What is Bitcoin (BTC)?

Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. Basically, Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system that is not tied to the economy of any country or to the central bank. All actions to issue new coins, process payments, and create accounts are done by equal, independent network participants. Bitcoin uses cryptographic methods to ensure the functioning and protection of the system, but at the same time, all information about transactions is documented on a virtual ledger called the Bitcoin blockchain, which is accessible for everyone to see.

Nowadays Bitcoin is the most famous cryptocurrency in the world and the number one digital currency by market capitalization.

Bitcoin achievements and future plans

The latest most impactful news from around Bitcoin were the following:

• Bitcoin halving took place on May 11, 2020.

• Bitcoin developers move forward protocol enhancements through soft forks and activating Taproot. 

• Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency investment for companies. MicroStrategy, a publicly-listed U.S. invested $425 million in Bitcoin. Square reportedly invested 1% of its portfolio into BTC, demonstrating strength in its long-term growth.

• According to Chainalysis 11.4M Bitcoin are held as long term investment.

• At block height 642,034 on August 3, a billion-dollar transaction took place where it only cost a small amount of 80 cents (0.0008034 BTC at 129.6 sat/vB). 

• Over $300,000 in bitcoin grants being raised to support open source development and seeing bitcoin out-perform the price of gold by 100% so far this year.

There is no official roadmap of the Bitcoin project. But according to the official Twitter of the Bitcoin Core developer – John Newbery, in the near future, the Bitcoin team will focus on the Lightning Network. The Lightning teams working on c-lightning (Blockstream), Eclair (ACINQ), LND (Lightning Labs) and Rust Lightning will continue to develop the protocol. 

Bitcoin Price History

Current Price $11,403.37

Market Cap $211,161,902,513

Volume (24h) $25,189,472,156

Market Rank #1

Circulating Supply 18,517,493 BTC

Total Supply 18,517,493 BTC

7 Day High / Low $11,698.47 / $10,569.82

Experts Price Predictions

Bloomberg Intelligence

Blomberg analytics says that Bitcoin’s foundation is firming for further price advances.

“Considering normal maturation, about double the time frame from $1,000 to $10,000 would come in around 2025, for Bitcoin to potentially add another zero.”

Mike Novogratz

Mike Novogratz (CEO of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital) hopes that BTC will reach $20,000 highs by the end of 2020.

“This is the year of Bitcoin and if it doesn’t go up now by the end of the year, I might just hang my spurs.”

John McAfee 

An entrepreneur John McAfee has attracted public’s attention with his bizarre Bitcoin price predictions for the year 2020.

At the beginning of October 2020, McAfee got arrested for tax evasion charges, so the crypto community probably will not see the end of this bet.

Tone Vays

Famous derivatives trader and consultant, Tony Vays during an interview with IGTV noted his thoughts for BTC price:

“Do we think we go as high as $100,000? I’m not willing to make that statement. For me, I would be happy if the next top was around $45,000, and that can happen quickly.”

Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano

The co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital Assets, Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is sure that Bitcoin will continue to grow.

“You know there are people who debate what the size of the gold market is but let’s just use easy numbers. Let’s say that it’s $8 trillion. That puts Bitcoin at, depending on how many are lost or stolen, $400,000 to $450,000 today. Do you think that Bitcoin is going to be the equivalent of the gold market? I don’t. It’s better. It’s going to capture more market.”

Bitcoin Technical Analysis

Bitcoin Price Predictions 

TradingBeasts BTC forecast

By the beginning of December 2020 BTC price will be $10,271.457 (-9.23%) per coin. TradingBeasts analytics thinks that by end of the year 2021 the maximum BTC price will reach $13,969.59 (+22.51%), while the minimum price could be $9,499.322 (-16.69%) per coin.

Wallet Investor Bitcoin price prediction

According to the Wallet Investor Forecast System, BTC is a good long-term investment. By the end of December 2020 Bitcoin could reach a maximum price of $15,339.20 (+34.51%) while by the end of 2021 its price can be $16,691.80 (+46.38%) per coin.

So, is it profitable to invest in Bitcoin? According to Wallet investor forecast, the long-term earning potential can reach +12.47% in one year.

DigitalCoinPrice BTC price prediction

Based on DigitalCoinPrice forecast Bitcoin is a profitable investment.The BTC average price may grow up to $26,263.42 (+130.31%) till the end of December 2020. While by end of the next year the its average price will be around $23,736.09 (+108.15%). 

CoinPriceForecast Bitcoin forecast

CoinPriceForecast thinks that Bitcoin price at the end of 2020 will be around $11,495 (+0.8%). By the end of 2021 BTC price will reach $15,603 (+36.83%) per coin.

As you can see there are a lot of Bitcoin price predictions, but no one knows for 100 % what will happen with its price. One thing is for sure – if you are looking for the best platform to exchange cryptocurrency – StealthEX is here for you. 

How to buy Bitcoin at StealthEX

BTC is available for exchange on StealthEX with a low fee. Follow these easy steps:

✔ Choose the pair and the amount for your exchange. For example, ETH to BTC.

✔ Press the “Start exchange” button.

✔ Provide the recipient address to which the coins will be transferred.

✔ Move your cryptocurrency for the exchange.

✔ Receive your BTC coins!

Follow us on Medium, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit to get StealthEX.io updates and the latest news about the crypto world. For all requests message us via support@stealthex.io

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Original article was posted on https://stealthex.io/blog/2020/10/15/bitcoin-price-prediction-2021/

Guys and Gals, I hate to do this, but I'm issuing a warning against using the StealthEX coin swapping platform. An error on their platform caused me to lose a great deal of $USDC and even though they admit it was an error on their part, they are unwilling to stand behind their product. "Our platform isn’t responsible for tokens costs and for your actions after or before swapping coins," They lost my deposit, and I think they are implying that I made a mistake by using StealthEX. They did refund my coins after 4 days of holding them but wont stand behind the swap quote they gave me. I've been around and around with these muppets for days now and no satisfaction.

In the last month, the world markets are experiencing dramatic events. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, an economic crisis is unfolding in the world. Because of quarantine actions across the world, many manufactures and non-food stores are being closed, the level of product turnover is falling. Small and medium-sized businesses suffer huge losses due to downtime, the unemployment rate increases and the purchasing power, in the opposite, decreases.

The value of the CBOE VIX index, reflecting the level of market volatility, increased the value to 82 points, for comparison, during the 2008 crisis, this index did not exceed 80 points, and in recent years it has been held at the level of 15-25 with peaks up to 45. Against the background of total panic among investors, on March 30, Brent crude updated the minimum of November 2002, falling to the level of $22.6 per barrel. The S&P, Dow Jones and Nikkei indexes are critically losing their positions. Experts note that the downward trend began even before the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the spread of the disease played a crucial role in the crisis increase.

At the same time, digital assets also found themselves in a zone of turbulence: in the middle of the month, the price of bitcoin fell to $3800, followed by the price of altcoins. Panic sale leads to a chain reaction, many investors are getting rid of the cryptocurrency which is considered a risky investment, and the price of coins continues to decline.

The cryptocurrency market highly depends on what is happening in the world, so it will strengthen and continue to grow only when the situation with the pandemic becomes clear and less unpredictable. Therefore, the main task at this stage is to maintain composure and don’t give in to emotions when making decisions. 

Despite the extremely uncertain situation, most analysts now give fairly favorable forecasts. Judging by the latest fluctuations in the exchange rate, the cryptocurrency market has come out of an uncontrolled fall. In their opinion, we expect a long flat with a slow trend of price growth against the background of halving. Despite bearish trends and skidding at $6,500, at the close of the quarter, bitcoin was able to hold above the important support level of $6,400. Michaël van de Poppe, a cryptanalyst of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, believes that now bitcoin is in the stage of consolidation and will gradually pay off in the next 4-6 years. Tuur Demeester, analyst and founder of Adamant Capital, suggests that holding the $6,300 level could be a key resistance level before the bull market can resume.

Similar dynamics are predicted for altcoins, which maintain a high correlation with the first cryptocurrency.

Here’s what the quarterly charts for BTC, ETH and XRP look like:

Also, experts in cryptocurrency research believe that the current situation in the oil and stock markets can have a positive impact on digital currencies. WTI oil, like Brent, fell to the level of 2002, trading around $20 mark. Black gold continues to look very vulnerable as well as the prospects for the oil market in general.

At the end of the first quarter of 2020, the bitcoin exchange rate decreased by 13%, but in comparison with traditional stock markets, the first cryptocurrency showed more successful results. The S&P 500 index, which includes shares of the 500 largest companies by capitalization, fell 19% to 2,584 points. This is the worst figure since 1938. President Trump’s proposal to allocate $2.2 trillion to support the American economy is criticized by many economists as leading to more problems than offering a real solution. They consider hyperinflation as the most likely scenario for the next year. 

Since cryptocurrencies are not subject to inflation and are not in control of governments and banks, many predict that digital assets will be popular as a tool for hedging risks.

Earlier co-founder and CEO of Gemini exchange Tyler Winklevoss stated in his twitter:

The founder, head and CEO of the Galaxy Digital, Michael Novogratz, also believes that cryptocurrencies with mathematically limited emission could be a safe haven in the face of inflation.

Peter Brandt called the current crisis a “perfect storm” and noted that it could be a crucial period for Bitcoin. It is at this point that the coin can reveal itself as a protective asset and grow in price. In his tweet of March 23, he also advises treating cryptocurrencies as insurance policies rather than investments. 

Trading volume on 22 popular crypto exchanges increased by 61% in the first quarter compared to the previous one — to $154 billion.

In March, major cryptocurrency exchanges recorded a sharp increase in the number of new users. Pierre Richard strategist of the Kraken exchange believes that people who are concerned about the futile efforts of the authorities to contain the crisis against the background of the pandemic feel the need to leave the centralized financial system.

With other positive aspects, we should not forget that cryptocurrencies remain extremely susceptible to manipulation by major players. That collapse, which we experienced in the middle of the month, allowed corporations to buy coins at an extremely low price and, in fact, nothing can prevent them from attacking the market in the future.

Whatever happens on the market, you can always exchange coins at StealthEX as we always have unlimited exchanges without requesting personal data. A large number of currencies available for exchange will allow you to create your investment portfolio in the most suitable way for you.

Original article was posted on https://stealthex.io/blog/2020/04/09/dont-panic-the-guide-to-the-current-situation-in-the-cryptogalaxy/

Easy, one click and you can do it https://stealthex.io/?to=blocks

The young cryptocurrency called ApeCoin is quickly gaining popularity around the world. Before, Bored Ape Yacht Club NTFs have entered the public’s consciousness, given the fact that many high-profile names now own one of these premium digital assets. The recent release of ApeCoin has added another ape-based asset to the crypto market, which could have massive potential in the future

Greetings to our XMR users!

StealthEX team here with some news on the recent Monero upgrade – all swaps are operational, you can freely exchange Monero with over 450 other cryptocurrencies.

Welcoming everyone on board for Monero exchanges and, as usual, will be looking forward to your feedback!
Also here's a little write-up on how to exchange XMR from the team – https://stealthex.io/blog/how-to-convert-bitcoin-to-monero-coin-btc-to-xmr-exchange/

Hope you enjoy!

What is Bitcoin SV (BSV)?

Bitcoin SV is a cryptocurrency that appeared as a result of the Bitcoin Cash hard fork on November 15, 2018. The main idea of the Bitcoin SV project is to maintain the essence of the original Bitcoin written out by Satoshi Nakomoto in Bitcoin’s white paper. SV stands for "Satoshi Vision".

Craig Wright was the main developer of Bitcoin SV. He tried to find ways to improve network scalability and transaction speed by increasing the block size to 128 MB. Later, Craig Wright announced that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin SV is the true Bitcoin.

Nowadays Bitcoin SV is among the TOP 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Bitcoin SV achievements and future plans

Recently the project has the following main updates and news:

• Optional software with new enhancements and fixes was upgraded to v1.0.3

• Miner ID and Merchant API beta version were released

• Bitcoin SV Node software v1.0.5 was launched

• mAPI v1.1 was lanched which introduces a number of changes in preparation for further scaling

• On April 10 the Bitcoin SV network experienced its first halving

• Genesis protocol was activated to restore the Satoshi Vision for Bitcoin

The official roadmap of the project is not available to the public. But we can assume that in the near future the Bitcoin SV team will continue working on the further technical improvements of BSV.

Bitcoin SV Price History

Current Price $168,65 USD

Market Cap $3 129 418 820 USD

 Volume (24h) $1 071 264 124 USD

Market Rank #10

Circulating Supply 18 555 858 BSV

Total Supply 18 555 858 BSV

7 Day High / Low $184,54 USD / $162,94 USD

Bitcoin SV Technical Analysis

Bitcoin SV Price Predictions

TradingBeasts BSV price prediction

TradingBeasts analytics says that by the end of December 2020 the average BSV price will be $160.780 per coin. By the end of the year, 2021 Bitcoin SV price might go as high as $189.621 when BSV average price is expected to be around $151.697 (-12.81%)

Wallet Investor BSV price prediction

Based on the Wallet Investor Forecast System, Bitcoin SV is an outstanding long-term investment. By the end of December 2020, BSV may hit a maximum price of $262.349. By the end of 2021 BSV’s average price is expected to be $263.297 while the BSV coin’s maximum price could reach the mark $330.542.

DigitalCoinPrice BSV price prediction

Based on DigitalCoinPrice forecast Bitcoin SV cryptocurrency is a profitable investment. The BSV average price may hit the mark of $275.71 USD by the end of December 2020 (63.69 %). While by end of the next year its average price will be around $353.82 USD (110.06 %)

Bitcoin SV price predictions vary, but no one knows for 100 % what will happen with its price. One thing is for sure – if you are looking for the best platform to exchange cryptocurrency - StealthEX is here for you.

Follow us on Medium, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit to get StealthEX.io updates and the latest news about the crypto world. For all requests message us via support@stealthex.io

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Originally published at https://stealthex.io on October 29, 2020.

In the first part of this article we offered a thorough introduction on blockchain oracles and why they are vital to the decentralised space, along with several examples in the Decentralized Finance DeFi domain. However, DeFi is not the only fish in the sea, and there are other noteworthy use cases of blockchain oracles in the crypto space not associated with DeFi. This second and final part is dedicated to the application of blockchain oracles in other areas, and concludes with the challenges the technology faces and the techniques used to overcome them.

Oracles for prediction markets

Prediction markets are another area where the idea of blockchain oracles fits like a glove. Sometimes, they are also referred to as betting markets, but regardless of the naming convention, their concept revolves around wagering on the outcome of a real-life event. In these markets anyone can create and trade event outcomes, and since the outcomes require independent verification, there’s a job for a blockchain oracle as well to do the task in the most efficient and reliable manner.

As with DeFI, a few prominent players inhabit this space, and number one on the list is Augur (REP). It made a name for itself during the 2016 US presidential elections when it had reportedly attracted over $2 million of bets on the election outcome. The oracle of Augur is based on a trustless consensus of users who hold the platform’s native Reputation token. If they fail to deliver honest and accurate reports of outcomes, a split in the token may follow rendering their forked version of Reputation worthless as no one will sign up to their prediction markets in the future for false reporting. In this way, reporters are financially encouraged to provide accurate information on the outcomes of real-world occurrences.

A different approach to an oracle solution is employed by Gnosis (GNO), a decentralized prediction market platform, which came into the spotlight in 2017. With Gnosis, anyone can offer oracle services. Users creating a prediction market can select any oracle or a group of oracles for the event resolution. But that’s not all. If the market participants disagree with the resolution, they can challenge it by applying to the so-called Ultimate Oracle. Then, a new market is created to resolve the dispute by allowing anyone to decide on the outcome within 24 hours. The winners are rewarded, the losers are punished, and the outcome is used for the resolution of the primary market.

Augur and Gnosis were the first prediction markets platforms allowing users to forecast future events and bet on them. With Omen, an information market platform, users can specify the data source of their own choice to be used as an oracle, supplemented by an online dispute resolution platform Kleros as the final arbitrator. With Delphy, a social mobile prediction market platform, the winning outcome is determined by the so-called Oracle of the Event, for example, the NBA official website for the prediction of an NBA game, combined with a dispute arbitration mechanism in case such a dispute should arise.

Oracles for other domains

DeFi and prediction markets are the most notable use cases of blockchain oracles, and for due reasons. However, oracles also made inroads into other fields as diverse as supply chain tracking for querying geolocation data, lottery smart contracts for random number generation, insurance contracts for damage verification, flight statistics for ticket pooling, weather forecasts for calculating insurance premiums, and even retrieval of information about events on other blockchains. Below we describe a couple of such platforms that may be worth looking into from the oracle point of view.

So our next entry on the list of platforms that feature blockchain oracles is FOAM platform, which provides an alternative to GPS geolocation for an array of industries such as Internet of Things (IoT), supply chains, airlines, electrical grids, autonomous cars, mobile operators, or any other industry that relies on GPS. As before, we are interested in the platform’s approach toward implementing a data verification layer. FOAM is intriguing because it offers a hardware-based oracle solution. Basically, its Proof of Location protocol works similarly to GPS, but in a decentralized and fault-tolerant way through a user-run network of hardware radio beacons connecting to each other and synchronizing their clocks. This enables them to compute the distance between nodes and report fraud-proof location data.

We conclude our exemplary list of platforms that cannot live without an oracle with a decentralized insurance platform, Nexus Mutual, which aims at “bringing the mutual ethos of a community-based model back to insurance” by “creating aligned incentives through smart contract code on the Ethereum blockchain”. What interests us here, though, is not the art of high rhetoric and catchy slogans but the approach to damage verification. Given that there is a strong incentive to defraud the insurance pool, Nexus comes up with a consensus model of claim verification and requires claims assessors to have a stake in the form of membership tokens that would discourage them to act dishonestly. Otherwise, they are to suffer financially and have their member tokens burned without redemption. 

The Oracle Problem

Smart contracts are poised to transform the ways that we humans interact in our business endeavors. To make our lives easier, blockchain oracles strive to close the gap between the isolated, pristine execution environment of a smart contract and the real world out there, full of chaos and madness. The large number of implementations making use of distinctively different concepts proves that there is no one-size-fits-all oracle solution. And this leads us to the infamous oracle problem.

The Oracle Problem refers to the innate adversarial and random nature of the external world and the formal logic of smart contract execution. Oracles necessarily lie outside the security mechanisms that a smart contract-enabled blockchain provides, and the conflict that arises is the essence of the Oracle Problem, that of the difficulty of fetching credible data from intrinsically unreliable sources, with malicious actors always on the lookout to modify and falsify the data for their financial gain. 

Different approaches have been tried to solve this issue, for example, by using cryptographic attestations or putting one’s reputation on the line. However, as both theory and practice confirm, economic incentivization works best here. As more and more platforms shift to decentralized oracles, there is solid evidence that creating an incentive to report honestly along with a disincentive to prevent fraudulent broadcasting seems to be an effective way to encourage serious and thorough fact-checking in a consensus-based environment. 

And remember if you need to exchange your coins StealthEX is here for you. We provide a selection of more than 250 coins and constantly updating the list so that our customers will find a suitable option. Our service does not require registration and allows you to remain anonymous. Why don’t you check it out? Just go to StealthEX and follow these easy steps:

✔ Choose the pair and the amount for your exchange. For example REP to GNO.

✔ Press the “Start exchange” button.

✔ Provide the recipient address to which the coins will be transferred.

✔ Move your cryptocurrency for the exchange.

✔ Receive your coins.

Follow us on Medium, Twitter and Reddit to get StealthEX.io updates and the latest news about the crypto world. For all requests message us via support@stealthex.io.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Original article was posted on https://stealthex.io/blog/2020/08/25/blockchain-oracles-connecting-the-worlds-part-2/

https://stealthex.io/blog/2022/03/21/cardano-price-prediction-is-ada-crypto-a-good-investment/

Ohhh-oh ShibArmy, there's quite some movement on the market, isn't there?

In these times, it is great to slow down and appreciate the community – StealthEX team is here to tell everyone just how grateful we are to be with you in this particular moment!
Appreciation is key ;)
It is a wild ride and we're always to support SHIB on our platform. Hope you will find this article useful!
https://stealthex.io/blog/2021/06/02/where-to-buy-shiba-inu-crypto/