Written by chaintalk.tv
https://preview.redd.it/v238540taz751.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a852e171a74e49da802d7c12fadba452cf4cf43
We recently had the opportunity to interview the VP of ViaBTC Group, Eddie Jiang. ViaBTC Group owns popular crypto exchange CoinEx and ViaBTC Pool. In this interview Eddie discusses being the first exchange to use BCH as the base currency, ViaBTC Pool and integrating with CoinEx, new features and ambassador program, and competing with other exchanges like Binance and Huobi. Please enjoy the interview below.
How come you decided to open up CoinEx to other cryptos other than just BCH?
Eddie Jiang: CoinEx is the world’s first exchange to implement Bitcoin Cash as a base currency. At that time, it was evident that there was a demand for BCH trading markets, and we are the first to explore this opportunity. It also shows our determination to support the BCH’s development.
As CoinEx is developing, our goal becomes bigger and we are aiming at the global market. We need to constantly improve our product diversification to meet the different needs of more users, so we open up to other cryptos. In the past six months, we have listed more than 50 new tokens. Up to now, we have listed 129 cryptos and 313 markets. Besides, in addition to spot trading, CoinEx also supports perpetual contract and other derivatives trading.
How does CoinEx integrate with the ViaBTC Pool?
Eddie Jiang: ViaBTC Group announced a strategic upgrade, which included a new organizational structure, product innovations and service improvements, on 30 May.
As part of the change, the Group has established three dedicated business units (BU): the financial services BU, consisting of ViaBTC mining pool and CoinEx exchange; the infrastructure services BU, including ViaWallet and Blockchain Explorer; and the ecological development BU, focusing on the research and development of public chain technology and the construction of the ecology.
After halving, the combination of mining and finance will become closer and closer. Investing in mining machines is like buying a Bitcoin option. Miners need more flexible financial products to maintain and increase the value of assets, or hedging services. Based on this judgment, the operations of ViaBTC mining pool and CoinEx exchange will be integrated in the future to realize the financial empowerment of the mining pool to meet the diverse financial needs of miners.
Features of this integrated product upgrade can be summarized as: “ The mining pool is the wallet, and the wallet is the transaction.” ViaBTC is the world first mining pool that has a wallet embedded in the mining pool account. Users do not need to transfer the mined coins, and can realize the function of coin exchange within the wallet. For example, they can directly convert the mined coins into USDT to pay electricity bill. What’s more, users can store, deposit and withdraw their revenue, and transfer assets to CoinEx at any time without charge, as well as complete other operations on the exchange, such as purchasing wealth management products for asset preservation and appreciation. In addition, we also provide hedging services. All of the above functions can be completed in one stop in the mining pool, without the need to transfer assets between different platforms.
The exchange empowers the mining pool, and the mining pool will further bring more traffic and resources to the exchange. The two complement each other and development coordinately.
CoinEx has recently added many new features. Can you talk about what new updates were made to the platform and why you made them?
Eddie Jiang: We have always attached great importance to the development of overseas markets since our establishment, and one of our major goals this year is to cover at least 10 different languages speaking markets.
To realize this and to meet the needs of more users worldwide, CoinEx has been continuously optimizing and upgrading its operating strategies, products and services. Our product diversifications are constantly improving. As I said before, we have launched leverage trading, perpetual contract trading, and wealth management products in addition to just spot trading. However, we don’t ignore the importance of spot trading. More mainstream, popular, and high-quality tokens have been listed, and up to now, there are 129 tokens and 313 trading pairs on CoinEx.
During the epidemic, we have never slowed down our development. Lacking of the OTC service has always been a shortage for CoinEx. In March, we partner with Simplex to integrate the first fiat onramp to our platform. People now can buy crypto with their credit cards, which lowers the threshold for more people to enter the crypto world. Moreover, we announced global strategic partnership with Matrixport to provide people with large amount of fiat to crypto needs the OTC service. These newly launched services also help to attract more users.
At the same time, CoinEx has been launched in Arabic, Italian, English, Japanese, Russian, Korean and other 16 languages. Earlier we also carried out product upgrades, making the UI and function sections clearer.
In terms of operations, we launched an upgraded CoinEx Ambassador program in March. To best utilize each ambassador’s personal strengths, there are four categories of CoinEx Ambassador with different responsibilities, namely Referral Ambassador, Marketing Ambassador, Operation Ambassador, and Business Ambassador, which will expand our brand’s exposure and help CoinEx grow into a more international exchange platform.
From March until now CoinEx has seen a 100% increase in user registrations. Why is that and are you able to see where they are coming from?
Eddie Jiang: Because of the efforts mentioned above, in 2020, we’ve seen an exponential increase in activity in just the past few months alone. In this year alone, CoinEx’s daily registered users increased by 100%. These new users mainly come from markets such as the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and more.
Interestingly, we saw an uptick in traffic from the Middle East in March. User growth in Southeast Asia also picked up significantly, newly registered users increased by 133.6% in April.
With Binance, BitMex, Huobi, Bybit, and Deribit, controlling most of the crypto futures and options markets, where do you see CoinEx fitting in? How do you plan to capture market share from these large exchanges?
Eddie Jiang: We won’t compete with others. We focus on ourselves to improve products and our goal is to be better than yesterday.
Our pace is solid and steady, instead of focusing on temporary heat and flow. We have always attached great importance of spot trading, and we are committed to be responsible for users’ investment. We have set up CoinEx Institution, which is dedicated on project research. A listing committee consist of core team members review and vote on projects recommended by the CoinEx Institution. In this way, fraud projects are avoided as much as possible.
Besides, we will focus on niche areas with great potential. For example, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. CoinEx can serve users in those countries well by providing a platform with rich cryptos to trade, and will pay more efforts on refined operations in different countries.
Moreover, CoinEx has a very complete ecosystem. Financial services, infrastructure, and ecological development, the three business units complement each other. The infrastructure BU is our cornerstone and is positioned as a defensive product; the financial service BU is a cash cow and is positioned as an aggressive product; the ecological development BU focuses on the public chain ecology and is the future infrastructure.
What is the geographical breakdown of the CoinEx userbase?
Eddie Jiang: The current proportion of CoinEx’s overseas users has reached 80% of the total registered users, and mainly in Australia, Southeast Asia, North America, Middle East and South Korea.
Do you have plans to focus on any certain jurisdictions? How will you do that?
Eddie Jiang: When we evaluate regions, two things matter: policy and potential.
Whether an exchange’s business expansion in a region is smooth or not largely depends on the region’s policies. If the region is not very friendly towards cryptocurrency or has repeated attitudes, there will be more difficulties and the cost will be much higher.
For a region’s development potential, we need to think about the demand and market development status. South Korea, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other regions are all areas with good potential for cryptocurrency development. Compared with Europe and America, policy risks in these countries are lower, and the supervision mechanism is relatively complete. The public has a high degree of awareness of cryptocurrencies. Besides, some regions or countries have inflation problems due to political and economic reasons.
CoinEx will continue to focus on the Middle East and South Asia, which are relatively niche. India has just lifted ban on cryptocurrency trading this year, and there are many cryptocurrency investors in Indian. CoinEx can serve them well by providing a platform with rich cryptos to trade. More people in the Middle East are interested cryptos, especially in countries that are subject to economic sanctions or high inflation. For those people, cryptocurrencies are one of the best choices for asset preservation.
Since the CoinEx Ambassador program launched in March, it has been almost three months. We are conducting the second round of ambassador recruitment. This time, we will use the power of ambassadors to expand our recruitment coverage and strive to attract more crypto enthusiasts from all over the world to grow together with CoinEx. Moreover, we will launch the National Expansion plan and leverage on the CoinEx and ViaBTC mining pool resources, to further explore the Russian market. At the market level, we will make more PR efforts in local markets, and start refined operations.
What is CoinEx Chain and CoinEx DEX?
Eddie Jiang: CoinEx Chain is a public chain built on the Tendermint consensus protocol and the Cosmos SDK. It consists of three dedicated public chains parallel to each other. Among these three chains, CoinEx DEX meets the most basic needs of DeFi for token issuance, transfer, and transactions. The Smart Chain is designed to meet the needs of complex financial scenarios and delivers programmable cash. The Privacy Chain facilitates privacy and security.
On November 11, 2019, we took the lead in launching the Mainnet of CoinEx DEX. CoinEx DEX is the world’s first public chain dedicated to decentralized transactions. Users can easily manage their digital assets on it.
CoinEx DEX can fully satisfy the following conditions: users have private keys at their own disposal; transfers and transactions are all completed on-chain, which is 200% transparent and checkable; the issuance, transfer, and transaction of tokens do not require review or permission; the community governance and operation is decentralized, similar to EOS, and validators are introduced to the community ecosystem construction and governance. There are currently 41 validators.
It also has extreme performance. TPS reaches as high as 10,000 and transactions are confirmed within seconds. The transaction fee, 0.0001 US dollars for each transaction, is negligible.
Third, it’s simple and easy to use. The new operation interface design helps beginners get started quickly; with the one-click token issuing module, users only need to fill in a few items to issue tokens; the built-in automated market-making module guarantees liquidity.
How will CoinEx DEX improve the decentralized exchange space that has been unable to gain much adoption?
Eddie Jiang: There are many challenges and difficulties facing centralized exchanges. The first difficulty is security. Security is a huge concern for CEXs. Over the last 10 years, hackers have stolen more than $1.5 billion from centralized exchanges. In fact, research groups estimate that hackers stole somewhere between $950 Million and $1 Billion from centralized exchanges in 2018 alone. There were also incidents of coin thefts in other exchanges in 2019. Many exchanges, such as Mt. Gox, Youbit, were forced to file for bankruptcy and shut down as a result of hacks.
The second is high management costs. Centralized exchanges need to list a large number of cryptocurrencies and each of them have different trading pairs. That entails huge efforts in development and maintenance and, thus, high management costs.
The last is global policies. Cryptocurrency is faced with different regulatory policies in different countries. Every time a centralized exchange enters a country, it needs to adapt itself to local regulatory policies for compliance. This is a holdback for the exchange’s rapid market expansion globally. Such adaptation will also bring a huge learning cost for the exchange team.
Obviously, these problems can be well solved by DEX. CoinEx DEX is a true DEX with full open source and full community governance, as well as without depending on official nodes, websites, wallets, etc. On DEX, users are able to in charge of their own private keys and assets all by themselves. Their assets are more safe and secure. Transfers and transactions are all completed on-chain, which is 200% transparent and checkable; and the issuance, transfer, and transaction of tokens do not require review or permission. What’s more, CoinEx DEX provides a great and convenient user experience.
How will CoinEx Chain and DEX help the crypto industry as a whole?
Eddie Jiang: The public chain is the cornerstone of the blockchain industry. CoinEx Chain has the parallelism of multiple dedicated public chains, each of which performs its own functions, by cross-chaining for both high performance and flexibility.
CoinEx Chain is committed to building the next generation of blockchain financial infrastructure. It is a more complete ecosystem built around the DEX public chain. The DEX public chain is a dedicated public chain developed specifically for token issuance and trading and the biggest improvement on trading speed, so it only supports the necessary functions, not smart contracts.
But smart contracts are the foundation for building more complex financial applications. Outside the DEX public chain, CoinEx Chain also includes a Smart Chain that supports smart contracts.
Moreover, as privacy issues on the current blockchain have been criticized, it is one of the core tasks of CoinEx Chain to safeguard users’ privacy. Similar to the Smart Chain, the Privacy Chain specifically supports transaction privacy protection. With cross-chain circulation, it can improve the privacy characteristic of the entire CoinEx Chain ecosystem.
Nowadays, 1.7 million people in the world have no bank accounts; however, among them, two thirds are smartphone users with huge demands for financial services. The public chain will empower DeFi applications’ development and popularization, not only help more companies to seize the huge market opportunity, but also to bring lasting transformations and improvements in people’s lives.
With so many crypto exchanges, what is the future outlook of CoinEx when it comes to the crypto exchange space?
Eddie Jiang: It has been nearly 3 years since CoinEx has been launched, but it’s quite young for an entrepreneurial team. We have seen too many projects’ failures due to governance issues. CoinEx has a very elite team with high technical and management capabilities. In terms of business, CoinEx has gradually developed with diversified business and a complete ecosystem. It’s clear that the market will still grow very fast in the future, and the market size is still very large. We will continue to improve our products, put more efforts in marketing and operations, as well as look for more high-quality projects, to increase the number of users and transactions on the platform. Lay a solid foundation, and I’m sure the time will come for us to shine.
What updates is the CoinEx team most excited for?
Eddie Jiang: We are very excited about the National Expansion Plan which will be launched later this year. It is an important part in CoinEx’s globalization strategy. We will actively explore some new markets while consolidate the original ones. CoinEx will set aside 10 million US dollars to set up a “Pioneer Fund” to support this plan. This fund will be used to support local cryptocurrency projects and promote the development of the local cryptocurrency communities through investment or cooperation. Our goal this year is to invest in projects and communities that are conducive to expanding the CoinEx ecosystem in countries with high development potential.
Original article
Click HERE to register on CoinEx

Until one understands the basics of this tech, they won’t be able to grasp or appreciate the impact it has on our digital bank, Genesis Block.
https://reddit.com/link/ho4bif/video/n0euarkifu951/player
This is the second post of Crypto-Powered — a new series that examines what it means for Genesis Block to be a digital bank that’s powered by crypto, blockchain, and decentralized protocols.
---
Our previous post set the stage for this series. We discussed the state of consumer finance and how the success of today’s high-flying fintech unicorns will be short-lived as long as they’re building on legacy finance — a weak foundation that is ripe for massive disruption.
Instead, the future of consumer finance belongs to those who are deeply familiar with blockchain tech & decentralized protocols, build on it as the foundation, and know how to take it to the world. Like Genesis Block.
Today we begin our journey down the crypto rabbit hole. This post will be an important introduction for those still learning about Bitcoin, Ethereum, or DeFi (Decentralized Finance). This post (and the next few) will go into greater detail about how this technology gives Genesis Block an edge, a superpower, and an unfair advantage. Let’s dive in…
https://preview.redd.it/1ugdxoqjfu951.jpg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=36edde1079c3cff5f6b15b8cd30e6c436626d5d8

Bitcoin: The First Cryptocurrency

There are plenty of online resources to learn about Bitcoin (Coinbase, Binance, Gemini, Naval, Alex Gladstein, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon). I don’t wanna spend a lot of time on that here, but let’s do a quick overview for those still getting ramped up.
Cryptocurrency is the most popular use-case of blockchain technology today. And Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be invented.

Bitcoin is the most decentralized of all crypto assets today — no government, company, or third party can control or censor it.

Bitcoin has two primary features (as do most other cryptocurrencies):

1. Send Value You can send value to anyone, anywhere in the world. Nobody can intercept, delay or stop it — not even governments or financial institutions. Unlike with traditional money transfers or bank wires, there are no layers of middlemen. This results in a process that is much more cost-efficient. Some popular use-cases include remittances and cross-border payments.
2. Store Value With nothing but a smartphone, you can become your own bank and store your own funds. Nobody can seize your assets. The funds are digital and stored on a blockchain. Your money no longer needs to be stored at a bank, in a vault, or under your mattress. I covered a few inspiring use-cases in a previous post. They include banking the unbanked, protecting assets from government seizure, mitigating the risk of a bank run, and protection against hyperinflation (like what recently happened in Venezuela).

The fact that there are so few things one can do with Bitcoin is one of its greatest strengths.

Its design is simple, elegant, and focused. It has been 10+ years since Satoshi’s white paper and no one has been able to crack or hack the Bitcoin network. With a market cap of $170B, there is plenty of incentive to try.
https://preview.redd.it/bizndfpkfu951.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=456c53b798248e60456a65835a33c69b2fe8daf0

Public Awareness

A few negative moments in Bitcoin’s history include the collapse of Mt. Gox — which resulted in hundreds of millions of customer funds being stolen — as well as Bitcoin’s role in dark markets like Silk Road — where Bitcoin arguably found its initial userbase.
However, like most breakthrough technology, Bitcoin is neither good nor bad. It’s neutral. People can use it for good or they can use it for evil. Thankfully, it’s being used less and less for illicit activity. Criminals are starting to understand that transactions on a blockchain are public and traceable — it’s exactly the type of system they usually try to avoid. And it’s true, at this point “a lot more” crimes are actually committed with fiat than crypto.
As a result, the perception of bitcoin and cryptocurrency has been changing over the years to a more positive light.
Bitcoin has even started to enter the world of media & entertainment. It’s been mentioned in Hollywood films like Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse and in songs from major artists like Eminem. It’s been mentioned in countless TV shows like Billions, The Simpsons, Big Bang Theory, Gray’s Anatomy, Family Guy, and more.
As covid19 has ravaged economies and central banks have been printing money, Bitcoin has caught the attention of many legendary Wall Street investors like Paul Tudor Jones, saying that Bitcoin is a great bet against inflation (reminding him of Gold in the 1970s).
Cash App already lets their 25M users buy Bitcoin. It’s rumored that PayPal and Venmo will soon let their 325M users start buying Bitcoin. Bitcoin is by far the most dominant cryptocurrency and is showing no signs of slowing down. For more than a decade it has delivered on its core use-cases — being able to send or store value.

At this point, Bitcoin has very much entered the zeitgeist of modern pop culture — at least in the West.

https://preview.redd.it/dnuwbw8mfu951.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f1f135e3effee4574b5167901b80ced2c972bda

Ethereum: Programmable Money

When Ethereum launched in 2015, it opened up a world of new possibilities and use-cases for crypto. With Ethereum Smart Contracts (i.e. applications), this exciting new digital money (cryptocurrency) became a lot less dumb. Developers could now build applications that go beyond the simple use-cases of “send value” & “store value.” They could program cryptocurrency to have rules, behavior, and logic to respond to different inputs. And always enforced by code. Additional reading on Ethereum from Linda Xie or Vitalik Buterin.

Because these applications are built on blockchain technology (Ethereum), they preserve many of the same characteristics as Bitcoin: no one can stop, censor or shut down these apps because they are decentralized.

One of the first major use-cases on Ethereum was the ability to mint and create your own token, your own cryptocurrency. Many companies used this as a way to fundraise from the public. This led to the 2017 ICO bubble (Initial Coin Offerings). Some tokens — and the apps/networks they powered — were fascinating and innovative. Most tokens were pointless. And many tokens were outright scams. Additional token reading from Fred Ehrsam, Balaji, and Naval.
https://reddit.com/link/ho4bif/video/b5b1jh9ofu951/player

Digital Gold Rush

Just as tokens grew in popularity in 2017–2018, so did online marketplaces where these tokens could be bought, sold, and traded. This was a fledgling asset class — the merchants selling picks, axes, and shovels were finally starting to emerge.

I had a front-row seat — both as an investor and token creator. This was the Wild West with all the frontier drama & scandal that you’d expect.

Binance — now the world’s largest crypto exchange —was launched during this time. They along with many others (especially from Asia) made it really easy for speculators, traders, and degenerate gamblers to participate in these markets. Similar to other financial markets, the goal was straightforward: buy low and sell high.
https://preview.redd.it/tytsu5jnfu951.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe3425b7e4a71fa953b953f0c7f6eaff6504a0d1
That period left an embarrassing stain on our industry that we’ve still been trying to recover from. It was a period rampant with market manipulation, pump-and-dumps, and scams. To some extent, the crypto industry still suffers from that today, but it’s nothing compared to what it was then.

While the potential of getting filthy rich brought a lot of fly-by-nighters and charlatans into the industry, it also brought a lot of innovators, entrepreneurs, and builders.

The launch and growth of Ethereum has been an incredible technological breakthrough. As with past tech breakthroughs, it has led to a wave of innovation, experimentation, and development. The creativity around tokens, smart contracts, and decentralized applications has been fascinating to witness. Now a few years later, the fruits of those labors are starting to be realized.

DeFi: Decentralized Finance

So as a reminder, tokens are cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies can carry value. And value is a lot like money. Because tokens are natively integrated with Ethereum, it’s been natural for developers to build applications related to financial services — things like lending, borrowing, saving, investing, payments, and insurance. In the last few years, there has been a groundswell of developer momentum building in this area of financial protocols. This segment of the industry is known as DeFi (Decentralized Finance).
https://preview.redd.it/f0sjzqspfu951.png?width=461&format=png&auto=webp&s=8e0a31bf29250fc624918fbd8514b008762f379e
In Q2 of 2020, 97% of all Ethereum activity was DeFi-related. Total DeFi transaction volume has reached $11.5B. The current value locked inside DeFi protocols is approaching $2 Billion (double from a month ago). DeFi’s meteoric growth cannot be ignored.
Most of that growth can be attributed to exciting protocols like Compound, Maker, Synthetix, Balancer, Aave, dYdX, and Uniswap. These DeFi protocols and the financial services they offer are quickly becoming some of the most popular use-cases for blockchain technology today.
https://preview.redd.it/wn3phnkqfu951.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=02f56caa6b94aa59eadd6e368ef9346ba10c7611
This impressive growth in DeFi certainly hasn’t come without growing pains. Unlike with Bitcoin, there are near-infinite applications one can develop on Ethereum. Sometimes bugs (or typos) can slip through code reviews, testing, and audits — resulting in loss of funds.
Our next post will go much deeper on DeFi.

Wrap Up

I know that for the hardcore crypto people, what we covered today is nothing new. But for those who are still getting up to speed, welcome! I hope this was helpful and that it fuels your interest to learn more.
Until you understand the basics of this technology, you won’t be able to fully appreciate the impact that it has on our new digital bank, Genesis Block. You won’t be able to understand the implications, how it relates, or how it helps.
After today’s post, some of you probably have a lot more questions. What are specific examples or use-cases of DeFi? Why does it need to be on a blockchain? What benefits does it bring to Genesis Block and our users?
In upcoming posts, we answer these questions. Today’s post was just Level 1. It set the foundation for where we’re headed next: even deeper down the crypto rabbit hole.
---
Other Ways to Consume Today's Episode:

• Read on Medium: https://medium.com/genesisblock/crypto-powered-understanding-bitcoin-ethereum-and-defi-f1433487eaff
• Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pTDdI0Jkqw4
• Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/genesisblock/9-crypto-powered-understanding-bitcoin-ethereum-and-defi
• Listen via Podcast (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc): https://anchor.fm/genesis-block/episodes/9-Crypto-Powered---Understanding-Bitcoin--Ethereum--and-DeFi-eggfjs

We have a lot more content coming. Be sure to follow our channels: https://genesisblock.com/follow/
Have you already downloaded the app? We're Genesis Block, a new digital bank that's powered by crypto & decentralized protocols. The app is live in the App Store (iOS & Android). Get the link to download at https://genesisblock.com/download

​

Cryptocurrencies became widely popular in 2017, which prompted developers to create useful services that help newcomers get used to the crypto market and facilitate cryptocurrency trading. Here is a list of 7 useful services for novice crypto traders.

Trade-mate.io

Automated trading service. The service allows you to trade cryptocurrencies on different exchanges via API in one convenient cabinet. Binance, BitMEX and Poloniex exchanges are currently available. The following features are available to users::

• Smart Trade that supports trailing mechanisms. This function allows you to set trailing take-profits and stop-losses at the same time.
• Autotrade - this function is used for copying trades of other traders and trading bots.
• Panic sell button, which is used to quickly close all positions at the current market price.

Trade-Mate.ioallows you to track the dynamics of your cryptocurrency portfolio and displays detailed statistics on it.

Tradingview

The largest service that provides charts for large crypto exchanges and allows you to track the dynamics of cryptocurrency rates on multiple exchanges. TV charts contain a wide range of trading tools and settings for analyzing the crypto market.
On the site you can find a large number of forecasts for the crypto market, Analytics, expert advice, information on technical indicators, and more.

Bitcointalk

The largest forum about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. It publishes up-to-date information on cryptocurrency services, exchanges, as well as announcements and reviews of recent projects that are released before they appear in the media.

Coindar

The service is a crypto calendar that provides an up-to-date list of events for all liquid cryptocurrencies. The list can be filtered by various parameters and cryptocurrencies. Coindar provides graphs that mark events, which allows you to analyze their impact on cryptocurrency prices.

CoinMarketCap

A service that displays the dynamics of the crypto market. The site provides information about the capitalization, the level of bitcoin dominance, trading volumes on the markets and price changes for different periods.
It is recommended to trade only those coins that are in the CMC list. Other coins are not of interest to traders and it is best to avoid them.

ICOBench

A large service that provides a list of popular ICO projects. The site provides an expert rating of the project and an analysis of its work, which allows you to track new promising cryptocurrencies that will soon enter the market, and buy them at a low price.

Forklog

A popular cryptocurrency news aggregator. The site constantly publishes current news of the cryptosphere, as well as a calendar with events, forecasts and training materials for beginners.

​
https://preview.redd.it/xsxciyismja41.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=e78fb4973fcfd6f5bf0b86a79b7f549540389c66
Classic exchange quotes show the relationship between assets and currencies, so it is convenient to determine the dynamics of their value. But with the advent of cryptocurrencies, crosses have appeared, which makes it possible to revise trading strategies and hedge risks when trading digital money.

What is cryptocurrency crosses

Cryptocurrency crosses are trading pairs that do not include the US dollar, and allow you to determine the value of altcoins relative to the value of bitcoin. With the help of crosses, you can find out which cryptocurrency dominates the pair.
Cryptocrosses display a correlation between cryptocurrency rates, showing how much one cryptocurrency is dependent on another. If the correlation is strong, currencies in the pair will mostly be interconnected. Bitcoin is the main indicator for the crypto market. Its growth can cause both the growth of altcoins and their fall, depending on the situation. The level of dominance of the main cryptocurrency also plays an important role.
With a positive correlation, volatility will be minimal, and with a negative correlation, if one cryptocurrency falls, the other will grow. This allows you to diversify risks. On the crypto market we sometimes see the phenomenon known as “altcoins season” . During this period, altcoins grow in price, and the bitcoin exchange rate falls, is flat, or grows slightly. With the help of crosses, you can quickly convert BTC to altcoins to increase positions.
​
https://preview.redd.it/vsvtiy8vmja41.png?width=664&format=png&auto=webp&s=52eb74ecaf06a9da69dd7cabf2502a66ec626873
The correlation level can be determined using the TV graph integrated into the Trade-mate.io service. With the help of the service, you can analyze and trade cryptocurrencies on three major exchanges at once: Binance, BitMEX and Poloniex. The correlation coefficient indicator is used to assess the degree of correlation. The intersection with the zero level gives signals to buy and sell cryptocurrency in the cross.

Summary

Fundamental factors should be considered in the analysis. Some news influence the entire crypto market, and some are related to specific cryptocurrencies. A sharp fall in bitcoin almost always provokes the collapse of altcoins. Usually, altcoins fall sharper because of lower liquidity.

Sup Guys! Here’s another detailed update for the week that was at Parachute (15-21 Mar’19):
​
We reached 1000 members in ParJar this week! This called for a celebration Parena. And games master Jason answered the call with a battlefest like never before. Alexis beat FwBastille in a long and bloody finale to take home a big chunk from the 300k PAR pot. March Madness is now live! Hope you made good picks. Brackets are locked and now visible. 475k PAR is on the table. If you want to watch the tourney, stream here. Parachute + aXpire hosted DoTA 2 competition is still open for entries. 1.25M PAR + 10k AXPR on the line. Get in! Click here for more details. The teams will play on 6th April 8 PM EST. Did you make your entry for the charity Parena yet? It will be held on 14 April and is a buy-in Parena. Make a minimum 5 USD donation to Clinton’s charity either through ParJar (tip Clinton) or directly (share proof with Jason) and stand a chance to win a unique t-shirt.
Alexis’ Shrike’s journey to victory in the 1k celebration Parena
aXpire has officially entered the prestigious list of tokens (“The Pool”) that will be voted on for listing on Ethfinex (voting starts on 2nd April). aXpire calls on the Parachute community to help them get over the final hurdle. You’ll need EVTs (Ethfinex Voting Tokens) to vote for aXpire. Check out this article on how to get EVT. aXpire will rebate the community for their ETH spent on EVT voted. Make sure to submit details of your EVT purchase and vote to get the rebate. Also, there's an additional draw for a chance to win 1000 USD in AXPR for voters. Details here. Let’s do this folks! Let’s get on Ethfinex! In more aXpire news, 10k more AXPR was burnt as part of the weekly burn event. Still figuring out, how to use MatchBX to find work? Have a look at this cool infographic to get your questions answered. aXpire was listed on Blockfolio signals this week. All Blockfolio users who track AXPR or have it added to their portfolio will now get updates from the team through push notifications. At aXpire, the team strives to make a positive dent on the world. Here’s their positive dent for this week: Visiting SOS Children’s Villages in India. Pictures from the event coming soon!
The Pool. Get voting, folks!
This has been the biggest week at 2gether yet! Let’s see if I can cover it all in one paragraph. 2gether took part in a pitching contest at CryptoMondays Madrid for tickets to Paris Blockchain Week and won! The winner was determined by the audience. Here’s a few pics from the event. 2gether’s Eurozone expansion beyond Spain was featured on Coindesk and shared by FinTech Futures. Crypto Zombie also featured the card in his video around the 19:27 mark. Some more notable features were on Bitcoin.com and BlockTV. The presale ANN also went up this week! Get in on the discussion. A good question or thoughtful post on BCT can earn you some sweet 2GB from their admins on TG. Did you know that participating in the presale could entitle you to some great bonuses? Check them out here. 2gether CEO Ramon was interviewed by Forbes radio a few weeks back. The interview is out now. Spanish speakers, have a listen. Plus, 2gether is launching an ambassador program for its most loyal users in Eurozone. If you’re interested, fill out this form and the team will connect to you. Whew! All fitted in one paragraph. Done.
A bank so efficient that it returns revenue to customers. Only at 2gether!
Like always, Fantom has been killing it! Chico Crypto reviewed Fantom in a 10 minute long video explaining its DAG structure. Look out for the lambo at 8:29 mark. Crypto Surge’s review of Fantom came out this week as well. Fantom joined Binance Info’s transparency initiative for which they received the V-Label. This label certifies that the project team is itself updating and maintaining its information on Binance Info. Transparency FTW! Fantom CEO Dr. Ahn presented at the WeGO Activities Briefing Session to municipal representatives from member cities of WeGO. He explained how Fantom could help development of smart cities in his presentation. Crypto researcher Jonathan Habicht published a review report of FTM. They scored 55/76. Pretty awesome! Axsonex’s project report on Fantom was also released. Here’s their tweet on it. And finally, Fantom was listed on Digifinex on the 19th. What a way to cap off the week!
Confused? Check out Chico Crypto’s Fantom Review to learn more
All XENB holders received the XEN profit sharing token this week. XENB is obsolete now that we all have our XEN. Woot! Trading gurus, get ready for the battle of the bots competition on 6th and 7th April. Top trading algos will make a ton of XEN plus some fiat (to buy more XEN. Haha). You can read about details of the competition here. Plus, there’s an ongoing bug bounty program to make even more XEN. Dean Papas from ETC Labs explained these giveaways in his Explore the Chain video at 1:46 mark. Keith Koo from the radio show 'Silicon Valley Insider' interviewed Shuvro and Brian on how the Cryzen platform functions. Check out the podcast here.
Can you spot Shuvro & Brian in this pic with Vijay Ullal, Seabed VC, addressing the ETC Labs cohort?
Now onto some news from our newest partners! Blockport enabled ETH and BPT deposits this week. Plus, a new partnership with TUSD was announced in preparation for their upcoming STO. Opacity-ParJar partnership has been rocking the show! A ton of OPQ was tipped to new members in the run up to 3k members in Opacity TG. Plus, a number of updates are listed in their March interim report: upcoming CCN interview, team changes etc. Have a read to know more. Check out District0x’s weekly update and dev report to get a lowdown on all that’s been happening over there. Here’s a few highlights: a set of new commands have been deployed in their TG to get quick info on the network and districts, tons of bugs solved in Meme Factory, District Registry development on course.
In addition to security + privacy advantages, Opacity also offers price advantage
BOMB, BPT and BNTY were listed on ETHOS this week with the latest ETHOS update. WandX founder Abhinav pushed a ton of updates this week. A number of Wanchain and AION smart contracts were deployed to mainnet. Updates to the desktop app will be in realtime so that there’s no need to download the app multiple times. The contracts have been open sourced here and here. Check out a few ways to earn on Uptrennd from this post. And did you know that Uptrennd commands a greater rate of attention than most social media giants? This post from Uptrennd founder Jeff lays it all out. Horizon State founder Nimo Naamani travelled to the ADC Global Blockchain Summit this week to talk about a range of issues from education to the future of organisations. Check out the pictures here and here. And finally, the latest Decentralized WednesdayClub (WED based social network) is in live beta now. A ton of new features have been added. Make sure to post something there and Mike will airdrop some WED (by liking your post). Read more on their weekly Reddit airdrop post.
​
And with that, it’s a wrap for this week at Parachute. See you soon with another weekly update. Keep Parachuting, keep rocking!

​

2017 was the golden era of token sales, with cryptocurrency projects routinely raising tens of millions of dollars as investors were frantically searching for “the next Bitcoin”. The market was clearly overheated, and ICOs saw a sharp decline in 2018, both in terms of the number of projects and the amount of money raised, as prices of top cryptocurrencies were subjected to harsh price corrections.
In 2019, we’ve seen the emergence of the IEO model, which has brought some life back to the token sale space. However, IEO projects generally stick to much more conservative funding targets than what we grew accustomed to in the 2017 ICO boom.
With that context in mind, let’s take a look at the 5 biggest token sales in history and briefly describe the situation of each project.

1. EOS (over $4 billion)

EOS EOS, -1.71% was the mother of all ICOs, raising over $4 billion in its year-long token sale which lasted from June 26, 2017 to June 1, 2018. The EOS mainnet launched on June 9, 2018.
EOS is a blockchain platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications that is based on a delegated proof-of-stake (DpoS) model. EOS holders stake their tokens to vote for validators, which in turn take care of the network’s consensus process.
So far, gaming and gambling are the most popular use cases for EOS, dominating the list of the most popular EOS DApps maintained by DappRadar.com. We can also find decentralized exchanges and various other DApps such as apps for chatting or receiving compensation for participating surveys.
Block.one, the firm that created the EOS.IO protocol, is currently working on a social media platform called Voice, which will function on top of EOS. In June, Block.one CEO Brandon Blumer said the company invested $150 million into the project.
EOS is currently the 7th largest crypto asset on the market, with a market capitalization of $2.65 billion. The token is changing hands at $2.85, and lost 52% of its value in the last year.

2. Telegram Open Network ($1.7 billion)

When rumors started circulating that Telegram was thinking about developing a blockchain network, the entire cryptocurrency space listend. After all, the messaging app is highly popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, with Telegram groups being at the core of many communities.
While there were many scammers claiming to give people the opportunity to participate in Telegram’s ICO, Telegram actually only offered the tokens to accredited investors on an invite-only basis. This hardly had an impact on the project’s ability to raise money, as investors poured in a whopping $1.7 billion.
The Telegram Open Network (TON) is not actually live yet, although the project is reportedly expected to go live with its mainnet before October 31. Telegram plans to integrate TON with its messaging application, which has over 200 million active users.

3. Unus Sed Leo ($1 billion)

The stunning success of Binance and its Binance Coin BNB, -3.64% token enticed countless exchanges to offer their own tokens, bringing special benefits to traders. While Bitfinex has been in the game for much longer than Binance, the exchange found itself in trouble when it could no longer access funds held on its behalf by a payment processing company called Crypto Capital. According to the New York Attorney General’s office, Bitfinex lost access to $850 million.
In response, Bitfinex decided to launch a token called Unus Sed Leo, offering 1 billion tokens at a price of 1 USDT apiece. The token sale was not open to the public, although anyone can now trade the Bitfinex Leo Token LEO, -0.54% token on supported exchanges.
The ultimate goal for the LEO token is for all the tokens in circulation to be bought back by Bitfinex and burned. Bitfinex uses at least 27% of its monthly revenues for this purpose, and also says it will use a large portion of any funds recovered from Crypto Capital or from the 2016 Bitfinex hack for the same purpose.
LEO is currently the 11th largest cryptocurrency, and retains a market cap of $1.03 billion. The token is currently trading at $1.03, but reached an all-time high at $2 on June 26.

4. TaTaTu ($575 million)

The strange name is not the only curious thing about the TaTaTu project. It was founded by Andrea Iervolino, an Italian film producer, and the company says that it raised $575 million in a 2018 sale of TTU tokens. The private sale reportedly included royalty and venture capital firms.
TaTaTu is perhaps best described as a variant of Netflix that uses the TTU token to incentivize both content producers and viewers. TTU tokens can be used to buy advertising or buy products in an online store.
However, it seems that TaTaTu does not have major plans connected to blockchain technology. As part of a CoinDesk report from June, the publication asked TaTaTu if it was a blockchain company. The firm responded:

“Not at all. We have one blockchain component in our system.”

According to the report, the project’s pivot away from blockchain has caused conflicts with the project’s early backers and co-founders, who feel that TaTaTu’s current direction does not adhere to the project’s original vision.

5. Filecoin ($257 million)

Filecoin raised $257 million through selling future rights to FIL tokens in 2017. The project is creating a decentralized network that allows users to rent out excess storage and receive tokens in return.
Despite the huge token sale, Filecoin is not live yet. However, the team has recently announced estimated dates for the launch of both the Filecoin testnet and mainnet. If everything goes according to plan, we can expect the Filecoin testnet in December of 2019 and the mainnet in March of 2020.

I know that there are some articles about that topic, but i didn't see anyone that tried to track the money:

• The Year Targeted Phishing Went Mainstream
• Sextortion Scam Uses Recipient’s Hacked Passwords
• Who’s Behind the Screencam Extortion Scam?

​
A few months ago there was a somewhat peculiar phishing campaign. The campaign of sextortion mails, in which a password of the victim was mentioned and an amount X of money was requested in exchange for not publishing a sensitive content of the same.
An example fragment of these mails can be the following:

I am well aware shitpassword is your password. Lets get right to the point. You do not know me and you're probably thinking why you're getting this mail? No-one has paid me to investigate about you.
Well, I actually setup a software on the adult streaming (pornographic material) website and you know what, you visited this site to have fun (you know what I mean). When you were viewing videos, your web browser began working as a Remote Desktop that has a key logger which provided me access to your screen and web camera. Just after that, my software gathered your complete contacts from your Messenger, social networks, as well as e-mail . And then I created a video. 1st part shows the video you were watching (you have a good taste ; )), and next part shows the view of your web camera, and its you.
You will have not one but two choices. We will read up on each of these solutions in aspects:
Very first solution is to neglect this email message. In this situation, I am going to send out your very own video to just about all of your contacts and think concerning the awkwardness you can get. And consequently should you be in an important relationship, precisely how it is going to affect?
Next alternative is to give me $5000. Let us name it as a donation. Consequently, I will straight away eliminate your video recording. You could go on your way of life like this never happened and you are never going to hear back again from me.
You'll make the payment through Bitcoin (if you do not know this, search for "how to buy bitcoin" in Google).
BTC Address to send to: 1MkB7HxxxxxqiNAiJUd7DCTEbAyVG9ab2y
[...]

​
In the emails it was requested as payment from $ 1000 up to $ 7000 in some occasions, depending on the variant of received message:

Number 2 option would be to pay me $5000. Let us regard it as a donation. In this instance, I will quickly discard your video. You can keep on your way of life like this never occurred and you surely will never hear back again from me.

​

2nd option is to pay me $1000. We are going to name it as a donation. In such a case, I will straightaway eliminate your video recording. You could go on with your daily ro utine like this never occurred and you will not ever hear back again from me.

​

Other alternative will be to give me $6000. We will regard it as a donation. Then, I most certainly will straightaway erase your video recording. You will continue on your way of life like this never occurred and you will not ever hear back again from me.

​
I was curious, so I decided to investigate this fraud a little more thoroughly. I collected about 1500 emails from people who notified that they was victims of that fraud. For that I scraped several websites in which this type of case is reported. I extracted the addresses of bitcoin and checked through the blockchain API which of them received a payment.
Of the entire sample, around 325 addresses have received a payment. This means that around 20% of the victims are paying (in the event that the pattern of the sample continues). You can get an idea of the amount of money that can be earned behind this scam.
Confirmed payments of 322 addresses involved on sextortion scam - Maltego CE
​
In total, the addresses have raised $ 176,010. If we follow the trail of transactions, we can see how the funds end up in their vast majority in the Binance hot wallet and another direction apparently associated with Poloniex.

• BINANCE: 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s
• POLONIEX: 17A16QmavnUfCW11DAApiJxp7ARnxN5pGX

​
I have also detected some intermediate addresses that have moved a lot of money, and interesting end addresses like the following:
Transaction tracking - Maltego CE
​
Another address that caught my attention for having seen it before related to cases of scams was the following:

• 392LK4ZQD3gixWg5xJRTv1a24N3YDgCbwP

This address appears related to cases of fraud, in the following articles (highly recommended) this data can be appreciated.

• Tracing a Jihadi cell, kidnappers and a scammer using the blockchain
• When in doubt, use image reverse search

Apart from these addresses, there are too many relevant addresses to detail each one in the post.
As you can see, the amount of money that moves between these addresses is overwhelming. This makes me think about the possibility that the same addresses are used to move funds from other scams.
Transaction tracking becomes quite complicated, with more than 10,000 addresses appearing in the tracking of a single payment.
Tracking a payment - Maltego CE
​
At this point, due to lack of resources and time, I think it is unfeasible for me to continue the investigation alone.
If someone wants to collaborate in the investigation or needs the data, contact me.

https://preview.redd.it/h9ozoqzqahg11.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=d753f6c38f5ca793879a635ae7cf4c577fa7b84c
Three years ago it was all about Bitcoin. There were a few so called “Alt-Coins”, variants of the core Bitcoin code, but mainly it was just Bitcoin. Ethereum was the first platform to really democratize the token. With Ethereum, any programmer (with a bit of work and a modest budget) could code up an ERC-20 token. ERC-20 tokens made an enormous splash in 2017 as a way to raise money for new projects via “Initial Coin Offerings” or ICOs. But soon, as the number of tokens started climbing, the channels for buying and selling these tokens — centralized exchanges, became a bottleneck.
Companies like Binance became the gatekeepers of this new “token economy” charging companies million of dollars just to list their coins. Getting listed on Binance became a ticket to an instant “pop”. It is what distinguished “legit coins” from “shit coins” — to use the vernacular of the crypto community.
But EOS, DEXes and better wallets are about to change this balence of power completely.
EOS, in case you were wondering, is basically the new Ethereum. It’s 100 times faster, it’s much much cheaper, and it has basic features that Ethereum lacks like account names. With EOS, once you have a contract in place, you can create a new token in about 10 seconds at a cost of about a dollar.
Now, how you say, will that coin trade? The answer is: depends on the coin. The main point is Decentralized Exchanges (DEXes) are developing that will allow these coins to be traded easily and quickly without going through a central gatekeeper. Binance itself realizes this, and is developing its own decentralized exchange.
Better wallets, like EOS Lynx (our product) will interface with these DEXes seamlessly — and handle an arbitrary number of coins, exactly like YouTube handles an arbitrary number of videos.
YouTube has taken over TV as America’s most watched platform. In the future, anybody will be able to create their own coin. No technical talent needed.
There are 1.3 Billion (with a B) videos on Youtube. Creating a coin will be easier and faster than creating an app. And there are several million of those. There will be coins for artwork, events, kickstarter campaigns, small companies — everything. There will be a billion coins.
This does not mean coins are worthless. All apps are not equal. There are useless apps in the App Stores and there are Facebook, Spotify and Instagram. But just “being a coin” will no longer be special. Airdrops will essentially be viewed as spam. You will need ways to avoid “coin pollution” in your wallets.
Most people in the crypto world don’t understand this yet. But it’s coming.