Lightning Network Launches Third Release Featuring Bitcoin and Litecoin Atomic Swaps
Following the activation of Segregated Witness (Segwit) on the Bitcoin network, the developers from Lightning Labs released the 0.3 alpha version of the team’s Lightning Network Daemon. Lightning Labs developer, Laolu “Roasbeef” Osuntokun, details the release provides a vast array of new features including litecoin atomic swaps.
Right after the Segwit protocol was activated, Lightning Labs developer Laolu Osuntokun revealed the third major release for the Lightning Network Daemon (LND). The LND development team says they are thrilled that Segwit is finally available and “they are extremely excited to see Lightning integrated into the ecosystem, and to see all the novel applications that developers will build out.”
“This release marks the third major release for LND,” explains Osuntokun via the team’s Github repo. “With this release, LND is now has gained a considerable feature set, a new automatic channel management operating mode, RPC authentication, additional persistence logic, and further major strides towards complete spec compliance.”
Lightning Labs explains individuals who test the software should still use testnet coins, and wait until the team is closer to mainnet usage. The next release will provide safety measures before applying the protocol to the mainnet mode. Further, Osuntokun explains that the new LND framework contains “several breaking changes,” which means users need to upgrade to a fresh installation, or remove their existing ‘channel.db’ database.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2wvAqvb
Source: Bitcoin News
Large Korean Conglomerate Gets Into Bitcoin Remittances Post Legalization
A large South Korean conglomerate is entering the Bitcoin remittance market. Dongbu Group is partnering with Bitcoin remittance service provider Sentbe via its savings bank subsidiary. The move follows the legalization of “micro” Bitcoin remittances by the Korean government.
Established in 1969, Dongbu Group is a large global conglomerate in South Korea. The group produces industry, chemical, shipping, insurance and financial products.
One of its many subsidiaries, founded in 1972, is Dongbu Savings Bank. The bank announced this week that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Bitcoin remittance company Sentbe. An official from the bank said:
"We have been working on this business alliance to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution era under the traditional savings bank business."
Full story at http://bit.ly/2wvJbVU
Source: Bitcoin News
No SegWit Bump? Bitcoin Price Shrugs Off Upgrade with Sideways Trading
"SegWit is old news for the market."
So says crypto analyst Petar Zivkovski, and there's evidence to suggest traders largely agree. Despite just completing perhaps its most significant technical upgrade ever, the price of bitcoin is down just under 1% over the last 24 hours of trading.
To Zivkovski, this shows that bitcoin's upgrade, no matter how impactful, was for traders a classic "buy the rumor" event. He speculates much of the price activity in recent months was due to the upgrade – prior to it being clear SegWit would be activated (thereby increasing and redefining network capacity), he notes bitcoin was trading below $2,000.
But before the network adopts the top-level payment networks and other next-generation features enabled by SegWit, Zivkovski expects a run of profit-taking.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2wvz6s5
Source: CoinDesk
Bitcoin miners are making a killing in transaction fees
Bitcoin miners are making money hand-over-fist.
According to data from blockchain.info.com, the value of transaction fees paid to miners has reached an all-time high of $2.3 million.
Miners are basically the hamsters in the wheel that keep bitcoin's network going. They use rigs of computers to unlock the blocks (underpinning bitcoin's network) on which transactions are made. Every time a miner unlocks a bitcoin block, vis-a-vis mining, all the transactions on that block are processed. The miner, in return for his hard work, is rewarded with 12.5 bitcoins for unlocking the block. They also get to keep the transaction fees bitcoin holders pay when they transact with the cryptocurrency.
In the early days, miners would only get a couple bucks in transaction fees. On Wednesday, however, miners received a whopping $2.3 million.
Full story at http://read.bi/2wvjrZR
Source: Business Insider Nordic
Manufacturing Giant Midea Wants to Put Bitcoin Miners in Household Appliances
Midea Group, a major manufacturer of electrical appliances in China, is seeking to patent a method for mining bitcoin with household items, public records show.
The previously unreported application was submitted last November and published earlier this year by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People's Republic of China.
The company's application calls for appliances ranging from air conditioners, dehumidifiers and TVs to be built with specialized mining chips embedded inside. Once programmed, the products would connect to a cloud-based service and contribute their hashing power in the background.
As the patent application's abstract explains:
"The method comprises the following steps: controlling network access of the household appliance, and logging in a bitcoin account via the household appliance, wherein the bitcoin account is an account preregistered in a bitcoin [mining] website; driving a controller of the household appliance to [mine] coins in the bitcoin [mining] website, and storing the ... bitcoins into a bitcoin wallet corresponding to the bitcoin account."
Full story at http://bit.ly/2wvz5o1
Source: CoinDesk
The Bitcoin Sovereign Wealth Fund
The crypto-currency boom is in full swing. The explosion in price and quantity of new digital tokens is so bonkers even its evangelists are calling the market a ticking time-bomb.
It's also tempting the establishment to get in on the act. For the Republic of Estonia, it's being touted as a way to raise a sovereign wealth fund -- an imaginative leap for a country with a population one-sixth the size of New York City's and one of the highest levels of mobile broadband penetration in the world.
A proposal by Estonia's agency in charge of "e-residency"applications (more on this later) has suggested raising money by selling "estcoins" to the public.
The wealth could then be managed via a public-private partnership; a chunk might be poured into venture capital to support domestic start-ups. Holders of estcoins would have a stake in the fund and a say in how it is run. The tokens might then become a viable currency, so the thinking goes, paying for goods and services in a euro-zone country.
Full story at https://bloom.bg/2wv6rn0
Source: Bloomberg
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