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South Korea Allows Cryptocurrency Trading for Real-Name Registered Accounts Six Korean banks will begin allowing the simultaneous opening of accounts, deposits and withdrawals, as well as transfers of funds between these accounts and exchanges, beginning on January 30, 2018, but with some new restrictions. South Korea’s government continues its efforts to rein in the trading of virtual currencies such as ether and bitcoin with a new announcement from South Korea’s Financial Services Commission. Investors will now be required to convert their virtual bank accounts to real-name bank accounts in order to continue trading. Deposits and withdrawals are allowed only between real-name bank accounts and matching crypto-exchange accounts within the same bank. The “real name” registration system for cryptocurrency trading will begin by January 30, 2018, with six banks, which include Nonghyup Bank and Shinhan Bank. Koreans have found cryptocurrencies to be an attractive high-yield investment option; it is estimated that South Korea accounts for 20 percent of bitcoin trades worldwide. The Korean government has been trying to restrict crypto-trading recently, raiding major exchanges and floating ideas such as bans on domestic trading. A statement from the Office for Government Policy Coordination reflected an increased level of frustration with speculative investing in cryptocurrencies: “[We] can’t let this abnormal situation of speculation go on any longer.” The South Korean government also said this week that it is planning to collect corporate and income taxes at a collective rate of 24.2 percent from local cryptocurrency exchanges this year. Today’s announcement is also seen as a method to curb money laundering and fraud in addition to providing what should be a simpler and more acceptable (to the government) method of trading crypto in South Korea. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/south-korea-allows-cryptocurrency-trading-real-name-registered-accounts/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/koreaexch.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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EdgeSecure’s Paul Puey: “Digital Security Will Take Place on the Edges” Security is one of the hottest topics in today’s ever-evolving digital world. A steady flow of debate continues to take place at tech forums worldwide on topics like encryption, passwords, two-factor authentication, hardware wallets and the like. As cryptocurrencies and the tools being used to manage them take shape, questions loom about the most efficacious ways to protect both user assets and privacy. One individual who is at the epicenter of this active space is Paul Puey. He is co-founder and CEO of EdgeSecure, a blockchain-inspired, decentralized, open-source, zero-knowledge, global information security solution platform. Airbitz, his signature enterprise was birthed in 2013 as a bitcoin wallet provider and merchant directory. Today, he’s orchestrating a rebrand of this wallet, now called EdgeSecure. In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Puey talks about the tricky balance between new security and privacy measures being introduced and user experience. He also explores an emerging theme called “securing the edges” that forms the basis of his current work BM: What sort of problems are you attempting to solve these days? PP: The aspect of cryptocurrency we initially wanted to address revolved around how to effectively use secure keys. That was the impetus behind our decision to build a feature rich, functionally rich wallet at Airbitz over the years. We feel like this has really differentiated us in the whole area of key management. BM: How does your concept of EdgeSecure fit in here? PP: Our goal has been to broaden Airbitz by turning our key management standard into a platform for other apps. Even before we rebranded, we were already using the term Edge Security to examine how to come up with a solution that’s different from enterprise security. We view our approach as fundamentally different in the sense that we’re not trying to make a router or server more secure. Rather, our aim is to take data and secure it before it ever hits a device. In short, we are able to secure data before it goes out onto a network or server. People and their devices are what we are trying to secure. That’s where the term Edge comes from — before a user’s data ends up on their device, goes out to a network, goes onto a server — the encryption of that data happens first, as we say, “on the edges.” BM: But what about server networks? PP: We still believe that server security is important. But the visibility and encryption of that data all happens first before the data gets saved, broadcast and sent out on the network or gets onto a server. The concept of making data private and secure to the point where only the user can access it “on the edges” has never been an area of focus for cybersecurity companies. BM: So, in a nutshell, how does all of this actually work? PP: It works through a combination of technologies we’ve had for decades but have never been packaged the way we are seeking to. The technology that we’ve developed involves encrypting data on the client side. Most of the software out there doesn’t do this. Rattle off any app that you are running on your computer or your phone, and the data you generate and create is not encrypted, let alone automatically backed up. BM: Are there other security measures you’ll be employing? PP: We’ve also added two-factor authentication, although I fundamentally hate it from a user experience point of view. Two-factor is particularly problematic and a poor approach if the second factor for authorizing access is a phone number or email address. It’s better than nothing, but it’s not what one would consider to be “good two-factor.” BM: Is there a solution to this? PP: Yes, since 2015, we’ve been employing what we call “one touch, two-factor,” where we take two-factor and make it invisible by baking it in our Airbitz app. This eliminates the need for notification by SMS or email, or via an app like Authy or Google Authenticator. BM: Can you talk a bit about password recovery? This can be a big issue with crypto users. PP: It is indeed. Think about this for a moment: If you lose your mobile phone or other type of device, in the Google Authenticator world you have just lost your access completely. So, it’s up to the service you are using to determine a recovery mechanism. What’s interesting is that some services don’t give you one. Others offer recovery via email, SMS, or other similar mechanism which then introduces the same issue. We, therefore, believe in recovery via time lock, where your account is locked for a period of time before you can reset it. BM: In the meantime, are there ways to prevent users from losing their password in the first place? PP: There is some psychology involved here. Part of our philosophy at EdgeSecure is to carefully align technology with humanity. This involves a recognition of the fact that we’re all fallible beings, that we do forget passwords. One step we employ to help people not forget passwords is to ask them to voluntarily enter it from time-to-time when they go to access their app. Our intent is to give them the opportunity to change it if they forget it at that moment. BM: How exactly does this work? PP: We have an algorithm inside of the app that has what we call a reminder “step off,” based on users actually entering it. This “step off” is how frequently we remind you based on how many times you’ve actually entered the password in the past. Obviously, you can get into the app with a pin, thumbprint and now facial ID. But if you lose that device, the password is the only way to get back on. BM: This seems like an idea that other tech solution providers will likely want to pick up on. PP: No doubt. We fashion ourselves as the world’s only password recovery for encrypted data. While that, in and of itself, is a patentable idea, we’ve opted to not patent, in the name of open source, open collaborative effort. BM: What sort of criticism do you hear from the crypto community? PP: One of the main ones we get is that we are not as secure as a hardware wallet. These criticisms come from people that often harbor the biggest fears of something that I have yet to see happen, namely, a person losing crypto from a device attack. Sure, you might hear of publications espousing theoretical exploits. But I haven’t seen evidence of a mass exploit with cryptocurrency taken on a device with encrypted data. Yet there are millions, if not billions, of dollars being poured into solutions for that problem. BM: Aren’t hardware wallets a great resource then for those who have these concerns? PP: They can be. But it’s important to keep in mind that with hardware wallets, the attack vector isn’t someone getting into it digitally over the internet. Rather, the attack vector is the individual user. I can’t count the number of people who say to me after purchasing a hardware wallet, “Now, I’m secure!” I then ask them, what did you do with the backup information? Often they’ll say, “I put it on Google Drive.” My response: “You did what? That’s the worst thing you could possibly do with the private key.” BM: Finally, what are your thoughts regarding security vulnerabilities among centralized exchanges? PP: It’s a big concern, no doubt. Coinbase is obviously the most recognizable example in the crypto world, but I don’t think that their model can survive long term. I’d describe them as a $15 billion piñata for hackers. Yes, they haven’t been hacked and I believe a combination of luck and skill has prevented that from occurring. BM: So do you believe that it’s just a matter of time before a serious hack occurs? PP: Let me say this. One of the hardest aspects of centralized security is that it doesn’t scale. In other words, the bigger you get, the harder it is for you to secure. And as the pot becomes bigger, you have to hire and entrust more and more people inside the company. So it takes just one bad apple with access and there goes a lot of user money. BM: Where do you see this security space headed? PP: In the next 3–5 years, we should actually see a trend where users will seek out what I call Edge-secured apps, where people can control their own data. These encryption and Edge solutions will be invisible to those using the app, which will go a long way toward enhancing user experience along with security and privacy. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/edgesecures-paul-puey-digital-security-will-take-place-edges/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/Puey_Interview.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Physical Bitcoins: Our Hands-On, End-to-End Review of Opendime Opendime is a tiny USB flash drive that can be loaded with bitcoin by the first user and given to another user, who is, in turn, able to pass it along to a third user and so forth. The private key attached to each Opendime is generated by the device at the time of setup by the user: It is not known by anyone, not even by the first owner or by the Opendime company itself. Opendimes can be passed along multiple times to other users and verified. An Opendime stick can only be redeemed by the last user, who must break the device to access the private key and import it into a bitcoin wallet. A pack of three Opendimes can be ordered for $37.50. Though perhaps too technically demanding for casual Bitcoin users and arguably too expensive for transferring small values (the device is useless after getting the funds out), Opendimes are certainly usable as physical bitcoins. “Opendime transactions are a little different from blockchain transactions,” notes the Opendime FAQ. “Whenever two people meet and trade goods or services for an Opendime, you could say a transaction has occurred, and yet there is nothing recorded on the blockchain. This is different from a normal bitcoin wallet which makes blockchain records continuously and can create a complex web of connections, which can later be explored by anyone.” In other words, Opendimes can be used as totally anonymous, untraceable bitcoin cash. It is possible to do something similar with a paper wallet by printing a bitcoin address and its private key and then passing the paper wallet to another user, with no trace of the transaction recorded on the blockchain. “It is much more private because there is no subsequent blockchain transactions to track,” confirmed Opendime developer Rodolfo Novak in conversation with Bitcoin Magazine. But the problem with using paper wallets in this way is that, somewhere along the transaction trail, someone could copy the private key and take the funds at any point after passing the paper wallet to the next user. Opendime solves this problem by hiding the private key, only revealing it to the last user who must break the device to take funds out. Users of Opendime sticks can choose to pass their stick along to different owners only a few times before being emptied and destroyed, or they can treat their stick like physical cash, allowing it to change hands many times over years or decades. Novak confirmed that, according to user feedback, both scenarios are well used. With bitcoin exchanges under increasing regulatory pressure, it seems likely that face-to-face exchanges like LocalBitcoins could become more popular, which could boost the adoption of Opendime. Novak confirmed that, indeed, users are pre-loading Opendimes and using them to sell bitcoin via LocalBitcoins. According to Novak, Opendime is not vulnerable to regulatory actions because “the devices are ‘point solutions’ without any central service to be regulatory ‘captured.’” Legally, Opendime is a trademark/product of Coinkite Inc., a company founded by Novak and Peter Gray and based in Toronto, Canada. Novak is skeptical of the possibility that Canadian regulators could order Coinkite to stop producing and selling Opendimes. “We and our lawyers don’t believe that’s a possible scenario,” he said. Opendime documentation claims the sticks will last for decades under normal usage conditions; however, Opendime hasn’t been around for decades, so there’s no way to know for sure. But, as Novak explained, the microchip used in each Opendime is rated for 25-100 years, as per the data sheet (page 816) linked in the FAQ. “A few users have put it through a lot of abuse, washing machines, freezing, water, etc. and it survived,” said Novak Novak also stated that it’s not practically possible to make a counterfeit because the device has a high security chip with a factory key just for that reason. “They would have to break our private key, which is practically impossible,” said Novak. “Not even with a few tens of millions of dollars could they peel the chip and try to use an electron microscope to get our key because our chip choice also protects against peeling. So maybe a hundred million dollars could make that happen. If that happens the next batch would have a new key and they would have to spend the money again.” The possibility remains, however, that malicious parties could make fake Opendimes, with an identical look and user interface, which claim a fake balance confirmed by a fake verification process. Therefore, it’s important to check the provenance of the device. Novak explained that there are a few ways for users to check an Opendime signature to verify it’s not counterfeit, including a Chrome extension, the Samourai Wallet, which supports Opendime natively, Electrum (coming soon) and an open-source script. Gray added that each Opendime ships with Python code for verification. “You can use a known-good Opendime to verify an unknown one,” he said. “No internet is required, and self-contained python code is used — just one command to be typed, which takes just seconds.” How It Works Anytime the stick is plugged into a computer, flickering green and red lights indicate its status. Only green means that the device is active; red indicates either that the device hasn’t been activated or that it has already been unsealed (broken) and can’t be used anymore. The lights work correctly even without a computer, with the stick connected to a USB charger or power pack. A file named index.htm on the stick provides all status information. Bitcoin Magazine tested an Opendime stick end-to-end. When we plugged the Opendime stick into a computer for the first time, the red light flickered. The index file warned, “Your Opendime is new and unused. Follow these steps to pick a private key,” and gave us detailed instructions. Following the instructions, we copied a few small files onto the device to seed a random number generator, which gets random bits from random.org. Once the private key was generated, the index file showed the stick’s Bitcoin address and a corresponding QR code. Besides the index file and two folders with programs and utilities, there are four files on the stick: Address.txt, Private-key.txt, Qrcode.jpg and README.txt. The address and Qrcode files show the stick’s bitcoin address in both formats. The private-key file reads: “SEALED — See README.txt for details.” The README gives detailed instructions on how to use the Opendime stick, including how to verify that the device is authentic and how to get funds out. The index file shows two status check buttons: “Check Balance” and “Verify.” Pressing the Verify button resulted in the status message “VERIFIED: Your Opendime does have control over the secret private key corresponding to Bitcoin payment address.” The balance was zero, of course, because we hadn’t yet sent funds to the stick. We sent funds to the stick in multiple transactions from different users, physical locations and bitcoin wallets. After all the transactions were confirmed, the correct balance and previous transactions were displayed in the index file. Now our Opendime stick was active, loaded and ready to be passed along to other owners. If the stick has been loaded with, say, 10,000 bits (0.01 BTC, about $120 at the current exchange rate), the stick could be used as a physical coin carrying that value. At this point in the process, anyone in the ownership chain could decide to empty the stick and transfer the funds to their bitcoin wallet. To do that, the user must unseal the device by pushing a pin through a little circle marked on the back of the device. When this is done, the red light flickers and the index file displays a warning: “UNSEALED DO NOT send more funds to this address or accept this hardware as payment.” Clicking both status check buttons results in a further warning: “Bitcoin was spent from this address. If this is an Opendime address, this means it has been UNSEALED.” The private key is now shown in the index file. The Opendime team recommends using the Samourai wallet. However, we decided to experiment and create a new wallet on blockchain.info. We imported our Opendime private key (Settings – Addresses) and transfered the funds to the blockchain.info wallet, and then to an exchange. In summary, the Opendime stick passed our end-to-end test with flying colors. One caveat: At $13 a piece, Opendime sticks struck us as rather expensive for storing/transferring small amounts and may be better suited to large amounts of over $1,000 or so. “But $13 is actually very cheap as it’s amortized by multiple exchanges of the same unit,” Novak suggested. “Also, Bitcoin transactions are very often more than that.” This is a fair point, since the chain ownership transfer could go on for a very long time, with the stick potentially changing hands many times, just like physical cash. Novak also added that improvements and new features are in the works. Disclaimer: Opendime provided Bitcoin Magazine with free samples to use for the purposes of testing their product for review. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/physical-bitcoins-our-hands-end-end-review-opendime/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/opendreview.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Study Suggests 25 Percent of Bitcoin Users Are Associated With Illegal Activity In a newly published paper on the use of bitcoin for illegal activity, researchers from the University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney and the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga indicate that a quarter of all bitcoin users are associated with illegal activity. The use of bitcoin for illicit purposes has long been the most controversial aspect of the cryptoasset, although it has taken a back seat to speculation around the bitcoin price over the past few years. In addition to estimating the scale of illegal activity involving bitcoin, the research paper also claims this sort of activity accounts for a significant portion of bitcoin’s intrinsic, underlying value. Methodology In the paper, which was co-authored by Sean Foley, Jonathon R. Karlsen and Tālis J. Putniņš, publicly available information is used as the basis to identify an initial sample of users involved in illegal activity on the Bitcoin blockchain. Seizures of bitcoin by law enforcement, hot wallets of darknet markets, and Bitcoin addresses on darknet forums are used here, in addition to the trade networks of users who were identified in this data set. Additionally, the researchers use a formula of their own creation to detect users likely to be involved in illegal activity by analyzing the entire public blockchain up until the end of April 2017. The formula for detecting criminals on the blockchain involves a wide variety of metrics such as transaction count, transaction size, frequency of transactions, number of counterparties, the number of darknet markets active at the time, the extent the user goes to conceal their activity and the degree of interest in bitcoin in terms of Google searches at the time. “Bitcoin users that are involved in illegal activity differ from other users in several characteristics,” the paper says. “Differences in transactional characteristics are generally consistent with the notion that while illegal users predominantly (or solely) use bitcoin as a payment system to facilitate trade in illegal goods/services, some legal users treat bitcoin as an investment or speculative asset. Specifically, illegal users tend to transact more, but in smaller transactions. They are also more likely to repeatedly transact with a given counterparty. Despite transacting more, illegal users tend to hold less bitcoin, consistent with them facing risks of having bitcoin holdings seized by authorities.” The paper also notes that bitcoin transactions between illegal users are three to four times denser, meaning those users are much more connected to each other through their transactions. This is consistent, the paper says, with illegal users taking advantage of bitcoin’s use as a medium of exchange, while legal users tend to view the cryptoasset as a store of value. The Scale of Illegal Activity on the Bitcoin Network As with any research into the activities of criminals on the internet, it’s important to take the findings of this study with a grain of salt. Remember, this is a study on the activities of those who do not wish their activities to be discovered in the first place. For example, another study Bitcoin Magazine reported on last week indicated a much lower level of illegal activity — albeit limited to the concept of bitcoin laundering — on the Bitcoin network than what was found in the study being reported on today. Having said that, here are the levels of illegal activity on the Bitcoin network, according to the study: 24 million illicit users, which is 25 percent of all users 36 million illicit transactions per year, which is 44 percent of all transactions $72 billion worth of illicit transactions per year, which is 20 percent of the dollar-value of all transactions $8 billion in illicit bitcoin holdings at the time of the study 51 percent of all bitcoin holdings throughout bitcoin’s history have been illegal in nature The study compares Bitcoin’s black market to the markets for illegal drugs in the United States and Europe. In the United States, this market is worth $100 billion per year. In Europe, the market is 24 billion euros on an annual basis. “While comparisons between such estimates and ours are imprecise for a number of reasons (and the illegal activity captured by our estimates is broader than just illegal drugs), they do provide a sense that the scale of the illegal activity involving bitcoin is not only meaningful as a proportion of bitcoin activity, but also in absolute dollar terms,” the paper says. More Takeaways from the Paper While the amount of illegal activity taking place on the Bitcoin network appears to be relatively large, the paper indicates that the prevalence of this sort of activity has been declining since 2015 as more mainstream users have entered the market due to the interest in bitcoin as a store of value or speculative asset. The paper notes that the illegal activity involving bitcoin is inversely correlated to the number of searches for “bitcoin” on Google. “Furthermore, while the proportion of illegal bitcoin activity has declined, the absolute amount of such activity has continued to increase, indicating that the declining proportion is due to rapid growth in legal bitcoin use,” says the paper. The paper also indicates that privacy-focused altcoins, such as Monero and Zcash, may be cutting into bitcoin’s role as the currency of the online black market. The paper notes that it’s currently unclear if bitcoin is leading to an increase in black market activity or if this is simply offline activity moving onto the internet. “By providing an anonymous, digital method of payment, bitcoin did for darknet marketplaces what PayPal did for [eBay] — provide a reliable, scalable, and convenient payment mechanism,” the paper adds. According to the paper, this use case is the underlying value of the bitcoin asset. “Our paper contributes to understanding the intrinsic value of bitcoin, highlighting that a significant component of its value as a payment system derives from its use in facilitating illegal trade.” In addition to implications the online black market could have on the valuation of the bitcoin asset (a claim that is highly speculative as the bitcoin price has continued to see tremendous gains in the face of declining use for illicit payments), the paper adds that this realization also has ethical implications: those who choose to speculate on the bitcoin price may question whether they wish to provide liquidity for a payment system that enables illegal online transactions. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/study-suggests-25-percent-bitcoin-users-are-associated-illegal-activity1/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/typing-bitcoinmagazine.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Op Ed: Here’s What Paul Krugman Got Wrong in His Bitcoin Tweetstorm Like many other mainstream economists, Paul Krugman has long-shown a complete disdain for Bitcoin. In late 2013, he went as far as to write a piece titled “Bitcoin Is Evil” for his column in The New York Times. Moral objections to bitcoin are one thing, but Krugman also does not see much utility in the cryptoasset at all. While he has been able to express his hatred for Bitcoin quite clearly, his technical criticisms of bitcoin as a new type of asset and store of value leave something to be desired. In a tweetstorm on Sunday, January 21, 2018, Krugman illustrated his ignorance on the usefulness and utility of bitcoin around the world. Starts Out Well Enough With the Digital Gold Analogy Krugman’s tweetstorm started out well enough. In fact, the opening tweets were likely some of the nicest things the Nobel Laureate has ever had to say about bitcoin. “As I see it, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are in effect like digital gold coins, in the sense that they can’t be counterfeited … Cryptocurrencies use cryptographic techniques plus distributed storage to create non-material entities that are nonetheless impossible to fake,” tweeted Krugman. Digital gold is still the best analogy to sum up the digital asset’s value proposition, and the utility of bitcoin should become more apparent as the world moves deeper into a cashless society. In a cashless society, bitcoin would become the last financial bastion of freedom in a world where the global financial system is under complete control of governments. The Avoidance of Trusted Third Parties in Payments Is a Big Deal After those tolerable first few tweets, Krugman goes off the rails with the claim that online payments that don’t involve a trusted third party aren’t that important. “Cryptocurrency lets you make electronic transactions; but so do bank accounts, debit cards, Paypal, Venmo etc. All these other methods involve trusting a third party; but unless you’re buying drugs, assassinations, etc. that’s not a big deal,” tweeted Krugman. First all of all, there’s no reason to bring morals into an exploration of bitcoin’s utility. Either people will use it or they won’t. Whether you like what they’re doing is a different matter. Bitcoin’s use in darknet markets, ransomware, online gambling and other fringe areas cannot be ignored. Utility is utility. Secondly, not everyone has access to PayPal, Venmo, and other online payment platforms. These options are centralized and permissioned. They’re also highly regulated, which means plenty of people fall through the cracks and cannot gain access to them. Online freelancers in Venezuela take bitcoin because their government and payment platforms like PayPal have failed them. Interesting post on /r/Bitcoin from a Redditor who compares the different options for storing value in Venezuela. "I know a lot of people who sold everything they could to leave the country and took their money to bitcoins through @LocalBitcoins." https://t.co/dvmxu4ozhV pic.twitter.com/R3egCdmoLa — Kyle Torpey (@kyletorpey) December 1, 2017 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Krugman goes on to point out the clunkiness of Bitcoin as it exists today, and he’s generally correct on this front. But this does not mean there’s no utility here. In fact, the opposite is true: There is so much utility that it has become difficult to scale the system to all of the people who want to use it. Complaining about the lack of cheap, user-friendly payments on Bitcoin today is analogous to someone in 1995 complaining that the internet doesn’t have Netflix. Just give it a minute. Payment layers are currently being built on top of the base Bitcoin blockchain, with the Lightning Network being the most obvious example. The Claim That Bitcoin Has Nothing to Backstop Its Value Krugman then turned to the often-used argument that bitcoin lacks any sort of underlying value. This should come as a surprise, since he just laid out how it is useful for illicit digital payments. “Meanwhile, what backstops a cryptocurrency’s value? Paper money is ultimately backed by governments that will take it in payment of taxes (and central banks that will reduce the monetary base in case of inflation). Gold is actually useful for some things, like filling teeth and making pretty jewelry; that’s not most of its value, but it does provide a tether to reality, along with a 5000-year history,” tweeted Krugman. “Cryptocurrencies have none of that,” Krugman continued. “If people come to believe that Bitcoin is worthless, well, it’s worthless. Its price rise has been driven purely by speculation — by what Robert Shiller calls a natural Ponzi scheme, in which early entrants make money only [because] others buy in.” If bitcoin is useful for permissionless digital payments, then it has the same sort of underlying utility that the U.S. dollar has in the form of tax payments. Additionally, the U.S. dollar would also become worthless if people woke up one morning and came to believe that it was worthless. Of course, all of this misses the point anyway. How much of the value of all the U.S. dollars in the world comes from its use in tax payments? How much of the value of all the gold in the world comes from its use in electronics? Not much. Krugman misses that storage of value is also a form of utility, and bitcoin is the most uncensorable, unseizable store of value the world has ever seen. You can walk around with a passphrase in your head that can unlock access to thousands of bitcoins, and no one would be the wiser. Not to mention there is no centralized party that can inflate the supply. The Point of Market Manipulation Krugman also touched on the high potential for manipulation in the bitcoin market, pointing to a paper regarding the manipulation of the bitcoin price by now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, as an example. This is another claim with some basis in reality, but it ignores the massive amounts of manipulation and lack of transparency in the traditional financial system, which is what led to the creation of bitcoin in the first place. Through the use of cryptographic proofs, bitcoin has the potential to become much more transparent and trustless than the traditional financial system. Bitcoin’s monetary policy is already much more transparent than what goes on at the Federal Reserve. There’s a reason someone put up a “Buy Bitcoin” sign while Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen spoke against the need for further audits of the central bank. Bitcoin exchanges are highly centralized institutions, which opens the door for manipulation. However, these exchanges have also become much more regulated over time. Today, it’s far more difficult to run an exchange at the level of incompetence that was found at Mt. Gox. The potential for market manipulation should decline as the technology around bitcoin improves. Eventually, more trades may take place on decentralized exchanges, where it’s impossible to fudge the numbers. In his last tweet from his thread on Sunday, Krugman said it’s unclear if the Bitcoin blockchain — or any blockchain for that matter — is useful. Around $3 billion worth of bitcoin has been transacted on the Bitcoin network per day this year, according to Blockchain; $75 million worth of bitcoin per day was the norm the day Krugman first published an article on the subject. Krugman’s arguments, as well as arguments from other well-known economists, have not changed much since 2013, but the Bitcoin network has continued to grow. It’s possible that Krugman and his colleagues are unable to comprehend the usefulness of bitcoin as an asset because it does not fit into the regulated, controlled environment they’ve built their economic and political worldviews around. Bitcoin cannot be tamed, and they hate that. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/op-ed-heres-what-paul-krugman-got-wrong-his-bitcoin-tweetstorm/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/Krugman-tweet-thumbnail.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Potential Bearish Continuation Sets Up Lower Lows Shortly after a sharp drop from the mid $14,000 to the lower $9,000s, bitcoin saw a strong bounce to the upper $11,000s. At the time of this article, bitcoin appears to be consolidating and is ready to make its next move: Figure 1: BTC-USD, 1 Day Candles, Macro View In the previous BTC market analysis, we discussed the distribution trading range the market fell out of as it reached for lower support boundaries. Ultimately, it found support on the macro 50% retracement values near $10,000. Once it broke south of the trading range, the price fell sharply and with high volume: Figure 2: BTC-USD, 15 Minute Candles, Current Support and Resistance Levels After bouncing off the macro 50% values, the market rallied and ultimately tested the linear trendline shown in Figure 1. Now, after several failed attempts to break the linear trendline’s resistance, the market finds itself in a consolidation pattern where it decides where it will move next. Figure 3: BTC-USD, 60 Minute Candles, Potential Bear Flag One possibility to keep a close eye on is this potential, strong bear flag. After finding support on the macro 50%, the subsequent rally saw decreasing volume throughout the length of the movement. This sort of price action could potentially lead to a bearish continuation with a measure move between $4000 and $5000 — a price target of approximately $6,000 – $7,000. If a drop of this magnitude continues the downtrend, we can expect to find support on the 61% macro Fibonacci retracement values shown in Figure 1. It’s important to note that bitcoin has a penchant for breaking upwards when all signs say “down,” so tread lightly and wait for confirmation of the move. Confirmation of the bear flag breakout would show a pretty obvious outlier in volume, combined with wide price spread. Summary: Bitcoin recently saw a steep drop in price where it ultimately found a local bottom in the low $9,000s. Since it bottomed out, it has seen a rally on decreasing volume which leaves the door open for a bearish continuation. If the bearish continuation continues, expect support on the 61% macro retracement values. Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Media related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Media and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-price-analysis-potential-bearish-continuation-sets-lower-lows/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BitcoinPrice3.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Two New Services Could Help Investors Rate Cryptocurrencies Increasing interest in cryptocurrencies has led to an influx of new investors. Unlike traditional markets, there are few tools that can help people make informed decisions, a situation that has already begun to claim victims in a particularly volatile environment. In separate announcements, Weiss Ratings and Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) have announced the introduction of new financial tools to help investors navigate the cryptocurrency market and make smarter investments. Weiss Ratings, an established independent rating agency of financial institutions, says they will begin issuing ratings for cryptocurrencies on January 24, 2018, to help investors make informed decisions. ICE, an operator of a network of global futures, equity and equity options exchanges, is partnering with blockchain technology provider Blockstream to launch the Cryptocurrency Data Feed (CDF). Weiss Ratings Takes On Cryptocurrencies Founded in 1971, Weiss is an independent rating agency of financial institutions. They will begin issuing letter grades for cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, NEM, Litecoin, Stellar, EOS, IOTA, Dash, NEO, TRON, Monero, Bitcoin Gold and many others. According to Weiss Ratings founder Martin Weiss, the data they are using is a combination of purchased data and data collected through other sources. It is updated on a daily basis, covering a sliding 12-month window. Regressive testing to verify past data that the company uses to confirm predictions is still ongoing, but results have been accurate thus far, Weiss told Bitcoin Magazine. “We have built an analytical technology over the years using intelligent models to replicate the real world and we are applying [these] to cryptocurrenc[ies]. These have been very accurate for many years.” Ratings are built up across multiple indexes. The company built new models to reflect cryptocurrency data and developed an overall grading system that is broken down into four separate sub-models: Risk Index — The level of risk involved in the investment, based on factors like price activity and volatility. Reward Index — The potential reward outcome, based on historical patterns of buying and selling. Technology Index — A primarily manual process, where company analysts review the source code and white papers, analyze price movement and make ratings in a Query Tree (their internal software) to generate a quantitative result. Adoption Index — A measurement of adoption along two dimensions: how broadly it is adopted, transaction speed, settlement times, etc. “A weighted average of those 4 indices is used to get the final grade,” said Weiss. “The goal at Weiss is to empower the investor to make prudent decisions.” ICE Data Services: Real-Time Trading Data The Cryptocurrency Data Feed (CDF) is a multi-asset and multi-venue data feed, capturing nearly 80 percent of cryptocurrency exchange trading volume over more than 15 exchanges around the world. It measures leading cryptocurrencies against the U.S. dollar and other major currency pairs. The captured data is normalized to create a unique number sequence to identify the transaction, details of where the trade took place, quantity, price, currency, timestamp and other relevant order book data. This is designed to enable ICE Data Services’ customers to receive global market–representative trading data in a real-time feed with high-quality information. “With the broad array of cryptocurrencies and exchanges, and given the price variances between exchanges, it’s critical that investors have a comprehensive source of pricing information,” said ICE Data Services President and COO Lynn Martin in a statement. According to Blockstream SVP of Business Affairs Alex Fowler, the initial exchange partners set up through cooperative agreements include Bitbank, Bitfinex, BitMEX, Bitso, Bitstamp, BtcBox, BTCC, CEX, Coinfloor, Coincheck, itBit, GOPAX, OKEx, SurBTC, The Rock Trading, Unocoin, Vaultoro and Zaif, with more coming soon. The data is collected using the exchanges’ APIs and, in some cases, by setting up dedicated connections with them. The current feeds lack standardized formatting and information: part of what ICE is providing is a single source that consolidates and standardizes the data, which will average out the information from the multiple sources into a more accurate overall view. Historically, the data currently only goes back to the initial integration; however, Blockstream is working with the exchanges to try and incorporate older data as well. Fowler told Bitcoin Magazine, “We believe that a consolidated data source, resulting from the combined participation of a strong and growing list of exchange partners globally, will enable us to address these gaps and thereby promote better liquidity, price stability, and public confidence in cryptocurrency as asset class.” CDF will include bitcoin and a wide range of cryptocurrencies and currency pairings on launch; the final list will be on their website. ICE will develop and publish a selection of criteria for decisions on the addition and/or removal of assets in the feed. This will be an ongoing process as the market evolves. Access to the real-time CDF will be available to subscribers of ICE Data Services’ Consolidated Feed in March 2018. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/two-new-services-could-help-investors-rate-cryptocurrencies/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/investment-toolsbitcoin-magazine.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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What is Ripple? What is Ripple? Technically speaking, is Ripple a cryptocurrency in the mold of Bitcoin? The short answer is probably “no,” but that doesn’t stop it from often being lumped into that same category. What is Ripple? Originally released in 2012 as a subsequent iteration of Ripplepay, Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), currency exchange and remittance network. Using a common ledger that is managed by a network of independently validating servers that constantly compare transaction records, Ripple doesn’t rely on the energy and computing intensive proof-of-work used by Bitcoin. Ripple is based on a shared public database that makes use of a consensus process between those validating servers to ensure integrity. Those validating servers can belong to anyone, from individuals to banks. The Ripple protocol (token represented as XRP) is meant to enable the near instant and direct transfer of money between two parties. Any type of currency can be exchanged, from fiat currency to gold to even airline miles. They claim to avoid the fees and wait times of traditional banking and even cryptocurrency transactions through exchanges. How Is It Fundamentally Different From Bitcoin? It is the validating servers and consensus mechanism that tends to lead people to just assume that Ripple is a blockchain-based technology. While it is consensus oriented, Ripple is not a blockchain. Ripple uses a HashTree to summarize the data into a single value that is compared across its validating servers to provide consensus. Banks seem to like Ripple, and payment providers are coming on board more and more. It is built for enterprise and, while it can be used person to person, that really isn’t its primary focus. The main purpose of the Ripple platform is to move lots of money around the world as rapidly as possible. Thus far, Ripple has been stable since its release with over 35 million transactions processed without issue. It is able to handle 1,500 transactions per second (tps) and has been updated to be able to scale to Visa levels of 50,000 transactions per second. By comparison, Bitcoin can handle 3-6 tps (not including scaling layers) and Ethereum 15 tps. Ripple’s token, XRP, isn’t mined like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and many other cryptocurrencies. Instead, it was issued at its inception, similar in fashion to the way a company issues stocks when it incorporates: It essentially just picked a number (100 billion) and issued that many XRP coins. What is XRP and What’s It Used For? As a technology, the Ripple platform may have real value and real history that validate the claims they make for its efficacy. The XRP token itself, however, seems to have negligible use cases. In fact, Ripple had planned to phase it out — at least, until fevered interest in cryptocurrencies began to take off in 2016. Nevertheless, as CNBC noted today, if Ripple hits $6.57, its market capitalization will be bigger than Bitcoin’s. There are 100 billion XRP tokens that were issued by the Ripple company. At the moment, the company promises that this is the total number of XRP that there will ever be (though, technically, there is nothing to stop them from issuing more tokens in the future). Ripple’s hub-and-spoke design positions XRP in the middle as a tool that is fungible with any currency or digital asset, such as frequent flyer miles. Ripple can settle a payment in 3.5 seconds through XRP and have it available and spendable. The use of XRP is totally independent of the Ripple network in general; that is, banks don’t actually need XRP to transfer dollars, euros, etcetera which is what many small investors might be missing when they are buying the token. What Is Ripple’s Value Proposition? The value here is the Ripple network itself and its ability to move assets around the world quickly, rather than in the XRP token. Banks are able to use the Ripple software to shift money between different foreign currencies. Currently, this is typically accomplished using SWIFT, a system that is cumbersome and relies on the banks having separate accounts in every country they work in. Ripple says it has signed up more than 100 banks (compared to SWIFTs 11,000 financial institutions) including American Express. So Why All the Hype? While Bitcoin has seen a dramatic rise in price over the course of 2017, the end of the year saw the cryptocurrency almost breaking $20,000. As the price drove higher, we saw a massive increase in price for a large number of altcoins, with Litecoin jumping from $50 to nearly $400, Ethereum doubling, NEM and EOS going up by a factor of five, and the list goes on and on. The fear of missing out has driven many investors wild and “lower-priced” currencies are attractive to new investors who mistakenly think that the high price of an entire BTC puts the currency out of their reach. Add to all the hype the rumors that had been swirling on social media through December 2017, that Coinbase was going to list Ripple, which caused the price to surge, which in turn prompted Coinbase to address the rumors in a more generic fashion in this blog post on January 4, 2018: “As of the date of this statement, we have made no decision to add additional assets to either GDAX or Coinbase. Any statement to the contrary is untrue and not authorized by the company.” The Coinbase announcement caused a big drop in Ripple, back to around the same levels as before the rumors began. SInce then, Ripple has both dipped dramatically and recovered, as have many other volatile cryptocurrencies. While Coinbase doesn’t support Ripple, there are a number of ways for people to acquire Ripple, should they still want to. Words of Caution There has been a lot of ink used on criticizing Ripple as well. The complaint from Bitcoin and other blockchain enthusiasts is that Ripple’s centralized control is in direct contrast to the ideals and advantages of decentralized blockchains like Bitcoin. Ripple also maintains a trusted Unique Node List (UNL) that is meant to protect against potentially malicious or insecure validating servers. It is the UNL that controls the network rules, presenting a conundrum: On the one hand, it protects against problematic validators, but, in theory, a regulating body or government could come in and force a change that isn’t necessarily desirable or is downright invasive. Furthermore, because of a FinCEN violation and fine in 2013, Ripple has updated its policies and will only recognize and recommend gateways that are in compliance with financial regulations. New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper commented on Twitter that he has yet to find a bank that anticipates using the XRP token in any meaningful way. Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has denied Popper’s claims stating, “Over the last few months I’ve spoken with ACTUAL banks and payment providers. They are indeed planning to use xRapid (our XRP liquidity product) in a serious way.” However, as Popper points out, even the banks that he contacted at Ripple’s suggestion were non-committal in their plans to implement Ripple anytime soon. According to the Financial Times, of the 18 banks and financial services companies publicly linked to Ripple, most of them stated that they “had not yet gone beyond testing” while a few had moved on to using Ripple’s systems “for moving real money.” However, not one of the 16 companies that responded had used the XRP token. 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Cornell IC3 Researchers Propose Solution to Bitcoin’s Multisig “Paralysis” Problem Owning cryptocurrency comes with its own set of challenges. One of the biggest of those challenges is managing the private keys that enable you to spend funds. Lose your private keys, and your money is gone. In a business environment, a common way to manage funds owned by multiple people is via what’s called a multisignature (multisig) address, a type of smart contract requiring two or more parties to sign off on a transaction to move the funds. This can be problematic, however. Let’s say you have a three-of-three multisig that requires you and two business partners to sign off on a transaction. If one person dies, disappears or becomes incapacitated, those assets become frozen — a risk some might feel uncomfortable with when dealing with tens of thousands of dollars or more. One way to ameliorate that risk might be to opt for a two-of-three multisig, where only two instead of all three individuals need to sign off on a transaction. But that’s not a complete solution either. Two players could conspire against the other one and run off with the money. What now? If your funds are on the Ethereum blockchain, you could write a smart contract that would allow you to free the funds if one person in your trio disappeared. However, Bitcoin with its limited scripting language makes things more difficult. “This seems like an unsolvable problem if you think about the traditional tools,” said Ari Juels, a professor at Cornell Tech and co-director of the Cornell Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3). Paralysis Proofs In a paper titled “Paralysis Proofs: How to Prevent Your Bitcoin from Vanishing,” researchers Fan Zhang, Phil Daian, Iddo Bentov and Ari Juels from the IC3 outline how to deal with what happens when a party is unable, or unwilling, to sign off on a multisig transaction in Bitcoin. The solution involves a combination of blockchain technology and trusted hardware — Intel SGX, in this case. Trusted hardware allows you to run code inside a protected enclave. Even a computer’s own operating system is unable to access data inside an enclave, so if your computer were to be hacked, the code in the enclave would remain secure. IC3’s solution proposes replacing a trusted third party, such as a lawyer or a bank, who would put money in an escrow, with a trusted hardware solution that retains control of a master key to the funds. If one of the three people in the contract dies, the other two initiate a “paralysis proof.” That proof is based on a challenge sent to the missing third person. If the missing person responds to the challenge, the money stays put. If the missing person does not respond, the trusted hardware releases the funds to the remaining two players. Trusted hardware is only part of the solution, however. If the third person were to try and respond to the challenge request with an indication she is still alive, conceivably, the other players could intercept that message. To ensure that does not happen, the second half of IC3’s solution involves sending the message via the blockchain, which provides a tamper-proof and censorship-resistant medium. “By combining these two [methods], we can achieve the exact properties we’re after,” Juels explained to Bitcoin Magazine. “We can enable trusted hardware to determine whether or not somebody is alive, and there is no way to prevent a relevant message from getting transmitted if it is coming through the blockchain.” How It Works Put simply, this is how to achieve a paralysis proof as outlined by the IC3 researchers: Two players suspect a third is dead, so they post a challenge on the blockchain. The challenge consists of a tiny “dust” UTXO that the third person must spend within a certain period of time, say 24 hours, to prove she is alive. The two players also get a “seize” transaction they may post to the blockchain later to collect the funds, if the third person does not respond to the challenge. If the third person sends back a response by spending the UTXO, the game is over; the two others are not able to take control of the funds. Alternatively, if the third person does not return an “alive” signal by spending the UTXO before the time-out, then the two others can use the “seize” transaction to take control of the funds. This not the only use case for a paralysis-proof system. Juels thinks the solution would work well in any situation that called for a controlled access to private keys that could not otherwise be maintained on a blockchain. “It is actually a very general scheme you could use for lots of other purposes,” he said. For instance, a paralysis-proof system could be used as a dead man’s switch for control over the release (or decryption) of leaked information or a journalist’s raw materials. It could also be used in numerous ways to control daily spending limits from a common pool of money or as a conditioned expenditure based on an outside event (as reported by an oracle), like a student getting good grades or a salesperson meeting a sales quota. “Basically, you can a rich set of conditions around the expenditure of money using the fact that a trusted hardware kind of acts like a trusted third party,” said Juels. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/cornell-ic3-researchers-propose-solution-bitcoins-multisig-paralysis-problem/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/ParalysisProofs.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Decentralizing the Sharing Economy With Blockchain Technology San Francisco–based startup Origin is creating a set of protocols that allow developers and businesses to build decentralized marketplaces on the blockchain, with a focus on the sharing economy. The Origin Protocol is a set of open-source blockchain protocols for buyers and sellers of services like car-sharing or home-sharing to transact on a decentralized, open web platform. The protocol’s applications will store transactional data such as pricing and availability directly on the blockchain. Leveraging the Ethereum blockchain and the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), the Origin platform will create and book services and goods in a decentralized way, without traditional intermediaries. Recently, Origin launched its functional, completely decentralized prototype Origin Protocol Demo DApp, live on the Ethereum test network. It also announced that several companies have committed to developing further applications on the Origin platform. “Our vision for Origin is to create protocols that allow marketplaces to be governed by a set of rules instead of corporate rulers. We want to eliminate the rent-seeking middlemen, maximize personal liberty, reduce censorship and redistribute value to the early participants in the network,” Origin co-founder Josh Fraser said in conversation with Bitcoin Magazine. “Partners are building on Origin because they realize they can get to market sooner and we can share network effects by working together.” Tackling the Problems of the Centralized Marketplace Uber and Airbnb, the hugely popular marketplaces for ride-sharing and home-sharing, are usually considered the leading players in the emerging “sharing economy.” Another buzz phrase, “people as a service,” describes the business models of these two companies, both of which attracted funding that values them in the tens of billions of dollars. Consumers perceive that Uber and Airbnb are faster, cheaper and better alternatives to traditional services like taxis and hotels, delivered via sophisticated yet easy to use apps. But, while the consumer has the impression that they are buying services directly from individual providers in decentralized, P2P networks, Uber and Airbnb are centralized systems where transactions between individual consumers and providers are routed through infrastructure, hubs and software that belong to the companies that own the platform. Centralization makes Uber and Airbnb vulnerable to regulatory actions, and there is the possibility that both services could be shut down by the government at any time. In the meantime, besides taking a fee, the platform owners are in complete control of the networks and the individual providers and are often accused of predatory behavior. “Look at Uber and Airbnb as examples,” said Fraser. “Both companies have been banned or heavily regulated in cities all around the world. Likewise, those companies have a history of banning certain individuals for life from ever using their marketplaces.” Uber and Airbnb (the Services) without Uber and Airbnb (the Companies) According to data provided by Origin, Uber, Airbnb and other centralized sharing marketplaces are expected to earn $40 billion in platform fees annually by 2022, and the sharing economy as a whole is expected to top $335 billion by 2025. Some centralized sharing services charge upwards of 30 percent fees for hosting transactions. Origin wants to cut out these middlemen with new standards based on blockchain technology. The Origin platform “enables people to freely transact on the blockchain in decentralized marketplaces without rent-seeking middlemen,” says Coleman Maher. who recently joined Origin as its first business development hire. “We aim to eliminate excessive transaction fees, reduce censorship and redistribute value back to the community.” “We imagine a broad collection of vertical use cases (e.g short-term vacation rentals, freelance software engineering, tutoring for hire) that are built on top of Origin standards and shared data,” reads the Origin product brief. Origin applications will be able to share users, creating a “shared network effect” that could benefit all application providers, as well as the consumers. Bee Token, SnagRide, JOLYY, Acquaint, Aworker, BlockFood, Edgecoin and ODEM have committed to building on the Origin platform. More partners will be announced in the coming months. The first two projects are in Airbnb and Uber territory. The Bee Token team, a group of former employees from Google, Facebook, Uber and Civic, is building a middleman-free, peer-to-peer network of hosts and guests on the decentralized web, with the stated goal of “reinventing the home sharing economy.” SnagRide is a ride-sharing application for mid– to long-distance rides, which leverages artificial intelligence and blockchain-powered smart contract technologies to smartly manage drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the trip. The Origin ecosystem will offer incentives based on the Origin token, an ERC20 utility token on the Ethereum blockchain, described in the Origin white paper. The Origin token, to be distributed later in 2018, is the currency used for transactions on the Origin platform. However, the Origin team plans to implement on-the-fly conversions of fiat currencies and Ethereum to the Origin token in future releases. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/decentralizing-sharing-economy-blockchain-technology/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/DecentralizedEconomy.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Blockstream Releases Lightning Charge, Launches Test E-Commerce Store Following the release of the first Bitcoin Lightning Network white paper, published in February 2015, developers have been working on Lightning Network implementations to enhance the throughput and usability of the Bitcoin network. For an overview, see this three-part series on “Understanding the Lightning Network.” In December 2017, lightning developers ACINQ, Blockstream and Lightning Labs, announced the 1.0 release of the Lightning protocol and the world’s first Lightning test payments on the Bitcoin mainnet across all three implementations. The standardization and deployment of the Lightning Network’s second-level, off-chain payment layer is expected to result in instant bitcoin transactions, improved scalability and lower fees, enabling fast and cheap micropayments. Blockstream’s implementation of the Lightning spec, c-lightning, is a low-level technology designed to implement the Lightning spec without added complexity. At the same time, Blockstream realizes that developer tools are needed to unlock the power of Lightning for advanced applications, such as those that integrate with credit card companies and with existing online payment systems. Blockstream is releasing the Lightning Charge complementary package for c-lightning to make it simpler to build sophisticated applications on top of c-lightning. “Web developers will be able to work with c-lightning through their normal programming techniques, and they’ll also get expanded functionality such as currency conversion, invoice metadata, streaming payment updates and webhooks,” reads the Blockstream announcement. “Together, these additions make it easy for developers to use c-lightning to create their own, independent web-payment infrastructures.” Lightning Charge is a micropayment processing system written in node.js. It exposes the functionality of c-lightning through its REST API, which can be accessed through JavaScript and PHP libraries, both of which have also been released through the Elements Project. “Lightning Charge makes integration with the Lightning Network much simpler, since it bridges the needs of application developers and the underlying infrastructure, to provide a simple and extensible way to accept Lightning payments,” Blockstream developer Christian Decker said in conversation with Bitcoin Magazine. “Since the introduction of Lightning Charge, less than 48 hours ago, we have seen a dramatic interest in the Lightning Network, both on the user as well as the developer side,” Decker added. “We have gotten a lot of feedback, and the mainnet network has doubled in the number of participants.” The desired effect of the Lightning Charge launch was to reach a wider audience, get early feedback from future users and to showcase what will be possible in a not so distant future, and I think we have achieved that goal. Israeli entrepreneur Nadav Ivgi, founder of Bitrated, worked with Blockstream developers to create Lightning Charge. “Together with him we built this new code, or this immediate piece of software that provides this nicer to use interface,” said Decker. “So far the development for Lightning has been mostly on the network side of things. It’s been very much this close-knit group of people that are building it and are trying to build the infrastructure. Infrastructure is nice to have. But if nobody can actually use it then it’s not worth much, right?” To test Lightning Charge, Blockstream is launching the Blockstream Store, a working e-commerce site that allows users to make small purchases of stickers and t-shirts. “By offering an early demonstration of this cutting-edge technology, we hope to bring Lightning to life with real-world functionality, providing a way for you to test Lightning and become a part of the micropayment revolution,” states the Blockstream announcement. The Blockstream Store, built on WordPress and WooCommerce, connects with Lightning Charge and c-lightning through a WooCommerce Lightning Gateway, which Blockstream also released as part of the Elements Project. The only way to purchase the items in the Blockstream store is with a Lightning payment. A disclaimer warns that, although the products sold in the store are real, this store is for testing and demonstration purposes only. “Lightning is still very new and contains known and unknown bugs,” reads the disclaimer, adding that users may lose funds. “We believe this is an important step towards a full rollout of the network as a whole, however we’d like to remind users that the Lightning Network is still experimental and that testnet is to be preferred for testing before making the jump to mainnet,” Decker told Bitcoin Magazine. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/blockstream-releases-lightning-charge-launches-test-e-commerce-store/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/LighteningCharge.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Halong Mining and MyRig Announce Partnership Halong Mining and MyRig are working together to bring the new DragonMint miner from Halong to market. First announced in November 2017, the new Halong Mining DragonMint 16T miner is the result of 12 months of R&D and a $30 million investment in development. It has a hashrate of 16th/s with a power consumption of 1440–1480 watts optimized for 240v operation. The DM8575 ASIC runs at 85 GH per chip with a power efficiency of 0.075 J/GH. No special modifications are needed in a data center to use the DragonMint if it is already configured to support a typical Chinese-manufactured ASIC miner. MyRig (formerly BitmainWarranty) has been providing hosting and retail sales of miners and accessories, PCB design and manufacturing, software engineering and factory approved warranty and repair services since 2013. The partnership with Halong means that MyRig will take care of retail-side distribution, support and warranty services for the DragonMint 16T. Halong will be manufacturing the DragonMint and continue to sell direct, albeit with a five-unit minimum. Halong told Bitcoin Magazine that the five-unit minimum per order on their site will remain when ordering direct from Halong, but when ordering from MyRig, customers will be able to order single units. They indicated that lead time for shipping at the moment is April 15–30, 2018, and they expect the first batch to go out in March 2018. According to a MyRig representative, they will ship to any country that either UPS or DHL can deliver to, provided it is not on a sanctions list. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/halong-mining-and-myrig-announce-partnership/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/dragonmint-thumbnail3.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Hyperledger’s Behlendorf: 2018 Will Bring Breakthrough Blockchain Developments Brian Behlendorf is confident that 2018 will be a peak year, not only for Hyperledger — the international consortium of companies and organizations developing open source, permissioned blockchain technology — but also for blockchain technology in general as businesses and governments recognize the potential power of distributed ledgers and smart contracts. “2018 will be the year that Hyperledger and blockchain come into their own. Projects demonstrating real world solutions, like Change Healthcare, that will enable healthcare systems to better and more efficiently process claims and payments, will launch this year.” Hyperledger, founded in 2015, incubates and promotes blockchain technologies for business, including distributed ledgers, client libraries, graphical interfaces and smart contract engines. Their 200 members include leading companies in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and technology development. “2017 was a milestone year for Hyperledger both for new members and for new technical breakthroughs. In 2017 we doubled our membership, gaining companies like American Express, Cisco, Daimler and Baidu, and we’re expecting more companies and organizations to join in 2018,” said Behlendorf. “On the technical side, 30 companies and more than 100 developers contributed to the launch of the first production ready Hyperledger blockchain framework called Hyperledger Fabric,” he added. According to Behlendorf, an important part of Hyperledger’s mandate is to also help educate and train the workforce for the many new blockchain opportunities coming in 2018. “We’re happy to have launched our new Resource Center, and our online blockchain course is a great success with more than 45,000 enrolled and an average of 2,500 new enrollments per week.” Hyperledger Blockchain Frameworks In 2018, Hyperledger will start launching a number of frameworks and platforms that are currently in incubation. “Interoperability in a multi-blockchain world will be the major focus in 2018. A number of Hyperledger projects are exploring integrations among one another including Hyperledger Sawtooth and Burrow and Indy, Composer and Quilt.” Behlendorf expects that 2018 will also see some experimentation with different levels of permissioned access to blockchain networks. He noted that permissioned and permissionless is more of a spectrum than a binary notion, and an important question is what the cost to join a node to a network is in any blockchain platform. By reducing the cost of joining a networked ledger, Hyperledger hopes to enable new use cases and ways to solve problems. “Hyperledger was started by a set of developers very focused on modest-sized permissioned ledgers, so that’s where the initial work has been, but there’s no hard limit to that. So we’re happy to look at options that make it easier, perhaps even to full permissionless frameworks,” said Behlendorf. “I should note that our projects including Hyperledger Indy (for identity), Hyperledger Burrow (for smart contracts), Hyperledger Quilt (for interoperability) and Hyperledger Composer and Cello (developer tools) are agnostic about consensus mechanisms and would work fine with permissionless approaches,” he added. Expect to see the following Hyperledger launches in 2018: Quilt will offer interoperability between ledger systems by implementing ILP, which is a payments protocol designed to transfer value across distributed and non-distributed ledgers. Sawtooth is a blockchain platform for creating and managing distributed ledgers. Sawtooth includes Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET) and a new consensus algorithm that is maintained without a central authority. It was originally proposed by Intel. Iroha is a business blockchain framework for infrastructure projects that require the use of distributed ledger technology. It includes a chain-based Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithm. Soramitsu, Hitachi, NTT DATA and Colu originally proposed this framework. Burrow is a smart-contract creator with a permissioned smart-contract interpreter included. Indy is a distributed ledger with a decentralized identity designed to create independent digital identities between blockchains. Composer is an open development tool set designed to make it easier to integrate existing business systems with the blockchain. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/hyperledgers-behlendorf-2018-will-bring-breakthrough-blockchain-developments/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/brian-thumbnailbitcoin-magazine.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Cryptocurrency’s Red Tuesday Firesale Leaves Everyone Speculating The cryptocurrency sky fell yesterday as 49 of the top 50 coins (by Market Cap) were down with only Tether (USDT) posting a gain. In fact, only two coins, KuCoin Shares and VeChain, showed losses less than 10 percent and only 12 of the top 50 have lost less than 20 percent of their value. The effects of the market-wide shock are clear, but explanations vary based on where you get your news. In an effort to make sense of the situation, here are the stories and rationales explaining the systemic drop. South Korea Korean leadership this week has been fragmented on the subject of cryptocurrencies, causing a public backlash in a country that has enthusiastically embraced the new asset class. On January 16, 2018, Yonhap News reported that the Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon stated, “What the justice ministry is going to do is not immediately shut down (exchanges) … As this is a legislative issue, it is not possible to shut them down without going through the National Assembly.” This seemingly contradicts a radio interview given earlier in the day by Korea’s finance minister, Kim Dong-yeon, who stated in a radio interview with TBS Radio, “The government stance is that it needs to regulate cryptocurrency investment as it is a largely speculative investment … The shutdown of virtual currency exchanges is still one of the options (that the government has).” The perceived discord from top Korean officials is a carry over from January 11, 2018, reports where Justice Minister Park Sang-ki stated regulators were preparing legislation to halt cryptocurrency trading. Those statements were walked back by the presidential office (The Blue House) later in the day, when a spokesperson relayed that the government has not yet decided on shutting down cryptocurrency exchanges. This statement came a mere seven hours after the Justice Minister’s statements and after a petition to the presidential office gained viral support. This communicative disharmony doesn’t even address the raids on Korean exchanges Coinone and Bithump last week. Bloomberg (which also cites China as a causal factor), New York Post, MarketWatch, and others have cited the latest actions today by South Korea as an inciting reason for the digital currency market-wide bloodbath. China Threatens More Bans Korean Leadership may not be the only source of consternation for the cryptocurrency market. Some media outlets, such as Quartz have pointed towards Korea’s much larger neighbor to the West, China. China has had a tumultuous history with cryptocurrencies. In the past few months alone, the Central Bank of China banned ICOs in September 2017, followed by a January 2, 2018, leaked memo where the leading internet-finance regulator in the country, the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation, called for an orderly exit of crypto-mining operations. The forced exodus of crypto-mining operations, according to TechCrunch, will slowly extinguish a group that is estimated to produce three-quarters of the world’s supply of bitcoin. The final straw for the China thesis were reports on Monday, January 15, 2018, that the Chinese government is escalating its crackdown to include domestic cryptocurrency trading by planning to block access to online platforms, exchanges, market-makers and mobile application platforms that cater to Chinese citizens. While Chinese citizens have in the past used VPNs to work around similar blocks to sites such as Google and Facebook, China has been determined to stem capital outflows from the country (and the government has ordered a crackdown of VPN usage starting next month). Cryptocurrencies have provided the potential for unregulated outflows of capital from the mainland, so it seems that the cryptocurrency facilitators in China may face a different fate than their internet counterparts. The U.S., Brazilian, Indian, French, German Regulator Effect Regulation is the name of 2018. If the regulatory issues out of South Korea and China were standalone examples, that may be enough to explain the sell-off. But other regulatory fears may have been increased by a flurry of announcements over the past week: On January 12, 2018, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin mentioned a working group comprised of multiple federal agencies had been formed to look into how to regulate cryptocurrencies. That same day, Brazilian regulator CVM banned funds from buying cryptocurrencies. On January 14, 2018, The Hindustan Times reported the Indian government has formed a committee to fast-track the country toward regulating the domestic cryptocurrency marketplace. In line with previous efforts by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonetize lower denominated rupees last year, the committee was formed, according to The Financial Express, based on Indian authorities’ apprehension of illicit money being used to trade cryptocurrencies (colloquially referred to as “black money”). On January 15, 2018, French Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced the creation of a working group with the purpose of regulating cryptocurrencies and appointed Jean-Pierre Landau, the former deputy governor of the Banque de France, to lead the group. Landau wrote an editorial piece for the Financial Times in 2014 titled “Beware the mania for Bitcoin, the tulip of the 21st century.” Also on January 15, 2018, a board member for Germany’s Central Bank (Bundesbank), Joachim Wuermeling, called for effective regulation of virtual currencies on a global scale. The Post-FOMO FUD Factor The cause for the market wide plummet yesterday in cryptocurrencies could simply be a case of FUD (“Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt”) among new investors panic selling in the face of all of these regulatory actions or initiations by major world economies. Or perhaps it is entrenched investors taking regulatory actions as their signal to sell before regulations negatively impact their unrealized profits. It may be a combination of events and speculation. The news reports differ on what events are emphasized depending on what coverage you look at (and if you look to John McAfee for causation, you’ll note the market drop was all because of J.P. Morgan spiking fears about potential government bans). Regardless of the cause, the effects are clear. It now remains to be seen whether there will be a rebound or whether the sell-off will gain momentum as we look ahead to a future where regulatory impacts potentially curtail the bull-run the industry blossomed under in 2017. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/cryptocurrencys-red-tuesday-firesale-leaves-everyone-speculating/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/pricecrash-thumb-990x550.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Qtum Forges Ahead with Development of Its x86 Virtual Machine and Expanded Network Qtum is on the move with the announcement of a partnership with Baofeng to begin running 50,000 full Qtum nodes and an upcoming x86 VM to support multiple languages for smart contracts. Qtum is a hybrid of Bitcoin and Ethereum that is based on proof-of-stake consensus instead of proof of work, and is compatible with existing Ethereum contracts as well as Bitcoin gateways. Supporting the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) wasn’t enough for Qtum co-founder Jordan Earls, who has been working on an x86 Virtual Machine for the Qtum system. Earls comments that a great reason to build a x86 VM is to add more programming language support for smart contracts, his favorite being Rust. The overall list of objectives is much bigger though: Programming Language Support Standard Library Optimized Gas Model Unlock the full power of the Account Abstraction Layer (AAL) New possibilities for smart contracts First-Class Oracles Blockchain Analysis Alternative Data Storage Explicit Dependency Trees Bitcoin Magazine spoke with Earls with some more in depth questions about some of those items: Bitcoin Magazine: What proof of concept or scalability testing have you done for the VM? Jordan Earls: We have a very rough proof of concept we completed a few months ago where we integrated a prototype x86 VM into the Qtum network. This success is what led us to pursue this plan. We are confident that the x86 VM will be more scalable than the EVM, but we are thus far unsure how much. We are designing the VM and all of its APIs and other aspects to be scalable. We are making a big shift in the smart contract world where we actually reward smart-contract developers (in the form of cheaper gas costs) for limiting the features their smart contract has access to, and we are confident it will be faster than current EVM technology. Bitcoin Magazine: What are you doing to address the problem with x86 programming in general, where they assume near infinite memory and CPU time being available? Jordan Earls: We think smart contract development crossed with this x86 paradigm will resemble something similar to real-time or embedded programming, where there are various constraints that developers must always be optimizing for. We foresee the same kind of design optimizations happening in the smart contract world as happen in the embedded world, and, for the first time, Qtum’s blockchain will allow for these small optimizations to be directly rewarded for all users of the smart contract. We know these optimizations are not cheap for smart contract developers to spend their time on, so we need to reward developers for taking such steps to keep the Qtum blockchain running smoothly and efficiently. Bitcoin Magazine: What are some of the advantages with the Standard Library that will help keep smart contract code tight? Jordan Earls: Currently in Ethereum, if you want to do a simple operation, like testing if two pieces of text are equal, you need to write your own code to do it. This is a problem for a number of reasons: Developers in a secure context should rely on existing code that’s been tested and verified, if possible. A naive implementation of this function will be slow, but a more complex and optimized implementation could have security problems. Deploying this code with your contract means another 100 bytes or so of wasted code that every node in the ecosystem now has to worry about. Qtum will provide a standard library of functions that contract developers can rely on to have reasonable gas costs, secure and validated implementation and an easy to use interface. This means less bloat on the blockchain, easier to write and understand smart contracts and even a faster blockchain (since these functions can be optimized with native code). Bitcoin Magazine: What about executable size? These x86 programs tend to be quite large. Jordan Earls: This is true but also misleading. If I write a C program that just prints “hello world,” about 8kB of that is going to just be the number “0.” This is because x86 processors (as well as many others including ARM) benefit from a thing called “alignment.” The important thing for Qtum is that the wasted bytes doing alignment can be discarded without performance impact. This immediately brings down that C program build to ~1-2kB. We can reduce even more because we don’t need all the baggage required by a standard program for Windows: We have our own “operating system” for smart contracts, so only a dozen or so bytes of actual setup code is wasted. We have done some actual physical tests with these configurations to compare what an x86 smart contract might look like compared to an EVM smart contract. Our findings indicate that x86 programs are around 10–20 percent smaller than their EVM equivalent and, in many cases, significantly more so. And this was done without the standard library concept that was discussed above. We are not worried about getting usable executable sizes from x86 programs. Bitcoin Magazine: So the language compiler has to be modified to support the VM? What kinds of modifications? Jordan Earls: Only minor modifications need to be made. The language compilers do support our x86 VM already, but the Qtum smart contract environment is different from a traditional operating system like Windows or Linux. So, basically, the only big modification we have to make is to tell the language how to communicate with our smart-contract operating system. Bitcoin Magazine: Is QTUM going to provide language packages or libraries to support the VM so people can just use those? Jordan Earls: C and C++ will be the first languages we support “out of the box” because they tend to be the easiest due to the way they are designed. We also plan to support Rust. Go should easily be possible. For interpreted languages like Python and Perl, it becomes more complex and we must do research to ensure that they can be supported in an efficient and secure manner. Bitcoin Magazine: Is this going to impact the development of your eSML smart contract language? Jordan Earls: We are continuing to research the eSML approach and will decide at a later point if it is still a requirement to achieve our goals. We prefer to not do more work if it won’t have a tangible benefit to our ecosystem. Helping to support all this growth is the partnership announced on January 4, 2018, with Chinese video portal giant, Baofeng. With the help of Baofeng, the Qtum network will be boosted to 50,000 full network nodes, making it the most decentralized blockchain platform with the largest number of nodes with more than Bitcoin and Ethereum combined. The increased size of the Qtum system should provide for improved security, stability and speed, all of which will provide a solid base for the upcoming x86 VM later this year. Earls projects that the x86 will be integrated into the Qtum main network in Q3 of 2018 but hopes to have a prototype to test with before Q2. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/qtum-forges-ahead-development-its-x86-virtual-machine-and-expanded-network/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/qtum_dev.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Bitcoin Sees Lower Lows as It Drops Below Historic Support Over the last couple months, we’ve been tracking a potential Distribution Trading Range at the top of bitcoin’s market cycle. Today, we have received higher confidence that bitcoin may have topped out. At around 3:00 p.m. EST, bitcoin broke through the bottom of the trading range and is now seeing aggressive selling as long positions begin to close and short positions begin to open. Today marks the first day of lower lows since bitcoin topped out around $20,000: Figure 1: BTC-USD, 4-Hour Candles, Distribution Trading Range Bitcoin managed to blow through several milestones including both the parabolic and the linear trends. The linear and parabolic trends have been guiding trends for the last three years, and today bitcoin has broken parabolic support. It could get ugly: Figure 2: BTC-USD, 1-Day Candles, Macro Trend What was once strong support has now become resistance as bitcoin scrambles to find a bottom. We can see quite clearly there is a line of support around $10,000 where the macro Fibonacci retracement values for the 50% retracement line exist. Any downward continuation will likely be supported in the interim. However, it’s fair to say that bitcoin is beginning a new downward trend. As stated earlier, today marks the first day of lower highs and lower lows — i.e., a downtrend. So where does the bottom lie? That remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that there was a systematic distribution of bitcoin from large players to the masses; and now we are beginning the next phase of the market cycle — the markdown phase. Will it be a sustained markdown? It’s too early to tell at the moment, so we will have to play it by ear. Bitcoin is a long-time fan of violent drops and violent bounces, so it’s unclear how this downtrend will terminate. For now, I highly recommend traders stay away from smaller time frames and focus more on the macro view of things. As we come to test the macro 50% retracement values, it’s important to view how the market responds and see how the volume reacts. If we don’t see strong follow-through on a bounce from the 50%, there could be a strong bearish continuation in its future. Volume is your friend and confirms the trend. If you don’t see strong volume following an upward bounce, it’s entirely possible you could get stuck in a bull trap — and no one wants that. Bull traps are designed to lure aggressive bulls into long positions prematurely to create liquidity for the bearish investors in the market. If you are unsure of what direction the market is moving, there is nothing wrong with sitting out. Summary: A potential markdown phase is under way as bitcoin sees aggressive selling pressure. Today marks the first day of lower lows in weeks and marks a potential macro downtrend. Support will likely be found at the $10,000 values, which coincide with the 50% macro Fibonacci retracement values. Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Media related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Media and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-price-analysis-bitcoin-sees-lower-lows-it-drops-below-historic-support/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BitcoinPrice3.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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BlackWallet Hacked: Warns Stellar Community Not to Log In to Site On January 13, an unknown hacker(s) hijacked the DNS server for BlackWallet.co, a web-based wallet for the Stellar Lumens cryptocurrency, and redirected it to their own server. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont, who analyzed the code, said, “The DNS hijack of Blackwallet injected code, if you had over 20 Lumens it pushes them to a different wallet.” It is estimated that nearly 700,000 Lumens (XLM) were stolen, with a current value of over $400,000. Warnings and alerts not to log into the BlackWallet site have been sent out by the BlackWallet team and other XLM users via Stellar Community, Galactic Talk, Reddit, Twitter and GitHub. Unfortunately, users continued to log in for some time, and thus, saw their funds vanish from their wallets. Following the address of the attacker, it is possible to track the movement of funds from BlackWallet to the Bittrex exchange, where they are likely to convert the funds and cover their tracks. BlackWallet has since messaged Bittrex in an effort to coordinate with the exchange to block the hacker’s account. In a statement on Reddit, the BlackWallet admin is suggesting that people move their funds to a new wallet using the Stellar account viewer. At the time of this writing, the BlackWallet website is returning a 404 error. Bitcoin Magazine will update this story as it evolves. The post BlackWallet Hacked: Warns Stellar Community Not to Log In to Site appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/blackwallet-hacked-warns-stellar-community-not-log-site/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/blackwallet.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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St. Louis Fed: In Some Ways, Bitcoin Is More Robust Than Many Fiat Currencies In a recent article on the basics of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (PDF), Aleksander Berentsen and Fabian Schär of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis cover the usefulness of bitcoin and other alternative cryptoassets. Throughout the article, Berentsen and Schär make the case that cryptoassets are well suited to become a new, important asset class. The duo goes as far to say that bitcoin is, in some ways, more robust than many fiat currencies. Cryptocurrencies Are a Welcome Addition to the Current Currency System Surprisingly, Berentsen and Schär are of the belief that cryptocurrencies are a welcome addition to the current currency ecosystem. While some critics claim bitcoin’s price should drop to zero because there is no intrinsic value found in the cryptoasset, the co-authors of the article from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis point out that this argument also applies to the various government-issued currencies around the world. “Bitcoin is not the only currency that has no intrinsic value,” states the article. “State monopoly currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the Swiss franc, have no intrinsic value either. They are fiat currencies created by government decree. The history of state monopoly currencies is a history of wild price swings and failures. This is why decentralized cryptocurrencies are a welcome addition to the existing currency system.” Berentsen and Schär also cover the possibility of Bitcoin’s consensus rules eventually being changed to allow for an increase in the supply of bitcoin tokens. They take the view that this scenario is very unlikely to unfold. Even though in theory it is possible to increase the Bitcoin supply, in practice, such a change is very unlikely because a large part of the Bitcoin community would strongly oppose such an attempt. The authors go on to point out that this sort of change in monetary policy may be more likely in a fiat currency protocol. “Undesirable changes in fiat currency protocols are very common and many times have led to the complete destruction of the value of the fiat currency at hand,” says the article. “It could be argued that, in some ways, the Bitcoin protocol is more robust than many of the existing fiat currency protocols. Only time will tell.” Bitcoin Is the Most Apparent Application of Blockchain Technology In addition to offering some basic information on the topic of cryptoassets, the article from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis also provides a general outlook on the future of blockchain technology. According to Berentsen and Schär, the most apparent application of this technology right now is the use of bitcoin as a new type of asset. The duo see cryptoassets, such as bitcoin, emerging as their own asset class and having the potential to develop into an interesting instrument for investment and diversification. “Bitcoin itself could over time assume a similar role as gold,” says the article. The paper also covers applications of blockchain technology in the areas of colored coins, smart contracts and data integrity. The Ethereum network is specifically pointed out as a leader in the area of smart contracts. Risks of Blockchain Technology The article from Berentsen and Schär also covers some of the risks associated with cryptoassets. Minority splits from major cryptoasset networks, such as Bitcoin Cash (Bcash) and Ethereum Classic, are the first risk pointed out in the article, but the downsides of these sorts of spin-off assets are not discussed. One could argue that these sorts of minority forks create uncertainty around the value of a particular cryptoasset, although this is also the case with the creation of new altcoins more generally. The paper mentions excessive power consumption as another potential risk of blockchain technology, but Berentsen and Schär do not necessarily agree that proof-of-work mining is wasteful. “There are those that criticize Bitcoin and assert that a centralized accounting system is more efficient because consensus can be attained without the allocation of massive amounts of computational power,” says the article. “From our perspective, however, the situation is not so clear-cut. Centralized payment systems are also expensive. Besides infrastructure and operating costs, one would have to calculate the explicit and implicit costs of a central bank. Salary costs should be counted among the explicit costs and the possibility of fraud in the currency monopoly among the implicit costs.” In the past, “Mastering Bitcoin” author Andreas Antonopoulos has argued that the power consumed by Bitcoin miners is “used” rather than “wasted.” The last risk associated with blockchain technology found in the article is bitcoin’s price volatility. Berentsen and Schär claim that a rigid, predetermined supply of bitcoin is not a desirable monetary policy in the sense that it will not lead to a stable currency. “If a constant supply of money meets a fluctuating aggregate demand, the result is fluctuating prices,” explains the article. “In government-run fiat currency systems, the central bank aims to adjust the money supply in response to changes in aggregate demand for money in order to stabilize the price level. In particular, the Federal Reserve System has been explicitly founded ‘to provide an elastic currency’ to mitigate the price fluctuations that arise from changes in the aggregate demand for the U.S. dollar. Since such a mechanism is absent in the current Bitcoin protocol, it is very likely that the Bitcoin unit will display much higher short-term price fluctuations than many government-run fiat currency units.” The post St. Louis Fed: In Some Ways, Bitcoin Is More Robust Than Many Fiat Currencies appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/st-louis-fed-some-ways-bitcoin-more-robust-many-fiat-currencies/ via Bitcoin News https://s3.amazonaws.com/fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/StLouisCrypto.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Nationwide Insurance Rolls Out Proof of Insurance on the RiskBlock Blockchain The Institutes has announced a new blockchain framework called RiskBlock to provide more streamlined and secure proof of insurance. Nationwide Insurance is the first company to begin rolling out product on the platform. RiskBlock is the first blockchain framework delivered from the newly formed RiskBlock Alliance and the first of its kind that is designed specifically for the risk management and insurance industry. The Institutes RiskBlock Alliance is an industry-led, insurance-focused consortium that developed the RiskBlock framework. RiskBlock will provide insurers with real-time verification of insurance coverage; allow law enforcement to verify proof of insurance efficiently without relying on paper forms; provide insurers with a streamlined and cost-effective way to offer proof of insurance; and, in the near future, will allow insured clients to share trusted, third-party verified proof of insurance with a click on their mobile devices. “The current way that drivers provide proof of insurance is cumbersome and uncertain,” said Christopher G. McDaniel, executive director of The Institutes RiskBlock Alliance in a statement. “Sharing proof of insurance through blockchain is key to streamlining the process of providing proof and marks the start of our efforts to revolutionize many other aspects of the insurance industry. Our collaboration with Nationwide is the first step toward a better overall system.” The membership of the Alliance includes over 30 companies as members, ranging from the top 10 carriers to brokers and reinsurers. Nationwide Insurance is the first to use the platform in a pilot program to simplify real-time insurance coverage verification, eliminating paper insurance cards and providing a mobile app for real-time verification. ac The coverage verification is an initial use case and the Alliance anticipates its members will be able to better serve policyholders and reduce costs by streamlining claim payments and premiums, reducing fraud through centralized recording of claims and improving acquisition of new policyholders by validating accuracy of customer data. The post Nationwide Insurance Rolls Out Proof of Insurance on the RiskBlock Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/nationwide-insurance-rolls-out-proof-insurance-riskblock-blockchain/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/Insurance_Block.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Choppy Market Conditions Lead to Tests of Parabolic Resistance The bitcoin market has been getting chopped to pieces for weeks as the market has faked up, faked down, consolidated and routinely stopped out traders. Last week, we discussed a potential large move due to a consolidated symmetrical triangle. However, the breakout failed to garner any momentum and ultimately flopped as the move upward quickly died down and ultimately reversed. At the time of this article, however, the market is poised in a precarious situation as it tiptoes around historic support/resistance along the parabolic envelope:Figure 1: BTC-USD, 2-Hour Candles, Parabolic Curve Test As noted in previous bitcoin analyses, this parabolic envelope has been the dominating trend for the last three years: Figure 2: BTC-USD, 1-Day Candles, Macro Trend Over Thanksgiving, the parabolic trend that was previously governing much of the three-year bull market broke upward as the market’s parabolic movement accelerated aggressively upward. Since the break to the top of the parabolic envelope, the market has been on shaky ground where, at one point, it even did a massive 50% retracement. Since that aggressive retracement, the market has yet to fully recover and resume any semblance of a bullish continuation. Currently, the once-supportive parabolic curve is now proving to be a point of resistance as the market has made several tests of the upper resistance. To date, this marks the fifth test of the parabolic trend. This time, however, we are testing it from the bottom of the parabola. Previous tests from the top side of the parabola were swiftly rejected causing very little market activity to take place below the parabolic trend. It seems, yet again, bitcoin is at a crossroads as it decides if the upper parabolic resistance is too strong to resume an uptrend. If the market continues downward, we can expect to find support along the low boundaries of the trading range (shown in blue), the linear trend (shown in pink) and the lower parabolic curve (shown in black): Figure 3: BTC-USD, 2-Hour Candles, Next Lines of Support Summary: Choppy market conditions have led bitcoin to test the parabolic support — a previous guiding trend for the last three years. A failure to break the upper parabolic resistance may cause a test of lower values. Support will be found at the lower ranges of the trading range and along the linear and parabolic trend lines. Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Media related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Media and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Choppy Market Conditions Lead to Tests of Parabolic Resistance appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-price-analysis-choppy-market-conditions-lead-tests-parabolic-resistance/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BitcoinPrice3.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Telegram’s Privacy-Focused User Base Could Be TON Blockchain’s Killer App In December 2017, an interesting rumor surfaced: According to “sources familiar with the matter,” the messaging app Telegram, very popular among crypto-enthusiasts for its strong encryption and privacy features, would launch its own blockchain platform and cryptocurrency. On January 8, 2018, TechCrunch reported that several unnamed sources had confirmed the news and quoted a secret Telegram white paper. According to TechCrunch, “the potential for a cryptocurrency inside a widely adopted messaging app is enormous.” Of course, a leaked executive summary of the white paper is now available. The document has been shared by Cryptovest, and its authenticity has been independently confirmed by TNW. The 23-page executive summary often refers to an unreleased technical white paper which, according to TechCrunch, has 132 pages. “This paper outlines a vision for a new cryptocurrency and an ecosystem capable of meeting the needs of hundreds of millions of consumers, including 200 million Telegram users,” reads the white paper. “Launching in 2018, this cryptocurrency will be based on a multi-blockchain proof-of-stake system — TON (Telegram Open Network, after 2021 The Open Network) — designed to host a new generation of cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications.” Scaling and Adoption According to Telegram, while cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based technologies have the potential to make the world more secure and self-governed, no consensus-backed currency has been able to appeal to the mass market and reach mainstream adoption. Despite the utility of Bitcoin and Ethereum, “there is no current standard cryptocurrency used for the regular exchange of value in the daily lives of ordinary people.” This is what the TON project wants to change. According to Telegram, the world needs an electronic “decentralized counterpart to everyday money — a truly mass-market cryptocurrency.” Scaling transaction throughput to the tens of thousands of transactions per second supported by major credit card networks such as Visa and Mastercard is an important requirement for a mass-market cryptocurrency. While Bitcoin and Ethereum developers are working toward achieving higher throughput, the Telegram white paper notes that Bitcoin and Ethereum are currently limited to a maximum of only seven transactions per second for Bitcoin and 15 transactions per second for Ethereum, resulting in insufficient speeds and higher transaction costs. The white paper does not seem to take second-layer protocols into account, however. Existing cryptocurrencies face other roadblocks as well, according to Telegram. For example, they are still too complicated for average merchants and consumers, the demand for crypto-assets comes mainly from investors rather than consumers, and there’s no critical mass for the ecosystem to grow and “eventually become adopted by hundreds of millions of users.” “Telegram will use its expertise in encrypted distributed data storage to create TON, a fast and inherently scalable multi-blockchain architecture,” states the white paper. “TON can be regarded as a decentralized supercomputer and value transfer system. By combining minimum transaction time with maximum security, TON can become a VISA/Mastercard alternative for the new decentralized economy.” The Tech Specs The TON blockchain will consist of a master chain and (eventually) a huge number (2**92) of accompanying blockchains (shards) that can dynamically split and merge to accommodate changes in load and achieve optimal throughput. TON will use a proof-of-stake approach based on a variant of the Byzantine Fault Tolerant protocol and instant hypercube routing to partition the workload among shards. Network protocols for storage, TOR-like privacy and micropayments will be released after the TON blockchain core. Of course, TON will be fully integrated in the Telegram messaging network. According to the white paper, this will permit leveraging Telegram’s massive user base and developed ecosystem to provide a clear path to cryptocurrencies for millions of people, with light wallets implemented in Telegram applications. The white paper notes that 84 percent of blockchain-based projects have an active Telegram community, more than all other chat applications combined, which makes Telegram the “cryptocurrency world’s preferred messaging app.” According to the roadmap in the white paper, a Minimal Viable Test Network for TON will be launched in Q2 2018. Then, after a testing phase and a security audit, a stable version of TON and a Telegram wallet will be deployed in Q4 2018. Funding with Grams The TON coins will be called Grams. To fund TON, Telegram will launch a token sale in Q1 2018. Initially, 44 percent of the total supply (2.2 billion) of Grams will be sold at a price that will start at $0.10 per Gram and gradually increase, with each Gram priced one billionth higher than the previous one, reaching $1 per Gram once 2.2 billion tokens have been sold. Based on these projections, it seems that Telegram’s token sale could easily become the biggest in history. Of the total supply of Grams, 52 percent will be retained by the TON Reserve “to protect the nascent cryptocurrency from speculative trading and to maintain flexibility at the early stages of the evolution of the system,” and the remaining 4 percent will be reserved for the development team. According to current plans, the token sale will use a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT), to be converted 1:1 to native TON Grams after the deployment of the TON Blockchain. Telegram wants to serve as a launch pad for TON, but it plans eventually to transfer ownership and governance of the TON system to a non-profit TON Foundation. “By 2021, the initial TON vision and architecture will have been implemented and deployed,” states the white paper. “TON will then let go of the ‘Telegram’ element in its name and become ‘The Open Network.’ From then on, the continuous evolution of the TON Blockchain will be maintained by the TON Foundation.” The TON Killer App: A Privacy-Focused User Base TON’s killer app is Telegram’s ability to leverage the enthusiasm of millions of cryptocurrency fans among the app’s 200 million users. At the same time, however, it’s worth noting that the greater population doesn’t really care much about encryption or cryptocurrencies. Many other messaging apps, such as Facebook’s Messenger and Whatsapp, are much more popular than Telegram. Telegram is independent, self-funded and privacy-focused. The popularity of Telegram among cryptocurrency enthusiasts can be explained by the fact that the messaging app was founded “by libertarians to preserve freedom through encryption.” These features make it more attractive than other platforms, like Messenger or Whatsapp, to users who feel strongly about privacy protection. It’s then interesting to speculate about possible moves of Facebook toward developing a cryptocurrency integrated with its social network and messaging platform. In a recent post, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg notes that, contrary to the once widespread belief that technology could be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people’s hands, it now appears that technology’s net effect is that of centralizing power in the hands of large corporations and governments. “There are important counter-trends to this — like encryption and cryptocurrency — that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people’s hands,” says Zuckerberg. “But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I’m interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies and how best to use them in our services.” In as speech by FBI Director Christopher Wray on January 9, 2018, to the International Conference on Cyber Security, he highlighted his concerns over encryption, pointing out that last year, 7,800 devices were rendered inaccessible to law enforcement. “This problem impacts our investigations across the board — human trafficking, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, gangs, organized crime, child exploitation and cyber,” he stated. He called on the private sector to find ways that would allow them to “respond to lawfully issued court orders, in a way that is consistent with both the rule of law and strong cybersecurity.” It is these sorts of access measures that Zuckerberg will probably be considering. While it doesn’t seem plausible that Facebook could become a staunch champion of privacy like Telegram, it will definitely be interesting to watch Facebook’s moves in the cryptocurrency space. The post Telegram’s Privacy-Focused User Base Could Be TON Blockchain’s Killer App appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/telegrams-privacy-focused-user-base-could-be-ton-blockchains-killer-app/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/telegram_ton.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Kodak Gets in on the Blockchain and ICO Picture Kodak, the iconic photography company first established in in the 1880s, has joined the blockchain and ICO age. Today, January 9, 2018, it announced a new blockchain-based platform with WENN Digital to empower and protect image makers, photographers and artists. The new platform, known as KodakOne, will enable users to register their work and license it with the platform. The image rights management platform will utilize the new KODAKCoin cryptocurrency to provide photographers with a new revenue stream and secure platform for protecting their work. The smart contract associated with KODAKCoin will ensure that photographers receive payment immediately upon their work being licensed in addition to receiving a share of the overall platform revenue. The platform will also continually scan the web to monitor and protect the artist’s IP and assist them in dealing with illegal use of their work. “For many in the tech industry, ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who’ve long struggled to assert control over their work and how it’s used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem,” said Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke in a statement. “Kodak has always sought to democratize photography and make licensing fair to artists. These technologies give the photography community an innovative and easy way to do just that.” The KODAKOne platform and KODAKCoin cryptocurrency were developed for Kodak by WENN Digital. Their ICO will begin on January 31, 2018, and is open to accredited investors from the U.S., U.K., Canada and other select countries. This ICO is issued under SEC guidelines as a security token under Regulation 506 (c) as an exempt offering. The post Kodak Gets in on the Blockchain and ICO Picture appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/kodak-gets-blockchain-and-ico-picture/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/kodak.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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How a Hackathon Birthed the CryptoKitties Origin Story “CryptoKitties,” the most popular game ever released on the Ethereum blockchain to date, became an instant success in December of 2018. About 180,000 people have already signed up for CryptoKitties since the cute creatures were introduced to the world just a few months ago. Over $20 million in ether has already been spent, and at least 10 kitties have sold for more than $100,000. Yet while the impressive numbers behind this crypto-phenomenon clearly demonstrate its success, most people remain unaware of how and why CryptoKitties came into being in the first place. Hackathons Breeding Blockchain Innovations The birth of CryptoKitties (Alpha) happened during the ETHWaterloo hackathon, the world’s largest Ethereum hackathon, which took place in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, back in October 2017. The project to bring cats to the Ethereum blockchain had a surprise alpha launch during the 36-hour Ethereum-based hackathon, which attracted hundreds of developers, mentors and sponsors from across the globe. The CryptoKitties team came to the ETHWaterloo hackathon prepared, wearing rainbow-colored cat T-shirts, along with cat-balloons marked as the “CryptoKitties Team.” The four-person team also handed out customized Pokemon business cards and stickers featuring a link to their website. The alpha launch during the hackathon featured different breeding challenges that demonstrated how CryptoKitties could produce offspring. Winners of these challenges were rewarded with ether. According to ETHWaterloo’s organizer, Liam Horne, the CryptoKitties team joined the hackathon with a new and innovative idea for the Ethereum blockchain, along with a truly creative marketing strategy. “The four-person CryptoKitties team was building an entirely new technology on the Ethereum blockchain, but also had the business skills to get the word out,” Horne told Bitcoin Magazine. “For instance, each ETHWaterloo participant was gifted two CryptoKitties. A total of 50 CryptoKitties were given away at the start of the event. From there, users were able to trade and breed hundreds of cute, collectible, digital cats. By the end of the hackathon, hackers, cryptocurrency enthusiasts and other curious users had bred over 1,500 CryptoKitties in just 36 hours.” At the end of the event, the CryptoKitties team was chosen as one of the 8 winners, which opened up several new opportunities, including the chance to meet with some VC firms. Their win also marked the start of a surge of media exposure that expanded to several mainstream media outlets. Hackathons Spark Creativity The idea may have once sounded crazy, but it turns out that putting kitties on the blockchain has become all the rage. Yet none of this would have been possible without the support of the ETHWaterloo hackathon. “People usually perceive hackathons as being competitions,” said Horne, who has been organizing hackathons since his university days. “The ETHWaterloo hackathon, however, was not about this. We framed this as an event where programmers fascinated by Ethereum could be in the same room for 36 hours. The purpose of this was to experiment and have fun with Ethereum-based blockchain technology.” He said that the CryptoKitties team was given advice from mentors, feedback from sponsors and a chance to test out their ideas with other programmers who understood the value of having digital cats on the Ethereum platform. This in mind, Horne believes that hackathons are crucial for sparking new innovations in blockchain technology. The next Ethereum hackathon is set to take place in Denver next month. This event will be supported by Horne’s new initiative called ETHGlobal, which will help hackathon organizers around the world launch their own ETHWaterloo-style hackathons. “Hackathons are simply a place for great minds to come together for a short period of time with the explicit goal of producing something practical and tangible using some kind of technology. It is astonishing how much can be done when you get the right group of people together for a weekend to just have fun and build something they find interesting,” said Horne. “I have seen prototypes be built that have later turned into profitable businesses; projects that were dreamed of, built, launched and used by hundreds of people in the span of 36 hours at hackathons like ETHWaterloo. “The most valuable component, however, is what happens after the hackathon ends. Every now and then a team of hackers will keep working together on their hack and the event will act as a catalyst for a project that could become quite meaningful and interesting to the world, and to investors.” Ultimately, hackathons allow hackers to work together with other people who are interested in the same technology, providing an additional set of ears, eyes and more ideas. In particular, hackathons in emerging tech fields — such as blockchain technology — allow hackers to come up with fresh projects that could eventually turn into something much larger down the road, like CryptoKitties. And with over 500,000 people listed as interested in attending Ethereum Meetups worldwide, blockchain-based hackathons are bound to breed many more unique and clever innovations in the future. The post How a Hackathon Birthed the CryptoKitties Origin Story appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/how-hackathon-birthed-cryptokitties-origin-story1/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/cryptokitty.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Cardano Lists ADA Futures on BitMEX Starting on Monday, January 8, 2018, at 8:00 a.m. GMT, the ADA token from Cardano began to be listed on the futures exchange at BitMEX. This makes BitMEX the fifth exchange to list the ADA token since Bittrex did so in October 2017, followed by Upbit, Binance and Coinnest. Cardano, a project of IOHK, was designed by leading experts in academics and cryptography over the last couple years and draws from various features of existing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ripple and Ethereum, but uses a proof-of-stake/security model as opposed to proof of work. Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IOHK, said: “As markets evolve, there is an increasing need for liquidity and more sophisticated trading strategies. I’m glad to see BitMEX list ADA and hope this continues to aid our march towards becoming the financial stack for the developing world.” Cardano is a full blockchain, built from scratch in the functional programming language Haskell. At the heart of Cardano lies Ouroboros, a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. Ouroboros comes with a mathematical proof of security that has undergone a rigorous peer review, resulting in its acceptance and presentation at the major cryptography conference Crypto 2017. News broke last week that GRNET, the national research and education network of Greece, is working on a pilot project to verify student diplomas on Cardano, signifying a first official use case for the Cardano blockchain. The chairman of the Cardano Foundation, Michael Parsons, said: “This new listing is indicative of Cardano becoming a truly global blockchain platform. We are excited to see Cardano list with BitMEX. Adoption of ADA by new trading platforms is reflective of the bright future that Cardano has as a leading blockchain platform.” The BitMEX listing of ADA is a form of fixed-date contract that allows traders to speculate on the changing value of the ADA/XBT exchange rate with a leverage of up to 20 times. It is not required for traders to have ADA to trade the contract; it only requires bitcoin as a margin. Full details are available on the BitMEX site here. The post Cardano Lists ADA Futures on BitMEX appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/cardano-lists-ada-futures-bitmex/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/ADABitMEX.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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CFTC to Discuss Digital Currency Futures Certification Process Five weeks ago, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced three exchanges had self-certified Bitcoin derivatives products. Following the subsequent backlash from the Futures Industry Association (FIA), the CFTC has announced two public committee meetings to review the self-certification process, procedures and operational controls for listing and trading digital currency futures. The news comes on the heels of SEC and NASAA independent statements which discussed the concerns both regulators share on cryptocurrencies, ICOs and other, “Cryptocurrency-related Investment Products.” The first meeting, slated for January 23, 2018, is the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting. The topics outlined for discussion include “explor[ing] timely topics and issues involving financial technology in CFTC regulated markets, potentially including blockchain/DLT, data standardization and analytics, algorithmic trading, virtual currencies, cybersecurity, and RegTech.” While the committee meeting will be open to the public and held at the CFTC headquarters in Washington, D.C., a webcast of the meeting will also be available. The second meeting, slated for January 31, 2018, is with the Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC). It, too, is open to the public and will have a webcast for remote viewing. The purpose of this Committee Meeting is to discuss “the statutory and regulatory process for the listing of new and novel products on CFTC-regulated designated contract markets (DCMs) and swap execution facilities (SEFs) through self-certification.” CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam stated: With the rapid development of financial technology products – including cryptocurrencies – and the corresponding demand for new and novel price discovery and risk management tools, the CFTC is poised to utilize its authority and expertise to ensure that the markets we oversee innovate responsibly within an appropriate oversight framework. Behnam added, “I believe this is a perfect time for the MRAC to discuss the application of the CFTC’s self-certification process in today’s quickly evolving, technology driven marketplace.” It remains to be seen if other regulators view these meetings as an attempt by the CFTC to expand its own authority through amending the self-certification process or if they are happy to follow for the lead role the CFTC is attempting to take in guiding cryptocurrencies toward increased oversight. Regardless, it seems that the CFTC has heard the concerns raised from the FIA, the SEC and NASAA and is planning to act swiftly on them. The post CFTC to Discuss Digital Currency Futures Certification Process appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/cftc-discuss-digital-currency-futures-certification-process/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/CFTCfutures.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Wallet Developers Express Security Concerns Over BitPay’s Payment Protocol Policy On December 14, 2017, BitPay announced a first step toward enforcing the payment protocol: All orders of the BitPay Card will require payments from Payment Protocol-compatible wallets, such as BitPay’s own wallet and a few others. This announcement came after an initial notice in November 2017, when BitPay first announced that BitPay invoices would soon require payments from wallets compatible with the Bitcoin Payment Protocol. BitPay’s move has since been met with resistance by some wallet developers that don’t support the Bitcoin Payment Protocol; some are suggesting that BitPay is abusing its leading position in the payment processing space and putting user security at risk. “We absolutely do not support BitPay in aggressively using their dominant position of market share to bully wallet providers into supporting their business plans or bully users into a system that degrades their privacy and the fungibility of bitcoin as a whole,” stated bitcoin wallet Samourai in its blog post of January 2, 2018. The Bitcoin Payment Protocol (BIP70), proposed by Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn in 2013, describes a protocol for communication between a merchant and their customer, “enabling both a better customer experience and better security against man-in-the-middle attacks on the payment process.” A detailed explanation of the details of the payment protocol, written by Mike Hearn in Q/A format, is available on the Bitcoin forum. According to BitPay, the Payment Protocol will reduce user error in bitcoin payments, such as payments sent to a wrong address or with a transaction fee that is too low for fast processing by the Bitcoin network. “We answer thousands of customer support requests every month, and we see first-hand how these problems affect BitPay merchants and their customers,” notes BitPay, adding that if two wallets both “speak” Payment Protocol, the correct receiving bitcoin address and the correct sending amount are locked in automatically by creating an SSL-secured connection to the true owner of the receiving bitcoin address. Instead of cryptic Bitcoin addresses, the protocol uses human readable identifiers, which are then mapped to Bitcoin addresses. “Our next step will be requiring Payment Protocol payments for all BitPay Card loads,” stated BitPay. “From there, we will move to require Payment Protocol for all BitPay invoices … We continue to work with other wallet providers in the Bitcoin ecosystem to advance adoption of the Bitcoin Payment Protocol. We’re encouraged by the response we have received. Widespread adoption of Payment Protocol will immediately improve the bitcoin payment experience.” According to a list provided on the BitPay website, Copay, Mycelium and Electrum wallets, along with Bitcoin Core, support Payment Protocol payments. “These true bitcoin wallets all already ‘speak’ Payment Protocol,” stated BitPay. “If you are using a non-Payment Protocol wallet or service to pay BitPay invoices, you will need to move your spending bitcoin to a wallet or service which can support Payment Protocol. We strongly recommend that you use a true bitcoin wallet for spending to avoid delayed transactions, but you will be able to use any service compatible with Payment Protocol.” This list, however, is out-of-date. Bitcoin Magazine reached out to several other wallets to verify their status. “Our currently released app Airbitz does support BIP70 and has since 2015,” Paul Puey, Co-Founder and CEO of AirBitz (recently rebranded as Edge), told Bitcoin Magazine. “Edge Wallet (currently in beta) will support BIP70 in a future production version.” BitPay currently lists Airbitz as not supporting BIP70. Bread also has supported BIP70 since 2015, contrary to information supplied on BitPay’s list. Security Concerns One of the most outspoken opponents of this policy shift has been Samourai Wallet. “We have to be very clear here,” Samourai stated bluntly in its recent blog post. “Samourai Wallet will not support BIP70 in our products, therefore, our wallet users will NOT be able to send bitcoin to QR codes generated by BitPay invoices, as they do not provide a valid Bitcoin address.” According to Samourai, BIP70 “remains largely unadopted by the majority of wallet and service providers” due to many security and privacy concerns, including the required support of legacy public-key infrastructure features with known vulnerabilities, such as OpenSSL and Heartbleed. Indeed, the recent revelations about Meltdown and Spectre have created additional security concerns among some critics. “Meltdown/Spectre greatly increase the risk of keys being stolen from memory,” James Hilliard, developer and MyRig engineer, told Bitcoin Magazine, “since they are side-channel attacks that allow processes to spy on the memory other processes (wallet private keys generally have to go into memory at some point in order to sign the transaction).” “We do share some of the concerns but do not feel as strongly as Samourai Wallet,” said Puey. “In the case of the acquisition of a payment QR code from a website, one is already trusting SSL public key infrastructure to know that a public address is from the owner. Adding BIP70 to that makes it no worse. However, if one is doing a peer-to-peer transaction between two wallets that are physically next to each other, there is no need to rely on an https server query to obtain a public address, and that process absolutely introduces more risk than necessary.” Many bitcoin wallets, including Coinbase and Jaxx, don’t support BIP70 at the moment. Others, like Airbitz and its upcoming Edge, support BIP70 but less enthusiastically than BitPay. Addison Cameron-Huff is President of Decentral, the company that develops the Jaxx wallet. Referring to BitPay’s statement that BIP70 does for Bitcoin what secured web-browsing (HTTPS) did for the internet, he told Bitcoin Magazine, “I think BitPay is overstating the case for BIP70. It’s also a bit misleading to refer to BIPs as ‘standards,’” adding that the “BIP” acronym stands for “Bitcoin Improvement Proposal,” not “Bitcoin Improvement Standard.” “Not showing addresses is a big change in how people use Bitcoin, and, as of January 2018, I think it’s premature to force this change ecosystem-wide, but BitPay is only insisting upon this for people who want to use BitPay,” continued Cameron-Huff. “We’ll see over the coming months how this change affects their user base and whether alternative payment processing firms win marketshare (or don’t). Ultimately, the cryptocurrency world is one in which the best products and proposals tend to win out in the market, and only time will tell whether this was a good decision for BitPay and more importantly: a good decision for the Bitcoin community.” “We have had multiple conversations with BitPay and have expressed our concerns with the BIP70 protocol including unnecessary complications that do not truly solve the problems presented,” said Puey. “We feel that extensions to the BIP21 spec could have been implemented that would have achieved the same goals that BitPay desired without the added complications, centralization or SSL security implications.” “While we intend to continue supporting BIP70 we do NOT recommend that providers use it or require it to receive payment and instead pursue extensions to BIP21 instead,” concluded Puey. “We have experienced a multitude of issues with BitPay’s support of BIP70 including their own servers being unable to provide payment information through the provided payment URL causing wallets to fallback to BIP21-style payments if capable.” Future Adoption Bread wallet CMO Aaron Lasher told Bitcoin Magazine that while Bread already supports BIP70, the company has plans to “make it work with BitPay in an upcoming release.” He emphasized that it will be important to maintain the wallet’s core functionality and ensure that its high level of privacy remains. “Bread is a consumer-focused wallet, so we support anything at face value that improves or simplifies the user experience, provided we are able to maintain sufficient privacy and financial control on behalf of our users.” Similarly, Cameron-Huff explained that while Jaxx doesn’t currently support BIP70, if BIP70 becomes an actual widely adopted standard, then Jaxx will enable it for users. “We will be keeping an eye on this change with BitPay and other large blockchain ecosystem organizations,” concluded Cameron-Huff. “We are always looking to improve Jaxx but also have to balance this with not forcing changes upon our users or implementing hasty changes that might cause a negative experience for our 600,000 users.” A representative from the hardware wallet Ledger told Bitcoin Magazine, “We do not plan yet to support BIP70 directly in our wallet as it’d only make sense if we could offer an end-to-end support to the hardware wallet which is not doable yet, considering the complexity of this protocol.” Ledger added that it might support it through a translating gateway later in the future while keeping users aware of the extra risks. Like Airbitz/Edge, the company expressed a preference for BIP21. “Security wise, we also believe that BIP70 is not in a great state today (not supporting ECDSA certificates, duplicating standard PKI issues where users have to authenticate possible rogue certificates, possibly forcing public authentication cookies on users through specific outputs) and would appreciate if all payment providers could keep offering regular BIP21 URLs for interoperability.” The post Wallet Developers Express Security Concerns Over BitPay’s Payment Protocol Policy appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/wallet-developers-express-security-concerns-over-bitpays-payment-protocol-policy/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/bitpayBIP70.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Bad News Bears: Cryptocurrency Stories of 2017 That Brought Us Down 2017 has seen its spate of both good and bad stories for all sides of the cryptocurrency space. Whether you believe in dutch tulips or you worship at the altar of Satoshi Nakamoto, there were reaffirming and disheartening stories for evcxzxeryone. Below are five of the stories that darkened an otherwise positive year for the industry. Segwit2x vs. #No2x Bitcoin supporters and detractors alike acknowledged that scalability was an issue in the cryptocurrency. It triggered stakeholders in the currency and surrounding ecosystem to come together on May 23, 2017, and announce a scaling agreement before the Consensus 2017 Meeting in New York (sometimes called the “New York Agreement”). The agreement dictated parallel upgrades to the bitcoin protocol, activating a Segregated Witness at a 80% hash power threshold and activating a hard fork to double the block weight limit within six months. Here’s some analysis on the implication of the forks. That hard fork, also referred to as Segwit2x, was meant to occur on November 16, 2017, but was cancelled on November 8, 2017. While the first half of the agreement was carried out successfully in August, support for Segwit2x fell through for a number of reasons. Recently, there was a supposed “implementation” of the now defunct Segwit2x fork, but the development team related to this new Segwit2x is unknown and there is no association to those that were behind the New York Agreement. Ransomware Hacks Remind Public of Criminals’ Preference for Bitcoin Although Ransomware hacks have been around for years, 2017 was particularly nasty (see our article here for four things you should know about the viruses). In May, a ransomware called WannaCry shocked the world by holding Microsoft computers hostage using an operating system exploit, encrypting the files on infected computers and demanding a $300 payment in bitcoin for their release. The hack had debilititating implications for users running outdated Microsoft operating systems around the world, striking particularly hard at the United Kingdom’s government healthcare provider, the NHS. The choice of payment in bitcoin seemingly caused a negative shock to the price. Finally on August 3, 2017, the wallets belonging to the hackers were emptied. All told, those responsible jettisoned $143,000 worth of bitcoin, leaving a much larger amount of damage in their wake. This wasn’t the only major ransomware attack of the year of course: On June 27, 2017, one ransomware attack using a variant of the ransomware known as “Petya” took down computers in over 80 companies. Some notable victims of the attack included British Media Advertising Conglomerate WPP plc, global law firm DLA Piper, international commercial shipping company Maersk, pharmaceutical juggernaut Merck and FedEx. While this ransomware attack also demanded $300 in bitcoin, they received far less than the WannaCry hackers, roughly $10,000 USD (almost 4 BTC at the time of the attack). However, the damage done to the affected companies far outstripped the gains of the hackers, with Merck, Maersk and FedEx all announcing estimated revenues lost due to the hack at $300 million for each company. Bcash/BCH/Bitcoin… What’s in a Name? The debate over Bitcoin Cash will likely be the most controversial topic covered in this article. Roger Ver has been very vocal in promoting the idea that Bitcoin Cash is the real bitcoin. So does the subreddit /r/btc, which he moderates. This forum is often at odds with /r/Bitcoin, and one needs to look no further than to these two different trending posts on each forum, respectively, to see the animosity. Bitcoin Cash is the result of the August 1, 2017, SegWit fork, which allowed holders of BTC to inherit a second cryptocurrency that inherited the transaction history of bitcoin on that date but allowed all future transactions to be separate. The enthusiasm behind relative newcomer BCH is obvious as CoinMarketCap cites BCH as currently the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sometimes trending as high as 2nd. While exchanges from Kraken to Bitfinex have adopted BCH into the fold, some, such as Coinbase, have been initially resistant to granting wallet users access to the BCH portion of the fork (Coinbase has since adopted BCH onto its platform but not without the controversy discussed below). Whether its advocates are right in the belief that BCH will supplant BTC or anti-BCH proponents are right that a usurper is not in the making, the drama and infighting show no signs of waning for these cryptocurrency stakeholders. China’s Central Bank Bans ICOs On September 4, 2017, the Chinese government’s central monetary authority, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said “so long” to ICOs. In a statement released by the PBOC’s Chinese Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), token sales in the country, “should be stopped immediately,” noting that, “organizations and individuals that have completed the financing of tokens issuance should make arrangements such as clearance to reasonably protect the rights and interests of investors and properly handle the risks.” While China has, in the past, had tightly controlled potential exits for capital leaving the country, ICO entrepreneurs remained optimistic as the country with the largest population of bitcoin miners sought to crackdown on the new asset class. Supporters of ICO offerings were dismayed as the world’s 2nd largest economy closed its doors to the new asset class, many cited the actions by the PBOC to be reasonable and view the news as good for anti-scamming activities and also as temporary. This may be one of those short-term negative/long-term positive stories. Exchange Woes Plague Coinbase, Bitfinex and Youbit. Cryptocurrency exchanges found both great success and major setbacks in 2017. Among the setbacks: In a Northern District of California Federal Court, Coinbase lost a court battle with the IRS which forced the company to disclose identifying records of all users who received more than $20,000 in a single year between 2013 and 2015. The November 28, 2017, loss signals a likely attempt by the IRS to collect data on unreported or undisclosed gains by U.S. taxpayers and may hint at heightened scrutiny of cryptocurrency investors’ reported returns in future years. Coinbase also closed the year on a sour note when the company disclosed it was investigating possible insider trading claims related to the company’s onboarding of Bitcoin Cash for use in its wallet and trading on its subsidiary platform, GDAX. Bitfinex also faced a rollercoaster year, recovering in early 2017 from a $72 million hack in August 2016. However, the exchange has since halted services to U.S. investors on November 9, 2017, and come under scrutiny for its management of its Tether tokens. The company eventually lawyered up in early December to explore potential defamation lawsuits against its more vocal critics. South Korean Exchange Youbit shuttered its doors after a second successful hack in 2017 resulted in a loss of 17 percent of its assets. Other exchanges have survived successive hacks in a single year, but the Youbit closure shows that not all exchanges can recover. These are a few of the dark spots on an otherwise remarkably positive year, so it’s important to keep in mind all the fantastic progress that has been made in the space. Check out our top “Good News” stories of 2017. The post Bad News Bears: Cryptocurrency Stories of 2017 That Brought Us Down appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bad-news-bears-cryptocurrency-stories-2017-brought-us-down/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/2017badnews.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Bitcoin Poised for a Potentially Large Market Move Over the last month, bitcoin has seen large swings in price as the bulls scramble to call the bottom and the bears scramble to call the top of the market. The market saw a 50% retracement a few weeks ago, leading the bullish investors to “buy the dip” only to see it quickly top out and retrace again. Volatility is no stranger to bitcoin and the swings have been violent: Figure 1: BTC-USD, 2-Hour Candles, Macro Trading Range Zooming out, we can see the market has been bound within a trading range. Continuing from our previous discussions about the potential of a distribution trading range, we can see bounces decreasing not only in volume but in price volatility. These bounces (labeled “LPSY” for “last point of supply”) give us hints as to the ultimate direction this trend might head. The pink dashed line shows a trend of lower highs that are coupled with overall, decreasing volume indicating that not only is demand drying up, but supply is increasing. When put in the context of the macro trend, bitcoin appears to be consolidating in a sideways fashion:Figure 2: BTC-USD, 6-Hour Candles, Macro View The price over the last couple weeks has begun to narrow as the price volatility is decreasing along with the volume. While it could be argued that this type of consolidation represents a “Bear Pennant,” for the sake of neutrality, we can view this as a “symmetrical triangle”: Figure 3: BTC-USD, 6-Hour Candles, Symmetrical Triangle A triangle of this magnitude would have an approximate $6,500 move. Typically, symmetrical triangles are agnostic and can lead to a bullish or bearish breakout. If this triangle breaks upward, we can expect to see a price target of $22,000 or so. However, if this consolidation pattern breaks to the bottom of the triangle, we can expect to see prices as low as $7,000. Summary: Bitcoin is beginning to see decreased volatility as the volume begins to consolidate in the $14,000 values. A symmetrical triangle is beginning to form that could possibly break upward or downward. If the symmetrical triangle breaks upward, bitcoin can possibly see prices in the low $20,000s. If the triangle breaks downward, we can expect to see bitcoin test the $7,000s. Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Media related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Media and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Bitcoin Poised for a Potentially Large Market Move appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-price-analysis-bitcoin-poised-potentially-large-market-move/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BitcoinPrice3.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Cardano Blockchain’s First Use Case: Proof of University Diplomas in Greece Greek graduates may soon be able to prove their qualifications by way of a blockchain. GRNET, the national research and education network of Greece, is working on a pilot project with blockchain research and development company IOHK to verify student diplomas on Cardano, a blockchain that launched in September. The project is notable because it is the first official use case of Cardano, a proof-of-stake-based cryptocurrency and soon-to-be smart contract platform currently under development by IOHK. The GRNET app will be built on Enterprise Cardano, a private or permissioned ledger version of Cardano. Unlike a public blockchain, where anyone can join in and participate, a private blockchain allows only a restricted set of users to validate block transactions. So far, three Greek universities are participating in the project. While IOHK is providing the decentralized database, GRNET is providing the web front end and support and will bring together other universities participating beyond the pilot. Funding for the project comes in part from Horizon 2020, a European program for research and innovation. Development of the prototype is already under way, Aggelos Kiayias, IOHK’s chief scientist, told Bitcoin Magazine. Why Diplomas? Given IOHK’s deep ties with academia, it is no surprise to find the company working on a project that involves universities. But why diplomas? Putting diplomas on a blockchain takes the paperwork out of the process and makes it easy and simple to check if someone holds a degree. Typically, when a student graduates, they receive a paper copy of a diploma signed by the dean and co-signed the university’s registrar. All of the students’ transcripts and records are stored in the university’s centralized database. To confirm that a graduate has the degree they claim to have, an employer has to check the official diploma or call the university. The labor-intensive process makes it too easy for unqualified applicants to slip under the radar. Putting documents and records on the blockchain eliminates opportunity for fraud in that it allows graduates and universities to “issue a proof that a qualification exists that is undeniable,” said Kiayias. “This is a point of reference that can be agreed [on] by everyone.” Cryptographic Proof But to protect student privacy, instead of putting an entire diploma on the blockchain, GRNET plans to put only a cryptographic hash of a diploma on the blockchain. Digital documents are easy to alter in ways that are undetectable to the human eye. But as long as the digital version shown to an employer hashes to the same output as what is stored on the blockchain, that proves the document is the original, unaltered version. “We cannot put any plaintext on the blockchain, as diplomas and transcripts are personal information. We only put hashes; we may put entire diplomas and transcripts, but they will always be encrypted,” Panos Louridas, GRNET consultant and associate professor at Athens University of Economics and Business, explained to Bitcoin Magazine in an email. This is not the first effort to store diplomas on the blockchain. In October, MIT announced its own pilot project to verify digital diplomas using the blockchain. But Louridas claims the GRNET pilot is different from prior projects in that it stores the entire chain of verification steps on the blockchain. Each step would be recorded as its own immutable transaction on a separate block in the blockchain. “You don’t really need a blockchain to store diplomas: a simple system with some digital signatures by the host institution would do,” he said. “We want to be able to record that somebody has asked for proof of a degree, that the proof has been granted, that the proof has been forwarded to a verifier, and that the verifier can verify that the degree is valid, and nobody can dispute any of the above steps.” The three Greek universities taking part in the pilot include Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Democritus University of Thrace and Athens University of Economics and Business. The post Cardano Blockchain's First Use Case: Proof of University Diplomas in Greece appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/cardano-blockchains-first-use-case-proof-university-diplomas-greece/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/Cardanodiploma.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Keep an Eye Out for These Bitcoin Tech Trends in 2018 The post Keep an Eye Out for These Bitcoin Tech Trends in 2018 appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/keep-eye-out-these-bitcoins-tech-trends-2018/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/toptrends2018-header-1400x400fills.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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In Search of a Complete Guide to Initial Coin Offerings Interest in cryptocurrencies is at a fever pitch with untold numbers of token projects taking place every month. Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have yielded north of $1 billion in 2017, making this, clearly, the year of token launches. In Q3 alone, ICOs captured more than $1.3 billion for related ventures. This is estimated to be five times more than all of the venture capital funding raised in the blockchain industry. Amid this sea of activity, the average investor is left to stumble around aimlessly in search of comprehensive, up-to-date information about the cryptocurrency world. Most of these investors, big and small, are anxious to capitalize on some of the investment gains tied to bitcoin’s and other cryptocurrency’s meteoric rises. In this environment, blind corners abound with participants tasked with steering clear of poorly conceived crypto projects, some of which are outright scams. On the other hand, some people choose to opt out completely, intimidated by the complexity of this nascent landscape. In doing one’s due diligence, knowing what red flags to look for can be the difference between a positive experience or the loss of significant money. The Epiphany With over 200 ICOs launched in 2017, due diligence exacts a heavy burden, even for experienced investment analysts, let alone amateur investors. Moreover, blockchain technology is still in its infancy, an early-stage advancement that is fueling new projects and use cases every day. Unfortunately, few educational sites exist that provide comprehensive up-to-date information regarding this space. With the unrelenting uptick of interest, replete with esoteric terminology and uncertain regulatory structures, it is a growth trajectory that is likely to continue in 2018 and beyond. The Response Sensing the need and demand, a growing number of websites are appearing with the goal of delivering better and more comprehensive information about ICOs and the altcoins they produce. One example is ICO Token News, which offers a comprehensive look at ICO basics, statistics, the growth of altcoins and the status of blockchain technology in general. It also provides a listing of upcoming conferences and events for those desiring to meet the movers and shakers in the ICO landscape. Another example, Crypto Coin Judge, provides cryptocoin casino reviews, unbiased broker reviews on fundamentals in Bitcoin and Ethereum, including profitable trading and investment strategies. The Promise As today’s ICO landscape continues to evolve, participants will desire more and more educational portals that allow them to become better informed and more thoughtful with respect to their decisions. Sites like the ones noted above, while still relatively early in the game, are promising. They offer a timely response to what people need. Note: Trading and investing in digital assets is speculative and can be high-risk. Based on the shifting business and regulatory environment of such a new industry, this content should not be considered investment or legal advice. The post In Search of a Complete Guide to Initial Coin Offerings appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/search-complete-guide-initial-coin-offerings/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/Thumb_Image.width-800.png REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Our Top 5 Bitcoin “Good News” Stories of 2017 When the history of Bitcoin and blockchains is written, 2017 will be the year tagged as the “turning point” when Bitcoin and “red hot” blockchain technology went mainstream. The steadily rising bitcoin price and market cap is a key, though not the only, indicator that a tipping point has been reached. Despite turmoil like ICOs being banned in China and South Korea, cryptocurrencies in general coming under scrutiny in other countries, and internal divisions and infighting in the Bitcoin community, the price of bitcoin continued its steady trend upward, accelerating in the last few months of 2017 despite naysayers. The following were some of Bitcoin Magazine‘s most popular “good news” stories from 2017 — only a small sample of the many breakthroughs that illuminated this remarkable year. 5. Philanthropy Lives on the Blockchain 2017 saw good news from Bitcoiners who went out of their way to share their cryptocurrency wealth through projects like the Pineapple Fund, set up by the pseudonymous “Pine,” to donate 5,057 BTC to charitable causes like Watsi, the Water Project, EFF, SENS Research Foundation and BitGive. In October 2017, nonprofit BitGive itself launched its beta version of GiveTrack, a blockchain-based platform that allows donors to donate bitcoin to charitable causes and track those donations in real-time. At the end of 2017, hearts also reached out to Andreas Antonopoulos, who had not been able to hold on to his early bitcoins as he worked for years to advocate on behalf of the Bitcoin community. Bitcoiners sent donations of more than 100 BTC, worth about $1.7 million at the time, to show their appreciation for his years of devotion to the Bitcoin cause. 4. DragonMint Helps Make Mining More Decentralized As Bitcoin mining becomes more challenging, it’s also becoming more centralized around a few larger companies that have sufficient capital, the latest equipment and access to reliable energy sources. An estimated 70 percent of hash power produced on the network today is produced by Bitmain for their own or affiliated mining pools. In 2017, to offer some competition and shake up the market, Halong Mining launched the DragonMint 16T, with newly designed chips producing 16 terahashes per second. It claims to be 30 percent more energy-efficient than the most efficient ASIC miner currently on the market. 3. A Major Step Forward in the Development of Bitcoin: SegWit Finally Activates After months of contentious debate in the Bitcoin development community, Segregated Witness (SegWit), a major technical innovation to the Bitcoin network, was deployed in early August. A Bitcoin developer, Shaolinfry, proposed a user-activated soft fork (UASF) so that users could set a deadline for enforcing the new rules instead of having the miners activate the soft fork. A number of factors contributed to SegWit’s launch, including its successful deployment on Litecoin, the AsicBoost controversy and the contentious New York Agreement. The rising price of bitcoin can be attributed, at least in part, to SegWit’s successful integration into Bitcoin’s core software in 2017. 2. Regulators Approve Listing Bitcoin Futures as Mainstream Investments U.S. regulators recently granted approval for two investment funds to list and trade bitcoin, making 2017 the year that mainstream futures markets first accepted bitcoin as a legitimate investment. The world’s largest derivatives marketplace operator, CME Group Inc. launched bitcoin futures trading on December 18. Also launching bitcoin futures trading in 2017 were Cboe Futures Exchange and Cantor Exchange, bringing investment in bitcoin to the fore. 1. Price of Bitcoin Reaches $10,000 and Beyond Despite a year of turmoil and division, bitcoin reached a major milestone, breaking through the $10,000 barrier and rising above that in recent weeks. At the time of publishing, bitcoin was trading at around $14,500, more than 10 times its value at the beginning of the year. What some have (probably erroneously) called a bubble doesn’t appear ready to burst anytime soon. The current bitcoin market cap, the value of all bitcoin in existence, is $247 billion, even greater than such companies as GE, Goldman Sachs and UBS Group, as well as countries like New Zealand, Algeria, Iraq and Romania. The post Our Top 5 Bitcoin “Good News” Stories of 2017 appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/our-top-5-bitcoin-good-news-stories-2017/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/good_news.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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