Top news and views about #Bitcoin and #Cryptocurrency for 12 Jul 2017 #Blockchain #Crypto

 

Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.

 

Black Tuesday For Crypto Markets As $10 Bln Wiped In 24 Hours, Ethereum Down 20%

 

Cryptocurrency investors are reeling today as markets lose $10 bln of value in 24 hours in a new slide.

Data from Coinmarketcap at press time Tuesday shows Bitcoin down almost 10 percent at under $2,300, while Ethereum (ETH) slid below $200 for the first time since May.

Across the top ten assets, losses extended to levels rarely seen in the past few months, with prices still dropping.

Current losses for altcoins represent around 20 percent, with Ripple and IOTA falling closer to 30 percent.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u8tFOI

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

Bitcoin could reach $5 trillion in five years, predicts Novogratz

 

Famed investor Michael Novogratz, who recently said he has 10% of his money in Bitcoin and Ether, now states that digital currencies could reach a value of $5 trillion in five years — if the industry will be able to reach massive adoption.

“The Nasdaq got to $5.4 trillion in 1999, why couldn’t it be as big? There’s so much human capital and real money being poured into the space and we’re at the takeoff point. Pay your taxes, because nobody in that space pays taxes. It’s a bunch of libertarians. There really is a revolutionary spirit amongst the guys that are building this system.”

In order to obtain this value, companies will have to develop businesses and projects that are able to satisfy regulators, but right now bitcoin’s reputation is not going to the correct street as it is popularly perceived as a currency favored by black markets and hackers.

The cryptocurrency industry took a new reputational collapse a few days ago when a cyber attack spread around the world, disabling computers and demanding users pay $300 in cryptocurrency. Back in May, a similar thing happened with the WannaCry hack.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2tprndB

Source: NewsBTC

 

The world's cryptocurrency mining uses more electricity than Iceland

 

Today’s cryptocurrencies are worth a great deal of “real” money. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two most widely adopted cryptocurrencies, are close to their all-time highs in value, and that’s creating some real consequences that might not be completely obvious and intuitive at first glance. Two such consequences are based entirely on the fact that mining cryptocurrency is incredibly compute-intense and requires powerful components to be profitable.

The first such impact has been to devastate the supply of the midrange and high-end GPUs that are used for mining and to dramatically increase their prices if available inventory can be located. The other impact is that the use of ultra-powerful mining systems with multiple GPUs sucks down some serious electricity and is resulting in some pretty impressive statistics, as Digiconomist reports.

According to Digiconomist, Bitcoin and Ethereum mining taken together consume more power than countries like Jordan, Iceland, and Syria, with the two combined ranking 71st among all countries. This is based on Ethereum mining consuming 4.69 terawatt-hours (TWh) of power and Bitcoin mining consuming 14.54 TWh.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u7brNN

Source: https://digitaltrends.com

 

Wolf of Mt. Gox Mark Karpeles Faces Music in Tokyo

 

The biggest and most notorious Bitcoin exchange hack will be scrutinized in a Tokyo court this week as Mt.Gox’s Mark Karpeles is brought before the law to answer charges of embezzlement and data manipulation.

“He is keeping calm as the trial gets under way," his lawyer Kiichi Lino said, also stating that Karpeles plans to plead not guilty.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2uMcMGY

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

Ethereum's Ether Token Falls Below $200 to Hit 40-Day Low

 

The price of ether, the native cryptocurrency powering the ethereum blockchain, fell below $200 today for the first time since 30th May.

During the day's session, the price of one ether token hit an inter-day low of $192.22 across major exchanges, its lowest value in over 40 days of trading, according to data from cryptocurrency price information provider Coinmarketcap.

At press time, the value had recovered to $198, but the fall to $192 still marked a more than 50% drop from all-time highs above $400 observed in early June, a time when excitement over initial coin offerings (ICOs) and new mainstream attention were perhaps driving new users more aggressively to the platform.

Even with the declines, though, the price of ether is still up substantially over the course of 2017, having risen over 2,000% from roughly $8 on 1st January. Further, while it has yet to surpass bitcoin's total value, as some had predicted, there is still broad optimism about the asset among traders, who believe it to be a rare cryptocurrency that has established a viable value proposition by enabling token issuance.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u8kXzW

Source: CoinDesk

 

Despite Black Tuesday At Crypto Markets, Some Experts Say It’s Best Time To Buy

 

Very few cryptocurrencies out of Top 100 Coin Market Cap list were in green on Tuesday morning. The carnage was as brutal as the Rwanda massacre some 27 years ago.

Many analysts are of the view that it was evident the month of July was going to be a crucial one. They assert this as a result of the caustic ongoing Bitcoin network scaling battle.

As we get closer to August 1, the crisis has worsened, with three main battling fronts. We now have SegWit, SegWit2x and Bitmain's UAHF.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u8fzgc

Source: CoinTelegraph

Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 10 Jul 2017

 

Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.

 

With ICO Coming Under Attack, Market Participants Still Wary of Govt Regulation

 

Quite recently, Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin stated that the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) craze is out of control because people never learned their lesson with the DAO after everyone got bailed out. In a post on Twitter, the man who just resigned from Coinbase to concentrate on Litecoin declared ICOs are a disaster that is waiting to explode soon.

ICOs have come under serious attack recently especially with accusations of scams. However, it remains one of the numerous clever innovations in the crypto space signifying how funds can be raised in a free market without the involvement of the state or banks. Besides, it eliminates the cost and burdensome barriers involved in traditional IPOs.

But maybe, after all, the ICO market just needs the government involvement?

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u7dPV4

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

Fine Art Gallery in London’s Mayfair Now Accepts Bitcoin And Other Cryptocurrencies

 

As a sign of the rising popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the UK-based Dadiani Fine Art Gallery has begun accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other cryptos as entrance payment.

The art gallery owner Eleesa Dadiani said, “We are combining old world business ethics and practice with the new world of technology the current system is becoming stale and needs to be disrupted.”

She adds:

"Cryptocurrencies will provide a bridge from the elitist, centralist fine art market to a decentralized open source world where many more will be able to become a part of this exhilarating market.”

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u6Yy6v

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

China and Japan are largely responsible for cryptocurrency's success

 

The age of cryptocurrencies is upon us, and two countries in particular have been instrumental in their stratospheric rise: China and Japan.

Cryptocurrencies have become popular in China due to the government's stringent control of the yuan — a power they occasionally exercise by artificially devaluing the currency for trading purposes.

With private wealth in China growing, affluent individuals have found a more stable and accessible alternative to the yuan in cryptocurrencies.

Additionally, China has an abundance of cheap energy and hardware, which facilitates crypto mining (the process through which new blocks in the blockchainare created and transactions are verified). Chinese exchanges run mining "pools" to generate these blocks, and these efforts constitute 60 percent of Bitcoin's total hashrate (the speed at which Bitcoin operations are completed).

Full story at http://read.bi/2u75wZf

Source: Business Insider

 

Cryptocurrency Electricity Requirements Surpasses Annual Energy Consumption of Few Nations

 

While some continue to praise Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the beginning of the new world order, there are some who believe that the very digital currencies might spell doom by accelerating global warming. The dissent against Bitcoin and other PoW based cryptocurrencies is fueled by the extent of mining operations. As the mining hardware continues to become more powerful, the mining difficulty rises proportionally to maintain a constant emission of new tokens.

An increase in mining difficulty also means increasing energy requirements. According to reports, the recent rise in Ethereum value has led to an increased interest among the cryptocurrency community members. Many people have taken up Ethereum mining using graphic processors.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u7w3Wv

Source: NewsBTC

 

Japan’s Electronics Marketplace Starts Adopting Bitcoin

 

The famed electronics marketplace Akihabara in Japan has started to move with the times as adoption of Bitcoin rises within stores in the district.

The area houses a huge array of shops selling everything from computers and gaming systems to household appliances and entertainment devices. It has also developed into a popular destination for gamers and is building a strong anime/manga subculture.

Akihabara attracts masses of tourists, as well as locals, to its high-tech electronic stores, but up until very recently, the electronic marketplace has only been accepting regular fiat currency. Now, there is a movement to integrate with high-tech digital currencies, as you would expect in a district that prides itself on technology and gadgetry.

Such a district would be predicted to be leading the mass adoption of digital currencies as a payment system, but in all honesty, it has been a slow take off in Akihabara.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u685L0

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

Meet The Man Traveling The World On $25 Million Of Bitcoin Profits

 

Last month, I found myself sitting next to a multimillionaire in the 56th-floor Horizon Club Lounge of the Island Shangri-La Hong Kong. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was swimming in cash; I just wouldn’t have guessed he had made it all from Bitcoin. This is how he did it.

Mr. Smith—who asked me to conceal his real name—has been traveling the world in ultra-luxurious style for the past four years. He only flies first class, stays exclusively in 5-star suites, and hasn’t cooked since Thanksgiving. In the past thirty days he’s visited Singapore, New York City, Las Vegas, Monaco, Moscow, back to New York City, Zurich and now Hong Kong. “Never a dull moment,” he says, lifting his glass of champagne in a Gatsby-esque salute. Then he shared his story.

After finishing college in 2008, Smith landed a respectable job as a software engineer for a large technology company in Silicon Valley. He was a good employee, close with many of his co-workers. It was through one of these “equally geeky” friends in July 2010 that Smith first heard about Bitcoin, shortly after its first major price increase, when the cryptocurrency appreciated tenfold from $0.008 to $0.08 over the course of five days. Smith’s response, though intrigued, was measured: “That price jump really got my attention, but I still waited a few more months before investing. I wanted to learn more about the underlying technology first.”

Full story at http://bit.ly/2u6pwew

Source: Forbes

Don't be afraid to ask how Bitcoin works

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Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 5 Jul 2017

 

Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.

 

Bitcoin Price May Surge As Italian Banks Send Alarm Signals For Europe

 

After Greece and Cyprus, the Italian peninsula is sending alarming signals while new European banking rules are likely to constrain state action.

On 25 June, the Italian government formalized the rescue of two medium-sized mutual banks - Banco Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca - on the brink of bankruptcy, after finding no investor in the markets to help them.

Such situations are causing investors all over Europe to question the safety of the banking system. The particular attributes of the unprecedented bailout of Cyprus' banks

in 2013 have led to a significant surge in Bitcoin price, as investors sought safe havens and access to liquidity. We have yet to see how future bank bailouts will impact the alternative financial systems proposed by cryptocurrencies.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2sjceGQ

Source:

 

We Plan To Open 5,000 Bitcoin ATMs in Europe in 2017: Bitlish

 

Bitcoin ATM provider Bitlish was the first to open a bonafide BTM in Russia, but it is its expansion plans that are likely to get the market talking.

Despite the growing presence of BTMs in Europe, usage is still limited.

Not inconsiderable fees, as well as a lack of general consumer understanding, mean that online options remain the go-to source for both novice and experienced traders to exchange crypto for fiat and vice versa.

UK-based Bitlish thus surprised when one of its branded machines opened in Russia’s second city St. Petersburg, closely followed by another. Both were a result of a decision by the company’s local partner, who gained an opportunity to open there rather than the capital Moscow.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2rxXZkW

Source:

 

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Significantly Decrease, Charlie Shrem Pays $0.25 Fee

 

Over the past few weeks, the size of the Bitcoin mempool, the holding area for unconfirmed transactions waiting to be picked up by miners, significantly decreased by around 90 percent.

As a result, Bitcoin fees significantly declined and the recommended Bitcoin transaction fee calculated by Bitcoin fee estimators integrated into widely utilized wallet platforms such as Blockchain substantially dropped. Now, fees below $1 have become sufficient to obtain first confirmation within 10 minutes.

In fact, Blockchain’s newly deployed Bitcoin fee estimator, which has received praise from the community for utilizing a satoshis per byte basis to establish recommended fees for users more accurately, has been recommending a $0.19 fee for regular transactions with an estimated confirmation time of one hour.

On June 29, Bitcoin pioneer and cryptocurrency wallet platform operator Jaxx COO Charlie Shrem revealed that a personal $2,000 Bitcoin transaction was confirmed within the first six minutes with a $0.25 fee.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2sj5SY3

Source:

 

Mining, Merchants, and Traders—Thailand’s Got the Bitcoin Fever

 

On June 22 a large group of people gathered at a computer expo in Thailand to purchase computer components to mine cryptocurrencies. According to reports, there is a nationwide shortage of graphics processing units (GPU:s) due to Thailand residents mining digital assets like Ethereum and Zcash to trade for BTC. Veerachai Morprapaipan, the store owner who helped organize the expo at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center said there were so many people he lost track of how many customers attended. 

One customer, Niratcha Sukyu states “I’m buying as many pieces as I can get my hands on.” The GPU vendor from Thailand details that many altcoins have increased in value and local miners are trading them for bitcoin. Veerachai’s booth ‘TH Miner’ got a lot of attention as the company sells complete GPU mining packages and other components. According to Veerachai one of his machines sold for 109,000 baht that day.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2sjc0Qe

Source:

 

Bitcoin ‘Going To Moon,’ Could Reach $1 Billion: FOX News

 

FOX News has joined the mainstream networks bullish on Bitcoin, embracing claims it could reach up to $1 bln.

In a segment of Making Money June 30, anchor Charles Payne hosted a celebration of Bitcoin, the latest rally of which could see it reach $1 mln “within the next few years,” he agreed.

“For the most part we wrote it off as technology’s answer to Beanie Babies,” Payne began, “Well, it’s back, and this time this rally feels different.”

Full story at http://bit.ly/2tFJjRv

Source:

 

From Flying Money to Blockchain: How Remittance Industry Has Reached Turning Point

 

From the simple barter system of ages past to the sophisticated technological systems of modern day money transfer, the remittance industry remains a significant aspect of the global economic ecosystem.

One of the primary characteristics that qualify a good medium of exchange is transportability. This involves how effective it is to transfer money from a given location to another.

Over the years, as money and its associated technologies have evolved, so have the systems by which they are transferred.

Emerging technologies have gradually but steadily opened up new ways for financial services to reach previously unreachable populations of the world.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2tFs0zR

Source:

Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 3 Jul 2017

 

Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.

 

The $28-Billion Challenge: Can Ethereum Scale to Meet Demand?

 

For all the recent successes, this much is clear: ethereum is still far from becoming the "world computer" its engineers originally envisioned.

The best example of ethereum's in-progress status arguably occurred earlier this month, when the world's second largest blockchain by investment saw record-high transaction activity thanks in part to a single popular initial coin offering (ICO). The sale, which saw users compete to purchase a new token for an application called Status, ended up affecting the entire network, now valued at more than $28bn, causing it to run more slowly for all users.

Due in part to how the specific ICO was engineered, users struggled to get transactions and contract updates processed, while a group of exchanges temporarily shuttered ether trades to deal with the congestion.

In response, the cryptocurrency world was abuzz.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2scDk2l

Source: CoinDesk

 

How Bitcoin Does Versus Gold, Fiat and All World's Money

 

In order to put into perspective what Bitcoin represents amongst all of the world’s money, Howmuch has produced a visualization full of insights.

Since 2009, Bitcoin has made a long road and has overcome many obstacles on its journey. The Bitcoin price has grown exponentially, and its market cap is at the time of writing over $41 bln, which is the same net worth of Google’s co-founder, Larry Page.

Bill Gates, the richest man on earth with a net worth of $86 bln, has approximately the net worth of Larry Page and Bitcoin combined.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2scG4wN

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

Coinbase Co-Founder: Ethereum Needs Off-Chain Scaling Solutions to Scale

 

Fred Ehrsam, former Goldman Sachs trader and co-founder of the bln dollar Bitcoin startup Coinbase, laid out several scaling issues of Ethereum and the necessity of off-chain scaling solutions to scale the Ethereum network.

According to Ehrsam, seven major scaling solutions exist that are being developed by Ethereum developers, which will be launched by late 2018. The migration from Bitcoin’s proof of work consensus protocol to proof of stake protocol is the largest alteration to the Ethereum network Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has revealed to date.

Although the Ethereum network prioritizes flexibility to provide an efficient ecosystem for decentralized applications (Dapps) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), Ehrsam noted that in order for Ethereum to support large-scale Dapps with one to 10 million users, it will need a scaling solution that will demonstrate a 100x improvement in the Ethereum protocol by 2018.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2scsJES

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

Billionaire Fortress Investor: Cryptocurrencies Will Be Worth $5 Trillion by 2022

 

nvestment legend Michael Novogratz, the $3.2 bln investor and former manager of the multi-billion dollar investment firm Fortress, recently stated that the cryptocurrency market will be worth $5 trillion by 2022.

Over the past two years, Novogratz has expressed his optimism towards cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that have been leading the $100 bln cryptocurrency market. Previously, Novogratz revealed that 10 percent of his net worth, at least hundreds of millions of dollars, are invested in a diverse portfolio of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.

Bitcoin has transformed into a global phenomenon within a period of years due to its decentralized and transparent nature that have made Bitcoin an efficient store of value, digital currency and safe haven asset for the vast majority of users, traders and investors.

Other successful cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin and Ethereum Classic have gained interest from both individual and institutional investors with their distinctive strategies, philosophies, monetary policies and purpose.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2scP9pi

Source: CoinTelegraph

 

How can I invest in bitcoin?

 

There are at least three ways, though only one of them looks rational today. First, you could mine your own bitcoins. Second, you could buy some from an exchange. Third, you could buy shares in a fund that has invested in bitcoins.

Please note that answering your question is not a recommendation, and I am not qualified to give advice on investments. However, as electronic payments expert Dave Birch put it to me on Twitter: “one doesn’t invest in bitcoin, one gambles on bitcoin”.

The problem is that people can make money by buying things that are essentially worthless, such as used postage stamps, Beanie Babies, and (historically) tulip bulbs. Tulipmania operated on the “bigger fool” theory, also known among stock traders as “momentum investing”. For example, tulip bulb prices may be insane but they keep going up. I may be a fool to buy them, but I expect a bigger fool to buy them from me. Simply replace “buy low, sell high” with “buy high, sell higher”. This works until you run out of fools.

However, you can buy things that don’t depend on bigger fools appearing, such as land and gold. Their prices may vary dramatically, but over the long term, they retain real value. When tulip bulb prices were tumbling, everyone wanted to sell. When gold prices tumble, people with money look forward to an “investment opportunity”.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2tpx3En

Source: The Guardian

 

Centralized State Digital Tokens ‘Can’t Compete With Bitcoin’: Max Keiser

 

Banks’ centralized digital tokens have come under fresh criticism from cryptocurrency experts and Max Keiser.

In a Twitter exchange yesterday, Keiser praised the perspective of computer scientist and Bitcoin enthusiast Datavetaren, who reiterated the vulnerabilities non-decentralized schemes face.

Datavetaren’s hacking example “demonstrates why centralization (single point of failure) prevents state actors from effectively competing with Bitcoin,” Keiser said.

Central banks in several countries have expressed particular interest in creating controlled digital tokens for a variety of uses.

Full story at http://bit.ly/2tpWfKW

Source: CoinTelegraph