Crypto markets continue its positive momentum as the bitcoin prices are now just short of $9,000 levels with the total cryptocurrency market cap approaching the $400 billion mark. Last week proved to very good for crypto enthusiasts as the bulls were seen taking charge of the markets. The crypto surge added $80 billion to the overall market valuations as per the on CoinMarketCap, and this price-rally has been majorly contributed by bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple besides other altcoins.
At the press time, is trading at $8,927.27 while the overall crypto market valuations are at $399 billion, according to the data on CoinMarketCap.
As the U.S tax deadline passed away last week, analysts believe that the bitcoin price rally to the $20000 mark is just to kick-in. Fundstart analyst and bitcoin proponent, Tom Lee said: “We believe the ‘winter’ is ending for bitcoin, as the crypto to fiat pressures from tax day subside, and as headline risks seem to be fading.”
Considering the CoinsharesCrypto ETF, which is a major indicator of BTC price movements, he said: “We believe large institutional investors globally use this ETF as a way to quickly gain exposure to bitcoin. Hence when shares rise, big money is buying bitcoin.”
bitcoin Cash is seen once again leading the pack today posting a nearly 20% gain while trading just short of $1400 levels. It looks like as the bitcoin Cash is approaching closer, more and more traders are lining up to grab this bitcoin derivative at the earliest. The new bitcoin Cash hard fork scheduled next month in May is expected to bring new features to the network along with simplified smart contracts that is driving the craze further.
Moreover, there has been a renewed positive in the market towards bitcoin as the SegWit usage continues to grow since the beginning of the year. As per the latest data, Segwit transactions now amount to 32% of the total transactions while occupying 27% of the total block space in the bitcoin network. Most of the crypto exchanges and wallets have now adopted the change and the use of SegWit is now giving a further push to the most awaited Lightning Network development.
Last month, Lightning Labs the first bitcoin mainnet-ready Lightning Network after reaching 1000 active nodes. The Lightning Network is basically a second layer protocol developed atop the bitcoin’s blockchain network, which takes transactions off the chain, thereby reducing congestion on the main network while expanding the blockchain’s operational abilities by manifold times. Later, it will add the record of all these transactions to the BTC’s blockchain network.
Former JPMorgan banker, Daniel Masters is quite bullish on the future of digital currencies saying that they are fuelling a financial revolution. Masters currently heads the digital investment bank Coinshares and is the chief investment officer at Global Advisors.
Masters remains bullish on the crypto growth story and says that the future looks to be promising with the crypto markets being much bigger than they are today.
The post appeared first on .
After a Russian court enacted an immediate ban on the popular encrypted messaging service Telegram, the feisty company began to resist. Founder Pavel Durov insisted there were ways around the prohibition, including proxies and VPNs. It appears to have had some success even though millions of IP addresses have been blocked by the government. In response, some activists took to making paper airplanes (the company’s logo) in protest, flying them at the country’s notorious security agency’s headquarters, with some protesters being arrested. Mr. Durov took to his personal channel, urging Russians to fly their own paper airplanes in unison at a specific time.
Also read: in Effort to Thwart Russian Authorities
Telegram Continues to Resist Russian Government Crackdown
“For 7 days Russia has been trying to ban Telegram on its territory – with no luck so far,” the still defiant founder of the encrypted messaging service posted to his personal channel. “I’m thrilled we were able to survive under the most aggressive attempt of internet censorship in Russian history with almost 18 million IP addresses blocked.”
Back on April 13, Dmitri S. Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, , “There is a certain legislation that demands certain data to be passed to certain services of the Russian Federation.” Judge Yulia Smolina agreed, ruling, “The ban on access to information will be in force until the [Federal Security Service’s] demands are met on providing keys for decrypting user messages.”
Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina
Roskomnadzor, a censuring media body, made the most vigorous argument in asking the court to shutter Telegram. Last month, the company appealed before the Supreme Court over Russia’s Federal Security Service’s (FSB) 800,000 ruble fine. The FSB ordered Telegram to decrypt messages in accordance with relatively recent anti-terrorism laws. “We don’t do deals with marketers, data miners or government agencies. Since the day we launched in August 2013 we haven’t disclosed a single byte of our users’ private data to third parties,” a Telegram blog post insisted. Telegram was summarily banned, effective immediately.
An initial response by Mr. Durov came also on his personal channel, explaining, “To support internet freedoms in Russia and elsewhere I started giving out bitcoin grants to individuals and companies who run socks5 proxies and VPN. I am happy to donate millions of dollars this year to this cause, and hope that other people will follow. I called this Digital Resistance – a decentralized movement standing for digital freedoms and progress globally.”
Paper airplanes flown at Russia’s security agency in protest over country’s ban on Telegram.
The Digital Resistance Gets Paper Wings
Activists took to the streets roughly 4 days ago, placing themselves in front of the Federal Security Services’ headquarters, armed with colored paper. They then began to make paper airplanes in remembrance of the iconic Telegram logo. Not soon after, busses of uniformed police rolled up, and began dispersing the crowd, and wound up arresting Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina. She was brought before a nearby magistrate, booked on blocking a public passageway, and released.
In response, Mr. Durov insisted on April 22, “If you live in Russia and support free internet, from your window at 7 PM local time today. Please collect the airplanes in your neighborhood an hour later – remember, today is Earth Day. My thanks to all the members of the #Digitalresistance movement. Keep up your great work setting up socks5-proxies and VPNs and spreading them among your Russian friends and relatives. They will be needed as the country descends into an era of full-scale internet censorship.”
Do you think such protests make a difference? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Do you agree with us that bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything bitcoin. We have a. And a. And a, a and real-time .
The post appeared first on .
