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You have to give the marketing department at Chipotle some credit. They certainly know how to turn heads.
The fast-food chain has announced plans to give away $100,000 in Bitcoin this Thursday as part of its National Burrito Day promotion. (It will also give away $100,000 in free food.)
Chipotle is teaming with Stefan Thomas, the tech founder who made headlines earlier this year after losing the login to the hard drive that contained $387 million in the cryptocurrency. As part of the promotion, the chain will encourage customers to go to BurritosOrBitcoin.com on April 1 to guess a six-digit code. Ten thousand codes will unlock free food. Three will unlock $25,000 in Bitcoin. And 50 will unlock $500 in Bitcoin. Players will have 10 tries to guess the code. https://fortune.com/2021/03/30/bitcoin-chipotle-give-away-national-burrito-day-april-1/  |
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We are likely to test the ATH of $ 19783 soon I found myself asking what is different than before. In short, a lot, but I would like to hear other thoughts. 'Chainalysis Team' published this report that has some interesting prospective I haven't considered/realized. https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/bitcoin-price-surge-explained-2020Are their points valid or hogwash? To summarize they boil it down to demand vs liquidity (yeah that bit is obvious), but they characterize the differences in demand namely big name institutional investment. Again widely discussed in this forum but this chart is slick if the underlying data is valid:  Right now, the amount of liquid Bitcoin is similar to what it was during the 2017 bull run. But the amount held in illiquid wallets is much higher, currently representing 77% of the 14.8 million Bitcoin mined that isn’t categorized as lost, meaning it hasn’t moved from its current address in five years or longer. That leaves a pool of just 3.4 million Bitcoin readily available to buyers as demand increases. They also highlight an large inflows to exchanges primarily serving North America:  North American exchanges were losing Bitcoin on net in the early part of the 2017 bull run, and became a net receiver as price began to peak. This time around though, North American exchanges have been in the green throughout, with inflows ramping up to higher levels than at any point in the 2017 run in the last few months. Similarly, we also see much higher net inflows to exchanges allowing crypto-to-fiat (C2F) trades compared to 2017. C2F exchanges are playing a bigger role in this surge than in 2017, when crypto-to-crypto (C2C) exchanges, used mostly by traders swapping many different types of cryptocurrency, drove more of the market. This, combined with the accumulation of Bitcoin by investor wallets that tend to hold for long periods of time, suggests that first-time Bitcoin buyers and buyers looking to unload fiat currency for Bitcoin as a hedge against worrisome macroeconomic trends are responsible for much of the current demand.  This is good news for cryptocurrency
While we can’t know if prices will continue to rise, the current Bitcoin surge portends good things for cryptocurrency — not just because prices are rising, but because of why they’re rising. A comparison of this bull run to that of 2017 suggests that investors have become savvier and more strategic, buying Bitcoin to fulfill a specific use case rather than to speculate on the new hot asset. If Bitcoin can continue to be an effective hedge against macroeconomic trends, we believe more and more institutional investors will put money into the asset, leading to even more mainstream adoption. |
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A recent article with some good current pro/con arguments that is worth a full read IMHO because I am only including selective quotes below. As a proud HODLer of a modest amount of BTC I currently consider it primarily as an asset/investment due to its lack of widespread adoption as a form of currency and its high degree of volatility (which I like as a HOLDer!) that makes it challenging when using in 'currency mode' as the author points out. I can also can see it as a commodity like (digital) gold, but I am not sure that 'asset' and 'commodity' are necessarily mutually exclusive anyway. Thoughts? Some past focused discussions for historical reference I could find (of course many other threads touched on one aspect or another) Classifying Bitcoin As a Financial Asset August 16, 2015 (small) Bitcoin is an asset or currency. October 17, 2017 (huge!) Is bitcoin an asset or a currency? October 25, 2017 (Large)Is Bitcoin an Asset a Commodity or a Currency? By Matt HusseyAs the price of Bitcoin continues to balloon, we look back at how the cryptocurrency is viewed and whether that definition needs to be re-assessed. https://decrypt.co/47566/is-bitcoin-an-asset-a-commodity-or-a-currency Bitcoin as a currency?
Bitcoin can be used to buy a whole load of things. From holidays, artwork, food, cars, property and more.
One of Bitcoin’s earliest proofs-of-concept came when Laszlo Hanyecc agreed to pay 10,000 Bitcoin in exchange for two Papa John's pizzas...But the trend appears to be that Bitcoin is moving away from it’s role as a currency. Bitcoin’s trading volume has been declining since 2018
On top of that, the number of Bitcoin addresses holding more than 0.1 coins, (currently about $1,188) is at an all-time high, and the number of addresses holding more than 100 coins (currently $1,188 million) has reached a six-month high, according to Glassnode.
Lastly, but not leastly, for a currency to be viable, it needs to have low volatility. If a currency moves a lot then it makes it difficult to value goods and services appropriately. ..Most major currencies have an annual volatility rate of between 0.5% and 1% every 30-60 days. At the time of writing, it’s down to 2.25% over the last 60 days. But it’s still a long way from the US Dollar in terms of stability.
Bitcoin as an investment?
On the Bitcoin believers side, you have companies like MicroStrategy and Square, who have been betting big on Bitcoin as an investment. Their thinking for Bitcoin’s potential as an asset is two-fold. The first is about its position as a money supply that’s beyond the quantitative easing currently employed by some of the world’s largest economies. The second is in its ability to be an on-ramp for huge swathes of the world not currently reached by financial services.
When currencies go into freefall, governments tend to restrict citizens' access to foreign currency to prevent further devaluation. On top of that, banks see getting involved in banking citizens of these volatile currencies as too risky, keeping them out of those markets. Bitcoin however, has so such issues. Anyone with an internet connection and a USB stick can invest, making it a perfect investment vehicle for a third of the world's population-and as such a great investment to buy into now for when that happens.
The global pot of cash currently sat in pension funds, around $3.6 trillion, wouldn’t invest or speculate on the performance of a currency.
The reason? It’s an asset with zero yield: i.e. the holding of the asset doesn’t produce additional profits beyond the rise and fall of the underlying asset.
Bitcoin as a commodity?
Commodities, as a reminder, are a basic good that is interchangeable with other goods of the same type. In recent years, more financial products have been added to the commodity list, one of which is Bitcoin. Commodities traditionally have higher price volatility than assets like property, or money supplies like currency, making them a fertile environment for speculators trying to predict the rise and fall of an asset and betting accordingly.
Bitcoin as a commodity seems to work on two different investment horizons. Short term, daily volatility, and longer-term speculation. Sidenote: AAX provides bi-weekly Intelligence Reports that analyzes the price of Bitcoin using technical indicators for those keen to jump into day trading.
Long-term, Bitcoin's Stock to Flow model highlights that the cryptocurrency is likely to continue to grow steadily over the longterm.
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An interesting article. I appreciated they identified a specific reason behind difficulty drop which if true should just be temporary. Thoughts? Bitcoin mining difficulty posts biggest drop since ASIC era by Wolfie Zhaohttps://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/83325/bitcoin-mining-difficulty-largest-drop-asic-eraBitcoin's mining difficulty, a measure of the competitiveness for winning block rewards, has just posted the largest percentage drop since October 2011.
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The difficulty drop is a result of the decline of the average total computing power racing on the network in the last two weeks as many Chinese miner operators have unplugged their machines to migrate to fossil fuel power stations from hydropower plants.
The decline of bitcoin's mining competitiveness will push up bitcoin miner's daily revenue per terahash second of computing power in the coming days, which is already reaching its highest point since the block reward halving in May. [/quote]  |
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Max Keiser has been following bitcoin for a long time. Here is his latest interview as FYI --- I had to chuckle at his thoughts on Defi  DeFi is mostly just repackaged ICO scams. Avoid. Bitcoin price will 'bolt higher' if Biden wins, rise slower with Trump — Max Keiserhttps://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-will-bolt-higher-if-biden-wins-rise-slower-with-trump-max-keiserBitcoin price will 'bolt higher' if Biden wins, rise slower with Trump — Max Keiser
Max Keiser, Wall Street veteran and host of The Keiser Report, shares his thoughts on Bitcoin price breaking $13,000 and the U.S. election in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph Markets.
Cointelegraph Markets: Paul Tudor Jones. Did his investment into Bitcoin spark a new bull cycle?
Max Keiser: First, we need to go back to the Genesis Block and understand that everything that has happened and will ever happen with Bitcoin came into existence at that instant and the world and our species were forever changed. Understand too, that Bitcoin is shaping our world around its protocol in ways that most don’t understand but all are powerless to stop. Within this context, it was clear on Jan. 3, 2009, the genius of the protocol would catch up to the likes of Paul Tudor Jones and warp his mind.
As he said this past week, after studying Bitcoin he’s become more bullish and it's the first time in his career he’s ever encountered an asset he’s buying to hedge against the carnage of runaway inflation that is "pro-humanity." He understands the paradox of the protocol. He understands like Michael Saylor does now (after rejecting Bitcoin for years) that Bitcoin is in control.
The changes to humanity are set in motion and it’s unstoppable. Because Bitcoin rearranges people’s minds and reorders their consciousness, these changes are permanent.
Were you surprised at the news that PayPal is entering the Bitcoin and crypto space?
Max Keiser: No. PayPal, like all companies, came to the realization faster than others that Bitcoin is an existential threat to their business and to ignore it would mean going out of business.
Do you think it is a reasonable trade-off that it will maintain control over users' money just as Libra would?
Max Keiser: PayPal’s attempt to restrain Bitcoin won’t work because the competition at $SQ and elsewhere will force them to go Full Bitcoin or die. This is true with Libra as well. It’s true of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies), and it’s true of countries like Venezuela who abandoned their Petro and are now moving to a Full Bitcoin position. In China, the situation is different.
The Chinese will resist going Full Bitcoin the longest and this is their Achilles Heel.
At the moment, with China establishing a V-shaped recovery in their uniquely post-covid economy (the only G20 country to achieve this), they are cocky and blind to what will happen if the U.S. and others go Full Bitcoin. It’s similar to the 1980s-1990s when Japan was set to take over the global economy but failed to embrace the Internet fast enough and the US quickly reasserted global dominance again. China thinks they hold all the cards, but without going Full Bitcoin they leave themselves vulnerable to countries that do.
Does news about BTC payment acceptance bolster price? Or is Bitcoin’s value mainly rising because it’s being increasingly perceived as a store of value?
Max Keiser: The role of payments (i.e. medium of exchange) comes after Bitcoin establishes itself as a SOV; a point Roger Ver, Craig Wright, and Calvin Ayre never understood and why their projects BCH and BSV are increasingly becoming worthless compared to BTC (they completely misread the BTC White Paper). At the moment, BTC is still establishing itself as a SOV.
I’ve said many times that I think the transition that includes the MOE use case probably comes after BTC starts to push Gold out of the SOV picture around $100,000 per BTC. By the way, a warning to Gold Bugs bashing BTC. Look what happened to Peter Schiff. By not letting BTC change his thinking he sabotaged himself and appears to be in real trouble. This fate awaits all who mess with Bitcoin.
In June, you said that Peter Schiff would buy Bitcoin at $50,000. Is the price still the same?
Max Keiser: Yes. I predict that the combination of his business failing plus his legal fees will force him to finally succumb to reality and he’ll come to Bitcoin with his tail between his legs begging forgiveness and the timing will be around BTC $50,000.
Gold bugs say that gold will win regardless of who wins the US election. Who do you think is best for Bitcoin: Biden or Trump? How do you expect Bitcoin will react to the election results next month?
Max Keiser: A Biden win means a win for corruption and the Deep State so I would expect Bitcoin’s price to bolt higher as people panic-buy unconfiscatable Bitcoin before Biden’s socialist, jackbooted thugs start confiscating everything in a replay of 1938 Kristallnacht.
With Trump, The U.S. has a chance at a more orderly tradition to Bitcoin so the price would move up more slowly.
Michael Saylor said that he bought Bitcoin to protect cash reserves from "melting" like an ice cube. Do you think Google, Amazon, etc. will make similar realizations?
Max Keiser: Yes. The inflation genie is out of the bottle and cash is trash. But the important thing here is that Michael Saylor went against the prevailing wisdom of buying back his own stock, a move that takes advantage of a reckless, money printing Fed and instead essentially goes to war with the Fed by embracing Bitcoin — an asset hardcoded to destroy the Fed.
As the Genesis Block made clear with "Chancellor on brink of a second bailout," Bitcoin was designed as a central bank killer. Michael Saylor figured that out and understands that he needs to be on the right side of history or get blown out. Every company in the world will face the same decision. Do they support central banks or do they want to survive and thrive in a post-central bank world.
Do you believe another “Bloody Thursday” can happen for the markets and Bitcoin again?
Max Keiser: Volatility is the price we pay for unconfiscatable, uncensorable Hard Money, so I welcome it.
You were one of the first people to report on Bitcoin. But who has had the most influence on you as far as getting into bitcoin goes?
Max Keiser: I have a patented technology for creating digitally scarce money (us pat. 5950176) secured in 1996 so I’d say it was my work at that time creating digital money for my startup the Hollywood Stock Exchange that put me on the Bitcoin path.
Is understanding Bitcoin an ever-evolving process? You frequently talk of Bitcoin as a new type of increasingly self-aware entity of sorts. Can you speak a bit more about this?
Max Keiser: Bitcoin came into existence as a spontaneous life form that grew out of our global, collective consciousness as a defense mechanism to fight predatory central banks. Jamie Dimon is a parasite, like a tapeworm, and our species had no defense. So with God’s help, we collectively willed Bitcoin into existence to fight fiat money, fractional reserve banking and Keynesian debt-money propaganda.
Which company or person has done the most for Bitcoin in recent years in terms of adoption?
Max Keiser: The biggest driver of adoption has been financial terrorists on Wall St and central banks. The more they print, the more people flee to individual sovereignty and Bitcoin.
What's your view on the popular stock-to-flow model (created by planB), and what do you say to those who don't believe its price hypotheses such as $288,000 this halving cycle?
Max Keiser: S2f is an analytical tool that some people, like myself, like. It’s like technical analysis and chart reading. Some people like TA and swear by it. Some don’t. There is no proof that TA has any forecasting ability greater than coin-flipping. Same for S2f, but each has its fans for various reasons.
These tools are helpful to organize your thoughts and to imagine price points, trends, etc. Individuals like different analytical tools for different reasons.
Ultimately the only thing that matters is that Bitcoin has no top because fiat money has no bottom.
What do you think is causing the hash rate vs. price lag, which you recently said implies a $35-50K BTC value?
Max Keiser: The price lag vs. hash rate is due in part to the existence of shitcoins that muddy the waters. As BTC dominance climbs, this distracting noise will die off and we’ll see price catch up to hash rate.
What do you think about the future of DeFi?
Max Keiser: DeFi is mostly just repackaged ICO scams. Avoid.
Do you plan to have Saifedean Ammous on the Keiser Report or Orange Pill Podcast? What do you think about his idea of “fiat life” (food, art, etc.) versus life on a Bitcoin standard?
Max Keiser: Saifedean and “The Bitcoin Standard” took the industry up to a higher base-camp on our quest to conquer the Mt. Everest of money. Yes. He’ll be back on KR and OPP for sure. |
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ETH 2.0 update -- I am not sure where they are getting these stage names, but sounds promising. Ethereum 2.0 Around the Corner After Successful Zinken Trial By Jeff Benson The client teams will use the testnet results to make “final preparations for a mainnet launch,” says Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan. https://decrypt.co/44764/ethereum-2-0-around-corner-successful-zinken-trialIn brief
The Zinken testnet launch today was a success.
The testnet aims to try out genesis for the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain.
Zinken follows an unsuccessful trial of the Spadina testnet.
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Zinken is the last scheduled “dress rehearsal” for testing Eth2 genesis—the creation of the first block in the new chain—before the proof-of-stake network can go live. It follows a previous testnet, Spadina, which failed to launch as planned on September 29 due to low user participation and minor client errors.
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Scalability is essential if the Ethereum network is to survive long-term. It’s already contending with congestion, which has been exacerbated by decentralized finance applications’ boom in popularity.
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Though the Zinken testnet will keep running for a few days, it’s already fulfilled its purpose, said Ryan: “Genesis went well, which is the main thing we were looking for.”
Now it's time to test out the real thing. |
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There are a number of articles on this recent move, but the following article seemed to have the most details. Highlight is that coins mined back in 2010 (when Satoshi was still actively involved but toward the end) were moved around recently meaning these coins were not lost  Now no one is speculating these belong to Satoshi himself (even CSW didn't claim them ), but I think it is a positive sign that it didn't have a significant impact on the BTC price. There is speculation on if this move is bullish or not, but I personally agree with Hans Hauge quoted below. What do others think about it? Bitcoin Price Unmoved by Satoshi Era BTC 1,000 Move By Sead Fadilpašić October 12, 2020https://cryptonews.com/news/bitcoin-price-unmoved-by-satoshi-era-btc-1k-move-7963.htmSomebody moved at least 1,000 bitcoin (BTC) that were dormant since they were mined in 2010. Bitcoin's price, however, seems to be unfazed by the event.
Twenty blocks with coinbase reward were spent on October 11, shows onchain parser Btcparser.com, with BTC 1,000 in total, in block 652,204. This was followed by another BTC 50 in block 652,229, making it a total of BTC 1,050 moved. BTC 1,000 was consolidated into a single address and re-transferred.
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Cryptocurrency trader Kirill K seems to be the first to have reported this event, saying that "another 20 bitcoin wallets mined in 2010 has awakened."
Per K's analysis of "two major awakenings of elder bitcoins", that on March 11 (before the major market crash) and this latest on on October 11, they both have the same owner. His arguments are that: both were done on the 11th day of a month; BTC 1,000 were transferred; BTC was collected on a P2SH address; then it was split between multiple BECH32 addresses; and there was a wallet receiving BTC 200 both times.
Hans Hauge, Head of quant strategy at Ikigai Asset Management, commented on Kirill K's post, arguing that this is an old miner transferring coins to the newer Bech32 format, which is the native SegWit (Segregated Witness) address. And though, in Hauge's opinion, old miners must be careful with transfers so as not to "spook the market," moving USD 11m "into a spot market doing billions each day should not move the needle much in either direction."
"This is bullish," said Hauge. "If this guy was just planning on dumping these coins on an exchange, why bother with the new address format and chunk size? It's like he's organizing his vault."[/quote]
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Another investment in bitcoin by another big company Square Says It Bought $50 Million of Bitcoin; Shares RiseSquare bought $50 million of bitcoin, undeterred by the fact that it isn’t used for many standard commercial transactions. https://www.thestreet.com/investing/square-buys-50-million-dollars-of-bitcoinSquare (SQ) - Get Report shares rose Thursday after the payments company said it bought about 4,709 bitcoins for $50 million.
That equates to $10,617 per bitcoin. Bitcoin recently traded at $10,735.
Square shares recently traded at $183.51, up 1.9%. The stock has nearly tripled this year.
Bitcoin isn’t used for many standard commercial transactions because of its volatility and because of scandals in which bitcoin disappeared.
At this point bitcoin mostly serves as a vehicle for speculation.
As for Square, it “believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment and provides a way for the world to participate in a global monetary system, which aligns with the company’s purpose,” it said in a statement.
The investment represents some 1% of Square’s total assets as of the end of second-quarter 2020.
Square, San Francisco, has a history with bitcoin. It launched bitcoin trading in 2018 for its Cash App customers. In 2019, the company formed Square Crypto, a team contributing to bitcoin open-source. |
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I hope this isn't actually the cause of the minor dip  Trump delays stimulus, Bitcoin dumps shortly thereafterBitcoin's correlation with traditional markets appears to continue. https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-delays-stimulus-bitcoin-dumps-in-shortly-thereafterBack and forth discussions with regard to a second stimulus package for the people of the United States have been ongoing for months. Today, President Trump decided to push the matter back until after the 2020 presidential elections have concluded. This appears to have resulted in a price drop for Bitcoin (BTC) and other mainstream markets.
Following these tweets, the market responded in disapproval. Stocks fell noticeably, while Bitcoin dropped approximately $200 before bouncing slightly, holding a press time price of $10,577.
Bitcoin's drop seems to suggest that the asset's price continues to react in tandem with mainstream markets, at least with regard to major fiscal news. For some, this holds as antithetical to the asset's supposed role as a non-correlated store of value. |
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I was never a fan of gold anyway  Crypto Is Beating Gold as 2020’s Top Asset So Farhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-beating-gold-2020-top-210000278.html(Bloomberg) -- A cryptocurrency mania known as decentralized finance has helped to turn digital currencies into this year’s best-performing asset by far.
The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index of digital coins is up about 66% in 2020, exceeding gold’s jump of more than 20% as well as returns from global stocks, bonds and commodities. A key reason for the move higher is a surge in Ethereum, which accounts for more than a third of the crypto gauge’s weight.
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Aside from DeFi, proponents of digital currencies such as Bitcoin argue they offer a store of value amid concern that huge stimulus injections to counter the pandemic will stoke inflation and weaken the dollar.  |
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Now for something completely unexpected  Kiss' Gene Simmons Tweets Cryptic Message About His Bitcoin Planshttps://news.bitcoin.com/kiss-gene-simmons-bitcoin/After multiple tweets on the subject, the exchange founder admitted that “getting people into this new system is the biggest challenge we face as an industry … It’s easier to buy bitcoin and ether if you are already in the old system. If you don’t have a bank account, it’s hard to get funds into crypto. We need to change this.” Simmons, who has 896.4K followers on Twitter, responded with a short tweet that reads: “I will. I am.” At the time of writing, his tweet has been liked 1.4K times. |
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Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are coming fast. Recent article focuses on impact of digital yuan (likely first) to dollar, but what impact will it have on bitcoin or any? I know they are not the same thing, but will eventual widespread adoption of government issued e-currencies (a given IMHO... just when) help or hurt bitcoin? Geopolitical fallout of central bank digital currencieshttps:/Geopolitical fallout of central bank digital currenciescointelegraph.com/news/geopolitical-fallout-of-central-bank-digital-currencies China might lead the charge into the digital economy, but will being the first major economy to launch a CBDC be enough to win global reserve currency status?
As China will be the first nation to launch a CBDC, the changes a digital yuan promises for global economics and the role this plan plays in pushing for a “currency war” keeps its project in headlines |
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There was some excellent points/discussion on my recent Poll: when will cryptocurrency go mainstream?. I actually didn't vote myself until I reviewed a number of the responses Mostly the answered varied from ' already' to ' never' based on personal interpretation of what 'mainstream' means. If I was a pollster I would have failed for providing such an open ended question, but for the sake of bitcointalk discussion, it actually was quite interesting to see everyone's thoughts. Thank you for your participation so far...the poll isn't closed yet so get out and vote!! Anyway, the responses made me think hard about what I considered 'mainstream' myself. Sure if mainstream meant world wide name recognition then bitcoin has long passed that threshold, but for me it is about usage as a replacement for fiat money. I believe that was Satoshi's ultimate dream not simply a household name or even a digital gold replacement. Personally, there are *many* barriers remaining before I will use bitcoin over my credit card and even a few significant barriers where I would use it over say cash (I never use a debit/check card myself). I would like like to hear from bitcointalk members about what barriers YOU believe are preventing you from using bitcoin today.My personal top reasons that doesn't even get to the technical issues involved: #1 barrier in the USA is the tax treatment of bitcoin Personally, there is no way I would want to track every micro purchase to complicate my tax return! #2 I make money by using my Credit Card today Again, Personally, I like CC which is easy to use for purchasing and with autopay I don't even need to think about it after I make the purchase. Plus I get a rebate $ back and an extra month earning a whopping 0.0001% interest Even eliminating all of the technical barriers so that bitcoin was as easy as a CC swipe and universally accepted like VISA (better than a Discover card please ) it still would be like me using a debit/check card which I never do today. I realize these are my top personal reasons, but there are a lot of other potential advantages that others might enjoy. I would be interested in hearing about what you perceive is the advantages of paying with bitcoin (or name your fav crypto if different)To get the ball rolling let me provide some benefits cited in an article, but hopefully we can collectively come up with even better ones: 1. User AutonomyThe primary draw of bitcoin for many users, and indeed one of the central tenets of cryptocurrencies more generally, is autonomy. Digital currencies allow users more autonomy over their own money than fiat currencies do, at least in theory. Users are able to control how they spend their money without dealing with an intermediary authority like a bank or government. 2. DiscretionBitcoin purchases are discrete. Unless a user voluntarily publishes his Bitcoin transactions, his purchases are never associated with his personal identity, much like cash-only purchases, and cannot easily be traced back to him. In fact, the anonymous bitcoin address that is generated for user purchases changes with each transaction. This is not to say that bitcoin transactions are truly anonymous or entirely untraceable, but they are much less readily linked to personal identity than some traditional forms of payment. 3. Peer-to-Peer FocusThe bitcoin payment system is purely peer-to-peer, meaning that users are able to send and receive payments to or from anyone on the network around the world without requiring approval from any external source or authority. 4. Elimination of Banking FeesWhile it is considered standard among cryptocurrency exchanges to charge so-called "maker" and "taker" fees, as well as occasional deposit and withdrawal fees, bitcoin users are not subject to the litany of traditional banking fees associated with fiat currencies. This means no account maintenance or minimum balance fees, no overdraft charges and no returned deposit fees, among many others. 5. Very Low Transaction Fees for International PaymentsStandard wire transfers and foreign purchases typically involve fees and exchange costs. Since bitcoin transactions have no intermediary institutions or government involvement, the costs of transacting are kept very low. This can be a major advantage for travelers. Additionally, any transfer in bitcoins happens very quickly, eliminating the inconvenience of typical authorization requirements and wait periods. 6. Mobile PaymentsLike with many online payment systems, bitcoin users can pay for their coins anywhere they have Internet access. This means that purchasers never have to travel to a bank or a store to buy a product. However, unlike online payments made with U.S. bank accounts or credit cards, personal information is not necessary to complete any transaction. 7. AccessibilityBecause users are able to send and receive bitcoins with only a smartphone or computer, bitcoin is theoretically available to populations of users without access to traditional banking systems, credit cards and other methods of payment. Source: What Are the Advantages of Paying With Bitcoin? What do you think? |
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A lot of time an energy as been devoted to Satoshi potential fortune of UNSPENT coins (granted could me more than 1 million!), but I decided to take a harder look at the coins Satoshi just MIGHT have spent to see what they can tell us. The article's author below reproduces Sergio Demian Lerner's blockchain analysis with the intent to infer LIKELY Satoshi mined coins using two main observations/patterns: 1) Coinbase Transaction's Extra Nonce pattern and 2) the block's own Nonce range pattern. Both observations reinforce and refine his initial thesis. Yes, neither technique is absolutely definitive so by combining the two strategies reduces, but not eliminates, the amount of false positives. For more background the article provides a decent summary of Sergio's analysis, but it is even better to hear it directly from Sergio's own blog where he has plenty of related articles on bitcoin Chain Archaeology here: https://bitslog.com/category/uncategorized/ At the end of the article, and without much ado, the author provides a list of 19 blocks he believes were mined by Satoshi: The Satoshi Fortune https://medium.com/@whale_alert/the-satoshi-fortune-e49cf73f9a9bNote: according to our research the following blocks have been mined and spent by Satoshi: 9, 286, 688, 877, 1760, 2459, 2485, 3479, 5326, 9443, 9925, 10645, 14450, 15625, 15817, 19093, 23014, 28593 and 29097. Presumably the author concludes these are Satoshi mined blocks based on blocks matching the distinct Extra Nonce pattern w/ its coinbase transaction AND having the last byte of the block's nonce fall within a specific relatively narrow range. However even if they two 'tells' are legit there is always a possibility of a false positive by shear coincidence. Keep in your mind this article estimates Satoshi mined over 1.1 MILLION coins, but that is not what this thread is about. Instead I decided to take this small list of SPENT coin blocks (article feel confident they identified a total of 907 coins spent by Satoshi ) and put them to the test building upon a keen observation made by Taras back in his 2017 thread Payment No. 1: A Closer Look at the Very First Bitcoin Transfer https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2346992.0 (excellent background read!)I analyzed the 19 spent transactions and found 4 more followed Taras' initial observation! That is when you send bitcoins the early implementation of the bitcoin wallet simply grabbed the first coins available based on coinbase's transaction hash ORDER! (in other words NO option to specify which coins you wanted to spend it selected it for you using the transaction hash order)  Here is the breakdown order by transaction hash for each of the 5 starting with well documented first transaction EVER made between CONFIRMED Satoshi and Hal (reflecting Taras' findings) from Block 9: The first version of the bitcoin wallet chose which coins were to be spent in a transaction based on the transaction ID the coins came from (actually by how many there are first, but in this case, all the transactions mined precisely 50 BTC, so that doesn't make a difference). The first payment to Hal Finney was in block 170, and newly mined bitcoins can only be spent after they have 101 confirmations, so only coins up to block 68 were spendable when the first payment happened.  Block 286: this suspected satoshi spender just happen to use the SECOND out of 423 blocks in TX hash order:  This image shows how first block with lowest transaction hash order (278) does NOT conform to either the Satoshi extra nonce pattern NOR the block's nonce pattern supporting that Satoshi spent his 'first available block' theory:  Block 688: yet again this suspected Satoshi spender just happen to have the lowest transaction hash order block available to spend out of 2,653 potential blocks:  Block 5326: and yet again this suspected Satoshi spender (matching both patterns) just happen to have the lowest transaction hash order block available to spend out of 11,307 potential blocks:  continued... |
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This recent article spells out the case for why 2020 could be the year cryptocurrency goes 'mainstream'. I have included a quote that summarizes her position. However I am more interested to hear from this group what you think and why.Also interested in hearing what other positive or negative influences going on this year not mentioned that would impact mainstreaming. Finally, will Bitcoin lead the charge or will other cryptocurrencies provide key contributions toward mainstreaming and why? Note: You can only vote once, you can't change your vote, and you have only 14 days to make a choice. Why 2020 might be the year cryptocurrency goes mainstreamhttps://fortune.com/2020/08/24/crypto-digital-currency-bitcoin-jpmorgan/Cryptocurrency and digital money like Bitcoin are poised to go mainstream in 2020 due to a confluence of factors, writes Catherine Coley.
There are a few factors contributing to this change, and they are important enough that Americans should be paying attention. First, government payments to individuals and businesses alike are weakening the U.S. fiat (physical cash) system. Second, large banking institutions like JPMorgan Chase are condoning and even welcoming digital currencies onto their platforms. And third, more Americans are home, witnessing the discrepancy in the market’s growth and the nation’s unemployment rate. |
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The following is a great thread for bitcoin history buffs like myself. However, I am a bit confused about Hal Finney's role with early bitcoin development. Hal Finney was added as a developer by Satoshi himself to the original bitcoin sourceforge project in early December 2008 suggesting an early collaboration beyond what I have read in the public domain email exchanges unless I missed something. Anyone else have more insight into why Satoshi added him first and so early? Here is the summary of Hal's involvement mentioned in the earlier thread: I think it is reported somewhere that Nick Szabo also communicated with Satoshi. Hal Finney was also the recipient of the first
Bitcoin transaction, so he had to have contact with Satoshi in some way, other than the Crypto forum they talked on. .. Hal Finney discovered the Bitcoin project via a cryptography mailing list, then later he interacted with Satoshi via emails
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I really enjoyed Taras' 2014 thread Chain Archaeology - Answers from the early blockchainunfortunately most of the links don't show up so I had to manually view them to get full effect.  Kind of entertaining watching how Taras' mind was working/evolving over the thread, but I did reproduce some of Taras' work for fun and generated a final chart mapping the early miners' Extra Nonce values for their coinbase transactions from this message: list of spent blocks we've linked so far (see link for list)  If I understand correctly some of the miners in brackets were just names assigned by Taras to unknown miners that I think were identified purely because of the pattern?, but others like Hal Finney were obtained using a screen shot of his earliest transactions so they are 100% confident at least. Questions: 1) At this time frame using the early non customized bitcoin.exe is it expected to see the miner's coinbase block increment like Hal's until they restart their instance? It is so odd they all have approximately the same angle over time...is that a reflection of the hash rate for a typical PC in 2009 or something else? 2) Does anyone know of miners of blocks less than 1000 that aren't included in Taras' list? Screen shots of early transactions like Hal's would be ideal  I have screen shot of theymos early transactions he posted, but they are much later than 1000. Thanks! |
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how do I technically extract the address from the output scriptPubKey for early coinbase transactions? bonus credit if python code For example Block #1 coinbase: output scriptPubKey (HEX) --> base 58 address, i.e., 410496b538e853519c726a2c91e61ec11600ae1390813a627c66fb8be7947be63c52da758937951 5d4e0a604f8141781e62294721166bf621e73a82cbf2342c858eeac -->12c6DSiU4Rq3P4ZxziKxzrL5LmMBrzjrJX Thanks in advance! https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/0e3e2357e806b6cdb1f70b54c3a3a17b6714ee1f0e68bebb44a74b1efd512098{
"txid": "0e3e2357e806b6cdb1f70b54c3a3a17b6714ee1f0e68bebb44a74b1efd512098",
"hash": "0e3e2357e806b6cdb1f70b54c3a3a17b6714ee1f0e68bebb44a74b1efd512098",
"version": 1,
"size": 134,
"vsize": 134,
"weight": 536,
"locktime": 0,
"vin": [
{
"coinbase": "04ffff001d0104",
"sequence": 4294967295
}
],
"vout": [
{
"value": 50,
"n": 0,
"scriptPubKey": {
"asm": "0496b538e853519c726a2c91e61ec11600ae1390813a627c66fb8be7947be63c52da7589379515d4e0a604f8141781e62294721166bf621e73a82cbf2342c858ee OP_CHECKSIG",
"hex": "410496b538e853519c726a2c91e61ec11600ae1390813a627c66fb8be7947be63c52da7589379515d4e0a604f8141781e62294721166bf621e73a82cbf2342c858eeac",
"reqSigs": 1,
"type": "pubkey",
"addresses": [
"12c6DSiU4Rq3P4ZxziKxzrL5LmMBrzjrJX"
]
}
}
]
} |
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