Blockchain-Enabled SIM Card For Crypto Investors Fuels Conflux Growth; Bitcoin BTC price hovering around $27.3k after Fed decision

A hopeful day ends with a slump

The US Federal Reserve took the obvious path of least resistance, raising interest rates by 25 basis points to shatter investor hopes that it would become more dovish after a banking crisis that has shaken confidence in traditional financial services firms and the strength of the US Dollar.

Bitcoin hesitated immediately after the bank’s decision before steadily lower, even falling below $27,000. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap recently traded at $27,375, down 3.5%. Earlier in the day, BTC surged above $28,700 as markets hoped for an end to the year-long regime of Fed rate hikes.

“Risk aversion was able to drag bitcoin lower as market fears returned amid banking worries and a rapidly weakening economy,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at forex market maker Oanda, wrote in an email. “The Fed may be done tightening, but the risk of something else breaking in the financial sector remains elevated.”

Ether also plummeted from highs above $1,800 to its more recent $1,737. The second largest cryptocurrency in market value lost more than 3.3%. Almost every other major crypto by market cap in CoinDesk’s top 25 was significantly down, with the main exceptions being APT, the token on Layer 1 blockchain Aptos, and LTC, the native crypto on open-source blockchain Litecoin. They increased by more than 5% and 6%, respectively. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of the overall performance of the crypto market, recently fell 2.7%.

The crypto world, meanwhile, received its latest shocks when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned crypto exchange Coinbase that it was pursuing enforcement actions over securities breaches and filed a lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun over allegations of selling and dumping submitted unregistered securities. fraud and market manipulation. Tron was recently down 10%.

Oandas Moya described the allegations against Sun as “topical”.

“Market manipulation is a part of the crypto world that has yet to be cleaned up or even addressed almost entirely,” he wrote.

Everything you want to know about the Conflux blockchain SIM card

Tokens of Conflux blockchains have been among the top performers this year, up 1,700% since Jan. 1 — from 2 cents to over 40 cents — quickly reaching a market cap of over $800 million .

The growth is largely due to Coinflux’s deep roots in China and a blockchain-enabled SIM card (BSIM) touted as a unique gateway for everyday users to interact with cryptocurrency-based applications.

These will be built in partnership with China Telecom, the second-biggest mobile operator in China with an estimated 390 million subscribers, CoinDesk has reported. China Telecom will launch the first BSIM pilot program in Hong Kong later this year, Conflux Network said at the time. This is likely to be followed by pilot projects in key locations in mainland China, such as Shanghai. The BSIM card manages and stores the user’s public and private keys in the card and performs digital signatures in a way that the private key does not leave the card. Users who switch to a BSIM card can securely store digital assets, conveniently transfer their digital assets, and view their assets in a variety of applications. CoinDesk spoke to Ming Wu, Conflux’s Chief Technology Officer, to learn more about BSIM, Conflux’s future plans, the differences between the card and how to use BSIM.

CoinDesk: How does the BSIM card work and how is it different from a standard SIM card?

Ming: The BSIM card essentially integrates the hardware crypto wallet functionality into the SIM card. It can manage and store users’ public and private keys in the card and perform digital signatures in such a way that the private key does not leave the card. The BSIM card can also enable encrypted storage and key retrieval. The BSIM card has more than 10 times the storage capacity and computing power of a conventional SIM card.

CD: How does the BSIM card lower the barrier to entry for Metaverse applications?

Ming: Nowadays, there are a huge number of SIM card users. Most of them are users in the traditional world and outside the Web3 world. They are all potential users that can be converted to Web3 users with the upgrade to the BSIM card. We are developing a mobile app that wraps access to the BSIM card that will help these users to manage their digital assets based on their traditional habits and without knowledge of crypto keys. This makes it easier for them to participate in Web3 and Metaverse activities. Meanwhile, for the original crypto users, the BSIM card makes accessing the hardware wallet much more convenient. It offers users a good compromise between security and comfort. So it will be very attractive to these crypto users as well.

CD: What are the main advantages of the BSIM over a crypto wallet?

Ming: The main benefit of the BSIM card is that it offers the security of a hardware cold wallet while providing the convenience and portability. Users can get very high security of their wallet simply by equipping their mobile phones with the BSIM card. And this will not affect your normal phone usage experience.

CD: What are the possible disadvantages of the BSIM?

Ming: There will be a little disadvantage for some users who are very concerned about their privacy. In some regions, especially mainland China, the BSIM card must be purchased with KYC so that your mobile phone number can be linked to your public key account. From another perspective, this might not be a weak point as it makes the way of using such crypto wallets in China more compliant and easier to get support from the Chinese government. And this also makes it possible to link users’ on-chain information in the virtual world with a set of off-chain information in the real world, unifying the metaverse and the real universe.

CD: What are the product development timelines? When do you expect a prototype to be tested in Hong Kong?

Ming: We built prototype chips and tested them on the Conflux network. The feasibility has been checked. We are planning volume production together with our partner China Telecom. We expect production to launch in Hong Kong later this year.

With policy changes, increased support for blockchain technology and Justin Sun moving the Asian headquarters of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi from Singapore to Hong Kong, Hong Kong has a very friendly policy towards the crypto industry. And it has ever closer ties with mainland China. It plays an appropriate role as a bridge connecting the Web3 industry in China to the broader global market.

CD: What role will Conflux play in this growth?

Ming: Conflux is the only lawful blockchain in China. It features solid technical design, implementation and maintenance supported by a world-class team with strong technical expertise. So, of course, Conflux will take the leading role in helping Hong Kong and Mainland China to carry out their expansion in the Web3 space.

Bitcoin continues to trade around $28,000 as crypto investors await the Federal Reserve’s announcement on interest rates. According to the CME tool FedWatch, analysts assume that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by a quarter point. Callie Cox, Investment Analyst at eToro, and Markus Thielen, Head of Research and Strategy at Matrixport, joined the conversation.

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