Institutional investors believe that speculators keep cryptocurrency interesting for investors and due to that the price will go down soon. They doubt that Ethereum rates will go up any time soon, says Forbes. Cryptocurrency hedge funds are sure the alt coin cost will go down because it’s been overestimated.

New York Tetras Capital is shorting Ethereum.Last time it happened in May when the price was over $600. Right now it’s trading at $480. Last week the fund published why the real token price is lower than the market price.

Hidden Hand Capital supports it. The company manages assets equal to $100 million. Hidden Hand Capital doubts $48,5 billion capitalization of the decentralized platform due to its technical ability. Hedge Fund Neural Capital is also selling the token right now.

However, there are institutional investors that trust altcoin. Jake Brukhman, the founder of CoinFund from Brooklyn has been owning Ethereum since July 2015. Approximately 20-42% of the company assets are in Ethereum tokens.

Kyle Samani, Multicoin Capital partner, stated that he was not going to cut any more deals and willing to sell Ethereum. Meltem Demirors, the director of CoinShares, also said that she would not purchase Ethereum because speculators were making it interesting for investors.

Japanese Technical conglomerate Hitachi, in collaboration with a telecommunication giant KDDI, tests a system, based on blockchain, that allow to make retail payments using customers’ fingerprints. At the moment, the pilot project is being implemented in the KDDI store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, as well as in the local donut store.

The system has been developed by Hitachi on Hyperledger Fabric platform and integrated with Hitachi biometric verification technology as well as KDDI coupon system. If the clients agree to use the system, they will have to register their coupon credits and biometric information, which will then be converted into a string of encrypted data stored on the blockchain. Members of the system will use special devices for reading fingerprints, when making a purchase. The request will be sent to the network, and transaction will be completed.

The ultimate goal of Hitachi is to create a protected from unauthorized access blockchain, updating information about the use of coupons in the entire store network simultaneously.

This initiative is the last pilot project of Hitachi on the use of blockchain technology at the moment. Last year, the company announced the development of a blockchain-based platform for supply chain management.

The new standard of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain ERC777 is almost at the final stage of development and will be presented to a wide audience in August. This was stated by its developers Jordy Beilina, Jacques Dafflon and Thomas Shababi, writes ETHNews.

The ERC777 standard is positioned as a more flexible alternative to the ERC20. The developers also say that it will allow to make faster and debugged transactions.

As noted, users and developers will be able to implement new tokens at their discretion, while the new standard will support backward compatibility with ERC20.

According to developers, one of the advantages of the new model is optimized interaction with contracts.
Another advantage of ERC777 over ERC20 is the ability to use so-called hooks that define parameters of a transaction. Among other things, it may require you to send a notification to a sender or a recipient before or after transaction is completed.

Another major difference between ERC777 and ERC20 is the possibility of using operators, that is, an address that is allowed to transfer and burn tokens on behalf of another address.

Open source of ERC777standard can be found on GitHub.

Recall, the proposal for the implementation of ERC777 was published on November 20, 2017. The new standard allowed not only to reduce transaction time, but also to mark unreliable or incompatible addresses. Additionally, the backward compatibility made ERC777 a cross-platform standard for Ethereum.

Users criticize Augur blockchain platform used for betting on real-world events. You can even place bets on the death of famous people or terrorist acts on the platform.

Why Is It Important:
— Augur is called blockchain betting pool. Users have found bets on the death of Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and the US senator John McCain. Users can also place bets on whether Donald Trump will be killed by a certain date or if any mass shooting if going to take place in the USA.

— You can bet in Ethereum, Bitcoin or REP (platform tokens). User can also vote in favor or against the event. The system rewards those who turn out to be right.

— Reddit users note that betting on murders might influence people to actually do it and make money.

Augur representatives say that users themselves are responsible for creation of these predictions. Jackson Palmer, the founder of Dogecoin, stated in his twitter that he hopes Augur will be responsible for any tragic consequences.

The very first similar market was created in 2013. Browser Tor was used for betting in bitcoin on the death of Barak Obama or Ben Bernanke who was the head of the United States Federal Reserve at that time. The platform was closed in 2015.

Bitcoin bull Mark Yusko, CEO of a hedge fund with $1.5 billion in assets under management, predicted Bitcoin prices. According to the investor, in August the trading price of digital currency may go down due to potential disapproval of cryptocurrency ETF by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, BTC holders shouldn’t be worried and stay patient.

Yusko believes that Bitcoin price is going to reach $25,000 by the end of 2018 and hits $75,000 by 2020, $200.000 in 2022 and reaches $500,000 by 2024.

It should be reminded that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has recently rejected a second attempt by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto exchange Gemini, to list the first-ever cryptocurrency ETF on a regulated exchange. Cryptocurrency market felt it immediately and bitcoin went from $8300 to $7900.

Envion AG startup that raised over 100 million USD during its ICO is being accused of fraud. The Swiss financial supervisory authority FINMA is investigating the case, according to the information on the website.

Why Is It Important:
— Envion AG ICO was held between December 2017 and January 2018 and over 30,000 investors took part on it. FINMA states that the company accepted fiat money and exchanged it to its own tokens which is against the law.
— The company officials don’t get along and accusing each other. Envion’s CEO Matthias Woestmann says that the project founders issued additional tokens for their own benefit. The founders accuse him of breaking the contract and controlling the startup.

The Swiss company has developed an energy-efficient alternative for the creation of cryptocurrency, the so-called crypto-mining.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected the second second attempt to launch crypto ETF made by the Winklevoss twins, the founders of Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. This news lead to downfall of Bitcoin to $7840.

Last year, SEC rejected the first application made by Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, but in June the company submitted a new edited application that got rejected yesterday. The main reason for refusal is that crypto markets are ?uniquely resistant to manipulation?. The commission also questions investors’ protection against fraud. The SEC further emphasized that their rejection of the petition did not hinge on whether cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology “have utility or value as an innovation or an investment.”

Recent BTC growth was caused by the fact that many expected the first crypto ETF to be launched soon so after the news about the rejection was announced it impacted the market immediately. A few hours later the situation stabilized . Bitcoin and some other altcoins already started gaining back their positions. Bitcoin is trading at $7980 as of press time.

This news is not expected to influence the upward trend because CBOE, VanEck, SolidX and Bitwise applications are still under consideration. Additional the regulators requested more time to study Direxion Investments application. The market puts its hopes on Bitcoin ETF by Chicago Board Options Exchange.

General Director of Mastercard Ajai Banga spoke sharply about cryptocurrencies.

Banga was born in India but became the head of a multinational financial services corporation. Ajai is concerned that 95 percent of all illegal transactions in the darknet are conducted using cryptocurrency.

Speaking at the forum “New Indian Lecture” CEO Mastercard spoke unpleasantly about cryptocurrencies.

Having called the cryptocurrency “garbage” Bang operated on the fact that the anonymous currency, which was wildly fluctuating about its rate, did not deserve to be considered as a means of exchange.

Ajai emphasizes that since the cryptocurrency is too unpredictable, and transactions made with it are not transparent, it simply cannot be a good means of exchange.

Not without mentioning the indictment against Russian intelligence officers, who are considered guilty of interference in the US presidential election. As you know, the FBI believes that for making deals they carried out transactions in cryptocurrency. Banga claims that digital currency is suitable only for such purposes and it is ideal because it is anonymous.

Ajay also went through the cash, urging everyone to use exclusively electronic payments, as they are the most reliable, fast and safe. In addition, they are almost impossible to be used for criminal purposes.

Cryptocurrency fever has passed long ago, but Google continues to fight with certain of its manifestations. Recently, the search giant updated the policy of its Play Store and expanded the list of prohibited applications. Along with software with too intrusive advertising, applications for mining crypto-currencies are now subject to blocking.

The exceptions are applications that are used for remote management of mining.

The updated list of banned apps also includes direct copies of known apps, as well as those that simply duplicate the content of existing apps without offering anything new. Google can also now delete similar apps created by the same developer and apps made after a model using an online tool or some app wizard and sent to the store on someone else’s behalf.

There are other new restrictions on applications related to firearms and firearms accessories. From now on, programs that advertise the sale of explosives, firearms, ammunition or certain firearms accessories are prohibited. Earlier, YouTube introduced similar restrictions. Regarding the prohibited accessories for firearms, they include items that simulate shooting, as well as devices that turn weapons into automatic. It also prohibits apps that provide instructions for producing explosives, firearms, ammunition and other weapons.

Finally, Google banned apps that are meant for children and contain adult content, apps that represent people or organizations or that conceal their purpose, and applications, which force users to click on ads or share personal information for advertising purposes to get a full version of software.

According to a press release, one of the world’s largest companies engaged in the production of industrial goods, agreed to a long-term deal with IBM to introduce blockchain technology.

The British CNH Industrial, which owns twelve international brands, including Iveco and Case IH, will seek to expand a range of internal processes as part of the “review and optimization of its global operations”.

Although implementation details remain limited, CNH will use IBM Blockchain based on Hyperledger technology delivered through the IBM Cloud, which this year has demonstrated implementation in the global industry.

Supply chain improvement is an area in which a number of players are currently paying special attention.

Reportedly, blockchain plays a key role in reducing costs and time, while increasing security. In January, IBM announced the launch of a specialized supply chain company, in conjunction with the Danish logistics giant Maersk.

The founder of the American hedge fund Morgan Creek Capital Management Mark Yusko made a forecast about the bitcoin exchange rate. In the opinion of the investor, in August, the value of the digital currency may decline against the backdrop of quite possible repeated rejection of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the cryptocurrency ETF. However, BTC-holders should not worry, as it is better to be patient.

Yusko believes that by the end of this year, the price of bitcoin will exceed $25 thousand. In 2020 will be $ 75 thousand, in 2022 – $200 thousand. By 2024, according to forecasts of the founder of Morgan Creek Capital, the rate of the main cryptocurrency will reach $ 500 thousand.

Yesterday the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the application of twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to launch a bitcoin-ETF. The cryptocurrency market reacted instantly. The value of bitcoin dropped to $7900, despite that a couple of days ago it was $8300.

The Ethereum Developers Have Begun to Test the Constantinople Hardfork’s Code The implementation and testing of the code for the next major upgrade of the Ethereum network called Constantinople has already begun. The corresponding statement was made at a meeting of key network developers on Friday, July 27.

Constantinople will be the second stage of the Metropolis hardfork and is expected to increase efficiency and reduce transaction fees in the Ethereum network. It was also confirmed today that its activation would have take place before the Devcon4 conference, which would be held from October 30 to November 2 in Prague. Although the exact number of the hardfork block has not been confirmed yet.

In addition, an approximate roadmap for this backward incompatible upgrade was proposed, according to which the code implementation will last until August 13, after which two months will be devoted to testing. In particular, the test network focused specifically on Constantinople will be launched.

As it was stated at today’s meeting, the developers were working on the implementation of four suggestions improving the network (EIP). A leading developer of Geth Peter Silagy noted that most changes were already implemented.

In particular, he was talking about EIP 210, which reorganizes the storage of block hashes, and EIP 145, which increases the speed of arithmetic operations in Ethereum virtual machine (EVM). They are also working on EIP 1014, responsible for adding new status channels, and EIP 1052, new opcode which helps compress the amount of data in interacting contracts.

At the same time, two other offers are being discussion. One relates to the possible delay of the complexity bomb, the other is aimed at improving the mechanism of calculating the cost of gas.

Recall, the first part of the Metropolis hardfork called Byzantium took place in October last year.

Earlier in July, a new proposal was reported, according to which, simultaneously with the implementation of the delay of increasing complexity from 3 ETH to 2 ETH, the reward for finding the block can be reduced.

Binance, the major cryptocurrency exchange in the world, keeps on improving its reputation.

Yesterday Binance and the government of Malta signed a memorandum which reinforces the founding of new Charity Blockchain Fund under the exchange supervision.

Here’s several most important goals:
? Blockchain promotion for improving humanitarian and ecological problems that will help children in developing countries.
? Make people around the world aware of Blockchain use and its positive influence on community and economy.
? Creation of the working group responsible for search of issues where Blockchain technology can be implemented to improve the situation in the future.

It should be reminded that it’s a great example of government and crypto company cooperation for the greater good and common problem solution.

8% of Canadians who own bitcoins use cryptocurrency as an investment.

This is evidenced by the research of the Bank of Canada.

It is noted that in 2016, the most common use of cryptocurrency were transactions, while in 2017 Canadians mainly used bitcoin for investment.

According to the survey, for 58% of respondents, the main motivation to buy bitcoin was “investment”, 12% did it because “their friends have bitcoins”, 7% were interested in new technologies, and only 6% planned to buy goods and services with the help of the cryptocurrency.

On July 24, Binance, one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, announced the start of a voting for the “Coin of the month”. There are 5 candidates in total. The one who will get the majority of votes will get listing on Binance in a reasonable time.

On July 26, users of Redditors suggested that the vote was unfair and more than 50% of the votes had been obtained in an unfair way.

Among the cryptocurrencies for which you can vote are: Libra Credit [LBA], Locktrip [LOC], Mithril [MITH], NKN [NKN] and Polymath [POLY]. The end of the vote and the announcement of the results will be held on July 30.
The peculiarity of this voting is that the results depend on the number of Binance tokens [BNB] on accounts of users that vote, not on the number of voted users. In simple words, the more BNB there is on a user’s account, the higher the is probability that the coin for which he votes will be the winner.

In addition, the voting for a candidate is paid and costs 0.1 BNB.

One Reddit user, Arbobmehmood, considers that the voting is unfair.

He says that this month’s voting is being manipulated, with about 50% votes coming from 10 accounts. The manipulations are in favor of LBA and MITH. He adds that one of the accounts have financed 193 other accounts for about 400 BNB, thus 65,420 BNB or 25% of the total number of votes were transferred.

A user of Meduim, Cryptodaku supports the theory about manipulations, saying that it’s visible that this wallet ([0x2a74f3A43A0b13eFdc1413C665E68aF7d09b0811]) has begun transferring almost 20k BNB, which is equal to 20000 votes.

These users conclude that the two addresses are manipulating the vote, and, in addition, they are among the top 10 LBA wallets. The total number of LBA on their account is approximately 13333323 LBA.

Similar manipulations are carried out for MITH.

However, despite all this, at the time of writing, the voting favorite is NKN, Mithril is in second place, and Libra Credit is in third place.