If you know Web3, you know OpenSea. Since its launch at the end of 2017, the NFT marketplace has largely been the poster child for the world of Ethereum and crypto art, and its got the numbers to prove it.

OpenSeas total historical trading volume sits comfortably at just shy of $41 billion, according to Dune analytics. To put that in perspective, KnownOrigin, one of OpenSeas competitors that launched around the same time, has a total trading volume of just over $30 million.

Having dominated the market for almost six years, OpenSea has been as influential to the NFT ecosystem as any project, artist, or builder. However, this outsize impact hasnt always been for the better, as the company has increasingly begun to clash with NFT community members over some pretty significant issues related to Web3.

The last six months, in particular, have presented the marketplace with several challenges with which its still grappling, as well as the first real contender with a shot at replacing it as NFT marketplace ruler. With that in mind, heres a look at everything you need to know about OpenSea.

OpenSea is one of the most well-known, peer-to-peer NFT marketplaces in existence. Users can buy, sell, trade, and create NFTs on the platform in various categories ranging from photography and PFPs to gaming, membership tokens, and fine art projects.

OpenSea is the all-around hitter of NFT marketplaces. Its easy to navigate and provides a limited but versatile suite of analytics tools and sorting options for users looking to dig a little deeper into collection histories or NFT trait rarities. Rather than honing in on a particular niche of Web3 users, the platform is a solid one-stop shop for a broad range of Web3 enthusiasts, including newcomers, experienced traders, and low-volume retail NFT buyers.

Its difficult to overstate the magnitude of OpenSeas rise over the last few years. Having been founded in 2017 by software engineer and entrepreneur Devin Finzer and programmer Alex Atallah, the marketplace hit a $1.5 billion valuation by the summer of 2021. By January 2022, that number surged to $13.3 billion after the company raised $300 million in a Series C funding round.

While NFTs had been around in some form or another since 2011, they had yet to hit an inflection point and gain significant traction in the publics eye, even in 2017. In creating OpenSea, Finzer and Atallah had identified a need to build a platform that could function as a focal point for the then largely disparate communities of Web3 enthusiasts.

At first, Devin and Alex set out to create a marketplace to unite siloed communities during the early days of NFTs, said an OpenSea spokesperson while speaking to nft now on the companys origins. While embracing a range of potential outcomes, the upside was always there: becoming a destination where people could interact with NFTs, and thus explore a brand new economy on the internet.

That economy has grown substantially since the platforms late-2017 launch, even considering Web3s most recent crypto winter. As of September 2022, trading volume in the Ethereum NFT sphere hit 8.22 million ETH ($11.5 billion). Furthermore, a recent report by research and consulting firm Verified Market Research predicted the market cap for the NFT industry could reach $231 billion by 2030.

OpenSea has played a crucial role in helping that market mature. From May 2021 to November 2022, the platform was responsible for the majority of trading volume in the NFT space.

OpenSea rolls out new features and tools on the platform with some regularity, all aimed at increasing trust in the platform, user safety, and improving infrastructure for the larger ecosystem.

One of the platforms recent and significant updates came in June 2022 with the introduction of Seaport, a Web3 marketplace protocol that enables users to more safely and efficiently buy and sell NFTs. Before Seaport, OpenSea used Wyvern, a less-efficient protocol created by a third party. In comparison, Seaport cuts down on redundant transfers and, according to a company blog post on the development, reduces gas fees for users by 35 percent. Seaport is open source; OpenSea doesnt control or operate it, and the company has encouraged smart contract developers to improve the protocol with them.

The marketplace has introduced several features in the last year, including a copymint detection system, a way to hide suspicious NFT transfers to users wallets, and an ability for creators to launch collections with dedicated drop pages directly on OpenSea called Drops. But not all of its product launches have been well-received.

Throughout the years, OpenSea has launched or made changes to products and services it offers that connect to Web3s most pressing issues and not always gracefully. The platform has frequently clashed with artists and creators, who castigate the marketplace for what they perceive to be offenses to the health of the NFT community and the individuals that form its bedrock.

The critiques can be difficult to weigh fairly. Due to its stature and long history in the space, OpenSea makes for an easy target, whether or not its detractors arguments are legitimate. Regardless, like every marketplace in the ecosystem, the company has had its share of difficulties and shortcomings over the years. The platform has struggled with developing a fair and effective stolen items policy, has a history of site functionality issues during times of high traffic and following periods of intense growth, and has taken a rather centralized approach to implementing rules relating to its user base.

But the highest-profile issue that the Web3 community takes with OpenSea is its inconsistent stance on creator royalties. Royalties (also known as creator fees) enable artists to be compensated for a work well beyond its primary sale, giving them a cut of the profits every time their NFT changes hands. Royalties have helped artists and builders in Web3 create a rich, varied, and thriving art ecosystem and play a major role in its sustainability, providing a crucial income source for the funding of future projects.

Until the recent development of on-chain enforcement tools, royalties werent originally enforceable on a technical level. Even so, some collections on OpenSea werent created on upgradable smart contracts, preventing them from being able to use the newly developed tools. For collections built on upgradable contracts, however, its up to the marketplaces facilitating the buying and selling of their NFTs to implement and enforce those royalties payments through these new tools.

Until recently, OpenSea had done a great deal to support artists in this way. As of October 2022, the marketplace was the platform that had paid out the most creator royalties by a significant margin. And in November of the same year, the marketplace announced that it would introduce a tool for new collections to enforce royalties on its platform.

The announcement marked OpenSeas first crack at an on-chain solution for royalties enforcement. And while this was hailed as a positive, creator-friendly move, users were unsettled by the fact that such royalty enforcement wasnt going to apply to existing collections on OpenSea the very collections that helped establish the platform as a leading Web3 force.

After severe backlash from nearly every prominent NFT artist and project head in the space, OpenSea announced it would continue to enforce creator fees on legacy collections, a move that many at the time saw as both a win for creators and an event that catalyzed a kind of unionization movement in Web3.

In February 2023, however, OpenSea altered its position on royalties once again. In a Twitter thread, the company announced that it would be moving collections that dont use on-chain enforcement tools (the vast majority of collections on its platform) to optional royalties. And once again, many artists in the community took umbrage with this.

OpenSea has cited a sea change in marketplace dynamics as the main reason for its move to optional royalties on its platform, and theres some credibility in that claim. Collectors in Web3 simply dont want to pay royalties if they can avoid it, and marketplaces have to listen to the collectors that make up their target audience. This trend isnt theoretical marketplaces are increasingly abandoning royalties enforcement, and zero-royalty platforms like Blur have begun siphoning off massive amounts of trading volume from OpenSea, usurping the companys previously-held majority market share.

The rise of Blur is one of the most significant developments in NFT marketplace history and has everything to do with what OpenSea is trying to achieve with its royalties moves in recent months. Blurs strategy of appealing to a small but robust demographic of pro traders by rewarding its users with free airdrops of its own token has proven widely effective in its current goal of optimizing for market share. Since November 2022, Blur has either sat neck-and-neck with OpenSea or completely outpaced it in terms of trading volume (although OpenSea still retains the higher count of active users).

However, OpenSea may bear some responsibility for partially catalyzing the market shift it is now lamenting. The royalty policy it recently canned had forced creators to choose between earning full royalties on either OpenSea or Blur, setting royalties to optional upon detection of a collections trading on royalty-optional platforms. Ironically, it was OpenSeas own Seaport that enabled Blur to sidestep this very policy, drawing even more users to Blurs shores. Regardless, the move put creators and collectors in an uncomfortable position.

OpenSeas attempts to uphold royalties as long as it did are worth appreciating, and the platform isnt the artist-hating behemoth that some make it out to be. But as it and others vie for dominance in the NFT ecosystem, creators are caught in the middle in what many see as a race to the bottom of one of Web3s founding principles: empowering and properly compensating artists for their work.

Ultimately, as some have argued, it may be the case that Web3 platforms are simply more concerned with gaining market share, as success in this goal allows them to secure more financing through venture rounds. Either way, the current market dynamic sits poorly with the community of artists that generates the wealth the NFT ecosystem swims in and who sincerely believe in the ability of Web3 tech to foster a more equitable future for creatives.

Several of the problems OpenSea gets criticized for have no easy solutions. The platforms stolen item policy, which has previously led to the inadvertent punishment of users who unknowingly purchased a stolen NFT on the marketplace, is one example of this. Its worth noting that OpenSea listened to community feedback and consequently updated its policy to better disincentivize theft and improve the accuracy of stolen item reports. Its also implemented malicious URL detection and removal and a system that aims to prevent the reselling of stolen items.

While there is an argument that OpenSea can and should have done more to develop as fair and effective a policy as possible for stolen items earlier than it did, its also not a stretch to say that dealing with security in a decentralized world remains an inexact science, especially when an organization is trying to ensure legal compliance in the U.S.

The platforms March 2022 hiccup in how it approached U.S. sanctions law requirements likewise falls under this category. Balancing a largely anonymous and international user base with potentially ruinous legal repercussions is difficult.

All of these issues live under the banner of one of Web3s founding tenets: decentralization, the idea that broad authority to make changes affecting a community should be dispersed throughout that community rather than vested in a single individual or organization. Massive NFT platforms like Opensea are in an unenviable position here. Calls for a truly decentralized marketplace will be familiar to anyone who has been in the NFT space for more than a few weeks. Those calls, however well-intentioned, tend to be ill-thought-out.

OpenSea believes that the centralization debate is a crucial and compelling one that, like every controversial issue in the space, evolves over time and requires an approach that can be adjusted if necessary. And while its easy to argue that OpenSea is a centralized entity, its also worth noting that most Web3 entities are.

Centralization is a spectrum. Nifty Gateway, for example, is a custodial platform that stores its users NFTs in a wallet from which they need to be withdrawn to be traded on other platforms. And even the founders of SuperRare have recognized that decentralization is a work in progress and that decentralization by centralized means may be one of the best ways of fullying realizing the promise of this particular tenet of Web3.

OpenSea believes that coordinated action on some authoritative level is sometimes necessary to keep things running smoothly and its users safe in an environment full of risks and unknowns. Web3 is a volatile landscape that shifts by the hour. Expecting any one individual to keep up and respond perfectly to it is unreasonable; having the same expectations of an unwieldy, multi-billion-dollar organization is unreasonable.

None of which is to say that OpenSea cant do a better job on the things the NFT community often rebukes it for; it must if it wants to maintain its spot as a top Web3 marketplace. It owes creators not just collectors innovation that they can use and that upholds their rights as Web3 citizens. Likewise, it can do more to clearly communicate sudden changes in policy to its users and implement decisions in a more transparent and precise way.

We believe that eventually, the physical economy will shift in this direction, and its possible that one day, nearly everything we own will be owned and transferrable on the blockchain in the form of an NFT, CEO Devin Finzer underscored of the companys approach to the evolution of Web3 in a November 2022 blog post. We have conviction that this technology will eventually power the biggest markets on the planet and fundamentally transform society. Thats the vision were rallying around at OpenSea.

All of which sounds rhetorically on the money. But rhetoric is easy; how the marketplace decides to execute that vision fairly while facing rapidly shifting market dynamics, increasing competitive pressure, and a movement of creators coalescing around the royalties issue remains to be seen.

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OpenSea: The Ultimate Guide to Its Tools, Features, and ... - nft now

March 19, 2023 8:55 PM | 2 min read

As five central banks across the United States and Europe took coordinated action to ease the stress on the global funding market, the price of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) saw a spike on Sunday evening, which prompted a reflective social media post from CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju.

What Happened: Ki contrasted the action of the central banks with Bitcoins pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto in his tweets on Sunday.

Satoshi just decided to print more Bitcoins again to bail out crypto exchanges. BTC price will go down as its supply increases, said Ki.

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The CryptoQuant CEO shared a tweet from the European Central Bank, which featured a press release from the central bank detailing the actions it and other institutions are taking to enhance the provisions of US dollar liquidity.

See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC)

Why It Matters: Ki asked those that believe in the U.S. dollar system to imagine if cryptocurrency exchanges invested all client funds in so-called shitcoins, which leads to Nakamoto printing infinite Bitcoins to bail out the exchanges and the price of the apex coin being contingent on Satoshis hawkish or dovish expressions.

Bitcoin spiked on Sunday hitting a high of $28,440.56 in intraday trading. At the time of writing the largest cryptocurrency by market cap was up 3.5% at $28,074.

Bitcoin has seen 25.9% and 68.65% gains for the week and the year, respectively. The second-largest coin, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) has shot up 11.6% and 48.7% in a similar period.

On Friday, over $55 million in cryptocurrency shorts were wiped in just 12 hours as Bitcoin crossed the $26,000 mark.

Read Next: Potshot Or Praise? Dogecoin Founder Says Cramer 'Good At His Job' Elon Musk Reacts

2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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CryptoQuant CEO Roasts US, Europe Central Banks' Action To Ease Liquidity Strain - Benzinga

Benzinga - Are investors making too many assumptions about Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC)? JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is bullish on blockchain technology, but Bitcoin is another story.

"How do you know it's going to stop at 21 million? ... maybe it's going to get to 21 million and Satoshi's picture is going to come up and laugh at you all," Dimon said during a Jan. 19 appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

What To Know: Satoshi Nakamoto is a presumed pseudonymous person responsible for the creation of Bitcoin. Many argue that Bitcoin holds value because of its scarcity, given the maximum number of coins that can be mined is capped at 21 million, according to Bitcoin's source code.

Related Link: Satoshi Nakamoto's Last Messages Before Disappearing, The Odds Of $250K BTC In 2023

Dimon reminded listeners that no one really knows what will happen, but he has strong opinions on the world's oldest and most valuable cryptocurrency.

"Bitcoin itself is a hyped-up fraud, a pet rock," Dimon said.

"I think all of that has been a waste of time and why you guys waste any breath on it is totally beyond me," he told CNBC during an interview at the World Economic Forum.

Blockchain, on the other hand, is a technology leger system and it's much different than cryptocurrency tokens, he said, adding JPMorgan uses blockchain technology to move information and money around.

The rest is more of a "decentralized Ponzi scheme," Dimon said.

"I don't care about Bitcoin, so we should just drop the subject."

It may take a while to find out if Dimon is right in his thinking. Bitcoin isn't expected to reach the 21-million mark until 2040.

Check This Out: If You Invested $1,000 In Bitcoin When Tesla Bought The Crypto, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Originally published on Jan. 19, 2022.

Photo: Tumisu from Pixabay.

2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Jamie Dimon Is Bullish On Blockchain, But Not Bitcoin Satoshi ... - Investing.com UK

Cryptocurrency has been a controversial topic in global finance since Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper which made Bitcoin, a digital currency, a plausible reality in 2008. For the past fifteen years, the value of Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies has been volatile and unpredictable, leaving many investors wary of them.

Cryptocurrency initiatives are gaining a larger presence on campus. At the University of Michigan, there are three student organizations dedicated to investment and research in cryptocurrency and related technologies: the Michigan Cryptocurrency Investment Club, Wolverine Blockchain and Blockchain at Michigan.

LSA Sophomore Evan Solomon, co-founder and president of MCIC, spoke with The Daily on how cryptocurrency may be gaining legitimacy. He cited cryptocurrencys institutional use in large, accredited financial institutions like investment banks. The fact that these banks trust cryptocurrency assets enough to invest in them, Solomon said, may be a signal that cryptocurrency can be reliable.

We had the (vice president) of Onyx, (J.P. Morgans) blockchain solution, come to campus for an event, Solomon said. (People) think that the banks arent using Blockchain yet, but thats not really true Once the student body understands that even the big banks are starting to pick up blockchain, theyll start realizing how wide scale the industry really is and how, at this point, its kind of too big to fail.

Solomon said MCIC works with companies to conduct technical or market research for them. One of the projects MCIC is currently working on is for a mapping company called Hive Mapper. Solomon said the company rewards users with their own proprietary cryptocurrency.

One of the companies were researching is called Hive Mapper. Solomon said. (It) is a competitor like Google and Apple maps, where people will be able to drive around and video the landscape of different areas and actually build out their own mapping solution. And, the people that are doing so will get rewarded and specific tokens for this product.

Business freshman Namhoon Lee, a member of MCIC, also spoke with The Daily about how the club does financial research for cryptocurrency. He said much of cryptocurrency research, like other kinds of financial asset analysis, requires context. According to Lee, understanding the market helps investors minimize their losses and protect themselves.

We try as best as possible to take preventive measures, Lee said. That could be reducing whatever risk we have, or whatever exposure we have, and also (beginning) to think about what would be the (long term) effects.

Some of the technical research that is being pursued more by U-M faculty regards in cryptography, which uses advanced mathematical structures to safeguard information. Cryptography is used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which require secure financial networks to transfer currency. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Chris Peikert, professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Michigan, explained the development and use of modern cryptography.

The basic idea of cryptography from the beginning was how to communicate with somebody in a secure way so that your enemy or your attacker, or your adversary, cant understand what youre saying, Peikert said. Crypto means secret and graph means writing, so it literally means secret writing.

One of the main problems cryptography researchers at the University focus on is the quantum apocalypse, which refers to the use of incredibly powerful quantum computers to break through all encrypted security systems that are being currently used. Peikert explains why this kind of computing is apocalyptic.

In the early 1990s, it was shown that if you had a big enough large scale quantum computer, you could use it to break all of the most popular crypto systems that were out there, Peikert said. The quantum crypto apocalypse is (when) somebody eventually builds that quantum computer and uses it to break all the cryptography that weve been using for 40 years.

This poses threats to national security and intellectual property, and is applicable to conversations about cryptocurrency, as shown by the recent fall of FTX. A breach of a cryptocurrency ledger would mean an attacker could steal or counterfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in digital assets. Peikert and other U-M researchers are focusing on counter-measures to the quantum apocalypse to protect against these worst-case scenarios.

We want to design crypto systems that can run on todays hardware, but will be secure against quantum attacks in the future, Peikert said.

Peikert explained that computer science theory and research is often different from traditional lab-based research.

Computer science theory is really all about what computers can and cant do in a fundamental sense, Peikert said. What can they do with certain resources, within a certain amount of time or with a certain amount of space? What kind of tasks are solvable, and what kind of tasks maybe arent solvable, or (are believed to be) not solvable?

Peikert then spoke on how cryptography and cryptosystems sets of algorithms implemented to provide information security are explored to develop obstacles for cyber-attackers.

In cryptography, we use problems that we think are not feasibly solvable as the basis for the security of cryptosystems, Peikert said. So, if we need to, we use some problem that we think is hard (for attackers) to solve.

Creating hard problems the kind that require a lot of computation to solve is useful in cryptocurrency, which can use cryptography to secure the identities of people holding, transacting and verifying cryptocurrency. It also makes sure that cryptocurrencies cannot be counterfeited or stolen by legitimate users.

Daily Staff Reporter Amer Goel can be reached at amergoel@umich.edu.

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Behind the : foundations of cryptocurrency - The Michigan Daily

2023-03-21 11:33:37 ET

Cryptocurrency is not an old industry. Bitcoin kicked off the industry as we know it when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the Genesis block on January 3rd 2009, as the world reeled from one of the worst financial crashes in recent memory.

Only three years later, XRP was launched, a decentralised asset built for payments. Today, it remains one of the most well-known and biggest cryptocurrencies, currently sitting in sixth place with a market cap of close to $20 billion.

And yet, so many are still confused as to what XRP does, as well as the distinction to Ripple, the company behind it. This week on the Invezz podcast, I interviewed Brendan Berry, Payment Products Lead at Ripple, to get into the weeds of what exactly XRP is, what Ripple is, and the distinction between the two, as well as what they both do.

We covered a bunch of topics. One of these was the issues with conventional banking a particularly pertinent topic given the startling events in the sector over the last couple of weeks.

But we focused mainly on payments. Ive criticised the process behind bank transfers, and I put to Brendan my curiosity around what feels like a total lack of innovation in the digital age from banks. I asked him about fees and lag times and why these were taking days for cross-border payments.

Of course, this is a big reason why XRP exists. We talked about the ins and outs of this, as well as a subsection within the area of payments: remittances. When I visited El Salvador last summer, I was fascinated by this area but the data shows that the pickup hasnt happened yet. I wanted to get Brendans take on this and how XRP can contribute in this area.

We also discussed the future of crypto, including what Brendan believes will be a streamlining of the front-end experience of a lot of transactions within the space.

Another topic we touched on was whether the recent banking turmoil would push people further into crypto, and what this could mean for the industry, and XRP, going forward.

All in all, it was a wide-ranging discussion centred on payments and what role XRP could have in this world.

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VIDEO: What is XRP and what does it do? What is Ripple? - InvestorsObserver

As we brace ourselves for a turbulent crypto year, the market has seen expansions of more than $80 billion despite the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) stringent regulations. Crypto markets are finally displaying signs of a bullish run and accelerating speed after a challenging first, ignoring any obstacles or unfavourable news.

The newest meme coin in the cryptoverse, Big Eyes Coin (BIG), is in the lead after raising over $31.5 million during its presale. Only time will be able to determine when and where this will land. On the other hand, Bitcoin and Ethereum are two crypto industry leaders. Bitcoin dominated the market, and users followed SEC regulations when converting other cryptocurrencies into BTC. Players like Cardano are also putting themselves out there.

The king of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC), reached a height of $24,755 as we entered the second half of February. This was the highest level since June 2022. The value of BTC soared once many users and investors shifted their funds away from other cryptocurrencies and towards the crypto beast. BTCs price at the time of writing was $24,551, up almost 10% over the previous day, and it had a $473.59 billion market cap.

In order to establish an autonomous and interconnected network of digital currencies, Satoshi Nakamoto, a mysterious person or entity, launched Bitcoin as a different means of payment in 2009. Bitcoin uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) technique to verify transactions, and the digital currencys 21 million coins are in limited supply.

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) experienced growth and increased by more than 8% to $1,700. In August 2022, Ethereums last value of $1,800 was recorded. ETH was worth $1,683 and had a market value of $205.75 billion at the time of writing.

In addition to serving as a platform for decentralised apps and smart contracts, Ethereum debuted as a De-Fi coin in 2015. Its security, and reliability make it the platform that consumers and developers want the most in the world compared to Bitcoin. Ethereum relied on the Proof-of-Work method, but last year the network saw a shift PoS (Proof-of-Stake), which is quicker, requires less energy, and is more secure.

A blockchain that uses proof-of-stake is called Cardano (ADA). As a result, the coins energy efficiency is increased. Traditional proof-of-work consensus requires more mining and transaction time. The blockchain was created in 2017, and the Alonzo hard fork was introduced four years later. It has smart contract capability as a result. Smart contracts encrypted security makes them tough to hack. Transactions using the proof-of-stake mechanism can be done very quickly, effectively, and precisely!

Cardanos dedication to transaction security has aided in the platforms growth into a potent blockchain. Its greenness is aided by the quickness and effectiveness of its transactions as well as its smart contract. The likelihood of investing being successful is high.

Big Eyes Coin (BIG) is a community-owned, meme-themed cat coin that aims to improve the environment of the planet while also providing useful services and use cases. Big Eyes Coins presale has already reached $31 million, and it now aims to achieve $50 million by the end of the presale. This brand-new meme coin has a cat as its symbol, and it has the potential to grow into the biggest meme coin ever.

In the past few weeks, Big Eyes have run a number of marketing initiatives, including a tattoo competition, discount codes, and the great set of loot box offerings that are currently available.

The community-led token has repeatedly shown that it is here to stay and has a bright future ahead of it, dispelling any concerns being expressed by these crypto gurus, despite some internet critics casting doubt on the currency and its genuineness.

With incredible technological advancements, usability, accessibility, NFTs, loot boxes, and more, Big Eyes Coin is aiming to establish itself as a crypto mainstay.

Presale: https://buy.bigeyes.space/

Website: https://bigeyes.space/

Telegram: https://t.me/BIGEYESOFFICIAL

Sponsored

WARNING: The investment in crypto assets is not regulated, it may not be suitable for retail investors and the total amount invested could be lost

AVISO IMPORTANTE: La inversin en criptoactivos no est regulada, puede no ser adecuada para inversores minoristas y perderse la totalidad del importe invertido

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The Mount Rushmore of Crypto 2023? Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano ... - Euro Weekly News

On 20 March, entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano Pomp invited Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal to his podcast, where he quizzed the latter on a range of topics surrounding Bitcoin [BTC] and its numerous run-ins with regulatory bodies.

Speaking on Bitcoin and the 2023 Financial Crisis, Pal talked about crypto failures such as FTX, U.S. governments pushbacks against crypto, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasans bet on Bitcoin hitting $1 million within 90 days.

Regarding the recent collapse of the crypto-friendly Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Pomp asked Pal if we should compare its collapse of the crypto exchange FTX in November last year. Pal pointed out that, though its true that both institutions made poor investments. However, the crucial difference is that while SVB is a bank, FTX is only a brokerage. While SVB had the right, as a banking institution, to invest in customer funds, FTX had, as a crypto brokerage firm, no right to invest customer funds.

Pal also pointed out that even as banks have been disallowed from engaging in prop trading, FTX was doing essentially that with customer money.

Pomp asked Pal why the United States government was pushing against cryptocurrency. Pal responded that the U.S. government understands cryptocurrency and is acutely aware of the gigantic impact of possible bank runs as a potential result of Bitcoins popularity. It is for this reason that the U.S. government is pushing back against mass adoption of cryptocurrency through bringing in a lot of rules and regulations.

The crypto industry has been dealing with multiple failures such as Terra [LUNA], Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, Voyager Digital and FTX since 2022. In addition, hacking attempts have continued to plague crypto platforms. Due to such incidents, customers have lost millions of dollars so far.

Pomp also asked Pal if the U.S. government will use the Reserve to buy Bitcoin to assuage market panic. Pal answered in the negative, saying that unlike the countries in the Middle-East, the U.S. government will not be buying Bitcoin as it is an extremely volatile asset.

Pal also pushed forward his own theory that Satoshi Nakamoto is nobody but a state actor, which created Bitcoin as an alternative financial system just in case the mainstream banking system fails; in fact, these bodies already own Bitcoin, Pal proposed.

Towards the end of the podcast, Pal put worth his views on Balaji Srinivasans bet on Bitcoin hitting $1 million within 90 days.

Pal said:

Hes [Srinivasan] has got 0.0% chance of being right.

Srinivasan believes that as traditional currencies enter a period of rapid hyperinflation, the global economy will turn to Bitcoin as digital gold as the new, preferred currency.

Pal said that it is Srinivasans marketing trick to spread around the concept of hyper-bitcoinization. He, however, added that it could happen within 12 months but its not appropriate to put a date, he cautioned.

Link:

Will Bitcoin [BTC] hit $1 million in 90 days? Real Vision CEO predicts - AMBCrypto News

What is a deflationary cryptocurrency?

Although cryptocurrencies are often promoted as investment opportunities, their primary purpose was originally to serve as an alternative form of currency. Considering this narrative, the rules of supply and demand apply to cryptocurrencies as to fiat currencies.

An undergraduate economics student might say the basics of money, economy and market forces is balancing supply and demand. How much of an asset is in circulation versus the demand how many people want that particular asset helps decide its price. This equation between supply and demand underlies the fundamentals of all economies and also applies to cryptocurrencies.

Deflationary cryptocurrency is one where the value of the crypto increases due to a reduction or stagnation in supply. This ensures that the coins market value is attractive for more people to invest in and can be used as a store of value. While deflationary cryptocurrencies look more attractive, not all are designed that way.

Many well-known cryptocurrencies are not deflationary. In addition, there is often no supply limit to them. Some are disinflationary because inflation gradually reduces over time due to its tokenomics. Bitcoin (BTC), for instance, wont be deflationary until all 21 million coins have been mined. Ether (ETH) was not deflationary until the Merge happened in September 2022.

Related: Inflationary vs. deflationary cryptocurrencies, Explained

Developers of tokens create deflationary mechanisms during the design of the economic model behind the token. The economic model tokenomics can be fundamental to how stakeholders add and accrue value in a Web3 ecosystem.

The supply and demand dynamics of a token are decided at the level of development. Deflationary characteristics like burn mechanisms are decided as the economic model underlying the token is being developed. This can be a point-in-time process like with Bitcoin or an evolving mechanism like with Ethereum.

When creating Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto ensured there would only be a finite supply of 21 million. Once 21 million Bitcoin are mined, no new BTC can be created. This limited supply has helped the narrative that Bitcoin is a true store of value compared with fiat currencies that increase supply due to central bank monetary policies.

In contrast, Ethereum had an inflationary supply at its inception. Ether supply was increasing at an annual rate of 4.5%. However, after the Ethereum Merge that saw it move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, it is now a non-inflationary asset due to its burn rate. The number of Ether burned in maintaining the network activity is more than the amount of Ether entering circulation.

Implementing the EIP-1559 protocol has altered the economic nature of the Ethereum token by incorporating the burning of a fraction of the gas fees per transaction. As a result, some experts argue that Ethereum has become more deflationary than Bitcoin.

As deflationary tokens are considered a better store of value, new tokens created for both protocol and application tiers may be designed to be deflationary.

Investments in deflationary cryptocurrencies can yield growth and returns for investors. But being deflationary alone may not be a criterion to be identified as a better investment.

Due to their supply cap, deflationary tokens are typically perceived as more valuable by holders and investors. This was also demonstrated by the rise of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), where the rarity of the NFTs often decided the prices. Limited supply driving prices higher was also true with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), where some three-digit ENS names were sold for even more than 100 ETH.

Ethereum may not necessarily be classified as a better asset after it became deflationary. Ethereum has a rich ecosystem that drives transactions on the chain, and as more Ether gets burned in the process, it causes deflation. An unused Ethereum blockchain wouldnt be able to achieve this economic feat.

The underlying chain fundamentals must remain strong for Ethereum to thrive as an investment. A chain with strong fundamentals typically has a developer ecosystem to create many applications that users widely adopt. As users flock to these applications, developers are encouraged to continue innovating.

The resulting network effect would make Ethereum deflationary, making it a more attractive investment asset.

Centralized regulatory organizations typically govern the inflation of asset prices in traditional capital markets. Is that the same in Web3? Who ensures fair play?

In the United States, the Federal Reserve (the Fed) assumes the responsibility of maintaining inflation at reasonable levels by implementing tools such as altering interest rates, bond-buying programs and money printing. This obligation is typically similar across most other nations. In Web3, inflation is controlled by the protocols monetary policy, which is determined by the community through decentralized governance.

Deflationary mechanisms are interwoven into the tokenomics while creating the ecosystem. Where tokens have an unlimited supply, as the token ecosystem matures, there would be more opportunities for burn. Therefore, the organization managing the token must proactively identify these opportunities and embed them into the tokenomics to reduce the supply.

The Ethereum Merge is a fine example of how the Ethereum supply and demand was tweaked to make it deflationary. Such significant tokenomics changes are typically proposed, approved and executed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that governs the token and the platform behind it.

These tokenomics changes are then embedded into smart contracts as the rules of the ecosystem. Smart contracts drive the new business rules and the economic model of the ecosystem. As a result, DAOs could play a significant role in ensuring efficient and effective governance of the tokens.

Since decentralization is one of the tenets of the blockchain world, an economic system not controlled by the founding teams, investors, venture capitalists and whales is crucial to delivering sustainable tokenomics based on sound business models.

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Ethereum as a deflationary asset, explained - Cointelegraph

The deceitful world of online betting and gambling has long discredited itself. In addition to unfavorable conditions for players, gaming platforms and bookmakers do not hesitate to simply appropriate user funds. Lets take a look at how blockchain technology solves these issues through the example of CryptoCubes.

If we take a list of the drawbacks of the classic gambling and betting sector and put it next to a list of problems that blockchain solves thanks to its properties, we will see a 100% intersection. Its as if Satoshi Nakamoto lost his house, car, and beloved cat in a casino and decided to put an end to injustice by creating Bitcoin and starting a trend toward decentralization.

To avoid being just words, lets take a closer look at the drawbacks of betting and gambling that blockchain eliminates. As an example, lets consider the Play-to-Earn project, CryptoCubes.

CryptoCubes is a P2E project with elements of betting built on the Tron blockchain. The projects goal is to build a truly transparent game with simple rules and equal conditions for each participant. At the same time, the platform positions itself as a social game where participants can bluff, manipulate, and use their strategies to win.

The main achievement of the platform is that it provides players with the opportunity to compete with each other instead of thinking, Will the project team cheat me? Thanks to the properties of the blockchain, the need for trust disappears. But what are these properties? Lets take a closer look.

The main ideas of blockchain are decentralization, privacy, and transparency. Each of these properties helps to solve many problems in the gambling industry.

Decentralization speaks for itself: no control center makes decisions without taking into account the opinions of other network participants. By introducing this property into betting and gambling, blockchain makes life easier for players: there is no need to fear unwarranted account blocking, freezing of accounts, or other sanctions by the platform.

Privacy is another property of blockchain-based projects. Players do not need to disclose personal information or confirm their identity by providing documents to participate in the game. For example, to participate in the game on the CryptoCubes platform, a user only needs a cryptocurrency wallet. This could be TronWallet or Ledger.

Transparency is catastrophically lacking in Web 2.0 gambling games. In games built on the blockchain, the situation is the opposite. All transactions and actions performed during the game are recorded in the blockchain and remain there forever. No one can change or delete them. Thanks to thousands of nodes verifying transactions, any attempts to add false data will be noticed and removed, and validators who tried to add them will be blocked.

All of the above is a game changer and takes away from traditional gaming platform holders the tools of manipulation. It will no longer be possible to rig the slot machine, close access to the site during the game, or block the account of a lucky winner. The only thing that keeps centralized gambling afloat is the lack of understanding of blockchain technology and the fear of the new among many people.

There are many drawbacks to the WEB 2.0 gambling segment. They mostly play into the hands of dishonest founders of gaming platforms and take away practically all chances of winning for players. But thanks to the implementation of blockchain in the betting and gambling segments, the gambling industry has a chance to rid itself of the SCAM label. After all, become a transparent and fair entertainment class that gives equal chances to every player.

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Betting on the Tron blockchain led by CryptoCubes - Crypto Reporter

When the stock market faces turbulence, investors often look to an alternative haven for their capital - GoldContinuous Contract (Comex:GCW00).

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Its reputation as a reliable asset has solidified its role in times of economic instability. Investors flock to this precious metal due to its ability to remain or even appreciate during periods of unpredictability.

For years, Gold has been considered a reliable store of wealth in uncertain times.

However, with the rise of digital assets like Bitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) and other cryptocurrencies to prominence over recent months - especially amidst increased concern about banks on unsteady ground such as Silicon Valley Bank(NASDAQ:SIVB) - many investors are beginning to look towards cryptocurrency markets for greater security when safeguarding their financial future.

Gold and cryptocurrencies represent two distinct asset types, one physical and the other digital.

Bitcoin holds a special place in cryptocurrency history as it was first released back in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto with no need for central banking intermediaries during transactions.

This led to the launch of the worlds initial cryptocurrency exchange platform shortly after allowing people around the globe to trade virtual currencies such as Bitcoin.

Investments in these secure havens exhibit varying performances on the charts, adding a layer of intrigue to their financial landscape.

During the decade between 2001 and 2011, Gold experienced an impressive 630% growth in value - from $250 to its historical peak of over $1,900.

Since then it has endured a long consolidation period where price fluctuations were minor. However, this stability ensured that their investment was preserved against any decreased valuation risk for investors.

Surprisingly, the current value of Gold has surpassed its highest peak from 11 years ago by a mere 2.60%. This may not be the most lucrative option for investors seeking substantial capital growth.

In a remarkable divergence between asset classes, Bitcoin has skyrocketed by an astounding 584,917% over the past 11 years, leaving traditional investments in the dust.

Despite a 59% plunge from its all-time high, Bitcoin has witnessed an impressive 42% rise in March following the collapse of various banks. Gold has also experienced a 9% ascent during the same period.

Meanwhile, the stock market seems to be facing a downward trajectory, with the Dow Jones dropping 3%. The financial landscape displays an intriguing interplay between these diverse investment options.

While Bitcoin tends to ride a rollercoaster of fluctuation, its track record showcases its impressive capacity for accelerated and substantial growth.

Gold is a steady asset that provides reliable security and peace of mind. Over an extended period, this precious metal has demonstrated consistent growth, proving it to be a dependable safe haven when you need reassurance the most.

After the closing bell on Friday, March 17, Gold closed at $1988.50, trading up by 3.49%. Bitcoin closed at $28054.00, trading up 3.96%.

2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Gold Vs. Bitcoin: Delving Into Diverse Investment Strategies For Weathering Turbulent Market Conditions A - Benzinga