Cryptocurrency isn’t going anywhere — in fact it’s set to take a leap forward in coming years, says tech entrepreneur and Finder.com Co-founder Fred Schebesta. “I'm a big believer in Bitcoin,” he says. “I think it's like digital gold. I think it will last on and on and on.” In a newly released interview, taped on March 2, Schebesta rejects pessimists who say cryptocurrency is a passing fad, noting that the price of Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has remained stable of late. “Bitcoin's been called dead for 10 years now,” he says. “Seems to still be going. You know, I think the price is holding up pretty well throughout this as well.” As of Thursday afternoon, the price of Bitcoin stood at $9,115, marking a 20.7% increase over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has fallen 3.5% over that period. Bitcoin surged at the outset of this year despite coronavirus fears. “These geopolitical events including coronavirus and geopolitical tensions really improve the use case,” Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors managing partner, told Yahoo Finance’s YFi PM last month. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cryptocurrency-needs-five-years-cook-says-findercom-cofounder-141238770.html |
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Square Crypto, the payments company launched by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is now officially supporting Bitcoin (BTC) development through a grant program. This formalizes the already significant contributions made by the company toward the cryptocurrency. Through a March 4 announcement, the company announced that the Square Grants program would be made publicly available. Two developers had already received grants: BTCPayServer received $100,000 to continue development of its open-source payment processor, and a pseudonymous developer received an undisclosed sum in connection to Lightning Network development. With the announcement, Square revealed to have also granted undisclosed amounts to Jon Atack and Tankred Hase, two Bitcoin developers who have previously done significant work in the space. How to apply for grants Square has made the conditions for joining the program public. The rules state that grants can be received by a team or individuals all around the world, provided that they work on a Bitcoin project. The proposals must improve Bitcoin’s user experience, scaling, privacy, security or “something else we haven’t thought of,” Square wrote. The developers must also be “in good standing” within the Bitcoin community. The team listed several examples of applicable projects, citing new layer two solutions, privacy implementations like Payjoin or SNICKER, new wallets and several others. Applicants need to send an email to Square and write a detailed proposal text. “We’ll get back to you if it excites us and lines up with grant criteria,” the announcement reads. https://cointelegraph.com/news/jack-dorseys-square-publicly-launches-grants-for-bitcoin-development |
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The computer processing power of the bitcoin network is growing again – albeit slowly – as major Chinese miner manufacturers gradually resume business after the coronavirus outbreak delayed shipments. The average hashing power on bitcoin (BTC) over the past seven days has reached a new high of around 117.5 exahashes per second (EH/s), up 5.4 percent from where it stagnated for a month beginning Jan. 28, according to data from PoolIn, which, along side with F2pool, are currently the two largest bitcoin mining pools. Data from BTC.com further estimates bitcoin's mining difficulty, a measure of competitiveness in the field, will increase by 2.15 percent when it adjusts itself in about five days thanks to the increased hashing power in the current period. The growth comes as major Chinese miner manufacturers have gradually resumed shipments over the past one to two weeks. The coronavirus outbreak had forced many businesses across the country to extend the Chinese New York holiday since the end of January. Shenzhen-based MicroBT, maker of the WhatsMiner, said it has gradually resumed business and shipments since mid-February, and noted that more mining farm locations are accessible than a month ago. https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-computing-power-is-growing-again-after-coronavirus-related-disruption |
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Bitcoin's (BTC) price jumped the most in two weeks Monday, surging alongside U.S. stocks amid speculation the Federal Reserve and other central banks will support markets as the coronavirus spreads. The largest cryptocurrency by market value rose 4.1 percent to $8,874 as of 17:53 UTC (12:53 p.m. ET). The move followed last week’s 14 percent sell-off, the harshest in three months. Despite a belief among some investors that bitcoin should trade as a safe-haven asset akin to gold or U.S. Treasury bonds, the cryptocurrency had tumbled recently along with riskier assets like stocks. The sell-off reversed as global authorities, including the Fed, Bank of Japan, International Monetary Fund and World Bank, pledged to act if needed to help offset any lasting economic damage from widespread travel cancellations, quarantines and factory disruptions. “Investors are dipping their toes back in the water after last week [when] they jumped out of the pool,” said John Todaro, director of currency research at the crypto-focused firm TradeBlock in New York. “This easy monetary policy across central banks should continue to support markets in general, especially in risk-on areas like equity markets, and that should bleed into other asset classes like digital currencies, including bitcoin.” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday in a statement the central bank would “use our tools and act as appropriate to support the economy.” https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-rebounds-as-coronavirus-infected-stocks-get-jolt-from-fed-boj |
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While Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are far from the level of popularity they had at the peak of the 2017-2018 bubble, this asset class remains of relevance in pop culture. This was proven true in a recent episode of the original Netflix series, “Altered Carbon,” during which the show depicted a dingy shop where cryptocurrencies are the central payment mechanisms. Bitcoin Graces Television Once Again, This Time On “Altered Carbon” Just recently, Netflix released the second season of its much-hyped series “Altered Carbon,” a show about a futurist society where death becomes irrelevant as human bodies become interchangeable, as Google describes the show. While the show’s premise isn’t based around the rise of cryptocurrency, a still from a recent episode shared by Twitter account “mine Zcash” shows that digital assets are around in this fictional futuristic society. Going Mainstream Once Again This is far from the first time Bitcoin has appeared as a plot device in a television show. Just last Sunday, “The Simpsons” dedicated a good portion of the 13th episode of the 31st season — which was titled “Frinkcoin” — to cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Bitcoin. At one point in this episode, a Simpsonified Jim Parsons, the actor behind “The Big Bang Theory’s” Sheldon Cooper, spent two minutes discussing the basic premise of digital assets, mentioning the distributed nature of blockchain. https://www.newsbtc.com/2020/03/02/altered-carbon-bitcoin-top-crypto-assets-just-made-brief-appearance/ |
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Mining pool coercion could work, in theory Furthermore, Lerner also said that miners cannot take control of the Bitcoins without changing the consensus protocol. Still, he admitted that mining pools, on the other hand, may be able to block Bitcoins if forced. He explained that governments could attempt to force most mining pools to prevent some Bitcoins from changing hands with a process similar to a 51% attack, but he does not expect this approach to work: “The largest pools are composed by many smaller independent mining farms, and those farms would just start mining solo to prevent coercion instead of being part of such a pool. Therefore I suspect the government-controlled mining pool will just vanish from the available active and useful hashrate.” Lerner concluded that such an approach would need law enforcement to prosecute miners that mine on pools that do not enforce censorship in many different jurisdictions. Even if such measures would be taken by governments, he expects that “Bitcoin would just switch to some other form of proof-of-work and keep moving forward.” Author of the first proof-of-work crypto Karma System Emin Gün Sirer suggested that the claim is part of Wright’s effort to “lay down a misguided foundation to make his followers believe that miners can unilaterally reassign coins.” He said: “This is likely part of his strategy to take ownership of Satoshi's coins. It's very transparent, shallow, and unconvincing. My professional opinion is that he's a nobody trying to pull a simple scam on unsophisticated investors captivated by his unconvincing, poorly constructed, fraud-ridden tale.” Wright is drowned in criticism While Wright has always been a controversial figure in the cryptocurrency space, lately he attracted much more criticism than usual. https://cointelegraph.com/news/can-bitcoin-be-seized-as-self |
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There have already been two bitcoin halvings since bitcoin launched in 2009, one in 2012 and another in 2016. Bitcoin halvings are scheduled to continue roughly once every four years until the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins has been generated by the network, something that won't happen until well into the next century. Whether the upcoming bitcoin halving has been "priced in" by the market has become a controversial issue among investors. Generally, in well-developed markets, equity, commodities and currencies are priced based on future expectations—suggesting that as bitcoin traders and investors are aware of the May halving, the price will have already made the gains related to it. CZ disagrees, however, telling BlockTV: "The market is not efficient. Most people don't get information quickly. People need a lot of time to let concepts sink in and adjust." Many are hoping the 2020 bitcoin halving will see a repeat of the last cut to supply. Bitcoin prices doubled in 2016 and soared 13-fold the following year. However, CZ warned that "historic events do not predict future events, so don't take that too literally," but explained the bitcoin halving will mean "it costs miners almost double what it does now to produce one bitcoin. Psychologically, those miners won't be willing to sell below that price." https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2020/02/23/binance-ceo-gives-rare-price-prediction-says-this-is-when-to-buy-bitcoin/#796ae5273174 |
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http://newsbtc.com/2015/02/01/bitcoin-price-drops-return-long-term-trend-level/For a couple of weeks at the end of January, the Bitcoin world was full of optimism. With a strong upturn in price it seemed to many that we may have finally broken the digital currency’s long term decline in value. But looking at longer term charts – 90 or 180 days – it becomes clear that January’s spike was simply an overcorrection for the dip in early January which had taken the bitcoin price below the long term trend line. As you can see from the above 180 day chart, there is a clear downward pattern with only relatively minor deviations from the long term trend since approximately July of last year. You can also see that over the past few days we have return back to that long line after a brief bull surge. This seems to me to be a bearish signal which may indicate that a further decline in the bitcoin price may be expected, unless something dramatic happens to break the trend.
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http://www.coindesk.com/perkins-coie-bitcoin-can-learn-real-estate-law/Bitcoin provides transparency by having all transactions listed on a public ledger that allows one to trace the ownership of each bitcoin. This transparency – together with the irreversibility of each transfer of bitcoins – creates the assurance that the transferee is receiving ownership of the bitcoins being transferred. Unfortunately, the public ledger only identifies ownership. It provides no information on liens. Security interests in general intangibles are very common, especially for a business with a bank secured line of credit. It is the combination of bitcoins being general intangibles, security interests in general intangibles not being automatically released upon transfer and the ubiquity of security interests in general intangibles that creates the fatal flaw – bitcoins that are encumbered with security interests granted by one or more prior owners.
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/01/29/why-apple-pay-and-dollars-are-killing-bitcoin/The irony of Bitcoin’s fall is that some of the attributes that initially made it so attractive to its backers like no centralized banking control, lax regulation and no transaction fees, are the very same things that are actually causing its demise. These types of decentralized monetary systems never work, since valuations are allowed to fluctuate wildly and there is a lack of trust in the system. It’s simply not safe to hold Bitcoin. Look no further than the major exchanges, which have either gone bankrupt (Mt. Gox) or suffered major security lapses (Bitstamp). Both of which cost investors millions of dollars in unrecoverable losses.
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https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/federal-reserve-bitcoin-strategy/A U.S. payment system that is safe, efficient and broadly accessible is vital to the U.S. economy… the Federal Reserve plays an important role in promoting these qualities as a leader, catalyst for change and provider of payment services. In its preface, “Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System”, a white paper released Monday morning, 15/27/01, by The Federal Reserve re-affirms that commitment. The document is a follow-up to the Fed’s 2013 “Payment System Improvement – Public Consultation Paper.” At the time of the 2013 report, digital currency was “not considered a sufficiently mature technology.” But, today, we are an “emergent payment infrastructure” and the Fed sees value for some Bitcoin technology within its current system.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-27/venture-capitalist-draper-bets-400-000-more-on-bitcoin-revivalBitcoin’s price dipped by more than 30 percent in two days this month to below $200. Skeptics were already questioning the currency’s future amid increasing regulatory oversight and after bitcoin’s slide had made it one of the biggest money-losing investments of 2014, worse than oil or the ruble. Bitcoin was valued at about $272 on Monday, compared with more than $1,100 in late 2013, according to CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. Draper bought about 32,000 bitcoins at government auctions last year. He’s been investing them in various startups building on bitcoin technology, which can be used to facilitate cheap international money transfers or buy assets like gold. While he didn’t specify the price paid in either auction, bitcoin was valued on the market at more than $600 at the time of the June auction.
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http://gizmodo.com/65-of-americans-have-no-idea-what-bitcoin-is-what-are-1682049930This may seem low, considering all the media attention the cryptocurrency has. But there's no incentive here to downplay how well-known it is. Such a profound lack of familiarity is particularly alarming," Coin Center wrote. Respondents were also divided about whether the government should "ban Bitcoin or leave it alone." 12.9% were down with banning something that probably at least some of them had never heard of, while 16.1% hoped the government would not interfere.
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http://www.coindesk.com/volatility-deflation-manipulation-response-bitcoins-critics/Bitcoin has its share of critics and skeptics, and opposition to the emerging technology – especially among the intelligentsia – shows no sign of abating. Notable commentators on the topic range from author Jeffrey Robinson to finance blogger Karl Denninger, Boston University professor Mark Williams, rabid Keynesian Paul Krugman, Austrian economist Gary North and FT Alphaville's Izabella Kaminska. Typically, the arguments put forth by an elite group of critics like this could be easily attributed to a lack of economic credentials or real-world experience in sophisticated financial markets. But that is simply not the case here – which makes it all the more puzzling to comprehend. Since the various critiques fall short on any convincing economic analysis, I suppose one could put it down to mere philosophical differences on the origin and nature of money.
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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/winklevoss-twins-pitch-their-bitcoin-etf-to-gold-bugs-2015-01-26The twins went even further in praising bitcoin, saying it’s an improvement on gold. They said its advantages include being more durable and more portable, plus the brothers emphasized that a fixed supply of bitcoin is built into the rules for the digital currency. The comments came as the Winklevoss twins headlined a session Monday at ETF.com’s Inside ETFs conference in Hollywood, Fla. The brothers, who are still best known for their legal fight with Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s FB, -0.43% origins, have turned into significant players in the world of bitcoin.
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http://mashable.com/2015/01/26/coinbase-bitcoin-exchange/The price decline was part of a longer-term slump that had dragged bitcoin down from its frothy $1,000-plus highs after the implosion of Mt. Gox, once the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world, and more recently a security issue at Bitstamp, another exchange. Some Bitcoin mining services, which make money by unlocking new bitcoins, were forced to suspend operations due to the declining prices presumably cutting into profit margins, raising further concerns about whether there would be a snowball effect for Bitcoin. Yet, investors continue to pump money into the space, with Coinbase recently raising a $75 million round and Ripple, an open payments network similar to bitcoin, is reportedly raising $30 million.
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http://time.com/money/3682313/coinbase-bitcoin-exchange/Coinbase has previously found success as one of the more consumer friendly bitcoin wallets and payment platforms. Consumers could buy and sell bitcoins from Coinbase, which would in turn purchase the coins from other exchanges and store them on the customer’s behalf. The company has also partnered with companies like Dell (and MONEY’s parent company, Time Inc.) to facilitate bitcoin purchases by acting as a middleman and converting bitcoins to cash.
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https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-value-reclaims-lost-ground/BTC-China has reached the top of the channel formed by the advancing wave. This price level also corresponds to a 1.618 extension of wave A which is a characteristic Bitcoin price target in corrective wave structures. Price may exceed the upper channel trendline in some charts – and sometimes undershoots it in others. We have no evidence that indicates what price may do as it tops out across exchange charts. For now we hold out for our target $260 and manually adjust our stop loss to a recommended $2 (trader discretion) below the 15-minute 20-period moving average until target is hit or correction stops out the trade for a profit.
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http://www.coindesk.com/anonymous-bitcoin-backgrounder-policymakers/Cash or barter are the most intrinsically private and anonymous means of transacting. In the opposite corner are transactions which are neither anonymous nor private. This includes, say, campaign contributions over a certain amount. We may also include in this quadrant credit card transactions: although not public knowledge like a campaign contribution, your identity is nevertheless connected to every purchase you make, and this information is available to the merchant, credit card network, issuing bank, and — if subpoenaed — law enforcement. Certain financial transactions are private but not anonymous; for example, the donor wall at the local art museum, which identifies the names of donors but not the amounts donated.
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