Simplecrypto Newsletter #1

By Akashi Nakamoto | Simplecrypto | 8 Apr 2020

Hey guys! Welcome to the #1st edition of Simplecrypto. In this newsletter, we talk about news, projects, history and ideas related to crypto. I like to keep my writing simple and fun to read. Don't forget to subscribe for more updates. Let's begin!

Crypto News

1. Bitcoin Cash undergoes 'Halving'

The most popular Bitcoin fork has just undergone halving. Halving is an event which is coded into some blockchains and happens at a predefined time. It is called 'halving' because it cuts the block mining reward in half. The idea behind it is simple.

When halving occurs, the rate of the number of coins entering the blockchain reduces by half. Since the supply is reduced and the demand stays the same, this, in theory, should lead to an increase in the cryptocurrency price.

Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is a fork of Bitcoin. It is the world's fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Bitcoin Cash was created in 2017. In 2018 Bitcoin Cash further split into two cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV.

2. Bisq is hacked

Bisq is a decentralized exchange(DEX) for trading Bitcoin. At Bisq, people can trade Bitcoin without any third-party interference. It is a peer-to-peer trading platform, much like 'LocalBitcoins.com'. Like any decentralized exchange, Bisq does not store your Bitcoin, so the hack was not like a traditional hack on an exchange.

There was a critical security vulnerability in the Bisq software. The flaw had to do with the way Bisq trades are carried out, not in the way funds are stored. The attacker targeted individual trades and got away with about 3 BTC. They are working to compensate the traders who lost money.

Project of the Day

TokenSets

It is one of the most popular DeFi projects of all-time. It is designed to make portfolio management easy and automated. It is also completely free and without any fees.

You can buy something called 'Sets' using ETH, DAI, USDC etc. and the sets are programmed to follow certain rules. For example, a set called BTC ETH 75%/25% Weight Set is designed to maintain a ratio of 75:25 between BTC and ETH in your portfolio. Once you buy that set, every month it will adjust your portfolio to maintain that ratio, automatically selling and buying assets to do so.

Another example includes a set which follows certain Technical Indicators to convert ETH into USDC and vice-versa to capture bull markets and avoid bear markets and eventually accumulate more Ether.

While these are robotic sets, there are also sets created by people. However, those people charge a fee for that! Check them out at TokenSets.

Feel free to ask me questions in the comments section!

Crypto in Quotes

Tim Draper, an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson is extremely bullish on Bitcoin. He recently said:

This is going to be a really interesting time where people say ‘well, why don’t I just use Bitcoin?’ I know there are only 21 million of them and we don’t have to worry about whether a government is diluting their currency by printing tons of it, we can instead just use a currency we all agree on and it’s all a part of the economy and it’s already frictionless and open and transparent and global. - Tim Draper