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Cryptocurrency advocates have recently discovered that Bitcoin Core (BTC) developers are planning to disable the payment protocol BIP70 supported by default in the Bitcoin Core version 0.19.0 client. According to developer discussions, full BIP70 support might be removed by version 0.20.0. Also read: How Merge Mining and Anchored Blockchain Projects Capitalize on Bitcoin’s Security Model Bitcoin Core Developers Remove BIP70 Payment Protocol From Version 0.19’s Default Settings There’s been a lot of discussion this week regarding the payment protocol BIP70 used by the cryptocurrency payment processor Bitpay. According to a merged Bitcoin Core pull request, developers will disable BIP70 support by default in version 0.19.0 of the Core client. The programmer who announced the removal request initiated the conversation by asking to “disable BIP70 support in the GUI by default for 0.19.0 (for eventual removal in 0.20.0?).” The payment protocol BIP70 was introduced in 2013 by Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn in order to address the vulnerabilities associated with BIP21. The open standard called BIP21 has been used across the ecosystem since 2012, but BIP21 QR codes can suffer from man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks and end up being fraudulent. BIP70 was designed to address the MITM attacks and stop them altogether. The BIP70 payment protocol uses Google’s Protocol Buffers and authenticates the transaction with X.509 certificates over http/https. “Payment Protocol adds new security to payments, protecting you from sending payments to imposters or attackers,” explained Bitpay after implementing the feature. The disable BIP70 request. In 2017, the largest bitcoin payment processor in the industry, Bitpay, started using the BIP70 system and it is now required to pay a Bitpay invoice. The company added BIP70 in 2014 and started full support in 2017 during that year’s market bull run. When the Atlanta-based firm revealed full support for BIP70, the company asserted that the payment protocol eliminates user error in bitcoin payments and MITM attacks. After Bitpay implemented the change, lots of BTC supporters were not too pleased with the change and complained about the digital certificate issuance (X.509) security. People also objected to BIP70 because some skeptics believe the process opens the door to increased AML/KYC surveillance tactics. Initially, the complaints revolved around the number of wallets that supported BIP70 in 2017, but since then there’s been a significant increase in wallet clients that support BIP70. The BIP70 protocol is also used for bitcoin cash transactions and BCH-based Bitpay invoices as well. BTC wallets that use BIP70 today include Btc.com, Copay, Bitpay, Mycelium, Edge, BRD, Bitcoin.com Wallet, Electrum, Bitnovo, Exodus, Blockchain Wallet, and the Bitcoin Core client. The default settings removal received wide support from Core devs and Wladimir J. van der Laan merged the code into 0.19. After the request to remove BIP70 from the 0.19.0 default GUI settings is enacted, functionality will still exist, but the user has to toggle the BIP70 settings on to use the protocol. Core developers also seem very adamant about disabling full support in Core version 0.20.0 as well. At first, some developers said that maybe the group shouldn’t disable BIP70 right away and give the public an “aggressive” deprecation warning. Active Core developer James Hilliard said the deprecation warning should also tell merchants that “it’s recommended that users contact/inform the merchant that they are using a deprecated and insecure protocol.” However, most BTC developers simply responded with an “Ack” (accepted the change) and Core lead maintainer Wladimir J. van der Laan said, “I would really like to merge this for 0.19.” The request was merged into the Bitcoin master codebase by van der Laan nine days ago. Virtue Signaling, Ethereum Acceptance and the Usual Anti-Bitpay Rhetoric Of course, not everyone agreed with the Core development team’s decision to disable BIP70 and skeptics believe it was done as a signal and out of spite. Some people think that Bitpay’s recent Ethereum support may have pushed Core developers over the edge. The CTO of the BCH platform Cointext, Vin Armani, said: “They’re ceding the entire non-custodial financial services industry to BCH with this move and the accompanying narrative — They think they are “punishing” Bitpay (clear from PR this is all about Bitpay) with this move, but they are cutting themselves off from a powerful protocol.” Armani continued: It’s an anti-Bitpay narrative using a total non-issue that is simply unlikely as hell, has never occurred in the wild and that can be completely mitigated (“patched”) by a wallet with like 3 lines of code. Armani also insisted that the reason developers removed BIP70 was for virtue signaling and for adding ETH support. “Plain and simple toxic maximalism — But please, maxis, don’t let me stop you from shooting yourselves in the foot,” he tweeted. “The absolutely most important difference between BIP70 and BIP21 is BIP70 allows for multi-output sends,” Armani continued. “Core hasn’t figured out the significance of this — The BCH community is figuring it out now — It’s what allows non-custodial financial services.” On Twitter and crypto-related forums, a few maximalists and influencers were very happy to see BIP70 removed from the default settings. VP of Solutions at Blockstream, Warren Togami, was particularly pleased. “Now that BIP70 is no longer included in Bitcoin Core by default there remains only one tenuous reason why Openssl is required at all,” Togami said. “Bitcoin Core needs to seeds its own RNG pool with entropy from a variety of sources, currently including Openssl as one of those sources.” BTC wallets that do provide support for the BIP70 payment protocol. Core Developers Likely to Remove BIP70 for Good in Version 0.20 Just like the 1MB block size limit, skeptics who believe the BIP70 removal was done simply for virtue signaling think the removal just makes BTC development even more incompatible with the industry’s needs. The extraction from version 0.19.0 means BTC users who want to pay a BIP70 invoice will have to resort to changing the Core client’s default settings. Or choose to use another BIP70 compatible wallet like the Bitcoin.com Wallet or BRD wallet. With the number of Core supporters approving the default settings removal of the payment protocol in such a fast manner, it’s very likely BIP70 will be removed for good in version 0.20, which is sure to spark further debate. What do you think about Core developers removing the BIP70 payment protocol from the client’s default settings? What do you think about them fully removing support in version 0.20? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Github, Shutterstock, Twitter, and Pixabay. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post Devs Remove BIP70 Payment Protocol From Bitcoin Core’s Default Settings appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Washington, DC, September 10, 2019 – The Austrian capital hosts some of the world’s brightest minds in smart city, crypto, M&A and renewable energy October 11 – 12 during the Washington Elite AI and Blockchain Summit – Smart City Edition in Vienna, Austria. The Washington Elite Summit convenes at Schönbrunn Palace this Fall for an exciting event. This premier conference makes it’s international debut after hosting three successful summits in the US Capitol. The event showcases some of the biggest names and most exciting innovations in smart city, M&A, blockchain and AI. One of the biggest changes in the cryptocurrency space is mergers and acquisitions as well funded venture capital firms move to capture the users and technology of past ICO’s and dormant blockchains. Investors and exhibitors from all over the world will represent and inspect everything from smart devices, clean energy, mining and trading cryptocurrencies to smart crypto cities on blockchain. Blockchain classes will be taught by industry experts and government regulators for those interested in learning how to mine Bitcoin, send crypto over SMS/text, stake coins, run nodes and the enterprise/government uses of this trans-formative technology. There are a variety of top projects performing airdrops, as well so attendees can accumulate free digital assets simply by attending. Bitcoin.com will be on hand as sponsors showcasing their new exchange and additions to their team, as well as PacGlobal and their new instant send and code update. Bitcoin and Litecoin mascots will hit the streets of Vienna in the weeks leading up to the summit with the GlobalBoost SMS Crypto bot selling tickets and spreading mass adoption. The exciting lineup of speakers at the conference will feature the likes of Liberland President, Vit Jedlicka who will showcase smart city designs and partnerships for their new micro-nation, Bitcoin.com CEO, Stefan Rust, Toufi Saliba, GlobalBoost CEO, Bruce Porter Jr. and many others. Topics discussed by the speakers will range from smart city to identity, urban development, M&A, energy and mining, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality to STOs, IEOs, KYC and blockchain. Additional events at the Washington Elite Summit will include the “Startup Cup,” pitch competition in Vienna that allows selected startups to pitch to a pool of investors and gain exposure through the conference’s road show, marketing campaign and combined online following of over a quarter of a million. The first place prize consists of inclusion in the Washington Elite Road show where the company will be promoted at the World Blockhain Summit in Dubai, The World Crypto Con in Las Vegas and the Malta Blockchain and A.I. Summit. This road show package is currently being sold at €15,000. Additionally, the first placed cryptocurrency-participant will win multiple free exchange listings. Private VC’s on the judging panel will exclusively advise, promote and possibly invest in the winning startups. The Ritossa Family Office has confirmed their participation in the summit and Dr. Evan Singh Lutha’s http://StartupStudio.online fund may invest in the winner. To learn more and register for the Washington Elite AI and Blockchain Conference on October 11-12, visit: http://washingtonelite.com or their EventChain page https://eventchain.io/event-details/36b6d029c69552d60889c3a1b4688c06/ Washington_Elite_A-I-_Blockchain_Summit_-_Smart_City_Edition: . Join conversation on Telegram: http://t.me/WashingtonElite Like Washington Elite on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonElite Follow Washington Elite on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WashingtonElite Connect with Washington Elite on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/washington-elite/ Contact Email Address WashElite@gmail.com Supporting Link https://washingtonelite.com The post Washington Elite Announces Summit in Vienna appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Trading is now live for Bakkt’s regulated, physically-delivered daily and monthly bitcoin futures, with the first trade executed at 8:02 pm ET on Sunday. Customers’ bitcoins are stored in the Bakkt Warehouse, a qualified custodian, regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Bakkt is powered by Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange. Also read: India’s Popular ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ Show Gives Crypto a Boost Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Now Live Bakkt, a much-hyped digital asset platform powered by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), began trading its physically-delivered bitcoin futures products Sunday. The Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract and the Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Monthly Futures Contract are now trading on ICE Futures U.S., one of the world’s largest commodities markets, and cleared by ICE Clear U.S. The two ICE platforms are accessible by qualified market participants both in the U.S. and internationally. Bakkt tweeted soon after launch: We’re live! The first Bakkt Bitcoin Futures trade was executed at 8:02 pm ET at a price of $10,115. A few hours after the products started trading, 13 BTC monthly futures had been traded, but none of the daily BTC futures contracts had been traded. Institutional traders now have a market for physically-delivered bitcoin futures, which means that actual bitcoins are held in Bakkt’s warehouse and will be delivered at the expiry of the contract. Bakkt has launched its bitcoin futures products ahead of two other CFTC-regulated exchanges: Ledgerx and TD Ameritrade-backed Erisx. Cash-settled bitcoin futures are currently available on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which recently announced its plans to launch options on bitcoin futures contracts in the first quarter of 2020, pending regulatory review. About Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures ICE Futures U.S. has previously revealed some requirements for investing in Bakkt’s new products. For both daily and monthly contracts, there is a “hedge initial requirement” of $3,900 and “speculative initial requirement” of $4,290. The inter-month add-ons hedge rate for both products ranges between $400 and $1,000, and between $440 and $1,100 for the speculative rate. “The margin rate varies within the range by the expiration dates and the difference in expiration dates of contracts,” the company described. Each contract size is one BTC. Customers’ bitcoins are stored in the Bakkt Warehouse, operated by Bakkt Trust Company Llc, a qualified custodian which is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). “The Bakkt Warehouse is comprised of both online (‘warm’) and offline, air-gapped (‘cold’) digital asset storage,” the company detailed, adding that its system algorithmically balances between the two to minimize risks associated with online wallets. Both types are covered by a $125,000,000 insurance policy from a leading global syndicate. Further, Bakkt boasts “Bank-level AML/KYC policies, paired with extensive blockchain surveillance.” Bakkt’s executive team. ICE Inc. first announced its plan to form Bakkt in August last year, with an intention to work with a number of companies including BCG, Microsoft and Starbucks, according to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They aim “to create an integrated platform designed to enable consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets on a seamless global network,” the document shows. Bakkt originally planned to launch in December last year but faced regulatory hurdles, including the federal government shutdown at the beginning of the year. Licensed and Regulated Bakkt had been waiting for approval from the DFS in order to fully launch its products. The regulator announced on Aug. 16 that it has granted a charter under New York Banking Law to Bakkt Trust Company Llc to operate as a limited liability trust company. “DFS has authorized Bakkt to provide custody services for bitcoin in conjunction with the launch of physically delivered bitcoin futures contracts,” the regulator described. “Bakkt will serve institutional customers; its bitcoin futures contracts will be listed for trading on Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures U.S. and cleared through ICE Clear U.S.” The company’s COO, Adam White, clarified: This now enables us to offer institutional-grade custody via the Bakkt Warehouse alongside the federally regulated Bakkt Bitcoin Futures contracts. Both Bakkt’s daily and monthly futures are compliant with the regulatory requirements of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the company confirmed. They also comply with the requirements of ICE Futures U.S. and ICE Clear U.S. The former is a CFTC-regulated Derivatives Clearing Organization, while the latter a CFTC-regulated Derivatives Clearing Organization. In addition, Bakkt Trust Company Llc is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fincen). Potential Impact While the actual impact Bakkt will have on bitcoin markets remains to be seen, CEO Kelly Loeffler told Fortune in an interview that “The funds that trade on our exchanges expressed to us that they don’t want to deal in today’s unregulated markets, and want end-to-end federal oversight, on the level of the NYSE, to feel safe trading in bitcoin.” Claiming that asset managers told her that bitcoin could be a boon for balancing their portfolios if it is safe enough, she was quoted as saying: Bitcoin’s volatility is a big negative for retail transactions right now, but not for institutional investors … A lot of commodities that funds use as alternative investments are highly volatile. “Pension funds, for example, are diversifying into alternatives,” COO White remarked. He believes that “Regulated bitcoin futures could be part of their investment mandate, since they have different correlations with both stocks and bonds, and other alternatives such as gold.” Loeffler added that she expects lots of action from retail brokerage firms, stating that “The brokers are always looking for an edge to attract new customers, and offering bitcoin could have lots of appeal.” She also expects interest from college endowments and pension funds, since “They’re the ones who are usually in the forefront in adopting new investment ideas.” What do you think of Bakkt’s bitcoin futures launch? How much impact do you think Bakkt will have on the markets? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and ICE Futures U.S. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Bakkt Regulated Bitcoin Futures Now Live on Major Exchange appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

We’ve been warned for years that a quantum computing breakthrough is just around the corner. When that day comes, we’re told, it could render existing encryption standards obsolete, threatening the security of every major blockchain. It seems that day has finally arrived, with Google achieving “quantum supremacy.” Impressive as the feat is, however, it doesn’t signal game over for crypto networks – and least not yet. Also read: How Merge Mining and Anchored Blockchain Projects Capitalize on Bitcoin’s Security Model They Actually Did It, the Absolute Madmen On Friday, the FT published a story claiming that a paper published by Google researchers described a major computing breakthrough. Using a quantum computer, the team managed to perform a calculation in just over three minutes that would take the world’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years. In an industry that’s characterized by incremental improvements, that sounds like a leap that warrants comparisons with the Big Bang. Quantum supremacy, which the researchers claim to have attained, refers to the moment when a quantum computer outperforms the world’s best classical computer in a specific test. Google described the achievement as a “milestone towards full-scale quantum computing,” and predicted quantum computing capacity to expand at a “double exponential rate,” outstripping the exponential rate that Moore’s Law has described so faithfully for decades. On the face of it, this technology sounds in danger of destroying everything we hold dear, starting with Bitcoin. The reality, as is so often the case, is more nuanced: predictions of Bitcoin’s death at the hands of quantum computing have been greatly exaggerated. Cryptography and the Rise of Quantum-Resistant Blockchains Fearing that a quantum breakthrough is just around the corner, threatening the sanctity of all known encryption algorithms, cryptographers have been striving to develop quantum-resistant blockchains that can withstand a Cambrian explosion in quantum computers. Johann Polecsak, CTO of quantum-resistant blockchain QAN, told news.Bitcoin.com: “The most popular public-key algorithms are theoretically at risk of being broken by a quantum computing breakthrough. Most encrypted data intercepted and stored today could be decrypted by quantum computers in the near future.” On Google’s quantum computer, believed to be called Sycamore, Polecsak ventured: “The notion of Google achieving a quantum breakthrough sounds very dramatic, but in reality, it’s hard to gauge the significance at this time. How can we be sure that Google’s quantum computer is more powerful than D-wave’s, for example, which surpassed 1,000 qubits four years ago?” All signatures and hashes within QAN’s protocol that might be susceptible to quantum algorithms (typically Shor or Grover algorithm searches) are protected by post-quantum cryptography. Just as it sounds, this is a school of cryptography dedicated to protecting networks in a world of quantum supercomputers. There are numerous models of post-quantum cryptography, with QAN favoring a lattice-based approach; other variants of the six primary schools of post-quantum cryptographic research include hash- and code-based cryptography. Andrew Yang Suggests the Threat Is Real One of the hardest things when discussing quantum computing is separating fact from fiction, fears from fear-mongering, and theory from practice. It is a sector of computing in which FUD and FOMO are in constant supply – which might explain why the quantum threat has resonated so strongly within the cryptosphere. Just how “justed” Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are in the event of a quantum breakthrough depends on who you want to believe. For example, pro-tech presidential candidate Andrew Yang explains in his policy on quantum computing and encryption standards: Quantum computers, using qubits, will theoretically be able to perform the calculations necessary to break our current encryptions standards in under a day. When that happens, all of our encrypted data will be vulnerable. That means our businesses, communications channels, and banking and national security systems may be accessible. As for when this will happen, Yang notes that “Some estimates put the timeline for this at a decade or less. In short, this is a problem that has to be fixed now … First, and immediately, we need to invest in and develop new encryption standards and systems, and immediately shift to using these quantum computing-resistant standards to protect our most sensitive data.” Andrew Yang Bitcoin Isn’t Broken Yet While advancements in quantum computing warrant close scrutiny, there is no evidence to suggest that BTC and BCH private keys are in danger of getting popped any time soon. To illustrate just how secure current cryptographic standards are, Openbazaar’s Chris Pacia wrote a blog post in 2013 in which he discussed the commonly used 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), concluding: “If every one of the 7 billion people on Earth had 10 computers testing 1 billion key combinations per second, it would take the entire population 77,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to find a single 128-bit AES key.” As for how quickly a quantum computer could achieve the same feat, Pacia confesses to being no expert, but ventures: “Quantum computing would likely double the size of a key that could be effectively brute-forced. That might cause AES-128 to fall, but AES-192 and AES-256 should still be safe.” Bitcoin mining uses SHA-256, while ECDSA (Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) is used in the cryptography to create private and public key pairs. In the event of quantum computers cracking SHA-256, for example, an obvious solution would be to switch to a stronger encryption algorithm of the same family, such as SHA-512. As Wikipedia’s post-quantum cryptography entry notes, “While the quantum Grover’s algorithm does speed up attacks against symmetric ciphers, doubling the key size can effectively block these attacks Thus post-quantum symmetric cryptography does not need to differ significantly from current symmetric cryptography.” In other words, even if quantum computing does materialize at scale, it’s unlikely to require redesigning our cryptography from the ground up; rather, we’ll just need to enforce more robust versions of existing algorithms that incorporate more bits. As Sabine Hossenfelder concluded in a video on quantum supremacy in June, “I’m not very optimistic that quantum computers will have practical applications any time soon. I’m quite worried that quantum computing will go the same way as nuclear fusion: that it will remain forever promising but never quite work. Nevertheless, quantum supremacy is going to be a super exciting event.” Do you think quantum computers will threaten Bitcoin in the next decade? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post What Google’s Quantum Breakthrough Means for Blockchain Cryptography appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

New, unprecedented economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran’s central bank after blame for a September 14 oil field attack was pinned on the nation by U.S. leaders. The sanctions blacklist the Iranian central bank and sovereign wealth fund, further severing the country’s already tenuous ties to the global market. With soldiers and weapons “of defensive nature” to be shipped to the Middle East in the wake of the attacks, some are questioning the true motives of U.S. foreign policymakers. Iran is not the first nation openly critical of the U.S. petrodollar to face such extreme sanctions, and threats of military invasion. Also Read: How Cryptocurrencies Can Mitigate Some of Brexit’s Negative Effects Past Attempts to Leave the Dollar Like Iran, a nation whose leaders are resolute about moving away from USD hegemony via cryptocurrencies, non-USD reporting policies, and gold, Iraq was also a thorn in the side of petrodollar dominance at one time. That is, before it was invaded by U.S. forces in 2003. Iraq had begun trading oil for euros in 2000 as a means of surpassing crippling U.S. sanctions starving the country. This policy ended abruptly when America entered under the auspices of fighting 9/11-related terrorism, although there was no substantial connection. Nevertheless, Iraq now trades its oil for dollars, once again. Both Iran and Iraq are rich in the natural resource, have refused to fall in line with western political dominance, seeking plans to create sound, independent currencies backed by gold. Libya is yet another example. When Muammar Gaddafi sought to bring about his gold-backed dinar and abandon the world reserve USD, NATO forces found their way to him briskly and, in the cackling words of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “We came, we saw, he died.” The basic breakdown is as follows: 1971 – U.S. abandons the gold standard. Mid 1970’s – Agreement between U.S. and Saudi Arabia solidifies OPEC nations’ policy of pricing oil in dollars, effectively creating the petrodollar and further entrenching the USD as world reserve currency. 1970’s to present – Perpetual sanctions and warfare for any country seeking to abandon the USD and return to gold or alternate currencies for pricing oil. As the gold standard was abandoned, and the petrodollar instituted to guarantee U.S. debt securities in the wake of massive deficits from the Vietnam war, the smoke cleared; the dollar was no longer backed by gold, but by oil, and the dominance of oil, by blood. Trump stated Monday, September 16, from the Oval Office: In a few moments I’ll be signing an executive order imposing hard-hitting sanctions on the supreme leader of Iran … Today’s action follows a series of aggressive behaviors by the Iranian regime in recent weeks including shooting down of U.S. drones. Trump also cited Iran’s nuclear program repeatedly (now product of a deal his own administration broke and backed out of) and recent, questionable conflicts involving oil tankers in the region, as well as “other things that were done also which were not good.” Of course, the attacks on Saudi oil facilities were the supposed straw that broke old Uncle Sam’s already aching back. For the leader of the only nation to ever use a nuclear weapon in war, twice, and which has routinely engaged in fraudulent, artificial provocations of conflict such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the president’s words struck many as darkly ironic. This not to mention the increasingly harsh battery of sanctions on Iranian oil exports which have been escalating for years now under the current administration. There Are No Angels in Geopolitics, Thus the Need for Sound Money Iraq, Iran, Venezuela and Libya have of course been historically abusive to those living within their confines. Saddam Hussein was infamous for poison gas attacks killing thousands of innocent Kurdish villagers in Halabja. Iran’s iron-fisted regime has flogged people for drinking alcohol, suffocates freedom of expression in brutal fashion, and targets women, minority groups and children, denying them basic human rights. Venezuela’s sociopathic leadership is, essentially, no different. Opposition to the state in Gaddafi’s Libya resulted in horrific consequences as well, with the leader himself once saying: “I could at any moment send them to the People’s Court … and the People’s Court will issue a sentence of death based on this law, because execution is the fate of anyone who forms a political party.” Though the U.S. government has itself destroyed the lives of countless millions, taking hundreds of thousands in one fell swoop with nuclear bombs, routinely imprisoning the non-violent for any number of arbitrary, dictatorial edicts, for some reason the “us vs. them” mass media narrative remains. The reality is, however, that there are no good governments. Combined with an unsound monetary system, this problem is exacerbated to a place of sheer and unimaginably tragic proportions. The last century’s ongoing bloodbath has coincided with a historically unprecedented abandonment of sound money in favor of inflationary and debt-based models. This is no plain coincidence. After all, if it is now war — and not gold — that backs the global monetary system, how else can value be preserved save through killing? Money like gold and bitcoin, with a set-in-stone supply limit, cannot simply be “printed” to finance these terroristic regimes. Economics – The Final World War Iran has denied responsibility for the September 14 oil facility attacks. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have openly claimed responsibility for the act. Still, U.S. policy makers have fingers pointed at Iran. Javad Zarif, foreign minister of Iran, stated in a recent interview with CNN: It wasn’t an act of war against the United States and it was, as I said, an agitation of war because it’s based on a lie…If they lift the sanctions that they reimposed illegally…then we would consider it [talks]. Zarif went on to emphasize, when prompted about Iran’s citizens suffering under U.S. sanctions: They’re lying if they tell you that food and medicine is not restricted. Humanitarian crises, such as the starvation happening in Iran, Venezuela and elsewhere, cannot be staved off with traditional currencies, which ultimately trace back to U.S. dollar hegemony, and are impeded by state-compliant banking institutions. Cryptocurrencies however, can and do bridge this gap. Though conversion to local currencies and merchant acceptance presents significant logistical challenges, the technology allows for something that no government blood money can: a limited-supply, permissionless cash valued voluntarily by a market of independent actors, irrespective of what violent state mandates or unsound economic policies may be in place. When sanctions tell the impoverished Middle Eastern family they can’t eat, crypto and free markets say that they can indeed trade, politics be damned. When lawmakers in Washington D.C. demand Americans fund things like the slaughter of pine nut farmers in Afghanistan — 30 were killed this week in a single strike — or the imprisonment of innocent people for the so-called war on drugs, Bitcoin has no such sociopathic mandate. The next world war will be a decidedly economic one, where those eschewing human dignity and peaceful solutions will be forced to face an ever-growing faction of human beings for peaceful, non-violent trade and voluntary market interaction, made possible by disruptive technologies like Bitcoin. What are your thoughts on the economic situation with Iran? Let us know in the comments section below. Op-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Fair Use. You can now purchase Bitcoin without visiting a cryptocurrency exchange. Buy BTC and BCH directly from our trusted seller and, if you need a Bitcoin wallet to securely store it, you can download one from us here. The post Iran Is Being Targeted for Economic Independence, Not Terrorism appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

You don’t have to be a bitcoin purist or tech tinkerer to want to accept cryptocurrency without using a third party. With lower merchant fees, greater network uptime, and no chargebacks, noncustodial crypto payments have several advantages over traditional fiat payment systems. Here are six noncustodial options for accepting crypto in-store and online. Also read: How Cryptocurrencies Can Mitigate Some of Brexit’s Negative Effects Accept Crypto With No Questions Asked For merchants interested in accepting cryptocurrency in-store or online, there’s now a wealth of options. Major companies like Coinbase and Bitpay dominate the industry, with the latter’s custodial solution promising to insulate the retailer from the volatility of crypto. But that’s not all custodial solutions protect the merchant from. Due to the permissioned nature of these payment systems, retailers risk running afoul of the terms of service and having their account closed, which occurs more frequently than you might think – just ask Gab.com. Should any of your customers hail from countries that are subject to U.S. sanctions, for instance, you’re in danger of having your account shuttered by a U.S. payment provider. The fact that you’re transacting in cryptocurrency won’t save you when you’re using a custodial solution. There are greater reasons why it may be desirable to seek a noncustodial crypto payment solution. Doing so brings greater privacy, grants you sole ownership of funds the moment the transaction clears, and is a far truer way to transact with cryptocurrency, without intermediaries. Atomicpay Atomicpay is a noncustodial payment application that supports seven cryptocurrencies including BCH, BTC, LTC, and DASH. It’s user-friendly, offers price conversion into over 150 fiat currencies, and has good privacy practices built in, including generating a new address for every transaction. You can integrate Atomicpay into an ecommerce module such as Woocommerce, and it’s easy to generate payment buttons to embed on your site. Atomicpay is also suitable for use in physical stores. It offers API integration and the ability to generate a payment invoice in just a few seconds. In terms of fees, Atomicpay charges a reasonable 0.7-0.9% per transaction, with the Personal plan requiring no KYC to get started. Upgrade to the Business plan, however, and you’ll be required to undergo KYC. Greater cryptocurrency support, such as ETH, would be useful, as would additional ecommerce modules, which are listed as coming soon. That aside, Atomicpay provides a good all-round option for merchants desiring a noncustodial solution. CMM Pay CMM Pay CMM Pay is a British-based payment startup whose noncustodial service only launched at the start of the month. BTC is the sole major crypto supported at present, although additional assets are on their way. Setup takes less than five minutes and, as a noncustodial payment solution, there’s no need to undergo KYC. CMM Pay’s standard fee is 1%, though for a limited time this has been waived altogether. Features include 24-hour customer support and a merchant dashboard for viewing cryptocurrency sales, business wallet balances, and a host of other metrics. 8Pay 8Pay 8Pay is a noncustodial payment system with a twist – several twists in fact. Operating on the Ethereum network, it provides on-demand and recurring payments between retailer and customer. This makes it possible to set up subscription-based payments for goods and services. The best part about all this is it’s achievable without sacrificing decentralization: 8Pay is noncustodial and requires no KYC. The only downside is that as an Ethereum-only solution, it’s limited to ETH and ERC20 tokens including stablecoins. There’s good reason for this though: implementing the sort of features that 8Pay’s built into its payment protocol calls for utilizing smart contracts of the sort which most other crypto networks can’t support. Once 8Pay’s web and mobile apps are rolled out, it will be possible for shoppers to subscribe to on-demand and replenishment-based services (think movies, music, toiletries, household essentials, utility bills) with tokens deducted from their crypto wallet at fixed intervals until they choose to cancel the arrangement. 8Pay also features payment buttons, unique payment links, and the ability to generate invoices on the fly. Coinbase Commerce Coinbase Commerce Coinbase attracts flak for some of its executive decisions, and it’s not opposed to deplatforming users of its exchange for the flimsiest of reasons. It’s hard to take exception to the company’s merchant payment solution however. Coinbase Commerce is noncustodial, easy to set up and charges no fees. BCH, BTC, ETH, LTC, and USDC are all accepted, and the interface is neatly designed. It claims to have more than 2,000 merchants using Coinbase Commerce already. Blockonomics A BTC-only service with a host of advanced features, Blockonomics is a noncustodial solution for crypto-savvy merchants. It’s not hard to use if you’re familiar with cryptocurrency, but there’s a lot going on here. A range of ecommerce plugins are complemented by enterprise invoicing and the ability to accept BTC into your existing wallet including hardware wallets for added security. Bitcoin Cash Register Bitcoin Cash Register About as simple as a merchant application gets, Bitcoin Cash Register is an Android and iOS application developed by Bitcoin.com. All you need to get started is the public key to your BCH wallet. It’s simple because cryptocurrency is meant to be simple. There’s no need for second layer solutions, payment channels or custodians to convert crypto into fiat and vice-versa when the customer can just press a button and funds are despatched directly to the merchant’s wallet in seconds. Bitcoin Cash Register is limited by being BCH-only, but in every other respect, it’s the perfect example of what a noncustodial crypto payment solution should be. What other noncustodial merchant payment solutions do you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. You can now purchase bitcoin without visiting a cryptocurrency exchange. Buy BTC and BCH directly from our trusted seller and, if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store it, you can download one from us here. The post 6 Noncustodial Crypto Payment Solutions for Merchants appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Since 2011, just after Satoshi Nakamoto left the Bitcoin project for good, networks have emerged that leverage the BTC chain in some way. A variety of projects over the last nine years have found value in anchoring some sort of feature set to BTC in order to bolster the satellite’s underlying network. The following article examines when these anchor-style projects started, where they are today, and how these concepts have been perceived by the crypto community. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 17: That Time Mt. Gox Destroyed 2,609 BTC Blockchain Projects That Leverage BTC Satoshi’s cryptocurrency invention is almost 11 years old and a lot has changed since the early days. One thing that has remained a constant, however, is projects using the BTC chain in some form for leverage. Protocols that harness the network include projects like Namecoin, Counterparty, Rootstock, Blockstack, Omni Layer, Factom, and Veriblock. Namecoin Namecoin is a project that started in 2010 when a few early blockchain developers including Gavin Andresen and Satoshi talked about using the BTC chain for a domain name system (DNS). That December, developers offered a reward for a DNS system and Namecoin (NMC) was born from these discussions and ideas. After months of DNS and Bitcoin discussions, Namecoin was officially announced on April 18, 2011. The NMC network is a separate blockchain that creates a domain naming system and the NMC code is based on the BTC codebase releases of that timeframe. Namecoin uses a system called merged mining and on block 19,200 the NMC network allowed users to mine both BTC and NMC at the same time. This move made it so NMC miners didn’t jump from one chain to another when profitability changed. NMC trading and mining is still quite active today and it’s one of the oldest cryptocurrencies in existence. Just like BTC, the NMC supply is limited to 21 million, and currently there’s a circulating supply of 14,736,400 NMC in existence. Essentially, domain name value pairs are stored on the chain and attached to coins. After 12,000 blocks, names expire unless the owners renew the domain. Initially, the project was fairly popular and attracted other projects like Onename which has since rebranded to Blockstack. An example of BTC and NMC merge mining by Tari Labs. However, in 2015, Harry Kalodner, Miles Carlsten, Paul Ellenbogen, Joseph Bonneau, and Arvind Narayanan from Princeton University released a dreary empirical study of Namecoin. The study noted that only 28 of 120,000 domain names tethered to Namecoin were used. That year, Blockstack founder Muneeb Ali explained that his project would move to to the BTC chain due to the mining pool Discus Fish dominating 60-70% of the NMC hashrate. NMC touched an all-time high (ATH) in 2013, jumping to over $10 a coin, but it never saw those heights again. During the bull run of 2017, NMC spiked to $5 and today the coins trade for $0.55. Namecoin is the first major project to leverage the BTC chain. Omni Layer Another coin that uses the BTC chain to benefit is Omni Layer, a project that originally stemmed from Mastercoin. Omni is well known for issuing the stablecoin tether (USDT) and every Omni and tether transaction utilizes the same transaction hash on the BTC chain. Omni Layer also has other tokens such as maidsafe, synereo, and the native omni tokens, but tether (USDT) which started in 2014 has been the chain’s dominant output. Omni is a protocol built as a layer over the BTC chain. The idea lets anyone generate tokens, send, trade, redeem, and pay token dividends as well. Omni developers consider the protocol to be an HTTP layer that works on top of the BTC network’s TCP/IP. The Omni blockchain uses the BTC chain’s scripting feature and the OP_Return opcode that initiated during version 0.9 of the Bitcoin reference client release. Throughout the cryptocurrency community, discussions rarely talk about Omni as the project is not very well known. However, the tether stablecoin issued on the Omni Layer chain is very well known and USDT accounts for the majority of trades against nearly every cryptocurrency trading pair. For instance, on September 21, tether USDT represents 70% of all global BTC trades. Counterparty The Counterparty platform is another project that makes use of the BTC chain in order to issue financial tools, token assets, and a decentralized trading platform. Similarly to the Omni project, Counterparty uses another chain as a layer built on top of the BTC network and OP_Return opcode transactions tie the assets to the BTC chain. In order to create the Counterparty (XCP), the original team burned 2,140 BTC by sending the coins to a provably unspendable Bitcoin address. The proof-of-burn (PoB) system bootstrapped the cryptocurrency XCP which is used within the system to create new tokens, bets, and callback callable assets. Currently, there are 2,615,428 XCP in existence and on September 21, each coin is trading for $1.79. Counterparty was once a popular digital currency system and people referred to the project as part of the “Bitcoin 2.0” era. The project made headlines in November 2014 when the development team bragged that it implemented the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) into the protocol. In January 2018, XCP touched an all-time high of $99 per coin and has lost most of its value since. The Counterparty project is well known for extensible blockchain game tokens and cards like the game Spells of Genesis. Other Counterparty projects like Mafia Wars and the Rare Pepe trading card series have also gathered a following. Factom Factom (FCT) is a digital currency and separate blockchain that uses the BTC network as an anchor. The people who created Factom explain that the blockchain manages and secures data, documents, and systems on an autonomous blockchain protocol. Basically, Factom allows users to create hashes of digitized assets through the Factom blockchain API and the hashes are combined into a single hash. The finished product is then anchored to the BTC chain and Bitcoin miners record entries for order finality and audit entries for validity. Factom was first announced in 2014 and launched the genesis block on September 1, 2015. Four years later, on September 21, a single FCT is worth $3. At one time FCT touched a high of $78 on January 2018. Similar to Counterparty, Factom was considered a Bitcoin 2.0 project, but is far less popular today as it was in its heyday. Factom has managed to record data for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Blockstack The blockchain-based domain name service (DNS), app ecosystem, and decentralized computing network Blockstack, formally known as Onename, also has plans to use the BTC chain in the Stacks network. In January 2019, Stacks lead developer Jude Nelson described how the protocol leverages the hash power from the BTC network. Essentially Stacks is secured by 90 exahash of distributed hashrate in its initial stages and it aims to harness this security to bootstrap the system and eventually transition away from BTC. Stacks also uses proof-of-burn by allowing participants to provably destroy or burn bitcoins. “Every participant competing for the opportunity to write the next block must burn a certain amount of proof-of-work token (bitcoin) to enter the competition,” Nelson details in a video demonstration of the Stacks protocol. Since Onename rebranded to Blockstack and transitioned to using the BTC chain in 2015, the protocol has been a popular project amongst bitcoiners. In July 2019, the cofounder of Blockstack, Muneeb Ali, told the public that the firm’s token sale was “qualified by the SEC under Regulation A+.” Rootstock The Rootstock (RSK) project is an open source Turing-complete smart contract sidechain that uses the BTC chain via merge-mining. The chain adds multi-chain interoperability through the two-way peg to BTC and allows for smart contracts built on top of the network. The project had been in the works for three years before it mined the RSK genesis block on January 4, 2018. Developers of RSK consider it to be “the first open source smart contract platform secured by the Bitcoin network.” In May of 2018, RSK creators revealed that the system’s smart contracts were secured by 10% of the BTC hashrate. By February 2019 RSK was secured by more than 45% of the BTC hashrate and at the time attacking RSK contracts would have cost approximately $112,000 per hour. Rootstock is a well known project and has enticed believers in smart contracts for years now, although some people take issue with merge mining techniques and believe the method could be insecure. However, RSK increased its security in an upgrade and developers claim: “RSK merge-mining security could reach a level of security comparable to Bitcoin mining, for users that wait for at least a hundred block confirmations.” Veriblock The last project on the list, Veriblock, has been a hot topic of conversation over the last year for using a significant portion of BTC transactions. Veriblock is a blockchain that uses a consensus system called proof-of-proof (PoP) and the ‘proof’ is tied to the BTC chain via OP_ Return transactions and other methods of interoperability. These ‘SP blockchain transactions’ essentially store an alternative blockchain’s state data in order to benefit from the anchor of BTC’s security. Veriblock made headlines last February when the chain was consuming around 30% of BTC’s daily transactions. Veriblock only recently appeared on the scene. Nowadays, Veriblock captures between 15-20% and bitcoiners have noticed the project is now using Segregated Witness (Segwit) transactions. With a large number of transactions in February through March and the recent use of Segwit transactions, Veriblock’s operations have caused some Bitcoin proponents to complain about the project. After finding out that Veriblock was using a sizeable portion of all Segwit transactions, BTC developer Luke Jr begged the community to reduce the block size to lower than the current 1MB limit. Veriblock (VBK) also has its own native currency called VBK and each coin is worth $0.01 on September 21. Veriblock recently told the crypto community it was using Segwit/Bech 32 addresses. Networks That Use BTC for Leverage Have Always Been Controversial So far, all of these projects have been either welcomed or hated on for the type of services they provide and it’s been this way since the beginning. The Namecoin project was originally going to be hosted on the BTC chain and called BitDNS, but bitcoiners took issue with that type of data being hosted on the network. The argument has been tied to all of these projects in some form or another as skeptics don’t like arbitrary data being stored onchain and they believe that these practices could lead to higher fees, blockchain bloat, and congestion. A few people also think that merge-mined chains could be dangerous. Even Satoshi stated that merge mining parties could be “a danger to each other if the available CPU power gangs up on one.” The Namecoin blockchain itself has served as a real world experiment for merge mining examples as well as other blockchains. Merged mining was first used on Namecoin but was also introduced to coins like huntercoin (2014), dogecoin (2014) and myriadcoin (2015). The problems associated with merge-mined coins include possible impacts on mining power distribution, mining power centralization issues, effects on proof-of-work (PoW) difficulty, and validation disincentives. Any project that decides to leverage the BTC chain in some form or another going forward will be scrutinized and disliked just like all these other projects. However, the permissionless nature of these protocols has given any person or organization the ability to start such projects and no one can stop them. As long as the underlying security of the BTC hashrate continues to grow, projects like Veriblock will exist no matter what people think about them. Bitcoin’s inability to scale could contribute to these projects leaving the BTC chain for something more affordable, however. This can be seen with the Tether project and how millions of Omni Layer tethers have been swapped for ERC20 equivalents. When Tether Limited told the public it was doing this, it cited cheaper network fees and faster transactions. All of these projects that utilize the BTC chain right now could find themselves in the same boat if BTC scaling remains limited to 1MB blocks and Segwit transactions. If congestion and high fees price out such projects, it’s likely many protocols could flow into blockchains like Ethereum (ETH), and for even cheaper fees and more block space to Bitcoin Cash. What do you think about the projects that leverage the BTC chain? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Veriblock, RSK, Blockstack, Namecoin, Factom, Counterparty, Omni, Rare Pepe Cards, Tari Labs, and Tether Limited. Do you need a reliable Bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy Bitcoin with a credit card. The post How Merge Mining and Anchored Blockchain Projects Capitalize on Bitcoin’s Security Model appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. The team behind Bankera, which is building the bank for the blockchain era, has announced the release of its very own lending solution – ​ Bankera Loans​. The solution aims to provide flexible and secure crypto-backed loans to cryptocurrency holders globally starting from as low as 100 EUR up to as high as 1M EUR. Bankera Loans acts as an alternative medium for crypto owners who need quick access to financing, but do not want to liquidate their positions. The solution offers clients a possibility to take out loans by pledging cryptocurrencies as collateral and retaining the ownership of their assets. Crypto-backed loans for individuals and businesses While the concept of crypto-backed loans is not entirely new as the surge of cryptocurrencies in 2017 precipitated a rise in crypto-based lending platforms, current solutions tend to overlook clients looking for smaller loans. Bankera Loans aims to democratize access to core banking services for all cryptocurrency market participants by providing flexible loan solutions suited to both individuals and businesses. “We see a big interest from the community in smaller crypto-backed loans. This market has been heavily underserved, and typical loan minimums in the current market are often too high. Bankera Loans solution offers our clients the possibility to take a loan as low as 100 EUR so that all clients can obtain the financing they need”, Bankera’s co-founder Vytautas Karalevičius explained. The solution also welcomes business clients looking to utilize their crypto assets to get quick financing for leveraging positions, expanding the business, and more. How does the lending process at Bankera Loans work? Taking out a loan at Bankera is a simple process. After completing a quick ​ sign-up​ , the customer should deposit assets to Bankera Loans wallet that can be later used as collateral; then the customer can personalize the loan terms by choosing a preferred loan amount, loan duration, as well as withdrawal and collateral currencies. As soon as the application is approved, the client will receive a loan to the Bankera Loans account. Bankera Loans customers can choose among a number of major fiat or cryptocurrencies for withdrawing their crypto-backed loans. Currently, the platform supports Euro (EUR), Banker (BNK), Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), NEM (XEM), and Dash (DASH) currencies with more to be added in the future. Bankera’s own Banker (BNK) token holders can take advantage of lower interest rates by choosing BNK as the currency for interest payments. Having analyzed the market carefully, the company offers competitive rates and no hidden fees. Repayments are possible at any time while interest payments are debited automatically every month from the client’s loans wallet. Bankera Loans is already the third product within Bankera’s ecosystem, following the company’s first solution – the cryptocurrency brokerage SpectroCoin, which was released back in 2013, has now reached one million customers. In addition, the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading platform Bankera Exchange had launched at the beginning of this year. About Bankera Bankera aims to become the bank for the blockchain era and is actively working to build an ecosystem of products and services that would encompass the best of both traditional finance and crypto economy. Bankera’s digital bank will offer financial services such as savings and loans accounts, low-cost investment products, and crypto funds. This essentially merges the banking and blockchain worlds together. This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post Bankera Launches a Global Crypto Backed Lending Solution appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Technically speaking, it’s impossible to destroy bitcoins. But it is possible to send coins to an unspendable address, rendering them redundant to all intents and purposes. In October 2011, that’s exactly what Mark Karpeles did when he consigned 2,609 BTC to eternal oblivion due to a scripting error. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 16: The First Mt. Gox Hack How to Destroy One Week’s Profits in One Click In the last installment of Bitcoin History, Mt. Gox had just suffered its first hack in summer 2011. Less than four months later, its hapless CEO Mark Karpeles was to suffer another embarrassing episode when he wiped out a week’s takings for the bitcoin exchange. Compared to other losses Gox was to endure, this one was a drop in the ocean, and has thus been largely lost to history. The incident deserves revisiting, however, as it provides a cautionary tale on the dangers of meddling with the Bitcoin client, and a lesson in how to destroy coins. Most of the bitcoin community learned of the event, like so many incidents from the early days, on the Bitcointalk forum where, on October 29, 2011, user genjix started a thread titled “someone fucked up and lost a lot of money.” By way of explanation, they posted the following code: Few readers had any idea what was wrong from looking at the code, but genjix was on hand to explain. The standard transaction script, which in this case read “76a90088ac,” should have had “14” in place of the “00,” “which in scripting language means push 0 bytes,” genjix observed. “It’s a tx which has been sent to nothing. Obviously someone was hacking at bitcoin or making a custom version and messed up – although I have no idea what it was doing with so much money.” The answer to that latter question didn’t take long to arrive from Internet Relay Chat, where on the Mt. Gox IRC, Karpeles, aka Magical Tux, confessed to being the one who’d created the faulty transaction script and nuked 2,609 BTC: MagicalTux: that’s a problem, but not the worst problem we ever faced MagicalTux: all the broken withdraws have been re-issued MagicalTux: just spent one week of BTC-only income ‘Lest there were any doubt as to the finality of the transaction, Bitcointalk user “BTCurious” wrote: “They’re gone. No chance of retrieval.” The Mother of All Unrecoverable Transactions Sending coins to a wrong or nonexistent bitcoin address is extremely rare. All bitcoin addresses have a checksum which significantly reduces the odds of inadvertently entering an incorrect address. Karpeles had been tinkering with the Bitcoin client, however, and chose a valuable transaction with which to get experimental. As he acknowledged on IRC: MagicalTux: I need to limit the number of inputs in a tx, seems that normal bitcoind don’t like a tx with 293 inputs. BTCurious explained over on the Bitcointalk forum: The bitcoin protocol supports a lot more than just sending coins from A to B, even though that’s mainly what you see in the normal client nowadays. The miners need to accept “unusual transactions” though, as long as they adhere to the bitcoin protocol. ‘Another Blow to Gox’s Tech Reputation’ Reaction to Karpeles’ screw-up was mixed, with an intense debate breaking out on IRC as to whether Bitcoin’s scripting capabilities ought to be limited to prevent such a mistake from happening. This wasn’t as simple as it sounded, however, with Core developer Gregory Maxwell noting: Glyph-Minus-229: the protocol doesn’t prevent sending to invalid addreses? gmaxwell: No, the protocol makes MANY things possible. gmaxwell: The transactions are little programs that govern their redemption. gmaxwell: There is probably no polynomial time that can identify all unspendable transactions. One IRC user was unwilling to dismiss the incident as bad luck, describing it as “another blow to mtgox’s tech reputation.” “And this is the guy whom 90% of Bitcoin users trust their money to,” wrote forum user Raoul Duke, accompanied by a rolling eyes emoji. Of Karpeles, he presciently wrote “It seems he’s closer to losing the Mt. Gox balance than running away with it.” Speculating on what would have happened to Bitcoin had Karpeles made that mistake when sending 442,000 BTC, as he did in a record-breaking transaction four months earlier, he confessed: “Thinking about this stuff gives me the chills.” Mark Karpeles You Dun Goofed The 2,609 bitcoins Mark Karpeles accidentally destroyed in October 2011 can’t be moved, but they can be viewed. In Tux’s defence, Bitcoin was much less user-friendly back then, and executing complex transactions required more tinkering than it does today. They will remain, till the end of time, in the unusually named bitcoin address “s-272edf45031dd498e7b3ae89e11ff21b.” Attempting to summarize the impossibility of retrieving those BTC, forum user “etotheipi” wrote: “In order to spend these coins, you have to furnish a public key that, when you apply ripemd160(sha256(pubKey)) is equal to “0x00”. Unfortunately, ripemd160 only produces 20-byte hashes. Even if you somehow did have a string that produces such an impossible hash, good luck finding the associated private key.” Given that the coins Mt. Gox lost were only worth $8,300 at the time, it wasn’t seen as a big deal. Today, those coins would be worth $26 million. The fact that they’ve resided in the same address for the last eight years, untouched, is a testament to Bitcoin’s finality. Bitcoin History is a multipart series from news.Bitcoin.com charting pivotal moments in the evolution of the world’s first cryptocurrency. Read part 16 here. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post Bitcoin History Part 17: That Time Mt. Gox Destroyed 2,609 BTC appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Brexit, the European divorce saga that has been going on for years, has created a lot of headaches for politicians and ordinary people on both sides of the Channel. The process of Britain leaving the European Union is now heading towards another one of its deadlines while London and Brussels are trying to separate with an agreement. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed there will be an exit on October 31, deal or no deal. Brits and their Euro neighbors are bracing for another jolt in the continent’s economic and financial system. Cryptocurrencies, independent of centralized political decisions, can provide some stability and utility in these uncertain times in the fiat world. Also read: Here’s How Europeans Can Deal With Negative Interest Rates Britain’s Exit From United Europe Britain’s relationship with Europe has never been straightforward or unambiguous. “Fog in Channel, Continent Cut Off” is a newspaper headline that was probably never printed but it very well describes the British attitude towards the mainland. And it’s not like Europeans haven’t given as good as they’ve gotten. United Kingdom’s entry into the European Economic Community was vetoed twice by France, in 1963 and 1967, with General De Gaulle citing the British hostility towards European construction, lack of interest in the common market as well as the economic differences that in his view made Britain incompatible with the rest of Europe. However, at the time the majority of the British people and their political representatives wanted to join what has since become the European Union. They achieved that at the third attempt, years after De Gaulle’s resignation and death, with the U.K. becoming a member of the European Communities (EC) on Jan. 1, 1973 and confirming its full membership in 1975, in the nation’s first referendum. Back then, all major political parties, the mainstream media, and most importantly the majority of Britons supported the continuation of membership – over 67% voted to stay in. Besides, London managed to negotiate a list of opt-ins and opt-outs of key European policies including the Schengen Agreement, the Economic and Monetary Union, the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and even win the U.K. rebate. Another poll on Britain’s EU membership decades later produced a quite different outcome, though. Over half of the electorate that took part in the referendum on June 23, 2016 (51.9%) voted in favor of leaving the European Union. Despite the non-binding nature of the referendum, the British government kept its promise to implement the result. David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party and British prime minister at the time, who campaigned for remaining in the EU, resigned and was succeeded by his home secretary Theresa May in the summer of 2016. She initiated the EU withdrawal process on March 29, 2017, which was expected to complete within the next two years. Britain triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. Deal or No Deal, That Is the Question Britain’s second female prime minister stepped down in July after the withdrawal agreement her cabinet reached with the EU was rejected three times in parliament earlier this year. She was then replaced by her former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson whose government continued the negotiations with Brussels. Johnson, a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, stated that the United Kingdom would exit the European Union on Oct. 31, 2019, regardless of whether a deal has been reached by that date or not. With British lawmakers blocking a no-deal Brexit, however, Johnson proposed a general election on October 15 but the motion failed. He also asked the Queen to prorogue parliament from September 10 in an effort to prevent parliamentarians from stopping the exit without agreement by narrowing the window in which they could do so. In the meantime, a string of court cases have challenged the prime minister’s actions. In the absence of a written British constitution, this could create legal confusion. Brexit has sown discord in British society and posed questions about the future of the European Union in general. Euro skeptics and pro-Europeanists span the political spectrum in Britain. While the major political forces, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, each have their claims regarding the terms of the agreement with the EU, the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party and other factions directly seek a reversal of Brexit through a second referendum on the matter. Brexit’s Economic Impact There is a widespread consensus among economists that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is already negatively affecting its economy. The costs associated with the vote result and the withdrawal process amount to between 2 and 2.5% of the U.K.’s gross domestic product, according to various studies conducted last year. Analysts have calculated that inflation rose by 1.7% in 2017. Other estimates suggest that the country could have lost another 1% of its national income during the same period, while some long-term analyses put the future annual losses at up to 9% of GDP. At the same time, proponents of Brexit point out that the United Kingdom is the second-largest net contributor to the EU budget, after Germany, and after Brexit it should register serious savings that could translate into tax cuts for its residents or increased government spending on social programs, for example. Official figures show that in 2014, the country’s contribution was £14.4 billion (around €16 billion at the current exchange rate), after the rebate. Britain gave the EU €11.5 billion in 2015, or over two times the contribution of France. How Cryptocurrencies Can Help Brits and Europeans One of the biggest impacts Britain’s divorce with the EU is likely to make has important socio-economic and even humanitarian aspects. Aside from economic issues such as low income and unemployment, opposition to immigration and expectations that the U.K. will regain full control over its borders after the withdrawal were among the most motivating factors for voters in the Leave camp. Many of them are competing for low-paid, unqualified jobs with Eastern European guest workers. Brexit, especially if it happens without a comprehensive deal with Brussels, will certainly limit immigration flows from countries in the European Economic Area, as it will curtail free movement between the Continent and the United Kingdom. However, according to an analysis conducted by the Migration Policy Institute, Great Britain will continue to accept around 500,000 immigrants annually and official statistical data indicates that immigration from outside the European Union has already increased. Net immigration is projected to be at least 200,000 people each year, despite the U.K.’s departure from the EU. Newcomers and those EU immigrants who choose to stay in the United Kingdom, especially if a deal with Europe allows them to retain their employment rights, will continue to send money to family members in their home countries. Despite Britain being a member of the EU, it never adopted the common European currency, the euro, instead keeping its national fiat, the British pound. As a result, money transfers within the fiat system involve currency exchange and additional bank charges. The separation from the European Union is only going to complicate things further for anybody sending money abroad. Cryptocurrencies offer the easiest and cheapest way to send remittances home. You don’t even need a third party to transact with digital money. All that the sender and receiver must have is a crypto wallet, such as the Bitcoin.com Wallet which supports both bitcoin cash and bitcoin core. In the past few years, Britain, which is one of the world’s financial capitals, has become a hotspot for the growing fintech industry. Leading European companies dealing with digital assets are now based in the U.K. And although in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum some have taken steps to establish a presence elsewhere in the EU, like Revolut which announced plans to open offices in 19 European countries, the crypto sector is likely to maintain and expand its presence in the country which has a very well developed financial infrastructure. Revolut, which develops online banking solutions, provides its clients with instant access to five cryptocurrencies, including BCH, and offers exchange services in its mobile app. Users can transfer digital coins between each other. Other Britain-based companies of note are Wirex and Cashaa. Wirex is the most popular crypto debit card issuer in Europe. Its platform lets you spend cryptocurrencies anywhere Visa is accepted through instant conversion to fiat and to withdraw cash at ATMs around the world. And Cashaa provides you with a U.K. current and euro bank accounts supporting both traditional and digital money operations. Thanks to startups like these, crypto banking is becoming a viable alternative to traditional finance. And in the future, the troubles of the fiat system are likely to have a positive effect on cryptocurrencies, whose strengths stem from their decentralized nature. If you live in Britain, Europe or anywhere else, and you still haven’t entered the crypto space, you can do so safely and securely by acquiring your first coins at buy.Bitcoin.com. You can also freely trade your crypto assets on our noncustodial, peer-to-peer marketplace local.Bitcoin.com, with thousands of other users or try our recently launched trading platform, exchange.Bitcoin.com. Do you expect the number of cryptocurrency users in the U.K. to increase after Brexit? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you need a reliable bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy bitcoin with a credit card. The post How Cryptocurrencies Can Mitigate Some of Brexit’s Negative Effects appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Stefan Rust, the new CEO of Bitcoin.com, sat down to answer all your questions about his work and how furthering Bitcoin Cash adoption advances economic freedom to the world. During the hour-long AMA he talked about a wide range of topics, such as how bitcoin cash (BCH) can reach new audiences in fields such as esports and the cannabis market. Also Read: Bitcoin Cash Futures Expected to Open up US Market by Q1 2020 Bitcoin.com CEO Hosts AMA Ask me anything (AMA) sessions are a great way to learn about the projects you support directly from the people who make them happen. To reveal what Bitcoin.com is doing to promote cryptocurrency, Stefan Rust, who was recently appointed as the new chief executive officer of the company, livestreamed himself answering the community’s questions on our Youtube channel. As the AMA opened right after the announcement that HTC has added native bitcoin cash support to its flagship smartphone, Exodus 1, the Bitcoin.com CEO started the session by talking about the HTC deal. He explained how, by using BCH, you can now have a bank on your phone of which you are the CEO. “An app on your phone can now provide you with all the financial services you could want, from wealth management to interest-bearing deposits, lending, borrowing, investing and trading all at your fingertips.” Stefan also demonstrated how anyone who wants to promote bitcoin cash adoption with businesses can easily do so. He bought a quality coffee by simply going into an Italian coffee shop and asking if he could pay with BCH. The owner accepted the offer and he helped him to download the Bitcoin.com Wallet app and accept the payment on his phone. The owner was happy to see how fast the transaction went down and that he didn’t need to pay high fees to any middlemen, unlike with a credit card transaction that costs 3-5% and requires a point-of-sale device. Esports, Cannabis and Smart Cities The very first “question” that popped up on chat for the AMA was “send me bitcoin cash.” Stefan kindly obliged the request and used it as an opportunity to show off in real-time just how easy it is to send BCH. He asked the commenter to post a wallet address to the chat, transferred money from his mobile wallet on his phone to the Badger Wallet he had on the laptop where he was monitoring the chat and then sent $5 in BCH from his browser. Two transfers from two different devices and two different wallets completed in under a minute. One subject that many people were wondering about ever since the announcement of Stefan as the new CEO of Bitcoin.com is the work division and relationship with former CEO Roger Ver. Stefan talked about how fun it is to work with Roger and explained that he is now basically his boss under the new title of Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com. They work together in tandem and Roger is more focused on evangelizing bitcoin cash and the cryptocurrency ecosystem while also driving the development of new products and services. Another topic that repeatedly came up from audience questions during the AMA is how Bitcoin.com is working to increase the adoption of bitcoin cash (BCH) and thus raise its value in the market. Stefan talked in response on how the cryptocurrency can reach new people thanks to cooperations which the company is working on with big players in various fields such as esports and the cannabis market. He also revealed that he was in a meeting with a 5G company about incorporating cryptocurrency into smart cities. Bitcoin.com seeks to drive BCH adoption in the real world and not just among the current group of people that are invested in cryptocurrencies. The reason for focusing on esports is that gamers are used to paying with digital tokens and are technologically savvy – a perfect crowd for using bitcoin cash, the same way that poker players were for bitcoin years ago. Cannabis businesses are suffering from a lack of financial services, as banks refuse to work with them, and thus are also a perfect fit to adopt digital money with no middlemen. Stefan wants to see real people choose to use BCH instead of credit cards to pay for coffee and everything else. Never Miss Another Bitcoin.com AMA An interesting question that often comes up when people are introduced to the idea of peer-to-peer electronic cash is whether the authorities can shut it down. Stefan was faced with a version of this question during the AMA by a person who was worried his BCH could be confiscated. He explained that BCH is decentralized and can’t be shut down, as well as that in order to confiscate BCH from anyone, the authorities would need get control over their wallet, such as taking away his smartphone with the wallet app installed if he has not backed it up elsewhere. Otherwise, confiscation would not possible. In general, the CEO of Bitcoin.com did not want to say where he predicts the price of BCH is going to be by a set time or when is it going to jump 1,000x as people asked. He did explain that he sees the market improving in 2020 and that he believes that it won’t be BTC that grows the most due to its limitations to function as digital cash. He revealed that the company’s goal is to see BCH becomes the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap in a year. Stefan also talked about how he got into bitcoin in 2012 at a price of $5 when a programmer from Guatemala asked him to pay with it for his services. He was impressed by the speed and very low fees he had to pay to make transactions at the time. He contrasted this with an experience of using a bank check to get fiat money to pay the salaries for his employees in Hong Kong soon after. The bank sent him to a branch in New York to validate the piece of paper, took five days to complete the transfer and charged him about $700 for it. The sharp difference turned him into a believer in cryptocurrency as the future of finance. On a personal note Stefan also talked about the way he grow up, how he was born in Hong Kong and where he studied in Switzerland before moving to China and finding success as an entrepreneur in the mobile business. Watch the full AMA to see all of the interesting questions and candid answers. And make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel to never miss another video. What did you think about the first AMA by Bitcoin’s new CEO? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Esports, Cannabis and BCH: First AMA With Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

According to public data, a number of individuals are creating tokens using the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) on the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain every day. The SLP ecosystem is expanding and has given anyone the ability to create the next great digital token for tomorrow. Also read: Snowden: US Seizing My Book Revenue is ‘Good for Bitcoin’ SLP Hackathon Prize Pool Grows, Crescent Cash Improvements, and Art on the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain If you follow the BCH community, you’ve likely heard of the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) and the tokens that derive from this system. It’s been over a year since the SLP project launched and the token universe has grown exponentially as the outlying infrastructure has matured. Now developers are hosting a dedicated SLP hackathon aimed at building out the token environment even more. Further, when we last reported on the SLP Virtual Hackathon (SLPVH), we mentioned rewards that will be given to the winners. Now the prize pool is over $7,000 thanks to BCH and SLP token donations. The SLP Virtual Hackathon will be held for 72 hours on September 27-30 Last week, BCH supporters donated bitcoin cash and various tokens like spice to the prize pool in order to give contestants more incentives. SLPVH will be held for 72 hours on September 27-30 and participants are encouraged to come up with unique ideas like onchain voting, token specific wallets, SLP tip bots, NFT (nonfungible token) collectibles, and onchain games. Additionally, software developer Chris Troutner published a descriptive video on SLP token development with tools like Badger Wallet, SLP SDK, SLP SDK Documentation, and the bch-cli-wallet alpha release with SLP support. “I created this video to help contestants in the SLP hackathon,” Troutner explained. “[The video] is a walkthrough on how to set up a development environment, create tokens, mint tokens, and send tokens.” Are you a developer looking to build on Bitcoin Cash? Head over to our Bitcoin Developer page where you can get Bitcoin Cash developer guides and start using the Bitbox, SLP, and Badger Wallet SDKs. This week, the developer of the opensource, non-custodial BCH wallet that uses the Cash Accounts system, Pokkst, released version 1.8.1 of Crescent Cash. Similarly to Badger, Electron Cash, and Ifwallet, the Crescent Cash client also supports SLP tokens. Pokkst improved the user interface, added Tor support, and now the wallet supports SLP token icons. This means SLP tokens will show an attached image if the coins have an icon picture tethered to the design. Crescent Cash v1.8.1 is now being rolled out to the Play Store! Desktop versions are now available on https://t.co/bcoUV9GDNv — Crescent Cash (@crescentcash) September 18, 2019 As news.Bitcoin.com discussed in a prior in-depth SLP editorial, developers have been trying to figure out the best methods to attach an SVG, GIF, or other types of images to tokens. People want to add images and custom art to nonfungible tokens and according to developer Gabriel Cardona “tokens are art.” “There will be highly valuable pieces of art and music tokenized as NFTs — All collectibles will find a home as NFTs on the blockchain,” Cardona tweeted. Following the statement, Cardona shared an art token created by @brianxv15 which shows a moving GIF image and can be viewed by anyone on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. The token, called silverII, shown in the explorer link is a single nonfungible art token out of 15 minted. Cardona is a huge fan of SLP tokens and refers to the trend as the “Tokambrian Explosion” on BCH and often shares every unique SLP concept he can find on his Twitter feed. On September 19, the Bitcoin Cash programmer noted: One of the greatest attributes of Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) tokens is how light-weight they are. Create a token for any occasion and when you’re done with it just send your tokens to a wallet which doesn’t support SLP and they will be safely burned and the underlying BCH will be recaptured. Another great NFT art token by @brianxv15 Art on the blockchain!https://t.co/qGQrs4XRjI pic.twitter.com/oe6sbPupQf — Gabriel Cardona (@cgcardona) September 18, 2019 Sideshift’s Sia, Honestcoin Transparency Report, and Nonfungible Tokens Built on Memo Another interesting development in the SLP environment is the peer-to-peer trading platform Sideshift.ai’s SLP token called sia. The new token is basically like an exchange rewards coin that gives “exclusive services and privileges on Sideshift AI ecosystem.” Sia was added to the exchange Coinex last month currently the token is trading for roughly $0.04 per sia. There’s a max supply of 210 million sia coins and the token has seen $805,000 in 24-hour trading volume this Friday paired against bitcoin cash. Another token that has seen more infrastructure support is the stablecoin built on BCH called honestcoin (USDH). The SLP-centric trading exchange Cryptophyl recently added USDH support to the platform and also published a transparency report for the new listing. The report outlines the steps Cryptophyl took to “conduct due diligence on Honestnode, the company behind USDH.” The SLP-centric trading platform Cryptophyl has recently added the stablecoin USDH to the exchange. Cryptophyl conducted a transparency report on the coin and team as well. Cryptophyl collected information on Honestnode which consisted of “blockchain token data, information pertaining to the legal structure and registration(s) of the project, information about the team behind Honestnode, KYC documentation for persons with significant control over the company, KYC documentation for company executives, and copies of contracts for key commercial relationships.” The exchange transparency report concluded: We decided that the Honestcoin team was able to meet and exceed our high listing standards. There is always room for improvement, and we are looking forward to seeing the first audit to be carried out by Cohen and Co. The publicly available roadmap and future products we can expect from Honestnode give us confidence that they are positioning Honestcoin to accelerate cryptocurrency adoption. The SLP trend hasn’t let up and passionate BCH supporters continue to push tokenization to new levels. There are discussions every day concerning SLP tokens on social media and BCH forums. People have also been creating NFTs on the memo.cash onchain microblogging platform. The same person who created the NFT art token silverII, also published a two-minute demonstration video teaching viewers how to create NFTs using memo.cash. In the last 30 days, the most used SLP tokens include the bread emoji token, spice, tribeos test token #3, official SLP token, beer, and the realmx token created for the Realmx video game. What do you think about the ongoing development happening with the SLP ecosystem? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Cryptophyl, SLPVH 2019, and Twitter. Did you know that Bitcoin.com’s BCH Block Explorer can query SLP token transactions? Check it today to search and find Simple Ledger Protocol token’s within the BCH network. Our Blockchain Explorer tool will allow you to view all previous BCH and BTC transactions as well. The post SLP Token Environment Built on Bitcoin Cash Continues to Expand appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Everybody loves a story. When it comes to how people first got into cryptocurrency, there’s no exception. Crypto Twitter (CT) is full of humorous, thought-provoking, and unexpected tales of diving down the Satoshi rabbit hole, and the reasons for entering the space are as diverse as the people themselves. Also Read: North Korea Plans to Launch Cryptocurrency to Bypass Economic Sanctions Reasons for Getting Into Bitcoin Trawling CT, one can find many scattered gemstones and nuggets of interest about people’s discovery of Bitcoin. Recently there have been a few prominent threads asking for folks to share how they first became interested in crypto, and the reasons given fall into a few broadly defined categories. First, there’s the philosophical angle. Libertarian-minded individuals realized they could keep their own money and help to subvert the war-mongering, abusive Keynesian economic powers that be. Second, there’s the pure convenience approach, where, “hey, the stuff just works, so I’m going to use it.” There’s the tech angle and entrepreneurial angle, for those who saw the burgeoning growth of a new and lucrative industry. And finally there’s the straight “show me the money” crowd. Some tweets illustrate a little bit of everything, as well as the random, haphazard circumstances that often come into play. The Libertarian Angle There’s something extremely exciting, hopeful and uplifting about mantras of “bitcoin not bombs” and the prospect of real economic sovereignty. Many previously uninitiated folks found in crypto an invigorating and simple freedom. The realization that this is what money was always meant to be, and a tool to achieve greater individual freedom and quality of life for everyone. User @DougFMoeller writes: Bitcoin is freedom to interact. When prompted with “What was it that excited you about cryptocurrency,” user Preston Thornburg replied it was “the premise of a global currency that sees no borders.” Crypto by Convenience On August 23 Mycrypto.com tweeted “How did you first get into crypto / blockchain? What made you stay?” @doerkadrian replied: “Open platforms without vetting or KYC restrictions. The momentum of the tech. And the welcoming community sucked me further in.” There are also certain business models in which relative anonymity and protecting real identities are important for workers, such as escort services and purchasing substances the state has deemed illegal. Silk Road is an oft-mentioned inspiration as well, being that many governments of the world still have an obsession with caging and violating people for peaceful possession of plant life. It’s always convenient not to get your head smashed in by police when going about your private, daily business. Even elected government officials are testing the waters, with Berkeley Councilmember and attorney Ben Bartlett purchasing cannabis for bitcoin cash in California on September 10. As news.Bitcoin.com reported, co-founder of financial platform Cred, Dan Schatt, noted at the event: “We are thrilled to build technology that solves real problems for customers, merchants, and politicians which will help usher in the next 100 million users of crypto.” Great fun participating in yesterday’s live demonstration of how crypto-financial technology can benefit the cannabis industry! Produced by @ihaveCred and facilitated by @BlockAdCo @EvilleAlly @TranscendUs @RigelRobinson @UPAlliance Read more: https://t.co/ZUOTsevXDD — Ben Bartlett (@BenBartlettCA) September 12, 2019 An Innovative New Industry Some entrants to the holy church of crypto approached not in any sort of reverent, ideological way, and not even for simple convenience. They were practical observers of a burgeoning new tech industry bringing with it myriad innovation and opportunities. User @TimC2468 tweeted: Wife said to me in Dec 2013 that my Christmas present was for me to learn how to mine Bitcoin. I told her I would work it like my 2nd job. I no longer need to work now. Still with my wife. Bitcoin.com’s Executive Chairman, Roger Ver, cites a plethora of factors influencing his initial investment back in 2011, with the tech behind the project being a central one: The reasons I started investing in Bitcoin in 2011 are the exact same reasons I’m investing in Bitcoin Cash today. pic.twitter.com/OpOV7OKeGN — Roger Ver (@rogerkver) September 5, 2018 Show Me the Money and Other Amusing Tales Everybody likes to have money. After all, without it, there’s not a whole lot one can do to bring their visions to life. Visions of overthrowing existing financial systems, creating a tech startup, or even securing that long-awaited moon Lambo are pretty tough to realize without a little cash flow. Some of the commenters on Twitter are well aware of this, and aiming at beachside mojitos and beyond. Others are simply chewing the fat and sharing unique crypto tales in humorous and amusing fashion. One user going by the name Koodge wrote: Fell off a ladder and while recovering to go back to work i found the btc white paper. Took me several weeks to pull the trigger. Some made a point of calling out the posters of “how did you get into crypto” prompts with tongue-in-cheek retorts like “None of your business, IRS” and “Nice try IRS.” Others sardonically lamented the moment they were lowered into the nether regions of crypto Twitter by their own fatal curiosity: Freedom: A Common Thread Whether one is interested in getting rich quick, entering a new field, or taking down banks and governments, a common theme emerges: freedom. Freedom to do business without intrusion from third parties, to build wealth, to support charities, and to sip tropical drinks while admiring a newly purchased sports car. Simple freedom of expression and speech. The version of the internet powered by bitcoin and blockchain have the potential to facilitate these things for all. This is something even folks from vastly different philosophical and socioeconomic backgrounds can appreciate. Crypto is presented by many as a chance to share one’s story and vision more powerfully, and a unifying force where fiat money like USD so often disempowers. Escape from even that paradigm may be possible, as noted in a since-deleted tweet from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, where he stated: Coincidentally, new technologies raise the possibility of unstoppable tax protests. For those tired of paying for bombs, robbery of businesses, and violence against non-violent people everywhere, the potential holds great hope for the future of Bitcoin, and for the stories of individuals who love permissionless cash around the world. How did you get into Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, fair use. Did you know you can also buy Bitcoin Cash online with us? Download your free Bitcoin wallet and head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can buy BCH and BTC securely. The post How Did You Get Into Bitcoin? Crypto Twitter Responds appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre London, UK www.cc-forum.com 14-16 October 2019 will see one of the world’s major industry events. Following our highly successful inaugural edition in London last October as well as our the joint edition with the Maltese partners this May, the second edition of CC Forum London will connect global thought leaders, policy makers, investors and startups from across the world for a 3 day top content event. The summit will be attended by the industry leaders, think tanks, institutional and private investors, family offices and VC firms. The event’s highlights include: 2 500+ attendees 100+ speakers 70+ exhibitors Bringing traditionally together the elite of the space the event is privileged to have some of the world’s most authoritative speakers, some of whom are global movers and shakers. https://cc-forum.com/speakers The programme of the event is highly intense: a muli-track conference, a buzzing exhibition floor, keynotes, panels, fireside chats, duels, pitching contests, workshops, round tables and a number of networking events. The event’s agenda will address a wide range of issues including Institutional and Private Investment in the space, Blockchain & AI and Foreign Direct Investment and the Regulatory Framework of Blockchain & AI. Part of the event’s programme are one-to-one duels where heavyweights will engage in heated public debates on the big issues of the space with the conference audience being involved. The blockchain battle with a confirmed 100K pounds sterling prize draw will be held. Last, but not least, the Forum abounds in a rich networking programme ranging from welcoming drinks reception to networking investors’ dinners. It will culminate in our traditional black-tie VIP Gala & Award Giving Ceremony on 15th October. Tickets can be purchased here: https://cc-forum.com/register Contact Email Address media@cc-forum.com Supporting Link https://cc-forum.com The post CC Forum – Blockchain and AI Investment Forum appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

News of Japan messaging giant Line’s September 17 launch of an app-connected crypto exchange is captivating lots of attention in the crypto and tech industries this week. Other initially non-crypto apps are also entering the market, adding native tokens, tipping functions and cryptocurrency wallets, illustrating a growing trend toward mainstream crypto acceptance and awareness. Also Read: Taxation Isn’t Just Theft – It’s Bad for Crypto Adoption Naver’s Line Launches Built-In Crypto Exchange For almost anyone living in Japan, or Asia in general, popular messaging app Line is a household name. Line was launched in Japan in 2011 by Korean search engine company Naver Corporation, in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The tech was a byproduct of improvised communications during telecommunications infrastructure damage resulting from the disaster. The Bitmap exchange can be accessed directly through the Line app. Line’s freeware app began as a rather simple service, but exploded in popularity soon after, evolving from a simple SMS for sending cute stickers and chatting, to a digital wallet, video on-demand, digital comics and games juggernaut in the Asian market and beyond. Just this month, the expansive trend has taken new ground with the launch of Bitmax, an app-connected cryptocurrency exchange featuring five digital assets: BCH, BTC, ETH, XRP, and LTC. Line is also in development of its own native crypto token, called Link (LN), currently exchangeable for Line points. According to the Link website: LINE Token Economy is centered around a single token, our general-purpose coin LINK … A single-token economy can make the overall ecosystem more dynamic and stable, and because dApps contribute to the economy, they can grow with it. Telegram Is Getting Tokenized Though still cloaked in relative mystery, chat app Telegram’s upcoming Ton network (Telegram Open Network) and native token gram are nevertheless causing a buzz in the cryptosphere. The source code has already been released and testing of the network began in April. Slated for an October 31 launch, the 200 million+ monthly active users of the platform are looking forward to seeing the company put the $1.7 billion it raised via a 2018 token sale to full use. The network is set to operate utilizing a proof of stake (PoS) system, and with the rising popularity of the app in private communications and business applications / team-building functions as well, big waves will likely be made should Telegram deliver. Tipping bots for BCH and SLP tokens have been added to Telegram as well, making the platform that much more compatible with crypto culture. Rakuten Wallet As news.Bitcoin.com reported last month, the “Amazon of Japan,” Rakuten, has now launched its own crypto wallet, featuring BTC, ETH and BCH. Like Line, the company is providing a fiat on-ramp with promise of exposing legions of neophytes to the world of cryptocurrency and crypto spot trading. Though Rakuten has many apps, the addition of Rakuten Wallet is indeed unprecedented thanks to its connection to the popular Rakuten Bank app. In an August 19 press release, the company describes how it works: “In order to provide customers with safe and secure crypto asset transaction services, Rakuten Wallet separates money deposited by customers (customer assets) from the company’s own funds, managing the assets (trust maintenance) in trust accounts provided by Rakuten Trust Co., Ltd., the trust company of Rakuten Group. Rakuten Trust manages those trust assets through Rakuten Bank, Ltd. savings accounts.” Cash App A popular U.S. app to “go crypto” in recent years is Cash App. The mobile payments service originally launched as Square Cash in 2015, and added bitcoin functionality in January 2018. July was a record-breaking month for the app, with a reported 2.4 million downloads. Talk was rampant of the Square service eclipsing competitors like Paypal’s Venmo, and many speculate that the addition of BTC functionalities and growing crypto-interested user base had something to do with this. Square was founded in part by CEO of Twitter and BTC maximalist Jack Dorsey, so it’s not surprising the app doesn’t support other tokens. With the current atmosphere of increasing adoption, however, the calloused maximalism may come back to bite, should Square turn a blind eye to increasing user adoption of coins like bitcoin cash, and major players in the crypto altcoin world. Facebook’s Libra as Mainstream Coup de Gras For those that can remember the antiquated days when Facebook was only available to college students, and there were no moms, dads, or aunt Sallys on there sharing pictures of birthday cakes, the thought of a mobile app (not even a common concept at that time) dominating the world and featuring a cryptocurrency (bitcoin didn’t even exist yet) would have been somewhat mind-boggling. Fast forward to 2019, and the world’s most downloaded app and most popular social media network is now pushing to bring a new crypto payments system to fruition, called Libra. With significant opposition from governments like the U.S., France and Germany, the Switzerland-based initiative to enable a “more inclusive global financial system” is struggling to gain regulatory approval. Normally such potential legal embattlement would signal the end of a project before it begins, but with Facebook’s roughly 2.4 billion monthly active users, and a mega battery of state-entrenched corporate power in the Libra Association, regulators and lawmakers are being careful not to shoot themselves in the foot too fast. As the Libra currency would not be a true crypto in the sense of bitcoin, being completely centralized, and thanks to the fact that project leaders have already expressed interest bending over backwards for regulators, some speculate the current “battles” are little more than show for the media. Whatever the case, the apple cart of global finance could definitely be upset. Crypto adoption has extended now even to the world of the mainstream app, so it’s not reckless to wager the trend will grow like wildfire in today’s attention economy. After all, folks are with their smartphones 24/7, and electronic payment systems have become an everyday reality. For those looking to maintain the original vision of peer-to-peer, permissionless and private cash, however, these apps will likely be utilized in combination with more private platforms, which afford users financial autonomy in transaction. The Twitters, Facebooks and Rakutens of the world are by nature more interested in collecting user data than they are in privacy, so this stands to reason. Still, the convenience is alluring, and the apps-gone-crypto narrative seems charged and set to expand into the future of crypto adoption. What are your thoughts on established apps adding crypto functionality? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Popular Smartphone Apps Are Adding Crypto Capabilities appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. Congress is considering more than 20 bills on cryptocurrency. One deserves special attention: S.1025, the Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance and Development Act (VERDAD). “Verdad” is Spanish for “truth.” If VERDAD passes, it will be the first time a specific crypto has been deemed illegal for Americans at home or abroad to use. Also read: North Korea Plans to Launch Cryptocurrency to Bypass Economic Sanctions The Truth About Verdad The Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance and Development Act seeks to ban U.S. nationals and organizations from holding, trading, buying, and spending the state-issued Venezuelan crypto the Petro, which is backed by reserves of oil, gasoline, and diamonds—at least, in theory. The Petro was created in 2018 by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime as a way to circumvent U.S. sanctions and to access international financing. If VERDAD passes, it will be the first time a specific type of crypto has been outlawed by the U.S. Jason Brett, founder of Value Technology Foundation, a research company devoted to blockchain law, explains: “The implications for this are huge because it could be bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency inserted into this language, we’re talking about a road map for how to ban a particular cryptocurrency.” The Act would set a precedent for the banning of any other crypto in the future. A Bad Bill Dressed as a Good Deed The potential impact on crypto usage receives little attention compared to VERDAD’s other goals, which are expressed in lofty philanthropic terms. The act expands humanitarian aid to Venezuela by $400 million, for example, and calls for the restoration of human rights and democracy. Most articles on VERDAD do not even mention the Petro. The closest they come: the Secretary of State will recover assets stolen from the people of Venezuela and its institutions by means of special financial investigations to track the assets taken through money laundering, theft, corruption, and other “illicit” means. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury are to consult with the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in order “to develop a methodology to assess how any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Maduro regime is being utilized to circumvent or undermine United States sanctions.” Title VII of VERDAD: “Cryptocurrency sanctions and ensuring the effectiveness of United States sanctions.” Note: the wording of S.1025 presented is as of June 3, 2019. If passed, the wording may vary somewhat. Since the Petro has scant value as a currency, the construction of a monetary tracking system and authority could be one of the real goals of VERDAD. Once established, however, who would monitor the monitors and ensure they stay within the vague and sometimes unstated boundaries of VERDAD? From Whence Did VERDAD Come? On March 19, 2018, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13827: Executive Order on Taking Additional Steps to Address the Situation in Venezuela. It was signed one month after the Petro’s pre-sale launch and on the same day the pre-sale ended. A week later, the Petro was officially inaugurated. VERDAD seeks to enact the order into law. What is the difference between the two? An executive order is a directive issued by a sitting President which determines the operations of the federal government; within this constraint, the directive has the power of law. But for it to apply outside of the federal government, it must be enacted into law. Order 13827 states, in part: I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America,… in light of recent actions taken by the Maduro regime to attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions by issuing a digital currency in a process that Venezuela’s democratically elected National Assembly has denounced as unlawful, hereby order as follows…[A]ny digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited… Executive Orders are never the starting point of a political story, however; they are the result of one. Arguably, the starting point was the election of the socialist Hugo Chávez as President in 1999, which caused America to losE much of its influence in the region. The Venezuela-U.S. relationship became so tense that Chávez accused President George W. Bush of supporting a failed coup attempt against him in 2002. The accusation is unproven. Fast forward to January 2019. The American-backed Juan Guaidó swears himself in as interim president of Venezuela even though Maduro—Chávez’s chosen successor—retains actual power. Trump immediately recognizes Guaidó and declares Maduro to be an illegitimate leader. Other nations follow Trump’s lead, but the attempted coup is badly bungled. Maduro retains power, although the situation is unstable. A History of Sanctions and Bullying The U.S. has a long history of imposing financial sanctions upon objectionable regimes in order to cut them off from foreign investment and reserves; money is used as a tool of foreign policy and vice versa. Sometimes the strategy aims at extracting concessions, as with the current tariff war with China. Sometimes it aims at regime change, as with Venezuela. When the economy of a targeted regime crumbles, the U.S. blames the disaster on the leaders and so lays the groundwork for a coup, police action, or an economic takeover, often phrased in humanitarian terms. Trump wants a U.S.-friendly regime in Venezuela, not only to access the nation’s vast oil resources but also because the current situation allows China and Russia to become entrenched in South America. Both nations are financial crutches for Maduro, without whom he could not retain power. In turn, China and Russia receive inexpensive access to Venezuelan resources, and they maintain their spheres of influence. Again, monetary policy is intimately connected with foreign policy goals. Analysis by the D.C.-based Atlantic Council illustrates this connection between Russia and Venezuela: The success of Moscow’s policy in Venezuela rests on its military, economic, and financial clout…As of July 2019, Venezuela currently owes $10 billion for the purchase of 36 Russian Su-30MK2s fighter jets, $1.1 billion for Rosneft investment into Venezuelan oilfield development, and has received more than $4 billion of investment from Russia, according to Russian Economic Development Ministry. An added wrinkle: China wants its fiat, the yuan, to replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s default currency. This makes the competition for control of money and its movement more urgent. China is not alone in waging monetary war, and Venezuela uses the conflict to advantage. In September 2017, Reuters reported: “’Venezuela is going to implement a new system of international payments and will create a basket of currencies to free us from the dollar’, Maduro said in an hours-long address to a new legislative superbody. ‘If they pursue us with the dollar, we’ll use the Russian ruble, the yuan, yen, the Indian rupee, the euro’.” A March 26, 2018 article in Venezuela Analysis announced the official release of the Petro, which could be bought and spent anywhere in the world. The article declared: “The cryptocurrency can be purchased in Chinese yuan, Turkish lira, euros, Russian roubles, as well as in other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoins, ethereums, or litecoins. Money exchanges are to be opened in Venezuela and internationally.” It also reported Maduro’s final word on the U.S. dollar: “We won’t dollarize our economy, we are going to defend our Bolivar.” Power politics underlies VERDAD. The May 22 Press Release by which the act moved from Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate states: “The legislation was amended to include three bills approved by the House of Representatives to expand U.S. humanitarian assistance in Venezuela (H.R. 854), prohibit U.S. exports of arm sales to the Maduro regime (H.R. 920), and counter Russia’s presence and influence in Venezuela (H.R.1477).” Nothing is more powerful in power politics than the control of money. Whither VERDAD? If VERDAD is an isolated attack on the Maduro regime, then it may have minimal consequences for cryptocurrency in general. But there are reasons to worry. It would be the first ban on the use of a specific cryptocurrency by American individuals and organizations; currently, as long as taxes are paid and some regulations met, crypto transactions are legal. Expanding the ban to other forms of crypto might be as easy as filling in a blank. It would establish a new monetary-tracking authority and system to monitor the Petro. The system could be used to monitor the movement of other financial vehicles. Within 180 days of establishing the system, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury must brief relevant congressional committees, thus raising Congressional oversight of crypto. VERDAD would be a leap toward federalizing and centralizing policy on crypto. The Act could be the leading edge to open the way for the approximately 20 other bills in Congress. There are reasons to believe VERDAD will pass. Trump is not a fan of crypto, especially the unregulated type, and will do nothing but applaud a bill that embeds his executive order into law. Added to this, Congress has become more aggressive toward crypto. In the second week of September alone, Congress hosted three hearings related to cryptocurrency, largely due to concern over Facebook’s intentions to release Libra. So far, VERDAD appears to have bipartisan support; certainly, its prohibitions on the Petro are not likely to elicit debate. But there are also reasons to believe VERDAD may not pass. For one thing, some observers expected it to be enacted already, but the bill is dragging. Moreover, the general bill may have overreached by including foreign policy goals that are too ambitious. The summary write up at Congress.gov states, for example: The bill imposes sanctions on foreign persons responsible for or complicit in corruption or activity undermining Venezuela’s democratic institutions. Sanctions include barring entry into the United States and various financial restrictions. The bill also imposes various sanctions targeting the Maduro regime’s ability to finance debt, trade gold, and use cryptocurrencies to evade U.S. sanctions. The bill directs the President to prevent Russia’s government-controlled oil company Rosneft from acquiring control of critical U.S. energy infrastructure, including assets belonging to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. Perhaps this overreach is why Skopos Labs—the Automated Predictive Intelligence service used by the govtrack.us site—gives VERDAD a poor chance of passing. Even if defeated, however, Brett’s warning about Congress should be heeded: “there are 20 active bills” by which crypto “could be impacted and could change in some way shape or form along the way. It’s very important that we watch them, almost like the weather map.” Do you think VERDAD could lead to usage of other cryptocurrencies being criminalized in the U.S? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post VERDAD is the Most Dangerous Crypto Bill to Face Congress Yet appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A North Korean official claims that a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) cryptocurrency is on the horizon. According to a delegate for the Committee for Cultural Relations, Alejandro Cao de Benós, the country plans to forge a token backed by a physical commodity like gold and the digital asset’s main purpose will be used to bypass U.S. and international sanctions. Also read: Snowden: US Seizing My Book Revenue is ‘Good for Bitcoin’ North Korea Is Building a ‘DPRK Token’ Another nation state is in the midst of creating a digital currency but the North Korean cryptocurrency idea is intended to work in parallel with the local Korean won. Alejandro Cao de Benós, a member of the DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations and President of the Korean Friendship Association, told various news outlets this week that a DPRK token is in the works. Between April 18 and 25 of this year, North Korea held a cryptocurrency and blockchain conference which saw around 100 attendees in Pyongyang. Immediately after the event wrapped up, rumors of the North Korean government creating a digital currency made mainstream headlines. News publication The Diplomat reported that early clues also started arising in September 2017 when Kim Il Sung University released a report on the importance of digital currencies. Moreover, The Diplomat columnist Tae-jun Kang said that the conference itself and the DPRK token announcement was a signal to other nation states like the U.S. “According to several Seoul-based North Korean experts, who believe the latest cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang was designed to send out a warning message to the United States and the international community that it can overcome sanctions by utilizing digital currencies,” Tae-jun Kang wrote in April 2019 after the conference in Pyongyang. North Korean representative Alejandro Cao de Benós says a DPRK token is being constructed, but the project is in its very early stages. Now Alejandro Cao de Benós is speaking on the subject with a few select news outlets this week and has told reporters that a DPRK token is being built. Speaking with Vice journalist David Gilbert, he said the digital token North Korea is constructing is still in its nascent stages, but clearly emphasized that the cryptocurrency was made to bypass strict U.S. and international sanctions. However, the new coin created by the North Korean government will not be a digitized version of the Korean won. “[It will be] more like bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies,” Cao de Benós told Gilbert during a phone conversation. The North Korean diplomat added: We are still in the very early stages in the creation of the token. Now we are in the phase of studying the goods that will give value to it. DPRK Token Won’t Replace the Korean Won Alejandro Cao de Benós has also spoken with the reporter Ben Muster from Decrypt and given a greater insight to the DPRK token. In the interview, Cao de Benós highlighted that North Korean citizens would still use the Korean won and that the new blockchain assets would be used by “banks and companies.” The concept of the DPRK token is different to China and the PBOC’s alleged digital yaun construction and the idea resembles Venezuela and Maduro’s petro cryptocurrency. There have been multiple reports detailing that average Venezuelan citizens don’t even use the petro and that the digital currency is mainly used by government officials and their friends to skip out on U.S. sanctions. Moreover, similarly to the DPRK token concept, Maduro didn’t replace the sovereign bolivar either, and the petro runs parallel with the local tender and is allegedly backed by oil and gold reserves. During Cao de Benós’ interview, he claimed that the country was developing a digital asset that’s “based on something with physical value — in the international market.” The representative also said that the crypto needs to bolster a “more stable price for international settlements, between DPRK and other companies/individuals.” The columnist Ben Muster said that he reached out to DPRK officials but “requests for comment from the North Korean government went unanswered.” When reporter David Gilbert called North Korea’s Embassy in New York, the office said they could not verify Cao de Benós’ claims. “I am not in a position to give you an answer,” the North Korean Embassy spokesperson stated. Just like the event in April, the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference is closed to certain members of the media and citizens who reside in the U.S., Israel, South Korea, and Japan. U.S. residents can apply to attend the event this year in Pyongyang. On September 9, Cao de Benós announced the next Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference which will be held in February 2020. Just like the last event, the conference will be very exclusive but Cao de Benós has said the event will be much larger this year. Also, attendees will get a chance to visit Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and Kim Il Sung University as well. Just like the prior Pyongyang crypto conference, there will be restrictions for members of the media and citizens who reside in the U.S., Israel, South Korea, and Japan. It’s likely more information will come from the next conference in regard to the purported DPRK token. There’s been multiple reports in the past of North Korean’s gathering technical knowledge on digital currencies like bitcoin. Last week someone asked Cao de Benós if DPRK residents were allowed to hold digital assets and Cao de Benós replied: Yes, we even have programmers that are designing crypto wallets and other related apps right now. Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference will be held in February 2020 and attendees will visit North Korea’s DMZ and Kim Il Sung University. Venezuelan officials from Maduro’s regime have been very friendly with the North Korean government as well according to pictures Cao de Benós shared last August. The Venezuelan government opened an embassy in Pyongyang and Cao de Benós said “surely this diplomatic advance will be very useful in the defense against the imperialist invasion.” Just like Venezuela and Iran, North Korea has had issues with the U.S. for quite some time. However, with North Korea under Kim Jong-un’s rule, the country has had problems with many international bodies since holding its first nuclear test in 2006. The U.S. and a number of countries have imposed economic sanctions against the DPRK and it is hard for the region to do business with people and organizations overseas. As the popularity of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has increased, it seems that North Korean officials have begun to appreciate how this technology can be used to bypass financial blockades and borders. What do you think about North Korea creating a DPRK token backed by a physical asset like gold? What do you think about the nation states that are in the midst of creating cryptocurrencies? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Twitter, and Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference. Did you know you could win big with Bitcoin gambling? Choose from a range of BCH games including BCH poker, BCH slots, and many more. All games are provably fair—good luck! 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The special economic zone in the Philippines known for its crypto friendliness is undergoing some changes. Government-owned Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza) is investigating a case involving one of its licensed crypto exchanges after a tip from the Chinese government. The authority has also issued new directives to all of its licensees, including 40 crypto exchange operators. Also read: Philippines Increasingly Crypto-Friendly Better Due Diligence, License Suspensions A government-owned and controlled corporation, Ceza oversees the development of the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport, with the aim to turn the area into the country’s cryptocurrency hub. While in the process of building what it calls the “Crypto Valley of Asia,” Ceza has been attracting many companies to set up offshore crypto exchanges in the zone. Local news agency ABS-CBN reported Tuesday that 40 firms have been licensed by Ceza to operate crypto exchanges, but only three are fully operational as of September. They are Golden Millennial Quickpay Inc. Ltd., Liannet Technology Ltd., and Asia Premier International Ltd. The operations of all three aforementioned licensees are temporarily suspended as Ceza improves its due diligence. The move follows a scam uncovered last week, which allegedly involved one of its licensees. Ceza spokesperson Mike David reiterated to the news outlet that their operations are suspended for “due diligence.” In Tuesday’s press release, Ceza explained that the three companies have been “authorized to temporarily operate within a short incubation period in Metro Manila … Pending the completion of the facilities in Sta. Ana, Cagayan, where development works have already started this year.” Nonetheless, Administrator and CEO Raul Lambino clarified that they are still required to run all trading transactions through LR Data, a cyberpark in Cagayan, according to the Inquirer publication. Scam Uncovered, Tip From Chinese Government Golden Millennial Quickpay’s license was suspended on Sept. 12 for its alleged involvement in illegal crypto operations conducted by its authorized service provider Grapefruit Service Inc., Ceza detailed on Tuesday. The suspension extends to all of the company’s related licensees, including Grapefruit, pending a full investigation by Ceza and all appropriate law and regulatory enforcement agencies. Grapefruit’s office in Pasig City, Metro Manila, was raided on Sept. 11 by a number of Philippine authorities, ABS-CBN reported. The raid was carried out by agents of the Bureau of Immigration’s fugitive search unit, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, and the Philippine National Police’s integrity monitoring and enforcement group. They were accompanied by representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. Grapefruit’s 277 employees were arrested “on suspicion of using cryptocurrency operations to dupe unsuspecting would-be investors back in China,” the news outlet noted, adding that all are Chinese nationals. Agence France-Presse reported that the firm’s operations have cost victims in China approximately 100 million yuan (~$14 million). Lambino reportedly told radio DZMM that the firm failed to register with Ceza two floors of its three-storey office and some 100 employees, four of whom are wanted by Chinese authorities for previous charges. Documents obtained by the Inquirer show that all 277 employees had Ceza visas which carry certain restrictions. In addition, the firm’s filing with the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission expressly prohibits it “from undertaking activities as a securities broker or dealer, or as an investment adviser or investment company,” the news outlet described, noting that it is also “barred from operating on fiat money or virtual currency exchange.” Jaime Hermo Morente, Commissioner of the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, said the raid was prompted by a tip from the Chinese Embassy. The arrested employees will be deported since the Chinese government has canceled their passports, making them illegal workers in the Philippines, he added. David confirmed that Golden Millennial Quickpay faces a 90-day suspension and may lose its license if found guilty of wrongdoing, ABS-CBN conveyed. Meanwhile, Ceza maintains that it is certain no Filipino citizen has been defrauded by this scheme. New Directives for All Licensees Ceza offers two types of “Offshore Virtual Currency Exchange” licenses: the principal license and the regular license. The former allows licensees to conduct offshore fintech and crypto exchange activities, while the latter restricts them to only crypto exchange activities. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, there are 25 principal licensees, which include the three suspended companies. The authority clarified Tuesday that “Offshore virtual currency exchanges are those which are registered in a jurisdiction other than the Philippines that do not transact with any Filipino citizen or any person located in the Philippines,” elaborating: Ceza does not allow its licensees to conduct business activities or offshore virtual currency exchanges in any foreign country like China that prohibits such business activity. In the first week of September, Ceza “issued directives to all of its licensees for complete reports of legal, regulatory, and ethical compliance practices and standards — specifically to those operating offshore virtual currency exchanges,” its press release states. These reports are under review and will form the basis for any internal investigation. Ceza emphasized that any violations will be subject to all applicable sanctions under its rules and Philippine laws. “If need be, adjustment of regulatory standards and protocols will be made to better enable that enforcement and application of the rules of law and fair commerce.” Companies wanting to do business with Filipinos or deal in the Philippine peso need to register with the country’s central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which has registered 13 crypto exchanges so far. What do you think of Ceza’s efforts? Do you think the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport will become a major crypto hub in Asia? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Ceza. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post Changes Afoot for Philippine Crypto-Friendly Economic Zone appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

2019 was meant to be the year of the IEO. Or was it the STO? Whatever the case, it’s had its share of both, with mixed results. While the number of successfully completed token sales and the number of IEO launchpads has increased significantly, secondary market demand has been underwhelming. As emerging projects study the performance of this year’s favored fundraising vehicles, they’re faced with a conundrum: stick with a tested formula, or eschew the three-letter models for something new. Also read: Snowden: US Seizing My Book Revenue is ‘Good for Bitcoin’ The Jury’s Out on IEOs It’s hard to know what to make of this year’s initial exchange offerings (IEOs). Compared to their forebears – the projects that ICO’d two years ago – IEOs are clearly better in certain respects. Greater transparency, as mandated by exchanges, has prevented exit scams and compelled projects to actually ship code and build stuff. Greater liquidity, aided by the guaranteed exchange listing that comes built into the IEO model, has also been an improvement. Crowdfunding projects are better off this year, too: with the rise of token creation platform Simple Ledger Protocol, startups have the option of launching token sales on Bitcoin Cash, providing an alternative to the ERC20 token standard and the rising network fees on Ethereum. But what about the quality of the projects themselves? This year, IEOs have brought us a whole lot of smart contracting platforms, dapp scaling solutions, and crypto protocols, but there hasn’t been much originality on display. Where the ICO era birthed prediction markets from Augur, a global exchange in Binance and decentralized token trading from 0x, today we have Elrond and Emogi. It’s hard to shake the feeling that good ideas for tokenized projects are now at a premium. In the STO space, great progress has been made this year – just not in terms of fundraising. Blockstack garnered headlines when it became the first STO to be granted Reg A+ status by the SEC, opening its sale up to the wider public. Other security token projects have had to exclude U.S investors, however, or go down the more restrictive Reg D route. The infrastructure supporting the security token space is improving at least, which should make things easier for the next wave of aspiring STOs. This week, for example, security token platform Harbor announced that it was tokenizing $100M of real estate funds. CEO Josh Stein has expressed the goal of evolving Harbor into “the Salesforce.com” of the security token industry. Crypto projects currently raising capital have some tough decisions to make. Do they stick with the conventional IEO/STO formula, or do they twist and go for something different? News.Bitcoin.com spoke to four projects that have decided to roll the dice. Roobee and Dreamr Take Different Routes Investment platform Roobee is currently holding its IEO on Asian cryptocurrency exchange Liquid, which is best known for hosting Telegram’s sale. What’s different about Roobee’s IEO is that it’s not the project’s first: in June it successfully completed two token offerings on Bitforex and Exmo, raising around $5.5 million. Artem Popov, co-founder of Roobee, told news.Bitcoin.com: “Fundraising in installments across multiple exchanges requires a lot more work, but we believe it’s time well spent. The ability to cultivate a community on each platform, with the goal of turning these people into smart investors on the Roobee platform, is invaluable. Raising in stages also enables us to meet key development milestones along the way, and to benefit from the goodwill this brings, which feeds into our IEO.” Meanwhile, Dreamr, a social networking application geared towards entrepreneurs, is going for an IEO-STO hybrid and planning a Security Token Exchange Offering (STEO). The sale will be held on crypto exchange IDCM, with ordinary investors able to participate. Strategic advisory firm Pirate Capital, led by Joseph Bar-Katz, prepared the offering under Regulation S, which excludes U.S. residents from participating. Bar-Katz asserts that this provision “should allow for the DRMR Token to be soon available internationally.” LiquidApps and Kleros Favor Smaller Raises Because IEOs limit the amount that can be raised in a public sale, typically capping it around $2 million, projects that wish to disburse a greater proportion of tokens have to devise alternative means. For Liquidapps, a blockchain scaling startup and interoperability protocol, that’s meant holding an ongoing auction on its own site. The project, which provides low-cost vRAM for EOS developers, is conducting a 12-month raise which is reminiscent of EOS’ own year-long crowdsale. So far, it’s raised around $2.8 million, with tokens made available in timed cycles. And then there’s decentralized justice protocol Kleros, which sold 16% of its PNK tokens to the public last year, with the rest earmarked for future sale, either OTC or via a milestone-based crowdsale. “In mid 2018 we concluded our IICO (Interactive Initial Coin Offering) which was initially proposed by Vitalik and Jason Teustch as a more egalitarian way to conduct a token offering,” explained Kleros Operations Manager Stuart James. He added: At that time, we were seeing crazy gas fees being paid by whales to corner token sales (BAT being the most notable). With the Kleros IICO, would-be contributors had more fined-tuned control over how they wanted to handle the trade-off between the certainty with which they could participate in the sale and the certainty they had over the valuation determined. Like Liquidapps, Kleros has kept busy this year, completing a successful trial of crowdsourced adjudication in action, and joining the burgeoning defi movement by providing its services to Market Protocol to settle price oracle disputes. Keeping busy in the months to come while building a community will be imperative for those crypto projects that have yet to finish raising funds. There are signs that investor interest in IEOs is waning, as exemplified by the diminishing demand for Binance Launchpad tokens. The crowdsale is not going away any time soon, but the acronym and form it takes may change once again. With each new tokenized funding mechanism, there’s a window of opportunity for launching while interest is high. Catching that wave at just the right time calls for a combination of luck, intuition and innovation. If the project’s innovative and the token metrics are good, it should succeed, in theory, whatever shape its crowdsale may take. What are your thoughts on IEOs – have they fulfilled investor expectations so far? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and ICO Analytics. Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry. The post The Changing Shape of Crypto Funding in 2019 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The BTC community recently celebrated the fact that Segregated Witness (Segwit) transactions accounted for 50% of transactions and bech32 transactions doubled as well. However, the celebration quickly came to an end when a few Bitcoin Core developers found out where the transactions derived from and got upset at the Veriblock project for using scarce block space. Bitcoin Core developer Luke Jr urged the BTC community to reduce the block size limit. He further called Veriblock “spammers” and abusers of Segwit’s “block size increase to gain an advantage over legit Bitcoin users.” Also read: South African Payment Gateway Drops BTC Over Fees and Network Congestion The Argument for Scarce Block Space and ‘Legit’ Bitcoin Users Block space is a contentious subject within the BTC community as many people believe it is sacred and only meant for “legit” users. Even though this opinion is very subjective, many BTC supporters believe that only certain transactions should be allowed onchain and anything else is considered “spam” or “abuse.” For instance, the founder of consulting firm Bitcoin Advisory, Pierre Rochard, discussed how people mistakenly use the term “fee market” when it should be considered a “block space market” at the Baltic Honeybadger conference. Then, on September 15, BTC advocate Brad Mills published a post called “Transaction Eugenics: Bitcoin Blockspace is a Scarce Resource & Protocol Developers are Scientific Innovators.” The post outlines why he considers BTC’s block space to be precious and why the “1MB cap is transaction eugenics and the Bitcoin developers are scientists innovating at the edges to make humanity better.” The post was controversial due to Mills’ choice of words as the term “eugenics” refers to the science of population control and removing undesirable traits from humans. However the ‘scientists’ who popularized eugenics decades ago stemmed from Germany’s Nazi era under Hitler’s rule. Core Developer Takes Issue With Veriblock Project, Begs BTC Community to Consider Reducing the Block Size A few days after BTC proponents celebrated the rise in Segwit and bech32 transactions, they found out that the project Veriblock was to blame. Veriblock even wrote a post about it on September 16 and specifically said the protocol will “now take more space on Bitcoin.” The move toward Segwit transactions came from the Veriblock team releasing an alpha Segwit-enabled proof-of-proof (PoP) miner. Additionally, the team highlighted that Segwit (bech32) PoP transactions will be ~28.9% less expensive for operations. Veriblock had already made headlines months ago when the project captured more than 30% of all BTC transactions last February and March. At the time many BTC influencers despised the Veriblock project and developer Jameson Lopp said it was “inefficient” and others called it straight “garbage.” Now, as the Veriblock protocol captures a ton of Segwit bech32 transactions, BTC developers like Luke Jr are getting upset about the situation. A chart from Veriblock’s recent Medium blog post describing how they have switched to Segwit bech32 transactions. “So it turns out (not so surprisingly) that spammers are abusing Segwit’s block size increase to gain an advantage over legit Bitcoin users,” Luke declared on September 17. “Reducing the block size limit could rebalance this unfair advantage / bad incentive Segwit has created.” BTC developer Luke Jr is well known for proposing a block size decrease and has submitted a proposal for such advances. In the proposal specifications published in 2017, Luke argued that developers should consider reducing the block size to 300 kilobytes. The developer claimed the block size should shrink to a “safe value, and gradually increased over time, eventually expanding beyond the current limits.” When the programmer insisted the block size should be reduced, the BTC chain was congested with a backlog of transactions (67,000 unconfirmed) and network fees continued to rise. I am encouraged that "fees are good" is now orthodoxy for the most part. High fees: – contribute to security spend, will replace subsidy long term – price out uneconomical (wasteful) usage – force heavy users to optimize their block space usage – encourage L2 buildout — nic carter (@nic__carter) September 18, 2019 A BTC Block Size Reduction Is Controversial But the Conversation Continues When a few people told Luke this week that there wasn’t a problem with Segwit transactions and block space abuse, the developer replied: “Denying the problem won’t fix it — Reducing block sizes might.” Opendime and Coldcard founder Rodolfo Novak agreed with Luke Jr’s assessment and tweeted that “smaller blocks can be broadcasted by radio across the world for very cheap — I support this.” Hours later, Luke again insisted that the block size needs to be reduced for technical reasons and “Segwit broke the theory by creating a broken incentive.” Luke said there are a variety of methods that can be used to implement a block size reduction: “Miners can just do the right thing and flip a setting, users can pay higher fees to miners they can only collect if they do the right thing. (bad precedent?), and users can deploy a UASF to enforce a new limit.” Then someone asked the programmer if a hard fork was necessary to reduce the block size and Luke simply said “no.” Luke’s statements were not welcomed by everybody and the topic was discussed on social media, even making an appearance on the comical Reddit forum /r/buttcoin. “As much as I hate Veriblock there is no such thing as bitcoin spam. Either you pay for the space or you don’t get onchain at all,” one individual chimed in on Twitter. Another person asked Luke to describe more accurately why Veriblock transactions are not achieving their intended purpose. “Which designed feature of bitcoin is preventing this? Who are bitcoin users? How are you gauging what they’ve agreed to?” they asked but received no reply from the developer. Another individual wrote: “There is no problem here — Veriblock will price itself out.” The following day, the developer continued to promote the idea of shrinking the block size. “Right now, Veriblock is paying half the fees that the equivalent legitimate user needs to pay to outbid them,” Luke exclaimed. The programmer further added: Reducing the block size lets us fix that by making the fee rate the same for both. BTC Mempool Congestion and Rising Fees Continue After the Price Jumped Over the $10K Zone At the moment, we don’t know if Luke’s idea will convince other BTC developers as the concept has never previously gained traction. Despite this, the block size reduction conversation continues to show up every few months, alongside BTC supporters discussing the pros and cons of lifting the supply limit of 21 million coins in the future. Furthermore, there are those who believe that if certain groups get priced out of the block space, individuals can simply migrate to the Lightning Network and possibly even to Blockstream’s Liquid chain. Okay, so your general point is that anyone using SegWit hurts Bitcoin – not Veriblock in particular? — Hasu (@hasufl) September 18, 2019 With the BTC chain limited to 1MB, however, there are those who believe that lots of people are already priced out of using bitcoin. This week BTC network fees have been between $0.50-1.00 per transaction, which prices out billions of people from third world nations. When the fees grow higher than they are today, a few bitcoin decimals literally become neutered and even more users are priced out of the ‘sacred’ block space. Those who believe that keeping the 1MB block size for the BTC chain is still a glaring issue and that Segwit didn’t really help much think reducing the block size even further is a ludicrous idea. In fact, network fees already spiked significantly and fighting for block space became very apparent again throughout the spring and summer months of 2019. To this day, merchants continue to stop supporting the cryptocurrency due to network congestion and high transaction fees. What do you think about BTC supporters disliking Veriblock transactions? What do you think about Luke Jr asking the community to consider shrinking the block size? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Shrinky Dinks, Youtube, Pixabay, and Veriblock. Did you know you could win big with Bitcoin gambling? Choose from a range of BCH games including BCH poker, BCH slots, and many more. All games are provably fair—good luck! The post Tiny Block Advocates Speak Up After Veriblock ‘Abuses’ Bitcoin’s Block Size appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto awareness is reaching levels almost unimaginable just years ago, with telecommunications giants, big banks, mainstream media, and even professional sports teams now discussing and flouting digital assets. AT&T now allows customers to pay their phone bills in bitcoin, Japanese SMS giant Line is adding an FSA-approved crypto exchange to its hugely popular chat app, and the NFL’s Miami Dolphins have named litecoin their “official cryptocurrency.” Still, with all its wonderful attributes, it’s puzzling to some why crypto isn’t even bigger than it already is, and the answer may lie in one buzzkill of a word: taxes. Also Read: At Least 19 Central Banks Give Way to Monetary Easing As Economy Slows Breaking Into Pop Culture Five years ago it might have been hard to imagine regular crypto-focused segments on popular MSM news outlets. That’s a normal thing now. The Miami Dolphins football team having an official cryptocurrency might have been a silly conversation at a house party with friends, but that’s the reality these days. How about a whole “Bitcoin Cash City” in Australia? Thinking of giants like AT&T, Microsoft, Rakuten, and Naver’s Line chat app (which just announced its Bitmax exchange launch on September 17) accepting and trading crypto almost boggles the mind, at least for those who’ve been in the space since less sensational times. Tokyo-based messaging giant Line now has its own cryptocurrency exchange called Bitmax. There’s no question that cryptocurrencies are generally easy to use. There’s no question that P2P transactions and international transfers are generally much easier and cheaper than those facilitated by legacy banking institutions. There’s also little doubt surrounding the fact that sound, decentralized digital assets can provide a level of autonomy and privacy hard to come by in the fiat world of government-issued money. Sure, there’s the volatility factor to consider, but that also provides holders a chance to reap handsome gains from favorable price fluctuations. As sending money via coins like BCH is so easy, and so many seem to be genuinely hungry for crypto ubiquity, it stands to ask why adoption and use have not skyrocketed more massively by now. Taxation: Crypto’s Wet Blanket You can’t steal from your neighbors at gunpoint to make them pay for things you want, even if those things you want are good, positive things. Should the whole town agree with you that your neighbor ought to pay for these things, forcing a non-violent person to give up their money under threat of violence is nonetheless unethical. And sociopathic, really. There’s a cognitive dissonance, though, when it comes to a group of people called “government.” They get a magical mystery pass on morals. “Taxation is theft,” as the old libertarian trope goes, is no lie. But it’s not only theft; it’s also a huge deterrent for already flourishing crypto adoption worldwide. In recent years the bustling streets of Tokyo, Japan have been plastered with massive signs advertising large-scale, regulated crypto exchanges. Extortion carries with it a high level of fear for its victims. Since crypto tax regulations in many jurisdictions are still so painfully unclear, it’s understandable when merchants, friends and family are reticent to touch “that bitcoin stuff.” The IRS has been sending out thousands of ominous warning letters for months now, and still has not delivered updated tax guidelines for crypto, promised in May to be soon forthcoming. These guys aren’t kidding, either. Targeted individuals have found out the hard way. If you trade crypto in a way the local tax authorities don’t like, you could be facing years of prison time. Running afoul of FATF-backed regulatory bodies when it comes to crypto taxation could result in revoked passports, exorbitant legal fees, and the destruction of one’s livelihood. All this against a backdrop of increasing global debt and march toward a new worldwide recession means that, more than ever, underfunded and understaffed government agencies like the IRS are desperately pressuring mainstream crypto exchanges to surrender customer info, or risk being penalized. A Forked Crypto Culture and the Need for Decentralized Governance Apart from a remarkable polarization occurring in the crypto space since Bitcoin Cash forked from Bitcoin Core in August 2017, another arguably deeper divide has formed. This is the rift between large, state-compliant crypto interests and staunch advocates for a free market. Not all in the latter group are libertarians or “taxation is theft” philosophical purists, either. Some are everyday merchants who simply see the utility of crypto, and wish to grow their businesses while serving their customers more efficiently with crypto. Cafe owner Donna Kilpatrick, for example, spoke at the recent Bitcoin Cash City conference in Townsville, Australia, saying of BCH: We work in hospitality … we’re not brain surgeons and we can all do it … It’s so easy, It really is so easy. That’s not to say that I think it’s perfection. I think there are issues with it in a retail environment … and that’s around the accounting side of things, because, you know, I don’t want to be running afoul of the ATO. Interesting that the biggest flaw Kilpatrick can find with crypto is the unreasonable requirements of an obtuse Australian Taxation Office. Her observations and those of others at the conference shine a piercing light on a critical problem: the tech is decentralized, but the governments trying to regulate it are not. It’s like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Litecoin is now the official cryptocurrency of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. If a new money can work with nothing more than math, a market, and decentralized network, why not society as a whole? Arguments for warlords taking over, or evil individuals running amok and dominating these consensual, permissionless proposals for a new order are ultimately self-detonating. Looking around, warlords are already in power. Bad actors are already running amok. Why? The network model for society is now totally centralized. “Denial of service attacks” on those not toeing the party lines are all too common. With Bitcoin, the model is mathematical. With violence-based, centralized governance, the model is whimsical. Whatever the ruling class feels like doing, they do. Imagine the developers of any respectable cryptocurrency behaving the same way. It would be laughable. There is no “divine right to rule” inherent to the mathematics governing crypto, so why society at large should be any different is a valid, if habitually ignored, question. The electrified air of the cryptoverse is now bristling with adoption possibilities, and the next step is to ask how crypto can be leveraged for the benefit of individuals everywhere. Attempts to smash and shame economic autonomy back into the rusty cages of plantation finance are not only ill-advised – they are also immoral. The more decentralized societal governance becomes, the faster adoption will spread. Perhaps even until a day when kids will look at their history books marveling at times past, stunned that humankind actually believed systematic financial slavery was necessary for peace. They’ll close their dusty books, send a crypto tip to their friends on some augmented reality chat app, and head out into the sun to catch the Dolphins game. What do you think about the recent developments in crypto adoption worldwide? Let us know in the comments section below. Op-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use. You can now purchase Bitcoin without visiting a cryptocurrency exchange. Buy BTC and BCH directly from our trusted seller and, if you need a Bitcoin wallet to securely store it, you can download one from us here. The post Taxation Isn’t Just Theft – It’s Bad for Crypto Adoption appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Futures contracts on bitcoin cash can be available at a CFTC-regulated exchange by the end of this year or the first quarter of 2020. This will allow institutional U.S. investors to trade on a derivative of the cryptocurrency and bring in more trading volume for BCH overall. Also Read: HTC Adds Native Bitcoin Cash Support to Its Flagship Smartphone Bitcoin.com Champions Bitcoin Cash Futures Bitcoin.com is in discussions about listing a bitcoin cash (BCH) futures contract on a new exchange with approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). David Shin, the head of the exchange business at Bitcoin.com, expects the new instrument can reach the market by the end of the year, or the first quarter of 2020, and that it will be cash-settled on day one. The goal of having a BCH futures contract on a CFTC-regulated venue is to open up the U.S. market so that more institutional traders can gain exposure to the cryptocurrency and thus generate higher trading volumes in total. Additionally, there is interest from some retail brokers in offering trading on such a regulated instrument, and Shin is also in talks with them about the possibility. “We are in discussion with a US exchange that will shortly be CFTC approved to list a BCH futures contract to create greater demand for BCH and increase trading volumes,” Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust explains. “There are two main reasons behind this. First, with BCH futures, institutions will be able to manage the exposure to market volatility better and therefore protect funds under management better, and hence allocate a larger portion of their funds to BCH. Second, with this product BCH is also accessing a new US financial services market through futures that is CFTC regulated. This is a massive market that’s new to BCH. Both of these drive up volumes which in turn drives up demand for BCH which will lead to an increase in market value. This is largely driven by futures volumes in the US market increasing demand and ultimately the value.” Regulators Keep US Market Behind in Crypto Adoption The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) does offer financially-settled BTC futures contracts for U.S. investors. However, by global comparison, American regulators have made it very difficult for investors to access the global cryptocurrency market with ETFs and the same is true for derivatives. For example, a number of companies have been working hard to launch regulated physically-delivered bitcoin futures contracts in the U.S., but their efforts have so far been hampered by the CFTC. Last month the CEO of Ledgerx, Paul Chou, had to retract the news that his company went live with bitcoin futures for retail trading after it received regulatory approval for swaps. Ledgerx launched its institutional trading platform back in 2017 and has been waiting ever since for the specific CFTC approval for the instrument. He also complained that the regulators were not doing their job and threatened to sue the CFTC for anti-competitive behavior and breach of duty. Another trading platform recently approved by the CFTC for physically-delivered bitcoin futures is TD Ameritrade-backed Erisx. However, the most anticipated venue to enter the market is Bakkt, the digital assets subsidiary of New York Stock Exchange parent, Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE). Back in 2018 ICE announced that the Bakkt Bitcoin Daily Futures Contract would start trading on Dec. 12, 2018. This has not happened, and the launch date has been pushed back again and again. The reason for this according to media reports is the necessity of compliance with cumbersome CFTC demands. If nothing changes again, Bakkt is now expected to bring physical delivery futures contracts to market participants in more than 30 countries by the end of 2019. The International BCH Derivatives Market Besides some of the biggest players in the traditional finance markets trying to enter the cryptocurrency derivatives business, we have also seen companies from the digital assets industry focus on filling the same niche. Among those crypto trading venues who started offering bitcoin cash derivatives to their traders we can list Bitmex, U.K. FCA-regulated Crypto Facilities, Hong Kong-based Coinflex and Huobi Derivative Market (Huobi DM). While these types of exchanges are a good option for experienced crypto traders to get into highly leveraged long and short positions on BCH, they don’t have the global brand power of being CFTC-regulated, which will serve as a major seal of approval for the cryptocurrency in the eyes of timid investors once they launch bitcoin cash futures. Bitcoin.com has already been successful in making BCH instruments more accessible to traditional investors around the world. Amun AG, a Swiss company facilitating access to crypto asset investments, announced in July that it had listed the first exchange traded product (ETP) tracking the performance of bitcoin cash on Switzerland’s principal stock exchange. The Amun Bitcoin Cash ETP is a fully collateralized product that is denominated in U.S. dollars and has an annual investor fee of 2.5% that includes custody, insurance, and re-balancing fees. This crypto investment instrument was seeded with 25,000 BCH from Bitcoin.com Executive Chairman Roger Ver. What do you think about the potential for CFTC-regulated bitcoin cash futures to open up the institutional U.S. market? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Bitcoin Cash Futures Expected to Open up US Market by Q1 2020 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor Edward Snowden is being sued by the Department of Justice (DoJ) for his latest memoir. The agency won’t stop Metropolitan Books from publishing Snowden’s new book but the government will take the revenue he earns from the memoir instead. Following the book publishing fiasco, Snowden said that the outcome was “good for bitcoin.” Also read: India’s Popular ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ Show Gives Crypto a Boost US Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Edward Snowden and Seizes Memoir Revenue The 36-year old Edward Snowden is best known for leaking information after working as a subcontractor for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the NSA. The American whistleblower disclosed a lot of information to the public regarding global surveillance programs. In 2013, Snowden gave three journalists access to thousands of highly classified NSA documents. Snowden’s leak gave privacy rights and the surveillance state international attention and his works have permanently scarred the reputation of government agencies worldwide. The DoJ charged Snowden with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and stealing classified information. Snowden was granted the right of asylum in Russia and is currently allowed to stay until 2020. The whistleblower has since decided to write a memoir called “Permanent Record” and on the day the book was published the DoJ decided to sue Snowden. “The government of the United States has just announced a lawsuit over my memoir, which was just released today worldwide — This is the book the government does not want you to read,” Snowden tweeted on Tuesday. Edward Snowden’s book called Permanent Record. The DoJ published a press release about the situation and alleged that Snowden published his book without “submitting it to the agencies for pre-publication review.” As such, the book and his “public speeches on intelligence-related matters are in violation of his non-disclosure agreements.” Now, instead of stopping book sales or restricting the memoir in the U.S., the agency said that it will recover all the proceeds that stem from sales. The DoJ declared that the Supreme Court case Snepp v. the United States gives it the right to all of Snowden’s “contractual and fiduciary obligations” stemming from the U.S. Furthermore, the DoJ is also suing the publisher Metropolitan Books, a subsidiary of Macmillan Publishers. The move to sue the publisher is “solely to ensure that no funds are transferred to Snowden,” the DoJ emphasized. Permanent Record is the best selling book on Amazon on Sep. 18. After the news broke, cryptocurrency supporters asked Snowden on social media to accept bitcoin for book payments. “Hey Snowden – is there a way I can buy your book with bitcoin to avoid this DoJ nonsense?” asked Erik Voorhees. “I’ll buy a copy with Bitcoin — Screw the U.S. government,” another tweeted. Shortly after the DoJ announced the lawsuit, Snowden’s book quickly jumped to the top bestseller list on Amazon. The book describes the build up to when Snowden decided to leak the NSA’s files and metadata and give them to journalists. A few hours after the DoJ lawsuit went viral on the web, Snowden tweeted: In conclusion, this is good for bitcoin. The First ‘Free’ Money It’s not the first time the whistleblower has discussed bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, as he’s brushed on the subject on numerous occasions. But at the beginning of the year at the Bitcoin 2019 conference, Snowden discussed the digital currency at greater lengths. “The lack of privacy is an existential threat to bitcoin. Is the only protection users have from political change,” he said. However, he did note that there are privacy-centric coins and tumbling protocols available in the wild and highlighted the Shadow Brokers hacking group. Snowden suggested that the NSA likely would have busted the gang if there weren’t privacy tactics available and he also underlined the fact that Satoshi’s opsec was never uncovered by the NSA. During the conference via a video link from Russia, Snowden also explained that in 2013 he used bitcoin to pay for the servers he used when he leaked the NSA documents. Before his appearance at the conference, Snowden explained that bitcoin is the “first free money” system in an interview published by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2018. “I like Bitcoin transactions in that they are impartial — They can’t really be stopped or reversed, without the explicit, voluntary participation by the people involved,” Snowden said at the time. “Let’s say Bank of America doesn’t want to process a payment for someone like me. In the old financial system, they’ve got an enormous amount of clout, as do their peers, and can make that happen. If a teenager in Venezuela wants to get paid in a hard currency for a web development gig they did for someone in Paris, something prohibited by local currency controls, cryptocurrencies can make it possible.” Snowden added: Bitcoin may not yet really be private money, but it is the first ‘free’ money. Cryptocurrencies have made it possible for people to transact freely in a permissionless manner without the need for depending on a third party like the government, corporation, or any individual. Satoshi’s design has allowed individuals to do whatever they want with their funds at any time and even Snowden once said that “new technologies raise the possibility of unstoppable tax protests.” So far the DoJ’s move has stirred the hornet’s nest, shooting Snowden’s biography to the top of the bestseller list. What do you think about the DoJ lawsuit against Edward Snowden? What do you think about what he said about bitcoin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, NBC, Pixabay, Twitter, and Amazon. How could our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool help you? Use the handy Bitcoin address search bar to track down transactions on both the BCH and BTC blockchain and, for even more industry insights, visit our in-depth Bitcoin Charts. The post Snowden: US Seizing My Book Revenue is ‘Good for Bitcoin’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

While tax laws on cryptocurrency vary by jurisdiction, there are many useful tools to help you calculate crypto taxes, lower your tax liabilities, and simplify your filing — no matter where you are. Many of them work globally, supporting tax forms of multiple countries, and can import data directly from all major crypto exchanges. Also read: Central Banks Worldwide Testing Their Own Digital Currencies Crypto Tax Tools Tax laws and filing obligations may vary from country-to-country, state-to-state, and even city-to-city, but there are many tools that work worldwide to help you. In preparing to file your taxes, you would first need to have good records of all your crypto dealings to determine the types of taxes you owe and how much. The tax tools below can help you keep records of your crypto transactions, calculate your tax liabilities, minimize taxes owed, and prepare your filing. They are especially useful for those frequently trading many cryptocurrencies on multiple exchanges. Beartax is a cryptocurrency tax service with audit support. You can consolidate trades across over 40 exchanges and calculate capital gains. The platform is tailored to individuals, CPAs, and enterprise-level accounting firms. Bittax is a tax filing platform which offers up to 3 calculation methods to optimize your tax results. You can import your wallet addresses and exchange data to calculate your taxes. Blox offers cryptocurrency accounting, tracking and management tools, aimed at clients such as crypto businesses, asset managers, mining operations, crypto funds, and VCs. It also offers specific tools for mining operations. Cointracker is a cryptocurrency wallet tracker and tax calculator that provides full tax reports for four countries and capital gain reports for all countries. Cointracking analyzes your trades and generates real-time reports on profit and loss, realized and unrealized gains, and others for tax preparation. Data can be directly imported from eight wallets, over 50 crypto exchanges, as well as 15 closed platforms such as Mt. Gox. Cryptotax can import data from over 20 exchanges. It offers country-specific tax reports which can be generated in over 30 local currencies. Cryptotrader supports 26 cryptocurrency exchanges. It has partnered with Turbotax, a leading U.S. tax preparation platform, so your data can be directly imported into Turbotax software for e-filing. Koinly helps you calculate cryptocurrency taxes and minimize taxable gains in over 100 countries. Data can be directly imported from 33 exchanges, five wallets, and six blockchains. Tokentax accepts data from every major cryptocurrency exchange and helps you calculate your crypto taxes and file your full return. Zenledger also works with all major exchanges, cryptocurrencies, and fiat currencies. It is an official Turbotax partner so your data can be automatically imported into the popular tax preparation software. Some of the tools above are also discussed in our articles on portfolio tracking tools and tax calculation tools. Taxable Transactions and Filing Once you have all of your crypto records on hand, you can either take them to a tax accountant who can help you file your taxes or use a tax preparation software to do it yourself. For U.S. filers, there are many software products, including the aforementioned Turbotax, to help you file your taxes and claim applicable deductions and credits. Digital asset exchange platform Coinbase described in a nutshell: All crypto sells, conversions, payments, donations, and earned income are reportable by U.S. taxpayers. Not all crypto transactions are taxable, however. Some examples of non-taxable events include donating cryptocurrencies to a qualified tax-exempt charity, buying crypto with cash and holding it, and transferring cryptocurrencies between wallets. A tax preparation software usually takes care of evaluating which transactions are taxable. It usually asks questions about your crypto earnings and transactions, then inputs your answers into relevant tax forms. However, these questions can be vague and some software may not provide enough explanation for you to accurately answer them, potentially resulting in errors on tax forms. In addition, even if your tax filing was accepted, tax authorities could ask you to file amended returns or pay back taxes years later, as did the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in its recent letters to crypto owners. Most software aims to help you lower your tax liabilities, such as through capital loss deductions, as crypto losses can be used to offset other types of capital gains or income. A survey by personal finance firm Credit Karma shows that the number of taxpayers who reported short-term capital losses from cryptocurrencies in the first month of this year jumped 521% year-on-year. However, the company additionally found that the number of people who would not declare their crypto income also increased. Refunds and Payments in Crypto If you are due a tax refund, you may be able to receive it in cryptocurrency. Refundo, a provider of tax-related financial products, has been helping U.S. taxpayers receive all or a portion of their federal and state tax refunds in BTC. The platform works with a number of leading tax software such as Turbotax, Taxact, Credit Karma, and H&R Block. Refunds are sent directly to the taxpayer’s wallet. In April, the company partnered with payments provider Bitpay to enable refunds to be sent through Bitpay’s payouts. A growing number of cities and states worldwide are starting to accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments. The Swiss cities of Zug and Chiasso and the U.S. state of Ohio, for example, are already doing so. Ohio accepts both bitcoin and bitcoin cash for payments of 23 types of taxes through Bitpay. The state of New Hampshire has approved a bill to allow tax payments in bitcoin, and the Canadian city of Richmond Hill, Ontario, has announced that its residents will soon have the option to pay their property taxes in the digital currency. Resources: Top Posts on Crypto Tax Filing These Tools Will Help You Calculate Your Crypto Taxes These Portfolio Tracking Tools Will Also Prepare Your Crypto Taxes Short-Term Crypto Tax Filers Increase, But Lots of Investors Still Won’t File Ohio Accepts Bitcoin for 23 Types of Taxes More Cities and Regions Accepting Coins for Taxes, Services What do you think of the tax tools listed here? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. The post 10 Tax Tools to Help Crypto Owners appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On Monday, software developer Tobias Ruck introduced a new transaction version for the BCH chain called Nimbus in a demonstration video. The introduction is a longer version of the presentation Ruck had shown at the Bitcoin Cash City conference. According to the developer, the transaction version could unleash sophisticated smart contract potential on the BCH network. Also read: India’s Popular ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ Show Gives Crypto a Boost Nimbus Is a New Transaction Version for Bitcoin Cash Tobias Ruck is well known for researching and developing within the BCH community with projects like the SLP Agora auction console, his programming blog, and demonstrating the concept of an onchain chess game. Ruck has now revealed a new project he’s been working on called Nimbus, an alternative transaction version for the BCH chain. The programmer explains in his recent video that he named the concept using a reference to the weather, much like protocols Avalanche and Storm. So Ruck decided to call his idea Nimbus, because of the intention to “make it rain” with transactions. He noted that the BCH chain has accomplished a great deal so far with CTOR, Graphene/Xthinner, and then Merklix trees and sharding ideas that are under development. Tobias Ruck presenting Nimbus in a video published on September 16. In his presentation, Ruck noted that Ethereum has a lot of action taking place on the chain due to smart contracts. According to his data, these transactions (txn) would account for 300,000 txn on the ETH chain and $37,000 in fees per day. This doesn’t really take into account the latest number of Tether-based txns Ruck remarks, which are seemingly congesting the ETH network right now. Ruck broke down some of the smart contract types into genres like gambling, exchanges, and oracles on the ETH chain and insisted that when it comes to “simple smart contracts” BCH could do them “really well.” “In the areas where Bitcoin Cash could shine — Gambling, games, exchanges, and oracles,” Ruck detailed in his video. “Bitcoin Cash isn’t capable of such smart contracts at the moment so I’ve worked on a few changes to the Bitcoin Cash protocol and I’ve given it a fabulous name — Nimbus.” The developer added: It enables sophisticated smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash. Gaming, Exchanges and Oracles Ruck does note several times that the concept requires a rule-set protocol change. Some of the protocol changes needed for Nimbus are on the BCH development roadmap, but some are not and could be “controversial” Ruck implies. “I think it’s better to shoot for the moon and miss than to aim for the mud and hit,” the developer added during his video presentation. Following the brief introduction, Ruck described how Nimbus could bolster more sophisticated smart contract designs using BCH. Ruck compares certain smart contract costs on the ETH network compared to how much it would cost to run these operations using BCH. He mentioned the transaction count for the ETH games Gods Unchained (500 txn per day) and Clover.network (3,000 txn per day). Ruck asserts that by utilizing the BCH network, certain games could become more profitable. “Profiting games would be able to lower their costs and for gambling, the pattern is the same, and it would benefit the same way from Nimbus — For exchanges and oracles, there’s also great potential for smart contracts as well,” the developer claims. He then discusses the Chainlink project on Ethereum as an example of an oracle. Ruck puts an emphasis on the fact that it costs $4 to update the Chainlink oracle. If developers used BCH for this particular oracle example “their revenue would double” Ruck claims. The developer notes several times in the video that the new transaction format would require protocol changes, some of which are on the roadmap and some that are not. Can a Decentralized Stablecoin Smart Contract System Be Built With Bitcoin Cash? Following the description of how Nimbus could be used to facilitate gaming and oracles, Ruck also talked about a question that has been asked on numerous occasions — “Can we build a Maker DAO on Bitcoin Cash?” The Maker DAO platform is a protocol that has created the stablecoin DAI which is regarded as being decentralized. At around the 25:00 minute mark, Ruck shows all the requirements needed to create a Maker DAO like voting rights, price oracles, a DAO, CDPs, a burning mechanism and the ability to liquidate over-collateralized CDPs as well. “Building a decentralized stablecoin like protocol like Maker DAO on Bitcoin Cash would be very complicated but with the right tools and support it shouldn’t be much more difficult than building it on Ethereum.” Ruck shows the entire process involved with the Maker DAO concept and the stablecoin DAI. However, Ruck again underlines the need for a couple of changes to the Bitcoin Cash transaction format for the stablecoin smart contract concept to work on the BCH chain. The main changes would be merklized script trees, cashassembly, and a preamble. Additionally, Ruck says you could add fractional satoshis and a malleability fix as well as Schnorr signature functionality. The developer also researched a time estimation or how long it would take to implement a project like the Maker DAO on BCH. “The sum would be around 248 days and the total cost around $297,600,” the software engineer suggests. At the very end of the presentation video, Ruck concludes by saying: “Alright, let’s make Bitcoin Cash the best cash the world has seen.” Can we build MakerDAO on Bitcoin Cash? – Introducing Nimbus, a new transaction version by @TobiasRuck https://t.co/fdy43lJzCb Tobias is a BlockStar and huge asset to the #BitcoinCash developer community. It was great to connect in Australia Tobias. Thanks for everything!🌟 — Gabriel Cardona (@cgcardona) September 16, 2019 After publishing the video on the Reddit forum /r/btc, a lot of BCH supporters really liked the idea. “Make it rain utility,” wrote BCH developer Emergent Reasons. “Great presentation — Also, thank you for sharing your unique research on ETH activity that would fit well/better on BCH,” he added. “This is a great presentation,” said another BCH proponent in response to the Nimbus video. “Being able to have something like Maker DAO would be awesome for adoption and merchants could automatically convert to a stablecoin of their choice, all on the blockchain, holding their keys the whole time — and it would have a good side-effect for BCH holders.” Ruck figures that base costs just to get started building a complex Maker DAO system it would take 248 days and roughly $297,600. Electron Cash developer Jonald Fyookball said the concept was “cool” but asked if the idea required a consensus change. “Yeah, a new transaction version,” Ruck replied. Overall the intro video was well received by most of the BCH supporters in the thread, but it was also acknowledged that the project will need full consensus from the BCH development community, economic participants, and miners. For more information on Nimbus, check out the full presentation with Tobias Ruck in the video below. What do you think about the Nimbus concept? What do you think about a Maker DAO-like project on the BCH network? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Tobias Ruck, Youtube, Pixabay, and Twitter. Are you a developer looking to build on Bitcoin Cash? Head over to our Bitcoin Developer page where you can get Bitcoin Cash developer guides and start using the Bitbox, SLP, and Badger Wallet SDKs. The post Meet Nimbus, a Concept for Enhancing BCH Smart Contracts appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article