Go and find it

TGIF! Enjoy your well deserved weekend you all. But first, remember to read today's newsletter! 

Today in history (1864), Campina Grande, or Brazil, was created as a city. 

We will be covering a blockchain healthcare firm winning US National Science Foundation grant, 5,200 tobacco shops in France now accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments and the new Coinbase Pro mobile app that caters to crypto power users.

Today, we will also be covering Ontology (ONT) for our weekly deep dive! Also today in our 'Blockchain term of the day' section, we have another well put together infographic done by cryptocurrency index building and trading automation software, Panda Analytics!

Please do not forget to answer the polls down below too! It's a great way to interact with you and hear what you have to say. Happy reading!

Quiet going into the weekend 

Over the last 24 hours, total market capitalization stayed within a tight range of ~$228.9 billion and ~$232.3 billion, with most coins either seeing gains or losses in the ~1-3% range. 24-hour volume registered ~$62 billion.

BTC is currently trading at ~$8,520, down ~0.7% over yesterday. On the daily chart, BTC is still attempting to break to the upside of its 100-day EMA line of resistance, with RSI is at ~46.5. On the weekly chart, BTC bounced off its 50-EMA line and is currently trading between its 21 and 50-EMA line. 

Cutting costs 

SimplyVital Health, Inc., a new England-based blockchain company, has obtained a $225,000 grant from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) to research into assimilating its Nexus protocol with the Graphene protocol. 

The company intends to find a way to reduce healthcare costs using data access via blockchain technology, and the Graphene protocol does this by reducing bandwidth to distribute blocks to others nodes and by improving overall blockchain performance and cost reduction.

Light up 

After 2 months of suspension, Keplerk, a French cryptocurrency startup, has reintroduced its service to accept Bitcoin (BTC) payments in more than 5,200 tobacco shops in France.

Their initial launch early this year saw the involvement of only 6 tobacco shops, with Keplerk co-founder Adil Zakhar claiming that the company intended to "expand the project to 6,500 tobacco shops by February". 

New and improved

U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase declared the construction of its new mobile app for clients that will offer them a more efficient mobile trading experience.

The app will deliver real-time candles, order books, depth charts and more shortcuts, and allow users to retain access to the same Coinbase Pro desktop features.

The announcement, which was revealed in a Coinbase blog post, further explained that "it's critical for the sophisticated cryptocurrency traders that Coinbase Pro serves to have access to the tools and information they need to capitalize on these moments when and where they need it".

Blockchain term of the day - Crypto Wallets

Special announcement  - CoinMarketCap 'The Capital' Global Conference

Crypto deep dive: Ontology

• Cryptocurrency: ONT
• Market Capitalization Rank: 27th (~$346.7 million)
• Consensus Algorithm: Verifiable Byzantine Fault Tolerance (VBFT) - A combination of Proof-of-Stake (PoS), Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) and Verifiable Random Function (VRF). 

What it's about 

• Ontology is a provider of high-performance public blockchains, which includes distributed ledger and smart contract systems.
• The Ontology blockchain framework supports public blockchain systems that can be customized for different applications. Ontology supports collaboration among chain networks with its various protocol groups.
• Ontology was created in 2017 by the Chinese company, Onchain, which is led by NEO founders Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang.

Why people love it 

• The Ontology architecture allows for an easy onboarding process of business of all sizes, even those with no prior knowledge of blockchain technology.
• Ontology is backed by a strong leadership and technical team. It's core team has about 67 people, making it one of the largest teams out there. It is also backed by Onchain, which has had much prior success in the blockchain space with NEO
• Ontology has a strategic partnership with NEO, which enables both to share resources. 

Why people doubt it 

• Ontology is operating in one of the stricter countries with regard to blockchain, China. The lack of regulatory framework might hinder progress and expansion.
• There are many other blockchain projects also striving to create private/sidechain/consortium chains for private businesses. Whether companies actually adopt Ontology is the key question. 
• Some are unsure whether the focus of NEO founders Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang lie in NEO or ONT.

Other news 

• Crypto exchange Binance adds the new XRP-pegged token to its affiliated decentralized exchange (DEX), Binance Chain. 

• Tron and Stellar Development Foundation are part of a new alliance, dubbed the Blockchain Education Alliance, that seeks to provide university students with a working knowledge about blockchain technology. 

• Digital payment branch of e-commerce firm Alibaba, Alipay, has banned all Bitcoin (BTC)-related transactions.

Crypto calendar  

13 Oct     - U.S. SEC's decision on the Bitwise Asset Management's Bitcoin ETF application, under the NYSE Arca exchange (final decision)

TBA         - Justin Sun's lunch with Warren Buffett

Poll of the Day

How much do you agree with this statement: "I believe that the crypto space is progressing at an acceptable rate."

What you said

"Rate on a scale of 1-10 (10 being most keen), "Crypto mining is something I would like to explore.""

The average vote was 5.7. 33.3% of y'all voted a '10'.

"Why or why not?"

Yes definitely, but in my country they wont allow so because our National Power supply is too low... Maybe i try POS Mining but it also has its flaws... I think i better just "HODL" Expense free $ huge returns over the long run – HODL, the bread and butter. On that note, why not just get some crypto derivatives so you can get exposure to the price movements of the underlying crypto without the need of possessing them?

this is not my cup of tea. – Yeah mining is actually a full time job kinda thing, not many people know that haha.

Extremely very much but not a bunca $$ I have to play with plus all the scams it’s confusing and scary – Mining ain’t cheap no doubt. It’ll set u back a couple g’s at least. Quite a high barrier to entry when you think of it. So is it true decentralization with such a costly barrier to entry? Hahaha 

Running the numbers and considering how quickly a mining rig becomes obsolete I prefer to purchase crypto. – Makes sense.

Passive income – It’s not really passive. There quite a fair bit of management that goes on w mining rigs. 

No, thank you. – Very polite! 

I don’t want to build a watch; I want to know the time. – Hmm okay? 

Any crypto explorations are good to learn in order to stay up to date – True. Good to just try your hand at it. Prob give you some useful insights. 

YES YES YES YES YES!!!! {sorry for screaming on top of my lungs there}. But yes, I'm very interested in mining, been looking at options for a reasonably long time now. And have questions, ideas, and some concerns with if i choose a cloud mining platform. The Strong ut6 something Dash miner one i'm really interested in getting, but also looking at ETH miners. although i'm on a budget so cloud solutions also something I'm interested in. - Loving the enthusiasm!  Do it! Sounds like you've been wanting to do so for some time now. No ragrets! 

Been involved with crypto for a few years, this is definitely something I want to try but still feels like it’s challenging to get started. Staking on the other hand has been getting easier – Yeah staking is way easier. 

See you again tomorrow!

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