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The Fight for Bitcoins- Binance acquires Mumbai-based WazirX

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Binance, which serves as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange network has acquired WazirX is a huge move in the bitcoin market. The Mumbai-based exchange WazirX works within the Bitcoin-related crypto-currency domain. With this acquisition, Binance will be in a position to offer services to over 1 billion Indians. Here’s everything you need to know about the acquisition and what it means for the market.

The Future for India

The announcement regarding the acquisition came out today, out of the blue. The move is tilted to be a significant one that will change the way the nation exchanges Bitcoins. The announcement also says that Indians will now have the option of buying and selling crypto-currency using Indian currency from Nov 25. 

Words from the CEO

Nischal Shetty, who serves as the CEO of WazirX has made it clear that Binance now holds 100% of WazirX. A non-disclosure agreement prevented Nischal from providing any further details regarding the acquisition. However, reports state that the deal is worth around $5 to $10 million. The CEO also mentioned that Binance has plans to employ 20 members of WazirX. Furthermore, the company will function independently in a bid to involve more Indians in the crypto-currency revolution. 

Things are Looking Up

This acquisition will also help in adding the Indian fiat to Binance’s crypto-currency gateway. According to WazirX’s COO Siddharth Menon, adding such fiat ramps will help in boosting the overall economy. Such a move will help in expanding the crypto market and will help more people get access to this sector. Also, Binance is a world-leader in this aspect, and therefore, has access to most of the major traders around the world. Meanwhile, WazirX has been implementing and testing the technology required to make this dream a reality. With both the forces working together, we could be looking at a mass exodus to the cryptomarket by Indians around the country.

Plans for the Future

As per prior announcements, Binance also has plans to utilize WazirX’s auto-matching engine to make fiat-based transactions easier. Such a system will allow Indians to buy the Tether coin using their INR. Afterward, users have the option of trading the Tether with any cryptocurrency of their choice via Binance. As most of the developed nations have already moved to a crypto-currency based economy, the next big move will come from developing nations. India has the power of over 1 billion people, and hence, a mass crypto-market move can help the entire economy. This acquisition will help WazirX make fiat-based ramps and transactions easier for the whole world.

As per Changpeng Zhao, who serves as the CEO of Binace having such a young demographic in hand will help the company adapt and evolve. By making use of the new financial technology that WazirX provides, Binance seeks to play a crucial role in encouraging the adoption of crypto-currency around the world.

Crypto-Currency in India

In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India forbids banks from helping and loaning money to crypto-currency firms. Though several companies filed petitions to reverse this decision, the case is pending. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for January 2020 in the Supreme Court. Furthermore, recently the government proposed a bill of banning crypto trading with a ten-year jail sentence in case of violations. However, several such firms are running successfully in India, with one of the main ones being WazirX.

Founded in 2018, WazirX has grown exponentially about its trading volume and adoption. The company completes transactions amounting to over $30 million a month, and have also made in-roads into the app market, with more than 200,000 downloads. Shetty runs a #IndiaWantsCrypto campaign on Twitter, and the campaign has helped to raise awareness regarding the crypto ecosystem. Members of crypto exchanges have been meeting with Members of Parliament to discuss crypto trading’s future in India. Shetty believes that the acquisition will help the economy as Binance has top-class regulators and negotiators. 

Strict laws by the government had prevented such a large merger until now, but this acquisition might be the first of many to follow! It will be interesting to see how the acquisition impacts the fledgling Indian crypto-market, and whether the government will also take a positive stand soon.

Click here to buy & sell Bitcoins

Google Assistant’s Expansion to Reach 1B Devices By the End of January

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The CES 2019 is already started, and even before Google’s real product launch in the conference, the company has made news with its announcement about the rolling out of Google Assistant, in more than a billion devices, by the end of January.

Google assistant

The google assistant is an AI assistant that runs on various Android and iOS devices, including the smart speaker, home hub, headphones, TV, smartwatches, etc. As of October 2018, the company introduced the same for the home gadgets and the home appliances such as dishwashers, oven, bulb, etc. According to the reports Google Assistant was already running on more than 500 million devices from 1000 different brands in May last year. And, for the last month, Google reported having over 900 million devices enabled with the Google Assistant.

It has been two years since Google Assistant was launched, in 2016, and following then Google is trying really hard to beat its rivals. In a revelation, Amazon has also reported that it sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices last year, making the competition further tougher for Google.

Google has also made some updates to the Google Assistant, along with the support for 22 new languages. From now on, it will also be available for 66 countries. It means, Google Assistant will be supporting 30 languages in total and will be actively working in 80 different countries.

There has been a significant change in the number of Google Assistant enabled devices since last January when the total number of users was over 400 million. The main reason behind the rising number of Google Assistant users may be the Android smartphones that also run the Google Assistant on them.

Manuel Bronstein, the Vice President of Google Assistant, said, “The biggest footprint right now is on the phones. On Android devices, we have a very, very big footprint.” Google Assistant has played a vital role in the growth of the company. Although the smartphone users may not be using the assistant actively, the home devices from Google are becoming really popular, and adopting the AI for its devices is really paying it off well.

Ledger goes Mobile with its Next-gen Bluetooth Hardware Wallet Launched at CES 2019

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Only one day to go for the CES, and many of the companies have already revealed the products that they will be launching at the conference. On the same league, Ledger, the leading crypto wallet producer, has announced the launch of a new and more secure Bluetooth wallet Nano X, in the upcoming event of CES 2019.

Ledger has not only beefed up the storage for the latest device but has also added support for multiple, i.e. up to 100 wallets. It has also enhanced the support for more coins, i.e. up to 1100 coins. The wallet now can be managed through an app, Ledger Live, installed on the user’s smartphone. It can be enabled and connected to the wallet through the Bluetooth. This means that now the users can easily send and receive tokens from their phones.

Ledger Nano X
Image Source: pcmag.com

Also, earlier those hardware wallets were connected through a USB cable. Although the wireless connection may seem to be risky, the fact that the wallet is only connected through the Live app using a particular pin for each user can diminish the risk.

Ledger’s previously launched hardware wallet, the Nano S, had become very popular among its users. The device is quite similar to the Nano X, except it had storage and support for a lesser number of wallets and coins. A hardware crypto wallet is a more flexible way for keeping the cryptocurrency locally in a protected manner, without storing it on an exchange. The wallet is secured with the help of a unique key, that the users must input every single time they use it.

Ledger, on January 4, had tweeted on its official account, “You asked, we listened: more applications on a single device, coming soon – 7 Jan 2019,” followed by another tweet, “Your crypto assets, always secured, everywhere you go with #Bluetooth.”

Ledger’s CEO Éric Larchevêque said, “There have been a lot of requests from our users to have a native application.” On the Bluetooth device being secure, he stated, “The Bluetooth connection is only used to send public data, such as your public key. The transaction itself is encrypted end-to-end while using the highest level of encryption and security on the Bluetooth protocol. No private keys are on the Bluetooth connection. It’s the same as the USB cable. Security-wise, the architecture is the same.”

The Nano X has also got a bigger screen, and the navigation buttons have been moved to the front from the top. The device has got its users the facility for tracking their assets including minimal hardware requirements. The acceptance rate of Nano X can be estimated through the success of its predecessor, Nano S, previously had gained. The mobile app, Ledger Live, is set to be rolling out on the iOS as well as the Android smartphones from 28 January 2019, and the company has started the preorders for the device from today onwards. The cost for Nano X has been fixed at $119 and will be shipped by March this year.

Whirlpool to Launch Wear OS App to Expand the Mobile Connectivity for its Appliances

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wearable
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The biggest home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation has announced that it is going launch a wear OS app, powered by Google, for its connected home appliances, in the coming event of CES 2019. The 107 years old company has been introducing unique and innovative technologies every once in a while, and now it is again pushing the bars with its new idea of controlling the home gadgets with the help of a wearable OS app.

The app will help the user to keep a track of and control the appliances like the microwave oven, speakers, washing machine, etc. The company has also mentioned that it has simplified voice commands to its Smart Laundry appliances for both Google Assistant and Alexa devices.

The General Manager, WLabs of Whirlpool Corporation, Doug Searles, said, “Innovations from labs are designed to deliver on people’s unanswered questions and pain points.” He further added, “Our engineers and designers push the boundaries of what the general public knows and recognizes as a Whirlpool product, and redefine what a home appliance can achieve. Whether delivering on a specific, singular need or making multiple steps in the cooking process easier, each of the WLabs innovations coming to the marketplace gives us a view of what the future of cooking will look like.”

The app will preferably work for the ovens, washers and the dryers. The user will be competent to see the current oven status and monitor it through commands given to the app, even during an active cycle. Same for the washers and the dryer, the user will be able to watch the status and handle them with various options in an active cycle.

Although it’s not the first time when Whirlpool is extending its functionality using a wearable, it has already launched the same with the Apple Watch in the early last year. But this time, Whirlpool has come with a Google OS app, that will now enable the android users to enjoy this innovative facility. The launch will take place in the CES 2019 event in the coming week, and the Whirlpool Wear OS app will go live soon in the first half of the year.

Google Plans to Start Charging the Chinese OEMs for PlayStore Apps

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The Chinese market for smartphones has gained a lot of popularity around the world, especially Android smartphones. The popularity of the Chinese apps was also on the peak last year. But for the smartphone manufacturers from the Chinese industry may have to face some heat this year, as now they may have to pay for the Android apps and services on their smartphones.

Chinese smartphones
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In a tweet from the official Android Twitter account (spotted by SlashLeaks), Google has stated that it may start charging the Chinese OEMs from third quarter for using Android apps.

The tweet wrote, ”We plan to charge Chinese manufacturers in the third quarter of 2019, which may include Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi, and many other smartphone manufacturers.” Google has never charged the Android device manufacturers for its apps and services, but the tweet clearly shows that the biggest smartphone manufacturers like Huawei, ZTE and Xiaomi will be affected by this decision.

Last year in July, European Commission had fined Google with $5 billion, as it allegedly blamed the tech giant for “illegally tying” the Chrome and search apps to Android. Google provides a few pre-installed services and apps, like Google search and Google Chrome to the Android smartphone manufacturers for free, which was the major concern of the European Commission that Google forced those apps on to the smartphone users resulting in dominating their app market.

As a result, Google had produced a new licensing agreement for the smartphones that were shipped to Europe. According to the agreement, Google started charging the hardware firms, up to $40, for using its apps on their devices. The fee also depended on the size and type of the device as well as in which country it was going to operate.

Likewise, for the Chinese smartphone manufacturers as well, the company is planning to impose a fee on the usage of its apps and services. But still, the Android OS will remain free and open-source for them.

What’s App Suspends its Services for Older Nokia Phones with the Start of the New Year

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What’s App is one of the most used messenger apps across the world. It has been enhancing the user experience by making regular updates to it. But those updates and upgrades have to get some better system support to run on. Most of the older phone did not run the app due to the software and hardware compatibility issues. What’s App also announced a few years ago, that it will stop investing in the app for those older phones, and has been pulling out its support for many old phones regularly.

In contrast to that, it has now, halted its services for the Nokia phones based on the S40 platform, starting from January 1, 2019. The company had announced in the late December 2018, that it is going to cease its services for the S40 OS Nokia devices as they are no longer capable of handling the new updates to the app.

The cease has affected almost every S40 phones, especially the Asha series phones including the Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 500, Nokia Asha 501, Nokia Asha 502, Nokia Asha 205, Nokia Asha 210, Nokia Asha 230, Nokia 208, Nokia 301, Nokia Asha 503, Nokia 515 and Nokia 206, etc. The other Nokia phones include Nokia 206, Nokia 208, Nokia 301, Nokia 515, Nokia C3-00, Nokia C3-01, Nokia X2-00, Nokia X2-01, Nokia X3-02 and Nokia X3-02.5.

The company had already removed its app support from various other smartphones last year including the BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 8.0 and its older versions. But still, the app has got its support for a few old OSes, except it has not provided all the new services to its users.

WhatsApp, in a post, stated, “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp. Those who own a phone powered by this very platform has no choice but to upgrade their device if they wish to continue using WhatsApp.”

What’s App is one of the most popular instant message service providers and with its support for the older phones, it had helped those who were not among the smartphone lovers and used the phones only to make calls and send messages. Now as What’s App has stopped its services for many of the Symbian phones and S40 platform phones, it is going to affect many of its users too.