THE SECOND LARGEST BANK IN SOUTH KOREA CREATES SECURE CRYPTO-CURRENCY WALLETS

In South Korea, there was an extremely important event for crypto currency in this country: Shinhan Bank, the second-largest local bank, announced that it is developing crypto-currency wallets, where users can safely store their digital assets. The information is taken from the Cointelegraph website .

SERVICE FOR STORING CRYPTO CURRENCY FROM A LARGE KOREAN BANK

The news came on the background of the recent fall of Bithumb servers in November and the July leak of personal data of 30,000 users. The representative of the bank said that the new service will have increased protection, comparing with third-party solutions. The organization will offer the transfer of money without commission, but it will still be charged for withdrawal.

Here is a quote from the bank statement:

This is a service that stores lock-keys with a virtual safe from the bank. We are looking for ways to provide free deposits and withdrawing commissions when withdrawing funds.

The announcement became another factor contributing to a significant increase in the institutional acceptance of the crypto currency. More recently, there have been announcements of bitcoin futures from theChicago Mercatile Exchange and a huge number of new hedge bitcoins. 

THE FIRST EXCHANGE OF BTC-LTC VIA THE LIGHTNING NETWORK TOOK PLACE

The first ever "atomic" exchange between Bitcoin and Litecoin has successfully taken place, Cointelegraph reports . The special importance of this translation is that it was conducted outside the detachment. This means that the ownership of koinas passed from hand to hand, but none of the banks involved the transaction was not recorded.

Here's what the founder of Litecoin, Charlie Lee, said about it:

The previous nuclear exchanges that I conducted were done on the phone and were subject to the appropriate restrictions - slow [transactions] and a high commission for the transfer. Offechanovye atomic exchanges are much better. They are instant, [have] a low commission and are better kept confidential.

ADVANTAGES OF ATOMIC SWAPS

The system will allow users who wish to have a connection between the junctions, send crypto-currencies without having to wait for confirmation on the block, and even with a much smaller commission. This connection will allow you to make incredibly fast transactions in Bitcoin-network, and it is a simple, but at the same time elegant solution to the discussion about extensibility.

Another significant advantage is that such transactions are completely anonymous. Since they leave no trace on any of the cells, being thus completed, they can not be traced in any form. This kind of confidentiality is what is being tried with ZK on Ethereum.

Cointelegraph asked Konstantin Gladich, CEO of Changelly, to share his opinion on the new technology:

Changelly is a decentralized exchange that processes voluminous transactions at the most favorable rates on the market. We are burning with the idea of ​​"atomic" off-exchange exchanges, as this is a new stage of evolution, providing off-exchange p2p deals without risks. However, for the time being this can not completely displace the existing ecosystem.

WORLD'S LARGEST ATM MANUFACTURERS ANNOUNCED SUPPORT FOR BITCOIN

Buy bitcoins is becoming easier - traders of all varieties are implementing crypto currency support, according to news.bitcoin.com. Just a few days ago Square announced that they would add the opportunity to purchase BTC using their application. Now the company has entered the game Hyosung, promising support Bitcoin. Soon, ATM users of the company will be able to buy Bitcoin by clicking on a few buttons.

BITCOIN ON REQUEST

In Hyosung announced the support of bitcoin-transactions with the help of Just Cash . When activated, the ATM will work much like a normal transaction. The digital currency will be sent to the recipient's purse after scanning the QR code. So far, only Bitcoin is planned to be added, but in due course, other crypto-currencies may appear.

Hyosung is one of the largest industrial companies in South Korea with 25,000 employees and an income of $ 17 billion for the year 2015. The production of ATMs is only a small part of the operations.

TODAY KOREA, TOMORROW THE WHOLE WORLD

Many have already become accustomed to the fact that in South Korea they like everything connected with bitcoins. However, the affairs of Hyosung are not limited to their native lands. The company operates around the world - so, in the United States alone there is a large number of their ATMs. With banks, partnership is not, so ATMs can be found in night shops and gas stations.

ADVANTAGES OF ATMS

In the announcement of Bitcoin integration into its ATMs Hyosung advertised a number of advantages that should play into the hands of traders. There is a simple implementation, no need for hardware, a new flow of profit and the ability to attract both new and repeat customers.

All this will take place in the form of software updates, so compatibility should not cause any problems. It is characteristic that users seem to have the opportunity to exchange cash for cash, although it is not yet clear how this will work.

It is also unclear what the commission and the exchange rate will be for the purchase of bitcoins in the updated Hyosung ATMs. Usually this method is more expensive if compared with other methods of buying crypto currency (for example, on the exchange).

On the other hand, many people will find bitcoin-ATMs almost ideal solutions because of the typical problems with procedures know-your-customer (translate from English "know your customer").

ING CREATES A BLOCK-BASED SOLUTION THAT SHOULD PROVOKE INTEREST IN WALLSTREET

ING , a financial group from the Netherlands, announced the creation of a new concept of anonymous evidence called "Zero-knowledge range proof" (abbr. ZKRP). As the Cointelegraph reports , the idea should please the financiers from Wall Street, as the risks associated with security and confidentiality scared many people away from the market of block-technology.

THE KEY TO EVERYTHING IS ANONYMITY

The new proof is created in such a way as to keep anonymity, while at the same time confirming the correctness of the transaction. The manager of the blockade at ING, Mariana Gomez de la Villa, stated the following:

It is proved that the ZKRP solution from ING is 10 times more efficient than the other concepts in the Ethereum test network. At the same time, all three principles are met: completeness, validity and evidence without information transfer.

In traditional financial systems, the transaction confirmation process requires a lot of information about the parties involved. However, in systems with proof of zero knowledge, in addition to simple verification, no additional data is required. This makes the transaction completely anonymous and, at the same time, confirmed, which is critical for a massive financial spread.

For some time it was obvious that the largest financial institutions are starting to look closely at the block-technology for domestic transfers. Considering the fact that block projects are being developed in such companies as MasterCard, American Express, Bank of America and Nasdaq, the technology is waiting for a very significant future.

SWISSBANK INTENDS TO INTRODUCE BITCOIN FUTURES TO ALLOW RATES AGAINST THE CRYPTO-CURRENCY

Representatives of the Swiss bank Vontobel reported that on Friday their institution will start trading the first in Switzerland a pair of mini futures in order to "short" bitcoins, reports Reuters. This will provide investors with a tool for betting against the cost of volatile crypto currency or hedging of bitcoins.

NEED MORE BITCOIN FUTURES!

The news about the creation of two mini-futures on the Swiss stock exchange was the second largest provider of structured products in the country, following the announcement of CME Group Inc : the world's largest operator for the exchange of derivatives in the world told of plans to launch a futures contract for Bitcoin later this year.

Mini-futures are derivatives that combine the functions of futures and options. At the same time, they are quoted at a much lower cost than traditional futures contracts.

When Bitcoin's price falls by 10%, the value of the more conservative of the two mini futures rises by almost 6%, while the second increment will be almost 10%, according to a document on the terms of contracts published by Vintobel on Tuesday.

This month, the cost of BTC changed incredibly: last week it fell by 29% from a record high of $ 7.888, set on November 8. Over the past four days, the Crypto currency has recovered more than a third of its price.

Over this year, Bitcoin has risen by more than 600% - this rapid growth has pushed many people into thinking that the digital currency has become a bubble that may burst in the future.

MasterCard patented the blockchain database for payment processing

MasterCard has been engaged in blockchain related projects, and very actively apply for a patent. The latest blockchain patent application submitted by the credit card giant is a database that instantly processes payments, ensuring merchants receive product payments as quickly as possible. MasterCard explained in the application documents the importance of this solution, hoping to use blockchain technology to improve inter-company payment and transactions.

A new patent application recently submitted by MasterCard shows that the company considers blockchain as a possible means of reducing payment settlement time.

In a patent application released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week, the company described a blockchain-based database that could process payments immediately to ensure merchants do not have to wait a few days to receive payment for their products .

In addition, these documents state that the technology will help the company keep a record of these transactions, proving that the vendor actually received the payment after the product was sold.

The data stored in this database will include the transaction amount, payment guarantee, payment confirmation, and account information of the parties involved. According to the application documents revealed that these account information will also store the balance of each user information.

The document explains in detail:

"We needed a technology solution that would ensure payment transactions are conducted in a way that is easily verifiable by financial institutions and / or merchants and that they are guaranteed to be available for many types of payment instruments and types of transactions, including e-commerce transactions. "

MasterCard has repeatedly considered the use of blockchain platforms to facilitate payment. Last month, the company announced it was creating access to blockchain tools it is developing to facilitate inter-firm transactions.

Its patent application, which was released in September, also focused on using the blockchain to store payment history.

THE MARKET OF BITCOIN FUTURES CME CAN BENEFIT THE "BEARS"

One of the reasons for the success of people who made only long-term investments in the bitcoin market is the lack of an effective way to sell large amounts of bitcoins for a period without coverage (ie "short-sail" or "short"). One of the authors of the Cointelegraph website believes that within a month all this can change if CME realizes its idea of ​​bitcoin futures.

BTC FUTURES CME

Bitcoin's price went up when the CME announced the release of bitcoin futures, scheduled for December 2017. It was expected that these financial instruments will make the class of assets legal. The latter, in turn, should have led to an influx of institutional investors into the Bitcoin market. In case of approval of bitcoin futures by CTFC, the US Securities and Exchange Commission would be difficult to block the traded index bitcoins (also known as Bitcoin ETFs), because there would be a regulated asset in the basis.

However, it is not a fact that investors would have caught the most important thing. The appearance of bitcoin futures would provide "bears" (traders expecting a drop in asset prices) a way to "short" huge amounts of bitcoins. Today, such luxury is not too accessible to them.

Terry Duffy, chairman and CEO of CME, in a conversation with CNBC said:

Today you can not" short "Bitcoin. Therefore, there is only one way of dealing: you either buy or sell [crypto currency] to others. Thanks to this, a two-sided market is being created, and I think this is always much more effective.

MARGINAL TRADING ON STOCK EXCHANGES

Technically, today you can "shorten" Bitcoin on existing exchanges with the help of margin trading. However, there is not enough liquidity and volumes, if we talk about large investors. Banks such as Bitfinex allow one user to borrow digital tokens and sell them, provided that others agree to lend the assets to the marginal trader.

But there are quite a few such exchanges - most offer only ordinary sales and purchases, which is beneficial to traditional long-term investors. In addition, many exchanges (the same Bitfinex, for example) do not allow US citizens to conduct margin trading on their platform. Regulated same futures - it's quite another matter, since such transactions are supported by cash, so short-sellers do not have to take bitcoins in debt.

"BEARS," BEWARE!

Bitcoin futures are able to provide skeptics a way to "short" the crypto currency, but this does not mean that such a trading strategy will be successful. Given the high volatility of Bitcoin and the propensity for sudden take-offs, futures can easily become a "bear trap" instead of making the players "teeth" drop sharper. Even Jamie Dimon, who called Bitcoin a deception and a bubble, said that he would not "short" him. Here is a quote from his conversation with CNBC in September 2017:

I'm not saying that you have to shorten. Bitcoin can reach up to $ 100,000 before it starts to fall. This is clearly not what people should be advised.

So beware, "bears". If there is something more complex than defining a "bubble", then this is clearly a calculation of the time when it bursts.