Cryptocurrency Highlights Of The Week

Yours.network is switching to Litecoin and Microsoft is launching a new framework to speed up blockchain PoCs. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 20:

• Yours.network is finally launching, but with a twist. CEO Ryan X Charles has also announced on Thursday that Yours is switching to Litecoin. The platform has long been hailed a possible Bitcoin “killer app” and as a Bitcoin alternative to Steemit. However, Bitcoin’s scaling bottleneck has made Yours impractical, and Charles announced on Thursday that he has switched from using bitcoin to using litecoin within Yours’ entire economy. Moving to Litecoin also allows Yours to launch sooner, since Charles has repeatedly said he has been waiting for Bitcoin scaling problems to subside before Yours can be a viable business.
  

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• Microsoft has unveiled a new framework aimed at streamlining the blockchain proof-of-concept process. In a new blog post, the company said it was appealing to firms that want to test the tech for possible applications in a timelier fashion, estimating that existing conditions could mean as much as $300k in expenses and development times as long as a year. According to Microsoft, the framework entails the prototype blockchain network, relevant APIs, as well as a Hashing Service and a Signing Service to support the testing. Microsoft’s Azure cloud service – one of the central planks of the company’s blockchain strategy – sits at the heart of the framework.
  

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• Distributed financial technology firm Ripple is on the verge of locking up billions of dollars worth of its native XRP cryptocurrency inside dozens of smart contracts designed to hold value in escrow until a certain time, or certain conditions are met. The move to voluntarily freeze its own assets in escrow contracts is designed to combat fears that Ripple might flood its booming market with some of the $16bn worth of cryptocurrency it currently stores and that resulted from holding large amounts of its own currency that hasn’t been made available to the public.
  

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• Law firm Berns Weiss LLP has begun scrutinizing Bitcoin exchanges involved in recent DDoS attacks. It will investigate claims on behalf of the users of crypto exchanges Kraken and Poloniex who may have suffered losses as a result of manipulation and insider trading. Although it is too early to jump to conclusions, many account holders on major exchanges had their positions liquidated as a result of the attacks and could not do anything about it.
  

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• Compared to the previous week the price of Bitcoin has increased by more than 16 percent, with the exchange rate currently at about $2,031 per BTC. The price of Ethereum increased by more than 46 percent over the same period, taking Ether up to a rate of $130.47 per ETH. Ethereum Classic gained more than 23 percent, with the price increasing to $7.65 per ETC. Zcash gained around 15 percent. One ZEC is now trading at roughly $109 per coin.

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