Bitcoin price analysis: BTC/USD in the green as Coinbase introduces Bitcoin 'Child Pays for Parent’ System

Cryptocurrencies kicked off the week making lower corrections. Notably, the volatility in the market has been at some of the lowest levels as discussed a Bitcoin price analysis published earlier in the week. As predicted that analysis BTC/USD spiked briefly during the Asian trading hours on Thursday. The Bollinger bands consolidation broke out of the range that was capping gains at $6,480.

Bitcoin is up 1.32% on the day after trading highs of $6,598.79. Failure to break above the key resistance at $6,600 has resulted in the crypto trimming some of the intraday gains. Bitcoin is currently changing hands at $6,548 while settling in a bullish flag pattern on the 15-minutes chart.

Applying technical indicators to the chart of BTC/USD, we see that the bulls still have the upper hand, at least for now. The price is trading above both the 50SMA and the 100SMA. At the same time, the MACD is ranging in the positive territory. On the contrary, the RSI has retreated from the overbought levels and is currently at the 48% mark.

A break above the bullish flag pattern could see BTC/USD increase the gains above $6,600. Moreover, in case of declines progressing, the 50SMA currently at $6,509.37 will try to stop the movement south. The 100SMA will offer support at $6,478.13 on the same 15-minutes chart. At press time, Bitcoin price is likely to move sideways as the bulls push for a breakout from the flag pattern.

In other news, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S. Coinbase has announced a new service geared towards improving Bitcoin transactions. The new technique is referred to as the Child Pays for Parent (CPFP). The new product is focusing on customer experience on the platform. The announcement by Coinbase reads:

“Blockchain transaction fees can be notoriously volatile. Learn how our engineering team is using a technique called Child Pays for Parent to improve the reliability of #Bitcoin transactions for our customers. #CPFP.”

According to the blog post, the CPFP has been designed to balance the transaction fee as well as the speed of transaction verification. The system sends another (second) transaction (child in this case) that has a higher fee. This, in turn, raises the chances of the first transaction (parent) being picked by the network for confirmation. Here is an explanation by Coinbase:

“This is somewhat analogous to a pay-as-bid auction, which is structured as follows: potential buyers will submit bids at different prices, and the auctioneer will select the highest bidders as the winners.”

BTC/USD 15-minutes chart