the world of difference.

We always ask our players if they believe in luck, and just like David, most of them tell us it depends on the day. For now, it seems his strategies are literally paying off.

If you’re fan of bitcoin casino games, check out Cryptoslots and take advantage of the 100% match using bonus code OURBTCNOV now.

TAAL Reports Third Quarter and Nine-Month 2020 Financial Results & Announces Chris Naprawa as Interim CFO 3823

TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. (CSE: TAAL) (FWB: 9SQ1) (OTC: TAALF) (“TAAL” or the “Company”) a blockchain infrastructure and service provider, today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 (“Q3-2020”). The Q3-2020 unaudited interim financial statements and related management discussion and analysis (“MD&A”)  are available for review on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. TAAL reports all amounts in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Q3-2020 Highlights

  • Company had $12,993,341 million in working capital at the end of September, 2020.
  • Completed the acquisition of WhatsOnChain Limited (“WhatsOnChain”), accelerating TAAL’s strategy of becoming a leading provider of enterprise blockchain infrastructure services.
  • The establishment of a European office in Zug, Switzerland, a leading technology hub in Europe.
  • Filed second patent for L0 token technology to enable smart contracts to be built on Bitcoin SV which will facilitate an expansion of the fee market available to TAAL.
  • Increased liquidity to U.S. investors with upgrade to OTCQX.
  • Entered agreement to establish 175 PH of custom computing capacity in a trusted North American environment to power Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (“BSV”) transaction solutions for global enterprise clients, subsequent to the quarter end.
  • Completed management and senior executive appointments; Stefan Matthews as Executive Chairman and CEO, Chris Naprawa as President and Interim CFO following the departure of Satoshi Kitahama, and Jerry Chan as CPO, subsequent to the quarter end.
  • David Allen, a seasoned finance executive with Fortune 250 Canadian companies and former VP, Corporate Controller at Canada Goose Inc. retained as financial consult

Financial Highlights for the Three and Nine Months Ending September 30, 2020

  • Gross revenue from operations generated $245,629 for the three-months ended September 30, 2020, as compared to $7,380,758 for the same period in 2019, which decrease reflects the suspension of digital asset hashing operations in May 2020 in advance of the halving. This resulted in gross revenue of $7,854,585 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020, as compared to $11,685,385 for the same period in 2019, which decrease reflects the suspension of hashing operations in 2020 partially offset by fleet management revenue.
  • Operating expenses totaled $4,965,786 for the three months ended September 30, 2020, as compared to $1,446,645 for the same period in 2019. The increase in expenses is largely attributable to one-time impairment charge related to blockchain computing equipment of $2,444,857 recognized in the quarter, as well as management fees, salaries and wages of $1,455,820, office and administration of $331,631, and share-based payments of $255,955 compared to $322,388, $143,643, and $230,605, respectively, for the same period 2019. The increased expenses reflect the continuing investment in the team to deliver the new business line, including the transition to transaction processing, and the delivery of other value-added services for enterprise clients. For further information regarding the impairment charge, see the Company’s interim financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2020.
  • Net loss of $5,928,027 for the three months ended September 30, 2020, as compared to a net loss of $756,603 for the same period in 2019. Net loss of $9,120,930 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020, as compared to a net loss of $1,928,212 for the same period in 2019.
  • Working capital of $12,993,341 as of September 30, 2020, providing liquidity for at least the next 12 months.

Management Commentary

“In Q3-2020 the Company maintained a strong working capital position, allowing us to service clients and develop our infrastructure in North America and Europe, including closing the acquisition of WhatsOnChain in the UK, opening a TAAL EU office in Zug, Switzerland and subsequent to the quarter, strengthening our leadership team in Canada with the appointment of Chris Naprawa as President. Chris also takes on the role of Interim CFO with the departure of Satoshi Kitahama. These are important achievements which further our capacity as a first-mover in providing trusted blockchain infrastructure services to a growing global enterprise market,” comments Stefan Matthews, TAAL CEO and Executive Chairman.

Management Appointments Subsequent to the Quarter

The Company made various appointments and/or changes to its senior management and executive team subsequent to the quarter, which the Company believes have strengthened its financial, capital markets, product development and global commercial capabilities:

–  Stefan Matthews to Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
–  Chris Naprawa to President, and Interim Chief Financial Officer
–  David Allen to Senior Financial Consultant

Mr. Naprawa, with the assistance of Mr. Allen, has also assumed the function of Interim CFO following the departure of former CFO Mr. Kitahama, who left the Company as of November 24, 2020.

About TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc.

TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. delivers value-added blockchain services, providing professional-grade, highly scalable blockchain infrastructure and transactional platforms to support businesses building solutions and applications upon the BSV platform, and developing, operating, and managing distributed computing systems for enterprise users. The Company is led by an experienced management team, Board and Advisory Board members that include entrepreneur and BSV advocate Calvin Ayre, and renowned computer scientist and visionary Craig Wright.

Visit TAAL online at www.taal.com

This press release has been reviewed and financial content approved by the Company’s Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.

The CSE, nor its Regulation Services Provider, accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements included in this news release constitute “forward-looking information” as defined under applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words “will”, “intends”, “expects” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information will contain these identifying words. Specific forward-looking information contained in this news release includes, but is not limited to statements regarding: TAAL’s strategy and vision; the expansion of the free market available to TAAL; TAAL’s future business success; and TAAL’s ability to provide trusted blockchain infrastructure services globally. These statements are based on factors and assumptions related to historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments. Since forward-looking information relates to future events and conditions, by its very nature it requires making assumptions and involves inherent risks and uncertainties. TAAL cautions that although it is believed that the assumptions are reasonable in the circumstances, these risks and uncertainties give rise to the possibility that actual results may differ materially from expectations. Material risk factors include, but are not limited to: global pandemics, including the affects of COVID-19; the future acceptance of BSV and other digital assets and risks related to information processing using those platforms; TAAL’s ability to leverage its intellectual property into viable income streams; and other risks set out in Item 20 – Risk Factors of TAAL’s Form 2A – Listing Statement dated July 31, 2018 and elsewhere in TAAL’s continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Given these risks, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information contained herein. Other than as required by law, TAAL undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise.

NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURES

The terms “EBITDA” (net income or loss excluding net finance income or expense, income tax or recovery, depreciation, and amortization) and “Adjusted EBITDA” (which is calculated by the Company by adjusting EBITDA to exclude share-based payments, fair value loss or gain on re-measurement of Digital Assets, gain (loss) on foreign exchange, and costs associated with one-time transactions) are not recognized measures nor do they have standardized meanings under International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). There is no standardized measure of “EBITDA” or “Adjusted EBITDA” under IFRS and consequently, TAAL’s method of calculating this measure may differ from methods used by other companies and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. A reconciliation of “Adjusted EBITDA” to Net Loss can be found in the MD&A.

Ape Tron Launches New Website and White Paper 4070

Ape Tron, a U.K. registered company, announced the launch of their new website and white paper at Apetron.com. Ape Tron is a Decentralized Financial (DeFi) platform, built on the Tron Blockchain and offering an interconnected eco-system of individual products, Dapps and socioeconomic experiments including the first Tron Blockchain based charting, tracking and trading tools alongside the Ape Dice Casino, Ape DeFi and Ape Swap platforms.

Ape Tron will be launching products to complement all the needs within the digital market creating an Interconnected Ecosystem of Individual Products, Dapps, and Socioeconomic Experiments. The Ape Tron White Paper explains that by developing and structuring their products, they will expand the use of the Ape Tron (APE) token to increase in its value and utility. The Ape Tron (APE) token economics are modeled to grow in value with Ape Dice, Ape DeFi, and Ape Swap. APE tokens can be used to access advanced features within the Ape Tron ecosystem and providing holders with opportunities to generate greater yield through the use of trading tools such as charting and tracking. It is expected that with the increase in the complexity of mining and the spread of the use of the Ape Tron (APE) token, its value will grow. With the expansion of the Ape Tron Ecosystem, token holders will be able to receive dividends from all projects in the APE ecosystem and participate in network governance.

With the launch of Ape Dice, token holders will be able to receive rewards from gambling Dapp profits, and with the launch of Ape DeFi and Ape Swap, receive rewards for participating in liquidity pools and mining the DeFi token. The rewards will depend on users’ share of the total value and turnover in the Ape DeFi platforms. This will incentivize users to participate in different instruments of the Ape Tron ecosystem.

To harness the power of authentic word-of-mouth and to attract more users to Ape Tron, users will be rewarded for every user they refer to the platform. The referral reward will be 10% of the number of tokens mined by referrals. The referral program will only take place during the Ape Tron (APE) and Ape DeFi (CHIMP) token mining phase.

Insights on the Blockchain In Genomics Global Market to 2025 – Key Drivers and Challenges 5125

The “Global Blockchain In Genomics Market By Type (Public, Federated, Private), By Application (Clinical Trials, IP Management, Drug Discovery, Data storage and security, Others), By Models, By Targets, By End User, By Region, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

The Global Blockchain in Genomics Market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. Blockchain in genomics stores, manages and processes the transaction of genomic data between genomic data providers and its customers. Additionally, major factor driving the market is utility and demand to secure such transactions comprising of unique genomic data. However, the market is expected to be restrained due to the lack of understanding of utility of blockchain in genomics and high maintenance costs.

The market for global blockchain in genomics is segmented based on type, application, models, targets, end-user and region. The end-user segment is bifurcated into pharmaceutical companies and research institutes. Among these, pharmaceutical companies held the dominant market share in 2019 and the trend is likely to continue in the coming years as well. Additionally, pharma companies are mainly the ones carrying out the transaction of genomic data contributing to its leading position in the market.

In terms of regional analysis, North America held the dominant share in the market because of its rich economy and the presence of numerous research companies in the region. Additionally, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to witness fastest growth until 2025 as developing economies like India and China are now adopting blockchain in genomics.

Leading players in the Global Blockchain in Genomics Market include DNAtix, Shivom, Zenome, Luna DNA, EncrypGen, Nebula Genomics, GSK, Pfizer, Genobank.io, Merck, Genomes.io, WuXi Nextcode Genomics, Murrieta Genomics, Gene Blockchain, Longenesis, SimplyVital Health, Neogen, Ripe Technology, etc. The inter-company competition keeps on increasing parallelly with the market which in turn leads to innovations in technology, thus increasing customer satisfaction on a global level.