Latest posts of: cybersofts

$700 Million Stuck in 115,000 Unconfirmed Bitcoin Transactions

Bitcoin recently saw a meteoric rise in value over the past 30 days, but soon endured a major correction and saw its value drop from $7,500 to $6,407.62 at press time. The bitcoin dominance index dropped from over 62 percent to 53.4 percent following the “death” of the SegWit2x hard fork.

The cryptocurrency has seen better days, as according to Blockchain.info there are now 115,003 unconfirmed transactions, meaning the mempool has once again surpassed the 100 million byte mark – which hasn’t happened for nearly three months. According to tradeblock, these unconfirmed transactions amount to 110,611 BTC, worth over $700 million, weighting about 36 MB.

With the cancellation of the SegWit2x hard fork, various investors started selling their bitcoin and turning to other cryptocurrencies, as they will no longer receive “airdropped” tokens. Some also speculate existing bitcoiners are turning to Bitcoin Cash because of its flexible block size limit, justifying bitcoin’s recent decline.

Whenever bitcoin’s mempool is filled with unconfirmed transactions, mining software picks the transactions that paid the highest fees. This means that users who want to send important Bitcoin transactions are currently advised to attach higher fees to them in order to get them through.

According to estimates, the fastest and cheapest transaction fee – at press time – would be of 480 satoshis/byte. Taking into account a median transaction size of 226 bytes, this would result in a 108,480 satoshi fee, equivalent to nearly $7. The higher the fee, the faster the transaction will go through.

Fees are expected to remain high in the long-term, even after the adoption of SegWit. On Twitter, Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd stated that it’s important not to oversell SegWit

   …at which point fees will continue to rise after a short pit stop.

   Let's not oversell segwit; on-chain doesn't scale. https://t.co/vUMXp80XJe

   — Peter Todd (@petertoddbtc) November 10, 2017

Is Bitcoin under attack?

Some users claim that what’s currently happening to the number one cryptocurrency is an attack. As covered by CCN, Bitcoin Cash has been surging in value, so much so it is up to $1,257.57 per token, up from little over $620 last week. BCH’s surge seems to be inorganic, as a large part of the market is currently concentrated in South Korea. According to CoinMarketCap Bitcoin Cash’s trading value on South Korean exchange Bithumb surpassed $2 billion, 36% of the total volume. If we add other South Korean exchanges, Coinone and Korbit, the volume nears 50%.

It seems plausible Bitcoin Cash’s ecosystem has been attracting bitcoiners frustrated with the cryptocurrency’s current situation, as according to Blockchair Bitcoin’s fees recently climbed to a new all-time high, while Bitcoin Cash’s fees are still low.

   #Bitcoin vs. #BitcoinCash median fees chart.
   Bitcoin just hit its ATH of $5, while Bitcoin Cash users enjoy stable and predictable fees under 3¢ 📊
   Follow us for more analytics! pic.twitter.com/XlNtyYFz0Q

   — Blockchair (@Blockchair) November 10, 2017

The recent increase in the number of unconfirmed transactions may be justified with a surge in the cryptocurrency’s trading volume, partly triggered by its recent price surge, and subsequent decline following the SegWit2x cancellation.

However, some believe the number of unconfirmed transactions is increasing due to a surge in fake transactions, and that fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) are currently being spread by actors trying to push altcoins. Redditors on the r/bitcoin subreddit claim that bitcoin is currently under attack, and things might look scary for newcomers. He wrote:

   “Spam transactions galore; fud on every crypto Reddit; hash power temporarily drained off to B cash. Honestly, we’ve seen every one of these before. Nothing is different. Each time this happens, newbies panic and buy some altcoin(s) and then they are left holding the bag when the value flows back to bitcoin and a new wave of users comes in, driving the price up to new highs and becoming the targets of the next alt pump. It’s a cycle that keeps repeating.”

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/700-million-stuck-115000-unconfirmed-bitcoin-transactions/

Bitcoin plunges after upgrade is called off, but offshoot 'bitcoin cash' surges more than 40%

- Bitcoin's offshoot bitcoin cash climbs more than 40 percent as traders shift away from the original bitcoin.
- Bitcoin hit a record high this week after developers called off an increasingly contentious upgrade proposal that would have caused another
split in the currency.
- Some traders had bought bitcoin ahead of the planned upgrade in expectation of further gains.

Bitcoin fell Friday to its lowest since Nov. 1 as traders bet on its offshoot, bitcoin cash, instead.

The offshoot digital currency surged more than 40 percent to its highest since Aug. 19, and was last trading near $947, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin cash split off from the original version of bitcoin in August as a minority group of developers decided to implement an upgrade in an effort to increase transaction speeds for the digital currency.

An alternative bitcoin upgrade proposal, SegWit2x, which initially had more developers behind it, was called off Wednesday due to waning support.

Bitcoin three-month performance

Source: CoinDesk

Bitcoin hit a record high of $7,879.06 that day after the news, but quickly fell and was trading 9 percent lower on the day Friday afternoon near $6,500, according to CoinDesk. That marked its lowest since Nov. 1.

"You can see people playing back and forth between bitcoin and bitcoin cash trading depending on where they think near-term catalysts may be," said Chris Burniske, author of "Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond." "It's been a battle of investors versus traders that were stockpiling bitcoin to get their 'bitcoin2x dividend.'"

Investors at the time of a bitcoin split technically receive equal amounts of the offshoot currency. Disagreements over upgrade proposals have caused uncertainty over the future of bitcoin, but some traders had been buying bitcoin ahead of splits in order to benefit from a payout of a new digital currency and a potential relief rally in bitcoin following the split.

Creating bitcoin cash through the "mining" process was 13.6 percent more profitable than mining bitcoin, according to data on Coin Dance's website.

Bitcoin cash performance from Aug. 1 to Nov. 10

Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin has tended to recover quickly from pullbacks. The digital currency's price is up seven times this year and in a sign of growing interest from institutional investors, the world's largest futures exchange, CME, is planning to launch bitcoin futures by the end of the year.

Another digital currency, ethereum traded about 4 percent lower near $307.52 Friday after hitting a nearly one-month high Thursday, according to CoinDesk.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/10/bitcoin-falls-after-developers-call-off-segwit2x-bitcoin-cash-surges.html

The price of bitcoin is down more than 8 percent today, continuing losses that began after the cryptocurrency slipped below the $7,000 level.

Markets have fallen to as low as $6,475.40, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the lowest level reported since Nov. 1 (when they traded between $6,357 and $6,750.17). The move below $7,000 marked a reversal of the market gains seen earlier this week that pushed the price of bitcoin close to $7,900.

Earlier in the day's trading, the price had climbed as high as $7,330.06, with today's low marking a more than $600 decline since that level.

At press time, bitcoin is trading at $6,567.86.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-decline-continues-markets-drop-6500/

Mysterious Group BitPico Threatens to Execute the Bitcoin Hard Fork

Mysterious individual or group operating under the name “BitPico” has vowed that it will activate the SegWit2x hard fork as planned despite the decision by leading proponents to suspend the controversial scaling proposal indefinitely.

As CCN reported on Wednesday, a group of leading SegWit2x advocates — including developer Jeff Garzik, project lead Mike Belshe, and Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu — published a joint statement calling off the hard fork until consensus for the upgrade could be achieved. With these influential personalities calling for the fork’s suspension, the community breathed a sigh of relief that a blockchain split had been avoided — or at least postponed.

However, at least one entity is vowing to activate the hard fork as scheduled. That person or group is BitPico, a hitherto unknown entity that has nevertheless been active on the SegWit2x mailing list.

Here is BitPico’s full statement, which was sent as a reply to the joint statement calling off the fork:

“We are carrying out the fork regardless as everything is set in motion. Backing down the difficulty right now is a strategy. Wonder why 30% network hash-rate disappeared? It’s ours; the miners that will continue what is set in motion… A handful of humans cannot stop what they have no control over…”

Who is BitPico?

The most significant part of BitPico’s threat to execute SegWit2x is that he, she, or they control 30% of the bitcoin hashrate and have made it disappear from the network. But despite this bold claim, no one is quite sure who or what BitPico is. This, coupled with several other observations, makes the vow that the hard fork will activate as scheduled appear dubious.

First, BitPico did not sign the New York Agreement (NYA) that set SegWit2x into motion, nor was it publicly “shamed” by Bitcoin.org in its list of SegWit2x supporters. Were BitPico really as influential as it claims, there would certainly be more evidence of its existence.

Second, BitPico claimed in an email last month that their pool accounted for 1.72% of the global hashrate and that they were in the process of adding another 3-4% by the end of October. So by their own admission, that would mean that their share of the hashrate had grown by at least 24% in less than two weeks — a highly unlikely scenario, especially considering that this group has very little online footprint aside from a vacant Github repository and a sparsely-used Twitter feed.

Third, although the hash rate has made a minor decline since Wednesday, the dip is nowhere near 30% and is most likely part of the network’s normal fluctuations.

Finally, the threat appears hollow even if you accept the group’s claim its software is “enterprise-grade,” which is why it has not been active on Github. Even if the group did account for 30% of the hashrate, that would not be enough to make SegWit2x the “chain with the most accumulated difficulty,” which is the standard that SegWit2x-supporting companies such as Xapo and Coinbase stated they would use to determine which blockchain is “Bitcoin”.

Taking these factors into consideration, it does not appear that one should take BitPico’s threat to activate SegWit2x seriously.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/mysterious-group-bitpico-threatens-to-execute-segwit2x-hard-fork/

Bitcoin Gold Sets Sunday Date for Cryptocurrency Release

Bitcoin gold is set to go live this weekend.

In a new blog post, the developers behind the fork of the bitcoin blockchain said that they would release a formal software client for download at 7:00 PM UTC on Nov. 12. Originally set for a public launch on Nov. 1, the project is backed by LightningASIC, a seller of mining hardware based in Hong Kong, as well as a community of relatively unknown developers.

As reported by CoinDesk, the idea behind bitcoin gold is to keep most properties of the protocol, but restrict the use of specialized chips for mining, or the process by which new transactions are added to a blockchain (while also creating new tokens as a reward).

It's also the latest example of a "airdropped" cryptocurrency that will distribute new coins to anyone who owned bitcoin at the time of the split, or up until the date the ledger of transactions started to differ.

Yet in a move criticized by some observers, the team behind bitcoin gold has been mining blocks in insolation since the new network was formally created last month, with a certain amount of coins being set aside to support development.

In comments, the team behind the effort sought to send a signal of confidence to the market, perhaps owing to concerns circulating around the effort.

"We are extremely grateful for the community around the world who have been contributing hash power to our testnets; besides patiently testing their own mining process, they allow exchanges, pools, wallet developers, and all other service operators to implement and test their support of BTG so that the bitcoin gold community can have a full suite of services at launch time," the project's backers said in a statement.

In the days ahead, exchanges will no doubt be watching the launch. Soon after its August release, bitcoin cash, another cryptocurrency that forked the bitcoin network, amassed a nearly $4 billion market value.

Exchanges and traders will no doubt be watching to see if history repeats.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-gold-release-cryptocurrency-sunday/

SegWit2x Hard Fork Called Off: ‘Common Sense’ or ‘Delaying the Inevitable’?

The controversial SegWit2x fork has been suspended indefinitely, with promoters citing a lack of consensus for the November 16 software upgrade.

SegWit2x Called Off

The suspension was announced by SegWit2x project lead Mike Belshe in an email distributed to the SegWit2x mailing list, but it also bore the signatures of Wences Casares, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik, Peter Smith, and Erik Voorhees. Interestingly, the statement was not signed by Barry Silbert, whose Digital Currency Group was instrumental in organizing the New York Agreement (NYA) that set SegWit2x into motion.

The agreement had called for both the activation of Segregated Witness (SegWit) and an increase in the blocksize to 2MB. SegWit activated earlier this year, although it is debatable what role the NYA played in its implementation. However, the blocksize increase never achieved consensus, and the debate became increasingly vitriolic as the approximate November 16 date for the hard fork approached.

At this point, nearly everyone was resigned to a scenario in which Bitcoin would split into two competing blockchains. However, those fears were dashed on Wednesday, as Belshe shared that the developers and promoters of the protocol upgrade were concerned that activating the hard fork could prove to be a “setback to Bitcoin’s growth.”

From the statement:

   “Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger blocksize, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together,” Belshe wrote. “Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth.”

Common Sense or Delaying the Inevitable?

SegWit2x opponents immediately began to celebrate the news on social media channels. “Common sense prevails,” declared Litecoin creator and outspoken SegWit2x opponent Charlie Lee. “Let’s now work together towards scaling safely”. He added that on-chain scaling may be necessary in the future but that a hard fork should not be activated without broad consensus.

Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer said that the move was merely “delaying the inevitable,” arguing that transaction fees are still high and that Bitcoin scaling “is far from solved”:

   Nobody is actually using #Bitcoin as a currency though, so I guess they are happy to ignore these facts… 🤷‍♀️

   — Jackson Palmer (@ummjackson) November 8, 2017

“Nobody is actually using bitcoin as currency though, so I guess they are happy to ignore these facts,” Palmer added with a note of sarcasm.

The bitcoin price fluctuated wildly in the wake of the announcement. Bitcoin immediately surged to $7999 on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex but promptly flash crashed by more than $1,000 in a matter of minutes. At the time of writing, the bitcoin price was trading at approximately $7,200 as the market continues to sort out what the announcement means for the short-term trajectory of the flagship cryptocurrency.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/segwit2x-hard-fork-called-off-common-sense-delaying-inevitable/

Bitcoin Price Flash Crashes as Market Wrestles With SegWit2x Cancellation

The bitcoin price experienced a nearly $1,000 flash crash after reaching a new all-time high just below $7,900 in the wake of the cancellation of SegWit2x.

Bitcoin Price Flash Crashes After Reaching All-Time High

As CCN reported, Mike Belshe, chief executive of bitcoin wallet service BitGo and project lead for SegWit2x, announced today that the controversial Bitcoin protocol upgrade had been suspended indefinitely due to a lack of consensus and the near-certainty of a blockchain split following its activation.

Source: BitcoinWisdom

The bitcoin price surged in response to the announcement, rising to a new all-time high of $7,899 at 17:30 UTC on bitcoin exchange Bitfinex. However, soon after, the bitcoin price fell into decline, and at approximately 18:40 UTC it fell prey to a flash crash and plummeted to $6,977. This plunge constituted a $922 — or 12% — decline from the all-time high it had set just an hour prior.

Market Sorts Out SegWit2x

Bitcoin’s rapid price swing indicates a potential conflict between the short- and long-term impacts of SegWit2x cancellation. The hard fork would have split Bitcoin into two competing blockchains, and the fight for supremacy would have been ugly. Bitcoin services expected to undergo serious disruptions, and there was a high probability that some users would lose funds due to replay attacks and other exploits.

That Bitcoin avoided fracturing in this manner is bullish for its long-term prospects and will encourage so-called “hodlers” — investors with extended investment horizons — to increase their positions.

However, some analysts had speculated that the impending activation of SegWit2x was actually propping up the bitcoin price in the short-term and contributing to its growing market share. The reason for this is that a blockchain split would have effectively resulted in the creation of a new cryptocurrency, providing current bitcoin holders with “free” coins on the second blockchain. Because SegWit2x activation appeared certain, traders may have already priced in the value of these “crypto dividends” and increased their bitcoin positions accordingly. Now that the hard fork has been suspended, they may transfer some of that capital back into the altcoin markets.

The bitcoin price’s spike to $7,899, subsequent crash to $6,977, and eventual recovery to a present value of $7,176 bear witness to this conflict between traders — who prioritize short-term profits — and investors, who are primarily concerned with long-term growth. Expect volatility as the market continues to sort out the impact of SegWit2x cancellation.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-flash-crashes-market-wrestles-segwit2x-cancellation/

Bitcoin Price Achieves New All-Time High at $7,800, as SegWit2x is Canceled

Earlier yesterday, on November 8, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe announced the end of SegWit2x on the SegWit2x Mailing List. Shortly thereafter, the bitcoin price surged to $7,800, achieving a new all-time high.

Many of the major supporters of SegWit2x including ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees, Bitmain founder Jihan Wu, Xapo CEO Wences Casares, Blockchain CEO Peter Smith, and SegWit2x lead developer Jeff Garzik signed the official announcement of Belshe, officially announcing their withdrawal of support from the SegWit2x hard fork.

The announcement read:

“Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger block size, there is something we believe is even more important; keeping the community together. Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of SegWit2x.”

Belshe further stated:

“We want to thank everyone that contributed constructively to Segwit2x, whether you were in favor or against. Your efforts are what makes Bitcoin great. Bitcoin remains the greatest form of money mankind has ever seen, and we remain dedicated to protecting and fostering its growth worldwide.”

No Hard fork on November 16, Market Confident in Bitcoin

CCN previously reported that the decline in support for SegWit2x has been a major factor in driving the bitcoin price to new highs in the past week. While several analysts argued that it is the supporters of SegWit2x triggering the price to increase as funds from altcoins moved over to bitcoin, others firmly stated that such theory is far fetched and frankly, overreaching.

Over the past 24 hours, as the SegWit2x hard fork was terminated and support for the solution was abandoned by its lead developer and companies, the bitcoin price has increased by over 9 percent. Hence, it is evident that the community has been anticipating a chain split to not occur by mid-November and has been confident in the mid-term performance of bitcoin.

In the upcoming weeks, if the bitcoin price sustains its upward momentum created by the termination of SegWit2x, there exists a solid chance it could break the $10,000 interim target of analysts like Max Keiser, given the optimism towards bitcoin by the US market. CME Group, the world’s largest options exchange by trading volume, is planning to launch a bitcoin futures exchange by the end of 2017, which could also trigger the demand for bitcoin from the traditional financial industry.

No Price Drop in November

Prior to the withdrawal of SegWit2x, analysts predicted a major correction to occur after the SegWit2x hard fork, as funds in bitcoin move to SegWit2x and other altcoins. But, the possibility of a major correction has been eliminated with the cancellation of SegWit2x, creating a bullish short-term scenario for bitcoin.

In the upcoming weeks, the bitcoin price could highly likely move towards surpassing the $8,000 mark, given that a chain split has been avoided.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-achieves-new-time-high-7800-segwit2x-canceled/

Ethereum now available on Luno

Luno are happy to announce that Ethereum is now available to verified Luno customers, worldwide. From today, you can easily buy, sell, send, receive and securely store Ethereum (ETH) with Luno.

How to get started with Ethereum

You will need a verified account with Luno to add an Ethereum wallet to your Luno account (learn more about account verification):

   - Sign in to Luno (Android | iOS | web)
   - Toggle the menu and select Wallets
   - Select the add wallet (+) icon
   - Select Add ETH wallet
   - That’s it! You can now buy and sell Ethereum!

Note that you’ll be able to send, receive, buy, sell and store, but not trade ETH on the Luno Exchange (yet). We’ll send an update once it is available.

Will SegWit2x Lead to Major Bitcoin Price Decline by End of November?

Willy Woo, a highly regarded cryptocurrency and bitcoin analyst well known for his contribution to WooBull.com, has stated that the bitcoin price could suffer a major correction by the end of November, upon the SegWit2x hard fork.

A wild stab for November… BTC dumps before the HF, alts rebound, and a 3-way hash war between the 3 Bitcoins and BCH gaining a lot of value.

— Willy Woo (@woonomic) November 6, 2017

Theory on Potential Bitcoin Price Decline After November 16

Analysts including Woo and Tom Lee of Fundstrat have emphasized for many months that the SegWIt2x hard fork scheduled to be executed on November 16 could very likely lead to a major price correction, as a small portion of bitcoin investors who have allocated their funds from alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) to bitcoin with the sole purpose of obtaining the newly created SegWit2x coins or B2X reallocate their funds back to altcoins.

The abovementioned theory is viable, considering that the only method of obtaining B2X immediately after the fork is to own bitcoin prior to November 16. While SegWit2x has not added replay protection as bitcoin hardware wallet development firm Trezor recently explained, there exists a complicated method with which users can withdraw and be credited with B2X. Hence, logically, it is possible that altcoin holders would briefly allocate their funds into bitcoin to obtain B2X and almost immediately withdraw bitcoin after obtaining B2X thereafter.

Developers of Trezor said in an official statement released earlier today, on November 7:

“The TREZOR device supports both BTC and B2X. For both, new and legacy addresses will be supported. However, as SegWit2X will not implement replay protection, there are certain steps you need to take before you can use both coins safely. We will prepare a guide for you to follow, should you wish to split your coins and use both coins.”

But, the theory is also conditional to a certain extent, because it assumes that altcoin investors would allocate their funds prior to the fork solely to obtain B2X upon the fork. For the vast majority of bitcoin users and investors, the fork should a non-issue, because they can still hold and use bitcoin normally prior to, throughout, and after the fork without any technical problems with their wallets or exchanges.

The rapid surge in the price of bitcoin over the past two weeks has been mainly attributed to the optimistic bitcoin futures and options exchange launch by CME, the world’s largest options exchange by volume. However, analysts like Woo have also described the allocation of funds from altcoins to bitcoin as one of the major factors in the price surge of bitcoin, which has been displayed by bitcoin’s increasing dominance over the cryptocurrency market.

Conclusively, it seems unlikely that the price of bitcoin will suddenly crash after the fork, given that the market has had a relatively long period to prepare for the fork. Also, the theory in which altcoin investors have briefly stored their funds in bitcoin to obtain B2X is conditional on many levels, based on speculation and assumption.

Furthermore, even if the bitcoin price suffers a major correction on November 16, which will most likely be the case, the CME bitcoin exchange launch scheduled for late November could play as a driving factor to increase the value of bitcoin once again.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/will-segwit2x-lead-major-bitcoin-price-decline-end-november/

Bittrex on SegWit2x: Bitcoin Will Remain as BTC, Market Will Decide

Bittrex, the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume, has released an official statement regarding the SegWit2x hard fork scheduled to be executed on November 16.

Original Bitcoin Blockchain Will Continue as “BTC”

In the statement, Julian Yap of Bittrex emphasized that the original bitcoin blockchain will continue with the moniker “BTC” after the SegWit2x hard fork occurs later this month. Similar to other leading cryptocurrency trading platforms like Bitfinex, Bittrex intends to have the market decide which version of bitcoin will be known as the majority chain.

The statement read:

“In the event of a chain split, ‘BTC’ will remain the existing Bitcoin chain with 1 MB blocks until the industry and ecosystem demonstrates a clear chain preference for Bitcoin. Bittrex will take all reasonable steps to ensure that customer funds can be preserved on both chains. Bittrex will make all reasonable attempts to credit our users chain split tokens. We will not recover incorrectly made cross chain deposits under any circumstance due to the lack of replay protection.”

As many bitcoin experts, wallet operators, and exchanges including Jimmy Song and Trezor have noted in the past, SegWit2x lacks strong replay protection, which could endanger existing bitcoins of investors in the process of obtaining B2X after the fork. As such, users will be required to follow a strict set of instructions to safely withdraw and be credited with B2X.

Why Hash Rate Alone Cannot Decide the Majority Chain

Several exchanges and wallet platforms like Xapo have been criticized over the past month due to their approach in dealing with the SegWit2x hard fork. Xapo emphasized that it will grant a 24 to 48-hour window for both blockchains and decide the majority chain based on their accumulated difficulty, or hash power.

However, politically driven miners could easily switch their hash rate to the SegWit2x chain for a short period of time, or however long it takes, to ensure that SegWit2x evolves into the majority chain. For instance, upon the introduction of Bitcoin Cash in August, massive amounts of hash power moved from bitcoin to Bitcoin Cash during a period in which Bitcoin Cash was more profitable to mine than bitcoin.

As the difficulty level of Bitcoin Cash adjusted and the original bitcoin blockchain became more profitable to mine again, miners switched back to bitcoin. Several analysts have noted that approximately 40 percent of hashrate moved to Bitcoin Cash in the first few days, as miners tried to take advantage of the low difficulty level.

If a similar trend happens with SegWit2x and 50 percent of hash rate moves to the SegWit2x chain briefly, but most of the hash rate moves back to bitcoin once the legacy chain becomes more profitable to mine again, it will lead to a serious issue for exchanges because they cannot continue to switch the monikers “BTC,” “B2X,” and “BC1” around.

Conclusively, the most viable and logical approach to take is to take a long-term evaluation phase wherein many indicators are used to evaluate the majority chain, rather than having a 48-hour mining window which can be easily manipulated.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bittrex-segwit2x-bitcoin-will-remain-btc-market-will-decide/

CME Group's Leo Melamed: We'll 'Tame' Bitcoin

One of the senior figures at derivatives giant CME Group believes that bitcoin is on course to become its own tradable asset class.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, the company's chairman emeritus Leo Melamed said bitcoin will likely come to trade in a similar way to how gold and stocks are exchanged today.

Notably, CME Group last week announced plans to launch a bitcoin futures contract, aiming to have the product available by the end of the year. The product is still contingent on approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm indicated at the time.

Melamed told Reuters that he expects institutional investors to take part in the futures contracts, rather than just speculators, and called the move a "very important step for bitcoin's history." The product will enable investors to bet on bitcoin, as well as short-sell the cryptocurrency.

He went on to say:

"We will regulate, make bitcoin not wild, nor wilder. We'll tame it into a regular type instrument of trade with rules."

In the interview, Melamed explained he initially did not believe in bitcoin, but that his interest later grew.

"I’m still that same guy who believes in, at least examining change," he explained.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/cme-groups-leo-melamed-well-tame-bitcoin/

$8,000: Goldman Sachs’ Analyst Predicts Bitcoin Price Gains

Sheba Jafari, Goldman Sachs’ chief technician, believes bitcoin could reach close to $8,000, according to a message sent to the company’s clients on Monday, reported Business Insider.

Source: Coinmarketcap.com

Jafari noted bitcoin exceeded an equality target from its July low at $6,044, indicating the potential for an “impulsive advance” that could hit at least $7,941, the minimum target for the third of five waves. At that point, the price should achieve a position to watch for consolidation.

Bitcoin’s price was $7,201.2 late Tuesday morning, having posted a 3.19% drop in the prior 24-hour period, according to coinmarketcap.com.

Source: Coinmarketcap.com

CME, Fork Drive Gains

The price hit an all-time high of $7,592 early Monday after CME Group, one of the largest trading exchanges, announced plans to launch bitcoin futures trading by year’s end. The cryptocurrency has since gained more than $1,000.

Some analysts have said the SegWit2x bitcoin fork scheduled for Nov. 16 is also driving the price increase – temporarily. Trevor Koverko, CEO of Polymath, which specializes in cryptocurrency technology, said people could be purchasing bitcoin ahead of the SegWit2x fork in hopes of gaining additional bitcoin.

Koverko said smart traders are riding the pre-fork wave and will pull out before the fork.

The bitcoin community is divided over the SegWit2x fork since it could split bitcoin into two additional cryptocurrencies. There have already been two forks, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold. Another fork would double the number of coins for existing bitcoin holders.

Fork Could Hurt Bitcoin Price

Willy Woo, a cryptocurrency and bitcoin analyst well known for his contribution to WooBull.com, has stated that the bitcoin price could suffer a major correction by the end of November, upon the SegWit2x hard fork.

Analysts including Woo and Tom Lee of Fundstrat have emphasized for months that the SegWIt2x hard fork could lead to a major price correction, as a small portion of bitcoin investors who have allocated their funds from alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) to bitcoin with the sole purpose of obtaining the newly created SegWit2x coins or B2X reallocate their funds back to altcoins.

Others have claimed it is unlikely that the price of bitcoin will suddenly crash after the fork, given that the market has had a relatively long period to prepare for the fork.

Bitcoin’s gains since June have steadily increased its dominance of the total cryptocurrency market, according to coinmarket.com. As of today, bitcoin accounted for 60.61% of all cryptocurrency, with Ethereum holding 14.34%. On June 15, bitcoin held 39.14% while Ethereum held 31.12%.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/goldman-sachs-analyst-bitcoin-could-near-8000-mark/

I was looking at stratis myself yesterday and I found the value of stratis and byteball were going down about a week or so and i said to myself, shoot! Look at what is happening here - some of the great altcoins to invest are going down perhaps it's because of the bitcoin hard fork, and lots people converted their coins into bitcoins in order to get bitcoin gold (BTG) for free. Nevertheless, I think it's good to invest on stratis and byteball because they are great altcoins and their price is down now. i know for sure their value will recover.

Quote from: Casmania on November 07, 2017, 12:15:54 PM

Quote from: Dr.Osh on November 07, 2017, 02:24:24 AM

Quote from: lenovo16 on November 07, 2017, 01:31:20 AM

Quote from: cryptotim on August 20, 2017, 03:45:16 AM

Now that it's been proven there are many other alternatives to Bitcoin which have advantages such as quicker transactions, smaller fees, and higher mining profitability, I don't see a reason to think Bitcoin will get to $10,000.

Will the price of Bitcoin still go up? It seems so outdated when compared to its competitors.

Ofcourse it will. Bitcoin now is almost 7000 USD in value. And as the day pass by it continue to move up. And everyone is looking fo it to improve itself more for them to earn a huge amount. Many bitcoin users are hoping that the journey of bitcoin in the digital word is continue to grow and stay on top.

I'm sure, bitcoin prices will still go up, so do not doubt it. it could be that the bitcoin price exceeds $ 7500 in a short time. Well, we have seen several times the price increases that happen very quickly, so it is possible again to happen, and even become higher.

Yes ofcourse bitcoin goes up, bitcoin goes up higher and higher if people in this job will do such a good things that provided here in this job. Bitcoins price can increase quickly by the help of many people on this online job. Theres a possibility that sometimes bitcoins money will goes down that we cant control if that happen but again all the possibilities are always there but We all know all people here will help bitcoin price goes up and much higher into the upcoming future. Bitcoins price will goes up and theirs a possibility that it will happen again and again and in the end we will gain much profit and hope so that digital work like bitcoin will improve by the upcoming years and continue to grow and stay on top for this job to help us more in our future.

Bitcoin price go up and down everything, but you don't have to worry about that because whenever the price go down it will surely go up again - like magic.

Quote from: jjdub7 on October 14, 2017, 10:24:07 PM

Quote from: drachman on October 14, 2017, 10:19:15 PM

Quote from: Sikka157 on October 14, 2017, 10:14:59 PM

I sold my bitcoin today. I think the price jumped too much too fast. My opinion is that it will drop below 5,000 soon and in that case I will buy back again because i expect bitcoin to increase significantly in the long term.
What do you think??

That is a risky play, not many people are selling since they want to obtain free bitcoin gold, so I think you are going to need to wait for some time, because those that get bitcoin gold are going to sell it and get bitcoin with it and that is going to push the price up once again.

I'm supporting your decision. But only if you plan to buy the same amount of coins on lower price. Or even taking 'free' coins instead of 'free' fiat.
Now the price seems to be at it's pick point and I don't believe to reach another all time high soon. Or at least in next 2-3 months.

I think selling bitcoin is not advisable in the current situation because the bitcoin value is growing almost everyday. So, why do you want to sell your bitcoins? The problem with selling your bitcoins now - if you sell it now you won't be able to buy the same equivalent when you want to buy. It's better to hold on your bitcoins.

Quote from: sunsilk on October 27, 2017, 11:19:04 AM

Quote from: nodav on October 27, 2017, 11:15:43 AM

So guys, what do you think about McAfee prediction - will Bitcoin jump to $500 000 till August 2020?

I want this to happen but predictions are always be predictions. It may happen and it may not happen, if McAfee said that maybe there are some surprises that he'll do just to make this happen.

And this is a very tuning in prediction because he's condition is very crazy - check out this reply from https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/887024683379544065?lang=en

I hope it happens and I'll definitely going to sell maybe some of my bitcoin by that time and will live happily ever after.

No. that's too much! I don't think that is possible because there no possibility on that because it doesn't make any sense.
How about bitcoin selling $50,000 in 3 years, that would better and it makes more sense. $500k in 3 years - Oh, come on! Stop dreaming.

Quote from: BrewMaster on November 06, 2017, 06:12:52 AM

we can never know because a lot of unexpected things can happen in the future that have the potential of changing the course of price rise a lot. for example this year we had the Japanese mass adoption which started early on this year, we had the end of bitcoin scaling debate or at least end of most of the debate. and these two were huge unexpected changes that led to huge unexpected rises.

so the future rise may not be like this year but there will be more rise in 2018.

Well for me i definitely think the value of bitcoin will reach $20,000 by the end of 2018. If you look at number of hedge fund investors that invested over $100 million dollars in bitcoin last year they were only 30+ and in this year 2017 there are over 130 hedge fund investors in bitcoin. Bitcoin is now stronger than ever and that is the way that it will continues to be in 2018. Bitcoin is here to stay to make people millionaires, so buy now before it's too late. Grin