Top 8 Most Expensive Items You Can Buy with Bitcoin

Top 8 Most Expensive Items You Can Buy with Bitcoin

Bitcoins history is riddled with incredible stories and even legends. Created to free people from the so-called “bondage” of centralized monetary systems, Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency we have all to thank for proving that fiat currencies can be, indeed, replaced with success.

As the crypto world expanded and Bitcoin gained even more mainstream adoption, more and more merchants, institutions, and stores started to accept it as a valid payment system. Nowadays, it’s possible to buy almost everything one can imagine with Bitcoin, from food, to plane tickets, to obscure collectibles, to various types of services.

Bitcoin’s dominance has risen to such an extent that there’s really common for millionaires and various wealthy Bitcoin holders to buy luxury lifestyle objects and expensive items including houses, yachts, cars, and jewelry, to name a few.

That is why we have created a list with some of the most expensive items or services you can buy with Bitcoin, so you can put that smart invested money to work for your own pleasure.

Cruise trip around the world

Cruise trips are often associated with a wealthy lifestyle, and more and more cruise lines are starting to accept crypto payments. In February of 2018, the Royal Caribbean Mariner ferried hundreds of people who paid for their trip using Bitcoin from Singapore to Thailand, with a stop at Malaysia.

Since that trip, there have been numerous blockchain-themed cruises, the most popular of which are the Ark Cruise, and the Blockchain Cruise. Among the 2500+ attendees, there were big names such as John McAfee, Bobby Lee, Charlie Lee, Brock Pierce, Jimmy Song, and Roger Ver.

Luxury resort stay

When it comes to luxury resorts that accept Bitcoin as payment, the choices are quite varied. For example, in New York, the Trump Hotel accepts Bitcoins for condos. Another popular site for luxury resorts that accept Bitcoin (and cryptos in general) is the Bahamas, as well as Australia, Mexico, and Austria.

Amazing cars

Expensive cars are often associated with a financially healthy lifestyle, as there are perceived more of a statement than practical objects. Not too long ago, Japan-based crypto exchange bitFlyer has partnered with various luxury car sellers to offer their customers the possibility of buying luxury sports cars with digital money.

American car dealer Post Oak Motor Cars had made various headlines in 2018 when it announced that it accepts crypto for some of the world’s best cars such as Bugatti, Rolls-Royce, Bentley.

There are some stories of Tesla and Lamborghini purchases using Bitcoin. It’s rumored that in 2013 a Florida resident purchased a Tesla Model S for exactly 91 Bitcoins. One of the most popular purchases of this type involves famous YouTuber VinWiki Peter Saddington in 2017 that bought a white matte Lamborghini Huracan.

Luxury mansions

Until blockchain really manages to disrupt the real estate markets all over the globe, cryptocurrencies are responsible for “freshening up” the market. Real estate transactions and the purchase of property using Bitcoin is now more common than ever.

There are various impressive real estate purchases using Bitcoin, such as the one from 2014 when an anonymous buyer who bought a Bali Villa for a whopping 800 BTC and another purchased 1,4 acres in Lake Tahoe, California for 2,739 Bitcoin.

Potential buyers interested in real estate purchases can check out Bitcoin Real Estate website for more penthouses, islands, and chalets.

Tickets to space

Space travel has always been at the forefront of the list of humankind’s greatest achievements. Even though space travel is still reserved to a few lucky and totally dedicated people, there are various plans to make it a lot more accessible in the future. Just earlier this year, Elon Musk declared that his company, SpaceX would get people to Mars. Another company, Virgin Galactic, has been constantly “hunting” people interested in space travel since 2013.

Interested parties can pay with Bitcoin for a trip through space that’s bound to take place somewhere after 2018. The cost for all this? $250,000 payable in Bitcoin, a price that also includes a three-day training.

Yachts

Yachts have always been one of the trademarks of the uber-wealthy. Even though the yacht market is not fully acknowledging Bitcoin as a valid payment method, there are a few examples that give hope to millionaires interested in buying the luxury of owning a yacht with Bitcoin.

Dennison Yachting is a company based in Florida that has added Bitcoin as a payment method for quite some while now. Another prime example is 26 North Yachts (also a Florida-based company).

Artwork

Art is not only something extremely pleasing to look at (most of the times), but it can also be a very good investment opportunity. Surrounding yourself with expensive art has always been a defining behavioral pattern for most of the world’s millionaires.

The Ato Gallery, a New York-based business, has sold artwork for a staggering amount of 150 Bitcoins (more than $100,000 worth) earlier this year to an anonymous buyer. Artnome, a crypto start-up that wants to legitimize digital artwork, had also brought forward a very interest proposition when it launched a digital marketplace for artwork.

Airplanes

When you’re rich and famous, traveling in style becomes a priority. And, what better way to travel if not by air? Bitcoin millionaires have been able to buy private jets for Bitcoin for quite a while now. The first recorded purchase of a private jet using Bitcoin took place in 2014 when Olivier Janssensreportedly bought a plane from a company called PrivateFly.

SkyCraft Airplanes is another company that has been accepting Bitcoin since December 2013.

Final Words

While the number of daily objects and services that can be bought using Bitcoin continues to grow, so do all the luxurious things. Even though buying with Bitcoin luxury objects might seem more like a whim than actually a practical solution, it’s important to understand that Bitcoin allows most millionaires to save somewhere between 5-10% in fees (which is a lot when considering purchases of hundreds of thousands of dollars).

*This post is credited to Coindoo

Crypto Markets Meet December in Green, Bitcoin Trades Above $4,200

Crypto Markets Meet December in Green, Bitcoin Trades Above $4,200

Saturday, Dec. 1 — Crypto markets have seen a substantial influx on the first day of this winter month, with all top 20 coins by market cap firmly in the green, according to CoinMarketCap.

Market visualization from Coin360

Following multiple plunges below the $4,000 threshold yesterday, Nov. 30, Bitcoin (BTC) has managed to finally hold $4,000 support today. The major cryptocurrency is now trading at $4,202, up 4.5 percent over the past 24 hours to press time. Bitcoin is down around 1.9 percent over the week, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin price 7-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Bitcoin Price Index

Ripple (XRP), the second cryptocurrency by market cap, is seeing milder gains, up around 3 percent over the past 24 hours and trading at $0.37 as of press time. The coin is seeing considerable losses over the week, down more than 7 percent.

Ripple 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ripple Price Index

TRON (TRX) and NEM (XEM) are seeing the biggest gains among the top 20 coins by market capitalization. TRON, ranked 11th on CoinMarketCap by press time, is up 6.5 percent, also holding a significant grown over the week — more than 11 percent. NEM is up 7 percent, seeing around 5 percent gains over the past 7 days.

Bitcoin Cash’s (BCH) hard fork, Bitcoin SV (BSV), is seeing a massive increase over the past 7 days, up more than 45 percent over the period. The hard forked cryptocurrency is ranked nine on CoinMarketCap and is trading at around $94, seeing a small growth over the day — around 0.1 percent.

Total market capitalization has seen a marked increase over the day, having spiked from around $129 billion to as high as the current $137 billion. Daily trade volume has been stable over the day, accounting for $16 billion, while seeing a small drop to $15 billion at press time.

Total market capitalization 24-hour chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

While the markets have taken another dip recently, Bitcoin fundamentals, such as cost per transaction and number of transactions, have increased, as noted by crypto evangelist Anthony Pompliano, a partner at crypto investment firm Morgan Creek Digital Assets.

In yesterday’s post, Pompliano emphasized seven fundamentals of Bitcoin, pointing out the increasing number of Bitcoin wallets as well as the growth of the amount of daily confirmed transactions.

The crypto believer also stressed the increasing power of Bitcoin’s hash rate, claiming that it has almost “quadrupled in the last year or so,” while the number of Bitcoin nodes has been 98 percent up over the last two years, the expert said, citing data from Bitnodes.

Concluding his analysis, Pompliano argued that price of a cryptocurrency is “only one measurement of value for an asset,” stating that underlying fundamentals is the main focus of the future value of the currency. He wrote:

“Don’t be distracted by the noise. Focus on the fundamentals. Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere.”

Hong Kong Crypto Trader: China Crackdown On Bitcoin Is Overstated

Hong Kong Crypto Trader: China Crackdown On Bitcoin Is Overstated

China’s Crackdown On Crypto Has Been “Very Shallow”

Since Bitcoin’s run-up in 2017, many have bashed China for its rapid shift to be averse towards this innovation, with cryptocurrency proponents quickly bashing the nation for its close-mindedness. However, this seemingly changed, when Michael Gu, the showrunner at crypto-centric media source BoxMining, sat down with Genesis Block’s head trader Charles to get an insider insight into Hong Kong’s local institutional crypto economy.

Interestingly and funny enough, Charles painted a picture that wasn’t as bearish as it seems, especially in terms of Beijing’s Bitcoin-related regulatory actions.

Gu, a well-known crypto commentator and personality, queried Charles about if Chinese investors are “becoming a big factor” in crypto’s most recent downtrend.

Surprisingly, contradicting the anti-Bitcoin regulations supposedly imposed and enforced by Beijing, the trader explained that one of his firm’s strengths is having a “mainland flow,” implying that Genesis Block upkeeps its business relationships with Chinese constituents and clients. He added that there are “surprisingly a lot of very high net-worth individuals” that have access to overseas accounts and a working relationship with Genesis, subsequently adding that China’s crackdown on this nascent industry has been “very shallow.”

Charles noted that while the government’s move to ban crypto-related social media channels and physical events may sound harsh, especially considering free speech rights, in reality, China remains one of the world’s most liquid OTC-based cryptocurrency markets. And interestingly, the savant noted that this hasn’t been even going on under the government’s nose, in fact, Charles added that local regulators haven’t sought to crack down on ‘off the beaten path’ platforms.

Boxmining Michael, elaborating on this point and adding some of his knowledge on the matter, explained:

So they know what’s happening, but then they just [say] ‘you know what, just don’t talk about it’, so that’s why we’re getting this media blackout, so then we have fewer people willing to take a stance to talk about China. It’s taboo now and all the funds [don’t want to say anything]. Then the East/West divide is actually getting bigger because everyone believes that China is out of the picture [in crypto].

Charles echoed the cryptocurrency personality’s claims, noting that while it is hard to gauge exactly how much capital is routed through OTC platforms, from his perspective, “China is [still] a huge market,” and apparently Korea as well.

“Now’s A Great Time To Pick Up Some Bitcoin (BTC)”

The Genesis Block representative went on to talk on the crypto market’s current conditions, which are precarious, to even put it lightly.

He touched on the fact that a one to two-thousand BTC sell-side order, which isn’t massive in the grand scheme of things, can tank the market quickly, due to the lack of liquidity on many order books. Still, while Charles also acknowledged that Bitcoin Cash’s recent fork could have been a bear catalyst, the Genesis senior trader added that for those who missed out on 2017’s bull run, “now’s a great time to pick up some Bitcoin (BTC).”

*This post is credited to EthereumWorldNews

Small-Cap Cryptocurrency DOCK Seems Primed for a Mini-Bull Run

Small-Cap Cryptocurrency DOCK Seems Primed for a Mini-Bull Run

With Black Friday having just passed this is the perfect opportunity to do some cryptocurrency shopping. BTC having fallen more than 30% in the prior week has brought many cryptocurrencies lower with it. However, with a lower BTC comes cheaper cryptocurrencies. This week, DOCK is likely to have the most significant gains in the short term. Unfortunately,

DOCK has landed on the HODL radar for a plethora of reasons. With a $5.5 million market cap, DOCK has one of the lowest market caps on Binance. DOCK was added to Binance at the end of July at the height of the bear market. It is almost as if the public did not even notice.

When DOCK was added to Binance the price shot up to over $.07. With the price currently hovering around $.01 that is an 86% correction since July 30, 2018. Having corrected such an astronomical amount in just the last two months DOCK seems to be poised for a breakout.

What makes DOCK qualify as a niche coin among many cryptocurrencies is what their platform stands for. DOCK gives individuals ownership of their data, specifically rewarding them in DOCK. This allows the user to connect multiple social media accounts through one portal while securely storing your personal data in the cloud. The information you wish to share from the cloud will be rewarded based on what it is. Currently we provide free internet data to many corporations by just browsing. Why not be paid for that same data?

The benefits of the DOCK platform are not just for the user. Yes, it is more simple to have all your social media accounts logged in via one platform. Yes, it saves time to be able to pick and choose which aspect of your data can be seen by the public wishing to pay for it. However, the benefits are far greater than one would imagine. Advertisers can tailor adverts to their consumers without wasting money on uninterested demographics. Users will not be bombarded with adverts unrelated to their lives. Time and money is saved by all parties with platform users receiving the most benefits.

DOCK is an ERC-20 token that has found a way to pay users for the data they had previously shared anyways. It is essential to be able to protect your private information in the cloud, DOCK not only protects it, it allows you to profit off of it. If there was a high risk, high reward cryptocurrency to accumulate prior to the bull run, DOCK is one of the top contenders! This week’s market correction has forced DOCK down another 30% positioning it perfectly for a rebound and this week’s top cryptocurrency.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrencies that are focused on niche markets that need a blockchain solution are those that are most likely to survive. Those that have partnerships with thriving Fortune 500 companies are the blockchains of tomorrow. The smaller, lesser-known ones, are the cryptocurrencies that could pull off the next 20-100x.

DOCK is the cryptocurrency on this list that has true ‘moon’ potential. If DOCK’s market cap rivals VET’s that means HODLers of DOCK would enjoy a 50x (comparing market caps). Smaller market cap cryptocurrencies are the ones that have the ability to penetrate the Top 20 while having a huge rise in market cap. HODL

*This post is credited to BlockchainReporter

Bitcoin BTC to 50k in 3 Years. Chinese Billionaire Zhao Dong Predicts

Bitcoin BTC to 50k in 3 Years. Chinese Billionaire Zhao Dong Predicts

Zhao Dong, one of China’s most influential “Bitcoin Billionaires,” recently addressed his followers on Weibo (better known as the “Chinese Twitter”), to convey his optimism about the future price of Bitcoin.

Being Bullish in Bearish Times

Zhao Dong explained that even though the cryptocurrency can touch lower prices, his mind is highly bullish and he is convinced that now is an excellent time to buy and hold Bitcoin (BTC). For the founder of Dfund, the right occasion to persuade the community to buy is precisely in bearish times as the ones we live today:

“In the bull market, I don’t persuade people to buy Bitcoin, because it seems easy to make quick money but in fact, it is not. Now I start to talk people into buying Bitcoin. Those who make truckloads of money do not have a very short-term speculative driven investment mindset. Perhaps Bitcoin price will continue to drop even lower, and it may fall up to 50 percent. But it is still worth steadily acquiring coins every time it hits a new low. You possibly see a yield of 100 to 200 percent in 3 years.”

Zhao Dong: Bitcoin (BTC) Will Reach At Least 50K By 2021

Zhao Dong’s words have a high level of influence in the community. Mr. Zhao is one of the most important OTC traders in the country that currently ranks fourth in importance in terms of crypto trading volume worldwide.

Just after the previous post, Zhao Dong predicted a bull run in Bitcoin (BTC) prices that would lead it to reach historical highs between 50k and 100k by 2021.

Zhao Dong’s prediction joins the favorable forecasts of prominent influencers such as Tom Lee, John McAfee, Tim Draper, and Mike Novogratz, who have full confidence not only in price recovery but also in massive adoption of cryptocurrencies in the near future.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) price is 4276 USD with a total market cap of 74.38B USD. The behavior after the bearish streak caused by the BCH Hash War led it to touch historical lows, however despite not having a robust apparent support, at first glance seems to have already achieved a brief recovery after Calvin Ayre recognized that the BSV proposal endorsed by Craig Wright had lost that confrontation ending this nefarious episode in the history of cryptocurrencies.

*This post is credited to EthereumWorldNews

Cryptocurrency Exchange-Traded Product Live on Swiss Stock Exchange Next Week

Cryptocurrency Exchange-Traded Product Live on Swiss Stock Exchange Next Week

An exchange-traded product tracking an index of five leading cryptocurrencies reportedly will start trading on Switzerland’s Six stock exchange next week. The product will be available to both retail and institutional investors.

Trading on Six Swiss Exchange

The Financial Times reported on Friday that Switzerland’s Six exchange has given a green light to a cryptocurrency exchange-traded product (ETP). The news outlet elaborated:

The Amun Crypto ETP, which will start trading next week on the Six exchange in Zurich, has been designed to track an index based on the movements of five leading cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency Exchange-Traded Product to Trade on Swiss Stock Exchange Next WeekSix Swiss Exchange is Switzerland’s principal stock exchange, trading a wide range of securities. According to the exchange, ETPs “are secured, bearer debt securities that do not earn interest,” so they “are not subject to the Collective Investment Schemes Act (Cisa) and, as such, are not supervised by Finma.” The exchange has a different category for exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Hany Rashwan, co-founder and CEO of Amun, explained that the crypto ETP “had been constructed to meet the same strict standards required of conventional exchange-traded products widely used by investors,” the publication conveyed. He was quoted as saying:

The Amun ETP will give institutional investors that are restricted to investing only in securities or do not want to set up custody for digital assets exposure to cryptocurrencies. It will also provide access for retail investors that currently have no access to crypto exchanges due to local regulatory impediments.

Tracked Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency Exchange-Traded Product to Trade on Swiss Stock Exchange Next Week

The underlying investment of Amun ETP is Amun Crypto Basket Index (ticker: Hodl5), its website details. Mv Index Solutions (Mvis) and London-based fintech company Amun Technologies Ltd. launched the index in September. The ETP was subsequently launched by Amun AG, a subsidiary of Amun Technologies Ltd. located in Zug, Switzerland. Mvis is a subsidiary of Vaneck which currently has an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list and trade a bitcoin ETF.

Cryptocurrency Exchange-Traded Product to Trade on Swiss Stock Exchange Next Week
Amun Crypto Basket Index’s allocation.

Amun Crypto Basket Index “tracks performance of the top 5 crypto assets in terms of market cap and liquidity, providing diversified exposure to the crypto space while using its proprietary methodology to effectively manage the volatility associated with less liquid/smaller crypto assets,” its website describes.

The company explained that the basket excludes cryptocurrencies that are tied to a fiat currency such as tether, are designed to be anonymous such as monero and zcash, lack sufficient liquidity, trade on non-reputable exchanges, or have been traded for less than 6 months. According to the Financial Times, the ETP will carry an annual management fee of 2.5 percent.

Currently, the basket comprises 48.69 percent BTC, 25.72 percent XRP, 17.60 percent ETH, 5.11 percent BCH, and 2.88 percent LTC. It is rebalanced “monthly to ensure an accurate representation of the current crypto market,” the company explained.

*This post is credited to Bitcoins News

BITCOIN – THE DIGITAL GOLD?

BITCOIN – THE DIGITAL GOLD?

Gold has been regarded as one of the major factors in determining the value of national fiat currencies for more than 4,000 years. Simply put, the larger gold reserves a country has, the more valuable its currency is.

In recent years, comparisons of gold and cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, has been a growing trend. And whilst the two share some similarities, there is one obvious but important difference – unlike fiat currencies which are largely backed by Gold, crypto-currencies are generally not backed by anything.

With Bitcoin, which has been disrupting the financial industry and our entire conception of money since its arrival on the scene almost ten years ago, its value is primarily determined by demand and supply.

When people suddenly buy BTC in large volumes, its price simply skyrockets and, inversely, when holders sell in droves, it plummets. The same behaviour applies to the vast majority of crypto-currencies – although Stablecoins are a notable exception.

However, what distinguishes Bitcoin from other crypto-currencies is that the value of the latter is often dictated by the former. You have probably noticed that more or less all crypto-currencies enter into the red when Bitcoin’s price drops.

This is not, of course, unexpected. Whilst most traders actively buy and sell more than one crypto-currency, Bitcoin is generally their point of entry into the crypto-markets. Bitcoin, in other words, serves as their underlying asset.

We already know that one can pay for goods and services with Bitcoin and there are known cases – albeit a relatively small number – where people receive their salary in Bitcoin. But are these the only roles that BTC can play in the crypto world of the future?

What if the world adopts crypto-currencies to a much, much larger extent than it does now. What role does Bitcoin play then?

What If…

Even though there is no conclusive evidence to indicate that this will be how things pan out, there are hints that things are moving in that direction.

And in this context, Bitcoin is likely to dominate the crypto-sphere to an even greater extent than it does now. Considering that there is a limited supply of BTC, and that over time we could see a much greater number of participants in the crypto eco-system, the value of BTC will continue to climb.

And should this happen, Bitcoin will simply consolidate its position as the underlying asset which drives the entire eco-system. In other words, Bitcoin can then become the gold standard of the digital asset world. Right now, however, this is purely speculation on our part. But there’s a chance that the conjecture could hold true. And if that’s the case, there are intriguing times ahead.

*This post is credited to ICO Examiner

Shakepay Launches Canadian Cryptocurrency Over-the-Counter Trading Platform

Shakepay Launches Canadian Cryptocurrency Over-the-Counter Trading Platform

Shakepay is a Canadian over-the-counter crypto asset trading platform designed for high net-worth persons and businesses who wish to transact large amounts of Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to the CEO of Shakepay, Jean Amiouny, the platform was established to satisfy the demand for a customized solution for trading large volumes of digital assets.

The minimum acceptable investment on the Shakepay OTC platform is CA$50,000. Users can trade the Canadian fiat currency in pairs against Bitcoin and Ethereum. The platform charges a 0.75% trading fee for each transaction which usually takes one business day to settle. The project, which had been testing for the past 12 months, will be operated in partnership with Schedule 1 Bank.

Besides the OTC trading desk, Shakepay also has a cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to transact fiat money against digital currencies. The wallet has several features, including in-app customer support, instant verification, multi-currency support, price alerts and so on. Moreover, Shakepay previously offered crypto-enabled Visa cards but has since discontinued the program. The discontinuation was a result of a directive from Visa to Wave Crest, a partner to Shakepay in this project. Visa ordered wave crest to close all accounts linked with prepaid cards.

Since its inception in 2015, Shakepay has served 40,000 customers and transacted over CA$30 million. Furthermore, the company has been recording significant growth over the past few months. Amiouny stated that the company intends to further this growth by continuously adding new features to their trading platform.

Features Of Shakepay OTC Trading Platform

  • Swift settlement – transactions are settled within one business day.
  • Affordability – the platform charges 0.75% trading fee. Notably, withdrawals are free of charge.
  • Sufficient Liquidity – the OTC desk is lined with leading crypto exchanges as well as offline liquidity pools.
  • BTC & ETH Trading Pairs – users can trade the Canadian dollar against Bitcoin and Ethereum.
  • Regulatory Compliance – Shakepay is accredited to operate throughout Canada by the AMF and FINTRAC.
  • Professional Trading Team – the Shakepay trading team is made of seasoned expert investors.
  • Concierge Service – Shakepay offers custodial services for their users.

*This post is credited to Bitcoin Exchange Guide

CoinLogiq Aims to Make Cryptocurrency Access in Latin America Easier with ATMs

CoinLogiq Aims to Make Cryptocurrency Access in Latin America Easier with ATMs

CoinLogiq is a two-way cryptocurrency-fiat ATM provider in Latin America with plans to aid the liquidity and remittance issues many individuals face in the region.

DFN caught up with Dwayne Golden, CEO of CoinLogiq, to learn more about the company and their future plans around the cryptocurrency industry. They currently have 5 ATMs in Colombia, as seen in the video above, and have 3 installs scheduled for November (2 in Colombia and 1 in Brazil). They are looking to expanding into Venezuela and other countries, but they want to make sure their “attention is to first to serve Latin America”.

“My vision is to partner in a way where we can supply merchants with our POS devices to accept DASH, BTC and a few other currencies.  Our Kiosk (ATM’s) we are finalizing our new model specifically for Venezuela that will include the ability to accept credit cards in lieu of the bolivar scarcity, utilize a document feeder for passport, and other government id’s to reduce/limit fraud by way of stolen creditcards, and also biometric capabilities.”

They also have plans to add a feature in January 2019 to their “machines that will allow for users anywhere in the world to utilize so they can transfer currency to any one of their machines from a mobile app, computer or a CoinLogiq ATM”.

Leveraging cryptocurrency ATM technology to help consumers

Cryptocurrency ATMs have come to be a very convent way to purchase cryptocurrency with fiat, but many have also wanted a way to exchange cryptocurrency for fiat to make purchases at locations that do not accept cryptocurrency. Two-way ATMs have been less numerous because of regulations and logistics surrounding them. Nevertheless, CoinLogiq is finding ways to expand their business. Vault Logic is another company offering two-way ATMs and is currently in their testing and early rollout phase. These ATMs stand to greatly increase the liquidity of the sector by removing barriers that are associated with buying and selling cryptocurrencies.

Dwayne and CoinLogiq “participated in the Bitcoin Summer Fest in Medellin where they met Dash representatives from Colombia and Brazil” and since then “have had several meetings with George Donnelly regarding their Vision for Venezuela and Latin America in general”. They further hashed out their vision and plan after attending the Dash Colombia conference this past weekend. They were drawn to Venezuela from personal stories and believe they have a “duty to include the Venezuela project as a part of their social responsibility” to help improve lives.

Cryptocurrencies can help Venezuelans escape the horrible hyperinflation that they are facing in their country. However, there still exists varying degrees of liquidity and capital controls that can be detrimental if a family needs to make a necessary purchase not in cryptocurrency. Two-way crypto ATMs can help provide a solution, but the cash for crypto exchange in Venezuela will depend heavily on regulations and the inflation rate of the bolivar (if the inflation rate does not stabilize, then CoinLogiq won’t be able to work directly with paper bolivars). However, their plans to integrate credit cards and allow easy remittance payments stands to greatly increase their appeal among consumers.

Dash and ATMs help bridge the adoption gap

Dash with its record low transaction fees, extremely fast confirmation times, and great security can help provide consumers the ability to live off Dash with its acceptance at over 2,200 merchants in Venezuela and 4,000 merchants worldwide. Dash is also becoming involved in remittance services around the world because of its speed and cost advantages. Additionally, Dash is constantly increasing its exchange integrations, which greatly improves liquidity. As more merchants begin to accept Dash and pay employees in Dash, the need for ATMs and exchange services becomes less prominent. However, during the transition period, ATMs help bridge the gap of switching between fiat and Dash to make it easier for consumers to enter and live within the Dash ecosystem.

*This post is credited to DashForceNews

The US-China Battle of Global Supremacy Enters Cryptocurrency Industry

The US-China Battle of Global Supremacy Enters Cryptocurrency Industry

China and the USA have been competing with each other in every field to gain global dominance. The same competition seems to have entered the cryptocurrency industry as White House, understanding China’s Bitcoin Dominance is now backing Ripple Labs.

Its BTC vs XRP as two global superpowers look at a crypto world

China is, by far, the undisputed world leader in bitcoin mining — with Chinese mining pools controlling more than 70% of the bitcoin network’s collective hash rate, the measuring unit of the processing power of the bitcoin network.

Many in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry have expressed concern about how much control this gives China over bitcoin, with the Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies mining more than half the world’s bitcoins creating an oligopolistic to near monopoly situation.

While China’s dominance is fairly visible, the United States doesn’t want to stay behind in this race. According to the reports coming in from the White House, it appears U.S. president Donald Trump’s White House is also worrying about China’s bitcoin dominance and Ripple Labs executive, are suggesting the U.S. administration is interested in ripple (XRP) adoption to offset China’s bitcoin strength.

Ripple Lab’s chief strategist, Cory Johnson, was quoted saying in a wide-ranging interview with crypto-focused magazine Breaker that

“The White House, in particular, seems to be thinking about what it means to have 80% of bitcoin mining taking place in China and a majority of ether mining taking place in China,”

“When you look at XRP, there is no mining, so from a foreign-control aspect or from an environmental aspect, XRP is a very different beast. And in conversations we’ve had with the administration, they seem to get that and think that might matter.”

China manufactures most of the world’s bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining equipment and its massive mining farms are supported by the country’s cheap electricity prices, giving it dominance in bitcoin while for Ripple, Ripple Labs controls 60% of the ripple supply and the XRP tokens don’t require any mining. This situation of Bitmain’s dominating control over Bitcoin’s mining and Ripple’s majority control over XRP has received a lot of criticism from the industry as these being centralized in hands of few. A lot of experts believe that this war of the US vs China may intensify the centralization issues as both global superpowers would want to control these cryptos.

But according to Weiss Rating’s latest tweet Ripple’s XRP is more decentralized. The tweet says Ripple is moving towards decentralization whereas the open-to-everyone model of Proof-of- Work mining resulted in oligopolies instead of decentralization it promised to create.

Weiss Ratings@WeissRatings

China’s #BTC dominance worries Trump’s White House, pushing it toward XRP. The open-to-everyone model of PoW mining resulted in oligopolies instead of decentralization it promised to create. #XRP is moving towards decentralization, while BTC seems to be doing the opposite.

1:00 AM – Oct 17, 2018

The attention and backing the crypto curries are getting from respective global giants could do amazing news for cryptocurrencies but concerns over-centralization and control still looms. One can only wait and watch how these countries play out their moves to gain supremacy in global as well as crypto worlds.

*This post is credited to CoinGape