This price rally is not showing signs of exhaustion yet. The next resistance will be the psychological $10k level and if we see a move above, then expect to see the price at around $12k next. Of course, this is a volatile market, so be ready for corrective price drops, possibly very sharp moves.
Bitcoin Hash Rate hits record highs.
The fundamentals of Bitcoin are growing stronger every day. Combine that with the recent price surge to over $9000 and we can feel quite confident that the crypto market will keep trending upwards.
In simple terms, a hash rate can be defined as the speed at which a given mining machine operates. Crypto mining involves finding blocks through complex computations. The blocks are like mathematical puzzles. The mining machine has to make thousands or even millions of guesses per second to find the right answers to solve the block.
Now that the cryptocurrency bull market has started here is what to look out for:
1. Don’t send money to giveaways (that’s not how giveaways work) 2. Don’t use an exchange as a wallet (not your keys not your coins) 3. Don’t buy coins claiming to be “the real bitcoin” 4. Don’t go all in 5. Use 2FA 6. Have fun!
Written by Martin Berggren, market analyst.
What is happening in crypto?
Facebook to announce their own crypto coin
Facebook plans to roll out a cryptocurrency for its 2.38 billion users, called Global Coin. Reportedly Facebook plans to start testing the currency late 2019. It will be a stable coin backed with a basket of several fiat currencies. The whitepaper will be released 18 June.
Litecoin halving coming up in august
It is time to cut the block reward in half for Litecoin. This halving event occurs every 4 years for Bitcoin as well as Litecoin. This will direct attention to the scarcity of the asset, there will only be 84 million Litecoins in existence. Historically, the price has surged higher around the time of the halving. Price for Litecoin is currently at around 117 usd.
Bitcoin mining difficulty hits record highs
Bitcoin reaching a new mining difficult All Time High. This means that the network is now more secure than it has ever been. Difficulty refers to the ease with which miners solve the cryptographic equations required to ‘mine’ a new block on the network.
Long time Bitcoin proponent and RT host, Max Keiser, had this to say:
Looking at the charts the trend is up on higher timeframes. Slightly bearish short term, as the Bitcoin price was rejected at the $9000 level, after a parabolic run from $3200 since last December.
A probable scenario would look something like this: Not financial advice, just my own opinion.
Written by Martin Berggren, market analyst.
Estonian athletes, sponsored by PiixPay achieved great results in the Windsurfing World Championship
Martin Ervin, sponsored
by PiixPay took the third place and Frank Ervin came in twelfth in the
Windsurfing World Championship.
The
Formula Windsurfing World Championship took place in Portimão, Algarve,
southern Portugal. Martin Ervin and Frank Ervin, both sponsored by PiixPay,
achieved great results in the competition.
Despite
all efforts, the weather conditions did the competitors no favors. As a result,
competitors were only able to compete on three out of five days, completing 7
races during the course of the championship.
Janis
Preiss was declared the 2019 Formula Windsurfing World Champion. Miguel
Martinho took a well-deserved third place. Martin Ervin fought hard for a place
on the Podium, stepping up to claim the third place trophy. Frank Ervin
finished the competition in 12th place.
Estonian companies make it possible to invest cryptocurrency in gold and silver
PRESS RELEASE
Aufort, an Estonian company
specializing in the investment of gold and silver, has partnered with
cryptocurrency payment provider Piixpay. Their cooperation enables
cryptocurrency owners to exchange digital money for the oldest money in the
world: gold or silver.
According to Erik Karu, one of
the founders and board members of Aufort, the new service is meant for
cryptocurrency owners who wish to protect their digital assets from volatility
and diffuse the risks related to it.
“Cryptocurrency is the world’s newest
form of money and its price can fluctuate dramatically over a short period of
time. However, precious metals have held their value for centuries, and trading
cryptocurrency for gold or silver allows investors to protect their assets from
these unpredictable fluctuations. Aufort and Piixpay provide this service to
cryptocurrency owners as an alternative opportunity to keep their assets in the
form they consider to be the best,“ said Erik Karu.
Raivo Malter, the founder of the
Estonian cryptocurrency payment platform Piixpay, emphasized that the strength
of their company lies in a fast and simple solution: offering their clients
other interesting services in addition to everyday billing.
“Cryptocurrency is a rather
complex and novel payment method, acting as a bridge between the old and the
new financial systems. On one hand, private individuals are able to pay using
cryptocurrency, and on the other hand, businesses can easily manage sales in
cryptocurrency whilst still using euros in their accounting,“ said Raivo
Malter.
Aufort makes it possible to buy
gold, silver, and diamonds with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Dash for
the time being.
The gold and silver investment
specialists were previously known as SMI. After undergoing a period of expansion,
the company’s founders decided to rebrand under the name Aufort which reflects
the essence of their company better and enables them to expand globally.
Founder and board member Bert-Ken
Raudberg explained: “Aufort’s long-term goal is to make owning investment gold
more flexible and comfortable. We plan to come up with several interesting
technological solutions in the near future, which will be scalable for the
global market.“
In the five years that Aufort has
been in business, the company has sold more than 76 000 grams of gold and
silver and has devised innovative solutions for giving gifts. They have also
served thousands of clients. The new trademark consists of two parts: Au
meaning gold and fort meaning a fortress. Together, this signifies a gold fortress.
PiixPay is synonymous with the following keywords: fast service, customer satisfaction and cybersecurity. Its payment solution relies on refined IT technology and enables the use of cryptocurrency in day-to-day transactions. The technology is identical to that of the banks in that it is fully automatic and follows the laws and inspections accordingly to prevent and avoid money laundering. Piixpay.com has been in the market for five years and the team works hard every day to follow regulations and come up with new services.
Additional information:
Bert-Ken Raudberg
Founder and board member
bert@aufort.gold
www.aufort.gold
Joined the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
We are pleased to announce that Payster Group has become a member of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We are delighted to be part of a network of companies with a mission to promote entrepreneurship.
Piixpay.com co-founder Evald-Hannes Kree is receiving membership certificate.
The chamber represents the interests of the members in the formation of Estonian economic policy and takes part in the submission of proposals to improve legislation to the state and governing bodies.
Digitization in Estonia has changed the conventional world of financial payments. It has brought about new and innovative solutions such as instant banking, e-wallets and various crypto payment platforms. We are eager to contribute to the improvement of legislation concerning these topics. In fact, the chamber submitted ca 100 opinions last year regarding various legislative initiatives in order to make Estonian business environment more entrepreneur-friendly.
We are impressed by the Chamber’s determination to take a clear stance in case an initiative has a negative impact. As members of such an influential organization, we have the opportunity to express our views and concerns regarding issues related to the Estonian business environment and give rise to the change we would like to see in the industry.
Think Crypto’s Challenges Are Unique? It’s Just History Repeating Itself
From bartering to blockchain, the world of money – and the way we transfer it – has never stood still. Indeed, even the assets we prize have changed. Although it might be nice to have some vegetables in your fridge, using it as a form of currency has probably never crossed your mind.
It’s easy to take financial systems for granted. But every advancement over the centuries has caused some major disruption and a lot of getting used to. With each new system came imperfections and pitfalls – and in some ways, this is good. Cryptocurrencies hold a lot of promise but still face teething problems and challenges. History tells us that this is to be expected, and things can be fixed with patience and a few bright sparks.
Buckle yourselves in. Together, we’re going to take a journey exploring where money transfers began, and how we got to where we are today. Surprisingly, the issues facing crypto right now have been seen throughout the centuries.
Barter
We’re going way back to start off – so imagine everything in black and white. The barter system was the one of the first known forms of trading, pioneered and relied upon by civilizations as far back as 9000 BC. Goods would be exchanged for anything from food and tea leaves to spices, weapons and even human skulls. In every sense, this system is the godfather of money as we know it today.
Cowrie shells
As you can imagine, lugging around cattle and heavy sacks of grain whenever you wanted something from someone would have been a bit of a drag. Thankfully, it only took a few thousand years for traders to get a better idea – create a small and portable replica which symbolizes the goods which are yet to come.
Around 1200 BC, merchants in China started to use cowrie shells, which were commonly found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They were later imitated in bronze and copper. Metal knives were also popular as a substitute for the items due to be delivered – but perhaps unsurprisingly, sharp edges were taken away to swerve any nasty accidents. Often, holes would feature in the middle so they could be linked together – and it’s from here the inspiration for coins was born. Fun fact for a dinner party? Cowrie shells were still commonly used as currency in parts of Africa until the early 1900s. Now that’s stamina.
Creating an asset which represents something else is something that hundreds of utility coins in the crypto world do today. Digital tokens are increasingly being used to represent assets in the physical world – bringing a whole new meaning to ownership.
Coins
Fast forward just 700 years (why aren’t all history lessons this fast?) and we finally get to something resembling money – the coins jingling in your pocket. Or not if you’re a diehard crypto nerd, or like the Queen, who doesn’t carry cash.
By the time we arrive at 500 BCE, coins have popped up in Persia, Turkey, Greece and Macedonia – and soon enough, the Roman Empire was getting in on the action. That said, its soldiers appeared to take the revolution with a grain of salt, as many of them appear to have been partly paid in, er, salt. A payment method that’s slow to take off and enjoy mainstream adoption – that rings a bell.
Paper currency
At roughly the same time, paper currency was beginning to come along in leaps and bounds, but they did cause immense amounts of price volatility. In some cases, countries created way too many of these bills – devaluing their currencies and causing rampant price inflation. The story of price volatility sounds familiar, with the price of bitcoin soaring dramatically in 2018 before crashing – sending shock waves through the entire cryptocurrency market and prompting experts to question its suitability for day-to-day use.
Returning to history, banknotes soon emerged which were tied to precious metals like gold and silver – commodities which are still regarded as safe havens today. Further inventions such as checks (16th century) and the telegraph (19th century – yes, still in black and white) helped modernize transactions and speed up transfers. Want another fun fact for that dinner party? The rollout of telegraph systems paved the way for Western Union, which launched in 1851.
Making notes notable
With money changing hands in ever larger quantities, it became important for bank notes to be trusted and recognized internationally. This resulted in nations including England and the US moving away from gold as a value standard – and instead, they established centralized institutions like the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve. Many crypto organizations, which do not rely on central banks, are now underwriting their digital currencies with precious metals – and some banks are even making a cautious foray into the world of crypto.
The modern era
Here’s where we start to leave black and white behind and live in technicolor, with the traditional financial systems we’ve all grown up with. The middle of the 20th century brought about the advent of credit cards, and the late 1960s saw the launch of ATMs. By the 1970s, banks teamed together to launch SWIFT – or to give it its longer, catchier name, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communication. This allowed financial institutions to talk to one another and facilitate transfers globally – but even today, these can still take a few business days to clear.
Transaction speeds started to rev up as we entered the new millennium thanks to eCommerce platforms such as PayPal, but indeed, these were (and are) still tied to old-fashioned banks. The huge global downturn 10 years ago, which saw several financial institutions collapse, could be regarded as the straw that broke the camel’s back – with high fees, slow speeds, a lack of transparency and the exclusion of hundreds of millions of people without a bank account leading some to realize that a new approach was needed.
The future?
Just like cowrie shells had to gain traction all those millennia ago, cryptocurrencies and blockchainare now hoping to deliver a seismic change in money transfers – and economies as we know them. Their immutable records at every stage of a transaction helps prevent fraud and money laundering – speeding up transfers while driving down costs for consumers. Sure, there are hurdles to overcome, but as we’ve seen, practically every development in the history of money has had endured struggles at one point or another.
Several platforms are working to make cryptocurrencies practical – and minimize currency losses. For example, Piixpay enables users to settle bills and transfer money to friends and family using Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, or Dash – with these payments arriving to recipients in the form of euros.
Slow adoption, price volatility, underwriting currencies with gold and banks slow to embrace new technology. To understand cryptocurrency’s challenges today, it really pays to look at the problems of yesterday (and yestercentury.)
PiixPay: Use Cryptocurrency To Pay Family, Bills Or Send Money?
While cryptocurrencies are being adopted for a host of novel applications across the globe, it is still rare to see business owners paying monthly salaries in the form of digital assets such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum.
With that being said, it should also be mentioned that in the past six months there have been many companies such as Bitwage, BitPay that have provided crypto holders with a new way of facilitating trade and exchange within a modern business context.
What Is PiixPay?
PiixPay is an all new “crypto-payment platform” that allows anyone to send and receive invoices in the form of digital assets across the globe. It makes use of a standardized currency rate so that customers can lock in a fixed exchange rate— thereby minimizing currency losses for all involved parties.
In term of its functionality, users need to start by entering their invoice specifics as well as their name and contact details. Once all of the paperwork is over, the payee needs to send across a fixed number of bitcoins to a specific wallet address that is provided to them.
After processing all of the data-sets, PiixPay then carries out the payment in the form of a SEPA bank transaction (using euro as its currency standard).
PiixPay Use Crypto To Pay Family, Bills Or Send Money Aspects
Economically Viable:
Owing to the various monetary regulations that exist within East Europe, SEPA transfers are usually cumbersome. However, PiixPay helps push these transactions in a way such that all invoices are cleared within a period of 1-3 working days.
Easy To Use For Merchants:
If users wish to apply for a merchant account, they can do so by sending the folks over at PiixPay an email describing the nature of their business setup, along with their contact details.
Open Source System:
The API used by PiixPay is open for everyone to utilize and modify as per their specifications and requirements.
PDF Invoicing Option:
As and when an invoice is generated, companies can directly forward these documents to the PiixPay processing module which will then scan the QR code and convert the payment amount into the correct number of Bitcoins (based on the current exchange rate).
Who Is Behind PiixPay?
PiixPay is the brainchild of Raivo Malter who is a professional IT consultant and entrepreneur. Raivo holds a degree in business administration and has been in the Bitcoin domain for over 6 years. He is also one of the founding members of the Estonian Cryptocurrency Association.
Similarly, Evald-Hannes Kree is the co-Founder of this platform. He too has been in the fintech sector for over half a decade and is currently working to acquire his Master’s degree in international business management.
How Do I Sign Up For PiixPay?
To start making transfers through PiixPay, users need to follow the instructions that are provided on the homescreen of the website.
The service is entirely free and can be made use of within a matter of minutes. Once all of the transactional details have been entered and the payment has been executed, users can then click on the “check payment” tab to keep a close watch on the status of their funds.
