On August 7th, ETH Co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new kind of consensus algorithm which requires control over 99% of nodes to carry out an attack. Vitalik called it as "observer nodes" and with the implementation of this idea, ETH can become the most secure public blockchain in the world. With this consensus algorithm, 51% attack can be the thing of past!

How it works:
The new algorithm introduces a new kind of validator nodes called as the “independent observer nodes”. These nodes observe the chain in real-time and detect inconsistencies in when the message appears. This works because, Double Spend attacks are slightly quicker (or slower) compared to normal transactions, and the special nodes in Vitalik’s solution detect just that.

Ethereum developer Conrad Barski further explains,

Link to Vitalik's paper:
https://vitalik.ca/general/2018/08/07/99_fault_tolerant.html

News Source:
https://blockmanity.com/news/ethereum/vitaliks-new-consensus-algorithm-make-51-attack-obsolete-requires-99-nodes-attack/

Vitalik has always been my favorite guy in the world of Blockchain. Even though the paper is fairly complex and didn't yet understand it completely. But this algorithm has the capability to change the ETH blockchain into the most secure public blockchain in the world. It is just a proposal and implementation has not yet decided.

Adoption is way better than regulation for cryptos. If adoption rate increases, regulations will follow. But if regulation jumps into forefront, adoption rate may or may not slow down. However, adoption here means mass adoption by the general people like us and not by the corporates. If we see a big corporate adopting cryptos strictly for other institutional investors, it may not have much impact on the market. The better impact will happen when we will see bitcoin or other cryptos are accepted in the general stores and small service providers. It will make bigger impact on the crypto market.

For the same reason, I don't have much hope on the proposed bitcoin ETFs which is pending for decision by SEC. These are made only for large institutional investors and not for common mass like us!

You are correct in the numbers but did you have the previous volumes as well. I don't see any link in coinmarketcap website that can provide us with the previous volumes of any particular exchange. So I believe the numbers were much lesser than the current level. Lira has been dropping since a while now and even though Mr. Erdogan assured people about their internal economy is robust, there are few percentage of the population who would like to hedge against this risk.

Obviously it is not a mass exodus, but it is good that people are entrusting bitcoin and other cryptos to safeguard their wealth. P2p exchanges will not come into picture here because people are not buying their own fiat currency. Instead they are hedging against the risk by replying on crypto VS Dollar value. If they succeed at the first attempt, the trust quotient is bound to increase. Only time will tell the effectiveness of such hedging.

I am really worried to see the community is largely depending on the SEC's decision and the market reaction is not good. Aren't we moving away from the original goal of cryptos? Aren't we giving away the powers to the hand of regulatory authority and becoming dependent on their decision??

The proposed ETFs are not even meant for the small investors like us! They are made for institutional investors and we don't yet know the type of ETF yet, whether it is a synthetic one or a physically settled one? Without knowing deeply about the proposed ETFs, community is being dependent on it!

We don't need bitcoin ETF, rather they need us! The ETF decision has been delayed and it will be further delayed. Mark my word! We shredded enough blood by depending on SEC who are generally against cryptos. This way we are just giving away powers to the regulatory authority and loosing our own freedom! Think about it! 

I am not much into ETH so unable to help you for ETH. However, I have used two factor authentication functionality for bitcoin wallet named Greenaddress. You can get the executable file from https://greenaddress.it/en/ . Install it like any other software and enable 2FA by clicking on the "settings" tab.

They offer 4 different types of 2FA for the security of your wallet. Email, Google Authentication, SMS and Call. Enable as per your requirement and enjoy the security. Once enabled, no transaction will go through without the authentication method you have chosen.

You can also try Metamask for your ETH transactions. However, I am not sure if they have 2FA option or not. You can install and test for yourself. Hope this helps!

So your website looks like a monitoring and listing website for online crypto currency related casinos. Good initiative, indeed! However, I have a question,

1. Do you work on the basis of money offered like ICO bench?? ICO Bench has a bad name in providing ratings to ICOs based on the money they offers to ICO Bench. If no money is provided, they may not list that ICO to their listing website even if the merit of that ICO is high. Do you work that way??

2. Do you personally test all websites that you list in your website? I mean check the provably fairness claim, deposit some money, play one or two games and withdraw earnings? I mean do you test the basic functionalities of a casino before you list them in your website to ensure people don't get wrong information?

To my second point, if you can control the quality of your listings extensively, I am sure your website will have a good future. Integrity is one thing that we don't really compromise on, maintain that stringently!

While Babo has already spoken about the provably fair piece, I want to concentrate my argument on House Edge part. Fiat casinos definitely need to have a KYC mechanism as per the regulatory requirement. Online casinos are also not exempted from that part. If the originating country requires a KYC mechanism needs to be in place for any casino, be it fiat or crypto, they will have to comply with this requirement regardless of the deposit method. So this particular point is based on the legal framework of the originating country and not on the deposit method.

What is the significance of this report as a reply to OP's question?? I tried to read most of the article and read the conclusion with great interest. It looks like a research data of some Infosec employee of NSA on electronic cash system and cryptography. But this document certainly doesn't prove that cryptos are originated from NSA or any other security agencies (even though you haven't said that!).

I strongly believe that cryptos are not originated from FBI or NSA because if it was the case, they wouldn't have allowed it to increase its reach to the current level and would have killed it quite a long ago. The arguments that I have read in this forum or in other news websites, are not convincing at all.

A decision like Bitcoin ETF takes time to take. 195 days is nothing and it will be delayed further and probably the final decision will be negative. Because SEC has a good reputation of playing double faced games. We should not have any dependency on SEC's decision. I believe a lot of experience members will support my thinking process here because none of the proposed ETFs are for the general people. They are all made for institutional investors and in many cases we don't know whether they are synthetic or physical.

We are running high on an absolute lie which should be avoided at all costs for the betterment of cryptos itself. When bitcoin reached 22k back in 2017, we didn't need SEC's support so why would we need now? The less dependency we have on the regulatory decisions, the better!

The more prominent and reliable link is below,

https://www.ccn.com/126-year-old-general-electric-ge-invests-in-blockchain-cybersecurity-startup/


Check the above link and understand the adoption idea. They are not adopting cryptos in any way, they are adopting blockchain technology in the areas of cyber security and one of the subsidiaries of GE is adopting blockchain in Freight transport sector. I don't see any mention of cryptos here. It is adoption of technology for better operating efficiency and transparency for the corporation.

I am stunned by your statement! How come more taxes and regulations will be good for crypto? How come heading towards centralization will be good for crypto??

When it comes to normal KYC and AML practices, I am still ok, but overdoing the regulations will kill the market. Don't you think so?

And I would become a multi millionaire if it happens. So I want it to happen. However, forecasting without any solid proof can be considered as FUD according to many forum members.

May I know the background of this forecast please??

I don't know why people are expecting high from the bitcoin ETF to get approved. No one understand that if a regulated entity become a whale by buying huge amounts of bitcoin, it will be easier for the government to control the price of the bitcoin leaving small investors like us in shambles. That is not desired at all. Physically settled bitcoin ETF will show a positive impact on the market at first because of the fresh funds but we will loose the control eventually!

Don't expect to get it approved till September end. Don't run high on the ETF news. It will harm us in longer term and price manipulation will become more evident!

US government is known for playing double faced games and Trump government has mastered in it! In the last G20 summit, the USA government has released a paper praising the cryptos and showing the positive side of cryptos. Everyone thought that they are going to legalize it, but what they did is banned ICOs. It is a great example of double faced game played by US government.

Online casinos probably throwing challenge to the government backed casinos and their revenues were getting affected. That is the reason they decided to shut those down. Such kind of practice is pretty old and true for every sector, not just gambling! What should have been done through healthy competition, is being done through the enforcement agencies. That's what the flaws of the centralized system. I do agree with OP's statement here!

What you are talking is essentially de-monetization and re-monetization process that recently happened in India on November 8th 2017. Notes of certain denomination became worthless just within a blink of an eye and common public were forced to stand in the queue to changes their notes to the new one. Obviously Black money holders could not exchange a major chunk of their money due to the deposit limit and lost almost everything.

However, that process didn't effect the bitcoin progress in my country, instead a lot of people indeed converted their money into cryptos to bypass this banking ban through various channels and shell companies.

Valuation of currency doesn't change after issuing a new denomination. US congress can't control the value of USD. The value of a currency depends on various factors like debt ratio, Foreign reserve etc. So monetary would not kill cryptos in any way, instead it will go stronger during that phase as more people would want to bypass that phase by converting their money into various other assets. 

What suddenly made you think that bitcoin transactions are costly?? It was earlier during late 2017s but with the adoption of segwit, it has come down to a very nominal level. People pays in cents for thousands of dollars of transactions with bitcoin. Paypal will never be able to achieve that in its lifetime.

Actually the comparison between paypal and bitcoin is wrong. One is a profit making organization and another one is decentralized p2p currency system. They don't belong to the same league!!

Correct and that's exactly the reason for Indian government behind this thinking. People are gambling on every sports that are played in India but the governemnt is not making any money out of it. They will impose heavy taxes on gambling if they legalize it after all debates.

Cryptocurrency gambling is not within the scope itself because government has already informed that cryptos will not be considered as a legal tender in India. But I think Indian government is taking one step at a time. Cryptos will have to be legalized eventually just to cope up with the other countries.

Whoever told you that bitcoin will reach 10k, they were actually speculating the price and no one on the earth knows for sure. We all are speculators here and we can only speculate the price but can't tell anything for sure. Also cryptos are the only market that reflects the free market dynamics so it is almost impossible to capture the Future trend correctly.

The current bearish trend is the result of the bitcoin ETF delay by SEC. It looks apparently correct because there is no other bad news trending in the market (I am guessing). So take this as an opportunity and buy more if you believe in bitcoin. I am sure a lot of people have started doing that already. Once the market moves free from the hype of the ETF, it may start go up again distributing the profits to the believers!

I second your statement. It seems like SEC has stolen all the spotlight and we bitcoiners are begging to SEC for approving the ETF. People are not understanding the fact, that we are only pushing towards crypto centralization through this. In long term, nothing will happen apart from centralization where regulatory authorities like SEC will hold the power to manipulate the market accordingn to their wish. That is the least desirable impact for us.

If we really want to see a strong bitcoin, we need to start using it as a currency without hoping for ETFs or mainstream listing. The more mainstream we go with bitcoin, the more centralized the entire system will become.

Absolutely correct! Bitcoin has become an investment asset now than a currency system. So we have long diverted from the original thought of becoming a de-centralized p2p currency free of regulations and middle man. That's where we have precisely became a part of the speculation game. I am not denying the fact that I also have bitcoins in my cold storage with the similar hope, but I also don't have any space where I can use my bitcoins to purchase anything from any merchant, at least in my country!

To be able to spend bitcoins as a currency system to purchase goods or services, we need merchants to accept it as a payment option. This is largely missing in today's scenario. Everytime I want to purchase something, I have to convert the required amount of bitcoin into fiat and then I use it for the purchase. That's why it is not helping the crypto economy because we have very very limited options to use cryptos directly. To change this mindset, we need merchants to will accept bitcoin for everyday goods.



Secondly to the OP's point, it is only possible if the miners come together and decide that they will not sell off their bitcoins under a certain price. But it is very easy to say but very difficult to execute! To reach a global consensus of this level is not easy at all! The big exchanges can help with this decision but it will slump their business down, so they will not help either. The only choice left is the free market decision and that's what exactly we are following now!

I would love to see if anyone can suggest a revolutionary way to balance the price based on the production cost and stabilize it. As of now, I don't see any alternate route than to follow the free market dynamics which is somewhat influenced by the whales. As a small trader, our influence power is next to zero and we can only submit ourselves to the current market dynamics. Absolutely helpless here!