Crypto markets continue steady decline
Today’s crypto and forex news sees the cryptocurrency markets continue their steady decline over the past 48 hours with most coins showing drops. Bitcoin was down by around 4% to just under the $7800 level although turnover was slightly up over the weekend. Ethereum was down by 3% to the $166 level whilst BCHABC also dropped by about 3% to the $214 mark. Other coins which suffered considerably included Binance Coin – down by 5% to the $14.70 level and Litecoin which was down to under the $53 mark for the first time in months. XRP, EOS and BTT were also down considerably.
Austria’s Kurz triumphs again
Austrian voters have just elected Sebastian Kurz with an absolute majority on Sunday. Following the collapse of Kurz’s governance in May, social democrats and far-right in the country were the biggest losers in this snap election.
Compared with 31.5% in 2017, Kurz’s party grew to 38.3%, earning it the place as the biggest party in the country since it was founded in 1945. The Freedom Party’s votes decreased to 16% from their result of 26% in 2017. The same goes for the Social Democrats who saw their votes drop substantially. This news did not affect the market immensely as the Euro climbed only slightly against the USD and GBP.
$1 mn Bitcoin or a Quantum Computer?
There’s been a lot of talk on how Bitcoin will reach the $1 million mark with maverick John McCaffee making that prediction several times. However, it seems that quantum supremacy is the next big thing – especially for Google scientists who revealed that they had achieved something called ‘quantum supremacy’. Apparently, if this were to happen, all cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin would be rendered absolutely useless.
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This processor, named ‘Sycamore’ consists of 54 superconducting quantum bits, dubbed as “qubits.” These qubits then become ‘entangled’ and can solve a random-number problem in three minutes and 20 seconds. This is an immense feat when compared with the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Summit which would take 10,000 years.
Google proved itself to be the best again by building Sycamore. This quantum computer can solve problems that no previous computer can solve. With this in mind, the future doesn’t seem to look so bright for crypto.
Having said that researchers claim that there is no evidence that such a computer will emerge eventually. If it eventually does, cryptography which is quantum-resistant may arrive that will not render bitcoin and cryptocurrencies completely useless. Speculations will continue but it seems like we will have to wait quite a while until we get an answer.