Lyn Ulbricht: Ross’s Latest Appeal About “Constitutional Protections and Freedoms for Us All” In May of 2015, Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role in operating the dark web site Silk Road. Exactly two years later, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld his conviction and sentencing. Now in a landmark request, Ulbricht has appealed to the the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) regarding the Second Circuit’s decision. A petition for a writ of certiorari has been submitted seeking a hearing for the overturn of the decision upheld this year by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Ross William Ulbricht respectfully petitions for a writ of certiorari to review the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in this case. A writ of certiorari is a demand placed upon the lower court that upheld Ulbricht’s conviction and sentence to turn over its records so that the Supreme Court may review them and determine whether further action is needed. The nine-member Supreme Court, which serves as the nation’s final arbiter in legal matters, is very selective in the cases it hears, often pursuing those with national significance in order to establish precedence or to clarify contradictions in existing decisions. Four of the justices must vote to accept a case in order for it to be heard. The SCOTUS has a low reversal rate in Second Circuit Court rulings. Thus, even if the case is ultimately heard, there’s no guarantee that Ulbricht will receive relief or be vindicated. Kannon K. Shanmugam is the counsel of record managing the appeal. Widely regarded as one of the top appellate attorneys in the U.S., Shanmugam was a former law clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia and has argued 21 cases before the Supreme Court. Ulbricht’s court request highlights two important constitutional law questions. The first involves the Second Circuit codification of the government’s warrantless collection of Ulbricht’s internet traffic information. This case would afford the SCOTUS an ideal opportunity to address the Carpenter v. United States warrantless search case doctrine and how it may apply to Ulbricht’s case. Second, the Second Circuit upheld the court’s original decision to withhold information regarding corruption investigations into two agents from the jury. This decision impacted the sentencing guidelines — a key element in the court imposing a life sentence on Ulbricht. Several justices have previously questioned whether this method of judicial fact-finding runs afoul of the Sixth Amendment. Reached by phone from Colorado, where she now resides and where Ulbricht is imprisoned, Ulbricht’s mother, Lyn Ulbricht, said, “We are battling for Ross, love Ross and feel that he doesn’t belong in prison, let alone a maximum-security facility. He’s a nonviolent, wonderful person that never meant any harm to anyone.” She asserts that the U.S. government’s aggressive stance involving the drug war and nonviolent crimes has become quite alarming and believes that if the Supreme Court accepts her son’s case, it will have far-reaching implications for constitutional protections of all citizens. Lyn Ulbricht says that she’s grateful for the massive outpouring of support on Twitter in response to this Supreme Court filing. “We’ve received lots of support from everyday people who know that this is not about drugs but about a much bigger-picture issue.” She hopes that this case will shine a light on the unconstitutional encroachment of our government and the media sensationalism that supports it. “I’m not going to give up, and our family is not going to give up. This is about important constitutional protections and freedoms for us all. So we will continue to talk about Ross and our rights as American citizens.” The post Lyn Ulbricht: Ross’s Latest Appeal About “Constitutional Protections and Freedoms for Us All” appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/lyn-ulbricht-rosss-latest-appeal-about-constitutional-protections-and-freedoms-us-all/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/rossappeal.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Op Ed: The Blockchain Education Network $100,000 Challenge Blockchain technology, as an overarching industry, has developed leaps and bounds from its geeky, white, cypher-punk roots of yore. (“Yore” being 2015, as it was only a couple years ago that I was a total outlier for simply being a moderate liberal.) When I first entered this space, in earnest, at the end of 2013, I realized that the lack of diversity in “Bitcoin” (as this industry was referred) was entirely untenable if we wanted a true crypto-economy to emerge. What good, I asked myself, is decentralized money, if only a handful of predominately young-to-middle aged male, Western libertarians used it? Maybe good for dark market e-commerce, but that was about it. At least, that was my thesis when I helped found the Blockchain Education Network, BEN, (then dubbed the “College Cryptocurrency Network” or CCN) at the start of 2014. What began as a hodgepodge of “Bitcoin clubs” at a few universities in the United States, within months transformed into a global educational initiative at over one hundred high schools and universities in 20+ countries, on every habitable continent. Different clubs had different focuses beyond just education, from academic research and political advocacy, to entrepreneurship and trading. By the end of the 2014 spring semester, however, we had students from Cambridge (who gave out $100 in BTC to every single undergrad at MIT) to Sierra Leone (where we attempted to help curb the Ebola outbreak with bitcoin remittances). It was a wild ride, and, at a point when much of the world forgot about Bitcoin and nobody was focused on education, we brought young people into the industry in droves and gave them the tools to succeed… and BEN continues to do so, to this day. (Disclaimer: I stepped down as executive director a couple of years ago but remain chairman of the board.) Students who have been a part of BEN have been on the founding teams of Augur (Joey Krug and I met through the nonprofit), Bolt, Coinlist, IOTA, QTUM, and many more. Our members have gone on to work in politics, advocacy and education, and for just about every major blockchain company. BEN hackathons have spawned countless startups and brilliant new ideas. Free tickets we have provided to conferences and events have inspired hundreds of young people to enter this industry full time. As the founder of this organization, however, I have failed to serve it nearly as much as it has served me. After dropping out of school and founding Augur, I was too inexperienced an entrepreneur to balance my responsibilities at this nonprofit and my new startup. It has only been with the incredible work of the students and others who have selflessly volunteered their time to this organization that BEN has been allowed to continue flourishing — I take zero responsibility for its continued success. I would name names but there are too many amazing individuals to count — many of whom I have never even interacted with — as we designed the organization in the same decentralized fashion as Bitcoin. Without diminishing the extraordinary contributions of everyone who has been involved, the two executive directors who succeeded me, Dean Masley and then Jinglan Wang, must be mentioned. They took on a thankless job with zero salary and helped keep this organization thriving on a shoestring budget. Their commitment reverberated across the nonprofit. Moving forward, however, as this technology matures, so must the organizations that foster its adoption. Despite the remarkable work of the Blockchain Education Network’s volunteers, the fact of the matter is that we need some paid staff to help organize students, events, conferences and media. For an organization that has done so much, it’s fairly mind-blowing how little press it has received (my fault again). The organization needs resources to pay for administrative tools, conferences, resource development and curation, as well as student lodging and transportation to events. We want to make sure any young person, regardless of their socioeconomic background, has an opportunity to gain exposure to this revolutionary industry. Nobody should be left behind as this technology accelerates. Thus, I have made a $10,000.00 (USD, in ETH) donation to the Blockchain Education Network. Furthermore, I will match all other donations made over the next four days (through December 31, 2017), up to $100,000.00. The Blockchain Education Network is a federally tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization and is the best way to offset some of your mega crypto-gains this year! In true crypto fashion, give less to the government and more to the industry. The nonprofit accepts donations in dollars and crypto. Just send me your proof of donation on Twitter (@Disruptepreneur) or, preferably, email (Jeremy@blockchainedu.org), and I will match your contribution on the 31st. (I am currently in East Asia, so will be able to compensate for virtually all time zones.) Donation addresses may be found here Here is my initial $10k (ETH) donation: If you’re a student or academic looking to get involved — go to www.blockchainedu.org and join our Slack! If you’re a company or organization and would like to partner with BEN — please do not hesitate to contact me about sponsorship opportunities for 2018. I can be reached at Jeremy@blockchainedu.org. When I first started BEN, I coined the term #GenerationBlockchain. As this industry matures, and more and more young people begin to think about opportunities in this space, it’s incredibly important that we foster a community that enables them to connect with liked-minded students. We have the potential to create a generation of youth who think about blockchains as intuitively as Generation Z approaches email or social media. I believe this is how we lay the foundation for a true crypto-economy. PS. I am actively seeking some fresh faces on our board of directors — so any super-high caliber references would be greatly appreciated. This is a guest post by Jeremy Gardner. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Media Inc or Bitcoin Magazine, nor does this article represent an endorsement. The post Op Ed: The Blockchain Education Network $100,000 Challenge appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/op-ed-blockchain-education-network-100000-challenge/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BEN_Fund_Xr8DsCK.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Fedcoin Could Be Coming Soon, But Would It Really Challenge Bitcoin? The idea of “Fedcoin,” a cryptocurrency sponsored by the U.S. government and managed by the Federal Reserve, has been around for quite some time. “Imagine that the Fed, as the core developer, makes available an open-source Bitcoin-like protocol (suitably modified) called Fedcoin,” a Federal Reserve VP speculated already in 2015. The idea gained traction also in Europe in connection with the financial crisis in Greece, and was notably discussed in a “Eurocoin” context by former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis. Earlier this year, Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said he believes “very strongly” that the U.S. could and should move to a digital currency and get rid of physical currency. While Stiglitz is persuaded that “the main use of bitcoin has been to circumvent tax authorities and regulation,” he appeared to be in favor of digital currency technology for government. “The technology underlying bitcoin could fundamentally change the way we think of money,” said Campbell R. Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, in the Washington Post. “It is only a matter of time before paper money is phased out.” Phasing out physical cash — the reserve of drug dealers and black marketers — would be one of the main advantages of a national cryptocurrency, according to Harvey, since it would make it far more difficult for criminals to hide and launder money if all transactions could be recorded on the government’s blockchain. The potential for privacy isn’t considered a desirable feature for state-owned cryptocurrencies. On the contrary, as Harvey argues, the introduction of digital currencies would be partly motivated by the desire to eliminate the anonymity of cash. On the other hand, even in a future Fedcoin-like, all-electronic economy, it’s easy to predict that there would be a strong black economy on the side, powered by privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, Monero and other emerging alternatives able to offer stronger privacy. “Despite the negative press about bitcoin being used for illegal transactions, bitcoin is not anonymous, and criminals who use it often do not understand that their transactions are being recorded,” notes Harvey. In fact, while a Bitcoin address isn’t explicitly associated with its owner, blockchain network analysis can often de-anonymize Bitcoin users. To support law enforcement, companies like Chainalysis and Elliptic offer sophisticated blockchain network analysis tools and services to trace Bitcoin transactions back to their participants and de-anonymize users. In a recent presentation, Harvey defined Fedcoin as “a digital USD currency where the complete history of all transactions is visible to the Fed via a Fed blockchain.” That blockchain technology, initially thought of as a libertarian means to escape government control, could become a killer app for governments to have complete control over the citizens, and enforce compliance and tax collection, seems surreal to say the least. Indeed, as Saifedean Ammous, an economics professor at the Lebanese American University, told Bitcoin Magazine, “The importance of Bitcoin is that it makes monetary policy and payment settlement according to predetermined software, free of third-party control. This defeats the point of having a central bank, and is anathema to central banks’ mission, to control monetary policy and supervise money flows.” In the presentation, Harvey cited economist Kenneth Rogoff’s 2016 book “The Curse of Cash,” which proposes to gradually phase out cash, eventually leaving only small notes and coins in circulation, and move to electronic money, perhaps “a government-run version of the virtual currency Bitcoin.” While Rogoff is not persuaded that the “potentially disruptive” technology of today’s cryptocurrencies is sufficiently mature, he thinks a next-generation “Bitcoin 3.0” could be a precursor to a government-controlled digital currency. “If the private sector comes up with a much better way of doing things, the government will eventually adapt and regulate as necessary to eventually win out,” says Rogoff. Ammous disagrees with this sort of argument. “The only thing central banks can do with Bitcoin is accumulate it as a monetary reserve asset. At some point, central banks around the world will start asking themselves if they might be better off holding Bitcoin, with its apolitical monetary policy, than other countries’ national currencies.” Central banks have as much to learn from Bitcoin’s operation as horses have to learn from car engines. It’s a technology meant to displace central control of money. “The Fedcoin idea was presented by David Andolfatto, Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, at the first P2PFISY workshop that I organized at the Bundesbank in Frankfurt, 2015,” Paolo Tasca, executive director of the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies, told Bitcoin Magazine. “The idea of dispensing with cash in favor of alternative, more efficient means of payments is not new. Pre-1900 utopian thinkers devoted a lot of effort to finding a way to allow people to get rid of what Robert Owen called the ‘insane money-mystery.’ In more recent years, economists have also begun to study the implications of living in cashless societies, especially referring to the role of central banks and to the conduct of monetary policy.” Other governments and central banks are considering their own versions of Fedcoin. Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, is considering whether the country should introduce a purely digital form of government-backed money, perhaps using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The proposed e-krona would be a digital complement to cash guaranteed by the state, and work as a means of payment, unit of account and store of value. It’s worth noting that usage of cash in Sweden is declining, and there are indications that the country could go entirely cashless in five years. The Riksbank isn’t the only central bank to consider issuing its own digital currency. The central banks of Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Canada and others are considering similar moves. A recent research paper issued by the Bank of Canada, which considers a possible Bitcoin standard similar to the gold standard, is especially interesting. A discussion paper published by the Bank of Finland, which describes Bitcoin as a revolutionary, marvelous economic system, could indicate that the bank is considering with interest the possibility to someday launch its own digital currency. Even China’s central bank is cautiously testing a digital currency. “Other central banks (Bank of England, Bank of Canada and European Central Bank, among others) are studying the idea of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as a non-ordinary monetary tool that could improve the central banks’ ability to stabilize inflation and the business cycle, and as a new payment channel that could permit tracing the network of payments and record the payment history of each individual,” added Tasca. Another reason for governments to like the idea of a national cryptocurrency, according to both Harvey and Rogoff, is the possibility to strengthen the power of monetary policy to help manage the economy, for example by making it easier to impose negative interest rates. Harvey notes that, were the Federal Reserve to adopt its own cryptocurrency someday, it will become a major (and far less volatile) competitor to bitcoin and other digital currencies. “In fact, it’s not clear whether [F]edcoin would want that competition, and the Fed is in a position to impose a regulatory environment that tilts the playing field,” warns Harvey. “So watch out, bitcoin.” The post Fedcoin Could Be Coming Soon, But Would It Really Challenge Bitcoin? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/fedcoin-could-be-coming-soon-would-it-really-challenge-bitcoin/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/Fedcoin.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Expect Some Lower Lows Before the Next Bounce Two days ago, I outlined a potential BTC-USD price breakdown due the broken hypodermic trendline. Since then, the price has dropped nearly $7,000 and is showing signs of further downward continuation. Let’s take a look at the chart from the last BTC-USD market analysis: Figure 1: BTC-USD, 4-Hour Candles, Trend Prior to Breakdown As you can see, the price was holding on by a thread near the red, hypodermic trendline. Once it managed to break this trend, the price immediately and aggressively dropped. Thus, the market signaled the end of the current parabolic breakout. Currently, it is finding support on the parabolic curve; but on the lower timescales, it shows signs it might take one last move downward before a proper bounce occurs. Since the hypodermic trend occurred once the market broke the linear trend, there is likely going to be very strong support there: Figure 2: BTCU-SD, 4-Hour Candles, Hypodermic Breakdown In the event that BTC-USD sees new lows, we can expect solid support in the upper $9900s to low $10,000s. From there we will likely see a bounce leading to a consolidation period, where the market will ultimately decide if it wants to resume the downtrend or break upwards. Given the fact that we broke out of a distribution trading range, it is likely that we will resume this down trend after any potential consolidation. Distribution is the top of the market cycle and leads to a markdown in price once the trading range is broken. However, this is all up in the air right now and we will still have to see how bitcoin handles the next phase of consolidation. For now, I don’t anticipate any radical lows ranging beyond the linear trend support shown above. At this point, it doesn’t appear we have reached a selling climax. Although the selling has been intense, there is nothing terribly notable on the macro view of last nights aggressive moves: Figure 3: BTC-USD, 12-Hour Candles, Macro Volume There was a lot of volume during last night’s moves, but there wasn’t a selling climax that would notably mark what we would expect from such a fantastic drop in price. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but I’m anticipating lower lows in the coming days and weeks. Summary: Bitcoin broke down out of its hypodermic trend. It is currently finding support on its macro parabolic trend. Another shove downward is likely, but I believe it will lead to a bounce to a medium-term consolidation period. 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: Expect Some Lower Lows Before the Next Bounce appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-price-analysis-expect-some-lower-lows-next-bounce/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BitcoinPrice3.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Tim Swanson: “Enterprise Blockchain is in Trough of Disillusionment” There are few people who have worked in the blockchain technology space for so long and maintained such a seemingly disinterested and skeptical perspective on the emerging technology as Tim Swanson. Through numerous books and a blog, Tim has shown a knack for going out of his way to do deep market research within the blockchain space. This week on Let’s Talk Bitcoin, Tim Swanson, Director of Research at Post Oak Labs, talked with Epicenter’s Brian Fabian Crain and Sebastien Couture. His most notable work within the space has happened as Director of Market Research at R3, the first blockchain enterprise consortium for the financial services industry. During his time at R3, Tim assessed several hundred entities — companies, startups and universities — working on some type of blockchain initiative. His experience gave a full range of good, bad and ugly business operations and blockchain propositions that existed in the early stages of this industry. Whether you agree with his stoic perspective or not, it may be a good remedy for the mania that has resulted from Bitcoin’s phenomenal price increase this year. As new investors flood in the crypto community and more and more people begin talking about blockchain technology, it’s never a bad idea to be reminded of how the industry has developed. “Historically, we’ve seen a lot of manias happen in tech: social media, solar panels, AR, VR, etc. I don’t see the benefit in becoming a fanboy in anything at this early, early stage.” On the current state for the enterprise blockchain market Swanson proposed that there has been a significant shift of attention in 2017 from enterprise blockchain to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), due in large part to the amount of money that has been raised this way. Referencing the Gartner Hype cycle, Swanson believes blockchain enterprise adoption is currently in the “trough of disillusionment.” This stage comes after the initial peak of expectations where interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. This is also where many producers of the technology either give up or receive continued investment for improving the products to the satisfaction of early adopters. “The problem as a whole for the enterprise blockchain space is that it hasn’t managed any of the expectations it initially set out to accomplish. In the beginning, there were brash claims like putting the entire United States equities market on a blockchain in less than a year. Over time, it became clear that something like that was not possible. Because of the unmanaged expectations coupled with the retail enthusiasm coming from the consumer side seeing how blockchain could help them, where in reality, enterprise is a long-term cycle and build-out, many people lost interest once they realized they could make money much faster through ICOs.” Swanson listed a number of startups working on the enterprise blockchain side in New York, London and the west coast, including Digital Asset, ConsenSys Enterprise, Cobalt DL and Ripple, among others, as well as Clearmatics and R3, both of which Swanson still advises. “If you look at funding for those companies — as an aggregate they’ve raised maybe $400-450 million dollars. For comparison — and it’s not an accurate comparison — ICOs in the month of June raised over $600 million dollars. It was a shift in enthusiasm from people who wanted to get very rich, very quickly. The fact of the matter, even for ICOs, is that you can’t bypass the requirement-gathering necessary to build a platform that can work with existing institutions and existing regulatory and industry requirements.” “You can’t just build an aeroplane, convert it into a helicopter then sell it to a bunch of helicopter enthusiasts. Ultimately, somebody will have to build applications and that’s why building an ecosystem and community is so important.” Why Aren’t There Any New Enterprise Blockchain Companies? Swanson attributed the lack of new enterprise blockchain companies to the difficulty new startups face in working against the existing competition within the space. Established companies have a head start in acquiring the essential ingredients for success in the enterprise blockchain space: capital and some kind of partnership with regulators or players of the existing infrastructure. Furthermore, Swanson suggested that most of the obstacles encountered by enterprise blockchain companies could be easily surmounted by larger players: “Large enterprises like Oracle, IBM, Sap, Microsoft have the capacity and budgets to acquire any of the enterprise startups. Oracle alone could acquire all the enterprise startups themselves and not blink much of an eye.” Transitioning from Proof of Concept to the Pilot Stage Swanson stated that one of the most critical obstacles for enterprise blockchain startups to be mindful of are the principles of financial market infrastructure (PFMI). These are a set of standards adopted after the 2008 financial crisis which the international community considers fundamental to strengthening and preserving financial stability. “These principles are intended to prevent a snowball/domino affect where a local problem could potentially take down an entire system,” said Swanson. Due to the nature of these principles and how they interact within existing financial infrastructure, changing legacy infrastructure by integrating a blockchain that does not comply with these principles is far more time consuming and costly. “Within these large corporations, you can’t just turn off legacy infrastructure, then turn on your blockchain version and continue production. Things have to be run in parallel for a while. It takes time and talent.” The future of the blockchain in enterprise is not necessarily tied to more infrastructures, Swanson concluded. “Instead of building out more infrastructure, I am much more interested in seeing applications built on top of existing infrastructure.” Watch the full episode to hear Swanson on busting hype, the recent ICO spike and the rise of cryptocurrencies as a new asset class among other things. 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With Forkgen, Anyone Can Now Create Their Own Bitcoin Fork (Even Us) “Forkcoins,” or “Initial Fork Offerings” — alternative coins that “split off” from Bitcoin — are all the rage right now. The latest trend in the cryptocurrency world was kicked off last summer with the launch of Bitcoin Cash. The Bitcoin offshoot is a top 3 cryptocurrency by market cap according to websites like Coinmarketcap. Perhaps even more importantly, it is now offered by some of the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchanges and wallet providers, including Coinbase, Bitstamp and Blockchain. The second Bitcoin offshoot, Bitcoin Gold, also claimed a top 10 cryptocurrency spot seemingly out of nothing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, a series of new forkcoins has been announced over the past couple of weeks, ranging from Bitcoin Diamond to Lightning Bitcoin to United Bitcoin and many more. Since this week, anyone can easily create their own forkcoin with the click of a few buttons. Forkgen lets users tweak Bitcoin’s parameters and other properties to fork into a unique Bitcoin offshoot by simply filling them in on a user-friendly website. The service is created by a pseudonymous developer who simply goes by the name “One,” who is assisted by Forkgen’s social media intern: “Two.” Two told Bitcoin Magazine that the service intends to democratize the creation of Bitcoin forks. “Even leading developers have shown it is too hard to create forks of the Bitcoin blockchain without making critical errors,” Two said, referring to the recent failed SegWit2x launch. “Forkgen creates a level playing field where anyone can easily create working forks. Then it reduces to a much simpler problem of marketing your new altcoin. More people are good at that part.” Introducing Bitcoin Magazine Cash To test the service, Bitcoin Magazine decided to create our own Initial Fork Offering. Right now, Forkgen lets users pick a name and three-letter-ticker for their forkcoin, as well as a block size limit and a block height for the fork to take place. Additionally, Forkgen users can choose whether they want to implement replay protection to ensure no one accidentally loses their forkcoin. They can also opt for a mining difficulty reset to make new coins easier to mine at first. Forkgen users can also pick the letters and numbers to start the coin addresses and private keys with — and they can decide how much they want to tilt the Bitcoin logo to distinguish it from the original, like Bitcoin Cash did. Given these tools, we designed our forkcoin: “Bitcoin Magazine Cash,” with the ticker “BMG.” We opted for strong replay protection and a difficulty reset, to make the coin as usable as possible. The Bitcoin Magazine Cash protocol will have a block weight limit of 20120501, an ode to Bitcoin Magazine’s launch date (May 2012), which is also five times bigger than Bitcoin’s limit. Addresses will start with a B or an M, and private keys with an i. Finally, the logo will be tilted 45 degrees counterclockwise, for no particular reason. Bitcoin Magazine Cash forked away from Bitcoin at block 500400: a couple of hours before publication of this article. Anyone who held Bitcoin private keys at 12 PM UTC on December 21, 2017, has now been awarded their free BMG. It should be possible to claim these coins with the Bitcoin Magazine Cash software and your Bitcoin private keys — though we don’t actually recommend this (for reasons explained below). As of yet, it unclear whether any exchanges will support the fork, but Two suggests that all of them really must: “Exchanges should be obligated to split and distribute all arbitrary fork coins despite the systems expense and security risk. Who are they to decide what makes one fork more legitimate than any other?” Interactive Performance Art Although the service should work, on its website Forkgen describes itself as “interactive performance art.” A play on Coingen, a now-defunct altcoin generator, Forkgen emphasizes how easy it is to create Bitcoin forks, that — like the thousands of altcoins out there — in the end are of questionable relevance. Where Coingen was created during the first big altcoin boom of 2013 and 2014 that birthed Bitcoin codebase forks such as Dogecoin, Vertcoin and Viacoin, the recent trend of forkcoins is really the same thing, the Forkgen project seems to suggest. Two ardently denied Forkgen is something akin to joke. “This is VERY SERIOUS. Read the FAQ,” he said. “Forkgen is the embodiment of Satoshi’s True Vision where if big blocks are good for scaling then many chains are even better.” Instructions and Disclaimers Binaries for Bitcoin Magazine Cash (BMG) can be downloaded here for Windows, Mac and Linux. However, Bitcoin Magazine cannot in any way guarantee the authenticity of these binaries that were provided by Forkgen — nor does Forkgen. Download and run the software at your own risk; and keep in mind that exposing private keys that hold value to untrusted software is a particularly bad idea. Additionally, keep in mind that Bitcoin Magazine merely created this software as an experiment; we have no intention of actually maintaining it, nor will we support Bitcoin Magazine Cash in any other way. Want to create your own Bitcoin fork? With the coupon code GreatLeaderCraig, Bitcoin Magazine readers get 50% off for the next 6 days. (Make sure to double check that this discount is really subtracted before making the payment; the Forkgen website was having some issues at the time of writing this article.) Finally, Bitcoin Magazine does not endorse using this service: We cannot guarantee the authenticity of Forkgen or its software in any way. The post With Forkgen, Anyone Can Now Create Their Own Bitcoin Fork (Even Us) appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/forkgen-anyone-can-now-create-their-own-bitcoin-fork-even-us/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BitMag_Cash.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: After Giddy Heights, Bitcoin Sees a Steady Decline in Price In the days leading up to the various bitcoin futures markets opening, bitcoin saw a push to fresh all-time highs near $20,000. However, shortly after reaching these values, the market saw a steady decline in price as demand dwindled and supply began to dominate the market. In the last bitcoin market analysis, we discussed a possible distribution phase for bitcoin and a potential hypodermic breakdown of the strong, parabolic trend the market has seen. Let’s take a look the latest developments: Figure 1: BTC-USD, 1-Hour Candles, Distribution Update One troubling aspect of this current price trend is the high volume leading into all the dips, and the low volume on the price rises. This price action shows both the diminishing demand in the market and the overwhelming supply that is beginning to take dominance in the market. Currently, bitcoin is perched on a potential part of the trading range called “Last Point of Supply” (LPSY): this offers a final opportunity for the large players who have not exited the market to finally exit before an ultimate correction. As discussed in the previous article, there is a strong, aggressive trend called the hypodermic trendline: Figure 2: BTC-USD, 4-Hour Candles, Hypodermic Trendline The hypodermic trendline represents a break outside of the parabolic envelope that dominated the market trend for over three years. The hypodermic trend also represents an aggressive price trend that is fairly difficult to maintain because of the demand required to keep the price aloft. Currently, the price is sitting below this trendline and has rejected its initial test of the trend. At the moment, BTC-USD is testing the support of the trading range (shown in blue) and is systematically going through support tests as the market finds new lows. A breakdown of this hypodermic trend, and a possible breakdown of this trading range, could easily send the market down to test the parabolic curve (shown in black): Figure 3: BTC-USD, 1-Day Candles, Macro Trend There is likely to be very strong support along the parabolic trend that will stifle any potential price drops. As always, it’s important to watch the volume with the price growth or drops to confirm the likely direction of a move. As we test new lows, any volume growth will likely signal a continuation of the downtrend and ultimately have us testing the lower boundaries of the trading range. Summary: Bitcoin is potentially at its Last Point of Supply as it begins to test new lows in its current downtrend. Bitcoin broke below the hypodermic trendline, which usually signals a breakdown in trend. Support will be found along the lower boundary of the trading range and will likely slow down any potential price drops. 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: After Giddy Heights, Bitcoin Sees a Steady Decline in Price appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine. from My Bitconnect Journey https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-price-analysis-after-giddy-heights-bitcoin-sees-steady-decline-price/ via Bitcoin News https://fs.bitcoinmagazine.com/img/images/BitcoinPrice3.width-800.jpg REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/goN4bcc

from My Bitconnect Journey l Why Invest in Bitcoin http://www.facebook.com/pages/p/1734453723240677
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