From a win for Bitcoin mining in Canada to the most popular decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
Hydro-Québec, Canada’s largest electric company, will award a 300-megawatt block of electricity to the local blockchain industry to attract Bitcoin miners. The total amount of electricity allotted to the blockchain sector is now 668-megawatts.
Canada’s power companies already clock some of the lowest electricity prices around the world. At $0.10/kWh, less than a quarter of the rate for New York and Boston, energy prices in Québec are far below those of other major cities across North America.
According to the announcement,
“[The new allocation] will allow us to accommodate these new customers without negatively impacting our power budget. We will be able to protect the low rates offered to our customers.”
Comparative index of electricity prices residential customers
Consumption: 1,000 kWh/month
Says Jonathan Hammel, a Bitcoin technology consultant with the Montreal Economic Institute,
“The decision of the Québec Energy Board is a major victory for Bitcoin miners in Québec but also for Bitcoin in general. It’s a clear demonstration that Bitcoin-related businesses are operating within the scope of the law of the land.”
Ethereum
Crypto research company Santiment has revealed the top 10 decentralized apps built on Ethereum, based on developer activity in the last month.
At the top of the list is Storj, a decentralized cloud object storage service, with 155.60 hours of developer activity. Other top projects include Status, a mobile messenger and browser DApp; Augur, a platform for peer-to-peer market predictions; and Loom, a PaaS network for decentralized social app and game development.
Ripple and XRP
SEC-registered investment adviser Sharespost has issued an investment report on Ripple. The report analyzes the upside scenarios and downside risks of XRP.
“Ripple also owns XRP, the cryptocurrency that runs on RippleNet to provide a low-cost cross-border transaction and eliminate risks associated with payment processing. Ripple created a total of 100 billion XRP, of which nearly 40 percent currently circulates.”
- Upside
- Favorable guidance from the SEC could give Ripple a boost since the San Francisco-based startup already makes scalable products for global financial institutions.
- XRP, the third most popular cryptocurrency, is expected to decrease costs and increase speed, security, and reliability of cross border payments.
- Risks
- Deep pocketed banks and payment companies are challenging Ripple.
- The number of companies offering solutions for payments is on the rise, which may lead to industry consolidation.
You can check out the full report here.
Litecoin
The Litecoin Foundation has partnered with Cobo Vault, creator of military-grade hardware wallets, to deliver a Litecoin branded Cobo device that stores digital recovery phrases and protects them from the elements. The waterproof, 6061 aluminium tablet-sized device is resistant to corrosion, acid and fire.
Check out our collaboration w/ @CoboVault for our Litecoin-branded Cobo Tablet! Get yours for only $49.00 https://t.co/SJCDLoi6yP … 🔐💪⚡️
☑️ Secure your crypto on your own terms
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☑️ Support the Litecoin Foundation! pic.twitter.com/8DIOirSw6r— Litecoin Foundation (@LTCFoundation) May 3, 2019
Stellar
Wirex co-founder Pavel Mateev is offering more insight on why the company chose to create 26 stablecoins on the Stellar network.
In a new interview with Coin Rivet, Mateev commented on the partnership.
“Stellar is the right partner for this project due to our shared goal of democratizing access to financial services – not to mention the superior infrastructure and scalability of the Stellar blockchain…
Wirex and Stellar share several key core beliefs about the role of digital currency and its potential to change the way people use and managed their money. Stellar seeks to enable swift, reliable and inexpensive money transfers for institutions, systems and people around the world – a mission that matches perfectly with Wirex’s vision of a fully-tokenized future. We want to bank the unbanked, democratize access to financial services and facilitate the integration of the burgeoning token economy.”
Tron
Tron has released its latest report on the network’s DApp ecosystem.
The report breaks down the three newest games, which includes Tron Jedies where players can cash out TRX directly into their wallets.
Cardano
Cristo on Crypto has released a new podcast episode. In this week’s show Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson joins Cristo in a conversation about the bear market’s effects on Cardano (ADA), Haskell training in Ethiopia, the pros and cons of being a public figure, BTC and ETH scaling issues, and the future of Cardano.
[the_ad id="42537"] [the_ad id="42536"]🔥 NEW INTERVIEW 🔥
By far @IOHK_Charles was one of of the best guests we’ve had on. We talked about @Cardano of course but also:– Training Ethiopian women in Haskell
– How Cardano has faired well overall
– Bitcoin and Eth scaling issuesListen here: https://t.co/sgZ7sbkxNk pic.twitter.com/lnPB573Ufe
— Cristo On Crypto (@cristooncrypto) May 1, 2019
