Thursday, December 30, 2021

Wasabi cryptocurrency wallet

Verdict
Although Wasabi is a hot wallet, we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who cares about the privacy of their Bitcoin transactions. The developers have also done a nice job of keeping most of its complexities from ruining the user experience.

However, because of its privacy practices, using Wasabi isn't as intuitive as other crypto wallets and you’ll need to spend some time reading through its documentation.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the project moving forward, because the devs are working on an overhaul of the wallet that will introduce a new CoinJoin algorithm called WabiSabi to further improve privacy.

Pros:

Open Source

Rotates addresses

Built-in CoinJoins

Custom Fee

Cons:

Complex for beginners

For Bitcoin only


Wasabi is an open source, non-custodial and privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet, available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 

Wasabi’s marquee feature, however, is its implementation of the trustless CoinJoin process. CoinJoin helps Wasabi make individual Bitcoin transactions more secure by combining multiple coins from multiple people into a single transaction. 

By jumbling up the inputs and outputs, CoinJoins can obscure identifying information, which makes it a popular choice for the privacy-conscious. It was even used by the criminals responsible for last year’s Twitter hack, who used Wasabi CoinJoins to mask their transactions.

To further obfuscate transactions, Wasabi, which is essentially a hot wallet, routes them through the anonymizing Tor network, which helps conceal the users’ IP address.

One last trick up its sleeve is the use of the Neutrino protocol for verifying transactions, which delegates the task to the client as opposed to the server, side-stepping any server-related vulnerabilities.

Interface and ease of use

One of Wasabi's best qualities is that most of the techniques for ensuring privacy are implemented behind the scenes. For instance, Wasabi establishes its own Tor connections and will also automatically generate new addresses for each new transaction. 

When you start Wasabi for the first time, you’ll be taken through a wizard to create a new wallet, which involves picking a unique name and password for the wallet. The process will also generate a set of recovery words, which you’ll need in case you forget your password. 

Once it has generated the wallet, Wasabi will download blocks that contain your transactions (not the entire blockchain), which can take some time depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Wasabi has a four-tab interface that allows you to send and receive Bitcoin, transact using CoinJoin and track your transactions. 

One interesting feature is the ability to hide all sensitive information with the click of a button, to prevent anyone from shoulder surfing. Also, unlike many of its peers, Wasabi displays the individual Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) and gives you the option to select which ones you wish to use in a transaction. 



Transferring funds

For first time Wasabi users, seeing the individual UTXOs might take a little getting used to, but it doesn’t hamper the usability of the app very much. 

To receive Bitcoin, you’ll need to first generate an address by giving it a label, such as the name of the individual you’re receiving the transaction from, which will help you identify the transaction. 

You can then send the generated address to the individual who wants to send you Bitcoin or show them the QR code, which they can scan with their wallet. After you’ve received the money, the address will no longer appear under the Receive tab, and you’ll have to generate a new one to receive more Bitcoin.

Once the transaction has been confirmed, the UTXOs will show up under the Send tab, together with their labels. Wasabi has coin control features so you can select the UTXOs you want to send using the checkbox next to them. After selecting the UTXOs you want to send from, enter the receiver’s wallet address.

Wasabi users can also customize transaction fees using a slider, which displays the fee in Bitcoin as well as in fiat currency, along with the estimated time for confirmation. The lower the fee, the longer the confirmation time.

Sending money using the CoinJoin feature is also similar, as Wasabi hides all the complexities of the process. Wasabi charges a coordinator fee for CoinJoin transactions that’s calculated as a percentage of the anonymity set, which is the size of the group that you are mixing your coins with.

5 Best Crypto Exchanges Without KYC Verification in 2022!

This is a curated list of over 10+ best Non-KYC crypto exchanges in the blockchain industry. No Exchanges listed here require customers to do KYC verification. Meaning these exchanges can be used anonymously without needing ID:s.

KYC stands for Know Your Customer which is a procedure where exchanges are required to identify clients by doing verification on documents such as home addresses, phone numbers, Passport, ID or driver’s licenses, and so on. This often also means that you are not able to buy or sell cryptocurrencies before giving out all of your valuable information.

Nowadays there are loads of crypto exchanges asking you to provide all these important documents during the signup, deposit, or withdrawal process. And of course, none of us likes to deal with these things. And that is why we have created a complete list of Non-KYC crypto exchanges that we have confirmed do not require KYC / AML on you.

Bybit

Bybit is one of the newest advanced leverage trading exchanges in the market. This exchange has quickly grown to the top with its volume, execution speed and interface. Bybit has four main perceptual swaps to choose from BTC, ETH, EOS, and XRP. On top of everything, Bybit has one of the most generous welcome trading bonus programs, giving new users up to $90 to begin trading with.


Huobi

Huobi is another one of the world’s leading exchanges when it comes to Bitcoin spot and margin trading. This exchange is another older yet still highly performing cryptocurrency platform.

KuCoin

KuCoin is a great alternative to Binance, offering a wide variety of coins to choose from, they as well have the option fo purchase with a credit card and all in all are a great exchange to anyone looking to buy, sell or trade lots of different altcoins.

BitMax

BitMax is one of the newest margin trading platforms. This platform offers a variety of different altcoins to choose from which you can trade against USDT and via margin. it has great volume and easy to learn interface, overall this is a good exchange.

Poloniex

Poloniex was once the top altcoin trading platform but has lost a lot of its shine from then, mainly because of Binance, and KYC requirements. However Hoverwer this exchange is still great for US citizens and has been stable for a long time making them still an excellent choice for trading a large variety of different coins.



Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Mycelium cryptocurrency wallet

Final verdict
The Mycelium app is a very capable one and offers all the necessary options for sending and receiving Bitcoin. The fact that it can integrate with hardware wallets and can be made to work with Tor with a flick of a slider is a further testament to the app’s attention to security and privacy of its users. And the inclusion of a marketplace helps distinguish Mycelium from its peers. 

Pros:

Open source

Multiple types of accounts

Cons:

For Bitcoin only

No desktop version


The Mycelium cryptocurrency wallet is one of the oldest and most popular Bitcoin wallets available exclusively for mobile platforms, having first been released in 2013 as an Android app before later being ported to iOS as well. 
Mycelium describes itself as the “default Bitcoin wallet” and while its claims to the title of most well-rated cryptocurrency wallet on the Play Store isn’t really accurate anymore, the app does have several noteworthy features. 
For starters, Mycelium is entirely open source, which is one of the most essential features for any good cryptocurrency wallet. The app also relies on the Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) technique, which allows it to confirm transactions without having to download the entire blockchain.
Since mobile devices are insecure in some regards and more prone to theft, the developers of Mycelium have implemented a handful of features to improve the security profile of the app, without overly complicating the interface. 


Interface and ease of use

We have mixed feelings about the Mycelium interface. While some aspects of the app, such as sending and receiving Bitcoin, are fairly straightforward, the app contains many functions likely to confuse first-time cryptocurrency users.
The app has a tabbed interface to switch between the different functions. By default, the Balance tab opens at launch, displaying the amount of Bitcoin in your wallet and the current BTC exchange rate, as well as buttons to send and receive BTC.

You can also change your Bitcoin exchange by selecting one from a drop-down menu in the Balance tab. The good thing is that the list displays the exchange rate currently offered in each of the exchanges. Mycelium also has a built-in address book for frequently used Bitcoin addresses, which is a nice little extra.
The app has basic privacy features, such as the ability to rotate addresses, and you can configure it to communicate with the servers via the Tor anonymizing network from under the Settings section. 
Although Mycelium is a hot wallet, it very helpfully offers the option to transact from a cold storage wallet. It can import private keys and can also sync them from a hardware wallet as well. 


Support

Unlike many of its peers, Mycelium offers no guides or tutorials to help orient new users within the app. While the basic functions of the app are fairly intuitive, considering that Mycelium offers several advanced features, we feel the lack of documentation is a major drawback that would prevent us from recommending the app to inexperienced Bitcoin users. 
Similarly, the app’s support options are equally bare bones and don’t offer much to write home about. Mycelium’s primary means of support is via email and the app developers explicitly warn against using any other means of contacting them. The app does have a presence on Twitter and the developers do use the platform to interact with their users.

Monday, December 27, 2021

Hex Price Prediction – Will HEX Price Hit $1 Soon?

This HEX Price Prediction article is based on technical analysis alone. Below, you will see the key metrics that we have taken into consideration upon coming up with our HEX  price analysis and prediction.

Among the cryptocurrencies that are rallying this year, HEX is perhaps one of the most surprising for some. It is not directly related to Bitcoin, nor is it the most hyped cryptocurrency today. But for those that are aware, HEX has been around since December 2019.

Can HEX reach $1 in 2021? We will find out shortly. But before we proceed to our HEX analysis, let us first answer the question “What is HEX?” in this HEX prediction 2021 article.

What is HEX?

HEX is an ERC20 token launched on the Ethereum network. HEX is designed to be a store of value to replace the Certificate of Deposit as the blockchain counterpart of that financial product used in traditional financial markets. HEX is also designed to leverage off the emerging DeFi (Decentralized Finance) ecosystem in cryptocurrencies within the Ethereum network.

HEX uses the Ethereum network for the transaction layer (sending and receiving HEX tokens, as well as interacting with the HEX smart contract), whilst the consensus code and staking mechanism is contained in the HEX smart contract.

Now that we are clear about HEX do you think HEX will be beneficial crypto in 2021? Join me and let us see the charts in this HEX price analysis and HEX price prediction.

HEX Current Market Status

As of the time of writing this HEX price analysis, HEX trades at $0.1357 with a 24-hour trading volume of $22,995,100. The price of HEX has decreased by 0.27% in the last 24 hours.

Furthermore, HEX has a current circulating supply of 173.41B HEX. Currently, the top cryptocurrency exchanges for HEX are HitBTC, FMFW.io, Uniswap (V3), BitMart, and XT.COM.

Now, let’s proceed to the next part of this HEX technical analysis for 2021.

HEX Price Analysis

Currently, HEX holds 201st place on CoinMarketCap. But will the latest upgrades, development, and changes in the HEX blockchain help the cryptocurrency price to reach higher? Let’s proceed to the charts in this HEX price prediction article.

In the chart above, which is set in a daily time frame, we can see the Descending Channel Trend pattern. A descending channel is the price action that takes place in an upward direction through a sloping parallel line. More so, the chart shows the Lower Highs and Lower Lows from this price pattern. Moreover, this pattern represents a short-term bullish.


As shown above, at the beginning of this month, HEX turned from its bear to bull trend. This is the result of the high trade volume that occurs during that time.

HEX Price Prediction

The chart below shows that HEX has performed great over the past few days. Moreover, the HEX price shows a bullish trend. If this trend continues, HEX might run along with the bulls, overtaking its $0.536 resistance level and moving higher.

Why Hex has been so successful? How does it work?

Certificates of Deposit (CDs) are common investment tools managed by banks. Hundreds of millions of people use them worldwide, creating a market valued in the trillions of dollars. HEX has taken the concept of CDs, added significantly higher average return rates, removed banking fees and turned it into a decentralized cryptocurrency.

You can "Stake" your HEX by locking up any amount for a period between 1 and 5555 days. Your Stake accrues rewards every day, and the amount of yield depends on the length of your Stake: "Longer Pays Better". The APY for HEX Stakes of average length is around 40%, while traditional bank CDs average less than 2%. In addition to the unprecedented yield, there is also the tendency of the HEX price to appreciate.

HEX has no central entity, no bureaucracy and no overhead. There are no bonuses awarded to anyone outside of the users who Stake HEX. As a simple to use, high-yield investment tool, HEX makes you the bank.

Security and Advantages

HEX cryptocurrency is faster and cheaper to transact and more secure in some ways than Bitcoin because it uses Ethereum security. HEX is built on top of Ethereum, which is a Proof of Work blockchain with more decentralized hashing power than Bitcoin. BTC also devalues its price by delivering inflation to the miners who need to sell those Bitcoins in the market to pay for the electricity and equipment they use. 

That leads to a drop in price. Contrary to BTC, the HEX code is an immutable and open source. It is an externally audited token. No bugs and the system is reliable. Hex has security and economy audited from Chainsecurity and CoinFabrik. Hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger can be used with MetaMask for HEX and ETH.

HEX is designed for those who stake longer, so they will benefit the most. How? By eliminating intermediaries, users can transform Ethereum directly into HEX. Kick-start adoption gives Bitcoin Owners free HEX. That helps small market players, penalizing Bitcoin whales. Early claimers receive bonuses, and late claimers get penalties. Referrers and those referred are also paid bonuses. Unclaimed coins and interest are paid to those who have locked their HEX on time. Longer-term and larger stakes get more shares, and the price per share only increases. HEX equalizes incentives, so the more people participate, the better off everyone is!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can HEX be used as a day-to-day currency?

Even though HEX was desgined to be a Store of Value and not a Medium of Exchange it works fine as a day-to-day currency because it follows the ERC20 standard. With tools like zksync.io HEX already supports up to 2000 TPS. Raiden, plasma, state channels... are also supported just like for any other ERC20.

What is Hex's long term goal?

Replace gold as a store of value (8 trillion USD Market Cap). Replace credit card companies and payment companies like PayPal (around $770 billion in Visa, MasterCard and PayPal alone). Replace legacy Certificates of Deposit ($571 Billion in the USA alone on just those under $100,000, trillions of USD of value globally).

Replace middlemen with trustless yield.

Is there a HEX wallet?

HEX is an ERC20-compliant token on the Ethereum Blockchain. Any wallet that supports Ethereum can store HEX. The recommended wallet is the MetaMask browser extension.

If you store more than $10,000 consider getting a hardware wallet like a Trezor. You can connect your Trezor to MetaMask and use HEX as usual.

Dogelon Mars Review

VERDICT: Well, as of today, no scam or anything alike has come from Dogelon Mars. Their team may be anonymous, but they are credible as far as everyone can tell. Having hundreds of thousands of members in their social media communities and more than 110,000 wallets, Dogelon Mars seems to be as legit as it gets. Until today, the project has proven to be quite successful as well. Investing in this token may be the right thing to do, but always remember to invest only as much as you can afford to lose; and of course, do your research.

Every market out there consists of leading assets or companies. For example, Apple and Tesla stocks are some of the biggest stocks in the stock market. When it comes to the cryptocurrency market, we have the famous leaders – Bitcoin and Ethereum. These two have been around for quite some time and they have shaped the market as we know it. 

When they first rolled out, they were considered as fraud or scams. However, today Bitcoin is officially classified as an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and numerous companies such as Microsoft are planning to implement Ethereum’s smart contracts because of their efficiency.

The technology of Ethereum has given birth to many other cryptocurrencies and tokens. Although none of them come close to being as innovative as Ethereum is, most of them represent something that has unique values. One of these projects is Dogelon Mars.

What is Dogelon Mars?

So, what exactly is Dogelon Mars, and how does Dogelon Mars work? Well, Dogelon Mars is quite impressive, to say the least. Being built on the Ethereum blockchain makes it an ERC-20 token. This also makes it eligible to be traded at most Ethereum-powered decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap. The token has a circulating supply of 555 trillion tokens and a market capitalization of $1.05 billion. It must be noted that the token became one of the hundred biggest cryptocurrencies in CoinMarketCap recently.

At a glance, Dogelon Mars does not stand out from the crowd and has similar tokenomics and other properties as other projects built in the Ethereum blockchain. This makes it less credible in the eyes of many serious investors; let alone the fact that Dogelon Mars is a meme-coin. But the fact that Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are both meme-coins and are two of the biggest cryptocurrencies in the market paints another picture.

There is something else that makes cryptocurrency projects like Dogelon Mars stand out – and that is community. These projects aim to become completely community-driven, and Dogelon Mars is successfully doing so. The community around Dogelon Mars keeps it ‘alive and healthy’. Even though this token is still young, its community is working on improving and promoting it in every way possible.

Takeaways

The cryptocurrency market has two main ‘giants’ and they are Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Ethereum’s innovative technology has revolutionized the cryptocurrency market and thousands of new tokens have been created as a result.

One of these tokens is Dogelon Mars – an ERC-20 meme-coin.

Dogelon Mars has a huge community and more than 110,000 current holders. Recently, it became one of the 100 biggest cryptocurrencies in the market.

All things considered, Dogelon Mars is a serious project even though it is a meme-coin. That being said, the token can be considered legit.

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Metamask Wallet

VERDICT: MetaMask is popular for a good reason as this service is easy to use and safe despite being a hot wallet. The platform keeps on developing to meet the users' needs — for example, the mobile app was made due to multiple requests from the MetaMask community. Today MetaMask is one of the key platforms associated with the Ethereum ecosystem. If you are not a hardcore cold- or USB wallet fan, then you should give a shot to MetaMask.

MetaMask is an open-source multi-cryptocurrency wallet and a gateway to Ethereum-based decentralized applications. As the wallet is made for work with the Ethereum blockchain, it's understood that it supports only Ether and ERC20 tokens. This wallet is designed to let users control their data and assets at the fullest and doesn't store the data and assets of its users. MetaMask is a mobile application but those who need a desktop version can use a MetaMask browser extension. It is available for Chrome, Brave, and Firefox browsers.

Pros:

Ease of use

Flexible fees

Good functionality

Wide range of supported tokens


Cons:

Not fully private

History

The company was created by ConsenSys in 2016. The founder of the project is Aaron Davis. Now the team is international and consists of over 20 people. Most of the team members live in North and South America. In the first years, MetaMask existed only in a browser extension form. The mobile app was developed two years after the wallet's launch. At the moment of writing this review, the user base of MetaMask was amounting to over 1 million people. It makes MetaMask a top ERC20 wallet in terms of popularity.

Functionality Review

To learn what MetaMask is, it’s better to review its features. MetaMask allows users to access Ethereum DApps via the browser interface. One doesn't need to run a full node of Ethereum to use these DApps or sign smart contracts via MetaMask. It significantly simplifies the use of the Ethereum ecosystem. The transactions can be sent easily, too. In general, one of the main purposes of MetaMask is to introduce Ethereum to a larger audience via a safe and convenient interface. Needless to say that considering these goals, MetaMask developed a minimalist and intuitive user interface. It's worth saying that people not familiar with Ethereum might find the MetaMask interface not fully clear enough.

 

Fees

The fees charged from MetaMask users are Ethreum transaction fees. Users can set the fees in "Advanced Options" making fees higher in order to make transactions quicker or instead make transactions cheaper but slow.


Is It Safe to Use MetaMask?

Although MetaMask is a web-based wallet, its security level is quite good. Of course, it can't be compared to cold wallets but it's fair to say the MetaMask team managed to develop as safe a web-wallet as possible. For years since its launch in 2016, no one did hack this wallet.

All the keys and data are stored in the user's browser. The browser itself cannot access the data but it collects the information about the facts of MetaMask use. Theoretically, this information can be compromised.

MetaMask is a hierarchically deterministic wallet so it keeps keys for numerous wallet addresses associated with the same user. For a third party, it is almost impossible to figure out how much money is stored or sent by this or that person.

The recovery of the account is possible via the 12-word seed phrases. It's important to save these phrases after the creation of the account in order not to lose access to the wallet.

The wallet doesn't support such security features as 2-factor authentication and multi-signature.