Latest posts of: a7mos

From Worst to First: Bitcoin's Price Ends 2015 on Top

After a year filled with its share of doom and gloom, the verdict is in: Bitcoin won 2015.

As trumpeted by headlines in CNBC and Bloomberg, bitcoin was the best-performing currency of the year, netting near-40% gains, more than double its nearest competition, the Somali Shilling and Gambian Dalasi. The development contrasts with bitcoin's performance from 2014, in which it lost 56% of its value, the most among global currencies.

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-in-2015-doom-and-gloom-give-way-to-positive-years-end/

I hope the next year will be much promising

Bitcoin Bounces Back After Holiday Slump

While some industry projections peg that 2016 will be a better year for bitcoin, the digital currency sure stuck to its volatile reputation last week when it took a hard hit just after Christmas.

Following the holiday, bitcoin’s price took a dive of roughly 10 percent, according to price trackers, which showed that it dipped as low as $411.16 on Dec. 26. That’s a far dip from its December peak of $466.63 on Dec. 12. For the most part, bitcoin had been rising throughout December, giving hope that January would start out strong.

While yesterday’s price was only $421 in the early evening, the trends show that bitcoin could be on the mend after its most recent price slump. Some bitcoin industry data, such as tracking provided by bitcoinity, daily transactions dropped recently as much as 14 percent.

But dipping during the holidays isn’t anything new for bitcoin, as it followed the same trends in 2013 and 2014. This has typically been attributed to a dip in transaction volume and less bitcoins being traded.

Per usual for bitcoin, in just a few days following Christmas, it was able to spike back to more normal levels for the more recent price trends. Transaction volumes are on the rise, according to reports, and bitcoin exchanges have reported their trading volumes are going back up.

http://www.pymnts.com/news/2015/bitcoin-bounces-back-after-holiday-slump/

Decred: An Innovative Cryptocurrency or A Well Arranged Scam?

An alliance of developers have already begun work on a new cryptocurrency, Decred. The new currency is based upon the same Bitcoin model that was previously used with all other cryptocurrencies. However, Decred is saving the main technical features of Bitcoin and fixing all of the issues that Bitcoin had.

While the only clear contributors to the project are community-based such as are Github users, it can be assumed that the developers have a large amount of experience with Bitcoin development, and may even be the original Bitcoin Core developers.

Decred will serve as a hybridized proof-of-work/proof-of-stake consensus system that allows users to create a balance between proof-of-work miners and proof-of-stake users to develop a much more robust consensus.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115972/decred-an-innovative-cryptocurrency-or-a-well-arranged-scam

Can Bitcoin Price Hold Above $400?

Bitcoin price holds above support at the start of the last week of this year. Although the intra-day chart is ambiguous, the last three months of price action has set bitcoin price up for an exciting 2016.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-holding-above-400/

Spreadcoins new developers attempt to incentivize Bitcoin nodes

It’s easy to see from hashrate charts that the Bitcoin network continues to grow stronger from a computational standpoint. However, nodes also play an important role in supporting the blockchain, and they’ve been in steady decline.

Although the technical skills needed to run a Bitcoin node have decreased over the years, the resource requirements and obligation have gone the opposite direction. While the network is still healthy, more nodes would help further decentralize the network, disperse trust, and make it more expensive to mount attacks.

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/spreadcoin-was-an-abandoned-altcoin-until-new-developers-assumed-control-a-new-direction-attempts-to-incentivize-spreadcoin-holders-to-run-bitcoin-nodes/

10 Bitcoin Startups That Didn’t Make It To 2016

This year, the cryptocurrency ecosystem saw lots of ups and downs. While bitcoin came under fire for its alleged use by the terrorist group ISIS, several bitcoin-based start-ups closed their doors. Some cited insufficient resources to run the company as the reason for closure, while others quit due to digital currency regulations, declining interest in digital currencies, and other reasons.

Here’s a list of companies that failed to make it through 2015:

1. Mining ASIC Technologies

2. CoinTerra

3. Bonafide

4. Brawker

5. Buttercoin

6. BTC Guild

7. Harborly

8. 37coins

9. Swarm

10. GAW Miners

http://www.econotimes.com/10-Bitcoin-Startups-That-Didnt-Make-It-To-2016-135935

Are Universities Likely to Offer Bitcoin Degrees in the Future?

Bitcoin has been around for about five years and was slow to catch on before becoming extremely popular with people who saw value in it. Its price has been highly volatile at times, but many people feel that it is a worthy alternative to fiat (paper) currencies.

Experiences with the use of Bitcoin have been varied since its inception.

http://bitcoinist.net/are-universities-likely-to-offer-bitcoin-degrees-in-the-future/

Bitcoin Hit 100 Million Transactions and 15 Million Coins on Christmas

It was an eventful long weekend for Bitcoin, which reached a symbolic milestone when the 100 millionth transaction was recorded.

It was an eventful long weekend for Bitcoin. On Christmas Day, it reached a symbolic milestone when the 100 millionth transaction was recorded on its network.

The number of transactions per day has been steadily growing over time. The phenomenon is interpreted by some as evidence of the increasing adoption of Bitcoin, though most of the transactions are not commercial in nature.

http://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/bitcoin-hit-100-million-transactions-and-15-million-coins-on-christmas/

Colbert: Trump is "my old character with $10 billion"

In some ways, Stephen Colbert might argue that Donald Trump would have him out of business when he launched his campaign for president.

"I'm not the first person to say this, but I completely agree that he's my old character with $10 billion," Colbert told "Face the Nation" moderator John Dickerson in an interview that aired Sunday. He was referring to the conservative caricature he used to play on his show, "The Colbert Report," before taking over as the host of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

"One of the reasons why you can't do that old character anymore (is) because he's doing it better than I ever could. Because he's willing to drink his own Kool- Aid. And manufacture and distribute it," Colbert explained. "If money is speech, he's got a $10 billion mouth and doesn't have to spend any of it because everyone will point a camera at him."

Colbert said he "really didn't think [Trump] would be doing this well" in his presidential campaign - putting him on equal footing with nearly every political pundit in America. As far as a theory of this election goes, he said, "all bets are off."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-is-my-old-character-with-10-billion/

Digital Currency Weekly Recap 12-27-2015

- Bill in Russian Duma Could Legalize Cryptocurrency

- Factom’s Microsoft Azure Relationship Sparks 600% Increase in Price

- New GateHub Wallet Announced With Expanded Visa, Mastercard

- Ukrainian Bitcoin Legalization Bill Expected in January

http://dcebrief.com/digital-currency-weekly-recap-12-27-2015/

BTCC Plays Santa, Contributes 100 Free Nodes to Bitcoin Network

BTCC, the leading bitcoin mining and exchange platform decided to play Santa this Christmas. The company, previously known as BTCChina has reportedly contributed over 100 full nodes to the entire bitcoin network across the world. These full nodes are distributed across the world (5 continents) and they will continue supporting the bitcoin network.

This donation comes at the right time for Bitcoin as the network has been facing a steady decline in the number of nodes. Unlike mining, not many are interested in hosting a bitcoin node as it doesn’t pay. While bitcoin mining pays rewards to miners, hosting bitcoin nodes doesn’t. But, these very nodes are responsible for verifying transactions and integrity of the network. The bitcoin full nodes store and serve entire copies of the blockchain to the network. The number of nodes are directly proportional to the degree of decentralization of the bitcoin platform. The steady decrease in the number of bitcoin full nodes over a full year already had bitcoin on the path towards centralization.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/12/27/btcc-free-nodes-bitcoin-network/

Is Gemini Making Enemies Already?

It’s been seven months since the grand opening, and digital currency exchange Gemini already seems to be making a few enemies.

Gemini is the brainchild of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Earning fame through their lawsuit against Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg, they have gone on to build solid names for themselves in the arena of bitcoin and digital currency.

Gemini has many benefits, a big one being that it qualifies as a fiduciary and offers FICO insurance like a standard financial institution. In light of cyber-attacks on fellow platforms such as Bitstamp, Gemini offered the security that several Bitcoin enthusiasts were looking for, but simply couldn’t find. The company opened up to individuals and businesses in 26 states, and it seemed things were off to a good start.

http://bitcoinist.net/is-gemini-making-a-few-enemies-already/

Story highlights

President Barack Obama thanked troops and their families for their service during Christmas Day remarks at Marine Corps Base Hawaii
"You help keep us free. You help keep us strong. And whatever service you're in, we are extraordinarily grateful for everything you do every single day," Obama said

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/26/politics/obama-service-members-christmas-speech/

The Army of Islam, one of the main rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has a new leader, a day after its chief was killed in an airstrike near Damascus, dealing a major blow to the groups that are fighting the Syrian military.

The group appointed Essam al-Buwaydhani, a field commander known as Abu Hammam, as its new leader, The Associated Press reports. He replaces Zahran Allouch, who was killed in Friday’s airstrike that was claimed by the Syrian government. Two other senior rebels, one from Ahrar al-Sham and the other from Faylaq al-Rahman, were also killed in the operation against the headquarters of the Army of Syria.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/12/syria-rebel-leader-killed/421947/

BitGreet Allows Users To Directly Gift Each Other Bitcoin

A BitGreet alliance lets its clients add Bitcoin to special Christmas e-cards. Now people are able to send Bitcoins with those cards just as easily as they would do with fiat money in an envelope. A pleasant surprise for holiday season, isn’t it? Is there a chance to lose money?

The service is backed by CoinCorner, a Bitcoin exchange, located on the Isle of Man. It was launched last Christmas—according to co-founder Daniel Scott—about a 1,000 cards were delivered over the holiday season.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115958/bitgreet-allows-users-to-directly-gift-each-other-bitcoin

R3 Isn't The Conspiracy You Think

While I sat in the room at Inside Bitcoins San Diego, Patrick Byrne mentioned how he had tried to join R3 but had problems, basically, getting in touch with the people there. Someone in the audience said they could help out. Byrne had expressed suspicion at R3’s intentions. He proposed that, perhaps, banks were trying to slow Bitcoin down. News outlets ran with it. Conspiracy gets good internet traffic. He’s wrong. They’re wrong. Here’s why.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/r3-isnt-the-conspiracy-you-think/

Blockchain-Based Credit Score Coming in 2016, forecasts Yandex, the 4th largest search engine worldwide

Banks may start applying blockchain technology tocredit scores in 2016. Such an assumption was expressed by 4th largest search engine worldwide and the most popular website in Russia, Yandex, CTO Grigory Bakunov during his lecture about the main trends of 2016. If applied, the blockchain will make scoring much easier and faster.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115955/blockchain-based-credit-score-coming-in-2016-forecasts-yandex-the-4th-largest-search-engine-worldwide

Bitcoin Weekly Recap 12-25-2015

- French Nationalist Party Moves for Greater Bitcoin Controls

- Art Gallery Event to Focus Attention on Bitcoin

- Sputnik Announces Bitcoin Salary Payments for Employees

http://dcebrief.com/bitcoin-weekly-recap-12-25-2015/

The Necessary Traits For A Bitcoin Leader

There’s been discussion in the Bitcoin space about the necessary traits for a Bitcoin leader. The idea goes that, with Bitcoin having so many scandals of incompetent/criminal Bitcoin business leaders, there should be a discussion about what it takes to be a Bitcoin leader.

As one recent conference phrased the question, “What does a leader in the Bitcoin space look like, and what traits should today’s budding startups adopt? More than any of the technical aspects of Bitcoin, the development of true leaders in our community will determine whether we evolve independently, or are simply swallowed up as an accessory to the Finance industry.”

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/the-necessary-traits-for-a-bitcoin-leader/

Central Bank Embargo Ushers In Sudden Bitcoin Awareness In Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria has banned the use of Naira denominated ATM cards abroad. Could this mean an explosion for the Bitcoin market in the country?

In a circular passed to all commercial banks within the country on Monday December 21 2015, the CBN ordered commercial banks to stop customers from using their debit and credit cards outside the country, a directive which takes effect from January 1 2016 in a move which the CBN Governor says will stem the flow of foreign currency out of the country.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115953/central-bank-embargo-ushers-in-sudden-bitcoin-awareness-in-nigeria