The main purpose of lightning network is to speed up the bitcoin transaction speed with zero transaction fee. Once the lightning network is fully implement on bitcoin network a lot of things are going to change because bitcoin is going to be faster, stronger and smoother than ever.

Ex-Iced Tea Maker Long Blockchain Is Buying Bitcoin Miners Now



Long Blockchain Corp. the former beverage company that announced a pivot to blockchain technology last month, is now planning to enter the bitcoin mining business, a new filing shows.

According to a filing with the Securities Exchange Commission on Jan. 5, Long Blockchain Corp, the publicly traded company that was rebranded from Long Island Iced Tea, is in the process of purchasing 1,000 units of AntMiner S9 manufactured by the China-based Bitmain.

This move came just weeks after the firm announced its business pivot, which caused its stock price at the U.S. exchange NASDAQ to surge nearly 200 percent. Similar trends in market euphoria were also seen for other public stocks that announced business strategy shifts to areas related to blockchain.

In a press release, Long Blockchain said the mining facilities would be located in a Nordic country, without specifying which one. But the agreement included in the SEC filing includes a hint: It states that the vendor will notify the purchaser when the products arrive in Iceland.

Further, the purchase price will be $4.2 million, which includes $2.9 million cash as well as an issuance of 260,000 shares of Long Blockchain's common stock. It is not clear from the filing whether Long Blockchain is buying the equipment directly from Bitmain or from a third party.

According to the document, this purchase is scheduled to close by Jan. 31 only if Long Blockchain Corp. is able to obtain the required financing before that.

As such, Long Blockchain announced in the same document it is issuing additional 1.6 million shares of common stock at a public offering price of $5.25 per share, aiming to raise approximately $7.7 million in net proceeds.

Philip Thomas, CEO of Long Blockchain Corp. said in the announcement:

    "We view this transaction as an important and validating initial step in the Company’s progression into blockchain technology. The commencement of our mining operations places us on a path to generating blockchain-related revenue through the accumulation of bitcoin."


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/2-us-states-issue-warnings-over-cryptocurrency-investments/

Jeff Garzik Is Reworking the Segwit2x Code



The controversial scaling proposal Segwit2x may have been officially called off this August, but that doesn't mean its former lead developer is giving up on plans to keep its codebase alive.

In fact, Jeff Garzik, better known as the CEO of blockchain startup Bloq, now believes his prior work could be revived in a way that promotes interoperability between the increasingly fragmented set of protocols bearing the bitcoin name (see: bitcoin, bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold). And in a new interview, he revealed that he is working on forthcoming updates to the software, called BTC1, with this goal in mind.

While he admits he's not sure how successful the effort will be, Garzik nonetheless framed it as one aimed at unifying a bitcoin developer community that saw no shortage of infighting in 2017.

Garzik told CoinDesk:

   "I hope that bringing multiple chains together in one software will, in some small way, bring multiple developers from multiple communities back together."

Still, the development is notable given the software's history in achieving the opposite.

After all, the BTC1 code is most associated with Segwit2x, a failed attempt by business and miners to change the rules of the bitcoin protocol. Forged at a meeting in New York in May, the agreement called for the block size parameter to be raised to 2MB, while also pushing for an upgrade called Segregated Witness, designed to both improve and expand bitcoin's block size.

However, while SegWit was enacted, the block size increase, formally coded in BTC1, was officially called off not weeks before it was supposed to go live amid significant pushback and criticism from developers.


'Bitcoin cousins'

But while a handful of new cryptocurrencies have been created out of new bitcoin software versions over the past few months, Garzik stressed that the goal of the new BTC1 iteration is not to create a new currency.

"It's not a new chain. That's the key innovation of BTC1," he told CoinDesk.

Instead, Garzik's concept relies on developing a new version of the Bitcoin Core software – the most popular implementation of bitcoin – though one in which the code can support multiple different cryptocurrencies. In this way, BTC1 will follow whatever changes are added to Bitcoin Core.

Garzik went on to compare the software to ethereum, which allows new cryptocurrencies to be issued on its blockchain, something that's possible on top of bitcoin, though perhaps not as easy as it is on competing protocols.

"The focus will be on multi-coin support of 'bitcoin cousins,'" he said, defining "cousins" as coins with software that shares 97 percent or more of the code with the original bitcoin software the Core developers manage.

With BTC1, as Garzik envisions it it, users won't have to download one litecoin node, one bitcoin node and one bitcoin cash node. Rather they just download one BTC1 full node and it supports all of the chains simultaneously.

As far as what coins (of the more than 1,300 total coins that have sprung up over the years, many with code nearly identical to bitcoin's) will be supported by BTC1, Garzik plans to be choosy, at least at first, adding only "successful" networks that have attracted significant attention from users. In his eyes, at least so far, litecoin, zcash, and maybe bitcoin cash meet these criteria.

He added:

    "Since six bitcoin forks were created in December alone, it's not realistic to support all of them."

And he's being strict with this stance, arguing for neutrality, saying that it even applies to United Bitcoin, a recent bitcoin fork for which Garzik serves as chief scientist.

"I would like to see United Bitcoin adopted, but by my own metric, it's not there yet," he said.


Beyond the coin

Garzik also plans to take the idea beyond cryptocurrencies.

Taking inspiration from Red Hat, a Linux company that Garzik worked at for more than a decade, he sees Bloq using the new BTC1 software to bridge the corporate and open-source worlds. Just as the open-source software Fedora feeds into the Red Hat product, Garzik believes an open-source BTC1 software can feed into Bloq.

In this way, Garzik claims Bloq developers won't be the only developers working on BTC1. Garzik plans to open development up to anyone that wants to participate, including a "handful" of developers that worked on Segwit2x.

Although this idea sounds very different from the code's original intent, Garzik argues this was always his plan – to move the BTC1 software forward whether Segwit2x succeeded or not.

He said:

    "BTC1 was always supposed to be longterm. Segwit2x was always supposed to be a one and done. And BTC1 was always supposed to be the entity that continued even after Segwit2x's success or failure."

Yet, the new iteration of the codebase also has benefits for Bloq – which recently announced it'd be launching a cross-blockchain cryptocurrency called metronome – as well.

According to Garzik, many of the software implementations that forked off bitcoin, especially older coins, have vulnerabilities within them because they aren't as heavily developed as bitcoin, for instance. These bugs can cause serious issues for Bloq's current enterprise customers, and so the company would benefit from having open-source code that supports the development of different cryptocurrencies simultaneously.

To that end, Bloq and some of its customers (which will be announced in the next 60 days) are funding at least 50 percent of BTC1's future development, Garzik said. Interoperability between coins is something many crypto enthusiasts are interested in, envisioning a future which Garzik calls a "multi-coin universe."


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/suspended-not-abandoned-jeff-garzik-reworking-segwit2x-code/

How Initial Bounty Offering Can Help the Unbanked, Explained




1. What is an Initial Bounty Offering?

It’s an incentivized framework.

Initial Bounty Offerings, or IBOs, are a structured way to crowdsource human resources, business development, marketing, and user acquisition. They offer network tokens in exchange for contributions to the ecosystem. This allows a blockchain organization to expand its reach as well as crowdsource from a large pool of people worldwide to complete tasks or projects.

An IBO can offer bounties for services, user inputs, products and any other work the platform needs to grow. They can be calculated using real-world raw costs and inputs or by standards set out by network founders.


2. What are the types of bounties are out there?

There are multiple types.

Depending on the participants’ skill sets and resources, they can be:

    Bounty Hunters. Individuals who actively complete bounties and claim token rewards during the Initial Bounty Offering period.
    Benefactors. Individuals who choose to support a project’s mission purchasing a certain amount of bounties and receiving tokens in return.
    Builders. People who participate in the bounty offering by building products and services the platform requires to live long and prosper.
    Users. Users of the network who sign up during the IBO period and receive a nominal amount of initial tokens to use towards payment for services.
    Promoters. Partners, organizations, and individuals who claim promotion-based bounties that advertise and market the U.CASH platform.

Partners. External networks and platforms, such as exchanges, wallets, payment processors and others are rewarded with tokens for integrating into the network.


3. What do you do with them once you pay for them?

Decide for yourself.

Once paid, holders of bounty tokens then decide on their own what they want to do with them: exchange them in the open market for cash or digital currency, use them to pay for goods and services inside the network or hold onto them for future use.

Those who want to participate but aren’t interested in completing bounties themselves, though, can become “benefactors”. A benefactor pays the value of a bounty to the organization, which allows the organization itself to hire others to complete it.

4. Why an IBO and not an ICO?

Participation, distribution network growth.

Since the ICO market cap is fairly small compared to the entire cryptocurrency market, large buyers can easily manipulate an ICO and provide unfair benefits to a small group of people at the expense of the rest of the community. If these buyers are quick to the market, they can buy up the vast majority of tokens in minutes, cutting out the average user as well as adversely affecting the future of that token.

ICOs are also only available to those who have the capital to invest and cryptocurrencies to process investments. By its very nature, this excludes a large portion of the world’s population. An estimated two billion adults are considered “unbanked” – that is, they lack access to financial institutions that most of us take for granted. Many of them, however, do have internet access, which makes them ideally suited for getting involved in the world of cryptocurrency. By distributing tokens through an IBO model, it allows those without the financial means to get involved and contribute in other ways.


5. What is the current state of the traditional banking system?

Expensive, non-transparent and non-inclusive.

Traditional banking services are slow in their ability to innovate and adapt. That’s why they have had issues quickly growing, technologically savvy populations in the developing world. At the same time, small entities usually provide financial services with high regulatory and maintenance costs, closed-source APIs, expensive hardware and software modules and intense security. This always ends up with high transaction costs, complex procedures, and delays.

Over 2 billion adults don’t have access to formal financial services (access to loans, sending and receiving funds, secure asset holdings, etc.). They are mostly based in countries with developing economies such as Africa, the Middle East, East Asia and the Pacific region. Underdeveloped banking infrastructure, high costs of financial services, lack of proper government identification - these are, along with low income, frequent civil conflicts and wars are all contributing factors to the limited banking presence outside major urban centers in those economies.


6. How can blockchains and IBOs provide financial inclusion?

A peer-to-peer financial services network might help.

IBOs are used as a method to distribute network tokens and incentivize participation. Network tokens are universal access keys which give users access to services on the network as well as advanced functionalities.

By providing tokens in an IBO format, rather than through an ICO, anyone who has access to the internet can become a part of the ecosystem in exchange for their expertise.

Pairing the IBO format with a blockchain-based financial platform and digital asset converter network can take things one step further. Platforms, such as U.CASH, can convert fiat money into secure holdings of digital assets from different points of the world. They can also offer access to a wide range of digital currency services (buy, sell, trade, and store digital/virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and others), financial services (loans, bill payments, remittance and foreign exchange), legal and human services (notarization, escrow and identity).


7. How does that work?

Let’s see.

Converters allow users to load and unload money onto the platform in local currency. They can be retail converters (money service businesses, commercial stores, and retail shops), individual mobile converters (who can meet with users to do in-person conversions) or online converters (who provide remote services such as online deposits and transfers). Converters set their service offering details such as fees, operating hours, user verification levels and can take advantage of built-in accounting and integrated compliance systems.

Through the U.CASH platform, people from different regions of the world will be able to access financial services, and through the IBO model, they won’t need to possess cryptocurrencies to do that.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/explained/how-initial-bounty-offering-can-help-the-unbanked-explained

Coinbase Rejects Ripple Integration Rumors, Currency’s Market Cap Drops $22 Billion



The popular exchange and wallet platform Coinbase has refuted recent rumors that Ripple (XRP) or other cryptocurrencies will soon be integrated into GDAX, its flagship digital currency exchange.


Quashing rumors

CEO Brian Armstrong firmly stated that neither Coinbase and GDAX have made a decision to integrate any cryptocurrency or digital asset in the short-term. The company said in a blog post:

    “A committee of internal experts is responsible for determining whether and when new assets will be added to the platform in accordance with our framework. These individuals — and all employees at Coinbase — are subject to confidentiality and trading restrictions.

    As of the date of this statement, we have made no decision to add additional assets to either GDAX or Coinbase. Any statement to the contrary is untrue and not authorized by the company.”

Coinbase’s statement was released following a spate of unverified rumors that claimed GDAX is planning to integrate XRP. The scale of the rumors, which largely circulated on Reddit and Twitter, increased to the point where the company felt the need to refute them, as the price of XRP surged.

Immediately after Coinbase issued its statement, the market valuation of XRP decreased from over $148 billion to $126 billion.


Ripple Charts


Insider trading controversy

Coinbase and GDAX are unlikely to integrate any new assets until they can be certain to prevent any leaks. In early December, when Coinbase added Bitcoin Cash, a Coinbase employee or a contractor reportedly revealed the integration two days prior to the official announcement.

Coinbase received significant backlash and criticism from the cryptocurrency community and as a consequence, Armstrong vowed to launch a full investigation. The CEO stated that Coinbase will pursue legal action against the employee or contractor that released confidential information on the company’s digital asset integration plans.

As such, the recent statement of Armstrong and rumors around Coinbase’s Ripple integration were also criticized by some of the community’s most prominent experts. These include BitGo lead engineer Jameson Lopp, who tweeted:

    We haven't made any decisions to add new assets to Coinbase or GDAX at this time. Any statement to the contrary is untrue. Be careful what you believe out there! https://t.co/1yUYG33AoG
    — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 4, 2018


No new assets yet

The investigation into the Bitcoin Cash controversy is still ongoing and until that is completed, it is highly unlikely that Coinbase will pursue the implementation of other cryptocurrencies. The company’s CEO admitted that some insider trading-like movement was spotted in the global Bitcoin Cash exchange market prior to the listing of Coinbase.

On December 20, Armstrong wrote:

    “Given the price increase in the hours leading up the announcement, we will be conducting an investigation into this matter. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies — directly or indirectly — I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action.”

Former Coinbase executive Charlie Lee also stated:

    “Coinbase is not adding a new coin anytime soon. There's no reason why they would lie about this... Especially after the flack they got for surprising everyone by adding BCH.”


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-rejects-ripple-integration-rumors-currencys-market-cap-drops-22-billion

Texas Regulator Orders Bitconnect to Cease and Desist Marketing ‘Securities’



The Texas Securities Commissioner issued an Emergency Cease and Desist Order on Jan. 4 against Bitconnect for the selling of unlicensed securities. According to the Texas State Securities Board news release:

    “The Securities Commissioner found that the BitConnect investments are securities, but were not registered as required by the Texas Securities Act and State Securities Board Rules and Regulations. In addition, the company is not registered to sell securities in Texas.”

Bitconnect markets itself as an open-source “crypto community platform” that offers multiple ways to invest and transact in its native cryptocurrency, BCC. According to the Order, Bitconnect offers users investments in “programs that the company claims will deliver annualized returns of 100% or more”.


British company, Texas ruling

As the release clearly states, Bitconnect is based in England and this order does not affect the company directly. However, the regulator does have the authority to ban Bitconnect from dealing with Texas residents. Of course, it is likely to be quite challenging for the company to separate users of Bitconnect tokens in Texas from those in the rest of the world.

While cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been largely focusing on regulation at the national level, Texas’ ruling shows that sub-national regulators can easily affect the regulatory landscape. This adds an extraordinary level of complexity to regulatory compliance. Cryptocurrency users and businesses may find themselves dealing with countless state and provincial regulators, in addition to national authorities, if other jurisdictions follow Texas’ lead.


Damning commentary

The Texas regulator harshly condemned Bitconnect, writing:

    “BitConnect has disclosed virtually nothing about its principals, financial condition, or strategies for earning profits for investors. It has not provided a physical address in England.

    “Despite providing no information on how it will make money for investors – including the algorithms behind the Trading Bot – BitConnect is touting its investments as a “safe way to earn a high rate of return.”

    “Investing in cryptocurrencies, however, carries significant risk because of regulatory and legal actions, competition from other cryptocurrencies, and the extreme volatility in the price of many cryptocurrencies.”

The release continues, explaining in greater detail:

     “The company operates websites and deploys online advertising to recruit sales agents, which it calls “affiliates.” The company provides marketing material to affiliates, including online presentations, and pays them commissions for referrals that result in investments in BitConnect programs.

    Sales agents for BitConnect are targeting Texas residents, as well as residents of other states, through websites, social media, and online marketplaces like craigslist.

    The sales agents are not, however, registered as agents of BitConnect to sell securities in Texas.

    The Securities Commissioner’s action follows BitConnect’s recent announcement that it will hold an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in the U.S. on Jan. 9. Companies use coin offerings, also called token sales, to raise capital.”
 

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/texas-regulator-orders-bitconnect-to-cease-and-desist-marketing-securities

Yeah, blockchain is the new technology behind the bitcoin. Bitcoin is the major invention on blockhain technology and that is why blockchain is so popular. And I don't see there is any new invention coming anytime soon build on blockchain technology that will be bigger than bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general. 

 

Never mind what other people are saying about bitcoin. Negative people always have something negative to attach to good things. Though, bitcoin recently has some transaction issues such as paying high transaction fee and experiencing slow network transactions, but soon the lightning network will solve these problems. The lightning network is about to change and speed up the bitcoin transaction speed with zero transaction fee.

The demand of bitcoin is higher than the supply that is bitcoin price is getting higher everyday. There are only 16 million bitcoins globally, how do you expect 16 million bitcoins to satisfy the need of over 4 billion people connected to the internet today? It is not possible, right? That is why the price of bitcoin is getting bigger everyday.   

Bitcoin is both digital currency and also a store of value like an asset although it was originally invented as a currency. Bitcoin has a limited supply that is why some people choose to hold it as an asset to sell later when the value appreciates. There are only 16.7 million bitcoins in circulation worldwide and there will be only 21 million bitcoins to be ever created by the year 2140.

People choose bitcoin for many different reasons but me too I choose bitcoin because I like the idea and concept behind bitcoin and blockchain. Both bitcoin and blockhain are new technologies which huge potentials and also an interesting role to play in the future. Bitcoin is a first peer-to-peer digital currency that is fast, secure, decentralized and it is acceptable worldwide. Using bitcoin people can send money anywhere around world and the money will arrive instantly that is a great development, indeed!  

I see no reason why people don't like paying their taxes. it is always very good to pay your taxes because it helps a lot in building your country's economy. In some countries government use tax money to do new projects such as building new schools, roads, and hospitals. I don't know about you but for me, i see nothing wrong with paying tax at all. I think it's good to pay your tax if you love your country because that way you can help your country move forward.  

If you love your country pay your tax, period!
Some guys here are even lucky their government is doing something good to help them. You should be thanking God for that.

Bitcoin price went through what is called the market correction in the late December 2017 hitting down up to $11k from $20k, losing about 45% of the bitcoin original value. Thankfully, bitcoin price started recovering over the last few days and it gains about 20% on top selling at about $16k today.

Banks and governments have no choice but to borrow and implement the blockchain technology because there is a shift in the world of technology today. Very soon governments and banks are going to start creating their virtual currencies and assets. I recently read on the news that Venezuelan government will launch their official coin called "Petro" it would be use for buying petroleum in the crude oil market. As time goes on you'll see number of countries launching their virtual currencies.      

Indeed, 2017 was a year for bitcoin but 2018 is also going to be great for bitcoin. In the early 2017 bitcoin was only the most performing coin in the market, but man, in the early 2018 some altcoin are too heating up very high such Ethereum, Ripple, ADA, and IOTA. I think 2018 is going to be an amazing year for both bitcoin, ethereum, ripple and some of remaining altcoins. 

Hardware Bitcoin Wallets Not Vulnerable to Spectre Attacks, Funds Safe



Trezor and Ledger, two of the most widely utilized cryptocurrency hardware wallets, have reaffirmed that the recently discovered vulnerabilities on CPUs and the latest Spectre attacks have not affected hardware cryptocurrency wallets.


Hardware wallets not vulnerable

As Cointelegraph previously reported, Pavol Rusnak, the chief technical officer at Satoshi Labs, the parent company of Trezor, wrote:

    “As more people are asking: @TREZOR is not vulnerable to recent Meltdown and Spectre hardware attacks, because it has processor not affected by these. Also our firmware is always signed, so the device never runs untrusted code. Using a hardware wallet is now more important than ever.”

Rusnak emphasized that users should rely on hardware wallets at this specific period of time, because Spectre attacks have drastically impacted the cloud services on which many cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet platforms operate. Earlier today, several cryptocurrency exchanges including Bittrex were taken offline due to the vulnerabilities found in Intel CPUs. These weaknesses affected Azure cloud services offered by Microsoft, and by extension, the exchanges hosted on Azure.

New York Times cybersecurity journalist Nicole Perlroth wrote:

    “Meltdown and Spectre show that it is possible for attackers to exploit these design flaws to access the entire memory contents of a machine. The most visceral attack scenario is an attacker who rents 5 minutes of time from an Amazon or Google or Microsoft cloud server and steals data from other customers renting space on that same cloud server.”

Safekeeping of funds

Hardware cryptocurrency wallet developers and Bitcoin experts have recommended users to move their funds from centralized online platforms to hardware wallets. Jonas Schnelli, a Bitcoin Core developer, stated:

    “The current privileged memory side channel attacks just confirms what many Bitcoin users already know. Don't trust your PC. Don't think applications (and private keys) are shielded. Use a hardware wallet.”

Unlike exchanges, hardware wallets are non-custodial wallets that allow users to remain in full control over their private keys. When users initialize their hardware wallet, they write down 12 - 24 words which comprise a backup for their seed. With this backup, even if the wallet platform gets hacked, users can obtain their funds and move them to another wallet or paper wallets.

But centralized trading platforms and wallets store private keys on behalf of their users. The result is a centralization of private keys, creating a significant security issue.


Don’t use wi-fi

The Ledger development team released a detailed blog post as to why hardware cryptocurrency wallets are not at risk due to Intel, AMD and ARM CPU vulnerabilities. The company wrote:

    “Ledger’s devices are not affected by these attacks. First of all, to exploit these flaws, the attacker has to be able to run arbitrary code. As long as you only use Ledger’s embedded apps (which is strongly recommended), your Nano S / Blue is not vulnerable to these kind of attacks.”

Most importantly, because any modern machine is affected by the Spectre vulnerabilities, it would be wise not to use Wi-Fi while sending and receiving cryptocurrencies.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/hardware-bitcoin-wallets-not-vulnerable-to-spectre-attacks-funds-safe

Digital Currencies Are Too Volatile, Is There a Way to Fix That?



The common question most people pose when they are confronting the idea of Bitcoin is: “what is its fundamental value?” Lay people don’t know how to approach Bitcoin, and they definitely don’t know how to value it. For many, it simply becomes a bet based on the supposition the price will continue to go up.

In recent weeks, what many believe to be irrational exuberance has bid the price up higher and higher to the point where a market correction seemed necessary. Every asset needs some form of sustainable value support and Bitcoin still hasn’t found one yet.


A potential solution is being put forward

A new idea that has emerged from China is A-SDR. This is an anchoring mechanism that serves to connect digital currencies to the real world. A-SDR consists of Ethereum, Bitcoin and ACC, and its goal is to stabilize the prices of digital currencies by tying them to real-world goods.

The idea of A-SDR came from a recent innovation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  The IMF’s goal was to take the world from a dollar-centric system to an SDR-centric monetary system. SDR stands for “Special Drawing Rights,” and the goal is for it to become the standard of circulation and settlement for global currencies.

ACC is the token that fuels the ACChain system and is anchored by holding title to real-world assets. The value of ACC will continue to rise as more digital assets are issued, and its share of A-SDR will continue to increase until it dwarfs those of Ethereum and Bitcoin.

ACC stands for Asset Collection Coin, and it has been created to fill the need which has been felt by all the critics of Bitcoin who see the value in digital monetary innovation but would prefer to hold tangible wealth. By holding title to real-life assets, ACC represents the combination of tangible asset ownership and digital currencies.


Collaborative effort

BTC and ETH are not anchored to real assets, which is where their volatility comes from. Rapid changes in price have made it so they cannot be used as a digital settlement currency globally. ACC will act as the connector of these digital goods to the real world and will have an exchange rate that is continually revised.

Bitcoin and Ether both have their purposes and these will not be eliminated by the coming of ACC. ACChain aims to work with the existing technology rather than competing against it. The A-SDR is a collaborative effort to harness all the good that can be experienced into one cohesive ecosystem, and buying ACC is the best way to get in on that goal right now.

Through anchoring digital gold reserve BTC and ETH with A-SDR, ACC then becomes equipped with four currency functions. These functions are the ability to scale value, means of circulation means of storage and means of payment. Basically, ACC is set to evolve into the standard token for anyone who wants to settle global digital assets. The future is bright for both ACC and A-SDR, but this also helps the performance of Bitcoin.


The future is in tangible assets that can be digitally controlled

Bitcoin is aided by the development of A-SDR because of the support that is provided by ACC. Bitcoin will be able to become a true and generally accepted digital gold, just as ACC will become accepted as the settlement digital coin in global asset trading.

ACChain is the platform which will be used to monetize goods with ACC, and every time a good is monetized, the demand for ACC will go up. This increase in demand will naturally lead to an increase in the price of the good.

When you purchase ACC via the A-SDR fund, you are helping to bootstrap ACChain to a higher profile, as well as making it more and more likely that Bitcoin becomes viewed as a digital gold. We are about to see what happens when you link hard, ownable assets with infinitely divisible digital currencies. With stability as a goal and both Ether and Bitcoin experiencing high volatility, investors are going to find huge appeal in the idea of ACC and the A-SDR funds.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/digital-currencies-are-too-volatile-is-there-a-way-to-fix-that

Ripple Success Tips Chairman For World’s Richest As Zuckerberg Eyes Crypto



Ripple Chairman and Co-founder Chris Larsen has profited so much from the asset’s bull run he could be the world’s richest person.

That’s according to BitFury CEO George Kikvadze, whose made a tweet about Larsen’s likely huge personal wealth gains over the past year.

“At Ripple's Implied Market Value of $320 bln - Chris Larsen with his 37 percent stake has become the world's richest person bypassing (Bill Gates) & (Warren Buffett),” Kikvadze noted Wednesday.

    BREAKING: At RIPPLE'S Implied Market Value of $320Bln - Chris Larsen with his 37% stake has become the world's richest person bypassing @BillGates & @WarrenBuffett !!! @CNBC @business @Forbes CONGRATS CHRIS !
    — George Kikvadze (@BitfuryGeorge) January 4, 2018

Ripple’s XRP token has delighted investors into 2018 with gains of over 35,000 percent, much of that taking place in the last few months.

Shooting up to highs above $3.60 per token, only Coinbase’s announcement that it had “no plans” to add new assets, including XRP, was able to take prices down somewhat.

On the topic of Larsen meanwhile, Forbes gave a more conservative outlook, nonetheless placing the co-founder’s wealth at up to $59 bln.

“That would have briefly vaulted Mr. Larsen ahead of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg into fifth place on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people,” the New York Times commented on the data.

Zuckerberg had coincidentally hinted at plans to integrate cryptocurrency with unnamed Facebook “services” this week, announcing in a post that he was “interested in going deeper and studying the positive and negative aspects of [technologies like encryption and cryptocurrencies], and how best to use them.”


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ripple-success-tips-chairman-for-worlds-richest-as-zuckerberg-eyes-crypto

Bitcoin Hits Multi-Week Highs Despite Continuing Altcoin Surge



Bitcoin climbed 11 percent into Friday to post its highest price since mid-December: one coin was worth $16,920, cross-exchange data shows.

Exchanges tracked by Coinmarketcap recorded an average trade price maximum of just under $17,000 earlier Friday before a slight correction saw Bitcoin head back towards $16,000.

The performance is encouraging for holders who have watched profits ebb as altcoin markets continue to surge. The trend marks a pause after several weeks of bearish action for BTC, which did not immediately correct following its dip from $20,000 to around $13,000 last month.

On social media, casual traders were eyeing Bitcoin’s reversal to continue, noting its impact on altcoin markets.

    alts bounce because of this.... BTC is a reversal pattern pic.twitter.com/yTOlD8JRih
    — Crypto_Ed_NL (@Crypto_Ed_NL) January 5, 2018

 

    Lots of questions flying in right now about #BTC.

    1. I don't know when/IF it will keep rising. But, I think it will personally.
    2. I am waiting patiently. Need patience in this game. I will be buying in when it is even lower. I believe another drop is coming.

    🚀
    — GODFATHER OF CRYPTO (@CryptoGodFatha) January 5, 2018

Optimism from well-known figures has remained unshaken meanwhile, despite newfound investor and mainstream interest in Ripple and continuing publicity maneuvers from Bitcoin Cash proponents.

An alleged compromise Thursday saw the @Bitcoin Twitter account begin publishing pro-Bitcoin Cash content, listing a graphic from major proponent Roger Ver comparing the altcoin’s and Bitcoin’s perceived advantages.

Flagging the event, online commentator WhalePanda also gave kudos to a theory circulating on Reddit regarding current price movements in both Bitcoin and altcoin markets.

    This is actually a very interesting theory on the #Bitcoin and current altcoin manipulation. TLDR; Big players can't accumulate Bitcoin without moving the price too much, so they pump and dump "cheap" alts to accumulate Bitcoin. https://t.co/oA0eW2KLE9
    — WhalePanda (@WhalePanda) January 4, 2018

“Big players can't accumulate Bitcoin without moving the price too much, so they pump and dump ‘cheap’ alts to accumulate Bitcoin,” he summarized the idea originally published on Reddit.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-hits-multi-week-highs-despite-continuing-altcoin-surge

Bitcoin Miners Could Face Power Restrictions in China



China has long been a bastion of cryptocurrency mining supremacy due to a surplus of power in the country.

Some of the world’s largest mining groups, including the likes of Bitmain’s Antpool, BTCC, BW mining and BTC.com, operate large mining operations in the country.

Mining is the backbone of cryptocurrency, as computers are needed to validate transactions stored on the Blockchain by solving cryptographic algorithms. As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in popularity around the world, the demand on the network grows.

That means countries, where energy is cheap, are the most attractive to miners, as the process is power hungry, to say the least.

China’s has cut back on its energy production in the last year due to a surplus in their energy grid, as this graph from tradingeconomics.com shows, taking data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China.


China Electricity Production

This surplus has led to cheaper energy costs for consumers in China, which is a boon for mining operators in the country. However, China has previously threatened to cut off cheap power supply to miners based near hydroelectric power plants in the country.

According to Bloomberg, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) intends to enforce local regulators to monitor and even restrict the power use of miners in certain regions of China.

A source says the PBOC outlined the plans at a closed-door meeting on Wednesday Jan. 3, as the country makes plans to transfer surplus energy to regions of the country that have higher electricity demands.

While the country has a surplus of energy, which has led to the curtailment of renewable energy harnessed by solar, hydroelectric and wind sources, the country has been staunch in its treatment of cryptocurrencies as a whole.

A ban on ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges last year has made for harsh environment for virtual currency in the country.

Nevertheless mining operations continue, but if these regulations are enforced, operators could face strict controls in terms of energy use.

As Cointelegraph reported in December 2017, the combined energy use of global mining is more than many African countries, highlighting the energy needs of mining processes.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-miners-could-face-power-restrictions-in-china