Best Bitcoin Gambling Sites

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:31:37 +0000

When Satoshi created Bitcoin in 2009, it didn’t take long before some clever individuals started exploring its use for online gambling. Hitting recent highs of over $60,000, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum are gaining in popularity, and many users are choosing to use them for online gambling.

IN A RUSH?

Go straight to our expert’s top pick. For the best all-around Bitcoin gambling experience, Bitstarz is our top pick.

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Now, over a decade later, many different cryptocurrencies can be used for gambling, and hundreds of different crypto casinos have launched to fill this huge new demand.

Discover the best Bitcoin gambling sites in our expert’s top picks.

Out of the land rush to create the best Bitcoin casino, a few sites emerged as leaders in the new crypto-powered gaming industry. In 2023, these sites continue to evolve, offering new ways to play and pushing innovations in crypto gambling.

Best Option for Your Country

NOTE: Many gambling sites restrict certain countries from using their services. Although some users may choose to use a VPN to access the sites, its probably a better idea to find a site that doesn’t exclude your country.

The table below lists the best sites for users from countries that are sometimes excluded.

Country	Working Casino	Play
United States		Play Now
United Kingdom		Play Now
Australia		Play Now
France		Play Now
Netherlands		Play Now
Spain		Play Now
Italy		Play Now
Sweden		Play Now
Israel		Play Now

If you’re a user in a country not listed above then you can ignore this table and continue on to read our selection of the best overall sites below.

Crypto Gambling vs. Traditional Gambling

Here, we’re going to explore some of the best Bitcoin gambling sites the industry has to offer and discover the unique player experience each casino brings.

But before we get started, let’s find out why you might want to use cryptocurrency for gambling in the first place.

You might be wondering, why use cryptocurrency to gamble, when you could just use traditional currency and payment types?

It’s a great question, and it’s best answered with a list of the pros and cons of crypto gambling vs. traditional gambling.

Pros of crypto gambling

Transaction speeds – Deposits and withdrawals are usually much faster compared to traditional methods such as bank transfers, because of the speed of blockchain transactions. Most withdrawals can be processed in 1 hour or less.
Higher limits – Many crypto gambling sites will have higher deposit and withdrawal limits for crypto customers, meaning you can withdraw more of your winnings in a shorter amount of time.
Anonymity – Some, but not all, crypto casinos and gambling sites will allow you to deposit funds and play without verifying your identity, which is great if you’re privacy-conscious.
Transparency – If you play using a dedicated crypto gambling site, most of the transactions that you make will be on the blockchain, meaning that they are traceable and immutable, and reducing the likelihood of the ‘house’ cheating.
Amazing bonuses – Often, crypto casinos and gaming sites are able to offer bonuses and promotions which simply wouldn’t be possible using regular fiat currencies!
Better odds – Everyone knows that casinos have a slight advantage over their players called ‘house edge’, and it’s needed to keep casinos profitable. But with Bitcoin gambling sites, the house edge can be lower because of decreased costs – and with some crypto casinos, there’s no house edge at all.

Cons of crypto gambling

Less choice – At the moment, there are fewer crypto gaming sites than traditional online casinos, so players have access to fewer games, but this is changing, and may even flip in the future.
Some technical know-how required – To gamble with crypto, you’re going to need to buy crypto! Not everyone is tech-savvy enough to do this at first, but this guide will teach you how.
Volatility – As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are volatile, with their value fluctuating throughout the day, the value of your winnings could be eroded by market forces. However, you should remember its value can also go up!

How can you use crypto to gamble?

Naturally, to start gambling with crypto, you’ll first need to buy some coins or tokens from an exchange. Bitcoin is by far the most popular choice for crypto gambling, although many online casinos will also accept ‘alt-coins’ such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, or even Dogecoin.

To buy Bitcoin, you’ll first need to make an account with an exchange where you can buy crypto with fiat currency, such as Coinbase. These exchanges let you buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which you can then transfer to your favorite crypto gambling site!

We explain some of the best and easiest ways to buy cryptocurrency in our ‘How to Buy Bitcoin’ guide, so check it out if you need help buying your first Bitcoin.

Some of the casinos we’re going to look at here also allow you to buy crypto using a credit or debit card, instead of buying crypto on an exchange and transferring it over.

However, many crypto gambling sites will require you to send crypto to your casino wallet to play, so it’s best to familiarize yourself with this process first!

When you’re playing on a Bitcoin gambling site, unless you’re a real big player, you usually won’t be betting whole Bitcoins! Instead, most Bitcoin betting sites will let you place bets in ‘milli-bitcoin’ or ‘mBTC’, which is 0.001 BTC. Naturally, you can also place bets lower than this on most sites.

Best Bitcoin Gambling Sites

So, you’ve decided you want to gamble with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, and you’ve got your crypto ready to go. But how do you choose the best gambling site? Use the table below to take a look at our top picks, or scroll down to read a detailed review on each site.

Casino Noteworthy Features Play

Transparent custody, trustworthy, great security, sportsbook feature, esports betting.

Play Now

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The Rise of LINU: Community-Driven Crypto Project Gets Double Exchange Listing

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 10:33:39 +0000

LINU’s Story

LINU’s origin story is one of ups and downs. The project saw massive early hype, reaching a market cap of around $15 million. Investors flocked to LINU, seeing it as a safe haven after losing money in the Terra Luna crash. However, the anonymous developer who created LINU had secretly bought a large supply of tokens early on, only to dump them once the price skyrocketed. This sent the community into a panic, and the price plummeted.

But the LINU community refused to give up. They realized that the underlying smart contract was still safe, with 0% tax on transactions, a renounced contract, and liquidity locked for 75 years. Community leaders took it upon themselves to revive the project, driven by the belief in the power of decentralization.

Since then, LINU has seen impressive growth, crushing obstacles along the way, thanks to the strength and conviction of its community. The mission is clear: to educate investors about centralization risks and prove that community-driven projects can thrive.

Double Exchange Listing

As per the LINU subreddit, this week marks a significant milestone for LINU, with the project set to be listed on two major exchanges: FameEx on March 13th and BitMart on March 14th. The community’s generous donations and unwavering support have played an integral role in reaching this point.

As the crypto world embraces the recent bull run, LINU is poised to be a significant player. By putting the power back in the hands of the community, this decentralized project aims to show the world what can be achieved when people come together, united by a common goal.

The rise of LINU is a testament to the resilience and passion of its community. As centralized organizations continue to crumble due to greed and corruption, LINU stands as a beacon of hope – proof that another way is possible. The journey is just beginning, but one thing is sure: LINU is here to stay, and the community hopes to carry it to new heights.

The Rise of LINU: Community-Driven Crypto Project Gets Double Exchange Listing was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

Monad: Ushering a New Epoch in Blockchain Technology

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 13:09:28 +0000

Monad represents a transformational shift in decentralized applications and blockchain technology. By unlocking unprecedented scalability and optimizing processing efficiency in a decentralized manner, Monad is redefining the landscape of blockchain networks. Here, we dive into the intricacies of Monad, highlighting its unique features that facilitate improved performance, scalability, and the effortless execution of transactions.

Monad: A New Era in Blockchain Technology

Founded by Keone Hon, Monad is a next-generation Layer 1 network primed to enhance the blockchain’s scalability like never before. As an Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform, Monad can yield a whopping 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) and deliver Ethereum transactions much more efficiently, courtesy of its impressive parallel execution capabilities.

Monad sets itself apart from traditional blockchain models by opting for parallel over sequential transactions, a visionary move in itself. This facilitates simultaneous transaction execution, leading to optimal network throughput. The MonadBFT Consensus mechanism bolsters this efficiency further by ensuring seamless ordering and execution of transactions with a single block, resulting in unmatched throughput.

Another unique feature of Monad is that it achieves and maintains full compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode and Ethereum RPC API. This aspect underlines Monad’s commitment to simplicity and accessibility as it allows EVM developers who contribute to 98% of on-chain TVL across all ecosystems to migrate seamlessly.

Parallel Execution: The Core of Monad

Monad adopts a revolutionary approach with its parallel execution mechanism, thereby processing multiple transactions concurrently. It employs state-of-the-art techniques like Optimistic Concurrency Control (OCC) and Software Transactional Memory (STM) to ensure absolute data integrity and maximum network throughput.

The MonadBFT consensus mechanism accompanies the advanced parallel execution feature. By separating transaction ordering and execution, the network ensures immediate finality in each block. Its compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) means that it can be easily integrated.

How is Monad Different?

In the crowded landscape of Layer-1 blockchain platforms, Monad stands tall with its array of unique benefits:

1. High Transaction Throughput: With its ability to process 10,000 transactions per second, Monad significantly outperforms many existing blockchains.

2. Parallel Execution: Monad’s unique execution approach allows for multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously, enhancing network efficiency and reducing latency.

3. 1 Second Finality: Transactions achieve finality almost instantly within each block, thanks to the MonadBFT pipelined consensus mechanism.

4. Ethereum Compatibility: Monad ensures complete compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), making it easy for developers to port existing Ethereum applications.

5. Optimized for Scalability: With its parallel execution and pipelined consensus, Monad’s architecture has been specifically designed to handle a growing number of transactions and users.

6. Lower Operational Costs: The high-efficiency landscape of Monad potentially leads to considerably lower transaction fees.

What’s to Come?

Monad has attracted hefty investment in its venture to revolutionize blockchain technology. During its seed funding round, Monad Labs reportedly raised a whopping $19 million, primarily funded by Dragonfly Capital. The massive financial boost will be focused on perfecting its Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform and expanding the team’s capabilities.

Monad’s vision for the future is as ambitious as its groundwork – the introduction of its testnet is slated for Q2 2024, a pivotal moment when the platform anticipates making significant strides in blockchain technology. Mainnet is currently expected in late 2024.

As a next-generation smart contract platform, Monad is prime to make a lasting impact on blockchain technology’s future and decentralized applications. Its impressive performance, Ethereum compatibility, and numerous innovations, coupled with Monad Labs’ significant funding round, may prove to be a transformative force in the decentralized application landscape.

Monad: Ushering a New Epoch in Blockchain Technology was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

A Beginner’s Guide to Monero – What Is XMR? [Updated 2023]

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 08:00:48 +0000

In celebration of Monero’s five successful years since launch, I’ve put together a short introductory guide to Monero. Monero’s goal is beautifully simple: a usable cryptocurrency for everyday payments, that functions as users expect. This includes protecting users from network attacks, large-scale surveillance, and most importantly being accessible anywhere.

History

Monero, ticker symbol XMR, was founded on April 18, 2014, by a Bitcointalk forum user operating under the alias “thankful_for_today.” The project initially called ‘Bitmonero’ was a fresh launch of the ByteCoin and CryptoNote protocols, using their code base.

Although ByteCoin and the CryptoNote technology it was based on had its flaws, it was one of the best privacy solutions available at the time, and subsequently, it attracted many developers and researchers. Shortly after CryptoNote’s creation, the core team forked the project away from the original creator, who wished to continue the project in ways the rest of the community disagreed with.

Monero – Private Digital Currency

Monero launched with poor mining code, relatively weak privacy, and many other limitations. Over the years, Monero has improved its protocol to make it more robust. Monero added RingCT for much better privacy, set minimum ring sizes, created a vulnerability response process, and implemented bulletproofs.

Now, Monero has succeeded in building one of the largest open-source communities in blockchain and developed a mindset of continual improvement to tackle future challenges. Since its humble beginnings on the Bitcointalk forum, it’s risen through the rankings to count itself among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and is perhaps the most successful privacy coins to date.

So, how have the developers, team members, and the wider community helped contribute to making Monero such a successful project?

Developers and Community

Monero has one of the most active development teams and community. Monero is stewarded by the Core Team, an unregistered organization that handles merge requests and maintains basic community infrastructure. Although the Core Team participates in discussions and helps set the vision, they do not make unilateral decisions. Decisions are usually made on GitHub issues, GitHub pulls requests and IRC meetings.

Monero Community

The community organizes into semi-autonomous workgroups based on function. Examples include the Community Workgroup, Research Lab, Malware Response Workgroup, Localization Workgroup, and Outreach Workgroup. Users are encouraged to join existing workgroups or to start their own. There is no shortage of work that the Monero project needs help with!

Users and developers are encouraged to ask questions on the Monero StackExchange. Monero has the third most active StackExchange site of any cryptocurrency, behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum. It’s a great resource, and we need the help of all our community members to answer questions.

Privacy-Preserving Technology

Monero is unique in that it is not built on Bitcoin’s code. Instead, it began with the CryptoNote protocol, but it has changed so much over the years that it is essentially its own platform. Monero is by far the largest cryptocurrency built on this code. Monero provides its transaction privacy in three ways: hiding the receiver, sender, and amount.

Monero – Privacy Preserving Technology

There is no way to send a Monero transaction that is completely public on-chain. Instead, users can share the view key with select parties to reveal details of the transaction if needed. This group can be as small or large as necessary.

Firstly, Monero hides all addresses by using a stealth address system. Users essentially receive funds in one-time-use safety deposit boxes that only they can open. No other person knows which boxes are assigned to them or how much they hold (if anything).

Likewise, Monero hides the sender by obscuring the source of funds. Ring signatures hide the true spent outputs (these boxes) among others in the blockchain. Furthermore, since these outputs are not associated with specific addresses, observers cannot tell what addresses these outputs are associated with either. Instead, nodes see that transactions are sent from possible sources of funds, which are themselves references to very little. Stealth addresses and ring signatures work together to hide the transaction graph effectively.

Finally, Monero hides the amount with ring confidential transactions (RingCT). RingCT is based on confidential transactions for Bitcoin. Despite its name, this technology merely hides the transaction amount, not all transaction details. Luckily, Monero’s other defenses come to the rescue.

Monero Mining

Additionally, Monero has an accessible proof of work mining algorithm that is mineable on CPUs and GPUs. It has an adaptive block size to accommodate large spikes in transaction volume without growing unnecessarily or being trapped in an arbitrary constraint. Monero supports pruning, allowing old transactions to be cut down to about two-fifths of their size. Monero’s privacy, security, and scaling are always improving.

Purchasing and Spending Monero

Monero is a cryptocurrency with high utility and is meant to be used first and foremost for daily transactions rather than held as a speculative investment or store of wealth.

Monero can be bought and sold on many exchanges, including Circle, Poloniex, Binance, Bisq, Bitfinex, and Kraken. Users should make sure that your investment in Monero is also an investment in the community; consider supporting the fundamentals that give the asset value by donating to various community projects at the Community Crowdfunding System.

Monero Community Crowdfunding System

So, where can you spend Monero? As you may imagine, many of the services which accept XMR are also privacy-focused or are in an industry where users may wish to protect their identities. For example, there are a number of crypto casino websites which accept XMR, including CryptoLotto, Bitsler, and MoneroDice; as well as a number of VPN providers, e-cigarette providers, and privacy hardware merchants.

However, it’s not purely privacy-focused services which accept Monero. You can even spend XMR on premium Thai coffee beans from Justroasted, buy portable solar panels from Mobisun, or get crypto themed clothing. Additionally, as Blokt previously reported, Fortnite players can also spend their Monero on the online merchandise store, to buy player skins, weapon mods, and more.

Monero Wallets

You’ve decided you want to buy Monero, but how do you store it? There are a number of options for users looking to securely store their XMR, including an official wallet for Windows, Max, Linux, and FreeBSD. All source code for these wallets is available on GitHub.

Monero Wallets

It should be noted that downloading the official Monero wallet will require users to sync the entire blockchain to their machine. For users who prefer a lite wallet, which is comparatively much quicker to set up, there are a few wallets which are officially recognized by trusted Monero community members. These include Cake Wallet, Monerujo, and Edge wallet for iOS and Android, or MyMonero for desktop users.

Likewise, there’s a dedicated hardware wallet in the works for XMR, funded in part by Monero’s huge community, which would be a Ledger or Trezor type device focused on secure storage of XMR.

How Can You Learn More About Monero?

Monero has many community resources, but one of the best is a free copy of Mastering Monero. This is a good introductory guide for beginners and developers. Those interested in jumping into the granular details can also read Zero to Monero.

But even the best commercial VPN services have their weaknesses. That’s why more and more people are looking to create their own VPN.

In this article, we’ll look at the various reasons to set up your own VPN as well as reasons not to do so. We’ll also talk about three ways to get the job done and look at one of them in more detail.

By the end of this article, you should have a good sense of whether or not setting up your own VPN makes sense for you, and which approach you would like to take.

Reasons to Setup Your Own VPN

There are lots of reasons to use a VPN in today’s world. But since you are here, we assume you already know why you need a VPN. We further assume that you are trying to decide between using a commercial VPN Service like ExpressVPN or NordVPN or creating your own VPN.

To help you make that decision, here are some good reasons to setup your own VPN instead of subscribing to a commercial service:

You want the benefits of a VPN Service without the monthly payments.

You don’t want to take the chance that your online activities will be logged by a VPN Service. (Although, services like ExpressVPN have proven themselves to be zero log time and time again in various legal battles)

You want access to your home network from anywhere in the world.

You want access to local resources (your home Netflix account, for example) when you are in a different geographic location.

You want to give other people access to resources on your home network.

Reasons Not to Setup Your Own VPN

While there are some good reasons to set up your own VPN, there are also a lot of reasons not to do so. These include:

You don’t have a fast Internet connection – You need both fast upload and download speeds wherever your VPN Server is located or it will slow down everything connected to your personal VPN.

You need a VPN to connect to resources in other geographic locations – VPN Services with multiple servers let you make it appear you are located in any of dozens, even hundreds of locations around the world. Since your VPN would have only one server you can only appear to be located in one place.

You want to hide your IP Address – If you build your VPN Server on your own hardware, it will have an IP Address associated with your home network.

You don’t want to handle the maintenance – It falls on you to maintain and update the VPN Server as well as the hardware and software it runs on.

You have to have the technical ability to set up the VPN Server and clients.

You want to hide your payment and identity information fully. The VPN you setup yourself might be safe from logging, but if you purchased the server you tunnel through, with your real name and payment details you are much more vulnerable than using a VPN service.

VPN Basics

If you are considering setting up your own VPN, you’ve probably got all the basics down already, but just in case, we’re going to start at the beginning. If you are clear on this stuff already, go ahead and skip ahead to, “Three Ways to Setup a VPN of Your Own.”

When you connect your device to an Internet resource without a VPN, the contents of the messages going back and forth are potentially visible to snoops. In addition, for the Internet to know where to send the messages, each message must expose a header that contains your IP Address as well as the IP address of the Internet resource you are connected to.

Your IP Address Can Be Seen If You’re Not Using a VPN

So everything is visible to snoops with the right tool.

Many Internet resources try to stop snoops with HTTPS. This is an Internet protocol that automatically encrypts the contents of messages. This can definitely help since it prevents snoops from seeing the contents of the messages going back and forth.

But HTTPS doesn’t do anything to prevent snoops from seeing that you (a device at your IP Address to be more precise) are communicating with that particular Internet resource. Using a VPN eliminates this problem. Here’s why:

A VPN addresses this problem by putting a VPN Server in the middle of the conversation. The VPN Server sits between your device and an Internet resource. Your device only connects to the VPN Server. The Internet resource only connects to the VPN Server. The VPN Server passes messages back and forth between your device and the resource.

This helps because the VPN Server uses its own IP Address when communicating with the resource on behalf of your device. Anyone spying on the connection between the server and the resource would only see the IP Addresses of the VPN Server and the Internet resource. Your privacy is protected on this part of the connection because no one looking at this connection can see your IP Address.

VPN Diagram

But that still leaves the connection between the VPN Client and the VPN Server. To address this part of the problem, the client and server encapsulate messages passing between them. That is, they encrypt the entirety of the messages between the device and the resource. Then they include the encrypted messages inside another message. This second message is what goes back and forth between the client and the server.

The advantage of doing this is that only the second message’s header information needs to be visible to the world. And all that message’s header can reveal is that your device and a VPN Server are communicating with each other. Snoops can’t see anything of the original message because the whole message, including the header, is encrypted in the body of the outer message.

At the VPN Server, messages coming from your device are extracted from the body of the outer message and decrypted. Then, in the header of your device’s message, the IP Address of your device is replaced by the IP Address of the VPN Server. This modified message is what gets sent to the Internet resource.

Messages coming from the Internet resource arrive at the VPN Server. There, the IP Address of the VPN Server gets replaced by the IP Address of your device. This modified message then travels down the tunnel to the VPN Client in your device, where it is extracted, decrypted, and passed along to your device as if the VPN wasn’t in the middle of everything.

Guide on How to Setup Your Own VPN

As we’ve just seen, the VPN Server is the core of a functional VPN. In the rest of this article, we will look at ways to set up your own VPN Server and ignore the VPN Client. There are two reasons for this.

The VPN Server you set up will dictate how you need to set up your VPN Clients.

There are way too many devices you can connect to your VPN. If we tried to talk about the VPN Clients for each we would never finish writing this article.

As it turns out, setting up your own VPN Server is plenty complicated enough for one article. We’ll start exploring this topic by looking at the three ways to set up a VPN server of your own.

Three Ways to Setup a VPN Server of Your Own

There are three ways to setup your own VPN Server. The way you go will depend on what you plan to do with the VPN and what hardware you will be using. You can set up the VPN Server:

On your router – If you are using a router with built-in VPN capabilities, or your router supports custom firmware like DD-WRT or OpenWrt, you can set up the VPN Server on your router.

On your own computer – If installing the VPN Server on your router isn’t an option, you can set up a VPN Server on a spare computer, even something tiny and low-powered like a Raspberry Pi. This is relatively easy to do, particularly if you use a computer running Microsoft Windows, which has built-in VPN capabilities. Of course, if you go this route, you will need to keep the computer that hosts your VPN Server running whenever you want to use the VPN.

On a cloud service – This approach doesn’t require you to have any additional hardware. However, if you host your VPN Server on a cloud service, you need to keep in mind that the cloud service will be able to see whatever you do with the VPN.

Let’s look at each of these options in more detail.

Setting Up a VPN Server on Your Router

Some home and business routers have a VPN Server built right into them. To use it, you simply need to log into the router, then turn on and configure the VPN Server. If your router has this capability, the manual that came with it should give you instructions on how to activate it. If not, a search formatted something like this should lead you to those instructions:

Router name VPN configuration

A more common situation is where your router doesn’t have a built-in VPN Server but “supports” one. This typically means that you can install third-party firmware on the router and that when the right firmware is installed, the router will be able to function as a VPN Server.

Three types of third-party router firmware are the most popular. These are:

DD-WRT

Tomato

OpenWrt

Not all routers support these firmware packages. To find out if yours does, you’ll either need to dig through your router’s documentation or check the site of the firmware you want to use.

DD-WRT has a Router Database where you can search for your router to see if it is supported.

The main Tomato page linked above lists the routers that are known to work with this firmware.

OpenWrt has a Supported Devices page with the information you need.

Even if your router does support one of these firmware packages, installing new firmware on a router is not a job for a computer beginner. While the sites provide detailed instructions for installing their firmware, there is a lot more involved than running an install program.

And one possible resu

What is Ethereum? Read the ULTIMATE Research-Backed ETH Guide

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 07:00:57 +0000

Ethereum is the leading blockchain app platform that was proposed in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin and went live on July 30, 2015.

So what exactly is Ethereum?

There are many different strands to this project and getting your head around it all can be quite the challenge. That’s why we have put together this comprehensive guide for those of you wondering “What is Ethereum?” and “How does Ethereum Work?”

As the harbinger of the second generation of blockchains and home to the second largest digital currency in the world, Ether (ETH), the Ethereum project has started a new era of blockchain development that enables a global community of developers to unleash their creativity in the space.

The ability to craft smart contracts gave developers a chance to think about new use cases for blockchain technology that previously remained largely connected to cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum, the blockchain app platform – Source: Ethereum.org

Ethereum also gave enterprises, organizations, and startups the ability to issue their own tokens, and build their own unique blockchain ecosystem using the Ethereum framework.

Till date, Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens have been the most popular means for launching Initial Coin Offerings.

Of course, Ethereum is still in development and has faced some hurdles. It has faced problems related to scalability, which was highlighted when the popular game dedicated to internet-bred cats called CryptoKitties managed to clog its network in December 2017.

However, with a unique concept, upcoming developments, a strong developer community and the first-mover advantage (second only to the mighty Bitcoin), Ethereum is one blockchain project that continues to remain at the forefront of DLT and crypto development.

So… What is Ethereum?

In a nutshell, Ethereum is an open source Smart contract and Decentralized Application Platform.

The Ethereum whitepaper describes the project as the next generation distributed computing platform, that provides a decentralized virtual machine known as the Ethereum Virtual machine EVM.

The latter is able to execute Peer-to-Peer contracts by means of Ether (ETH), its proprietary crypto fuel.

Blockchain technology is used as a tool of shared consensus, while Ether is the digital asset that is used to pay for transaction fees and computational services.

What’s the Difference Between Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Ethereum vs Bitcoin graphic – Source: Shutterstock.com

Since the advent of the Ethereum project in late 2014 and its explosion of popularity within the confines of the nascent crypto space and beyond, Ethereum has always been compared to Bitcoin.

All being similar to the use of Blockchain as the underpinning technology, both projects are fundamentally different. The main difference between them is the purpose of each one.

In fact, Bitcoin was built as an alternative to regular money. Bitcoin can be used as a medium of value exchange, a means of payment and a store of value with no central authority to issue or control it and no intrinsic value or physical existence.

On the other hand, Ethereum is rather a platform for developers to build and run Peer-to-Peer executable contracts and decentralized applications.

Block time generation (seconds in the case of Ethereum and minutes in the case of Bitcoin), the rate at which new coins are mined (constant in Ethereum and halves every 4 year in the case of Bitcoin), the proof of work hashing algorithm (Ethhash in Ethereum, and Sha 256 in Bitcoin), and the total supply (capped to 21 millions in the case of Bitcoin and uncapped in that of Ethereum) are the other differences that set both projects apart.

Ethereum Bitcoin

Release Date July 30, 2015 January 9, 2008

Release Method Presale Genesis Block Mined

Founder Vitalik Buterin Satoshi Nakamoto

Blockchain Proof of Work (Will transition to Proof of Stake) Proof of Work

Purpose Blockchain app platform, smart contracts & digital currencies Digital Money & store of value

Native Cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) Bitcoin (BTC)

Algorithm Ethash SHA-256

Block Time 12 – 14 seconds 10 minutes

The Ethereum Virtual Machine

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), is a 256-bit quasi-turning-complete virtual state machine that forms the runtime environment for smart contracts and specifies the execution model for such contracts.

Note: “quasi” in here comes from the fact that computation is intrinsically bounded by a parameter, which is gas. The latter limits the amount of computation done

The machine is stack based, altogether separate from the main Ethereum Network, and has its own independent storage model.

In fact, all the nodes on the Ethereum Network run the EVM in addition to validating transactions.

The EVM could be seen as a testing ground for Smart contracts because once these contracts are deployed to the mainnet, such a step can’t be reversed.

Any developer that wants to build on Ethereum, could deploy his/her untested code on this network of computers and see how it muddles along.

The most powerful aspect of the EVM is that it can be implemented into various different programming languages. So far, EVM iterations have been deployed in C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Haskell, Rust, Erlang, WebAssembly and more – promoting adoption and ensuring all developers can have fair access.

This is particularly important for interoperability with other blockchains, as it means that any other blockchain could essentially run and iteration of the EVM which could power smart contracts and DApps on their chain, without building a specific virtual machine for their own chain.

Blockchains which currently use or offer versions of the EVM include Telos, Hyperledger Fabric, EOSIO, and others – and blockchains like Tron use virtual machines which are based on or compatible with EVM.

Ether (ETH) and Gas

Ether (ETH) and gas illustration – Source: Shutterstock.com

In Ethereum each operation or work performed by the network has a cost assessed by the network which is known as a gas limit.

In order to execute a smart contract, for example, developers need to pay for all the operations featured in their code.

Sending Ether from one wallet to another one involves four gas units.

These gas units are checking your balance, transferring ETH to a receiving address, subtracting ETH from your balance and adding ETH to the receivers.

So gas units refer to the smallest measurement of work needed to settle a given operation but don’t have a monetary value.

The cost is paid in Ether. Gas is that unit that translates into Ether.

Since Ethereum can only compute a limited number of gas units at any given time, miners are sort of bribed by network users to pace up the stream of request that is being sent over to the network.

To pay miners, small fractions of ETH named Gwei are attached to each gas unit, which sets the gas price.

What everyone should remember is that the gas price is how much you pay per gas unit, and the gas limit is how much work you are requesting from the network.

Smart Contracts – What Are They and How Do They Work?

Smart contracts refer to computer codes that facilitate the exchange of value whether it is money, property or content.

They are called contracts because they translate the terms of an agreement, and smart because they automatically execute themselves once specific triggers are met.

The notion of smart contracts was around way before the advent of Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Quick Fact: Nick Szabo a computer scientist, cryptographer, and law scholar, started pioneering work on the concept in 1977, with the aim to establish a distributed ledger for storing contracts.

Simply put smart contracts are just like regular contracts in the real world, where two parties or more agree to specific terms of an arrangement and commit to sticking to it once signed.

The main difference is that Smart contracts are fully digital.

Furthermore, when running on a Blockchain like the Ethereum Network, a smart contract acts as a self-operating computer code that automatically executes itself once specific conditions are met.

Blockchain-based smart contracts are immutable and would run exactly as programmed once deployed without any possibility of censorship, downtime, reversing, or third-party interference.

Other Blockchains Which Utilize Smart Contracts

Smart contract enabling Blockchains are regarded by many as the “real deal,” this whole Blockchain revolution came up with since its rise to prominence.

Put by Nick Szabo, the blockchain pioneer, himself:

“New institutions and new ways to formalize the relationships that make up these institutions are now made possible by the digital revolution. I call these new contracts “smart” because they are far more functional than their inanimate paper-based ancestors. No use of artificial intelligence is implied. A smart contract is a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols within which the parties perform on these promises.”

We crafted a list of ten blockchains, other than Ethereum, that support Smart Contract programming and deployment.

Cardano: a project that caught a lot of media attention, and that is allegedly developing a smart contract platform that seeks to deliver more advanced features than its competitors do.

EOS: a Smart Contract platform for industrial scale dApps deployments through a DAO model, commonly referred to as the alternative to Ethereum.

NEM: written in Java, the NEM platform is arguably one of the simplest to use since no specific platform programing language is required to code and deploy smart contracts on it.

Waves: the underdog of this list, it is an open source smart contract platform that focuses on scalability and speed of settlements.

Other interesting blockchain projects that could play an important role in the future of smart contracts, are Hyperledger Fabric, Lisk, NEO, Qtum, Stellar Lumens, and Tezos.

Ethereum Use Cases

Smart contracts make Ethereum flexible, providing it with more real-world use cases than its predecessor Bitcoin.

A combination of smart contracts and dApps keep developers intrigued and users interested in the network.

According to

Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Review: [2023]

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 08:00:05 +0000

Today we’ll talk about PIA (Private Internet Access), a popular VPN that has been in business for almost 20 years. In the interest of full disclosure be aware that this writer used PIA for several years before switching to ExpressVPN in 2018.

Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN review for 2023

To help you decide whether PIA is the best VPN for you, we divide this review into several sections. They include:

Device Support

Speed

Security and Privacy

Geographic and Legal Considerations

Global Coverage

Streaming and Torrenting

Additional Considerations

Customer Support

We’ll also fill you in on a surprising side issue that may or may not influence your decision. Shall we begin?

Private Internet Access VPN Source: privateinternetaccess.com

Device Support

PIA offers client applications for the mainstream operating systems. It also provides browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

Private Internet Access for all your devices – Source: www.privateinternetaccess.com

PIA has greatly improved its desktop clients since I last used the service. The company has created a consistent, attractive client interface across its desktop clients, although the mobile apps and browser extensions don’t match them right now.

Image courtesy of London Trust Media

Once you are logged into the client you have access to a wide range of options not normally seen in VPN clients, including a choice of DNS (including one provided by PIA), encryption type, even a light or dark theme for the client itself.

Note: For those who use iOS, we have also compiled a list of the best VPNs for iPhone.

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Speed

Discussing the speed of a VPN Service is always tough since it depends on so many factors. Where you connect from, when you do it, and which ISP you use for the tests are just some of those factors.

Fortunately, when it comes to PIA, we have some independent test results we can use to answer the speed question. In 2018, one of PIA’s competitors commissioned a company called AV-TEST GmbH to do some independent testing. It ran a large set of tests on a dozen VPN Services, including PIA.

Speed Performance (PIA) – Source: Shutterstock.com

The VPN Comparative Test report showed PIA to have better latency (ping), streaming, upload, and download speeds than most of the VPNs tested. Given this, it was surprising that PIA was one of the slowest VPNs among those tested.

These results imply that under most circumstances, PIA will be fast enough for most users. To find out if it will be fast enough for you, we recommend that you take advantage of its 7-day money-back guarantee to run some speed tests using your devices and your ISP in the locations where you are most likely to be using the VPN.

Then compare your test results with the data in this April 5, 2019, Consumer Reports article discussing the download speeds needed to stream different types of multimedia content.

A few rounds of testing in typical situations where you would use PIA should give you enough information to decide if this VPN is fast enough for you.

Security and Privacy

Now we need to talk about security and privacy. While related, they are not the same thing. The differences become particularly important when talking about PIA since it is based in the United States.

Security and Privacy(PIA) – Source: Shutterstock.com

By the time you finish this section of the article, you will have a good sense of how security and privacy differ, and how the two play out with PIA.

Go to PIA

PIA Security

Security means being able to keep others from messing with your stuff. Locking the doors of your house provides security for you and everything else in the house. Putting money in a vault provides security for your money.

VPN security is provided by two technologies: tunneling and encryption.

Tunneling

Tunneling involves taking each data packet that moves between your computer and the VPN and putting that data packet inside another data packet. This “outer” data packet has a standard format that is used by the VPN.

The original packet is hidden inside the VPN formatted data packet. To an outside observer, it simply looks like standardized data packets are passing back and forth between your computer and the VPN.

Tunneling(PIA) – Source: Shutterstock.com

Putting your data packets inside standardized VPN data packets is called encapsulation. The VPN software on your computer and the software in the VPN server both can encapsulate packets into VPN formatted packets and extract them again. Once extracted, these packets function the same way they would have if there was no VPN involved at all.

OpenVPN is widely-respected, open source software that handles encapsulation as well as encryption for the best VPN services.

Encryption

Encapsulation provides one layer of protection for the messages flowing between your computer and the VPN. But someone with the right software who can intercept the VPN packets flowing back and forth can extract the original data packets.

To deal with this problem, VPNs use encryption. Before encapsulating message packets for tunneling, the VPN software on your computer or in the server encrypts the message packets. In theory, only your computer and the VPN can read packets that are encrypted.

Encryption(PIA) – Source: Shutterstock.com

VPNs employ various encryption techniques. Some are now obsolete in that computers have become powerful enough to quickly crack their encryption. Others are too hard to crack but have weaknesses built into them cal

Best VPNs For Google Chrome [2023]

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 07:00:03 +0000

Chances are, you’re reading this from the world’s most popular web browser, Google Chrome. According to StatCounter, almost 65% of internet users access the web through Chrome or a Chromium-based browser.

Chromium open-source software also powers new arrivals to the browser scene, such as Brave, which means that all the VPN extensions we’ll be looking at here are also compatible with any other Chromium based browsers.

This guide is also going to be relevant to Google Chromebook users – but with one important distinction.

If you’re a Chromebook user, all of the browser extensions below will only encrypt your internet traffic while you’re inside a Chrome browser session. You’ll need to download the Android client for each of these VPN’s to use it on your Chromebook.

Why do you need a VPN extension for Chrome?

You might think that having a VPN application installed and running from your desktop will give you complete privacy – but you’d be wrong.

Although VPN applications reroute your traffic through a private server and mask your IP, there are still certain ways that you can be tracked through your browser session.

To show you local recommendations and services, many websites will track your session through HTML5 geolocation, which reveals your approximate location – with greater accuracy if you’re using a GPS enabled device.

It’s a little-known way that websites can see your approximate location without tracking your IP, and it’s especially annoying if you’re making an effort not to be served ads, or get tracked as you navigate the web.

Most quality VPN extensions for Chrome will spoof your location, which prevents HTML5 geolocation from establishing your location.

Traditional location tracking through your IP will use ‘web real-time communication’, or WebRTC, to track you during your session. Most VPNs will block this even through their desktop apps, but you can ensure your session is private through a browser extension.

Often, VPN providers will refer to their Chrome extensions as ‘proxy extensions’, because of the extra security they afford their users. Here, we’re going to look at the best VPNs for both the Google Chrome browser, and the Google Chromebook.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is a service we’ve reviewed extensively in the past, and it’s always been one of our favorite services.

Sign up to ExpressVPN

Established in 2009, ExpressVPN has been providing military-grade traffic encryption and privacy protection for over a decade, and in May 2019 they launched the latest iteration of their Chrome extension.

One of the highest-rated VPN browser extensions on the market, the ExpressVPN Chrome extension offers serious browsing protection for users of all levels. The extension was last updated in March 2020.

To install the ExpressVPN Chrome browser extension, you’ll first need to have the desktop app (full client) for Windows, Mac, Android (and also Chromebook), or Linux, and an active ExpressVPN subscription. You can sign up here.

The ExpressVPN app for Chrome has a 4.2 star rating from over 650 users, and 800,000 downloads. Users can also download an Android client for ExpressVPN to protect their Chromebook.

ExpressVPN for Chrome features

ExpressVPN’s Chrome extension provides extra options for privacy protection.

There’s a lot of crossover between the ExpressVPN desktop app and their Chrome extension, however there’s a few extra features to keep you safe while browsing, which include:

Location spoofing – Prevents HTML5 geolocation code embedded in websites from revealing your true whereabouts.

One-click connection – Once you’ve installed the extension, you can turn it off or on in seconds using the icon in the top right corner of your browser. You’ll automatically connect to the last place you connected to on your desktop app.

WebRTC blocking – ExpressVPN ensures your location is obfuscated through changing your IP address.

HTTPS upgrade – If you connect to a site which doesn’t have HTTPS protection, the ExpressVPN extension will automatically connect you to a more secure version of the site, which helps to protect your personal data.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the extension, it’s added to your Chrome toolbar (in the top right corner next to your user profile by default), and you can open the extension to change settings like server location, HTTPS settings, and more.

Is ExpressVPN reliable?

As one of the best-established and most trusted VPN services, ExpressVPN has gained a good reputation for providing reliable and safe internet privacy.

Over the years, they’ve built a huge network of dedicated servers and infrastructure to provide a stable service to users, which includes:

Unlimited bandwidth – Some smaller VPN operators place restrictions on bandwidth, but with ExpressVPN’s network of over 3,000 servers across 94 countries, you can enjoy unlimited use of your VPN.

Streaming services – ExpressVPN works hard to keep support open for streaming services, like Netflix and Amazon Prime, allowing users to bypass geo-restrictions.

Anonymous browsing – Together with their HTML5 and WebRTC blocking, ExpressVPN uses TrustedServer technology to encrypt browsing data as you surf Chrome.

Multi-device support – Whether you’re browsing Chrome from a Windows, Android, Iphone, Mac, or Linux device, you can install ExpressVPN. Chrome extensions are only available to desktop users. Chromebook users are supported via the Android client.

Does ExpressVPN support streaming services?

ExpressVPN does provide guarantees that it’s users will be able to bypass most major streaming services, for instance if they’re trying to watch American Netflix from Europe.

This is known as bypassing ‘georestrictions’, and whilst some VPNs provide this dedicated service, many do not.

ExpressVPN is well known for its support of geo-restriction bypassing on all devices, including inside the Chrome browser and Chromebook, and they also offer a 30-day money back guarantee if the service happens not to work for you.

How much does ExpressVPN cost?

As we mentioned, you’ll need a subscription and the desktop app to use the ExpressVPN browser extension.

To download the ExpressVPN client to your desktop, you’ll also need to first have an active subscription, so make sure you’ve visited ExpressVPN’s website and signed-up before you try to add their Chrome extension, because it won’t work otherwise.

ExpressVPN is one of the more expensive VPN providers, but we think their reputation, security, and customer service makes up for this somewhat.

Subscription costs $12.95 per month billed on a month-by-month basis, reduced to $8.32 per month if you subscribe and pay up front for a year’s service.

This will set you back $99.95 in a lump sum, but it’s equivalent to savings of over $55 – which makes the service more affordable. You can pay for ExpressVPN with Bitcoin.

Contract Length
Monthly Price

Monthly
$12.95

Yearly
$8.32

ExpressVPN Chrome extension verdict

Since their update in May 2019, ExpressVPN’s Chrome extension is one of the most downloaded browser extensions of any VPN provider, trusted by almost a million users.

Their high rating on the Chrome web store is a good indication of how well the extension performs.

We particularly like how easy it is to install and connect to the service. If you’re an ExpressVPN desktop user, it takes literally seconds to install and use the extension – and we really recommend you do.

It’s not intrusive either, there’s no annoying notifications or pop-ups while you’re browsing – it simply sits on the toolbar and does its job.

Overall, ExpressVPN is a great choice for both Chromebook and Chrome browser users who want an extra layer of protection.

Sign up to ExpressVPN

NordVPN

NordVPN’s Chrome extension isn’t intrusive and provides multiple servers.

Another of our regularly featured VPN providers, we’ve previously highly recommended NordVPN for both it’s affordable subscription prices, and consistently reliable service.

One of the VPN industries biggest names, NordVPN launched in 2012 out of Panama, and has grown into a behemoth of the VPN space – serving over 12 million users worldwide.

Their Chrome extension, first launched in 2017, is a great way to ensure NordVPN’s privacy extension extends to every part of your browsing experience. Downloaded by half a million users, the extension generally has good reviews, with a three-star rating overall.

It’s worth mentioning here that NordVPN also has an incredibly useful password manager Chrome extension called NordPass. This is a fairly new service by NordVPN and it offers a single secure place to store passwords and login information. All passwords are encrypted using XChaCha20 – the latest encryption technology.

NordVPN’s Chrome extension was recently updated in December 2019, and the team publishes regular updates to the service.

Sign up to Nordvpn

NordVPN for Chrome features

We’ll take a look at some of NordVPNs wider VPN features below, but there’s several unique services included in their Chrome extension which makes it well worth considering:

HTTP encryption – All traffic moving through the NordVPN Chrome extension is encrypted using the Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS 1.2), which provides an extra layer of privacy to your web inputs and activity.

WebRTC leak protection – Like ExpressVPN, NordVPN’s browser extension prevents WebRTC leaks while you’re inside a browser session, which could reveal your true location even while your desktop VPN application is running.

Malware protection – A unique feature we love about NordVPN is their ‘CyberSec’ protection, which actively protects users from intrusive auto-play adverts, pop-ups, and unauthorized downloads while you’re browsing the web.

Unique IP’s – It’s well-known that NordVPN has one of the largest ranges of servers of any VPN service, but they also provide access to over 1,100 unique IP addresses in over 60 countries that users can connect to through their Chrome extension.

Ranked Num 1 – Ranked our num 1 best VPN overall, as well as the best for torrenting, gaming and much more.

Is NordVPN reliable?

As one of the most used VPN providers in the world, NordVPN is generally trusted for its reliability and s

Ledger Blue Review: Worth it? Or are Ledger Nano X and Nano S better?

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 07:30:53 +0000

The Ledger Blue hardware wallet is an enterprise-grade device produced by French manufacturer Ledger; a specialist crypto security company established in 2014. Founded by cryptographic and tech security experts, Ledger has over 130 employees and has sold 1.5 million hardware wallets to date.

Released in 2016, the Ledger Blue is one of three hardware wallets currently sold by Ledger, and unlike it’s smaller and simpler cousin the Ledger Nano S, the Ledger Blue is a futuristic and attractive device which features a large touchscreen interface and metallic body.

Ledger Blue review (2023) – Is it worth buying instead of the Ledger Nano S or Nano X? Find out below.

As you might expect, as one of the most premium hardware wallets available, the Ledger Blue doesn’t come cheap. In fact, it’s one of the most expensive devices on the market, six times the price of the Ledger Nano S, which has left some cryptocurrency users skeptical about its value for money.

In this Ledger Blue review, we will examine the tech behind the Ledger Blue device, it’s pros and cons, and most importantly, whether it’s worth splashing out on.

Note: For all the ETH holders out there, you can also check out our guide to the best Ethereum wallets, where the Ledger product range also features.

Device Overview

The Ledger Blue is large – one of the largest devices on the market, and more closely resembles a smartphone than a hardware wallet. Made from a Zamak metal alloy frame, with a plastic tactile back, and a full glass screen on the front, the Ledger Blue is an eye-catching device which fits nicely in hand. It’s clearly built using high-quality materials, giving an overall premium feel to the device.

The Ledger Blue’s large touch screen makes transactions simple

However, the bezel around the screen is disappointingly large, and there’s definitely room to expand the interface to give a more modern experience.

Dimensions: 97 mm x 68 x 10 mm

Weight: 90 g

Connection: USB Type Micro-B

CPU: ST31G480 (Secure) + STM32L476

Display: 3.5 inch LCD

CurrencySupport: Over 1,000 assets

SupportedOS: 64-bit Windows, 64-bit Mac OS, and 64-bit Linux.

Price: ~ $300

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Ledger Blue Unboxing

The Ledger Blue comes in compact packaging, and users may notice that unlike other hardware wallet manufacturers which provide tamper-proof packaging, Ledger packaging comes free from physical tamper-proofing stickers. There’s a good reason for this, which we’ll explore later, and it’s because Ledger uses a secure chip in its hardware wallets.

In the box, users will find their Ledger Blue on top, with accessories underneath, including a recovery phrase sheet, a micro USB cable, and a well-made carry case to keep the device protected.

However, compared to hardware wallets such as the KeepKey, which provides users with a quality woven USB cable, or the Trezor Model-T which comes with a magnetic docking station, the Ledger Blue is relatively simple despite its high ticket price.

Note: For more details on the Model-T, check out our in-depth Trezor Model-T Review.

Coin Support

Ledger has excelled itself when it comes to coin support, with over 1,180 supported assets, and overall the Ledger Blue is no different, supporting 30 cryptos which run on their own chains, alongside all the ERC-20 tokens.

That said, some assets are missing from the Ledger Blue which are supported by its cheaper counterpart, the Ledger Nano S.

Coin Support

Specifically, here are some of the major market cap coins which aren’t supported by the Ledger Blue, but are supported on the Ledger Nano S:

EOS

Cardano

IOTA

Monero

Tezos

Vechain

Nano

Lisk

The lack of support for coins with such huge communities may explain why the Ledger Nano S has sold over 1.4 million units, compared to just 10,000 for the Ledger Blue.

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Security Features

Like Ledger’s other hardware wallets, the Ledger Blue is based around a secure element chip, alongside Ledger’s proprietary BOLOS hardware architecture, which offers bank-grade security for your cryptographic assets. The secure chip prevents tampering, and if the device has been modified before use, the user will be alerted on set-up.

Importance of Security Features – Source: ShutterStock.com

Before any transaction can be processed, the Ledger Blue requires user’s manual consent to authenticate the transaction. Consent is given via the Ledger Blue device, and private keys or other sensitive data are never exposed to the computer your device is connected to.

Unlike other manufacturers, Ledger doesn’t release open-source code for its devices. However, the code for individual asset apps is open-source and available on its GitHub.

Set-up and First-time Use

As with all Ledger products, the team has done a great job of usability and simplicity, and the Ledger Blue’s screen makes the set-up process even easier to complete. New users will download the Ledger Live platform, which serves as a plug-and-play interface for setting up, sending and receiving assets on any Ledger device. Likewise, users can set up apps for new assets through Ledger Live.

To send crypto assets, users use the Ledger Live platform to launch the app for their respective asset and then launch the corresponding app on their Ledger Blue device. Users can then fill in the required fields (i.e., amount, recipient address, fees), and hit ‘send.’ The Ledger Blue will then ask users to confirm the transaction before they continue.

Beginners Guide to Uniswap

The DeFi hype is centered around protocols that offer lending solutions, or other traditional centralized financial products on the blockchain in a decentralized manner, with a particular focus on yield-farming protocols. These apps allow users to ‘lend out’ their cryptocurrency assets in return for fixed high yields, and the associated tokens of these platforms have driven a bull market throughout 2020.

As a result, one of the most frequently asked questions from new entrants into the DeFi space is where can you buy the latest DeFi tokens? Well, the easy answer to that question, and indeed the most trusted solution, is Uniswap. But what is Uniswap, and how does it work?

What is Uniswap?

Uniswap provides decentralized swaps, liquidity pools, and yield farming.

Uniswap is a decentralized, peer to peer exchange developed specifically for the Ethereum network, also described as a decentralized protocol for automated liquidity provision on Ethereum. Launched in November 2018 by Ethereum developer Hayden Adams, Uniswap uses an automated market-making system powered by smart contracts to match orders on any ERC-20 token across the entire Ethereum blockchain.

Essentially, Uniswap is a smart contract for the exchange of ERC-20 tokens. It draws liquidity from liquidity pools, which we will explore later.

Uniswap has over 8,484 unique assets that can be traded on the protocol. Here, we are going to explore how you can get started on the Uniswap protocol, but first let’s examine some of the core concepts behind the decentralized exchange.

2023 Update: Uniswap is developing a mobile app, which is currently available as an limited early release. This means Uniswap is now a good option for those who want to trade crypto on the go.

What are Liquidity Pools?

Liquidity pools, which power the Uniswap platform, are essential to decentralized finance. Each liquidity pool is a pool of tokens locked inside a smart contract. These tokens, which are otherwise inaccessible to regular traders, are used to facilitate trading through the provision of liquidity.

Traditionally, most decentralized exchanges rely on these liquidity pools in order to match open orders on their books – as there always has to be a both a buy side and a sell side when a user places an order.

In traditional exchanges, such as stock exchanges and large, well-funded cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, it is easy to match orders between users, and market makers are also used to ensure that there is adequate liquidity on the exchange at any given time.

However, with decentralized exchanges, who have fewer users, there is no guarantee that there will be someone willing to buy or sell the asset you wish to trade. Likewise, as decentralized exchanges work through the blockchain, using a traditional order book model would be incredibly slow and inefficient – because blockchains still only process a few transactions per second.

Instead, liquidity pools can be used to provide instant and price-steady trading between two assets within a decentralized exchange. Users can supply their ‘liquidity’ to a pool by supplying tokens, which generates a yield for the user via fees while their tokens are locked in the liquidity contract.

This has created both lucrative opportunities for yield-farming, enabled better liquidity on decentralized exchanges, and provided passive returns to long-term token holders. Uniswap leverages these pools to allow users to quickly swap between ERC-20 tokens, and as such it has become one of the most popular places to trade new tokens.

How Popular is Uniswap?

Although Uniswap got off to a somewhat slow start as users made their way tentatively into the DeFi space, it’s seen a huge upsurge in activity during 2020, powered in part by the rising interest in Ethereum-based DeFi protocols such as AAVE and DMM DAO.

In 2020, total liquidity on Uniswap reached $300 million, and 24-hour trading volume regularly exceeds over $200 million collectively on various pairings on the platform—even occasionally surpassing Tether in generated gas fees.

On August 30, 2020, Uniswap overtook Coinbase in daily volume, processing some $426 million in a 24 hour period, compared to just $349 million on Coinbase in the same period.

Also contributing to Uniswap’s popularity has been the launch of their native token, UNI. Let’s explore UNI below.

The UNI Token

If you haven’t already, claim your UNI tokens now!

Introduced on the 16th September 2020, the Uniswap token, or UNI, is a governance token that allows users to take part in the future of the Uniswap protocol. Over 60% of the total UNI supply was distributed to community members, making it a fairly decentralized token, with only 21.5% given to team members and roughly 17.8% given to investors.

Around 150,000,000 UNI tokens were claimed by previous liquidity providers on the protocol, and 430,000,000 tokens were retained as governance treasury tokens. Around 5,000,000 community UNI tokens will also be available for yield farmers to claim through various stablecoin yield farming pools.

Uniswap will use the UNI governance tokens to promote community initiatives, provide liquidity mining, and fund other programs for the good of the protocol. If you have used Uniswap, you should be eligible to claim up to 400 UNI tokens just for connecting your wallet.

How to Find Uniswap Gems

Often, you may find cryptocurrency community members talking about ‘Uniswap gems’. As Uniswap offers easy peer to peer trading between any ERC-20 token with low gas fees, it’s often the first place users can access brand new Ethereum-based tokens, such as the latest DeFi protocol or utility token for example.

As a result, many crypto traders keep a close eye on new additions to Uniswap to make the most of brand new trading opportunities. These are often called ‘Uniswap gems’, and although most accept that these type of tokens are somewhat of a gamble, they usually share similar characteristics, such as low market capitalization, a small daily traded volume, and a relatively small number of existing token holders – all characteristics which give tokens a high upside potential, if they are sound projects.

There is little doubt that the number of Uniswap gems and the returns they have netted for users, has significantly contributed to the protocol’s success, especially during the more bullish 2020 market.

How to use Uniswap

There are a couple of things you will need before you get started on Uniswap. Firstly, you will need to have a browser extension or plugin installed which lets you interface with web 3.0 applications. The most common of these, and the one best supported by Uniswap, is Metamask.

Choose your preferred wallet to connect to Uniswap.

There are also options to use WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, Fortmatic, and Portis wallets for ease of access. Coinbase wallet is a great option for users who are relatively new to cryptocurrency and have assets stored in the Coinbase mobile app. You can learn how to use Coinbase here.

This should make it much easier to transfer your assets across from Coinbase and swap them for ERC-20 tokens easily. Be careful though, as you can only use ETH and Ethereum-based tokens on Uniswap – don’t try and use Bitcoin, for example.

The swapping experience is simple on Uniswap. First, connect your chosen wallet extension. Once connected, in the top box, simply select the asset you want to swap and enter the amount, or click ‘max’ if you want to swap all of your asset. In the example below, we will swap ETH for UBT.

A basic Uniswap transaction.

Select the asset you want to swap for from the list in the bottom box. Occasionally, you may have to manually search for the asset you want to swap to. The easiest way to do this is to paste the contract address of your desired token. This is also the safest way since tokens can have the same name as others and you can’t guarantee you are buying the real one without the contract address.

Once you are happy with the exchange rate and slippage tolerance, go ahead and click ‘Swap’. You will be shown another lightbox with more details of the swap. If you are happy to go ahead, click ‘Confirm Swap’. You will now be prompted to confirm the swap via your wallet plugin and select your gas price. We will explore more on this below.

If you’re already familiar with Metamask or using other Ethereum plugins for interacting with decentralized applications, or DApps, then using Uniswap should be a pretty easy and familiar experience, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

Let’s explore the most common things new Uniswap users stumble on when using the decentralized liquidity protocol.

Uniswap Slippage

Be careful of slippage on Uniswap.

Slippage occurs when the price you have opened a trade at, or wish to swap assets for, isn’t available anymore at the time of the execution of your order. This can happen for a number of reasons, especially in periods of high market volatility when many other users are trying to buy into a token – prices move quickly.

To make sure you don’t lose your transaction to slippage, which is particularly annoying on Uniswap because sometimes you will still be charged gas fees for initiating the transaction, navigate to the cogwheel in the upper right-hand corner of the exchange interface.

Clicking the cogwheel will show a lightbox with multiple settings, but at the top, you will see ‘slippage tolerance’. The general concept of slippage is simple. If you set a slippage tolerance of 0.1%, the most you will pay for your assets is 0.1% above the spot price – the current market price of the asset.

If you set 0.5% you are willing to go that much higher than the spot price to secure your assets, and so forth. You can choose from 0.1% to 1% slippage from the pre-set options, or set your own slippage tolerance using the manual section.

Sometimes, in rare circumstances and at times of high market volatility, you may even have to go up to 5% slippage to successfully process a transaction. This is only recommended if you really feel you need to get an entry into a token, and you want to make sure you get a good position. Setting slippage tolerances above 5% isn’t recommended, as you are essentially just paying a premium for the asset.

Gas fees

Like everything powered by Ethereum, you will have to pay gas fees in ETH to process transactions on the Uniswap protocol. Even though you are able to swap one ERC-20 asset for any other supported ERC-20 asset directly, this transaction would still cost you gas payable in ETH, so you need to ensure you have some ETH handy in your linked wallet to successfully process this transaction.

Gas fees on the Ethereum network can get incredibly high at busy periods, or in times of high network congestion, and indeed the recent Uniswap and DeFi craze have added to the rising gas costs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Setting gas fees too low on Uniswap can cause your transaction to stall, or fail completely. Be warned, even if your transaction fails due to low gas, you may still lose some ETH funds for initiating the transaction.

Instead, it’s best to either use the network recommended gas prices at the time (medium speed), or opt to pay more gas for a faster transaction to ensure your swap completes successfully. If you aren’t in any rush to swap your assets, consider checking back in on Uniswap when gas prices are down, to bring down your costs.

Transaction deadlines

As we described above, settling too low of a gas fee, or insufficient slippage tolerances, can cause your transaction to stall, or in the worst case, fail completely. You do have to use caution setting a transaction on Uniswap and simply leaving your computer.

In periods of high market volatility or high gas prices, you may pay the initial transaction fee but your swap won’t process – and you will lose some funds. In periods of high gas, this can be quite a significant sum of money.

As a result, you may want to set transaction deadlines. Navigate to the same cogwheel menu as you did for setting slippage, and you will see the option to change the transaction deadlines. The default is 20 minutes, although this might still be too high for some. Essentially, if your swap hasn’t been filled in 20 minutes or the given amount of time, it will be automatically canceled.

We recommend everyone ensures they have a transaction deadline set up. The exact length is up to your risk profile and slippage tolerance, but it is a great tool to ensure your transaction doesn’t get lost in the ether!

Expert Mode

Here’s a little disclaimer before we teach you about Expert mode – if you’re not an expert, don’t use it! Expert mode allows ultra-high slippage trades, which can often result in poor rates of exchange between assets, and even make you lose part o

Best Bitcoin Dice

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 08:00:13 +0000

Looking to roll some dice and win some Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies? You’ve come to the right place. Read on to find out which sites our expert chose as the best.

IN A RUSH?

Go straight to our expert’s top pick. For the best all-around Bitcoin dice experience, DuckDice is our top pick.

Play on DuckDice Now

An Introduction to Bitcoin Dice

Bitcoin Dice is one of the most popular crypto gambling games, and even though these games are relatively simple, they are one of the most customizable forms of betting you can play with cryptocurrency.

Our expert picks the best Bitcoin dice sites and games available this year.

This is because Bitcoin dice sites typically allow players to set their own odds, alter risk and reward, and determine the house edge level. Naturally, the lower house edge will mean less reward, but many players like the opportunity to tailor their gambling experience and win more regularly and consistently with dice games.

Because of its simplicity, many crypto gambling players have come to regard Bitcoin dice and other dice games as one of the purest forms of wagering, changing little in their long history.

Here, we’re going to explore some of the best Bitcoin dice websites globally and highlight some of the best Bitcoin faucets available. But first, let’s look at what a Bitcoin dice faucet is and discover some of the most popular strategies for winning at Bitcoin dice.

What is a Bitcoin Dice Faucet?

In this article, we will be looking at ‘Bitcoin Dice Faucets,’ but what are they, and why do Bitcoin dice players love them so much?

Certain Bitcoin Dice websites will give players a tiny amount of BTC, like a faucet would leak a little water, to try out Bitcoin dice games without risking their funds. Some Bitcoin dice faucets offer substantially more Bitcoin than others, or they dispense at more regular intervals – so some players like to maximize their free BTC through Bitcoin dice faucets!

This free BTC or other cryptocurrencies can either be saved up or used to bet on Bitcoin dice games to try and gamble up your crypto holdings.

In the article below, we’re going to look at some of the best Bitcoin dice faucets so that you can make the most of your dice experience.

Which is the Best Bitcoin Dice Strategy?

We should start by saying that Bitcoin dice is a game of chance – ultimately, it’s a gambling game, and the house always has a slight edge. However, players can follow strict strategies to improve their odds of winning and increase their takings over time.

Here are a few of the most popular strategies:

The Paroli Strategy – A method that helps players maximize winning streaks and minimize losses, the Paroli strategy sees players determine a base stake amount, then double their bet after each win until they achieve three consecutive wins.

The Martingale Strategy – A tried and tested strategy from the 1700s; Martingale strategy players gradually increase their bet amount when they are on a losing streak. The idea behind this strategy is that the increased bets will recover the losses incurred during the losing streak when the player wins.

The D’Alembert Strategy – This easy-to-remember strategy increases your bet amount by 1x after each consecutive roll.

The Inverse Martingale Strategy – As you might have guessed, this is the opposite of the regular Martingale strategy. Players increase their wagering size during a winning streak rather than a losing streak, maximizing the takings from a successful win.

Our Picks – The Best Bitcoin Dice Sites

Now you’re armed with some knowledge of the best Bitcoin dice strategies, let’s dive in and review some of the best places to play Bitcoin dice! Check out the table below for a quick overview of the top sites or scroll down to see a detailed review of each.

Site Noteworthy Features Play

1 Great looking site, user-friendly, many features..
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2 Great design, easy to use, feature-rich, strong history, large range of crypto supported.
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3 Great user interface, top crypto and Bitcoin faucet, good competitions.
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4 Easy to use, good faucet, provably fair.
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5 Easy to use, provably fair.
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1. DuckDice

DuckDice is one of the best designed Bitcoin dice websites available.

A growing Bitcoin dice website, DuckDice.io is a well-designed site licensed in Curaçao. As a Crypto Gambling Foundation member, DuckDice provides provably fair dice games in a range of cryptocurrencies.

The site has implemented plenty of exciting features that have contributed to its popularity, and these have assisted in setting DuckDice apart from other Bitcoin dice operators in recent years. There are a couple of different games on DuckDice, including their main Dice feature and also some lottery games.

Signing up to DuckDice.io is one of the most effortless experiences in crypto gambling – you simply click ‘sign-up,’ and DuckDice generates a username for you. There’s no need to enter an email address, and you can get started straight away.

Users from the United States, the Netherlands, Russia, France, and Ukraine are not currently allowed to play on DuckDice.io.

DuckDice.io Bitcoin Dice

With a focus on design, DuckDice’s crypto dice games are well laid out and easy to play, with a fun ‘egg’ theme to show how much players have wagered.

There are auto modes if you’re the kind of player who likes to set up their games and watch them go, or a ‘Flashbet’ mode, which lets power-players place hundreds of bets per second.

Flashbet lets players set their wagering parameters and then executes hundreds of bets at the fastest speed possible. Once a Flashbet session is in play, there’s no way to stop it unless one of your pre-set criteria is reached or you run out of balance.

DuckDice’s Flashbet is an excellent way for regular players who like to wager a set amount per day to play, so if you’ve got limited time on your hands, check it out!

DuckDice.io Bitcoin Faucet

DuckDice has both a generous Bitcoin faucet feature and ‘rain’ events where cryptocurrency is distributed to certain players.

Their faucet feature allows players to collect free satoshis, which are immediately available to gamble on their dice games. It’s easy to collect BTC from DuckDice’s faucet – you either beat another player in a tic tac toe minigame or play three games in succession to win! However, the faucet feature is only available when you have no funds in your account.

Players can choose to make it ‘rain’ on other members of their chatroom by clicking the cloud icon at the top of the site. This will distribute small amounts of crypto to everyone in that room, so it pays to know some high-rollers on DuckDice!

DuckDice.io Supported Cryptos

DuckDice lets players gamble in the following cryptocurrencies:

Bitcoin

Litecoin

Dogecoin

Dash

Bitcoin Cash

Ethereum Classic

Ethereum

Bitcoin Gold

Zcash

Monero

Ripple

Tether

And many more

In fact, in April 2022, DuckDice announced 7 more coins that will be supported on its platform including SOL, MATIC, LUNA, and others. They have since removed LUNA after its recent colapse.

DuckDice new supported coins

It’s incredibly easy to credit your account on DuckDice, only requiring a deposit address for your chosen asset.

DuckDice.io Additional Features

DuckDice’s Banking feature is a great way to minimize how much you spend.

Social Engineering: A Major Threat to Your Privacy

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 08:00:06 +0000

Protecting your privacy takes more than running a privacy-oriented Linux distro and using a password manager. Many security experts believe the weakest link in any system is the human that operates it.

In this article, we’ll learn what social engineering is and why it is such a threat. Then we’ll look at some of the social engineering attacks that bad guys can use against you, both online and offline. We wrap it up with a few tips for protecting yourself from social engineering attacks.

What is Social Engineering?

Merriam-Webster defines social engineering as the “management of human beings in accordance with their place and function in society.” That sounds a little creepy in itself. But in recent years, the phrase has taken on a more manipulative, sinister meaning.

Today, social engineering means something like “manipulating people to give you confidential information.” When we talk about social engineering here, this is the sense that we’re using.

Why Social Engineering is Such a Threat

Criminals use social engineering because it is easier than hacking into a computer system. Tricking someone into telling you something they shouldn’t is relatively easy. Most people are trusting of others.

It doesn’t matter how secure your computer system is. Or where you stashed your personal documents. Or how many guards are in front of your offices. Social engineering attacks sidestep all that.

Famous ex-hacker Kevin Mitnick often used social engineering attacks to get into “secure” computer systems.

“Anyone who thinks that security products alone offer true security is settling for the illusion of security.” – Kevin D. Mitnick, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security

Criminals use social engineering attacks, both online and offline. Now we’ll look at some of the most common types of attacks and what you can do to defend yourself against them.

We will start with online social engineering attacks that hackers love. You may have come across some of these before.

“A hacker is someone who uses a combination of high-tech cyber tools and social engineering to gain illicit access to someone else’s data.” – John McAfee

Some Online Social Engineering Attacks

Here are a few of the most common online social engineering attacks:

Phishing

Spear Phishing

Baiting

Phishing

According to the Department of Homeland Security website, a phishing attack “uses email or malicious websites to solicit personal information by posing as a trustworthy organization.”

You’ve seen this kind of attack. We all get emails from official-sounding organizations claiming there’s a problem with our account, or they need to verify our credit card information.

The goal is to get you to click on the link in the email. That link will take you to a legitimate-looking, but phony, website for the organization. The website will be set up to trick you into entering your credit card data, Social Security number, or whatever it is that the crooks want to steal.

Spear Phishing

Spear phishing is a type of phishing attack where the attacker customizes the phishing email using personal information about the intended victim. In December 2018, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a warning about several spear-phishing scams.

These scams were meant to gather the information that goes on IRS Form W-2. The target for these scams was small businesses. The bad guys would use the information to open credit card accounts, file fraudulent tax returns, open lines of credit, and so on.

Spear phishing attacks rely heavily on Pretexting attacks. We cover Pretexting attacks in the next section.

Baiting

Baiting attacks are somewhat similar to phishing attacks. The difference is that baiting attacks offer the target something they want instead of resolve a problem. In these kinds of attacks, you might get offered free music, copies of new movies, or any other kind of prize. To get the prize, you would be required to enter whatever type of personal information it is that the crook is after.

Baiting attacks can also occur offline. One such attack involves leaving USB sticks lying around somewhere employees of a target company might find them. The chances are good that someone will pick one up and plug it into their computer, letting whatever malicious software it contains loose inside the organization.

Some Offline Social Engineering Attacks

Online isn’t the only place you are vulnerable to social engineering attacks, here are some examples of offline techniques.

Pretexting

Tailgating/Piggybacking

Vishing (Voice Phishing)

Pretexting

Pretexting is using some form of a lie to trick someone into giving up information they should not share. Pretexting attacks can be run both online and offline. They are often used to get the personal information needed to set up Spear Phishing attacks.

An offline example might be someone who calls you, pretending to be from a lawyer’s office. You’ve just inherited a lot of money from a distant relative. All you need to do is provide certain information to prove your identity, and the lawyer will wire you the money. The pretext for the call is the phony inheritance.

Tailgating/Piggybacking

Tailgating usually involves passing through some sort of electronic security system using someone else’s access. Someone following close behind you when you pass through electronic security might not be a fellow employee at all. Instead, they might be someone tailgating on your access to go somewhere they don’t belong.

Vishing (Voice Phishing)

Vishing, or Voice Phishing, is the offline equivalent of a Phishing attack. There are several versions of this attack, but all use the telephone system. They aim to get the victim to divulge a credit card number or some other personal information in response to an official-sounding phone call.

These scams usually use VoIP (Voice over IP) technology to simulate the automated phone system that a real company might use. Phone systems used to be considered safe and trustworthy, making people more vulnerable to Vishing scams.

How to Defend Yourself from ONLINE Social Engineering Attacks

We’ve looked at some of the more common online social engineering attacks in use today. But what can you do to protect yourself from them?

Here are some practices that will reduce your chance of getting scammed:

Don’t open unexpected email attachments. If you receive an unexpected attachment, the chances are good that it is malicious. Contact the company IT department (if at work). If not at work, contact the sender (if you know them). Find out why you received it before opening any unexpected attachment.

Look up websites on your own. Remember that phishing-type attacks usually direct you to a fake website. You can avoid their trap by looking up the website address yourself rather than clicking on a link in an email message or attachment. If you do find yourself on a website you are unsure about, check out the URL (the address) that appears in the browser address box. While it is possible to make an exact duplicate of a legitimate website, no two sites can have the same URL. Looking up the company in a search engine should get you to the real site.

Never reveal your password to anyone online. No legitimate organization is going to ask a user for their password.

Use a VPN for additional privacy when browsing the web.

How to Defend Yourself from OFFLINE Social Engineering Attacks

We’ve also looked at common offline social engineering attacks. Here are some things you can do to protect yourself from offline attacks:

Don’t give personal information to callers. This may have been safe many years ago, but is not now. If someone calls you and says they need you to confirm some personal information, hang up on the creeps!

Don’t let anyone tailgate you to get past security. Regular criminals or ex-employees have been known to use this technique to get back onsite and steal things or exact vengeance.

Always demand an ID from anyone who shows up asking you for information.

Never plug anything into your computer if you don’t know where it came from!

Social Engineering: A Major Threat to Your Privacy was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

CEX.IO Extensive Review [2023] – A Safe, Proven Crypto Exchange

Sun, 22 Oct 2023 08:00:15 +0000

CEX.IO manages to balance the provision of an exchange platform with advanced services and an interface that is visually appealing, easy-to-use, and accessible to newer crypto investors.

CEX.IO has been in the cryptocurrency business since 2013, starting as a cloud mining provider, and claims to currently have over a million users, ranging from “Bitcoin beginners to institutional traders.”

Here’s our CEX.IO exchange review for 2019

That said, CEX.IO does not offer all the features that some crypto traders expect from an advanced digital asset trading platform and it only supports a limited number of cryptocurrencies and trading pairs, so it definitely cannot satisfy the needs of all investors.

If CEX.IO sounds like it could be the right fit for you, then please read on.

CEX.IO’s time-proven stability and security

In this CEX.IO review we will cover all the key facts about the exchange, its main distinguishing features, the registration, and verification process, its fee schedule and then summarize everything we have learned with a quick pros and cons list at the end – where you can decide if it’s the best cryptocurrency exchange for your needs.

“Even when Bitcoin price is experiencing harsh times, the Bitcoin index is still hundreds (or at least dozens) times higher than that of a US dollar, Euro, or other fiat currency. If a trader can read charts and draw conclusions based on what he sees, if he can look at the market as a system and clearly see the trends playing a significant role in the Bitcoin price establishment, or simply if he trusts his intuition, then this person can easily join the trading lot. In this case, the opportunity to earn a pretty big sum is worth all the risk.”
CEX.IO Blog

Quick Facts

CEX.IO Facts Sheet

Exchange Type: Centralized

Fiat-to-Crypto: Yes

Crypto-to-Fiat: Yes

Crypto-to-Crypto: Yes

Number of Fiat Currencies Traded: 4

Number of Cryptocurrencies Traded: 10

Number of Countries Supported: 150+

Number of Fiat Currencies Supported: All

Bank Transfers/Deposits: Yes

Credit/Debit Cards: Yes

Wire Transfers: Yes

PayPal: No

Exchange Wallet(s): Yes

Account Size Limits: No

Spending Limit Periods: Yes

Margin Trading: Yes

Trading Fees: 0.25% or less taker and 0.16% or less maker

Deposit/Withdrawal Fees: 2.99% deposit and 3% + $5 withdrawal for credit cards, 1% withdrawal for bank/wire transfers

Headquarters: UK

Incorporated: UK

Go to CEX.IO

CEX.IO Features

CEX.IO lists several key benefits and features it has to attract clients including a range of payment options, strong security, worldwide coverage, legal compliance, margin trading, reasonable commissions, cross-platform trading, advanced reporting, and high liquidity as can be seen in the screenshot below:

Screenshot of CEX.IO homepage – “Why choose CEX.IO?”

Let’s take a look at some of these features and others in a bit more detail.

Advanced Orders

CEX.IO allows users to place advanced order types, specifically limit and stop orders.

While this may not sound like much to the uninitiated, these advanced order types are essential for anything beyond the most basic investment strategies.

However, some variations of these order types such as a trailing stop that are not yet available on CEX.IO.

“If you’re a day trader, then you’ll need to know about stop-loss and take-profit points. These are the price levels where you are going to exit a trade. For example, if you think that the price of bitcoin has reached a support level that it has come to in the past and there are no signs that it will be able to break through that support and go lower, then you may want to place a buy order.”
CEX.IO Blog

Low Commissions

CEX.IO has very low and simple transaction costs. At 0.25% or less for takers and 0.16% or less for makers, CEX.IO is easily competing for the top spots in the industry for lowest transaction fees.

Low transaction fees mean more trading strategies become viable, and your trades need to work less hard to make a profit.

Note: Maker and taker fees are a way to differentiate between orders that provide liquidity (Makers) and those that take away liquidity (Takers).

A market maker is placing an order that may or may not be filled. This standing order adds ‘liquidity’ to the market by adding more potential volume that can be traded.

A market taker, by contrast, is choosing from existing orders set by market makers and closing these orders down, thereby removing liquidity from the market by removing some of the potentially tradeable volumes.

Since exchanges like more liquidity, as it attracts more traders to their venue, they are willing to reward market makers with lower, and sometimes even positive, transaction fees.

Go to CEX.IO

Recommended
CEX.IO

Exchange Service
Go!

Slick Interface

If you are new to crypto exchanges, then you probably can’t do much better than CEX.IO’s market interface.

We often find that the more advanced trading platforms tend to be intimidating to new crypto traders and investors because of all the flashing lights and scrolling numbers. In our opinion, CEX.IO as an interface with the perfect balance between function and simplicity.

Low Credit Card Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

The value of low deposit and withdrawal fees for credit card users is hard to overstate.

Many crypto investors highly prize the convenience and privacy of using their credit cards to make cryptocurrency transactions.

However, not all digital asset exchanges offer this option and those that do often charge extremely high fees for the privilege.

CEX.IO Low Fees

While not the most competitive in the industry, CEX.IO’s credit card fees (2.99% for deposits) are still well below the market average, and this is a major advantage to a huge range of crypto investors.

Note: You can find more information about buying cryptocurrencies with a credit card at CEX.IO and other recommended exchanges in our “How to buy Bitcoin with a Credit Card” guide.

Margin Trading

CEX.IO has its own margin trading platform called CEX.IO Broker, which is currently in beta.

The platform offers cryptocurrency trading via contracts for difference (CFDs) and has advanced trading tools, technical analysis instruments, and different order types available.

Users will be able to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum with up to 10x leverage when the platform goes live.

highly classified information with several leading journalists, who then broke the news to the world.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Snowden’s astonishing revelations have changed the world as we know it, shedding damning light on intelligence agencies and systems all over the world and making countless people think long and hard about their own privacy, anonymity, and security.

“We had a cyber Pearl Harbor. His name was Edward Snowden.” – Ashton Carter, Former Secretary of Defense.

Countless stories have been written, and debates have raged in the years since the leak began, and everyone has their view on Snowden and the mind-blowing information he shared with the world. His actions even led to the development of the USA Freedom Act, which was designed to limit the amount and type of data that could be monitored and recorded.

However, as Snowden’s leaks revealed, the fact of the matter is that there’s a whole lot of spying and secret data-gathering going on behind the scenes of our lives. There’s still probably plenty that we don’t even know, but Snowden’s info helped to blow the whole thing open. Here are some breakdowns of some of the biggest and most essential revelations he shared.

The NSA Can Demand Call Records And Data From Telephone Companies

This was one of the first major stories to come out in the wake of the Snowden leaks, but it’s still one of the most important. The initial story showed that Verizon, one of the biggest telephone companies around, was forced to provide the NSA with data and records for almost all of its customers.

Later on, we saw that Verizon wasn’t the only company involved in this sort of thing. Other major telephone companies like Sprint and AT&T were also handing over phone records and info to the intelligence agency without customers knowing what was going on.

This revelation was enormous and generated significant debate at the time, with many of those debates still ongoing to this day. As a result, then-President, Barack Obama, announced plans to overhaul the NSA’s data collection programs in what would eventually lead to the development of the USA Freedom Act.

Triggering A Wave Of Privacy Concerns

“When you give up your privacy, you give up your power.” – Thor Benson, Journalist.
This first major leak from Snowden also had a big effect on public views about surveillance and privacy. Before then, many people had laughed off the thought of the NSA spying on their phone calls and taking their data behind their backs.

The whole notion seemed like something out of a conspiracy theory, but Snowden’s leaks proved that it was very real. From there, the public began to put more focus on protecting their mobile privacy in any way possible, as well as thinking more deeply about privacy and anonymity online through the increased use of VPNs.

The Power Of Smurfs

Sticking with the phone theme, Snowden’s leaks also taught us that the GCHQ, which is essentially the British version of the NSA, has the terrifying ability to actually control people’s phones, even when they’re switched off. To do this, they make use of a series of tools named after Smurfs, the little blue cartoon characters first created in an old Belgian comic series.

The Smurfs And What They Do

“There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.'” – Philip K. Dick, Author

Snowden revealed that the GCHQ had a whole list of Smurf tools, each with its own use and purpose. Here are some examples:

Dreamy Smurf – Has the ability to turn phones on or off remotely

Nosey Smurf – Has the ability to make use of the phone’s microphone to listen to conversations and noise in the local area.

Tracker Smurf – Has the ability to track your position precisely

Paranoid Smurf – Works to hide the activities of the other Smurfs to prevent detection

As we can see, the power of these ‘Smurfs’ is quite terrifying. Naturally, these tools and software programs are only designed to be used against criminals and suspected terrorists, but the very fact that such technology exists was enough to send a shiver down the spine of many members of the general public.

PRISM

“The government doesn’t want any system of transmitting information to remain unbroken unless it’s under its own control.” – Isaac Asimov, Tales of the Black Widowers

By far, one of the scariest revelations for the American public was the existence of PRISM. PRISM was the code name given to an NSA program in which the agency could effectively demand data from major tech and internet companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple.

PRISM, it turned out, has been a major source of intelligence for NSA reports, and it was a terrifying thing for the general public to learn about. People did respond, however, through protests, debates, and demonstrations, as well as encouraging each other to start focusing more strongly on protecting privacy and anonymity online.

The sorts of content the NSA could collect included search histories, downloads, emails, and more. The focus of the program was to track potential terrorism suspects, but the system effectively allowed for the data of almost any internet user to be taken, making it a huge threat to people’s privacy.

The NSA Can Intercept Packages Before They Reach Your Home

An astonishing report published in the German newspaper ‘Der Spiegel’ revealed that the NSA has a whole list of scary surveillance systems and methods in place to keep their eyes everywhere and spy on people without them being any the wiser.

The report showed that the NSA was able to intercept package deliveries that were on their way to a person’s home. From there, intelligence agents could open up the packages and see what was inside, as well as adding their own espionage tools and software programs.

That way, they could effectively find packages that were going into suspects’ homes, add bugs and traces to the items inside, and monitor what the suspect was using the equipment for and what was going on behind closed doors.

The ANT Catalog

Der Spiegel’s report went on to highlight some of the tools that could be used, comparing the list to a ‘mail-order catalog.’ The tools were all grouped under the acronym ANT, which stands for Advanced Network Technology. Each tool has its own codename and product listing in the ‘catalog,’ which describes its functions and uses.

ANT Tool Examples:

SURLYSPAWN – Able to log keystrokes on a computer and transmit them wirelessly, even when the computer isn’t connected to the internet

CANDYGRAM – Able to imitate a GSM cell phone tower to monitor cell communications

FIREWALK – Designed to look just like a regular RJ45 internet socket, this tool can inject and monitor device data via radio waves

MONKEYCALENDAR – Able to transmit a cell phone’s geolocation via a secret text message

COTTONMOUTH – Designed to look like USB and Ethernet connectors, these tools can hack into computers and provide remote access

Again, just like the Smurf tools used by the GCHQ in the United Kingdom, these code named espionage tools and pieces of equipment were very scary to learn about for many people as they proved that NSA agents had access to gear that could make surveillance incredibly easy for them and almost entirely undetectable for their targets.

The NSA Can Even Hack Tech Giants

An article in The Washington Post stated that the NSA had actually hacked into data centers of major tech giants Google and Yahoo in order to monitor communications and traffic at these centers.

This was a particularly scary revelation for members of the general public as it proved that there were almost no limits to what the NSA’s spy tools were capable of. If even the biggest internet companies on the planet could be hacked with such apparent ease, was anyone really safe?

It was also shocking for people to see that the NSA was prepared to use its wealth of hacking tools against big American companies. Google and Yahoo both released statements to deny any awareness of the surveillance and express their shock and dismay, with Yahoo even taking action to encrypt its connections.

The former CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Meyer, stated that Yahoo would not provide the NSA with any access to its data centers and never had in the past. This helped to reassure many members of the public and general internet users, but a lot of people still worried that big companies were making shady deals behind their backs.

Britain’s NSA Spies On Fiber Optic Connections All Over The Globe

The GCHQ, Britain’s NSA equivalent, was also revealed to use various surveillance tools to hack into fiber optic cables and connections all over the globe. This is all done under the code name ‘Tempora,’ which is a surveillance system that has been running since 2011.

This system essentially involved the GCHQ placing interceptors on several hundred fiber optic cables going in and out of the United Kingdom. These interceptors could seize data directly from the cables, with intelligence agents then closely observing and analyzing that data for anything that they might deem interesting or worthy of further investigation.

According to Snowden’s leaks, the information gathered by GCHQ via Tempora could also be shared with the NSA, with hundreds of thousands of NSA contractors being able to look at this data.

The NSA Collects Contact Lists

“There has never been a time in human history where so many people routinely carry recording and surveillance devices.” – Steven Magee, Author.

Part of the NSA’s surveillance and anti-terrorism measures also include the collection of countless email and contact lists from internet and smartphone users. Snowden’s leaks showed that up to 250 million of these contact lists could be taken each year.

It’s important to note that this system was only used overseas and aimed at non-US citizens, but the fact of the matter is that when literally hundreds of thousands of these lists are being collected all over the globe, and a lot of Americans also happen to be traveling in foreign places, it’s inevitable that their data is also going to be at risk.

Boundless Informant Proved That The NSA Spied On Americans

Boundless Informant (or BOUNDLESSINFORMANT) is the code name given to a big data analysis tool used by the NSA. This tool basically tracks all of the metadata collected by the NSA around the world and makes a kind of ‘heatmap’ of that data to show where it came from and which countries are targeted most frequently.

The tool showed that billions of pieces of information were being collected every single month, and it also showed that several billion pieces were being taken from citizens of the United States. This was despite the fact that the NSA had specifically stated to Congress that it did not gather data on millions of American citizens and didn’t even have the capacity to do so.

XKeyScore Allows The NSA To Track Anyone’s Online Activity

“You could read anyone’s email in the world, anybody you’ve got an email address for. Any website: You can watch traffic to and from it. Any computer that an individual sits at: You can watch it. Any laptop that you’re tracking: you can follow it as it moves from place to place throughout the world. It’s a one-stop-shop for access to the NSA’s information.”

That’s how Edward Snowden describes the power of XKeyScore, which is perhaps the most powerful NSA internet espionage tool of them all. Also known as XKS, this computer system is designed to search through and analyze internet data from users all over the globe, and huge amounts of that data are being collected each and every day.

What’s more, all of that data can then be shared with other intelligence agencies as part of the ‘Five Eyes‘ and ‘Fourteen Eyes’ alliances, so agencies like the GCHQ in the United Kingdom or the Defense Intelligence Headquarters of Japan could also get access to information on a person’s browsing habits, search history, and general internet usage.

Fighting Back Against Internet Surveillance

With so many harrowing revelations coming out of the Snowden leaks, especially in regard to internet surveillance through systems like XKeyScore, many people want to take action to be safer online and keep their data private.

That’s why statistics are showing a big leap in the number of people making use of virtual private networks (VPNs). VPN providers like ExpressVPN and NordVPN are essentially able to encrypt your internet connections and hide your presence online, meaning that even if attempts were made to track your activity, they wouldn’t be successful.

Other VPNs Worth Checking Out:

Torguard

CyberGhost

IPVanish

VyprVPN

Pros And Cons Of Using A VPN

Pros Cons

Hide your online presence and encrypt your connections for total anonymity Monthly/Annual subscription fees

Stay safe from hackers and malicious software. Connection speeds can sometimes vary, depending on the VPN you choose

Access region-locked or restricted content and services like Netflix

Enjoy total security when traveling.

The NSA Spies On Global Leaders

We’ve seen that giant tech companies like Google and Apple aren’t safe from the NSA’s spy tools, and the same can be said for world leaders like presidents and prime ministers. Many documents from Snowden’s files have revealed that the NSA has targeted over 120 different global leaders over the years, spying on their communications and actually listening in on their phone conversations.

Examples Of Leaders Who Have Been Hacked:

The likes of former Brazilian President Dilma Roussef, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and current German Chancellor

How Do I Buy or Sell Bitcoin?

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 10:00:35 +0000

Back in 2017, Bitcoin underwent a meteoric rise in value, from around US$700 to above US$18,000. Then in 2021, Bitcoin started its ascent to a new high of over US$62,000, a record high which was then broken one year later in 2022. Some analysts predict that a single Bitcoin will one day be worth more than US$500,000. Bitcoin has proven itself as one of the hottest assets on the market.

Perhaps you’re interested in buying Bitcoins to hold as a long-term investment, or as a way to invest in other so-called “altcoins” that can only be purchased with Bitcoin. Historically, the process of acquiring Bitcoin has required some technical know-how, a gap that has traditionally kept many interested parties from investing in Bitcoin. As cryptocurrency has risen in popularity, however, many reputable and user-friendly options for buying and storing Bitcoin have come onto the scene.

Bitcoins cannot be stored in a bank (with the exception of Revolut), and their safety is ultimately in the hands of the user who holds them. Therefore, it is imperative to research the tools that you use to interact with your Bitcoins to ensure their security. In this post, we’ll discuss the different methods that can be used to buy, sell and store Bitcoins securely. If you live in the UK, then read our UK-specific guide here.

Method One: Purchasing or Selling Bitcoins on an Online Exchange

Buying or selling Bitcoins on an online exchange is the easiest and most popular way to trade them. When choosing an exchange, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. What kind of reputation does the exchange have? How long has this exchange been operating successfully? What type of security does this exchange utilize to protect users’ personal information and assets, and has this security ever failed?

While all of these exchanges have the capability of storing Bitcoins, it is not recommended to keep Bitcoins (or any other cryptocurrency, for that matter) stored on an exchange long-term. See our in-depth guide to safely storing your cryptocurrency here.

Coinbase

Coinbase is an extremely user-friendly option for newcomers to cryptocurrency. It is both an exchange and a versatile wallet that has online, mobile, and desktop interfaces. Currently, Coinbase can be used to buy, sell and store Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin; it supports payment via bank transfer or credit/debit card. Photo ID must be provided to become a registered Coinbase user.

While Coinbase is a very convenient option, it must also be said that many users have had poor experiences with Coinbase’s customer support. Additionally, Coinbase’s fees are a bit higher than the industry average.

Kraken

Kraken is a European-based exchange that allows Bitcoin to be traded for USD, JPY, EUR, and GBP. Kraken has low trading fees, but the verification process required to become a functioning user can take as long as several weeks. Kraken protects its users’ accounts with 2-factor identification and PGP encryption.

Changelly

Changelly is an online exchange that has also been noted for its user-friendliness. Unlike Coinbase, Changelly does not offer a mobile or desktop wallet, but Bitcoin can be stored. Changelly supports the use of bank cards to buy Bitcoin with USD. Changelly charges a 0.5% fee on each transaction within its network, on the higher end of the industry average.

Method Two: Over-the-Counter Trading

Over-the-Counter Trading is a way of buying or selling Bitcoins without going through an exchange. Instead, Bitcoin trades are arranged on a peer-to-peer basis. The advantage of this is that there are no fees charged by a third party.

Of course, there is a bit of a risk involved in Over-the-Counter trading, as you must trust that the person who is selling Bitcoins to you will indeed send them. To ensure that the person you’re trading with is trustworthy, use a platform like LocalBitcoins.com, which provides users with trustworthiness scores.

Storing Your Bitcoins Safely: Who Holds Your Private Keys?

Although Bitcoins have become quite valuable assets, they are essentially an abstraction–you cannot see, smell, touch, taste, or own a physical Bitcoin. To hold a Bitcoin, you must be in possession of that coin’s private key.

A private key is a series of numbers that allows a Bitcoin to be sent. If you hold a Bitcoin’s private key, you also maintain the ability to spend (or hang on to) that Bitcoin. Private keys are the things that enable access to transfer Bitcoin from a Bitcoin wallet. Private keys always start with the number five, and they look like this:

5Kb8kLf9zgWQnogidDA76MzPL6TsZZY36hWXMssSzNydYXYB9KF

Private keys must not be confused with public keys, also known as public addresses–a public key is an address that is used to receive Bitcoins. Public keys always start with the number one, and look like this:

1EHNa6Q4Jz2uvNExL497mE43ikXhwF6kZm

When it comes to private keys, different wallets distribute the responsibility of keeping them safe in different ways. Some wallets, like Coinbase and Exodus, keep your private keys for you. You will never have access to them; instead, they are stored on the wallet’s private server.

While this may (in theory) alleviate the personal stress of worrying about keeping your private keys safe, choosing this kind of wallet also means that you are entrusting your Bitcoins into someone else’s care; if that private server gets hacked or otherwise compromised, your Bitcoins could be lost. While you would likely be hoping for some compensation, you would probably be out of luck.

Other kinds of wallets, like paper wallets, put you in charge of your private keys. This means that you are solely responsible for the fate of your Bitcoins. If you lose access to the private keys, you lose access to the Bitcoins.

Choosing a Bitcoin Wallet

Once you have decided whether you want your Bitcoins’ private keys to be in your own hands or under the responsibility of a third-party company, there are a few different types of Bitcoin wallets:

hardware wallets (i.e., Trezor, Ledger, Keepkey)

desktop wallets (i.e., Exodus, Bitcoin Core, Electrum, Multibit, Armory, Coinbase)

mobile wallets (i.e., Coinbase, Mycelium, Breadwallet, Copay, Airbitz)

paper wallets (can be created at Bitcoinpaperwallet.com)

online wallets (i.e., GreenAddress, SpectroCoin)

Online wallets are thought of as the least secure kind of Bitcoin wallet because of their susceptibility to hacking. While there are some independent options for online wallets, most are associated with online exchanges (i.e., Poloniex, Bittrex).

Desktop wallets are downloadable pieces of software that can be used to store Bitcoins. Different desktop wallets have different sets of features. For example, Bitcoin Core is a “full-node” wallet that stores the entire Bitcoin blockchain, which allows for more private use; on the opposite end of the spectrum, Exodus is a “light” desktop wallet that has a built-in exchange.

Mobile wallets are an option for users who are looking for user-friendly wallets that can be accessed on-the-go. Some mobile wallets, like Coinbase and Copay, have built-in exchanges that can be used to buy and sell Bitcoin and other kinds of cryptocurrency quickly.

Paper wallets are a great, low-cost option for keeping your Bitcoins in “cold storage” (offline). While storing your Bitcoins in a paper wallet means that they are not susceptible to hacking, they are vulnerable to all of the things that paper is susceptible to: fire damage, water damage, biodegradation; even just getting lost.

When you create a paper wallet, make sure that you print multiple copies that can be kept in various secure locations. Protect the copies with plastic bags or lamination, and use an offline printer that cannot be hacked when you are printing your paper wallet.

Hardware wallets are considered to be the most secure kind of cryptocurrency storage. They store Bitcoins offline in cold storage, and have options for regeneration should they be destroyed. Hardware wallets are encrypted and protected with varying levels of security, including pin codes, password, and multi-signature sign-in.

Becoming a Savvy Crypto Investor

What the world of cryptocurrency is experiencing right now is a crucial time in its history–it is just beginning to make the leap from being a “fringe” movement to a mainstream fintech revolution. Undoubtedly, there is a lot of money to be made; some early adopters have already reaped massive benefits.

Unfortunately, for just as many great crypto opportunities that are appearing nearly every day, there are many “scam coins” and other kinds of crypto-related schemes.

Therefore, when entering the cryptosphere as a first-time investor, it is imperative to learn how to protect yourself from malicious scammers. Our newsletter is full of useful information about making wise investment choices, technical advice, and new opportunities.

If your friends, family, or colleagues could use this information or any of the other useful information that we have on our site, share this post using the social media buttons.

What have your experiences been as a first-time Bitcoin buyer? Post a comment–we would love to hear about them!

How Do I Buy or Sell Bitcoin? was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

UK Residents – How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:00:57 +0000

As Bitcoins popularity continues to increase so does the number of people asking – ‘How do I buy Bitcoin?’ As it stands the process of purchasing Bitcoin can alter slightly depending on which country you live in. In this article, we will cover specifically how to buy Bitcoin as a UK resident.

Bitcoin offers its users some real benefits over fiat currencies such as global payments with minimal fees and peer-to-peer transactions with no 3^rd party interference. It has also enjoyed massive growth in its value over the last decade and as this digital currency continues to go mainstream so increases the potential uses and convenience of it. In the UK it’s even possible now to purchase an 18 million pound London mansion using Bitcoin.

While there are many advantages to Bitcoin it must also be noted that its price can be very volatile. This means that its value can drop or increase significantly in short periods of time. You should consider this when buying Bitcoin and be aware of your risk tolerance.

What’s different for UK citizens?

This all comes down to being able to pay for your Bitcoin. The most common method of paying for Bitcoin is by using a credit/debit cards or by bank transfer. There will be specific exchanges or marketplaces that allow purchases using UK credit/debit cards but also many that will not accept UK cards or bank transfers at all. Speed can also be a factor, and if you are looking for instant purchases again, there will be specific marketplaces that cater to UK residents.

SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) seems to be a commonly excepted payment method. If your bank account allows this, then you will have a few more options from where you can purchase Bitcoin.

It may be necessary to open multiple accounts to get the best deal and use Bitcoin the way you require. For example, let’s say you wanted to get into Bitcoin trading and there’s a specific exchange that has the best tools and charts for this. However, this exchange does not allow you to purchase Bitcoin using a UK bank account, you would, therefore, need to buy them elsewhere and transfer them over to this exchange.

This will likely become less of an issue with time, as cooperation increases and British banks becoming more willing to service the Bitcoin marketplace.

Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Cryptocurrency exchanges allow their customers to buy, sell and trade digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin. The number of digital currencies available will depend on the exchange.

When you open an account and buy from a cryptocurrency exchange, there will be an initial verification process. This will involve sending in scanned images of your passport or other forms of ID as well as personal documents like recent bank statements. This process can take just a few minutes or multiple days depending on the cryptocurrency exchange. This is because you will have to wait while they confirm that all of your documents meet their requirements.

Fees will vary between different exchanges, so it’s worth looking around. Here are some cryptocurrency exchanges that do serve UK customers:

Coinbase – A highly popular exchange. Deposits possible via SEPA payments or instant purchases using any Visa/Mastercard credit/debit card.

Kraken – Another popular exchange. Deposits possible via SEPA payments or by credit/debit card purchases.

Bitstamp – Deposits possible via SEPA payments or purchases using a credit/debit card.

Coinfloor – UK based Bitcoin exchange. Deposits in GBP possible via SWIFT or SEPA payments.

CEX.IO – Deposits possible via SEPA payments or using a Visa/Mastercard credit/debit card.

Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces

These online marketplaces match those who are looking to buy Bitcoin with those who are looking to sell. For those looking to make their first Bitcoin purchases, these online markets can be quite competitive on price and have lower initial fees. You will need to have a Bitcoin wallet ready beforehand when purchasing from a P2P marketplace which we will cover in the next section.

Here are some peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplaces that support purchases for UK residents:

Bittylicious – Reliable service and an easy way to buy Bitcoins via UK bank transfer.

LocalBitcoins – Buy Bitcoins directly from people in exchange for your local currency.

Quick note – An excellent site for comparing the costs of buying Bitcoin in the UK to help you get the best deal is BittyBot.

Bitcoin Wallets

Whenever you purchase Bitcoin, you will need to have a wallet to store them in. The most common and easiest method of storage is via an online Bitcoin wallet; however, other forms include desktop, hardware and paper Bitcoin wallets, and these options are usually much more secure.

Bitcoin ATMs

There are more than 90 Bitcoin ATMs that currently exist in the UK with the vast majority being in London.

These machines allow you to insert cash in exchange for Bitcoins (although, their rates are little poor). You will need to have a Bitcoin wallet already when purchasing through a Bitcoin ATM.

Final thoughts on buying Bitcoin in the UK

It’s worth looking around when purchasing Bitcoin to make sure you are getting the best deal. The marketplace is developing quickly with new players set to enter the scene. This should lead to lower and more competitive fees for UK citizens.

Where is your favourite place to buy Bitcoin? Do you have multiple cryptocurrency exchange accounts? It would be great to hear your opinions in the comments section below!

UK Residents – How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

What Is Proof of Stake (PoS) & How Does it Work? Find Out Here in our Ultimate Coin Staking Guide

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:00:29 +0000

The recent rise of blockchains based on Proof-of-Stake (POS) has provided a new way for crypto holders to increase their holdings for relatively little work. Once unproven and untested, POS is now becoming more and more common among top blockchain networks.

The ultimate guide to Proof-of-Stake

As an alternative to Proof-of-Work (POW), this POS allows more users to participate in maintaining and validating the network without the need for expensive equipment and high electricity usage. In this article, you will learn how POS and POW are similar, how they differ, and how you can start earning rewards through staking right away.

Consensus

Both POS and POW are different methods for reaching the same end goal, which is to coordinate agreement in a decentralized network. Consensus simply means a general agreement, but on a peer-to-peer network of computers that have no hierarchy, manager, coordinator, or director, reaching consensus requires the right combination of cryptography, rewards, and punishments.

Consensus

These computers in the network, also known as nodes, must have some basic set of rules of how to agree or determine what is true. The rule set in which they agree to participate in is called a consensus protocol, mechanism, or algorithm.

The nodes are allowed to participate in the network by running software that has the same underlying consensus protocol at its root. In general, the consensus mechanism is how these nodes come to an agreement even if some (normally up to 1/3) of those nodes disagree or behave badly. This is also known as a Byzantine Fault Tolerant system.

Proof of Stake (POS) vs Proof of Work (POW)

Proof-of-Work (POW) was a breakthrough technology because it provided, for the first time, an effective and reliable mechanism for reaching consensus in a way that was secure and decentralized. Therefore, to truly understand Proof-of-Stake (POS), it is important to understand how POW works.

Note: Blokt has created an in-depth Ethereum mining guide, which will help you understand the basic concepts of how its current POW system works.

POS vs POW – Source: Shutterstock.com

POW Costs

If POW works and works very well, then why does there need to be POS at all? The answer is electricity. The primary input of a POW system is electricity and this real material cost to our environment and planet is one of the main reasons why so many of the major existing and upcoming blockchain networks have plans or are already dedicated to alternative consensus mechanisms such as POS.

POW Costs

Bitcoin was the first application to use POW and did not consume massive amounts of energy in its initial years. However, as the Bitcoin asset became more valuable and thus more profitable to mine, competition increased and so did the electricity needed to mine profitably. Bitcoin mining has now reached the point where the entire mining process consumes more electricity than many small and even some medium-sized countries.

Bitcoin Electronic Waste Generation

In addition to the massive energy costs involved in POW, the process also requires highly specialized computers called ASICs, which has resulted in massive electronic waste when the ASICs become obsolete or unprofitable. These very real and significant costs to our environment will likely increase as POW blockchain assets like Bitcoin rise in value.

Similarities Between POW and POS

Like POW, POS requires a minimum amount of participants to secure or maintain the network. If there aren’t enough participants then the network will be easily attacked and not very secure. In addition, the asset on the network needs to have a minimum amount of value.

Similarities – POS vs POW – Source: Shutterstock.com

The fact that the crypto asset has value makes the network more secure because the POS or POW systems can reward participants with coins produced by the consensus mechanism. The rewards for participating in consensus combined with the transaction fees on the network, which generally go to POS and POW participants, are the necessary financial incentives that keep a blockchain growing.

Differences

Proof-of-Work Proof-of-Stake

Significant Costs Equipment + Electricity Crypto Asset

Hardware ASIC / GPU General Computers

Rewards Fixed Variable

Cooperative Options Cloud Mining / Mining Pools Delegating / Staking Services

Disadvantages High Energy Consumption, High Barriers to Entry Less Proven and Test

Participants Miners Validators

The primary difference between POW and POS is the activity that participants engage in in order to secure the network. In POW, participants are called miners, and they must solve complex and difficult mathematical equations through a process of trial and error.

The mining process relies heavily on powerful computers and large amounts of electricity consumption. In a POW system, new tokens are produced to reward miners thus keeping a fixed supply of new tokens that enter the economy with every block mined.

In POS, validators must stake or deposit their crypto assets in order to engage in proposing and voting on the next block in the chain. Instead of investing electricity like miners, validators stake their capital in the form of network coins and the network rewards these validators by producing new coins over time as a reward for validators. Because the barriers to entry are much lower than in POW, nearly anyone is able to participate in POS.

Centralization

Because it is easier to become a validator than a miner, more people are likely to run nodes and become validators, which means a more diverse and decentralized group are securing the network. In order to be profitable more regularly, miners in POW tend to pool resources into mining pools. As a result, three mining pools already control more than 51% of the Bitcoin network.

Best Bitcoin Mining Pools

Validators

Though there are many different types and designs for POS systems, with a variety of different terms, the most general name for participants in POS is validators.

Validators – Source: Shutterstock.com

Validators are users who stake or deposit their crypto assets for a certain length of time and run specialized software in order to validate and maintain the blockchain network.

What is Staking?

Staking is generally done by sending some minimum amount of crypto assets into a smart contract or specific destination that is used for validating. These stakes are coins of the POS network and are essentially deposits that are frozen and cannot be moved for a certain amount of time. This freezing of assets leaves the validator vulnerable to slashing as a way to deter bad behavior.

TAILS (@Tails_live, https://t.co/Re3LzE4WdO) is the most accessible for normal folks looking to "torify" non-browser traffic, and a gentle introduction to Linux (which is still gonna be a learning experience). You can boot it from a USB stick without overwriting your everyday OS. https://t.co/eHqYarXFjZ

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 13, 2017

Even if you don’t understand exactly what he’s talking about (yet), this Tails thing is important. So please keep reading to learn what it is and why it has become so popular.

What is Tails, and why do privacy fans love it?

Tails is a unique computer operating system. It is designed to help you use the Internet anonymously and get around censorship. Tails is a live system (live operating system) that runs from a USB stick or DVD. It lets you connect to the Internet using virtually any computer while leaving no trace of your activities after you have finished.

Even better, Tails is free software that anyone can install and use whenever and wherever privacy and anonymity are essential.

What makes Tails safer than other operating systems?

Because Tails was designed from the beginning to provide privacy and anonymity, it differs from other operating systems in several areas:

Tails forces all Internet connections to go through the Tor network. Tor is a worldwide distributed network that prevents people from watching your network connection from knowing what websites you visit while keeping those websites from learning your physical location. For more details on how this works, visit the official About Tor page.

Tails connects to the hardware of a computer but doesn’t use the operating system or disk drives. That means there is no permanent record of your activities on that computer. Once you remove the Tails USB Stick or DVD and restart the computer, there will be no way to tell Tails was used there.

Tails comes with state-of-the-art encryption technology. From PGP and OTR support for secure communications to the automatic use of HTTPS when visiting websites to the ability to encrypt the files on your USB stick or DVD, Tails has you covered.

With all these privacy and anonymity features together in a package that you can literally carry in your pocket, it is easy to see why privacy fans love Tails.

This all sounds great, but you may still be wondering, “Is Tails safe to use?” Tails is far safer than the typical operating system, but it is not foolproof. There are various ways bad guys can get around the protections built into Tails. Here is a detailed explanation of Tails’ security limitations.

Watch the following video for a more detailed introduction to Tails:

One of the great things about Tails is that you can create your own Tails USB Stick or DVD and try it yourself. And since it is free software, all it will cost you is the USB Stick or DVD you install it on.

In the following few sections, we’ll talk about the process of creating and configuring a Tails System using a USB Stick. We won’t walk you through the process step by step, as the details depend on the type of computer you install from and the media you will install to.

We encourage you to create your own Tails System by following the instructions on the Download and Install Tails page that applies to your situation.

Once we’re done, you’ll be able to see for yourself how Tails and its included software work.

We’re going to:

Download and verify Tails

Install Tails on a USB Stick

Configure Tails & Tor

Tails 5.0

On the 3rd May 2022, Tails announced the launch of Tails 5.0. This is the first version of Tails to be based on Debian 11 includes lots of new versions of software and tools.

Some features to note are:

The addition of Kleopatra, a popular certificate manager, to replace the OpenPGP Applet and other utilities.

The Additional Software feature is enabled by default to make it quicker to configure additional software packages.

The activities overview can now be used to access windows and applications.

Downloading and Verifying Tails

We used a computer running Linux to create our Tails System. Clicking through the options on the Download and Install Tails page led us here:

Tails Install

Once we were ready, we clicked the big green “Let’s Go” button, which led us to the detailed instructions. From here on out, it was just a process of following the detailed instructions provided by the Tails team.

We downloaded the Tails USB image then verified it using the Tails Verification browser extension. Verifying your download is vitally important. This will tell you if your download is somehow corrupted.

Downloads are sometimes incomplete, or part of the download might not be 100% identical to the original. And sometimes, hackers break through the security on a website and replace the original with a hacked version. Verifying your download will spot any of these problems for you.

Once we had a verified version of the Tails USB image on our computer, we followed the instructions for installing it on the USB stick.

Installing and Running Tails on a USB Stick

Installing Tails might be overstating things a bit here. All that we need to do is copy the verified Tails USB image onto your USB Stick. The instructions will tell you exactly how to do this for the computer you are using to install Tails.

Running Tails for the first time may be more challenging than downloading and installing it. That’s because most computers are not configured to run from a USB Stick.

We had this problem and had to spend some time figuring out how to get our computer set up correctly. The Tails does not start at all troubleshooting guide helped us deal with this.

Configuring Tails

There isn’t a lot of configuring to do with Tails initially. When you start Tails, you see a screen that looks like this one:

Configuring Tails

After you press Enter (or several seconds with no input), the Tails Greeter screen appears:

Welcome to Tails

Here you tell Tails the Language you want to use, the Keyboard Layout, and the Formats for things like the date and time.

In addition, you can activate a full range of Accessibility options from the Universal Access menu:

Tails Accessibility

NOTE: The Tails team configured Tails to be as safe as possible by default. If you need to deviate from the defaults, the Additional Settings section of the Greeter is where you make those changes. We recommend you avoid making any changes here, if at all possible.

Once you are done setting things up in Greeter, click the Start Tails button.

A Quick Intro to the Tails Desktop

Tails uses the GNOME graphical user interface. GNOME is used in several versions of Linux and is one of the more popular user interfaces. In Tails, the GNOME desktop looks like this:

Tails Desktop

The Top Navigation Bar contains the two main Tails menus, along with a group of icons with various functions. Here is a quick summary of what you’ll find in this navigation bar, from left to right:

The Applications menu gives you shortcuts to the pre-installed software on Tails, along with some utilities for configuring the desktop. You’ll find all the basic applications you need to get things done here, along with some specialized stuff related to the privacy and anonymity features of Tails.

The Places menu has shortcuts to folders on the system, as well as any storage media like disk drives that might be connected.

The Calendar and Notifications appear together in the top center of the window.

The OpenPGP Applet comes next. You’ll use this to encrypt and decrypt text for greater privacy.

The Tor Status icon looks like an Onion, and you can click it to see the Open Onion Circuits Tails knows about.

We talked about the Universal Access icon and menu back in the Configuring Tails section.

The System menu contains information on your network connection, the status of the computer’s battery, and other settings.

Connecting Tails to Your Network and the Internet

Tails is of little use unless it is connected to the Internet. But before it can connect to the Internet, Tails needs to connect to your network. You can see the status of your connection to the local network in the System menu:

Tails Desktop

We had no problem connecting Tails to our local network. Once we did, it automatically connected itself to the Tor network and through that to the Internet.

You can quickly see if you are connected to the Tor network by looking at the Tor Status icon in the top Navigation Bar.

If Tails is connected to the Tor network, the Tor Status icon looks like this:

If Tails is not connected to the Tor network, the Tor Status icon looks like this:

While we had no problems, connecting Tails to the Internet doesn’t always go so smoothly. If you have problems, the Tails documentation has detailed instructions on how to connect to the Internet anonymously.

The Tor Browser

The Tor Browser is based on the popular Firefox browser. But it has been heavily modified, with your privacy and anonymity in mind. The developers stripped out services like JavaScript and cookies that can be used to defeat the anonymity provided by the Tor network. This makes the Tor Browser safer for you to use, but you may find that some websites don’t work right without these services. You can learn more about the differences at the Tor Browser page.

Tails Tools for Privacy

The Tor network and browser provide you with anonymity when using the Internet. But anonymity doesn’t guarantee privacy. Let’s take a quick look at a few of the most useful encryption tools that Tails gives you to boost your privacy.

Why You Need Encryption Too

This can be confusing, so let’s look at an example. Let’s say I want to send a message to my wife, Ruth. I don’t use an encrypted application to create it, so the message starts out in plain text. Before the message leaves my computer, Tor wraps it up in three layers of encryption. That’s an essential part of how Tor works.

As my message passes through the network, Tor strips off layers of encryption. When my message leaves the Tor exit mode and goes to its destination, all the layers of encryption that Tor added are gone. What Tor has done is make it impossible to trace my message back to the computer it came from. This provides anonymity.

But what about the contents of my message? The contents are now in the same state that it went into the Tor network. Since I sent a plain text message into the network, a plain text message comes out of the network.

This might be fine, but it might be disastrous. When in doubt, it is best to be safe and use

ExpressVPN vs NordVPN

Thu, 25 May 2023 08:44:10 +0000

While there are hundreds of VPN services available today, there is a handful that stands out from the rest of the pack. ExpressVPN and NordVPN are two of those standouts.

Read our full ExpressVPN review and NordVPN review if you’re looking for a deep-dive into each service.

In this ExpressVPN vs NordVPN article, we’ll be comparing these two quality services head-to-head to help you decide which is the best option for your particular needs and circumstances.

NordVPN and ExpressVPN are always in our top 5 best VPNs in every category. There is a reason for this, they never stop innovating and improving. However, in a head-to-head comparison which one comes out on top?

ExpressVPN or NordVPN – Which one is the best?

Note: There is intense competition in the VPN space. Details like average download speeds, numbers of servers in the network, and specific features change frequently. The information in this report was current at the time of writing.

Get ExpressVPN

Get NordVPN

Introducing the Contenders

Here’s a really quick introduction to the two VPNs we are looking at in this article:

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is a premium no-logs VPN at a premium price.

Based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), ExpressVPN is known for state-of-the-art features, top-notch encryption, high performance, and excellent customer support.

Frequently touted as the best VPN, ExpressVPN supports the Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop operating systems, along with the Android and iOS mobile operating systems, including the iPhone.

They also have browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Beyond this, ExpressVPN can run on many different routers and assorted other devices, such as routers, tablets, games consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and even e-readers like the Barnes & Noble Nood HD and Amazon’s Kindle.

ExpressVPN guarantees access to streaming services such as Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu, and also sports streaming channels from around the world such as ESPN, SkySports, and European channels such as BBC and ITV.

There are recent reports that Netflix works perfectly with ExpressVPN and that you even unblock US shows from other countries by choosing a USA IP within ExpressVPN.

More recently, ExpressVPN‘s Aircove router has been met with great reviews for its built–in VPN, intuitive interface, and easy setup. The company regularly listens to customer feedback and is always working to improve the product. Recently, they have released a list of 6 new features and improvements that are designed to make the Aircove router even better.

ExpressVPN Supported Devices

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NordVPN

NordVPN is a quality no-logs VPN service with very attractive pricing on multi-year subscriptions.

Based in Panama, they are known for top-notch encryption, strong privacy and security protections, and a generous connection policy.

NordVPN supports the Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop operating systems, along with the Android and iOS mobile operating systems.

They also have browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Beyond this, NordVPN can run on Android TV, many different routers and other devices, including Raspberry Pi.

NordVPN also provide access to a huge number of streaming services, which includes Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, and more.

If you have many devices on many different operating systems then NordVPN has you covered.

NordVPN Supported Devices

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How We Compared Them

We compared these two great services using the following criteria:

Speed – Which one is the fastest head to head?

Security and Privacy – One of our top criteria: do they keep logs? is there any DNS leaks? And so on.

Geographic and Legal Considerations – Another very important criteria, are they based in a country which would force them to give up data, or would actively spy on them?

Global Coverage – Do they have enough servers in different countries and regions?

Streaming and Torrenting – Do they allow streaming and torrenting, which is a important feature for many users.

Connections, Price, and Value – How does the price compare vs others in the space

Customer Support – If something goes wrong, can you expect them to fix it quickly?

Ready? Let’s start.

Speed

Source: Shutterstock.com

Testing the speed of a VPN is difficult. There are so many variables to take into account. Some factors that can affect the results include:

The location of the computer doing the testing

The location of the

AI and Crypto: Examining the Hype and Recent Price Trends

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:02:07 +0000

While AI is being touted as the latest hype in Silicon Valley, replacing crypto, it’s worth acknowledging that the hype surrounding crypto has likely just faded because its prices have declined steeply over the last 15 months.

This is nothing new, as crypto prices have fluctuated heavily since their creation over 13 years ago, with periods of intense hype during the bull markets and a lot of “FUD” during the bear markets.

However, what makes AI impressive is its immediate usefulness and rapid adoption. As a result, people are increasingly incorporating AI into their daily lives to aid them in their work and other activities.

In contrast, while tens of millions of people own crypto, it has yet to experience widespread adoption for daily use in things like payments and smart contracts. Instead, crypto is still most commonly used for speculation and investing.

But how could AI impact crypto itself, and what are the top names in crypto utilizing AI? This article explores just that and will show how AI-based cryptocurrencies are leading the pack in the most recent crypto price rally.

A Look at the Top AI Cryptocurrencies

According to sites like CoinMarketCap and CryptoSlate, some leading AI cryptocurrencies (by market cap) include The Graph, SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and Numeraire. Here’s how each of these uses artificial intelligence.

Numerai (NMR)

Numerai is a hedge fund that uses machine learning to try and predict the stock market as accurately as possible. It hosts machine-learning tournaments and incentivizes top data scientists to participate by rewarding those with the most accurate models with Numeraire (NMR) tokens. To date, Numerai has paid out $53 million in NMR to data scientists.

The Graph (GRT)

The Graph Network is a decentralized indexing protocol that utilizes AI to simplify searching and retrieving data from blockchain networks like Ethereum. The protocol allows developers to quickly and easily query specific data without needing a centralized entity. Open APIs on The Graph, known as subgraphs, can be built and published by anyone, allowing easy data access. Given how AI plays a central role in web2 applications like Google search, the convergence of AI and web3 is also critical.

SingularityNET (AGIX)

SingularityNET is trying to usher us into the era of decentralized AI. As a leading AI marketplace powered by blockchain, its core mission is to develop beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI). With SingularityNET, AI-driven solutions will, someday, facilitate the formation of open-sourced, decentralized human-level intelligence that serves the common good. Using blockchain, they hope to create an equitable global network where value, power, and technology are equally distributed.

Fetch.ai (FET)

Fetch.ai is paving the way for a decentralized future by using machine learning and blockchain technologies to facilitate an alternative to the currently restrictive, centralized data silos. Their mission is to allow anyone to create and deploy AI services at scale, potentially transforming multiple industries. Recently, Bosch partnered with Fetch.ai and agreed to allocate funds to a $100 million grant program intended to develop Web3, AI, and decentralized technologies for real-world use cases.

Ocean Protocol (OCEAN)

Ocean Protocol aims to address a critical issue in our data-driven society. This project, governed by a Singapore-based non-profit foundation, seeks to distribute the immense value data creates equitably through its platform. Currently, a few large organizations with massive data assets and powerful AI capabilities monopolize the benefits of data, which Ocean believes threatens a free and open society. Instead, Ocean Protocol aims to promote the fair use of data and ensure that it is leveraged for the betterment of all.

What Do Influential Figures in Crypto Think About AI?

Most leaders in the crypto industry have yet to express substantial views on how AI might impact their respective projects. However, with the current buzz surrounding AI and ChatGPT, several influential figures have taken to social media or blogs to air their thoughts. Here’s what some of them had to say:

Vitalik Buterin: In a recent blog, he shared his experience testing ChatGPT to help him code. Vitalik concluded that AI is improving quickly and is a helpful programming aid, but still far from replacing human programmers.

Charles Hoskinson: In a tweet, he revealed his use of AI to create art. He remarked, “I can’t imagine how amazing this technology will be in three years.”

Sandeep Nailwal: The Polygon co-founder called for a DAO version of ChatGPT in a tweet, stating it’s too powerful to be controlled by a single entity.

Binance: In a recent blog, the company states that ChatGPT could help crypto adoption by providing a conversational educational tool, improving customer support, and even aiding with smart contract coding.

How the Hype Surrounding AI Is Affecting Crypto Prices

While crypto, on the whole, has been rallying from lows for the last month or so, traders have been gambling on AI-related cryptocurrencies outperforming, and they have been doing so. Here’s how the five AI cryptocurrencies we looked at earlier have performed versus Bitcoin since January 2023:

Bitcoin: +41.00%

Numeraire: + 58.05%

The Graph: + 179.98%

Ocean Protocol: +144.74%

SingularityNET: +808.17%

Fetch.ai: +376.85%

However, it’s hard to tell if AI cryptos will continue outperforming or if the hype will fade and prices will retrace.

For example, BuzzFeed (BZFD) rallied 350% on the stock market in two days after reporting that they would use ChatGPT to help them create content. However, prices retraced quickly after, and BZFD is now only up around 70% since making the announcement, and its price could continue lower.

In the crypto space, the gameFi token Cocos-BCX rallied more than 250% in five days after merely mentioning AI in a suggestive tweet:

The S&P 500 dropped 3% this week, its 7th consecutive weekly decline. This is longest weekly down streak since 2001 which fell 8 straight weeks (and is tied w/ 1970 for the record). Here's a look at what happened following the longest down streaks in history…$SPX pic.twitter.com/0I9yuvrEBf

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) May 20, 2022

According to Charlie Bilello, CEO of Compound Capital Advisors, the S&P 500 is having its fourth-worst start to the year ever, as it’s down -18.2% in its first 97 days of trading.

Bilello says the only other years that started worse were 1970 (Vietnam War and US Recession) when it declined by -20.1%, 1940 (World War II) when it declined by -21.4%, and 1932 (Great Depression) when it fell by -32.5%.

Why are These Financial Markets Falling?

Crypto and the US stock market enjoyed a bullish run throughout most of 2020 and 2021. In fact, the fall we’re seeing now is the first major pullback since the covid pandemic crash back in Feb/Mar 2020.

Therefore, you can argue that both crypto and stocks are due a correction, and what we’ve seen recently is just part of a typical bull and bear cycle.

However, some underlying fundamental issues might also be shaking investor confidence. For example, the economy in the US and many other countries look relatively fragile at the moment, with a risk of recessions and high inflation.

Inflation and higher living costs mean many people will have less spare cash to invest or may have to sell some of their existing holdings to cover additional costs. You also have the ongoing Ukraine war with the risk of escalations and the covid-19 pandemic still lingering in the background, causing disruption to many businesses and workers.

In the crypto market specifically, we’ve just seen the collapse of Luna and UST, where both assets lost virtually all of their value. Some industry experts are saying this event is as damaging for crypto as the Mt. Gox scandal.

Bitcoin Falls for the 8th Week, Setting New Record was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin Bear Market: Almost Over or More Pain Ahead?

Mon, 16 May 2022 19:55:07 +0000

To help answer these questions, we’ve looked at the last three major pullbacks and corrections in Bitcoin to see how they compare to the current one.

We analyze various technical and fundamental factors, such as how severe the corrections were, how long BTC took to recover and make a new all-time high, and the main news narratives influencing price action.

Quick Look at the Last 3 Bear Markets & Corrections

Here are the last three major corrections, starting with the oldest up until the most recent.

#1: The 2014-2015 Bear Market

Quick Stats:

Price Decline: -86.9%

Bear Market Duration: 413 days (59 weeks)

Subsequent Bull: +12,800%

This bear market began as soon as the parabolic 2013-2014 bull market ended. Bitcoin increased 51,000% during this time, so it was due to have a correction.

The 2014-2015 bear market that followed took BTC from its all-time high at $1163 down to $152, a decrease of -86.9%, where it finally ended just over a year after it began. It then took BTC a further two years (771 days) to recover from this low and make a fresh new all-time high above $1163 in Feb 2017.

BTC continued soaring higher from here, continuously making new ATHs until it peaked at around $19,700 in Dec 2017.

#2: The 2018-2019 Bear Market

Quick Stats:

Price Decline: -84%

Bear Market Duration: 364 days (52 weeks)

Subsequent Bull: +2,105%

This bear market was comparable to the previous 2014-2015 bear market, as it declined by a similar percentage and lasted for close to a year. It also came after an explosive bull market that saw BTC make an ATH around $19,700. BTC fell from this ATH to a low of $3122 during the 2018-2019 bear market.

After the 2018-2019 bear market ended, it took BTC 716 days (just under two years) to recover and make a fresh new all-time high above $19,700. Once BTC made a new all-time high, it continued rising until it peaked at $69,000 in Nov 2021, which is where the bearish period we’re in today began.

While the subsequent bull market that came after the 2018-2019 bear market was impressive (a 2,105% rise), there was some turbulence along the way. In Feb and Mar of 2020, global financial markets were spooked by the emergence of the covid pandemic.

#3: The Covid Pandemic Crash in March 2020

Quick Stats:

Price Decline: -63.34%

Crash Duration: 29 days (4 weeks)

Subsequent Bull: +1688.5%

This correction in BTC was different from the previous two bear markets we’ve covered. It did not come after a protracted bull market and was driven primarily by negative news.

Therefore the characteristics of this pullback were also much different. Bitcoin’s price declined by a lesser amount (-63.34%), and the crash lasted only four weeks. BTC was also much quicker to recover this time, rising from the crash lows at $3850 back up to pre-crash levels in around 80 days.

Current 2022 BTC Correction

Quick Stats:

Price Decline So Far: -63.2%

Bear Market Duration So Far: 183 days (26 weeks)

Subsequent Bull: Unknown

The current 2022 bear market is still in progress, and we don’t exactly know how it will play out. However, BTC’s price has already declined by -63.2% over the last 26 weeks from its ATH at $69,000 in Nov 2021.

What Can We Expect Going Forward?

Well, as BTC has not recovered rapidly like during the covid pandemic crash, we look set for a longer-term move down or sideways here. Also, this theory is supported further by the fact that this bear market has come after a strong bull market in 2020-2021 which saw BTC increase by 2,105%.

Based on the previous two bear markets we’ve looked at, it seems we could only be about halfway through this bearish phase. Also, considering BTC’s price has only dropped -63.2% from its ATH, there is room for a further decrease to get us down around -80% from the ATH, in line with previous bear markets.

Of course, these are only estimates based on previous BTC bear markets, and this time it could go down much less or more than it did previously.

Is Now a Good Time to Invest in BTC?

It’s impossible to say whether now is a good time to invest or not. However, if BTC were to decline 70-80% from its ATH, which would take its price down to $13,700-$20,000, the odds of making a profit on your investment if you were to buy Bitcoin at this point would be in your favor based on previous bear markets. That’s not to say it’s a good idea to short Bitcoin; the market is too unpredictable to say what will happen with any certainty.

How Long Till BTC Makes a New ATH Again?

There is no guarantee that Bitcoin will make a new all-time high again in the future. However, if it does, it wouldn’t be unusual if it takes a couple of years from now based on the previous bear markets we looked at.

What Else Could Affect the Price?

Other factors may also come into play aside from the fact that Bitcoin may just be in a bearish phase, which is a normal part of the cycle in any financial market.

As was seen during the covid pandemic crash, significant macro events can also affect how BTC’s price behaves. Right now, here are some of the main news narratives circulating:

The collapse of UST and Luna undermining confidence in crypto

The Ukraine war and the risk of it spilling over to other nations

The covid pandemic and the risk of new variants and further disruption

The risk of recession in the US and other nations

Inflation and higher costs of living

A stock market crash could create fear in the crypto market

An escalation of any of these events could create more fear in the crypto market, leading to more severe price declines and volatility. Likewise, if any of these problems improve, are resolved, or are averted, this could increase optimism and help stabilize the market.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, Bitcoin has bull and bear markets just like any other publicly traded financial asset. This probably won’t be the last bear market, and fortunately, there should be plenty more bull markets to come too.

While bear markets can be extremely frustrating and painful for those already invested and holding throughout, they can also provide excellent opportunities for those who want to invest fresh new capital. If you choose to invest at this point, be sure to use one of the trusted crypto exchanges.

Bitcoin Bear Market: Almost Over or More Pain Ahead? was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

NFT Collectors Can Now Frame Their Art in the Metaverse

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 09:49:13 +0000

Since Facebook announced Meta in October of last year, the world became Metaverse-crazy. Meta Quest store sales have quadrupled in the last three years with the Quest 2 becoming a roaring success, with 8.7 million units sold in 2021.

Within the NFT space, Metaverse projects have picked up steam, with many businesses taking a Metaverse-centric priority for recent launches. Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT franchise is set to be launching a Metaverse land sale named Otherside as soon as this month. Otherside is likely to be a multiplayer RPG within an “interoperable world.”, including all of the firm’s NFT franchises.

In the fashion industry, after acquiring RTFKT Studies in December, Nike Inc. has been hard at work in the Metaverse space. Nike and RTFKT have revealed their first metaverse NFT wearables, which are digital metaverse sneakers named CryptoKicks. These digital shoes are designed specifically to be used within Metaverse worlds.

RTFKT, together with Nike CryptoKicks, introduce the future of Sneakers, powered by Skin Vial tech

Welcome to 2052 :
Which is better: ExpressVPN or Private Internet Access? Find out below!

There are many popular VPN providers available today. This review discusses two phenomenally popular VPN services: Private Internet Access, otherwise known as PIA, and ExpressVPN. We’ll compare their features and focus on categories such as privacy, security, pricing, performance, and more.

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Private Internet Access Features vs. ExpressVPN Features

Two of the most popular VPN providers available today are Private Internet Access (PIA) and Express VPN. But, first, let’s look at some of their features and see how they compare to each other.

Private Internet Access (PIA)

PIA offers a lot of features essential to your internet security. However, unlike ExpressVPN, PIA chose the United States as its base. This location may be considered harmful in terms of data retention laws.

While the US doesn’t have a mandatory law on data retention, it shouldn’t be surprising to find out that the government can obtain access to any stored data under the SCA or Stored Communications Act. PIA is smart, however, and doesn’t keep user logs.

PIA – Protect your privacy with a VPN Tunnel

This VPN also provides vital features for anonymity, such as DNS protection and a Kill Switch. PIA also ensures a better browsing experience by supplying protection from malware and ads. We all know how annoying ads are and how dangerous malware is, so these are great features to have. PIA offers OpenVPN, which many consider the securest protocol of all.

Private Internet Access also gives you the option to choose your preferred level of encryption. In addition, it includes port forwarding, a common technique that redirects computer signals between the internet and LAN computers.

PIA has apps for Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, and iOS. It provides cost-efficient high performance.

Pros of PIA Features

DNS Leak Protection

Kill Switch

Port Forwarding

Options to Choose Encryption Level

Protection against trackers, malware, ads

Why should you use PIA?

Cons of PIA Features

Location

Fewer Server Locations

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PIA

VPN Service
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ExpressVPN

Some say that ExpressVPN picked a better location by utilizing the British Virgin Islands because there are no data retention laws.

We agree, for us, privacy is of paramount importance. However, you need to be in the right jurisdiction for the ultimate privacy.

A government that isn’t infamous for snooping won’t ask for the information, and if it did, ExpressVPN has no legal responsibility to comply. Location is a plus in this aspect. Even if PIA doesn’t keep user logs, a site further away from the UK or US adds an extra security layer.

ExpressVPN – Amplify the Entire Internet

Like PIA, ExpressVPN offers Kill Switch and DNS Leak Prevention as well as IPv6 Leak Protection. ExpressVPN has a server speed test integrated into its software and it allows you to automatically or manually choose a server.

While PIA has more servers, ExpressVPN has more locations for its servers, which is excellent because it increases the number of available locations users can choose from nearby. This feature is critical since you should choose a server in a different country but one that is still close. Just make sure to look at the server list since this can change for every user.

ExpressVPN has apps for macOS, Linux, Windows, iOS, Amazon Fire TV, and Android. It also has great 24/7 live customer support through chat.

ExpressVPN has become such a trusted and reliable VPN operator that global computer hardware and software manufacturer HP have officially partnered with ExpressVPN to offer their customers internet privacy solutions. As a result, since late 2019, all HP computers have come pre-loaded with ExpressVPN.

And it is always either 1 or 2 on our top VPN lists. Besides Nordvpn (our top choice), we would say it is one of the best VPNs in the world today.

Pros of ExpressVPN Features

Location

Integrated Server Speed Test

Kill Switch

Servers in 94 Countries

Split Tunneling

Cons of ExpressVPN Features

Fewer Servers

No Additional Protection from Ads and Malware

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Recommended
ExpressVPN

VPN Service
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Speed, Reliability, and Performance

First, PIA has high performance at a low cost, while ExpressVPN has great unblocking capabilities. Many experts consider ExpressVPN more ideal to use with home-based routers.

PIA’s blocking of trackers, ads, and malware certainly enhances the experience and performance. The unlimited bandwidth also contributes to its quality performance.

ExpressVPN’s split tunneling enhances performance by allowing you to route some of your traffic through a VPN while directing the rest through the internet. It has over 160 server locations in those 94 countries previously mentioned which also boosts its performance.

ExpressVPN Split Tunneling

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How to Short Bitcoin – A Simple Guide [2022]

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 13:40:52 +0000

When Bitcoin made its dramatic decline in 2018 from all-time highs, many traders may have wished that they could profit from the thousands of dollars that were wiped off Bitcoin’s market cap and spot price.

Well, it may surprise you to learn that many traders did – and they still are in 2022. Trading a derivative of Bitcoin allows traders to profit from both positive and negative price movements in the market, but how is this possible, and how can you get started?

Find out in our how to short Bitcoin in 2022 guide, where we’re going to break down the fundamental concepts behind ‘shorting’ the market.

Shorting Bitcoin

So, you’ve decided you want to open a short position on Bitcoin. How would you do this? The first step is to identify and sign-up for a cryptocurrency derivatives platform. We’re going to review some of the best ones below.

For this, you’ll need to have some Bitcoin ready to deposit to the exchange. There’s plenty of options to buy BTC with fiat, such as USD or EUR. We review the best ways to buy Bitcoin in 2022 here, so make sure you’re ready to deposit before you start.

Once you’ve got some BTC, open a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange account and deposit your Bitcoin. Unlike traditional exchanges, most crypto derivatives exchanges don’t require KYC or identity verification, so you can start trading in minutes.

Top Exchanges for Shorting Bitcoin in 2022

As the cryptocurrency markets have matured, the number of derivatives exchanges launched to meet demand has increased, and there are now plenty of trusted options available for traders looking to short Bitcoin.

Let’s look at some of the top trading platforms:

Rank Exchange Deposit Methods Fiat Accepted Cryptocurrency Supported HQ

1 FTX (Full Review) BTC, ETH, Stable coins None BTC, ETH, LTC,BCH Hong Kong

2 BitMEX [Full Review] Crypto None BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, EOS, XRP, ADA, TRX Hong Kong

FTX.com

FTX.com is one of the most advanced trading platforms for shorting Bitcoin.

Established in 2019, FTX.com has quickly become one of the most popular crypto derivatives exchanges in the world. Built by the quantitative trading team of blockchain professional services firm Alameda Research, FTX.com has been developed from the ground up and offers advanced trading with low fees.

Traders can use FTX.com to short Bitcoin with up to 100x leverage, with options contracts for Bitcoin and a range of other top cryptocurrencies.

Another innovative feature of FTX.com that we haven’t seen implemented on other exchange platforms is their ‘BULL & BEAR’ leveraged tokens.

These are ERC20 tokens that represent either a long or short position in an underlying asset, including Bitcoin, and it’s an incredibly quick and easy way to take a position in the market.

FTX has a tiered fee structure for traders. At tier 1, taker fees are 0.07%, and this is reduced to 0.04% at the highest tier – which can be achieved by holding FTX tokens. There are no fees on futures settlements.

Deposits on FTX.com are made in Bitcoin. Overall, FTX.com is a great option for opening Bitcoin shorts. You can read our complete guide on FTX exchange here.

BitMEX

BitMEX Homepage

One of the longest-serving and most trusted Bitcoin trading platforms, BitMEX is a peer-to-peer trading platform for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a handful of other cryptocurrencies.

BitMEX was established in 2014 and has consistently remained as one of the top-volume crypto derivatives exchanges in the world since its launch.

There are a number of Bitcoin options contracts available on BitMEX, which allow traders to open long or short positions.

Traders can utilize up to 100x leverage on BitMEX, which boosts your position size when opening a trade. There’s also an insurance fund that prevents traders from getting liquidated unfairly in the event of high volatility.

BitMEX’s fees are 0.075% for takers regardless of their leverage. They charge 0.01% on long funding trades, and -0.01% on short funding, with funding intervals of 8 hours. There is a 0.05% settlement fee on traditional Bitcoin futures.

Deposits on BitMEX are made in Bitcoin, which uses the ticker symbol ‘XBT’ for the purposes of BitMEX’s futures contracts.

BitMEX is one of the most well-respected Bitcoin trading platforms, and we highly recommend it for opening a short position on Bitcoin. You can read our full BitMEX review here.

Huobi Global

Huobi Global is a trusted and long-serving exchange from Singapore.

Huobi Global is a Singaporean spot and derivatives exchange launched in 2013. It’s one of the highest volume exchanges in the world and has long been a favorite among East Asian cryptocurrency traders.

There are multiple derivatives and options contracts available for Bitcoin on Huobi Global, which include weekly, bi-weekly, and quarterly futures – which refers to the point at which the contract expires.

Huobi offers greater leverage than some of its competitors, with up to 125x on its bi-quarterly futures contracts, which let traders open short positions on Bitcoin.

You can deposit BTC and a range of other cryptos on Huobi for opening short positions. Huobi has an interest rate on margin of 0.098% and a 0.04% taker fee on Bitcoin futures contracts.

As one of the safest and most frequently used sites in the world, Huobi Global is a great choice for opening a Bitcoin short position. Find out more about Huobi Global in our complete guide here.

What is Shorting?

When you buy an asset or a derivative of an asset with the intention of profiting from the asset going up in price, you are said to be ‘going long’. On the other hand, a trade placed with a view to profit from an asset’s decline in price is called ‘going short’ or ‘shorting’ the market.

While it’s typical to buy an asset at spot price and physically hold it to open a long position, it’s not as simple to open a short. This is because you’ll need to sell Bitcoin in order to repurchase it at a lower price. For this, you’ll need to use a Bitcoin derivatives exchange, and trade a futures or options contract.

Traditional Market

Some of the options for shorting Bitcoin in crypto trading are known as ‘naked shorts’ – meaning you don’t have to own the asset before you sell or short it. However, for most crypto derivatives exchanges, you will need to deposit some Bitcoin to the platform before you can open a short.

Short sells can often be opened with leverage, which is the act of borrowing against your original capital in order to increase your position size. This can magnify gains, but also increase losses. You can read more about that here.

We’ll explore some of the most popular crypto derivatives exchanges below, but first let’s look at some of the pros and cons of shorting Bitcoin.

Benefits of Shorting Bitcoin

There are a few benefits of shorting Bitcoin, mainly for short-term traders but long-term holders may also want to consider opening a short. These benefits include:

More opportunities for profit – If the market turns bearish, you can open a short position to profit from the downward movement. In the short-term, this means you don’t have to be left holding a bag of BTC in a bear market.

Portfolio diversity – If you’re bullish on the blockchain industry as a whole, but not Bitcoin, then shorting Bitcoin can be a great way to maximize profits from alt-runs while also profiting from a decline in BTC price.

Derivatives over ownership – This can be a pro or a con depending on how you look at it. When you short Bitcoin, you’re trading a derivative. This means you don’t own the underlying asset, and so positions are sometimes easier to close or open, and you don’t have to worry about Bitcoin custody.

Bitcoin / USD derivatives illustration – Source: shutterstock.com

Negatives of Shorting Bitcoin

While shorting opens up possibilities to profit from periods of Bitcoin price decline, there are a few considerations you should know before opening a position:

Effect on the market – If you’re bullish on Bitcoin overall, but you want to profit from short-term bearish action, then you should consider that the number of short positions open influences the overall trading sentiment on Bitcoin as a whole.

Risk of liquidation – Trading platforms that allow traders to short the market also offer options for leverage. Trading with leverage allows you to borrow against your initial funds and trade with a much larger position. However, the risk for losing funds is also greatly magnified and you should keep this in mind while trading.

Fees – When you short, you’re essentially borrowing money from the exchange in order to place a trade. Unlike buying Bitcoin at ‘spot’ price where the asset belongs to you, when shorting you don’t own the underlying Bitcoin. As a result, you must pay fees – such as ‘overnight funding’ – on your position. This makes it unsuitable for long-term holds.

Volatility – Just as the market moves quickly into a bearish phase, it can move quickly back into a bullish trajectory. Only open a short if you’re sure the price of Bitcoin has a significant degree of downside potential.

Bitcoin Trading

Key Things to Remember When Shorting BTC

Hopefully, this guide will have helped you decide if shorting Bitcoin is right for you, and help you choose a trading platform on which to open a short.

As derivatives trading is a fairly technical process and comes with some risk, we recommend you take the time to read our in-depth guides for each exchange, linked in the descriptions above.

Likewise, if you’re a seasoned trader with plenty of short experience looking to move into the crypto markets and you need advice on the best ways to buy Bitcoin in 2022, read our complete guide here.

What are your thoughts on shorting Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below!

References

Space Pods: A Stunning Way to Show Off Your NFTs in the Metaverse

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 10:23:53 +0000

Just weeks after being acquired by Nike Inc., NFT studio RTFKT collaborated with leading NFT gallery Oncyber to jointly launch Space Pods.

Space Pod Airdrop
The first item of the roadmap will be airdropped by the end of the month. Your Clones very own @oncyber_io SPACE POD MoonCats, Ethereum-based collectible NFTs deployed on August 9th, 2017, have now all been rescued and are now finding their way onto marketplaces like OpenSea. Users could rescue cats (from the moon, naturally) at just the gas fee cost up until yesterday when all 25,600 had been rescued.

MoonCatsRescue employs an off-chain algorithm that requires users’ CPU resources to find cats. This allowed the MoonCats to be more equally distributed. At the time of writing, there are 1,644 holders.

The MoonCats contract allowed only 25,600 MoonCats to be added out of a possible 4 billion unique combinations. After this point, no more cats could be rescued. Users that have rescued MoonCats can name them, but only once; once a MoonCat has been named, it is permanent.

Interestingly, there are not really any rare cats. This is different from other collectibles such as CryptoPunks and may mean we see less extremely valuable cats, but all cats may hold a similar, equally good value.

Genesis MoonCat Sells for 100 ETH

There are 256 Genesis MoonCats, which are particularly rare cats that could not be rescued like the others. These Genesis cars are currently selling for 100 ETH on OpenSea, and others are listed for over 420 ETH. The average price for each non-genesis cat is 0.6673 ETH, significantly higher than the roughly $40 gas cost required to rescue the carts.

How can I get MoonCats?

Unfortunately, there are no more MoonCats available to rescue, but MoonCats can be purchased from marketplaces such as OpenSea or Rarible.

MoonCats: Almost-Free NFT Collectible Felines Are Selling for a Huge Markup was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

Namecheap VPN Review – Does It Live Up To The Hype?

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:55:47 +0000

Namecheap is best known as an American domain name registrar and web hosting provider, who have been operating for 20 years since the early days of the internet. With over 11 million users and a highly trusted reputation, Namecheap has grown into one of the largest registrars in the world.

Namecheap has long been an advocate of private and free internet access, campaigning for net neutrality and open communications for all. They’ve proven their commitment to this cause through various fundraising efforts and shows of support for internet freedom causes – which should come as a great accolade for those users concerned with their privacy online.

Namecheap VPN Review – Does It Live Up To The Hype?

More recently, Namecheap has begun offering other services, one of which is their VPN solution. Although Namecheap’s VPN started life as a relatively simple service, it’s been built upon and seriously upgraded over the last few years. It can now hold its own against other leading VPN services.

As a result, we don’t think that current reviews do Namecheap’s new-and-improved VPN justice. So, we’re going to explore what makes Namecheap’s VPN an excellent choice for 2020 and examine some of the leading features this VPN service has to offer.

Namecheap VPN Special Features

Namecheap is loaded with great features at an affordable price.

Namecheap’s VPN does all the things you would expect of a regular VPN service. Still, there are a few extra features that Namecheap offers, which make it stand out from the competition and rub shoulders with the most popular VPN providers like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc. These include:

Over 1,000 servers – Unlike some smaller VPN operators, Namecheap uses over 1,000 server locations so its users can always enjoy uninterrupted access to VPN connections all over the world. This includes popular locations in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

DNS leak protection – Domain name systems, or ‘DNS’ is described as the ‘phonebook’ of the internet, and it can reveal specific information about you when you connect to websites. Namecheap’s VPN service prevents this information from being leaked when you surf the web.

Strong data encryption – Namecheap uses leading VPN protocols to ensure that user data is encrypted. These include OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols, which provide military-grade traffic encryption.

Unlimited device support – One of the best features of Namecheap’s VPN service is its unlimited amount of connected devices. This means customers can connect any device, regardless of the operating system, in their home, or even share their connection with friends and family.

ISP throttling avoidance – Some ISPs use ‘packet sniffing’ to examine your data and restrict browsing while you’re using a VPN. With Namecheap, ISPs are prevented from restricting your internet access using these methods.

Random IP addresses – Some VPN providers will simply use the IP address of the data center or server you connect to, which makes it obvious you’re connecting via a VPN. However, Namecheap assigns each user a random IP address while keeping your true IP and location hidden.

Useful Extra Features

In addition to its core features, Namecheap’s VPN service has a range of other features which make it even better value for money, including:

Strict no-logs policy – Namecheap promises that it never keeps logs on its customers’ browsing history, nor does it track or store data from your VPN sessions.

Round the clock live support – There’s 24/7 live support available from Namecheap, so if you’re having any problems with installation or connecting to your VPN, you can chat with a representative.

Kill switch – If your VPN connection suddenly drops out for any reason, Namecheap will block all incoming and outgoing traffic to ensure none of your data leaves your device unencrypted.

How Fast Is Namecheap’s VPN?

If you’re a power user, or you regularly use VPNs to stream content, you’ll want to know how fast Namecheap performs – and you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

As Namecheap owns the servers they run their VPNs on, they can guarantee better speeds than some other leading providers, which is great for those who want uninterrupted connections when streaming video content or gaming.

There’s also unlimited bandwidth available through Namecheap’s VPN, which means that you’ll never have your streaming restricted to save on data.

As we’ll look at below, Namecheap also displays the ping of each server next to it within their desktop apps, which is great for seeing at a glance what the fastest server for your location is.

Which Operating Systems Does Namecheap’s VPN Work With?

All major operating systems can use Namecheap’s VPN service, with full clients for Windows, iOS, macOS, Android, Linux, and most brands of router.

These clients are easy to download – once you’ve started your membership, either with a paid plan or free trial, Namecheap will prompt you to download the client that’s right for you or show you how to manually set-up their VPN on your device or router.

Namecheap has a full client for every major operating system.

Namecheap’s VPN was quick and easy to install on Windows, as you can see in the screenshot above. Their user interface is very simple to navigate, offering a huge range of server locations to choose from at the click of a button.

Beside each server location is a live and updated ‘ping time’ – the time it takes to communicate with each server. This is great for power users who want to connect to the fastest possible VPN server, and it’s a feature we haven’t seen elsewhere.

Clicking on the drop-down menu at the side of each server location will reveal additional options for selecting a specific city location within that country – for example, within the US, users can select multiple cities such as Boston, Las Vegas, Seattle, and more. Alternatively, you can simply click ‘connect VPN,’ and Namecheap will connect users to the fastest server available.

On all clients and devices, Namecheap’s VPN opens at startup, and there’s a handy option to auto-connect as soon as the app is launched – which means you’ll always be protected when you browse.

You can also use the client to change which VPN protocol you connect to, such as IKEv2 or OpenVPN.

How Much Does Namecheap’s VPN Service Cost?

Namecheap is one of the most affordable VPN services in the world, and it’s also one of the few that offers a completely free trial for a month to new users.

A one-year subscription costs just $1 per month for the first 12 months, billed at $12.00 for the first year and then $34.56 for each year after that.

Personally, we recommend taking advantage of Namecheap’s 3-year plan. At just $1.88 per month, users can save 68% on the normal monthly subscription price, billed in a single lump sum of $67.68.

Whichever plan you choose, Namecheap’s VPN works out as one of the most cost-effective VPN services on the market, rivaled only by the likes of SurfShark, which is very affordable too.

If you choose to start a free trial, you will need some payment information, but you won’t be billed until your first month is up. Most other VPN providers offer a couple of days free protection or restrict usage by data – but Namecheap’s free trial offers all of the features you’d get in the full version.

There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee, which means even if you change your mind about Namecheap’s service, you won’t be out of pocket.

Subscription Length
Cost Per Month

Monthly
Free month, then $5.88/Month

Yearly
$1/month for the first year, then $2.88/month

3 Years
$1.88

Namecheap VPN – Our Verdict

Overall, Namecheap’s VPN offers amazing value for money and a very comprehensive VPN service, which is both easy to use and provides plenty of protection for any level of user.

One of our favorite features has to be Namecheap’s huge range of servers – over 1,000 in total based in over 75 locations – which not only contributes to a stable and secure VPN connection, but they also offer a good level of location variety for users.

Likewise, we think that Namecheap’s unlimited device support offers great value for money as it can essentially be used to cover a whole household of devices using just one subscription, or shared among friends.

Unlimited devices and a huge range of servers are also available from other providers, but only really the top few. As a result, Namecheap’s VPN service is above average. When comparing other budget VPN options, it’s incredibly difficult to find a provider that offers the same amount of servers as Namecheap does for the same price.

Although we only reviewed their Windows client, it was easy to use and incredibly fast to install. The user interface was easy to navigate even for beginners, while also providing plenty of advanced options for users who demand more from their VPN. We expect this is similar across all operating systems and clients.

Namecheap’s 24/7 live chat support, where you can speak to a real representative, is also a great feature that many other VPN providers at this price point don’t currently offer.

Most current reviews on Namecheap’s VPN service were written before many of these new features were added, and we really think that Namecheap deserves more attention – as it provides all-round performance for any level of user, and brings Namecheap’s long experience and trustworthiness to a VPN service.

Namecheap VPN Review – Does It Live Up To The Hype? was originally found on Blokt - Privacy, Tech, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

Top 16 Best Ethereum Wallets [2020] – ETH & ERC20 Crypto Wallets

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 01:17:58 +0000

Ethereum is the blockchain protocol with the most active developers and the most projects built on top of its platform. That’s why we have put together this comprehensive guide to help you choose the best Ethereum wallet for you.

In this extensive guide, we look at 16 of the best Ethereum wallets

Its native cryptocurrency, Ether, has the second-highest market valuation behind the original cryptocurrency Bitcoin, so it is no surprise that loads of people have become interested in investing and trading Ether and Ethereum tokens.

There has also been a surge in decentralized finance (Defi) Dapps built on on Ethereum which has opened it up to far more users. ETH heads can now use stablecoins such as Dai which are pegged to the US Dollar but use ETH as collateral.

However, before we can start trading and investing, we need to understand the basic principles of how an Ethereum or general crypto wallets work.

Private Keys and Addresses

Blockchain-based assets and currencies are normally called cryptocurrencies, crypto assets, or simply cryptos because they all depend on cryptography.

On a very simplistic level, cryptography is the use of mathematics to send, receive, conceal, or reveal information.

Private keys are essentially the secret code that controls your information, which in this case, would be your crypto assets.

Knowing an account’s private key means users have complete control of that account’s assets without having to go through any intermediaries.

3a1076bf45ab87712ad64ccb3b10217737f7faacbf2872e88fdd9a537d8fe266

(Ethereum private key example)

Using cryptography and with access to the private key, we are able to generate — through many complicated steps — an address, which represents your account.

It can be thought of like a mailbox or an email address that people can send things to, but you can only send things from it if you have the private key.

The address is the public face of your account and can be shared with anyone but no one can figure out your private key from only knowing your address thanks to the genius of cryptography. An Ethereum address always begins with 0x.

0xc2d7cf95645d33006175b78989035c7c9061d3f9

(Ethereum address example)

What is a Wallet?

The term “wallet” is kind of a misnomer in that crypto wallets don’t actually hold any assets. Wallets can only contain access to private keys, which in turn control crypto assets.

Functionally, wallets allow users to create new accounts and send assets, although different wallets have different features and functionality.

It would be more accurate to call a wallet, a keyring or keychain because it controls and has access to different types of keys but we’ll go with ‘wallet’ seeing as everyone else does.

The differences between different types of wallets revolve around how each wallet deals with private keys.

Paper Wallets

The most basic type of wallet is known as a “paper wallet,” which is a piece of paper with your private keys written or printed on it.

The information on this piece of paper is all that is needed to control all the assets on an Ethereum account.

A paper wallet is secure in that it is possible to keep it from every other person or system on the planet and only you can know about its existence, its location, or how to access it.

Paper wallets are insecure though because if you lose it or it gets damaged beyond recognition, there is no possible way to recover your funds. You have lost those assets forever.

To counteract this vulnerability, some people make multiple copies of their paper wallet and put them in different locations or keep the paper wallet in a secure spot such as a safety deposit box at a bank.

Paper Wallet generated using MyCrypto

Hot vs Cold Wallets

Paper wallets fall under the category of ‘cold wallets,’ which means that they are completely disconnected from the internet. This makes cold wallets more secure and less vulnerable to software-based attacks.

Hot wallets, on the other hand, are connected to the internet, so they are more accessible and useful for frequent transactions but are also more vulnerable to hackers.

In general, cold wallets are better for securing large amounts of funds and hot wallets are better for everyday transactions and usage.

Software Wallets

Exchanges Ethereum-Specific Ethereum Interfaces

Coinbase Binance MyEtherWallet MyCrypto Mist MetaMask

Private Keys Platform Controlled Platform Controlled User-Controlled User-Controlled User-Controlled User-Controlled

Backup/ Recovery Options Yes Yes No No No No

Cold or Hot Wallet Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot

Interact with Dapps No No No No Yes Yes

The table above will help you choose a software wallet to store your Ether.

Cryptocurrency Exchanges

The most common way for people to buy their first crypto asset is through an exchange which allows people to trade between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.

Exchanges also act as wallets because the platform controls the private keys on behalf of the user.

The benefit of having a platform control your private keys is that your funds or assets are recoverable if you lose your password.

Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the oldest and most trusted exchanges. It was founded in 2012 and has over 20+ million users as well as backing from some of the most respected investors in the world.

Coinbase is also one of the most legally compliant cryptocurrency exchanges globally.

It is connected to the traditional banking system in Europe and the United States, so it is fairly easy to convert fiat currencies such as the US Dollar and the Euro to Ether.

Coinbase platform and app

Go to Coinbase

Binance

Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of trading volume.

While Coinbase is mainly available in the U.S. and Europe, Binance is accessible across continents and has even made progress expanding to Africa.

Furthermore, Binance has many more crypto assets available for trading when compared to Coinbase, which has a much stricter process for listing new crypto assets.

Both Binance and Coinbase control private keys on behalf of their users, so funds are controlled by the username and password used to access the platform.

About Binance platform and app

Go to Binance

Ethereum-Specific Wallets

MyEtherWallet and MyCrypto are wallets that are used specifically for Ether and Ethereum tokens so they do not interact with cryptocurrencies from other blockchains such as Bitcoin or XRP.

Ethereum tokens are assets or currencies, which have been created on top of the Ethereum platform.

Tokens can have a wide variety of purposes and are different from Ether itself, which is the fuel that runs the Ethereum network.

The most popular type of Ethereum token is called an ERC20, which is a token created using a common standard that allows any ERC20 token to be easily traded with another ERC20 token.

The second most common token is called an ERC721 or a non-fungible token, which is unique and cannot be broken up into smaller parts.

For simplicity’s sake, I will refer to both ERC20 and ERC721 tokens as just Ethereum tokens.

MyEtherWallet (MEW)

One of the oldest and most popular web-based, Ethereum-specific wallets is MyEtherWallet (MEW).

MEW does not control private keys on behalf of the user and instead allows users to create new accounts and access existing accounts to send transactions.

Myetherwallet

MEW

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