Bank Of China Files Patent For New Blockchain Scaling Solution



The commercial, state-run Bank of China, not to be confused with the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has filed a patent with the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) for a solution to scale Blockchain technology systems, according to local news outlet tech.ifeng.

The bank originally applied for the patent on Sept. 28, 2017, with a Zhao Shuxiang indicated as the patent’s inventor, but SIPO only released news of the patent on Feb. 23, 2018.

The patent contains a method for compressing Blockchain data that seeks to solve the problem of storage space in new blocks without compromising on traceability and immutability.

As described in the patent, the amount of data stored in in new blocks would be reduced in the following way: when a full-size node receives a compression request from a client, it compresses transaction data from multiple blocks into a single “data block”, which would then be temporarily hosted on a different data storage system.

This data would then be run through a hash function with the data block hash value, and the compression transaction would map the relationship between the compressed block, the data block, and the compression event, which would all be recorded on the Blockchain.

While China has been one of the stricter countries globally in terms of cryptocurrency regulation, having banned Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and foreign exchanges from operating within the country, the South Korean Finance Minister spoke earlier this month of a need to cooperate with China in the sphere of Blockchain during a meeting with the governor of the People’s Bank of China.

Earlier this week, Chinese multinational PC company Lenovo also filed a Blockchain-based patent for verifying the integrity of physical documents, but with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), rather than China’s SIPO.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bank-of-china-files-patent-for-new-blockchain-scaling-solution

The Public Will Decide Cryptocurrencies’ Future: Malaysia’s Central Bank




The head of Malaysia’s central bank has firmly stated that the fate of cryptocurrencies in the country depends on the public adopting them, adding it would neither ban nor recognize cryptocurrency.

Speaking at the 40th-anniversary dinner of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of Malaysia this month, Bank Negara governor Muhammad Ibrahim had some noteworthy things to say about the future of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in Malaysian society, according to a report by local portal The Nation.

The central banker, refreshingly, revealed a decidedly free-market stance on cryptocurrencies wherein a hands-off approach would essentially see the public make their own decisions with investments or participation in cryptocurrency markets.

“Basically, we will let the cryptocurrency promoters including bitcoin, Ethereum and ripple to be more transparent, the methods to be more transparent and people behind the scene are to be more transparent too,” the central bank chief stated, hinting at introducing some fundamental guidelines for the cryptocurrency sector to operate in Malaysia.

More pointedly, he added:

    “By doing so, the public can decide on its own if they want to invest in cryptocurrencies.”

The central bank governor was quick to stress that the authority would not recognize cryptocurrency as fiat money while notably adding it wouldn’t ban cryptocurrencies in the country either.

The central bank chief also revealed an upcoming concept paper for the public on cryptocurrencies, presumably a detailed report to educate residents of cryptocurrencies. Malaysia’s central bank is already working toward a regulatory framework that will, for instance, deem cryptocurrency exchanges as ‘reporting institutions’ to curb criminal and unlawful activities through cryptocurrencies.

The central baker’s remarks follow similar statements from Malaysia’s deputy finance minister who, in January, confirmed the government would not ban trading of cryptocurrencies.

“It is not the intention of the authorities to ban or put a stop on any innovation that is perceived to be beneficial to the public,” he stated at the time.

Malaysia joins the Philippines, two countries among the world’s fastest-growing economies, to take a refreshingly open and even embracive approach to cryptocurrencies in society. After figuring among the earliest countries in the world to mandate regulations for its domestic cryptocurrency industry, the deputy director of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) spoke of the convenience of using bitcoin in payments.

The central bank official was speaking in a televised interview in late 2017 when he stated:

    “There are risks but essentially, it can be managed. If you want something that is fast, near real-time and convenient then there’s the benefit of using virtual currencies like bitcoin.”


Source: https://www.ccn.com/public-will-decide-cryptocurrencies-future-malaysias-central-bank/

Will Lightning Help or Hurt Bitcoin Privacy?




Faster, cheaper bitcoin transactions? Check. But at what cost?

For bitcoin users, many of whom were drawn to cryptocurrency for its promise of financial sovereignty, bitcoin is still synonymous with privacy. But the gap between the vision and the reality, in which user transactions today must be published to a globally distributed ledger, has long been one of the technology's biggest points of controversy.

"Bitcoin is Twitter for your bank account. Everything is public to everyone," Ian Miers, the co-founder of the privacy-centric cryptocurrency zcash, told CoinDesk.

Compounding matters, however, is that as bitcoin users get closer to gaining a whole new way to send transactions, powered by an innovation called the Lighting Network, concerns are spreading that privacy could degrade from its already imperfect state.

On the surface, the idea might seem promising - because Lightning payments occur "off-chain," the information isn't included in the blockchain that all nodes store.

But while there is no Lightning ledger so to speak, payments in the scheme are still broadcast across nodes within the network. Essentially, to ensure routing is always available, those using Lightning channels need to trust other network users to help relay transactions.

Conceptually, this means that participants within the system could pry on a transaction, or even potentially sell that information to governments or advertisers. This is a risk that's worsened if the network becomes centralized into a "hub-and-spoke" type structure, where hubs are large, well-known and often-used entities.

"Lightning likely won't improve privacy, it may make it much worse from an average consumer's perspective," Miers added.

And like many, more speculative concerns surrounding the upcoming tech, the risk to user privacy may not be obvious until the network is deployed - an uncertainty that, combined with a wave of efforts on behalf of Lightning developers to include privacy features, has led to mixed sentiments as to what the future of private bitcoin transactions might be.

According to privacy researcher Kristov Atlas, in a worst-case scenario, privacy attackers could "thrive" on hubs "vampirically feeding off" the data as he wrote in a blog post.

However, the upcoming Lightning release does have some privacy features embedded, and there's reason to believe that developers are at least making advances on the problem.


Onion-routing

To date, the most advanced privacy feature included within Lightning is called "onion routing," and it's part of the Basics of Lightning Technology (BOLT), a series of protocols that ensure the multiple iterations of Lightning can interoperate.

In onion routing, payments are passed through multiple channels, and only the minimum of information about that payment is exposed.

For instance, upon receiving an encrypted payment, a node can only know where that payment came from and to what node that payment should be relayed.

According to Olaoluwa Osuntokun, a leading figure in Lightning development who first suggested the scheme on the developer mailing list, the importance of this is that nodes can't be selective when it comes to what payments they're willing to take.

"Nodes shouldn't be able to arbitrarily censor certain payments, or blacklist certain destinations within the channel graph," Osuntokun explained.

Often compared to the Tor network for its use of onion routing, Lightning has occasionally been celebrated as a darknet for bitcoin payments - however, it's comparatively untested, and could face some of the problems native to Tor as well.

"Similar to Tor, there exist known possibilities of timing leaks, and also unknown active attacks that may be viable," Osuntokun said.

And according to some, there's ways that onion-routing could be manipulated, leading to the loss of privacy, especially in an early Lightning network.

For example, the last node within a route, as well as whoever sent that payment, will know the transaction information, and theoretically, nodes could collude to break privacy, piecing together each layer of the payment in order to create a complete picture.

On top of this, there's the risk of a "global adversary which is able to instantaneous monitor all channels on the network," something that the current privacy protocol doesn't address, Osuntokun continued.


Fixed identifiers

And there's further defects to privacy on Lightning today as well.

For example, Lightning payments are currently given a fixed identifier that is repeated throughout the entire route. "This means that if an adversary has two non-contiguous nodes on the route, then they can trivially link a payment flow," Osuntokun said.

That said, Osuntokun assured that there's ways to correct this in future.

For example, if Schnorr signatures, a scaling method that works by aggregating public keys, are adopted into bitcoin, it could correct this issue in a "simple and attractive" way, Osuntokun said.

Plus, there's other, "more heavy weight solutions" such as using zero-knowledge to encrypt payments. However, because this encryption device is heavy, it will "significantly increase the amount of data one needs to send in order to complete a payment," Osuntokun said.

According to Osuntokun, the "lowest hanging fruit" is to obscure this payment identifier with random numbers as the payments pass through the network.


Hub and spoke

Even more speculative risks exist as well, but according to Miers, it's all highly contingent on the structure that the Lightning network will take.

"Some people think the amount of money you need to lock up in a channel and the costs of running nodes will inevitably lead to centralization," Miers said. "And then there's clearly no privacy."

Because onion routing works by passing payments through multiple nodes, in the case of a highly centralized network, active nodes could have perfect visibility of the payments.

However, Blocksteam engineer Christian Decker told CoinDesk that the development teams are creating "counter measures" against this risk of centralization.

Programming the system to open channels at random, Lightning "tries to avoid having hubs that can observe traffic," Decker explained, which has the added benefit of "strengthen[ing] the network as a whole against single points of failure."

Decker said that this randomness could be extended to how routes are formed on the network, making payment paths less predictable but potentiality increasing fees.

Other researchers maintain the risk involved in maintaining a node with high throughput will stave off the formation of centralized hubs.

Miers concluded:

    "We will see which one actually ends up happening."


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/will-lightning-help-hurt-bitcoin-privacy/

Bitcoin Giant Bitmain Rivals GPU-Maker Nvidia in Profits, Analysts Say




It’s taken China-based bitcoin miner Bitmain four years to achieve performance that its larger tech peer took more than two decades to accomplish, according to analyst firm Bernstein. Beijing-based Bitmain, which came on the scene in 2013, generated between $3 billion and $4 billion in operating profits last year, according to Bernstein data cited in CNBC. California-based chipmaker Nvidia, meanwhile, which boasts a market cap of $147 billion, delivered an operating profit of $3 billion in 2017.

Bitcoin mining operations are comprised of computer networks that perform calculations and are rewarded in bitcoin for the equations they solve, thereby fueling the network. Bitmain generates revenue by a combination of selling mining equipment and running bitcoin mining pools, where multiple miners join forces for greater scale.

Considering Nvidia’s role to provide semiconductors to machines used for bitcoin mining, the combined performance is reflective of a bitcoin mining industry that has shown no signs of slowing down despite China’s best efforts.

Bernstein’s profit estimates for Bitmain are based on a gross margin and operating margin of 75% and 65%, respectively. While Bitmain certainly benefited from last year’s astronomical rise in the bitcoin price, it also takes a very strategic approach. “Bitmain shrewdly adjusts the prices of miners according to bitcoin prices,” according to the Bernstein report.

That’s how they’re able to achieve such as margins, considering that as the bitcoin price soared, so too did Bitmain’s AntMiner S9, while production costs plateaued.

According to Bernstein, Bitmain controls as much as 80% of “bitcoin miners and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs.)” The analyst firm forecasts that Bitmain’s dominance will persist in 2018, but it’s challenging to make predictions beyond that given the uncertainty surrounding the cryptocurrency market and the BTC price.

Bitmain key revenue generating channels are highlighted in gray in the Bernstein report.





Diversifying Away From China

When China began cracking down on cryptocurrencies including bitcoin mining facilities, Bitmain unveiled an astute expansion into a more friendly jurisdiction for the market, Switzerland. In fact, it’s moving its hub right into the heart of Crypto Valley in Zug.

They’ve diversified their business operations even further by also setting up shop in Israel, Canada and Singapore over the past year.

Meanwhile, Nvidia, the company compared to Bitmain in the analyst report, is also benefiting from the demand for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin miners use the graphics chips made by Nvidia or AMD, for instance, to fuel their operations. Gaming is still their core market, but cryptocurrencies are increasingly playing a role.



Source: Yahoo Finance

Nvidia’s stock price has risen alongside the demand for cryptocurrencies over the past couple of years, though the company has been clandestine about the percentage of its revenues that originate from the cryptocurrency market. In the most recent quarter, Nvidia execs shared that cryptocurrency-driven revenue was higher on a sequential basis.



Source: https://www.ccn.com/bitmains-profits-rival-chipmaker-nvidia-analysts-say/

Scam-Free: Binance CEO Officially Receives Twitter Verification




Chengpang Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance is the proud new owner of a Twitter account with a verified blue check mark symbol on it.

Despite Zhao being the third richest person in the cryptocurrency industry with a net worth well over $1 billion, his Twitter account was among those of regular folk since he first signed up back in August of 2017.


Good Old Fashioned Third-Party Credibility

In his tweet confirming verification status, Zhao reminds the crypto faithful not to trust anyone that promises to send you more ETH because you generously give yours to them:

“One more time, NO ONE will not sent you more ETH just because sent them some. The world doesn’t work that way. Binance “quietly” launched a charity, it is for people in real need, not just because you sent one transaction.”

Zhao is referring to the numerous scams that are currently floating around on various platforms where users send tokens to people they don’t know. An anonymous user on Twitter posing as Tesla founder Elon Musk now owns more ethereum tokens after offering to send out a return on investment to participants only to leave them hanging.


Restoring Reputation

Zhao maintains a great reputation in the crypto community for creating the industry’s most popular exchange platform. Yet Binance has recently come under fire for a few reasons.

Most recently, Binance shut down for a full day thanks to what was called a system upgrade. Many suspected it was due to a hack. This all happening just one month after Binance became the largest exchange in the industry.

To make up for the error, Zhao and his team are discounting trading fees until February 24th.


Knowing Who To Trust

Zhao’s Twitter verification may not seem like a big deal. Consider for a moment though what is happening in the industry right now.

Firstly, government regulators are now coming down harder on their citizens when it comes to the regulation of exchanges and tax policies.

Secondly, hacks are still costing users millions of dollars.

And finally, investors are still losing money to pyramid schemes like BitConnect and USI-Tech. Not to mention initial coin offerings that either steal coins or fail to deliver a working product.

A little blue check mark next to a Twitter account is nothing to write home about. At least now there is one less unverified crypto influencer out there.

Remember to watch out for fake accounts people.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/binance-ceo-officially-receives-twitter-verification/

Yes, HabBear we're with you to infinity.

No doubt, he's good more than our regular posters such as TMAN and Jet Cash - hahaha.
I wish I were him but you know sometimes we have to accept our destiny and try to reshape it over time.
Self-learning is always the key to a brighter future more especially when you are dealing with "large numbers" and computing. 

I've come across a guy called "nullius" with a shit tonne of merits more than anyone excluding theymos. Then I started digging because I'm good at it and I finally got to the level where I found "nullius" is something else, something that we don't see around here so easily because it appears he has a strong cryptographic background... So, who the hell is this guy? Is he the founder or what? LOL

Reference: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=976210

South Korean Cryptocurrency Exchanges Evaluate Self-Regulations



An association of South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges said that it is planning to check if its members are following a set of self-regulatory cryptocurrency measures adopted last year, local journal Yonhap News reported Feb. 21.

The Korean Blockchain Industry Association, which is currently comprised of 33 of South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchanges, stated that it is going to carry out evaluations of 21 participants, including major trading platforms Coinone, Bithumb, and Korbit.

In mid-December 2017, the Korean Blockchain Industry Association announced that it plans to “establish a set of specific ethical codes on the virtual currency bourses, including insider trading and market manipulation” after the South Korean financial authorities began considering cryptocurrency regulations.

The self-regulatory move among South Korean exchanges was intended to provide more transparency in trading to alleviate worries over the country’s “Bitcoin frenzy” in December 2017, during which a sudden influx of South Korean investors started buying Bitcoin.

Last week, in the UK, seven of the world’s largest cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase, formed the country’s first self-regulating trade body, CryptoUK. On Feb. 16. Cointelegraph reported that another self-regulating cryptocurrency body is being considered in Japan by the country’s two cryptocurrency industry groups, but the decision has yet to be finalized.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korean-cryptocurrency-exchanges-evaluate-self-regulations

Japan: Only 0.16% Of 2017 Money Laundering Reports Came From Crypto Exchanges




The proportion of suspected money laundering cases involving cryptocurrency in Japan is a fraction of the fiat total for 2017, new data reported by Nikkei Asian Review shows.

As Nikkei reports, quoting statistics from Japan’s National Police Agency, from April to December 2017, cryptocurrency exchanges reported 669 instances of suspicious activity they suspect could be money laundering.

This compares to around 347,000 cases reported by banks in 2017, 15,400 from credit card companies and 13,300 from credit unions, Nikkei reports, citing police records. The total number of money laundering reports for the whole of 2017 stood at just over 400,000.

The reporting period for cryptocurrency began in April, 2017 after new legislation obliged exchange operators to increase transparency and adhere to anti-money laundering regulations.

The figures are promising against a continued narrative from international governments that money laundering is a key battleground to be targeted by increased regulations.

Of the 669 cases, it is likely many involved “questionable transactions repeated frequently in a short span of time,” Nikkei notes, further reducing the number of bad actors involved in the practice.

Japan continues to keep a close eye on its fledgling exchange sphere. In the wake of Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck’s $530mln hack in January, 2018, reporting obligations for exchanges have tightened, with finance minister Taro Aso confirming “impartial” inspections by regulators are occurring across exchanges.

In Australia meanwhile, Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, cryptocurrency “scams” sparked 1200 complaints to consumer watchdog the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission last year.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/japan-only-016-of-2017-money-laundering-reports-came-from-crypto-exchanges

Turkey, Iran To Release State-Backed Cryptocurrencies On Heels Of Venezuela’s Petro



The governments of Turkey and Iran are both considering developing their own government-backed digital currencies, following on the heels of the Feb. 20 pre-sale of Venezuela’s national oil-backed Petro coin.

Feb. 21, a day after the Petro’s launch, Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tweeted that Iran’s Post Bank is working on releasing a cryptocurrency:

    "In a meeting with the board of directors of Post Bank on digital currencies based on the blockchain, I [...] prescribed [...] measures to implement the country's first cloud-based digital currency."

Feb. 22, two days after the Petro’s launch, Middle-Eastern news outlet Al-Monitor reported that Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy chair and former Industry Minister Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu is publically considering launching a “national Bitcoin” called the “Turkcoin”, described in his 22-page report on regulating the crypto market.

Tanrikulu’s report comes two weeks after a Feb. 7 CNN Turk interview with Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simse where he mentioned that the government would be preparing to release a national cryptocurrency.

Last November, the Iranian cyberspace authority, the High Council of Cyberspace (HCC), “welcome[d] Bitcoin” and announced that they were working with the Central Bank of Iran on a report on cryptocurrencies. On Feb. 21 the Central Bank of Iran said that it was actively working on a way to “control and prevent” cryptocurrencies in Iran.

Turkey’s government had previously taken a harsh stance on Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies, when lawmakers from the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) said in November, 2017 that trading crypto was “not compatible” with Islam due to its speculative nature and lack of government control.

However, Tanrikulu told Al-Monitor that since there is no mention of cryptocurrencies in Turkish law, buying and selling crypto is legal in Turkey:

    “The use of cryptocurrencies can be considered legal since our law contains no prohibition [...] buying and selling with cryptocurrencies and creating money through Bitcoin mining are not within the scope of criminal activity in Turkey today.”

Tanrikulu’s report adds that crypto regulation is definitely needed in Turkey to prevent money laundering and fraud, and that the creation of a government-controlled “bitcoin bourse” is one way to do so.

Venezuela’s Petro has been seen by some critics as solely a way for the country to avoid the Western sanctions imposed on the country; Iran is also currently facing international sanctions.

The Petro is not the first government-backed cryptocurrency to be launched — the local government in Dubai launched the state-backed emCash in October 2017, and in 2017 Kazakhstan, Japan, and Estonia have all brought up the possibility of releasing their own government-backed cryptocurrencies.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/turkey-iran-to-release-state-backed-cryptocurrencies-on-heels-of-venezuelas-petro

Austria Planning New Regulations for Cryptocurrency, ICOs




Austria has joined the list of countries planning to regulate cryptocurrencies and will use as a model existing rules for the trading of gold and derivatives.

The government's central concern is curbing the use of cryptocurrencies for money laundering, Bloomberg reports. Likewise, it wishes to extend oversight measures for traditional financial products to crypto assets.

"Cryptocurrencies are significantly gaining importance in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing," Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger was quoted as saying. As a result, he went on to say, "We need more trust and security."

Loeger outlined several measures the government plans to implement, including requiring cryptocurrency market participants to identify all trading parties and to disclose trades of €10,000 ($12,300) or more to the government's financial intelligence unit.

The regulation will also cover initial coin offerings (ICOs), Loeger said. The government will apply existing rules regarding market manipulation, insider trading and front-running, and organizers will be required to submit "digital prospectuses" to the country's Financial Market Authority (FMA).

The finance minister's statements come on the heels of a report that the Austrian government is seeking suspects in an alleged bitcoin scam by a company called Optioment, which may have resulted in investor losses of up to $115 million.

Loeger also suggested that the European Union should implement cryptocurrency regulation. This may well come to fruition as the European Commission announced Thursday that top central bank and market supervision figures in addition to unidentified "market players" will meet next week to discuss the matter.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/austria-cryptocurrency-regulation-icos-gold-derivatives/

Bank of America Now Considers Crypto a Business Risk




Bank of America has cited cryptocurrency as a material risk to its business, public records show.

The technology could hamper the second-largest U.S. bank's ability to comply with anti-money-laundering regulations, pose a competitive threat and force the company to spend more money to keep up with the times, the bank said in its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Cryptocurrency" is mentioned three times in the annual report, all in the section on risk factors.

The first reference is in the discussion of AML, know-your-customer, sanctions and foreign corruption laws in the U.S.

"Emerging technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, could limit our ability to track the movement of funds," the filing says, explaining further:

    "Our ability to comply with these laws is dependent on our ability to improve detection and reporting capabilities and reduce variation in control processes and oversight accountability."

Competitive threat

Yet perhaps more notable is the acknowledgement that cryptocurrency poses competitive risks to the bank.

In a passage about new competitors in the financial services industry, Bank of America expressed caution about how client preferences could lead them to use products like cryptocurrencies - for which, as it stands, the bank does not offer any support.

Bank of America notes in the filing:

    "Clients may choose to conduct business with other market participants who engage in business or offer products in areas we deem speculative or risky, such as cryptocurrencies."

Indeed, the mention of cryptocurrency as an outside risk is taken one step further, with Bank of America stating that rising adoption would result in it having to dedicate more resources - that is, spending money - to stay competitive.

"[T]he widespread adoption of new technologies, including internet services, cryptocurrencies, and payment systems, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services," the bank said.

Bank of America is one of several U.S. banks that recently banned credit card purchases of cryptocurrency. The bank did not restrict crypto purchases using debit cards, however.

Based in Charlotte, N.C., Bank of America is also a prolific filer of patent applications for blockchain technology concepts.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bank-of-america-cryptocurrency-risk-factor-annual-report-10-k/

Finland: Authorities Unsure How To Store 2,000 Seized Bitcoins After Treasury Guidelines



Authorities in Finland are trying to devise a means to store 2,000 bitcoins confiscated in 2016, following new guidelines from the Treasury published Tuesday, Feb. 20, Bloomberg reported.

According to Bloomberg, citing the Treasury guidelines, the authorities are prohibited from storing the Bitcoin stash, worth roughly $22.8 mln today, on virtual currency exchanges or services, instead of requiring that they are stored offline, in a cold storage. Finnish authorities have declined to comment on how they’ve been storing the seized Bitcoin up to this point.

Previously existing statutes on seized currency are insufficient to address the problem. Citing a Treasury document, Bloomberg states the Finnish government prohibits authorities in this case from considering Bitcoin or any other crypto asset as currency. Rather it is an asset that “...as a rule, can’t be used or accepted as a means of payment or as an investment”.

Following a binding court ruling on the confiscation of the 2,000 bitcoins, the seized assets will be converted to euros by the Finnish state at public auctions, as the Treasury considers commercial exchanges to be “untrustworthy and opaque”.

This will not be the first case in which cryptocurrencies seized in criminal investigations are auctioned off by the state. During the bust of a customs-dodging crime syndicate in Bulgaria, authorities seized 213,519 Bitcoins, roughly $2.5 bln today, which the government plans to use to settle part of the national debt.  

On Jan. 22, the US Marshal’s Office auctioned off 3,813 Bitcoins seized in criminal investigations, some of which, Cointelegraph reported, were seized during the arrest of a prominent drug dealer in the state of Utah. At the time, the Marshal’s sum amounted to a nearly $50 mln value on commercial exchanges.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/finland-authorities-unsure-how-to-store-2000-seized-bitcoins-after-treasury-guidelines

SegWit Gets Its Big Debut As Latest Bitcoin Core Version ‘Introduces Full Support’



The new major Bitcoin Core client version, released for public editing Feb. 15, includes full Segregated Witness (‘SegWit’) support for the first time, among a host of other upgrades.

The description of Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 on Github promises “new features, various bugfixes and performance improvements” of which SegWit support is the conspicuous headliner.

Demand for SegWit technology, which for the end user will mean reduced transaction processing wait times, has exploded since its launch in August 2017.

Major Bitcoin wallet providers and payment processors have conversely been slow to implement it, leading to anger from consumers who considered they were paying — and waiting — over the odds, when on a technological level this was unnecessary.

As a popular option for helping scale the Bitcoin network, SegWit is being joined by increasing interest in so-called ‘Layer 2’ solutions, principally the Lightning Network.

Last week, Microsoft threw its weight behind the latter option, at the same time decrying alternative ‘on-chain’ scaling methods such as bigger block sizes as “degrading decentralization”.

“Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 introduces full support for segwit in the wallet and user interfaces,” the Bitcoin Core Github description confirms.

Other new features revolve around technical flexibility, while lesser tweaks include features such as reference to “bits” instead of “µBTC”, reflecting an increasing aim to appeal to less technical users.

When asked to name the most notable feature of Bitcoin Core version 0.16.0 and how it will affect users, Jimmy Song, Bitcoin core developer and venture partner at Blockchain Capital, told Cointelegraph:

    “Native segwit support (bech32) is going to get much more adoption as a result of this update. This will reduce block bloat and encourage more wallets in the ecosystem to adopt bech32.”


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/segwit-gets-its-big-debut-as-latest-bitcoin-core-version-introduces-full-support

Well, about 2-3 weeks ago, my favorite bitcoin exchange (Luno.com) integrated the SegWit which reduces the bitcoin transaction fees from an average of $15 to only $0.05... How sweet was that? Paying only $0.05 for bitcoin transaction because of SegWit is now cheaper than Ethereum gas fee with an average of $1.20. Yet some huge bitcoin exchanges such as CoinBase and BitFinex are going ahead to integrate SegWit on their platforms to ease and reduce the bitcoin transactions fees for their customers.

So, which do you think is better between the SegWit and LN? thanks

Robinhood’s Zero-Fee Bitcoin, Ethereum Trading Is Live In Five US States



The Robinhood mobile trading app launched zero-fee Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) trading for the first batch of the users of its Robinhood Crypto platform on Thursday, Feb. 22, as announced on the company’s blog.

The first users to get access to the commission-free platform are customers residing in the US states California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and New Hampshire. Robinhood noted that the application will be rolled out gradually with support for “many more states” coming “later.”

At the moment, all users of Robinhood are able to monitor the market for the prices of 16 different cryptocurrencies, regardless of whether or not they have access to the actual trading feature.

As Robinhood stated on Jan. 25, the main goal behind launching its zero-fee cryptocurrency trading platform was to bring as many new customers as possible. Robinhood claimed that the company is planning “to operate this business on break-even basics.”

According to the latest blog post, the current number of Robinhood Crypto users has reached four million with over $100 bln in transaction volume on its brokerage platform and over $1 bln in saved commissions in equity trades.

Apart from the launch of cryptocurrency trading, Robinhood has also released its Robinhood Feed which allows cryptocurrency investors to discuss cryptocurrency markets, trends and news online.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/robinhoods-zero-fee-bitcoin-ethereum-trading-is-live-in-five-us-states

Bitcoin Drops Below $10K as Crypto Markets Dip



Signs of bull market exhaustion in the bitcoin market may be having a knock-on effect across cryptocurrencies in general.

All of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization - bar nano, dentacoin and tether - are in the red today, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped over 8 percent in the last 24 hours, as was indicated by the bearish reversal pattern on the daily charts and head-and-shoulders breakdown on the hourly chart.

As of writing, BTC had dropped to $9,958 - down 16.72 percent from the recent high of $11,958 hit on Feb. 20.

As seen above, the biggest loser among the top 10 cryptocurrencies is bitcoin cash (BCH), down 10.58 percent in the last 24 hours. It's also down 24.11 percent from the recent high of $1,641.40. The cryptocurrency's ascent was cut short by key resistance around $1,533, shows Bitfinex data.

Also, taking a beating today is Ripple's XRP. As of writing, the token is changing hands at $0.975152 - down 8.89 percent in the last 24 hours.

CoinDesk reported yesterday that Ripple has added five new payments clients in four countries. Further, San Francisco-based startup has also released white papers hinting at an upgrade for the underlying technology of XRP. However, the today's drop indicates the good news has been ignored by the markets or is being overshadowed by the broad-based losses in crypto space.

Whatever the case, XRP is looking heavy on the technical charts. Also, it is worth noting the cryptocurrency is down 24.99 percent from the recent high of $1.3 (reached Feb. 10).

Meanwhile, as noted, the few gaining tokens are all out side the top 10, including small caps like nano (up 8.15 percent in last 24 hours) and dentacoin (up 2.48 percent).

The total value of all cryptocurrencies taken together stands at $445 billion - down close to 15 percent from the high of $519 billion seen on Feb. 18. However, that's still 61 percent above the Feb. 6 low of $276 billion.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-drops-below-10k-as-crypto-markets-dip/

Bitcoin exchanges add tech to make transactions 20% cheaper

   - Coinbase and Bitfinex, the two largest exchanges by U.S. dollar-bitcoin trading volume, are adopting a software called SegWit.
   - The move should lower transaction fees by up to 20 percent, and speed up trading across the network, Bitfinex says.
   - High transaction fees were a key reason for the "fork" from bitcoin into bitcoin cash.




The Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange application seen on the screen of an iPhone.

Two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges are aiming to make bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper with a new software update announced this week.

Both Coinbase and Bitfinex said they are adopting a software called SegWit, which bitcoin bulls and one exchange say should lower fees by as much as 20 percent while speeding up transactions.

"The most noticeable changes in the short term should be more efficiency when transacting," said Alex Sunnarborg, founding partner at crypto hedge fund Tetras Capital. "SegWit adoption is undoubtedly positive for bitcoin as it greatly impacts transaction fees, speed, and future tech possibilities, all areas in which alternative crypto assets like Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum compete with and often criticize bitcoin on."

Bitcoin enthusiasts have split over the best way to improve the cryptocurrency network's efficiency. An upgrade called SegWit2x was called off in the fall after it lost widespread support.

Meanwhile, bitcoin transaction fees soared well above $20 in the last few months and confirmation times could take longer than a day. Some users were so frustrated with fees, and unable to compromise on blockchain size increases, that they "forked" bitcoin, and created bitcoin cash this summer.



Source: BitinfoCharts

The software Segregated Witness, or SegWit, slightly increases the block size. As the number of transactions that fit into each block goes up, transactions get faster. SegWit went live in August as Bitcoin's skyrocketing popularity led to some slowdowns on the network.

Bitfinex, which facilitates about 38 percent of all U.S. dollar-bitcoin trading volume according to CryptoCompare, announced the software roll-out on Tuesday.

"We are delighted that through this implementation we can provide our customers with bitcoin withdrawal fees that are up to 20 percent lower, as well as faster-than-ever transaction speeds," Bitfinex Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino said in a statement.

San Francisco-based exchange Coinbase, which does 17 percent of all U.S. dollar bitcoin trading volume according to CryptoCompare, also tweeted the software update this week. The first phase will kick off this week, and should be fully available by the middle of next week, the company tweeted Tuesday.

Bitcoin prices shrugged off the news, and fell 7 percent Wednesday, trading near $10,500. The cryptocurrency is down more than 40 percent year to date. Ethereum dropped more than 4 percent, trading near $832, and is down 37 percent year to date.

The software news could mean more for long-term sentiment than short-term prices, said Brian Kelly, CNBC contributor and CEO of BKCM.

"It's very good for the ecosystem," Kelly said. "We're making progress on the technology front, that takes the criticism that fees are too high out of picture."

Ethereum bull Benjamin Roberts agreed that the software update is a positive long-term sign for bitcoin, adding that more people may be open to the cryptocurrency if transaction fees fell. But it still remains to be seen if the update alone is "enough," he said.

"It's an incremental improvement," said Roberts, founder and CEO of Citizen Hex. "It's good that different players are adopting the changes but it's a very small step on the way to what needs to be a significant improvement."


Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/21/cryptocurrency-exchanges-look-to-speed-up-bitcoin-transactions.html

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Keep it on @SuperJeyy