Ripple Lead Developer Advises On Remote Work

Cryptographer and leading C++ software engineer at Ripple Nik Bougalis offers advice on remote work management to firms amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a March 16 tweet, Bougalis offered his help to company managers looking to have their teams work remotely. His proposal comes as the ongoing epidemic resulted in a global push for remote work in an attempt to decrease the opportunities that the disease has to spread further.

The Atlantic wrote on March 13 that people have anticipated the rise in remote work since the personal computer was invented. Still, the outlet points out that remote work adoption has been slow so far, “but the next few months will be a very strange test” of this kind of work.

Bougalis explained that he has worked remotely for 20 years and is currently leading a team at Ripple that is both large and completely distributed. He wrote:

“If you’re new to remote work — especially as a manager — and have questions, please ask! I’ll try my best to answer and share my insights to help you and your team.”

One Twitter user asked how he can know if his employees are not taking more time than necessary to finish tasks when working remotely. Bougalis admitted that this is a common concern, but points to trust as the obvious solution and recommends:

“Remember, you hired your team for a reason — they are good at what they do and you trust them. Don’t micromanage your team now or assume that just because they’re not in the office they aren’t working. […] If productivity suffers when working remote, understand why. Employees not working hard is almost never the problem.”

Furthermore, Bougalis recommended managers use text-based communication software such as Slack and IRC since it makes messages less ephemeral than VOIP and allows for information to be absorbed at a later time.

XRPL Monitor, a Twitter profile dedicated to tracking large transfers of XRP, the crypto Ripple works with, reported that over 248 million XRP (worth over $35 million at press time) moved in large transactions over the last 24 hours. This is just one sign of panic in the cryptocurrency space that resurfaced amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bitcoin bull and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz recently said that investors lost confidence in Bitcoin (BTC). He said:

“[Bitcoin] was always a confidence game. All crypto is. And it appears global confidence in just about anything has evaporated.”

Italian Red Cross Launches Bitcoin Fundraiser To Combat COVID-19

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The Italian Red Cross and the Colli Albani Committee are raising donations of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to fight the country’s coronavirus pandemic with the support of Helperbit, as announced on March 12.

Proceeds from the campaign will reportedly be used to set up a second-level advanced medical post for pre-triage of COVID-19 cases in the country, and it is expected to reach a goal of €10,000 to buy the necessary medical equipment for the infrastructure.

The remaining funds will be used to cover the fees of the medical staff that will be involved in the project.

Bruno Pietrosanti, president of the Colli Albani Committee, said that they need to ease the pressure on hospitalizations due to the increase in infected patients and the reduced number of places available in Italian hospitals:

On carrying out the initiative alongside Helperbit, a blockchain startup that offers a platform for charities, Pietrosanti added the following:

“We believe that an innovative fundraising tool like Bitcoin can help us find the necessary economic resources that are very difficult to obtain in this historical moment.”

The campaign is also supported by Young Srl, a Fintech startup that operates in the cryptocurrency sector to support community initiatives, and by Blockchain Education Network Italy, a non-profit organization that divulges information about Bitcoin and blockchain in Italian territory.

Andrea Ferrero, CEO of Young SRL, commented on the use of blockchain in this fundraiser:

“I strongly believe that blockchain technology is more effective and transparent to support this type of initiative. Young is a company that aims to create or exploit innovative models to improve existing procedures and we will always be at the forefront in supporting charitable projects, such as the Red Cross one.”

Emiliano Palermo, a representative from Blockchain Education Network Italy, highlighted the importance of these platforms, which offer “transparency” in donations, amid the emergency in the country.

As of press time, the death toll from coronavirus in Italy has passed 1,200, with more than 17,600 cases reported, according to official data.

Gemcoin Founder Confesses To Fraud

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Steve Chen, the mastermind behind the $147 million Gemcoin cryptocurrency scheme, has admitted to wire fraud and tax evasion in a plea agreement.

The 62-year-old Southern California resident agreed that he and other co-conspirators fraudulently promoted a cryptocurrency called Gemcoin (or Gem Coins) that helped fleece $147 million from 70,000 victims.

Chen, also known as “Boss,” reported an income of $138,000 in 2014 which is a far cry from the $4.8 million he now admits to pocketing that year. Chen used the proceeds to buy homes and pay for a gambling habit, authorities said.

Between July 2013 and September 2015, Chen ran a multi level marketing scheme to promote U.S. Fine Investment Arts, Inc. (USFIA) which rewarded investors first with points, and then with Gemcoins.

These virtual coins were supposedly backed by gems mined by the company and could be traded on the USFIA platform.

While the value of the coins supposedly increased based on the company’s gemstone sales, in reality, the USFIA did not own or operate any gemstone mines. Instead, USFIA bought gemstones from commercial suppliers and assigned grossly inflated prices.

Nick Hanna, US Attorney stated earlier “Mr. Chen’s promises to investors were as worthless as his non-existent mines and phony digital currency. This case should remind all investors that trappings of success may convey legitimacy, but everyone should exercise extreme care when considering giving hard-earned money to any outfit promoting trendy products and extravagant profits.”

Chen has agreed to pay back $1,885,094 in back taxes for 2014 as well as pay a civil fraud penalty and interest.

He’s facing a sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of at least $500,000, and he’s required to pay “full restitution” to all the victims.

Follow XcelToken Plus to keep up with the current happenings in the crypto world.

Explained: Elliot Wave Theory

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The underlying theory behind the Elliott wave principle is based around how price moves, which typically is not in a straight line, but in a series of waves. A great analogy would be one that compares an ocean tide coming in as the water rises, and flowing out as the water recedes into the sand below.

Within any financial market (including cryptocurrency), every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. When price movement moves up, a contrary downward movement must follow.

Price action within any financial marketplace is often divided into trends and corrections (sideways movement). Upward or downward price action will showcase the direction of a trend, while corrections will always move against the trend. These repeating patterns have been shown to occur within all financial marketplaces since the dawn of time.

A man by the name of Ralph Nelson Elliott, first discovered these repeating patterns, known as impulsive and corrective waves. He noticed that these impulsive waves, which always coincide with the main trend, tend to respond in 5 waves.

Even on a smaller scale, each of these impulsive waves can be found and continue to repeat themselves inside the larger Elliott wave patterns. These “waves within waves” are labelled as “wave degrees” within the Elliott Wave Principle.

Human social nature can be found within these repetitive patterns due to the predictive manner of human psychology in which the powers of greed, FOMO, and “weak hands” rule. You can call it another “self-fulfilling prophecy” all you want; however, these patterns show up within all financial markets due to these reactive and basic human emotions.

As discussed above, Elliot waves come in 2 different phases: motive (the trend) and corrective phases. The motive phase forms 3 advancing waves of 1, 3, and 5. The counter waves (downward) are comprised of 2 and 4.

During the corrective phase, you’ll typically find 2 receding ways labeled A and C, with a counter wave (upward) labeled B.

The rules behind the motive waves are as follows:

Wave 2 never moves below the beginning of wave 1.
Wave 3 is never the shortest wave.
Wave 2 and 4 can sometimes alternate in form, for example, Wave 2 can show up as a zigzag wave while Wave 4 will be flat.
At least one of the waves (1, 3, or 5) will be much longer than the other two. Most of the time, the third wave is the longest of the three, but that is not always the case in crypto.

Rules for the corrective phase are as follows:

Wave B terminates at or below the start of Wave A
Wave C typically terminates below Wave A.
In the cryptocurrency market, corrective waves typically claim more than 60% of the all-time high price (top of 5th wave). Some would argue that the norm is 75 to 80% and 100 to 120% retracements can be found if correlated with bad news.

Just remember that if you get confusing results from your chart, it’s most likely that you’ve miscalculated and dismissed some of the rules mentioned above. Don’t worry though; you’ll most likely miscount these waves the first several times you try.

In order to combat this miscounting issue, here’s a trick you can use to spot these waves.

Go to the top bar where you can change the candlestick display on TradingView and choose the Heikin Ashi candlestick. This type of candlestick helps you better view red or green candles that correspond with a particular trend.

The Heikin Ashi displays the average pace of prices, which is great at identifying trending periods. This is what Elliott waves are all about. It will greatly reduce the confusion on whether candlestick patterns are showing bearish or bullish patterns. Trust me, these help immensely.

The Elliott Wave Principle is another highly useful chart pattern that many veteran traders use to recognize the beginning and end of a trend.

Never buy into the news or hype alone. These systems are used to fool people into buying the tops or bottoms of the market, which is a sure-fire way of failing.

Do your own research before buying and selling into the market. Know what phase the market is currently in (motive or correction) and make an informed buying decision utilizing the Elliot Wave Principle.

Crypto Ponzi Scheme Lures Unknown Number Of Baseball Players

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Two men charged over an alleged crypto trading ponzi scheme lured investors, including professional baseball players, with social media posts boasting about their luxurious lifestyles.

On January 30, the Secret Service arrested the Arizona-based founders of Zima Digital Assets, John Michael Caruso, aged 28, and Zachary Salter, aged 27.

Caruso commonly refers to himself as “Krypto King” in social media posts and claims he’s been a cryptocurrency investor since 2012. He has a criminal history and was last released from prison in late 2017.

Salter is an aspiring R&B singer who releases music under the name “Sweet Talker.”

Despite claiming no taxable income, the pair’s extravagant social media posts about their luxury good purchases helped draw in new investors.

They were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

The complaint alleges that Salter and Caruso defrauded more than 90 investors out of at least $7.5 million since June 2018. That figure includes an unknown number of former pro baseball players and senior citizens. Zima is still actively taking investments so the total amount lost is unknown.

Zima’s website claims the firm “operates various private funds focusing on investments in cutting-edge technologies, including crypto and other blockchain based assets,” and Caruso and Salter were featured as successful crypto investors in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Cigar Aficionado.
A press release that looks an awful lot like an ordinary Business Insider story referred to Caruso as “the Michael Jordan of algorithmic cryptocurrency trading.”

Forensic accountants believe that none of the money Zima took from its would-be investors was actually invested in cryptocurrency. The pair instead used the money to live it up, spending $350,000 on luxury car rentals and another $610,000 on private jets, a mansion rental (dubbed “the Krypto Castle”), as well as a variety of jewellery and designer clothing.

Caruso had a fleet of luxury cars including a Lamborghini, and the pair lost $830,000 within 134 hours of gambling at Las Vegas casinos.

They frequently posted about their lifestyles on Instagram and Facebook, including a video suggesting Zima had $1 billion in assets under management. They used direct messaging on the platforms to contact potential investors.

Their victims include former Major League Baseball players and their families, along with a 76 year old man who lost $200,000 and an 86 year old who lost $60,000.

The investigation found that $1.9 million of the funds was paid back to investors in the form of “returns.”

“The pattern of investor payments against investor payouts with no investment of funds is consistent with … a Ponzi scheme,” court filings show.

Explained: Blockchain Oracles

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Oracles feed the smart contract with external information that can trigger predefined actions of the smart contract. This external data stems either from so ware (Big-data application) or hardware (Internet-of-Things). Such a condition could be any data, like weather temperature, successful payment, or price fluctuations. However, it is important to note that a smart contract does not wait for the data from an outside source to flow into the system. The contract has to be invoked, which means that one has to spend network resources for calling data from the outside world. This induces network transaction costs. In the case of Ethereum, this would be “gas.”

There are different types of oracles:

Software Oracles
handle information data that originates from online sources, like temperature, prices of commodities and goods, flight or train delays, etc. The so ware oracle extracts the needed information and pushes it into the smart contract.
Hardware Oracles
Some smart contracts need information directly from the physical world, for example, a car crossing a barrier where movement sensors must detect the vehicle and send the data to a smart contract, or RFID sensors in the supply chain industry.
Inbound Oracles
provide data from the external world.
Outbound Oracles
provide smart contracts with the ability to send data to the outside world. An example would be a smart lock in the physical world, which receives payment on its blockchain address and needs to unlock automatically.
Consensus-based Oracles
get their data from human consensus and prediction markets like Augur and Gnosis. Using only one source of information could be risky and unreliable. To avoid market manipulation, prediction markets implement a rating system for oracles. For further security, a combination of different oracles may be used, where, for example, three out of ve oracles could determine the outcome of an event.
Blockchain Oracles

A blockchain oracle is a third-party information source that has the sole function of supplying data to blockchains which permit for the creation of smart contracts. A smart contract at a fundamental level is simply a self-executing piece of code; smart contracts evaluate incoming data from an oracle and initiate a flow of execution depending on the information received.

To conclude, blockchain oracles are a third-party information source that supply data to smart contracts. They increase the scope of what blockchain protocols can do by providing a means for them to communicate outside of their own network.

Oracles require a level of trust that is contradictory to the trustless and decentralized nature of blockchain-based protocols. As a result, smart contracts require an increased level of complexity, such as, sourcing data from multiple oracles in order to mitigate the amount of trust placed in any one oracle.

Weekly Overview: Cryptocurrency

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Canada Issues Guidelines For Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Canadian authorities have issued new direction to regulate which digital currency trading platforms fall under derivatives law.

The Canadian Securities Administration (CSA) clarified new provisions in the “Guidance on the Application of Securities Legislation to Entities Facilitating the Trading of Crypto Assets” published on the 16th of January, 2020.

To know more check out our previous blog.

Canadian Teen Charged For Cryptocurrency Theft

A Montreal resident, age 18 if facing 4 criminal charges connected to a $50 million SIM Swap scam that targeted cryptocurrency holders.

“Eighteen-year-old hacker Samy Bensaci is accused of being part of a crime ring that stole millions of dollars in crypto-currency by gaining unauthorized access to the cell phones of crypto-currency holders in America and Canada.” — Infosecurity Magazine. 17th January, 2020

To know more check out our previous blog.

South Korea Considers Imposing Income Tax on Cryptocurrencies

The Ministry of Economy and Finance of South Korea, is considering levying a 20% tax on the incomes made through cryptocurrency transactions.

According to a news report published by The Korea Times on the 20th of January, 2020, the ministry had reportedly ordered its income office to review cryptocurrency taxation. The Korea Times cited an anonymous official who reportedly said that the ministry has not finalized its plan, but noted that the government may impose a 20% tax on crypto income.

To know more check out our previous blog.

PornHub Adds Tether As A Payment Option

Adult entertainment website Pornhub has added a new cryptocurrency payment option after PayPal had abruptly stopped servicing its models in late 2019.

According to a Jan. 23 blog post, Pornhub now supports Tether (USDT) — a major United States dollar-pegged stablecoin — to allow instant and zero-fee payments via the crypto wallet and browser extension TronLink.

Binance Invests In Taiwanese Startup Numbers

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has invested an undisclosed sum in blockchain data monetization startup Numbers.

According to a post published on Binance’s official blog on Jan. 21, Numbers aims to create an open, transparent and traceable data sharing, verification and management system. The firm’s open source application reportedly allows individuals to own and monetize their personal data.

Ether Is The Most Correlated Cryptocurrency To Other Coins

Recent research shows that Ether (ETH) was the cryptocurrency most correlated to the rest of the crypto market in 2019.

In a report published on Jan. 22, the research arm of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance suggests that throughout 2019, ETH had an average correlation coefficient of 0.69.

South Korea Considers Imposing Income Tax on Cryptocurrencies

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The Ministry of Economy and Finance of South Korea, is considering levying a 20% tax on the incomes made through cryptocurrency transactions.

According to a news report published by The Korea Times on the 20th of January, 2020, the ministry had reportedly ordered its income office to review cryptocurrency taxation. The Korea Times cited an anonymous official who reportedly said that the ministry has not finalized its plan, but noted that the government may impose a 20% tax on crypto income.

“A government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the finance ministry has not finalized its plan to tax cryptocurrencies.” stated The Korea Times article.

Some have speculated that the government may categorize gains obtained through cryptocurrency trading as “other income” and not capital gains. The other income category also includes gains made from lectures, lottery purchases and prizes.

A clear scheme for crypto cryptocurrency taxation is much needed in South Korea. This became particularly apparent when, at the end of December, major local cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced that it was considering administrative litigation over an $68.9 million tax bill that it believes has no legal basis. More recent reports indicate that the firm decided to follow through and take tax authorities to court.

As an article on Cointelegraph exemplified, South Korea’s cryptocurrency guideline has seen noteworthy progress since Park Yong-jin, a member of the National Policy Committee from the ruling Democratic Party, presented the first-ever taxation policy for crypto in 2017.

In 2019, the National Assembly’s national policy committee approved a bill that would give more legitimacy to digital assets by subjecting them to more scrutiny and government oversight.

Canadian Teen Charged For Cryptocurrency Theft

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A Montreal resident, age 18 if facing 4 criminal charges connected to a $50 million SIM Swap scam that targeted cryptocurrency holders.

Among the purported victims were Don and Alex Tapscott, renowned Canadian crypto entrepreneurs and co-authors of the book “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World.”

“We can confirm that last year a hacker attempted steal crypto assets from our company and its employees,” Don Tapscott said in an email to ‘The Star’. “That attempt was unsuccessful. We cooperated with the police (and) have been impressed with their determination to bring those responsible to justice.”

Bensaci was arrested in Victoria, British Columbia, in November and charged with fraudulently obtaining computer service, committing fraud over $5,000, identity fraud, and illegally accessing computer data. In December, the teen was released on $200,000 bail and ordered to live with his parents in northeast Montreal until his next court hearing.

While staying at his parents’ residence, Bensaci is prohibited from accessing “any computer, tablet, mobile phone, game console, including PS3, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or any other device capable of accessing the Internet,” and barred from holding or trading any form of cryptocurrency.

A SIM-swapping attack befalls when the hackers are able to trick the telecom company to transfer the victim’s phone number to the attacker’s SIM card. Though it is possible to do this by imitating the victim with the telecom’s customer service, the companies are overwhelmed by insiders that use their access to facilitate this type of crime. With a SIM-swap, aggressors can evade most authentication and password recovery devices that rely on phone numbers.

The Dow Theory

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The Dow theory is a theory that says the market is in an upward trend if one of its averages (industrial or transportation) advances above a previous important high and is accompanied or followed by a similar advance in the other average. For example, if the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) climbs to an intermediate high, the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA) is expected to follow suit within a reasonable period of time.

The Dow theory is an approach to trading developed by Charles H. Dow who, with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, founded Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and developed the DJIA. Dow fleshed out the theory in a series of editorials in the Wall Street Journal, which he co-founded.

Charles Dow died in 1902, and due to his death, he never published his complete theory on the markets, but several followers and associates have published works that have expanded on the editorials.

Dow believed that the stock market as a whole was a reliable measure of overall business conditions within the economy and that by analyzing the overall market, one could accurately gauge those conditions and identify the direction of major market trends and the likely direction of individual stocks.

The theory has undergone further developments in its 100-plus-year history, including contributions by William Hamilton in the 1920s, Robert Rhea in the 1930s, and E. George Shaefer and Richard Russell in the 1960s. Aspects of the theory have lost ground, for example, its emphasis on the transportation sector — or railroads, in its original form — but Dow’s approach still forms the core of modern technical analysis.

The market discounts all news

This principle explains that any information available in the market is already reflected in the price of stocks and indices. This includes all data such as earnings announcements by companies, rise (or fall) in inflation or even sentiments of investors.

As a result, it is better to analyse price movements instead of studying earnings reports or balance sheets of companies.

The market has three trends

This theory was the first to propound that the market moves in trends. The trends are:

Primary trend is the major trend for the market. It indicates how the market moves in the long-term. A primary trend could span many years.

Secondary trends are considered to be corrections to a primary trend. This is like an opposite movement to the primary trend. For example, if the primary trend is upward (bullish), the secondary trend(s) is downward. These trends could last anywhere between a few weeks to a few months.

Minor trends are fluctuations to the market movement on a daily basis. These trends last for less than three weeks and go against the movement of the secondary trend. Some analysts consider minor trends to mirror market chatter.

Trends have three phases

The theory says that there are three phases to each primary trend: accumulation phase, public participation phase and panic phase.

The beginning of a primary upward (or downward) trend in a bull (or bear) market is known as the accumulation phase. Here, traders enter the market to buy (or sell) stocks against common market opinions.

In the public participation phase, more investors enter the market as business conditions improve and positive sentiments become evident. This results in higher (or lower) prices in the market.

The panic phase is marked by excessive buying by investors. This could result in great speculation. At this stage, it is ideal for investors to book profits and exit.

Indices confirm each other

A trend in the market cannot be verified by a single index. All indices should reflect the same opinion. For example, in case of a bullish trend in India, the Nifty, Sensex, Nifty Midcap, Nifty Smallcap and other indices should move in the upward direction. Similarly, for a bearish trend, all indices should move in a downward direction.

Trends are confirmed by volume

The trend in the market should be supported by trading volumes. For instance, in an upward trend, the volume rises with increase in price and falls with decrease in price. And in a downward trend, the volume increases with fall in price and decreases with price rise.

Trends continue until definitive signals indicate otherwise

The theory says that market trends exist despite any noise in the market. That is, during an upward trend, a temporary trend reversal is possible but the market continues to move in the upward direction. In addition, the status quo remains until a clear reversal happens in the market.