Not everybody take bitcoin as an investment opportunity, some of us here only loves bitcoin as a currency just like USD only better. The bitcoin price growth is only just an advantage.

Why not? there is not point of having bitcoin/money if you cannot help the yourself, your family, and poor, or needy. People always work hard to earn bitcoin/money to solve their financial problems. Once they solve their issues they can still use the remaining balance to help someone else in need of assistance too.  

Bitcoin is still new technology that is why a lot of people still treat bitcoin as an investment. there would be a time when people will stop holding bitcoins and start using it as what it was originally designed for, which a payment system.

Yeah, there so many predictions out there claiming bitcoin will reach $1 million milestone in the future. the most popular prediction is by John McAfee, the founder and CEO of McAfee Security. Mr. McAfee predicts bitcoin price will reach a million dollar benchmark by the year 2020. We shall see about that, then.

Japan: The New Heart of Bitcoin



No matter what negative news rocked the community, what hard fork happened or what skeptics stated, bitcoin held strong in 2017.

This is due in no small part to Japan. While the wider community is what breathes life into any coin, Japan is now bitcoin's heart; the country that is at the center of its support. There used to be a concern about the longevity of bitcoin, the safety of using such a novel new invention.

2017 is the year that fear died – and Japan is a big part of that reason.

Where other countries have had knee-jerk responses to bitcoin and blockchain technology, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) expertly analyzed the technology and developed clear and fair laws to regulate virtual currency exchanges. This is no small matter – bitcoin exchanges are the onboard ramp to both bitcoin adoption as well as the future of virtual currencies.


Coming home

With all the positive news this year from Japan, it's only appropriate to acknowledge the country's deep history with cryptocurrency. While we may never know for sure if he (or she) is (or was) Japanese, Satoshi Nakamoto is a Japanese name. Japan is bitcoin's home.

But though bitcoin has always had strong roots in Japan, it was also the center of its biggest controversy.

Some say that Mt. Gox's implosion, now nearly four years removed, was the worst event to ever happen to bitcoin. The numbers were staggering. 650,000 bitcoins, worth around $437 million at the time, were lost when the exchange abruptly closed. The company filed for bankruptcy. This affected over 127,000 customers around the world. Today, those lost bitcoins are worth nearly $9 billion.

Still, this event, while terrible, forced the Japanese regulators to step in and protect consumers.

That disruption, that explosion, is why Japan has become the most forward thinking jurisdiction for bitcoin and virtual currencies. The FSA's understanding of the technology, regardless of the bad or inexperienced actors early in the space, helped lay the foundation on which the rest of the world can begin to understand and fully accept bitcoin and other virtual currencies.

Starting on April 1 of this year, the Japanese government enacted an amendment to the Payment Services Act. These amendments, which BitFlyer helped establish, have been referred to as the Virtual Currency Act and alongside additional tax reform have provided three main pieces of regulation in 2017:

1: Legal clarification of bitcoin

The Virtual Currency Act described and identified what a virtual currency is, clarified that bitcoin is considered an asset and that bitcoin can be considered a payment method.

That act, however, did not declare bitcoin as a legal currency, as some have mistakenly professed.

2: Virtual currency exchange regulation

The Japan Financial Services Authority was granted the ability to both regulate, as well as issue licenses, to virtual currency exchanges in Japan. This cemented bitcoin as an established market in Japan, where the rules are clear and consumers can be protected.

BitFlyer was proud to be granted one of the first licenses of this sort earlier this year in September.

3: One additional piece of regulation from a different act

Lastly, while not part of the Virtual Currency Act, tax reform was pushed forward on July 1, which removed a consumption tax that dissuaded foreign investors from purchasing bitcoins on Japan's market. This opened up Japan’s markets to international investors.


Expanding bitcoin and blockchain usage

But while Japan has led the way, the rest of the world should learn from the regulations and research that has resulted.

Here, BitFlyer has been able to work closely with government organizations to provide research and information about the usability of bitcoin and blockchain technology. The research, just like bitcoin, is borderless and publicly available. BitFlyer has also been hard at work researching and developing a world-class enterprise blockchain called "miyabi." With a top speed of over 4,000 transactions per second, miyabi guarantees immutability, finality, Byzantine fault tolerance, low latency and has no single point of failure.

This work has not gone unnoticed.

The largest interbank clearing network in Japan has selected bitFlyer to demonstrate a proof of concept, utilizing miyabi to show how blockchain can be used to revolutionize the banking industry and create a much faster settlement platform. If adopted, the largest banks in Japan will be connected through blockchain and demonstrate to the world that enterprise blockchain can be implemented securely, creating a better and more united financial world.

These developments are why we believe 2018 will be another spectacular year for bitcoin.

Volume has been growing steadily through 2017, the price has been skyrocketing throughout the year, but most importantly, the last pieces for institutional investors to get involved with bitcoin are close at hand.

Even if a bitcoin ETF doesn't gain approval in 2018, the creation of futures products for bitcoin will allow for much more liquidity to enter the markets. Past just conventional derivatives, dozens of trading firms have sprung up over the last year to allow for boutique hedge funds, family offices, or even large-sized individual traders to access the virtual currency markets.

With all of these developments, bitFlyer has realized an incredible opportunity to harness all the liquidity in Japan to fuel these new marketplaces and service new traders. BitFlyer's bitcoin trade volume (including leveraged trading) is the largest in the world. Regardless of the massive inflow of volume institutional firms can bring through derivatives, trading firms will need to trade actual bitcoin for delivery.

BitFlyer's global expansion (such as the recently launched bitFlyer US exchange) seeks to service these markets directly, by providing institutions and individuals everywhere with the ability to participate with the largest source of bitcoin liquidity in the world: Japan.

 - By Yuzo Kano is the CEO for BitFlyer, one of Japan's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs developing settlement systems, and later on equities derivatives and convertible bonds.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/japan-new-heart-bitcoin/

Coinbase to Customers: Don't Forget to Pay Taxes on Bitcoin Gains



Exchange and wallet service provider Coinbase appears to be taking early steps to remind customers about their upcoming tax obligations.

With the U.S. tax year having ended on Dec. 31, the company's users are now faced with a banner placed at the top of their dashboard, stating "Please remember to pay your taxes," and linking to the website's newly updated tax FAQ page.

The FAQ points out that Coinbase "cannot provide legal or tax advice," but links to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines on how to report and pay taxes relating to crypto trading. A similar banner is also now visible for users in the EU as well.



It also adds that users can refer to their account transaction histories in order to calculate their gains and losses. Coinbase further offers a Cost Basis for Taxes report (currently in beta) to assist with the process, the FAQ states.

Notably, the move to raise awareness of users' tax liabilities comes soon after Coinbase concluded a lengthy court battle with the IRS over the tax agency's request that the firm hand over records on thousands of customers.

The San-Francisco district court ruled in late November that Coinbase must hand over user accounts at the exchange that bought, sold, sent or received sums of $20,000 and higher between 2013 and 2015.

The dispute over user records had been ongoing since November 2016, when the IRS had originally requested 480,000 customer accounts – a number that was slashed to over 14,000 in the final ruling, prompting Coinbase to claim the case a "partial victory."


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-warns-users-to-pay-their-bitcoin-taxes/

Egypt's Top Cleric Declares Bitcoin Trading 'Unlawful'



Egypt’s highest official of religious law, Grand Mufti Shawki Allam, called Bitcoin trading “unlawful” under Sharia law, online publication Ahram reported today. In the fatwa issued Monday, Allam wrote that Bitcoin isn’t an “acceptable interface of exchange” and is therefore unlawful to trade. The cleric also cited Bitcoin’s potential for money laundering and pointed out that because it isn’t subject to any government’s control, Bitcoin could potentially undermine the Egyptian economy.

Allam further stated that Bitcoin negatively affects “dealers’ legal safety” and that:

    "Bitcoin is forbidden in Sharia as it causes harm to individuals, groups and institutions.”

One of the grand mufti’s advisors told BBC that Bitcoin is “used directly to fund terrorists.” Egypt’s government is also no fan of cryptocurrencies, having called Bitcoin a “form of deception that falls under legal liability.”


Halal or not?

Back in February 2017, Cointelegraph spoke to several experts about Bitcoin’s status under Sharia law. Matthew Martin of Blossom Finance explained his belief that Bitcoin is halal, writing:

    “As a payment network, Bitcoin is halal. In fact, Bitcoin goes beyond what more conventional closed banking networks offer. Unlike conventional bank networks which use private ledgers where there's no guarantee that the originator actually owns the underlying assets, Bitcoin guarantees with mathematical certainty that the originator of the transfer owns the underlying assets. Conventional banks operate using the principle of fractional reserve, which is prohibited in Islam.”

Matthews did agree that Bitcoin isn’t likely to be considered money under Islamic law:

    ““Historically, though, Islam has only recognized commodities of intrinsic value as money including things like gold (Dinar), silver (Dirham); rice, dates, wheat, barley and salt. In a strict interpretation of what qualifies as money, Bitcoin probably misses the mark.”


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-violates-sharia-law-says-egypts-highest-religious-official-issues-fatwa

McAfee Warns of Advanced Hacking After Twitter Account Hijacking



Cybersecurity Expert John McAfee has warned of advances in hacking methods after his personal Twitter account was hijacked to promote a number of alternate cryptocurrencies last week.

The founder of computer security company McAfee had regularly been posting a ‘Coin Of The Day’ review on his Twitter page. The hackers gained access to his account by changing his phone number to request a new password.

They then posted a series of Tweets using McAfee’s profile to promote a number of coins on Dec. 28, as cypherpunk Jameson Lopp shared on Twitter:



Speaking to RT after the incident, McAfee said he had no control over the situation.

    “What happened is brand new to me. They managed to hack AT&T to move my phone number to another phone”

The series of tweets saw the value of the cryptocurrencies touted rise in value - and McAfee believes the hackers would have made a lot of money in the process.

    “Why would they do that? Because I was issuing every day a recommendation for new alternative coins, alternative to Bitcoins cryptocurrencies. People would invest hundreds of dollars into these coins. What the hacker did was to recommended six different coins within six minutes and invested, I’m sure, much money beforehand into those.”


Inside job

The cybersecurity expert speculated that the hack may have been an inside job. He suggested that an AT&T official was bribed to give the hackers access to his account.

McAfee also estimated that the hackers may have made millions of dollars, which would easily compensate any bribe needed to carry out the attack.

McAfee only regained access to his Twitter account three days later. He posted a couple of tweets confirming that his account had been compromised while hitting out at users that had ridiculed the situation.

    Urgent: My account was hacked. Twitter has been notified. The coin of the day tweet was not me. As you all know... I am not doing a coin of the day anymore!!!!
    — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 27, 2017

    Though I am a security expert, I have no control over Twitter's security. I have haters. I am a target. People make fake accounts, fake screenshots, fake claims. I am a target for hackers who lost money and blame me. Please take responsibility for yourselves. Adults only please.
    — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 28, 2017


Exchanges could be next target

McAfee also warned that cryptocurrency exchanges are the biggest targets for cybercriminals as they hold millions of dollars worth of virtual currency.

    “Most people don’t keep their currencies on their own wallet, they use wallets on the exchanges. Now, if I were a hacker trying to hack into wallets and get money, I wouldn’t search around the world for individuals that have their wallets. I would go to an exchange and the exchanges have billions of dollars in cryptocurrency.”

Reflecting back on the infamous Mt.Gox exchange debacle where 850,000 Bitcoins were stolen by hackers, McAfee predicts more of the same in the future.

    “Beginning with Mt.Gox a couple of years ago where hundreds of millions of dollars were lost... This will continue to happen until people and the owners of the exchanges understand that the world they are in is far more sophisticated in terms of hacking than they believe.”

It’s not hard to agree with McAfee’s sentiments towards hacking given some of the recent attacks. Mining service Nicehash was hit in December, losing over 4,000 Bitcoin valued at $60 mln at the time.

This situation once again puts a highlight on the importance of individuals educating themselves on some of the safety measures they can use to secure their digital funds.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/mcafee-warns-of-advanced-hacking-after-twitter-account-hijacking

Bitcoin contributed a lot in changing people lives from providing jobs for youth, unemployed graduates, and even some employed people with very small salaries. For the people that invested heavily in bitcoin surely 2017 was a very successful year for them as bitcoin gained over 2000% increase in value. And for the guys out there going through life in 2017, don't worry 2018 looks promising don't give up this year might be yours.  

In time, all traditional paper currencies would be history just like the gold coins which was replaced by paper currency. And now the paper currency is a about to be replaced by digital currency in this case bitcoin.

The easiest way to invest in bitcoin is through buying bitcoin and hold it either for long-term or for short-term. Investing money into bitcoin is not a rocket science, it is as simple as blink of an eye. You may start by going to Luno.com or Coinbase.com to register an account and verify your details. Once your account is fully verified you are ready to go, don't worry the verification process will not take longer than 30 minutes.

In late December 2017, bitcoin went through what is called a market correction. The market correction normally occur when the bitcoin price hit the highest level - the apex point in the market, so the correction will come to balanced the bitcoin price and make it affordable for many buyers before the price get back to where it was and set itself to another level. After the correction period, the bitcoin price normally recovers in 2-3 weeks time.  

Yeah, a lot of people out there thinks getting bitcoin in this community is easy until they joined this community, then they would realized earning bitcoins is not easy as easy as they think. Some guys might even spend a year without earning a single bitcoin in this community. To earn a bitcoin at the current bitcoin price you have to really work hard to get it. And you know must people are very lazy, not willing to put the time and effort to earn bitcoin.   

Bitcoin is getting accepted by the people around the world because their economies are failing as a result of political failures and unfulfilled promises by their leaders. In so many countries political systems are failing due to the lack of good economic management and competency for administration. therefore, elites must join the revolution such as bitcoin to fly above the failed economy.   

Yes, i think bitcoin is a good investment opportunity where people can invest their money and make profit later. Based on what we saw last year 2017, bitcoin gained over 2000% increase in value which is more profitable than gold, or any form of property investment. As we now enter the year 2018 more actions are about to begin.

I don't really think that the price of bitcoin can really matter because people can still buy fractions of bitcoin no matter the price. Unless if people are trying to own or accumulate complete bitcoin. Sometimes people have problem they don't care about anything when it was cheap and by the time when it is expensive then everybody will be talking about. 

Long-term investment is always the best way to stay on top of the game. short-term investment is of amateurs you are right about that. And based on my own understanding long-term investment is the most profitable investment ever because your initial investment will be doubling itself over and over. Imagine the guys how invested in bitcoin 7 years ago. Those guys bought bitcoin at an average of a dollar per coin and look at the bitcoin price it's selling at an average of $15k today.

Alternative Blockchain Uses: Elections, Product Reviews and Fraud Prevention



Decentralization and its effect on the economy is a controversial topic that has pervaded discussion throughout online communities as well as mainstream and alternative media outlets thanks, in part, to Bitcoin's roller-coaster ride throughout 2017.

This phenomenon has also threatened the infrastructural payment processing monopolies whose power has traditionally owed to their near-absolute control over transaction processing, authorization and governance.

Just like this effect of cryptocurrency on wealth and economy: Blockchain solutions when used for rating/voting systems has the potential to return political and democratic power to the hands of the voting citizens if implemented correctly as a method for vote processing and verification.


Fraud claims and electronic voting machines

Election Fraud has been in the news lately due to the recent US state election in Alabama, which resulted in a (disqualified) legal contest from losing Republican candidate Roy Moore. A significant and controversial talking point surrounding the election was the state's ruling prior to the casting of votes, to erase all electronic votes, thus eliminating the option for a re-count on the event of a dispute such as this.

Proving that this repeat issue should be a bipartisan one: the same thing happened earlier this same year. In June, the state of Georgia deleted their electronic voting records after an election which resulted in the election of a Republican.

Some have argued these instances can be attributed to flaws in either the hardware or software, exposing vulnerabilities to incidents such as technical faults or tampering, thus damaging the integrity of the data produced.


The current landscape of Blockchain security

Dealing with a concept as foreign as decentralized regulation of central government, we need to ensure that the argument for an alternative is both compelling and consistent if anything is going to change. In light of this, we must also consider how (and whether) a proposed Blockchain based solution would be capable of providing a sufficient standard of protection for highly confidential information.

The risk of malicious attacks executed by external parties is an endemic concern faced by Blockchain users and ICOs. The vulnerability has also been known to extend to internal cases, such as the accusations that have led up to the ongoing insider trading scandal at Coinbase, which has in particular helped to highlight the real threat that these bad actors pose to the crypto economy.

Because of this, these new token creators need to exercise extreme due diligence when creating their infrastructures in order to cover themselves and most importantly the customers: who need to be made to feel as secure as possible when investing time and money into risky ventures such as an ICO. Many Blockchain innovators are wisely diverting a large amount of resources to fill these security gaps: implementing comprehensive preventative and reactive strategies based on a combination of process and technology-driven solutions.


Parity begins at home

It may appear to be a long way from becoming a tool for fighting political corruption but as a real-life case study: Zurich, Switzerland based Lina make a strong proposition with their unique MVP, which aims to reduce unethical practices in the review sector. Arguably, the core benefits that their current system proposes to deliver are applicable to a range of uses beyond just reviews: primarily data integrity, traceability and transparency.

Lina aims to become the world’s first community-driven “tokenized” user review system with practical applications that range from household goods to digital media such as video-games. Their system's objective is to resolve the discrepancies that plague online reviews including unreliable write-ups from paid reviews or the company's own staff; greater demand for customer reviews than there is supply, and the prioritization of quantity and aggregate scores over quality assessments from prolific reviewers.

As a user review platform 'Lina.review' is quite possibly the first market offering of its type. It would be great to see where their project goes and whether they get the partnerships that would help launch their project into the mainstream discussion.

They have truly put the proverbial horse before the cart with this successful platform which was established long before the announcement of their ICO, which is set to launch on Jan. 15, 2018 -  suggesting that they have tested the system thoroughly, as they claim to look after a worldwide community of users.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/alternative-blockchain-uses-elections-product-reviews-and-fraud-prevention

Investing money into bitcoin is one of the smartest investment strategies these days as bitcoin is one of the most profitable investments last year 2017. Bitcoin value gained over 2000% increase in value last year 2017 alone. Imagine, if bitcoin price can manage to grow with even 1000% in this year 2018.  

Yes, that is basically it! If you own some bitcoins and died unexpectedly without given any of your family members your private key you died with your bitcoins. One piece of advice here, if you are putting huge amount of money into bitcoin make sure you give your wallet private key to someone you really trust. e.g. a father, mother, brother, sister, or even a trusted friend.