roadrunner

Today, bitcoin is so precious that its hodlers are prone to locking their keys away inside nuclear bunkers, bank vaults, and military grade hardware wallets. But things weren’t always that way. Back in the early days, bitcoin was deemed so undesirable that you would have struggled to give it away, while exchanging it for fiat currency was out of the question. Also read: Bitcoin History Part 11: The First Major Loss of Coins One Man’s Junk is Another Man’s Treasure The bitcoins you buy and sell on exchanges today for several thousand dollars apiece are in many cases the very same coins that were changing hands back in 2010. The properties of those coins, despite having passed through hundreds of wallets in the intervening years, haven’t changed: one bitcoin today is exactly the same as one bitcoin from 2010. What has changed is the value accorded to each one. Just as gold is precious on our planet, but a worthless rock to anyone inhabiting an asteroid made out of the aureate metal, when bitcoin was easy to extract and there were few ways to use it, exchanging it – for anything – was virtually impossible. Most bitcoiners, even those who were late to the game, will recall Laszlo Hanyecz. He’s the guy who famously completed the first recorded purchase of goods with cryptocurrency, when he acquired two Domino’s pizzas for 10,000 BTC in May 2010. It might be assumed that once this historic transaction went down, the floodgates were opened to a wave of merchant adoption and a thriving exchange ecosystem was spawned. The reality is less invigorating. On June 15, 2010, three weeks after completing the pizza transaction, Laszlo tried to complete another BTC sale, this time for something less evanescent – a camera. Would anyone take him up on his offer? Wanted: Canon Camera Equipment “I would be willing to pay a combination of bitcoins and USD for used Canon compatible photo equipment.. lenses and filters and such,” wrote Laszlo on the Bitcointalk forum. “If anyone is looking to sell this kind of stuff let me know.” His thread was greeted with silence. “Still interested in this if anyone has any lenses and such they want to convert to cash/bitcoins,” added Laszlo a month later. Still nothing. Laszlo’s follow up post was composed just three days before Mt. Gox was launched, the exchange which took bitcoin from ignominy to the moon. And yet, incredible as it may seem today, bitcoin was so unknown and unappreciated, save for to a few early believers, that getting rid of your coins in mid 2010 was virtually impossible. A month prior to Laszlo’s failed camera buying attempt, and two days before his pizza sale was completed, someone else attempted to create a mechanism for swapping BTC for goods. “I’m accepting Bitcoins now for [online game] A Tale in the Desert,” wrote forum user Teppy. “A player tells the game client that he wants to subscribe. I generate an address and tell him “Send 2000 BTC to ”, and then when the Bitcoins show up I credit his month of playtime.” Like Laszlo, Teppy struggled to generate interest in his proposal, and it is unclear whether A Tale in the Desert every collected a single subscription in BTC. A Tale in the Desert, as it looked in 2009. Today bitcoin can be used to purchase all manner of goods, from airline tickets to t-shirts. And yet, paradoxically, due to the immense value it’s acquired, most bitcoiners are reluctant to part with their coins. Bitcoin History is a multipart series from news.Bitcoin.com charting pivotal moments in the evolution of the world’s first cryptocurrency. Read part 11 here. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. How could our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool help you? Use the handy Bitcoin address search bar to track down transactions on both the BCH and BTC blockchain and, for even more industry insights, visit our in-depth Bitcoin Charts. The post Bitcoin History Part 12: When No One Wanted Your BTC appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Indian crypto community is undeterred by the widespread rumor that its government is discussing a bill which could ban some cryptocurrencies. Local crypto exchanges have revealed to news.Bitcoin.com that their trading volumes have been increasing despite this report. Meanwhile, experts have weighed in on this possible bill, and another crypto exchange may be shutting down due to the banking restriction by the central bank. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request Unwavering Growth The media recently reported that the Indian government has kicked off an interministerial discussion on a bill entitled “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019.” The news spread like wildfire as many media outlets covered the story; some are calling it FUD while others are treating it as a fact. Indian crypto traders seem undeterred by this news. The CEO of local crypto exchange Wazirx, Nischal Shetty, shared with news.Bitcoin.com: The report did not really affect volumes at all … Unless we hear something concrete from our finance department I don’t think it’s going to affect existing traders. The CEO added that his exchange “saw the highest trading volume in April where we crossed over $11M in trading.” Noting that “We have seen such similar news come out in October 2018,” he emphasized that “Basically no more FUD is being created by such media news. Everyone is waiting for concrete info to come from the government.” Another local crypto exchange shares a similar sentiment. Instashift’s Jacob Mani told news.Bitcoin.com that “The reports about the ban haven’t deterred anyone.” He elaborated, “Since Koinex had been on maintenance for a few days we have been seeing more volumes,” confirming: The activities keep on increasing day by day. Dismissing the Ban Rumor Varun Sethi, founder of Blockchain Lawyer, shared some thoughts on the “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill” with news.Bitcoin.com. He commented: My preliminary thoughts are that the bill is too far from reaching discussion at the upper or lower house of Parliament in India. The media seems to be cooking up news. This is not the first time reports of a ban have been blown out of proportion, but the government has yet to offer any sort of confirmation. In December last year, anonymous sources told CNBC TV18 that “The panel has suggested that a new legal framework within the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines should be brought in to ban cryptocurrencies and the law should clearly specify that any kind of dealing in such currencies should be treated as illegal.” A few weeks later, a different media outlet quoted an unnamed government official as saying: “There is a general consensus that cryptocurrency cannot be dismissed as completely illegal. It needs to be legalized with strong riders. Deliberations are on. We will have more clarity soon.” Ajeet Khurana, CEO of crypto exchange Zebpay, shared his thoughts on the matter with Micky news outlet Wednesday. “I have talked to all of the top stakeholders in the Ministry of Finance, the central bank, the securities regulator and despite them having a certain amount misgiving around crypto I have never heard them talk of banning it,” he described, elaborating: So it’s very interesting that the people who could ban it have never said they will ban it. Crypto Asset Regulators in India An interministerial committee headed by Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, is responsible for drafting the country’s crypto regulation. The committee includes representatives from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the RBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and the Central Board of Direct Taxes. However, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a directory of crypto asset regulators for all of its member countries last month, listing the RBI as the only regulator for crypto assets in India. The FSB is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. Currently, the “RBI does not have a legal mandate to directly regulate crypto-assets,” the board explained. “RBI’s current mandate permits it to assess financial institutions’ exposure to crypto-assets and supervise their operations.” Within its mandate, the RBI issued the infamous circular in April last year prohibiting regulated financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses. The restriction went into effect in July. However, the central bank never did any research before issuing this circular as evident in its reply to a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by Sethi soon after the circular was issued. The lawyer asked the central bank what research it had done before issuing this restriction. “The RBI specifically mentions that it conducted no research or consultation before the implementation of [the] restriction in April. The RBI also responded that no committee was ever formed for analyzing the concept of blockchain before the decision,” the Economic Times quoted Sethi as saying. Victims of RBI’s Action The banking restriction has crippled many crypto businesses, particularly exchanges which had to stop allowing their users to deposit and withdraw INR from bank accounts. Coinome, an Indian crypto exchange backed by online payment gateway Billdesk, may have become the latest exchange to fall victim to the lack of regulation. “All crypto markets on Coinome will be suspended, effective 2pm on May 15th, 2019. Customers are requested to withdraw all their crypto assets from Coinome at the earliest,” the exchange announced Thursday. Coinome also sent an email to its customers explaining the situation, which Quartz claims to have seen. According to the news outlet, the email notes that “the supreme court is yet to act upon the public interest litigation (PIL) on (the) regulation of cryptoassets,” adding: India is currently going through uncertainty on crypto guidelines and regulations. The government of India has not yet taken a decision on the regulatory framework for crypto exchanges or wallets. Zebpay, formerly one of the largest crypto exchanges in India, was the first major exchange to shut down its trading operations in the country due to the banking restriction. After exiting India in September last year, the exchange expanded abroad, with the most recent launch being in Australia. A smaller crypto exchange, Coindelta, announced its shutdown in March after the supreme court decided to postpone hearing the crypto case to July. Moreover, the Economic Times reported last month that another major crypto exchange in India, Unocoin, had laid off most of its staff. The exchange scaled down its team from over 100 people in February to just 14 employees. “We did ask people to leave last week, but our operations will continue for the foreseeable future. We have some amount of reserves to push through for the next couple of months and will wait for the supreme court’s verdict,” CEO Sathvik Vishwanath told the publication. Unocoin also tried launching a cash kiosk in October last year in an effort to allow its users access to INR after the banking restriction took effect. However, it ran into trouble with law enforcement which led to the arrest of two of its founders including Vishwanath. Indian Crypto Regulation on the Horizon India’s legal framework for cryptocurrencies was supposed to be ready in July last year but has continually been postponed. The Garg committee has received many suggestions for the regulation. “Various options for treating virtual currencies and crypto assets including banning/regulating are being examined by the committee,” the Ministry of Finance wrote in its summary report of the Indian government’s 2018 activities published in March. No further official announcement has been made regarding crypto regulation. Further, the Indian government will also be participating in the G20 summit in June where crypto regulations and global standards for crypto assets will be discussed among the G20 countries and global standard-setting organizations such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). India’s Department of Revenue has been working with the FATF to establish global crypto standards, the Ministry of Finance has previously revealed. For now, Indian crypto businesses and enthusiasts are waiting for the supreme court, which will resume hearing the crypto case on July 23. The court is expected to hear about the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies from the government as well as address the banking restriction by the central bank. In the meantime, several existing laws in India could already apply to crypto assets. What do you think of this ban rumor and how Indian traders dismissed it? Let us know in the comments section below. 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 Indian Crypto Traders Undeterred by Ban Rumor appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency markets have been doing extremely well over the last 48 hours, making a lot of prior skeptics think the bearish crypto winter may have ended. Since our last markets update three days ago, the entire cryptoconomy has gained close to $33 billion in value and trading sessions over the last 24 hours produced a whopping $81 billion in global trades. Also read: Bitcoin’s Software Has Been Rolled Back Before The Top Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap Last week, the community dealt with the Binance loss of over $40 million (7,000 BTC) and the whole cryptoconomy tumbled in value for a short period of time. During our last markets update, we reported on how crypto prices regained their losses and continued their bullish trajectories upwards. Today on May 11, the ecosystem is doing far better than most expected with an overall market capitalization of around $210 billion. In addition to the increased value, global trade volume has increased by over $25 billion since last Wednesday. At the moment, the market price of bitcoin core (BTC) is roughly $6,921 and the currency is up 7.9% in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) markets are up 11.5% today and each token is trading for $195. The third highest market valuation is ripple (XRP) which is trading for $0.32 per coin. Lastly, the forerunner out of the top five coins is litecoin (LTC) at $88 per LTC as the currency’s gained 16.7%. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Market Action Bitcoin cash is up this Saturday by 15.9% and over 18% for the last seven days. BCH has an overall market valuation of around $5.9 billion and about $2.8 billion in 24-hour trade volume. The decentralized currency is the sixth most traded coin globally below eos and above ripple. The top exchanges swapping the most bitcoin cash today include Lbank, Coinbene, P2pb2b, Digifinex, and Bitmart. The currency pair traded with the BCH the most today is tether (USDT), at 49.3%. This is followed by BTC (33.1%), USD (6.9%), KRW (5.9%), and JPY (1.6%). Both ethereum and the euro capture a little more than 1% of today’s BCH global trade volume as well. BCH/USD Technical Indicators Looking at the 4-hour BCH/USD chart on Kraken shows bulls have blown past major resistance at the $300 region and prices are hovering around $335 per unit at press time. Most moving averages are indicating strong bullish signals with the two long and short term Simple Moving Averages (SMA) spreading. At the moment, the short-term 100 SMA is well above the longer term 200 SMA trendline indicating the path toward the least resistance is still the upside. However, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) shows overbought conditions on the 4-hour chart and the Stochastic is impartial. With the price blazing through new territories, there could be a slight pullback after the peak. The MACd shows a bullish crossover has taken place while the Average Directional Index is neutral at the moment. BCH/USD order books show some stronger resistance levels from the current vantage point all the way to the $360 range. On the backside, there’s some consolidated support levels between $320 to the $300 zone. The Verdict: Optimism Outstrips Pessimism So far cryptocurrencies have done extremely well in 2019, outpacing popular commodities like gold and top performing stocks as well. A large portion of the top cryptocurrencies have gained 50% or more year-to-date. Vinny Lingham has stated that if BTC can hold above the $6,200 range for 24-48 hours he will believe the bear market is over. BCH has done amazingly well over the last two months and has surged in value significantly. The Bitcoin Cash protocol will soon be upgraded, gaining Schnorr signatures adding more attributes to the network such as scaling and privacy. While there are some who still believe the bear market might not be over, lately it’s been hard for even the staunchest of cynics not to feel a little bullish. 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. The post Markets Update: Crypto Bulls Outpace Stocks and Gold appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

How do you scale a blockchain so that it can process hundreds or even thousands of transactions per second – but without compromising on decentralization? It’s a question that has kept some of the brightest minds in the space awake at night, and some of the more ardent crypto factions sniping at each other for years. In this primer on blockchain scaling, news.Bitcoin.com looks at the very different approaches being taken by three prominent cryptocurrency projects – Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Cash, and Zilliqa. Also read: Decryptionary Helps New Investors Understand Crypto Terms A Short History of Scaling In Bitcoin’s early years, scaling was rarely discussed because it simply wasn’t a problem. Transactions per second (TPS) were low, fees were low, and there were more important concerns, like resolving critical bugs, and creating an ecosystem that would support a vibrant community of users who would ensure Bitcoin survived long enough to need to scale. That’s not to say that scaling was never broached; in fact the topic was discussed on multiple occasions on the Bitcointalk forum, on IRC chat and in emails, but with little urgency. Increasing throughput without compromising on decentralization is tougher than it sounds For example, in an email with Bitcoinj developer Mike Hearn, Satoshi proposed the idea of payment channels in which parties “can keep updating a tx by unanimous agreement …Only the final outcome gets recorded by the network.” Advocates of the Lightning Network have seized upon this as evidence of Satoshi’s vision for a layer two solution built upon the Bitcoin protocol. Given Satoshi’s near-nine-year absence, however, it is impossible to say with any certainty what his vision may have been for scaling Bitcoin along these lines. One interesting point of note, however, is that Bitcoin launched without a block size limit. It would be a year before Satoshi introduced a 1MB block size limit to prevent spam attacks. Tellingly, Bitcoin’s creator envisaged a future in which larger block sizes could be introduced to the network, writing, in October 2010, that a larger block size “can be phased in, like: if (blocknumber > 115000), maxblocksize = largerlimit.” As such, proponents of the scaling approaches since taken by BTC (layer two/LN) and BCH (bigger blocks) can both lay claim to a solution that aligns with some of Satoshi’s early ideas. We’ll examine the pros and cons to each approach shortly, after considering a very different approach to blockchain scaling. The Sharding Solution If bigger blocks can be likened to building a bigger factory, then sharding is akin to creating an assembly line within that factory, so that each worker (miner) is given a specialist task – namely, verifying a portion of the block rather the whole thing. Zilliqa is the crypto network known for popularizing this scaling technique, after its founders authored a paper in 2016 on the feasibility of introducing sharding to public blockchains. Through splitting the transaction verification process into multiple parts – or shards – it’s possible to significantly increase the throughput, resulting in magnitudes more TPS. In recent testnet trials, using a network of 2,400 nodes, Zilliqa claims to have recorded throughput of around 2,800 tx/s. When asked about the feasibility of applying sharding to UTXO chains such as Bitcoin, Amrit Kumar, Chief Science Officer with Zilliqa, told news.Bitcoin.com that “sharding can indeed be used for UTXO based chains. In fact, there have been a couple of academic works that study sharding particularly for UTXO-based chains.” Sharding will play a pivotal role in Ethereum’s scaling strategy. Although capable of dramatically increasing throughput, this approach has its trade-offs, which we’ll examine shortly, but first, back to Bitcoin and the acrimonious split that arose from opposing scaling ideologies. The Two Bitcoins As Aaron van Wirdum wrote in “The Long Road to Segwit,” “It had been looming for some time, technically since October 2010, more concretely since February 2013 and finally publicly, bursting onto the scene by the spring of 2015: the block size limit dispute.” This battle saw developers such as Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn favor increasing BTC’s block size from 1 MB, while Bitcoin Core developers loyal to Blockstream, which launched in 2014, favored retaining the 1 MB cap, and scaling through other means. Initially, this was to be achieved through Segwit, which reduces the average size of each transaction, but the endgame was to be the Lightning Network, a layer two solution in which multiple transactions occur offchain, with only the initial and final transactions being recorded onchain. Due to its complexity, development of Lightning has been beset by repeated delays and UX issues, and the network is still not fully production ready. However, the network has been growing steadily through 2019, and now holds close to 1,100 BTC, has over 8,300 nodes, and more than 38,000 channels. The advantages of LN include the potential to settle transactions almost instantly at negligible cost. Lightning has its share of critics, though, who take issue with its complexity, and its reliance on liquidity providers which to all intents and purposes makes the network a relatively centralized and custodial solution. Onchain Scaling Many of those who believe that scaling should be handled onchain have migrated to Bitcoin Cash, which will soon be approaching its two-year anniversary. 8 MB blocks have been processed by miners without any difficulty, and fees have remained low, enabling BCH to be sent for less than a cent. Critics of the big block approach tend to have two points of attack: that large blocks take longer to propagate across the network and that when the block reward is reduced, in years to come, transaction fees won’t be enough to incentivize miners to secure the network. Advocates of big blocks assert that ever-improving data storage costs and download speeds negate the first criticism, while the diminishing block reward can be dealt with further down the line. At this point in time, at least, Bitcoin Cash is working as its proponents envisaged. Due to deep-seated differences and ongoing acrimony, however, onchain and offchain evangelists will likely never see eye to eye. There is too much water under the bridge and insults traded on crypto Twitter for the Core and Cash brigades to achieve concord. The Future of Blockchain Scaling Although big blocks and Lightning Network are presented as binary options for scaling Bitcoin, these are in fact merely the two prevailing approaches currently favored by BCH and BTC respectively. In reality, there are many other proposals for increasing throughput, including sidechains, which can take much of the strain off the network without having to switch to quasi-custodial solutions such as LN. Although associated with so-called second generation blockchains, for example, sharding is also viable for UTXO chains such as BTC and BCH. It too has it drawbacks, however, which must be accommodated. As Zilliqa’s Amrit Kumar explains, “In a non-sharded network every single node verifies every single transaction. However, in a sharded network, only a subset of the network verifies each transaction. So, yes, the security guarantee that you get is slightly weaker in theory.” “However, in practice,” Kumar added, “if the shard size (the number of nodes in each shard) is sufficiently large – say around 600 – and randomly chosen from the initial network, then the chances that anything bad will happen in the shard is infinitesimally small.” While different blockchains press ahead with different visions on how to achieve high throughput, divergence between projects increases. What began with Bitcoin has now fragmented into a series of crypto networks, each doggedly pursuing their own path to scaling. What are your thoughts on the different scaling solutions favored by BCH, BTC, and ZIL? 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 Three Very Different Paths to Blockchain Scaling appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) has garnered a lot of attention over the last few months as there’s been a wide variety of tokens created on top of the Bitcoin Cash network. On May 10, the Tokyo-based Alliance Cargo Direct revealed the SLP-minted token ACD and bitcoin cash will be accepted by thousands of online and brick-and-mortar merchants from Japan and around the world. Also read: How to Generate QR Codes for Crypto Payments SLP-Based Token ACD Gains Real World Traction Ever since the launch of the SLP project, lots of Bitcoin Cash supporters have been creating new and inventive tokens so they can share and trade with each other. There have been all types of SLP-based coins made with various supply counts and different ideas behind them. This week Alliance Cargo Direct, a subsidiary of ANA Holdings (ALNPF), explained that an SLP token called ACD will be accepted by thousands of physical and online merchants. Moreover, the same affiliate retailers will accept bitcoin cash as well and the company has also initiated an ACD coin buy back project. Bitcoin.com’s CEO Roger Ver divulged the news on the official Bitcoin.com Youtube channel detailing how Alliance Cargo Direct decided to launch payments using ACD. Ver emphasized that the initial launch would be “thousands at first and hopefully tens of thousands” of brick-and-mortar and online shops both domestically in Japan and globally. “You will be able to pay with two different cryptocurrencies at these vendors — ACD token and bitcoin cash,” Ver reported. After payments are made using the affiliate retailers, Alliance Cargo Direct will also be buying back ACD in order to provide liquidity and add more value to ACD. The Japanese firm Alliance Cargo Direct and its CEO, Mr. Yasuhiro Sonoda, chose the BCH network because it will “benefit our customers by offering fast, cheap and reliable worldwide transactions for both online and offline payments.” The SLP Network Effect The recent news from Japan also follows the SLP-based coin merit (LLM), a token that was recently listed on the Altilly exchange and created for the micronation Liberland. With the SLP ecosystem starting to generate a network effect, LLM was created to strengthen the country and help Liberland citizens prosper. Now, the SLP-created tokens ACD and LLM are being swapped for other currencies on crypto trading platforms. Further, news.Bitcoin.com was told that the new digital advertising marketplace Tribeos and its Security Token Offering (STO) called “FIRE” will be based on the Simple Ledger Protocol. The Tribeos offering was also approved by the Bermuda Minister of Finance under new digital asset laws as well. As SLP tokens begin to gather real value, users who wish to store these new digital assets don’t have to keep them on an exchange either. SLP-based tokens can be stored non-custodially using Badger, Electron Cash, and the Crescent Cash wallet. Token users can also check their transactions using the SLP explorer Simpleledger.info. For example, the website shows statistical data and ACD is the eighth most popular SLP token this month. The recent announcement to use ACD and BCH at thousands of online and physical stores should further drive growth of the token protocol. What do you think about the ACD token and BCH being accepted at thousands of online and brick-and-mortar retailers? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Youtube, Bitcoin.com’s Block Explorer, and Simpleledger.info 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 BTCsecurely with a credit card. The post SLP-Based Token ACD to Gain Traction With Acceptance at Thousands of Shops appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Rising cryptocurrency markets may once again arouse the interest of new investors. The crypto space has its specifics and it takes some effort to acquaint oneself with the terminology. Decryptionary has been created to impart the basic information you need to start understanding Bitcoin better. Also read: How to Generate QR Codes for Crypto Payments Get a Handle on Crypto Buzzwords Decryptionary provides concise definitions of many terms that are widely used in the crypto industry. You have the option to look up a specific word or phrase relating to cryptocurrencies and distributed ledgers using the site’s search bar. Alternatively, you can access the full contents of the online dictionary where entries are listed by first letter or number. You’ll be able to understand the meaning of terms such as blockchain explorer, total supply, peer to peer, proof of work, public key, decentralized exchange, escrow, zero confirmation, and many more. If you can’t find a word you are searching for, you can also suggest new entries. The website offers thematic word lists as well. For example, the “25 Common Cryptocurrency Words You Should Know” page has been prepared for beginners and it explains mining, hashing, wallets, keys, and addresses. There’s also the “20 Blockchain Words You Should Know” list which contains definitions for block, sidechain, fork, and node. Decryptionary doesn’t stop there. If you want to dive deeper into digital asset trading, it will help you learn the characteristic slang including words like hodl, fud, fomo, and jomo. Mooning, flippening, shilling and shitcoin are some of the other notable entries. The platform explains what a bull trap is as well as what’s common between the Byzantine generals problem and Bitcoin. If you have more questions, you can also refer to Bitcoin.com’s Knowledge Base which provides an extensive library of Bitcoin resources. There you’ll find out how to get started with cryptocurrencies by downloading a wallet and buying your first bitcoin cash. The portal will also help you choose a cryptocurrency exchange, avoid fraud, set up cold storage, understand bitcoin mining, and much more. Can you recommend other sources of basic information about the crypto space? Let us know 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, Decryptionary. 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 with a credit card. The post Decryptionary Helps New Investors Understand Crypto Terms appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto Twitter (CT) is a grueling battleground between digital currency enthusiasts, company executives, maximalists, journalists, lawyers, and so-called thought leaders and luminaries. For instance, on May 8, reporter Larry Cermak posted data concerning Blockstream and its sidechain project Liquid’s performance over the last seven months. After Cermak shared unbiased figures and queried an alleged conflict of interest, the Blockstream account instantly blocked the journalist. Also read: Bitcoin’s Software Has Been Rolled Back Before Liquid’s Lack of Traction Sparks Intense Crypto Twitter Debate CT is a wonderful place so long as you toe the maximalist party line, sing kumbaya, and tell everyone how great BTC is on a daily basis. Because if you don’t repeat these values, you just might be designated persona non grata. This week on CT, the founding partner at Adamant Capital, Tuur Demeester, tweeted about Blockstream’s latest Liquid announcement and said the sidechain “could become a DTCC for Bitcoin.” In response, The Block analyst Larry Cermak shared data concerning Liquid’s overall performance in the last seven months. “So far, in its 7-month history, Blockstream is barely gaining any traction,” Cermak replied. “Liquid has had 61,700 total transactions and is currently capitalized with $313,000 from the net value of less than 400 peg transactions.” Demeester responded: “Let’s wait until tx fees on the main chain spike again.” The following day, after Cermak posted his tidbit of publicly available data, he found out he was blocked by the official Blockstream Twitter account. “This is pretty pathetic — Yesterday, I posted data that showed that Blockstream’s Liquid isn’t doing well (so far) after being live for 7 months,” Cermak tweeted. “Literally I just posted publicly available data and I got blocked by Blockstream’s official account.” Blockstream’s chief strategy officer, Samson Mow, claimed he was the one who blocked Cermak “because he’s a moron.” Questioning a Conflict of Interest Apparently Makes a Reporter a Moron So did Blockstream decide to block an analyst for posting data? Well according to Blockstream employees it was really because Cermak publicly asked if there was a conflict of interest between Blockstream, Adam Back, and Samson Mow sticking up for Bitfinex. “Why are we not talking about Adam Back and Samson Mow, two of the most visible employees of Blockstream publicly siding with Bitfinex given that Bitfinex is an early investor in Blockstream?” asked Cermak. “The conflicts of interest in this space are something else” The Block analyst continued, adding: What’s the issue with this, some are asking? — And at this point, it seems that the only people siding with Bitfinex and Tether are shareholders or somewhat involved. Crypto Twitter rules are as follows: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” The Block’s Frank Chaparro asked why simply asking a question brought out all the pitchforks. Blockstream’s Adam Back replied that “It happens to be untrue, however, which I confirmed for another journalist who asked privately about the claim.” Back continued by stating: “Simply the quote ‘It’s because Bitfinex invested in Blockstream’ is untrue, and did not fact check. You don’t have to fact check, but stating as fact untrue allegations is not that cool.” Back seems to think Cermak should have asked people FUDing Bitfinex, and that his defending of Tether was simply him just refuting “publicly known FUD as a public service.” The story continued as maximalists decided to harass The Block for accepting $25K in funding and allegedly not reporting on Coinbase objectively in an attempt to flip the story back on the publication. However, after defending the news outlet, The Block CEO Mike Dudas disclosed that the company would return the funds to Coinbase. Quite a few crypto supporters thought that Blockstream was wrong for getting upset with Cermak’s objective data and his valid question. After all, a good number of people on CT have already been questioning Blockstream’s seeming conflict of interest. Moreover, the anonymous owner of Bitcoin.org, Cobra, detailed that he was also blocked by Blockstream for questioning them. He remarked that when Coinbase and Bitmain were catching flak from the community they never blocked people and he insisted that members of “Blockstream are delicate snowflakes.” Cobra is also known for questioning Blockstream when Back showed support for Halong Miners, a startup accused of simply buying Innosilicon miners and applying Halong stickers on them for resale. The thought police on CT are starting to look no different than the pigs in the famous Orwell novel Animal Farm. The social media platform is filled with teenage angst, confirmation bias, and groupthink, and is no different to the archetypal high school groups that thrive on immaturity and bullying. What do you think of the events on Twitter between The Block’s Larry Cermak and Blockstream? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Animal Farm, Twitter, and charts shared by The Block. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, check out our Tools page! The post Crypto Heresy: Question Blockstream on Twitter and You’ll Be Blocked appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Businesses and projects in the crypto space have an incentive to facilitate cryptocurrency payments for their customers and users. With QR codes, acquiring a recipient’s address is easy – all it takes is a quick scan with a smartphone. A platform called Cwaqrgen provides a tool to generate codes. Also read: Stay in Touch With Markets Using the Cryptowatch App Website Offers Free QR Code Tool Cwaqrgen.com is free for those who need QR codes to accept payments in different cryptocurrencies. You can use it to create a custom QR code for your public address and it supports a great variety of digital assets, including all major coins such as bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin core (BTC), ethereum (ETH), and litecoin (LTC). The tool enables you to receive instant payments to your crypto wallet. Type in the name of the coin in the search bar and choose the one you want to generate a code for. The QR code has a thick border and displays the logo of the respective cryptocurrency in the middle of the box to make it easier for payers to identify it and avoid mistakes. Your public address is embedded in the QR code. The code produced by Cwaqrgen can be downloaded as a PNG file and added to any website or printed. It’s recommended to verify if it matches your public address with a QR scanner after downloading the image. For bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin core (BTC) addresses, you can also use the Bitcoin.com wallet which has an integrated QR scanner and supports payments with QR codes. You can also try out the Bitcoin Cash Paper Wallet tool that will help you to securely store your BCH holdings. Find the generator in the Bitcoin Tools section along with many other useful tools developed by Bitcoin.com. Cwaqrgen.com provides a link to its generator plugin’s source code. Its creators assert that they respect your privacy. There are no logs, cookies, or ads on the platform which relies on donations in multiple cryptocurrencies to cover its expenses. What other QR code generators do you know? 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, Cwaqrgen. Do you need a reliable Bitcoin mobile wallet to send, receive, and store your coins? Download one for free from us and then head to our Purchase Bitcoin page where you can quickly buy Bitcoin with a credit card. The post How to Generate QR Codes for Crypto Payments appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Federal indictments unsealed on May 8 have revealed further details of the case against Deepdotweb’s operators. Tal Prihar, 37, an Israeli citizen residing in Brazil, and Michael Phan, 34, an Israeli in Tel Aviv, have technically been charged with money laundering. The feds have made it very clear, however, what they believe the real crime to be: sharing ref links to darknet markets (DNMs). The day after the indictment was published, another darknet news site pulled the plug, fearing the same fate. Also read: Feds Seize News Site Deepdotweb as Darknet Crackdown Intensifies Is It Illegal to Share a Link? In a 13-page indictment unsealed in the Western District of Pennsylvania, prosecutors have laid bare their case against Deepdotweb’s operators. The pair are accused of making $15.5M from sharing referral links to DNMs, netting them over 8,000 BTC. As a consequence, they’ve been slapped with money laundering charges, and feds are seeking to confiscate assets tied to the duo, including BTC held with Okcoin, Kraken, Bitpay, Paypal, and various bank accounts, in a bid to claw back the $15.5M in full. Law enforcement has emphasized that the criminality it perceives lies in Deepdotweb’s linking to darknet markets and profiting from the commission. The indictment, together with press releases from Europol and other agencies, complete with graphics of how the scheme worked, make this very clear. What isn’t clear at this time, however, is whether Prihar and Phan have committed any crime in sharing links to publicly accessible sites. The case is believed to mark the first time feds have gone after anyone for such as crime, if it can even be called such. Regardless of the legality of certain wares sold on the DNMs that Deepdotweb linked to, there are numerous legal wares for sale on these sites, and there is no way of proving what shoppers bought after Deepdotweb directed them there. How prosecutors believe the “crime” was perpetrated. There is only one case in recent history that has parallels with the takedown of Deepdotweb. In 2015, Barrett Brown, a journalist and unofficial spokesperson affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous, was jailed for five years in connection with the hack of intelligence firm Stratfor. As Wired reports, Feds initially charged him with “identity theft and trafficking in stolen data for simply posting a link in a chat room … The data included company emails as well as credit card numbers belonging to subscribers of Stratfor’s service. The charges against Brown caused a stir when they were first revealed, because Brown hadn’t stolen the data himself, but had simply copied the hyperlink from one public chatroom and posted it to another.” While Deepdotweb Pair Wait to Learn Their Fate, Another Site Shuts Down In breaking this story two days ago, news.Bitcoin.com listed a number of alternatives to Deepdotweb where links to DNMs can be found. One of those, Darkwebnews.com, has now gone, believed to have been voluntarily shut down by its operators, fearing impending legal action. This will have been exactly what law enforcement wanted, having elected to make an example of Deepdotweb in a bid to push the darknet drugs trade further underground. R.I.P. DWN 9 May 2019 — Dark Web News (@darkwebnews) May 9, 2019 Other sites, including Darknetlive.com, won’t be bowing so easily, however, be it out of dogged conviction that information should be free, or for less ideological concerns: the $15.5M Deepdotweb made over the years from linking to DNMs has not gone unnoticed. There is a lucrative business to be had for anyone with the balls to create the next DDW, but the shrewdness to keep their identity concealed. Prihar and Phan will have known they were operating in a grey area of the law, but will have been surprised by the intensity of the operation that led to their arrest, and the severity of the charges they face. It is conceivable that further charges could also be forthcoming against the pair as the investigation progresses. Brazilian police outside Prihar’s house No Scruples in This Dirty War Feds, as is their wont, were extremely sneaky about the manner in which they arrested the site’s alleged operators. Because Brazil won’t extradite citizens to the U.S. for money laundering charges, agents waited till Prihar landed in France, for a connecting flight between Israel and Brazil, before swooping. “This is the single most significant law enforcement disruption of the Darknet to date,” said U.S. attorney Scott Brady. “While there have been successful prosecutions of various Darknet marketplaces, this prosecution is the first to attack the infrastructure supporting the Darknet itself.” Some of the R$200,000 allegedly found at Prihar’s home It remains to be seen whether there is a legal case for prosecuting the darknet’s supporting “infrastructure,” of which DDW was a major component. If the feds can make a case against the site’s operators, who else could they conceivably charge? Does linking to a DNM without including a ref link constitute a crime, for instance? Could providing a ref link to Amazon where someone purchases a knife which is later used in a murder also constitute a crime? Lawyers for the Deepdotweb duo will be scrutinizing case law closely for any precedent that might give cause for the charges against their clients to be dropped or reduced. In the case of Barrett Brown, they might have found their best shot at redemption, for as Wired notes: The trial was poised to become an important First Amendment test case until those [link-sharing] charges were dropped in 2013, leaving Brown to face just two charges for accessory after the fact and for obstructing the execution of a search warrant. Despite the picture painted in the DDW indictment of a pair of conniving and callous criminals, the reality is far different. Deepdotweb served as a valuable news source for many, supporting dozens of writers, publishing research papers on Tor security, and giving useful feedback to academic authors. As one individual working for a drugs awareness organization wrote, “DDW have been extremely supportive and collaborative spreading our Harm Reduction work for free.” Future Deepdotweb imitators may not be so benevolent. What are your thoughts on the shutdown of Deepdotweb? Have feds overstepped the mark? 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 Deepdotweb Duo Indicted for Linking to Darknet Markets appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

ACD’s new exciting project is the brainchild of Bitcoin.com’s CEO Roger Ver and ACD’s CEO Yasuhiro Sonoda. ACD has decided to start the “ACD Coin Buy Back Project,” where a certain number of ACD coins will be bought back when payments are made using BCH and ACD Coin at online and affiliate shops around the world. This project will provide liquidity and increase the value of ACD Coin by performing an automatic buy back of ACD Coin at the exchange where payments are processed with BCH and ACD Coin, returning a part of profit from ACD’s operations back to the community. We believe this “Buy Back Project” will greatly increase the ACD Coin value because of ACD’s global group businesses, millions of underlying customers from the various retail chains in Asia and the strength of millions of BCH users around the world. This “ACD Coin Buy Back Project” will be the primary ACD (BCH) project of many projects planned ahead. ACD INC. https://www.a-cd.co.jp/ 守本浩太（Kota Morimoto） morimoto@a-cd.co.jp +81-(0)3-5657-1505 Bitcoin.com https://www.bitcoin.com/ Mickey Amami mickey@bitcoin.com +81-(0)3-6450-5136 The post PR: ACD Launches Coin Buy Back Project appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

With cryptocurrency markets back to life, hodling sounds like a smart strategy once again. Cryptocurrency owners are now more likely to pledge coins to borrow fiat if they need it, rather than sell their appreciating digital assets. The spread of crypto-backed loans could also be a good indicator of investor sentiment. According to a source from the industry, the customer base has been growing. Also read: Online Bank Mistertango Offers Crypto Companies Multiple Accounts and Ibans Borrow Fiat, Keep Your Crypto Prices of major cryptocurrencies have been rising in the past few weeks and demand for loans granted against digital assets is likely to follow suit, as more crypto investors lean towards hodling. Platforms providing crypto-backed loans have increased in the last couple of years. They are also now offering more diverse services, including interest on crypto savings. These companies are poised to benefit from the growing crypto market, considering the low interest rates maintained by central banks and traditional financial institutions. Some of these businesses have already made a name in the crypto industry. Notable examples include Salt Lending, which operates in over a couple of dozen markets around the world and has tens of thousands of users. Salt accepts a number of popular cryptocurrencies as collateral such as bitcoin core, ethereum, litecoin, dash, and dogecoin. It offers loan-to-value ratio of up to 70%, at 5.99% APR, for loans between $5,000 and $25,000,000. Youhodler is another platform which lends up to $30,000 against eight major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin cash (BCH), as well as the REP token. It claims the highest loan-to-value ratio in the sector, 90% according to its website, and offers instant payments in euro, U.S. dollar and tether (USDT). Youhodler also supports purchases of crypto assets and provides crypto exchange services. ETH Lend takes ETH, BTC, LEND, and a variety of ERC20 tokens as collateral, allowing users to borrow ethereum, lend tokens, major stablecoins, and fiat-pegged ethereum loans calculated in USD, GBP, INR, KRW, JPY, and CNY. Its minimum yearly interest rate is 3% and the loan duration is up to 12 months. Other websites offering crypto-backed loans include Unchained Capital, Hodl Finance and Coin Loan. An exciting new partnership in the same market niche has been announced just recently. Bitcoin.com, which now has over 4 million bitcoin wallets, and Cred, a major provider of crypto borrowing and lending services with over $300 million in credit facilities, have teamed up to allow Bitcoin.com customers to earn up to 10% interest on their BCH and BTC holdings. Growing Demand for Credit in Different Market Conditions Antoni Trenchev The positive signals crypto markets have been sending recently will certainly help the industry. To better understand how a crypto-backed lending platform works and find out more about the current state of the market, news.Bitcoin.com spoke with Antoni Trenchev, managing partner at Nexo, which is another major provider of crypto loan services. He shared that Nexo’s automated lending solution has been enjoying a continuously growing customer base in various market conditions, although growth has been markedly stronger during more favorable periods. Since its establishment a little over a year ago, Nexo has become one of the leading savings and lending platforms in the crypto space having processed close to $500 million of assets. It maintains a wallet allowing clients to earn daily interest on their stablecoin holdings or use decentralized digital assets as collateral to borrow amounts in over 45 fiat currencies and several stablecoins. Nexo’s Instant Crypto Credit Line provides quick access to loans secured with cryptocurrencies and the company claims to have over 180,000 users worldwide. Major coins such as bitcoin core, ethereum, litecoin, and ripple, along with Binance coin and the Nexo token, are currently accepted as collateral. Plans for the future include expanding the list of supported cryptocurrencies to add bitcoin cash (BCH) among other coins and introducing instant credit lines backed by digital security assets through a partnership with Securitize. Nexo maintains fixed interest rates, charging between 8% and a maximum of 16% per year, allowing anyone to borrow from as low as $500 to as much as $2,000,000. Nexo’s Earn Interest product allows customers to receive up to 6.5% of interest on their saved stablecoins such as USDC, TUSD, PAX, DAI, USDT, and since recently а compounding interest of 6.5% is paid out daily on EUR holdings. Other cryptocurrencies will be added as well. “We are constantly working to expand our products so they can better serve the needs of our clients. Adding support for other digital assets for the Nexo Interest Earning product is just a matter of time,” Trenchev emphasized. Meanwhile, the company is also developing a payment card product with a credit line limit based on the market value of the digital coins in the user’s account. The Nexo Card will be a Mastercard linked directly to its holder’s credit limit allowing customers to spend without the need to withdraw their funds. Crypto enthusiasts will certainly appreciate more platforms in the sector issuing crypto credit cards as these will allow them to spend their coins on more products and services. How to Get a Loan Against Your Crypto Holdings To take advantage of Nexo’s instant crypto credit line, users need to create an account and pass a simple know-your-customer (KYC) procedure in the Profile section on its website. Providing name, address and phone number will be enough for loans of up to $10,000 a month. Advanced verification is required to borrow larger amounts of up to $2 million and in this case users will be asked to upload a copy of an ID. Companies have to pass corporate KYC and provide a different set of documents. All users must activate two-factor authentication from the Security page. To receive credit, customers have to deposit their crypto assets to the Nexo wallet. The platform uses multi-sig cold storage wallets provided by Bitgo and custodial assets are insured for up to $100 million by Lloyd’s. Any physical or cybersecurity breach would trigger procedures to compensate potential losses. Trenchev added that assets are distributed geographically and organizationally. Nexo also uses advanced authentication mechanisms and implements measures to ensure the privacy of its clients. The platform’s loan limit is 50% of the deposited funds in BTC and ETH but the percentage varies for other crypto assets depending on their risk levels. Once the digital funds are transferred, customers can proceed to the Withdraw Loan section and choose the preferred withdrawal method providing their fiat currency bank account or tether address. Nexo offers a flexible repayment scheme with no minimum loan repayments. There are no credit checks and in many jurisdictions crypto holders are not obliged to pay capital gains tax as they are not selling their cryptocurrency. Have you borrowed fiat funds using crypto assets as collateral? What other platforms in the sector do you know? Share your experience in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Nexo. 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 Renewed Market Growth Has Sparked Demand for Crypto-Backed Loans appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The political tension in Venezuela has affected local cryptocurrency adoption. While there are roadblocks, many crypto-advocating projects continue to thrive in the country. News.Bitcoin.com takes a deep look at the current situation in Venezuela, crypto adoption efforts and how the recent political crisis affects them. Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request Political Turmoil and Economy in Freefall Cryptocurrency adoption in Venezuela has been affected by the recent political unrest following mass protests organized by Juan Guaido, president of the opposition-run National Assembly, calling for the military to help him end Nicolas Maduro’s reign. With the support of more than 50 countries including the U.S., Guaido declared himself acting president of Venezuela while Maduro insists he has been re-elected to a second six-year term. The incumbent still has the support of a number of countries including Russia and China. During the years-long freefall of their country’s economy, many Venezuelans have turned to cryptocurrencies. Venezuela’s annual inflation rate reached 1,300,000% in the 12 months to November last year, according to the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Venezuela’s two presidents: Nicolas Maduro (left) and Juan Guaido (right). Widespread food and medical supply shortages are now the norm, with most Venezuelans struggling to afford basic items including food and toiletries. Although Venezuela is prime for crypto adoption, there are still many challenges in the way. Crypto Adoption Remains Strong Seemingly a natural fit for such a failing economy, cryptocurrency adoption is progressing in Venezuela despite some roadblocks. Matt Aaron, leader of Bitcoin.com’s efforts in the country, explained how the recent political situation and ongoing power outages have affected local merchant crypto adoption. Citing the political unrest, the frequent and lengthy blackouts, and the skyrocketing prices of goods and services due to shortages of basic necessities, Aaron admitted that “It’s really affected the crypto adoption.” However, he emphasized: I think it’s still strong, it’s just that in the short term, they’re in survival mode in certain parts. But the willingness to learn about crypto has not gone down. A woman cooking during a power outage in Venezuela. Despite political unrest, Venezuelans continue to trade cryptocurrencies. On over-the-counter marketplace Localbitcoins, 1,137 BTC were traded in the week ending May 4, only slightly less than the 1,228 BTC traded in the prior week. Bitcoin cash data is not provided by this platform but Bitcoin.com will soon launch Local Bitcoin Cash for anyone to directly exchange BCH. Localbitcoins’ BTC volume for Venezuela. How Cryptocurrencies Help Venezuelans Many people in Venezuela have found refuge in cryptocurrency. Carlos Hernández, a Venezuelan living in Ciudad Guayana, has shared how cryptocurrencies saved his family. Citing hyperinflation, he divulged: I don’t own bolívars, Venezuela’s official currency. I keep all of my money in bitcoin. Keeping it in bolívars would be financial suicide. Ricardo Carrasco is a Venezuelan who earns cryptocurrencies from freelance work online. He recently left his country because the constant blackouts made it impossible for him to work from Venezuela. He told news.Bitcoin.com Wednesday that, in the city of Merida where he lived, the power went out five consecutive days in March after it went out for two days the prior week. “For a number of years now the Venezuelan government has been upholding a currency exchange control that does not let us freely access the international market,” Carrasco described. In addition, the U.S. has employed sanctions as a policy tool in response to activities of the Venezuelan government and individuals for more than a decade. “Now that the Trump administration has blocked our financial access to the world even further,” Carrasco opined: “Cryptocurrencies are super valuable because they allow us to bypass that … it’s also an asset that can gain in value and … if your minimum wage is less than $10 a month, you can see the potential for growth if you have crypto.” Maduro Also Seeks Solution in Crypto In an attempt to solve his country’s devastating economic problems, Maduro launched a new currency called the petro in February last year which he initially claimed to be a cryptocurrency backed by oil. However, he later declared that the petro was no longer fully backed by oil but was also partially backed by gold, iron, and diamond. Skeptics are calling his scheme a scam, pointing to several pieces of evidence such as the lack of wallet to hold the petro and the nonexistent block explorer. Nonetheless, the National Superintendency of Cryptoassets and Related Activities (Sunacrip), the Maduro government-appointed regulator of crypto assets, has been selling the petro at its headquarters and issuing savings certificates to buyers. Recently, a crypto exchange authorized by Sunacrip, Amberes Coin, claims that the petro has been trading on its platform as well as over-the-counter on social media despite having no wallet or block explorer. Petro savings certificates issued by Sunacrip in April. In January, the Maduro government established the Integral System of Cryptoassets, as published in Official Gazette number 41.575. It empowers Sunacrip “as the top regulatory entity in this matter, reinforcing, in addition, the entire initial ecosystem that since 2018 has been formed to give solidity and confidence to the petro, the sovereign Venezuelan cryptoasset,” Sunacrip wrote on its website. The regulator immediately proceeded to start controlling crypto activities in the country and offering its own crypto remittance service. Scam or not, the petro represents the first time any government has run its own cryptocurrency and related services, thereby creating awareness of cryptocurrencies and legitimizing them to the public. Two other crypto-related regulations were published by the Maduro government — one on Feb. 4 in Official Gazette number 41.578 and the other in Official Gazette number 41.581 on Feb. 7. Airdropvenezuela A number of nonprofit organizations such as Airdropvenezuela are using cryptocurrency to help people in need. The nonprofit’s website states that “Due to artificially-rigged government exchange rates, the banks in Venezuela are not used for remittance, payments, or donations,” asserting: Venezuela needs better money. Venezuela needs cryptocurrency. Ten dollars can help a family purchase food, medicine, and scarce imported goods. “Access to digital money can help introduce Venezuelans to cryptocurrencies, online freelancer platforms, ecommerce, investments, donations and other income generating web-based opportunities,” Airdropvenezuela believes. The project aims to send $1,000,000 in digital money to 100,000 ID-authenticated Venezuelan Airtm users who log into their accounts between Nov. 27 last year and July 31. “The first 100k Airtm Venezuelan users to be verified and have logged into their account during the campaign period will be a recipient of $10 once we achieve our $1,000,000 USD equivalent goal,” the nonprofit announced. In addition to U.S. dollars, donations can be made in a number of cryptocurrencies including BCH and BTC. They are sent directly to Airtm wallets which connect buyers and sellers to over 200 banking networks and e-money systems globally, including Venezuela’s. As of this writing, $273,668 have been raised and 62,541 users have been verified, the project’s website reveals. Airdropvenezuela’s funds and verified recipients. Cryptocurrency totals less than $10,000 will be converted into U.S. dollars upon distribution, Airdropvenezuela clarifies. At the time of this writing, the nonprofit has raised the most in BCH, followed by U.S. dollars and BTC. Donations in bitcoin cash make up more than half of all donations received. BCH donations got a kick start when Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver matched them for 24 hours on Dec. 10 last year. “Total funds raised have more than doubled since @Rogerkver announced yesterday that he would match BCH contributions. Congrats BCH community for jumping to #1 place in less than 24 hrs,” Airtm tweeted. “The bigger the network effect a currency has, the more useful that currency becomes. This is a great way to grow the network for Bitcoin Cash and help people in need at the same time,” Ver remarked. 150 Merchants Onboarded so Far A growing number of merchants in Venezuela are now accepting bitcoin cash thanks to an initiative by Bitcoin.com to make the process easy for them. At the North American Bitcoin Conference in February, COO Mate Tokay unveiled the company’s ambitious goal to onboard 500 merchants per month to accept bitcoin cash. Aaron confirmed that, while there are other projects Bitcoin.com is indirectly affiliated with, his primary focus is getting merchants to accept BCH, elaborating: We’re focused in Caracas, have around 150 merchants so far … we’re teaching them how to use bitcoin cash, how to convert to dollars and bolivares, and to show them the advantages. He proceeded to outline the benefits of accepting the cryptocurrency for merchants such as instant transactions, being able to accept payments without a payment processor, and avoiding high credit card processing fees of about 6%. In comparison, paying with BCH only incurs a network fee that is usually below one cent. Store owners in Caracas accepting bitcoin cash. “We have a support network on Whatsapp and Telegram” so “store owners can come to us with their questions,” Aaron continued, noting that shop owners have many questions about accepting bitcoin cash. He believes that this support structure sets his efforts apart from other similar initiatives, emphasizing that the first step is getting merchants to accept BCH before convincing more people to use it and considering other projects such as remittance payments. “So many things to do, we’re just in the very beginning,” he concluded. To start accepting bitcoin cash, store owners simply download the Bitcoin.com Wallet which has now been downloaded over 4 million times. Merchants accepting BCH can be found on the Marco Coino map. Feeding Venezuelans With Crypto Another organization that relies on cryptocurrency to help Venezuelans is Eatbch. The nonprofit takes bitcoin cash donations and coordinates the purchases of ingredients to serve meals to people in six Venezuelan states. Eatbch celebrated its first year anniversary on Feb. 11. The organization also has a similar initiative in South Sudan. Children in Venezuela fed by Eatbch. During blackouts in Venezuela, Eatbch directs donors to visit Venezuela.Bitcoin.com to make donations. Funds sent to Eatbch can be easily tracked using the Badger wallet. BCH enthusiasts can also donate to the merchant adoption campaign in Venezuela. 100% of the donated funds will be used to help increase bitcoin cash adoption in the country through activities such as signing up merchants and educating them how to use the decentralized currency for commerce and remittance payments. Victories in the war for cryptocurrency adoption in Venezuela may best be described as hard-fought, but lessons being learned by the local crypto community are plentiful. Regardless of how the political turmoil plays out, most every Venezuelan has learned the value of their money and now knows about cryptocurrencies, largely due to the Maduro government’s efforts to push the petro. Many of their lives have been touched personally by the efforts and projects like the ones listed above. It seems to be only a matter of time until crypto’s broad acceptance in the country finally arrives. When do you think cryptocurrencies will finally be used by the mainstream in Venezuela? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, the BBC, ABC News, Coin.dance, Sunacrip, Airdropvenezuela, Airtm, Bitcoin.com, and Eatbch. Do you want to start accepting BCH? Download the Bitcoin.com Wallet and start accepting bitcoin cash today! The post Crypto Adoption Remains Strong in Venezuela Amid Political Chaos appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

When Binance lost $40 million to hackers this week, the crypto community discussed reorganizing the chain after it was suggested by a developer from MIT. Many people were upset by this proposition, declaring that there was no way a coordinated effort with miners could be pulled off. However, most bitcoiners don’t seem to remember that a similar centralized decision was made in 2013, when Btc Guild’s hashrate was leveraged to downgrade the main chain from Bitcoin 0.8 to version 0.7. Also read: Europol Claims New Scalps – Chaos as Darknet Markets are Downed Crypto Community Outraged Over Reorg Discussion Cryptocurrency advocates have been all riled up discussing a theoretical reorganization of the Bitcoin Core (BTC) blockchain. The conversation heated up after it was suggested by the developer Jeremy Rubin and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who mentioned it after his exchange lost $40 million worth of BTC. Some people became extremely upset at the mere discussion of a reorganization and stated that there was no way it was possible. People have argued the subject for hours and have written long-winded posts filled with theories and calculations. There are a couple of ways to trigger a blockchain reorganization, which occurs when the chain of recorded blocks is invalidated or orphaned by either a 51% attack or another method, forcing miners back to a point where they have to start again from a specific block height. It’s akin to rolling back a recorded history of transactions and then re-recording them again, but of course the new transactions would never be the same as the ones that were erased. If this technique was used, some believe the history of the Binance transaction which saw the loss of 7,000 BTC would be erased as well. The Coordinated Effort to Roll Back to Bitcoin Version 0.7 in 2013 After all the discussions on social media concerning centralized entities possibly reorganizing the chain to erase the loss $40 million, it’s interesting to revisit the history books to see if there were any similar events back in the day. In March 2013, Arvind Narayanan described a similar situation where developers coordinated to get a large mining pool to revert the chain to prior software after an accidental fork took place. There was a severe issue with the compatibility between Bitcoin client 0.7 and version 0.8, which caused the main chain to fork into two. In fact, Narayanan detailed that a centralized decision was utilized to help find a solution. After the crisis was assessed, BTC developers were introduced with an idea from Btc Guild which wrote: “I can single-handedly put 0.7 back to the majority hash power — I just need confirmation that that’s what should be done,” in a developer chat room. Pieter Wuille responded: “IMHO, that is what you should do, but we should have consensus first.” Narayanan’s paper underlined the centralization factor when he remarked: “So much for decentralization — The fact that Btc Guild can tip the scales here is crucial.” “The hash power distribution at that time appears to be roughly 2/3 vs 1/3 in favor of the 0.8 branch, and Btc Guild controlled somewhere between 20% and 30% of total hash power,” the researcher noted at the time. “By switching, Btc Guild loses the work they’ve done on 0.8 since the fork started. On the other hand, they are more or less assured that the 0.7 branch will win and the fork will end, so at least their post-downgrade mining power won’t be wasted.” Narayanan also stressed that if the hashrate was instead distributed among thousands of small independent miners, it would prove way more difficult to coordinate the effort. The paper describes how Btc Guild sacrificed their mining revenue for the good of the network. The author also hypothesized how developers would be able to convince another large pool operator if Btc guild didn’t believe it would win. After the plan was agreed upon by various developers, the alert notice was sent out which said: “URGENT: chain fork, stop mining on version 0.8.” In addition to the alert, Bitcoin Core developer Pieter Wuille told miners: “If you’re a miner, please do not mine on 0.8 code — Stop, or switch back to 0.7 — Btc Guild is switching to 0.7, so the old chain will get a majority hashrate soon.” After Narayanan summed up the events on how developers and Btc Guild fixed the situation, he explained his opinion that even though it was centralized it was the right decision. Vitalik Buterin: ‘Incident Brings Forth Uncomfortable Facts About Bitcoin’s Notion of Decentralization’ At the time, however, the inventor of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin disagreed and said “the incident opens up serious questions about the nature of the Bitcoin protocol and puts into the spotlight some uncomfortable facts about Bitcoin’s notion of ‘decentralization.’” Buterin also emphasized that the other aspect of Bitcoin’s decentralization that this incident called into question was that of mining pools. “The reason why the controlled switch to the 0.7 fork was even possible was that over 70% of the Bitcoin network’s hash power was controlled by a small number of mining pools and ASIC miners, and so the miners could all be individually contacted and convinced to immediately downgrade.” So the question is, how does the BTC hashrate distribution look today in comparison to when Btc Guild was a dominant miner back in 2013? Today a 51% coordinated effort would take around five mining pools to work together as each of the dominant BTC pools have 10% or more of the global hashrate. The task would be extraordinarily expensive compared to doing this maneuver in 2013. But so-called experts shouting that a coordinated 51% reorganization couldn’t happen today, especially after a similar instance took place in 2013, are being very naive. Even Buterin concluded in his synopsis of the 2013 situation that people were worried about centralization after it happened. In an op-ed on March 12, 2013, Buterin pondered: “Some worry, if a centralized core of the Bitcoin community is powerful enough to successfully undertake these emergency measures to set right the Bitcoin blockchain, what else is it powerful enough to do?” What do you think about the similarities between the 2019 Binance discussion involving a reorganization and the March 2013 rollback? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Blockchain.com, Pixabay, Arvind Narayanan blog Freedom to Tinker, and Twitter. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH, and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Bitcoin’s Software Has Been Rolled Back Before appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

There’s over $100,000 on the line that could be given to charity for about an hour of Adam Back’s time. If he chooses to debate Bitcoin Unlimited’s Peter Rizun over why he thinks it’s a bad idea to scale with larger blocks, Paxful’s Ray Youssef‏ has pledged $100K in addition to Roger Ver’s initial $10K offer. Also read: Schnorr Signatures Await Bitcoin Cash as the Next Upgrade Draws Near The Initial Debate Challenge On April 27, the CEO of Blockstream, Adam Back, compared people arguing for gigabyte blocks to flat earthers, citing that a majority of protocol experts agree that syncing full nodes is already too heavy. Following the tweet from Back, Bitcoin Unlimited Chief Scientist Peter Rizun told people to remember Back’s commentary when gigabyte blocks are no more impossible than a streaming video is today. Rizun detailed that there’s really no laws of physics that will prevent the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) protocol from scaling globally. “In fact, no technological breakthroughs are required — just continued state-of-the-art engineering,” Rizun asserted. Following Rizun’s tweet, Back replied stating that it is the “wrong architecture” to follow this route and said he has offered “some design outlines to some of the big blockers.” Then Rizun decided to challenge Back to a debate on Peter McCormack’s show on the merits of scaling bitcoin onchain versus offchain. “If Peter McCormack is willing, he can moderate and use the recording as a podcast,” Rizun remarked. Another person participating in the Twitter discussion between the two individuals posted a survey which asked: “Do you want to see Peter Rizun debate Adam Back moderated by Peter McCormack on scaling bitcoin on-chain versus offchain?” Around 650 people responded and 63% responded “Yes” they would like to see this debate. The following day, Bitcoin.com’s CEO Roger Ver offered to donate $10K worth of crypto to a charity of Adam Back’s choice if he agrees to debate. Ver predicted Back won’t debate because the only way his ideology has gained traction is through using censorship on r/bitcoin. “It can’t stand up to scrutiny,” Ver emphasized. Paxful’s CEO Ups the Ante With $100,000 for the Built With Bitcoin Charity Back never replied to the initial offer or even stated why he couldn’t debate Rizun on the merits of keeping blocks small. Then, on May 8, the CEO of the peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Paxful, Ray Youssef‏, decided to make things more enticing by offering additional funds to charity. Youssef responded to a Tweet from Ver and stated: Let’s up the ante to $100K. I will match it and we can build two schools for 1200 children in Kenya. Built With Bitcoin BCH helped build the last two schools and it can help build the next. Paxful’s Built With Bitcoin project has already constructed two schools. Youssef‏ also asked Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) to pledge and reminded people that social good is the magical use case for crypto which showcases how this technology was “invented for helping the lil’ guy.” Paxful’s Built With Bitcoin initiative has already shown the power of crypto when the team used funds to build schools in the Kasebigege Village in Rwanda, Africa. A simple debate between two people could elevate this charity to new heights, giving a lot of value to those in need. Still, Back hasn’t responded to the offer and being an expert who has given ideas to big blockers, debating Peter Rizun shouldn’t be much of an issue. The Sound of Crickets Verses Successful Testing, Papers, Lectures and Calculations However, Back may have an issue debating when there’s a lot of data out there from experts showing that big blocks and even gigabyte-sized blocks can scale indefinitely. One example of larger blocks performing well was last September when BCH processed 2.4 million transactions in one day without much difficulty. Blocks were quite smaller than 1 gigabyte during last September’s stress test, but there’s been many experiments and papers on how it is quite possible to process gigabyte blocks going forward after some clever engineering. Rizun is also known for being quite knowledgeable on the subject of gigabyte blocks after he presented the subject at Scaling Bitcoin in Milan. Alongside this, he successfully propagated a 1.0001 GB block on a blockchain testnet on Oct. 12, 2017 with Andrew Stone. Or maybe Back doesn’t want to discuss the cost associated with procuring a full node, because this also seems to be a non-issue for a society in the midst of enormous technological growth. One month ago, the blockchain engineer Corentin Mercier did some calculations on how much the cost would be for a Bitcoin node handling 1GB blocks cost today. Mercier’s calculations show the cost to run a full node with 1GB blocks in the future is quite meager compared to the price quoted by those who have said only mega data centers could run a node under such conditions. Moreover, despite the conspiracy theories, the cost of bandwidth and disk space has declined every year over the last decade. Back could debate these subjects with Rizun, proving his expertise and at the same time help bolster a charitable effort. The offer seems like a win-win situation if Back’s argument holds weight. Over the last few years, stubborn developers have relied on propaganda and censorship tactics to make it seem like scaling is a much bigger problem than it actually is. What do you think about the $100K on the line for Adam Back to debate Peter Rizun about onchain and offchain scaling and gigabyte blocks? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, Paxful, and Pixabay. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, check out our Tools page! The post Despite $100K Pledged to Charity, Adam Back Remains Silent Over Proposed Debate appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Andrew Henderson is the founder of Nomad Capitalist, a company which helps people from around the world move to different countries while minimizing their tax obligations. In recent years the company has created plans for dozens of people who made their wealth from the cryptocurrency sector, including business owners, traders, investors and consultants. News.Bitcoin.com interviewed Henderson to learn about the process and specifically how it relates to U.S. citizenship. Also Read: Major Players Discuss BTC Rollback Following an Alleged Hack US Citizenship Is Costly and Toxic What makes the plight of Americans stand out is that the U.S. applies its own taxation system on its citizens no matter where in the world they live, which includes its ever-changing rules in on cryptocurrencies. This is in contrast to most countries where taxes are linked to residency. The Trump tax reform made the taxation of cryptocurrencies worse according to Henderson. So if you’re an American living overseas with crypto income you can’t pay zero taxes. “Basically, there is no way to escape tax if you’re in crypto. Even if you live outside of the US 365 days a year, you will probably pay a substantial amount of tax of your crypto,” he lamented. Obviously, some people in this situation will just not report their cryptocurrency earnings to the IRS, but that opens them up to legal problems. Beyond the tax issues, U.S. citizens are also facing limitations on who they can work with due to companies’ fears of dealing with American regulations. In the crypto space there were many ICOs, for example, that banned U.S. citizens from investing, but some banks around the world are also banning U.S. citizens from opening accounts with them. “There’s a lot of financial institutions around the world that view US citizens as toxic, and I think that the US may make regulations more difficult for people in the future,” Henderson explained. Where Do They Go and How Long Does It Take? For people who want to sell as little of their crypto as possible, it makes sense to go with a citizenship by investment program, according to Henderson. “The Caribbean is generally good enough so there’s no need to go to Malta. Dominica, St Lucia, Antigua, are basically the cheapest ones. There are minor differences between them,” he explained. “There are many different passport options but I think that if you have any decent amount of crypto you should do citizenship by investment because you get the immediate effects and you reduce your opportunity cost.” As for cryptocurrency investors selecting a new residency, it’s all over the map. Some people even become perpetual travelers, taking a Dominican passport and then traveling around the world. However, people generally want to go to a country that is tax-friendly. “What I recommend is the trifecta approach. My fiancé and I live in Malaysia for four months, we live in Montenegro for four months, four months somewhere else,” Henderson gave as an example. People can get citizenship by investment, passport in hand, in about five to six months depending on how organized they are with the paperwork according to Henderson. His company’s cases process a little faster than people who do it on their own because Nomad Capitalist know how to fill out the large amount of paperwork involved. Going through naturalization can take two to five years. How Much Do You Need to Make It Worth Renouncing Your US Citizenship? Asked how much a person needs to have to make it worth the investment, Henderson replied: “Look at it as an insurance policy. How much you need to have before you take out more car insurance limit to avoid being sued if you hit somebody? It’s a personal decision. I think if you have a million dollars, you should have a second passport. If you don’t want to renounce to avoid the tax issues, you should at least find a country where you can work towards the second passport through naturalization.” He also recommended people try applying for two or three of those countries to make sure that one or two come through. And if you’re paying $100K in tax, buying citizenship by investment will give you a 100% return on investment according to Henderson, in addition to freeing you from the system. “The equation is different for everybody, there are some people who would say ‘Listen, I don’t care if I can save 10 million dollars, my US citizenship is worth more.’ No doubt, there are people in China, etc. who would pay 10 million dollars for US citizenship. That’s a personal discussion. My goal is: if I can make an ROI in six months or less, it’s worth it. If you look how much you’re going to save in the long run, you save the money every year, [and] you’re freeing yourself from what I call ‘a psycho ex-girlfriend’,” Henderson opined. As for client reactions to being told they should renounce their citizenship, Henderson said it gave him a lesson on human behavior. “People, especially men, it’s hard for men to be vulnerable. They say ‘Yeah, I’ll renounce! Yeah, I’ll buy a passport!’ and then when they talk with the rest of the team who is about to help them proceed with the plan we hear: ‘Well, I’m concerned about it…’ When we say that renouncing is the best thing, most people get concerns or they delay the process. The problem is, you don’t know how it works until you do it, and once you do it – you can’t undo it.” Would you consider renouncing your citizenship? 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 Why Cryptocurrency Investors Are Renouncing Their US Citizenship appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency prices and market trends are constantly in flux. Cryptowatch is an Android Wear application that updates users about price changes on the go. It’s always with you, even when your smartphone is not around or runs out of battery. Also read: Coin 360 Provides Color-Based Crypto Market Data Android Wear Cryptowatch App Keeps You Updated on Prices Cryptowatch is a simple and easy to set up watch face for Android Wear OS smartwatches. The app updates you on the latest price of hundreds of cryptocurrencies including digital coins such as bitcoin cash (BCH). The watch face is customizable in terms of choosing the cryptos you are interested in, displaying their prices in different fiat currencies, and changing the background color. You can also use it to track a portfolio of digital coins you own. The software is capable of pulling price data from various sources like Coinmarketcap and a number of cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitstamp, Bittrex, Poloniex, Coinbase, Gdax, Kraken, and Coincap. The watch face automatically updates the numbers every five minutes to save battery but it has force refresh by clicking as well. Its settings can be adjusted both from your smartwatch and via the phone app it’s provided with. Cryptowatch comes with complication support, which means it can be used with other watch faces on Android Wear 2.0. For example, Coinmarketwear is a chart complication wallpaper which provides weekly cryptocurrency charts that can be set as background. It takes the charts from Coinmarketcap, supports BCH among eight cryptocurrencies, and refreshes every hour. In case you need to stay updated about the price and market caps of many more cryptocurrencies, you can also refer to the Bitcoin Markets page developed by Bitcoin.com. Track your favorite coins and compare their indicators in major crypto and fiat currencies. Check out our Bitcoin Charts page as well. Do you use an app to track crypto prices on your smartwatch? Let us know 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, Cryptowatch. 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 Stay in Touch With Markets Using the Cryptowatch App appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The crypto community has been laser focused on the current dilemma between Bitfinex exchange and New York prosecutors over the alleged loss of $850 million of co-mingled customer and corporate funds. After the craziness last week, the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office has now demanded that Bitfinex must show transparency by turning over documents tied to the firm Tether. Also read: Crypto Community Monitors Bitfinex Wallets and the Strange 6% BTC Premium NYAG Wants Bitfinex Disclose Tether Documents News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on the NYAG court documents that accuse the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex of losing $850 million and using the stablecoin company Tether to cover the loss. The Bitfinex and Tether saga has continued into its second week with the NYAG office and the Attorney General Letitia James demanding Bitfinex release documents concerning the Tether situation. The recent filing explains that the NYAG office believes Bitfinex has had more than enough time to resolve the situation and the agency wants all relevant documents that explain how Tether played a part in this ordeal. NYAG Memorandum sent on May 4. “We’ve given you much latitude to resolve these situations and months beyond your original estimates, we need to have more transparency now,” the NYAG filing detailed. “While that and other discrepancies do not change the core issues in this case — that Bitfinex and Tether misled their clients and investors — they only heighten the OAG’s need to obtain documents and information in a timely, organized fashion so that the OAG may understand what has taken place, and what continues to take place, at these companies.” After the NYAG filing, Bitfinex responded by explaining that the preliminary injunction filed last week cannot be justified and the NYAG office will “not succeed on the merits.” Moreover, Bitfinex noted that “there was no ongoing fraud, and no ‘victims’” and the NYAG must establish some sort of grounds for authority, in order to address the company in this fashion. Bitfinex responded to the memorandum by saying there are no victims and there’s no fraud taking place. Bitfinex argues that the preliminary injunction “would not protect anyone but would instead cause a great disruption to Bitfinex and Tether.” An Initial Exchange Offering and CMC Removes the Bitfinex BTC Price From Its Weighted Average The last few days have also revealed that Bitfinex may try to raise $1 billion through an initial exchange offering (IEO). Zhao Dong, a Bitfinex shareholder, told the press on May 1 that the IEO organizers might issue 1 billion tokens that will be sold for $1. Zhao also claimed that $500 million were already subscribed and qualified investors will be able to participate. Moreover, Zhao operates a lending platform called Renrenbit and allegedly the firm has been preparing to start pre-orders for the IEO token, called LEO. Currently, Bitfinex has not confirmed the IEO or the pre-sale of LEO on the platform Renrenbit. If it does occur, it won’t be the first time Bitfinex has launched a sizeable token sale, as it released an equity exchange token in October 2016 in response to the exchange breach that took place two months prior. Bitfinex issued 20 million BFX tokens and its chief strategy officer, Philip Potter, said at the time that the firm’s “primary objective has been to make our customers whole.” In addition to the recent filing from the NYAG office, the response from Bitfinex, and the purported IEO pre-sale, the BTC/USD premium on the exchange is still much higher than average. At press time, the price per BTC on Bitstamp is $5,652 but on Bitfinex the price per coin is $6,023. The Bitfinex BTC cold wallet still holds roughly 89,404 BTC or $514 million and hasn’t changed much since May 1. The wallet had originally dropped from 120,000 BTC to 89,404 in just a few days after the April 24 injunction. The Bitfinex ETH cold wallet had also declined by 40% since last week according to the exchange’s ETH-based cold wallet data. Since the exchange rate on Bitfinex has been between 5-8% higher than the average spot price, depending on the hour, cryptocurrency data website Coinmarketcap.com recently removed the Bitfinex BTC price from the overall aggregated global average. It’s safe to say this story is not over yet and will surely continue to unfold in the days to come. What do you think about the situation between the NYAG, Bitfinex, and Tether? What do you think about Coinmarketcap’s decision to exclude the BTC/USD exchange rate from Bitfinex from its weighted average? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Pixabay, Shutterstock, Scribd, Pacer, and Coinmarketcap.com. Have you seen our Bitcoin Cash (BCH) tips generator? Anyone can create tips in order to give BCH by email or printable tickets. Recipients easily redeem tips by visiting a web page with instructions, and if the funds are not redeemed you get the money back. Check it out today! The post New York Prosecutors Demand Transparency From Bitfinex and Tether appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

When darknet markets are shut down these days, the arrests don’t generate much fanfare. There’s a day of press at best, and then the media moves on to bigger stories, leaving the fate of the DNM operators unreported as their case grinds through the courts. This is a shame, as the indictments for the accused reveal valuable insights into how law enforcement caught their quarry, providing opsec lessons that every bitcoiner should take to heart. Also read: Europol Claims New Scalps – Chaos as Darknet Markets are Downed Opsec Lives and Dies on the Darknet You don’t have to be operating a multi-billion-dollar darknet market (DNM) to require privacy. Maintaining anonymity, or at least pseudonymity, when operating online is an aspiration that everyone should harbor, cryptocurrency users especially. Even if you’ve no desire to launder cash or sell copious quantities of cocaine for crypto, there’s a plethora of reasons to hide your online activities. If you’re wondering how much data you leak simply by sending or receiving cryptocurrency, or transacting on a darknet marketplace, last week’s Wall Street Market (WSM) indictments provide the perfect case study. Buried in these criminal complaints are opsec lessons that should give everyone pause for thought, whether you’re the next Dread Pirate Roberts or simply a staunch libertarian who wants to be left the hell alone. Lesson 1: Don’t Trust Bitcoin Mixers According to the United States of America v. Tibo Lousee, Klaus-Martin Frost, and Jonathan Kalla, aka the three Germans charged with operating Wall Street Market, “The United States Postal Inspection Service learned, through its analysis of blockchain transactions and information gleaned from the proprietary software described above, that the funds from Wallet 2 were first transferred to Wallet 1, and then “mixed” by a commercial service … through thorough analysis, the United States Postal Inspection Service was able to “de-mix” the flow of transactions.” Centrally operated BTC mixers of the sort referenced here include Mixertumbler, Bestmixer.io, Blender.io, Bitcoinfog, and Gramshelix. There is no means of knowing which mixer the authorities succeeded in deanonymizing – which they achieved on no less than three occasions – but as one recent article on mixers notes: Centralized database systems’ server logs can easily be accessed by anyone (hackers and other malicious individuals or groups, law enforcement etc). Even though bitcoin mixers often claim not to store transaction details for more than 24 hours, this still poses an unknown risk of being found out. This doesn’t mean you should avoid using mixing services – they are still a good privacy preservation tool. However, it would be foolish to stake your freedom on the irreversibility of a mixing service, and inadvisable to rely on a centrally operated service which could be compromised. Use a decentralized peer-to-peer mixing service instead like Coinjoin for BTC, or Cashshuffle for BCH. These services can’t guarantee your funds can’t be traced back to their source, but they are at least free of backdoors. The WSM indictment references the use of blockchain forensics tools Lesson 2: Configure Your VPN Carefully The WSM three were all technically proficient, with two holding down day jobs in IT – Lousee was a computer programmer. Despite these skills, VPN leaks appear to have been a contributor to their downfall. As the complaint reads, “the WSM administrators accessed the WSM infrastructure primarily through the use of two VPN service providers. The BKA [German federal police] determined that one of the administrators … used VPN Provider #1. Based on the BKA’s analysis of the WSM server infrastructure, the BKA noticed that on occasion, VPN Provider #1 connection would cease, but because that specific administrator continued to access the WSM infrastructure, that administrator’s access exposed the true IP address of the administrator. The BKA then investigated the true IP address.” Lesson 3: Don’t Recycle Identities One of the ways in which Dread Pirate Roberts was busted was through reusing the nickname “frosty” which tied his Silk Road identity to his real life persona. Six years on from that hard lesson in opsec and DNM operators aren’t any wiser. One of the WSM trio, Frost, used the same PGP public key on Wall Street Market as he had used previously on Hansa Market, making it easy for his BTC transactions on the latter DNM to be associated with other wallet transactions he’d made for services in his real name. As the complaint notes, a “PGP public key, in the context of darknet investigations, is likely a unique identifier to an individual.” In addition to recycling PGP keys and wallet addresses, one of the accused, Lousee, is believed to have used the handle “coder420” to access the WSM test server. This was subsequently correlated to “Pictures of LOUSEE consuming marijuana” and “Numerous references to “420,” including a license plate of LOUSEE’s vehicle and a sign on a bedroom wall with “420.”” A separate criminal complaint against WSM moderator “MED3L1N” reveals a string of similar errors, with recycled usernames, passwords, and duplications making it possible for LE to identify their suspect with little more than some diligent internet detective work. For instance, in one public profile, the accused, Marcos Annibale, is pictured alongside a bookshelf with “Gomorra,” written by Roberto Saviano, visible in the background. MED3L1N later recommended the same book in a thread on WSM. The thousands of hours law enforcement pours into tracking down darknet market operators is is an affront to those who see the war on drugs as an assault on personal sovereignty and a gross intrusion into citizens’ private lives. It is not time wasted, however. Whatever your take on darknet market prosecutions, we should be grateful for the intensive pen testing these investigations entail. Through piecing together the clues found in criminal complaints and reading between the redacted lines, we can learn better ways to protect our privacy and preserve our right to transact anonymously. What are your thoughts on the war on drugs and the authorities’ attempts to close down DNMs? 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 Don’t Trust Bitcoin Mixers and Other Opsec Lessons From the Darknet appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Over the last few years, many have claimed that bitcoin core (BTC) has turned into, or will soon become, a store of value (SoV). Proponents of the BTC-based SoV theory seem to think that money can somehow store value and if it’s held long enough, the price will be higher or predictably useful when spent at a later date. This is an economic fallacy however because money cannot store value and, as innovative as bitcoin is, it will never be immune to market influences. Also Read: Memo Is a Decentralized Social Network Built on Bitcoin Cash Menger Stomps the SoV Fallacy There are a ton of people who believe that BTC is a store of value and that if they keep hodling someday they might be super wealthy and protected from the world’s turbulent economy. Except this couldn’t be further from the truth. BTC is not an SoV currently, and never will be due to the fact that money itself cannot be an SoV. The idea that money cannot serve as a store of value has been written about by many economists over the years including Carl Menger, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises. Carl Menger (1840-1921) was the founder of the Austrian school of economics proper. Menger was one of the first economists to explain in detail about the relationship of value and money to market prices. Menger writes in Principles of Economics: Value is … nothing inherent in goods, no property of them, but merely the importance that we first attribute to the satisfaction of our needs … and in consequence carry over to economic goods as the … causes of the satisfaction of our needs. Claim and Ownership A good way to understand that money is not a store of value is by picturing a television set worth the spot price of 1 BTC ($5,700 at press time). Now if someone was to smash the TV screen into a thousand pieces with a sledgehammer then no one would be able to watch the device’s picture. After that, nobody could watch a television show on that set as the sledgehammer quite literally destroyed the screen’s practicality and basic utility. Now let’s say instead the person decided to purposefully lose the BTC. They create a wallet on an external hard drive without backing up the data and destroy it by burying it in a landfill. By essentially making the BTC near impossible to retrieve it doesn’t mean value was destroyed. It means the person had destroyed their claim to 1 BTC’s current utility. Fiat money, gold bullion, and bitcoins are not SoVs as they are merely a claim to ownership. For centuries many individuals have believed money can store value and this fallacy has found its way into the cryptocurrency community. In 2014, the author and economist Joseph Salerno gave Mises readers a great insight into why people think that money can somehow store value. “According to mainstream economics textbooks, one of the primary functions of money is to measure the value of goods and services exchanged on the market,” Salerno details. The economist refutes this common mistake and adds: “The value an individual attaches to a given sum of money or to any kind of good is based on subjective judgment and is without physical dimensions. As such the value of money varies from moment to moment and between different individuals.” He refutes this common mistake, asserting: The price paid for a good in a concrete act of exchange does not measure the good’s value; rather it expresses the fact that the buyer and the seller value the money and the price paid in inverse order. For this reason, neither money nor any other good can ever serve as a measure of value. ‘Alleged Store of Value in Contrast to a Medium of Exchange Is Imprecise and Impressionistic’ One economist who has both studied and written a great deal about bitcoin and monetary theory, in particular, is Konrad S. Graf. The author has produced a wide array of definitive pieces including On the Origins of Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Decrypted Series, and Action-Based Jurisprudence. During an interview in October 2017, Graf touched upon the challenging subject of trying to use theoretical concepts to help define bitcoin. The economist said that there’s often a “tendency to pretend to force bitcoin into some existing box into which it does not actually fit.” Graf explained there are few monetary categories discussed when it comes to bitcoin and he believes these variables are on a continuum and that “none are exclusive.” “The variables under discussion are therefore the relative amounts held, the duration of holding, and the increments of future spending of the medium of exchange,” Graf’s interview details. “In contrast, the idea of an alleged “store of value” use often used in this debate as if it were a contrast to a medium of exchange use is imprecise and impressionistic.” Additionally, Graf noted: Just as money does not “measure” value, as Mises emphasized, but is rather exchanged for goods at some indefinite future time, “value” cannot be “stored,” as if it were a certain amount of food. This “store of value” idea is more a weak intuitive analogy than a rigorous economic concept. Underneath this illusion, there are only intertemporal exchanges that take place over different time scales and in different amounts. Usefulness, Practicality, and Real-World Purchasing Power Is a Far More Meaningful Form of Money The need for practicality and utility is a very important aspect of money and BTC is not the only cryptocurrency that offers censorship resistance. If a certain portion of the world cannot use BTC because of high fees then it’s not really censorship resistant at all. If someone holds $50 worth of BTC and the network fee per transaction is $40, is the money practical and is it useful? It’s hard to imagine an alleged store of value holding steady and stable and not being useful all the time. On the other hand, a cryptocurrency with real-world utility that also offers censorship resistance will likely surpass any coin that acts as a pyramid scheme. Cryptocurrencies offer interesting possibilities with private keys and code that have rules in regard to what a digital claim looks like. And underneath it all, cryptos are just numbers that help us make exchanges at different times in a permissionless fashion but they can never store value no matter how many times we repeat the erroneous statement. “Money emerged spontaneously through the self-interested actions of individuals. No single person sat back and conceived of a universal medium of exchange, and no government compulsion was necessary to effect the transition from a condition of barter to a money economy,” – Robert P. Murphy. In fact, lots of people misconstrue BTC as an SoV by accident, but unfortunately there are many seasoned sophists teaching people this unsound philosophy purposefully every day. Maybe people should ask why bitcoin or another cryptocurrency is better money than its fiat predecessors, instead of concentrating energy on useless catchphrases like ‘hodl.’ Rather than asking whether or not these digital assets are SOVs, people should be asking whether they have real-world utility and purchasing power. Why do you think people make the mistake in believing that BTC is or someday can be an SoV? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. OP-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article. Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Mises.org, and markets.Bitcoin.com At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, check out our Tools page! The post Putting an End to the Bitcoin Store of Value Fallacy appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Decentralized exchange Bisq gets forked for bitcoin cash (BCH) and the r/BTC subreddit reaches 250,000 subscribers. In addition to learning about the latest developments, you can also take part in a new giveaway in this week’s video update from Bitcoin.com’s Youtube channel. Also Read: Memo Is a Decentralized Social Network Built on Bitcoin Cash Special Giveaway in Bitcoin.com’s Weekly News Update This week’s show covers the subreddit which was created to support free discussion of Bitcoin in the face of censorship in other forums, r/BTC, reaching a milestone of over 250,000 subscribers. This follows an interview with a former r/bitcoin moderator explaining how r/bitcoin became filled with censorship and manipulation. In bitcoin cash development news, the show looks at how the decentralized exchange Bisq was forked to support BCH, the latest advancements with the Cashshuffle protocol which have already mixed millions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency, and a new open source platform that uses smart contracts to allow users to auction SLP tokens for BCH. As for the giveaway, Bitcoin.com is handing out tickets to the Malta AI & Blockchain Summit coming up later this month. Three lucky winners will get full access to the expo, workshops and all of the conferences, with the tickets valued at €799 each. Details on how you can enter the giveaway are outlined at the end of the show. 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 Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Decentralized BCH Exchange and a New Giveaway in the Weekly Update From Bitcoin.com appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Today we’re celebrating a milestone as the Bitcoin.com Wallet has seen a whopping 4 million wallets created since the light client launched. The wallet allows anyone in the world to participate in the cryptoconomy by offering a secure, noncustodial storage solution for bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin core (BTC). Also read: $500K of BCH Shuffled in Record-Breaking Cashshuffle Transaction 4 Million Bitcoin.com Wallets and We’re Just Getting Started The Bitcoin.com Wallet launched back in August 2017 and ever since then the wallet has seen significant development and gathered lots of attention. There have been 4 million wallets created so far and we’re thrilled to celebrate this watershed moment with the crypto community. There’s a bunch of reasons why the Bitcoin.com Wallet is so popular and one of them is accessibility, as the light client is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, Apple iOS, and Android operating systems. Additionally, the wallet is not only great for veterans but is also perfect for beginners who are just learning the basics of crypto. The user interface (UI) is very easy to use, which makes storing, sending, and receiving bitcoins a breeze. The wallet allows users to store bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin core (BTC) in a noncustodial fashion. Bitcoin.com Wallet users also have the ability to purchase both cryptocurrencies within the wallet’s UI. With this specific buying service, users don’t have to deal with depositing money on cryptocurrency exchanges. These features alone barely scrape the surface when it comes to our open source wallet as there are many more attributes. For instance, our wallet is fully compatible with the BIP70 payment system and the light client can be used to pay Bitpay invoices with ease. There’s also an abundance of resources like direct access to news.Bitcoin.com articles, price charts, helpful tools, a BCH faucet, and Bitcoin Cash Games. “The Bitcoin.com team is proud to have helped bring more economic freedom to individuals across the world,” explained Bitcoin.com’s CEO Roger Ver after crossing the wallet creation milestone. Ver added: We look forward to helping create the next 40 million wallets, followed by 400 million. More Wallet Features Coming Soon The 4 million wallets created so far is a great milestone, but we also know things are just getting started as far as cryptocurrency adoption is concerned. We hope to serve billions of individuals someday with our wallet solution and teach them the great benefits of bitcoin cash, and how to store cryptocurrencies in a safe manner. The more people storing bitcoin on their own, the better, leading to fewer people storing funds with custodial wallet solutions and centralized exchanges that are prone to hacks. In addition to the simple to use light client, the Bitcoin.com Wallet has a slew of other features planned for the future. One of the planned additions will be the implementation of Cashshuffle, an application that allows users to mix coins with other participants which in turn bolsters BCH fungibility. At Bitcoin.com, we believe that Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation is one of the most important inventions in history alongside the printing press, combustible engine, and the internet. Everyone can use bitcoin cash and send the decentralized cryptocurrency to anyone without restriction from any individual, corporation, or government. With BCH, users can also send funds faster than lightning for less than a penny for every transaction. The Bitcoin.com Wallet helps the evolution of money and in time we hope the BCH revolution will bring economic freedom to the masses. So when the mainstream catches a strong whiff of the technological and monetary innovations bitcoin cash provides, the Bitcoin.com Wallet will be there to serve their demands. If you haven’t tried the open source Bitcoin.com Wallet then check out all the versions available here and try creating a new wallet today. What do you think about the 4 million wallet milestone? Let us know in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, and Bitcoin.com At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, check out our Tools page! The post Bitcoin.com Celebrates 4 Million Wallets Created appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Québec, the resource-rich Canadian province, has made up its mind about cryptocurrency mining. Régie de l’énergie, the region’s energy regulator, has rendered its decision on the blockchain sector and lifted the moratorium on electricity supplies. An additional 300 MW of energy will be allocated to power the minting of digital coins, a move that local officials hope will make Québec one of the major forces in the industry. Also read: Will Belarus Be the First Country With Nuclear-Powered Bitcoin Mining? Applying Miners Need to Meet a Set of Selection Criteria After a period of restrictions and policy making, regulators in the French-speaking region have realized the potential benefit of hosting crypto mining companies. From a declared inability to meet the high energy demands of the sector, through a proposal to charge up to three times higher electricity rates, to the political statement that “we’re not really interested,” in 2018 Québec didn’t seem ready to embrace and accommodate the energy-intensive bitcoin mining. However, things have changed. The board responsible for energy regulation in the province has lifted last year’s moratorium. According to a press release, the local public utility managing the generation and distribution of electricity, Hydro-Québec, is happy with the positive development. Régie de l’énergie attempts to not only raise the status of the region as a mining-friendly destination offering cheap electrical power but also to make sure Québec and its people benefit as much as possible from this cooperation. The regulator’s decision envisages the classification of blockchain companies as a separate category of consumers. A 300 MW block will be dedicated to the industry, of which at least 50 MW will be reserved for small projects of 5 MW or less. A new selection process is being put in place to allocate the quota. It introduces several economic development criteria – number of direct jobs in Québec per MW: 30%, total payroll of direct jobs per MW: 30%, investment in Québec per MW: 30%, as well as an environmental condition – 10% of the used energy should come from heat recovery. Authorities also reserve the right to limit supplies for mining facilities during peak periods, up to 300 hours each winter. The rates that will be charged for the spent electricity will be determined according to the existing tariff. That means that depending on their consumption profile, mining companies will fall under one of the following categories: LG, which is the general rate for large‑power customers, or M, the rate for medium‑power consumers. Survey Shows 4,500 MW of Confirmed Demand From Mining Businesses To find out what’s next for crypto miners in Québec, news.Bitcoin.com turned to David Vincent, director of business development at Hydro-Québec, one of the largest hydropower producers in the world. We asked him whether he thinks Régie de l’énergie’s decision is timely, given that the tide in the crypto sector seems to be turning, after a prolonged bear market which affected mining and lowered its profitability. David Vincent “You could say it’s good timing, considering that the market seems to be going up again. However, even last year after cryptocurrencies had dropped in price significantly, a survey we did with some of the serious players who had contacted us confirmed that there was still a lot of interest for our electricity,” the official noted. He emphasized that the vast majority of companies contacted were still interested, with more than 4,500 MW of confirmed demand from the respondents. “Also, even during a bear market situation, Québec is in a good position to attract projects from this industry as low rates become even more important to stay profitable. Our rates give us a competitive advantage. With all of that in mind, we expect a lot of interest in the selection process for our new block of 300 MW for this industry,” Vincent commented. The Hydro-Québec executive further explained that the new quota approved by the regulator is being added to the 368 MW previously allocated to blockchain projects that are either already in operation or have been approved. “In the end, we will have a total of 668 MW reserved for blockchain mining, which will make this industry one of the biggest industries in Québec in terms of power consumption, basically overnight. This is no small feat for an industry that was almost non-existent here about two years ago,” David Vincent said. He believes that looking at the world market, the allocation of 668 MW for the blockchain sector will actually make Québec one of the major forces in this industry: We feel that this is a block that is big enough to let this industry grow in Québec, while still leaving room for the development of other industries, like data centers, greenhouses, mines, etc. The idea was to strike a balanced approach. We feel that this block is a good start for this nascent industry and it will allow us to get a better mutual understanding. Prior to the announcement of Régie de l’énergie’s latest position, there had been media speculation that the attitude towards the industry in Québec was evolving due to the political change in the province’s government. It’s been reported that François Legault, the leader of Coalition Avenir Québec, which won the general election in the French Canadian province last fall, intends to fulfil Hydro-Québec’s potential and make the utility more profitable. However, Vincent believes that the regulator’s decision has nothing to do with politics. “The Energy Board is an economic regulation agency that is independent of the government and stays clear of political influence,” he noted. “Anyone who has followed the hearings at the Energy Board closely will tell you that the decision seems to be in line with the concerns voiced by those who participated in the public hearings.” Hydro-Québec’s representative added that with the high demand for the company’s product, it makes sense that the utility can select those companies that will bring the most value to the province. “The economic development criteria in the decision match what we had proposed to the Energy Board. Our advice for companies who want a part of the energy block would be to be well prepared to demonstrate how much value they can bring to Québec in terms of job creation, salaries and investments per MW used,” he stressed. “Those who go further than just mining will certainly score better in the selection process as they tend to invest more and create more jobs. Also, those who re-use the heat created by their activities instead of just wasting it will get a few more points in the evaluation of their projects, so this could give them an edge over competitors with similar projects,” David Vincent explained. Shaun Chong, head of Bitcoin.com’s mining operations, acknowledged that the new opportunities for cryptocurrency mining in the Canadian province of Québec represent a positive development for the whole sector in general. However, he also noted that the mining market conditions are tough right now. “So those regulatory requirements could make it hard to make a profit,” remarked Chong, who is responsible for the Bitcoin.com Pool. What’s your opinion about Québec’s policy towards the crypto mining industry? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Hydro-Québec. Do you want to maximize your Bitcoin Mining potential? Plug your own hardware into the world’s most profitable Bitcoin mining pool or get started without having to own hardware through one of our competitive Bitcoin cloud mining contracts. The post Québec Allocates 300 MW Energy Quota for Crypto Mining appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Businesses and startups in the cryptocurrency industry are a growing force around the world and services providers are taking note. U.K.’s Corporate Traveller recently began accepting bitcoin cash payments from companies booking flights for their staff, a much needed service for a global sector with so many international events. Also Read: Memo Is a Decentralized Social Network Built on Bitcoin Cash Corporate Traveller Accepts BCH Payments via Bitpay Looking to pay with bitcoin cash on your next business trip? Corporate Traveller, a U.K. provider of business travel management services, has recently announced it started accepting both BCH and BTC payments from its small and medium enterprises (SME) customers. The company is a division of Flight Centre Travel Group, one of the world’s largest travel companies, and has offices in twenty locations across the United Kingdom. The cryptocurrency payments are made via Bitpay, so they will settle in the company’s bank account in GBP. “We identified an increasing demand from our clients for the option to pay in bitcoin for business travel bookings made by our travel consultants,” said Andy Hegley, UK General Manager, Corporate Traveller. “The blockchain industry is growing exponentially and we are excited to be able to offer our clients the ability to pay in bitcoin, whilst having the reassurance of our settlement from Bitpay being in pounds sterling. We believe Corporate Traveller is the first business travel management company to offer this payment option to SMEs in the U.K.” If you are looking to pay with bitcoin cash for your personal travel and not a business trip, possible options include hotel booking service Travala.com and online travel agency Cheapair.com. What do you think about Corporate Traveller accepting BCH payments? 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 Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Pay for Flights on Your Next Business Trip With Bitcoin Cash via Corporate Traveller appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On April 28, the high profile Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit heated up when the plaintiffs alleged Craig Wright submitted forged evidence before the court. Following the recent response against Wright’s motion to dismiss the case, the plaintiffs also filed an order which demands a list of Wright’s public bitcoin addresses as of Dec. 31, 2013. Additionally, the Southern District Court of Florida Magistrate overseeing the lawsuit, Judge Bruce Reinhart, has signed the order. Also read: Uyen T Nguyen: The Powerful Young Woman Behind the Alleged ‘Satoshi Affair’ Kleiman Estate Wants Craig Wright to Produce a List of Public Bitcoin Addresses Self-proclaimed Satoshi, Craig Wright, has been fighting a lawsuit since Feb. 14, 2018, in a case that involves $11 billion dollars’ worth of bitcoin and lots of intellectual property. The Kleiman estate represents the now deceased David Kleiman, a security researcher that some individuals believe may have been a member of a pseudonymous group operating under the Satoshi Nakamoto monicker. The cryptocurrency community does not believe Wright is Satoshi despite his claims and many cite that he has yet to provide cryptographic evidence that would tie him to the creation of Bitcoin. So far, the Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit has dragged out for well over a year and last week Wright was accused of forgery. Now the plaintiffs are demanding to view a list of public bitcoin addresses once owned by Wright up until Dec. 2013. Right now, a good portion of the bitcoin address information was either redacted or sealed, but the Kleiman estate believes that tracing Wright’s bitcoin holdings back in 2013 and earlier is relevant to the alleged theft claims. Wright had already told the court that it wasn’t feasible to identify the bitcoin he held back then. However, the Kleiman estate’s counsel asserted that it does not diminish the plaintiff’s entitlement to the pertinent evidence and the data “can be obtained through other means.” The Kleimans want Wright to produce the list of bitcoins he owned as of Dec 31, 2013 as well as identify all bitcoins he transferred to the blind trust in 2011. Alongside this, they want him to identify under oath all the trustees of the blind trust and beneficiaries. Moreover, the plaintiffs are demanding that Wright is deposed again in regard to his bitcoin ownership. “It is therefore ordered that Dr. Wright’s motion regarding the production of a list of the public addresses of his bitcoin as of December 31, 2013, which is deemed to be a motion for protective order, is denied,” the filing details. Plaintiffs Want Information Concerning a Blind Trust Wright’s defense team has until May 8 to state whether they have any redactions to add and at that time Wright is ordered to provide the Kleiman estate with a sworn declaration identifying the name and location of the blind trust, the name and contact information for the current trustee and any past trustees, and the names and contact information of any current or past beneficiaries. The following day, Wright is to provide any additional documents concerning the blind trust. Another deadline is set for May 15 and Wright has to produce all transactional records of the blind trust, including the possible transfer of bitcoin into the blind trust in or about 2011. The information provided to the court must be accompanied by a sworn declaration of authenticity. The ruling on whether or not Wright’s deposition needs to be addressed again will be decided after the requirements described in the court order. The latest order submitted by the Kleiman estate may further provide more information concerning this mysterious case and the alleged trust held in Seychelles that purportedly contains around 1 million BTC. Many people have been curiously monitoring this lawsuit because it may reveal certain information on whether or not these two men really were involved with the creation of bitcoin or if it was all just an elaborate hoax. The latest order by the Kleiman estate, the recent Jeff Garzik subpoena, the slew of past filings, and the alleged million bitcoins sitting in a trust indicate the plaintiffs believe Wright’s unproven claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto is pertinent to this case. What do you think of the latest from the Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit? Do you think this court case will reveal any secrets about the Satoshi Nakamoto story or do you think it’s all an elaborate hoax? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. Image credits: Shutterstock, Court Listener, and Pixabay. 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 Wright Ordered to Produce a List of Early Bitcoin Addresses in Kleiman Lawsuit appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

With crypto markets rising, hodling seems to be a sound investment strategy once again. If you have coins you want to keep, you can earn some interest on your digital assets thanks to platforms such as Celsius Network. Its mobile wallet allows you to also use the cryptocurrency as collateral in case you need to borrow fiat cash instead of selling crypto. Also read: How to Find a Crypto-Themed Template for Your Website Earn 3% Annually on Your BCH Holdings The Celsius Network wallet is available on Google Play and the App Store. You can deposit a number of major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin cash (BCH). The application tracks the top 10 digital coins in your portfolio and provides access to crypto-related news and statistics. Users can earn interest on their cryptocurrency holdings, which is paid out weekly. BCH deposits will bring you 3% annually, according to current rates. These are subject to change based on demand and can reach over 7% on some stablecoins. Celsius Network, whose slogan is “Unbank Yourself,” also offers you to borrow “dollars while they still exist,” using your crypto funds as collateral. At the moment, fiat loans in U.S. currency come at a 4.95% APR. The app has a feature that allows you to calculate the loan you can receive against your digital assets. The amount is estimated based on your crypto portfolio and how long you’ve been part of the Celsius community. Do you expect to see more platforms accepting cryptocurrency deposits and offering crypto-backed loans in the future? Share your thoughts 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, Celsius Network. 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 BCH and BTC with a credit card. The post Celsius Wallet App Offers Interest and Loans for Your Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article