South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges including Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit are adding more employees than banks and financial institutions, local mainstream news networks have reported. YTN, one of South Korea’s largest mainstream media outlets, revealed that Bithumb, which processes more than $2.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency trades on a daily basis, has been hiring more talents and experienced specialists from the country’s finance sector than major financial institutions. The hiring spree came after the government called on local trading platforms to operate as fully regulated financial institutions. After an emergency meeting to discuss cryptocurrency regulations on December 13 was held, the South Korean government has focused on regulating the local cryptocurrency market and tightening policies for exchanges. https://coinjournal.net/south-korean-cryptocurrency-mania-exchanges-adding-employees-banks/ |
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Litecoin, which is an altcoin that has long been marketed as the “silver to bitcoin’s gold”, was not the most difficult thing for creator Charlie Lee to launch. He simply took the Bitcoin Core codebase, changed a few parameters (such as the block time and mining algorithm), and then posted the new creation on bitcointalk.org. More than six years after this initial launch, this close relationship to the code found in Bitcoin Core, which is effectively the reference implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, has become one of Litecoin’s greatest strengths. https://coinjournal.net/charlie-lee-wants-test-new-solution-bitcoin-fee-estimation-litecoin/ |
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TumbleBit is one of the latest developments in the land of Bitcoin privacy proposals, and it’s gaining a large amount of attention from those who understand the importance of fungibility in digital cash systems. This privacy enhancement essentially allows a user to send transactions through a tumbler without the possibility of having their funds stolen or the tumbler learning about the connection between the sender and the receiver. This improvement can be implemented without any changes to the Bitcoin protocol, which has some wondering how well Bitcoin will soon be able to compete against the more privacy-focused altcoins such as Monero and Zcash. http://coinjournal.net/tumblebit-part-1-bitcoin-privacy-proposal-compare-monero-zcash/ |
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During a recent presentation at Paralelni Polis in Prague, Czech Republic, Blockstream President Adam Back shared his personal vision for scaling Bitcoin to handle more users over the next few years. His plan is mostly based on the Bitcoin Core roadmap for capacity increases (originally written up by Blockstream CTO and Bitcoin Core contributor Greg Maxwell on the Bitcoin development mailing list). http://coinjournal.net/blockstream-president-adam-back-shares-roadmap-scaling-bitcoin/ |
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Bitcoin’s saving grace for scalability (at least in the eyes of the vast majority of Bitcoin Core contributors) should be ready for use this summer. The Lightning Network, which is a generalized network of payment channels that enables instant bitcoin transactions with practically no fees, could be live as soon as this summer. This new protocol layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain has received a lot of attention and hype over the past couple of years, and a fix for transaction malleability via Segregated Witness has resolved some of the code and design complexities involved with the network. http://coinjournal.net/lightning-network-should-be-ready-this-summer/ |
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BTCC COO Samson Mow has become a noted critic of the Bitcoin Classic team, and he was recently interviewed by Rob Mitchell on The Bitcoin Game. BTCC’s official stance is that they support the Bitcoin Core team in regards to the development of the Bitcoin protocol, and both Mow and CEO Bobby Lee were involved in a recent meeting in Hong Kong that resulted in an effective block in the activation of a hard fork to increase the block size limit to 2 MB via miners switching from Bitcoin Core to Bitcoin Classic. http://coinjournal.net/coo-samson-mow-btccs-support-of-bitcoin-core-is-a-no-brainer/ |
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Speaking to CoinJournal through email, Bitcoin Core lead developer Wladimir van der Laan has commented on the Bitcoin Roundtable Consensus agreement, and his comments can best be described as cautiously optimistic. At the crux of the scaling debate, and why it spilled over into a discussion about bitcoin governance, is the discussion of when a proposed solution should be implemented. The man who ultimately makes that decision is Wladimir van der Laan. He has always taken the position that no major change, especially one requiring a hardfork, should be implemented until there is sufficient consensus in the community. http://coinjournal.net/bitcoin-roundtable-consensus-wladimir-says-im/ |
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Two security papers have recently been released, showcasing the overall insecurity of bitcoin brain wallets. Speed Optimizations in Bitcoin Key Recovery Attacks and The Bitcoin Brain Drain: A Short Paper on the Use and Abuse of Bitcoin Brain Wallets. Both list Ryan Castellucci as an author, among other researchers. Castellucci recently made headlines by revealing how insecure brain wallets are during a presentation at DefCon earlier this year. http://coinjournal.net/researcher-brain-wallets-even-less-secure-than-thought/ |
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If the late, great George Carlin were alive today and revamping his classic “seven words you cannot say on television” sketch for Bitcoin, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he put “bank” on top of the list. Banks and “Bankers” are the evil villain in the Bitcoin world: the guardians of the keys to the doors Bitcoin is trying to break down. It has been unsurprising that most services have avoided the term “bitcoin bank” even when oftentimes that would be the best descriptor. Magnr is not scared of the term “bitcoin bank” and have seemingly embraced it... http://coinjournal.net/colin-kwan-on-magnr-the-ukdca-and-bitcoin-banks/ |
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Although the Lightning Network has the potential to help Bitcoin scale to millions of new users, the scheme powered by payment channels has become a controversial topic of conversation in the community. Some would rather see an immediate increase in the block size limit, but the developers behind Bitcoin Core seem intent on turning the Lightning Network into a reality as quickly as possible. One area of dispute involved with the Lightning Network is whether the system would hamper or help privacy in Bitcoin. There have been many proposals for improving privacy in Bitcoin over the years, such as Zerocash and JoinMarket, but the Lightning Network opens up new issues in its system where, effectively, transactions are not immediately broadcasted on the blockchain. http://coinjournal.net/bitcoin-developers-explain-tor-style-onion-routing/ |
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Bitcoin’s scalability issues continue, coming to a head this week when Bitcoin developer and long-term evangelist, Mike Hearn brandished the technology a failure, announcing his exit from the space. We spoke to Blockstream CEO, Austin Hill to talk about the issues raised by Mike, and the proposals for scaling Bitcoin http://coinjournal.net/scaling-bitcoin-austin-hill-blip/ |
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