One of the biggest advantages that cryptocurrencies have over their fiat counterparts is the decentralized status, which provides higher security, reduces attack risks, and ensures that coins are not controlled by a central entity. Despite this aspect, recent research has concluded that the majority of digital assets available on the market are centralized.

To put things better into perspective, CryptoCompare, which is a market data aggregator, has recently published a digital asset analysis for over 200 coins. The authors analysed the digital assets from a variety of different perspectives, and using more than 30 attributes. When doing the analysis, researchers considered the supply concentration, distribution, market cap, governance, volume data, regulatory classification, and decentralized status of the coins.

Despite the risks associated with Initial Coin Offerings, the trend has become extremely popular in areas throughout the world. In an effort to reduce the risk of fraud, money laundering and tax avoidance, several countries have banned ICOs.

South Korea was one of these, as the Financial Services Commission, a government department in-charge with financial policies and supervision, banned domestic ICOs in September 2017. Now, recent reports indicate that the South Korean National Assembly has proposed the idea of lifting the ban placed on domestic ICOs.

Given its versatility, Ethereum has grown to not only be known as a digital currency, but rather as a platform for creating innovative, crypto-based projects as well. In an effort to further encourage development of apps, services and tokens on the Ethereum platform, six large blockchain-related companies alongside with a Japanese venture capital firm, have decided to create the Ethereum Community Fund (ECF).

According to recent reports, the purpose of the ECF will be to fund projects and businesses that are part of the Ethereum ecosystem. At the beginning, the community fund will start with $100 million, raised by six projects alongside the venture capital firm. Reports indicate that the Ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin, will be part of the advisory body.

During the last couple of months, South Korea’s attitude on bitcoin and other digital currencies has begun to change, and recent reports now indicate that the country is considering new regulation. Before anything else, it is important to point out the fact that following China’s ban on ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges, numerous companies affected moved abroad to countries such as South Korea and Japan, where regulation was more lenient.

However, according to recent reports, there have been several proposals in South Korea, meant to prevent those who are underage from opening accounts on digital currency exchanges, while also taxing capital gains made from trading.

For many years, China was an extremely important member of the digital currency market, with over 90% of the global trading volume being conducted in the region. However, back in September, the Central Bank of China decided to crackdown on cryptocurrencies and hence ban Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and stopping exchanges from serving customers in China.

Following the crackdown, there have been many rumours that China was planning to resume trading, yet a recent statement from a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China dismisses these rumours.

Mt Gox, the now-defunct bitcoin exchange, has been out of the media headlines for a few years now, given the fact that it entered bankruptcy following the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars-wroth of bitcoin.

However, recent reports now indicate that the Mark Karpeles, the CEO of the digital currency exchange is considering the idea of launching an Initial Coin Offering, in order to revive the exchange. As controversial as this may sound, Mark Karpeles wrote a blog post detailing the possible implications of an Mt Gox ICO.

Judging by the recent price increases for digital currencies, more and more investors are considering the idea of getting their very own digital currency portfolio. However, as easy as it may sound, having a crypto portfolio with a high-yield potential can often be difficult if certain tips aren’t followed, and especially if investors are on a budget.

Therefore, when making digital currency investments, it is often essential to reach a perfect balance in your portfolio, by finding smart ways of diversifying it. In return, this will lead to an increase of the potential yield, while also reducing possible loses, based on market volatility.

During the last couple of months, Russia’s attitude towards Bitcoin and other digital currencies was quite conflicting, yet surely negative for the market. Recent reports indicate that the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has just ordered the government to begin drafting up legislation for digital currencies, ICOs and mining.

At this time, there are several reports available on what these laws will do, and what they will restrict.

In the past, raising money as a start-up required small companies to convince banks, investors and financial institutions to take big risks, by investing large amounts of money into unproven technology and ideals. However, this has changed with the appearance of Initial Coin Offerings, also known as ICOs.

For those who do not know, an ICO represents a crowdfunding event that start-ups and other companies use in order to raise money for their business venture. It is a form of symbiosis between the well-known Kickstarter projects and Initial Public Offerings. Therefore, upon making an investment, people receive tokens that will then increase in value when the company reaches success- therefore, companies are making their shares available to the investing public without having to get listed onto the stock market. However, it is important to point out that these tokens aren’t exactly shares of the company, yet as the start-up in question becomes more profitable, so will these tokens which can be traded on exchanges for real money.

In a short period of time, Ethereum has managed to gain a lot of popularity on the digital currency market, with millions of dollars-worth of investments being poured into the new, trustless, smart contracts technology, which has a huge potential to further revolutionize the way we transmit data of all kinds, and the security behind it.

The last couple of months have brought forward a couple of growths and decreases in value, so this article will focus on some of today’s main factors that will further encourage Ethereum development, adoption and popularity. Additionally, Vitalik Buterin, has recently mentioned that: “I would say that Ethereum’s main benefits are in its generality and in its utility to many kinds of industries. There are applications in finance, identity, supply chain tracking, health care, energy and many other areas. This is a result of Ethereum deliberately being designed as a general-purpose programming platform.”