The esports industry has become a popular culture due to increased activities from global investors, media outlets, and brands. It is estimated that by the end of 2021, there will be about 26.6 million monthly esports viewers, an 11.4% increase from figures recorded in 2020.
While these numbers seem lucrative, not all esports platforms hold up to their names. Many have ended up as scams, while a few others are still finding their way. On the other hand, some platforms do not fully appreciate the diversity between players, while others are yet to establish sound gaming systems. This is why a team of developers, led by BC Simon and Pritesh Kuchera, created MetaPlay to host E-sport tournaments for all the amateur players as if they were professionals. The platform seeks to change the e-sport experience by slowly tackling issues within the industry.
Introducing MetaPlay
At the end of October PolyPlay was hacked and had money stolen. Unlike most teams that roll over and die, PolyPlay spent the first 24 hours salvaging any funding they could, managing to rescue 87% of the funds. Within 24 hours PolyPlay relaunched as MetaPlay hitting $21, listed within 12 hours on coin market cap, coingecko and centralized exchange MEXC.
In a crypto world where trust and honor are hard to find, BC Simon and Pritesh Kucheria stand by and live for their communities’ best interests. This resulted in the most successful and fastest relaunch in cryptocurrency history. A team you can trust, a community that trusts in a wild west called cryptocurrencies.
MetaPlay is a blockchain-based gaming platform created for the e-sport industry. The platform offers tournaments, staking, and a launchpad with a fully transparent and DOXXED team. MetaPlay seeks to become the next driving force by being Gaming’s Gold Standard.
Despite being relatively new in the market, MetaPlay has already begun leading the esports scene worldwide. The platform organized different tournaments in the last few weeks, including MetaPlay CSGO, LoL, and NBA2K tournaments, to keep its community engaged. During these events, MetaPlay saw numerous top-level teams join to compete with players from different gaming communities across the globe.
Notably, MetaPlay recently launched its launchpad and feeder projects. The project has also developed an NFT marketplace that will go to the Wax blockchain NFT. This marketplace will allow for the creation of artworks to recognize all MetaPlay partners, team members, or developers.
MetaPlay uses a business model inspired by J.D Rockefeller to run its operation. This model calls for internal promotion of launches, feeder projects’ management, and hiring team members. So far, this business model has proven successful as the platform continues to record significant growth. In the last forum months, MetaPlay has seen 16000 investors stake about $13,000,000. Notably, during launch, the MetaPlay native token was trading at $0.04; however, through the business model and launching on Oxbull Tech, MetaPlay’s rise rose significantly, and it is now trading at $18.
MetaPlay has already formed various strategic partnerships to help further its mission. The platform recently partnered up with the Harmony team to launch HarmonyPad. Notably, the Harmonypad, following its launch, has been on an upward trend following increased investor interest in the product.
MetaPlay also recently formed a partnership with HederaPad (HbarPad), working closely with the CEO and team of Hedera. Other strategic partnerships include ones with Oxbull, Travala, Tenset, and others. Reportedly, these partnerships are geared towards helping MetaPlay develop a better ecosystem that will eventually set the project at the top of the chain hierarchy.
Commenting on how MetaPlay will break through to the top 100 projects, BC Simon stated:
“We are the most desirable coin in crypto because we don’t falsely promote ourselves or hype products. We work 16 hours a day; we’re active in telegram from CEO to all 112 staff. We don’t sleep, we build. Many said that we couldn’t maintain this pace for longer than a week or two, and we’ve gone on four months of this. We are the fastest building coin in crypto, and our progress reflects that. It won’t be long until we’re rightfully in the top 100.”
In the coming days, plans to launch a YouTube highlight channel, hire Twitch streamers, being pro leagues, launch a gaming DEX launchpad, and finally integrate profiles and App
Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock is probably aware that the gaming industry has been on an absolute tear. It’s one of the industries that has benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic in a big way.
That said, the average investor might not be aware of the following growth figures:
The global gaming market is currently worth $180 billion — the fastest-growing form of entertainment globally. For reference, the global film industry is worth $100 billion and all North American sports combined are $73 billion in terms of annual revenues.
Global game market revenue. Source: Bloomberg, Pelham Smithers, GamingScan.com
Experts predict that the number of online streamers of online games will rise to one billion by 2025 — one in nine people today.
Three of the top four most viewed United States sporting events in 2018 were not even traditional sporting events. They were e-sporting events. For example, the League of Legends championship had 30 million more views than the AFC Championship and 45 million more views than the NCAA Football Championship.
ESports viewers in the United States. Source: MBA@Syracuse
Travis Scott did a live performance on the popular gaming platform Fortnite last April. It received over 12.3 million views and netted Scott over $20 million per TechCrunch and GamesIndustry.biz.
So what is going on here and where is this growth coming from?
We can attribute much of this simply to the rise of technology and exponential growth. Technology continues to transform how we communicate, how we assemble, how we create and consume information, how we transfer value and how we form online communities.
Howard Shultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, popularized the idea of a “third physical space” with his coffee shop concept. It was his belief that humans needed a “third space” to assemble outside of the office and at home. Starbucks was the answer.
We see this same concept playing out today among the younger generations. Except the new shared space is digital and it’s called the metaverse. This is where kids are increasingly hanging out these days. They go there to engage with their friends. listen to music, or play video games. We can think of this as the next iteration of digital communities: AOL chat rooms, then Myspace. Facebook and finally the metaverse.
We’ve got concerts in the metaverse now. Burning Man has been digitized. And we’re just getting started.
History of gaming
The first video games came out in the late 50’s — a simple tennis game similar to Pong. Later, Atari was invented in 1977. Nintendo started releasing popular games starting in the early ’80s with Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc.
It’s important to note that the business model has changed significantly over the years. We used to pay $60 for a game at, for example, GameStop, and off we went. It was a one-time cost with unlimited play. Games were released in a similar manner to how Hollywood flicks would be promoted and released. 90% of revenues would come in the first two weeks.
This model is out now. The freemium model is in. Users play for free and are induced to make in-game purchases to upgrade skills, dress up avatars, buy weapons, enhance animations, etc. We see this today on Roblox, Fortnite and other popular games.
This is a much more profitable model for game makers, as it keeps their users engaged and always upgrading to compete with their friends. We are moving to a world where social signaling occurs among younger generations in the metaverse via an in-game avatar, the weapon they wield and the skins they possess. Welcome to the future.
Why gaming will move to blockchains
Gaming today happens on walled-off data networks. This means that users cannot own their in-game assets (skins, avatars, abilities, etc). The platform owns them. Axie Infinity is disrupting this model because users own their assets such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on Axie and are able to sell them in a free market/gaming economy for profit. Below is a view of the revenues earned by Axie Infinity users since May of this year:
Axie Infinity total revenue. Source: Token Terminal
Annualized revenues per Token Terminal shake out to$2.7 billionfor this open and permissionless pay-to-play blockchain game. Important note: blockchain technology is the vehicle through which users can own their in-game assets.This is not possible on the tech used today.
Blockchains allow for gaming economies to organically form. Users can be paid to play. Again, Axie Infinity is leading the charge here. Axie users make investments to acquire the Axie NFTs and the AXS native token to begin play. From there, they can earn the SLP token by playing/competing, as the tokens earned can then be exchanged for other crypto assets or fiat, etc. Many users in the Philippines are earning several times their usual monthly salary simply by playing Axie Infinity, all during the economic hardship brought on by COVID-19, which is pretty cool. Let me ask you this: If you can get paid to play a game on a blockchain vs. not being paid to play on a non-blockchain game, which would you choose? As Charlie Munger says: “show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome.”
Public blockchains are open to all and permissionless. Do you have a cell phone and an internet connection? Cool, you are welcome to participate. This isn’t really how it works in today’s closed data architecture, especially if you live outside the United States. Not only can you participate on a blockchain, but you can also earn income. As smartphone adoption continues to scale out with the growth of 4G and 5G technology in emerging markets, we should expect more and more users to be accessing crypto and blockchain-based games in the near future.
Open protocols collapse and compress the cost of existing technologies. Public blockchains are open protocols. Ethereum is an open protocol. Anyone can build games on Ethereum. By doing so, one is fundamentally outsourcing much of their operating and capital costs to the Ethereum base layer blockchain, meaning that it is much easier to start a game for entrepreneurs. Low barriers to entry increase competition. This ultimately benefits the end-users. We’ve seen this play out over and over in history. Blockchains are simply the next iteration of open source technology.
Decentralization. Because blockchains are open and permissionless, anyone can build on them. This means we should expect a future where there are blockchain games built on top of various layer-one blockchains, for example, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, etc. Users will be able to switch games with ease, and they will be able to bring their assets such as NFTs in the form of skins, avatars, or weapons with them. This is something that is not possible today. Furthermore, users will be able to trade their NFT assets for profit if they choose, or maybe they would want to build NFTs? Go ahead — you don’t have to own a gaming platform to do it.
Gaming economies are the future, and they will happen on blockchains.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Oracles, according to Cryptopedia, are protocols for smart contracts in the blockchain industry to interact with external data. Smart contracts are essentially computer programs that run within a blockchain and automate a set of transactions when certain conditions are met. Thus, smart contracts contribute to the complete decentralization of the blockchain industry by allowing transactions to take place automatically and without the intervention of a third party.
As appealing as the concept of blockchain as a self-contained, permissionless, and trustless system is, it would have no real-world applications if there was no way to use external, off-chain data, which is where oracles come into play.
According to a recent report, the blockchain industry has over 77 million active users, demonstrating the constant innovation in the space, even though it is only a decade old.
Because oracles connect the blockchain world to the outside world, there is a need to keep up with the blockchain industry’s constant innovation. However, oracles have struggled with centralized control, as some protocols are controlled by a single entity and serve as the sole source of data for smart contracts. If blockchain technology is to achieve its primary goal of decentralization, oracle networks must also be decentralized to provide smart contracts with an increased level of security and transparency.
The Importance Of Decentralized Protocols Like QED
One of the significant issues with introducing oracles to the blockchain is that it contradicts the ethos of blockchain technology, which is trustlessness. One way to address this is to ensure that oracles connected to the blockchain are decentralized and not governed by a single entity.
QED is a decentralized oracle protocol with a robust economic model that connects blockchains, smart contract platforms, and off-chain data resources. QED is a decentralized oracle that aims to achieve trustlessness by distributing data points among multiple entities and modeling the blockchain network.
DelphiOracle, QED’s base software, is the most widely used protocol on WAX.io, the world’s most trusted blockchain ecosystem for NFTs, dApps, and video games. For more than four years, the Delphi oracle has served as a multi-party source of truth, providing smart contracts with real-time prices for asset pairings on the various blockchain networks. DelphiOracle has already proven itself in the blockchain industry, and QED is built on it. The purpose of introducing QED is to solve problems inherent in existing models of oracles and blockchain systems.
Economic Model Of QED
The economic model of QED distinguishes it from existing Oracle protocols because it focuses on both the technological and commercial sides, which are both important when it comes to delivering and aggregating real-world data for smart contracts. The following are some of the characteristics of the QED economic model:
Recourse: QED is customer-centric because it protects users by providing a recourse mechanism. Clients would eventually be able to use the external collateral provided by QED to process loss restitution that may have occurred due to systemic risks.
Accuracy: To maximize real-time accuracy, automated systematic and reliability scoring is implemented to phase out poor-performing articles by increasing allocation to more capital-efficient oracles.
Decentralization: QED used distributed ledger technology as a mode of operation, promoting decentralization and eliminating the lingering issue of centralization in Oracle protocols. The native token “$QED” also serves as an economic constraint for QED.
Final Thoughts
QED is a breath of fresh air for Oracle protocols. It aspires to lead the next generation of Oracle protocols that provide services to smart contracts in a fully decentralized, transparent, and open manner. To make the most of its innovative economic model, QED intends to integrate with public blockchains. Furthermore, to promote scalability and interoperability, the QED protocol is also powered by the UX network. QED’s economic model was implemented to address issues with the commercial viability of existing Oracle protocols, and it would as a model for the next generation of Oracle protocols shortly.
Stablecoins and their use in decentralized finance (DeFi) have played a key role in the 2021 cryptocurrency bull market because allow investors to participate in the ever-growing number of protocols that offer high yield staking pools and they ease the process of transacting without needing to use a centralized exchange.
One project that has seen a significant amount of adoption thanks to its focus on creating a truly decentralized ecosystem and asset-backed stablecoin is the Abracadabra.money DeFi protocol and its native SPELL token.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.0114 on Oct. 15, the price of SPELL rallied 178.55% to establish a new record high at $0.035 on Nov. 1 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked to $109.82 million.
SPELL/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Three reasons why SPELL is attracting the attention of DeFi users are the growth of Magic Internet Money (MIM) as a fully decentralized, cross-chain capable stablecoin, numerous cross-chain integrations that have expanded the MIM and SPELL’s reach throughout the ecosystem and the token’s governance and tokenomic structure.
Decentralized stablecoin growth
One of the biggest factors attracting the attention of active DeFi users is Abracadabra’s native Magic Internet Money stablecoin which is a fully collateralized and minted by depositing interest-bearing assets on the DeFi protocol.
The growing popularity and adoption of MIM can be seen by the increasing total value locked on Abracadabra, which reached a record $4.15 billion on Nov. 1 according to data from Defi Llama.
Total value locked on Abracadabra.money. Source: Defi Llama
There has also been steady growth MIM’s circulating supply, which stands at $1.933 billion according to data from CoinMarketCap. The most recent expansion is in large part due to the expansion of assets that can be pledged as collateral to mint MIM, which now includes popular tokens like Shiba Inu (SHIB), FTX Token (FTT), wrapped Olympus (OHM) and Fantom (FTM).
Cross-chain integrations extend SPELL’s reach
A second reason inv are taking a closer look at SPELL is its expanding ecosystem which has recently added cross-chain support for multiple blockchain networks including Fantom and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
BSC is the most recent addition to the Abracadabra ecosystem after the community voted to add support for the network in a vote that closed on Oct. 30.
♂️!
A new governance proposal is out to decide whether we should deploy https://t.co/gHWEQJMoOc on #BSC!
Other blockchain protocols currently supported by Abracadabra include Ethereum (ETH), Arbitrum and Avalanche (AVAX), and the platform also benefits from multiple cross-protocol partnerships including integrations with Convex Finance (CVX), Yearn Finance (YFI), Curve Finance (CRV) and SushiSwap (SUSHI).
Related: Magic Internet Money races past $1B, sets sights on MakerDao
Favorable tokenomics and a decreasing circulating supply
Another factor catching the eye of DeFi investors is the tokenomic structure of SPELL which includes governance votes on emissions to control inflation.
The team behind SPELL regularly monitors the emission schedule across the various DeFi pools in its ecosystem to ensure that new tokens are being minted and utilized in the most beneficial way for the protocol and holders.
Due to increasing adoption and the uptick in price price, a large number of tokens originally set to be minted are no longer needed so the team decided to decrease the emission schedule by 20% beginning on Nov. 1. This effectively removed 8.7 billion SPELL tokens from the current circulating supply.
Going forward, the outlook for the project remains bullish and the team also has plans to further integrate SPELL and MIM to the Fantom ecosystem and also offer new staking opportunities in Arbitrum and Avalanche.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Digital signatures are a foundational concept in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Modern blockchains use digital signatures to secure billions of dollars of value. Digital signatures use what is known as a keypair, a pair of random looking values, where one key is a “private key” and the other a “public key”. Through digital signatures, any person with the “private key” can “sign” a transaction and spend the digital currencies. Therefore, it is crucial to safeguard the “private key”. Some tech-savvy users of blockchains opt to safeguard this key themselves, and accept the risk of theft or loss of the key (and therefore the loss of their funds). In contrast, other blockchain users trust online wallets or exchanges with the safeguarding of their keys. Of course, this decision comes with its own set of risks based on the competency of the third party.
In both these options, the user is putting all their trust in a single entity, which may not be desirable. Enter the Threshold Digital Signature: a solution which requires a “threshold” of at least two cooperating participants to produce a signature, and which removes the problem of trusting a single entity. In this article we:
Provide an intuitive description of Threshold Signatures and their applications,
Dig a bit deeper and look into various Threshold Signature schemes, and
Compare Threshold Signatures with other techniques, such as Mulitsig wallets.
The intuition for threshold signatures
As a developer in the space of threshold cryptography, it’s really exciting to see these innovations becoming a topic in the mainstream, but readers unfamiliar with cryptography or the math behind it quickly hit roadblocks upon encountering phrases like “Paillier cryptosystem”, “homomorphic encryption” or “Galois field”. It gets even more complicated when you discuss all the moving pieces behind it to coordinate the communication, and as a consequence, very few organizations have been willing to investigate its potential. But it doesn’t have to be scary; at the end, the math comes down to not much more than multiplication and addition. So let’s ELI5: What the heck is a threshold signature?
In metaphorical terms, signatures are akin to flying a kite on an invisible string. The kite itself is the public key — everyone can see it in the sky. The kite flier moves the kite around by manipulating the invisible string — the private key. The path it takes in the sky as it flies is the signature. Everyone saw the kite fly through the sky in that path, and only through the use of that invisible string was that flight path possible. This feels really simplified compared to the underlying math, but ultimately this metaphor is useful for demonstrating the coordination and work required to make threshold signing possible.
Enter threshold cryptography. The premise of threshold is literally in its name: some numerical value must be met for an operation to succeed. Oftentimes these processes are defined using the phrase “t of n”, where n is the number of total possible participants, and t is the threshold number that must be met. A common threshold cryptographic scheme that has been used for quite some time is Shamir’s secret sharing scheme. For those unfamiliar, the process involved uses a mathematical technique called Lagrange interpolation to recombine split values into a secret value. In the metaphorical world, it is taking that invisible string, and separating it into individual threads that many people can hold onto, and in order to fly the kite, the threshold number of people must come together and combine their threads into the string again.
This process works well, and services all over the world use it to secure secret data. The downside is that everyone who is involved must do this process in a secure location when breaking apart and recombining the secret. In cryptocurrencies, this also means that once the private key is recombined and used for signing, it should be considered exposed and all funds held by the key should be moved, so if any participant who helped in recombining the key walks away with it, they can’t do anything meaningful. This is expensive, and not to mention, requires a lot of coordination of people. What if we can take the powerful math behind cryptography and improve upon this so that nobody has to ever meet in a secure location at all?
The great news is that we can! There are mountains of literature that have risen overnight with new approaches to existing cryptosystems, improvements on previous ones, and completely groundbreaking cryptographic protocols. Navigating this field requires significant time and expertise, but here at Coinbase, we have found and implemented strategies that enable us to leverage these approaches, and support the novel approaches as they are discovered and peer reviewed. There’s a lot involved in this process, so let’s bring it back to the metaphor.
The setup process for getting our avid kite fliers ready is ultimately the unique twist that enables this entire process to work: each participant follows the same rule: they bring their own invisible thread, and their own piece of kite. Each flier agrees with the others in advance how they are going to fly, and they all proceed to run with their piece of kite at the agreed speed, angle, and time. If anyone strays from the agreed flight plan, the whole tangled mess of kites comes crashing to the ground, but if everyone proceeds as agreed, the kite takes off into one combined piece through the sky, able to perform the flight as planned. When the flight concludes, the parts disassemble mid air, and everyone goes home with their kite and thread. At no point does any one person hold the whole kite or string, and each party sees the flight plan ahead of time to know that nobody is going to try some wild antics that will let them run away with the kite.
Deeper dive into threshold signatures
Now that we have an intuitive understanding of threshold signatures, let’s dive deeper into the concepts and terminologies. The threshold signature schemes are part of the secure multi-party computation (MPC) field of cryptography. The main goal of MPC is to enable computation on private data without revealing them to anyone but the owner of the private data. For example, in the kite metaphor, the invisible pieces of the thread are the secret shares of the private key and threshold signature uses these secret shares to reconstruct the private key and sign the transaction without revealing the composite private key, nor the secret shares.
A very important ingredient of threshold signing is a mathematical construct called Elliptic Curve Cryptography. The TL;DR version is that given `y = x · G`, where `y` and `G` are publicly known values, it is very hard or even impossible to find `x` in a reasonable time frame. There are many “curves” that offer this property:
Secp256k1, which is used in Bitcoin, Ethereum and many others
Edwards25519, which is used in Cardano, Monero and many others
BLS12–381, which is used in Ethereum 2.0 and some other chains
Given an appropriate elliptic curve, the next step towards a threshold signature is to first choose a standard (i.e., single-signer) digital signature scheme. The popular digital signature schemes are as follows:
ECDSA, based on the Secp256k1 curve used by Bitcoin
Schnorr, based on the Secp256k1 curve used by Bitcoin Cash and Mina
Ed25519, based on the Edwards25519 curve used by Cardano
Finally, given a digital signature we can now discuss threshold signature schemes. The threshold signature schemes start from a single-signer scheme and split the private key between `n` participants. Then, in the signing phase, t-out-of-n participants can run the signing algorithm to obtain the signature. Finally any single (external) party can verify the signature using the same algorithm for verifying the single-signer signatures. In other words, the signatures generated by threshold signature and single-signer signature schemes are interchangeable. Stated differently, a threshold signing algorithm has three phases.
Generate the public/private key pair. Next, split the private key into multiple secret shares and distribute these shares between the `n` parties. This phase can be performed in two modes.
Trusted Dealer mode: A single trusted party will generate the private key, then split and distribute the keys. The main problem with this approach is that the dealer will see the private key in plaintext.
Distributed Key Generation (DKG): an MPC protocol is run between the `n` participants such that at the end, the participants will obtain the secret shares and no one will ever see the private key in plaintext at any point in the process.
Gather a threshold of `t` participants and run an MPC protocol to sign the transaction.
Verify the signature, using the standard signature’s verification algorithm.
The threshold signature schemes are fast evolving. At the time of writing this post, the secure and popular schemes include the following.
FROST is a threshold signature and DKG protocol that offers minimal rounds of communication and is secure to be run in parallel. FROST protocol is a threshold version of the Schnorr signature scheme.
DKLs18: is a 2-out-of-2 threshold signature and DKG protocol that offers fast signature computation for ECDSA signature scheme.
Threshold Signatures and Multisig
Multisig, or multisignature schemes offer similar capabilities to threshold signatures with a difference: each participant has its own public key (instead of secret shares of a single common public key). This small difference has a huge impact on cost, speed, and availability of the multisig on various blockchains.
Efficiency: in threshold signature schemes, each public key, and its corresponding private keyshares, belong permanently to a single, fixed group of signers; in multisignatures, each individual participant has its own distinct, dedicated public key. The benefit of this latter scheme is that each such participant can reuse its private–public keypair to participate in arbitrarily many distinct signing groups. The cost of using multisignatures, however, is that the size of the “public key” (actually, a list of public keys) representing any particular such group must grow linearly in the number of members of that group. Similarly, the verification time of a multisignature obviously must grow linearly in the size of the group, as the verifier must in particular read the entire list of public keys representing the group. In threshold schemes, by contrast, just one public key represents the entire group, and both key-size and verification time are constant.
Availability: to ensure that the minimum threshold of `t` is met, the blockchain should have native support for multisignatures. In most cases, this support is in the form of a smart contract. As a result, not all blockchains support multisig wallets. In contrast, the MPC-based threshold signatures are independent of the blockchain as long as the signature scheme that is used by the blockchain has a secure threshold version.
Final Notes
Threshold digital signatures enable us to do incredible things previously not possible in cryptocurrencies — multisig contracts require additional costs to operate, but this can happen without a smart contract. This means that we can support a whole new tier of wallets: where before there is the traditional custodial wallet like Coinbase offers in many different ways, or self-custody wallet options like our Coinbase Wallet application, this threshold ECDSA approach allows customers to be an active participant in this signing process. In this approach, the user holds a share of the private key, and Coinbase holds another, and only when both agree to the flight plan, can transactions be signed. This provides the security and trust we are known for at Coinbase, with the user remaining the one in control.
If you are interested in cutting-edge cryptography, check out our open roles here.
Threshold Digital Signatures was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Bitcoin (BTC) may be over seven times higher than at its last halving, but if history repeats, that number could grow another 300% and more.
As tracked by on-chain data source Ecoinometrics this month, BTC/USD has the potential to eclipse estimates simply by following historical precedent.
Bitcoin: Compared to 2017, you ain’t seen nothing yet
Bitcoin currently trades 7.3 times its price since the halving in May 2020. If the last halving cycle is anything to go by, however, price action will not stop until it is 30 times higher.
The data relates to the roughly four-year halving cycles in which Bitcoin has exhibited identical behavior since its inception.
The current cycle, despite impatience from some traders, remains closely tied to the previous two.
Taking 2017 as an example, the next BTC price peak could be as much as $253,800 — and even then, Bitcoin would still be acting within previously defined parameters.
Ecoinometrics also includes data on Ether (ETH) and its performance relative to the stage of Bitcoin’s halving cycle.
The largest altcoin saw much larger comparative gains relative to Bitcoin — 120 times its halving price marked last cycle’s peak in 2018.
Thus, a repeat performance would mean ETH/USD trading at $22,300 — again not beyond the realms of possibility.
In terms of what the subsequent bear market could bring, Bitcoin would need to bottom out at around $42,000 to copy its post-2017 correction. ETH’s price, on the other hand, would fall to $1,347.
Bitcoin and Ether post-halving performance chart. Source: Ecoinometrics/Twitter
1 BTC = 1 BTC
If such sky-high figures are difficult to comprehend, they pale in comparison to what well-known data analyst Willy Woo now believes.
Related: Bitcoin retests support, with trader forecasting BTC price dip to $55K
In a tweet this week, Woo reiterated that this Bitcoin halving cycle would be unique in one specific way: It will end in things being priced in BTC, not United States dollars, as using anything to measure BTC value will be pointless.
“What’s my prediction for the top of this cycle? Since I think this is the last cycle, the one that takes us to saturation, which if it wins, we can’t put a USD value on it because things get valued in BTC,” he wrote.
“Thus the cycle top is easy to pick. It will be 1 BTC = 1 BTC.”
A separate post noted how close Bitcoin was getting by market capitalization compared to U.S. dollar M2 supply. The situation in the next five years — the remainder of the current cycle and start of the next — he commented, will be “very interesting.”
Israel-based developer of blockchain applications, Kirobo, announced its integration with the well-known Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and the addition of blockchain guru Dr W. Scott Stornetta to its advisory board today. The company highlighted its plan to expand services in the future through the creation of a multi-chain service suite.
The integration with the hugely popular Binance Smart Chain will enhance the reach of Kirobo’s Defi applications. Moreover, Kirobo’s collaboration will facilitate the company’s goal of providing efficient services to users in the global crypto ecosystem.
The integration will provide several opportunities to the Binance Smart Chain users as they will be able to take advantage of Kirobo’s innovative products for cryptocurrency management.
Kirobo’s Undo Button has been making considerable waves in the crypto community, Having safely processed $1.7 billion worth of crypto transactions, its revolutionary ‘undo button’ is believed to have rescued $7 million in recalled transactions on the Ethereum network. In addition, the company’s P2P Swap Button provides a high level of security to direct token Swaps.
Launched in September 2020, BSC is one of the most popular services of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. BSC has already overtaken Ethereum in terms of the number of transactions per day. The integration connects Kirobo services with WBNB and BUSD, the two main gateway tokens to the BSC network. Moreover, the users of BSC can now use Kirobo’s services with a wide range of digital currencies.
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“Ethereum is a powerful platform, but as it struggles with throughput, exciting alternatives have appeared. People want to take advantage of them safely and effectively,” said Asaf Naim, Co-Founder and CEO of Kirobo. “By integrating with arguably the world’s most promising smart contract-capable blockchain, we’ve extended the reach of our services to a much broader section of the crypto ecosystem. It’s just one milestone in our roadmap towards multi-chain support for all our current and future products.”
Addition of Scott Stornetta
In the latest press release exclusively shared with Finance Magnates, Kirobo announced that the company has added Dr W. Scott Stornetta, known as one of the founding fathers of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, to its advisory board. In the last few years, Stornetta contributed considerably towards the development of the cryptocurrency market through research and consultation. “We are honored to welcome Dr Stornetta to our team. His importance to the cryptocurrency ecosystem can’t be overstated,” said Tal Asa, Co-Founder and CTO of Kirobo.
Scott Stornetta and the Kirobo Team
“I’m delighted to be joining the Kirobo advisory board, and I’m very much looking forward to advising the team on the development of its products and services. I’ve had a front-row seat to the evolution of the blockchain industry and been fortunate to work with some incredibly talented and dedicated individuals over the course of the last 30 years, so when I met Asaf and the Kirobo team I immediately knew that they were doing something special. Kirobo’s offering is innovative and unique, and I’m excited to be part of its journey,” Stornetta said.
Kirobo also welcomed Nir Geffen Shimoni, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Better Alternatives, to its advisory board.
As our customer needs evolve and more sophisticated trading tools are required, we’re exploring creative solutions to continually improve the Coinbase experience for everyone on one unified platform. Starting today, a small number of Coinbase customers will begin gaining access to advanced trading functionality on coinbase.com, enabling a world-class trading experience plus access to other popular Coinbase features like staking and yield, all from a single balance.
Advanced trading on Coinbase integrates powerful tools into an easy-to-use, trusted platform. See how crypto markets are moving and understand historical trends with a real-time order book, depth charts to visualize it all, and advanced charts and indicators powered by TradingView.
Eligible customers will be notified via email when advanced trading becomes available to them, with more customers gaining access in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for the next set of milestones as we continue investing in building the best trading experience for all customers on Coinbase.
Coinbase offers simple and advanced trading. Advanced trading is for experienced traders and is subject to the Trading Rules. Fees on the two platforms vary. Content is for informational purposes and not investment advice. Investing in crypto comes with risk.
Bringing advanced trading tools to Coinbase was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Starting today, Crypto.com Protocol (CRO) and SUKU (SUKU) are available on Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now trade, send, receive, or store CRO and SUKU in most Coinbase-supported regions, with certain exceptions indicated in each asset page here. Trading for these assets is also supported on Coinbase Pro. Please note that Coinbase only supports ERC-20 CRO running on the Ethereum blockchain.
Crypto.com Chain (CRO) is an Ethereum token that powers Crypto.com Pay, a service that aims to allow users to pay for goods and services with cryptocurrency while receiving cashback rewards.
SUKU (SUKU) is an Ethereum token that powers the SUKU Platform, a blockchain-based ecosystem that aims to make supply chains more transparent. SUKU tokens can be used for platform governance and to reward users and SUKU node operators. SUKU Platform is also developing applications for DeFi lending and NFT marketplaces.
One of the most common requests we hear from customers is to be able to buy and sell more cryptocurrencies on Coinbase. We announced a process for listing assets, designed in part to accelerate the addition of more cryptocurrencies. We are also investing in new tools to help people understand and explore cryptocurrencies. We launched informational asset pages (see CRO and SUKU), as well as a new section of the Coinbase website to answer common questions about crypto.
Customers can sign up for a Coinbase account here to buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store e Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now trade, send, receive, or store CRO and SUKU today.
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Please note: Coinbase Ventures may be an investor in the crypto projects mentioned here, and additionally, Coinbase may hold such tokens on its balance sheet for operational purposes. A list of Coinbase Ventures investments is available at https://ventures.coinbase.com/. Coinbase intends to maintain its investment in these entities for the foreseeable future and maintains internal policies that address the timing of permissible disposition of any related digital assets, if applicable. All assets, regardless of whether Coinbase Ventures holds an investor or Coinbase holds for operational purposes, are subject to the same strict review guidelines and review process.
This website contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of Coinbase, Inc., and its affiliates (“Coinbase”), and Coinbase is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. Coinbase is not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any Third-Party Site. Coinbase is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by Coinbase of the site or any association with its operators.
Crypto is a new type of asset. Besides potential day to day or hour to hour volatility, each crypto asset has unique features. Make sure you research and understand individual assets before you transact.
All images provided herein are by Coinbase.
Crypto.com Protocol (CRO) and SUKU (SUKU) are launching on Coinbase was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is set to launch crypto trading services for the 6.5 million users of its CommBank app.
The CBA will become the first bank in Australia to support crypto, and Blockchain Australia says it is “inevitable” that the other ‘big four’ banks including National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and Westpac will soon follow suit.
According to a Nov. 3 announcement, the CBA has partnered with the Gemini crypto exchange and blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis to launch its crypto services. The bank will launch a pilot for a limited number of customers in the coming weeks, before rolling out the full service in 2022.
Ten crypto assets will be supported in its banking app, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC) named at this stage.
Steve Vallas, CEO of Blockchain Australia told Cointelegraph that this move was “extraordinarily important” as the big four banks in Australia “underpin our national and international reputation as a financial services destination.”
“The confidence that this provides local digital asset sector participants will be dwarfed by the impact that this signal sends around the world that Australia should be a destination for cryptocurrency and digital asset adoption.”
Vallas believes the rapid growth and adoption of crypto has “shifted the risk of maintaining a wait and see approach” in the view of the big banks to a risk of “inaction” and being left behind. Vallas believes it is only a matter of time before the other major Australian banks launch their own crypto services.
“It is inevitable that the other banks will follow suit. Clarity in the local regulatory landscape is emerging with issues such as licensing being tackled head on by industry and by Governments. That impediments to action and participation are being removed,” he said.
Caroline Bowler, the CEO of local crypto exchange BTC Markets echoed similar sentiments to Vallas, noting that “with regulation in the offing and the largest bank in the country allowing it, the floodgates are now open for more appetite from traditional finance.”
“CBA’s move is exciting and inevitable. It’s yet another ‘red-letter day’ for crypto and it is as though Australia has suddenly put the lead foot down. We have been touted as playing catch up all this while, but now we’re moving into a leadership position globally with our largest bank.”
Dave Abner, the Global Head of Business Development at Gemini said that his firm was “proud” to be working with CBA to launch world leading crypto services.
“The exponential growth of digital assets internationally, coupled with Gemini’s institutional-grade security and proactive regulatory approach, positions this partnership to set a new standard for banks and financial platforms in Australia and across the globe,” he said.
Not everyone was pleased with CBA’s partnership however, with Adrian Przelozny the CEO of Australian crypto exchange Independent Reserve expressing his dismay over the bank partnering with an overseas firm.
“It’s disappointing that CBA went with an overseas player and didn’t engage with local players at all. We will be reaching out to the other Australian banks now,” Przelozny said.
Related: Australian Senators pushing for country to become the next crypto hub
Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 15 that Allan Flynn, a Canberra-based Bitcoin trade settled his first complaint at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal against ANZ for de-banking him in 2018 and 2019 due to his occupation as a Digital Currency Exchange (DCE).
While ANZ denied any liability, the bank offered him a chance to reapply for a bank account, suggesting that the bank is more open to crypto than it was two to three years ago. Flynn also has a similar case against Westpac ongoing.
Commenting on today’s news, Flynn told Cointelegraph that the crypto landscape in Australia is rapidly changing:
“There a lot of things suddenly happening in the Australian Bitcoin space; you have the Senate inquiry, ANZ’s acknowledgment of a legit human rights question to be answered in my complaint, AUSTRAC’s extraordinary statement on de-banking last Friday and now CBA’s digital currency plans being unveiled.”
“I’m just here arguing my lawful human rights and hoping it makes a difference,” he added.
