It has been quite a week, especially because of one event that everyone heard at least 1000 times during these recent days : Bitcoin's 3rd Halving. An event which represents a new era for cryptocurrencies in general, alongside this huge news there has been others interesting news this week that you might have missed.
Between the Halving, Samsung announcement and others fascinating news, let me drive you through the 4 major news of this week in the cryptocurrency world.
1. First and major one : Bitcoin's Halving :
The huge event of this year for cryptocurrency happened on May 11 at 19:23 UTC, this event is more a milestone for Bitcoin than an actual "straight away growth". Basically the Halving is an event written a long time ago in Bitcoin's White Book, this consists to divide by 2 the reward received by the miners after "mining" a block, its main objective is to create a "rarity" on the long term for Bitcoin. See this like gold, after the gold rush began the quantity of gold has decreased (gold needs special conditions in order to be created, its number is limited), and the number of miners increased, gold became more rare with more people seeking for it, its value increased.
It is the same with Bitcoin (the number of Bitcoin available is set to 21 millions), the Halving aim to reinforce this "rarity", so the reward for a block mined went from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. It was the third time Bitcoin "halved", the first time back in 2012, this event is planned to happen every 210.000 blocks mined, the last Halving will happen around 2140. Anyway this event is officially sending Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in another era, another dimension, if you wish to know more details about it I have wrote an article or you can check others very interesting articles on this subject on publish0x.
2. After FaceBook, VISA is developing their own cryptocurrency :
Once again a huge enterprise is making its way in the cryptocurrency world, and this time it's the gigantic payment solution society VISA who recently filed a patent application on the creation of a certain cryptocurrency. It actually happen few months ago, on November 2019, but they have made it public recently (on May 14), apparently it is more a StableCoin Fiat-collateralized, which means they are going to develop and digitize our current currencies.
This idea was proposed a long time ago but the actual situation created a "fear" of cash because cash presents risks to transmit virus, bacteria and increase disease spread. VISA stated that the banknotes will be scanned and registered in their blockchain, it means that VISA believes in numerical currency blockchain linked for the future of our financial world. After some governments getting interest in digital currencies like China, USA or Venezuela, now major companies decide to join the party, a good news concerning cryptocurrency in the future.
3. Samsung revealed a brand new phone linked to a blockchain :
On May 22 Samsung will officially released their new smartphone the Galaxy A Quantum exclusively in South Korea in a first time. This phone is special first because it is the first one supporting 5G and also because it uses a service of authentication linked to a blockchain. Basically this phone was develop in collaboration with SK Telecom (a South Korean mobile network) and it uses a new blockchain technology called Initial.
This blockchain wallet that is Initial will be use to store a the user's personal data and its documents regarding their identity and their activities. It concerns ID card, assurances documents, universities papers and others, this stored data will then be encrypt and their access will only be possible with a decryption key. Moreover the blockchain offers security and confidential guarantees concerning the user's data, this kind of technology show that huge enterprises like Samsung (or FaceBook) have huge hopes around the cryptocurrency and its blockchain.
4. For last news let's talk numbers, the change of direction made by Bitcoin's buyers :
You might know Coinbase, one of the biggest platform concerning cryptocurrency's exchanges and trades. Coinbase is often releasing some studies about the behavior of their users, this week one of these studies revealed that Bitcoin’s buyers are turning to Altcoins. Indeed Coinbase stated that 60% of their users are buying Bitcoin, among these users only 24% are actually keeping (or holding) their Bitcoin.
Why ? Because they prefer to exchange their Bitcoin for Altcoins, however Bitcoin's domination is huge in the cryptocurrency world the tendency to exchange their Bitcoin for other cryptocurrencies is also increasing. Mainly because analysts predict that there will be an "altcoin rally", which means that according to them indicators are showing us a future altcoin breakout in the next 6 to 12 months, and that Bitcoin dominance is changing. Only future will tell us but stay tuned !
