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On May 16, an unknown person posted a signed message to social media concerning a bitcoin address that was used as evidence in the ongoing Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit. According to the message, which is verified to be the rightful owner of the address used in the Florida lawsuit, the address never belonged to “Satoshi or to Craig Wright” and once held over 160,000 BTC. Also read: Blockchain Researchers Mock Craig Wright’s Unsealed Bitcoin Address List Bitcoin Whale: ‘This Address Does Not Belong to Satoshi or Craig Wright’ Since last year, Craig Wright has been involved in a lawsuit against the Kleiman family who are suing him for allegedly manipulating the now deceased Dave Kleiman’s inheritance. Wright and Kleiman worked together and the Kleiman estate and Dave’s brother Ira accuse Wright of fraud of “over $11 billion worth of bitcoins.” This is due to a slew of documents and contracts submitted as evidence in the Florida lawsuit. One specific contract submitted to the courts called Exhibit 11 shows a variety of bitcoin addresses that were allegedly used in a trust held in the UK. Exhibit 11 in the Southern District Court of Florida case 9:18-cv-80176 The supposed trust would be kept untouched until the “regulatory issues” were resolved, likely referring to the regulatory unknowns with bitcoin at the time. However, on Feb. 27, 2018, almost immediately after the case came to light, Wizsec Security published a post called “Kleiman v Craig Wright: The bitcoins that never were” which debated the legitimacy of the trust’s addresses. A signed message from the owner of the 16cou- address appeared on social media on May 16, 2019. Wizsec’s research concluded that the only reason the addresses were used is because at one time they all had large amounts of BTC in them. The security researchers also went through the addresses to determine who the addresses may have belonged to. Some wallets were simply used for Mt. Gox cold storage and others were merely traders who managed to accumulate lots of coins. But on May 16, the owner of one of the bitcoin addresses listed — 16cou7Ht6WjTzuFyDBnht9hmvXytg6XdVT — posted a message to social media claiming ownership of the address. The message read: Address 16cou7Ht6WjTzuFyDBnht9hmvXytg6XdVT does not belong to Satoshi or to Craig Wright. Craig is a liar and a fraud. An Electron Cash wallet verifying the validity of the signature. Photo credit: Mark Lundeberg. Signing a Message Tethered to a Bitcoin Address Requires Private Key Ownership The message also contained the legitimate signature of the owner, which can be verified by using public tools online. Essentially the owner’s signed message contains a hash that successfully validates against the specific address that once held more than 160,000 BTC. After the message was posted to social media, Bitcoin supporters and blockchain analysts tested and verified it with tools to make sure it was legitimate. Jameson Lopp verified and shared the message. Blockchain developer Mark Lundeberg posted an image to r/btc that shows the Electron Cash wallet verified the message as being real. Many others verified the message as well, including the developer Jameson Lopp who posted his findings to Twitter. About a week before the verified signature was published on social media, Lopp stated that if the year-old Wizsec Security report was accurate then there are “~23 people who could cryptographically disprove Craig’s claimed ownership of these addresses.” The address, 16cou7Ht6WjTzuFyDBnht9hmvXytg6XdVT (16cou-), is used in at least two documents stemming from the Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit, otherwise known as the Southern District Court of Florida case 9:18-cv-80176. The address is mentioned in Exhibit 11 as well as Exhibit 4 which describes an interesting encounter. Allegedly on October 13, 2011, Wright’s attorney swore by oath that his client came into his office and showed him his HTC mobile phone. Then, the lawyer writes, “on the screen of the Wright mobile, I reviewed and verified the following bitcoin wallet addresses.” The last address listed on Exhibit 4 is the 16cou- address, the very one that was verified on May 16 and left a message calling Wright a “liar and fraud.” Exhibit 4 in the Southern District Court of Florida case 9:18-cv-80176 The recent address signing from the ‘OG bitcoin whale’ spread like wildfire on Reddit and Twitter throughout the day. The message was meaningful to bitcoiners and not just for what it said, but for how it truly verified the integrity of the message. The demonstration has shown how validating ownership of a bitcoin address is simple. This has been the biggest cause of Wright’s self-proclaimed Satoshi theory being discredited as he has never provided any valid cryptographic proof. Just as the legitimate address owner of the 16cou- address proved ownership, anyone can prove ownership with a bitcoin address if they truly hold the private keys. Crypto supporters know that simply claiming ownership of certain UTXOs is impossible without the private keys. People who attempt to do so without cryptographic proof will always fail miserably by showing they don’t understand how the technology works. What do you think about the person who signed a message from the 16cou- address on May 16? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pacer, Court Listener, Twitter, Mark Lundeberg, Memo, and the Electron Cash wallet. Did you know Bitcoin.com will soon be launching a peer-to-peer trading platform called Local Bitcoin Cash? The service will allow for direct exchange with people trading BCH all around the world. At Bitcoin.com we’re excited and it’s coming soon! If you want to stay notified for when the hottest new trading platform launches – Sign up here today! The post ‘Craig Is a Liar’ – Early Adopter Proves Ownership of Bitcoin Address Claimed by Craig Wright appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Sudden and significant changes in the cryptocurrency markets are a common occurrence. Under such choppy conditions, you might want to try an automated trading solution such as Haasbot to help minimize the risks and maximize your profit. Also read: Coincheckup Aggregator Makes It Easier to Analyze the Crypto Market Haasbot Exploits Arbitrage Opportunities Between Exchanges Haasbot is one of the more established algorithmic trading software products in the industry. It trades hundreds of cryptocurrencies with no fees or volume restrictions. The bot works with multiple exchanges including leading trading platforms such as Binance, Kraken, Huobi, Coinbase Pro, Bitstamp, and Poloniex. This allows you to take advantage of inter-exchange arbitrage opportunities. The trading bots developed by Haasonline are highly customizable and developer friendly. They can use a number of technical indicators like RSI, MACD, and Fibonacci. They also come with proprietary safety and insurance features to help you protect your investments. These can be auto-tuned and applied for specific time periods. The platform offers you the opportunity to configure your dashboard to keep track of your cryptocurrency trading bots. You’re also able to automate your crypto trading strategy and trade digital assets 24 hours a day. The bots can be tried using a historical and real-time backtesting feature to simulate different market conditions. Haasonline has various subscription plans for its bots. You can subscribe for three months, six months or 12 and choose between Beginner, Simple and Advanced plans. The three-month Beginner subscription will cost you 0.028 BTC at current market rates. It includes 10 concurrent Haasbots and provides access to 11 insurances, 10 safeties and over 20 indicators. You’ll be able to conduct unlimited trades on 22 exchanges. If you want to stay in touch with crypto markets, you can also use the Bitcoin Markets tool developed by Bitcoin.com which provides you with real-time data about the current prices and valuations of 500 cryptocurrencies. Also, check out our Bitcoin Charts page for charts showing price, capitalization, hashrate, blocksize, and fees for BCH and BTC. Have you used Haasbot or any other crypto trading bots? Share your experience in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to third party companies or any of their 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 third party content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Haasonline. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 Haasbot Is an Automated Trading Tool for the Crypto Market appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Earning cryptocurrency income online has become increasingly popular for more people around the world. Many employers and marketplaces are now offering jobs and tasks that pay in cryptocurrencies. The top 10 ways to earn bitcoin cash are outlined in the latest installment from Bitcoin.com’s new video series. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request Ways to Earn Bitcoin Cash Today there are many different ways to earn cryptocurrencies for freelance work and other types of online interaction. The newest addition to the recently launched Bitcoin.com video series is all about how to generate bitcoin cash income. The “Top 10 Ways to Earn Bitcoin Cash” video details how anyone can start earning the digital currency, such as by creating content online, completing tasks and bounties, getting tipped, winning casino games, selling gift cards, and even donating old clothes. In addition, it discusses how to receive free BCH by downloading the Bitcoin.com Wallet. This video series debuted on May 1 with “8 Ways Bitcoin Cash Will Change the World.” Content Creation and Sharing A popular way to earn bitcoin cash is by creating or sharing content online and being sociable. The video explains how to earn bitcoin cash on some platforms such as the Twitter-like Memo.cash and the censorship-resistant Honest.cash. While posting is free and can earn you bitcoin cash tips from other users, the latter platform offers additional ways to earn the cryptocurrency. For example, popular content and those who first discover it will earn more because it costs a small amount of BCH to upvote other people’s posts, with the payment going to early voters and the content creators. The video also describes how you can get some bitcoin cash on mainstream social networks like Twitter and Reddit through Tipprbot, as bitcoin cash enthusiasts often tip for great content on these platforms. Tasks and Bounties There are also marketplaces that allow users to earn bitcoin cash for completing various tasks online. The video notes two of them: Lazyfox and Taskopus. Similar to popular mainstream task site Fiverr, Lazyfox offers tasks ranging from bug reporting to beta testing video games. Users can also download decentralized marketplace Taskopus and pay each other in bitcoin cash for carrying out desktop-based tasks. Taskopus is newer and has a steeper learning curve but is more private, which could lead to more interesting tasks. For those with cyber-sleuthing skills, bounty hunting could be the most lucrative way to earn BCH online. There are several active bounties on Bitcoin.com, including one that currently offers up to 408.6356 BCH, worth $166,306 at press time. These tasks require more skills than most other options here, but the payout is also far larger. Earn Crypto the Old Fashioned Way One of the simplest ways to get paid in crypto is by asking your current employer to pay you in cryptocurrency, the video explains. There are also freelance work marketplaces such as Freelance for Coins that claim to pay in cryptocurrency. While jobs listed on these boards can be lucrative, they may require personal identification and matching your skills to the right job can be challenging. You can also sell goods and services online in exchange for bitcoin cash. Both Bitpay and Coingate help merchants accept bitcoin cash on their websites. Alternatively, you can use third-party marketplaces such as the popular peer-to-peer marketplace Openbazaar which is available worldwide and has its own BCH wallet built in. Lastly, trading bitcoin cash for fiat currencies directly with other people, both online or in person, could potentially be a lucrative way to earn the decentralized currency. Bitcoin.com is set to launch Local.Bitcoin.com, a peer-to-peer bitcoin cash exchange, on June 4. Users can start signing up now. Other ways to earn bitcoin cash can be found in the video below. What are your favorite ways to earn BCH? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: None of the information in this article is intended as investment advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Neither Bitcoin.com 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. Are you feeling lucky? Visit our official Bitcoin casino where you can play BCH slots, BCH poker, and many more BCH games. Every game has a progressive Bitcoin Cash jackpot to be won! The post How to Earn Bitcoin Cash Income appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On May 15, the BCH-based and open source Android wallet Crescent Cash launched a new feature that allows people to send bitcoin cash through a text message. The SMS sending service added to the wallet is due to the latest open source API introduced by the crypto startup Cointext. Also read: Bitcoin Cash Protocol Successfully Upgrades — Schnorr Signatures Are Here Crescent Cash Now Supports the Cointext API Crescent Cash users can now send bitcoin cash to mobile phone numbers even if they don’t own a BCH wallet. News.Bitcoin.com reported on the Crescent Cash client during the first week of April and explained how the pseudonymous developer Pokkst became frustrated with the BTC network’s current scaling direction. So the programmer ported all of his BTC projects over to the BCH network and has been steadily adding to the Crescent Cash wallet. The Crescent light client available for Android operating systems was the third wallet to introduce Cash Accounts addresses, a system that gives people the ability to pay to a human-readable address instead of a long alphanumeric string. Then, a few weeks later, Pokkst introduced Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) support to the Crescent client and BCH fans can now store SLP-based tokens in their wallet. Thanks to the open API offered by Cointext, the Crescent Cash wallet can now send BCH to mobile phones. With the Crescent wallet, people can send BCH through an SMS text message and the funds will be immediately available to be re-spent using the Cointext application. “Not only can you send to contacts, but you can manually type in a phone number and send BCH instantly, wallet-to-wallet, on-chain, to any mobile phone in the 42 countries Cointext supports,” remarked the Cointext founder and CTO Vin Armani during the announcement. “Now senders don’t need to use SMS to send to phone numbers,” Armani noted. “Nor do they need to maintain a balance at Cointext to use the SMS service.” Pokkst: ‘Bitcoin Cash Works Flawlessly, the Way BTC Used To’ Pokkst believes that the Bitcoin Cash protocol works as Bitcoin was originally intended by offering peer-to-peer cash transactions in a permissionless manner. The programmer has detailed that the BTC network’s high fees and unreliable transaction times are infeasible for a healthy medium of exchange. Moreover, the pseudonymous engineer thinks that the Lightning Network scaling solution is far too complex for everyday users. During the announcement Pokkst insisted: BTC’s Lightning Network is simply too difficult and unstable for the layman to use. If we want Bitcoin to succeed, it needs to have an amazing, yet simple, user experience for the average person — Bitcoin Cash works flawlessly, the way BTC used to. Here is a video I made using the Bitcoin Cash wallet @crescentcash with @CoinText integration. This #BitcoinCash wallet also has BIP70, Cash Account, and SLP tokens! The phone number is from burner app!!@vinarmani @pokkst pic.twitter.com/38ym6TIrz7 — Wecx (@Wecx_) May 13, 2019 The BCH community was pleased to hear about another wallet that offers Cointext abilities. Electron Cash (EC) lead developer Jonald Fyookball showed interest in adding the concept to the EC light client. The Crescent Cash SMS feature using Cointext also supports BIP70 payment codes, which can be used to pay Bitpay invoices. After the BCH chain successfully upgraded and added Schnorr signatures on Wednesday, the Crescent Cash announcement added to the excitement. “There is so much happening in BCH lately, that I’m getting dizzy,” one user commented on the Crescent Cash announcement post. What do you think about the Crescent Cash wallet implementing the Cointext API? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com or the author 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 this article. This article is for informational purposes only. Image credits: Shutterstock, Crescent Cash, and Cointext logos, Twitter, and Pixabay. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 Crescent Cash Users Can Now Send Bitcoin Cash Via Text Message appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On June 4, Bitcoin.com is launching a peer-to-peer marketplace called Local.Bitcoin.com that will allow users from around the world to buy and sell bitcoin cash (BCH). Now crypto enthusiasts and traders can create a pre-launch account to explore the trading platform and create orders on the exchange in advance. Also read: Bitcoin.com Celebrates 4 Million Wallets Created Local.Bitcoin.com: Creating a Pre-Launch Account and Experimenting With the P2P Marketplace At Bitcoin.com we believe that the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network will revolutionize the world of money and give global citizens the true taste of economic freedom. BCH is a decentralized system that allows anyone to transact in a permissionless fashion for less than a fraction of a U.S. penny in fees. In order to add more accessibility and liquidity to the BCH ecosystem, Bitcoin.com is launching the peer-to-peer marketplace Local.Bitcoin.com. The trading platform will allow individuals to purchase and sell bitcoin cash (BCH) either locally or internationally. This week we’ve decided to open pre-launch accounts so users can sign up and test the platform’s features. To create a pre-launch account in readiness for the official peer-to-peer BCH marketplace to open, sign up here. You’ll be asked for a username and password and then informed that the web browser will generate a private key offline. The interface then encrypts it using AES256-CBC to a PBKDF2-stretched version of your password. This means that Bitcoin.com staff cannot access the wallet and you will need to keep your password secure. Due to the nature of client-side encryption, there is absolutely no way for Local.Bitcoin.com staff to recover a lost password. After the username and password are entered, the platform will send a confirmation email and then grant you access to the exchange dashboard. Right now Local.Bitcoin.com will provide access to your profile settings, the BCH wallet which allows for sending and receiving, and the ability to create a sell offer. In the profile section, you can edit your username, add a blurb about yourself, change email, edit two-factor authentication settings, and add a mobile phone number. You can also begin by creating an offer and having it all set up for the official opening day on June 4, 2019. The interface will ask if you want to buy or sell BCH whereupon you can select the appropriate option. From here, Local.Bitcoin.com will request a display location, providing an array of local choices or the option to add a custom region. Then you simply choose a payment method from the various choices available. Payment methods for Local.Bitcoin.com include cash (in person trades), bank transfers, bank deposits, Paypal, Moneygram, international wire, Western Union, gift cards, Payeer, Venmo, Skrill, and Transferwise. After choosing a payment method, you can select a local currency, so if you’re located in the U.S. you’ll probably be choosing USD. From here, you can set the exchange rate, which could be a ‘dynamic market price’ or a more complex ‘custom equation.’ With the ‘dynamic market price’ choice, you can pick a percentage margin above or below the market price of bitcoin cash. For example, you can set the price of 1 BCH and sell it for 2% less than the current market price. Or with the ‘custom equation’ setting, you can customize the exchange rate by pulling data from an array of well known exchanges. An example of this equation would be selling for the highest bid for 1 BCH on Coinbase or Kraken with a custom floor. After the price is set, Local.Bitcoin.com will then ask you to confirm the selling price and make sure the settings are acceptable. A Custom Trading Experience, Blind Escrow System, Bulk Trades, and Finding the Best Margin Following confirmation, you can then set a limit or a minimum trade size in your local fiat currency. You can also create an offer headline and write a few terms of the trade offer in any manner you desire. Traders can set the offer so anyone can trade with them or they can decide to deal with people who have verified their phone number. After selecting either anyone or just users with a verified mobile number, the platform will ask you to confirm all the terms of the trade. Everything previously selected will be shown above the confirmation tab and you can change any of the settings if there was a mistake along the way. After confirming that everything was correct, simply hit the yellow confirmation button and the offer will be located on the main trade board and the accountholder’s dashboard. You can view the offer, pause it, and edit the trade again even after it was submitted. In addition to this, all trades are safeguarded by our blind escrow, a system that allows for a secure trading environment. Using Local.Bitcoin.com is a breeze and it takes only a few minutes to set up a trade offer. At Bitcoin.com, we’re thrilled to be able to give people the ability to buy and sell bitcoin cash which will, in turn, bolster the decentralized currency’s infrastructure. Moreover, the peer-to-peer marketplace allows people to trade with each other on a more personal level, rather than dealing with a cold third party exchange. Often times traders can purchase BCH cheaper using an over-the-counter market, which allows users to buy digital assets in bulk and find the best margins available. Unlike with large exchanges, users don’t have to share intimate personal details and traders can begin swapping BCH instantly. So if you are interested in a peer-to-peer platform that allows anyone in the world to buy and sell bitcoin cash, check out Local.Bitcoin.com today and create a pre-launch account now. What do you think about the new peer-to-peer marketplace Local.Bitcoin.com? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Local.Bitcoin.com, Jamie Redman, and Bitcoin.com. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 Local.Bitcoin.com Aims to Spread Economic Freedom Through P2P Exchange of BCH appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The importance of reliable market data grows with rising cryptocurrency prices that inevitably attract more investors to the space. There is a wide choice of market cap aggregators, but some offer more rich functionality than others. Coincheckup is one good example of that. Also read: Keep Track of Important Crypto Events With Coindar Website Tracks Coins and Offers Research Features Coincheckup is a free online platform which tracks over 2,000 cryptocurrencies and digital tokens, providing information about their prices and price changes for different time periods, market capitalization, 24-hour volume, circulating supply, and percentage off all-time-high. What sets the website apart from others is the additional features it comes with. Coincheckup provides detailed charts, an analysis page, price quotes from different markets, and predictions. It offers users investment and price performance statistics as well. BCH page, Coincheckup Fundamental, investment and technical analyses are part of the tool kit traders are provided with so they can make better investment decisions. The platform also maintains pages with pump and dump updates and arbitrage opportunities. If you have a favorite cryptocurrency, you can go to its dedicated page. There you’ll find additional information that includes a description of the coin and its main purpose, performance stats and historical returns on investments, forecasts and what-if scenarios. Coincheckup prepares a daily status video update and links to important news headlines. The website lists upcoming events related to the cryptocurrency you are interested in and its highly customizable platform provides various filtering options. If you need to stay informed about the current prices and valuations of cryptocurrencies, you can also use Bitcoin Markets by Bitcoin.com. It allows you to track your favorite digital coins and compare their indicators. Also, check out our Bitcoin Charts page. What are your expectations about the short term movement of crypto markets? Share your predictions in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to third party companies or any of their 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 third party content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Coincheckup. 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 Coincheckup Aggregator Makes It Easier to Analyze the Crypto Market 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. Cyprus, 16 May 2019 – It’s estimated that 72 % of real-world casino gamblers play online too and statistically, those that play both tend to spend around 15 % more in the physical casino. Despite this, and the unprecedented growth of online gaming, the link between the physical and online casino has remained tenuous. About to the take full advantage of this gap is PBET, representing a unique crypto-based unified gaming platform which aspires to assist physical casinos with a convenient turn-key solution to extend to the online gaming sphere. Right now and for a limited time, you can participate in PBET’s Pre-sale ICO and take advantage of a 45 % discount rate on proprietary tokens that will be put to use immediately upon completion of ICO as a central element of PBET’s unique and disruptive Omni-channel approach. In contrast to most previously seen ICOs, PBET can already boast a largely commercialized product: a casino management system that is deployed in 20 venues across 4 countries. This means the product is already at an advanced stage, ready for immediate implementation and accelerated growth. “Our proprietary token is the core, binding element to the viability of our business plan and is fully integrated into the ecosystem of our platform,” says Bassel Moukaddem, Chief Executive Officer of PBET, “This means we are able to make immediate use of the contributions as soon as the ICO is complete and we anticipate a high demand starting from our current client base and exponentially increasing due to the advantages we offer for token holders, which will definitely lead to increased token value.” The PBET Token will be used for payment between all actors of the Land-based and I-gaming ecosystem and extended through the hospitality sector. Following ICO, the PBET proprietary token can be used within the platform to; resolve online gaming high transactional fees; allow an easy, portable and secure payment method for players when traveling; create a seamless means of payment between different partners within PBET ecosystem such as affiliates, players, casinos, partners within the Reward Club, or specialized games studios – amongst other uses. PBET is uniquely positioned to bring together the two worlds of online and offline gambling which has the potential to revolutionize the gambling sector. The team has set out its objectives and roadmap in a comprehensive and transparent White Paper, which allows contributors to clearly see the benefits and potentiality of this cohesive turnkey Unified Gaming Platform. The company is backed by a seasoned team of casino and gaming experts and the entire ensemble is driven to bring something truly beneficial for the gaming world by partnering with physical casinos to offer online gaming to highly-valued players for a fraction of the online players’ normal cost of acquisition and assuring zero transactional fees and immediate payments for players and casinos. It counts on its unique crypto-based Unified Gaming model to easily generate synergies between channels whilst integrating cryptocurrency-based instant payments as well as combining partners in its special token-based Reward Club. “We create tailored added-value for Players, PBET, and Physical casinos, taking advantage of synergies generated from this entourage effect,” says Mr. Moukaddem, “Players on our platform will benefit from, amongst other things, peer-to-peer betting, integrated social networking and a fully crypto-friendly interface that including deposits and withdrawals, games in crypto and quick payment in crypto.” PBET has launched its Pre-Sale with a discount rate of 45 % to optimize return for early stage contributors. 70% of generated token are allocated for public sale and through smart contract tokens that aren’t sold will be burned. For more information or PR Enquiries contact, info@pbet.io https://pbet.io/welcome/ PLC Player Loyalty LTD. (PBET) Supporting Link https://pbet.io/welcome/ 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 PR: PBET Merges Online and Physical Gambling Worlds appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Over the last few weeks, cryptocurrency markets have been on a tear accumulating considerable gains following the notorious ‘crypto winter.’ Since the recent price hike this spring, mining digital assets with next-generation miners has allowed participants to secure significant gains and even older mining devices are turning a profit. Also read: Bitcoin Cash Protocol Successfully Upgrades — Schnorr Signatures Are Here Next Generation and Older SHA-256 Miners Are Pulling in Decent Profits Especially in China After the price of bitcoin core (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) started seeing significant gains miners that process the SHA-256 algorithm have started to pull in decent profits. The trend has changed since last December when news.Bitcoin.com reported on how only five SHA256 miners were profiting at the time. Now a large majority of devices are doing quite well and according to data at an average of $0.10 per KWh the top ten most profitable miners are clearing more than $10-15 a day per unit. The top 10 available SHA-256 miners and their 2019 profits per day. Picture shown is set at a rate of $0.10 per KWh. This includes mining devices such as the Asicminer Pro (76TH/s), Antminer S17 (56TH/s), Innosilicon T3 (52TH/s), and the Bitfury Tardis (80TH/s). Moreover, if the miners are located in mainland China and are getting $0.04 per KWh then those using next-generation machines are pulling in $15-21 a day per unit. And now with the wet season in China, the cost of electricity in Sichuan can be as low as 0.08 yuan ($0.01), which means mining pools with high performing rigs can profit by $25+ a day per miner. According to statistics, China is one of the cheapest places on the planet in 2019 to mine SHA-256 coins like BCH and BTC. This is followed by countries like India, Canada, and Russia, while countries like the U.S. and much of Europe have average electricity prices. The worst regions to mine in the world include Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and Italy as each country has around $0.15-0.30+ per KWh. In regions like China where cheap electricity is rampant, mining rig vendors who sell second-hand machines are selling a ton of older devices. Three regions in the world that offer some of the cheapest electricity rate per KWh — China, Canada, and India. Zhang Xilin, a mining equipment vendor in Huaqiang North detailed last week that “the price of second-hand mining rigs doubled.” For instance, data shows that old Antminer S9s that pull in 13-14.5 TH/s will give a miner $0.25-0.50 per unit at 13 cents per KWh if the person was mining in the U.S. or Europe. And those profits exceed well over two thirds the global average if the mining operation is in Sichuan, China with a facility full of old S9s. In the U.S. there’s been a lot of second market ASIC sales as well on sites like Craigslist and Ebay. With crypto exchange rates up, even older generation mining rigs are pulling in a profit. Picture shown is set at a rate of $0.10 per KWh. Obelisk & Cuckatoo Miners and 112 Profitable Devices Mining rigs that mine the SHA256 algorithm processing either BTC or BCH, however, are not the most profitable miners today. Devices that mine coins like sia and grin are raking in much larger profits over the last month. For example, miners that can process the Obelisk or Cuckatoo31+ algorithm can manage to capture $30-50 a day per unit. Some of the top mining rigs gathering the most profit process the Obelisk or Cuckatoo31+ algorithm. Picture shown is set at a rate of $0.10 per KWh. Next generation miners who mine Obelisk and Cuckatoo which have been announced but haven’t been manufactured yet could profit by $50-250 a day per unit. This includes devices like the Obelisk GRN1 Immersion (Oct. 2019), and the Innosilicon G32-1800 (Aug. 2019). An X11 miner like the Strong-U STU-U6 due to go on sale in July claims to offer 660 GH/s which is close to $40 a day per unit with an average electricity cost of about $0.10 per KWh. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hashrate on May 15, 2019. At today’s crypto exchange rates, 112 mining devices that are available to the public that mine various types of cryptocurrencies are at least profiting by $0.10 a day per unit, with electric costs at $0.10 per KWh. This includes a slew of much older Canaan, Bitmain, GMO, Bitfury, Innosilicon, and Ebang miners. A lot has changed since the low prices last year in November and December and when miners were tossing old mining devices to the curb or selling them for pennies on the dollar. At the moment the two top SHA-256 cryptocurrencies BCH and BTC have seen significant hashrate increases and it’s likely due to the magnitude of fresh profit coming in. What do you think about mining rigs becoming far more profitable to use with the recent price spike happening? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned companies or any of their affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com or the author 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 this article. This article is for informational purposes only. Image credits: Bitcoin.com, Asicminervalue.com, and Coin Dance. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 Crypto Spring Brings Strong Profits to Next-Generation and Older Mining Rigs appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Joey King, a developer at Bitcoin.com, is the latest character to have shared his story on the Humans of Bitcoin podcast with Matt Aaron. The interview covers how he went from working in the oil industry to being a crypto programmer to how he sees the propaganda efforts of Napoleon reflected in the market today. Also Read: Why Cryptocurrency Investors Are Renouncing Their US Citizenship Listen to The Education of Joey King In the first part of the interview, Joey King talks a little bit about his early years, like growing up outside his homeland of the U.S., and coming back to get an American higher education. Much of the segment also focuses on his time working for oil giant Exxon and what it taught him about the inner operations of big businesses, government control of the economy, geopolitics, international banking and other related topics. From there the Bitcoin.com developer describes how he first heard about cryptocurrency and the path that took him from his work for Exxon all the way here. The second part of the interview focuses on the current cryptocurrency ecosystem, the problems and threats it faces, as well as how the way forward will look. King talked about some surprising lessons that bitcoin cash (BCH) supporters need to take from political and military history. The developer also candidly shared his personal experience as an investor during the highs and lows of the volatile cryptocurrency markets and how it affects your better judgment. Make sure to check out the Bitcoin.com Podcast Network to see all the available shows and follow them on iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify. 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 From Exxon to Crypto: the Story of Joey King on the Humans of Bitcoin Podcast appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain has officially upgraded, adding Schnorr signatures and the Segwit recovery exemption. As of block 582680, the chain has implemented the new features successfully and BCH fans are celebrating another major protocol improvement. Also read: Schnorr Signatures Are Coming to Bitcoin Cash – Here’s What You Should Know Another Bitcoin Cash Upgrade Achieved On Wednesday, May 15, the Bitcoin Cash network has completed yet another successful upgrade by implementing two new features — Segwit recovery and Schnorr signatures. Essentially, the Segwit recovery addition makes it possible for network participants to recover funds that have been sent to Segwit addresses by accident. The implementation makes an exemption following the enforcement of the new CLEANSTACK rule that made Segwit recovery previously impossible after the upgrade last November. But the high profile feature everyone’s been chatting about is the implementation of Schnorr signatures, a digital signature scheme that allows for complex signing abilities. The signature scheme was invented by Claus Schnorr and cryptocurrency developers have been looking into adding the scheme for years but it was patented. Now that the patent has expired, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) developers ran with the idea and decided to add the preliminary basics of Schnorr signatures to the main chain. In conversation last week, developer Mark Lundeburg told news.Bitcoin.com that the basics of Schnorr signatures can slash roughly 4% off current transaction storage. In the future, after another Schnorr related upgrade, the scheme could provide for public signature aggregation and more complex sign-to-contract concepts. Bitcoin Cash Using Schnorr Will Aid Privacy & Scaling Further Schnorr related improvements can provide multiple parties with the ability to transact with simple multi-party aggregation schemes. Because Schnorr signatures are only 64 bytes in contrast to the traditional 70 bytes used by ECDSA signatures, initially people can take advantage of the 4% savings in regard to blockchain storage and bandwidth. But with further upgrades and the implementation of public signature aggregation, the entire network’s scaling abilities could be enhanced by reducing blockchain storage and bandwidth by at least 20-25%. When Schnorr is combined with concepts like pay-to-public-key-hash (P2PKH) addresses and the recently added opcode OP_CHECKSIG, other benefits can be added to transactions like privacy and decision-based smart contracts. As of today, after the initial implementation BCH developers will be able to build: Payment channels hidden as ordinary payments. Atomic swaps hidden as ordinary payments. Lightning-style payment channel networks too, if desired. Secure chains of unconfirmed transactions involving multiple parties (layer 2). After the upgrade, the Bitcoin Cash community and developers celebrated the achievement and programmers like Gabriel Cardona and Mark Lundeberg processed the first Schnorr signature transactions on the main network. As of 12:10 p.m. EST there’s been 23 blocks processed under the new consensus rules. A few hours earlier, however, it seems an unknown entity attempted to exploit the chain with invalid transactions, which affected numerous Bitcoin ABC clients. A patch was then added to fix the issue within the client after being submitted by Amaury Séchet and reviewed by ABC developer Jason Cox. Developers have said that the exploit had absolutely nothing to do with the consensus upgrade itself and mining pools were notified of the mining bug immediately. While waiting for the patch, pools mined a succession of empty blocks up until block height 582697 and the chain began processing blocks normally. The community is thrilled to see yet another successful upgrade and is pleased the added features will enhance the path toward providing the best peer-to-peer electronic cash system on the planet. If you want to learn more about Schnorr signatures, check out the explainers below from two prominent BCH developers: An Expert Explains The Upcoming BCH Network Upgrade Schnorr signatures for dummies Schnorr signatures for (not so) dummies What do you think about the Bitcoin Cash network implementing Schnorr signatures following another successful upgrade? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Coin Dance, and Twitter. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Bitcoin Cash Protocol Successfully Upgrades — Schnorr Signatures Are Here appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The cryptocurrency space is abundant with events, from blockchain upgrades to platform launches and informal meetups. Coindar is a free calendar tool that helps crypto enthusiasts closely follow what’s happening in the industry and make better investment decisions. Also read: Track Rising Crypto Prices With Cryptowat.ch Online Calendar Tracks Coin-Related Developments Coindar is an online platform where users can track upcoming events related to various digital coins and tokens. Acquiring this type of information can be crucial for any crypto investor who wants to be successful in the long run. Some events may significantly influence the prices of cryptocurrencies, creating opportunities for traders in the loop to profit or even to claim electronic cash. These include periods with halvings, hard forks and airdrops. Coindar provides multiple filtering and sorting options. Events can be sorted by date or time period but users can also choose to display only those that have been added recently or just the most popular. The website currently shows almost 800 upcoming events, 26 of which have been added in the last 24 hours. Events can be filtered by tags such as announcement, update, meetup, and brand. You can also pick those that have been added from what has been determined to be a reliable source, the ones that the platform considers important or your own favorites. Users interested in a particular cryptocurrency can find the events that pertain to their favorite coin. For example, typing BCH in the search bar will show you the upgrade which introduces Schnorr signatures to the Bitcoin Cash network. It has been marked as an important event and the website links to the Bitcoin.com Company Blog where you can get more detailed information about it. Coindar also maintains a Forecasts page as well as a Coins page, which is a cryptocurrency market cap aggregator offering real-time data for hundreds of digital currencies. What other crypto calendars do you know or use? Tell us more about their features in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to third party companies or any of their 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 third party content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Coindar. Do you want to keep an eye on moving cryptocurrency prices? Visit our Bitcoin Markets tool to get real-time price updates, and head over to our Blockchain Explorer tool to view all previous BCH and BTC transactions. The post Keep Track of Important Crypto Events With Coindar appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The partnership will see Travala.com integrated in the official Bitcoin.com wallet with almost 4 million users London, United Kingdom –– May 15, 2019 — Travala.com, – leading blockchain travel booking platform, has announced a partnership with Bitcoin.com to empower millions of travelers to save on hotel stays. Travala.com is transforming the travel industry, by offering an average of 15% savings on hotel bookings as well as the option to pay with several leading cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. This partnership will empower millions of users to participate in a cheaper, fairer, and more inclusive travel economy. Commenting on the partnership, Matthew Luczynski, CEO, and Founder of Travala.com said, “A reflection of our unwavering commitment towards cryptocurrency adoption, we’re excited to partner with an industry titan to champion the growth of the crypto community. With over 80% of the bookings on our platform made chiefly in digital currencies, the partnership will allow us to leverage Bitcoin Cash’s global network for greater real-world usability. We are excited to work closer with Roger and the Bitcoin.com team.” “Importantly, this is also a powerful demonstration of the synergies between both the travel industry and disruptive technologies, as we strive to significantly lower the barriers of entry. The past year has seen our team achieve a number of milestones, from having recently exceeded our equity crowdfunding target, to the steady growth of our ecosystem, we look forward to seeing even greater progress as we build a transformative future for the online travel industry,” added Luczynski. With a reach of over 210 countries and territories Travala.com’s portfolio of over 82,000 destinations serves as a gateway to a more efficient travel booking experience. Opening the doors to lower hotel prices and a more streamlined booking platform, Bitcoin Cash holders will now be able to choose from almost 600,000 property listings for their next holiday, with ease, through the use of their Bitcoin.com wallet. Roger Ver, CEO of Bitcoin.com said, “Our work is guided by a stout belief in Bitcoin Cash as a model of economic freedom and this includes the continual expansion of offerings under our current suite of products and services. By providing additional functionalities compatible with the lifestyle choices of our community, this partnership exemplifies the value of digital currencies and will build out our ecosystem with a real-world, viable use case.” Launched in 2015, Bitcoin.com is an industry pioneer with an established suite of Bitcoin-related products, tools, and services. Empowering users to be part of the digital economy, the Bitcoin.com wallet enables the sending of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash between users in a direct, secure, and non-intrusive manner, with a global reach of over 3.9 million users. Bitcoin Cash users are able to access Travala.com directly from their Bitcoin.com wallet. ### CEO and Founder, Matthew Luczynski, is available for interview About Travala: Offering an average of 15% savings on bookings, Travala.com is the leading blockchain travel booking platform transforming the future of the online travel industry. A proven platform with over 567,928 properties across 210 countries and territories, spanning 82,311 destinations, Travala.com leverages and innovative application of blockchain technology and token economy to deliver a streamlined booking process and a fairer pricing system for consumers and merchants alike. For more information: visit https://www.travala.com/ About Bitcoin.com: Bitcoin.com is supercharged to change the world with Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Our suite of developer tools has been downloaded 36,000+ times from over 100 countries. Our team is the heart and soul of the Bitcoin Cash industry. We’re committed to making BCH available to all people, whatever their age, gender, nationality or financial status. For more information: visit https://www.bitcoin.com/ Contact Email Address: support@travala.com The post PR: Bitcoin.com Partners With Travala.com to Boost Bitcoin Cash Adoption appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently reviewing three bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), one of which was filed last week to track the prices of two cryptocurrencies. An SEC commissioner said at the Consensus conference on Monday that the time is right for a bitcoin ETF, as the commission is due to make a decision on one of them next week. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request SEC Commissioner: Time Is Right for Bitcoin ETF At the Consensus 2019 conference in New York on Monday, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, also known as “crypto mom,” discussed the regulatory environment for bitcoin ETFs. Expressing her dissatisfaction with the current law, she asserted that the SEC should do more to provide a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency including rules around safe harbor. Decrypt quoted her as saying: I thought the time was right a year ago — even longer than that … My first chance to comment on it was a year ago … Certainly the time is right, but there are still questions floating around the SEC that need to be answered as much as possible by you all. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Peirce then encouraged the audience to write to the SEC to help them understand the market. One issue she noted was market manipulation, which “is a concern that people keep raising at the SEC,” she shared. “Other issues like custody issues [also] come up a lot.” Her comments at Consensus echo her speech at the Securities Enforcement Forum which took place on May 9. “The problem is that the securities laws do not cease to operate as a new industry develops,” she explained. “Consequently, individuals and companies in the industry must comply with our securities laws or risk becoming the subject of an enforcement action. It is therefore our duty as a regulator to provide the public with clear guidance as to how people can comply with our law. We have not yet fulfilled this duty.” The commissioner additionally described: It is not the SEC’s overzealous action that has stifled the crypto industry, but its unwillingness to take meaningful action at all. Peirce also expressed concern that the U.S. is falling behind other forward-thinking countries. “Our country has always been a country where innovation can really thrive,” she opined Monday. “I worry that a lot of the activities are now happening offshore. I want the US to be the market for innovation.” The SEC staff recently issued a 14-page document detailing a framework to assist issuers with conducting a Howey analysis to evaluate whether token offerings are securities. It details features of an offering and actions by an issuer that could signal that the offering is likely a securities offering. Peirce expressed her worry, however, that this framework “could raise more questions and concerns than it answers.” The commissioner previously said she believes the SEC has no jurisdiction to look at the underlying asset when considering whether to approve a proposed rule change for an ETF. She has also emphasized that excessive regulation could hurt innovation such as cryptocurrency. The SEC’s Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation, Valerie Szczepanik, explained that the agency is moving slowly on cryptocurrency regulations and cryptocurrency-based products because it needs to be cautious. Szczepanik coordinates efforts across all SEC divisions and offices regarding the application of U.S. securities laws to emerging digital asset technologies and innovations, including cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings. In his speech at the SEC Sparks conference on April 8, Chairman Jay Clayton said one of the areas the commission has focused its attention on due to heightened risks is “digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, coins, and tokens.” At the Consensus Invest conference in November last year, he revealed the key upgrades he needed to see before the SEC could consider approving its first bitcoin ETF such as better market surveillance and safe custody of crypto assets. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton Bitwise Bitcoin ETF: August 14 One of the proposals being reviewed by the SEC is for the listing and trading of shares issued by Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust filed by NYSE Arca Inc. on Jan. 28. This proposed rule change was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 15. On March 29, the SEC designated May 16 as the day to make its decision on this proposal. However, on May 7, the exchanged filed Amendment No. 1 to the proposed rule change, replacing the original one in its entirety. According to the amended registration statement filed with the SEC: The trust will hold bitcoin … [and] will store its bitcoin in custody at a regulated third-party custodian, and will not use derivatives that may subject the trust to counterparty and credit risks. Furthermore, the company explained that “the trust will not directly purchase or sell bitcoin. Instead, authorized participants will deliver bitcoin to the trust in exchange for shares of the trust, and the trust will deliver bitcoin to authorized participants when those authorized participants redeem shares of the trust.” The filing also details that “in seeking to ensure that the price of the trust’s shares is reflective of the actual bitcoin market, the trust will value its shares daily based on prices drawn from ten bitcoin exchanges … [which] represent substantially all of the economically significant spot trading volume on bitcoin exchanges around the world.” On March 22, Bitwise tweeted clarifying that “The exact methodology largely mirrors the settlement pricing methodology of CME futures, which we believe has the correct construction.” The company added that the exchanges are Binance, Bifinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro, Gemini, Itbit, Kraken, and Poloniex, noting that five of them “have implemented sophisticated market surveillance tools to prevent market manipulation and bad behavior.” Since the company filed an amendment, the commission began soliciting public comments on the new proposal on May 14. So far, 25 comments have been received on this proposal. Securities lawyer Jake Chervinsky remarked: The new deadline is August 14. The SEC can delay one more time to a final deadline of October 13. Vaneck Solidx Bitcoin ETF: May 21 The next proposal for a bitcoin ETF under review by the SEC is the high-profile Vaneck Solidx bitcoin ETF. Cboe BZX Exchange Inc. originally filed the proposed rule change to list and trade shares issued by the Vaneck Solidx Bitcoin Trust in June last year. However, it withdrew the proposal on Jan. 22 due to the U.S. government shutdown which affected the SEC. The exchange refiled the proposed rule change for the same ETF on Jan. 30 which was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 20. On March 29, the commission extended the time period to review this ETF to May 21. At press time, 24 comments have been received for this new proposed rule change, far fewer than the 1,600 plus comments received for the previous filing that was withdrawn. The registration statement explains: The investment objective of the trust is for the shares to reflect the performance of the price of bitcoin, less the expenses of the trust’s operations. This trust intends to achieve its objective by investing all of its assets substantially “in bitcoin traded primarily in the over-the-counter markets, and may also invest in bitcoin traded on domestic and international bitcoin exchanges,” the filing states. “The trust will be responsible for custody of the trust’s bitcoin.” Solidx Management Llc is the sponsor of the trust, with Delaware Trust Company as the trustee and the Bank of New York Mellon as the administrator and transfer agent. The bank will also serve as the custodian with respect to cash of the trust since it will occasionally hold cash for short periods in connection with the purchase and sale of bitcoin, and to pay trust expenses. Van Eck Securities Corporation will provide assistance in the marketing of the shares. Crescent Crypto Index Fund: Just Filed The third bitcoin ETF-related filing which the SEC is reviewing at press time is by the United States Commodity Index Funds Trust. The company filed a registration statement with the SEC on Thursday for Crescent Crypto Index Fund, sponsored by the United States Commodity Funds (USCF). It will be traded on the NYSE Arca stock exchange under the symbol XBET. According to the document: The investment objective of XBET is for the daily changes in percentage terms of its per share net asset value to reflect the daily changes in percentage terms of the Crescent Crypto Core II Index (the ‘CCINDX’), less XBET’s expenses. The new index seeks “to track the performance of a market capitalization weighted portfolio of bitcoin and ether,” the company describes, noting that it “has limited history and is currently under development and subject to further input from the Crescent Crypto Index Committee.” This index “is based on various inputs which may include price data from various third-party exchanges and markets.” The trust and fund are managed and controlled by USCF, a limited liability company that is registered as a commodity pool operator with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is a member of the National Futures Association. USCF will employ Crescent Crypto Manager Llc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Crescent, as co-portfolio manager to XBET. SEC Decision Timeline Whenever a proposed rule change is filed with the SEC, it will be published in the Federal Register which serves as the key start date for the SEC’s ETF approval timeline. The proposal for the Vaneck Solidx ETF was filed on Jan. 30 and published in the Federal Register on Feb. 20. The Bitwise ETF proposal was filed on Jan. 28 and published in the Federal Register on Feb. 15. The rule change for the Crescent ETF has yet to be published in the Federal Register. After the proposed rule change has been published in the Federal Register, Section 19(b)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act provides that “within 45 days of the publication of notice of the filing of a proposed rule change, or within such longer period up to 90 days … the commission shall either approve the proposed rule change, disapprove the proposed rule change, or institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule change should be disapproved.” According to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the SEC can extend the time to make a decision on an ETF up to 240 days after the date of its publication in the Register. If the SEC has not made a decision after 240 days for any reasons, the ETF would be automatically approved. However, Chervinsky explained that it is extremely unlikely the SEC will let such a decision go to automatic approval, noting that the SEC would likely have measures in place to avoid missing such important deadlines. Further, if a bitcoin ETF is automatically approved, it can easily be undone after the emergency that prevents the agency from making a proper decision is over. The lawyer elaborated: The SEC doesn’t have the power to extend the 240-day deadline. The statute absolutely prohibits any further delays. As for the three proposals in consideration, the SEC is due to make a decision to either approve, deny, or delay its decision on the Vaneck Solidx bitcoin ETF proposal on May 21, having just delayed its decision on the proposal for the Bitwise bitcoin ETF. Chervinsky estimates that if the commission decides to further delay its decision on the Vaneck Solidx ETF, then the new decision date will be Aug. 19. The final dates after 240 days will be Oct. 13 for the Bitwise proposal and Oct. 18 for the Vaneck Solidx proposal. He also emphasized that the agency could ask the sponsors to withdraw and refile, which will start the clock all over again. Do you think the time is right for the SEC to approve a bitcoin ETF? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Forbes. Are you feeling lucky? Visit our official Bitcoin casino where you can play BCH slots, BCH poker, and many more BCH games. Every game has a progressive Bitcoin Cash jackpot to be won! The post SEC Commissioner Says Time Is Right for Bitcoin ETFs — 3 Funds Pending appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The world’s largest options and futures exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade (CME Group) and its bitcoin futures contracts saw an all-time high on May 13. According to CME’s records, the exchange recorded 33,700 contracts on Monday which represented a notional value of around 168,000 BTC ($1.35 billion). Also Read: Our Value of Money Is Subjective But That Doesn’t Make It Meaningless CME Sees Over $1B of BTC Futures Contracts Traded CME Group’s bitcoin futures contracts soared on Monday at the same time that crypto spot markets saw record volumes. Over the last few months, more interest has been aimed at cryptocurrency derivative products. For instance, during the second week of April, bitcoin cash (BCH) futures started rising significantly prior to recent BCH price appreciation. Crypto Facilities and executive Sui Chung detailed how BCH contracts in March saw close to $50 million in volume. During the same week on April 4, CME group saw its first record of roughly 22,500 BTC future contracts. On May 13, the options and futures exchange announced: CME Bitcoin futures reached an all-time record high of 33.7K contracts on May 13 (168K equivalent bitcoin), up nearly 50% from the last record of 22.5K contracts on April 4. See how market participants are using BTC to manage uncertainty. The options and futures exchange also saw a large uptick in BTC futures volumes in February. Despite the increased trade volume, the derivative markets providers reported a net income loss of 17% for Q1 on May 1. BTC contracts, however, are pretty high on May 14 as well with 22,234 contracts as the day’s volume is nearing the April 4 record. Bakkt’s Physically Delivered Bitcoin Futures Will Launch Soon The news also follows an announcement from the Intercontinental Exchange and its Bakkt Bitcoin Daily Futures Contract products. Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler updated the public on Monday in regard to the physically delivered bitcoin futures contracts that have been delayed month after month. According to Loeffler, user acceptance testing for the bitcoin futures custody and trading is planned for July but Bakkt could get approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) within the next 10 days. “Bakkt will contribute $35 million into the clearinghouse risk waterfall,” Loeffler noted. “This puts our own ‘skin in the game’ and aligns our interests for market integrity and safety with market participants.” The Bakkt CEO added: For physical delivery and secure storage of bitcoin, an integrated custody service will be fulfilled by Bakkt’s qualified custodian, subject to regulatory approval. Safekeeping will be supported by insurance, cybersecurity, and comprehensive compliance, including an anti-money-laundering program and blockchain analytics. While Spot Market Prices Rise, Institutional Interest in Crypto Gathers Momentum The recent magnitude of futures volumes for both BCH and BTC has correlated with parabolic price rises for both digital assets. For instance, bitcoin cash is up 31% over the last seven days while bitcoin core is up 35% for the week. CME Group BTC futures quotes on May 14, 2019. In addition to this, futures markets and institutional interest have been gathering momentum. Steven Quirk, executive vice president at TD Ameritrade, told the audience at the Consensus 2019 conference that 60,000 clients have called or emailed because they are interested in trading futures products tethered to digital assets. Quirk added: As soon as you open the door, you’re going to get a lot of people looking to participate in the market. Monday and today’s CME Group futures volumes show interest in these products continues to grow and when other companies latch onto this trend they’ll also want in on these offerings. A lot has changed since CME Group launched its bitcoin futures service in December 2017 and it seems investors are still very attentive when it comes to crypto derivatives products. What do you think about the recent futures action lately tied to the cryptoconomy? Let us know in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, CME Group, Bakkt, and Medium. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 CME’s Bitcoin Futures Break Records With $1 Billion in Notional Volume appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Ask a dozen crypto traders for the reason behind the recent rally and you’ll get a dozen different theories. Bakkt futures, Microsoft building on Bitcoin and Whole Foods accepting crypto have all been cited as fueling the bull market that’s broken out. While these factors have certainly helped, there’s a less documented reason why the crypto market has renewed confidence: exchanges have cleaned up their act, turning what was once a hostile battleground into an arena that’s fit for purpose. Also read: How to Send Bitcoin Cash via Text Messages to Anyone With a Mobile Phone The Three T’s That Define 2019’s Leading Exchanges “Tier one” is a designation that’s traditionally been applied to the largest and most desirable exchanges for token listing. It’s a category where the likes of Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, and Bitstamp reside. But this year, tier one exchanges are defined less by their exorbitant listing fees, which in many cases have since been waived, but rather by their commitment to espousing the three T’s: transparency, trust, and true volume. The first of these can be seen in the measures being taken by platforms such as Binance, and to a lesser extent Bittrex, to provide advance warning of large cold wallet movements to avoid spooking users. This is accompanied by frequent and detailed communication, particularly when things go wrong, such as in Binance’s $40M hack a fortnight ago. Although hacks are still as commonplace today as ever, at least now the crypto community is kept fully informed, rather than being left in the dark. Trading platforms such as Kraken and Poloniex have taken to publishing quarterly reports, much like those issued by publicly listed companies. Whether performed out of genuine care or a cynical attempt to ride the latest trend, this new culture of transparency has been welcomed by traders seasoned enough to recall Mt. Gox, Vircurex, and Btc-e. Messari’s Real 10 index Trust Through Proof of Solvency Of the three T’s, trust is the hardest for an exchange to acquire, since it must be built up over time, and can be eradicated via a single misstep. While Binance has earned credit for its response to the recent hack, it’s safe to say Changpeng Zhao won’t be caught boasting about its impregnable security record again. Trust encompasses every facet of running an exchange, but is synonymous with instilling confidence in users that the platform can cover its liabilities. The Quadriga collapse is still a sore point for Canadians who lost funds when the exchange collapsed under the weight of its own insolvency. The recent revelation that Bitfinex has essentially been operating a fractional reserve, due to $850M of frozen assets, has added further weight to the movement for trust through proof of solvency. A number of solutions have been proposed by which exchanges can show that customer deposits are fully covered, without disclosing sensitive data pertaining to account balances, or even needing to reveal the total value of its crypto assets. One such method, being pioneered by private computation network ARPA, can be used to calculate the average solvency level of exchanges without having to disclosing any sensitive data whatsoever. “With ARPA network, data can be integrated, computed, and analyzed without being exposed,” explains co-founder Yemu Xu. “Computation will be done on encrypted data, on a distributed manner, and only the result will be viewable to the interest party.” He adds: This technology is called secure Multiparty Computation (MPC). In the case of exchanges, exchanges can jointly compute an average for their solvency level without ever giving away their own solvency data. Turn up the True Volume Whereas wash trading was once de rigueur in crypto, it’s now frowned upon and penalized. Credit for cracking down on fake volume must go to the market data sites that have championed honest reporting, over Coinmarketcap’s more gameable system. “Honest” volume is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception, with Asian exchanges that doggedly insist on wash trading being shunned by a tranche of the market. Streamex is a crypto trading platform where beginners can entrust expert traders to act on their behalf via community trading pools. It’s currently in beta, as it gears up for its full launch on July 1, heralded by a $1M trading competition. CEO Vedran Sisak told news.Bitcoin.com that cleaning up the reputation of cryptocurrency exchanges is crucial to onboarding new traders. “Beginners don’t want to be told they’re entering a rigged game, where wash trading and other deceptive behaviors are deployed to feign liquidity,” he explained. “They want to know that they can enter and exit trades with minimal slippage, and trade on reputable exchanges that are solvent and attentive to security and good customer service.” Projects whose tokens have yet to reach exchanges are also now prioritizing platforms that champion honest reporting, over those that cook the books. Andy Yuen, CEO of fitness token Mhealthcoin, said: “The widespread availability of tools for discerning true volume makes it much easier to determine which exchanges are worth partnering with. We’ve spoken to a few crypto exchanges regarding listing Mhealthcoin, and have been drawn to those whose reputation for honest reporting lends them credibility. Being listed on an exchange where there’s rampant wash trading reflects badly on a project.” Some of those tools for checking up on exchange volume include Messari’s Real 10 index, which recordes the trading volume of 10 platforms known for their accurate reporting, as well as The Tie’s new data transparency portal. As Joshua Frank of The Tie explained to news.Bitcoin.com: “Our team analyzed twenty factors across over thirty of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges to develop a comprehensive methodology for evaluating exchanges’ transparency, trustworthiness, and compliance. Among the factors that we analyzed were if these exchanges used any market surveillance tools like Nasdaq SMARTS, if they had formal market manipulation policies, and what data they made publicly available through their API such as historical trade level data and live order books.” Nomics In addition to the efforts being undertaken by The Tie, Messari, and Nomics, which ranks exchanges using a transparency score, a group led by Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital and DRW’s Cumberland is pushing for a white list to bring the same standards to the OTC market for BTC. Despite the progress that has been made in improving the reputation of cryptocurrency exchanges, the majority of platforms have yet to clean up their act. Exchanges still shamelessly wash trade to game CMC’s ranking system, Bitfinex still catches flak for its opacity, and, according to The Tie, less than 50% of crypto exchanges have any policies whatsoever against market manipulation such as wash trading and order book spoofing. Nevertheless, the tide is slowly turning. Where once it was profitable to engage in such behavior, now there is greater capital to be made from advocating transparency, building trust, and reporting true volume. Do you think cryptocurrency exchanges are improving and becoming more accountable? Let us know in the comments section below. 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 Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are Cleaning up Their Act appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In my last op-ed, I discussed how the value we place on items and goods is subjective based on Carl Menger’s Subjective Theory of Value and how these concepts apply to people’s perception of value with things like fiat, gold, and bitcoin. The post outlined the idea that money cannot serve as a store of value, even though a lot of people and modern economists today still believe that it does. However, even though value cannot be stored in a sense, it doesn’t make the value we place on money whimsical — every individual has their own construct of what value is and how it justifies the means for their own ends. Also Read: Putting an End to the Bitcoin Store of Value Fallacy Human Action: The End Determines the Importance of Means Value cannot be stored and many Austrian economists have explained this concept over the years, despite Keynesians and other modern economists believing otherwise. In my last editorial, “Putting an End to the Bitcoin Store of Value Fallacy,” a lot of commenters disagreed with the observations and the theory discussed. Basically, the editorial relied on Menger’s definition of “value” and posited the idea that money including gold and bitcoin cannot actually store value. However, it doesn’t mean money’s worth doesn’t exist or that humans don’t actually give value to things like precious metals, commodities, virtual assets, or collectibles. Value is relative in a personal way, but it is not arbitrary as it is always based on what Ludwig von Mises referred to as “human action.” In the Austrian economist’s magnum opus, “Human Action: A Treatise on Economics,” Mises presents a rational investigation of free market capitalism based on praxeology. “Praxeology is the study of those aspects of human action that can be grasped a priori,” Roderik Long explains on Praxeology.net. “In other words, it is concerned with the conceptual analysis and logical implications of preference, choice, means-end schemes, and so forth.” So individual human action is how people make everyday decisions by using the resources or means they have obtained in life to secure various ends or goals. We can assume that value itself stems from each and every individual’s preferences or rational decision-making. “The use of resources is not done haphazardly but in accordance with an individual’s priorities — The individual ranks various ends or goals that he wants to attain,” the economist Frank Shostak asserts in his June 2018 Mises Wire editorial. This would essentially mean an individual with a medium of exchange like fiat, who wants to trade it for a cryptocurrency, sees the digital currency as a means to secure certain ends or goals. Individuals give things like precious metals and digital currencies “market value,” which is based on the number of resources market participants are willing to trade for the specific item. Right now people attempt to measure the value of a digital currency in terms of fiat or the number of dollars equal to one coin. In the book “Human Action” published in 1949, Mises described how individuals value things in accordance with the last unit’s perceived value. “Value attached to one unit of a homogeneous supply on the basis of the value of the least important use of the units of the whole supply” is essentially what humans call “marginal value” according to Mises. A precious metal like gold is considered a Store of Value (SoV) because it gives humans utility as well as being rare. Market participants, since they were children, have always placed a higher value on things that are rare or scarce. But that doesn’t mean a shiny rock like gold stores stable and unmoving value because that perceived value must be in accordance with an individual’s priorities. The sum of each individual’s preferences make up a market price and things can be quite different if there are lots of market participants compared to only a few. For example, if a person was on a deserted island, then food and water would likely be more important than a few ounces of gold or even a hardware device with a few bitcoins. So it is safe for anyone to say that the storage of value function is not guaranteed in all conditions and at all times of any given economy. “In a society of free men the preservation of life and health are ends, not means,” Mises underscored in Human Action. But that doesn’t mean humans do not place value in other types of items or do so on mere whims as the founder of Austrian Economics, Carl Menger, explained in Principles of Economics: Value is a judgment economizing men make about the importance of the goods at their disposal for the maintenance of their lives and well-being. Hence value does not exist outside the consciousness of men. Substitute Goods, Sound Money, and an Individual Market Participant’s Preferences Combined With the Notion of Value So yes humans can call items like digital currencies such as bitcoin SoVs because individual market participants ‘consider‘ them an SoV. This is because we know individuals place value in scarcity and believe that some digital assets, similar to gold, can be used as a hedge against inflation. But the value each individual places on a cryptocurrency is only guaranteed if the person’s economic conditions are stable in any given economy, which we all know is impossible to predict. This brings to the equation the notion that if something is given value – like money or a good – and it does not meet the individual’s expectations (help them fulfill their ends) they will eventually substitute it for something else. For instance, the Venezuelan bolivar is pretty much worthless now and people don’t want it. You can see this as people literally weigh bundles of the bolivar for a dozen eggs and in the pictures of Venezuelan bills strewn across the streets. The substitution effect can happen to cryptocurrencies. If a cryptocurrency fails to provide the basic utility that’s offered by a medium of exchange (MoE) then individual market participants will seek an alternative that does it better. When BTC fees were infeasible and people had to wait hours and even days to get a transaction confirmed, users substituted it for an alternative market choice. In fact, the substitute of goods theory began immediately after transaction fees began to spike and the BTC mempool became congested. Ultimately the definition of substitute goods theory in economics says: if there are two types of goods that can be utilized for similar purposes and the price of using one good increases, demand for the substitute will increase as well. Objective data of this happening to BTC can be seen by looking at when the cryptocurrency captured 80-90% of the market up until March 2017. At that point blocks were congested, network fees began to rise, and BTC saw a steady dominance decline down to a low of 34% on Jan. 15, 2018. The substitution effect as it applies to BTC dominance. With the market dominance data and the fact that an individual’s ends are not set arbitrarily, we can argue that if an MoE like BTC obstructs spending at any time with significant fees and poor user experience, people will most definitely choose an alternative. The theory of substitute goods is not an irrational decision as some would assume, as Mises declared that all “human action is purposeful behavior” and “thinking is always thinking of a potential action.” Right now, with cryptocurrencies being such a nascent technology, the majority of the 2,100+ coins in existence are speculative investments. This type of financial move is considered risky because the individual investor is unsure of the market value because there’s no guarantee a great portion of these coins will have any utility or fulfill any of the developer’s promises. From these vows, it’s still likely that at least one of the many cryptocurrencies will provide the best traits money can offer an individual. If market participants continue to speculate on the idea that a cryptocurrency can be solely a store of value instead of a medium of exchange, however, it will not live up to expectations. An attempt to bootstrap an SoV function to a cryptocurrency in an economy that cannot be guaranteed throughout all conditions and all times in any given economy will not fit the needs of market actors unless it’s useful. In comparison, bitcoin cash aims to offer the best traits that money can furnish by providing qualities that humans prefer in regard to what people call “sound money.” This includes being mutually interchangeable by offering fungibility with concepts like Cashshuffle and Schnorr signatures. Mixing platforms have a much harder time working when a network’s transaction fees are too high. BCH offers great ease of transport by always offering low transaction fees on a consistent basis which aids portability. A cryptocurrency stagnated by expensive network fees makes an individual frustrated and often these individuals will immediately follow the theory of substitute goods based on their experience. The traits of money or why individuals place value in money. Bitcoin cash is also durable and easily divided which gives the decentralized currency more attributes of what humans call sound money. Divisibility is hard when fees are expensive because high fees can essentially neuter the ability to transact with the lowest amount of satoshis possible. Bitcoin cash is a permissionless currency that is scarce like precious metals, but storage costs and sending costs are considerably lower than gold or silver. Over time BCH proponents aim to provide economic freedom to everyone in the world and many supporters are pushing for wider mainstream acceptance on a daily basis. Once global adoption is pierced, people will be more inclined to perceive BCH less speculatively because it will have universally recognizable value. The end game is when individuals who are essentially market actors consider BCH valuable because it offers the benefits of what people believe to be sound money. After fulfilling the last two steps on the chart above — General Acceptance and a Unit of Account — BCH will have improved all of what humans consider sound money. Should that occur, market participants will use it because it works as intended. What do you think about human action and how individuals’ perception of value is based on the means they have obtained in life in order to secure various ends or goals? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments 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. Image credits: Shutterstock, Bitcoin.com, Coinmarketcap.com, and Pixabay. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 Our Value of Money Is Subjective But That Doesn’t Make It Meaningless appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cointext allows you to send bitcoin cash (BCH) to anyone with a mobile phone in the regions supported by the service even if you don’t have access to the internet. On a global scale, the availability of cheap devices can help many more people use cryptocurrency for payments via SMS text messages. Also Read: Learn How to Create BCH Apps With Bitcoin.com’s Developer Platform The Cointext SMS Bitcoin Cash Wallet Cointext is a platform that enables users to transfer cryptocurrency using simple text messages. The mobile wallet service allows anyone with a basic mobile device to send funds via SMS to other phone numbers or bitcoin cash (BCH) addresses. On the receiving side, people don’t need to download a wallet, install an app, set up an account or even have access to the internet. Users can set up new accounts just by sending ‘START’ to the Cointext access number in their region, with other actions similarly ordered by simply texting commands. The Cointext service is growing in coverage areas around the world and is already supported in over 40 markets. These include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, and the USA. Check out the website for details and access numbers in your area. Earlier this year Cointext has also added support for the BIP70 payment protocol, this means that users can now pay Bitpay invoices using the text messaging service. What do you think about the ability to send BCH via text messages? 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 How to Send Bitcoin Cash via Text Messages to Anyone With a Mobile Phone appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Digital asset markets have been surging over the last 24 hours as the market valuation of the entire cryptoconomy has gained over $20 billion. Moreover, global trade volume has been significant, crossing $85 billion worth of coins swapped in the last day. Also read: Bitcoin’s Software Has Been Rolled Back Before Crypto Markets Add $20 Billion in Less Than 24 Hours Cryptocurrency markets have been on the move once again as significant gains have been seen across the board. Large amounts of steady trade volume are taking place on global exchanges and there’s been an increase of tether (USDT) and the U.S. dollar trading. Bitcoin core (BTC) climbed to a high of over $8,160 per coin at around 5:30 p.m. EST, but had subsequently fallen to $7,700 range by 7:30 p.m. two hours later. Currently, BTC is trading for $7,986 per coin and is up 14.1% today. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) jumped above the $400 range around the same time and now hovers around $392 per BCH at press time. On Monday, May 13, the second highest valued market capitalization belongs to ethereum which is up 6.3% today. Each ETH is swapping for $200 per coin and the cryptocurrency has a market valuation of around $21.2 billion. Ripple (XRP) follows ETH with a market cap of about $14.2 billion as each coin is trading for $0.33. Litecoin (LTC) has seen a meager gain today capturing 3.9% over the last 24 hours and each LTC is around $89 at press time. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Market Action Bitcoin cash markets have done extremely well and are up over 33% over the last week and 10.7% today alone. Since April 29 and up until now, BCH is up well over 63% in value at $392 per coin. The top exchanges swapping the most bitcoin cash today include Bitmart, Digifinex, P2pb2b, Binance, Coinbene, Bitforex, and Huobi Pro. 30-day BCH/USD on May 13, 2019. Tether is the dominant pair with BCH today capturing 49.2% of all trades. This is followed by BTC (23.6%), USD (12.8%), KRW (8.45%), JPY (2%), EUR (1.97%), ETH (0.7%), and USDC (0.6%). BCH has jumped a spot in volume on Monday capturing the fifth most traded coin below litecoin and above eos. Bitcoin cash has an overall market valuation of around $6.8 billion and $3.7 billion in global trade volume. 7-day BCH/USD on May 13, 2019. BCH/USD Technical Indicators Looking at the charts shows bulls have surpassed many people’s expectations over the course of today’s trading sessions. The 4-hour BCH/USD chart on Kraken shows that most oscillators and moving averages indicate strong bullish signals even after the parabolic upswing in the last 12 hours. The Relative Strength Index (RSI ~ 69.81) shows BCH still has room for improvement before bulls get exhausted. Stochastic (~78.58) remains impartial at press time while MACd levels continue to show bulls still have the upper hand for the time being. 4-hour BCH/USD Kraken on May 13, 2019. The two Simple Moving Averages (SMA 100-200) still have a decent gap, with the short-term 100 well above the long-term 200 SMA. This implies the path toward bare minimum resistance is still the upside. Order books show some decent resistance holding bulls back at the current vantage point ($390 zone) and the $420 region. On the backside, bitcoin cash has some solid foundational support between the $360 area and $325 territory. The Verdict: Development and Mainstream Acceptance Bolsters Market Optimism Overall, the cryptocurrency outlook seems upbeat right now as most crypto assets have recorded decent gains this year. Additionally, the decentralized cryptocurrency bitcoin cash has seen a lot of interest over the last few months which has, in turn, increased the demand. Besides a momentous increase in price and global trade volume, BCH transactions per day and overall hashrate have been climbing steadily. The Bitcoin Cash network will also be upgrading in two days and implementing the highly anticipated Schnorr signatures to the protocol. Alongside this, traditional markets like stocks have been feeling the burden of the U.S.-China trade war, which might be pushing some money toward the crypto market. Meanwhile, BCH, BTC, ETH, and GUSD managed to capture broad mainstream acceptance at over 30,000 different retailers which may also have given the bulls more encouragement. Where do you see the price of bitcoin cash and the rest of the crypto markets heading from here? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.” Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, Bitcoin.com Markets, and Coinlib.io. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. You can also enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 Markets Update: Crypto Prices Continue to Gather Bullish Momentum appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On May 13, cryptocurrency enthusiasts were pleased to hear that major retailers including Whole Foods, Lowes, Petco, Regal Cinemas, and Gamestop will accept payments in crypto. The payments will be processed by Flexa using its custodial wallet called ‘Spedn’ which gives people the ability to spend with bitcoin core, ethereum, bitcoin cash, and GUSD. Also read: Satoshi Nakamoto Could Be Criminal Mastermind Paul Le Roux Spedn App Allows Crypto Purchases at Many Well Known Retailers Digital currencies got a mainstream push today from the startup Flexa and its new wallet called Spedn. Users will be able to spend a variety of cryptocurrencies including BCH, BTC, GUSD, and ETH at a multitude of well-known establishments. This includes Lowes, Gamestop, Whole Foods, Petco, Barnes & Noble, Regal Cinemas, Baskin Robbins, Crate and Barrel, and Nordstrom. According to the startup, the application works due to a partnership between Flexa and its retail partners and the digital currency firm Gemini. The platform basically allows the user to load up one of the wallets with any coin and purchase items with one of the partner shops. Flexa payments are made possible due to a partnership with the New York-based exchange Gemini. The Flexa network was a project cofounded by Tyler Spalding, Trevor Filter, Zachary Kilgore, and Daniel McCabe. Flexa uses its own cryptocurrency called Flexacoin in the background, the company has explained. Essentially Flexacoin is used as collateral to secure payments until the transaction is approved on one of the four public blockchains. The team says they built Flexa because they believe existing payment networks are broken and rather than team up with a debit card provider they decided to work with a large network of merchants. “Over the past year, we’ve built new connections with tens of thousands of merchant point-of-sale terminals nationwide, to bypass the existing payments infrastructure and push cryptocurrency-based payment authorizations directly to merchants on your behalf,” Flexa’s announcement noted. Stores that will accept cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cash via the Spedn application. 30,476 Stores Accepting Crypto Essentially the partnerships allow users the ability to spend their cryptos at 30,476 stores according to the company blog. Flexa says that the company has more apps coming that will tie into the Flexa network and later this year the startup will be releasing its open source SDK so wallets can integrate the same Flexa payments as well. iOS view of the Spedn application which requires identity information. The company emphasized that it aims to show the world “just how transformative cryptocurrencies can be for all kinds of payments, not just peer-to-peer transactions, but also retail payments, dining, and beyond.” “Already, we’ve seen firsthand just how excited merchants are at the prospects of accepting cryptocurrencies in their stores to reduce payment fraud and processing costs,” Flexa’s announcement highlighted. The startup continued: The world of payments is evolving quickly now, and we believe that Flexa will be a massive part of the shift toward more efficient and more accessible commerce around the globe. What do you think about major retailers like Starbucks and Whole Foods accepting cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cash? Let us know in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com or the author 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 this article. This article is for informational purposes only. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, the Flexa blog, and Gemini. Enjoy the easiest way to buy Bitcoin 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 Whole Foods and Major Retailers Now Accept Cryptocurrency via Spedn appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

One of the most enduring mysteries of modern times has produced another enthralling twist. Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous and enigmatic creator, has not been seen online in more than eight years. Evidence has now surfaced that points to a new Satoshi candidate, whose known life has a number of parallels with that of Bitcoin’s inventor. His name is Paul Le Roux and, if proven to be Satoshi, there is a good reason why his 1 million BTC hasn’t moved – the Rhodesian has been in jail since 2012. Also read: Blockchain Researchers Mock Craig Wright’s Unsealed Bitcoin Address List Craig Wright, Paul Le Roux, and the Badly Redacted Document The Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit unfolding in the Florida courts has been filled with misdirection, red herrings, mistruths, forgeries, and bizarre theories, often floated by the defendant Craig Wright. Document 187, “Dr. Craig Wright’s Motion For Protective Order,” was recently filed with heavy redaction because Wright supposedly “has a well-founded fear that these criminals and their associates would seek retribution if they learned of his involvement in their apprehension and incarceration.” The unredacted footnote from document 187 Someone forgot to redact one of the corresponding footnotes, however, enabling a sharp-eyed sleuth to identify the master criminal in question: Paul Le Roux. The 46-year-old cartel boss is a character as flamboyant as Wright himself, but cut from a very different cloth. Readers may already be familiar with Le Roux’s life story, which surfaced in a seven-part series on Atavist and subsequent book titled “The Mastermind.” As the blurb summarizes: He was a brilliant programmer and a vicious cartel boss, who became a prized U.S. government asset. It has now been suggested that Paul Le Roux may be Satoshi Nakamoto – and that Craig Wright is in possession of encrypted hard drives containing Le Roux’s multi-billion-dollar stash of bitcoins. It’s a crazy theory, and yet, on closer inspection, there is a prima facie case for Bitcoin’s mastermind being criminal mastermind Le Roux. A young Le Roux. Paul Le Roux Built a Criminal Empire – But Did He Also Build Bitcoin? As his Wikipedia page – the very same page which escaped redaction in the Kleiman v. Wright case – notes, “Paul Calder Le Roux is a former programmer, former criminal cartel boss and informant to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He created E4M, an open-source free Windows disk encryption software program, in 1999, and is a suspected creator of the open-source TrueCrypt, which is based on E4M’s code.” Then it drops a bomb: “Le Roux is currently in US custody for ordering the assassinations of six people.” If any screenwriters mulling a Satoshi Nakamoto movie are searching for inspiration, they just got a huge shot of it. With a career that’s included logging, precious metals mining, gold smuggling, land deals, drug shipments, arms trafficking and money laundering, Le Roux is a one-man movie waiting to happen – and that’s before the Bitcoin connection is thrown into the mix. In one of the many passports Le Roux owned, he goes by the Satoshi-like name of “Solotshi” – and that’s just the beginning of the curious coincidences. A Daily Mail article which also slipped through the redactor’s net, leaving a trace of the URL visible in document 187 cited at the outset, calls Le Roux a “real-life Bond villain behind a cocaine and gun empire spanning four continents who’s now turned super-snitch” and quotes U.S. agents as calling him “a very bad guy.” “Solotshi” Le Roux. Satoshi and Solotshi As the anon who posted on 4chan’s /biz/ messageboard on May 12, after spotting Le Roux’s name in the Wright case postulated, “Bitcoin was a project of a evil genius … Paul Solotshi Calder Le Roux. He intended it simply for the purpose of money laundering … Unfortunately, soon after he went quiet with the Satoshi identity, he was captured by law enforcement, and he’s going to spend the rest of his life rotting in jail cell.” Even if Le Roux did create Bitcoin, it does not follow that money laundering was his goal: it would likelier have been an extension of his obsession with cryptography, which can be traced back to the 90s. Before Paul Le Roux broke bad, he was by all accounts a brilliant programmer and privacy ideologue. In 1997, he began work on E4M (Encryption for the Masses), software which “is capable of encrypting entire disks, and optionally of plausible deniability (denying the existence of an encrypted volume),” Wikipedia explains. It continues: In the “Politics” section of the E4M website [archive], Le Roux published a kind of manifesto stating that governments are increasingly relying on electronic data gathering. Citing projects such as Echelon, linked to the five nation states which would become known as the “Five Eyes” more than a decade later, he stated that encryption is the only way to preserve civil liberties. The E4M manifesto finishes: “Strong Encryption is the mechanism with which to combat these intrusions, preserve your rights, and guarantee your freedoms into the information age and beyond – Paul Le Roux, Author, Encryption for the Masses.” 10 Clues That Point to Le Roux Building Bitcoin For those intent on comparing Satoshi and Le Roux’s personas for similarities, there are several attributes and actions that align – plus a few that don’t. Given that both entities were adept at assuming false personas and concealing their natural language and idiosyncrasies, identification is no easy task. Here’s what’s known about the pair that points to them being the same person: The curious Satoshi/Solotshi monikers. Both were programmers familiar with C++. Both had a strong interest in cryptography and privacy. Both were wary of authority. Both had an interest in online gambling – Bitcoin’s initial code had a poker client included. Both were well aware of the difficulty with traditional payment systems, Le Roux on account of the illegal prescription drug racket he was running. Satoshi’s spelling and language – “analyse, colour, defence, bloody, hard” is consistent with Rhodesian Le Roux’s. Satoshi disappeared in early 2011 to “move on to other things” around the time that Le Roux was transitioning from software genius to cartel boss. With tens of millions of dollars in cash, Le Roux would have had no need to cash out his BTC once the price began rising. If anyone could have hidden wallets containing 1 million BTC, it would have been the creator of disk encryption software TrueCrypt. And then there’s this post from 2002, seven years before Bitcoin was released: It doesn’t read like Satoshi’s voice, but it does read an awfully lot like someone’s early idea of Bitcoin. The IP address of the author has supposedly been traced to the Netherlands – a country where Le Roux once lived. For all of the surface evidence that suggests Le Roux could have been Satoshi, not all of the points align. In 2009, for example, when Satoshi was diligently refining Bitcoin, Le Roux was already dabbling in drug smuggling and gun running. Would it have been possible to maintain such a double life, one chaotic and the other scholarly? Some of the $100M of cocaine seized from a shipment that Le Roux sent by boat A Credible Satoshi or 4D Chess From Craig Wright? In an IRC chat dating from around the time of the Bitcoin Cash ABC/SV split, user “CSW” (Craig Wright) connects Bitcointalk and r/Bitcoin moderator Theymos to Paul Le Roux, claiming that the pair used to be partners “before Le Roux was arrested”. He also asserts that Theymos is still in the “pharma spam business,” which dovetails with Le Roux’s illegal pharmaceutical business. There is a caveat to all of this, of course: Craig Wright is a habitual liar, whose every utterance must be fact-checked. Given that Le Roux’s name has been linked with Satoshi since late 2018, it is possible that Wright latched onto it, and wove it into the fanfic he’s been crafting for the Kleiman case. As such, any evidence from the mouth of the man known as Faketoshi should be treated with caution. Few, aside from Calvin Ayre, believe that Craig Wright created Bitcoin, but many believe that by luck or design he could have been lurking in the background from near the start. A December 2018 4chan post suggesting Le Roux is Satoshi Could this involvement have been due to Wright serving as an informant on Le Roux, himself now an informant following his arrest in September 2012? It sounds fanciful, but it’s certainly an intriguing notion. As one anon theorized, “Craig Wright was an employee of Le Roux, who was vaguely aware of the bitcoin project. Craig was an informant who helped bring down Le Roux, and after his arrest, Craig managed (via long time friend and partner in crime, Dave Kleiman) to get his hands on the wallets that hold a million bitcoins, but unfortunately for Craig, all of Solotshi’s coins are locked away in secure TrueCrypt volumes (TrueCrypt being another software that Le Roux developed). He has been trying for years to crack them but with no success.” “Another of Craig’s long time friends, Calvin Ayre, has set up warehouses of computers to try to crack Solotshi’s password and unlock the vast fortunes; his mining activity is simply a front to make these massive datacenters look legitimate. Craig is being set up as ‘the real satoshi’ so that when the coins are finally unlocked, they can legitimately sell them off.” In this document from the Kleiman v. Wright case, Wright claims to have access to Truecrypt files that he cannot access. It has been speculated that these are not Dave’s, but rather Paul Le Roux’s. If the Rhodesian crime boss is Satoshi Nakamoto, it means that the two biggest contributors to Bitcoin’s early success, Paul Le Roux and Ross Ulbricht, are both in the custody of U.S. authorities. There they will likely see out the rest of their lives, while the rest of the world profits from the innovations of these flawed geniuses. Interestingly, in little more than 24 hours, Gotsatoshi.com promises to reveal the identity of Bitcoin’s creator. While the cryptosphere will not be holding its breath in anticipation, the countdown adds further intrigue to the most enduring mystery of the digital age. What are your thoughts on the Paul Le Roux and Satoshi connection? 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 Satoshi Nakamoto Could Be Criminal Mastermind Paul Le Roux appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Are you a professional or a hobbyist programmer and want to create cryptocurrency enabled applications? Bitcoin.com’s Developer Platform offers resources for you to learn how to develop software based on the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network. Also Read: Crypto Meets Techno and Binance Security Breach in the Weekly Update From Bitcoin.com Learn to Code With Bitcoin Cash If you want to start creating BCH-powered projects, Bitcoin.com’s Developer Platform has everything you need to get going. The portal’s educational section offer tutorials with real world examples and step by step instructions on how to build Bitcoin Cash applications from scratch, as well as insights from developers who have already implemented their visions into code. The platform also features the full Mastering Bitcoin Cash guide, based on the Creative Commons licensed book “Mastering Bitcoin” written by Andreas Antonopoulos. It covers fundamental subjects such as what bitcoin cash is, how it works, and the various public and private keys, addresses, and wallets related to the system. Additionally, readers will learn about the network and blockchain, transactions, mining and consensus, and bitcoin cash security. Once you are ready to start creating real projects, the Developer Platform offers a variety of tools for you to use. These include a fully featured javascript framework for address conversions, transactions and more called Bitbox, as well as Badger which lets you integrate your app with with the BCH blockchain in the easiest way possible. Additionally, the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) empowers you to issue tokens based on the network. The tool set on the platform will soon expand beyond those currently available. Cloud will be offering blockchain-as-a-service infrastructure to deploy apps with an ecosystem of add-ons, and Market will feature paid downloads, streaming media, in-app purchases, tokens and other ways to monetize projects. What do you think about the developer platform? 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 Learn How to Create BCH Apps With Bitcoin.com’s Developer Platform appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A court case in Russia has signaled a change in the attitude authorities have towards the cryptocurrency space, at least on first glance. An online portal helping traders find the best exchange options for their digital assets will be allowed to restore normal operations. That’s after prosecutors gave up their efforts to block the website citing upcoming Russian legislation meant to regulate Bitcoin. Also read: Russia Prepares to Test Cryptocurrencies in Four of Its Regions Request to Block Bestchange.ru Dropped Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecom watchdog, is now obliged to take Bestchange.ru out of its banned websites list. That’s after a Court of Appeals accepted the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office in Omsk to retract its administrative request to take down the platform. The statement issued by the office refers to new provisions in Russian law, arguably aimed at legalizing cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, as explained in the document. According to a copy of it posted on social media, prosecutors have mentioned two bills, part of a legislative package designed to put the crypto sector in order. Roskomnadzor The first draft is amending the country’s Civil Code to include crypto-related terms such as “digital rights” and “smart contracts.” On March 12 this year, the amendments were adopted on third reading in the Duma, the lower house of parliament, but will not enter into force until October. The second bill that has been referred to by the prosecutors is the law “On Digital Financial Assets.” It was introduced in May 2018, then edited and postponed multiple times with its adoption finally scheduled for the 2019 spring parliamentary session. Basic terms such as “cryptocurrency” and “mining” have been added to the texts and deleted more than once. Bestchange.ru has been blacklisted several times since 2017, when the Oktyabrsky District Court in St. Petersburg decided it should be blocked along with close to 40 other crypto-related websites. However, neither of these attempts has been particularly successful and the platform is still online. According to its PR and Marketing Manager Nikita Zuborev, quoted by RBC, Bestchange has employed various technical means to circumvent the blockade and many of its users have not even noticed any interruptions. Bestchange.ru The last ban was imposed on March 12, 2019 and followed a decision by the Kuibishevsky Regional Court in Omsk from July 24, 2018 which determined that Bitcoin represents a money surrogate and the dissemination of information about it is illegal in the Russian Federation. The retracted claim now means Bestchange.ru should be able to operate legally. The case will be returned to the first instance court and reviewed again as the original lawsuit concerns public interest and involves three other blacklisted platforms – Fastobmen.net, Pushpayer.com and Xchange.cash. Nevertheless, Roskomnadzor has to lift the ban after it receives the court of appeals’ decision and before the start of the new proceedings. It’s Not About New Laws, Website’s Lawyer Explains Sarkis Darbinyan To better understand the implications of the case for the crypto industry and find out what’s beneath the surface, news.Bitcoin.com contacted Sarkis Darbinyan, a member of the non-governmental organization Digital Rights Center (DRC) which is fighting internet censorship in Russia. Darbinyan is representing the interests of the Bestchange.ru operator in court. He thinks the upcoming crypto legislation is not the main reason why the claim has been dropped. The lawyer says this is merely an excuse used by the Prosecutor’s Office of Omsk to cover the weak case they brought to court. “It’s not about changing the law. At the present moment, there are several government orders to develop this new legislation. The bills are still under discussions and we are looking forward to having good regulations. But no special laws regulating the cryptocurrency market have been adopted to date,” Darbinyan noted. Three different courts – in St. Petersburg, Omsk and Anapa – have so far looked into lawsuits filed against Bestchange.ru. “Last year we managed to break the practice of blocking cryptocurrency sites. We have submitted documents to the Omsk Regional Court and the Prosecutor’s Office showing that we had previously reversed a similar decision by the court in St. Petersburg and the prosecutors’ position has changed,” he explained. According to the activist, representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office in Omsk have in fact copied the position of their colleagues from St. Petersburg and referred to President Putin’s order to adopt a bill regulating digital assets just to add a weighty argument in favor of abandoning their own claim. That was done to avoid a scenario in which the court dismisses the prosecutors’ request – such development would have been interpreted as a defeat for them and would have entailed certain consequences. Sarkis Darbinyan expects that after the lawsuit is returned to the Kuibishevsky Regional Court in Omsk, the judges will try to put forward more formal reasons to drop the case. “Now we are waiting for the court’s ruling to send it to Roskomnadzor as soon as possible in order to remove the site from the blacklist,” the lawyer added. After that, Bestchange.ru’s defense plans to file its own lawsuit for damages caused by the unreasonable claim of the Prosecutor’s Office. What do you make of the Bestchange.ru case? Do you think crypto platforms need dedicated legislation to operate legally? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock Sarkis Darbinyan (Twitter). Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com. The post Russian Prosecutors Fail to Block Crypto Website appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto meets techno with BCH-inspired music and discussion of the aftermath of the Binance security breach. In addition to learning about the latest developments, the winners of the latest giveaway will be revealed in this week’s video update on Bitcoin.com’s Youtube channel. Also Read: Why Cryptocurrency Investors Are Renouncing Their US Citizenship Crypto Meets Techno in Bitcoin.com’s Weekly Update This week’s show covers the techno duo Etnica, which has a new track called “Crypto,” inspired by BCH and featuring a voice-over cameo from Rick Falkvinge. The team also discusses the $40 million loss at Binance following an alleged hack and the idea fleetingly floated by its CEO, CZ, to reorg BTC because of it. Other topics mentioned are Sideshift incorporating Cashshuffle, how to buy video games with BCH, over 4 million Bitcoin.com wallets created, and the upcoming launch of the highly anticipated local.Bitcoin.com service. The team will also reveal the lucky winners of the latest giveaway, related to the Malta AI & Blockchain Summit coming up later this month. Winners will get full access to the expo, workshops and all of the conferences, with the tickets valued at €799 each. Make sure to subscribe to the Bitcoin.com Youtube channel and leave a comment on the latest video. 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 Crypto Meets Techno and Binance Security Breach in the Weekly Update From Bitcoin.com appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On Wednesday, May 15, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network will be upgraded to incorporate the highly anticipated Schnorr signature algorithm, a digital signature scheme widely known for its simplicity. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 12: When No One Wanted Your BTC Schnorr Sigs Are Coming Next week, the Bitcoin Cash blockchain will be upgraded by adding two specific elements to the network’s underlying mechanics — Schnorr signatures and Segwit recovery exemption. Schnorr signatures will be a distinctive upgrade feature that gives the BCH chain a leading edge due to the signature schemes’ ability to promote privacy and scaling. The Schnorr signature algorithm was invented by the renowned cryptographer Claus Schnorr and cryptocurrency developers have been eager to implement Schnorr signatures for quite some time. Currently, BCH uses what’s called the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm or ECDSA for transaction signatures. After May 15, however, the chain will offer both legacy style ECDSA transaction signatures and the ability to use basic Schnorr signatures as well. Bitcoin cash transactions have a few elements that utilize basic cryptographic procedures. In a BCH transaction, a cryptographic signature is used to validate the owner of the funds. Alongside this, the cryptographic method ECDSA is employed to encrypt data so only a specific recipient can decrypt the information. The combination of these factors proves a BCH user’s ownership which constitutes the owner’s right to spend the bitcoin cash. Signatures also have to be provided for every BCH input within the transaction itself. ECDSA properties give two parties the ability to communicate BCH public and private keys securely. Schnorr signatures added to the Bitcoin Cash chain will offer the same properties as ECDSA, but will be far more efficient and powerful. The Electron Cash feature slated for next release will show Schnorr signed signatures. Hidden Payment Channels, Atomic Swaps and Multisignature Aggregation BCH developers are adding Schnorr signatures because the method is a cleaner way to encrypt and decrypt data. With next week’s upgrade, developer Mark Lundeberg has detailed that Schnorr will be an optional replacement for ECDSA signatures. Lundeberg explained that users won’t have to generate new addresses to start using Schnorr signatures. With Schnorr, the developer has said that transactions can be 4% smaller due to signatures being 64 bytes of data in contrast to the usual 70. The feature basically enhances the effectiveness of signature data required for every bitcoin cash transaction. After the upgrade on Wednesday, BCH will have the added ability to utilize payment channels hidden as ordinary payments. Atomic swaps can be hidden as payments and in the future developers can add more sophisticated concepts like multisignature aggregation. “From a UX point of view, Bitcoin Cash users and merchants accepting Bitcoin Cash via consumer-oriented wallets, such as the Bitcoin.com wallet app, aren’t likely to notice anything different at first glance,” Lundeberg noted. “But, if you view a new transaction after the May 15th upgrade, you may notice (and appreciate!) that its size is ~4% smaller than it would have been before.” Lundeberg has also clarified that public signature aggregation would provide wallets with the ability to replace many transaction signatures with just one signature. This alone could enhance scaling in the future by adding a “~20% transaction size decrease, making the network faster and more efficient.” Further down the line, smart contracts or sign-to-contract concepts can be built, the programmer expounded, which will further enhance bitcoin cash privacy. The attributes provided by Schnorr and some clever engineering added by BCH developers and infrastructure providers like wallets will further enhance both privacy and scaling. In just a few days the Bitcoin Cash network will be adding a sexy new feature and well before Bitcoin Core (BTC), whose developers have just announced a proposal to add the upgrade. There’s a lot of value pouring into BCH development-wise right now such as the Simple Ledger Protocol, Badger Wallet, Cash Accounts, Cashshuffle, the Bchd client and its privacy-enhancing wallet Neutrino. With Schnorr signatures coming, the BCH chain will be able to solidify its foundation and continue to provide fungible, peer-to-peer electronic cash to the masses. If you want to learn more about Schnorr signatures, check out these explainers below from two prominent BCH developers: An Expert Explains The Upcoming BCH Network Upgrade Schnorr signatures for dummies Schnorr signatures for (not so) dummies What do you think about Schnorr signatures coming to the Bitcoin Cash network? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Electron Cash Wallet, Twitter, Bitcoin.com, and Coin Dance. Are you feeling lucky? Visit our official Bitcoin casino where you can play BCHslots, BCH poker, and many more BCH games. Every game has a progressive Bitcoin Cash jackpot to be won! The post Schnorr Signatures Are Coming to Bitcoin Cash – Here’s What You Should Know appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency markets are booming this weekend and traders need adequate and timely information about prices and trends. Cryptowat.ch is an online platform that provides real-time market data and it’s highly customizable to suit the needs of different investors. Also read: Decryptionary Helps New Investors Understand Crypto Terms Online Platform Offers Real-Time Crypto Data and Charts The website provides both numbers and charts for hundreds of cryptocurrencies. It pulls the data from multiple exchanges and it’s constantly updating it. By default, the prices of digital assets are displayed in U.S. dollars but the preferred quote currency can be changed to euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, Korean won, BTC or tether (USDT). The graphs can also be customized with a dozen themes available in the Settings menu. Cryptowat.ch offers many sorting and filtering options. Cryptocurrencies can be listed by volume, price change or in alphabetical order. Different time periods – daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or 2-years – can be set for any of the cryptocurrencies tracked by the platform. Cryptowat.ch also has a page that explores correlations between digital assets. Price changes are compared in a table with positive, negative or neutral variables. The tracker has another useful feature – Portfolio View. It allows users to manage their crypto holdings across multiple trading platforms. To do that they need to create and set up an account allowing Cryptowat.ch to automatically pull in balances from the exchanges they are using. This will provide traders the opportunity to view their overall portfolio value in real time, both on desktop computers and mobile devices. An alternative source of detailed price and market cap data is the Bitcoin Markets page, developed by Bitcoin.com. With the tool you can track your favorite digital coins and compare their indicators in major cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. Also, check out our Bitcoin Charts page for charts showing price, capitalization, transactions, money supply, hashrate, blocksize, inflation rate, and fees for BCH and BTC. What other sources of cryptocurrency market data are you using? Tell us in the comments section below. Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to third party companies or any of their 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 third party content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Cryptowat.ch. 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 Track Rising Crypto Prices With Cryptowat.ch appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article