As Bitcoin's (BTC) price continues to trade in a tightening range, the altcoin market has been pushing higher each week, and the most recent surge has come from Chainlink (LINK). After breaking above the $5 level, LINK's price surged nearly 100% in a matter of days and ended by making a new all-time high at $8.40. Through this massive push, LINK surpassed EOS and Crypto.com (CRO) to claim a spot among the top ten cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap. Investors are now curious to see if Tezos (XTZ) will continue to follow LINK, and there are expectations that other altcoins will also follow LINK’s upward trajectory. What pushed LINK's price to $8.50? LINK has proven to be one of the strongest movers in the cryptocurrency markets of recent years. This was proved once again as the cryptocurrency broke above the previous all-time high of $5 and surged with 85% toward $8.50. In a previous article, a target of $7.00–$7.25 was established using the Fibonacci extension tool. However, LINK overshot that target by a mile. As the chart shows, the rally might be temporarily over, as sellers are stepping in, but this will only be confirmed if the daily candle closes as shown on the chart above. Currently, the candle shows a giant wick on the upside, indicating that there’s more sell than buy pressure. Aside from the candle, such a giant move is due for a corrective move, so it is good to review the levels to watch for potential support. The four-hour chart shows a bright support/resistance flip of the $5.70 level, which caused continuation and the price to accelerate toward $8.50. The most likely scenario is a test of the previous high for support; in this case, the $6.50–$6.60 level. A potential wick toward the $6.20 level is an area to watch for. If this zone holds, a renewed test of the highs at $8.50 is likely to occur. If the $6.50 level is lost, further downward pressure is likely to occur on the markets with a potential retest of the $5 level. LINK/BTC pair breaks out The LINK/BTC pair shows a massive breakout as well. The resistance zone at 0.00055000 sats was tested several times before the breakout occurred. This price action is actually quite similar to the resistance zone of Bitcoin that is encountering at $10,000 to $10,500. As the saying goes, the more often a resistance gets tested, the weaker it becomes. In the case of Bitcoin, the resistance zone at $10,000 to $10,500 has been a tough area to surmount for a year already, and for LINK, the 0.00055000 sats barrier has been a resistance zone for seven months. As the breakthrough of the resistance zone occurred, massive acceleration took place, but the chart is showing signs of overextension on the upside. For this reason, a corrective motion is likely to occur. In that case, the potential levels of interest should be the previous resistance at 0.00055000 sats and the area between 0.00065000–0.00066500 sats. When Chainlink moves, Tezos follows Once Chainlink moves, Tezos tends to follow. However, in the previous months, Tezos has been lagging heavily, but the price finally made a strong move over the weekend. XTZ/USDT has been showing strength in the previous days and currently faces the final hurdle before a new all-time high. The pair secured support at the $2.40 level before continuation and acceleration toward $3 occurred. The next step to watch for is a test of the $2.70–$2.77 level for support. If that level sustains support, it’s likely that XTZ/USDT will break through the $3 barrier and test the all-time high. The $3 resistance area has been tested three times now, and it’s possible that another test of the resistance zone will see the price finally push through it. If XTZ/USDT breaks above $3, it’s assumed we’ll start accelerating and get a similar move to Chainlink. And that similar move means a new all-time high. XTZ/BTC breaks above the 100-day moving average The XTZ/BTC pair is also showing strength, as it recently broke above the 100-day MA. This is also the case with the XTZ/USDT pair. If the previous resistance area at 0.00002900–0.00002950 sats continues to hold for support, a support/resistance flip will be achieved. Once this support/resistance flip is confirmed, continuation to the upside is likely to occur, and traders will set their targets around the all-time high zone around 0.00003700–0.00003800 sats. If Tezos manages to break through the all-time high levels, the sky's the limit and savvy traders can look to the Fibonacci extensions in order to determine new targets.

A new survey finds crypto holders to be a savvy but media-influenced group, and small but growing fast. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has authoritatively conducted a financial survey on cryptocurrencies, featuring a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 respondents. It's one of the most comprehensive crypto surveys around, diving deep in an effort to seriously assess the risk cryptocurrencies pose to consumers in order to craft a more informed regulatory response to them. It's kind of awkward, then, that the survey found that the vast majority of cryptocurrency owners are very well informed about it, regard it as more of a fun gamble rather than a serious investment, tend to buy only small amounts, very rarely purchase it with borrowed money, are under no illusions as to their lack of legal protections and are mostly perfectly happy with their purchases. In this case, the nanny state arrived only to find that the children had already brushed their teeth, tucked themselves into bed and gone to sleep at a sensible hour. It must have come as a real disappointment to everyone hoping for an excuse to whip the brats into shape. Still, the FCA's survey is an eye-opener with a few particularly eye-catching results. 1. 42% of respondents last year said they had heard of cryptocurrency. 73% said so this year. Informal estimates say cryptocurrency awareness in late 2017 was at roughly 200% (everyone and their dog), but by 2019, 58% of survey-goers were saying they'd never heard of it. This year only 27% said they'd never heard of it. It's a remarkable result for several reasons. Firstly as an example of how quickly something can fade from public consciousness, and secondly because of the recent growth it illustrates. Cryptocurrency awareness appears to have grown dramatically over the last year even without any big price bubbles to fuel it. It suggests a healthier, slower-burning type of growth than the industry previously experienced. Overall last year's numbers are somewhat lower than what US surveys found with the same question at a similar time, suggesting a lower level of cryptocurrency awareness in the UK than the US. While an estimated 73% of people have heard of cryptocurrency, only an estimated 5.35% said they have ever owned any. It's interesting to note that the growth in people who have ever owned cryptocurrency between last year and this year (3% to 5.35%) is almost perfectly equivalent to the growth in awareness in the same time. We can't say for sure why this is, but it loosely suggests that many cryptocurrency buyers make their purchases shortly after hearing about it for the first time instead of sitting on the decision for a year or more. 2. Bitcoin's forks are pretty well known If you had to guess which cryptocurrencies most people have heard of, you'd probably guess Bitcoin. But you probably wouldn't have guessed Bitcoin SV... unless you're a Bitcoin SV enthusiast in which case you're probably surprised it's that low, given that it's obviously the one true Bitcoin and it's going to take over the world and all. You'd probably find different results in different countries – Bitcoin SV is largely based in the UK – and it naturally goes hand in hand with interest in Bitcoin Cash. The high level of awareness of Libra may not be especially surprising either and really goes to show how impactful it was despite its failure to launch as intended. Although it's still funny to note that more people literally believe in astrology than have heard of Facebook's Libra. One of the more surprising results here is the absence of XRP. The former crypto market darling was one of the most popular cryptocurrencies on UK-oriented trading platform eToro in mid 2018, but now it's relatively unknown. However, it's worth emphasising that the above table shows the results among all those who had heard of cryptocurrency, rather than those who own it. Awareness of more coins was significantly higher among those who actually owned crypto, with 77% of crypto owners recognising 3 or more different cryptocurrencies. 3. Media coverage matters, advertising works Media coverage, including both traditional media and online media in equal shares, is the main way most people are first introduced to cryptocurrency, especially this year compared to last year. Last year more people were hearing about it by word of mouth or advertising, but this year it's mostly in the news. Advertising also makes a difference. Assuming the survey results can actually be generalised to the whole country, 45% of all current and previous UK cryptocurrency owners said they had seen a cryptocurrency-related advertisement, and of that, 35 % said it made them more likely to buy cryptocurrency.

During the last few years, cryptocurrency enthusiasts have explored blogging and content publishing websites that are powered by digital currencies. Recently, two new publishing websites that utilize cryptocurrencies have been gathering traction. The crypto powered blogging platform Publish 0x pays users to read content and blog using 11 different digital assets. The website Read.cash is a Bitcoin Cash-centric platform that lets people write articles with videos and images in order to earn BCH. [Read.cash: A Bitcoin Cash-Powered Blogging Platform](https://read.cash/r/DCR) Blogging sites are very popular and many believe content publishing and cryptocurrencies go hand in hand. There have been platforms like Yours, Steemit, Mamby, Sola, and Honestcash but so far among the myriad of attempts, none of the publishing portals have gained the momentum captured by incumbent blogging sites. The first is Read.cash, a blogging platform that was revealed a few weeks ago and has quickly become a favorite among BCH proponents. The project’s creator notes that Read.cash was just recently launched and there are still a few features coming in the future according to the platform’s roadmap. “If you are a writer or creator of any kind – write an article about something interesting, add images and video — Anyone who upvotes your post will send you bitcoin cash to your online wallet and you can use it to buy stuff,” the Read.cash website FAQ explains. The message adds: If you are a reader, you can support the authors you like by sending them money via the upvote button. 90% goes to the author, 10% goes to read.cash to support the development and promotion of the platform. Signing up for Read.cash is easy and after registering, a bitcoin cash wallet is created in your browser. The creators of the project “prefer to stay anonymous for now” and private keys are kept in the user’s browser only. “The upvote payments are done peer-to-peer on Bitcoin Cash blockchain,” the blogging site’s creators detail. Alongside this, newcomers to the website can peruse through the list of guides that explain how people can format posts with images and videos. Looking at the blogging site’s main feed shows that BCH fans are using the platform regularly with posts covering a lot of different subjects. [Sign Up to Read.cash and earn Bitcoin Cash ](https://read.cash/r/DCR) [Publish 0x: A Crypto-Agnostic Publishing Platform Open to Select Authors](https://www.publish0x.com?a=zPdyP6VnbQ) Another blogging website that rewards users in BCH and 10 other digital currencies is the platform Publish 0x. Essentially the publishing application lets people earn crypto for creating, reading and watching content. Currently, the “earn by blogging” aspect of Publish 0x is still in beta and to become a publisher users will need to gain an invite. Publish 0x supports a variety of different digital assets like BTC, BCH, BNB, BAT, and LTC. According to the Publish 0x team, the platform paid out $14,500 in digital currencies in October and within that pool of funds, 32 BCH was dispersed. According to the user FAQ, when tipping, both the reader and author earn crypto and tips are free for both types of users as well. The creators stress on the website that “Publish0x is not trying to become a social network.” Instead, the focus is aimed at producing quality content and Publish0x “is a publishing platform open to select approved authors.” “Other ‘crypto blogging’ platforms are powered by their own token only,” the Publish0x website FAQ emphasizes. “[These platforms] claim to be decentralized when really the balance of power lies with the founders and the biggest holders of their own token. We will be crypto agnostic.” Just like digital currencies, in time publishing platforms that allow users to be rewarded will change the way blogging sites work. Blogs and content publishing platforms bring people together and for readers and writers, it alleviates some of the stresses tied to real life. Instead of centralized institutions like Facebook or Medium profiting from user content, crypto-powered blogs and social media empower the community. Publish0x and Read.cash are two different platforms that provide people with the ability to earn crypto for providing quality content. If a user’s content is valuable, digital currency-powered blogs can provide them with the unique opportunity to directly monetize content. [Sign Up to Publish 0x and earn Ethereum](https://www.publish0x.com?a=zPdyP6VnbQ) Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/

Part 5 of 17 -Distributed Ledger A distributed ledger can be described as a ledger of any transactions or contracts supported by a decentralized network from across different locations and people, eliminating the need for a central authority. All the information on it is securely and accurately stored using cryptography and can be accessed using keys and cryptographic signatures. Any changes or additions made to the ledger are reflected and copied to all participants in a matter of seconds or minutes.