Summary:
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What are the “stablecoins” and why they matter?
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Some food sites accepting digital currencies
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Equivocal predictions for cryptocurrencies shared by leaders in Davos
Cryptocurrencies have kicked off the new trading week with some declines with Bitcoin, the largest virtual currency, trading only subtly above $3400 at the time of writing. Today we are focusing on so-called “stablecoins”, some food delivery platforms accepting cryptocurrencies as well as the annual economic forum in Davos which took place last week.
Does stable mean stable?
There is no doubt that volatility on the cryptocurrency market tends to be gargantuan. It was especially the case in late 2017 when major digital coins were rising rapidly with Bitcoin approaching the $20k mark. Here, so-called “stablecoins” are coming in. You know, one of the prime features of cryptocurrencies is to store the value. However, it could be hard to achieve or could be even impossible to do if cryptocurrencies’ volatility is so hectic. Therefore, everybody wanting this feature needs to focus some particular coins producing notably less rapid and completely disorderly price movements. What coins are we writing about? Tether could be a nice example whose price always moves around $1. The $64k question is why the Tehter’s price does not move so abruptly as other coins do? Namely these cryptocurrencies are pegged to another asset, such as the US dollar, a basket of national currencies or commodities and so on. The second question is how many stablecoins exist? According to research done by blockchain.com there were as many as 57 such coins (23 already released and 34 being in the planning stages) as of September 2018.
Ripple is trading close to the trend line. If this support survives, it could lead to a move toward $0.35, otherwise the price might continue falling toward $0.25. Source: xStation5
Get pizza for Bitcoin
Paying for goods and services via virtual currencies has become popular recently, hence there is nothing astonishing to see that more and more shops and similar entities are engaging in crypto-related projects. Doing so, they try to entice customers offering them an easy and simple way to make a payment. Here we’d like to show some food delivery websites enabling payments using cryptocurrencies. For example, Pizzaforcoin is a service based in California where you can order from major chains such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut or Papa John’s. Takeaway.com is another example of such a service being headquartered in Amseterdam. One needs to mention that Germany and Poland are Takeaway’s second and third largest market respectively. In Germany we have Lieferando.de which works with more than 11,000 restaurants. It is worth noting that the company added bitcoin core (BTC) to its payment options in 2017.
Litecoin is falling toward its trend line which could private some relief to buyers. Source: xStation5
Cryptocurrencies in Davos
Davos hosted the annual World Economic Forum last month and even as it was mainly focused on the global economy slowdown, some topics also concerned cryptocurrencies. Angel Versetti, CEO of decentralized internet of things network Ambrosus, said that “While last year, people were talking about crypto and blockchain anywhere and everywhere, this year there is comparatively little discussion around it.” During the forum we had also a panel called “Building a Sustainable Crypto-Architecture”. The panelists noted that regulation of the cryptocurrency space would increase. They also shared the similar view suggesting that “regardless of the stance that lawmakers take, this much is for certain: business leaders will continue to flock to Davos every year and the vast majority will continue to be badly wrong about Bitcoin.”
