Blockchain

Bitcoin billionaire set to run for California governor

Published

1 month ago

January 27, 2021

Early Bitcoin investor and industry proponent Chamath Palihapitiya has signaled a potential run for the position of California governor.

The CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital, Chamath Palihapitiya, appeared to announce his intentions in a Tweet on January 26. The post linked to his new website with a number of promises for the U.S. state including massive tax cuts, an increase for teacher’s salaries, the end of student loans, and a handout for new births.

Palihapitiya appears to be gearing up for the 2022 Gubernatorial race or potentially for a special election, though no specifics were provided beyond his intentions to get involved politically.

The billionaire businessman has also joined efforts to force a recall vote for the current California governor Gavin Newsom which would lead to a special election later in 2021 according to reports.

A growing number of Californians have been displeased with Newsom’s performance in the position, especially when it comes to inconsistent shutdowns and a slow-moving Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

It’s on. #RecallGavinNewsom https://t.co/r8Cwd4szrn

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) January 26, 2021

The former Facebook executive Palihapitiya was an early investor in Bitcoin (he bought a million) and he says he wants to maintain the state’s status as a leading technology hub:

“Let’s make California the global centre of all tech & climate jobs by realigning our incentives rather than pushing them away,”

In an interview on January 7, he said that he sees Bitcoin as insurance against economic uncertainty and that its price could soar to $200,000 over the next five to ten years.

According to an April 2020 Forbes article, Palihapitiya bought Bitcoin back in 2013 when the price was around $80 per coin, and he claims that at one point he owned around 5% of the entire Bitcoin supply.

There have been a number of pro-crypto moves in U.S. politics since President Biden took office on January 20 which include the nomination of former member of Ripple’s board of advisors directors, Michael Barr, as the next Comptroller of the Currency. Additionally, the Biden administration has also picked crypto-knowledgeable Gary Gensler to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-billionaire-set-to-run-for-california-governor

Up Next

Wednesday Watch: OTC Desks Report Rebound

Don't Miss

Ethereum’s realized cap spikes to record highs as capital floods in: Report

Blockchain

Ethereum EIP-1559 Targeting Gas Fee Challenges to be Implemented in July

Published

25 mins ago

March 7, 2021

Republished by Plato

The contentious Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, will be included in its codebase in July this year. This became clear during the All Core Developers call today.

EIP 1559: What Does it Mean for Fees?

Ethereum’s Improvement Proposal 1559 is aimed at improving the overall Ethereum’s user experience when it comes to transaction fees.

Typically, a user would have to send a gas fee to a miner for their transaction to be included in a block. What EIP-1559 proposes, however, is to send that gas fee to the network itself. Called basefee, this is a sort of a “burn” and there would only be an optional tip that’s paid to the miners. The burnt fee would be set algorithmically, supposedly improving the UX.

The proposal was originally submitted by Eric Conner and its summary provides an overall outlook at what it attempts to achieve:

A transaction pricing mechanism that includes fixed-per-block network fee that is burned and dynamically expands/contracts block sizes to deal with transient congestion.

During today’s All Core Developers call, it was decided that it will be included in the so-called London hard fork coming this July.

Some Miners Disagree

Despite the potential improvements on the entire network that could come with EIP-1559, some of the largest Ethereum mining pools have openly displayed division on where they stand.

F2Pool, the third-largest ETH mining pool with over 10% hashrate share, shared a post, in which it supported the initiative, claiming that it would ultimately have a positive impact.

The publication says that “the general community along with core developers are siding with evolving Ethereum to include EIP-1559. It is important to side with the users and core contributors.”

F2Pool’s statement also argued that the potential EIP-1559 implementation could be factored in ETH’s price, which is more than 100% from the start of the year.

In contrast, though, the largest mining pool with nearly 25% share of the hashrate, Sparkpool, didn’t feel the same way about the integration as it could reduce the profits. They took it to Twitter to emphatically assert that the mining pool “opposes EIP-1559.”

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Futures 50 USDT FREE Voucher: Use this link to register & get 10% off fees and 50 USDT when trading 500 USDT (limited offer).

PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter CRYPTOPOTATO35 code to get 35% free bonus on any deposit up to 1 BTC.

Checkout PrimeXBT
Trade with the Official CFD Partners of AC Milan
The Easiest Way to Way To Trade Crypto.
Check out Nord
Make your Money Grow with Mintos
Source: https://cryptopotato.com/ethereum-eip-1559-targeting-gas-fee-challenges-to-be-implemented-in-july/

Blockchain

Uniswap, Crypto.com Coin, Compound Price Analysis: 07 March

Published

50 mins ago

March 7, 2021

Republished by Plato

Uniswap broke out past the $29.3 level of resistance, while Crypto.com Coin was in a phase of consolidation. Compound bounced off the $450 level of support to touch $500 but could see a pullback to $470.

Uniswap [UNI]

Uniswap, Crypto.com Coin, Compound Price Analysis: 07 March

Source: UNI/USDT on TradingView

UNI broke out and went past the $29 area of resistance, where the 23.6% retracement level and the $27.3 level of resistance lay. The upward move had extraordinary volume as UNI touched $31.54 but some selling pressure was seen in the subsequent trading session.

The Doji candle represented short-term exhaustion from the bulls, and the breakout could see UNI pullback to test the $29.3 level to confirm its flip from resistance to support.

The MACD showed strong bullish momentum behind UNI. Bearish divergence on the hourly chart between momentum (MACD) and the price could be seen in the coming hours, which would likely see UNI pullback to $29.4. This can be used to enter long positions, with a stop-loss just at $28.7.

Crypto.com Coin [CRO]

Source: CRO/USDT on TradingView

The Bollinger bands showed that CRO was in a phase of consolidation at and around its 38.2% retracement level at $0.152. The RSI moved back above neutral 50 to indicate that momentum was swaying towards the bulls’ side.

The defense of the 50% retracement level at $0.127 and the immediate bounce-off was a show of strength from bulls – the $0.146-$0.152 region can be used to accumulate CRO in expectation of another move upwards. The $0.173 and $0.189 levels are levels of resistance to watch.

Compound [COMP]

Source: COMP/USDT on TradingView

Compound saw a strong bounce-off at the $450 mark which represents a 23.6% retracement for COMP’s move from $205 to $573. At the time of writing, COMP faced some resistance at the $500 area.

Moreover, the Awesome Oscillator on the hourly chart displayed a bearish twin peak set up and gave a sell signal. This development, followed by the AO registering bearish bars on its histogram, is likely to see the price dip to $470. Bulls would need to show some strength at $470, or bears can drive the prices lower to $450 once more.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Checkout PrimeXBT
Trade with the Official CFD Partners of AC Milan
The Easiest Way to Way To Trade Crypto.
Check out Nord
Make your Money Grow with Mintos
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/uniswap-crypto-com-coin-compound-price-analysis-07-march

Blockchain

Pakistan: Arrests made in Bitcoin extortion case

Published

2 hours ago

March 7, 2021

Republished by Plato

The world of finance has never been able to protect itself from the fraudulent activities going around in the world. The cryptocurrency market, which itself is a growing space has also had its fair share of such fraudulent activity being associated with it. However, unlike traditional finance, regulators have been enforced stringent measures when it comes to tackling such offenses.

A recent case has been reported in Pakistan, where the police have arrested several people part of the country’s first extortion case via crypto. According to reports, the police arrested the owner of an outhouse where the complainants, two foreign nationals, were held hostage along with two other suspects.

One of the suspects was identified as Rana Irfan Mahmood and a case has been registered against him and an unidentified accomplice. The hostages were Swiss national Maria Spari and German citizen Stephen [last name remains unknown] who were kidnapped by three men in police uniform along with another person.

After threatening the hostages with a fake drug smuggling case, the victims paid 6,300 euros in cash and made an online transfer of 1.8 Bitcoin which was close to $9k. The suspects made a fake video demanding an additional Rs 300 million [$1.91 million].

According to SSP Investigation Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani, the police have managed to recover the amount paid to the facilitator apart from the Bitcoin. The crypto has already been transferred to another account and the team was taking assistance from the intelligence agencies to recover it.

Although the regulators in Pakistan have been taking note of Bitcoin and crypto, illicit activities have been a growing concern in the region. In November 2020, the Central bank clarified that it was not banning crypto, contrary to the prevailing fear within many in the crypto-community.

In fact, Pakistan’s Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] published a paper on the regulation of cryptocurrency trading platforms. This paper outlined the regulatory approach to crypto and included recommendations given by the Financial Action Task Force [FATF], as well as regulations presented by Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the U.S.

However, the police in the country have warned users and the government about the rising cases of ransom and extortion related to crypto. Bitcoin has been at the center of these cases and such fraud activities will only instill fear with the lack of regulation among crypto users in the region.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter