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Friday 30 June 2017
Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 30 Jun 2017
Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Regains 40% Crypto Market Dominance As Ethereum, Other Altcoins Plummet
Bitcoin’s crypto market dominance has recovered above 40 percent as Ethereum’s deep falls caused its presence to reduce sharply.
Data from Coinmarketcap shows an uptick of around two percent over the past 24 hours for Bitcoin, despite its price also slipping downwards.
Bitcoin’s share of the cryptocurrency market had bottomed out at as little as 37 percent last week amid Ethereum’s ICO frenzy.
The largest altcoin’s rapid losses over the weekend, which continue today, soon reversed the trend, however, Ethereum currently trading at around just $250.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2tkKyoM
Source: CoinTelegraph
Bitcoin Shows What Banking Should Be: American Banker
American Banker, a daily trade newspaper that has been covering the financial sector since 1836, recently featured an analytical piece by its editor-in-chief Marc Hochstein entitled “How I missed the point of bitcoin,” to demonstrate how Bitcoin has shown what global banking should be.
In 2012, Hochstein noted in an article entitled “Lightning fast, dirt cheap: bitcoin shows what banking could be,” that a new peer to peer digital cash system has emerged. Five years ago, Hochstein praised the Bitcoin network’s ability to settle transactions with low fees and at fast speeds without the necessity and involvement of intermediaries or mediators.
The decentralized nature of Bitcoin remains identical but what has changed in Bitcoin is its fee and settlement speed. Due to the explosive growth of the Bitcoin network and its market, average Bitcoin transaction fees have increased beyond $2.5. In addition, at certain periods wherein the Bitcoin mempool, the holding area of Bitcoin transactions for the miners, is full of unconfirmed transactions, the confirmation of transactions can take hours.
However, Hochstein remains optimistic towards the core principles and functions of Bitcoin that include the settlement of transactions and transfer of data in a decentralized, transparent and fair manner. Although Bitcoin transactions can cost up to $2.5, scaling solutions such as the Bitcoin Core development team’s transaction malleability fix segregated witness (SegWit) are imminent.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2tkAeNO
Source: CoinTelegraph
Poland’s Largest Food Delivery with 5000+ Restaurants Starts Accepting Bitcoin
Pyszne.pl is Poland’s largest service for ordering food online. In 2016, the site reported having approximately 883,000 active customers, 4.3 million orders, and an average order size of 9.55 euros. It has partnered with 5,062 restaurants, ranging from pizza, sushi, kebab, dumplings and other dishes, all of which offer delivery.
In 2014, Pyszne.pl was acquired by Takeaway.com, one of the largest online food ordering websites in the world. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Takeaway.com is active in 10 countries, has 28,800 restaurants, and 8.9 million active customers. Pyszne.pl is Takeaway.com’s fastest growing brand and the only one in Poland. In 2016, it grew 150% annually in terms of gross merchandise volume. Takeaway.com wrote:
"Poland [Pyszne.pl] continues to be our fastest-growing market delivering another year of triple-digit order growth…we have achieved twelve times order growth in Poland and cemented ourselves as the clear number one in a fast-growing market. Our brand is multiple times larger than the number two based on orders."
In addition, the company detailed, “Poland is also home to our fourth largest office,” which is located in Warsaw. “Our Polish business became our third largest market in 2016.”
Full story at http://bit.ly/2tkD4lM
Source: Bitcoin News
Burger King to Accept Bitcoin in Russia This Summer
Russian Burger King restaurants are due to start accepting Bitcoin as a payment method this summer, reports state on Wednesday.
According to local news resources, a Moscow branch of the burger chain has started piloting Bitcoin payments, with officials now confirming a nationwide rollout.
Uznay Vse states the unnamed branch accepted a Bitcoin transaction on Tuesday this week, which represents “the first official reports of Bitcoin payments for goods and services in Russia.”
Burger King has also begun the hunt for an IT professional able to implement the relevant software.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2tl5Bb4
Source: CoinTelegraph
Bitcoin QA: How is fungibility tied to privacy?
Published on 27 Jun 2017
Fungibility is simply that it doesn't matter where any given unit of currency came from; one unit is worth as much as any other unit. For example, it doesn't matter, upon presentation, the euro you hold was stolen two transactions ago. No one can say "I will take that euro but not that euro." This was settled as a matter of law in the 16th century. The reason we have fungibility is because otherwise the currency wouldn't work; if every time you received a euro, you had to open a database and check the provenance, currency wouldn't work. Not just because you would have to track a database that was perfect and always updated, but because no euro would be worth one euro. Every euro would be weighted by how liquid it is, whether you can use it and it will be accepted. Fungibility is understanding by law, practice, and technology that every unit is treated as indistinguishable. Bitcoin is somewhat fungible. You can trace the provenance of every coin; by custom we don't do that but we are beginning to see some companies do it, which is a problem. If accounts start being frozen because of where bitcoins came from three transactions ago, that's a problem. Fungibility is tied to privacy and anonymity. There are systems being made where you can't tell the amount being transacted, who the sender and receiver are. Banning technology, especially open-source technology, because criminals use it only usually affects the people who aren't criminals: the innocent and the idiots. People should be able to protect their money from predators, from corporations, from tyrannical governments.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2tnpZZ1
Source: SydesJokes Blog
New York Preschools Accept Bitcoin and Ether for Tuition Payments
Two private preschools in New York City now accept bitcoin and two other cryptocurrencies for tuition payments, according to their co-founder.
Montessori Schools, based in the Flatiron and SoHo neighborhoods of Manhattan, began accepting bitcoin, ether and litecoin in June. Payments are accepted by way of an integration with digital currency startup Coinbase, which automatically converts the crypto payments to US dollars.
The preschools ascribe to the Montessori philosophy of education, an approach to learning developed in the early 20th century by Maria Montessori. According to online materials, tuition at the schools can run as high as $30,950 per annum – worth roughly 12.3 BTC at current prices.
Marco Ciocco, co-founder and chairman of the schools, told CoinDesk that the move to accept digital currencies for tuition payments began more than a year ago, following requests from parents. As more requests came in, Ciocco said, school officials started to seriously weigh how it could work.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2tpc04N
Source: CoinDesk
Tuesday 27 June 2017
Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 28 Jun 2017
Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.
What is Superior Coin
Superior Coin is a secure, private, untraceable currency. Unlike many crypto currencies that are derivatives of Bitcoin, Superior Coin is based on the CryptoNote protocol and possesses significant algorithmic differences relating to blockchain obfuscation. Superior Coins main emission curve will have issued about 1.5 billion coins to be mined in over 30+ years. Superior Coin protects privacy in three ways for all transactions on the network: 1 ring signatures hide the sending address, 2 RingCT hides the amount of the transaction, and 3 stealth addresses hide the receiving address of the transaction.
Superior Coin daemon uses the original CryptoNote protocol except for the initial changes (as the block time and emission speed). The protocol itself is based on "one-time ring signatures" and stealth addresses. The underlying cryptography is essentially Daniel J. Bernstein's library for Ed25519, which is Schnorr signatures on the Twisted Edwards curve. The end result is passive, decentralised mixing based on heavily-tested algorithms. However, several improvements were made which covered the proper use of ring signatures for better privacy. Specifically, "a protocol-level network-wide minimum mix-in policy of n = 2 foreign outputs per ring signature", "a nonuniform transaction output selection method for ring generation" and "a torrent-style method of sending Superior Coin outputs".
Superior Coin features an opaque blockchain (with an explicit allowance system called the viewkey), in sharp contrast with transparent blockchain used by any other cryptocurrency not based on CryptoNote. Thus, Superior Coin is said to be "private, optionally transparent". On top of very strong privacy by default, such a system permits net neutrality on the blockchain (miners cannot become censors, since they do not know where the transaction goes or what it contains) while still permitting auditing when desired (for instance, tax audit or public display of the finances of an NGO) Furthermore, Superior Coin is considered by many to offer truly fungible coins. In Short giving your view key can allow some one to view your transactions with out being able to access your coins.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2oeUiuc
Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money
Published on 22 Apr 2017
In this talk "Blockchain vs. Bullshit - Thoughts on the Future of Money," Andreas Antonopoulos outlines the necessary criteria that will help you distinguish blockchains from bullshit, and why the goal of developing this technology should not be "banking the unbanked" but rather de-banking all of us.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2rST6iQ
China Becomes First Country in the World to Test a National Cryptocurrency
China’s central bank — the People’s Bank of China — has developed a prototype of a cryptocurrency that it could end up in circulation in the near future. It would be introduced alongside the China’s primary currency the renminbi (also called the yuan). China will be simulating possible scenarios and running mock transactions using the cryptocurrency with some commercial Chinese banks.
The potential benefits of developing a digital currency are significant, particularly in China. First, it would decrease the cost of transactions, and therefore make financial services more accessible, which would be a big help to the millions of people in the country who are unconnected to conventional banks. Second, as it would be supported by blockchain, it has the potential to decrease the rates of fraud and counterfeiting, which would be of service to the government’s attempts to reduce corruption — a key concern. Third, it would make the currency easier to obtain, which would increase the rate of international transactions, allowing for more trades and faster economic growth.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2rWD2fR
How The Bitcoin Revolution Will Affect Entrepreneurs
It’s been dubbed digital gold for Millennials and anybody else with a sense for good investments. Virtual currencies like Bitcoin are revolutionizing how we make transactions and interact with our global financial system. These unconventional and futuristic currencies are changing our financial world in ways we are just now beginning to grasp.
Entrepreneur Troy Osinoff thrives on the unconventional, and he has long seen the potential that Bitcoin has on how we do business. Osinoff got his start making websites for local businesses at the age of 10, and continued to build his career creating various startups, such as MakeAGIF.com (acquired). From there, Osinoff has written a book (sold to Fox in late 2017), funded various companies and advised a variety of startups.
His large network of websites and social channels reaches millions of users every month. He follows the Bitcoin and digital currency market closely, sometimes tweeting snippets of advice, such as when dips in the market make it a good time to buy.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2rWSzwk
Ethereum's cofounder used the cryptocurrency to disprove fake news stories about his death
Because Buterin is the cofounder of Ethereum, a bitcoin-like cryptocurrency that is wildly buzzy right now - and over the weekend, he was targeted by a hoax that claim he died in a car crash.
An article published on the website Vionews wrote: "The victims in the crash have been identified as Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, and 34-year old Travis Sellmon. Police told Local News two vehicles were involved in the crash that injured five people and killed two. Officers confirmed the Vitalik and Travis were travelling in separate vehicles."
But it's not true, and the article has since been deleted. (Rumours were also spread via the imageboard 4chan.)
Buterin, meanwhile, took to Twitter to emphasise his continued existence - and used his creation Ethereum to do so.
Full story at http://read.bi/2rWKPub
Five Reasons Why Bitcoin is Here to Stay
A major issue hindering Bitcoin is uncertainty about its future. The debate is over whether Bitcoin will be a successful long run innovation or fizzle out like so many prior innovations.
It is possible to make a relatively accurate prediction about the future of Bitcoin by analyzing five factors successfully used by technology adoption experts for decades: relative advantage, compatibility with other innovations, experience through trialability, complexity and observability.
These factors, derived from the classic work of innovation diffusion theorist Everett Rogers, when combined with features unique to Bitcoin, suggest that Bitcoin is here to stay..
Full story at http://bit.ly/2rWN3dg
Friday 23 June 2017
Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 23 Jun 2017
Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.
Traders Get Burned In Ethereum Flash Crash
The white hot cryptocurrency Ethereum went on a wild ride on Wednesday, plummeting from around $320 to around 10 cents in a so-called "flash crash." The price soon recovered but not before some investors took a terrible bath and some others made out like bandits.
Here's what happened.
Ethereum, a popular new digital currency, trades on exchanges much like its older rival bitcoin. The most widely-used exchange, Coinbase-owned GDAX, operates like a traditional stock exchange, and lets traders buy stock on margin and place so-called "stop loss" orders—an automated instruction to sell if the price falls below a certain point.
As Adam White, the VP of GDAX, explained in a blog post, one investor placed a multi-million dollar Ethereum "sell" order at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The size of the order caused the price of the currency, which is already volatile, to dip.
Full story at http://for.tn/2t1Xn7q
Petition Requests for Jeff Bezos and Amazon to Accept Bitcoin and Litecoin As Payments
An Amazon customer made a petition directly addressed to its CEO Jeff Bezos to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as mode of payments on the e-commerce platform.
The petition which has been lodged through Change.org is mainly requesting the e-commerce giant to allow its users to pay for purchases on the site using cryptocurrencies.
It specifies that the logic behind the petition was to not only allow its customers to have more options in terms of method of payment, but it will also allow Amazon to promote innovation and modernization during the purchasing process since Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have already been accepted as payment methods for a lot of other institutions.
With the initial goal of 1,500 goal, it has managed to gather 1,438 supporters as of writing. While it got a few upvotes on Reddit, some the latter’s community members think it’s unlikely for Amazon to pay attention to the request since it has been historically hesitant to support cryptocurrency.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2t2he6j
The Bitcoin Bubble Will Turn Into Mania Before It Bursts
For the last nine months, the Bitcoin rally that took the digital currency from a few hundred dollars to close to $3000 had all the elements of a bubble that has yet to turn into a mania before it bursts.
Every asset bubble is different, and can be easily confused with healthy bull markets. But they all follow a certain pattern. They begin with ‘investor hype’ over a popular theme – an emerging industry or an exotic product that promises to change the world and make many people rich in the process.
Somewhere down the road Wall Street develops the vehicles that make broad investor participation in this theme easier, like a mutual fund or an ETF—turning investor hype into market contagion, and pushing the price of the underlying assets ever higher.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2t27kSn
The first investor in Snapchat explains why the bitcoin rally is just getting started
Uncertainty about governments could make cryptocurrency like bitcoin an even more in-demand commodity, said Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Jeremy Liew.
"Bitcoin and the other digital currencies, they all really see a lot of benefit in times of political and economic instability," Liew said to CNBC. "Fundamentally when a citizen doesn't have faith in their currency of their country, then they are looking for alternatives, and a digital alternative like bitcoin becomes much more compelling in those circumstances."
Lightspeed co-led the first venture round in Blockchain, a bitcoin wallet, in October 2014. Liew also led the first venture investment in Snap, whose IPO in March turned a $485,000 investment into a stake worth more than $1 billion.
Liew said in parts of the Middle East, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, concerns over the government being overthrown or persistent long-term currency inflation have been driving bitcoin's increasing valuation. A bitcoin is valued at a little over $2,800 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Coindesk.
Full story at http://cnb.cx/2t1U6Vy
This Ethereum flash crash shows how cryptocurrency markets are super risky
The cryptocurrency market for Ethereum plummeted late Wednesday. This wasn't a quick dip, but a flash crash that sent the price from $317 to a low of $0.10 in a matter of seconds.
Some people saw thousands of dollars in value disappear.
Things are back to normal, sort of. The price of ether, the cryptocurrency of the suddenly hot Ethereum platform, has since rebounded and is trading back at about $318.
The crash, however, remains as a big reminder that this is a volatile, new market. Plenty of people have made small fortunes investing in these markets, but the get-rich-quick stories belie the risks that the average person faces if they want to get in on these new digital currencies.
Full story at http://on.mash.to/2t20LPu
Chainalysis Says They’ve Found the Missing $1.7 Billion Dollar Mt Gox Bitcoins
U.S. officials and blockchain company representatives held a subcommittee hearing on the implications of virtual currencies and illicit financing on June 8. Members of the blockchain subcommittee who testified at the congressional hearing include Jerry Brito (Coin Center), Scott Dueweke (Identity and Payments Association), Kathryn Haun (Stanford Law School), Jonathan Levin (Chainalysis), and Luke Wilson (Elliptic). Both Chainalysis and Elliptic are blockchain monitoring companies that are well known for helping law enforcement with digital currency surveillance.
“This hearing will explore terrorists and illicit use of financial technology (FinTech), the national security implications of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, and the use of “blockchain” technologies to record transactions and uncover illicit activities,” details the congressional memo.
During the discussion, U.S. Representative, Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, asked the blockchain monitoring company executives why they couldn’t locate the infamous missing Mt Gox coins supposedly lost in 2014.
“I was particularly struck by your opening remarks that we can detect the activity,” explained Representative Davidson. “It seems that if we have this ability, which it seems we theoretically should, then we would be able to find the missing Mt. Gox coins. Why can’t we?”
Full story at http://bit.ly/2t26XHB
Wednesday 21 June 2017
Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 21 Jun 2017
Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.
Jens Weidmann, the head of Germany's Bundesbank and one of the most powerful figures in European finance, has warned that digital currencies like bitcoin have the potential to make financial crises in the future even more devastating.
Speaking in Frankfurt on Wednesday, Weidmann said he believes that central banks will eventually create their own digital currencies to reassure average citizens that such currencies are safe and stable, but in doing so could increase the risk of bank runs in future crises.
"Allowing the public to hold claims on the central bank might make their liquid assets safer, because a central bank cannot become insolvent," Weidmann said in a speech largely focused on the European Central Bank's QE programme.
"This is a feature which will become relevant especially in times of crisis - when there will be a strong incentive for money holders to switch bank deposits into the official digital currency simply at the push of a button. But what might be a boon for savers in search of safety might be a bane for banks, as this makes a bank run potentially even easier."
Full story at http://read.bi/2rB6EmY
Bittrex Cryptocurrency Exchange Trading Tutorial - Michel Gerard Online
You have probably heard about Bitcoin by now with all the news surrounding it reaching $3,000 per Bitcoin and then going up and down frequently. Now you may want to know how you can trade it with other altcoins in a cryptocurrency exchange.
There are on the Internet several websites where you can trade cryptocurrencies, and you can find an up-to-date list of cryptocurrency exchanges here: The Best Bitcoin Exchanges
Poloniex is the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in terms of volume, but popularity comes with a downside, which is a site going very slow at times, and this has been a complaint by many users lately.
Another excellent option is to use Bittrex, which is based and fully regulated in the USA.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2rBGNav
In relief rally, bitcoin jumps more than 20% from June low
Bitcoin quickly bounced back from the lows of June, amid improved sentiment about the future of the digital currency.
Bitcoin traded higher Saturday near $2,680, up more than 20 percent from a June low of $2,185.96 hit Thursday that had erased gains for the month, according to CoinDesk.
Worries about overexuberance in digital currencies overall and heated debate among developers about how to upgrade bitcoin's technology weighed on its price.
"A proposal was accepted to merge the two upgrade methods, making them compatible," Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and founder of BKCM, which runs a digital assets strategy, said Friday. "So we have seen a relief rally on this progress."
Full story at http://cnb.cx/2sShNj5
Forbes Encourages Readers to Buy Bitcoin at All-Time Highs
Throughout the nascent years of cryptocurrency bitcoin received scant coverage in the press, with the exception of few niche technology publications. For several years bitcoin evaded extensive coverage in the mainstream press, until the darknet hosted anonymous free-market The Silk Road began to garner attention for facilitating the sale of illegal narcotics using bitcoin as its currency. A spattering of news outlets speculated about the potential for bitcoin’s use a vehicle for money laundering, terrorist financing and narcotics sales. Soon after, however, bitcoin stunned the world with meteoric price gains after unusually harsh austerity measures were being forced upon the nation of Cyprus during 2014. A resulting flood of citizens seeking to convert their savings into any store of value that could evade government seizure drove bitcoin prices from $40 USD to $260 USD.
Forbes Encourages Readers to Buy Bitcoin at All-Time High Price Area
The rest of 2013 saw many obituaries for bitcoin published by mainstream news outlets, before bitcoin again shocked the world be rallying past $1000 USD following a sudden flood of Chinese entrants into the cryptocurrency markets. The subsequent popping of the China bubble saw a slow year-long grind back to sub-$200 USD prices, seeing the majority of mainstream media publications dismiss the bitcoin bubble as a digital contemporary ‘Tulip Mania’ that would never be heard from again.
The tendency for mainstream news outlets to dismiss bitcoin while its price is low before hyping cryptocurrency after it has boomed has become routine since the 2013 China bubble. The article published by Forbes in Level-Up in recent days titled ‘How To Buy Bitcoin, Now That It’s Reached An All-Time High’ echoes this familiar sentiment. The opening paragraph states that “the price for one coin has spiked to about $2,900. If you haven’t already, now is the time to buy in”.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2rBNYiN
Bitcoin Price at $5,000 Is In Sight: Max Keiser
Although Bitcoin price has struggled to recover back to its newest all-time high at $3,018, avid Bitcoin enthusiast and RT’s Keiser Report host Max Keiser has stated that a new all-time high for Bitcoin price is in sight.
Keiser wrote:
“New all-time high for Bitcoin in sight. Regulators will be twiddling their thumbs at $5,000, $10,000, and beyond. Welcome to NCO (New Crypto Order).”
Full story at http://bit.ly/2sSfMUe
How Can You Actually Spend Your Bitcoins, Explained
I have some Bitcoins and altcoins. Can I spend them anywhere I want?
Nope, sorry.
Unfortunately, Bitcoin is still pretty far away from becoming a universally accepted currency. Alternative cryptocurrencies seem to be even farther away from that point.
It has been a crucial problem for Bitcoin since its very beginning. What good is digital money if you can’t really spend it whenever you want? And the efforts of the community to improve the situation are one of the principal driving forces behind the growing adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2rBKc9q
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