The recent lockin of the BIP 91 upgrade to the Bitcoin Blockchain has excited large numbers of otherwise nervous investors.

Miners were signaling 97 percent of as Friday, effectively locking in the BIP 91 solution, as well as Segregated Witness (SegWit).

The news sent Bitcoin price soaring.

Within 24 hours, the price had increased by nearly 40 percent on the week, with the good news signaling to investors that Bitcoin would continue to maintain its otherwise foolproof tech stability.

Other cryptocurrencies also took a hit, with Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) both having a rough week in terms of value.

However, some have continued to offer potential pitfalls, saying that there are still a number of hurdles to be jumped in order for the solution to be implemented.

As the weekend continues and the rally keeps its footing, the naysayers are likely to start dropping away. The value at press time is $2,791, nearly at its end of week peak of $2,813.

Investors should begin rejoining the bullish run-up, as the potential for infighting decreases and stability continues to mature.

South Korea has officially legalized international Bitcoin transfers and is on the verge of providing a regulatory framework for Bitcoin trading platforms and exchanges.

On July 3, Representative Park Yong-jin of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea revealed that the South Korean government is ready to regulate the Bitcoin market. According to Rep. Park, he submitted three revisions to build a set of regulatory frameworks for Bitcoin users and businesses to further facilitate the growth of the South Korean bitcoin market and industry.

One of the revisions Rep. Park proposed to the financial regulators of South Korea requested Bitcoin businesses and trading platforms to retain capital of at least $436,000 and data processing facilities for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) purposes.

Son ji-hyoung of the Korea Herald stated:

“Under the bill that aims to revise the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, traders, brokers, or other business entities involved in cryptocurrency transactions would be required to get regulatory approval from the Financial Services Commission. The requirements include the retention of capital of at least 500 million won ($436,300) and data processing facilities.”

Since then, the South Korean government has introduced several regulatory frameworks for the Bitcoin industry. Although the South Korean Bitcoin industry has not been fully regulated as of yet, the South Korean government officially legalized Bitcoin service providers to facilitate payments, transfers and trades.

Local publications including the Korea Herald reported that the newly revised South Korean Foreign Exchange Transactions Act has started to allow fintech companies and Bitcoin service providers to be approved by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the financial regulator of South korea.

Like the Philippines, South Korea has officially legalized Bitcoin as a remittance method, allowing fintech companies to process up to $20,000 worth of South Korean won in bitcoin for users.

On February 12, Cointelegraph reported that the central bank of the Philippines officially legalized Bitcoin as a remittance method and as a result, Bitcoin industry in the Philippines experienced a surge in growth. Leading companies including Coins and Satoshi Citadel Industries raised tens of millions of dollars in funding and recording hundreds of thousands of new users. The central bank of the Philippines said:

“The Bangko Sentral does not intend to endorse any VC, such as Bitcoin, as a currency since it is neither issued or guaranteed by a central bank nor backed by any commodity. Rather, the BSP aims to regulate VCs when used for delivery of financial services, particularly, for payments and remittances, which have a material impact on anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT), consumer protection and financial stability.”

When the South Korean government fully regulates the Bitcoin market and industry in the near future and further legalizes Bitcoin as a digital currency on top of a remittance method like Japan, trading volumes of the South Korean Bitcoin exchange market will likely record an exponential growth rate.

Already, according to market data sources, the South Korean Bitcoin exchange market processes over 14 percent of global Bitcoin trades, the third largest market behind the US and Japan.

La nota società Bitfury, che si definisce un provider di sicurezza e infrastrutture di blocchi, ha testato con successo i "bitcoins reali" utilizzando la rete Lightning nel mainnet. Il video mostra un programmatore Bitfury che invia bitcoin utilizzando una versione sviluppatori della rete Lightning. La dimostrazione illustra l'apertura dei canali di pagamento daemon Illuminazione e le transazioni inviate attraverso la rete live Bitcoin.

"Ora abbiamo due canali aperti e possiamo effettivamente eseguire transazioni della rete Lightning all'interno di questi canali aperti", spiega lo sviluppatore di Bitfury durante il video.

Il fondatore di Bitfury dice che il demo della squadra è un 'grande passo avanti per Bitcoin'

Seguendo il nodo Lightning e la configurazione del canale, Bitfury ha quindi testato una transazione monoposto che ha dimostrato la capacità di creare percorsi percorsi. Ciò significa che, dopo aver creato con successo i percorsi multi-hop, la teoria è che il protocollo può eliminare la necessità di controparti. Bitfury è in via di sviluppo con la rete Lightning sin dall'anno scorso, quando hanno pubblicato la loro carta bianca di 40 pagine, che propone una soluzione di routing per la rete Lightning. Il team di Bitfury mira a utilizzare la procedura Lightning pur conservando il decentramento. Valery Vavilov, CEO di Bitfury Group, ha fatto una dichiarazione via Twitter dicendo;

Bitfury ha inviato con successo il bitcoin utilizzando la rete Lightning nel mainnet - un grande passo avanti per il bitcoin.
La rete di fulmini di Bitfury dimostrata senza Segwit

Bitfury non è l'unica squadra che lavora sul protocollo della rete Lightning come organizzazioni come Acinq, Lightning Labs e Media Lab di MIT sta attualmente costruendo infrastrutture Lightning. Vale anche la pena notare che Bitfury ha anche realizzato la dimostrazione mainnet di Lightning senza utilizzare il protocollo Segregato Testimone (Segwit). La demo del team di Bitfury segue anche la liberazione dell'azienda di Exonum, un'infrastruttura privata di blocchi che afferma di essere "ancorata" al blocco di Bitcoin per una maggiore sicurezza.

The Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association has officially announced its plan on how to deal with the possibility of a Bitcoin protocol split on August 1. Thirteen of the group’s bitcoin exchange members, including Coincheck, Gmo-Z, Bitbank, and Bitpoint, will suspend bitcoin deposits and withdrawals on August 1 at 00:00 Japan time.

https://news.bitcoin.com/13-japanese-exchanges-suspend-bitcoin-service-august-1

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) announced today that 34 organizations have joined the Blockchain industry group since late May. This brings the total membership to over 150 organizations added since the group’s launch in February of this year.

Composed of forward-looking enterprises and Blockchain innovators, EEA is an industry-supported, nonprofit established to build, promote and broadly support Ethereum-based technology best practices, open standards and open source reference architectures.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/enterprise-ethereum-alliance-becomes-worlds-largest-open-source-blockchain-initiative

Another multimillionaire investor has revealed he has part of his portfolio in Bitcoin as a new high-profile crypto hedging trend emerges.

In an interview with Forbes, infamous stock picker Bill Miller announced he had been holding one percent of his portfolio in Bitcoin since 2014.

Based on price increases since then, Miller stands to have made huge gains which could outweigh even his most impressive stock investment decisions.

“He's up nearly tenfold, and Bitcoin is now a top holding of his hedge fund,” Forbes confirms.

Miller is by no means alone. Earlier this year, Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes also let slip about significant Bitcoin holdings which had served him well since as far back as 2010.

The percentage of overall wealth invested in the virtual currency is nonetheless tiny - well below the maximum suggested by educator Andreas Antonopoulos of 10 percent of one’s portfolio.

On social media, the article was greeted with similar confirmations from those who had decided to diversify their savings away from fiat.

Perspectives from other big names varies more widely.

Ronnie Moas, the stock trader so successful he earned the title of ‘Prolific Picker,’ this month suggested Bitcoin could jump to $5,000 within months.

Conversely, meanwhile, prominent investor Fred Hickey suggested that the future of Blockchain and crypto did not lie in its capacity as a “store of value.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/stock-pickers-pick-bitcoin-bill-miller-reveals-1-crypto-portfolio

Since late May, the market cap of Ethereum, the second largest crypto asset and Blockchain network in the market, has dropped from $36 bln to $14 bln, recording a $22 bln loss within a two-month period.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-lost-22-bln-in-2-months-eth-price-can-still-rise-in-long-run

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been making headlines around the world, and with the recent sell-off this week, more is sure to be said. Central banks and governments continue to make statements regarding the dangers of digital currencies, or, conversely, extolling their benefits.

The most recent bank to issue such a warning is the central bank of Albania. The bank issued a strong statement warning citizens that digital currencies were not under the direct purvey of the country’s banking sector regulations and that such vehicles carried extremely high levels of risk.

The Albanian authorities stated:

“We appeal to the Albanian public to be mature and responsible in the administration of savings or liquidity they possess. One should orient investments toward financial products and instruments offered by institutions licensed and supervised by the Bank of Albania and the Financial Supervisory Authority.”

The anonymity and decentralization provided by Bitcoin made nefarious activity not only possible, but probable, and the bank warned against the clear risks taken by those choosing to invest.

Bitcoin enthusiasts would clearly point out that a centralized bank is the very essence of what Bitcoin is seeking to distance itself from, and so a less than glowing review would be expected.

I never expected it. New record and more will still beat it

Bitcoin has fallen almost 12 percent in 24 hours as the reality of the Aug. 1 scaling deadline unsettles markets.

Current trade prices according to Coinmarketcap, which averages readings from across major exchanges, shows Bitcoin at $2,076 - its lowest price for two months.

The knock-on effects for altcoins in the top 10 were as palpable as ever, with Ethereum, Litecoin and others following Bitcoin downhill.

Ethereum has fared particularly badly over the past week, with monthly losses to its market cap now nearly $18 bln.

As always, internal reactions with cryptocurrency were mixed, some despairing while others are eyeing a keen buying opportunity.
While a general consensus points to the upcoming hard fork probability as the principal motivation for market uncertainty, mainstream media have been quick to sound the alarm about Bitcoin once again.

“Rival factions of computer whizzes who play key roles in Bitcoin’s upkeep are poised to adopt two competing software updates at the end of the month,” Bloomberg reported Friday, announcing Bitcoin could be “nearing a total meltdown.”

“That has raised the possibility that Bitcoin will split in two, an unprecedented event that would send shockwaves through the $41 bln market.”

The closure of Tezos’ $232 mln ICO - the largest in history - is dividing the community concerned about mass Ethereum sell-offs.

As Tim Draper-backed Tezos concluded its 12-day uncapped token sale Thursday, many including mainstream media, were excited about where the project and its coin would go.

Conversely, however, increasing evidence of startups already wholesale converting ETH profits from ICOs to fiat is causing concerns among investors.
Tezos subsequently responded to his doubts.

All eyes will now be on Draper as the startup prepares to factor in its huge revenue to its previously-established and much-circulated roadmap.

While tokens will eventually trade on exchanges, HitBTC is already offering controversial private purchasing. Similarly controversial futures contracts are on offer at Bitmex.

Bitcoin’s uptake with popular and leading online retailers has been slow, but since its rapid surge in value and interest recently, it has regressed. Fewer, rather than more, retailers are accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment.

Last year five retailers in the world’s top 500 biggest online stores were accepting Bitcoin according to the publication Internet Retailer, now, however, it has emerged that the figure is down to just three.

Where is the growth?
It is a perplexing discrepancy in the growth of Bitcoin to its acceptance by online merchants, as noted by Morgan Stanley payments analyst James Faucette. He believes that Bitcoin's growth in value is actually a contributing factor to its decline as a functional currency.

Faucette said:

"Bitcoin owners are reluctant to use the cryptocurrency given its rate of appreciation, more evidence that Bitcoin is more asset than currency. Way easier to trade speculatively than convince new merchants to accept the cryptocurrency."

Thus, the fact that people are far happier to hold onto their Bitcoins as an asset rather than a functioning currency means that there is little pressure on retailers to adopt it as another form of payment.

Slow and expensive
On top of this Bitcoin is facing a number of issues that are making it difficult to use in the context of everyday shopping. The scaling debate continues to rage as it became evident that Bitcoin stuttered when too many transactions were pushed through its Blockchain.

Slower, more costly, transactions are issues that would be hurting the retailer far more than the customer. Transaction prices hovering around $5 will have a huge impact on the retailer who has to bear the expenses.

Pricing out
When these fees hit such high levels, they essentially cut out a huge portion of the retail market as it becomes nonsensical to use Bitcoin for smaller, less expensive transactions.

Atlantic Financial founder and a board member at the Bitcoin Foundation Bruce Fenton said in an interview that things like sandwiches and coffees are not viable markets for Bitcoin to operate in because the fee can be more than the cost of the item.

Fenton notes:

"There’s a problem with the fees being so high - it does price out certain things. There are some micro transaction use cases - a cup of coffee is the big analogy everybody uses - that are being sort of priced out just because Bitcoin is going up so much."

Still some success stories
It is not all doom and gloom in the world of retail and Bitcoin though. In Japan, the adoption into brick and mortar stores is on the rise. Recruitment Lifestyle, a retail giant, has implemented a Point of Sale app that is Bitcoin-ready for 260,000 of its stores. Even its popular electronics market place, Akihabara, is on a huge Bitcoin adoption drive.

In the United States, champion of Bitcoin in retail, Overstock.com has said that since it started accepting the digital currency in 2014, it has seen triple the transactions coming through its online doors.

Market analysts have come up with different factors to be behind this significant decline in Bitcoin and altcoin price. Ironically, this comes immediately after the G20 summit in Hamburg where reference was made to digital currency as an important technology in the global economic transition.

Also of note is that the community is nearing an important date of August 1 when Bitcoin is expected to make its most crucial decision since creation. Certain groups have also attributed this decline in price to technical factors lifted from the study of price charts, making predictions based on historical market behavior.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the crypto market keeps getting more traction as the days go by. The numerous activities taking place within the industry since the beginning of 2017 must be considered if the prevalent market volatility is to be analyzed properly.

The recent meteoric rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has led to the appearance of some unlikely millionaires.  A recent interview by Forbes magazine shows just how powerful Bitcoin has been over the course of the past decade for those who invested early.

The interviewee, a former software engineer in Silicon Valley, asked to remain nameless. However, he did explain that he started purchasing Bitcoin in 2010 after doing some research. He decided that the purchase should be sizable enough to provide some real upside, should Bitcoin ever increase in value, and so he bought $3,000 worth, or, at the time, 20,000.

When the Bitcoin price really started to jump, he made his first sale of 1,000 Bitcoin, netting him $2.6 mln. Since then, he’s quit his day job and now travels the world, flying first class and staying only in five-star resorts.

After explaining his multiple sell-offs, and the $25 mln in profits he’s realized thus far, he explained that he sees Bitcoin values at $150,000 in the long term. “I really do think it will get there,” he says confidently, "But a lot of governments and companies will have to be on board, first. No amount of speculation in the world will push it that high.”

Bitcoin’s price is about to break out in what commentators expect will be a “big move.”

Excitement among the cryptocurrency’s online traders is building Monday, as weeks of comparatively flat price action look to end soon
Bitcoin has been trading on average between $2,400 and $2,800 since June 16, a considerably less volatile period to that which preceded it, according to data from Coinmarketcap.

Now, however, talk is growing of the virtual currency breaking out of its current triangle to set a new trend - up or down.
Short-term investors have been largely focused on altcoins such as Litecoin in recent weeks, with Ethereum having dropped and remained below $300 due to a turbulent bout of volatility at the end of June.

The tips are once again swinging to focus on Bitcoin, with even veterans such as WhalePanda hinting increased exposure to it over altcoins.

The upcoming SegWit activation deadline of August 1 is in itself expected to produce more volatile price performance for Bitcoin, yet it remains to be seen in which direction its value will trend.

Lieferando, the largest food delivery platform in Germany, officially integrated Bitcoin. Users on the platform will be able to pay for food deliveries using Bitcoin.

Originally, Lieferando obtained over $18 mln in funding as a regional food delivery application and service provider. Due to the platform’s success regarding the rapidly growing user base, revenue streams and popularity, Netherlands-based Takeaway.com acquired Lieferando.

The acquisition of Lieferando by Takeaway.com is important to note as the Takeaway.com development team initially integrated Bitcoin back in 2013. Most of its subsidiaries including Pizza.fr have started to accept Bitcoin after the acquisition by Takeaway.com.

It is equally crucial to acknowledge the fact that Takeaway.com completed its initial public offering (IPO) in 2016 to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a $1 bln valuation. Despite the IPO, the board members and corporate executives of the company continued to show support for Bitcoin and integrate the digital currency into newly acquired subsidiaries.

Before the acquisition of Takeaway.com, Lieferando briefly accepted Bitcoin from 2014 to 2015. During the company’s rebranding acquisition process, the company dropped its Bitcoin integration but reimplemented it once the acquisition was finalized.

Last week’s season of mourning saw gloomy markets that were inspiring only fear and panic in Bitcoin and altcoin communities, in particular for those who have not been in the crypto space for long. But this week has begun on a bright note with the green days coming back as most of the tokens have recorded growth.
The decentralized business application Blockchain in the process pushed Monero to number 10 resulting in BitShares losing top notch status. In Cryptoland such astronomical growth has been seen so many times... Needless to say, they just pass with the wind and becomes a nine-day wonder.
On top 10 cryptocurrencies, for instance, only two tokens continued to fall.

But the biggest surprise was a new entrant to the top echelons. EOS in a fairytale manner growth jumped more than 300 percent to occupy the number nine spot on CoinMarketCap early morning on Monday.

this is my code F601EA28B1. I know this is going to be the best project.

Hacker Michael Richo, who was arrested on October 5, 2016, has admitted that he stole a total of $365,000 worth of Bitcoin from darknet marketplaces, News 8 reports.

For this crime, Richo could serve up to 30 years of jail time.

Modus operandi
Richo has established several phishing sites in order to gain access to user credentials.

A phishing site is used to trick users in order to obtain their sensitive information such as login accounts, and passwords. Cybercriminals, particularly those operating in the darknet, are expected to be already aware of such sites, but they were tricked by Richo just the same. He was able to trick users to his phishing sites by posting fake links on forums and other online marketplaces.

Modern-day Robinhood?
A number of darknet marketplaces became victims of the phishing sites created by Richo. By gaining access to the sites’ user credentials, Richo was able to access the users’ accounts in the real darknet marketplace and stole their Bitcoin balance.

All the funds stolen by Richo, however, are believed to be owned by darknet criminals, who could have utilized the money for illegal activities.

Richo then deposited the stolen Bitcoin to his LocalBitcoins account. He also conducted bank transfers to his account at Bank of America, as well as his Green Dot prepaid debit cards.

Another win for FBI
After almost three years of monitoring and building a case against Richo, operatives from the FBI finally arrested him in 2014.

During their examination of his computers, the operatives discovered more than 10,000 stolen login credentials. They also found that his phishing sites were created in a very professional and meticulous manner that allowed him to trick even the most experienced darknet users.

The court hearing Richo’s case is scheduled to issue its verdict on September 28, 2017.

However, the impact of the anticipated events of August 1, 2017, extends beyond just the expected improved efficiency of transactions within the Bitcoin network.

With significant opposition still in existence, a possible breakup is expected. This leaves room for a lot of uncertainty, leading to widespread speculation and predictions on what will become of Bitcoin and the crypto ecosystem in general.

Michael Vogel, CEO of Netcoins, affirms that SegWit2x and SegWit Support has officially surpassed Emergent Consensus, he identifies this development as a significant milestone.

It is important to have a backup plan
Vogel notes that August 1 will be the next important milestone, explaining that until SegWit is activated on the network, that's when Bitcoin users will have a first-hand opportunity to experience a scaling solution in action.

Vogel says:

“If SegWit activation alleviates the network issues we've seen in recent months, then the outcome will be an overwhelmingly positive one. However, in terms of protecting wealth, in Bitcoin (and any cryptocurrency) we're still in relatively early days, so it's important to have backup plans. Nonetheless, I continue to be bullish on Bitcoin and a strong believer in its core value proposition as a currency and store of wealth.”

Better to keep Bitcoins offline
Aleksandar Matanovic of EC District expresses his weariness of the drama surrounding Bitcoin scaling.

“I’m a bit tired of all the drama around scaling. Once this scaling is done, one way or the other, we will soon need another scaling.”

Matanovic notes that the reaction of Bitcoin users to scaling would depend on personal motives and their reasons for participating.

According to Matanovic, investors are probably worried about the fork, while speculators, on the other hand, must be excited about it because if there is one thing which is certain for the next couple of months, it is the volatility.

Hence, Matanovic suggests that the best approach in the midst of such chaos is to “keep calm, keep bitcoins offline and not selling any of them.”