[McAfee Redemption Units]

The always entertaining John McAfee announced he will be releasing his own crypto-backed fiat currency on June 24 called McAfee Redemption Units.



More details at this article. Currently, the face value of each MRU unit is $9.95. Considering the notoriety of Mr. McAfee this could be an interesting collectible; waiting for details on availability, final pricing and how to order. Apparently the notes will be sold only on auction sites to be determined.

I started a thread on MRUs previously which was derailed by off topic posts so I was forced to lock the thread. This new thread is moderated so please let's stay on topic. There may not be news to report until later this month.

I have received several PMs "encrypted" by Privnote. Self-destructing messages like Privnote are server side and really should not be considered secure. Better than clear text but offers more of a false sense of security in my opinion.

If you need to encrypt PMs you really should consider using PGP with a key strength of 4096. The easiest PGP program to use is gpg4usb which has very good documentation to explain how to use. Privnote is popular because it is easy to use. PGP only takes a minute once you learn how to use it, but you must have the public key of the recipient to send an encrypted message.

I suggest use of PGP for all, not just sensitive private messages should be routine. It is not that hard once you read the manual and try a few times. You will see I have already added a link to my PGP public key in my signature. On topic comments are welcome.

[McAfee Redemption Units]

The always entertaining John McAfee announced he will be releasing his own crypto-backed fiat currency on June 24 called McAfee Redemption Units.



More details at this article. Currently, the face value of each MRU unit is $9.95. Considering notoriety of Mr. McAfee this could be an interesting collectible; waiting for details on availability, final pricing and how to order. Apparently the notes will be sold only on auction sites TBD. Don't shoot the messenger please:)

No financial interest and not selling these (Leo Challenge Coins does) but the design is unique and at $10 you might want to pick some up as a fun collectible or gift. They sell three versions and I think the Busted BITCOIN V.1 (DHS seal) is the most interesting because of the reverse face:



The Busted BITCOIN V.2 and V.3 each have the same design on both faces. Quality is decent; the V.1 coin has some heft (45 grams) but is obviously not proof quality however does look very good for the price. 

After the hard fork on Aug 1, 2017 both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash had the same difficulty. Due to the EDA built in to the Bitcoin ABC client difficulty on the Bitcoin Cash chain quickly ramped down to 144323701657.02 or 17% of Bitcoin current difficulty. The value will be even less when Bitcoin difficulty adjusts up in a few days. Once difficulty on the Bitcoin Cash chain drops to less than 8% of Bitcoin difficulty miners will be incentivized to switch mining to the Bitcoin Cash chain. How can Bitcoin Core prevent miners from switching en masse to mining the Bitcoin Cash chain?

Hoping to continue on in the spirit of the original Wall Observer thread. Not moderated. Up to the community if this thread succeeds or not.

After Trezor released 1.3.6 firmware Electrum 2.6.4 no longer worked with Trezor on Windows. The issue is discussed at https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/1846 and there are now new 2.6.4 testing releases you can download at http://download.electrum.org/test/ which work with Windows at least for my 1.3.6 Trezor.

There are enough options for bitcoin cold storage on the market now a poll to determine the most popular seemed an interesting idea. The days of being limited to using Armory or Electrum with two computers is over, with several convenient options available from $20 to $249. Which do you use?

Just had a problem signing a transaction with my offline Electrum 1.9.8 wallet. I created the transaction as usual in online watching only 1.9.8, took to offline wallet and signed the transaction. When I brought the transaction to the online wallet and tried to broadcast I got this error:



ThomasV, what is going on here and how to fix please? I need to move bitcoin out of the cold storage wallet.

Bitreserve is built on top of bitcoin and hopes to reduce bitcoin volatility and provide a no or low fee alternative to banks. For a quick explanation of how it works see the article Bitreserve Uses Bitcoin To Finally Replace Your Bank.

Bitreserve is available worldwide except in the Central African Republic, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. The company unfortunately does not yet have the necessary money transmitter licenses to operate in these US states: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming (hurry it up please.)

Please post your experiences with Bitreserve to help the community decide if this startup has legs and is worth joining or just deserves a pass but kudos for the effort.

We are holding a contest to grow our mailing list and the prize is a new Trezor shipped free worldwide. All you must do to enter is join our mailing list. Please visit Win A Free Trezor Bitcoin Safe for details and to submit your entry. Hint: sharing on social media increases your chances of winning by giving you more entries. Thanks for reading and good luck!