Moscow authorities claim that cryptographer Pierrick Gaudry only managed to detect a vulnerability, but nobody successfully cracked its blockchain voting system, which is planned to be used in the upcoming elections to the Moscow City Duma.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has unveiled future regulatory innovations at a preliminary discussion with participants of the cryptocurrency market. By early 2020, the UK authorities intend to finalize the standards of conduct for crypto companies.

Binance, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, released its blockchain project called Venus. The goal of the project is to enable development of localized stablecoins and digital assets tied to fiat currencies around the world.

Every market has its evolution cycles. The cryptocurrency market has been no exception. After 10 years since the birth of Bitcoin, the market has created a variety of exchanges equipped to meet the needs of new generations of users.

Coinbase announced it finalized the acquisition of Xapo. The custodial service of Coinbase now stores $7 billion in cryptocurrencies.

Russian authorities announced their plans to test a new blockchain-based voting system in the upcoming elections to the Moscow City parliament to be held in September. But one independent cryptographer managed to crack it in 20 minutes.

Most thought that trader Michael Burry was crazy when he started shorting stocks in 2008. But he felt that the market was overheated and the prices would eventually drop. His intuition was right – and it made him $100 million richer. If you feel that the Bitcoin price will drop, too, then it's time for you to start shorting crypto.

“Shorting” is one of those financial terms that everyone has heard but few understand. It's quite simple, actually: to short Bitcoin means to bet against it – that is, to act on the assumption that the BTC price will fall. There are a couple long-standing tools in the market to achieve this, as well as a novel and much safer way, which we'll describe at the end of this article.

Two older, riskier ways to bet against Bitcoin

Here are the two main tools that traders use to open short positions in BTC:

1) Margin trading, or trading with leverage: the trader puts down a deposit, borrows Bitcoin from a broker, sells it high, waits for the price to fall, then buys it back low and returns the BTC to the lender.

2) Futures contracts: instead of actual Bitcoins, the trader gets the right to buy BTC at a lower price on a certain future date.

It seems quite easy in theory, but the reality can get messy. Shorting is an extremely risky business, and you have to be both great at fundamental analysis and very lucky. Especially with margin trading, if the price suddenly starts growing rapidly, the trader will need to spend a lot of their own money to buy enough BTC to reimburse the lender (broker).

Luckily, there is a new solution on the market that takes most of the risk out of shorting Bitcoin.

BSHORT: shorting Bitcoin the safe way

Bitcoin Short is a new ERC20 token issued by Decentracapital. Its price is inversely linked to that of Bitcoin: when one falls, the other rises. Thus, if the exchange rate of BTC drops by 10%, BSHORT will gain 10%. Every token is 100% backed by Bitcoin swaps, futures, and options owned by Decentracapital, which will prevent any unexpected price fluctuations: Bitcoin Short will always move in the opposite direction from BTC.

As with any ERC20 token, BSHORT can be traded on decentralized exchanges. This means that shorting Bitcoin on a DEX will finally be possible. Up until now, short positions in BTC were only available on centralized crypto exchanges.

What's more, since you’re not under any obligation to sell your BSHORT on any specific date, you can hold it for as long as you like – or until the BTC price falls as much as you'd like it to. Meanwhile, you can store your Bitcoin Short tokens in any wallet that supports ERC20 or in Metamask.

Decentracapital aims to ensure that trading spreads remain very low while liquidity keeps growing, which will make Bitcoin Short an attractive asset for active traders. BSHORT is already listed on three exchanges: Bitcratic, ForkDelta, and LedgerDex. Recently, Decentracapital signed an agreement with Livecoin, an exchange from the CoinMarketCap Top 10. In September, the token will begin trading on Coinbene, followed by several more exchanges in late 2019.

If you'd like to know more about Bitcoin Short or buy the token using Metamask, visit decentracapital.com.

Moscow administration launched a call for bids and waiting for competing for offers from developers who can create a blockchain-based platform for public services.

The People's Bank of China announced its readiness to launch its own digital currency based on the blockchain technology. But this will not lead to any changes in Beijing's monetary policy.

Global spending on blockchain solutions will reach $15.9 billion by 2023, with the combined annual growth rate over five years to exceed 60%.

Many attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges were executed by hacker units created by the Chinese authorities, researchers suggest. Hackers also help gather economic and political intelligence data.