Ethereum price has been in an uptrend since the start of the year but key options indicators suggest overcoming the $2,000 level will be a challenge.

To date, Ether (ETH) price has gained 85% in 2021, and options traders are still highly optimistic about the altcoin’s short-term performance.

The upcoming March 26 expiry holds over 96,000 ($172 million) call option contracts open interest between $2,240 and $3,520. Does a 25% or higher gain correctly reflect the current market sentiment, or are these traders simply over-optimistic about Ether’s odds?

Even though the effective price for the right to acquire Ether at a fixed price on March 26 is much lower, these options cost buyers at least $2 million. If Ether fails to increase by 25% from the current $1,808 price in two weeks, these $2,240 call options will be completely worthless.

As shown above, the call-put ratio is relatively balanced at 1.07, and the more bearish put options above the $1,800 strike are nonexistent. Meanwhile, bullish traders have crowded the scene above $2,240, partially because of their low price. The cost per option contract over the past couple of weeks ranged from $6 to $40.

Even if these call option holders previously bought while Ether was trading below $1,400, it would make sense to close the position and lock in profits. These options will lose value over time as the March 26 deadline arrives unless the price rises above their respective strike price.

Therefore, either these traders effectively expect Ether to break $2,240 in two weeks, or the options are being used in more complex strategies. Cointelegraph previously explained how $10,000 Ether call options are often used on calendar spreads.

To assess traders’ optimism level after Ether marked a local $1,880 top on March 9, one should look at the 25% delta skew.

Whenever the options market is unwilling to take downside risk, the indicator shifts negatively. On the other hand, a positive 25% delta skew indicates traders are demanding less premium (risk) for upside protection.

The above chart shows the indicator ranging from 5 to negative 10, which is considered a neutral zone.

Had option traders effectively been bullish, the upside-protection call options would have been trading at a premium.

There’s a possibility, as previously stated, that investors are using a more complex strategy that involves different expiry dates or strikes. Still, if these options have been bought exclusively for upside leverage, it certainly doesn’t reflect the overall sentiment as measured by the skew indicator.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Source: ethereum.medianewsonline.com

Author: cryptocurrency
March 12, 2021

‘Keanu’ Explained: What It Means to Merge Ethereum Projects

Within the conventional enterprise world, company mergers typically create behemoths that come to dominate markets and, occasionally, drive political leaders to interrupt them up once more. 

That is the story of a merger within the making, however within the decentralized world of blockchain-based tasks it would assist to put aside all prior assumptions about what a “merger” means. 

Two encryption tasks, Keep and NuCypher, each operating on the Ethereum blockchain, have begun discussing what they’re calling a “onerous merge,” codename: Keanu. Crucially, this could be a merger of their protocols’ capabilities and communities, not of their firms. 

“It actually will meaningfully make what I believe is already a decentralized community already way more decentralized,” stated NuCypher founder MacLane Wilkison.

It’s not as if blockchain mergers haven’t occurred. Andre Cronje‘s robo advisor for yield that’s the behemoth Yearn Finance pronounces a “merger” or a “partnership” each month or so, nevertheless it’s by no means fairly clear what’s occurring behind the scenes.

“As a substitute of Andre saying that Sushi is a part of Yearn and none of us figuring out what meaning, possibly individuals may begin displaying us the code and mixing tasks,” stated Matt Luongo, founding father of Thesis, the corporate shepherding the Hold venture.

In blockchain tasks, firms construct protocols however numerous disparate entities all around the world do the work (the sorts of labor being limitless) of that protocol and revenue from it. The speculation is, the extra entities doing it, the safer everybody utilizing it’s from theft or manipulation. That is referred to as decentralization. 

So the concept on this onerous merge is that ultimately, all of the operators doing work on Hold and those doing work on NuCypher may do the work of each networks. It’s like a {hardware} store with a locksmith inside: sure companies go nicely collectively.

As of now, the Hold protocol has been entrusted with $243 million worth of crypto belongings to run its Bitcoin community, in accordance with information website DeFi Pulse. NuCypher has roughly $265 million price of ETH staked to run its encryption community.

Keep described itself on the time as a privateness layer for Ethereum. NuCypher offered an encryption delegation service.

Right here in 2021, now we have seen and proceed to see the higher-quality, better-vetted ICOs carry merchandise to market, and that features Hold and NuCypher. Each of them have constructed what are referred to as “threshold cryptosystems.” These programs break up cryptographic keys throughout a number of nodes on a community such that it takes some threshold variety of nodes to signal for an motion to be validated, spent or decrypted (because the case could also be). 

This has twin advantages. First, trustlessness: Nobody node can take unilateral motion. Second, resiliency: Let’s say it takes six nodes to collaborate for a legitimate signature. If that have been any six of, say, 36 nodes, then a signature may nonetheless be made legitimate even when two-thirds of the nodes all of a sudden went offline for some purpose.

The mixed venture will likely be searching for a lot bigger numbers than that.

“Threshold cryptography typically matches very nicely into this context of blockchains which is all about trust-minimization and censorship-resistance,” Wilkison stated. “Mainly what we in our communities view might be pretty more likely to occur is: As every community begins to help increasingly more threshold cryptography companies, they may in all probability look increasingly more alike.”

Neither group introduced its product to market till final 12 months. The Hold venture was spun out to a brand new firm referred to as Thesis, and opened with a extra decentralized approach to lock up bitcoin and use it for decentralized finance on Ethereum. NuCypher went stay in October following its “WorkLock” distribution occasion.

Founders at each groups hope they’ve innovated a scheme for what it really means to merge blockchain tasks.

“It’s, so far as we all know, fairly novel,” Wilkison stated.

In the meantime, the businesses behind these protocols would hold creating software program to do their respective work, however on Keanu. It’s like how e-mail is one protocol however there are many completely different e-mail suppliers and many completely different software program for studying and sending e-mail.

Sure, two networks may turn out to be one in order that seems like consolidation. However it may not be. Standard Oil or the WWE may not be the fitting psychological mannequin to use to blockchains.

Each firms famously hoovered up smaller rivals offering the identical service till they have been successfully monopolies. “I believed we might see extra of centralized firms consuming up decentralized firms earlier than this could occur, like FTX buying Ren” last month, stated Paul Veradittakit of Pantera Capital, an observer of token tasks.

However is it the identical factor if blockchain protocols, not the businesses, begin to merge?

“I don’t know when you get significant decentralization out of many alternative networks,” Wilkison argued.

Whereas the WWE acquired regional wrestling associations and mixed them into one nationwide pressure, blockchain protocols are run extra from the bottom up by impartial operators. It’s not the protocols merging that raises centralization purple flags.

If the nodes operating such protocols have been to begin quietly combining behind the scenes, although, that turns into a a lot completely different story. It’s only a story that’s a lot more durable to learn.

“I don’t know which you can have a look at it as: ‘We’d like many networks.’ We’d like a smaller variety of networks and a greater distribution of improvement groups and node operations,” Wilkison stated.

Brayton Williams of Boost VC, which backed Hold, put it one other approach.

“Generally the competitors isn’t crypto to crypto groups,” Williams stated. “We’re combating in opposition to conventional finance and the way issues work earlier than crypto emerged. Extra high-quality groups that may be a part of collectively to compete in opposition to the true competitors will make for a greater struggle.”

There had been speak within the NuCypher world of doing a decentralized bitcoin-on-Ethereum answer just like the one which Hold has constructed – in different phrases, principally competing straight with Hold. 

Wilkinson stated the 2 camps regarded down the street and noticed years of one-upmanship forward as every service expanded to encroach increasingly more on the opposite.

Each networks use staking to make sure the safety of their respective purposes. In different phrases, contributors can earn charges for doing computational work, however provided that they put some asset in danger in case they screw up or misbehave.

Group members within the house which have gotten into the staking game, nevertheless, had begun to develop out to increasingly more tasks. A lot of them staked on each networks, and ultimately some began to see this coming conflict between the 2 efforts.

Because the founders inform it, these group members reached out to the businesses to ask if it could make sense to mix efforts.

“Nobody fairly is aware of what to make of this. and I get it. It’s experimental,” Luongo stated. “We all know that on the finish of the day we are able to do extra collectively than separate.”

Veradittakit of Pantera Capital agreed, saying, “I believe we may see extra of those, and it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how the fashions evolve!”

Who doesn’t love Keanu Reeves?

So, to begin with, it’s solely a codename. If Keanu turns into actual, will probably be a decentralized autonomous group (a DAO), and that DAO can change the identify. For now, “Keanu” is a placeholder.

However it has a logic: The film star’s identify works as a kind of mixture of the 2 tasks’ names (Hold + NuCyphter > Kee + Nu > Kee and Nu > Keanu). They might do it the opposite approach however that will be NUKE, and neither founder a lot cherished that.

Keanu can also be considerably memetically related as a result of … nicely, okay: one other blockchain, Cosmos, did one thing comparable and it was referred to as a “hard spoon.” It was a spoon, versus a fork, as a result of it was a giant change but additionally non-contentious. (In open-source software program, forking means copying supply code after which creating it independently; in crypto, forking a chain is a kind of cold secession of 1 group from one other.) With me up to now?

The spoon was one community, not two. Additionally, Cosmos was replicating community state (all the data saved on the system) and that’s additionally probably not true right here, so … there is no spoon.

One new protocol will be capable of do the work of each networks, and stakers on Hold and NuCypher can choose to hitch in and do each jobs for extra potential charges. It’s “onerous” as a result of it’s an actual, particular change, nevertheless it’s probably not a fork as a result of Keanu received’t be mutually unique with the prior networks both.

One other approach to consider it: Think about that is the early days of the net and one open-source group had created a protocol for sending information from one machine to a different. One other open supply group had created a protocol for sending textual content messages from one machine to a different.

A tough merge can be as if somebody got here in and took each codebases, slammed them collectively after which created e-mail: textual content messages that may do attachments.

A tough merge is kind of like that, however in a blockchain context such that every one the computer systems in between receives a commission with a token.

If Keanu launches, then both Hold’s or NuCypher’s token can be utilized to stake as a piece token (kind of like a taxi medallion, in that you simply pay an upfront value for the fitting to offer companies) on the brand new community. Within the present proposal, from the attitude of Keanu, one KEEP would be the identical as one NU, and vice versa (and for crypto tokens, they’re fairly comparable networks when it comes to worth anyway).

“I believe that form of matches extra with the ethos of each communities and the house as a complete,” Wilkison stated. “If for some purpose this difficult merge didn’t work, it’s doable for one or each networks to say this isn’t figuring out and we’re simply going again to our personal community.”

If it does work, although, the Keanu DAO may additionally make a transfer to extend stickiness. For instance, it may create a token that’s emitted for stakers on Keanu. For now, although, the one tokens are KEEP and NU.

In principle, the entire will likely be better than the sum of its components.

NuCypher, for its half, received’t must invent a method to custody bitcoin in a decentralized style as a result of the Hold group has constructed that, and its nodes can now share in doing that work.

Hold has a plan to dramatically scale up its method to custodying bitcoin on Ethereum, with model 2.0, nevertheless it wants much more nodes than the 200 or so it has now. NuCypher has about 2,000.

NuCypher continues to be creating the decentralized utility (dapp) market that it hopes will show the killer use case for its basic providing. In the meantime Hold has a dapp (tBTC) that has confirmed market demand, however its first very secure, very cautious model is just too capital-inefficient to scale.

It wants many extra nodes to run model 2, which would require much more signatures. That stated, it swaps out the collateral requirement for node operators with an insurance-based method.

“We’re going straight after wBTC,” Luongo stated, referring to the main answer for bitcoin on Ethereum, offered by BitGo, which presently custodies $7.5 billion in BTC, as of this writing. “Each bitcoin deposited will likely be backed by on the order of a whole lot of signers.”

The plan for now could be that tBTC model 2.0 would be the first dapp on the Keanu protocol, with extra to come back quickly.

If merging right here works, the groups may broaden their horizons to different blockchains. Luongo stated, “We’re fairly far together with integrating with Celo,” a financial blockchain that runs on Tendermint, a consensus system that’s appropriate with the Cosmos community.

Cosmos is on the cusp of enabling interoperability between a bunch of blockchains. “I’d like to see tBTC v2 launch on Cosmos. I believe that will be actually highly effective,” Luongo stated.

First, the 2 groups want to jot down a specification that covers Hold’s signing and NuCypher’s encrypting.

Specs are human-readable descriptions of a service such that completely different items of software program (shoppers) can function it. Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens, the constructing blocks of the 2017 ICO increase, are written to a specification, as are these non-fungible tokens which can be all the fashion proper now. The specification delineates all of the issues conforming software program must do, however completely different shoppers could be designed to prioritize completely different capabilities (very like utilizing Outlook, Apple Mail or Mozilla’s Thunderbird, for e-mail).

As soon as that’s finalized, every firm will get to work constructing shoppers that meet the specification, form of like how Ethereum has had each Geth and Parity.

“Actually, what meaning is that if one of many dev groups will get hit by a bus the venture can proceed,” Luongo stated.

NuCypher has a DAO. It could must approve a wise contract change to be able to make it possible for node operators to maneuver. That’s nonetheless being decided.

If it doesn’t, the NuCypher devs can simply get to work on its shoppers for Keanu, as a result of the DAO runs the NuCypher protocol however not the corporate.

Hold has a community-run multisignature Gnosis contract (form of just like the crypto equal of a board of administrators).  Multisig members will  put collectively some form of course of, which can require node operators to sign help and possibly for KEEP holders to vote.

Each founders need it to maneuver quick if it strikes, aiming for a second-quarter launch.

“Each side need to resolve: Are we stronger collectively?” Luongo stated.

Source: cryptonewsbtc.org

Bitcoin Consolidates Gains, Ethereum and Altcoins Basing For Next Move

Bitcoin price remains in a bullish zone and it recently climbed above the USD 56,000 and USD 57,000 levels. BTC traded close to USD 57,500 before correcting lower. It is currently (05:00 UTC) showing positive signs around USD 55,500 and it might continue higher above USD 56,500.
Besides, most major altcoins are seemingly preparing for the next move. ETH corrected lower, but the bulls are active above the USD 1,775 support. XRP/USD is declining towards the main USD 0.450 support zone.

Total market capitalization

There were additional gains in bitcoin price above the USD 56,000 and USD 57,000 resistance levels. BTC traded to a new monthly high near USD 57,400 before correcting lower. It declined below the USD 56,000 level, but the bulls are protecting the USD 55,000 support zone.
It is consolidating well above USD 55,000 and it seems like there are chances of a fresh increase above USD 56,500. The first key resistance is near USD 57,000, above which the bulls might aim for a new monthly high above USD 57,500.

Ethereum price struggled to continue higher above USD 1,870 and USD 1,880. ETH corrected lower and declined below USD 1,800. However, the bulls are active above USD 1,775. As long as there is no break below the USD 1,760 zone, the price could start a fresh increase.
On the upside, an initial resistance is near the USD 1,825 level. The main resistance on the upside is still near the USD 1,870 and USD 1,880 levels.

Binance Coin (BNB) is holding gains above the USD 275 and USD 280 levels. BNB might retest the USD 295 and USD 300 resistance levels. If there is a clear break above USD 300, the price might accelerate higher. Conversely, there might be a dip towards the USD 265 support zone.
Cardano (ADA) seems to be consolidating in a broad range above the USD 1.100 and USD 1.120 support levels. The main support is still near USD 1.050, below which there could be a sharp decline of 8%-10%. On the upside, the range resistance is near the 1.200 and 1.220 levels.
Litecoin (LTC) is consolidating near the USD 200 pivot level. It seems like LTC could start a strong increase above the USD 205 and USD 210 levels. In this case, the price might test the USD 240 level. If not, it might revisit the USD 172 support.
XRP price showing a few bearish signs and it is approaching the USD 0.450 support zone. If the bulls fail to defend USD 0.450, there could be a drop towards the USD 0.420 support. On the upside, the USD 0.480 is a decent resistance, followed by USD 0.500.

A few altcoins gained over 8%, including TFUEL, HBAR, THETA, BAT, BTG, CELO, ZIL, CHZ, KSM, RUNE, and ZEC. Out of these, TFUEL surged over 50% and cleared the USD 0.300 level.

Overall, bitcoin price is seemingly gaining bullish momentum above USD 55,000. If BTC settled above USD 56,500, it could extend its rise towards USD 58,000 or even USD 58,500 in the coming sessions.
_____

Source: cryptrace.com

Author: admin

Ethereum Price Forecast – Choppy Session in Play, Brace for a Breakout!

ETH/USD closed at 1825.79 after placing a high of 1845.32 and a low of 1729.05. Ethereum prices surged on Thursday and reached 1800 level despite miners’ protest against the upcoming upgrade in the network. The scheduled upgrade to the Ethereum network that will start destroying ether coins raised anger amongst most miners of the cryptocurrency as some analysts estimated that this upgrade named Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) – 1559 could cause up to 50% loss in the profits of Ethereum miners.

The said upgrade EIP-1559 is scheduled to go live in July and significantly impact miners’ revenue. This upgrade seeks to replace the existingh bidding–based on the Ethereum network with a fixed price and burn mechanism. Under this mechanism, the users will send a base transaction fee to the network that would destroy or burn the Ether tokens. It will reduce the number of Ether coins in circulation. This has led to many Ether miners’ anger as it would slash their fees, and those angry miners have signaled opposition to this upgrade as a protest by planning a 51-hour show of force for April 1. The miners will redirect their mining power to Ethermine.org, a miners’ pool for 51 hours on April 1. It will show that miners have enough power to alter the network themselves.

Some miners have shown willingness to go on strike by shutting down their mining power to disrupt the Ethereum network. However, despite these negative developments surrounding the Ethereum network, the cryptocurrency ETH/USD rose on Thursday and posted gains for the day.

The rise in Ethereum prices could be attributed to the effects of token burning as it will reduce the number of ether coins in circulation. The high gas fees of the Ethereum network have urged many users to abandon the blockchain in search of alternative blockchains with less fess and fast transactions. To overcome this issue, the network has announced a planned upgrade named EIP-1559.

Furthermore, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, said that he sees the Ethereum network scaling by a 100 factor and predicted that the Optimism’s Layer 2 solution would be released in the coming two weeks. He was confident that the layer-2 solutions would sustain the network before the establishment of sharding. He continued to forecast that Optimism was set to launch its fully EVM-compatible Virtual Machine in a month. He also shed some light on rollups as an interim scaling solution to improve the existing scalability issues related to network congestion and high gas fees.

Sharding is a layer-1 solution apart from the layer-2 resolution introduced by rollups. The Sharding protocol and Ethereum 2.0 are expected to release alongside, and Buterin has claimed that rollups will be enough to increase the performance of Ethereum by 100 times.

The ETH/USD pair forms three black crows on the four hourly timeframes at 1,774 level, and it’s likely to drive more selling in the pair. On the lower side, ETH/USD is likely to find support at 1,694 areas and a resistance level of 1,880. Simultaneously, the bullish breakout of 1,881 level can lead the price towards 1,989 level. The MACD and RSI are also in support of a selling trend; therefore, we can extend a continuation of selling in the ETH/USD pair. On the lower side, ETH/USD pair may target 1,694 today. Good luck!

Source: www.fxleaders.com

Funny money: Brooklyn 99 star launches own social currency

Actor Terry Crews, known for his prominent character in the Brooklyn 99 TV series, is launching his own social currency, $POWER, through social crypto platform Roll.

I have launched a social currency on the Ethereum Blockchain called $POWER! Check out this exclusive from @TechCrunch: https://t.co/JpcdIGFbEA pic.twitter.com/1YFSALQhYb

Talking to TechCrunch, Crews said that the currency is a means to empower artists. His vision for the currency is for people to earn $POWER by selling their art, NFTs, physical goods, and experiences.

Although details around the token are still vague, according to the project’s website, there will be a cap of 10 million coins (3.34 million are currently in circulation). The founders, being Crews, Michael Peña (known for Shooter, Tower Heist, Battle: Los Angeles, and many other films), and Dakota Xentaras, “will pool the currency onto some mainstream exchanges (Uniswap) to determine its initial market offering and reward early $POWER members and adopters.”

The platform Crews is using to launch his social money, Roll, raised $2.7 million in funding in late 2020, and with around 300 creators, has already surpassed a $1.5 billion market cap.

Powered by Ethereum, Roll allows individuals to create their own ERC-20 tokens to help the creator get closer to fans and consumers. There are currently 44 social currencies on the platform, with the most expensive one sitting at $77.62 — rising 87% in the last 24 hours. Called “Friends with benefits,” it has no description and is unclear what this is used for.

Owning $POWER is owning a piece of Crews, he said, “There’s no other way to put it. And I want to be very careful about who is holding me, no puns intended.”

Crews is yet to reveal the true extent of what “owning a piece of him” actually entails, although it is noted that early token holders will have “access” to to their team.

“As an early $POWER member, you’ll have access to our team, and a hand in helping shape the world of $POWER and how it serves artists (read: you) in the digital and physical marketplace.”

To date, $POWER tokens have been distributed to approximately 100 people and Crews is engaging with the currency’s community through Discord.

The actor hopes to eventually add interest-free microloans to artists as another feature of the $POWER token.

“That’s our long-term plan, to become this thing that this community can live and exist in. You could use it anywhere you are — at Target, the grocery store.”

The drive for this new ecosystem reportedly comes from an experience the actor had about four years ago in Milan, Italy. He was unable to access some of his money through a local bank to purchase a piece of designer furniture from an artist.

“And I’m watching all these white men and women pass me in line, and they’re looking at me strangely,” Crews said. “I’d been standing there for 15 minutes and it slowly dawns on me that because I’m Black, I was not going to get my money. That was the moment I knew everything had to change for me.”

“Bringing it up still makes me angry,” he said. “What I love about this new world of finance is that cryptocurrency does not know what race you are, how old you are.”

Crews hopes $POWER will put power back in the hands of artists and creators, he explained.

Famous rapper Akon, who is creating a currency for a technology city in Kenya, partnered with Roll last year in an effort to provide support for African influencers to create their own currencies, and in return, can choose to support the celebrity’s various business ventures.

Ray Schuetz received a Masters Degree in computer science from The University of Texas (Austin). Ray has been working as a full-time blockchain consultant for the past 3 years. In his spare time, Ray enjoys writing for EthereumCryptocurrency.com and other crypto news publications.

Source: ethereumcryptocurrency.com

Author: by Ray Schuetz

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