Bitcoin
The latest stats from Coin ATM Radar show there are now 4,273 Bitcoin and crypto ATMs around the world. The number has grown more than 750% since 2016, when there were just 501 in existence. In January alone, 222 crypto ATMs were switched on. However, in the same time period, 73 were taken offline, for a net gain of 149.
#Cryptocurrency #ATM industry statistics for January 2019: 222 installed, 73 closed, +149 (3.6%) net growth rate https://t.co/FS0xEcfvqZ pic.twitter.com/he9f0Gikl5
— Coin ATM Radar ₿🏧 (@CoinATMRadar) February 8, 2019
Ripple
Ripple has announced the latest upgrade to the XRP Ledger. A new release from the San Francisco-based startup says version 1.2.0 is designed to bolster security and prevent any single entity from deciding which transactions are approved.
“Already highly resistant to censorship attempts, with the release of version 1.2.0 of the XRP Ledger, servers now have the ability to automatically detect transaction censorship attempts and issue warnings of increasing severity for transactions that a server believes should have been included in a closed ledger after several rounds of consensus.”
Anyone who runs a node on the open-source network will need to install the new version by February 27th to remain up and running.
Tron
Tron founder and CEO Justin Sun, who was just tapped to pass the Bitcoin Lightning torch, says he doesn’t really see Bitcoin as a competitor.
In a new interview with The Street, Sun says he doesn’t worry about whether Tron can one day catch up with Bitcoin’s market cap. Instead, he remains laser focused on smart contract competitors Ethereum and EOS.
“At Tron, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how to overtake Bitcoin in market capitalization. We’re focusing instead on executing our plan, looking at our close competitors in the decentralized application space like Ethereum and EOS, and longer-term competition like the big companies that dominate the online world’s status quo. If we execute the plan well, gains in market cap will logically follow.”
