Что слышно вообще за разработку платформы, они ее пилят или нет? Учавствовал в ихнем ИКО, слава богу ерундовой суммой, но все равно обидно, пол года монета нигде не торгуется. За это время можно было уже 3 раза получить профит. Разработчики наверное так и сделали, вложили все в биткоин, и в шоколаде.

На оффициальном канале GatCoin много видео, которые обьясняют принцип действия платформы, в том числе есть ролики на русском.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G58dHMMMud0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88bbuaTF0Ag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ehIu13T90

Выглядит очень интересно и познавательно.

Вот это вообще умора, креативненько)

https://youtu.be/RPOPfui4OWk
https://youtu.be/xl5xaI1UHtg
https://youtu.be/AXxjZsJxDiM

It`s never late to buy bitcoin, because it represents a special form of a financial bubble. There is nothing wrong with that, if it helps to take fiat money from the rich and give them back to the smart poor millennials. Right now is one of a good chances to buy pretty cheap bitcoin, this looks like a short break before a big pump.

Mining is another striking example how bitcoin can fight poverty. To survive, thousands of Venezuelans are mining bitcoin, they have nothing else to do in such poor country, which is in deep economic trouble (the worst hyperinflation since the Weimar Republic).

Because of it`s encrypted nature, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies causes a lot of problems in form of transactions tracking and taxation. For the moment cryptocurrencies holds quite tiny share in econimic relations, but in the coming years we can expect deeper btc penetration into all sectors of society. It will be a matter of country`s survival how to develop taxation plan and strategy for cryptocurrency taxation to avoid institutions disruptions.

The bitcoin price continued to decline on Friday in the wake of SegWit2x’s indefinite suspension, reducing the leading cryptocurrency’s value below the $7,000 mark. The bitcoin cash price, meanwhile, surged more than 30% in the days leading up to its hard fork, with proponents declaring that it will claim the rights to the “Bitcoin” brand within six months.

Despite bitcoin cash’s surge, the total cryptocurrency market cap posted a net decline of more than $7 billion, falling from $206.3 billion on Thursday to a present mark of $199.2 billion.

Bitcoin Price Plunges Below $7,000

The bitcoin price posted a significant decline for the second consecutive day, falling more than 5% to $6,795. This leaves bitcoin with a total valuation of $113.3 billion and a 57% share of the total crypto market cap.

The primary theory for the pullback continues to be that traders had priced in the value of the “free” coins that would have been airdropped when the SegWit2x hard fork was activated — an event that was called off at the last minute by its leading advocates.

Moreover, while the suspension of the hard fork brought relief to many corners of the community, the fact is that canceling SegWit2x does not solve the cryptocurrency’s problems: bitcoin still needs to scale. Until those solutions are implemented — whether on-chain or off-chain — rising transaction fees will continue to be a problem for the burgeoning network.

Ethereum Price Falls Back Toward $300

Bitcoin’s retreat had initially appeared to be a prime opportunity for ethereum to begin regaining some of the tremendous ground it had lost to the flagship cryptocurrency during the past several months. Yesterday, the ethereum price climbed past $325, the culmination of a seven-day double-digit rally. However, the ethereum price reversed course on Friday and began to sink back down toward $300 — a mark that has exerted an intense magnetic pull on ethereum in recent weeks. At present, the ethereum price is $306, which translates into a $29.3 billion market cap.

Bitcoin Cash Price Launches Past $825

With bitcoin and ethereum both hamstrung, bitcoin cash has initiated an astonishing rally. In the past day alone, the bitcoin cash price has risen by almost 32%, from $629 to $826. This launched bitcoin cash’s market cap to $13.9 billion, and the bitcoin cash price is now less than $100 below the all-time high it set in mid-August.

The impetus for the rally appears to stem from the failure of SegWit2x to activate on the main bitcoin network. Rightly or wrongly, bitcoin cash advocates believe that bitcoin’s objection to on-chain scaling will prove to be its undoing, and they believe that their cryptocurrency will fill the void. Indeed, Bitcoin Classic developer Tom Zander announced yesterday that he was shuttering the software project — which had moved to bitcoin cash following the August hard fork — declaring that the failure of SegWit2x was the nail in the coffin for bitcoin and that Classic was no longer necessary. “In at most 6 months I’m sure we’ll just drop the “Cash” and call it “Bitcoin,” he wrote.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-plunges-7k-bitcoin-cash-surges-30/

Cryptocurrency supporters generally welcomed the cancellation of SegWit2x in the wake of disagreement among developers and miners over the proposed solution to the need for a larger bitcoin block size. Crypto observers generally believe the fork would have had a negative impact on bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s price has witnessed some volatility since the cancellation was announced. A short-term spike to an all-time high just below $7,900 in response to the news was followed by a flash crash. The bitcoin price dropped 4 percent, falling from $7,408 on Wednesday to $7,143 early Thursday.

Market Sorts Out Cancellation

Many traders had maintained larger bitcoin positions in anticipation of the SegWit2x airdrop of bitcoins that was expected following the fork. The fork cancellation dashed hopes of “free coins,” causing traders to rebalance their portfolios to include more altcoins.

As a result, altcoins registered gains on Thursday, as multiple top-tier coins posted double-digit price increases and capital flowed back into their markets from bitcoin.

Cancellation Points To Consensus

Several observers believe the cancellation is in the cryptocurrency’s best interest.

“When 2x was called off, it became immediately clear there’s greater consensus for a single bitcoin blockchain, and therefore there is greater value retained in the bitcoin ecosystem,” Ned Scott, CEO of Steemit, a blockchain based social platform, said in a prepared statement.

Many cryptocurrency advocates see forks as problematic.

“While occasional forks due to deep philosophical differences are inevitable, habitual forks damage the network effect of any blockchain and undermines security and faith in the system,” said Bharath Rao, CEO of Leverj, a platform for crypto derivatives. “Cryptocurrency is still experimental and repeated forks can fracture the community into tiny siloes and undermine the very concept of non-governmental money.”

Cancellation Mitigates Risk

“Every small mitigation of a risk enhances value, and this event is no different,” Rao said. “We hope to see a continuous stream of risks eliminated and value enhanced over the next several years.”

“Canceling SegWit2x is a step in the right direction, and it looks like Bitcoin Core’s roadmap will prevail for now,” said Abhishek Pitti, CEO of Nucleus Vision, a provider of sensor technology. “While the intent behind increasing the block size was to make the bitcoin network more efficient, going ahead with the fork without broad community consensus would have caused more harm than good for bitcoin.”

Long-Term Outlook Positive

Guy Zyskind, CEO and co-founder of Enigma, a coin mixing system, expressed a long-term view.

“Indefinitely postponing the fork is a healthy move for crypto assets,” he said. “The ability of the bitcoin community to self-correct and avoid a contentious fork inspires confidence and shows how the ecosystem is entering a more mature phase. We look forward to seeing how on-chain scaling and other important improvements to the protocol will be addressed going forward.”

The hard fork would have split bitcoin into two competing blockchains, and the fight for supremacy could have been ugly. Bitcoin services expected to undergo serious disruptions, and there was a high probability that some users would lose funds due to replay attacks and other exploits.

That bitcoin avoided fracturing in this manner is positive for its long-term prospects and will encourage so-called “hodlers” — investors with extended investment horizons — to increase their positions.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/crypto-supporters-welcome-segwit2x-cancellation/

Many public figures in the traditional financial sector including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Morgan have criticized Bitcoin, describing it as a bubble. However, because of its decentralized, mathematical and transparent nature, it is highly inaccurate to call Bitcoin a bubble of any sort.

Tesla, Amazon, Bitcoin “Bubbles”

Bitcoin is not a bubble, contrary to the dishonest and non-factual claims of bank executives. There was a bubble in Bitcoin in 2013 when the demand for Bitcoin rose to a point where the market could no longer support it and the Bitcoin price crashed from $1,300 to $200. But, it is not accurate to call Bitcoin itself a bubble, the same way it is not accurate to describe Amazon or Tesla a bubble.

Even up until April of this year, analysts described Tesla’s exponential increase in value a “bubble,” as analysts did with Amazon throughout the company’s 20 years of existence. Six months ago, Matthew DeBord, the transportation editor at Business Insider, wrote:

“At this point, a Tesla bubble looks obvious and it looks as obvious as it has since early this year. The difference now is that it's grown so large that it's become terrifying.”

Another “expert” Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn, stated that Tesla is a bubble that will not pop anytime soon, but it is a bubble. "In due time, we expect these bubbles to pop,” said Einhorn.

It is important to acknowledge this trend in any emerging company, technology and startup. Analysts and experts are quick to claim that anything is a bubble, given its rapid increase in value and exponential growth rate.

From 2013 to 2017, the share price of Tesla has increased from around $20 to $302, with many minor and major corrections. In December, the price of Tesla shares dropped by over $100, from $250 to $150, due to the company’s struggling finances. Still, over time Tesla recovered and it developed a sustainable business, a market, and most importantly, a consumer base identical to how Bitcoin has evolved into a sustainable financial network, a robust market and secured an active consumer base of tens of millions of users.

Furthermore, it is far-fetched to claim that the Bitcoin market, which has a similar liquidity and trading volume of Apple, the world’s most liquid stock at $3.3 bln daily trading volume, because it has significantly matured since its introduction in 2009.

Bitcoin is more legitimate than most systems

As Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak observed, Bitcoin is more legitimate and transparent than most systems in existence today. Wozniak noted at the Money2020 conference:

”There is a certain finite amount of Bitcoin that can ever exist. Gold gets mined and mined and mined. Maybe there’s a finite amount of gold in the world, but Bitcoin is even more mathematical and regulated and nobody can change mathematics.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/it-is-highly-inaccurate-to-describe-bitcoin-as-a-bubble-heres-why

South Korea’s internet security authority has pointed to an ‘alarming’ rise of malware attacks from North Korean hackers seeking bitcoin to fund Kim Jong Un’s regime.

A new report by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), the authority responsible for maintaining and safeguarding the country’s internet space, has highlighted an increasing number of malware attacks led by hackers suspected to be from North Korea.

As reported by Korean news agency Yonhap, the reported instances of malicious code between July-September of this year went up to 452 cases against 436 in the second quarter. Cases of ransomware – a cybersecurity attack where victims are extorted into paying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to regain access to their crippled computers – were up 3.7x in the January-September period at 5,366 cases against last year’s 1,438.

A KISA official stated:


North Korean hackers have been accused of stealing ₩100 million in bitcoin (approx. $90,000) every month between 2013-2015. In September, cybersecurity firm FireEye revealed details of a state-sponsored North Korean hacker campaign to steal bitcoin from cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea.

An excerpt from the report revealed the theft was to fill “the personal coffers of Pyongyang’s elite”, stating:


One of the many attacks included a notable hack of South Korean bitcoin exchange Yapizon where hackers made away with $5 million in user funds and bitcoin.

More recently, an official from South Korea’s Cyber Warfare Intelligence Center (CWIC) pointed to a number of phishing attempts by North Korean hackers targeting South Korean exchanges with malware-laden emails.

All of which led to a comprehensive investigation by South Korea’s National Police Investigation (NPA). In its official report, the authority confirmed that North Korean hackers have and are continuing to target bitcoin exchanges in the country. Details of the investigation revealed a total of 25 employees at 4 domestic bitcoin exchanges subjected to at least 10 separate phishing attempts originating from a North Korean IP address that was previously linked to other hacking attempts targeting Seoul.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-gains-see-north-korean-hackers-ramp-attacks/

There is nothing complicated about buying bitcoin, but it can be rather expansive, considering current $7000+ price. Yes, at the moment we have legislation and taxes open issues, especially if investor live in USA, where one can go to a jail on tax evasion. I heard about one trader who moved into one of the Eastern Europe countries because they have no cryptocurrency and ICO`s restrictions.

Bitpico Claims Segwit2X is Still Alive Despite All Evidence to the Contrary

Reports of 2X’s death have been greatly exaggerated. That’s according to a statement issued by little-known mining group Bitpico. In a defiant message that appeared on a mailing list, Bitpico claimed to control 30% of the network hashrate and to be pressing ahead with the B2X fork regardless.

The Zombie Fork That Just Won’t Die

The message posted by Bitpico raised the prospect of Segwit2x being resurrected within hours of being laid to rest. The original statement halting the proposed fork to the bitcoin network, signed by Mike Belshe and five other major backers, unequivocally said:


Bitpico elected to ignore this memo however, averring that they would press ahead with the hard fork nevertheless because “everything is set in motion”. They continued:


The audaciousness of the claim garnered a lot of attention, and opened the door to the intriguing possibility of Segwit2x living on. Closer scrutiny of the little-known Bitpico group reveals a few anomalies however. In particular, their claim to control 30% of the hashrate doesn’t appear to hold up.

Who the Hell Are Bitpico?

No sooner had the name #BitPico begun trending on Twitter than the group’s statement was picked apart and their very identity called into question. It was pointed out that there is little evidence of Bitpico’s existence prior to September of this year, and their claim to own a significant proportion of hashing power seems fanciful to say the least. As Wikipedia might put it, “citation needed”.

egardless of who Bitpico is/are, what’s beyond dispute is that the last-minute cancellation of Segwit2X has created winners and losers. This latter group would have to include those traders who were boldly snapping up B2X futures until a day ago for as much as 0.1 btc. Segwit2X futures crashed by over 85% upon news of the fork being called off. For traders who were long on B2X, Bitpico’s proposal may present a get out of jail card, or at least the hope of some kind of redemption.

Critics of Bitpico’s proposal to revive Segwit2X were swift to attribute the group’s motivation to a black hole they may have futures traded themselves into. Leading up to the proposed split, a number of traders confidently snapped up B2X futures, going so far as to boast of their investment and its likely success.

Drama and FUD Intensifies

On a day that was high on drama for everyone in bitcoin, Bitpico’s statement, which was posted from a Microsoft iCloud address, added another delicious twist to proceedings. Following the cancellation of Segwit2X, numerous exchanges announced that they were monitoring the situation, with Coinbase tweeting that they would “provide an update in the coming days”.

While the vast majority of individuals in the bitcoin community welcomed the abandonment of Segwit2X, there are still those who see the fork, with its promise of bigger block sizes, as an opportunity lost. Bitpico may have been genuine or may simply have been trolling in a bid to spread further FUD. One thing’s for sure: theirs won’t be the last attempt to try and push through another hard fork.

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitpico-claims-segwit2x-still-alive-despite-evidence-contrary/

Police in Canada have issued a warning over a bitcoin tax scam after more than 40 York region residents fell victim to fraudsters.

According to a report by CBC News, York Regional Police said that victims lost as much as 340,000 Canadian dollars (US$267,000) through the scam.

The fraudsters, who identified themselves as employees of the Canada Revenue Agency, threatened the victims with arrest for unpaid taxes if they did not send funds using bitcoin ATMs.

York police's Det. Const. Rob Vingerhoets said the bitcoin ATMs are "legitimate" and that tracking down the fraudsters or recovering lost money may be possible.

According to police force, there has been an increase in reports of such scammers in recent months. Public awareness is the only way to combat such scams in the future, Vingerhoets said, adding, "Our main strategy, ... [is] to stop people from becoming victims in the first place."

York police have placed flyers near bitcoin ATMs to alert the public about potential scams, the report adds.

The news comes soon after Durham Regional Police Service in Ontario issued a warning to the public about fraudulent investment schemes involving bitcoin.

https://www.coindesk.com/canadian-police-issue-warning-over-bitcoin-tax-scam/

After CME announced that they would soon be offering Bitcoin futures, the price of the digital currency took a big upward swing. However, CME is of the opinion that futures could actually put a stop to Bitcoin’s synonymous volatility.

CME will be putting in place special price fluctuation limits that will help protect investors from the notorious price swings, but these same protections could also help ease the price swings and make the digital currency settle down somewhat.

Bitcoin price protection

CME will implement special price fluctuation limits at seven percent and 13 percent above or below the prior settlement price, and prevent trading outside the 20 percent range, according to details the exchange released.

These protections sound familiar to some as they are based on what is allowed on US stock index futures. The thoughts are that these same protections have helped the stock exchange, but it is more important for the violently volatile Bitcoin.

For new investors, Bitcoin is a terrifying yet exhilarating ride. It can fluctuate hundreds of dollars a day and is even prone to drops of as big as 40 percent. The last big drop happened as early back as September.

Volatility already easing

Because Bitcoin is such a new concept, and even a new asset class, it has seen its introduction into the market as violent. Volatility in the early days was incredibly high and quite erratic. However, it is starting to settle somewhat and is also less affected by changes.

Many believe that it is these violent swings that are stopping mass adoption of the digital currency, especially as a currency. If there was a more steady rate, then Bitcoin would be able to stretch more towards being a currency while still holding onto its power as a store of value.

Futures on the menu

As is often the case in the Bitcoin ecosystem, it often just needs one to take the first plunge. CME opened the door for futures and that could well be opening the doors for ETFs.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange, the largest US options exchange now known as Cboe Options is also planning to offer Bitcoin futures by early next year.

Chris Concannon, president and chief operating officer at Cboe Global Markets, said Tuesday that having regulated futures for Bitcoin helps the case for a Bitcoin ETF.

"And over time, we do envision ETFs coming to market once the regulated futures market is built and liquid," Concannon said.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/could-bitcoin-futures-rein-in-the-big-price-swings

Edgeless wants to become the first fully transparent fair  Casino with a unique 0% house edge. So it`s up to you, if this means something for your as a player, your free to buy their tokens and wait until the team will finish to license their business.

Свежая новость с полей, Еджлесс и ряд других Ико проектов потеряли много ефириума на взломе кошелька Parity. Остается только надеятся что они не хранили там все свои деньги, и успели перевести много в биткоины. Очень не хочется чтобы эта новость негативно отразилась на цене курса и энтузиазме команды разработки казино.

While Bitcoin peaks, gold is looking decidedly peaky as crypto Google search trends outnumber the precious metal for the first time.

As Bloomberg reports Tuesday, the search term “buy Bitcoin” is now more frequent than “buy gold,” adding insult to injury for gold after an ounce began to cost less than one BTC for the first time this year.

“With the US stock market setting fresh all-time highs day after day, it’s no surprise gold prices have retreated,” the publication quotes UK-based BullionVault research director Adrian Ash as saying.

“Some investors are also being distracted by the noise around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”

A glance at gold profits for 2017 makes an easy case for Bitcoin being the investment short of choice for the year, a tip publicly echoed by mainstream finance commentators.

Ash added BullionVault had seen 30 percent declines in monthly gold trading for October compared to the yearly average. The trend came a gold dipped six percent from one-year highs in early September.

Meanwhile, the precious metals industry is getting backdoor innovation from Blockchain technology.

Cointelegraph reported on the weekend how the UK’s Royal Mint had successfully trialed a gold tracking system using Blockchain, with 50,000 blocks already verified before its public launch.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/google-knows-more-people-search-buy-bitcoin-than-buy-gold

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade otherwise known as CME Group announced its bitcoin futures specs this week. Alongside this, the Chairman Emeritus of CME Group, Leo Melamed, told press bitcoin is set to become a new asset class.

CME Group Reveals Specs for Bitcoin Futures Contracts

Last week news.Bitcoin.com reported on the world’s largest options and futures exchange CME Group launching its bitcoin-based futures before the end of the year. Now the company has released the BTC futures specs giving more details to how the fund will be traded. Contract specifications include a contract unit of five bitcoin defined by the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR). Product codes will be called “BTC BTIC: BTB” and trade alongside other options during the CME Globex and CME ClearPort trading hours.

“Trading in expiring futures terminates at 4:00 p.m. London time on last day of trading. Position limits and spot position limits are set at 1,000 contracts,” explains CME’s bitcoin futures specs. “A position accountability level of 5,000 contracts will be applied to positions in single months outside the spot month and in all months combined — The reportable level will be 25 contracts.”

Investors will probably be interested in hearing about CME Group’s plans to create limits for bitcoin price fluctuations. According to the Wall Street Journal, the publication has seen documents that detail thresholds will initiate when the value of its bitcoin futures change by 7%, 13%, and 20%. “The first two thresholds for 7% and 13% moves are for “soft” limits, which could potentially trigger a two-minute pause in trading of bitcoin futures,” a person familiar with the matter explains.


Examining the Change Bitcoin Represents

On the same day CME released its futures specs, the 85-year old Chairman Emeritus of CME Group, Leo Melamed, told Reuters bitcoin is becoming a “new asset class.” Melamed believes a large swathe of mainstream investors will be getting involved in bitcoin futures and even “tame” the decentralized currency’s markets.    

“That’s a very important step for bitcoin’s history — We will regulate, make bitcoin not wild, nor wilder,” Melamed explains.


The CME executive said at first he wasn’t convinced bitcoin had unique qualities, but it reminds him of when he helped launch the International Monetary Market currency futures trading back in 1972.

“The world in the 1970s didn’t look at currency trading as a valid instrument of finance. I too went from not believing in bitcoin to wanting to know more,” Melamed notes.
   
CME Group’s Rivals Eye $1.6B in Revenue Opportunities

CME Group’s bitcoin futures markets will follow Ledger X’s lead as the firm just recently started swapping millions worth of bitcoin options. Additionally, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) is preparing to jump in on bitcoin futures trading as well as the firm is eyeing the $1.6B in revenue opportunities. CME Group’s rival exchange, Cboe, has made an exclusive partnership with the bitcoin trading platform Gemini to capitalize on its bitcoin options markets.    

https://news.bitcoin.com/the-worlds-largest-fx-exchange-hopes-to-tame-bitcoin-volatility/

Your project really deserves for investors attention. A lot of ICO nowadays collect huge funds, but most of them have nothing except empty promises. Mark.SPACE already create something special, but people to busy with this upcoming fork, hold money their money in bitcoin, i believe all will be good either way, good revolutionary product will always rise it`s cup.

SAN FRANCISCO — The chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, has called Bitcoin a fraud and made it clear that he will not allow his bank to begin trading the virtual currency any time soon.

But that has not stopped a growing wave of big Wall Street investors — many of them hedge funds — from pouring their money into Bitcoin, helping extend an eight-month spike in its price.

The price of a single Bitcoin climbed from below $6,000 two weeks ago to above $7,400 on Monday, more than it moved in the virtual currency’s first seven years in existence.

Since the beginning of the year, the value of Bitcoin has jumped over 600 percent, putting the combined value of all Bitcoin at about $120 billion, or more than many of the largest banks in the world.

The rise has been fueled by several factors, including the sudden interest in virtual currencies from small investors in Japan and South Korea.

Now market watchers say a significant amount of the new money is coming from large institutional investors, many of them hedge funds looking to capitalize on the skyrocketing price.

Many of the hedge funds were set up over the last year to invest exclusively in virtual currencies. The research firm Autonomous Next has said the number of such hedge funds has risen from around 30 to nearly 130 this year alone.

More general-purpose hedge funds have also been buying up Bitcoin, like one run by Bill Miller, a well known mutual fund manager who spent most of his career with Legg Mason.

Even more big investors are looking at the space after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced last week that it would launch a Bitcoin futures contract in the next few months. The contract will make it easier for financial institutions plugged into the exchange to get involved with the Bitcoin market without having to worry about holding Bitcoin itself.

Bobby Cho, the head trader at one of the largest Bitcoin trading businesses, Cumberland, said that after years of hesitancy, institutional investors now accounted for most of his business.

“The vast majority of the trading we do is with institutions,” Mr. Cho said. “The education and research have turned into real-life activity.”

The entrance of these big investors creates new risks for Bitcoin.

Kevin Zhou, a longtime trader in the space, said that hedge funds were more likely than small investors to pull out a lot of money at once, and that Bitcoin was still small enough that a single fund’s cashing out could cause the price to drop sharply.

“You could get a possible run on the bank if one large investor withdraws and that causes the price to tank,” said Mr. Zhou, a co-founder of the trading firm Galois Capital. “That could cause a cascade of withdrawals.”

The rising importance of Wall Street is an unexpected turn for a virtual currency that was invented in 2008 by an anonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto and designed to operate outside the traditional financial system.

Bitcoins, even those held by hedge funds, are recorded and stored on a decentralized database known as the blockchain, kept on a network of computers around the world. The whole system is governed by so-called open source software that is maintained by a community of volunteer programmers.

The lack of backing from any government or established institution has concerned many large banks. The chief executive of Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam, said last week that he saw no inherent value in Bitcoin, joining the list of bankers who have called the market a bubble.

But some financial leaders, including Goldman Sachs’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, and Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, have defended the idea that virtual currencies could one day play a role in the global financial system because they can be obtained by anyone with internet access.

The debate about Bitcoin has been part of a broader explosion of interest this year in the various technological concepts introduced by the virtual currency. Many banks, including JPMorgan, have been trying to find ways to create their own decentralized databases, like the Bitcoin blockchain, that could provide a more reliable and secure way to track information.

In the technology industry, there has been a rush this year of so-called initial coin offerings, a way for entrepreneurs to raise money by creating and selling their own custom virtual currencies. Initial coin offerings have taken over $3 billion from investors this year after attracting almost no interest before.

These coin offerings have created their own demand for Bitcoin because the new coins generally have to be bought with an existing virtual currency like Bitcoin.

The interest in Bitcoin could be dampened in the coming weeks, however, by a debate among Bitcoin followers.

Bitcoin start-ups and programmers have been fighting for nearly three years about the best way to update the software that governs the currency and the network on which it lives.

The battle is expected to come to a head this month when new Bitcoin software, backed by many of the biggest virtual currency start-ups, is released. The new software aims to double the number of transactions flowing through the network. Currently, the computers processing Bitcoin transactions are limited to about five transactions per second.

Most of the programmers who maintain the Bitcoin software have opposed the changes because they say it would make it harder for individuals to track their own Bitcoins.

Some of the computers on the network are likely to update to the new software while others stay with the existing rules, creating a split, or fork, in the network that would result in two separate Bitcoins.

A Bitcoin fork could prove disruptive and drive away investors. But several signals suggest that the proposed rule changes are not likely to win enough support to survive for long, which would leave the status quo in place.

Bitcoin has already survived past attempts to fork the software and create imitators. In August, a group of former Bitcoin supporters created Bitcoin Cash, a totally separate virtual currency that makes it easier to do small transactions, like paying for a cup of coffee.

The price of Bitcoin temporarily wavered before Bitcoin Cash was introduced. All previous holders of Bitcoin were automatically granted the same number of Bitcoin Cash, and the value of those has also been rising, essentially doubling in the last month.

Chris Burniske, a co-author of a book on virtual currency investing, “Cryptoassets,” said most of the new investors weren’t too concerned about the exact design of Bitcoin or the current debates.

“I don’t think a lot of the new buyers are overly concerned about the long-term technical aspects of Bitcoin,” he said. They are “simply approaching it as a financial instrument.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/technology/bitcoin-hedge-funds.html

A new French restaurant in New York City is taking things one step further to give diners a unique experience: it’s letting them pay in bitcoin.

La Sirène, which opened on Friday, is located on Upper West Side, and proclaims to be an authentic French bistro. This is the second La Sirène restaurant in New York. The first is located downtown in Lower Manhattan.

According to the West Side Rag blog, though, while the restaurant accepts bitcoin, cash, cheque, and American Express, it doesn’t take Visa or Mastercard.

Reacting to the blog post, one person wrote:

"They take bitcoin, but not Visa? Who are they hoping to market to? Makes no sense."

Another wrote:

"Bitcoin but no “regular” credit cards (Visa, MasterCard)? Guess they only want to attract the Amex crowd (biz travelers, business people?) … and millennials with bitcoin. And who writes checks anymore?"

As the crypto market continues to gain prominence restaurants are realizing the benefits of accepting the digital currency for payments.

Last August, a New Hampshire restaurant was reported as accepting the digital currency for everything on its menu. Called Street, and located in the west end of Portsmouth, it features a global menu while providing a casual atmosphere for hungry diners.

Shortly after that, Free Keene, a pro-decentralization and pro-bitcoin organization in New Hampshire, revealed that a food truck in Keene, New Hampshire, was accepting bitcoin. Featuring a bitcoin sign on the truck, Bon Vivant – Gourmet Street Food, is believed to be the first food truck in the U.S. to accept the digital currency.

However, it’s not just the food industry that is accepting the cryptocurrency.

In November, Italy’s biggest taxi firm, Cooperative RadioTaxi 3570, announced that it was accepting the digital currency as payment from its customers. In July, Japanese electronics retailer Bic Camera enabled the acceptance of bitcoin to customers across all its stores, becoming the first major Japanese retailer to do so. Whereas, tenants at a London residency can now pay their deposits in the cryptocurrency.

With the digital currency now worth over $5,000 it’s likely that more companies will begin accepting it as a form of payment.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/new-french-restaurant-in-new-york-city-now-accepts-bitcoin/