Today we have a Daily Token Review and two really awesome cryptocurrency news segments to share with you from Amazon customers can now pay with Bitcoin, to Bitcoin ranking as one of the best-performing assets in 2019. Want to know more about what makes Bitcoin one of the best? Make sure you stick around till the end!
As seen on CoinMarketCap, we’ve got a pretty positive and healthy market, with a majority of greens across the board, with some experiencing nice gains overall. The world’s flagship cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC) has increased by 1.71 percent. Ether (ETH) still maintains its “second in command” status, with great gains of 0.89 percent. Ripple’s XRP maintains the number three position, and it’s currently gaining by 0.56 percent. Other considerable movements in the market include Cardano with a gain of 6.21%. Now, if I scroll down to the top 20, we’re also looking at a pretty lush and green market, with not many considerably large gains or losses in the market today.
Now onto the news! According to a report by Coindesk, Moon, a browser extension that makes it easier for online shoppers to pay with cryptos, has announced that it’s now supporting all Lightning-enabled wallets and users of the platform can now pay with Lightning on numerous e-commerce platforms, including Amazon. Notably, before this lightning network integration, about 250 beta users of Moon could pay with bitcoin and altcoins on supported ecommerce platforms by simply connecting the browser extension to their crypto exchange accounts.
Explaining how the new lightning feature works, Ken Kruger, CEO of Moon reiterated that the application “will pop up a QR code and it will have the lightning invoice, which you could also copy and paste if you can’t use the QR code for some reason, and you’ll be able to pay with your favourite lightning wallet.” Since Amazon does not accept bitcoin payments directly, it means the Moon team must have partnered with a financial institution that first converts users’ digital assets to fiat at the backend before sending the payment to Amazon.
Though Kruger did not specify the bank its Moon team has joined forces with to help facilitate the payments, he, however, hinted that the firm is looking to make the lightning feature work on all e-commerce websites whether they accept crypto payments directly or not. Kruger has also reportedly said that the Moon platform is integrating with the Visa and Mastercard networks to make life easier for online shoppers.
“We’re integrating with the Visa and Mastercard networks, and we get a cut of the interchange fees that merchants pay every time they receive a credit card transaction,” he declared.
At present, the new lightning network feature is still being reviewed by Chrome web store and the feature is expected to go live in the coming days. Now, what does this mean for cryptocurrency holders? With the new lightning feature, online shoppers interested in paying for their purchases in bitcoin will no longer have to worry about the increasing transaction fees as well as the annoyingly slow transaction confirmation, especially during a bull market.
Now, onto the second news item for today! Per a report by Cryptoslate, since bitcoin (BTC) started a massive rally earlier in April 2019, the world’s flagship digital asset has reclaimed its position as one of the best-performing investment vehicles in year-to-date yield, outperforming traditional assets like the Nasdaq, S&P 500, real estate, oil, and gold.
At the beginning of 2019, the price of bitcoin was hovering just above the $3K price region. However, the epic rally the digital asset launched in April has generated more than 40 percent year-to-date (YTD) growth. It’s also worth noting that based on historical data, bitcoin is the best performing asset of the decade, as the price of bitcoin has steadily grown from $185 in 2015, to $365, to $780, to $3,200 in 2018.
While bitcoin critics such as Warren Buffett, the chairman, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway still see nothing good in bitcoin, proponents of the cryptocurrency firmly believe that bitcoin will continue to achieve new milestones and this dream can only come to pass if adoption increases significantly in the coming years.
So what are your thoughts on this situation?
Are you confident about the progress of the Lightning Network? And what are your thoughts about bitcoin’s latest rally? Do you think it’s just a flash in the pan or could this be the beginning of a new journey to the moon? Let me know what you guys think below. If you liked the content, please subscribe and watch our latest videos. It’s Cindy with CryptoPig, Catch you guys around!
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Disclaimer: Cryptopig content is written by a team of blockchain passionate people. We are not registered as investment advisors. Don’t take the information in this post as investment advice and make sure you do your own research before investing. Cryptocurrencies are a very risky investment, never invest more money than you can afford to lose.