Bitcoin could be in for a minor price pullback as the short-duration charts are flashing signs of bullish exhaustion.
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Coinbase Commerce Announces Addition of New Features, Faces Increasing Competition
Coinbase Commerce has announced the addition of new features and plugins being added to their platform in a recent announcement. The move to add new features comes as Coinbase Commerce is facing increased competition from their competitors.
WooCommerce Plugin
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform on the web with almost 50,000,000 downloads. The platform allows businesses to sell a variety of products through customizable solutions, making it one of the most efficient ways for small business to sell products, or for charities to accept donations.
Coinbase Commerce’s new plugin will allow online businesses built through WooCommerce to allow them to accept cryptocurrency payments through Coinbase with the click of a button. Coinbase Commerce is confident that the new plugin will aid in cryptocurrency adoption.
In an announcement, the exchange said:
“The widely-used plugin powers more than 28% of all online stores — and all of them now have access to cryptocurrency payments from customers around the world. This increased access will lead to more widespread adoption, and ultimately, moves us closer to our goal of an open financial system.”
Bitcoin and Litecoin Direct Withdrawals
Coinbase Commerce also added a new feature that gives businesses a greater amount of control over their cryptocurrency holdings.
For payments received in Bitcoin or Litecoin, businesses will now have the option of withdrawing the cryptocurrency by sending it to another wallet directly from Coinbase Commerce. Before this advancement, users would either have the option of automatically selling the cryptocurrency or sending it to Coinbase to then transfer to another wallet.
The announcement said that the platform will soon enable similar functionality for Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash.
Increased Integration Accessibility
Coinbase Commerce also announced two new features that allows for smoother integration of their cryptocurrency payment solutions.
The platform will now feature a checkout button for users using a React application. They are also increasing the accessibility of their platform by adding a Python library for the Coinbase Commerce API. The company is also building libraries for Node.js, Ruby, and PHP.
Coinbase Commerce reminds prospective users that all payments made through their platform are peer-to-peer, saying:
“All payments made through Coinbase Commerce are truly peer-to-peer — when customers send money from their cryptocurrency wallet it’s sent directly to a merchant-controlled cryptocurrency address and processed on-chain by the respective blockchain. This means merchants never have to pay transaction fees to accept payments and always remain in complete control over their funds.”
Coinbase Commerce Faces Increased Competition
Coinbase Commerce’s upgrades to their platform come as they face growing competition from cryptocurrency payment processing giant Bitpay.
Sonny Singh, Bitpay’s Chief Operating Officer, recently attested to the growing use of Bitcoin as a means of payment, saying that “bitcoin is being used all around the world for things other than speculation and trading.”
Singh notably claimed that Bitpay did over .2 billion dollars last year in payments using Bitcoin, proving that Coinbase Merchant is facing fierce competition from Bitpay. Singh attributed the lack of widespread cryptocurrency adoption to a lack of knowledge, stating:
“In America, everyone’s so used to credit cards or goes online and types credit card numbers. But it’s safer and easier to do this through QR code because you don’t have to give your credit card numbers…The merchants save money in America by paying with bitcoin, because they pay 1% of the transaction fee, but with credit cards, that’s 4%. So, the merchants can make a lot of money if you are paying with bitcoin. But yet they don’t understand it, they have to be educated about it. And the consumers have to get the habit of spending with bitcoin. For them, it’s better and quicker than credit cards, and better for privacy.”
The increase in the simplicity and practicality of cryptocurrency payment platforms like Bitpay and Coinbase Commerce is sure to aid in the mass implementation of cryptocurrency payment options. The use of Coinbase Commerce on large website platforms like WooCommerce will also lead more businesses to consider accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, further legitimizing their practicality and ensuring increased adoption.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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Bitcoin Now Faces Last Major Support Level Before $5K
Bitcoin is down again and looks set to test another key support level at ,900, the technical charts indicate.
CoinDesk
Bitcoin Faces First Close Below This Key Long-Term Support in 2.5 Years
If bitcoin closes the week below the 50-week moving average it will increase the likelihood of a sell-off to ,000
CoinDesk
Bitcoin Faces Drop to $7K as Bull Defense Crumbles
Bitcoin looks set to test ,000 in the next 24 hours, courtesy of a bear flag breakdown on the technical charts.
CoinDesk
Faceboook Faces Lawsuit Over Banning Cryptocurrency Ads as Collusion Rumors Swell
2018 has not been the year of Facebook so far. Nor is that situation improving by any means, as the company keeps making negative headlines. Their latest concern comes in the form of a new lawsuit regarding their ban on cryptocurrency ads. Not entirely surprising, although it remains to be seen how things play out.
The Facebook Issues This Year
When the world’s leading social network makes a fair few controversial decisions in a row, the general public is not too amused. The big story has been how Facebook has now banned cryptocurrency advertisements. While the company wants to protect consumers at all costs, that course of action received a lot of criticism. It seems this campaign mainly targets ICOs and token sales. These new business models have caused some regulatory uproar all over the world in the past 12 months.
That is not the only weird course of action by Facebook. Earlier this year, the company showcased a new VR game at a political gun-related convention. It was a massive mess-up, as the game was eerily similar to a recent mass shooting in the US. It took Facebook three days to pull the game from the conference floor despite obvious and outspoken criticism.
Additionally, Facebook is currently making headlines regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal. With data of millions of Americans exposed and used to influence the Trump election. It is evident all of this is adding up to a lot of problems for this particular company. Unfortunately for them, it seems the problems will not end there whatsoever. A new lawsuit will be filed against the company very soon.
The Eurasian Blockchain Association Strikes Back
The newly formed Eurasian Blockchain Association is not taking kindly to Facebook right now. It is made up of different associations from China, Russia, and South Korea. All of these ventures aim to actively sue Facebook for banning cryptocurrency ads. A pretty gutsy decision, although it can trigger a wave of similar lawsuits.
According to the recent information, the lawsuit will be filed in May of 2018. The funding of this lawsuit is done through a special fund of cryptocurrencies. It remains unclear in which state the lawsuit will be filed. Some people even state how this is “cartel collusion”, which also involves Google, Yandex, and Twitter. All companies have taken similar stances when it comes to cryptocurrencies and ICOs.
How this lawsuit will play out, has yet to be determined. Proving there is some form of collusion is very difficult. Moreover, it seems unlikely Facebook will reverse its decision in this regard. This lawsuit will definitely influence the future of cryptocurrency as a whole. Depending on the outcome, the industry will be off far better or far worse. It’s good to see people make their voice be heard, though. This form of online censorship from the web monopolies has become quite worrisome.
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Bitcoin Sinks Toward $8K and Faces Further Sell-Off
The bulls’ failure to capitalize on bitcoin’s recent price recovery has left the doors open for a sharp sell-off to February lows.
CoinDesk
Bitcoin Price Analysis Bitcoin Faces Pivotal Support as Bulls Exhaust Buying Pressure
After seeing a rally to the ,000s, bitcoin has managed to pull back to the ,000 range and has left many bullish investors confused. The initial bullish rally seemed promising as it broke the macro, descending channel that governed much of the market over the last two monthsFigure 1 BTC-USD, 6-Hour Candles, Descending ChannelThe breakout of the descending channel red dotted channel gave hope to many bullish investors as it seemingly signaled the end of the downtrend and perhaps the beginn
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T-Mobile Faces Federal Lawsuit After Hackers Steal User’s Cryptocurrencies
This past Sunday Carlos Tapang, a T-Mobile USA Inc. customer, filed a suit in federal court against the company, alleging lax security measures made it possible for hackers to access his wireless account and steal the cryptocurrency from his mobile wallet — tens of thousands of dollars worth.
Tapang, of Washington state, accuses T-Mobile of having “improperly allowed wrongdoers to access” his wireless account on November 7th of last year. After the attack, the hackers cancelled his number and transferred it to an AT&T account under their control. “T-Mobile was unable to contain this security breach until the next day,” when it finally got the number back from AT&T, Tapang alleges in the suit.
The cybercriminals got away with 1,000 OmiseGo (OMG) tokens and 19.6 BitConnect coins. Next, they exchanged the coins for 2.875 Bitcoin, according to the suit. On November 7th, the price of Bitcoin was ,118.80, so had the hackers cashed out then they would have netted a profit of ,466.55. In just weeks after the incident, the token’s price reached almost ,000 per coin, but given the volatility of Bitcoin prices, and perhaps a desire to quickly turn the coins into cash, it’s unlikely the hackers benefited from the surge.
The suit alleges T-Mobile is at fault partly because the carrier said it would add a PIN code to Tapang’s account prior to the incident — but no PIN was implemented. And Tapang says there are other weaknesses: He alleges hackers are able to call T-Mobile’s customer support multiple times in attempts to gain access to customer accounts. After several tries, sometimes they’re able to get an agent on the line that will grant them access without requiring further identity verification. The complaint also lists several anonymous internet users who have posted about similar security breaches to their own T-Mobile accounts.
Tapang alleges he couldn’t use his cellphone number and had to “expend time, energy, and expense,” and also suffered “emotional distress” from the incident. He’s seeking damages and injunctive relief, which could order T-Mobile to develop better security measures.
Mobile and internet security will come under further scrutiny as incidents such as this increase with the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies. Companies providing these services to their customers will likely need to implement tougher security measures to protect themselves from similar lawsuits and protect their clients from cybercriminals.
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NEM Faces Bear Market as 3-Day Slide Continues
Down for the third consecutive day, NEM’s native cryptocurrency XEM is close to seeing a revival of the bear market, technical charts indicate.
CoinDesk