roadrunner

Bitcoin might be digital but it’s equally suited to being stored and shared in the analogue world. Whether you’re looking for a way to safely store your coins, to issue paper bills that are made out to a specific bitcoin address and amount, paper is your friend. A printer and a little know-how is all it takes. Also read: The Idiot-Proof Vault: A Simple Cold Storage Guide Why Create a Paper Wallet? Exchange accounts can be hacked, mobile wallets breached, and smartphones lost, stolen or destroyed. But paper? It’s impervious to all digital attack vectors. It’s not foolproof – fire, water damage, or theft can still take their toll – but if you’re careful where you stash your paper wallet, it’s one on the safest ways to store cryptocurrency. Be it as a backup of an existing hardware, mobile or desktop wallet, or as a standalone wallet that exists solely offline, paper is perfect. The ultimate form of cold storage, a paper wallet simply consists of a printout of the private and public keys to your address. (These can even be handwritten if you don’t trust printers or have access to one). Suffice to say that while the public key can be shared so that others can send you coins, you shouldn’t share your private key with anyone. Thus, once you’ve printed your wallet, you need to store it somewhere only your eyes can view it. That could be a safe, a bank vault or a sly hiding place in your home. If you’re ultra cautious, you can even split your paper wallet into parts and store it in separate locations. Not much use if you’re a day trader, admittedly, but if you’re a hodler for life, a distributed paper wallet (with at least one duplicate to ensure redundancy) is about as safe as cold storage gets. How to Make a Paper Wallet There are numerous websites that allow you to create a paper wallet in seconds before printing it off. Choose a favorably reviewed site whose code is open sourced to prevent the sort of scams that are all too prevalent in the crypto space. Examples of paper wallet generating sites include the following: Bitaddress.org: A simple but effective open source Javascript wallet generator. Select the BTC wallet type you’d like, generate some entropy, choose how many addresses you want and hit “Print”. You can also create vanity, bulk, split, and brain wallets. Bitcoin.com: The tools section of Bitcoin.com allows you to create a bitcoin cash paper wallet just like the BTC example described above. Bitcoin.com’s paper wallet generator, like all of the sites listed here, does not store knowledge of your private key. Bitcoinpaperwallet.com: A self-explanatory site that allows you to create BTC and BCH paper wallets. There’s a useful section on paper wallet security tips and you can order tamper-proof holographic stickers for creating your own folding paper wallet. When it comes to print out your wallet, the sensitive details – namely the private key and QR code – are securely taped shut and sealed with a sticker. That way, you know that no one’s accessed your paper wallet and peeked at your private key. How to Make a Bitcoin Paper Bill Making a paper wallet containing your private key is fine for your own purposes, but what if you want to share your BTC address with others? In that case you only need to print your bitcoin address and QR code. Sites such as Gobitcoin.io will allow you to enter your BTC address, generate a QR code and even specify an amount. If you charge a fixed 0.05 BTC for a service, for example, you can hand people a QR code they can scan with that amount pre-entered. All they have to do is scan the QR code and hit send. Other sites will let you create QR codes for bitcoin cash and loads of other cryptocurrencies. Versatile and ultra-secure, paper wallets are one of the smartest ways to keep your crypto. Create it, print it, and then stash it in a very safe place. Do you use cold storage to secure your bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitaddress.org and Bitcoinpaperwallet.com. Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support these products/services. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned companies or any of their affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. The post How to Create a Bitcoin Paper Wallet or Paper Bill appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

State news agency Telesur reports Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro has announced formation of a youth bank funded by the country’s recently launched cryptocurrency, the Petro. Mr. Maduro also took the opportunity to urge countrymen to continue mining its state-backed digital money, including creation of mining farms. Also read: Only 1% of Business CIOs are Actually Using ”Blockchain” Technology Venezuela’s President Creates Crypto Funded Youth Bank Embattled Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, ahead of a contentious May 20 national election, has launched a ‘youth bank,’ funded by the state-backed cryptocurrency Petro. Aimed at appealing to its younger population, 20 million petros are to be allocated. Petro is a closely watched experiment for countries feeling the sting of sanctions meted out by the likes of industrial powers such as the United States, sanctions the once-oil rich government routinely points to for its current economic ills. Mr. Maduro seems to have worked closely with Russian operatives to bring about a first: a state backed, oil backed cryptocurrency. The country’s current economy is in shambles, and daily horrors abound, flooding headlines. Mr. Maduro noted over $1 billion in petro will be used to prop up the new bank, a bank which will function in ways that are unclear as of this writing. And though petro is itself a divisive issue among branches of the government, such as the legislature, Mr. Maduro has quipped he’s looking into yet another state crypto launch, this time backed by gold. For its part, the Trump administration has openly ordered United States citizens and businesses to not participate in any aspect of petro. Mining Farms The country has also become a use case for decentralized, open source cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin cash (BCH). As reported in these pages, “‘eat BCH’ has been offering help to Venezuelans suffering from difficult economic times. The group has been collecting bitcoin cash donations for the past few months and have been using the funds to purchase food and feed Venezuelans who are in need of assistance. Nearly every single day for over three months the group’s Twitter handle shows pictures of children and adults getting all kinds of food — and it’s all paid for with bitcoin cash.” The president also used the announcement to continue his urging of large scale mining of petro throughout the country. He pointed toward the need for universities to create mining farms to buttress the national crypto. As we reported last month, “Venezuela is calling for its citizens to build cryptocurrency mining farms throughout the country. The government has set up a crypto mining program which president Nicolas Maduro hopes will attract at least 1 million people such as university students, the unemployed, single mothers and the homeless.” What are your thoughts on the petro? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay. Looking for a Bitcoin Cash Block Explorer? Check out Bitcoin.com’s BCH Block Explorer today to find transactions, blocks, and other important blockchain data. The post Venezuela’s President Launches Crypto Funded Youth Bank, Encourages Mining Farms appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

RBI’s ban on crypto-related banking services has been challenged again. Maharashtra-based Flintstone Technologies has turned to the High Court in Delhi to seek withdrawal of the April 6 circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India, calling it “arbitrary, unfair and unconstitutional.” The company points out that the central bank has not provided any reasons for the imposed restrictions. Also read: Indian Investors Flock to Trade Crypto Ahead of RBI Ban RBI’s Ban Faces another Challenge An Indian crypto trading company has raised another challenge to the ban imposed by the Reserve Bank of India on banking services offered to companies and individuals dealing with cryptocurrencies. Flintstone Technologies Private Limited has sought the withdrawal of RBI’s April 6 circular, filing a plea with the Delhi High Court. India’s central bank wants to prohibit commercial banks and other financial institutions from providing crypto-related services. On Friday, the plea was listed for hearing before Justice Rajiv Shakdher, the Business Standard reported. According to the Indian outlet, Shakdher has asked the court’s registry to place it before the bench which is already hearing a similar matter. Earlier this month, Kali Digital Eco-Systems, the company that will be operating the new Coin Recoil exchange, appealed to the High Court against the recent crackdown on banks working with companies from the crypto sector. In its petition, Flintstone Technologies contends that the central bank’ circular has “fenced” all regulated entities from providing services to any individual or business dealing in virtual currencies, without mentioning any reasons for its decision to impose the restrictions. RBI has given banks three months to comply with the order. The Maharashtra-based company, which is a provider of online crypto wallet services for Bitcoin and Money trade coin, has also submitted that while central authorities are still studying the effect of cryptocurrencies without banning them completely, the RBI’s circular indirectly restricts their trade. It claims that the prohibition is “arbitrary, unfair and unconstitutional.” Lack of Regulations Increases Uncertainty According to the document issued by the central bank of India, the entities regulated by the RBI are prohibited from “providing any service in relation to virtual currencies, including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies.” The other company that has challenged the ban, Kali Digital Ecosystems, has claimed that the lack of crypto regulations has “increased the uncertainty over the treatment of such transactions” and is adversely affecting its proposed business. The Gujarat-based company says that the RBI directive is arbitrary and represents a violation of the Constitution of India. On April 22, the Delhi High Court asked relevant authorities, including the RBI and the Goods and Services Tax Council, for official responses on the plea. The regulatory uncertainty and the broadening bank clampdown have seriously affected cryptocurrency exchanges in India. In March, representatives of the industry reported that the trading on local platforms had dropped significantly. Some companies have started looking for more favorable jurisdictions, as news.Bitcoin.com reported. Since the announcement of the upcoming restrictions, however, trading volumes in India have spiked again, with investors trying to take advantage of the window before the ban takes effect. Do you expect the Indian government to eventually legalize crypto-related activities? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post Another Indian Company Challenges Ban on Crypto Banking appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In a small village in Ukraine, all residents are now owners of cryptocurrency, thanks to an initiative by the head of the village council. Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether, can also be used in the village to purchase items such as eggs, lard, meat, and milk. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space All Residents Own Crypto In the Ukrainian village of Elizavetovka of the Petrykivsky district in the Dnipropetrovsk region, all residents reportedly now own some crypto, according to local media. At a recent village council meeting, local deputies decided to allow the chairman of the council, Maxim Golosnoy, “to carry out operations with cryptocurrency in the interests of the territorial community without attracting budgetary funds,” Comments.ua reported. Golosnoy has “figured out how to replenish the local budget with the help of cryptocurrency,” Akcent Media elaborated. Citing that this is an experiment meant to earn money for the community, Tsn.ua emphasized: The village is now the first in Ukraine where the residents have become owners of digital currency. Furthermore, the news outlet reported that bitcoin, cardano, and ether can now be used in the village such as for buying meat, lard, eggs, and milk. Crypto Investing for the Village A month ago Golosnoy invested 13,000 hryvnias [~US$494] in cardano, the cryptocurrency which he now provides 1,500 of his residents with, Akcent Media described. Maxim Golosnoy. After the value of this investment went up to about 39,000 hryvnias [~$1,480], he repaid himself the 13,000 hryvnias and claims to have set the rest aside for his residents, Tsn.ua detailed, adding that “from now on, each villager is an owner of several crypto units.” For now the residents’ cryptocurrency is in Golosnoy’s care, although he has assured his villagers that they can cash out their coins whenever they want, the publication noted, adding that residents “are in no hurry, because they still do not understand either the principle of cryptocurrency or the benefits of it for themselves.” Currently, the village head has invested his personal funds in cryptocurrency and not the village budget, Akcent Media emphasized, noting that: Very soon he plans to appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine…to invest the future budget money. He expects to show the whole country how a small investment can earn on its own, and not draw money from the state treasury. Golosnoy pointed out that each year the village budget has a surplus of “3-4 million” hryvnia which he hopes that “at least some of the revenues could be invested in cryptocurrencies…if the supervisory authorities and the community allow,” Tsn.ua detailed. Ukraine currently has no legal framework for cryptocurrencies. However, in March, the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine published its official position on cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, three draft bills have been introduced but none has been adopted. What do you think of what Golosnoy is doing for the village? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Tsn. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Everyone in This Village Now Owns Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

According to regional reports Vietnam’s oldest Bitcoin Exchange, Bitcoin.vn, is about to lose its domain per order of the Vietnamese Government. The website that has been operating since 2014 has been accused of operating a blog without permission from the Minister of Information & Communications of Vietnam. Also read: Crypto-to-Cash Lending is Growing Quite Popular These Days Vietnam’s Oldest Bitcoin Exchanges May Lose its Domain Bitcoin.vn is a Vietnamese trading platform that’s been providing bitcoin exchange services for over four years. Just recently the local publication ICT News reports that Bitcoin.vn (Bitcoin Vietnam) is being stripped of its website domain for being found guilty of “operating a blog without a proper license.” The Vietnamese trading platform is accused of operating the blog without obtaining a publisher license by the Minister of Information & Communications of Vietnam. Bitcoin Vietnam’s management team declined to comment on these reports because of the ongoing legal proceedings. However, the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information has fined Bitcoin Vietnam Co., Ltd. for illegally creating an alleged blog and social network. The charges against Bitcoin.vn are divided into a 15M VND fine ($660 USD) for operating a blog and 25M ($1,100) for allowing readers the ability to comment (unlicensed social network) below the published articles on Bitcoin.vn. News.Bitcoin.com spoke with an industry insider from the region about the litigation against the trading platform’s domain. According to the individual familiar with the matter, the blog barely saw any activity apart from irregular announcements about the exchange’s user interface upgrades and general service information. “They had like maybe two articles per month on there — to seize their domain for such a minor offense is a very, very heavy-handed approach,” explains the anonymous source to news.Bitcoin.com. Out of 100 Vietnamese startups, likely 99,9% don’t bother to register for a media/publisher license for their company blog — This is not a good sign for Vietnam’s startup scene. Bitcoin Vietnam also operates two BTMs. Sinister Activities at Play? Our sources also say there may be some more sinister activities at play concerning the charges against Bitcoin Vietnam. “Ask yourself why they picked this one company out of all the hundreds of startups and thousands of SME’s in Vietnam to charge them for running some small shitty blog — in order to confiscate their domain?” the anonymous individual explained in a telephone conversation. “If you understand a bit how Vietnam works, then there is not much to wonder about. These guys did not publish any anti-government propaganda in any way, so normally nobody would bother about them. The truth is, that this domain has — especially since the large crypto bull-run in 2017 — gained a lot of value – and somebody more powerful and with much more well-established connections than these guys wants to get a hold of it.” Bitcoin Vietnam might have been the pioneers in this market, but when the big guys finally start to come to play, they don’t play by the rules. They see something they want to have, and they take it. These guys can be lucky to just have received a minor fine – that their domain is gone is of course sad for them after they did all this pioneering work, but that’s just how Vietnam works. If you want to know who is behind this move — just watch out who will be the one utilizing this domain once the immediate dust has settled. Bitcoin Vietnam and the domain Bitcoin.vn is one of the oldest operating cryptocurrency exchanges and has been a reputable trading platform since the summer of 2014. At the moment there are no confirmed decisions made or any information on who might receive ownership of the website if the Ministry of Communications makes its decision to revoke the domain. What do you think about the Bitcoin.vn website losing its domain? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Bitcoin.vn logos, and Zing.vn Want to see all 500 cryptocurrency market caps in real-time? We got a destination for that called — Satoshi Pulse. The post Bitcoin Vietnam Faces Losing its Domain from Government appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Today has seen the price of BTC rally to test $10,000 USD amid the bullish response to the increasing institutional presence in the cryptocurrency markets. In other trading news, fee-free exchange Cobinhood has announced the introduction of trading pairs for the ninth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, IOTA. In international news, Russian cryptocurrency Youtuber Pavel Makushin has been found dead in his apartment. The CEO of cybersecurity firm, Fireeye, has also discussed the challenges posed by cryptocurrencies in an interview today. Also Read: Indian Investors Flock to Trade Crypto Ahead of RBI Ban Bulls Test $10,000 The bitcoin markets have rallied in recent days, with the markets currently testing the five-figure threshold. The gains appear to have been driven by indications of the growing institutional presence in the cryptocurrency markets, with reports indicating that Goldman Sachs will launch trading for bitcoin futures contracts “in the next few weeks.” The bullish momentum follows bitcoin’s best performing month of 2018 – with April producing gains of nearly 47% after prices steadily grew from approximately $6,400 to close at roughly $9,400. April produced four consecutive green weekly candles for the first time since late 2017. As of this writing, the price of bitcoin is approximately $9,900 Cobinhood Introduces IOTA Trading Cobinhood, a zero-trading-fee cryptocurrency trading platform, has announced the introduction of trading for top ten cryptocurrency, Iota. The introduction of Iota brings the total number of cryptocurrencies available for trade on Cobinhood to more than forty. The chief executive officer of Cobinhood, Popo Chen, stated: “We are excited to continue our growth and momentum in the cryptocurrency space through the addition of Iota to the Cobinhood platform. Iota is a promising technology platform that will help to push the market forward, and we look forward to having them on our exchange on their journey to success.” Russian Cryptocurrency Youtuber Found Dead in Apartment Russian Youtuber Pavel Makushin has been found dead in his apartment, as reported by RT. The 23-year-old, known online as Pavel Nyashin, had cultivated the persona of a cryptocurrency trader and amassed approximately 20,000 subscribers. Mr. Makushin was the victim of a robbery in January, which saw 24 million rubles (approximately $38,000 USD) stolen from him. The Youtuber stated that the stolen money was not his own, and attributed the robbery to bragging of his wealth online. Mr. Makushin’s mother was reported to have indicated that the robbery could have led him to take his own life. Russian tabloid media is reportedly suggesting suicide as a potential cause of death. CEO of Fireeye Discusses Cyber Security Challenges in the Age of Cryptocurrencies Kevin Mandia, the chief executive officer of cybersecurity firm, Fireeye, today discussed some of the hurdles posed by the cryptocurrency phenomena in an interview with CNBC. “From a cybersecurity standpoint, an anonymous currency has not been a great thing,” Mr. Mandia said. “It just opens up another avenue to monetize computer intrusions, theft of IP and theft of communications. So we deal with bitcoin from that angle and it’s just been a problem for us.” Mr. Mandia described the anonymity underpinning cryptocurrencies as attracting some usage from criminals. “They’re anonymous currencies and that’s a very valuable thing,” Mr. Mandia said. “If you can commit a crime from 10,000 miles away, there’s not a lot of risk or repercussions to it. And if you can steal somebody’s email and extort that person in an anonymous currency, that’s a challenge for us.” “You can’t just be good at network security or just good at endpoint or just good at asset discovery. You’ve got to be good at email security, endpoint security and network security. You want to bring it all together,” he added. Do you like to keep your cryptocurrency holdings private? Or are you loud and proud with your crypto investments? Tell us in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Trading View, Wikipedia, RT Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Bitcoin in Brief Saturday: Bulls Test $10,000, Russian Crypto-Millionaire Found Dead, Cobinhood Launches IOTA Trading appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Investors in India are flocking to trade cryptocurrencies before the ban order by the Reserve Bank of India takes effect. There is a positive sentiment in the local crypto community that the Indian government will not outright ban crypto trading. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Investors Rush to Get Into Crypto It has been a month since the Reserve Bank of India ordered banks and financial institutions under its control to stop providing services to cryptocurrency exchanges. The central bank has given banks three months to end their relationships with crypto operators. However, ever since the order, cryptocurrency trading volumes in India have surged dramatically. “Exchange operators, investors, and analysts say people are rushing to take advantage of a three-month window the Reserve Bank of India has given banks to sever ties with cryptocurrency traders and exchanges,” Reuters elaborated, adding: Getting in now enables investors to convert rupees into cryptocurrencies, which they can later swap for other coins via private trading platforms even after the central bank’s rules take hold. Shivam Thakral, CEO of crypto exchange Buyucoin, was quoted saying “new investors are coming to our exchanges while existing ones are regaining interest after the drop because they’re getting good value and are making money as the prices of cryptocurrencies move higher.” Retail investors believe that “most trading is likely to move to peer-to-peer networks or social applications such as Telegram” after the three month period is up, the news outlet added. Crypto Trading Ban Unlikely The RBI’s order has already been challenged in court by a cryptocurrency firm. On Saturday, the Indian Express reported that Justice Rajiv Shakdher “issued a notice to the RBI, the finance ministry and the GST Council and sought their stand on the petition challenging the RBI’s April 6 circular ‘Withdrawing Banking Support to Virtual Currency Exchanges’.” Cryptocurrency firm Flintstone Technologies Pvt Ltd “sought [the] court’s direction for quashing of the circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India as the same was ‘arbitrary, unconstitutional’,” the publication detailed, adding: The company submitted that [the] circular issued by the RBI is devoid of any due application of mind and will cause huge prejudice to those who have invested their hard earned money into the business and transaction pertaining to the virtual currencies and cryptocurrency. Shubham Yadav, Coindelta’s co-founder, believes that crypto traders would likely continue to trade “if it remained legal, regardless of the banking ban,” Reuters conveyed. Thakral was then quoted by the publication, “there is a positive sentiment in the industry that the government will not ban trading in cryptocurrencies, and even if formal banking channels cannot be used, people can move to crypto-crypto trading platforms.” Trading between cryptocurrencies, which the central bank ban does not penalize, has already begun to ramp up. Last week, two Indian crypto exchanges started offering crypto-to-crypto trading – Zebpay and Koinex. The latter offers 23 trading pairs while the former offers one. What do you think of Indian traders rushing to trade crypto before the RBI ban takes effect? Do you think the RBI will take further action? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Business Standard, and Pixabay. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Indian Investors Flock to Trade Crypto Ahead of RBI Ban appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Reward Expert used Google Trends traffic data for keywords such as Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in an effort to gauge US states interest levels for cryptocurrency during a three month period this year. The company then determined a weighted average and ranked US states by interest and usage. Also read: Only 1% of Business CIOs are Actually Using ”Blockchain” Technology Ten US States Where Crypto is Taking Off Coming up with its findings also involved Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Data “containing the locations of all known establishments that accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, as well as Bitcoin ATMs, to gauge the usability of cryptocurrencies for purchases and other transactions. As data for other currencies was difficult to come by, we used Bitcoin as a proxy for all currencies. We obtained a count of the total number of establishments and ATMs in each state and calculated the number per capita and ranked the states accordingly,” Reward Expert noted. “An overall rank was derived by averaging interest and infrastructure.” MOST COMBINED INTEREST AND INFRASTRUCTURE 10. Michigan The Wolverine state didn’t rate at all in terms of general interest, but it did in usage (8th). It managed to just make the cumulative top ten, however. “Michigan would rank higher on our list if we were to go solely on its number of Bitcoin-enabled ATMs, with a total of 12 statewide. There are fewer establishments that accept Bitcoin payments on a per capita basis. On the other hand, there are few other states with multiple places where you can get cosmetic surgery and pay with cryptocurrency,” the survey explained. 09. Washington, 08. New Hampshire, 07. Utah The beehive state didn’t move the needle in terms of actual usage, but its interest in crypto managed to keep it alive in for a spot on the cumulative. Reward Expert notes, “At first glance, Utah would seem an unlikely member of this top ten. Certainly, it is geographically contiguous with sixth place Nevada, and tenth place Colorado (both of the interest top ten), but that is not much by way of an explanation. Interest is highest for Bitcoin (81/100), with establishments accepting crypto payments concentrated in the Salt Lake City area, suggesting that the state’s relatively well-developed tech industry may be one driver of interest.” 06. Florida, 05. Colorado, 04. California “Home to Silicon Valley and one of the major hubs for the US technology industry, California is unsurprisingly the state in which interest in cryptocurrencies is highest across the board,” researchers detail. “California tops Google Trends’ keyword search data for specific currencies, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple, scoring 98, 92, 97 and 85, respectively, out of a possible 100. It also ranks highly for searches for the term ‘cryptocurrency’ itself, coming in at a score of 93. The state also has over 500 establishments where Bitcoin is an accepted form of payment.” 03. Washington, D.C., 02. Nevada, 01. New York The empire state ranked second in crypto interest, seventh in usage, but its cumulative score makes it the number one crypto environment in the US, even with its silly Bitcoin License in New York City. “New York, would naturally rank as one of the usual suspects. Likewise a major US tech hub, and also the financial capital not only of the US, but arguably of the world, New York City drives the statewide average level of interest to stratospheric levels. New Yorkers’ interest in Litecoin and Ethereum helps boost New York’s overall trends score for interest in specific currencies to 96.25 of 100. [Its] availability of Bitcoin infrastructure, with a total of 23 ATMs statewide (20 of which are in New York City, plus Westchester and Nassau Counties, with the remaining three in the Capital Region),” make it a hospitable environment for decentralized currency, the report states. “On this measure, New York trails only Georgia in absolute terms, while leading it in terms of the number of places where Bitcoin is accepted for payments.” STATES WITH MOST INTEREST IN CRYPTO 01. California 02. New York 03. New Jersey 04. Washington 05. Alaska 06. Nevada 07. Florida 08. Utah 09. New Jersey 10. Colorado STATES WITH THE MOST CRYPTO USAGE 01. Washington, D.C. 02. New Hampshire 03. Georgia 04. Nevada 05. Colorado 06. Kansas 07. New York 08. Michigan 09. Missouri 10. Oregon Which states surprised you? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Reward Expert. Looking for a Bitcoin Cash Block Explorer? Check out Bitcoin.com’s BCH Block Explorer today to find transactions, blocks, and other important blockchain data. The post Top Ten Surprising US States for Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

British entrepreneur Richard Branson has spoken out over the “worrying” spread of bitcoin scam stories and ads. Some of the most common are false endorsements and fake binary trading schemes, he warns. Advising everyone to remain vigilant, Branson suggests that users should report fake stories to the platforms which have published them. Also read: Facebook to Be Sued for Defamation Related to Scammy Crypto Ads Billionaire Linked To “Get-Rich-Quick” Schemes Virgin Group founder, Sir Richard Branson, has voiced his concerns over the “worrying” rise in bitcoin-related online scams involving his name. “I have written several times warning people about the growing problem of fake stories online linking me to get-rich-quick schemes, fake pages, misleading ads, false endorsements, and fake binary trading schemes,” he says in a blog post titled “Beware of Fake Bitcoin Scams.” Some of the most regular and worrying fake stories currently spreading online are false endorsements of bitcoin trading schemes, Branson explains in the piece published on Virgin’s corporate website. “While I have often commented on the potential benefits of genuine bitcoin developments, I absolutely do not endorse these fake bitcoin stories,” he states. Branson also notes that the fake articles often have titles involving “quitting your job and yours truly investing in bitcoin financial tech”. The sites which publish them impersonate well known news outlets, such as CNN, to make them look legitimate, he warns. “You may come across these sites via links advertised on various social media sites and paid for ads. They link through to scam sites like Bitcoin Trader, and also feature fake endorsements by the likes of Bill Gates alongside myself,” Richard Branson complains. Sir Branson Advises Vigilance The British magnate informs his readers that his legal teams are working hard to take down the fake stories and deal with companies misrepresenting him and his businesses. “In the last year we’ve dealt with hundreds of instances. We are doing all we can and the police also work tirelessly to shut down the major operations,” he says. Branson’s Lawyers have also contacted the social networks where the fake stories are being spread: “[We] urge them to take the stories down and do more to proactively stop them appearing in the first place.” Richard Branson is not alone in this effort. Recently, British personal finance guru Martin Lewis vowed to take Facebook to court over fake ads featuring his photo, which have published on its platform. He accused the popular social media site of lack of vigilance in regards to fake accounts and adverts from scammers. In his post, Branson advises everyone to remain vigilant: “Check you are only clicking through to legitimate sites, with official website addresses and verified social media accounts.” He also suggests that people verify if the story about him they are reading originates from an official Virgin website. “All of my social networks are verified with blue ticks, so you can tell it is really me communicating with you,” he adds, posting links to his profiles. The entrepreneur recommends reading sources like Citizens Advice for tips on how to avoid online scams. He also urges users to report fake stories to the platforms where they have found them. Since the beginning of the year, the social networks Facebook and LinkedIn, the search engines Google and “Яндекс” (Yandex), and the microblogging platform Twitter have banned advertising of cryptocurrencies and related projects on their platforms. Representatives of crypto communities around the world have protested the measures claiming they hurt legitimate businesses. Crypto and blockchain associations and businesses from Russia, China, South Korea, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, and Armenia plan to file this month a class action lawsuit against internet corporations over banned crypto ads. What measures should social media networks take to prevent spreading fake stories and scams related to Bitcoin without hurting legitimate businesses? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Virgin. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Richard Branson Speaks Out Against Fake Bitcoin Stories and Scams appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Over the past year, cryptocurrency-backed lending has grown very popular with organizations like Salt Lending, and Unchained Capital trying to capture a piece of this emerging industry. Projects like Salt Lending have issued millions worth of crypto-backed loans so far and the teams behind these digital currency operations believe crypto-to-cash lending is going to be a pretty big deal in the future. Furthermore, this week a company called Nexo also plans to offer a digital currency for cash lending platform and raised $50Mn USD in capital from venture capitalists like the Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington. Also read: Six Alternatives to Telegram for Cryptocurrency Communities The Crypto-to-Cash Phenomenon A new business model has formed recently called crypto-to-cash lending and this new financial sector is growing exponentially. The phenomenon follows the modern rise in recent years of peer-to-peer lending offered by financial giants like the Lending Club. Right now there are a few operations that are attempting to break the mold when it comes to this type of lending with projects such as Unchained Capital and Salt Lending taking the lead. Then there is a new startup called Nexo that plans to provide crypto-infused instant credit to borrowers without the need for credit checks. VCs like the Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington, and others recently pumped $50Mn into Nexo and the company has a security partnership with Bitgo. Nexo believes it will be the first firm to provide instant crypto-backed loans as it states on its website: Don’t sell your crypto — Don’t lose the upside potential — Get an instant crypto-backed Loan from Nexo. Two Lending Projects Trying to Make a Mark in the Crypto-Lending Industry Unchained Capital Unchained Capital is a firm that offers cash loans to businesses and individuals who provide Bitcoin Core (BTC) as collateral. The company believes cryptocurrency holders need a method to borrow against their digital assets without selling them. Unchain Capital’s interest rates are between 12.5-14 percent APR and funds are wired to a bank account of the customers choosing. Customers make monthly payments on the loan and once the credit is paid in full collateral will be reimbursed. Moreover, individuals can borrow up to $1Mn without a credit check and the ratio of loan appropriation is 50 percent. If the value of the collateral drops by 25 percent Unchained Capital will request more capital. If the digital asset dips below the 45 percent region the company can repossess the capital to recover any lost principal and interest. Unchained Capital loans USD to American residents and businesses with options to renew a loan when it comes to term. Both individuals and businesses may want to utilize a loan for tax savings as borrowing removes the need to pay capital gains. Salt Lending Then there is another program called, Salt Lending, a blockchain-backed loan program built on top of the Ethereum network. SALT tokens are created from the ERC-20 branch. The Salt Lending platform is more peer-to-peer than Unchained Capital as it lends funds from a large group of Salt lenders. The project has gained a lot of attention and has lent over $40Mn USD worth of digital currency loans since the project’s inception. Further, the Salt Lending platform has accrued over 65,000 members in less than a year. Just like Unchained Capital once a loan is paid back on the Salt Lending platform then a borrower can obtain their cryptocurrency again. According to Salt under Regulation D of 17 CFR § 230.501 et seq., all lenders are accredited investors who have passed a “lending suitability test.” There are various ways a lender will participate with the Salt Lending system and loans are processed using traditional financial markets. Salt users can borrow funds between $10,000 and $1,000,000 and no credit check is required. A New Peer-to-Peer Lending Economy Emerges Crypto-to-cash lending has been a trending business model in this industry for well over a year and there are other platforms trying similar ventures like Coinloan, Othera, Ethlend, and Everex. The popularity of this type of business is growing due to the many benefits loans like these offer such as lending without credit checks, and the ability to obtain fiat based off crypto reserves without paying capital gains. It’s likely there will be a lot more startups attempting to enter this market as the Crypto-to-cash lending economy is growing vibrant. What do you think about cryptocurrency lending projects? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, Salt Lending, Nexo, and Unchained Capital. Need to find a specific transaction on the Bitcoin Cash network? Check out Bitcoin.com’s new Block Explorer today. Want to see all 500 cryptocurrency market caps in real-time? We got a destination for that too called Satoshi Pulse. The post Crypto-to-Cash Lending is Growing Quite Popular These Days appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

What would happen if bitcoin were to suffer a 51% attack? It’s a hypothetical question, but one that has troubled some of the community’s brightest minds. Just as army generals play out countless war games, enacting doomsday scenarios, bitcoin defenders like to ponder ways in which the decentralized cryptocurrency could be attacked and brought to its knees. Also read: Taking the New On-Chain BCH-Powered Social App Blockpress for a Test Flight Contingency Planning for a Worst Case Scenario A 51% attack, also known as a majority attack, refers to a situation in which a single miner or group of miners control the majority of the network hashrate. If attained, this would enable a bad actor to censor and reverse transactions, allowing them to double spend coins. One of bitcoin’s greatest attributes is its immunity to attacks, be they governmental or technological. With over 31 exahash now concentrated on the bitcoin network, launching a 51% attack would be virtually impossible. And yet the very act of contemplating such an event is critical in mitigating the likelihood of it ever occurring. Bitcoin war games aren’t just larping: they’re strategic defense. 51% Is Probably Not Enough In a widely read article last month, Jimmy Song pondered various hostile mining scenarios, including those presented by chip manufacturers, ASIC manufacturers, and mining pools. He ran through the ways in which a 51% attack could play out, but observed that owning 51% of the harshrate may not be enough to take over the bitcoin network. According to Song, an attacker armed with 60% of the hashrate would still be expected to take 100 minutes to overtake the rest of the network in confirming blocks. Meanwhile, the rest of the network would have caught on to what was happening, and begun invalidating the attacker’s blocks. (Conversely, it is theoretically possible to attack the bitcoin network with less than 51% of the hashrate). Song notes: No rational merchant or exchange would ever take less than 30 confirmations in a scenario like this (at least without some knowledge about what’s going on)…Furthermore, a large reorg signals to the rest of the network that something nefarious is going on and nodes will likely view these new blocks with suspicion. It’s entirely possible that full node operators on the network will simply invalidate these blocks. Who Wins by Attacking Bitcoin? Due to bitcoin’s enormous hashrate, it would be impossible for anyone without any skin in the game – or rather ASICs in the game – to launch a 51% attack. The only players who could conceivably orchestrate such an attack are existing mining pools, or ASIC manufacturers if they were to backdoor their miners, for example, and later commandeer them. All of these entities are heavily invested in bitcoin, having spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the infrastructure required to compete in the mining sector. For their operations to remain profitable, bitcoin needs to maintain a certain price. If a bad actor (or pool of bad actors) were to start attacking bitcoin, they’d only be cannibalizing themselves. There are scenarios – far-fetched admittedly – in which a 51% attack on the bitcoin network could be attempted. A hostile state could start accumulating ASIC miners, spending billions of dollars in readiness for the moment they had enough hashrate to greenlight an attack. Even Bitmain themselves would struggle to assemble enough ASICs to make such a feat possible however. An alternative scenario would be for a chip or ASIC manufacturer to make a breakthrough that provided a significant advantage over existing miners. A sort of Asicboost on steroids. Once again though, the best way to profit from this would be to honestly mine bitcoin with the souped-up units, or to sell them for a premium, rather than to launch a 51% attack. Whatever way you slice it, a 51% attack on bitcoin isn’t just improbable – it makes zero sense for the attacker. Just because the cryptocurrency seems safe from mining attacks for now doesn’t mean it’s impervious to attack however. In a post entitled “Let’s destroy Bitcoin” published on MIT Technology Review, Morgan Peck proposes three ways in which bitcoin could be “brought down, co-opted, or made irrelevant”. None of them involve mining. A few altcoins, with a low hashrate, have been hit by a 51% attack in the past. In its nine-year history, bitcoin has never been attacked in such a manner. It didn’t happen in the past, even when one mining pool controlled a majority hashrate, and it’s probably not going to happen now. In what other ways do you think bitcoin could be attacked? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post A 51% Attack on Bitcoin Means Mutually Assured Destruction appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Kucoin exchange has devised a novel way of dealing with underperforming tokens. Rather than delist them, or leave them to die a slow death, it will send them to a “special treatment area”. Once placed on the token equivalent of the naughty step, they will be given a chance to buck up or risk being permanently removed. Also read: Tempers Flare at Milken Institute Cryptocurrency Conference Kucoin Sends Badly Performing Tokens to the Naughty Step Tokens that develop a low trading volume can expect placement in a special treatment (ST) area by Kucoin. Likewise with tokens whose team run into legal difficulties or go AWOL. It’s the first step towards delisting, aka a permaban, though assets will be given a chance to earn a reprieve. Coins that are moved to the ST zone will be marked as such, giving traders notice that there’s a risk of removal. Kucoin’s new policy has been welcomed by many traders, as it adds transparency and provides warning of assets that may be purged. Many exchanges delist coins at short notice and with little or no explanation. Bittrex, for example, has delisted dozens of coins at a time, leaving traders speculating as to the reason for their removal. While some of these clearly had no trading volume, others may have been deemed as securities, though it has traditionally been hard to tell. Badly behaved token teams will be sent to Kucoin’s naughty step Eight Reasons to Receive a Timeout Kucoin has listed eight reasons why a token may be moved to its newly designated ST area: Negative Trading Volume for a certain period of time. Cease or likely cease of business activities for three months. In liquidation, insolvent, bankrupt or otherwise subject or in a position to become subject to bankruptcy proceedings. Negative opinions by the company auditor. Failure to submit the updates reports in accordance with the requirements of the Exchange in terms of project development, status of the team and status of listing entity for a consecutive certain period of time. The team of the project is likely to be dissolved. Any act considered as malicious operation to the market. Any other situation as determinate by the Exchange from time to time. Cynics will point out that exchanges are only too happy to accept these tokens in the first place, and to pocket the hefty listing fees that can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kucoin in particular has gone listing crazy over the past few months, adding tokens faster than any other major exchange. It is arguably due to the platform’s willingness to accept virtually any token that it now finds itself having to remove the worst performers. Do you think other exchanges should follow Kucoin’s lead and provide warning of tokens that may be delisted? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Underperforming Tokens on Kucoin Will Be Sent for a Timeout appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

South Korean Samsung Electronics saw its operating profits surge in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous year. The company attributes the increase to its semiconductor division which manufactures bitcoin mining chips and says that it expects the trend to continue into the second quarter. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Profits Surging A world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, South Korean Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. recently announced its 1Q18 earnings results. Samsung Electronics is the flagship company of the Samsung Group with assembly plants and sales network in 80 countries. In the first quarter of this year, the company recorded consolidated earnings of 60.56 trillion won (~US$56 billion). Its operating profits were 15.64 trillion won (~$14.5 billion), a 58% increase from 9.9 trillion won (~$9.2 billion) achieved during the same period last year. Meanwhile, its year-on-year sales grew approximately 20%. The Seoul Newspaper elaborated that Samsung Electronics’ “semiconductor division…accounted for about three-quarters (73%) of total operating profits, leading the company to a record high.” Samsung explained: Demand for the semiconductor division increased due to sales of system LSIs [ASICs] for flagship smartphones and demand for virtual currency mining chips. Samsung’s Mining Chips & Earnings Outlook Samsung confirmed in January that it had begun manufacturing ASIC chips used for mining cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether. Without providing details, a company spokesperson told Techcrunch at the time that “Samsung’s foundry business is currently engaged in the manufacturing of cryptocurrency mining chips.” Samsung Electronics offers design services which connect “mid-to small-sized companies with qualified ASIC design services and support.” In January, the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem program was launched to ensure deep collaboration between the Samsung foundry, ecosystem partners, and customers. Dragonmint T1 Miner. Mining rig manufacturer Halong Mining has previously revealed that its flagship product, the Dragonmint T1 Miner, uses Samsung’s 10nm T1558 mining chips, calling them “the first-ever 10nm bitcoin mining chips.” Halong says their rig is “the world’s most efficient bitcoin miner, operating at 16TH with Asicboost technology inside for greater power efficiency.” “Earnings growth should continue in 2Q18, driven by demand for HPC-based semiconductors and an increase in supply of new 10nm process products,” Samsung Electronics detailed, emphasizing that “In the foundry business, despite a decline in demand for mobile parts due to seasonal weakness in 1Q18, earnings increased on the back of high-performance computing (HPC) chip orders.” The company continued to share: The foundry business is expected to secure the second place in the industry with more than $10 billion in sales. Mining Chip Market In the field of ASIC mining chip manufacturing, Samsung Electronics is competing with a few other chipset manufacturers. The largest is Taiwan’s TSMC, which supplies mining chips to mining hardware makers such as Bitmain and Canaan. Recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported on TSMC hitting record sales during March due to demand for the hardware required for crypto mining. According to a Trendforce study published in November of last year, TSMC held a 55.9% market share by revenue in the semiconductor foundry business, followed by Global Foundries with 9.4% market share, UMC with 8.5% and then Samsung with 7.7% market share. Do you think Samsung will soon gain market share in the mining chip market? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Samsung, and TSMC. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Samsung Profits Surge on High Demand for Bitcoin Mining Chips appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

With 80 percent of all bitcoins already mined, and the hashrate of the network reaching all-time highs, in today’s Bitcoin in Brief we are covering some news from the world of crypto mining. An Italian company is developing mobile mining farms, while in Russia a mining hotel offers an opportunity to legally earn cryptocurrency. And, if you can’t afford to buy or rent a rig, you can always experience the life of a miner thanks to one of the simulators that are hitting the market. Also read: Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Bitgrail and Btcxchange Crypto Traders in Troubled Waters Farms on Wheels to Criss-Cross Europe Entrepreneurs Gabriele Angeli and Gabriele Stampa, founders of the Bitminer Factory in Florence, are working on a rig that could become the main component of a new business model for miners in Europe. The Italians, who run their country’s largest mining hosting facility, have developed their own mining rig – Bitminer 8. Their operation on the outskirts of the historical city, famous for minting coins through the Middle Ages, has attracted 140 participating miners. The Bitminer 8 machine, around which the whole enterprise is built, started as a prototype assembled in a dishwasher drawer from off-the-shelf computer parts, Reuters reports. It is designed to mine altcoins, as bitcoin itself needs enormous computing power offered only by applications specific circuits (ASICs). These cryptos give companies like Bitminer and small scale crypto miners a chance to make a living and ultimately help expand the horizons of the crypto ecosphere. The two Fiorentinos have a business idea that would push these boundaries even further. They now plan to literally hit the road by installing their Bitminer 8s in shipping containers loaded on trucks. The project will enable miners to move the mobile farms across the Old Continent to destinations with cheap electricity and favorable regulations – factors that are always subject to change. Besides, free mobility of people and capital is a basic principle of the Common Market, and small and medium-sized enterprises are its backbone. Supporting initiatives like this should be a “no-brainer” in Brussels! Bitmain Develops Zcash ASIC Miner Chinese mining giant and equipment producer Bitmain has announced on Twitter it is developing a new product targeting Zcash miners. The ASIC miner is capable of processing the proof-of-work algorithm of Equihash, used by Zcash and other cryptos. The Antminer Z9 Mini offers a hashrate of 10k Sol/s. It is expected to hit the market in June. Zcash is mined primarily with graphics processing units (GPUs) that can be acquired by individual miners. Equihash was actually introduced to prevent the use of ASIC miners. Bitmain, however, has a history of overcoming ASIC-resistant algorithms. The company has already developed powerful miners for many cryptocurrencies whose developers have tried to stop the centralization of the hashing power. These include miners for Ethash, used by the Ethereum network, and Cryptonight, used by Monero. Why Buy It, When You Can Mine It? Mining accommodation is a niche which is rapidly expanding in Europe’s eastern neighbor Russia. A new mining hotel has recently opened doors in Moscow. The team behind the project offers ASIC-rentals with round-the-clock tech maintenance, IT support, and a reliable power supply. Clients will be able to remotely control their mining rigs through unlimited and backed-up internet connection. The datacenter is also equipped with professional cooling and humidity control systems. The most important benefit of using a mining hotel, however, is that it offers Russians an opportunity to legally acquire bitcoins while the country’s crypto sector still struggles in a semi-regulated environment. Many aspects of regulation have yet to be clarified by Russian authorities, with two pieces of legislation pending in the State Duma. The bill “On digital financial assets” is expected to legalize crypto-related activities like mining, and another text should amend the country’s civil code to allow crypto payments. Mining, which is favored by authorities in energy-rich Russia, is considered a legal way to acquire cryptocurrencies. Even now miners are allowed to register as individual entrepreneurs and enjoy preferential tax of only 6% on their turnover. Technically speaking, with the exception of mining, most other crypto operations are illegal at the moment. According to the website of the mining hotel in Moscow, renting an Antminer S9 (14 TH/s) for minting bitcoin costs 9,600 rubles a month (~$150), and Antminer L3+ (504 MH/s), the most powerful litecoin miner, is offered for 5,500 rubles (<$90). True Mining Simulator A team of Belarusian developers is working on a project to create a “True Mining Simulator” – a computer game dedicated to replicating the life experiences of a cryptocurrency miner, Forklog reports. Players will be able to build their own mining farm, maintain its equipment, follow cryptocurrency markets, and exchange digital coins to fiat money. The creators of the simulation also say it will allow gamers to spend the cryptocurrency they have mined. They will be able to go to a restaurant or purchase a car in the virtual reality. Last year, Russian developers created a mining simulator called Cryptocity for those who want to know what crypto mining looks like but don’t have the money to purchase expensive mining equipment. The mobile application uses real rates from cryptocurrency exchanges to calculate the mining income. Players can buy buildings and build mining farms. The game also simulates incidents like fires in the mining facility. Do you think crypto mining will be profitable for individual miners in the long run? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Forklog. Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post Bitcoin in Brief Friday: Farms on Wheels, a Hotel, and Even a Simulator for Miners appeared first on Bitcoin News. 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United Kingdom corporate research firm Gartner conducted a survey of nearly 300 Chief Information Officers (CIOs), in an attempt to separate hype from reality. The results are revealing, with a dismal 1% reporting “any kind of blockchain adoption within their organizations.” Also read: Telegram Rakes in Over $1.5 Billion, Ditches ICO for an Open Network & Token Survey of CIOs Reveals More Blockchain Hype Than Adoption A rather revealing survey of 293 CIOs conducted by English research outfit Gartner is attempting to suss out marketing campaigns from actual fact on the subject of blockchain usage among businesses. Gartner Vice President David Furlonger explained, “This year’s Gartner CIO Survey provides factual evidence about the massively hyped state of blockchain adoption and deployment. It is critical to understand what [it] is and what it is capable of today, compared to how it will transform companies, industries and society tomorrow.” Among some of the standout numbers: a whopping 77% of CIOs admitted their companies exhibited exactly no interest in the tech, nor have they plans to in the future; 8 percent claimed to be looking at interim planning or experimentation with it; and only “1 percent of CIOs indicated any kind of […] adoption within their organizations,” the survey detailed. Mr. Furlonger continued, “The challenge for CIOs is not just finding and retaining qualified engineers, but finding enough to accommodate growth in resources as blockchain developments grow. Qualified engineers may be cautious due to the historically libertarian and maverick nature of the [tech’s] developer community.” Numbers Point to Slow Going for Blockchain Adoption Cheekily, Mr. Furlonger waxed how “Blockchain continues its journey on the Gartner Hype Cycle at the Peak of Inflated Expectations. How quickly different industry players navigate the Trough of Disillusionment will be as much about the psychological acceptance of the innovations that [it] brings as the technology itself.” Furthermore, of those companies dabbling in the tech, 13 percent believed a complete restructuring of an information technology department would be the only way to bring along blockchain; 14 percent worried it would mean a large change of company culture; 23 percent indicated a host of new skills are required to meaningfully use it; and 18 percent noted knowledge of the tech is nearly impossible to find among potential employees. “Blockchain technology requires understanding of, at a fundamental level, aspects of security, law, value exchange, decentralized governance, process and commercial architectures,” Mr. Furlonger insisted. “It therefore implies that traditional lines of business and organization silos can no longer operate under their historical structures.” Industries inclined toward blockchain include financial services, of course, insurance, and telecommunications. The survey notes even public utilities, government agencies, and transportation sectors are exploring it for logistics and efficiency. “While many industries indicate an initial interest in [such] initiatives, it remains to be seen whether they will accept decentralized, distributed, tokenized networks, or stall as they try to introduce blockchain into legacy value streams and systems,” Mr. Furlonger stressed. Do you think blockchain is the inevitable future so many business leaders claim? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Gartner. Looking for a Bitcoin Cash Block Explorer? Check out Bitcoin.com’s BCH Block Explorer today to find transactions, blocks, and other important blockchain data. The post Only 1% of Business CIOs are Actually Using ”Blockchain” Technology appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. The crypto startup ETH888 has created the most feasible and provably fair lottery games on the Ethereum blockchain where participants can play Status browser or Ethereum wallet enabled environment, with instant result generation. At similar blockchain-based online casinos, it takes one block time – or even up to several minutes – to generate a random result. It is not only time-consuming for the players but it costs them more since the process requires significant gas consumption. The ETH888 team invested their time to research and to develop a breakthrough off-chain technology for instant random result generation that takes no more than 3 seconds, about 1/8 block time, and also saves at least 50 percent gas consumption. Beta game versions are already live in Ropsten testnet. Based on 2017 stats, the online gambling industry’s value is standing near 51 billion USD. The team behind ETH888 strives to develop the most responsive decentralized lottery house with the highest possible transparency and reasonable House Edge. The house will be using VAN tokens for currency within the platform. 40 percent of the house profits will be distributed to the Vanil pool where VAN token holders can share a portion of the profits determined by the amount of tokens owned. The first game in the mainnet will be ready by the Q3 of 2018. ETH888 is holding a VAN tokensale started on April 28, 2018 with a hardcap of 1,085,180 VAN tokens lasting for 4 weeks, with 4 offers against weeks, 400 / 300 / 200 / 100 VANs per Ether. Currently, 400 VANs / Ether offer will end on May 5 2018. According to ETH888, the token sale is essential to raise ETH capital for the team for backing game payouts. Contact Email Address info@eth888.io Supporting Link https://www.eth888.io/ico/ This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: Eth888 Launches Fair Lottery Games on the ETH Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A well-known bank in Belarus will begin offering a bitcoin contract for difference (CFD) product through its platform, a joint project with a Swiss bank. Meanwhile, Belarus is growing less crypto friendly, reportedly amending its decree to impose strict KYC rules. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space New Bitcoin CFD Product Mtbankfx is an accredited FX dealer and the first banking forex platform in Belarus. Launched in July 2016, it is a joint project between Minsk Transit Bank (Mtbank), one of the most well-known banks in Belarus, and Swiss Dukascopy Bank SA. The platform will start offering a bitcoin CFD product next week, according to local media. It has already added information and updated its terms of service to reflect this new offering. Mtbankfx explains in its terms of service that its tools, including the BTC/USD tool with 1:3 leverage, are “available for transactions around the clock – from the opening of the market on Sundays at 21:00 GMT in the summer (22:00 GMT in the winter) until the market closes on Fridays at 20:00 GMT in summer/winter time.” For the bitcoin CFD specifically, the company wrote: All open positions as of 20:00 GMT Fridays will be forcibly closed. While the platform offers CFDs for many underlying assets, the bitcoin CFD is the only one that will be forcibly closed. On March 29, Switzerland’s Dukascopy Bank SA launched its own BTC/USD CFD product for European clients. “Bitcoin to US Dollar (BTC/USD) with leverage 1:3 has been added for live trading,” the company stated. Belarus Becoming Less Crypto Friendly Alexander Lukashenko. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko signed the decree “On the development of the digital economy” in January that legalized cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, and smart contracts. The decree went into effect in March. However, local media reported this week that amendments to that decree are already being prepared to obligate cryptocurrency exchanges operating within the High-Tech Park (HTP) to disclose their data and identify customers. Ria Novosti’s source explained that “beneficiaries must meet the requirements for reputation” such as having no criminal record and no bankruptcy proceedings against them, in whole or part. “They should [also] show the availability of funds in accounts of at least $5 million and confirm the sources of their origin.” Additionally, Forklog elaborated: Operators are required to identify the clients of the exchanges, as well as record and store all types of communications with them. In certain cases, exchange-residents of the HTP will be required to conduct customer verification procedures. The news outlet added, “information about customers and their transactions should be stored at crypto exchanges for at least five years.” Do you think Belarus will become even less crypto friendly? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Mtbankfx. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Major Belarusian Bank Starts Offering Bitcoin CFD as Belarus Gets Less Crypto Friendly appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A digital asset smart banknote manufacturer has launched bitcoin banknotes at a store in Singapore. Designed to make owning and circulating cryptocurrencies as easy as using paper money, they are currently available in denominations of 0.01 and 0.05 BTC. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Bitcoin Banknotes Debut in Singapore Digital asset banknote manufacturer Tangem announced the launch of smart bitcoin banknotes at the Megafash Suntec City store in Singapore on Thursday. Megafash store in Singapore. The announcement states: Available immediately in denominations of 0.01 and 0.05 BTC, Tangem Notes radically improve the simplicity and security of acquiring, owning, and circulating cryptocurrencies for both sophisticated and incoming users. With headquarters in Switzerland’s cryptovalley Zug and Hong Kong, Tangem also has offices in Singapore, Moscow, and China, according to its website. The company says it “is delivering the first shipment of 10,000 production notes to prospective partners and distributors around the world for commercial pilots.” How Tangem’s Smart Banknotes Work Tangem explains that their bitcoin smart banknotes are “Comparable to a well-protected paper banknote” and “Cheap enough to hand over.” Citing their ease of use, the company says there is “No special infrastructure, no complicated applications – just touch the banknote with an NFC-capable smartphone to be 100% sure it has valid assets.” Illustration of how the banknotes work. Transferring ownership of the notes is anonymous and instant, Tangem claims. “Physically hand over the whole wallet together with the blockchain private key. No transaction fees, no need to await confirmation blockchain.” Moreover, the company says that its banknotes are equipped with “high-grade EAL6+ protection for all cryptocurrencies. Irretrievable private keys prohibit replication of wallet and its assets.” Competitor Opendime has long offered a physical product with a similar purpose but shaped more like a USB thumb drive and without any amount printed on them. Security Questions Tangem’s hardware is based on Samsung Semiconductor’s S3D350A chip. The company claims to offer “the first hardware storage solution on the market with its entire electronics and cryptography certified to the Common Criteria EAL6+ and EMVCo security standards.” As with any embedded firmware-based product in the cryptocurrency space, security audits and open-source code are paramount to earning users’ trust to ensure that the company does not have access to the funds stored on their product. At the time of this writing, Tangem’s only publicly available code is for its iOS and Android apps on Github. However, the company claims that it has shared the full source code of its proprietary chip firmware with a Swiss security firm, Kudelski Group, adding that this firm has completed an in-depth review and comprehensive security audit of its product’s architecture. What do you think of these bitcoin smart banknotes? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Samsung, and Tangem. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Bitcoin Smart Banknotes Launched in Singapore appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

After Reddit removed Bitcoin Core (BTC) as a form of payment for premium membership services this past March, the company seems to be planning to reinstate the digital asset soon. On Thursday, May 3 in an interview with Cheddar, the company’s chief technology officer (CTO), Chris Slowe, revealed it will be adding BTC again and more cryptocurrencies as well. Also read: Telegram Rakes in Over $1.5 Billion, Ditches ICO for an Open Network & Token Reddit CTO Says Cryptocurrency Payments Will Return to the Social MediaPlatform In an interview with the media outlet Cheddar, Chris Slowe, the CTO of Reddit explained the firm would be adding bitcoin core payments to the platform again. This will allow users to pay for premium membership called, Reddit Gold, with BTC. The company had previously removed the BTC payment option this past March stating the reason was due to a “Coinbase change” and only Paypal was accepted. During his interview with Cheddar, Chris Slowe says one of the reasons they dropped BTC was due to network transaction fees “being too large.” Every Cryptocurrency in Existence Has a Community on Reddit The Reddit CTO further stated that Coinbase was the main payment processing platform for Reddit, and the company recently revitalized its user interface and API. Slowe says the firm just didn’t have time to add the Coinbase API integration but they have been able to address the issue again. At the time the Reddit development team using Coinbase didn’t have access to other markets Slowe says, like Ethereum and Litecoin. “We have some of the oldest cryptocurrencies forums online,” Slowe explains in his interview. Like I remember when way back in the day maybe eight years ago when someone in the office found r/bitcoin, and I wondered what is a bitcoin? And why would I want to spend seven cents on one? It’s gotten a lot further along since then and the community and now every cryptocurrency in existence has a community on Reddit right now. An interview with Reddit’s chief technology officer (CTO), Chris Slowe, about reinstating cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Feels BTC and ETH Markets Will be Extremely Bullish This Year The interview with Slowe confirms Reddit is looking to integrate more cryptocurrencies shortly after a few weeks of hiatus. The CTO details that Reddit is looking at the cryptocurrencies offered by the Coinbase service which are Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum. The news also follows the Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, stating on May 2nd that he believes BTC will rally to $20K by the end of 2018. Ohanian also thinks Ethereum will climb 20 times in value to a price of $15,000 USD per ETH by the end of the year. “I’m most bullish about Ethereum simply because people are actually building on it,” Ohanian detailed. Last year, it was all about AI and machine learning, This year, it’s all about blockchain — Most of the really vital, protocol-level, basic infrastructure around software and blockchain will need to get built in the next year or two for us to really see the Web 3.0 we’re really hoping for. What do you think about Reddit adding multiple cryptocurrencies to the platform for payments? What do you think about Alexis Ohanian’s predictions? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Reddit, and Cheddar. Want to see the top 500 cryptocurrency market caps in real-time check out Satoshi Pulse! The post Reddit Plans to Reinstate Cryptocurrency Payments appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The following opinion piece was written by Jonald Fyookball. In part 1 of this series, I highlighted the importance of education. A community that is educated will be less influenced by propaganda. The second principle is that of clarity. The community needs to be “on the same page”. There is never going to be a perfect alignment of opinions among a large group of people, but… we need to have the same basic vision for Bitcoin Cash. Also read: How Bitcoin Cash Can Avoid the Same Mistakes as Bitcoin Core, Part 1 It’s Not Complicated, Bitcoin Cash is Money If you have something of value to offer me, and I’m willing to pay for it, then I send you bitcoin cash. No middleman and low fees. Done. Instantly. That’s the vision. The Challenge of Distributed Consensus In bitcoin, everyone needs to be using the same set of rules — also called consensus rules, network rules, or protocol rules. What happens when we need to upgrade or change the rules? We have this nifty thing in bitcoin called “Proof of Work”. It secures the network, and it keeps everyone on the same set of rules. It’s also a voting mechanism: The miners can vote on changing the rules because the “longest” chain (the chain with the most accumulated proof of work) is accepted by convention. In other words, the ultimate decision as to what rules the network follows are in the hands of the largest combined group of mining power. This is commonly known as Nakamoto Consensus. Forking Off Because of Metcalf’s Law, commonly referred to as “the network effect”, miners with a dissenting opinion are highly incentivized to capitulate and rejoin the majority. Their only alternative is to “fork off” and continue mining a minority chain. This is usually not worth it, unless the direction that the majority wants to go is so radical that it’s deemed unacceptable. …which is precisely what happened when Bitcoin Cash forked off from BTC on August 1st, 2017. The BTC community had wandered too far off the reservation. They focused on making it cheap to run a node even if it was expensive to send a transaction. They valued being a digital commodity over being a payment system. They worked on ethereal problems of the future rather than the real problems facing us today. And worst of all, they allowed censorship to flourish. Nakamoto Consensus works and is simple. We all stay together until it no longer makes sense. Its limitation is that bitcoin is also a social experiment — it’s not just miners that make up the ecosystem. The miners (who are actually voting) are also trying to make the decisions they believe the developers, users, investors, and businesses will support. That’s why education (and communication) are so important. A Magic Formula For Governance? What happens when we think we all want the same thing, but disagree on the best way to achieve it? For example, last year Bitcoin Cash’s difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) was updated but there was some contention between developers on the best algorithm to use. It would be nice to have some governance process by which competing ideas could be resolved. So far, no one has invented a “magic formula” one-size-fits-all solution, although some have tried. For example, here is a proposal that attempts to create a simple, effective governance process. In the above proposal, who decides if “a fix/improvement is under time pressure”, and what the “period of time” should be for voting on a proposal? Most importantly, how do you make sure miners have enough time (and unbiased information) to make the proper voting decisions? Even though there’s no silver bullet or magic formula, that may be ok. In the end, decisions are made and Bitcoin Cash moves on. BCH is a Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System The Bitcoin Core approach was to avoid making any protocol changes without broad consensus. Generally, in a system that depends on consensus, there is wisdom in this. Some would say that Core took this too far; that they impractically avoided making needed changes by looking for perfection. Others believe that this was merely an excuse and that those in control had already made up their minds against raising the blocksize. Either way, the common thread is that the community lacked clarity around wanting to be a peer to peer electronic cash system and what that really means. Knowing exactly what we want, and why, will help us to avoid stagnating and splintering in the future. Written by Jonald Fyookball Jonald Fyookball (pseudonym) is a cryptocurrency enthusiast, best known as the project leader of the Electron Cash wallet, and for a series of hard hitting articles on the Bitcoin scaling debate. Jonald is a computer scientist, businessman, investor, libertarian, and Bitcoin advocate. What are your thoughts on educating the BCH community? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support views, opinions or conclusions drawn in this post. 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. The post How Bitcoin Cash Can Avoid the Same Mistakes as Bitcoin Core, Part 2 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Viber may be treated like Telegram if security services are not able to obtain its encryption keys, Russia’s telecom minister said. The app offers end-to-end encryption, and is the most popular messenger in several Eastern European countries. Recently, its COO, Michael Shmilov, said the company would not be able to hand over the keys. Also read: Six Alternatives to Telegram for Cryptocurrency Communities “Can’t Give What We Don’t Have” Russian authorities may try to block Viber if the Federal Security Service (FSB) does not gain access to its encryption keys, according to comments made by the Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Nikolai Nikiforov. “This matter concerns the FSB which has the powers to implement an order to provide the encryption keys. If the security services have problems with acquiring the keys, they can turn to the court and obtain a similar decision,” Nikiforov said, quoted by ITAR-TASS. The minister was confronted with a question about the future of Viber after Russian authorities have been trying to block Telegram since April 16, following a decision by the Tagansky District Court of Moscow from April 13. So far, their attempts have been unsuccessful but the messaging service, widely used within the crypto community, has been experiencing issues while trying hard to circumvent imposed restrictions. In March, the chief operating officer of Viber Media, the operator of the messenger, told RBC that Viber would not be able to fulfill a request to hand over the encryption keys. Michael Shmilov said the company cooperates with law enforcement agencies in many countries but stressed that it would not do certain things. And, handing over encryption keys is one of them. “We cannot give them something that we don’t have. They can ask the users for their keys. We can’t see them, and we don’t stored them,” he explained. End-to-End Encryption Offered Viber was launched as an instant messaging and voice over IP service in 2010. The software was originally developed by the Israel-based Viber Media, which was bought by the Japanese company Rakuten in 2014. Last year the corporate name was changed to Rakuten Viber. The company is currently based in Luxembourg. The messenger, which claims to have 900 million users, is very popular in Eastern Europe and is the top messaging app in countries like Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine. In Russia, it’s currently the second most popular application, after Whatsapp. According to a survey conducted by the Russian Modern Media Research Institute in January, Facebook owned Whatsapp has a share of 59% of the Russian users, while Viber is used by 36%. The messenger of the Russian social network Vkontakte is third, with 32%. Telegram is used by 19% of the Russians, and Facebook Messenger – by 14%. According to the company’s website, Viber uses end-to-end encryption by default for text messages, in both private and group chats, and also for voice calls – a feature that was introduced as standard setting in 2016. It claims it doesn’t have access to conversations and does not store delivered messages on its servers. Keys to encrypt/decrypt data are kept only on client devices, according to Viber’s privacy policy. What’s Next, Whatsapp? The clampdown on private messaging in Russia started when the country’s telecom regulator, Roskomnadzor, tried to restrict access to Telegram by blocking IP addresses used by the app. Despite some interruptions in its services, authorities have not been able to completely prevent the use of the massager. Roskomnadzor blocked about 20 VPN and proxy services which offering access to Telegram servers. IP-addresses of ordinary Internet users may be blocked as a result of the conflict between the messenger and the regulator, warned Dmitriy Marinchev, Russia’s Internet Ombudsman. “Sooner or later, Telegram may switch to a peer-to-peer network and Roskomnadzor will have to block all their users’ IPs,” he explained. Marinchev added that everything now depends on how far Telegram will go in rewriting its software. Skype is a messenger which started as a peer-to-peer and client-server system, features that were part of its appeal. After changing hands several times, however, the platform hasn’t kept much from the original P2P concept. In 2011, Skype was acquired by Microsoft which transformed it into a centralized service based on MS’s cloud computing platform Azure. Leaked documents revealing mass surveillance of global communications showed that the company had granted American intelligence unrestricted access to Skype. This year, the messenger announced it is going to offer end-to-end encryption for audio calls, text and multimedia messages through Private Conversations. The feature, however, will not be set as a default option and won’t be available for video chats. The measures against Telegram have created difficulties for many Russians, even including those who are not using Telegram. Large Internet companies – including search engine, Yandex, and social media networks, Vkontakte, and, Odnoklassniki – have been affected. In April, Russian Viber users also complained about interruptions. According to the company, the issues were related to the blockade of Telegram. On May 1, Viber announced it had restored full access to its platform. Russian media have been asking the question “What’s next?” hinting about the most popular messenger in the country – Whatsapp. It uses end-to-end encryption for calls and messages in its latest versions. Which messenger do you most often use for private conversations? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post After Telegram, Viber May Be Blocked, Russian Minister Says appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This week there’s a lot going on within the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ecosystem as markets have been on fire and infrastructure continues to grow. Over the past six months, the price of BCH is up over 139 percent, and the price has jumped 13 percent higher over the last seven days. At the moment the value of BCH hovers just above the $1,500 USD price region, and traders have been swapping over $1.2Bn worth of bitcoin cash over the last 24-hours. Also Read: Australia Cracks Down on Misleading and Deceptive Initial Coin Offerings BCH Markets Up Over 139% Over the Past Six Months Bitcoin cash markets have been on a roll for a few weeks now as the cryptocurrency continues to see gains. At the moment, it’s less than two weeks until the upcoming May 15 hard fork, which will up the block size to 32 MB, and re-enable some OP_Codes as well. This week lots of action has been taking place across both BCH markets and the increase of BCH infrastructure as well. Presently the BCH chain is over 7,500 blocks ahead of the Bitcoin Core (BTC) chain. Additionally, BCH is operating at 15.21 percent of BTC’s difficulty and it is 3 percent more profitable to mine BCH today. Market action shows the top five exchanges today swapping the most BCH are Okex, Bitfinex, Upbit, Houbi, and Bithumb. BTC is the most traded currency swapped for BCH on May 3rd capturing 39 percent of all trades. This is followed by tether (USDT 22%), USD (18%), Korean won (16.2%) and the euro (1.5%). The Korean won has made a noticeable increase with BCH pairs over the past week, and volumes from Bithumb and Upbit reflect these metrics. Currently, there are 17,107,588 BCH in circulation which holds a market valuation of over $25Bn USD. Growing BCH Infrastructure and Positive Community Sentiment BCH infrastructure and support has increased significantly as multiple project and announcement were made this week. Blockchain Wallet announced that BCH balances are now visible in iOS mobile wallets. This week the platform Memo got some upgrades and has been seeing a bunch of traction. Following this, a new social media app that works similarly to Memo was launched yesterday called Blockpress. News.Bitcoin.com took Blockpress out for a test flight and talked with its developer yesterday. A bunch of automobiles branding the bitcoin cash symbol were found across the globe this week, with a cool BCH Jeepney in the Philippines. Moreover, BCH is trending in mentions on the social media platform 4chan as well. BRD wallet released its ‘Augustus’ version which now fully supports bitcoin cash and in-wallet trades. Lastly, Bitpay developers upgraded the firm’s Bitcore-lib-cash protocol which adds support for the May 15 hard fork for new OP_Codes, updated carrier size, and bigger blocks. Overall Bitcoin Cash proponents are excited about the future of the BCH economy and its growing development environment. The hard fork is getting close and supporters are also looking forward to the next upgrade which should add more robust features to the BCH network. Right now the 32 MB block size, the increased default datacarriersize, and re-enabled Satoshi OP_Codes are just three things pending activation. Alongside this, the construction of UTXO commitments, changing the Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) so it improves BCH block times while also adding a PID control algorithm, enabling binary contracts, and the block propagation protocol Graphene is currently under development. What do you think about the bitcoin cash ecosystem’s growth these past few weeks? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comments below. Images via Reddit, Pixabay, and Satoshi Pulse. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post BCH Ecosystem Grows With May 4X Hard Fork Less Than Two Weeks Away appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Tempers flared during a cryptocurrency panel hosted at the Milken Institute 21st Global Conference, in Beverly Hills, California with discussions degenerating to profanity as Nouriel Roubini, also known as ‘Dr. Doom,’ described bitcoin’s purported decentralization as “bullshit.” In addition to the comedy of Mr. Roubini, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman offered measured comments regarding the need to respect the “generational” nature of the booming interest surrounding the cryptocurrency markets. Also Read: CFTC’s Christopher Giancarlo Criticizes Outdated Regulatory Mandate ‘Dr. Doom’ Curses Decentralization at Milken Conference Nouriel Roubini Among the most boisterous of the conference’s panelists was Nouriel Roubini – an economist known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis. “All this talk of decentralization is just bullsh*t,” said Mr. Roubini, describing blockchain as comprising little more than a “glorified Excel spreadsheet.” Of investors who entered the bitcoin markets in late 2017, Mr. Roubini stated: “This was a bubble […] the ones who arrive late to the party are the suckers.” Mr. Roubini’s remarks elicited retaliation from Alex Mashinsky, the chief executive of Celcius Network, who challenged Dr. Doom to “buy one coin and then tell us how it works.” Bill Barhydt, the chief executive of Abra, also chimed in, announcing that Roubini offering analysis of the cryptocurrency markets was akin to “a horse salesman saying we don’t need combustion engines.” CFTC Chairman Describes “Generational” Shift Towards Bitcoin Also speaking at the Milken Conference, the chairman of the CFTC, Christopher Giancarlo argued that regulators need to ”take a moment and respect this generation’s interest in this new instrument.” Mr. Giancarlo asserted that the cryptocurrency markets need to viewed “Not with derision, but with a little bit of attention and respect, and respond with policy initiatives that really are thoughtful and forward-looking.” “There is something going on here that is generational,” he continued. “Just as the baby boomer generation lost faith in the leaders that came before them and tried to seek a cultural change in those days through sex, drugs and rock and roll, I think there is a generation that also has lost faith in us that led them through the financial crisis and they see technology as a way of disintermediating institutions for which they don’t have a great deal of respect.” Mr. Giancarlo concluded by emphasizing the challenges encountered by the CFTC in seeking to apply its regulatory mandate – which was developed during the 1930’s – to the innovative phenomena of cryptocurrency. “We are struggling to find out how we apply an old law to really new and different applications,” Mr. Giancarlo stated. “Every [ICO] I Have Seen Is A Security” – SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar Commissioner at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael Piwowar, offered a sweeping assessment of initial coin offerings (ICOs) at the conference, stating that so far every ICO examined by himself, or SEC chairman, Jay Clayton, has comprised “a security. Mr. Piwowar discussed the current regulatory implications for ICOs, stating that “If (an ICO token) is a security, then it falls into three buckets. The first is the registered public offerings; this is the normal IPO, public offer. We’ve not had anybody register a public offering for an ICO. The next bucket is exempt offerings, so if you have an ICO, you have to fit into one of those types of exempted. And the third bucket is illegal […] if you are not falling into the first two buckets, we’ve said we’re coming after you.” Mr. Piwowar added that “Bitcoin itself is not a security, but these customized tokens for these initial coin offering – most of them are.” What do you is your response to the cryptocurrency panel at the Milken Conference? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wikipedia Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Tempers Flare at Milken Institute Cryptocurrency Conference appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This week, Elias Valentin Smith, a 20-year-old man from New Zealand, successfully appealed his prison sentence for drug dealing with bitcoin as a teenager. This was despite the fact that the court system considered the use of bitcoin as a sign of criminal sophistication. Also Read: Bitcoin Is Not Used by Organized Crime Says Hong Kong Government Not Dark Enough Net Last month, Elias Valentin Smith of North Shore, Auckland, was sentenced to two years and three months in jail for fourteen drug-related charges by the Auckland District Court. On Tuesday his lawyer convinced the High Court that jail time was too harsh a punishment for the young man and the sentence was shortened to just eleven months under house arrest, as the New Zealand Herald reports. Although eventually withdrawing the prison sentence, the Auckland High Court was not open to the idea that the then teen was not old enough to understand the severity of his actions, in part because of the maturity the judges thought is needed to use bitcoin. One judge asked: “Would a young gang prospect on the East Coast of the North Island, who is looking at prison time for methamphetamine, accept that someone who was purposing drugs on the dark net and paying in bitcoin was not worldly wise and naïve?” Another judge added that “covert use of new technologies to break the law has its own level of sophistication”. Operation Tiger Despite the use of the dark net, the police got wind of Smith with fairly unsophisticated means. Investigators were alerted to the actions of the then high school senior by the New Zealand customs service that found several packages from abroad containing drugs addressed to the teen and his friend, which he got in the business, starting in October 2015. Smith was arrested in November 2016 after the police raided the teen’s room at his parents house as part of what they called Operation Tiger. The police reportedly found in his room a set of scales and a small amount of drugs (including methamphetamine and lysergic acid – a precursor for LSD). His mobile phone was also seized and the police said it contained text message communications with prospective drug buyers, describing his products and offering a discount for bulk sales. The police also got its hands on several documents showing Smith had invested in bitcoin. Should the judge have spared this young man from going to jail? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post Young New Zealand Man Spared Jail for Dealing Drugs With Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

So you’ve recently heard about a place called the Deep Web, and the underground darknet markets (DNM) that reside there offering narcotics like cannabis online. Using these websites and the wares these markets sell may be illegal in your country, so learning to take the necessary precautions before visiting a DNM is an absolute must. Educating yourself on the basics of operations security (Opsec) is a great idea before exploring the depths of DNMs found on the invisible web. Also read: Six Alternatives to Telegram for Cryptocurrency Communities Learn the Very Basics of Deep Web Opsec Before Visiting a Darknet Market Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the top DNMs out there – like the Dream Market, Wall Street, and Point Marketplace places which are entrenched in code within the confines of the deep web. Now maybe you have heard about these places before, but it’s always good to learn the very basic Opsec techniques that are highly recommended before purchasing something, or even entering a darknet market. A Browser That Crawls the Deep Web is Required The first and foremost thing to learn is you can’t find DNMs using a Google browser. Only a deep web indexing browser like Tor can get you to those special destinations. Tor is a free browser that enables a level of anonymous communication by concealing every Tor user’s identity under an overlay network of relay nodes. Tor also allows users to access the deep web and .onion addresses. Basically, a .onion is just a domain suffix, which is tethered to a hidden website found only on the invisible web. Downloading and using a deep web browser like Tor to access any DNM is required. Tor is a free browser that enables a level of anonymous communication. Tor is Nice But a VPN Obfuscates Internet Traffic Even More Next up is acquiring a Virtual Private Network (VPN), because most people would agree that using Tor alone is just not enough Opsec to visit a DNM. Whenever someone surfs the web, and visits any website they leak the IP address which is tied to a physical address. Using a VPN a user can extend a private network transversely online negating an individual or organization’s ability to tie an IP address to the end user. A VPN is highly recommended for visiting any DNM or doing anything that may get you in trouble with law enforcement. VPNs are also used for when people download or seed torrents on the Piratebay, or when a citizen from China wants to see the internet beyond the Great Firewall. VPNs will mask an IP address and encrypt an individual’s online traffic in order to do a lot of things that need privacy including visiting a DNM. Finding Reliable DNM Vendor Takes Time and Research Finding a DNM and reliable vendor is the next step and only the first part is fairly easy. DNM .onion addresses for darknet marketplaces, like the ones we recently reported on can be found online within five minutes or less. However, finding a reliable trustworthy vendor for anything on the deep web is pretty difficult, even when perusing through the halls of marketplaces like Dream or Wall Street. Back when Reddit allowed the forum r/darknetmarkets to thrive, people used to try and find reputable vendors through word of mouth, but Reddit shut the forum down. Not all vendors are trustworthy, as you should read about their reputations from customer reviews, and make sure you feel comfortable with the vendor’s terms. In Order to Make Purchases, You Are Going to Need Some Bitcoin In order to purchase anything on a DNM, the market will require you to obtain some cryptocurrency to buy things. Bitcoin Core (BTC) is the most widely used digital currency used on the deep web, but some markets have been known to accept other cryptocurrencies, such as Monero (XMR). Now, you can’t just load up on bitcoins using Coinbase and just head straight to a DNM. Purchasing from centralized exchanges that follow KYC and AML laws is not recommended, unless the coins can be tumbled first. Coinbase and other exchanges have been known for blacklisting accounts who visit DNMs, and even cryptocurrency gambling sites. Using bitcoins bought from centralized trading platforms can also be tied to your location. So to purchase bitcoins for use on a hidden marketplace most people would recommend utilizing a decentralized exchange, Localbitcoins, or a bitcoin ATM that doesn’t require identification. Buying bitcoins with cash from a friend or another type of non-centralized source would be the best method at hand. Bitcoin is required to make DNM purchases some marketplaces allow other cryptocurrencies like Monero. These Steps Just Scratch the Surface, Make Sure You Research More About the Best DNM Opsec Methods and Study Marketplace Tutorials Using these basic tools and Opsec techniques will get you started and along your way towards visiting a DNM, and possibly make a purchase. But remember it may be illegal where you reside to partake in these types of activities, and even the smartest darknet masterminds have been caught by law enforcement. Studying further on how to use a specific DNM and how they operate is a good idea before attempting a visit. It’s also good to get a PGP email as well that allows encrypted messaging abilities, because vendors use this method for communications. There are many more ways you can prepare to make a trek to the deep web’s dark marketplaces, and this advice just scratches the surface. Research how to use and understand the Tor network, VPNs, tumblers, and maybe read a tutorial on how to make a purchase on the DNM you plan to visit. Preserving your privacy while doing anything online is always recommended, but doing so while visiting a darknet market is probably best. Once you feel comfortable with most of these privacy-centric methods, finding a .onion address for any popular DNM is extremely simple, and hidden marketplace addresses can be found on the open web. What do you think about the basic Opsec methods needed before visiting a DNM? Is there anything that we missed? How do you best protect your identity while visiting DNMs? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Wiki Commons. Want to see the top 500 cryptocurrency market caps in real-time? Check out Satoshi Pulse! The post Darknet Markets: Learning How to Get There is Half the Battle appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article