Decentralised identity technology specialist, IDWorks, part of 2030 Group, has been named as one of three winners of R3’s global Corda Challenge: Call to Action. The competition was held in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis. R3 invited companies and entrepreneurs in April to submit proposals for practical solutions that can be deployed to address a specific pain point caused by the pandemic. With the winners receiving funding from R3 to help quickly test, build and deploy that idea or solution.

Solutions needed to either solve or support an immediate requirement, such as tackling inefficiencies or friction in the healthcare system, new ways of staying connected, or easing the transition out of the global shutdown in the near future.

IDWorks’ winning solution is called CertifyMe.

IDWorks identified an urgent need for a secure ‘digital certificate’ of individuals’ coronavirus test results that could provide a portable proof of probable immunity for individuals. One which was safe, secure and trusted. Enabling governments to track and trace the spread of a virus, as well as manage lifting of nationwide lockdowns. Protecting citizens, the healthcare systems and economies.

“There is a lot of discussion about potential digital identity solutions, with the main global debate being over centralised versus decentralised technology, notes Ankur Banerjee, Head of Engineering at IDWorks and Head of Technology at 2030 Group.

“The key challenge is how to offer a secure and privacy-conscious solution when sharing elements of private health records outside the healthcare industry. Decentralised identity based on distributed ledger technology is the only software architecture on the market today that is able to offer this level of security and reassurance with a high degree of privacy.”‘

CertifyMe will enable governments to unlock countries, allowing citizens to go back to work speedily and safely. Protecting national economies. All in a secure data-protected way.

Banerjee adds: “Our solution, CertifyMe, enables individuals to carry secure and verified digital proofs similar to how they would carry traditional ID documents such as driving licenses and passports, with tamper-proof digital signatures.”

“CertifyMe can be quickly added as ‘plug-in’ software to existing public health apps, or white labelled. Built on R3’s blockchain platform, Corda, it gives healthcare workers and testing labs the ability to issue COVID-19 test results in a user-friendly, simple way.”

“CertifyMe will also incorporate the ability to print out the certificates on paper, deliver them over text message, or add to mobile wallets,” said Alex Tweeddale, IDWorks’ data privacy expert. “The certificates can be further secured behind passcodes and biometric readers on phones. For those without the capacity to use a digital certificate, a care delegate or guardian may be assigned on their behalf.”

Tweeddale adds: “Our certificates can be issued following take-at-home tests, drive-through, or central testing facilities. CertifyMe is also designed in a flexible and adaptable way, to accommodate for any type of test and changes in public health and government policy decisions.”

“IDWorks invites the digital identity and public sector ecosystem to collaborate with us in an open and standards-based ecosystem to create a new paradigm for consent-based and privacy-focussed identity.”

Winners were selected by a panel of judges including technical and industry experts from R3, and LeadBlock Partners, based on their go-to-market strategy, technical design, and most importantly—their impact on the COVID-19 challenges.

Winners will receive support from R3 alongside their ecosystem partners, Vacuumlabs and LeadBlock Partners, to accelerate time to market through development, stakeholder engagement, advice and capital.

OKEx (www.okex.com), the world’s largest cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange, announced the 0.10 version of OKChain, the commercial public chain developed by OKEx, will be launched on May 25. The rules of validator selection and dividend mechanism have been revealed at the same time. Users who have staked OKT token can vote for up to 30 candidates with one ballot, generating 21 validators.

After the update, OKChain will become the first public chain developed by crypto exchange to support the access of third-party institutions. At the same time, OKChain launched the recruitment of validator candidates globally and invited users and institutions to participate.

“We hope that more users and institutions will participate in OKChain. The foundation of OKChain’s ecological construction is an important preparation before the launch of the OKChain mainnet,” said Alysa Xu, Chief Strategy Officer of OKEx. “Based on the new 0.10 version, users can realize their will through the voting mechanism and make choices that are in line with their own interests and diversified the development of OKChain. We are looking forward to co-constructing an open, decentralized, practical, and diverse ecosystem with our global users.”

OKChain, an permissionless and decentralized public chain

Compared to other exchange public chains, OKChain tends to adhere to the ideals of decentralization, fully utilizing the nature of peer-to-peer network, irreversibility, and efficient autonomy in its source code. Given that, all participants, including OKEx as the developer, cannot control this public chain.

In addition, instead of requiring nodes to submit a proposal to the public chain “governor” before every action in traditional public chain, OKChain adopts a “peer-to-peer network”, which enables node runners to develop DEX and dApp or decide which cryptocurrencies and trading pairs to list without having to acquire any permission from the “governor”. In a nutshell, OKChain is a fully community autonomous public chain.

Voting rules empowers voters with a high degree of autonomy

OKChain adopts a representative system. OKT holders who have staked OKT token will become voters, who can choose to become an “Ordinary voter” to vote for validators directly or delegate their voting power to another account, called “proxy voter” to vote on their behalf.

Each voter is allowed to vote for up to 30 validator candidates. For example, if a user staked 100 OKT, they can cast 100 ballots each for up to 30 validator candidates. The top 21 candidates with the highest number of votes will form the core set of validators while others will serve as validator candidates.

Having 21 validators is the most mature solution, it can maximize the balance between the degree of decentralization within the ecology and the efficiency of ecological operation. As of the voting mechanism, compared with “choosing the best one” and “choosing a few good ones”, the latter is more fault-tolerant. In addition, it can also effectively weaken the influence of large OKT holders in the initial stage of the OKChain mainnet launch, so that the voting results will reflect the wishes of all OKT holders within the OKChain ecosystem better.

OpenDEX & DEX Operator, new concepts introduced by OKChain

In 0.10 version, OKChain pioneered the concepts of “OpenDEX model” and “DEX Operator”. Under the OpenDEX model, OKChain will offer all needed core technology to nodes, distinguishing public chain operator from DEX operator, which were combined as one in most cases before.

The new concepts make the relationship between DEX operator and public chain operator more similar to the relationship between ETH chain and ERC20. OKChain allows all nodes to construct their own DEX and trading pairs without any threshold. What’s more, nodes not only do not have to pay high cost for server and technology, they will also own the future continuous benefits.

Multiple sources of incomes from OKChain

“The core goal of the 0.10 version of OKChain testnet is to further clarify the rights and interests that node users can share in the OKChain ecosystem,” said Alysa Xu. “Users who participate in the OKChain ecosystem construction through different identities can obtain multiple benefits, including block generation reward, voting reward, matching fee, transaction fee, etc.”

According to public information, 100% of the genesis block OKT will be mapped to OKB holders, which means OKB holders will become the first batch of OKT holders and get a head start in some spheres, including becoming supernodes, voting, DEX operation, etc. Besides, additional OKT will be issued 1-5% annually, part of which is expected to act as block generation reward and the other as voting reward. Apart from that, DEX operators will also obtain matching fee, transaction fee etc. as income.

About OKEx

The world’s largest and most diverse cryptocurrency marketplace, OKEx is where global crypto traders, miners, and institutional investors come to manage crypto assets, enhance investment opportunities, and hedge risks. We provide spot and derivatives trading, including futures, perpetual swap, and options, of major cryptocurrencies, offering investors great flexibility in formulating their strategies to maximize gains and mitigate risks.

we.trade, a blockchain-based platform that makes international trade faster and more efficient, today announced an enhanced collaboration with IBM which will enable network enhancements and accelerate the global commercialisation of the platform. IBM has also become a new shareholder along with the 12 existing bank shareholders.

Already one of the largest blockchain-enabled trade networks in production, we.trade is designed to improve the trade finance lending process, supporting companies as they grow their business and expand into new markets. Over the last few months, we.trade has seen momentum continue to build as companies move to replace paper based trade finance processes with a digitised solution.

Starting July 2020, we.trade will extend services to additional banks and clients across Europe before expanding the network globally, starting with Asia. At the same time, work will continue to help enable we.trade to interoperate with other distributed ledger-based trade finance networks, such as the work already completed with Hong Kong-based eTradeConnect, a blockchain-based trade finance platform formed by 12 Asian banks.

In the current climate, improving access to trade finance is critical to economic recovery. With disruption in many services that support traditional trade finance methods, there’s now an added incentive for international trade to go digital, including embracing platforms which offer digitized versions of once manual business processes to ensure signatures, contracts, and trade financing agreements can be virtually linked.

“No other distributed-ledger based platform for trade has moved so rapidly to deliver value for member organisations and their customers,” said Ciaran McGowan, CEO, we.trade. “The enthusiasm for this platform underscores the need to continue to invest and expand access to a growing number of organisations.”

Built on the latest version of the IBM Blockchain Platform, we.trade is backed by some of the world’s top banks including CaixaBank, Deutsche Bank, Erste Group, HSBC, KBC, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale, UBS and UniCredit. It is designed to connect buyers, sellers, banks, insurers and logistics organizations in a network that simplifies cross-border trading.

we.trade helps automate many of the processes around trade finance, as well as provide traders with access to insurance, credit rating and logistics services. Once on the network, traders can initiate orders, manage the order-to-payment process and attain financing. They can also search the network to discover new trading partners.

A new IBM Institute for Business Value1 survey of more than 1,000 organizations globally found respondents said that accessing new markets is among the top motivating factors to join an existing blockchain network such as we.trade. Meanwhile 64 percent of respondents indicated that reducing friction in current processes and services was a top reason for using blockchain technology to augment existing trade digitization investments.

“The strategic direction for we.trade and IBM is focused on driving growth and transparency across the entire trade ecosystem, collaborating to enhance the network effect of blockchain, and expanding access to trade finance and other services to the market place,” said Jason Kelley, GM Blockchain Services, IBM. “Innovative technology and new pricing structures will help more banks align to internal production controls using their choice of cloud services. Meanwhile we.trade aims to help banks create new trusted trade corridors and expand markets by interconnecting with other regional trade services platforms.”

Global digital asset exchange, Gate.io has received a 100% “proof of assessment” certificate after completing a thorough audit performed by the leading accounting firm Armanino LLP. The certificate states that Gate.io’s collateralization ratio (assets-to-liabilities) stands at 104%; Gate.io has Bitcoin reserves exceeding 100% of customer liabilities. With this new certification from Armanino, Gate.io also becomes the first-ever mainstream exchange to receive a 100% proof of its reserves.

In Feb 2020, Gate.io released a technical proof about providing users with a method to check their collateral, including their total assets on the platform. This feature allows Gate.io users to check their balance on the website, where the written audit report and the Merkle tree of the hash value of users’ total assets are shown; Gate.io users can exercise their rights to check how their assets are placed using the Merkle Tree.

“The latest BTC Reserves Assessment Report from Armanino is proof that our users’ assets are 100% safe and we are excited to pass on this confidence to our users. This is a significant addition to our suite of user transparency and security protocols. Generally, in a centralized exchange, users do not know how their assets are placed or if the company reserves are lower than the recorded assets in the database. This could pose tremendous risks to the users, including delayed withdrawals. However, our successful reserve assessment audit is a testament to how we are users-first,” said Marie Tatibouet CMO at Gate.io.

Gate.io and Armanino collaborated to perform a Proof of Reserves assessment earlier this year. Armanino followed a process following “Statement on Standards for Consulting Services” promulgated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

About Gate.io

Gate.io is a global blockchain asset exchange platform established in 2013 and developed fully in-house. Gate.io enables blockchain enthusiasts to trade and store assets in over 200 of the leading crypto currencies. Recognising the importance of blockchain security, Gate.io sets itself apart by prioritising security and experience, providing users with quick and easy access to assets, at a time and place to suit them.

About Armanino LLP

Armanino is one of the top 25 largest independent accounting and business consulting firms in the United States. Armanino provides an integrated set of audit, tax, consulting, business management and technology solutions to companies in the U.S. and globally.

The first half of year 2020 is far from peace. Aside from the epidemic and natural disasters, the stock market worldwide has been going through fluctuations. Under this turbulence circumstance, the gold price rockets up and it appears that the gold-backed stablecoin, Bankcoin Reserve (BCR), is the safest choice for most investors.

Gold-backed stablecoin is priced at the highest price per ounce of gold in the past and the price will be adjusted monthly if a higher price of per ounce of gold occurs. As gold is currently an internationally recognised safe-haven asset, the gold stablecoin is regarded as a safe-haven asset in the digital currency field.

BCR’s main network went live as early as 2014, and currently, users who pledge BCR in their wallets can receive a 10% annualised interest. It is worth mentioning that BCR is the first to ensure security in technology, and while security is guaranteed, trade-offs are made in scalability and decentralisation. With the fast consensus, it takes only a few seconds for cross-border transfers of US $ 100 million, and the handling fee does not exceed 5 USD.

After it was listed on the Cointiger Tiger Exchange on April 17th this year, BCR has witnessed a great increase in its trade volume, demonstrating its popularity. In the second half of 2020, BCR will gradually launch new plans, including market access programs, merchant onboarding plans, mobile apps and other expansion tools.

As the international gold price is not volatile, a large probability of expected returns can be achieved. With its unique economic design and stability, BCR is extremely attractive to investors who rely on market predictability and have certain expectations of future returns, especially during the epidemic period.

Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) (“Riot” or the “Company”), one of the few Nasdaq listed public cryptocurrency mining companies in the United States, announces the purchase of an additional 1,040 next generation Bitmain S19 (95 TH) Antminers for USD $1.9 million from BitmainTech PTE. LTD. (“Bitmain”).

On April 30, 2020, Riot announced its purchase of 1,000 S19 Pro (110 TH) miners. The combined purchase of the 2,040 new S19s, is another step supporting the Company’s recent strategic initiatives focused on expanding its bitcoin mining operations. The purchases were funded from Riot’s available cash on hand. Riot anticipates that the total 2,040 new S19 miners will be received and deployed in the third quarter of 2020. Once the total 2,040 new S19s are received and fully deployed, Riot estimates its aggregate operating hash rate will increase over 80% to approximately 457 petahash per second (“PH/s”) and utilize approximately 16.5 megawatts of energy.

The latest generation of bitcoin (“BTC”) Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (“ASIC”) miners from Bitmain are markedly more energy efficient than prior Bitmain models and other ASIC miners currently available. The May 6th purchase of 1,040 Bitmain S19 Antminers boast a hash rate of 95 TH/s and an energy efficiency of 34.5±% 5 joules per terahash (J/TH).

We’re excited to announce that leading Tezos teams SmartPy and Cryptonomic are making Chainlink natively available to all developers building on Tezos. Oracles are a key component of a thriving blockchain ecosystem. As such, the SmartPy and Cryptonomic teams are working together to make Chainlink the go-to oracle solution for developers connecting their Tezos smart contracts to real world data and systems. Due to developer demand, Tezos will also be one of the first blockchains supported by Chainlink, further showcasing Tezos as an advanced ecosystem for developing next generation decentralized applications.

Integrating natively with Chainlink allows Tezos developers to harness the power of decentralized oracle networks to securely and reliably access key off-chain resources and use them in their on-chain applications. Oracles allow developers to build smart contracts that incorporate high-quality off-chain data, take advantage of external API services, connect to IoT infrastructure, interact with enterprise backends, interoperate with other blockchains, trigger settlements on existing payment networks, and much more.

Combining Tezos’s secure, institutional-grade smart contracts with Chainlink’s tamper-proof inputs and outputs enable the development of highly secure, data-enabled applications that are fully integrated with real-world data/systems. Chainlink and Tezos already share many node operators, making the integration seamless and the cross-platform support beneficial for both communities.

The technical integration is headed by top Tezos teams Smart Chain Arena, the team behind the widely-used Tezos smart contracts programming language SmartPy, and Cryptonomic, the team behind popular Tezos tools like the Galleon wallet, Conseil API, and Nautilus Cloud. Both teams are committing major code contributions to Chainlink’s GitHub repo.”We are thrilled to collaborate with Cryptonomic and bring Chainlink’s leading decentralized oracle network to Tezos. The quality and functionality of applications built on Tezos will be significantly enhanced with this ability to access Chainlink oracles natively on Tezos.” — SmartPy Team

“Providing Tezos developers with the most secure and reliable oracle solution is essential to advancing the Tezos ecosystem. After extensive research and discussion among various stakeholders, we identified Chainlink to be the most advanced, high-quality and secure oracle solution to integrate natively into Tezos. We recommend Tezos developers use Chainlink when building smart contracts as Chainlink’s secure decentralized oracle network makes possible a plethora of new use cases across DeFi, Equities, Insurance, and much more.” — Vishakh, Cryptonomic

“We look forward to bringing Chainlink’s oracle infrastructure to the Tezos ecosystem, supplying Tezos developers with high-quality data to power secure, truly reliable decentralized applications. Tezos is one of the most advanced blockchains in the space, offering many unique features that make it appealing to institutions and developers. We’re excited to help the Tezos ecosystem take that critical step forward in its evolution by securely integrating with the whole spectrum of valuable real-world resources existing off-chain.” — Sergey Nazarov, Co-founder of Chainlink

About Tezos
Tezos is a decentralized, public blockchain that evolves by upgrading itself. Stakeholders of the Tezos network vote on amendments to the protocol to reach social consensus on proposals, creating a secure and organic upgrading mechanism. The protocol’s on-chain governance system, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm, and ability to facilitate formal verification of smart contracts, make Tezos an ideal long-term solution for high-value financial applications. Learn more about Tezos at https://tezos.com.

About Chainlink
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web APIs, and traditional bank payments. It is well known for providing highly secure and reliable oracles to large enterprises (Google, Oracle, and SWIFT) and leading smart contract development teams such as Synthetix, Loopring, Aave, OpenLaw, Conflux, and many others.

About SmartPy
SmartPy.io is an intuitive and effective smart contract language and development platform for Tezos. Users write smart contracts in Python along with tests and immediately get simulation and other analytics feedback on their contracts. SmartPy is a real Python library which means contracts can freely inherit other contracts, import or share code, etc. which is summarized by a meta-programming approach. This gives SmartPy a unique and seamless programming experience that is especially useful when dealing with multi-stage computations as is the case with oracles. Learn more about SmartPy at https://smartpy.io.

About Cryptonomic
Cryptonomic is an NYC-based company committed to decentralization and digital sovereignty which provides tools and smart contracts which enable higher level decentralized and consortium applications. The Cryptonomic team has deep expertise in building sophisticated, mission-critical finance applications. It now uses this expertise in the intersection of blockchains and finance, including advising enterprise players on their blockchain strategies and builds.

Integrated Ventures Inc. (OTCQB: INTV) (“Company”) is pleased to disclose an execution of Non-Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) with AltVenture Capital, Inc, for the purpose of evaluating a Material Business Transaction. This NDA will allow both parties to obtain certain confidential information, in regards to current financial condition and operations about each other, to exchange business related documents and to facilitate negotiations, in regards to a potential transaction, involving a purchase of assets or business merger.

Steve Rubakh, CEO, comments: “We continue to target and evaluate synergetic and opportunistic business opportunities. Due to the current economic downturn, there are valuable assets available that are priced below its true market value. Company believes that combination of AltVenture Capital’s fully build-out 5.7 meg facilities with a low electricity pricing structure, represents a very timely and cost effective acquisition opportunity, designed to supplement current mining operations.”

Integrated Ventures, Inc – Technology Driven, Portfolio Holdings Company with focus on Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency Mining.

For more details, please visit company’s web at www.integratedventuresinc.com.

AltVenture Capital, Inc – Located in Winnipeg, Canada, the Company operates 4 crypto currency mining facilities with combined power capacity of 5.8 meg.

For more details, please visit company’s web at www.altventurecapital.com.

Safe Harbor Statement:

The information posted in this release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by use of the words “may,” “will,” “should,” “plans,” “explores,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “continue,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, and various other factors beyond the company’s control.

Bitcoin is an asset that acts and behaves very differently to a lot of others, as well as other markets. The digital currency is a decentralized asset, and this means that its market is not impacted by centralised decisions. In oil, for example, the price can be changed by decisions made by OPEC, but with Bitcoin, there is no one figure that can change how the market moves.

In saying that, there are a few occurrences that happen internally with the coin that are purported to have major roles to play on its overall price and market. One such incident is fast approaching — the Bitcoin mining reward halving. This event, scheduled for around the 12 of May, will have a massive impact on Bitcoin’s mining community, but it could well spill over to its price.

The Bitcoin mining reward halving is where the rewards that come from unlocking a new block on the Bitcoin blockchain are slashed in half. This will be the third time this happens which means the reward of 12.5 BTC for solving an algorithmic equation and unlocking a block will now amount to 6.25 BTC.

This is done in order to keep the coin scarce, and leads to deflation, rather than inflation. So, while this halving will affect miner profitability overnight, its macro-economic impact is pretty straight forward in terms of the market influence. With less reward for each new block means less new Bitcoin being added to the circulating supply. Less new Bitcoin means lower supply, which means higher demand, which should mean a growing price.

However, there is more to it than that, and there are a lot of considerations to look at when deciding if the May 12 halving will cause renewed price action for Bitcoin, or not. Many experts have weighed in on how the Bitcoin mining reward halving will impact its price, and their thoughts are very varied. Some believe it will send the price skyrocketing, some predict no impact whatsoever.

Historical evidence

Bitcoin has had two halvings in the past, both of these sliced the reward by 50 percent, but interestingly, both of these also saw the price of Bitcoin increase by the same, rather large, percentage.

Twitter Trader and technical analyst, Rekt Capital, predicts that the new all time high for Bitcoin following this halving will be as high as $40,000, based on historical evidence alone. He pointed out that, following the first halving in November 2012, Bitcoin’s price increased from a $2.01 bottom to the top of $270.94 – a 13,000 percent increase. The second halving, in July of 2016, saw Bitcoin go from a bottom of $164.01 a top of $20,074 – a similar increase of 12,000 percent.

Thus, if Bitcoin rallies somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 percent, then the price would come to a top of anywhere around $40,000 in the coming months, or even years, after this halving event in May.

A slow start

What Rekt Capital does not offer in his prediction is a timeline. Many predictors say that even the simple event of the halving happening will start to move the price of Bitcoin because people will start trading on the potential of the news rather than the impact of it.

However, a more measured prediction comes from mining giant Bitmain’s founder Jihan Wu. Wu has said that he does not think Bitcoin will immediately start taking off following the reward halving due to the fact that the global economy is currently under such pressure with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As Bitcoin’s market cap grows, its volatility decreases and becomes more stable,” Wu explained. “That means we may not see abrupt spikes in its price. No matter how high Bitcoin goes, one day it will reach a top. Before that, it will see prices with flatline growth with some twists in the next few years.” Wu also added:

“I think the bull this time around may not come immediately after the halving. There likely will be a delay in time.”

Deflation in a time of hyperinflation

Another aspect to consider in this time of financial uncertainty is that Bitcoin could start being much more valued for its deflationary moves in a time where different economies are flirting with inflationary monetary policies.

The USA and its Federal Reserve, for example, have suggested that they are happy to print almost infinite amounts of cash in order to try and float the economy, increase liquidation, and stimulate spending. While this policy would help keep the economy going, it could also severely damage the value of the dollar.

Just like a lower supply means higher demand, and higher value, the printing of money can lead to oversupply and inflation which can debase and devalue the dollar. So, people may start looking at Bitcoin as an anti-correlated asset, and one that will be lessening its supply in the coming years, as a good asset, leading to higher price actions.

Blockstream’s Samson Mow recently responded to anti-Bitcoin economist Nouriel Roubini, who said: “Bitcoin Isn’t Down Because of China, It’s Down Because You Don’t Need It,” while linking to an article on Forbes. Mow’s response pointed out these macroeconomic principles at work.

“Bitcoin is down because we’re still in the phase where we mint 1,800 $BTC a day. At $9,000 price levels, $16.2 million a day is required to maintain a stable price. The upcoming halving will fix this. Weak hands can GTFO,” Mow responded.

Planning ahead

One other aspect to consider when thinking about if Bitcoin’s price is going to rise with the upcoming halving is to consider if the traders and market makers have already priced in the halving’s impact.

This would mean that, in anticipation of the halving, people may have already started buying up Bitcoin, holding onto it, and preparing for its value to increase with lower supply meaning that when the lower supply arrives, the price has already reacted.

Bitcoin miners may be part of the reason why the price may already be in as they have been increasing their own efforts to mine the coin when the rewards are still up, and many of them would have been holding those coins, meaning that there is already less new money entering circulation.

However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao recently stated: “I personally believe the halving has not been priced in.”

This is backed up by Alexander Kravets, CEO of CEX.io U.S., who believes that the stock-to-flow model — measuring the size of existing supply versus yearly production — has worked out correctly in the past. Kravets has predicted that:

“If we consider Bitcoin a commodity like the CFTC does, then Bitcoin — like other commodities — has a built-in floor representing the cost of production. I think what we saw this winter may have been an established price floor set by the miners of around $6,800 — but as the block reward is cut in half, we can see the price floor rise to what many speculate to be just under $9,000.”

Things are looking up

While there are a number of different predictions surrounding the halving, and they are all very different, the majority of them see the price of Bitcoin only going up in the months, and years, to follow. It makes economic sense for this to happen, but when and how it will happen, is a lot more uncertain.

Bitcoin has, for most of its history, been on an upward trend as it was the best performing asset over the last decade. As things go on, it only makes more sense that the coin will keep rising along with ongoing decreases in its supply.

In order to try and be a part of the next major price action from Bitcoin, it is imperative to find a good exchange and platform to start trading and getting into Bitcoin.

There are many different Bitcoin trading platforms out there currently, but PrimeXBT ranks as one of the best options for extracting maximum opportunity out of the upcoming Bitcoin halving. Of course, buying Bitcoin is one way to make money off the halving, and PrimeXBT makes getting your hands on BTC very easy with excellent mobile app for Android and Apple, this means buying Bitcoin on the go is simple, and with minimum deposits of only 0.001 BTC (less than 10 dollars) that can be made via a BTC address, with USD or even through altcoin via Changelly, it is very easy to enter the market with PrimeXBT.

But, what sets PrimeXBT apart from other platforms is that it allows users to profit off of Bitcoin regardless of which direction the price of the coin goes after the halving. PrimeXBT lets traders short or long the Bitcoin price which means that even if the coin loses value after the halving, you can still profit through using short positions on PrimeXBT. There is also the option to hedge positions by opening long and short positions simultaneously as following the halving there are unprecedented price movements expected. PrimeXBT also allows for major profits because it offers up to 100x leverage — which means the potential for exponential profits when used in conjunction with the many other features PrimeXBT offers traders to succeed. These profits are further maximized by the fact that PrimeXBT has some of the lowest fees for trading around that gets better the more you use the platform with its progressive fee discount system that can cut fees by an additional 50 percent for big-time traders.

PrimeXBT is a great trading tool to use before, and after the Bitcoin halving because the many different advanced trading tools offer traders a chance to master almost any movement the market makes. We have seen that the predictions of what will happen after the halving are so varied that it pays to be able to use things like Stop Loss orders, Take Profit Orders and OCO orders that PrimeXBT offers.

More than that, the built-in charting software allows traders to plot trend lines, draw patterns, support, resistance, and more with over 50 different technical indicators including MACD, RSI and Bollinger Bands. Traders can also trade with confidence as PrimeXBT boasts bank-grade security for its platform and the digital assets contained within. It has features such as address whitelisting, two-factor authentication, cloudflare DDoS protections, and more features that not only protect your funds, but also secure your trading experience.

This mining reward halving is predicted to be a major event for the Bitcoin market in the coming weeks before it happens, as well as for a long time afterwards. Having a platform like PrimeXBT with its robust and anglie trading options, set up with a customisable interface to how you like to trade, means that there is a big opportunity to maximize profits like no other time in Bitcoin’s history. To get started on making profits off this upcoming event, regardless of which way the market moves, sign up for PrimeXBT here.

The initial idea behind the emergence of cryptocurrencies is to ensure anonymity and security when paying for goods and services with the associated depersonalization of finances; ensuring decentralized financial operations and eliminating the possibility of the existence of regulatory bodies as such.

The main problem of cryptocurrency availability for users is a high entry threshold. At the moment, an ordinary user who wants to plunge into the world of cryptocurrencies has only two main options:

1.    Understand in detail the technological process of the currency of interest, deploy the node, synchronize the blockchain and learn how to receive / send funds through uncomfortable, complex or congested interfaces / consoles / API

2.    Immediately start using “hot” wallets, for the most part completely destroying the pillars on which the idea of ​​cryptocurrency stands

If the complexity of the first paragraph is clear, then what’s wrong with hot wallets, you ask?

Let’s get a look:

1.    Hot wallets require data for authorization, at least email, often other, even more personal and personal information. This completely breaks the anonymity of the cryptocurrency user, opening the easy way to personalize your transactions and accounts.

2.    Hot wallets store the secret keys to your cryptocurrency on their servers. In this case, you risk immediately in many directions – the server can be hacked and funds stolen; one of the service employees may turn out to be dishonest, or the entire service itself may unexpectedly close without explanation; your secret keys can be transmitted over the Internet without your knowledge and without the necessary conditions to ensure their safety. All these events can be combined and multiply the risks. This centralizes part of the system and breaks the security of cryptocurrency, depriving you of control over your finances – your funds are controlled by the wallet, not by you.

Not all web wallets are the same! After all, the requirement of e-mail, username and password, as well as verification is not an inevitable need, but only an approach that certain developers decided to take.

We found exceptions to the rule, carefully checked them all, talked with the developers, clarifying the nuances, and found an unequivocal leader providing a level of security of access to currency at a level comparable to “cold wallets” like Trezor!

Meet the best «hot» crypto wallet!

PRIZM Light Wallet

https://wallet.prizm.space

Crypto wallet PRIZM Light Wallet got rid of all the shortcomings of hot wallets and provided the best web wallet on the cryptocurrency market.

Security

Security is ensured by the fact that the wallet is just a set of cryptographic encryption and hashing functions, sufficient to perform any actions associated with the secret key directly in the user’s browser without transmitting sensitive information.

To gain access to the wallet, you must use a mnemonic phrase that is optimized for easy memorization by a person

1. Mnemonic phrase – words encoded secret key

2. The raw transaction is signed with the secret key in the browser and only the raw transaction with the finished signature is sent to the server

3. The encrypted data inside the transaction comes from the server, and is decrypted in the browser by the user key

4. The secret key is deleted from memory when you close the tab with the PRIZM Light Wallet.

5. The secret key is not stored on the server and is never sent to the server.

6. New secret keys are created using a complex algorithm in which three objects take part: a browser, a user, and a server hardware random number generator

Details on generating a mnemonic phrase

A new mnemonic phrase for a new wallet is created in several stages:

1.    The browser generates a set of random numbers using a secure generator

2.    The server generates a second set of random numbers with the Intel RdRand hardware generator and sends it to the browser

3.    The browser combines both sets of numbers and creates a basic mnemonic phrase of 17 words (“prizm” plus 16 random)

4.    The user adds his own additional 16 characters in the mnemonic phrase

5.    A new wallet with a new phrase is ready

This approach makes it impossible for an attacker to reproduce the algorithm to generate identical password phrases, because for this it is necessary to reproduce the state of three systems: a hardware number generator, a user’s computer, and a user’s brain. If with a computer it’s even more or less clear, then fantastic problems await the hacker’s brain and hardware generator.

The created phrase consists of 17 basic words (16 effective, since the first word is always “prizm”) and 16 additional characters entered by the user.

The total size of the dictionary for creating a mnemonic phrase is 1626 words.

In total there are 1626¹⁶ (1626 to the 16th degree) = 2.387419079 × 10⁵¹ possible basic mnemonic phrases, and about 2.857942575 × 10²⁷ possible combinations of an additional 16 characters from the user

The potential number of possible mnemonic phrases created by wallet.prizm.space is 2,387419079 × 10⁵¹ * 2.857942575 × 10²⁷ =

6.82310663 × 10⁷⁸ (6.82310663 times 10 in the power of 78)

pieces, which makes collisions impossible even theoretically, like brute force of a passphrase (if you start breaking a passphrase with brute force, it will end after the heat death of the Universe).

An example of a mnemonic phrase:

prizm opposite crimson both shower precious hopefully here keep trace barelymany upset give image scream movement peaceful reveal

Cryptographic technologies used by wallet.prizm.space:

– Key exchange: Diffie-Hellman protocol on elliptic curves

Well-established and secure protocol

– Symmetric encryption: AES-256 GCM

It is used by the military to transmit classified data of the “Top Secret” class.

– Hashing: SHA-256

Assistive Technology:

– Reed-Solomon Code

It is used for a human-friendly representation of the wallet identifier and correction of user errors when entering it

Security is guaranteed by the approach used to work with the wallet – the online wallet works as a standalone client, using the server only as a source of information and a way to transmit transactions.

A truly outstanding method of creating mnemonic phrases is used.

Security Rating: 10/10

Anonymity and Depersonalization

There are two ways to enter your wallet:

1. Enter the identifier of your wallet – this allows you to view current balances and transactions without placing a secret key, even in browser memory

2. Enter a mnemonic phrase – this allows you to decrypt the contents of transactions and make an outgoing transaction to another wallet

Given that the mnemonic phrase and secret key are not sent over the Internet, the only information that the user reveals is wallet id. No other information is required that violates the anonymity of the wallet – there is no connection between the user’s wallet and his email and / or name. This approach also provides 100% protection against the “man in the middle” attack!

Anonymity is guaranteed by the lack of personal data.

Anonymity rating: 10/10

Decentralization and control

When each user is anonymous and contains his private keys, it is impossible to exercise control over users and there is simply nothing to centralize. However, the IP addresses of visitors can be tracked just like on any other site, however, the success of trying to associate IP with a specific wallet is extremely unlikely.

Decentralization score: 9/10

Entry threshold

To start using PRIZM Light Wallet to manage a personal wallet, you need to understand only 3 concepts:

1. Mnemonic phrase – wallet password

2. Public key

3. Wallet ID

The meanings of these concepts are close to intuitive for an ordinary user. This is the lowest entry threshold on the cryptocurrency market to date.

The interface is as minimalistic and conservative as possible, providing access to the necessary information – transactions, messages and balance – without distracting the eye with tinsel. The absence of “excesses” and “luxury” allows us to provide the maximum wallet performance – we have not yet met a web wallet for cryptocurrency without periodic juggling and loading. Even the same giant  https://blockchain.com/wallet periodically raises performance questions.

We believe that minimalism increases accessibility for users – and cryptocurrencies are actively gaining popularity among non-IT people.

And that is important.

Availability Rating: 10/10

Final grade: 39/40

PRIZM Light Wallet is a real cryptocurrency wallet in its purest form, that is how direct access to cryptocurrency should be. He is quite capable сompete with hardware wallets regarding usage safety.

Let’s hope that other wallets will go in the same direction and increase not additional fields to fill in personal data, but cryptographic functions directly in the browser and try to ensure anonymity of users.

Afterword

When using wallet.prizm.space, you temporarily place your wallet key in the RAM of your computer / phone / tablet – for your part, you should take care of the safety of your devices. In the ideal case, the mnemonic phrase is stored permanently in only one place – in your head, which is the safest, but sometimes not the most reliable repository.

The threats that await while using wallet.prizm.space are only on our user conscience; You can lose your key in the following situations:

1. Lose the mnemonic phrase

2. Make the root of your phone or turn off the antivirus on the computer and have specialized viruses on the device

Let’s see what risks exist if you use the Trezor hardware wallet – the list of threats is identical:

1. Lose Trezor

2. Flash Trezor with unofficial “custom” firmware and have specialized viruses on the device

On the PRIZM Light Wallet side, all possible measures have been implemented in reality to provide the best service to cryptocurrency users, and we believe that other wallets should focus on it.