Ethereum Domains Trigger New Digital Gold Rush: Altcoin Watch
2/12/2017
By
Evander Smart
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While investors around the world, particularly in Japan, are buying up any digital currency at an unprecedented rate, a new market sector in this space has just begun. Ethereum offers another arrow in its quiver that Bitcoin does not, and it is becoming quite the hot investment in its first week. Are you in the right place at the right time?
If you want to send Bitcoin to someone, you have to enter a public key address that no one will remember, or even really want to use.
You’ll begin by copying and pasting a fairly random set of numbers and letters like “0xffF067E7ebe44Cc949C1c49Ca069BCFb4022b5fc.” This is not so much of a problem as it is a phase of early development Bitcoin needs to grow out of, like diapers or training wheels.
"Ethereum has hit this next level of usability and development, as of May 4, with the new Ethereum Name Service (ENS) run through a website. This provides Ethereum users with the ability to cherry pick their name, or even a famous name, add .eth and have Ether sent to them in a much less technical, more familiar way, like sending an email to someone’s address."
Wouldn’t you like to receive your Bitcoins at “yourname.eth”? This new Ethereum address extension option will work with a user’s Ethereum address as a destination or a smart contract, which is Ethereum’s reason extant.
Prices for these extensions are moving and are ostensibly being held for future sales by investors. For example, “donaldtrump.eth” is selling for almost $3,000. Impress your friends and get a “Kanye.eth” to receive your Ether or a “DallasCowboys.eth” to show your fanhood. Deposits on future releases have ranged up to 30,000 ETH, which is equivalent to $2,700,000.
To own a domain, a Vickrey auction is used where bids are sealed and the highest bidder wins, but only pays the bid of the second highest bidder. The top prices, as of writing late on Thursday, include “freemarket.eth” (14,500 ETH) and “exchange.eth” (12,888 ETH).
"Less than 15 percent of the domain names have hit the marketplace, so there is still time for you to take advantage of this new “digital gold rush.”
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MAY 10, 2017
By
Shivdeep Dhaliwal
Ethereum Blockchain Will Help UN Go Cashless, Distribute Food to Hungry in Jordan
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The UN will be helping refugees in Jordan get access to food rations using the Ethereum Blockchain and biometric technology involving scanning the human iris.
This technology has already been tested by the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations in Pakistan earlier. WFP hopes to help nearly half a million people by 2018. According to Futurism, more than 10,000 people stand to benefit from the technology only in Jordan.
Cutting edge techThe UN will use Ethereum Blockchain technology to distribute coupons which will be used in place of the local currency, the Jordanian Dinar.
It is expected that there will be many people who do not have smartphones and Internet access among the refugee population. According to Investopedia the recipients of the WFP aid can scan their iris using a technology developed by the London-based startup IrisGuard.
It is expected that there would be no exchange of coupons for cash but rather shop staff will give food to the refugees using technology developed by UN Innovation Accelerator and Ethereum tech developer Parity Technologies and Datarella, a Blockchain company. These companies have put into place a system that will help keep track of the coupon usage.
Ethereum can help plug leakagesWith the elimination of cash in the aid process, the WFP hopes to plug leakages in food aid and is making sure that help reaches the intended people.
The cashless system is a novel idea that will be rapidly expanded and it is thought that by August 2017, nearly 100,000 people can benefit from this project.
It is interesting how cryptocurrency starts helping the most marginalized sections of the world. If the project is a success, it would showcase just another use of Blockchain and digital currencies.
Blockchain helping end world hungerEven though the world has made rapid strides in eradicating hunger, there are still problems associated with this particular suffering evident over large swathes of the globe.
Hunger is an acute problem in places like Sub-Saharan Africa and India.
In areas that face famine or the waves of refugees going hungry, it is the WFP that comes to their aid. It is estimated that the WFP provides help to 80 mln people in 80 countries and they are sticking with the stated aim of the international community to end world hunger by the year 2030. Can Blockchain technology be a part of this effort as well?
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MAY 08, 2017
By
Joseph Young
How South Korea Has Become Largest Ethereum Market Above US, China
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In an Ethereum price analysis published on May 2, Cointelegraph revealed that South Korea officially became the largest Ethereum exchange market in the world, taking over China and the US for the first time.
The South Korean market’s $105 mln daily trading volume triggered the interests of both institutional investors and casual traders worldwide.
Five days later, South Korea’s largest digital currency exchange Bithumb maintains its position as the largest Ethereum-to-fiat exchange within the global market, with a $14 mln daily trading volume and 10.7 percent market share. Bithumb’s trading volume is even larger than that of Coinbase’s digital currency exchange GDAX, which falls short at $11.57 mln.
Why demand towards Ethereum is on the rise in South KoreaAt this current stage of Ethereum development and the ecosystem of Ethereum within South Korea, the move from Bitcoin to Ethereum and other altcoins seems to be a strategy of local investors to profit from the explosive growth of altcoins in general.
Other alternative cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin and Ripple have also gained a significant amount of support from South Korea’s local communities.
The majority of support is being allocated to the Ethereum market due to the exponential increase in Ethereum price in the past few months and the interest of major corporations such as Sony in the Ethereum network.
Since January of this year, Ethereum’s market cap increased from around $700 mln to $9 bln. That is nearly a 13x growth in a five-month period. Because investors were already looking for alternative cryptocurrencies to invest in other than Bitcoin and Ethereum price was on the rise, most of the attention shifted to Ethereum.
During that phase, the announcement of multi-billion dollar conglomerates such as Sony in regard to Ethereum development further triggered the interest of local investors in Ethereum.
A member of an online Ethereum community wrote:
“I've just attended a panel discussing fraud and in the game industry. When asked about future developments, Sony's fraud specialist specifically mentioned Ethereum. Speaking to her afterwards, she was quite knowledgeable about smart contracts and it appears ethereum is very much on their radar. It came up in a discussion regarding fraud so will be part of their research.”
But he added:
“It's likely much too early for a project. Platform holders are very resistant to this kind of change.”
While Sony’s statement on Ethereum wasn’t considered to be a major driver of price in the global market, within the South Korean market, it was a big factor.
Enterprise Ethereum AllianceIt further convinced investors and justified the value of Ethereum. More to that, as more conglomerates including Microsoft and JPMorgan joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, the demand toward Ethereum increased significantly in the South Korean market.
As a result, Ethereum meetups and conferences have become increasingly popular in South Korea. Communities have started to discuss the potential of decentralized applications and Blockchain-based innovation.
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MAY 05, 2017
By
Joseph Young
Ethereum Price Hits New All-Time High Led by South Korea, Ripple & Litecoin Surge
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Ethereum has maintained its upward trend and momentum over the past seven days, recording a staggering $3.7 bln increase in market cap, from $5.7 bln to $9 bln. On May 5, Ethereum price established its new all-time high at $101 as the demand from both traders and institutional investors surged.
There are three major factors that have supported the increase in Ethereum price: widespread adoption in South Korea, satisfactory performance from the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) and the emergence of innovative decentralized applications based on the Ethereum network.
South Korea - the largest Ethereum exchange market, major Ripple driverSurpassing the US and China, South Korea officially became the largest Ethereum exchange market with a market share of 21 percent of the global Ethereum exchange market. The South Korean exchange market processes 978,000 Ethers on a daily basis, a volume that is equivalent to $104 mln.
Some of South Korea’s major Bitcoin exchanges including Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit have experienced a massive spike in Ethereum trading volume, due to the Bitcoin scalability problems and exchange hacking attacks within the region.
While it may appear absurd to the global Bitcoin community, many Korbit users told Cointelegraph that users have migrated from Bitcoin to Ethereum due to Bitcoin’s scalability issues and Blockchain congestion. Many users have become impatient with the high transaction fees of Bitcoin, which according to 21 Inc’s Bitcoin Fees average at $0.71.
Also, one of South Korea’s most widely utilized Bitcoin exchange was hacked this past week. Many users that had insignificant knowledge in Bitcoin assumed that Bitcoin’s security measures led to the hack, rather than the Bitcoin exchange’s weak infrastructure and security systems.
Yapizon, the exchange which lost over $5 mln worth of Bitcoins in a security breach, told its users that the stolen funds will be recovered by the issuance of tokens. The Yapizon team wrote:
“Yapizon entered the cryptocurrency industry four years ago and it is expanding services and operations rapidly across the region. From January to March of this year, Yapizon generated over $325,000 in profit and the company projects a total profit of $1.8 mln by the end of 2017. If customers trust in Yapizon and its practices, the company believes it can make up for the losses of all customers relatively soon,” said the Yapizon team.
Growing feesBitcoin’s growing fee market, security breaches of major Bitcoin exchanges and the active Ethereum development community and meetups have allowed Ethereum to reach widespread adoption within South Korea.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, local users also stated that Ripple has become a hot commodity in the region because it is currently being supported by South Korea’s largest Bitcoin exchange Korbit. One user told Cointelegraph:
“Many users, traders and investors have begun to invest in Ethereum and Ripple. The Yapizon Bitcoin exchange hack and Bitcoin’s growing fees have all contributed to the growing demand for Ethereum and Ripple in South Korea.”
Ripple recorded a 38 percent increase in price over the past 24 hours. Litecoin has also experienced a 22.9 percent surge in price due to the activation of Segregated Witness. |
