Latest posts of: cybersofts

If you invested $1,000 in bitcoin in 2013, here’s how much you’d have now

If you took a chance on bitcoin early on, just a few years ago, your investment could have paid off in a big way.

According to digital-currency website CoinDesk — whose Bitcoin Price Index tracks prices from digital currency exchanges Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coinbase and itBit — the value of bitcoins was volatile in 2013, particularly toward the end of the year: In December alone, the price per bitcoin hit highs of around $1,000 and lows below $600.

If you purchased $1,000 worth of bitcoin back then at a price of $600 per, you'd have a little over 1.6 bitcoins. If you purchased $1,000 worth of bitcoin at a price of $1,000 per, you'd have one bitcoin.

The above chart shows CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index for Dec. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2013

As of Thursday, bitcoin's value was just above $16,500, according to CoinDesk. Based on that value, one bitcoin would be worth a little over $16,500 and 1.6 bitcoins would be worth more than $26,400 today. This estimate does not include any additional fees or transactional costs.

That's a tremendous profit in just a few years.

If you were smart, or lucky, enough to invest even earlier, in 2010, you could be in the company of the Winklevoss twins, who are reported to be the first bitcoin billionaires.

As bitcoin has gone more mainstream, some of the biggest names in finance are weighing in. Fundstrat's Tom Lee and value investor Bill Miller have embraced the trend.

But even with many success stories surrounding bitcoin investments, seasoned investors are voicing caution. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban and "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett warn of bitcoin's volatility. Legendary investor and index fund mogul Jack Bogle, at a recent Council on Foreign Relations event, told the audience, "Avoid bitcoin like the plague."

"Bitcoin has no underlying rate of return," the Vanguard founder said. "You know bonds have an interest coupon, stocks have earnings and dividends, [and] gold has nothing. There is nothing to support bitcoin," he said, "except the hope that you will sell it to someone for more than you paid for it."

Here's how young people should invest their first $10,000

While big-names like Bogle have taken either pro- or anti-bitcoin stances, others, like self-made millionaire and best-selling author of "Money: Master the Game," Tony Robbins, haven't taken a firm position.

Robbins told CNBC's "Fast Money" that he thinks bitcoin "is very iffy" and compared investing in the cryptocurrency to "going to Vegas."

In his own portfolio, Robbins directs a certain amount of money to risky ventures, but he doesn't rely on them to work out. For those investments, he said, "I know it is just for fun I'm investing, I know I could lose."

If you are considering investing in cryptocurrencies, be careful. Past returns do not predict future results. Think of it like a trip to Vegas, experts like Robbins suggest: Only play with money you can afford to lose.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/14/if-you-put-1000-in-bitcoin-in-2013-heres-how-much-youd-have-now.html

This Russian Presidential Candidate Wants to Legalize Bitcoin

Boris Titov, a Russian businessman/ombudsman and bitcoin advocate, recently revealed he will participate in the presidential elections in 2018.

Titov, the leader of Russia’s Party of Growth, revealed that he would legalize popular cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum and that people would be able to store them in banks and exchanges, having the ability to pay for things outside of Russia with them. In Russia, Titov stated, people won’t be able to pay for things with cryptocurrencies as long as the ruble is used.

The presidential candidate added that the country’s economy and society need to change, as his Party of Growth has in the past defended. According to him, the country needs a vibrant economy with initiative, that focuses on modern production and the development of agriculture and construction projects. His views include the “development of the digital economy”, including the “development of the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, IT-spheres.”

The economy, Titov continued, needs to be developed because the we will soon be living in an “economic cemetery” as the price of oil drops and inflation grows. He sees the world becoming a different place in the future, where cryptocurrencies play an important role.

Titov also mentioned that the country thought about creating its own national cryptocurrency, presumably referring to the CryptoRuble, but added that the idea was dismissed when it was considered that “the task of cryptocurrency is to reduce costs.” As such, the country decided it wasn’t necessary to create the cryptocurrency, as it was important to regulate those that already exist.

Regarding cryptocurrency mining, the presidential candidate stated that the equipment in Russia can have higher efficiency than in America, meaning the country has an edge in the industry. As for ICOs, Titov seemingly believes regulating them is the best option. He stated (rough translation):

“We have a system of legislation that can protect investors. Plus we have an ICO-generator.”´

The presidential candidate also revealed he has no plans of closing Telegram, as the “information vacuum” that currently exists needs to disappear.
Titov’s Cryptocurrency Support

Earlier this year, as reported by CCN, Boris Titov proposed the creation of a region in Crimea similar to the “kriptodoliny” (Cryptovalley) in Zug, Switzerland. The region’s goal would be to fund cryptocurrency and blockchain organizations

Titov has in the past called for Russia to legalize cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and to do what it can to become a world leader in blockchain development. He’s also stated Russia can use its difficult economic situation to embrace blockchain technology and use it as a solution. According to him, the country could create bitcoin investment opportunities for foreign investors, by removing restrictions on these investments.

Titov’s Party of Growth, according to Wikipedia, supports a free market economy, democracy, and protecting the rights of the middle class. It’s widely seen as a pro-Kremlin party, but opposes the current presidential administration on several issues.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/this-russian-presidential-candidate-wants-to-legalize-bitcoin/

EBay ‘Seriously Considering’ Adding Bitcoin Payments

EBay, one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, is considering making the leap into cryptocurrency payments, according to a high-ranking company executive.

EBay ‘Seriously Considering’ Adding Bitcoin Payments

Scott Cutler, senior vice president of eBay Americas, told Yahoo Finance that the e-commerce giant is holding serious discussions about becoming the highest-profile company to accept cryptocurrency payments.

“This is a trend that everybody is talking about, but sadly, at eBay, we don’t currently accept bitcoin as a form of payment, Cutler said. “We’re seriously considering it as these cryptocurrencies become more of a mainstream” payment instrument, but “we’re not quite there yet.”

Cutler added that the website serves as a popular secondary market for cryptocurrency mining hardware, and third-party sellers have listed thousands of other cryptocurrency-related collectibles.

Cryptocurrency Enters Main Street

Although it does not appear that eBay currently has any concrete plans to adopt cryptocurrency payments, the fact that the company is holding high-level discussions on the matter is the latest testament to how quickly bitcoin has permeated the mainstream.

Last week, bitcoin brokerage app Coinbase briefly became the top app in the Apple Store, signaling that retail investors were onboarding into the bitcoin ecosystem at a breakneck pace — a pace so rapid that Coinbase has suffered persistent outages due to record traffic.

This week, the first bitcoin futures contracts launched on U.S. exchange CBOE, and CME — the world’s largest derivatives exchange — will begin trading bitcoin futures next week. Though primarily targeted at Wall Street, futures are expected to lead to the creation of the first Bitcoin ETF, a retail investor-friendly investment vehicle that can be easily held in brokerage and retirement accounts.

The next watershed moment will be when cryptocurrency becomes so ubiquitous that businesses commonly accept it as payment for goods or services.

Prominent retailers such as Overstock and Newegg have accepted bitcoin for years, but none of retail’s white whales — a group that includes eBay, Amazon, and Alibaba — has formally adopted cryptocurrency payments. Earlier this year, CCN debunked a rumor that Amazon was planning to accept bitcoin. Recently, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma stated that bitcoin was “not for me,” indicating that the Chinese conglomerate is not likely to adopt a currency that operates without government backing.

Some retailers, including video game distribution platform Steam, have actually stopped accepting bitcoin payments in recent months, citing increasing transaction fees that have accompanied bitcoin’s meteoric rise. However, bitcoin remains an option for big-ticket items, and altcoins such as ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin are practical options for small-value transactions.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ebay-seriously-considering-adding-bitcoin-payments/

IOTA Price Drops as Co-Founder Admits: Microsoft is Not a Partner But a Participant

Amidst controversy surrounding the nature of the partnership between Microsoft and IOTA, the IOTA Foundation has clarified that it does not have a strategic partnership with Microsoft.

In an interview with TNW, IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener stated:

“We have never mentioned that any of the companies which are participating in the marketplace are our ‘partners. We call them participants. We are in touch with multiple divisions at Microsoft (Chicago, Paris, Munich). We are hosting two meetups today in Chicago and on Thursday in Paris which are hosted at the Microsoft offices.”

IOTA Price Surges Explodes After Microsoft Participation

Last week, CCN reported that the price of IOTA surged by more than 600 percent over the past month and was trading at a global average of over $4.

At the time, Microsoft blockchain specialist Omkar Naik released a statement in regards to the company’s participation on IOTA’s Data Marketplace which read:

“This next generation technology will accelerate the connected, intelligent world and go beyond blockchain that will foster innovation real world solutions, applications and pilots for our customers.”

Schiener further noted that the IOTA development team plans to meet up with Naik’s team to assist the company in establishing sensors which will allow Microsoft to sell their data directly on the IOTA marketplace.

CCN reported that large-scale conglomerates including Samsung, Cisco, and Volkswagen also partnered with IOTA, to utilize its Tangle-based solution for data monetization.

However, the price of IOTA has dropped by more than 13 percent over the past few hours, falling behind Ripple and Litecoin. The recent price drop of IOTA is notable because following the statement of Naik and the participation of Microsoft, the market valuation of IOTA increased from $2.95 billion to $13 billion.

No Partnership

The original press release dating back a few weeks ago obtained by TNW read:

“Participants from all sectors and industries are represented, companies such as Deutsche Telekom, EWE, Microsoft, Bosch, TINE, PwC, Accenture, Fujitsu, Schneider Electric, Orange, DNV GL, and many more have deployed sensors that directly sell the data on the marketplace.”

Hence, Schiener was accurate in that IOTA has not entered into a strategic partnership with Microsoft and other major conglomerates several weeks ago.

Still, whether the IOTA Foundation and its representatives should have requested media outlets to clarify the nature of the relationship between IOTA and Microsoft remains questionable, given that the original press release had not specifically stated that the two companies did not sign paperwork to form a partnership.

In the upcoming weeks, despite the lack of a legal partnership, companies participating in IOTA’s testing of Tangle are expected to continue the testing of IOTA’s technology in the long-term.

“The launch of the data marketplace was just the beginning. This project will continue for several weeks and is multi-staged,” said Schiener.

Regardless of the recent price drop, the market valuation of IOTA remains above $11 billion, which is still significantly higher than its market cap in November.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/iota-price-drops-co-founder-admits-microsoft-not-partner-participant/

South Korea Pushes Ripple Price Up 71%, as Japanese Banks Conduct Payment Trials

The South Korean cryptocurrency market has pushed the Ripple price up 71 percent over the past 24 hours, triggered by the Ripple blockchain-based payment trial conducted by Japanese and South Korean banks.

South Korea Accounts For 50 Percent of Ripple Trades

Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone, three of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the South Korean cryptocurrency market, currently account for more than 50 percent of global Ripple trades. Over the past 24 hours, the three trading platforms have processed over $1.7 billion worth of trades, surpassing the combined daily trading volume of Bittrex, Poloniex, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Binance, and Kraken.

In South Korea, investors tend to move rapidly through word of mouth. Once several people are invested, everyone else rushes to invest in that particular asset, as Korbit co-founder and CEO Tony Lyu emphasized several times.

When a leading cryptocurrency like Ripple begins to surge in value within the South Korean market, by 10 to 30 percent, the rest of the investors in the market scramble to invest in it, triggering a short-term surge in the price and daily trading volume.

Cryptocurrencies that are heavily concentrated in the South Korean market such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and Monero tend to increase by large margins and decline rapidly at times as well, because of the above mentioned tendency of the South Korean market and its investors to move speedily based on the trend of the market.

Cause of South Korean Market Demand Surge

Earlier today, on December 13, Japanese mainstream media outlet Nikkei reported that major banks in Japan and South Korea are set to begin the testing of Ripple blockchain and its solutions on Friday. The aim of the joint project is to reduce the cost involved in international funds transfer by nearly 30 percent.

Since the beginning of 2017, Ripple Labs have made significant process in assisting major banks and financial institutions to adopt the Ripple blockchain technology. Banks based in Japan, in particular, quickly embraced the technology of Ripple, forming a consortium of 61 corporations.

In July, Ripple global head of strategic accounts Marcus Treacher said:

“We commend these banks in Japan for taking a giant step forward on behalf of their customers. This is a great example of a regional banks converging into a global real-time payments network for the greater good.”

Ripple Labs and its partner banks in Japan and South Korea are planning to continue the testing of Ripple technologies in the long-term and implement the Ripple blockchain at a larger scale by early 2018.

According to Nikkei, Japanese banks have already developed Ripple-based systems to process global payments on its blockchain network. Cross-border payments between South Korean and Japanese banks will be begin on January 31, if pilot tests throughout December are successfully conducted.

As reported in September, SBI Ripple Asia first announced its foray into instant international blockchain payments to South Korean banks.

“South Korea is one of the most active markets worldwide when it comes to blockchain innovation and trading of digital assets. With trade flows into and out of the country totaling $960 billion every year, we also see a high end growing demand for Ripple’s frictionless payments solution in the country,” said Takashi Okita, SBI Ripple Asia chief executive.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/south-korea-pushes-ripple-price-71-japanese-banks-conduct-payment-trials/

$500 Billion: Ethereum, Ripple Prices Carry Crypto Market Cap to Historic Milestone

Cryptocurrencies achieved another historic milestone this week, as their combined market caps leaped above the $500 billion mark on the heels of an altcoin rally led by the ethereum and ripple prices.

Cryptocurrencies Now Worth Half a Trillion Dollars

The cryptocurrency market cap had begun the day at $467 billion, and it seemed unlikely that it would reach the $500 billion mark this quickly — especially considering that bitcoin ended the day trading sideways. However, fueled by an altcoin surge, the crypto market cap leaped above the $500 billion barrier Tuesday evening and eventually rose as high as $505.9 billion before tapering to a present value of $504.3 billion.

Source: CoinMarketCap

At this level, cryptocurrencies are now worth more than Berkshire-Hathaway, the holding company run by legendary investor — and bitcoin skeptic — Warren Buffett.

Bitcoin Price Holds Above $17,000

Ordinarily, one expects these market cap rallies to coincide with dramatic bitcoin price climbs, but that was not the case today. Although the bitcoin price hit an all-time high on bitcoin exchange Bitfinex, the global average topped out at $17,781, after which it fell back toward its previous-day level. At present, the bitcoin price is trading at $17,184, which represents a single-day increase of one percent and provides bitcoin with a $287.6 billion market cap.

Bitcoin Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Ethereum Price Eyes $700

The ethereum price posted an impressive advance for the second-consecutive day, rising 25 percent and briefly extending as high as $686. At present, the ethereum price is trading at a global average of $681, which translates into a $65.6 billion market cap.

Ethereum Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Though several factors are at play, the primary one is likely the fact that ethereum continues to see increasing transaction volumes. Just yesterday, the Ethereum network processed an average of 10 transactions per second for the entire day, a new all-time high.

Ripple Headlines March Past $500 Billion

Wednesday was another banner day for altcoins, and — led by ethereum and ripple — the total altcoin market cap rose above the $200 billion mark for the first time.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin cash, the third-largest cryptocurrency, rose three percent for the day, but its closest rival is growing increasingly larger in its rearview mirror.

That’s because the ripple price exploded by 71 percent amid insatiable demand from Korean traders. Ripple now has a market cap of $18.4 billion, meaning that if it can replicate this single-day performance one more time, it will supplant bitcoin cash and rise to third in the rankings.

Ripple Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Ripple’s surge enabled it to race back ahead of litecoin, whose breathtaking gains began to taper on Wednesday morning. At present, the litecoin price is trading at $310, which represents a single-day increase of 12 percent.

Sixth-ranked IOTA was the lone cryptocurrency in the top 10 to decline for the day, perhaps signaling that the bulls have run out of steam following last week’s incredible rally.

Dash and monero each crossed historic milestones after double-digit percentage price increases. They are currently valued at $916 and $330, respectively. Ninth-ranked NEM traded sideways, while bitcoin gold rose by about seven percent to round out the top 10.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/500-billion-ethereum-ripple-prices-carry-crypto-market-cap-to-historic-milestone/

Litecoin Price Spikes 82% in a Single Day to Hit $300, Surpasses IOTA

The Litecoin price has achieved $300, as it surpassed IOTA with a $15 billion market cap, to become the fourth largest cryptocurrency in the world behind Bitcoin Cash.

Ari Paul, a prominent bitcoin analyst and the co-founder of Blocktower Capital, noted that the market cap of Litecoin has surpassed the entire cryptocurrency market valuation 15 months ago.

“Litecoin is now worth more than the entire cryptocurrency market just 15 months ago,” said Paul.

$10 Billion Market Cap Milestone

Earlier today, Litecoin creator and former Coinbase executive Charlie Lee revealed that the market cap of Litecoin surpassed the $10 billion mark, and has recorded a 4,000 percent increase in value year-to-date.

Since then, within less than 24 hours since the market valuation of Litecoin surpassed $10 billion, it achieved $15 billion, peaking to $230.

While a single major event did not trigger the price of Litecoin to increase by nearly 80 percent within a 24-hour span, many analysts believe that the recent surge in the price of Litecoin was caused by an overall increase in interest and demand for the cryptocurrency market from the traditional finance sector.

Given that Litecoin is a cheaper and a more currency-like alternative to bitcoin due to its lower fees and faster confirmation times, it is likely that the strong performance of bitcoin over the past three months has impacted the short to mid-term price trend of Litecoin positively.

Still, despite today’s strong rally, Lee emphasized that investors should approach Litecoin and any other cryptocurrency in the market with caution, as any currency could experience a major correction in value.

“Sorry to spoil the party, but I need to reign in the excitement a bit… Buying LTC is extremely risky. I expect us to have a multi-year bear market like the one we just had where LTC dropped 90% in value ($48 to $4). So if you can’t handle LTC dropping to $20, don’t buy,” said Lee.

He added that every bull run in the cryptocurrency market has been followed by a bear cycle, and hence, the latest 76 percent surge in the price of Litecoin could lead to a major correction in the short-term.

Lee said:

“Every crypto bull run I’ve seen has been followed by a bear cycle. The market needs time to consolidate. That’s just my experience from 7 years of watching this space. How low and how long it will be is TBD. People need to be aware of this possibility and invest responsibly.”

Litecoin Trading Not Centralized in South Korea

Considering all of the variables and recent events, it is optimistic that the trading of Litecoin is not heavily centralized in Litecoin, as Bitcoin Cash was in November. GDAX, the flagship trading platform of Coinbase, processed more than $1 billion in Litecoin trades over the past 24 hours. That is, almost half of the daily trading volume of GDAX at $2.25 billion being allocated to Litecoin.

Due to the zero-fee system of major cryptocurrency exchanges in the industry, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange market has had a negative reputation, as zero-fee trading leaves exchanges vulnerable against bot and wash trading.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/litecoin-price-up-82-in-a-single-day-and-hits-300-surpasses-iota/

Multi-Billion Dollar Japanese Tech Conglomerate to Pay Employees in Bitcoin

GMO Internet Inc., a multi-billion dollar Japanese technology conglomerate, will process salaries of its 4,710 full-time employees in bitcoin.

According to the official statement of GMO Internet, employees within the company and its subsidiaries will be able choose to receive their salaries in bitcoin with the newly integrated payroll system in the near future.

“The GMO Internet Group has decided to introduce a system that allows part of the salary payment to be received as bitcoin in order to promote ownership of our domestic employees’ virtual currency,” read GMO Internet’s statement obtained by Bitcoin.com.

At first, GMO Internet will limit the amount of bitcoin employees can receive on a monthly basis to 100,000 yen, around $881. As the number of bitcoin-receiving employees increase and the new payroll system continues to operates seamlessly, the company will increase the maximum limit of $881.

GMO Fully Committed to Serving Japanese Bitcoin Market

In May, GMO announced the launch of Z.com Coin, a cryptocurrency exchange targeted at institutional investors and retail traders, to address the rapidly growing demand from investors within the traditional Japanese finance sector for bitcoin.

Since May, for more than seven months, GMO’s Z.com Coin have been operating a cryptocurrency FX and cryptocurrency trading platform, as an exchange regulated by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). At the time, GMO emphasized that the Japanese cryptocurrency market could reach a market valuation of 1 trillion Japanese yen (JPY) in the next few years, expressing their optimism towards the exponential growth rate of the Japanese cryptocurrency market.

In October, GMO revealed the company’s long-term plans to compete in the global bitcoin mining industry, challenging dominant players within the market such as Bitmain. The firm stated that it will design and manufacture its own ASIC miners and mining equipment in partnership with a local semiconductor manufacturer.

“We will use cutting-edge 7 nm process technology for chips to be used in the mining process, and are currently working on its research and development with our alliance partner having semiconductor design technology to realize high performance computer for mining. It will be possible to reduce power consumption compared to the existing mining machines with the same performance, and achieve a computational performance of 10TH/s per chip,” said GMO.

GMO further emphasized that its mining center and operations will relocate to Northern Europe to utilize “plentiful renewable energy” and take advantage of the regions’ naturally cold climate to prevent ASIC miners and bitcoin mining equipment from overheating.

In the upcoming months, GMO is expected to allocate nearly 10 pecent of the company’s capital in improving its cryptocurrency exchange and mining ventures, to remain at the forefront of Japan’s cryptocurrency market.

Importance of GMO’s Bitcoin Payroll

Currently, bitcoin is widely adopted and recognized as a robust store of value and censorship-resistant money. The majority of bitcoin holders utilize the cryptocurrency to store or transfer their wealth. As such, several analysts including JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and ACG Analytics strategist Larry McDonald noted that bitcoin is already penetrating into the multi trillion dollar market of gold.

GMO’s integration of bitcoin into its payroll system participated by thousands of employees is crucial because it sets a precedent across the nation and for other conglomerates in the country. Given that bitcoin is a legal currency in Japan, in the long-term, an increasing number of conglomerates will likely adopt bitcoin as a payment method.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/multi-billion-dollar-japanese-tech-conglomerate-pay-employees-bitcoin/

Bitcoin Bulls Face 'Alt' Competition in Push to $20k

Bitcoin may still be in the hunt for $20,000, but the bulls need progress soon else a minor pullback could be in the offing.

As per CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the cryptocurrency is trading at $17,539, having appreciated 4.48 percent in the last 24 hours to a new all-time high.

But while that's a modest, even impressive gain, it's worth noting that alternative currencies like litecoin and ether have strengthened by even more impressive rallies.

On the day's trading, the cryptocurrencies, the second and fourth by market volume, have seen 71.8 percent and 30 percent gains, respectively. Coinbase's GDAX exchange and South Korea's Bithumb have emerged as the primary drivers.

All told, though the stellar performance of litecoin and ether could be indicative of their availability and appeal to new buyers. Hence, a minor correction in bitcoin (BTC) cannot be ruled out as other assets garner attention.

1-hour chart

The above chart shows:

- Bull flag breakout followed by a nice rising lows pattern as represented by the ascending trend line.
- The relative strength index is above 50.00 (in the bullish territory) and is trending.
- The 1-hour 50-MA is curled up in favor of the bulls.

View

- BTC could cut through the resistance at $17,500 and make a move towards the $18,300-$18,500 level over the next 12-24 hours.
- Overall, the cryptocurrency looks set to test the major psychological level of $20,000. As noted earlier today, only two end-of-day closes below the $14,000 would abort the bullish view on the charts.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-bulls-face-alt-competition-push-20k/

Scratch That: CryptoKitties Isn't Ethereum's Vision for Apps

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin cried himself to sleep the night "World of Warcraft" maker Blizzard Entertainment altered his "beloved warlock's Siphon Life spell."

According to Buterin, the online role-playing game forever changed his outlook toward app development. "On that day, I realized what horrors centralized services can bring," he writes on his official "About.me."

Aspiring to offer a "world computer," ethereum has sought to stop similar occurrences by providing a platform on which decentralized applications (dapps) can run. But while a whole slew of startups is developing ethereum solutions for everything from social media to file sharing, none have yet to see a large, mainstream audience.

Apart from CryptoKitties.

An internet-based game for buying, selling and breeding adorable digital kittens, CryptoKitties has found itself in the center of a pop culture storm. Many have lauded the app for giving new users an easy, fun way to learn about cryptocurrency protocols, but others are strongly opposed to the app, which has been the cause of serious backlogs and rising transaction fees on the network.

But there's another issue with CryptoKitties that's being increasing called to attention: namely, your kitty isn't as decentralized as you think.

As least, that's the contention of some critics, who claim CryptoKitties, like World of Warcraft before it, is under the control of a central authority. Widely heralded as an unprecedented success for ethereum, questions have now begun to emerge about whether it's at the sacrifice of the fundamental concept of the project.

What's to stop the owner of the CryptoKitties smart contract, Kitty Core, from editing the algorithm and mutating a kitty against the will of its owner? According to its skeptics, not much.

As bitcoin developer Udi Wertheimer, asked Vitalik Buterin on Twitter:

"Did you read the cryptokitty contract? Ownership can change, owners can shut down the system at any time, and replace the contract arbitrarily."

Domesticated cat

Because CryptoKitties is built on top of ethereum, many in the community assumed it was a dapp.

But that's not the case. Rather, the game is run within a centralized database, and mostly operates from one internet portal – the CryptoKitties website itself.

In this way, CryptoKitties has a central point of failure – one of the key reasons there is such enthusiasm for blockchain technology. With a decentralized model, if one company shuts down, others are there to pick up the slack; if a handful of servers go offline, others are there to keep the software running.

CryptoKitties critic and Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd told CoinDesk too much power is in the hands of the app's creators.

"It'd be like if I sold you a cat, but then took away your ability to interact with it, see it, etc. For all practical purposes, you'd no longer have a cat," he told CoinDesk.

Adding to this, while the majority of the CryptoKitties code is open source – long touted as a key to decentralization – there are a few commands that have been kept hidden. For one, the genetic algorithm which creates the kittens is concealed, which according to the CryptoKitties team "is what makes games like this fun."

Those in the crypto space might not agree, especially since the execs at the firm have the power to halt this contract at any time, possibly inducing a wave of narcolepsy throughout the market.

Another quirk in the code allows the COO to create up to 5,000 copies of any kitten at any time, and although it's unlikely that Kitty Corp would deliberately sabotage its players, if a malicious actor hacked into their systems, there could be either a purge or an overpopulation of the furballs.

As Philip Daian, developer of security-focused smart contract programming language Viper, emphasized on Twitter:

"I hope you guys realize you are placing a huge bounty on a contract used to breed virtual cats. The cryptokitty hackpocalypse will be very real, and deadly."

Kitty fork

Even Buterin took to Twitter to comment on the current version of CryptoKitties, arguing that he believes it's a step in the right direction.

"It's not close to fully decentralized in its current form," he said. "But I think people see that it can be." And, if necessary, Buterin later tweeted: "I suspect the community will just hard fork the kitties."

Still, someone could build a third-party software protocol to interact with CryptoKitties, since enough of the open-source code is public. This also means the the game's contract could evolve into new species – frogs for example.

Irrespective of the aspects of the code that aren't public, Parity representative and CryptoKitties enthusiast Afri Schoedon said, "Nobody can prevent you or me or anyone else building your own 'CryptoFrogs' game on top of the CryptoKitties logic."

And in his mind, that's as decentralized as CryptoKitties needs to be.

"All important logic is hosted on the ethereum blockchain in smart contracts," he told CoinDesk.

Schoedon defended the centralized aspects of the game, explaining, "they just reserved the right to keep some proprietary stuff centralized and host it on some web server for the convenience of a huge user base that never interacted with decentralized applications or ethereum before."

Kitty Corp representatives echoed those comments, saying the company's primary intention was to make the game accessible for people new to crypto.

And decentralization will come with its trade-offs.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Griff Green, founder of decentralized charity Giveth, said that, currently, "the options for creating a truly decentralized application are very limited and in the end impractical."

When it comes to user experience, Green said, "trying to run an app on the ethereum blockchain without using some help from central servers is UX suicide."

In a blog post, the Kitty Corp team reflected on the issue, stating:

"Completely decentralizing CryptoKitties would have resulted in a game that wasn't as fun, and we would have crippled our efforts to bringing blockchain to the masses."

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/scratch-cryptokitties-isnt-ethereums-vision-apps/

Bitcoin Has Gone Mainstream. That's a Very Big Deal

Last week, my eighth-grader came home saying that all the boys at school were talking about bitcoin.

Some might describe this vignette, and many others like it from the past few weeks, as a 2017 version of that ominous 1929 moment when shoeshine boys started giving stock tips. But whether or not they signal the bursting of a bubble, these stories also mean something far more important: bitcoin has gone mainstream.

I'm not talking about the long-awaited mass adoption point in which a critical mass of users owns, earns and spends bitcoin. We're still a long way from that notion of "mainstream."

Rather, it's a moment of global awareness and dialogue. Even without user adoption, it opens up an immeasurably large array of possibilities, both positive and negative.

As crypto-asset prices have gone haywire this past month, the whole world has started talking about bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology – around dinner tables, at holiday parties, in boardrooms, at trade conferences, in government meetings.

At this stage, it's not a sophisticated conversation. Knowledge and understanding are still seriously lacking. But people are gripped with curiosity, and that's no small matter.

This human conversation can't be separated, either, from the widening engagement of institutions, big and small. Business news shows and websites are now running the BTC ticker on their home screens alongside the Dow Jones Industrials. Every day, mainstream newspapers and online publications run high-profile articles on bitcoin, ICOs and decentralized approaches to everything from ridesharing and supply chain management to social media and healthcare.

Established companies are forming research consortia with their suppliers, vendors, competitors and new crypto startups to define the future open-source protocols of their industries. The World Bank, the IMF and other multilateral institutions are setting up blockchain labs for development and humanitarian objectives. Central banks are exploring programmable, digital fiat currency prototypes that, despite being government-controlled and centralized, could disintermediate banks and stoke a global competition for new monetary models.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs in dozens of different countries are launching moon-shot ideas to disrupt virtually every market on earth.

There is no turning back. The age of cryptocurrency has arrived.

More than market mania

To battle-hardened cryptographers and Wall Street veterans alike, it all looks a bit disturbing.

They cringe as newbies pile into digital assets while touts of varying integrity woo them with blockchain schemes based on untested, undeveloped or often non-existent technology.

The cynics' concerns are justified. People will lose money. A lot. Fingers of blame will be pointed. Mostly at the wrong parties.

But there's much more to this than the hype-stoked crypto markets. The intense attention on this unprecedented economic phenomenon is prompting people to ask some key, probing questions.

Where does this fervor for bitcoin come from? What's underlying it? Why does blockchain technology matter? Is it an opportunity for me, for my business, for society? Or is it a threat?

In the end, it matters not whether it's bitcoin, ethereum, or some other decentralizing technology that ends up framing our economic future. The most important thing is that people everywhere are starting to think about how a decentralized system of record-keeping and value exchange can flatten organizational hierarchies, reduce friction, expand access, open new markets and promote shared prosperity.

It's early days, but this unplanned global conversation could give rise to a "Big Bang" of crowdsourced ideas and entrepreneurship, one that evolves into an unstoppable wave of world-changing innovation.

Welcoming the chaos

What's exciting about this – and, let's face it, also scary – is that it's near impossible to predict where it will all go.

The important thing is to let the conversation and ideas happen while also encouraging as wide public input as possible into how this technology is governed, tested and allowed to evolve.

We know this from the history of the internet. The value of TCP/IP and of the various other open-source protocols of the internet was that, together, they formed an extensible platform. Anything could be built upon it. We just didn’t know what.

Engineers at DARPA, MIT, Stanford and other places who worked on what was then known as Arpanet say that, when first contemplating its possibilities, they imagined sending DOS-based text messages to each other or sharing files without having to carry a floppy disk from one computer to another. But that was about it.

They couldn't foresee everything else: blogs, Wikipedia, social media, online search, streaming audio and video, the cloud, e-marketplaces or ridesharing, much less how the internet would become the backbone of the entire global economy. That unforeseeable future required a much richer, collective imagination, one with global input.

What those engineers also couldn't foresee was that a failure to establish a truly decentralized trust-management system would allow new, centralized institutions to monopolize control of the global digital economy – the Googles, Amazons, Alibabas and Tencents of this world.

Now, at the dawn of the age of cryptocurrency, we have an obligation to get it right, to build a more open economy.

We must let the ideas flow, from every corner of the globe and from every community and interest group. And let those who generate them find the opportunity and the resources to turn them into something they can test, deploy and, hopefully, bring to market. We must promote a decentralized system of open-access that gives everyone a chance to succeed.

If the past few weeks are any indication, we're in for a chaotic ride. But our world's problems are too big to entrust to anything less than chaos.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-gone-mainstream-thats-big-deal/

Bitcoin Has Gone Mainstream. That's a Very Big Deal

Victory Lap? 2017 Was Bitcoin's Backwards Year

2017 was another gloriously miserable year for bitcoin.

As in 2016, gains in the price of bitcoin belie deep deficits in the cryptocurrency world. Bitcoin's stock of social capital, the human institutions around this most important technology, remains woefully deficient, and the capacity of bitcoin to deliver anything other than wealth to "HODLers" has fallen precipitously.

Don't get me wrong: wealth is great! But some of bitcoin's greatest potential benefits — global financial inclusion, broad gains for financial privacy, a stable money supply for those without, and increased liberty — appear further away now than they did a year ago, or at any time in bitcoin's history.

Big gains, bigger pond

Yes, bitcoin went up in price against fiat currencies this year. By a lot.

Increasingly recognized as an asset class uncorrelated to most others, bitcoin and crypto should be part of any smart investor's portfolio. That bodes well both for bitcoin and for investors. But, bitcoin’s "market cap" is worth keeping in perspective.

Among the arguments for conservatism in bitcoin scaling this year was that there was $30 billion in value (then $60 billion, then $100 billion) at stake. Those are big numbers, until you consider that the "market cap" of the four largest currencies in circulation is about $22.5 trillion.

Bitcoin's "size" is less than 1 percent of the mega-currencies, perhaps half that if you count all the rest. If it were possible to measure effects on humanity, bitcoin would probably rank even smaller than low tenths of a percent.

The pocket calculator has had a bigger influence on human progress than bitcoin. Velcro has improved human welfare more than cryptocurrency has.

Given its potential, that's a damning indictment of bitcoin's influence so far.

Bitcoin's social capital

Every invention has the potential to change the world to some degree. Most of them don't. That's because they lack social capital.

Social capital is "everything else" around a business, technology or product: knowledge of it, adoption of it, supportive customs and laws, integration into existing human institutions, and so on. It was necessary at one time to construct social capital around bananas.

Bitcoin still has strikingly little social capital. Few people know about it. Fewer still think it's beneficial or viable. Even fewer hold it, much less use it. The legal environment may be a tamed menace right now, but the broader lack of orientation toward bitcoin keeps that menace alive.

Perhaps those assertions sting, but don't blame the messenger: Bitcoin has simply not reached the level of ingratiation into society that it could and should have by now. That means that when bitcoin's price in fiat falls from whatever heights it reaches, it will plunge all the deeper and stay low all the longer.

There is a shallow reservoir of real institutions supporting our crypto future.

Scaling to low heights

The scaling debate is responsible for a good part of bitcoin's present failure relative to potential, and it illustrates the lack of social capital in spades.

Again this year, disputes over how to grow bitcoin consumed a tremendous amount of energy that would otherwise have gone toward building bitcoin along other dimensions. The slow pace of scaling assuredly drags adoption down.

Now, adoption isn't the only goal. But the scaling debate has been so acrimonious because neither Bitcoin Core, the project's leading developer team, nor the backers of the major alternatives have been able to string together and communicate a clear philosophy that animates their goals for bitcoin.

They haven't depicted in an accessible way how their technical decisions strike the proper balances among bitcoin community priorities. (Those things aren't easy to do, of course.)

Instead, SegWit2x was a slugfest that has now been "suspended" in bitterness.

Politicking, then progress

But along the way, a path to progress emerged in bitcoin-land.

The weeks leading up to the highly anticipated 2x fork had all the feel of a political campaign. With every argument exhausted, there was nothing left but barnstorming.

The debate shifted inexorably to the personal. There was even an "October surprise" of a sort, with the news that SegWit2x lead developer Jeff Garzik was involved with a new cryptocurrency called Metronome. (As in political campaigns, that development was shocking or not shocking, depending on one's pre-existing views of Garzik and SegWit2x.)

But while those political storms crashed, bitcoin cash was introduced to the world, almost as a side-note. That forked version of the bitcoin blockchain includes an 8 MB block size limit, and the SegWit modifications are stripped out. After a brief surge of interest, bitcoin cash began its long, slow surprise by continuing to exist.

Then, as part and parcel of the SegWit2x effort’s collapse, bitcoin cash became the major contender against Core for bitcoin leadership. Thus, a political campaign ended in a competition.

Bitcoin cash does not seek to change the software that miners and nodes run all at once, as SegWit2x did. It must work to gain market share: miners, nodes, and users that adopt this version of bitcoin.

Two bets

That is a commercial challenge, with the vectors of competition including transaction fee, coin price, transaction speed, mining rewards and ubiquity, and network size, as well as censorship resistance and other essential dimensions of security.

Brand recognition is part of that. That is why "bcash" is a grave insult to bitcoin cash supporters.

In money, network effects are a dominant dimension of quality, if not the dominant dimension, and Core has got it. So, bitcoin cash has a very long and difficult challenge before it.

But the bet laid down by bitcoin cash supporters is that the value proposition of a rarely traded and expensive digital gold is lower than a widely-used money that maintains enough of the properties of a blockchain-based currency. Bitcoin Core is a bet on security above all else.

As we conclude this gloriously miserable year in bitcoin, we should give thanks and say good luck to all the competitors.

Their efforts to retain or seek the lead will strengthen bitcoin, and if they build up bitcoin’s social capital, they will strengthen bitcoin all the more.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/victory-lap-2017-bitcoins-backward-year/

Jim Cramer: Bitcoin Is Monopoly Money, Will Get Annihilated

Jim Cramer, the outspoken host of ‘Mad Money,’ has called Bitcoin ‘Monopoly Money,’ and has suggested that the futures market will ‘annihilate’ the cryptocurrency’s value when they open. The comment came during a segment aired on CNBC.

Cramer is no fan of Bitcoin, in spite of, at one point, mentioning that the price could go to $1 mln. He believes the current run up is a bubble that has been driven to new highs by traders in order to short the value once the futures market opens. According to the famous investor:

"I think the short selling is just going to annihilate people when you can start trading it. Once this thing starts trading the futures, they are just going to kibosh it.You’re going to see a lot of shenanigans.”

Other perspectives

While Cramer has expressed the concerns of many on Wall Street, others, including industry insiders, disagree. The general feeling among Bitcoin-aware investors regarding the run up is that, while there are potential dangers in every market, the market will continue to maintain stability, even as the futures market begins to take hold.

For example, Barry Hayut, chairman and CEO of Hayver Corporation says:

"Unlike Monopoly money, there are many real services and products that can be purchased with Bitcoin today. Money is a store of value. Every day there are tens of thousands of people around the world that see this value in Bitcoin and exchange it with volumes recently exceeding 15 bln dollars a day. That is more than Apple, Google and Microsoft average daily trading a day combined.”

Additionally, while the comparisons with other bubbles (the tulip bubble of Dutch fame, or the land bubble in the mid 19th century) the underlying Blockchain technology provides a basis for value in the Bitcoin ecosystem that is maintained by the consensus of the majority.

Instead, the utility of the system, along with the disconnectedness of Bitcoin produces the fear among bankers and traditional investors. Itay Shechter, Founder of Vanywhere said:

“The value of Bitcoin is derived from social contracts and the millions of users involved. The Blockchain revolution takes the power and control back to the community. Banks and regulators are not used to something that is completely out of their hands, so they attack. The volatility of Bitcoin reflects the ‘hype,’ FOMO and other factors in society. Bitcoin might have gone up too fast too soon recently, but Jim completely ignores the utility and technology behind it.”

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/jim-cramer-bitcoin-is-monopoly-money-will-get-annihilated

CBOE Launches Bitcoin Futures, Site Immediately Crashes

In a vindication of cryptocurrency exchanges which have had their share of growing pains this year, CBOE launched Bitcoin futures trading at 5 PM Central time and their website went down within minutes. CBOE has confirmed that the slowness (and 404 errors) users are receiving are due to much higher than normal traffic:

"Due to heavy traffic on our website, visitors to https://t.co/jb3O722hoo may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable. All trading systems are operating normally.
— Cboe (@CBOE) December 10, 2017

Since the beginning of the year, digital currency adoption and price appreciation have been off the charts, causing virtually all major exchanges to face their share of slowdowns and crashes. Many had speculated that once Wall Street got involved, with robust servers capable (and used to) handling enormous amounts of traffic, they would blow away traditional Bitcoin exchanges. Apparently, even mainstream Wall Street firms are going to have difficult dealing with Bitcoin’s demand.

Still volatile

Facing the opening of futures today, Bitcoin’s price has been ever volatile. Within minutes of the futures markets opening, the price soared by over $1,000 only to immediately fall by half that. At press time, the price is back on the climb.

"This is fascinating to watch.
Bitcoin jumps $1200 in 7 minutes and then falls $500 in 1. All the while, the CBOE has yet to get through the imbalances and open the contract for trading.
At this rate, BTC will hit one of the circuit breakers before the CBOE can even get rolling! pic.twitter.com/AAzzE3MshN
— TF Metals Report (@TFMetals) December 10, 2017

It’s hard to say how accurate “sentiment” is, but many on the /r/BitcoinMarkets subreddit were staying in fiat until the launch of the futures markets. In recent weeks, there has been a great deal of fear that the opening of regulated futures trading could make it easier for institutional investors to short the currency, driving the price down. Judging by the price action right now, those fears seem to have mostly abated, but traders remain jittery.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/cboe-launches-bitcoin-futures-site-immediately-crashes

Trader who called bitcoin rally says cryptocurrency will surge above $100,000 in 2018

   - Bitcoin's price could exceed $100,000 before the end of 2018, a cryptocurrency trader told CNBC
   - Bitcoin futures on Cboe Futures Exchange began trading on Sunday
   - Dave Chapman from Hong Kong-based Octagon Strategy added that the price of the cryptocurrency is not as interesting as its various applications

Bitcoin's runaway rally could accelerate next year as the cryptocurrency continues to gain wider acceptance, a trader said Monday.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see a six figure headline," said Dave Chapman, Managing Director of cryptocurrency trading firm Octagon Strategy, who sees the price of bitcoin exceeding $100,000 before the end of 2018.

The digital currency was changing hands about 10.7 percent higher at above $16,642.45, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index. The index tracks prices from digital currency exchanges Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Bitfinex.

Chapman has made bullish bets before. He successfully called bitcoin's dizzying ascent past $10,000 earlier in the year.

"I was quoted back in August when bitcoin was trading at around $4,000 that we would have a five figure headline by the end of this year," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"I think a lot of people thought I was crazy, a lot of people scoffed at me, but that's OK," he said.
Rising interest from institutional and retail investors has made bitcoin one of 2017's hottest trades. The cryptocurrency's price has surged more than 1,000 percent this year.

Its rising popularity has prompted global exchanges such as the Cboe to launch futures contracts, a move market participants said will bring in more institutional investors and curb gyrations in the volatile cryptocurrency. A contract from rival CME will go live next week.

Trading of the hotly anticipated futures contract began on Sunday on the Cboe, representing a significant step in the legitimization of cryptocurrencies.

"The price to me is probably the most uninteresting component about bitcoin. I'm more excited in the applications and more excited about what this means for people who don't have access to financial inclusion," he said.

"If we focus on the price, we're losing track of the big picture."

But not everyone is convinced about bitcoin's appeal.

"This is a toxic concept for investors," Stephen Roach, Yale University senior fellow and the former Asia chairman and chief economist at investment bank Morgan Stanley said last week.

"This is a dangerous speculative bubble by any shadow or stretch of the imagination," he told CNBC's "The Rundown" last week - suggesting that exchange legitimization makes bitcoin "somewhat dangerous" for investors, given what he described as a "lack of intrinsic underlying economic value to the concept."

But Chapman remains convinced of his view.

"I think bitcoin is growing up," he said, hitting back at what he called "bitcoin naysayers" like "academic economists" who take a conservative view and fail to see the cryptocurrency's potential.

"Bitcoin allows the immediate transfer of value from one individual in the world to any other individual in the world, and it does that without a middle man. That's its value," he added.

Chapman said bitcoin's scarcity is a key factor behind his bullish call, but it's not the only reason he expects to see a six digit price in the future.

"If you look at bitcoin and its impact on finance, it's really not that crazy to think that bitcoin could be an extremely huge disruptor to finance as we know it today."

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/11/bitcoin-could-exceed-100000-dollars-by-2018-says-trader.html

Lightning: The Bitcoin Scaling Tech You Really Should Know

"What is bitcoin? Can I buy, like, pizza with it?"

Asked by sports blogger Dave Portnoy in his inaugural video as a bitcoin investor, the comment cuts to the core of a truism about the network: while it's been billed as a "digital currency," it's actually not all the useful for payments today. In short, you're very unlikely to stumble on a bodega that accepts it (should you even want to spend it).

But that's not to say that engineers aren't working on addressing the issue.

That's why one of the most talked about technologies currently in development for bitcoin is the Lightning Network.

Rather than updating bitcoin's underlying software (which has proven to be a messy process), Lightning essentially adds an extra layer to the tech, one where transactions can be made more cheaply and quickly, but with, hypothetically, the same security backing of the blockchain.

Proposed as far back as 2015, Lightning has progressed gradually over the years, migrating from white paper, to prototype, to more advanced prototype.

It's the most recent test, however, that has some looking forward to a not-so-distant future when users can at last transact via Lightning, putting to the test long-held assumptions and criticisms.

As Jack Mallers, developer of Lightning desktop app Zapp, put it:

"It's fairly close to working to the point where the public can test with real money, but not necessarily at the point where people can operate a business on it quite yet."

Step one, the technology

What steps are left before Lightning is usable? Lightning engineers have some ideas.

Though Lightning took a big step early this week, the engineers still need to release software with which real users can make real Lightning transactions. So, the first and most obvious step is to let Lightning out of the cage and to watch and see if users have any issues during this initial stage.

"In the near future most problems will be about getting Lightning to work in practice," Swiss university ETH Zürich researcher Conrad Burchert told CoinDesk.

And, once Lightning's up and running, engineers foresee other subtle technical challenges, such as getting the "network structure" right, Burchert said. Bad actors might be able to halt transactions, for example, or users might want more control over where their transactions are going.

"Whenever you're building a new financial protocol, you want to ensure it's secure as possible, so we're working on various security-related efforts," said Elizabeth Stark, co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, one of a handful of startups dedicated solely to the technology.

Mallers agreed that these technical hurdles need to be solved before Lightning can reach the mainstream.

"All of that will need to get ironed out before I would advise a company to start to rely on the Lightning Network for business or money that they can't afford to lose," Mallers said, adding:

"The only thing that could speed it up is more engineers."

Stark concurred, adding that despite the promise of the technology, there are astoundingly few developers working on it right now.

"We need more hours in the day. ... There are 10 or fewer full-time developers working across all implementations of Lightning. Getting more contributors and people building out the protocol would certainly help move things along," she told CoinDesk.

Hiding the wires

Another piece of the puzzle is making the Lightning apps easy to use.

It's promising that apps supporting Lightning as a payment method are already cropping up, but so far they're pretty confusing to use. A lot of the wires are still popping out into view.

Zap, a Lightning desktop app, requires users to configure their node and plug in its IP address, for example, a far cry from today's money apps that hide these technical details from users.

"That stuff will definitely be hidden one day," said Mallers, envisioning that Zap will one day look closer to Venmo, an app for sending small amounts of money to friends. "Eventually peers on the network will just look like contacts on your phone."

Maller argues this is happening already.

LND, the Lightning implementation most popular among app developers, for example, recently added a feature that automates creating a channel between the sender and receiver when users deposit money, "so that users don't have to understand what all that means," he said.

That's not to say he thinks it will happen right away, though.

"Baby steps," he continued. "Right now the Lightning Network still probably favors technical users. Slowly but surely we'll abstract a lot of this stuff away, so it's just about paying and receiving money."

"As far as Lightning Network changing the world – where I can wave my phone and pay for things and stuff will show up – I'd say it'll take a year or two," Mallers said.

Chicken-and-egg issue

Then there's the question: Will users actually want to use bitcoin? Even with faster, cheaper Lightning-like transactions in place?

Bitcoin developer Alphonse Pace believes it could be a challenge for Lightning to achieve a "network effect," where users have an incentive to use the technology because other people are using it.

And, who will adopt it first?

"It's a chicken-and-egg problem," said Pace. "Wallets will want people wanting to use it to support it, and people will want wallets to support using it."

Alex Bosworth, developer of Lightning apps HTLC.me and Yalls alluded to a similar problem.

"There is somewhat of a bootstrapping issue. We need to have apps to encourage wallets and wallets to encourage apps," said Bosworth.

And, even if bitcoin transactions become faster and cheaper (because of Lightning) then familiar payment apps, such as Apple Pay, he thinks users will be cautious at first.

"If you ask a normal person what they want to pay with, they would probably go with Apple Pay because that's what they are used to," he said.

In conversation, Lightning developers expect to overcome these hurdles. But, again, they think it will take time.

High expectations

Although it might take time to iron out these issues, developers were mostly optimistic that Lightning would help achieve the dream of making bitcoin a usable payment system. Rome wasn't built in a day, after all. And neither were computers or the internet, which each took decades to reach normal people.

Mallers argued Lightning "will really change the way that we send money to each other on a day to day basis." But he thinks the community might have unreal expectations for how long it will take engineers to achieve that.

"[To these engineers,] I would hope you'd go 'oh take your time, would you like any water?' But the community seems to be like 'Why's it not here tomorrow?' I think users over-estimated Lightning's deadlines," he said.

Bosworth offered a similarly optimistic take: "[The Lightning Network] could be like the WWW was to email. It might take a while to grow, but the more it grows the better it will get."

He added that his dad, Adam Bosworth, led the tech team behind one of the first web browsers in 1995, just as the internet was finally making its way out of research laboratories to normal people.

Bosworth said:

"I remember that time as being pretty exciting because of all of the opportunities that were going to fall out of web browsers. This reminds me a lot of that."

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/lightning-bitcoin-scaling-tech-really-know/

Bitcoin Futures Launch Sees Price Spike as CBOE Website Crashes

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)'s website became unavailable just as it launched its first bitcoin futures contracts at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday.

The website downtime – which CBOE attributed to significant traffic around the futures launch in a post on Twitter – coincided with a sudden surge in the price of bitcoin, which jumped from $14,509 at 22:59 UTC to $15,732 at 23:06 UTC according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).

Yet as of press time, CBOE's website is becoming more available – delayed information about the contracts being offered can be found here – and the price of bitcoin has maintained a somewhat steady pace since that initial jump, trading at $15,226.29 per the BPI.

The data coming in thus far suggest that buyers are indeed moving to purchase contracts. Activity has been largely centered around the first contract to expire, dated January 17, 2018, with social media posts pointing to purchases of contracts scheduled to expire on March 14.

According to CNBC, 672 January contracts have been sold as of 7:10 pm EST, with the news service reporting a price of $15,800.

In all, the tumultuous start is perhaps a fitting start to the trading of the new contracts. CBOE's is the first to be traded on a major regulated exchange in the U.S., and it's set to be followed next week by CME Group, which has announced that it will launch its own products on Dec. 18.

According to executives from the firm, CBOE is hoping that the futures launch will lead to other products and services centered around cryptocurrencies, including a possible shift into exchange-traded funds and notes – provided that the SEC gives its approval.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-futures-launch-sees-price-spike-cboe-website-crashes/

Bitcoin Price Surges 20% Overnight as Volume of CBOE Futures Skyrockets

The bitcoin price has surged by more than 20 percent overnight, triggered by the launch of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) bitcoin futures trading platform.

According to cryptocurrency market data provider CryptoCompare, the bitcoin price increased from $13,400 to $16,315 within the past 24 hours.

Major Factor: Bitcoin Futures

Contrary to the claims of several analysts, the listing of bitcoin futures by CBOE, the global finance market’s largest options exchange, has been a driving factor behind the recent bitcoin price suge. Many investors in the market expect the price of bitcoin to increase further in the upcoming months, as tens of billions of dollars in institutional money flow into the bitcoin market.

In an interview with Business Insider, leading cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX business development head Greg Dwyer stated that the price of bitcoin could surpass $50,000 by the end of 2018, as with billions in institutional money, the market valuation of bitcoin will likely reach a trillion dollars in the mid-term.

“Now, looking at the current market cap of bitcoin as going to $300 billion, with more institutional money coming in we could see market caps go up to $500 billion, which could — or even $1 trillion — which could increase the price of bitcoin from now $15,000 up to $20,000, $25,000, or even $50,000,” said Dwyer.

Dwyer also emphasized that the listing of bitcoin futures by the world’s largest and most liquid exchanges such as CBOE, CME, and Nasdaq by the first quarter of 2018 will further stabilize the bitcoin market, allowing it to evolve into a major asset class.

In the long-term, if bitcoin can sustain its current growth rate, the cryptocurrency will compete against existing assets such as gold and penetrate into a multi-trillion dollar industry in offshore banking market, given the endorsement of bitcoin by the traditional finance industry and investors within it through bitcoin futures.

Sharing a similar sentiment as JPMorgan global markets strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Dwyer added:

“This is a big endorsement for the digital currency trading space. We could see more flows come into it and also, not only that, but futures help dampen and reduce the volatility of the price. So, this could help stabilize bitcoin as an asset class. And basically increase the utility function of it as a source of economic — as a method of economic transactions.”

What Happens Next?

The entrance of large-scale institutional investors, retail traders, and hedge funds into the bitcoin market will trigger a domino effect across all major exchanges in leading bitcoin markets. The demand for bitcoin within markets such as the US, Japan, and South Korea will increase at a rapid rate, as institutions in the traditional finance sector rush to invest in bitcoin and provide services around the cryptocurrency.

Already, CBOE has started to demonstrate struggles in facilitating the rapid increase in demand for bitcoin from the traditional finance industry. Earlier today, CBOE’s website and its online trading platform were not accessible for several hours, merely within three hours after its listing of bitcoin futures.

In the short-term, the price of bitcoin will likely surge towards $20,000, as noted by Dwyer and prominent investors like Max Keiser and Mike Novogratz.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-surges-by-20-overnight-as-volume-of-cboe-futures-skyrockets/

Bitcoin Price to Reach $60,000 Before Crashing to $1,000 in 2018 is Saxo Bank’s ‘Outrageous’ Prediction

“Bitcoin is thrown to the wolves,” the headline reads, punctuating the tail end of Saxo Bank’s prediction that the bitcoin price will soar above $60,000 in 2018 before crashing more than 98 percent to “its fundamental ‘production cost’ of $1,000.”

The Danish investment bank issued this forecast in its annual “Outrageous Predictions” publication that purports to identify “highly unlikely events with underappreciated potential.”

“The rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been one of the most spectacular phenomena of financial markets in recent years,” two Saxo analysts write. “Bitcoin will continue to rise – and rise high – during most of 2018 but Russia and China will together engineer a crash.”

The bank predicts that fueled by prolonged bullishness over the advent of bitcoin derivatives, the bitcoin price will rise approximately 400 percent from its current level to peak above $60,000 — bringing its market cap to $1 trillion.

However, Saxo warns, bitcoin’s meteoric ascent will be equaled by the rate of its demise. Concerned about capital flight, China and Russia will unleash a multi-pronged assault on the decentralized cryptocurrency ecosystem to “shift the focus away from Bitcoin”. In addition to creating their own, state-backed cryptocurrencies, the two governments will ban mining, citing environmental concerns even though their true priority is keeping a handle on domestic monetary policy.

Bitcoin diehards will not give up without a fight, but the bank predicts that state-run cryptocurrencies will prove to function better as actual payment systems, putting an end to the two-year crypto craze and causing the bitcoin price to careen down to $1,000.

“The smoother functioning of the state-run protocols for actual payments and price stability, as well as the heavy hand of state intervention, drives a decreasing interest in all cryptocurrencies and completely sidelines the Bitcoin and crypto phenomenon from a price speculation angle even as the technological promise of the blockchain gallops on,” Saxo concludes. “After its spectacular peak in 2018, Bitcoin crashes and limps into 2019 close to its fundamental “production cost” of $1,000.”

Remember, these predictions are somewhat tongue-in-cheek — the bank deliberately concocts unlikely scenarios. However, Saxo did foretell “huge gains for bitcoin” in last year’s edition, although the bank’s “outrageous” prediction that bitcoin would rise as high as $2,100 has proven to be shockingly conservative.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-to-reach-60000-before-crashing-hard-to-1000-saxo-bank-outrageous-prediction/