Rakuten Coin: New Cryptocurrency Promises to Revolutionize Commerce and Communications (Japan-Forward.com)
Rakuten is planning a new cryptocurrency called Rakuten Coin, which promises to create a “borderless” shopping experience and allow the customer base to purchase goods and services from other Rakuten offerings and regions. Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani recently announced this in his keynote address at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The cryptocurrency would be built on blockchain technology and linked to Rakuten Ichiba’s existing loyalty program, Rakuten Super Points, he said. A date has yet to be announced for the launch of Rakuten Coin, but the company’s investment in blockchain technology dates back to 2016, when it acquired Belfast-based Bitnet, a bitcoin wallet startup, establishing a research facility to explore the potential of blockchain technology.
GasToken: a Smart Contract that Makes Ethereum Transactions Cheaper (No ICO Required) (BlockExplorer.com)
A group of IC3 developers has released GasToken, an ingenious method to save money on ethereum and ethereum classic transactions — no initial coin offering (ICO) required. On Thursday, the IC3-backed Chicago Project for the Study of Cryptocommunities released GasToken, a smart contract system that allows users to store gas — a fundamental resource used to make transactions and interact with smart contracts in the Ethereum and Ethereum Classic networks — for later use. Like all cryptocurrency blockchains, the Ethereum network tends to have peak hours in which users make more transactions, and off hours, when they make less. Unsurprisingly, gas prices tend to run higher during peak hours, as more users compete to have their transactions included in the network’s limited block space.
Pixabay/Public Domain
PR: New Cryptocurrency Exchange Market – CoinDeal.com (News.Bitcoin.com)
CoinDeal.com is a cryptocurrency exchange market that has been created by an experienced team of people who aren’t just theoreticians. Quite the opposite, CoinDeal’s team consists of cryptolovers who have been interested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies for years. They not only know what it is all about but also meet the real problems that show up during trading on cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Thanks to that, CoinDeal’s team can easily put itself in users’ place to understand what is really important for them.
Litecoin Price Starts Bucking the Downtrend With Solid LTC/BTC Gains (TheMerkle.com)
With all cryptocurrency markets dipping hard today, it is very difficult to find a positive note. The Litecoin price may provide that positive aspect so many people are looking for as of right now. More specifically, the Litecoin price is still down by quite a lot, but it is also the one currency seemingly recovering the question as of right now. That in itself is quite a remarkable trend, especially given the current market conditions.
Cryptocurrency Interest Wanes – Online Searches for “Bitcoin” Drop 80% (News.Bitcoin.com)
According to data from Google Trends and Insights searches for the word “bitcoin” is declining rapidly. The chart dating back to March 2017 is almost identical to the BTC/USD weekly price chart. The same can be said for a variety of popular words that reached peaks at the end of 2017 like the words “ethereum,” “ripple,” and “cryptocurrency.” Google’s data suggest that all of these words including “bitcoin” show searches are down well over 80 percent.
