Home Based Business

Volvo To Use Blockchain To Trace Cobalt Used In Electric Car Batteries

Leave a comment

Volvo To Use Blockchain To Trace Cobalt Used In Electric Car Batteries

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 11/8/2019 9:05 AM ET

Volvo Cars Group is set to become the first carmaker to use blockchain technology to trace the cobalt used in lithium ion batteries used for its electric cars. The company announced last month the launch of its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge.

The carmaker is providing traceability of raw materials, such as cobalt, used in the production of the batteries used in its cars as part of its commitment to provide its customers the information that materials for the batteries has been sourced responsibly.

By implement global traceability of cobalt using blockchain, Volvo Cars will gain provenance of cobalt used in lithium-ion batteries for their electric vehicles and provide customers with transparency of the raw material supply chain as the information about the material's origin cannot be changed on blockchain.

The data on the blockchain will include the cobalt's origin, attributes such as weight and size, the chain of custody and information establishing that participants' behavior is consistent with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) supply chain guidelines.

Volvo Cars has already reached agreements with its two global battery suppliers, China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) and South Korea-based LG Chem to implement traceability of cobalt starting this year.

Last month, Volvo Cars also launched an ambitious climate plan to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent per vehicle by 2025, as well as a continued commitment to ethical business across its entire operations and supply chain.

Volvo Cars Group, founded in 1927, has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding of China since 2010. It has sold 642,253 cars in 2018 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars said it expects half of its global sales to consist of fully electric cars and the rest hybrids by 2025.

In April, German car maker Volkswagen Group joined an industry consortium that will use blockchain technology for the responsible sourcing of strategic minerals which are used in the production of vehicles. Other members in the blockchain network include Volvo Cars, Ford Motor Co., Huayou Cobalt, IBM and LG Chem along with co-founding responsible sourcing specialists RCS Global Group.

The network is built on the IBM Blockchain Platform, and powered by the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Fabric.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Bitcoin Price Tanks Below 9000 What Comes Next?

Leave a comment

Bitcoin Price Tanks Below $9,000; What Comes Next?

The volatility that analysts expect in the Bitcoin (BTC) markets is finally here. Over the past few hours, the leading cryptocurrency has started its first notable price move in literal days, tanking from $9,200 to $8,700 — a 6% move lower — in the space of only a few hours.

So, how are analysts responding to this latest move, which comes after two weeks of price ranging between $9,000 and $9,500?

Well, analysts aren’t too bullish, at least for a short-term time frame. Popular cryptocurrency trader DonAlt observed that a chart he posted a few weeks ago, which indicated strong support at $9,000, is still valid. His chart indicates that BTC must hold $8,400 or may fall further.

This move satisfies bearish divergences that printed earlier. As reported by Ethereum World News, CryptoHamster, a popular trader, remarked in a tweet last night that BTC has seen bearish divergences form on the one-hour time frame with the Stochastic, Stochastic Relative Strength Index, and Moving Average Convergence Divergence all trend higher while BTC has fallen, signaling weakness.

Where Will Bitcoin’s Pain Stop?

So, where will the pain stop for Bitcoin in this move?

According to a Bloomberg columnist, $8,000 is where the selling pressure should end.

Su Zhu, the chief executive of Three Arrows Capital, recently released an excerpt of a report from Bloomberg’s “monthly crypto market columnist.” And according to them, Bitcoin is looking a bit more bullish than bearish but remains stuck in a tight range.

The excerpt reads that “the worst of this year’s Bitcoin price correction… in our view.” The analyst elaborated that they expect for Bitcoin to remain bound to the $8,000 to $12,000 range until year-end; Bloomberg wrote that increasing institutional investment and a “favorable macroeconomic environment” should produce upside potential, but that “hangover selling from 2017’s price surge” should limit the upside, and potentially create some room for downside to the $8,000 region.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

How Swell for XRP: Ripple Reveals it Has Above 300 Customers

Leave a comment

How Swell for XRP: Ripple Reveals it Has Above 300 Customers

How swell for XRP. According to a recent report from Forbes, Ripple Labs has just crossed a key milestone, accentuating that the firm’s fintech projects continue to gain traction, despite the downturn in the cryptocurrency and blockchain market.

Ripple Continues to Gain Traction

Announced in an official blog post published on Wednesday prior to its Swell conference in Singapore, Ripple has claimed to have surpassed 300 customers, which consists of a “global network of banks, financial institutions and payment providers that sends money globally, instantly and reliably for fractions of a penny.” Indeed, the post elaborated that Ripple has customers “in more than 45 countries and 6 continents using RippleNet, with payout capabilities in 70+ countries.”

Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity product, which is also known as xRapid, has also seen growing level adoptions. This comes in spite of the fact that ODL was just announced at 2018’s iteration of Swell.

“In less than a year since the commercialization of ODL, we have seen tremendous growth and customer interest with two dozen customers signed on to use the product.

Some of the notable customers committed to using ODL include MoneyGram, goLance, Viamericas, FlashFX and Interbank Peru. There have been more than 7x the number of transactions using ODL from the end of Q1 to the end of October,” Ripple wrote, confirming that its products are truly gaining steam.

For some context, ODL is a product that leverages XRP as a bridge currency to “eliminate the need for pre-funding in cross border payments.” Ripple’s chief executive Brad Garlinghouse has previously stated that MoneyGram’s use of ODL is a clear sign that the cryptocurrency is beneficial. MoneyGram, according to Garlinghouse, is currently “experiencing real-time [transaction] settlement (around 60 seconds) in U.S. dollars to Mexican pesos” through the solution.

XRP Readies to Push Higher

This positive development for Ripple comes as XRP has purportedly begun to build price strength.

Per previous reports from Ethereum World News, Peter Brandt, a long-time commodities trader with years in the business, recently remarked that the cryptocurrency’s latest move to the upside has only corroborated one of his bullish analyses of the XRP chart. Referring to the chart below, he remarked that this “chart interpretation remains valid — it is taking another run at a breakout.”

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Huobi Global to Phase Out US Customers: Crypto Crackdown

Leave a comment

Huobi Global to Phase Out U.S. Customers: Crypto Crackdown

Large Crypto Exchange to Drop American Clients

Revealed in a blog post published on November 3rd, Huobi Global, a popular crypto exchange that has reported some $1 billion worth of volume over the past 24 hours, will be pulling out of the U.S. market. Huobi will purportedly do so by “gradually disabling the accounts of U.S. users from further trading or transferring.” By November 13th, all U.S. accounts will be frozen, meaning that American crypto traders should withdraw all funds and close all margin positions in the time until then.

Explaining the rationale behind this decision, Huobi cited “the laws and regulations of the United States with respect to crypto assets,” which it claimed it needs to strictly comply by.

It is important to note that Huobi isn’t completing stranding its U.S. clientele. The Chinese upstart has a “strategic partner” for the U.S. market, HBUS, which has and can service American crypto traders. HBUS is Huobi’s version of Binance.US.

Huobi’s decision to start moving away from servicing American clients comes as there has been an exodus of other crypto exchanges and markets from the U.S. Over the past few months, we’ve seen Bittrex delist an array of altcoins in fear of SEC action, Binance restrict access to its flagship platform in the U.S. while launching an alternative platform, and altcoin-centric Poloniex stop servicing customers entirely.

And while the cryptocurrency market in the U.S. isn’t “dead” per se because of this exodus, with much of this space’s firms having offices or headquarters in places like Silicon Valley or New York, the regulatory uncertainty around exchanges and altcoins likely isn’t doing anything to help the development of the industry.

ecosystem for entrepreneurs
Markethive Advertisement

U.S. Politicians Call for Clarity

Sentiment in Washington, D.C. seems to be largely against the cryptocurrency space, especially considering the grilling that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has had to sit through. Yet, there are some politicians on the Hill that are supportive of the adoption of blockchain technologies and related innovations.

One of these is Ohio Congressman Warren Davidson, who recently wrote on Twitter to celebrate Bitcoin’s 11th birthday that “It’s time the US harnesses this potential and establishes a framework for American blockchain innovators.”

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Analysts Expecting Bitcoin Fireworks as Major Move Looms on Horizon

Leave a comment

Analysts Expecting Bitcoin “Fireworks” as Major Move Looms on Horizon

Bitcoin has been experiencing a very boring bout of sideways trading for the past several days and weeks, which has come about shortly after the crypto’s meteoric run from lows of $7,300 to highs of $10,600 – which marked one of the largest single-day movements ever experienced by the cryptocurrency.

Now, analysts are anticipating another large movement in the near-future for the crypto, and several indictors may point to the possibility that this movement will favor BTC’s bulls.

Bitcoin Continues Flatlining but a Big Move Might be Coming

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading up just under 2% at its current price of $9,300, which marks a significant surge from its daily lows of $9,100 that were set yesterday.

It is important to note that Bitcoin is squarely in the middle of the trading range between $9,000 and $9,500 that it has been caught in for the past couple of weeks, but analysts anticipate this period of consolidation to quickly come to a close.

Jonny Moe, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, spoke about this in a recent tweet, referencing the key price levels that lie directly above the crypto’s current price, and further noting that he is “ready for fireworks”

“20 Week SMA: $9825 -Resistance- Current Price: $9300 -Support- 200 Day SMA: $9100. Ready for fireworks one way or the other. $BTC” He explained.

Furthermore, it is important to note that bulls may currently have the upper hand over bears, as FlibFlib – another popular crypto analyst – explained in a tweet that Bitcoin’s OBV looks very strong, making the crypto’s TA look bullish at the moment.

“Bitcoin looks a lot better than I thought tbh. OBV looks strong,” he said while pointing to the indicators seen in the below charts.

In the near-term, it is imperative that Bitcoin begins inching higher and pushes up against its range high at $9,500 that has proven to be a strong resistance level, and if bulls are able to decisively push it past this level, then significantly further gains could be in store for the crypto.

The next few days will likely provide further insight into just how strong this range is and how influential it will be for BTC’s price action in the coming weeks and months.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Cole Petersen.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Will 2020 Be the Year of Kinesis?

Leave a comment

Will 2020 Be the Year of Kinesis?


SOURCE:123rf.com

2019 has been a difficult year for traders of every persuasion. Whilst global stock exchanges have hit record highs, the forex exchanges have not fared so well. The British Pound has suffered over Brexit, the Euro hit 2-year lows as recession fears mount and the US Dollar is at the same level it was in May 2017. The global economic slowdown seems to be in full swing with recessions ahead for the world’s largest economies.

Meanwhile, after enjoying a year of consolidation in 2018, this year has been a volatile rollercoaster for cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin (BTC) seemingly unable to break the $8,000 barrier.

So, what is the answer? Commodities? Gold has seen a steady enough climb from September 2018 $1215 price to be $1510 today. The fragility and volatility of Oil were exposed by the Iranian drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing plant.

Is Kinesis the Solution?

One possible solution that is gaining traction amongst investors is Kinesis. After going live in September, Kinesis currencies appear to be filling a void in investment portfolios.

Based 1:1 on allocated silver and gold, the Kinesis monetary system is designed to bring back precious metals as an everyday currency. Comprising of a blockchain-powered exchange, marketplace and a financial network, Kinesis offers a viable solution to crypto volatility whilst offering the upward stability of precious metals.

Whilst there have been many false dawns in the age of crypto, the fact that the kinesis currencies are tied to actual physical gold and silver, stored cheaply at multiple locations around the world, bodes well for the future of Kinesis. In the world of crypto, stability equals longevity and they don’t come more trusted and stable than precious metals, so often the safe haven for investors for centuries.

The ready-to-use kinesis financial network includes a debit card which is available to use at more than 46 million locations worldwide. The ability to spend your digitalized gold and silver so easily, made possible via the established Allocated Bullion Exchange (ABX), makes Kinesis an attractive option for crypto enthusiasts.

Kinesis, 7 years in development and backed by an experienced and knowledgeable team, is making the right kind of waves. Having already secured partnerships with top hardware providers like CoolBitX, Kinesis looks to be an interesting and viable option for investors and crypto enthusiasts. 2020 looks set to become the year of Kinesis.

Original article posted on the DailyInvestNews.com site, by Ben Myers.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Why IBM Expects Central Bank Crypto Assets Within Five Years

Leave a comment

Why IBM Expects Central Bank Crypto Assets Within Five Years

Earlier this year, Facebook famously unveiled Libra to the world. The cryptocurrency project, billed as a way to empower billions, quickly became the talk of the town, with the phrases “Libra” and “Facebook’s crypto/blockchain” gracing the notifications of the phones of millions across the world; effectively every mainstream media outlet covered the news.

Unsurprisingly, central banks, governments, and traditional institutions were quick to take notice of this new entree into the fintech space. And how they reacted has been extremely interesting. Central banks around the world have reacted to the Libra news by looking to launch their own digital assets. Crazy, right?

But how soon will these digital currencies launch, if at all?

Central Banks To Soon Launch Crypto Projects

According to IBM, the American technology giant, very soon. In a report published on October 29th, IBM and the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that they expected for the first central bank digital currency (CBDC) to launch within the next five years, as 73% of global banks have supported such initiatives:

“The principal conclusion is that we are likely to witness the introduction of a central bank — that is fiat — retail digital currency within the next five years, either as a complement to or as a substitute for notes and coins.”

Venezuela has notably launched the Petro, but that seemingly hasn’t been factored in as a bonafide central bank crypto asset.

Interestingly, the report claims that the first CBDC is unlikely to be launched by a G20 central bank, but rather by a smaller economy.

This contradicts the sentiment of ING, whose chief economist said just a month ago that a G20 central bank will launch its own digital asset within the “next two to three years”. The benefits that would come with these assets, he claimed, would aid the economy.

Regardless, it seems that the consensus is that a CBDC is right on the horizon in terms of a macro scale.

To Hurt Bitcoin?

While these digital assets are unlikely being launched under the main premise of directly countering the rise of Bitcoin, some have said that central banks having their own digitized dollars may hurt BTC.

Nouriel Roubini, a New York University professor and economist who is (in)famous for his hatred of Bitcoin, has exemplified this sentiment.

ecosystem for entrepreneurs
Markethive Advertisement

In his column for Project Syndicate published late last year, Roubini proudly quipped that the rise of CBDCs would “close the door on crypto-scammers.”

“CBDCs [are] likely [going to] replace all private digital payment systems,” Roubini wrote. He explained that unlike retail banks and platforms like PayPal, whose services are subject to friction (high transaction fees, failed transactions, and a high barrier to entry), central banks are “efficient and cost-effective” at intermediating and lending money. The economist went as far as to say that CBDCs would eliminate any need for “not scalable, cheap, secure, or actually decentralized” cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, by the simple virtue of central banking technology.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Bitcoin BTC Bollinger Band Fractal Suggests Price Surge to 16000

Leave a comment

Bitcoin (BTC) Bollinger Band Fractal Suggests Price Surge to $16,000

Last week, the creator of the Bollinger Bands indicator, John Bollinger, claimed that he expected for Bitcoin (BTC) to see a “head fake”. Bollinger was absolutely right. Big shock, eh?

For some context, the Bollinger Bands (BB) are a technical analysis indicator meant to determine trading ranges for a cryptocurrency. A BB head fake is when an asset being analyzed falls below or above of the band’s range, then violently snaps back into the range as if the asset had entered a bull or bear trap.

This week, the head fake played out. Perfectly.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin plunged from $8,100 to $7,300 in a secondary breakdown that made analysts across the board flip extremely bearish, partially due to the fact that the lower Bollinger Band was lost. But on Friday, bulls came in to save the day. Within the span of an 18-hour time frame, the cryptocurrency shot from $7,300 to $10,600 — a jaw-dropping 43% move.

What’s interesting is that the BB fractal suggests that Bitcoin’s bullish momentum won’t be pausing here.

Bitcoin Could Surge by 70% in Three Weeks

According to cryptocurrency trader BitcoinGuru, the massive head fake that Bitcoin just saw clearly satisfies a fractal — when historical price action plays out on current time frames at a different magnitude — that he has been tracking for a while now.

The fractal suggests that the recent drop and subsequent recovery is predicting a massive resurgence, one that will bring Bitcoin higher than its $14,000 year-to-date peak. He wrote that if Bitcoin closes around current levels, he expects for $16,000 to be reached by November 16th. This would represent a 70% move higher from the current price point.

Crazy, but Bitcoin just moved by 42% in an 18-hour time frame, so it isn’t off the table per se.

Technicals support this. Analyst CryptoHamster recently observed that Bitcoin is looking bullish on higher time frames. They recently posted the chart below, which shows that Bitcoin’s current one-week Heikin-Ashi candle has two tall wicks on either side and a skinny green body. For those not versed in technical analysis, this implies a “potential trend reversal.”

And, another analyst has pointed out that this recent bounce has allowed BTC to retake an essential level, the 200-day simple moving average of $8,900. This is seen as a “bull market” level, making this recent technical occurrence important for bulls.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Bitcoin BTC Price May See 13 Drop Here’s Why

Leave a comment

Bitcoin (BTC) Price May See 13% Drop; Here’s Why

Bitcoin (BTC) took an absolute beating on Wednesday. For those who missed the memo, the cryptocurrency saw a 10% drop within an hour or two, plunging under the key level of $7,700 for the first time in around five months. This dramatic move came after countless analysts expected volatility to hit markets, citing the Bollinger Band amongst other indicators.

While the pain has hit traders hard already, leading analysts are expecting for Bitcoin to continue falling. Here’s why.

Bearish Bitcoin Factors

Speaking to CNBC in the wake of the recent $600 plunge, Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital and a Wall Street veteran, said that he expects the leading cryptocurrency to fall further in the coming days. He claimed that there be another leg of selling pressure that will take Bitcoin down by at least 13% to $6,500. Novogratz added that for this move to be negated, there will need to be “new energy” that wrests Bitcoin back above $8,000.

He backed this prediction by looking to the “bunch of negative things that have happened recently,” specifically citing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision to stop Telegram from launching its crypto asset. Other bearish fundamental trends include Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing in Congress, the SEC’s decisions to make a case against other startups, and the fact that institutions have yet to really delve into the crypto markets.

It is important to note that it isn’t all bearish fundamentals for Bitcoin. CoinMetrics, a top cryptocurrency analytics firm, recently observed that Bitcoin’s implied 24-hour hash rate hit 115 exahashes per second, which is a metric that is seven to eight times higher now than it was during the peak of 2017’s bull run to $20,000.

Also, the Federal Reserve has continued to inject billions into the repo markets, which many see as a sign of impending collapse or at least troubles for the fiat financial system.

Why the Mid-$6,000s?

Novogratz isn’t the only one eyeing $6,500.

In a recent analysis, prominent analyst Dave the Wave, who has been short-term bearish for months now (and essentially called the recent downturn), said that Bitcoin is likely to fall further. This move lower, he claimed citing a geometric/fractal analysis of the last market cycle and the current, will end with Bitcoin bottoming in mid-November — just three weeks away.

In terms of the price at which the cryptocurrency will bottom, Dave’s ideal target is $6,700, which is where there exists a confluence of technical levels: the 0.5 Fibonacci Retracement of the $3,200 to $14,000 move, the bottom of a descending channel, amongst other important levels.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Home Based Business

Want to Spend Bitcoin on Amazon? There’s An App For That

Leave a comment

Want to Spend Bitcoin on Amazon? There’s An App For That

Crypto investors have long been asking when Amazon, the massive American e-commerce giant, will integrate Bitcoin (BTC). These expectations make sense. If the platform accepted Bitcoin payments, users would effectively be able to stake their entire lives on cryptocurrency.

So far, Amazon has been mum on the topic. The firm did file a patent relating to a seeming cryptocurrency-related system, yet the firm hasn’t gone as far as to launch an AmazonCoin or Bezos Token.

Regardless, there is a new solution in town that may quench the aforementioned need of Bitcoin investors.

Meet Moon, a cryptocurrency infrastructure provider that has just launched a desktop browser extension that allows users to spend their favorite cryptocurrencies for Amazon goods. The extension is currently available for Google Chrome, the already crypto-centric Brave, and Opera. Crazy, right?

According to a TechCrunch post outlining the new product, Moon’s flagship product allows one to pay for Amazon goods with Lightning Network Bitcoin, base layer BTC, Litecoin, and Ethereum. Moon also allows one to pay with their holdings on their Coinbase account.

So how does this solution work?

Well, it’s pretty simple. Per TechCrunch, Moon uses prepaid value on Amazon, so that when one uses their cryptocurrencies to pay for goods, the service “automatically converts your cryptocurrencies, tops up your Amazon account and pays with your Amazon balance.” What’s interesting is that Moon isn’t charging extra fees to users of the service, making spending Bitcoin and its ilk on Amazon that much more of a breeze.

It’s an interesting concept, for sure. But, it remains to be seen how this interesting cryptocurrency product, which is currently available for those in the U.S. and Canada (Europe is purportedly soon to follow), will impact the story of the adoption of digital assets for the masses.

ecosystem for entrepreneurs
Markethive Advertisement

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Visit MarketHive to learn more: http://markethive.com/jeffreysloe

Promoting Health and Wellness with an Entrepreneurial Spirit