By The future is all about decentralization. From Goldman Sachs to Mark Zuckerberg to SMEs, we’re seeing a rising interest in Blockchain technology. Ten years down the line, it wouldn’t be surprising if every business around the world start launching their own tokens, just like they launch websites.
Keeping this in mind, BitcoinPrice wants you to understand how to build an ERC20 token from scratch. During the course of few weeks, we’ll walk you through a step by step process on how to go about creating tokens and everything related to it.
And guess what? This isn’t just going to be an explanation — we’ll actually build a token and try to get it live on one of the exchanges. We want this to be a community effort. So let’s brainstorm together and come up with a kickass token. Here are some questions we have for you:
1. What do you think our token should be called?
2. Can you think of its utility?
3. How many tokens should we have?
4. How many should we distribute?
We’ll look forward to your answers.If you’re absolutely clueless about utility tokens, that’s okay. We’ll start with the basics and gradually move up to more advanced features.
Back to the price action.
Bitcoin price has been on a bearish run over the past two weeks or so. Historically, the month of January has always been a weak month for Bitcoin and 2018 was no exception.
Some analysts suggest that this is due to Chinese investors converting Bitcoins to fiat to buy gifts and celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls in February. But this time the bear pennant is so strong that Bitcoin could test values as low as $7,000.
Interestingly, the current price trend of Bitcoin and Ethereum do not accurately represent the performance of both cryptocurrencies in terms of user activity, user base, and adoption. This week, two of Asia’s largest retailers have announced support for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
For instance, South Korea’s e-commerce platform WeMakePrice has started the integration process of 12 cryptocurrencies listed by Bithumb. Within a few weeks, millions of active users on WeMakePrice will be able to transact using bitcoin and 11 other cryptocurrencies.
Another important announcement was made by Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz stating that if cryptocurrencies cannot be adopted by retailers and merchants, they will fail to evolve into legitimate currencies.
Currently, the Bitcoin network is settling about 250,000 transactions per day while Ethereum is processing more than 1.2 million transactions on a daily basis. Bitcoin transaction fees have also significantly come down.
Most of the cryptocurrencies in the market have struggled to record large gains since late December when the valuation of the cryptocurrency market declined by more than 30%.
Bitcoin remains as one of the few major cryptocurrencies apart from Ethereum to have not recorded a 50 percent drop from its all-time high. The likes for Ripple and Bitcoin Cash have declined by nearly 60% from their all-time highs established in early January.
The demand for cryptocurrencies is still increasing at a rapid rate. It is evident by two recent facts; Robinhood adding a million users onto its cryptocurrency exchange waiting list and Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the market, also adding 6 million users in the past 6 months.
This slump is a short-term trend. It is important to consider tax refund as a major factor for market recovery. In February, US citizens receive their tax refunds which they will either put in savings or investment. Looking at the adoption of cryptocurrencies, it is likely that a large portion of US tax refunds would flow into the cryptocurrency market.
As for the Chinese new year theory, the same behavior does not hold true for stocks, because the Hong Kong and Chinese markets have been among the top performers. So much so that the equity markets are outperforming the crypto markets, at least in the first month of the year.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Starbucks chairman interested in crypto market, just not Bitcoin
Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks, recently stated that he believes several legitimate cryptocurrencies will emerge, endorsed and adopted by retailers. He emphasized that Starbucks is not interested in creating a cryptocurrency of its own, unlike several conglomerates in the technology and finance sector.
Since the value of cryptocurrencies come from the decentralized nature and security value of public blockchains, the development of a company-specific cryptocurrency would be highly inefficient. He said:
“Well, I think I have another question for you: Twenty or so years later, and the question is, the issue of do you understand and are you anticipating what could happen with cryptocurrencies? And the reason I mention this is not because I’m talking about Bitcoin, because I don’t believe that Bitcoin is going to be a currency today or in the future,”
2. Bitcoin won’t do a Lehman collapse, says Singapore central bank fintech chief
In an interview with Channel News Asia, Sopnendu Mohanty – chief of financial technology at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank, opined bitcoin will not cause a global financial crisis in the event of a price collapse.
He insisted global regulators are “getting serious about this whole cryptocurrency market”, suggesting authorities would step in with regulations when bitcoin markets continue to grow globally. He said:
“We know exactly when to intervene, based on the market size and the demand and transaction volume, and we will come in at the right time. So, I’m not overly worried about getting to some large financial system crisis.”
3. Philippines SEC plans to regulate cryptocurrencies and ICOs
The Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday it is crafting rules to regulate cryptocurrency transactions to protect investors and reduce the risk of fraud.
The regulation, which will cover issuance and registration of cryptocurrencies, is expected to be finalized this year, said Emilio Aquino, SEC commissioner in charge of enforcement and investor protection. Aquino stated:
“We want to come up with our own set of regulations. You have to be extra careful how investors in this new space are protected.”