Tron (TRX) Offers to Assist S. Dinwiddie in His $24.6M Crowdfunding

John P. Njui   •   TRON (TRX) News   •   May 18, 2020   •   2 Min read

In brief:

• Basketball star, Spencer Dinwiddie, floated the idea of his fans crowdfunding $24.6M to determine his next NBA team.
• The Tron foundation offered to help by cutting out the middleman that is GoFundMe.
• Spencer Dinwiddie and Justin Sun have shown willingness to work together despite the GoFundMe effort having been deactivated.
• Democratizing sports might just happen in the near future.

Late last week, NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie, posted a $24.6 Million Bitcoin (BTC) crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to get his fans involved in determining his future basketball team after the 2020-21 season. The initial tweets by Mr. Dinwiddie expressing his idea can be found below.

Tron Foundation Offers to Assist in the Crowdfunding

Spencer Dinwiddie soon opened a GoFundMe account where the crowdfunding was hosted. The Tron Foundation soon offered to help Spencer Dinwiddie bypass the middleman that is GoFundme. The team at Tron elaborated that such a move on the Tron blockchain would guarantee all the funds were utilized as intended.

Hi @SDinwiddie_25, we can help you and allow you to cut out the GoFundMe middleman to put 100% of your fans’ hard-earned crypto to work. #TRX Just ask @justinsuntron!

Spencer Dinwiddie soon responded to the offer with a simple ‘let’s make it happen then!’. His response and that of Justing Sun can be found in the tweets below.

Crowdfunding Falls Short, Amount Raised Donated to Charity

The GoFundMe page which was opened on Friday, May 15th, has since been deactivated with only $1,150 raised. Mr. Dinwiddie was optimistic about the idea of decentralizing sports but was also realistic that his target might not be reached. He further explained that he would donate all the funds raised since Friday.

Woke up this morning and saw we reached about 100 individual donors and a lil over $1k. We also had some fun with #NBATwitter lol

I’ll be donating the proceeds to @ReadWorks, a 501(c)3 organization that supports remote learning efforts for teachers and students during COVID-19.

What Next for Spencer Dinwiddie and the Tron Foundation?

With the crowdfunding on GoFundMe deactivated, not much has been revealed as to whether Spencer Dinwiddie and Justin Sun discussed the matter further. However, the entire idea of letting fans decide the future of their favorite player is a step forward in decentralizing sports. As Dinwiddie put it, it is Democratizing Team choice through fan engagement.

Democratizing Team choice seems fair.

Taking the minimum is solely to help the roster construction and add talent.

Ppl always take discounts to build super teams. I view this as an endorsement and fan engagement. Let’s see what the CBA says

(Feature image courtesy of Unsplash.)

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. Any additional opinion herein is purely the author’s and does not represent the opinion of Ethereum World News or any of its other writers. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available. Thank you.

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Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by John P. Njui.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Reclaims the 200 Weekly MA. Has BTC Decoupled from the Stock Market Turmoil?

Last week, Bitcoin (BTC) lost the 200 Weekly MA and dropped as low as $3,700. It has since recovered this crucial support.

In brief:

• Bitcoin (BTC) lost the crucial support of the 200 Weekly MA due to the global economic impact of the Coronavirus.
• For the past few weeks, BTC has been correlated to the stock market that has been continually in distress.
• The King of Crypto has since reclaimed this crucial support indicating a possible decoupling from the stock market turmoil.

As the rest of the crypto community is closely watching Bitcoin’s impressive gains from $5,200 to $6,900, something exciting has just happened: The King of Crypto has reclaimed the 200 Weekly Moving Average. This achievement might put BTC on a trajectory to still prove its worth in the markets as a safe haven asset. This is the same Moving Average (in yellow) that indicated a bottom to the 2018 bear market. The following Bitfinex BTC/USD chart gives a better visual cue of the situation.

Strong Bitcoin Weekly Candle

Also to note, is that the weekly candle is a strong green one. This fact was pointed out by popular Crypto trader @CryptoDude999 in the following tweet.

Has Bitcoin Decoupled from the Stock Market Turmoil?

The resurgence of Bitcoin and regaining the 200 Weekly Moving Average is grounds to speculate that BTC is again the focus of investors seeking alternative assets to rally behind during the current market uncertainty brought about by the spread of the Coronavirus. Crypto trader @hodlonaut best captures this fact through the following tweet.

Best to Exercise Caution with BTC

However, it might be wise to maintain a level of caution given the fact that the weekly MACD in the first screenshot, shows that the trend might still be in favor of the bears. Bitcoin also faces tough resistance at $6,900 . It was rejected at this value a few hours ago. Also to note is that the week is not yet over. The strong weekly candle might fall victim to low trade volume that is a characteristic of most weekends.

(Feature image courtesy of Katrina Berban on Unsplash.)

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. Any additional opinion herein is purely the author’s and does not represent the opinion of Ethereum World News or any of its other writers. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available. Thank you.

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Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by John P. Njui.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Why Has Bitcoin Rocketed to $10,400? Exec Gives 2 Catalysts

Bitcoin’s face-ripping move higher over recent weeks has undoubtedly caught traders off guard.

Below is a tweet from Joseph Young, a leading cryptocurrency analyst/journalist, who noted that short sellers of BTC have seen millions of dollars of their positions liquidated throughout this move, accentuating how unexpected this move has been.

That leaves a pressing question — what has been Bitcoin so far higher over the past few weeks?

Why Has Bitcoin Been Moving So Far Higher?

Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Luno, recently weighed in on the latest rally in the digital asset markets in an interview with CNBC, citing key factors that are likely behind the increased demand for Bitcoin and, as a result, altcoins.

The first factor he cited is the fears around the coronavirus outbreak, which have caused a fair bit of uncertainty in global markets. In China, a novel coronavirus has started to spread that purportedly has a high transmissibility rate and a relatively high mortality rate compared to the common cold, leading to many companies (both Chinese and international) seeing their supply chains affected, hurting markets.

Bitcoin is purportedly involved because people see the cryptocurrency as a “safe-haven investment” or “digital gold” that may actually benefit from chaos rather than suffer.

The second factor Ayyar touched on is recent comments from the Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell regarding the importance of digital currency in today’s world.

In a Congress committee hearing on Tuesday, Powell said that the launch of the Facebook cryptocurrency, Libra, “lit a fire” under the rear-ends of the world’s governments and central banks, the Fed included. This seemingly confirmed that cryptocurrency has value in today’s world.

Other Factors in Play

While these two factors have gained a lot of steam as likely bullish catalyst, there are other factors at play likely affecting how investors allocate capital towards the cryptocurrency markets.

Namely, the upcoming block reward reduction or “halving,” after which the inflation rate of Bitcoin will be cut in half due to code built into the blockchain.

Prior to historical halvings, which take place every four years, Bitcoin rallied strongly, then tapered off slightly after the event due to mining factors; this is relevant because the ongoing rally may be similar to the previous pre-halving rallies.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitpay Restores Merchant Payments from Any Bitcoin Wallet or Exchange

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 2/5/2020 9:22 AM ET

Bitcoin Payment Processor BitPay reinstated merchant payments against BitPay invoices from any cryptocurrency wallet, app or exchange. This was discontinued after users complained of delays due to network congestion and related high transaction fees at around the time when Bitcoin hit its peak in 2017.

At that time, BitPay had in place a payment protocol called “BIP70” and limited the acceptance of payments from only a few Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ether (ETH) wallets. In addition to the BIP70 protocol, the payment processor also added the JSON payment protocol in 2018.

As it begins to add support for all Bitcoin wallets starting February 4, BitPay will continue to use the BIP70 payment protocol and JSON payment protocol.

For merchants, this move by BitPay is expected to help boost their sales and help them to access a broader customer base of crypto holders.

BitPay also framed a message to be sent by merchants to their customers on the procedure to make payments. The users have to select the wallet or exchange and follow any payment tips provided by BitPay for a successful transaction. The user has to then scan the QR code or click the QR code to copy the amount due and the address the payment is to be sent and paste it into your wallet, app or exchange to complete the required payment.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Your Guide to Avoiding Bitcoin Fraud

“Bitcoin is a remarkable cryptographic achievement. The ability to create something which is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous value. The Bitcoin architecture, literally the ability to having these ledgers that can’t be replicated is an amazing advancement.” – Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google,March 2014.

With Bitcoin price increasing over the years and reaching billions of dollars in market capitalization, all kinds of people see its value and appeal. This brings out both the good and bad in human nature.

Unfortunately, with the bad comes scammers. The bottom line is scammers also want to profit somehow from Bitcoin, but through nefarious means. This typically involves targeting unprepared victims, who end up losing their Bitcoin as a result.

In this guide we will walk you through the most common Bitcoin scams. We’ll show you how to spot them, and make sure you don’t become the next victim.

Fake Bitcoin Exchanges

Often on social media you’ll see a link saying something like “Buy bitcoin for 5% under market value. Save big!” This is a marketing trick to get you to visit and use their fake exchange.

If you visit any exchange site the very first thing you want to do is make sure it’s HTTPS secured and not HTTP. This means that the web traffic is encrypted and secured; if it’s just HTTP without the “S” that is a big red flag and means stay away.

Another red flag to look out for are fake exchanges that offer selling Bitcoin for PayPal. On these sites you’ll see a web form to enter your PayPal email and amount to sell. After submitting, you will be presented with a QR code to send your bitcoin to. But the money never arrives.

Most of these fake exchanges are here one day and gone the next. You will see them pop up but will quickly disappear, and then re-emerge with a different domain name later.

To be sure you are going to a real Bitcoin exchange, visit our exchange portal on Bitcoin.com to ensure you aren’t being scammed.

Fake Bitcoin Wallets

Spotting fake Bitcoin wallets is a bit tougher, because wallets primarily are about storing bitcoin and not buying or selling it. It has less to do with money than it does with the software you may use. Typically, fake Bitcoin wallets are just scams for malware to infect your machine in order to steal your passwords or private keys.

Just like with fake Bitcoin exchange sites, you should trust your instincts and look for red flags. Does the wallet site use HTTPS? Is the name of the wallet site trying to resemble another reputable Bitcoin wallet by impersonating it? Outside of the obvious, it may be hard to tell if a wallet is fake. A good practice is to ask your peers if someone has used the wallet before. You can do this on the Bitcoin Forum or Bitcoin Reddit.

If the wallet is a downloadable client, another good practice is to check the site for malware. Sites like VirusTotal are a great resource for checking executables to see if they contain viruses.

To be sure you are going to a real Bitcoin wallet, visit our wallet portal on Bitcoin.com to ensure you aren’t being scammed.

Phishing Scams

This is a very common scam. Phishing is when someone tries to trick you into thinking they are a trusted company or website by having you visit a fake site.

Typically, phishers contact you via email or through a fake web advertisement. The end result is you go to their website by mistake and either get malware, or lose your bitcoin through a fake sale.

With emails you have to be careful to not take the bait. You may receive an email from a wallet or exchange you already use, either by coincidence or through past database hacks. Maybe hackers obtained your email address on the black market; for example from a Yahoo! or other service hack.

Best practice is to not click on any hyperlinks in an email or open attachments. Go directly to the website if you have to do business there. A common tactic is to make a hyperlink look real, but if you hover over it you will see the fake website URL. Always check the sender email to see where it’s coming from (although this is not 100% reliable as emails can be spoofed).

With fake web advertisements, you have to be careful on the site you are visiting. This usually happens when searching on the web for things like “blockchain.” The top result could actually be an advert via Google for example, but may end up being a fake Bitcoin wallet. Best practice is to not visit sponsored ad content in search results, and just manually type the real website address directly into your browser.

To be sure you are going to a real Bitcoin wallet, visit our wallet portal on Bitcoin.com to ensure you aren’t being scammed.

Ponzi Scams

Ponzi scams are promises from websites that you will “double your bitcoin” overnight, or some similar outlandish claim. Ponzi sites may be harder to spot, but they’re easy to figure out once you understand this: the only way to double your money is to first send it to them.

Ponzi sites also typically have referral programs, so if you get others to sign up for the site by visiting your affiliate link, you may make a few cents. This is another red flag, as many times you will see on social media shared links with referrals within the URL. Usually it will look something like this (referral link is in bold): domain.com/ponzi/?ref=12345

If you’re unsure whether this Bitcoin site is a scam, visit our Scam thread on the Bitcoin Forum to see if others have used it before.

Cloud Mining Scams

This can be a bit tricky because not all cloud mining operations are scams. Some are completely legitimate, however many are scams, so it’s best to warn people (especially newcomers) to be careful when looking into cloud mining.

Cloud mining is shared mining hashpower, where people pool their funds together to rent Bitcoin mining machines. For legitimate operations, this works and can be profitable. For scams, returns may be low or non-existent. As we’ve established above, it’s best to trust your instincts and look for red flags.

Does the site use HTTPS? Did you find the site from a referral link on social media? Does the cloud mining operation not give any insight into what pool they use to mine, or let you select the pool you want to direct your hashrate to? These are just a few things to look for; you can read some other tips here.

If you’re unsure whether a certain Bitcoin site is a scam or not, visit our Bitcoin Mining Forum and ask someone for help and/or their opinion to ensure you aren’t being scammed. 

Original article posted on the Bitcoin.com site.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Boost for Ethereum: Financial Giant Fidelity May Support ETH in 2020

Financial Giant May Soon Support Ethereum

According to a recent report from The Block, which cited a podcast interview with Fidelity Investments’ crypto chief, Tom Jessop, Fidelity Digital Assets intends on adding support for Ethereum in 2020.

Jessop, a Wall Street veteran that is looking to bring his experience to the relatively-new crypto services branch of Fidelity (Fidelity being the financial services giant with over $2 trillion under management at this moment), claimed in the interview that his team has “done a lot of work on Ethereum.”

As to why Ethereum support has not been launched yet, Jessop cited a strong institutional appetite for Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency market’s de-facto king, and a relative lack of demand for the custody and/or trade execution for something like ETH or, say, Litecoin. The Fidelity executive elaborated:

How do I know that if I buy this thing, it’s gonna be around tomorrow? Like what indication of durability or longevity do I have based on the fact that the history of this asset is 10 years old?

Earlier this year, Jessop claimed that hard forks and consistent changes in the Ethereum protocol may delay Fidelity Digital Assets’ attempts to get support for ETH online.

These latest comments come hot on the heels of news that the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted Fidelity Digital Asset Services a trust license. In layman’s terms, this new license will give Fidelity’s cryptocurrency branch the permission to launch a cryptocurrency custody and trade execution platform for institutions and individual investors for New York residents — which is notable as this is where much of American wealth is managed and traded.

Why is Fidelity Important for Crypto?

So why is Fidelity so important for Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency space?

Well, it can act as an alternative on-ramp for fiat into the digital asset markets, replacing something like a Bitcoin ETF.

Speaking on a CNBC “Fast Money” segment earlier this year, Brian Kelly of BKCM argued that a Bitcoin ETF isn’t essential for continued development and growth in this budding space. While many may take this statement as blasphemous, Kelly went on to back up his comment, drawing attention to the fact that there are other up-and-coming on-ramps.

The industry investor looked to Fidelity and TD Ameritrade — two giants in the American finance realm — adding that “ultimately you’re going to be able to buy Bitcoin in a regular brokerage account, or it’s going to look like a regular brokerage account. So I’m less concerned that you need a bitcoin ETF at this point in time.”

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin to Continue to $20,000 After Retracement to $9,000s: Analyst

Bitcoin Has Bottomed, Ready to Bound Higher

Once again, Bitcoin (BTC) has stagnated, finding a foothold around $10,000 for the umpteenth time in a matter of weeks. While this is a positive development, especially considering the bearish momentum seen last week, there remains some expecting for the cryptocurrency market to continue lower.

But, Murad Mahmudov of prominent crypto fund Adaptive Capital, which is run by the analyst, Willy Woo, David Puell, and Misir Mahmudov, has recently proposed that bears, not bulls, are finally losing grip of the crypto market.

In the below tweet, which Mahmudov posted on Friday, it was argued that $9,080, which Bitcoin hit a number of weeks back in a massive 35% retracement from $14,000, is the short-term bottom for this phase of the cycle.

In a tweet which he headlined “Contrarian view”, the former Goldman Sachs analyst explained that from how he sees it, Bitcoin is most likely to test $9,750 — the 0.618 Fibonacci Retracement of this whole cycle — in the following month in a bout of sideways price action, then “continue steadily upwards” to flirt with the $20,000 all-time high around the end of 2020.

He backed his prediction by looking to August 2016, when BTC was in a similar situation then as it is now: BTC had just rallied out of a bear market, but bears wanted one last hurrah. Then, Bitcoin tested its 0.618 Fibonacci Retracement prior to skyrocketing higher.

Also back in 2016, trend indicators, like historical volatility and the Relative Strength Index (RSI), hit certain levels that they are trending to at this moment.

And, to put a cherry on the cryptocurrency cake, the analyst recently noted that the Fishnet indicator (similar to the Guppy) is tightening as BTC has entered a wedge. This pattern was last seen in 2012 and in 2015/2016, back when Bitcoin was breaking out of bear markets. History repeating will see the cryptocurrency break out in the coming two months prior to commencing a grind higher.

Mahmudov’s analysis lines up with the thoughts of John Bollinger, which Ethereum World News reported on yesterday. As detailed by this outlet on Friday, the creator of the Bollinger Bands technical indicator stated that he is under the belief that Bitcoin and its ilk are “working on trying to forge a short-term tradable bottom”.

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Bollinger stated that while the bottoming “process is [not] completed yet,” he is currently eyeing a range of “someplace between $10,000 and $9,000” for BTC to find a low.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty, Hash Rate Surge As BTC Holds Above $8,000: What Death Spiral?

Bitcoin Fundamentals Booming

With BTC moving above $8,000, the fundamentals of the Bitcoin blockchain have also surged. As pointed out by industry researcher Kevin Rooke, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has reached an all-time high of 7.46 trillion. The thing is, we’re still down by around 55% from BTC’s all-time high of $20,000, and public awareness of the cryptocurrency space is still much lower than it was back in 2017. For those unaware, mining difficulty refers to how hard miners need to work to solve one block.

This comes after mainstream media, namely this one report from MarketWatch, called for a “death spiral,” whereas miners would fold en-masse, sending BTC into the ether. This booming difficultly figure shows that this isn’t the case. As Andreas Antonopoulos, a legendary Greek-British Bitcoin educator, once explained:

“If [miners] wait until the difficulty retargets and the difficulty becomes less, then each miner who waits makes more profit because in the new scheme they have a greater percentage of the mining power than they did before. Let’s say if the mining power drops by 50%, the miners who stick around and wait for the difficulty to retarget are now twice as profitable after the retargeting.”

This is just the start though. Bitcoin’s hash rate has neared an all-time high, reaching 58 million terahashes per second this week. And also, the number of transactions being made with BTC have skyrocketed.

Market Infrastructure Strengthening Too

Not only are on-chain fundamentals extremely strong, but Bitcoin’s underlying market infrastructure too. Over the past few months, the market has seen a massive uptick in interest from institutions and corporations, most of which are looking to solidify this market is something that is here to stay.

This strong infrastructure is what some, like BitPay’s Sonny Singh, believe is what is behind the recent Bitcoin run, and why the ongoing bull market is likely just getting started. Per previous reports from Ethereum World News, this surge both in public awareness and in the press has much to do fundamentals. He explains that while 2017’s boom and 2018’s massive downturn was driven by hysteria and “momentum”, Bitcoin’s jump from $3,200 to $8,000+ is actually backed by infrastructural developments. The Bitpay C-suite member names the following developments:

• JP Morgan’s JPM Coin: Earlier this year, the banking giant launched its own cryptocurrency on Quorum, a private version of the Ethereum blockchain meant for more enterprise-specific tasks. JP Morgan has been using the digital asset as a way to transfer value inter-bank but intends to allow JPM Coin to see use in brick and mortar/online stores in the future. While JPM Coin is incompatible with Bitcoin, analysts suggest it will warm the public up to the idea of cryptocurrency.
• AT&T Accepts Bitcoin: Announced last Thursday, AT&T, a Texas-based American technology giant valued at $234 billion, will be accepting Bitcoin payments for its services through BitPay. Per a press release, AT&T is now the first “major U.S. mobile carrier” to provide its millions of customers with the ability to purchase services for cryptocurrency. This doesn’t mean that the firm is accumulating BTC per se, but it does show that AT&T acknowledges BTC as a viable medium of exchange.
• Square’s Cash Offering BTC: Although Square’s Cash App has been offering Bitcoin purchases and sells for its clientele since the peak of 2018’s boom, the company has continued to sell more and more BTC quarter-over-quarter. What’s more, Cash is continually near the top of the U.S. App Store, and the Bitcoin service is built right in, thereby increasing public awareness of Bitcoin greatly.
• Fidelity Investments Offering Bitcoin Custody, Trade Execution: Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest asset managers, has begun to offer an institutional-centric cryptocurrency custody and trade execution service for beta testers in its 20,000-odd non-retail clients.

Singh notes that these underlying shifts in cryptocurrency infrastructure confirm the validity of this asset class, and “is making people really excited, as is the light at the end of the tunnel for use cases.” He concludes with the idea that $9,000 is just the tip of the iceberg for Bitcoin, looking to the fact that many cryptocurrency projects from big-name corporations have yet to launch, or haven’t even been announced yet.

Original article written by Nick Chong and posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site.

Article posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe