HUGE BITCOIN NEWS!! Coinbase Partners with VISA to Launch BTC, ETH and XRP Card!!
As seen on CoinMarketCap, we’ve got a pretty red and bearish market, to begin with. These are some pretty steep declines from everyone across the board. The world’s flagship cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC) has decreased by 5.08 percent. Ether (ETH) still maintains its “second in command” status, with a decrease of 6.55 percent. Ripple’s XRP maintains the number three position, and it’s currently gaining by 6.82 percent. Other considerable movements in the market include Litecoin, EOS, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, and Cardano, which have fallen by 10.09, 8.28, 11.01, 7.13, 7.38 percent respectively.
Now onto our Top 20! And once again, we see similar trends in our top 20 like our top 10.
It’s, unfortunately, looking very bearish at this stage with double-digit decreases from TRON, Bitcoin SV, Ethereum Classic, Ontology, and Maker declining by 11.60, 11.14, 10.86, 11.66 and 10.62 percent respectively. While we did experience a nice bullish run just recently, the volatility and the red market of today just show us that perhaps, the crypto market is not free from the bearish trend just yet. According to Global CoinReport, the publication believes that some people are still cautious, citing from popular opinion that Bitcoin may still plunge uncontrollably. Let’s hope that this isn’t the case. We’ve been through a pretty bearish year in 2018. Here’s hoping that 2019 is really the start of something new.
Now onto the news! Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum and Consensys, mentioned that Ethereum will become the global Settlement Layer — not EOS, not IBMs Fabric and Not R3’s Corda. According to Invest in Blockchain, he mentioned this in a speech at the Deconomy Forum in Seoul.
Something really interesting to take away from his speech, he described Ethereum becoming a global settlement layer, urging for a world where the base settlement layer is truly decentralized. Now I definitely believe that a decentralized base layer would be really great for humanity. We currently operate around closed platforms that promote corruption, inefficiency and it’s filled with manipulations of markets because of platform lock-in or capture. With Tokenization, it’s a really great opportunity for us to free the next generation economy from the current problems we experience today. Lubin also added that we must not choose anything other an a maximally decentralized base as the foundational settlement layer for the global economy.
If this is the case, it really put Ethereum up on center stage when it comes to future. But there is also IBM’s Fabric, R3’s Corda but Lubin doesn’t seem convinced. He mentioned that there is little chance of IBM Fabric evolving beyond relatively small networks for private permissioned systems. Fabric can issue tokens but only for narrowly circumcised situations. Whereas R3’s Corda is a blockchain inspired software moreso for banking industry applications. It also promotes platform lockin. And as for EOS, Lubin believes that the platform is not truly decentralized and could be subject to external control. I’m definitely not surprised by that as EOS is susceptible to collusion, and government or other well-resource actors can bribe them or act against the wellbeing and security of the people using the platform.
Now, onto the second news of the day, Coinbase and Visa are making Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP and LiteCoin Payment a reality. According to Forbes, major cryptocurrencies are known to be harder to spend and use in the real world than fiat currencies. But just recently Coinbase has partnered with Visa to launch the Coinbase Card, allowing users to “spend crypto as effortlessly as the money in their bank”.
So how does this work? The Visa Debit Card can be used to spend Coinbase Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, and Litecoin balances in many locations around the world, by converting the cryptocurrency to fiat when the card is used — so while you’re paying with crypto, the merchant or store receives traditional fiat currency. Coinbase uses can also choose which cryptocurrency to pay with via an app which supports the cryptocurrencies you can buy and sell on the Coinbase platform. The app also provides instant receipts, transaction summaries, and spending categories to help people keep track.
This is really big news guys! It even trended on Reddit hard, with many users believing that the bulls have arrived. If you think about it, like Coinbase mentioned “This is the first debit card to link directly with a major cryptocurrency exchange, allowing people to spend their crypto balances direct from their Coinbase account. Previously available crypto cards required users to pre-load a specific amount of crypto onto their card, adding a point of friction to the process.”
While the card is currently only available in the UK, they plan to roll support out in other European countries in the “oncoming months.”
So what are your thoughts on this situation guys?
Do you think Ethereum will be the decentralized base settlement layer in the future? Or will another blockchain network take that role?
And are you excited about Coinbase and Visa’s partnership? And don’t you think that’s such a positive step towards mass adoption?
Let me know what you guys think below.
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Disclaimer: Cryptopig content is written by a team of blockchain passionate people. We are not registered as investment advisors. Don’t take the information in this post as investment advice and make sure you do your own research before investing. Cryptocurrencies are a very risky investment, never invest more money than you can afford to lose.