These days bitcoin continues to outperform many traditional assets as the decentralized currency has become the premiere digital asset class of the 21st century. There are many ways individuals can obtain bitcoins and hold the appreciating investment themselves. However, there are also other traditionalized methods where people can invest in cryptocurrencies through trusts, self-directed IRAs, hedge funds, and other investment vehicles.


Bitcoin’s performance as an asset class continues to outshine traditional investments like stocks, precious metals, and the bond market. Just recently the well-known mainstream financial publication Bloomberg called bitcoin an “exchange traded fund (ETF) on steroids.” Furthermore, people have found that there are other ways to invest in bitcoin which are similar to traditional individual retirement accounts (IRA), or stock market investments. This includes cryptocurrency based investment trusts, exchange-traded notes and many more types of methods.



So far in 2016 and the past six months of 2017 cryptocurrency funds have soared in value considerably compared to traditional assets. Some of these traditional investment rails just offer bitcoin while others offer a basket of cryptocurrencies that can sometimes outperform one single digital asset if managed properly.

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https://news.bitcoin.com/investment-funds-cryptocurrency-exposure-big-gains/

Bitmain is the largest producer of bitcoin mining hardware in the world, and the company’s co-CEO Jihan Wu gave the keynote speech at The Future of Bitcoin Conference 2017 on Friday. During the talk, Wu outlined some of the key innovations he would like to see adopted by the Bitcoin network to help it grow over the coming years. Among the points made by Wu during his presentation were the need for smart contracts, economic incentives for full nodes and stakeholders, and the use of extension blocks to bring experimental features to Bitcoin.


Initial coin offerings (ICOs) built on top of Ethereum have been one of the biggest stories in cryptocurrencies over the past couple of months, and Wu would like to see this sort of innovation come to Bitcoin.

“I think today, Bitcoin has missed at least one very important innovations in the world, which is smart contracts,” said Wu. “When smart contracts were introduced, I recognized that it’s very important.”

Wu noted that he was an early investor in ASICMINER, which was a bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer that raised funds on unregulated, bitcoin-denominated stock exchange GLBSE. GLBSE was effectively a centralized version of the current ICO craze that operated in 2011 and 2012.

Wu recalled how GLBSE abruptly closed down at one point, which caused a number of issues for those who held assets on the trading platform.

“It was chaos because the capital table of the virtual company on the website became unknown,” said Wu. “No one could prove that he owns certain shares of a certain company.”

GLBSE was not the only attempt at an unregulated bitcoin stock exchange over the years, and other examples include BTC-TC, Bitfunder, and Havelock Investments. Due to the legal ramifications of running this sort of centralized stock exchange, Wu is of the belief that these sorts of assets should be issued on a blockchain, which is what has been seen on Ethereum via the ERC20 token standard.

“The ICO [market], I know, right now is quite crazy and there are a lot of scams,” said Wu. “But if you want to create a kind of decentralized economy, then you want to allow those entrepreneurs to raise money from the public without regulations.”

In reality, there are already a number of different ways to issue new tokens on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. For example, here is a tutorial for how to launch a new token via the Coinprism wallet. Having said that, a more complex scripting language is needed to create the sorts of decentralized applications that have been touted by Ethereum supporters.

In terms of smart contracts more generally, Wu noted that Bitmain first invested in RSK, which is an Ethereum-esque sidechain to Bitcoin, back in 2015.

“As a community, we have to admit that Bitcoin is a little bit late [to] this innovation,” said Wu.

Later in his talk, Wu mentioned that ICOs may be useful as a way to fund Bitcoin protocol development in a transparent manner. Although RSK did not launch via an ICO, the startup intends to generate revenue through the use of a developer fee for transactions on their sidechain. While not mentioning Blockstream by name, Wu stated that those who work on the Bitcoin protocol should not conceal how they intend to make money from their open-source development endeavors.


Wu also discussed the need for economic incentives for participants in the Bitcoin network other than miners.

“One very important competing blockchain just redistributed the miners reward to long-term coin holders and their full node operations,” said Wu. “That’s the kind of model where you incentivize everyone to store coins over the long term, make judgments about the technical improvements for the long term, and to contribute to the community.”

It’s unclear which competitor to Bitcoin Wu was discussing here, but he indicated that Ethereum has implemented these sorts of solutions, which means he may have been discussing their intended move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

Wu added that many bitcoin users view the features offered by Ethereum as scams, but he thinks there could be some important innovation there. In his view, many ideas are not tried on Bitcoin at least in part due to the monoculture around protocol development.

Finding an economic incentive to run a full node has been a topic of discussion in the Bitcoin community for many years, but not solutions have gained widespread support at this time.


One last area of discussion covered during Wu’s talk was the concept of extension blocks. Extension blocks are an idea that have been around for years, and Wu indicated that they could be useful in safely adding new, innovative features to Bitcoin.

“It’s a special sidechain that requires all full nodes and mining nodes to verify the consensus rules in the extension block,” said Wu. “If something goes wrong, the largest risk is maybe the extension block goes wrong. But it’s voluntary, and it’s just someone who dared to take a risk to use the extension block.”

Wu mentioned smart contracts and Mimblewimble, which is a proposed method of bringing tremendous scale and privacy to Bitcoin, as two examples of features that could be brought to Bitcoin by way of extension blocks.

It should be noted that the original sidechains white paper included a section on the risks associated with extension blocks.

Wu concluded his speech with a call for more experimentation in the Bitcoin development process. “It’s quite easy to introduce bugs in Bitcoin protocol implementations,” he said. “Most of the software will fail, but we have to try to be successful.”

https://coinjournal.net/bitmain-ceo-jihan-wu-bitcoin-needs-smart-contracts-icos/?utm_campaign=Revue%20newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Kyle%20Torpey%27s%20Daily%20Bitcoin%20Recap

According to Brave New Coin, Blockstream’s federated sidechain for Bitcoin companies, known as Liquid, is scheduled to launch in early 2018. A possible side effect of this sidechain is a decrease in the demand for block space on Bitcoin’s main chain.

Sidechains promise to help Bitcoin adapt to new demands and accommodate new innovation, according to the company behind the seminal sidechain whitepaper, Blockstream. Several different companies have been developing the idea since Blockstream introduced the concept in an October 2014.

“We propose a new technology, pegged sidechains, which enables bitcoins and other ledger assets to be transferred between multiple blockchains,” states Blockstream in the paper, Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains. ”This gives users access to new and innovative cryptocurrency systems using the assets they already own.”

Blockstream describes sidechains as blockchains that allow users to transfer assets to and from other blockchains. As sidechains are fully-independent chains, they are able to implement a variety of different features, such as block structure or transaction chaining. The whitepaper posits that by reusing Bitcoin’s currency, these systems can more easily interoperate with each other and with Bitcoin, avoiding the liquidity shortages and market fluctuations associated with new currencies.

The key to blockchain interoperability is the transfer of assets, known as the “two-way peg.” The peg works by locking the assets in a transaction on one chain, making them unusable there, and then creating a transaction on the sidechain that describes the locked asset. Effectively, this moves assets from a parent chain to a sidechain.

One of the fundamental roadblocks in deploying sidechains is that the Bitcoin blockchain is not currently capable of executing the required verification rules for a two-way peg. Blockstream describes changing the protocol as “non-trivial,” and the process of implementing similar changes was part of the motivation for pegged sidechains to begin with.

However, Blockstream postulated that it is possible to do an initial deployment in a completely permissionless way, using a two-way peg described as a “federated peg”. In January 2017, Blockstream released a second paper, Strong Federations: An Interoperable Blockchain Solution to Centralized Third-Party Risks. The document expands on the federated peg, and introduces a detailed version called Strong Federation, while describing a Strong Federation sidechain implementation called Liquid, “the first market implementation of the system.”

“With Liquid in place, we believe Bitcoin will be in a stronger position to attract institutional trading firms and brokerages, as well as address global liquidity and pricing data challenges faced by these players interested in bitcoin as an asset class. That will be a major milestone for Bitcoin, bringing many new users and applications to the industry.”

- Samson Mow, Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer

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https://bravenewcoin.com/news/blockstreams-bitcoin-sidechain-solution-liquid-slated-for-launch-in-early-2018/?utm_campaign=Revue%20newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Kyle%20Torpey%27s%20Daily%20Bitcoin%20Recap

When I began to teach in 2012, I decided to start my course with an analysis of how money affects social order. What my students found particularly fascinating was the then-nascent world of cryptocurrencies, which I described at length as a crucial feature in the future of money.

Some colleagues criticized my approach. They accused me of indirectly encouraging students to invest in what they saw as a shady, crime-ridden financial underworld. But I was simply exposing young minds to a fast-evolving, complex phenomenon that in my view would have a major impact on power distribution in the global economy.

Behind most cryptocurrencies is a simple technology known as “blockchain”, a system residing in multiple computers that allows for peer-to-peer financial ledger recording of all transactions occurring in a network.

In Zimbabwe, the collapse of the formal financial system has made Bitcoin an attractive alternative.

This results in a transparent open-access registry of monetary flows which makes the intermediation of banking authorities unnecessary. Thus it challenges the conventional belief that money can only work through central planning.

As I explain in my book, Wellbeing Economy: Success in a World Without Growth, money systems are undergoing an unprecedented transition from centralised authority to decentralised networks.

Conventional money is managed by states and banks, with users on the receiving end of monetary policy decisions. By contrast, most alternative currencies are peer-to-peer. That means they are managed by users themselves and do not require intermediaries. Some of them have global outreach thanks to digital technology, while others are locally based.

Take Bitcoin, the most popular peer-to-peer currency in the world, with a market capitalization above 40 billion US dollars. A person buying the equivalent of $1 in Bitcoin in 2009 would now possess roughly $25 million. One Bitcoin is currently equivalent in value to two ounces of gold. Other rising stars include Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple.

Taking the world by storm

Many of these currencies remain quite volatile in the short term. Their upward and downward swings reach over 10% of the value on a weekly basis. But the long-term trend is impressive. States are warming up to them.

 A person who bought the equivalent of $1 in Bitcoin in 2009 would now possess roughly $25 million.

 In April 2017, Japan accepted Bitcoin as a legal payment method for retail markets. After threatening digital currencies last year, the Russian government took a U-turn. President Vladimir Putin met the developers of Ethereum and committed to recognising cryptocurrencies in 2018.

Following an initial freeze, the People’s Bank of China readmitted withdrawals in BitCoin in June 2017, catapulting the currency to new heights. In the US, cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly accepted as both a method of payment and store of value.

The Australian government will soon make it easier for new innovative digital currency businesses to operate, exempting traders and investors from goods and services tax.

It’s clear that cryptocurrencies will in the near future become much more common as methods of payment for a wide range of purchases, from online shopping to the local supermarket.


Developing countries are leapfrogging

Developing economies, too, are opening up to cryptocurrencies. In Venezuela, Bitcoin has become the leading parallel currency. It provides millions of citizens with an opportunity to perform transactions and generate livelihoods, including buying food and other basic necessities in a country where official money is worth almost zero. It also allows them to purchase goods from overseas, overcoming ever-stricter capital controls.

In East Africa, local innovators have introduced cryptocurrency systems to support cross-border transactions, as exemplified by initiatives like BitPesa.

In South Africa, cryptocurrencies are becoming particularly popular. In Nigeria, local traders and activists believe this new money presents an opportunity to democratize the economy. This is propelled by the fact that people in Nigeria have been failed by conventional money.

According to my colleague Verengai Mabika, founder of BitFinance in Zimbabwe, the collapse of his country’s formal financial system has made BitCoin an attractive alternative. This is especially the case for online payments, which are restricted by banks, and for remittances, which constitute the backbone of the economy.

A growing number of Zimbabweans are also using cryptocurrencies as a saving mechanism (37% of all Bitfinance customers use it for that purpose), Verengai tells me. This is after the massive loss of personal savings during the hyperinflation period of 2008, which led to the collapse of the country’s banks.

Decentralization

The decentralization of money is indeed at the core of this new trend, with potential repercussions in other fields. For instance, Ethereum is designed as a smart contract platform, that is a trading system completely based on peer-to-peer property rights. FairCoin was developed as the preferential currency for cooperatives, social economies and fair trade networks around the world.

Cryptocurrencies are just the tip of an iceberg. According to recent estimates, there are over 6,000 complementary currencies in the world, over 50 times the number of conventional money systems. Most of these are user-controlled and are interest-free. One cannot make money by simply trading in them.

Hoarding makes no sense in this new world. This is because value is not in the accumulation but in the exchange.

The scope is often limited to certain territories or types of transactions (for example, personal care, sustainable mobility and local trade). This creates an incentive to support local economic development and forms of exchange that are valued by communities of users.

Regiogeld, a network of local currencies which I studied when I was a researcher in Germany, has proliferated throughout the country. It has become the world’s largest system of local currencies, supporting small businesses and empowering communities.

In the near future, we will have a variety of money with different qualities and different purposes. This will make economies more resilient against shocks and will support more equitable and sustainable development, by putting users in the driver seat and reinforcing local economic development.

The ConversationAs my research demonstrates, a combination of regional, national and local currencies could also be the best way forward for the European Union, engulfed by its monolithic and unsustainable euro, and for any other process of regional integration, from Africa to other continents.


Written by
Lorenzo Fioramonti, University of Pretoria


https://qz.com/1021155/bitcoin-is-being-taken-up-in-zimbabwe-nigeria-south-africa-and-venezuela-among-developing-countries/

An Indian bitcoin investor is the alleged mastermind of a kidnapping that was complete with a ransom demand for bitcoins.

In the first-known case of its kind in the northern Indian state of Punjab, a local trader was kidnapped by six individuals on May 30, according to the Indian Express. The alleged mastermind is identified as Deepak, a bank employee and stock market investor. Deepak reportedly purchased bitcoins as an investment last year and has since claimed that the company selling him the cryptocurrency had scammed him. With losses in the stock market, Deepak ran up a debt of nearly 6 million rupees (approx. $925,000), paving the path to crime.

Deepak, currently in custody with the rest of his accomplice, targeted local property sellers in the state as a purported ‘investment consultant. Upon telling the seller that he was interested in buying the property, the ‘buyers’ met the victim and kidnapped him.

The kidnappers then demanded 20 bitcoins as ransom before ultimately releasing the victim after six days. With an investigation currently underway, details are scarce. It is still unknown if the victim’s family paid the ransom.

As bitcoin gains popularity in the second most populous country in the world, there is a rise in bitcoin-related crime in recent months. In late 2016, the city of Lucknow saw its first official police case of fraud involving bitcoin.

As CCN reported in March, a senior official from the Indian crime branch pointed to a number of scammers who are increasingly abusing digital currencies.

The official stated:

    "Cases of fraud related to bitcoins are becoming more frequent. [Bitcoin’s increasing popularity and acceptance around the world] has attracted many new investors. However, cashing on its rising popularity, some scamsters are also running fraud set-ups."

The lack of regulation of the bitcoin industry and other digital currencies has spurred the government into action in setting up an inter-governmental virtual currency committee  earlier in March. The committee, tasked to research and propose a regulatory framework for the future of digital currencies in the country, is expected to submit its findings to India’s finance ministry by the end of July. Despite calls for a blanket ban by some politicians, local reports have already claimed that the government is preparing a regulatory and legislative framework for bitcoin. Such a move would see bitcoin regulated, taxed and, in effect, legalized in India.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/indian-kidnappers-demand-bitcoin-ransom/

Bitcoin and Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) in particular are beating traditional investments like gold, stocks and bonds, by as much as 220.59% so far in 2017.


More and more investors are investing directly into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which soared to a $100 billion market in the last couple of months. Many saw this recent price hike as a perfect way to get into the cryptocurrency market. The Bitcoin price has risen by am impressive 156% since last year.

Recent ICOs have also drawn the attention from VC’s, investors and prominent hedge-funds raising millions of dollars, sometimes in mere seconds.

According to current data, GBTC (not to be mistaken with BTC) shares have grown by 220.59% in the last 6 months, alongside BTC (156%) effectively outperforming common investment tools like gold, bonds and stocks.

In comparison, S&P 500 and SPDR Gold shares have grown by 6.13% respectively. Popular tech stocks like Tesla, Facebook and Snap were not able to outperform Bitcoin’s growth.

Elon Musk’s Tesla was the top-performer in stocks at 70.35%. Facebook also had good first half of the year at  32.11%. In contrast, Snap Inc. had the worst performance of 2017, following its IPO.


Most experts believe that the growth in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market as a whole is caused by uncertainty of the future of the US economy and the current stance of the Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile, others believe that the current cryptocurrency market growth might be attributed by a big hype and a potential bubble. In a recent tweet, billionaire investor and broadcast.com founder, Mark Cuban, called bitcoin a “bubble” that could burst anytime.

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http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-outperforms-gold-stocks/

The cryptocurrency community has come out in force against the latest activities from self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto Craig Wright.


The Australian computer scientist Craig Wright’s talk at the Future of Bitcoin conference in Arnhem, Netherlands on July 1 caused considerable uproar with its content, as well as the speaker’s choice of language, which was laden with expletives and perceived as threatening. In particular, Wright took aim at Bitcoin Core developers and those running smaller nodes.

During one of Wright’s many contentious soundbites on the topic of SegWit and Bitcoin scaling, he told audiences:

    "If you’ve been in Bitcoin since 2009 and you can’t afford a $20,000 node to help this network, piss off."

He added the $20,000 hardware was the same as that used by his business, nChain, and was a bonafide example of scaling.

Other moments from the talk saw Wright tell an audience member to “mind their own business” when asked whether he would sell his coins in the event of a hard fork.

“I have financial sovereignty,” he repeated, also refusing to confirm or deny whether he was Nakamoto when asked directly.

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http://bitcoinist.com/pseudo-satoshi-craig-wrights-latest-talk-ignites-bitcoin-community/

Delaware has passed a bill that legally recognizes the trading of stocks using blockchain technology. Although the state has sought to promote itself as a bastion for blockchain investment, the bill is extremely limited in its scope – leading many to view Delaware’s government as attempting to cash in on bitcoin’s recent boom.


Recent reports have announced the near unanimous passing of a bill in the US state of Delaware that will explicitly recognize the right to trade stocks using a blockchain. The chair of the Delaware bar association’s corporate law section describing the vote as “keep[ing] Delaware at the forefront of corporate law and in the lead in terms of enabling the use of ‘distributed ledger shares’.” The bill is expected to be signed into law by Delaware’s governor, John Carney, before the end of July.

Delaware’s blockchain bill has been championed by blockchain start-up Symbiont, who has partnered with Hong Kong-based Privatemarket.io to build an “alternative investment marketplace for closed-end funds” that is built using Symbiont’s smart-contract software. The bill was developed under close legal guidance from Marco Santori of Cooley LLP and Symbiont’s Caitlin Long – suggesting that Symbiont will be among the early high-profile blockchain businesses seeking to operate within Delaware. When announcing the partnership with Privatemarket to offer stock trading via blockchain technology, Symbiont stated “We see blockchain technology having a significant positive impact on the investment world, and it starts with the fact that the foundational document for any investment — the registration of a company — will likely soon be possible to do on a blockchain in Delaware”.


Although the passing of the bill is positive step toward permissive bitcoin regulation, many see the bill having been custom tailored to the desires of Symbiont’s legal team – with the recognition of stock trading via blockchain comprises a very limited step toward blockchain regulation – especially when contrasted with recent moves by Japan, South Korea and Australia in recognizing bitcoin as a legal form of payment.

The passing of the bill draws attention to the absence of clear legal definitions and apparatus pertaining to blockchain technology. The lack of federal legal consensus regarding basic bitcoin and blockchain technology suggests that some the problems within the regulatory framework dealing with cannabis-based businesses could potentially emerge within bitcoin, such as overlapping or contradicting federal laws. It is entirely possible that particular states may seek to become early bastions of blockchain investment, seeking to capitalize on a nascent booming industry in the same fashion as Colorado or Seattle with regards to the cannabis industry.

Although the positive ramifications from further government embracement of bitcoin and blockchain technology are undeniable, the risk of hastily rushed state legislations running afoul of future federal regulations is very real – especially given the absence of legal consensus on the definition of fundamental terminology such as ‘blockchain’. In the case of Delaware, it is entirely possible that future federal laws may not recognize stock trading via blockchain technology, creating potential future legal and logistical challenges for businesses that seek to build their operations according to the laws of a single state.

https://news.bitcoin.com/delaware-passes-bill-recognizing-stock-trading-via-blockchain-technology/

Three months after Recruit Lifestyle partnered with Japanese bitcoin exchange Coincheck to enable over 260,000 retail stores to accept bitcoin, the company has finally announced on Monday that its point-of-sale app is now bitcoin-ready. Immediately, a chain of 334 eyeglasses stores using the app announced that it will accept the cryptocurrency starting July 10.


Rollout of 260,000+ Bitcoin-Accepting Stores in Japan BeginsBitcoin.com reported in April about Recruit Lifestyle Co., Ltd. partnering with Japanese bitcoin exchange Coincheck for its point-of-sale (POS) app called “Mobile Payment for Air Regi” to accept bitcoin payments.

On Monday, almost three months later, Recruit Lifestyle finally announced that the Air Regi app now offers a bitcoin payment option starting on July 3. The announcement came two days after the law that removes the 8% consumption tax on bitcoin went into effect in Japan.

Currently, about 260,000 commercial facilities, food establishments, drugstores and other retail locations nationwide use this tablet-based POS system. Coincheck said in April that by this summer, bitcoin will become a payment option at all of these shops that use this proprietary app. The exchange explained:

       "Customer holding bitcoins can pay with bitcoin simply by scanning the barcode displayed on ‘Mobile payment for Air Regi’ app."

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https://news.bitcoin.com/rollout-of-260000-bitcoin-accepting-stores-in-japan-begins/

Japan’s tax reform bill which officially eliminated consumption tax on the sale of Bitcoin came into effect on July 1. Bitcoin trading activities are expected to rise in Japan following the activation of the bill.

In a report entitled “Japan: Inbound Tax Alert, 2017 Tax Reform Proposals,” Deloitte previously revealed that virtual currencies including Bitcoin were set to be exempt from the eight percent consumption tax in Japan.

Deloitte’s report read:

    “The supply of virtual currency will be exempt from Japanese Consumption Tax (“JCT”). Currently, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin do not fall under the category of exempt sales, and as a result, the sale of virtual currencies in Japan have been treated as taxable for JCT purposes. Following the enactment of the amended Fund Settlement Law in May 2016, which newly defined “virtual currency” as a means of settlement, the sale of virtual currency as defined under the new Fund Settlement Law will be exempt from JCT. This change will apply to sales/purchase transactions performed in Japan on or after 1 July 2017.”

Japanese Bitcoin market

On March 27, the Japanese National Diet officially approved the 2017 tax reform proposals shared by Deloitte, passing the Bitcoin consumption tax bill along with other bills listed on the proposed reforms. The bill, which came into effect on July 1, is expected to drastically increase Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading activities within the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange market.

On April 1, the Japanese government officially recognized Bitcoin as a legal payment method and currency. Since then, the Japanese government has been focusing on creating and establishing a more efficient ecosystem for Bitcoin traders, businesses and users. A major part of the initiative was to render Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading frictionless, allowing traders to easily access cryptocurrencies without having to deal with external factors such as taxes.

The Japanese Bitcoin exchange market is already well regulated and well-equipped with appropriate Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) systems. AML policies are especially strict in Japan and South Korea, it is difficult for traders to take advantage of potential arbitrage opportunities and utilize Bitcoin to move large sums of money outside of Japan without triggering the AML systems adopted by local trading platforms.
Bitcoin price increases - a coincidence?

Although it could be completely coincidental- since the activation of the Japanese Bitcoin tax elimination bill on July 1, Bitcoin price increased from around $2,450 to $2,570. It is not a fair assessment to wholly attribute Bitcoin’s upward momentum to the Japanese market as it only accounts for 16.2 percent of the global Bitcoin exchange market.

However, positive signs for Bitcoin trading in Japan could have established a positive precedent across Asia, which controls more than 65 percent of the global Bitcoin exchange market share and affected bitcoin price.

Bitcoin’s tax elimination bill is also important for the ecosystem of Japanese Bitcoin merchants. Recently, some of Japan’s most influential companies including its largest electronics retailer Bic Camera started to accept Bitcoin as a digital currency and a payment method.

Soon, hundreds of thousands of restaurants, cafes and stores could begin accepting Bitcoin as AirRegi, Japan’s largest point of sale machine operator, is looking to integrate Bitcoin by the fall of 2017.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/its-official-japan-has-eliminated-tax-on-bitcoin-rise-in-trading-expected

A new set of bills is reportedly being prepared to regulate and legalize cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in South Korea.

According to a report today by the Korea Herald, representative Park Yong-jin, a lawmaker and member of the country’s ruling Democratic Party is drawing up three revisions this month to build a regulatory framework for digital currencies.

One of the bills will look at revising the existing Electronic Financial Transactions Act in order to mandate regulatory approval for cryptocurrency transactions, according to the report. In effect, this would mean that traders and even companies engaging in cryptocurrency transactions would be under the purview of the South Korean government.

In the draft proposal, Park pointed to “the void of a state-led protection that guarantees digital currency’s value”, citing the need to address “digital currency’s nonexchangability to other existing currencies” and intriguingly, “the possibility of wrecking havoc on national economy from digital currency bubble burst”, according to the report. Park, presumably a skeptic of digital currencies, has notably compared this year’s surging prices of cryptocurrencies with Europe’s tulip craze in the 17th century.

The other revisions also address income and corporate tax laws to enable financial authorities to curb any instances of tax evasion from digital currency transactions. South Korea has consistently figured among the world’s largest bitcoin trading markets this year. Data shows the Korean market amounting to nearly 8.5% of the world’s traded bitcoins in a 24-hour period, with a spread of just under $150 when compared to USD-based markets.

As CCN reported in late 2016, the country’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) – the primary financial regulator – established a digital currency task force with the aim of introducing regulations for the digital currency industry this year.

At the time, FSC chairman Yim Jong-yong stated:

    "The government will push for the systemization of digital currency on a full scale in tandem with a global trend in the U.S., Japan and other countries."

While moves toward regulation and, in effect, legalization were uncertain as recently as June, today’s developments point to a more concrete, legislative path toward that that end.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/south-korea-preparing-legalize-bitcoin/

Although bitcoin price has grown 3x at peak levels this year, better gains are yet to come, according to Goldman Sachs’ chief technician.

Bitcoin has been on a historic tear in 2017. After ringing in the year at $1,000 on the very first day of January, bitcoin price reached an all-time high of $3,000 in mid-June. The remarkable rise amid an overall boom period for cryptocurrencies has seen skepticism from some observers who have pointed to inflated values amid accusations of a bubble. Others are looking at more bullish gains.

In a note sent to clients, Sheba Jafari – Goldman Sachs’ head of technical strategy predicts bitcoin to climb higher, ultimately getting near $4,000.

Jafari, who was persuaded into covering bitcoin by Goldman Sachs’ clients recently, sees the current corrective course to tread longer with upward gains to be the ultimate outcome.

Jafari, who is also the vice president of the investment bank’s securities division, sees bitcoin “still in a corrective 4th wave”, as reported by the Business Insider.

That fourth wave “shouldn’t go much further (lower) than $1,857”, the head analyst told her Wall Street clients.

The upcoming 5th wave is to take a bullish turn, according to her analysis.

She wrote:

    "From current levels, this has been a minimum target that goes out to $3,212. There’s potential to extend as far as $3,915. It just might take time to get there."

It was “due to popular demand” that Jafari began covering bitcoin a month ago. The first analysis, in comparison, was a more bearish take based on price trends at the time.

As things stand, bitcoin is up 5.28% on the day, according to data from CoinmarketCap. The cryptocurrency is trading at $2573 on a global average and struck a high of $2,601 on Monday, a 7-day high following the downward turn a week ago.

On Bitstamp, bitcoin hit a high of $2,595 on Monday.



https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-hit-near-4000-goldman-sachs-chief-analyst/

What a difference a week makes. Last Monday, the crypto markets took a severe downturn, shedding more than $25 billion from mid-June highs. At its worst, the total cryptocurrency market cap fell as low as $88 billion. The markets began to recover later in the week but fell prey to a weekend slump.

They shook off that slump on Monday, as virtually every cryptocurrency experienced positive price movement. At present, the total cryptocurrency market cap is $101.5 billion.



Bitcoin Price

The bitcoin price led the recovery, rising 5.6% to $2,573. Bitcoin has now regained more than $200 since falling as low as $2,333 on June 27. Bitcoin’s market cap is now about $42.3 billion.

It will be interesting to see whether the bitcoin recovery continues given the upcoming network fork and the contentious scaling debate. Some analysts predict the fork will cause the bitcoin price to decline steeply, as investors cash out gains to avoid potential pitfalls if the fork does not go smoothly. However, the long-term outlook for the bitcoin price remains positive. Goldman Sachs, for instance, released a report predicting that the bitcoin price will decline to around $1,850 before taking a bullish turn and rising to a record-high of nearly $4,000.

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https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-leads-the-way-as-crypto-markets-declare-independence-from-weekend-slump/

After a few days of consolidation, the price of bitcoin has started to move upwards after dropping to a low of $2290 USD per BTC earlier this week. On July 2-3 bitcoin’s value rose above the $2500 range and recently tested a high of $2595 on Bitstamp, this morning at 10 am EDT time.


Our last markets update on June 25 was the start of a significantly longer than usual BTC bear market dropping below the sub $2300 territory. Since then the price rebounded back above the $2400 range and formed some consolidation and a triangular formation. A week later on July 3rd bitcoin is showing some bullish momentum as it tried to break the $2600 zone. Currently, the price per BTC is holding a weighted average of $2560 across global exchanges, with approximately a billion dollar’s worth of 24-hour trade volume.



Since bitcoin’s price downturn last week nearly every other cryptocurrency market followed its path. At the moment overall cryptocurrency market capitalizations are just above $100 billion but it dipped lower than that earlier this week. Out of all the crypto-caps, bitcoin is commanding a 41 percent market dominance, which is considerably higher than weeks prior. Asian bitcoin markets are still trading BTC at premium prices throughout a few exchanges, such as South Korea’s Korbit, and China’s BTCC with prices $50-100 higher at the moment.

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https://news.bitcoin.com/markets-update-bitcoin-bulls-testing-resistance/

A customer buys £20 worth of Bitcoin at one of the new ATMs. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

My journey into the dark economy starts much as expected: in front of a computer screen, late at night. It ends somewhere quite unexpected, in a humdrum setting a world away from the stereotype of modernity, equality and sticking it to the man promised by digital currencies such as Bitcoin: it ends in a used DVD store, my purchase refused.

The dark economy is moving into the light. In a few scattered places, 40 or so in London, one in Manchester, another in Birmingham, Bitcoin ATM machines have appeared, issuing the cryptocurrency from an unlikely array of convenience stores, vaping outlets and barbershops. Does this mean that the virtual has become real? Can anyone join the Bitcoin challenge? Can you buy stuff with Bitcoin? And what the heck is a cryptocurrency anyway?

I find the future of digital trading in the scuzzy hipster oasis of Stokes Croft in Bristol. Standing forlorn among the artisan bakers and cocktail bars is the Best Supermarket. A mainstay of local life, it dispenses all the essentials that an artisan bakery cannot provide. Amid the sweets and quarter bottles of spirits is the Satoshi Point, one of several Bitcoin ATMs run by the company that takes its name from the mythical founder of the online currency, Satoshi Nakamoto.

“It’s crazy, people come in here all the time,” says Majid Khan from his vantage point behind the counter. “We get all sorts, they travel from all over, from Bath, Bristol.”

The small grey terminal was installed in the shop a year ago, one of two in the city, and has attracted a growing stream of users ever since, providing the shop’s owner with a steady commission. What they buy with the currency is obvious, at least to Khan.

“It’s underground, illegal stuff,” he says with a grin. “I ask people what they are going to do with it and they just shrug and say, you know… They like the fact that it’s anonymous, that it’s not controlled by the government. One day a guy came in and I saw him put £2,000 cash into the machine.”

Khan even succumbed to the charm of the grey box containing the mystery of Bitcoin, buying £20 of the currency. Did he spend it on something illegal? Did he stick it to the man? “I checked the value every day and it went up to £22. Then a guy came in wanting to buy some Bitcoin and I sold him mine for £20, so I didn’t lose anything.”

Seduced by Khan’s tale of high-wire financial derring-do, I decide to pitch in with the geeks, the rebels, the tyros, the wolves of this virtual Wall Street and buy £20 of Bitcoin. Armed with the Bitcoin wallet app I had downloaded to my phone in the early hours, I press the start button on the terminal. It tells me to scan my phone and records the QR code I had been assigned. I take £20 and insert it into the slot. It disappears and my phone emits a polite “k-ching!”

Continue reading: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/01/bitcoins-underground-economy-proves-a-hard-sell#img-1

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

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

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



FOX joins networks such as CNBC in its newfound love of virtual currency, which until 2017 regularly received derogatory reviews from hosts and experts alike.

As Bitcoin circles $2,500 per coin, speculating over its price within five or ten years has become a new favorite sport of finance media looking to get investors excited.

“The reason Bitcoin is a financial revolution is because it’s decentralized,” Payne’s guest Naomi Brockwell, former policy director at the New York Bitcoin Center said.

    “The main people promoting this technology are those who understand that governments can be dangerous.”

Taking the current financial crisis in Venezuela, where Bitcoin is providing a genuine lifeline to those who would otherwise not be able to purchase essential goods, Brockwell added the future of the cryptocurrency could only be brighter.

“It’s going to the moon,” she concluded.

By the end of the segment, the $1 mln price forecast had meanwhile become $1 bln, albeit with no sources referenced.

Bitcoin Core developer Luke-jr has released a damning appraisal of SegWit2x as the scaling tool launches in beta.

Luke-jr Warns of SegWit2x ‘Distraction’

In a blog post published Saturday, Luke-jr highlights the technical differences SegWit2x represents while warning of its potentially dangerous implications:



    "Overall, Segwit2x seems to have one real purpose: to try to stall Segwit longer. […] It is a distraction from the upcoming BIP148 softfork, which is already irreversibly deployed to the network."

His comments come as direct retaliation against those signaling for the increasingly popular SegWit2x, which came into being during May’s Consensus conference in New York.

A meeting of well-known Bitcoin businesses and figures, organized by Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert, signed an agreement to ensure SegWit activated on Bitcoin and attempted to end the years-long scaling debate.

While the proposal, first known as the New York Agreement (NYA), initially suffered from flaky member support and mixed community reviews, its desirability among nodes has since increased dramatically.

As of press time, those miners signaling intent to support SegWit2x represented 85.4% of the total Bitcoin mining network, data from Coin Dance shows.

Read more:
http://bitcoinist.com/luke-jr-one-purpose-segwit2x-stall-segwit-empower-bitmain/

Segwit2x Beta Released and New UAHF Code Proposal `ABC´ Removes 1MB-Limit

Saturday, July 1st was filled with fresh new code as the Segwit2x working group released the team’s protocol beta v1.14.3 with release notes. Alongside this, a new implementation of a user-activated hard fork (UAHF) was made available for download the same day.

The Segwit2x Beta Codebase Has Been Released

Segwit2x Beta Released as New UAHF Code Proposal `ABC´ Removes 1MB-LimitThere’s a lot going on behind the scenes in the world of bitcoin development and even more so within the context of scaling. This weekend the Segwit2x beta was released, as well as a bitcoin developer’s mailing list message from Jeff Garzik who’s been doing a lot of the code work for this project. The new release includes various bug fixes and consensus changes according to the Github repo.

“The charter and goal of the segwit2x effort has always been tightly focused on a “SegWit + 2M HF” safe network upgrade, and producing/testing/auditing software to accomplish that,” explains the Segwit2x beta release. “Milestones are intentionally labeled “alpha” or “beta” per normal software engineering practices, and expectations should be set accordingly.”

        "The over-simplified summary of the network upgrade sequence is: bit-4 SegWit activation + 144*90 blocks This matches the goal outlined in the kickoff Project Mission: “Segwit will start being enforced shortly after lock in, whereas as 2mb blocks will be a bit farther out to ensure people have plenty of time to upgrade their nodes.”

Bitcoin proponents, who are often very vocal on social media and forums, are still voicing mixed signals when it comes to this compromise. As far as mining support goes, the “intention” to signal the next steps is roughly 84.7 percent at the time of writing.


Segwit2x (Intention) signaling is 84.7% on July 1, 2017.

https://news.bitcoin.com/segwit2x-beta-released-as-new-uahf-code-proposal-abc-removes-1mb-limit/

After expanding services in Europe earlier this year, bitcoin payroll and wage payment service provider Bitwage announced its official launch in the UK on Monday.


BitwageBitwage Officially Launches UK Bitcoin Payroll Services offers solutions for remote workers to receive wages in a variety of currencies including bitcoin. Using the service, workers can get paid in bitcoin without having to ask each employer to pay in the cryptocurrency or sign up with Bitwage. They simply give the employers Bitwage’s bank account details to receive payments in.

Bitwage claims to have over 13,000 registered workers and have processed over $21.6 million in international wages. Users can invoice employers or clients in the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), and the European Union (EU). Wages received can be split into any ratio between different bank accounts and bitcoin wallets.

On Monday, the company announced the official launch of their services in the UK, stating:

        "We are now able to offer workers anywhere in the world the ability to receive wages from companies in the UK through local banking partners. This means that our workers can receive wages through Faster Payments, Bacs, Chaps or Swift into local UK GBP bank accounts."

Read more:
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitwage-launches-uk-bitcoin-payroll-services/

Thank` to openANX for good bounty program. How long it may take to count stakes for signature campaign and transfer bounty reward to participants? When OAX Tokens will be available on exchanges?