From the surfacing of a huge Bitcoin whale to new adoption for XRP and Stellar, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
Crypto whale watchers are following a huge transfer of $189 million in Bitcoin.
Someone just transferred 48,000 BTC. The crypto was sent from one unknown wallet to another, and so far does not appear to be heading to a cryptocurrency exchange.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 48,000 #BTC (189,671,159 USD) transferred from Unknown wallet to Unknown wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 29, 2018
The move follows a series of big XRP transfers. It also comes on the heels of a massive crypto reorganization from Coinbase, which moved 5% of all Bitcoin, 8% of all Ethereum and 25% of all Litecoin in circulation.
Ripple and XRP
The online and mobile money transmitter platform Neteller just added XRP to its crypto lineup.
The UK-based company gives users an easy way to buy, store and transfer crypto, as well as convert it to fiat. Neteller also offers Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin and 0x, and supports 28 different fiat currencies.
Ethereum
The latest ConsenSys-sponsored Week in Ethereum blog post is out.
This week’s edition covers covers a slew of developer updates and news on a number of Ethereum-based platforms, including Enjin Coin, Loopring and 0x.
It also features a podcast on how to move crypto “from vision to mainstream reality” with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. He joins a16z crypto general partner Chris Dixon and a16z editor-in-chief Sonal Chokshi as they cover early adoption to myths to the global need for crypto.
The edition also dives into useful tips for developers and the crypto curious, with a look at how to learn zk-SNARKs by using a popular board game.
Writes Koh Wei Jie,
“Zero-knowledge proofs nevertheless hold great potential. Their applications include untraceable cryptocurrencies such as ZCash, better scalability for Ethereum via off-chain transaction batching, and privacy-preserving identity proofs. Developers in the crypto ecosystem would therefore do well to learn about ZKPs.”
The learning-curve tip: Mastermind.
Stellar
Bitnovo just added Stellar (XLM) to its crypto debit card, which gives users in Italy and Spain a convenient way to spend crypto at places like restaurants and retail stores.
The card, designed to drive crypto adoption without reinventing the wheel, also supports Bitcoin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Zcash.
Another ‘STELLAR’ surprise! From today we introduce Stellar Lumens to top up the #Bitcard and convert #XLM into euros ??https://t.co/baHXIzOAj8
@StellarLumens @Stellar_XLM_ @interstellardex @xlm_usd @xlmstellarlumen @StellarOrg @stellar_coin pic.twitter.com/e3ktyJbNCV— Bitnovo (@bitnovo) December 20, 2018
Tron
Tron’s latest report on the platform’s decentralized apps is out.
The report looks at new additions to the Tron DApp ecosystem, including new games and a Tron-based decentralized exchange from JOYSO. The exchange features on-chain order matching, allowing users to trade any token directly via their digital wallets.
