christmas - Pwim.Net

Venezuela to Offer Christmas Bonus in Petro Coin to Retirees and Pensioners

Since the launch of Petro, Venezuela’s cryptocurrency in February 2018, the government has been trying to expand its use case across almost every activity in the country. To this effect, a tweet from a local news outlet, Venepress, claimed that Venezuela Government would give its Christmas bonus to retirees and pensioners in its cryptocurrency, Petro.

Announced on Oct. 17, the tweet read that Nicholas Maduro, Venezuelan President, announced that the Christmas bonus this year would be in Petro. This is typically what happened the previous year when Venezuela automatically converted pensioners’ bonuses for the year into Petro.

This could be an affirmation of the words and beliefs of Francisco Torrealba, the Deputy of the National Constituent Assembly of Venezuela. According to him, a great change had come to Venezuela, and their current president has had a significant contribution towards this change by creating the Petro. He shared the faith that transactions will soon be done with the Petro, which means that all currencies will quickly be overridden and substituted by cryptocurrency.

In September 2019, according to a report on the government’s website, the same President, Nicolas Maduro, gave a mandate that the oil-backed Petro token must be used for funding the knowing social building initiative and constructing new homes under the Great Housing Mission Venezuela. Let us recall that the said project Maduro changed the payment option of the workers was set up by his predecessor, Hugo Chaves, in 2011.

Image via Shutterstock

Coinbase Partners with DustAid for Crypto Donations During Christmas

In a recent blog post, Coinbase announced its charitable endeavors to help DustAid by allowing its customers to donate Crypto to three other charities, during the Christmas period. DustAid is an organization that supports projects globally. The partnership will give way to Coinbase users within the UK to donate crypto to important causes promoted by organizations such as NSPCC, a British children’s charity that keeps young people away from abuse as well as the Little Edi Foundation, which supports and provides grants to rural communities in Romania, which are struggling, and Space for Giants, who endeavor to protect the future of elephants and their habitat.

Louise Corden, the Lead Digital Producer for NSPCC, adds, “Raising funds via cryptocurrency highlights how the NSPCC is continually exploring new ways to enable people to donate to the charity and contribute to our fight for every childhood. We are really grateful for the backing we have received from DustAid and Coinbase, and we now hope that users of cryptocurrency go to their platforms to make a festive donation to Childline.”

In addition, the managing director also believes in the meaningful impact blockchain technology can have on people, on a global scale. To quote, “DustAid’s mission is to make giving a simple, easy, and transparent part of our daily lives. We are really proud to be working with leading organizations like Coinbase and NSPCC to make this a reality and to help children be heard this Christmas.”

Image via Shutterstock

It is the Season of Giving! Binance Charity is Giving Back with TravelBit's Partnership

Christmas is around the corner. In the spirit of giving back to the community, Binance Charity is continuously working to build blockchain-based solutions to resolve issues on social problems and the opportunity for people to get out of poverty. A widely discussed advantage of blockchain technology is how charities can show more transparency with the donations they receive. Hence, the partnership between TravelBit and Binance Charity will allow travelers to donate to the ‘Binance Lunch for Children’ project while booking flights or hotels on the TravelBit website.

Helena Hai, the head of Binance Charity, states, “We are very pleased to have TravelbyBit’s support to the vulnerable people via our blockchain-based charity solution, Donations through the platform will be ensured with full transparency, accountability, and direct reach to end recipients. Technology should work for people; the collaboration with TravelbyBit is demonstrating the industry’s effort to use technology to shape a future that works for all of us by putting people first and empowering them.”

In addition to this, Caleb Yeoh, the CEO of TravelBit, affirms that “Permissionless cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin provide anyone with the basic right to transact freely. TravelbyBit is one of the first online travel booking platforms that provide travelers with cryptocurrency payment options, introducing a solid use case for the digital asset…”

Just before this announcement, a similar partnership was formed between Coinbase and DustAid to allow crypto users within the UK to donate to charitable organizations, read more about it here.

Image via Shutterstock

Top 4 Platforms to Purchase Christmas Gifts With Bitcoin

As the yuletide season is fast approaching, one of the most predominant thoughts on the minds of many people is the kind of gift to get for loved ones. Being a season of giving, there is no surprise that given that the usability of cryptocurrencies keeps increasing over the years, websites accepting cryptocurrencies have been on the rise as well.

The rigor of moving your trolley around in a shopping mall in an effort to search for gift items to pick up for Christmas is fast phasing out as this online shopping, and digital forms of payment become more acceptable. In addition to the increase in the digitized forms of purchase and payments, the use of Bitcoin – which is the most widely used cryptocurrency- is also gaining momentum, especially in the world of e-commerce.

Here are some of the best sites that you can make your purchases for the yuletide season.

Shopify

With over 75000 stores, this platform has grown to become one of the biggest e-commerce websites that allow merchants to create an online shop for themselves and sell their own products.

As after back as 2013, Shopifyhad started supporting Bitcoin payments to merchants on its platform. This payment gateway was made possible through its Bitpay integration.

Overstock.com

Overstock.comfirst started supporting Bitcoin purchases since January of 2014. It was launched for the purpose of serving as a platform for the purchase of household items, such as laptops and TV sets, as well as decorative furniture and pillows.

Xbox

Recently there has been a lot of synergies between the Crypto space and the gaming world as we have seen blockchain technology being integrated into games. It is, therefore, no surprise that a site likeXboxhas made the hurdle a lot easier for anyone with the intention of purchasing a console with Bitcoin.

Bitrefill

Gift cards are one of the most ordinary things we see people buying for loved ones in this season, and now we can finally enjoy the benefits of using cryptocurrencies to buy them. Other cryptocurrencies others than Bitcoin can be used on Bitrefill to purchase gift cards, they include Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Dash, with the service fees ranging between 2% to 3%.

There is an option of choosing from over 1500 vouchers from major retailers, such as Amazon, Steam, Apple, Walmart, PlayStation,

Google Play, Steam, Microsoft, and eBay.

Image via Shutterstock

Christmas Market Could See Santa Rally Drive Ethereum, XRP Prices Higher and Bitcoin to $20K

After stagnation in the crypto markets last week, Bitcoin has stormed into the holiday season with a fresh price surge above $19,000—with many investors anticipating that the Christmas market conditions will see the BTC price finally conquer the $20,000 barrier.

In 2020, the Bitcoin price gained over 160% since the start of the year, triggering triple-digit increases in popular altcoin cryptos like Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple’s XRP.

Traders are now anticipating that the Christmas market could see a further boost in the crypto space—could Bitcoin break $20K, and how far will Ripple’s XRP and DeFi-booming Ethereum’s price rise on the back of the Santa Rally?

Christmas Market – Santa Rally

According to Forbes, the Santa Rally, a Christmas stock market surge, has been in play for around two-thirds of the years since 1970 and averages a 1.4% gain in the traditional market during the holiday period. In 2013, and 2017, Bitcoin recorded huge Santa rallies and in 2019 Bitcoin underwent a smaller late-December price surge.

Bitcoin has been surging this year with the stock markets on the back of coronavirus relief economic stimulus packages being issued by governments around the world.

Economist and prominent market analyst Alex Krüger believes that a Tesla-like rally could be coming for Bitcoin in these months. In a statement Krüger commented on his expectations for the BTC price and the Christmas market. He said:

“Given that Bitcoin has been moving up or down 2.4% a day on average during the last two months, breaching $20,000 by Christmas is reasonable.”

Regulation Can’t Stop BTC Train

Despite the market being gripped by rumors that the Trump administration may drop a regulatory bombshell by imposing blanket regulations on self-hosted crypto wallets on its way out of office, institutional demand continues to grow.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned the crypto market that he’d heard that the U.S. Treasury Department could rush out new regulations before Trump departs office.

Economist Krüger believes the regulation rumors can’t stop the Bitcoin train. He said:

“Financial markets are likely to remain risk-on, while the Federal Reserve should reassure markets on Wednesday about its long-term dovish stance and MicroStrategy is about to deploy $650 million into Bitcoin.”

Ryan Selkis, the Chief Executive of Bitcoin and crypto data firm Messari believes that the regulation concerns will be nullified by institutional investment and reports of further BTC purchases by MicroStrategy and Grayscale will keep the price rally going into the Christmas Market.

Selkis told Forbes on Dec 13:

“We’ll break $20,000 [before Christmas] […] the market will shrug off the regulation proposal from Mnuchin.”

As well as MicroStrategy’s announcement of further Bitcoin investment—crypto asset manager Grayscale has also seen investment of $2 billion since October indicating more professional and institutional investors are jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon.

Ethereum and XRP Santa Rally

Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP have also made huge gains, partially riding the coattails of Bitcoin as public interest returns to the cryptocurrency space.

Ethereum in particular has been buoyed by the decentralized finance (DeFi) boom this year. Ethereum is currently 70% dominant in the smart contract platform realm, while Polkadot, ATOM, Algorand, and Cardano are also working on smart contracts. As the DeFi industry has grown 15x this year, it brings up the question of whether ETH will be the ultimate winner of the industry.

As reported by Blockchain.News. Raoul Pal, the CEO of Real Vision, recently predicted that BTC’s price could reach $1 million in 2025, but believes Ethereum’s new utility could see its market cap exceed Bitcoins. due to the fact that Ethereum acts in many different parts of the global ecosystem, including global supply chains, the tokenization of assets from real estate to intellectual property rights, non-governmental debt, and tokens from equities, amongst other industries. The ETH price currently sits at $590 at the time of writing.

Ripple’s XRP has not followed Bitcoin in the weekend price surge, and actually fell to $0.50 per token, XRP is currently trading slightly above at $0.51. However, crypto trader’s online are still optimistic that XRP will enjoy the Santa Rally along with the rest of the Christmas crypto market. Popular social media analyst and trader tweeted:

“All I want for Christmas is a $1 XRP.”

Cobb believes the XRP price will hit up to $3 dollars next year, and his tweet was met with a cacophony of support online.

If Santa’s rally takes comes into play, it is going to be a very Merry Christmas for the Bitcoin and crypto community.

XRP Money Flows Into Bitcoin Fueling Parabolic Christmas Price Surge, Is $30,000 BTC Price Next?

Bitcoin (BTC) price has been on a parabolic bull run since the lead up to Christmas, adding over 50% to its value in the last two weeks. But what is driving the price and is $30,000 next for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin spiked to over $28,000 on the weekend and the BTC price has since corrected to $27,100 at the time of writing. The Bitcoin price has risen around 14% in the last 24 hours and its market cap stands at over half a trillion dollars for the first time in its history.

While some investors are now eyeing a new psychological barrier of $30,000, the continued rise over the weekend may be a false start and some analyst are expecting massive corrections this week for Bitcoin.

With the Santa Rally at an end and traditional markets closed over the Christmas weekend, two factors appear to have fueled Bitcoin’s price surge over the last weekend—retail investors buying into the crypto and the mass exodus of capital from the SEC embattled Ripple Labs associated XRP token flowing into Bitcoin.

Retail Investors Pick Up Institutional Slack

With most of the traditional financial players out of the game until mid to late January, Bitcoin has continued to rise on the back of retail investor demand.

The crypto market never sleeps and with traditional markets winding down for the holidays, Bitcoin could be seen as the only investment game in town. Marc Bernegger, a Bitcoin early investor and member of the Board of Crypto Finance Group told Forbes:

“The massive price increase of bitcoin during Christmas is mainly driven by retail traders as traditional markets are closed.”

Bernegger added that he would not be surprised to see a healthy correction in the Bitcoin price as Markets open today. He said, “Compared to massive short term price gains of bitcoin in the past there are far more professional investors involved in the space today which will result in faster price corrections and decrease long term volatility.”

This year, Bitcoin has attracted a growing number of high-profile Wall street legends and institutional investors, who have been investing in Bitcoin as a potential hedge against the incoming wave of inflation that is projected to rise rapidly on the back of unprecedented government stimulus and spending to combat the coronavirus disruption.

CryptoCompare chief executive Charles Hayter said, “There is no end in sight for money printing to stop which is propelling the bitcoin narrative[…]Funds are tumbling their portfolios into bitcoin and the herd are just starting to move.”

XRP Money Flows into Bitcoin

A second major factor behind Bitcoin’s rising dominance in the crypto markets is the regulation woes of Ripple, with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) now pursuing a lawsuit for the sale of XRP tokens which it has deemed as an unregistered security.

XRP is now the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by marketcap—the controversial token has been under serious selling pressure since news that the affiliated blockchain company Ripple is being sued by the SEC.

The SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple has already caused several crypto exchanges to delist XRP from their platforms, namely OSL, Beaxy, CrossTower, and Bitwise, which have either suspended XRP payments for the time being or removed it completely from their holdings.

As announced on Christmas, major US exchange Bitstamp, one of the largest exchanges, will soon halt XRP trading. Crypto exchange giant Coinbase is also awaiting the review of the SEC for their own plans to go public, and it appears almost certain that the largest United States exchange will also delist the token in the near future.

As a popular analyst tweeted this morning:

“A lot of #XRP money has actually flown into Bitcoin, thus adding more fuel to its rocket so Bitcoin maxis should be thanking the #XRPcommunity! Bitcoin’s dominance has surged to its highest level since mid-September 2019, surpassing 71.75% on December 27.”

Since the announcement of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple and XRP on Dec. 22 Bitcoin’s dominance has surged 6.5 percent higher as market participants are growing increasingly wary of altcoins with very little regulatory clarity.

Is $30,000 BTC Price Imminent?

Crypto Analyst and Bitcoin trader Tone Vays warned on Dec. 21 that should the Bitcoin price hit $30,000 by the end of the Christmas weekend, the crypto will be in the “rising too far too fast zone” which has typically lead to drastic price plunges.

Tone Vays argued in his presentation that from last Monday, if Bitcoin topped the $23,000 to $24,000 range, a pull back to just $20,000 would not be “healthy enough” and the popular crypto trader made the case for the market will correcting lower than $20K.

However, a pullback to $20,000 for the Bitcoin price seems likely to Vays if the Bitcoin bull run’s momentum manages to carry it to $30,000, as it would represent a huge correction of 30%—but dependent on the speed of BTC’s rise Vays argues that the correction could be far more drastic.

Vays said in the attached video presentation that Bitcoin may be rising too fast:

“If we go to $30K really really quickly, that creates an unsustainable environment that opens up sub $14,000.”

While Bitcoin fell short of the $30,000 price level over the weekend, a $2,000 dollar difference may not be enough to halt the potential major correction and the fast rise could still see a short term price plunge.

At the time of writing the Bitcoin price continues to consolidate around the $27,000 price level.

Vodafone to Auction the World's First "Merry Christmas" SMS Message as NFT

Mobile phone telecommunications network services provider Vodafone is making its entry into the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) ecosystem by auctioning the world’s first Short Message Service (SMS), which reads, “Merry Christmas.”

Romanian news agency Ziarul Financiar reported that the first SMS was sent some 29 years ago, on December 3, 1992. It will be up for sale on December 21 at the Aguttes auction house in France.

The 15-characters SMS will be sold as a standalone piece marked one of the most important milestone innovations in the world and seven years after this first message was delivered to Vodafone employee, Richard Jarvis at the company’s Christmas party, SMS expanded to other networks beyond the Vodafone network.

The successful buyer can make payments using Ethereum (ETH) and gain access to a detailed and unique replica of the original communication protocol that sent the world’s first SMS. Per the report, proceeds from the auction will be donated to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a gesture that is aimed at supporting the forcibly displaced persons.

The growth of NFTs in the past year has stunned many in terms of numbers and the global brands that are now wading into the space. While the most expensive NFT sale to date remains Beeple’s ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ collage which sold for $69.3 million in ETH, a number of expensive standalone pieces have been sold in the past year.

A common trend in the space is the launch of NFT collections with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), arguably the most iconic that was introduced into the space this year. Beyond the hype that NFTs have gathered in recent times, many advocates of this new technology believe the use cases are yet to be deciphered and express optimism for the future of the technology.