Tuesday, April 28, 2020

[Daily Discussion] Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Thread topics include, but are not limited to:

General discussion related to the day's events
Technical analysis, trading ideas & strategies
Quick questions that do not warrant a separate post

Thread guidelines:

Be excellent to each other.
Do not make posts outside of the daily thread for the topics mentioned above.

Other ways to interact:

Get an invite to live chat on our Slack group
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Weekly threads: Newbie Mondays and Fundamentals Fridays
Altcoins Discussion: Altcoin Discussion

[Altcoin Discussion] Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Thread topics include, but are not limited to:

Discussion related to recent events
Technical analysis, trading ideas & strategies
General questions about altcoins

Thread guidelines:

Be excellent to each other.
All regular rules for this subreddit apply, except for number 2. This, and only this, thread is exempt from the requirement that all discussion must relate to bitcoin trading.
This is for high quality discussion of altcoins. All shilling or obvious pumping/dumping behavior will result in an immediate one day ban. This is your only warning.
No discussion about specific ICOs. Established coins only.

If you're not sure what kind of discussion belongs in this thread, here are some example posts. News, TA, and sentiment analysis are great, too.

Other ways to interact:

Get an invite to live chat on our Slack group and check out the #altcoins channel
Daily Discussion for bitcoin only: Daily Discussion
Prior Altcoin Discussion: Altcoin Discussion

Data Shows Bitcoin Whales Have No Intent of Selling at Current Prices (current BTC/USD price is $7,836.29)

Latest Bitcoin News:

Data Shows Bitcoin Whales Have No Intent of Selling at Current Prices

What Is Staking: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Staking means you are holding your cryptocurrency funds in a wallet and thus support the functionality of a blockchain system. Stakeholders lock their cryptos in their wallets. In return, they are rewarded by the network.

Proof-of-Stake versus Proof-of-Work.

What Is Proof Of Stake

To clear up the idea of staking, we should explain the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. PoS and its versions are widely used in many blockchain networks.

The pioneers of PoS were (most likely) Sunny King and Scott Nadal. They were the first to describe and implement this idea for the crypto project Peercoin (PPC). Originally, its blockchain was using a hybrid of PoW and PoS. It made the network less dependent on the alternative protocol and attracted more participants. They were miners who came to compete for a reward.

Delegated Proof-of-Stake in BitShares versus Proof-of-Work in Bitcoin.

Delegated Proof Of Stake

Two years later, Daniel Larimer, a prominent software developer, and crypto entrepreneur introduced a modified version of PoS. Its name was Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). The first network to apply it was Bitshares. Larimer also launched EOS and Steem. Both projects adopted the Delegated Proof of Stake protocol for their blockchains.

What is the key feature of DPoS? This mechanism allows all network users to ‘convert’ their crypto holdings into votes. These votes are used to elect trusted witnesses (‘delegates’). They will manage the blockchain on your behalf. The delegates validate the transactions and make sure the network functions as it should. The weight of your vote depends on how big your stake is. As a stakeholder, you get a regular reward for keeping your crypto in the network.

DPoS Pros

The DPoS model addresses the important problems of PoS and PoW blockchains. First of all, it’s the scalability issue. DPoS improves network capacity by increasing the speed of transaction processing. It is possible because the DPoS model allows reaching consensus much faster, as it needs fewer nodes to validate a transaction. On the dark side, Delegate Proof of Stake usage promotes centralization: a DPoS network relies on a limited group of delegates for its operation.

How Staking Works

As we said earlier, staking means holding cryptocurrency or tokens to support a network operation and getting a reward for it. Naturally, this process is typical for blockchains using the PoS protocol or any of its versions.

Unlike PoW, this protocol does not rely on miners who validate blocks by doing ‘work’. This work consists of solving math puzzles using increasingly powerful mining hardware. Instead, the mining power of any network participant depends on how many coins they commit to stake. It allows a PoS-based blockchain to avoid usage of ASICs and other equipment that consumes a great amount of electricity.

Advantages Of Staking

The bigger is the amount you stake, the better are your chances to become the validator for the next block and grab the reward. The PoS model saves you a lot of money. You don’t have to invest in expensive mining hardware and cooling equipment. Also, you don’t have to pay huge electricity bills every month. You still spend some money, but it’s a direct cryptocurrency investment. Every PoS network features its own ‘staking currency’.

The increased scalability, ensured by staking, is one of the main reasons why the Ethereum plans to move to this model in 2020 when it adopts the Casper protocol.

There are networks that prefer DPoS. In this model, you may use other network participants to signal your support for some event. It means you delegate decision making to the nodes you trust.

In fact, these delegates are responsible for handling the blockchain, as they deal with the issues of major importance. They play a key role in consensus achievement and make management decisions.

Consensus protocols compared: PoW, PoS and DPoS.

Network Inflation

There are blockchains who pay a staking reward in the form of a fixed percentage, the so-called ‘inflation rate’. The purpose is to persuade more people to stake their coins. It’s like a bank encouraging you to keep your money with them and not at home.

Until recently, Stellar was a typical example of such a scheme. Their fixed inflation rate was 1%. Every week, the network used to distribute ‘inflation money’ among the holders, who kept their funds in the staking pool. The main pro of this model is that you get a fixed bonus regularly.

For example, a Stellar user who was holding 10,000 XLM for 1 year, could expect the reward of 100 XLM. This information was open to all the users, helping them to decide in favor of staking. It motivated the people who preferred a moderate but predictable reward to a big but random one.

In the 4th quarter of 2019, Stellar abandoned the inflation scheme.

Staking Pool

An idea behind staking pools is simple. To form a pool, many network stakeholders combine together. It increases their collective odds of validating a new block and getting rewarded for it. Like in a PoW mining pool, the reward is proportionately split among all the participants. The money you put in, the bigger is your share.

Pooling might be the best staking solution if your network has a high entry barrier. In practice, it means that you have to contribute a large amount of money to enter, but you cannot afford it alone. Note, that running a pool is not free, as there are maintenance and development costs. As a result, you often have to pay a ‘membership fee’ to the pool providers. Normally, it’s a fixed percentage of your reward share.

Besides, pools may offer additional benefits related to withdrawal time, minimum balance, etc. It attracts new participants and results in a greater degree of decentralization of the network.

Cold Staking

Cold staking is when you stake your crypto using a cold (hardware) wallet. Such a wallet has no connection to the Internet. There are networks that let you stake the funds kept in cold storage. The biggest benefit of cold staking is that your funds are 100% safe. For large stakeholders, it’s the top priority. If a stakeholder takes the crypto out of the cold wallet, their rewards are discontinued.

Future Of Staking

The number of users seeking to contribute their assets to participate in blockchain management and decision-making grows. It means staking becomes popular. To meet the demand, the entry process is becoming more user-friendly. Accordingly, more people will be taking an active part in the development of their blockchain ecosystems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, staking is an innovative investment tool. It can compete with traditional ones in terms of stability. In terms of assets growth potential, it’s superior to them.

P.S. Hope you found this article interesting and useful. If you want to read more articles on crypto, finance, and blockchain check out our blog.

How to make money using brave browser

Looking for ever more ways to earn free Bitcoin and cryptocurrency- without investing a penny upfront or adding hours to your day?

Then you may consider ditching Chrome for Brave Browser.

Brave is a faster, safer and more secure browser than any other web browsers out there.

As we continue our series on Brave Browser, I’ll show you how to earn money with Brave browser in 4 EASY ways.

· Get free airdrop of $5 worth of BAT by just using it.

· Earn up to $7.50 of BAT by inviting users to download and try out the platform.

· Earn BAT by watching ads and surfing the web.

· Earn BAT tips for content you publish to the web.

What is the Brave Web Browser?

Brave is a free, decentralized and open source web browser which is built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Founded by Brendan Eich, the inventor of Javascript and co-founder of Mozilla, Brave is a search engines that aims to revolutionize the browsing and advertising experience as well as the way web works today.

This search engine looks and works like Chrome but the similarities stop there.

Brave is much more than a browser. Designed with a built-in ad and tracker blocker, it will automatically blocks ads, website tracking, malware, phishing, plugins and all unwanted content. Providing a safer, faster and ad-free browsing experience to all internet users.

And most importantly, Brave has a reward system that incentivizes readers and content creators with its Basic Attention Token (BAT).

What Basic Attention Token (BAT)

Basic Attention Token (BAT) is an Ethereum based token created alongside the platform to reward its users and content creators.

It pays users for their attention, publishers and creators for their content while providing advertisers with bigger returns for their ads.

Basic Attention Token (BAT)0,180232 USD (0,68%)

📷

RANK

MARKET CAP

$262,69 M USD

VOLUME

$97,03 M USD

Powered by CoinMarketCap

Benefits of using Brave Browser:

Browse faster: Without all the ads, pop-ups and videos, it helps to speed up the page loading times, giving you up to 8x faster web browsing experience.
Block ads and trackers: By default, Brave browser is ad-free. You can browse seamlessly without seeing any ad on your screen.
Control your privacy: Brave never collect, store or has any access to your browsing and personal information.
More secure: Brave will automatically upgrade any sites with HTTP to secure HTTPS.
Save money: Yes, Brave browser can really help you save money. With faster performance, you can reduce your mobile data usage. You don’t have to pay for redundant ads and trackers.
Earn money: See opt-in ads in exchange for rewards, get paid for your content, $7.50 worth BAT for each referral and more.
It’s completely free for everyone to use.

4 Ways to Earn Brave Rewards

Brave Browser offers several ways to make money for both everyday users and content creators.

Earn BAT by Watching Ads

As internet users, you can download Brave browser, turn on “Brave ads” and start earning free BAT for watching ads and surfing the web.

Although you can’t get rich by watching ads, it’s better than nothing when you use Chrome or other web browsers. Plus, Brave shares 70% of their ad revenues with you.

How to Join and Earn From Brave Ads

Download and install Brave browser on your computer.
Open Brave Browser and click on “BAT triangle logo” at the top right corner of your screen.
Turn on “Brave Rewards” and “Ads”.
Click on “Ads Settings” and choose the maximum number of ads you want to see per hour (1 to 5 per hour).
That’s it. You’ll receive push notification ads that’s not disruptive and relevant according to your ads settings.

📷

How much can you earn with Brave Ads?

Brave Ads is not mandatory. You don’t have to do anything if you’d like to enjoy an ad-free browsing experience. However, if you’d like to earn money, you can opt into Brave Rewards, view ads and earn a portion of ads revenue in BAT in return.

Depends on your countries and ad frequency, you can expect to earn about $5 worth of BAT per month.

📷NOTE: Currently, Brave ads is only available to countries including

· United States (US)

· United Kingdom (UK)

· Canada

· France

· Germany

· Australia

· Ireland

· New Zealand

· Argentina

· Austria

· Brazil

· Switzerland

· Chile

· Colombia

· Denmark

· Ecuador

· Israel

· India

· Italy

· Japan

· Korea

· Mexico

· Netherlands

· Peru

· Philippines

· Poland

· Sweden

· Singapore

· Venezuela

· South Africa

Earn BAT AirdropsIf, like me, your country is not on the list of Brave Ads, you can still earn BAT by using Brave to navigate websites. Here’s a screenshot of my BAT reward that I earned today.📷For new user, you can earn $5 BAT by simply installing and using it for 30days. Not only that, you’ll have the chance to earn random token grants worth 25-40 BAT every month.

All you need to do is make sure that your “Brave Rewards” toggle is turned on, and you’ll receive free BAT tokens in your wallet once every 30 days on a first-come-first-served basis.

How to Get Free BAT on desktop:

Download and install Brave browser on your computer.
Start Brave Browser and enable “Brave Rewards”.
If there are token grants available, you will receive a notification.
To claim your free BAT, click on “BAT triangle logo” > “Rewards Settings”. Click “Claim” and complete a simple captcha puzzle.

📷

Earn Brave Rewards as a Content Creator

If you’re a podcaster, band, blogger, YouTuber, you can join Brave Rewards program for Creators and start monetizing your content.

If you’re a gamer, you can also make money by adding your Twitch channel.

With Brave Rewards, users can send BAT tips directly to any sites and content providers. With just a click on their web browser, your followers, subscribers, readers can automatically make a one-time donation or set up a monthly schedule to anonymously support your website or channel.

This way, you can focus on doing what you do best while getting paid directly for your content. As a content creator, you no longer have to rely on ad revenue.

To start earning BAT rewards, you’ll need to add your site or channel to Brave Rewards.

How To Add Channel to Brave Creator:

Download and install Brave browser on your computer.
Sign up a free account on Brave Creator.
Once you register as a Brave Creator, you can now add your website, YouTube channel, Vimeo, Twitter, Reddit, GitHub, Twitch by clicking “+Add a Channel”.
Once your site is verified, you can start receiving BAT donations from Brave users.

📷

Refer and Earn up to $7.50 worth of BAT

When you sign up for Brave Creator, you will also be given a special referral link.

Simply invite your friends and visitors to download and use Brave browser, and you’ll earn up to $5 worth of BAT for each referral.

Brave’s referral rewards vary based on country and region:

· Earn $7.50 of BAT: United States

· Earn $6.50 of BAT: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom

· Earn $5.00 of BAT: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan

· Earn $1-2 of BAT: Other countries

You can promote it on your blog, social media, podcast, YouTuber videos and any other ways that you see fit.

How to Get Your Brave Referral Link:

· To get your own unique referral link, you’ll need to download Brave and become a creator here.

· As a verified content creator, you can get your referral link inside your Creator dashboard.

· Simply copy the unique link and share it with your followers.

· You’ll receive BAT rewards directly on your Uphold wallet. You can choose to withdraw BAT or convert it to Bitcoin.

How to Withdraw BAT TokenYou can use Brave browser built-in wallet to manage your earnings.

However, if you like to withdraw your BAT, you’ll need to sign up for Uphold. From Uphold, you can then exchange BAT for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, or convert BAT to your local FIAT (USD, EUR etc) to be deposited into your bank account.

Download Brave Browser on your desktop or mobile phone.
Create an account on Uphold.
Verify your identity by providing your photo ID.
If you want to cash out your BAT to fiat, simply add your bank account details.
To withdraw BAT from your Brave wallet, go to “Rewards Settings”.Thisis how it shoud look like:📷
Click “Withdraw Funds”, and you’ll be directed to your Uphold account. Here, you can use Uphold to transfer, withdraw, or exchange BAT into any other cryptocurrency that you like.

📷

Conclusion

By now you should know how to earn money with Brave Browser. Don’t leave the money on table, download Brave Browser right here and try it out !

· You can earn by enabling Brave ads, surfing websites and get free BAT tokens.

· If you’re a creator content, you can get paid for writing an article or record and publish a video.

If that’s not enough for your to replace your Google Chrome or any other web browser to Brave Browser, Read the Brave Browser Review and Walkthrough Guide here.

What do you think of this crypto-funded web browser?

Will you use Brave browser? Why and why not? Tell me in the comment!

I live and breathe making an income online.

I’ll be sharing more ideas and guides soon. Stay tuned.

If you haven’t already, sign up here to receive my emails.

This Bitcoin Rival Is Suddenly Rocketingâ€”Up 75% So Far This Year (current BTC/USD price is $7,759.27)

Latest Bitcoin News:

This Bitcoin Rival Is Suddenly Rocketingâ€”Up 75% So Far This Year

Got malware/virus after using thaiphoon burner

I know lots of people are going to jump on and downvote me and say thaiphoon is safe. and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure that thaiphoon is what caused this, but the timing between the events make it hard to think it was just a coincidence. So please please hear me out first:

I was talked into syncing my memories because my BF5 stuttering "must be a memory syncing issue", and multiple people both referred me to this video "https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=376&v=KOqhyVNPhaM&feature=emb_logo". Which askes users to download thaiphoon burner and the DRAM calculator developed by a guy in Ukraine.

When I try to execute the programs, windows warned me against it since it was trying to make changes to my system, so I hesitated and looked around online, and most people say that thaiphoon burner is known to be safe and will trigger most antivirus as false positive, so I went against my guts and ran it.

I am usually a very very careful person but I was desperate to try to fix my stuttering issues, and the fact that everyone is using it and it's recommended by a youtube with 400k subscribers, what could go wrong right? So I let that program run.

The next morning when I was trying to do a virus scan (which I should have before I ran it) I found all my antivirus programs, avira, windows defenders, ALL DELETED, without a trace, vanished, windows won't update, system got corrupted, windows defender is blank screen, all gone, antivirus, firewall? Gone. And running that program was absolutely the only thing that could possibly have caused this, the only thing else I did yesterday was watched some youtube videos , absolutely no other changes to my system what so ever, de nada. And even the night before my avira and windows defender were both still running.

When I tried to update my windows it would give me an error code and would not allow me to update to fix me security issues, and when I reinstsalled avira clicking on "security scan" does absolutely nothing. I honestly have no idea what could have caused this besides having ran thaiphoon burner, it's just too big of a coincidence.

Oh, and 2 days after that, I got a blackmail email (looks auto generated) with my old windows password telling me they got lots of my other passwords too and if I don't want to have embarrassing videos/photos of me distributed to my friends on "that social media site you use"(no seriously, those were their exact words, lol), I was to give 2000 dollar worth of bitcoin to them.

All this just seems... way too convenient to be a coincidence.

I waited 2 weeks to talk about this, because I thought that the only reply I will get is people telling me how thaiphoon couldn't have done that and I must have done something else to cause the malware/virus. But look, I really am generally a very careful person (due to my paranoia), I keep my av and malwarebytes up to date and scan regularly and I am careful with what links I click on and such. I am generally very careful and this was the only mistake I know I could have made.

I still decided to post about this because A. If there's anyone who can help / give me an ease of mind, I think you guys would be it. B. If this really IS a security issue, I would like to let you guys know.

I can't remember the version of thaiphoon burner/dram calculator I downloaded, but it was whatever it was about 2 weeks ago.

I have already formatted my SSD and reinstalled windows, but I can never know if this really fixed the issue, I can never know if other devices on my wifi also got virus, if it's still lingering in my network, I have a backup folder that I don't even dare opening because I'm worried it would spread the virus back to my new system, and who knows what personal info has already been stolen from me, if I could go back 2 weeks ago, I would not buy the lottery or make money off of stocks, I would tell myself not to download or run thaiphoon burner so that I can focus on studying instead of stressing over this for 2 weeks.

TL:DR: Ran thaiphoon burner and DRAM calculator, next morning when I check my antivirus programs they were all uninstalled.