What is a bitcoin futures contract?

Bitcoin futures contracts offer traders greater flexibility and access to leverage for greater exposure. Futures contracts are a type of financial derivatives that allow the trader to speculate on the price movements of assets such as commodities, stock indices, or cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin. Bitcoin futures contracts allow you to speculate on the price of bitcoin at a future date. … Read more

Cardano (ADA): what it is, how it works, prices and charts, current applications

Cardano is the platform on which ADA, a cryptocurrency that can be used to send and receive funds, was developed. It is a smart contract platform, with some characteristics similar to Ethereum (not by chance since its creator, Charles Hoskinson, is one of the co-founders of Ethereum), offering new levels of security and scalability thanks to a multi-layer architecture. It … Read more

Stablecoins are vulnerable and can increase financial risks, says Fed

The Federal Reserve places stablecoins in the category of high-risk investments. The central bank is concerned about the lack of transparency over the assets backing stablecoins. The United States Federal Reserve (Fed) once again expresses its concerns about the risks posed by stablecoins. This time the central bank has added a warning that the risk of sudden and desperate redemptions … Read more

What is the hash rate and how does it influence bitcoin mining

Bitcoin hash rate

Bitcoin hash rate

The hash rate is one of the most important concepts in bitcoin mining, surely this has been one of the first definitions that you have come across when you have investigated a little more about the mining process.

What is the hash rate and how does it influence bitcoin mining? The hash rate is the mining power that is available to process data and find the solution to the mathematical problems that keep cryptocurrencies encrypted. Thus, the hash rate refers to the speed or time it takes a miner to do the mathematical calculations to solve blocks within the blockchain.

The hash rate is essential, as it has a great influence on the security and sustainability of the Bitcoin network. Likewise, the miners’ earnings depend on the hash rate, since the higher the power, the more blocks are mined.

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Gold is losing its reign as a store of value against bitcoin

Gold price vs BTC price
  • So far this year BTC has advanced 81% while gold has fallen 7.7%.
  • Large investors are shifting their positions in gold to investments in bitcoin.

As bitcoin continues in an upward cycle, which has intensified in this year 2021, its position against gold as a store of value asset strengthens. The precious metal has fallen 14% since it reached its historical maximum of USD 2,071 an ounce, at the beginning of August 2020, as this Monday, February 22, it registered a price of USD 1,798 an ounce.

In the same period of six and a half months, since the historical high of gold on August 7, a fact reported by ForexDominion, the price of BTC has appreciated 360%, going from USD 11,564 to USD 53,429.

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China’s digital yuan to be regulated as M0 money

Digital yuan wallet
  • Once the new currency is issued, it will be classified as M0 (cash issued by the central bank).
  • Everything indicates that the government refines details, but there is no official launch date yet.

The digital yuan will meet all the requirements to be accepted as legal money and will have all the functions of China’s fiat currency. It will also be regulated like cash. This was pointed out by the vice president of the Central Bank of China (PBoC), Fan Yifei, in a recent publication.

According to the vice president’s opinion article, published on September 14 in the local media “China Financial News,” China’s new central bank digital currency (CBDC) will circulate as M0 (money issued by central banks). This fact means that it will be part of the supply of paper notes and coins of the Asian country, and as such it will be totally controlled by the central bank.

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Shelley: user rewards, decentralization for Cardano

Shelley of Cardano

Shelley of Cardano

  • Shelley introduces in Cardano a new consensus algorithm based on Proof of Participation (PoS).
  • ADA token owners will be able to earn rewards for block production.

Decentralization has come to Cardano from Shelley, one of its most anticipated forks of 2020.

After almost a month of delay, the community finally witnessed yesterday the launch of this latest update. It allowed the Cardano blockchain to leave behind its centralized network scheme, known as Byron, to begin charting a new, more decentralized path with Shelley.

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Satoshi Nakamoto – Who Created Bitcoin?

Satoshi Nakamoto (1975-present) is the fictitious name of the person (or group of people) who developed Bitcoin.

Although his identity is uncertain, there are several versions of his real identity. Obviously, some versions have more weight than others. In any case, it is believed that his profile is that of a mathematician and cryptographer, around 40 years old. Despite being of Japanese origin, he speaks perfect English. Hence, some versions doubt that the Bitcoin developer is actually Japanese.

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What is a blockchain fork?

In software development, a fork is the creation of a project in a different direction from the main or official project from the existing source code. This practice is in common use in open source projects or free software. In blockchain networks, forks are used both to create new projects from a previous one, and to update a project in question.

Blockchain networks are governed by rules encoded in the protocol that allow nodes to validate transaction blocks in the same way and remain in consensus. These rules verify that the structure of the block and the transactions included in it, such as the size of the block (amount of available space) are correct.

Sometimes consensus rules can be modified to add updates or protect the network from attacks, or changed for specific purposes, such as giving birth to a new cryptocurrency. Regardless of the reason for the modification, there are two ways to change the rules: using a soft fork or hard fork.

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What is a Blockchain?

The present definition of blockchain is the one referring to the Bitcoin technology developed by Satoshi Nakamoto, in which the blockchain is an integral part of it; unlike the new term ‘blockchain’ introduced by different companies and authors to refer to Bitcoin technology as a whole. A blockchain, also known as a distributed ledger, is a distributed database that records … Read more