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2023-03-21 11:33:37 ET

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Economist recently shared a news piece that reveals that hundreds of billions of dollars are missing from American banks. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao shared the news on Twitter. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju couldnt keep calm as he replied to the tweet, sharing his thoughts.

Ki commented on the tweet, asking people to call out the banks from which the client funds are missing. He also stated that he wouldnt be surprised if they inserted the name of any bank, except for the ones that dont use client funds or have proof of reserves.

CryptoQuants CEO has been quite vocal against banks amidst the bank runs. He recently dropped a tweet speaking of the coordinated effort by central banks to help with US dollar liquidity.

Ki has requested that individuals who have faith in the US dollar system contemplate three scenarios. Firstly, he proposed a hypothetical situation where cryptocurrency exchanges allocate all client funds toward shitcoin. Secondly, he urged them to envision a scenario where Satoshi Nakamoto generates an infinite amount of bitcoins to rescue these exchanges.

The statement comes amidst a time when banks are going through a fair share of turmoil, with client funds missing and top US banks collapsing. Despite all the chaos, the cryptocurrency market was up and running.

Amidst all this, the SEC has also tightened its scrutiny of the cryptocurrency realm. The SEC sued Tron founder Justin Sun on the grounds of fraud and market manipulation, alongside other celebrities, including Jake Paul, for promoting it.

The post Billions of Dollars Missing from US Banks, CryptoQuant CEO Reacts appeared first on Coin Edition.

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Billions of Dollars Missing from US Banks, CryptoQuant CEO Reacts ... - Investing.com

What is a deflationary cryptocurrency?

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

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

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

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

Related: Inflationary vs. deflationary cryptocurrencies, Explained

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ethereum as a deflationary asset, explained - Cointelegraph

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more from the original source:

Betting on the Tron blockchain led by CryptoCubes - Crypto Reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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