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The prices of cryptocurrencies change quite rapidly and can be wild. With high attention and trading volumes, patterns are emerging, and technical trading becomes more and more useful. A predictable cryptocurrency slows down and turns back at a clear line of support or resistance. And when momentum is strong enough, the coin makes a clear break and leaves only dust behind it. These are the more predictable coins. Yet not all cryptos are born equal and some trade in a messy and choppy manner, making them less predictable and harder to trade. 

Here are the top 5 most predictable cryptocurrencies, each with its characteristics:

1. Ethereum: The “flippening” has not happened regarding market cap, but Ethereum ranks as the most predictable cryptocurrency. When the coin breaks out, ETH tends to mark the top or bottom of the range and then trade between the previous line and the new line, respecting the range. Also, its lower highs served as bearish signs, as one would expect. Ethereum also has a good memory for older lines. 
2. Bitcoin Cash: BCH has been in existence only for a short while, but its performance has been quite remarkable. Similar to ETH, BCH tends to mark the extreme of the new range upon a breakout. Its memory for old lines still falls short, despite its short history. Nevertheless, the clear separation of ranges is noteworthy. 
3. Litecoin: LTC tends to trend in clear moves to the upside or the downside. It also had an impressive double-bottom of late. The sharper moves were telling, as they indicated the trends via lower highs or higher lows, yet these sharp moves can sometimes be nasty.
4. Bitcoin: The poster-child for the blockchain technology has a long history and high trading volumes, and this also helps in its predictability. Its uptrends and downtrends are quite straightforward, and it also respects the ranges. The reason for not placing it in the top spot also stems from its popularity: a few panic sell-offs it had suffered undermined its position. BTC tends to perform better when attention moves away from it.
5. IOTA: This virtual coin used to be quite choppy and had an impulsive behavior, but things recently improved. The cryptocurrency is enjoying both range trading and clear trends at the same time. The sketchier past of IOT limits its predictability going forward.

There are clearly a few notable digital currencies which are not on the list and worth mentioning: 

• Ripple: XRP shot to stratosphere like a Falcon but fell very heavily. The moves on the charts are erratic. 
• Cardano: ADA may be in the top 5 concerning market cap, but the charts do not provide any useful information. 
• NEO: The emerging crypto coin has a potential to enter the list, but it’s still too choppy. 
• Other cryptocurrencies such as Stellar (XLM), EOS, NEM, and even Dash all have occasionally had clear days of trading followed by messy ones.

Bitcoin bulls are looking for BTC to rebound off a support zone and if confirmed, ETC, LUNA, KLAY and AXS could push higher.

Bitcoin (BTC) is facing a stiff challenge from the bears near the $48,000 mark. As Cointelegraph reported earlier, the buy and sell levels show that sellers on Binance have held their ground at $48,000.

PlanB, the creator of the stock-to-flow Bitcoin price model, said if Bitcoin manages to close August above $47,000, the year-end “worst-case scenario” target price of $135,000 may come into play.

Despite the slight downturn, the institutional adoption of Bitcoin continues to increase. Filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission show that four wealth management firms have bought shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust.

A survey of about 42,000 people in 27 countries by product comparison website Finder, showed a high adoption rate in Asia. Among the countries polled, Vietnam had the highest adoption rate at 41% while India and Indonesia had a 30% adoption rate.

Compared to their Asian counterparts, the respondents in the United Kingdom and the United States reported a low 8% and 9% adoption rate. However, the report warned that “due to the varying Google infrastructure in each territory, not all surveys were nationally representative.”

Will Bitcoin’s hesitation near the $48,000 mark result in profit-booking? Could altcoins attract funds that exit Bitcoin? Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may extend their up-move in the next few days.

source: cintelegraph

The major software developer’s new plan to combat piracy relies on the transparency of blockchain technology.

Windows operating system and Office productivity suite have always been top performers on any software piracy platforms. So, it’s no wonder that Microsoft, the developer of both products, works hard to establish anti-piracy measures.

In a new paper released by Microsoft’s research department, with the participation of researchers from Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, the Redmond-based software giant studied a blockchain-based incentive system to bolster anti-piracy campaigns.

As the title of the research, “Argus: A Fully Transparent Incentive System for Anti-Piracy Campaigns,” suggests, Microsoft’s new system relies on the transparency aspect of blockchain technology. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Argus aims to provide a trustless incentive mechanism while protecting data collected from the open anonymous population of piracy reporters.

“We see this as a distributed system problem,” the paper stated, “In the implementation, we overcome a set of unavoidable obstacles to ensure security despite full transparency.”

Argus enables backtracing of pirated content to the source with a corresponding watermark algorithm, which is detailed in the paper. Also named “proof of leakage,” each report of leaked content involves an information-hiding procedure. This way, no one but the informer can report the same watermarked copy without actually owning it.

The system also has incentive-reducing safeguards to prevent an informer from reporting the same leaked content over and over under different aliases. “With the security and practicality of Argus, we hope real-world antipiracy campaigns will be truly effective by shifting to a fully transparent incentive mechanism,” the report stated.

Detailing the issue of Ethereum network fees, the paper explained that the team optimized several cryptographic operations “so that the cost for piracy reporting is reduced to an equivalent cost of sending about 14 ETH-transfer transactions to run on the public Ethereum network, which would otherwise correspond to thousands of transactions.”

source : cointelegraph