Is Venezuela’s Petro a Viable Option to Become OPEC’s Oil-backed Cryptocurrency?

Colleagues, most readers will know that Venezuela’s socialist government wants to circumvent US economic sanctions by launching its Petro (PDVSA) cryptocurrency. This move would provide the beleaguered government access to financial resources it so desperately needs. The broader issue is whether OPEC should adopt the Petro as its de facto digital currency for global crude oil transactions among both first and third world nations. Venezuela ranks a distant 6^th place behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, the UAE and Kuwait according to crude oil production data from Statista. The Cryptocurrency Academy predicts that OPEC will steer clear of “little Venice’s” Petro as reported by Prensa Latina and instead adopt an oil-back cryptocurrency sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Aramco in mid-late 2019. We also predict that a Saudi sponsored currency is likely – by design – to be far more transparent than the Petro when it comes to tracking payments and transactions. Post a comment today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)  

What is the impact of the malicious JavaScript code injection into StatCounter’s URI among cryptocurrency exchanges?

Colleagues, the world’s thirty-eight largest crypto exchange Gate.io was successfully hacked via the injection of code into StatCounter’s URI “myaccount/withdraw/BTC”. Reported by security firm ESET WeLiveSecurity indicated that although Gate.io is the only known crypto exchange effected, all of StatCounter’s some 2 million customer sites are at risk. For readers with a programming background the code was injected via the Dean Edwards JS packer in the middle of the script. We assume that economic gain is the chief motive although the ESET report did not provide corroborating details. This cyber-attack raises two questions. First, how susceptible are URIs (uniform resource identifiers) to injections via the Dean Edwards packer? And second, how many more web sites which use StatCounter – a competitor to Google Analytics – are effected? We will continue to research answers to both questions. Share a comment today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/) 

Is Bitfury in a position to challenge Bitmain for supremacy of crypto mining ASICs?

Colleagues, flush with $80m in new capital Bitfury intends to take on Bitmain, NVidia and other mining ASIC vendors with the introduction of its Clarke ASIC chip. Not to be outdone, industry-leader Bitmain is launching its Antminer S15 and T15 machines featuring a 7nm ASIC tomorrow. This battle comes in the wake of relatively flat demand for NVidia GPUs and a decline in sales by AMD. In aggregate, these developments raise a fundamental question: What is the true size (and duration) of the crypto mining market? Is the size of this market in correlation with the market cap and number of crypto tokens – mostly Bitcoins – in the global market? Alternatively, as some suggest, is crypto mining reaching a market saturation point? The Cryptocurrency Academy believes that the number of crypto tokens is far from being usurped, however, we do not see the growth rates experienced in 2016-2018 to continue … with Bitmain remain the ASIC market leader. Share your comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/) 

Will the identification and prosecution of Japan’s Zaif hackers deter future crypto exchange cybercrime?

Colleagues, last month we reported on the $60m crypto heist carried out against Japan’s Zaif exchange. Japan Digital Design has apparently identified crypto transaction clues, which they believe will lead them to the hackers of some $60m. This is good news – any developments to help reduce crypto cybercrime only strengthen the common good of the global cryptosphere. However, Zaif with its roughly $7.4m trading volume according to CoinMarketCap is at best a third tier crypto exchange and the theft of $60m is a mere blip within the $212T global cryptocurrency arena. This leads us to the obvious question: Will the capture and prosecution of the Zaif hackers have a deterrent effect on other cyber-attacks against crypto exchanges around the globe? Answer: Highly unlikely. The dramatic growth in digital asset growth during the past year have made exchanges a “top priority” target for cyber criminals. We stand by our previous guidance. Professional traders and investors should stay with tier 1 exchanges such as Biance, Huobi, OKEx, etc.  – despite their own pitfalls – which tend to offer more stringent security measures.  Post a comment today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/) 

Can Atomic Swap Technology Ensure the Security of the M-DEX Crypto Custody Mobile Exchange?

Colleagues, atomic swaps (aka atomic cross-chain trading) is the exchange of one cryptocurrency to another cryptocurrency without the need for a trusted a third-party. Sovereign Wallet intends to release M-DEX I January 2019 which is a custody-free mobile exchange enabled by the MUI trading bot. Eliminating the trusted third party has the allure of faster and lower cost cryptocurrency transactions. In turn, the MUI Token is purportedly backed by the Algorithm central bank. However, the fundamental question arises: How secure will M-DEX transactions be without the involvement of a third party custodian? Security is tantamount to the integrity and success of the global crypto ecosystem for individual traders and institutional investors alike. We believe M-DEX offers great benefits, yet also comes with notable risk. Proceed with caution until M-DEX is fully tested in a real-world environment.

Post a comment today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/) 

How will BTC.com and AntPool’s actions impact SegWit transactions?

Colleagues, a titanic battle of cryptocurrency miners is forcing the issue a crucial Blockchain hardfork vs. softfork. In the hardfork camp, Bitmain affiliates BTC.com and AntPool. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin Core camp is defending a softfork. Caught in the middle is SegWit (“Segregated Witnesses”). Apparently, BTC.com and AntPool are refusing to confirm SegWit block transactions. Bitmain favors increasing the limit of block size. A brief history lesson in Blockchain programming shows that hardforks – if not fully supported by the crypto ecosystem – can lead to divisions of the broader crypto community. Such is the case of the 2017 hardfork, which led to the split of Bitcoin into Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. This issue is playing out in real-time and the Cryptocurrency Academy will provide an update once details are confirmed. Post a comment today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/) 

Investors Take Note – Intercontinental Exchange Will List its First Bitcoin Futures Contract in December

Colleagues, the advent of the ICE Bakkt physically settled daily Bitcoin futures contract would bring cryptocurrencies to the mainstream for institutional investors. The NYSE’s parent company, ICE, decided that a futures contract rather than a security was the most efficient route to market given the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s “self-certification” process when compared to the US SEC’s stringent process for approving ETFs.  Each futures contract will be valued at one (1) Bitcoin – currently trading at $6319.09 USD held in the Bakkt Digital Asset Warehouse. While most investor attention has been focused on have cryptocurrencies categorized as “securities” (under the auspices of the US SEC), the ICE Bakkt futures scenario opens-up a new vehicle for the trade of digital assets. We anticipate similar moves by the US CBOE and its counterparts in Europe and Asia over the next 12 months. Post a comment today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)