No. I don't really think it is a good idea to borrow money from someone and invest it into bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency because it is too risky. I always prefer investing my own hard earn money into bitcoin and all the rest of altcoins investments. I believe that way i can have a safe of mind.

Indeed, the correction right now is way too early. In fact, when did bitcoin price recovered from the Xmas correction? Heck, bitcoin is not even fully recovered from the recent correction and it's currently going though another one. Oh my!

Binance, Bitfinex, Bittrex Temporarily Say No to New Users



With the surging price of cryptocurrencies, demand has reached the point where cryptocurrency exchanges are completely swamped. This massive influx of users has led to major infrastructure concerns leading to the temporary closure of their registration portals.

Throughout the last half of 2017, digital currency exchanges have posted record numbers of user signup. Binance is reporting the addition of 250,000 users per day while Coinbase has reported numerous days of 100,000+ user signups and Kraken boasts of 50,000 new users per day.


Halt

The incredible swelling of cryptocurrency users is overwhelming the infrastructure of many cryptocurrency exchanges, with some such as Kraken experiencing major usability problems throughout 2017. The exchange has responded by disabling some of its advanced order types, reducing price precision and initiating a major system overhaul.

Bittrex is one of the first exchange platforms that put a halt on onboarding new users. Back in December 2017, an alert from this US-based exchange reads:

    “We have received an enormous number of new account registrations over the past few weeks.”

In addition to Bittrex, two other platforms had to make a similar decision – Bitfinex and Binance. New signups to Bitfinex will be welcomed by a window stating that new account creation has been paused.

Part of the message reads:

    “Thank you for your interest in opening a Bitfinex account. However, due to extraordinary demand, new account creation has been temporarily paused.

    Bitfinex focuses on serving professional traders. The reason we have decided to temporarily stop accepting new accounts is that we cannot undermine the quality of our services for our existing traders by flooding the system with new, small accounts.”

Binance has also had to halt registrations while undergoing an infrastructure update. While Bittrex and Binance have not given a timeline for reopening new account registrations, Bitfinex intends to allow signups starting January 15, 2018.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-bitfinex-bittrex-temporarily-say-no-to-new-users

Indian Lawyer Files Petition Demanding Cryptocurrency Regulations



An Indian lawyer has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to force action on the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the country.

Bivas Chatterjee, a Kolkata-based advocate who also serves as the state government's nodal officer for cyber crime cases, filed the PIL at the city's high court Friday, demanding a legal framework for cryptocurrencies in India. In his petition, the lawyer said that rules are required since cryptocurrencies have been linked to money laundering, drug trafficking and other illegal activities on the dark web.

According to the Times of India, the filing comes in the wake of the arrest of two youths in Kolkata last month by country's Narcotics Control Bureau for procuring and selling drugs through the dark web using bitcoin.

Chatterjee pointed out that the economic impact of "decentralised, unregulated and unaccounted parallel economic system" is vast, alleging that cryptocurrencies are used to fund money laundering, terrorism activities and tax evasion.

The petition states:

   "There is an urgent need to frame a joint panel or a group of committees with experts from various fields to ensure the legality and accountability of cryptocurrency."

He added that the "absence of controlling authorities" has also led to the recent "upheaval" in the prices of cryptocurrencies.

Chatterjee argued that the government should either ban bitcoin or form a regulatory body to control the market, the Indian Express reports.

The high court is reportedly expected to hear the case on Feb. 2.

In April 2017, a committee of government and central bank officials in the country came up with a plan to consider new regulations related to digital currencies. The committee prepared a report that put forward policies related to money laundering and consumer protection.

Later, in November, the country's supreme court asked the government to respond to calls to regulate bitcoin.

Recently, India's finance minister, Arun Jaitley, clarified that the government does not recognize bitcoin as legal tender. However, he noted that "recommendations are being worked at" to regulate the cryptocurrency.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/indian-lawyer-files-petition-demanding-cryptocurrency-regulations/

Bitcoin Faces Bear Move as Price Drops Toward $15K



Bitcoin is looking weak today after prices failed to hold above $17,000 levels at the weekend.

Coindesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) fell to a low of $15,253 earlier today and was last seen trading at $15,345 levels. According to data source OnChainFX, bitcoin (BTC) has depreciated by 8.86 percent in the last 24 hours.

Notably, fears of a China crackdown on bitcoin mining may have weakened the bid tone around the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Caixin Global reported last week that local regulators in China may not longer offer discounted electricity and tax deductions to mining companies. Further, a leaked document now suggests that China's top internet finance regulator is requesting that local governments push bitcoin-mining operations towards an "orderly exit" from the industry.

Given that China is the world’s capital of bitcoin mining, and accounts for more than two-thirds of the world's processing power devoted to the process of securing the network, such moves – if proved to be genuine – could bring more pressure to prices of the cryptocurrency.

The technical chart also indicates an increased risk of a bearish breakdown.

Bitcoin Chart



The above chart (prices as per Coinbase) shows:

   - Bear flag – a bearish continuation pattern. A downside break – i.e. a close below $14,460 (flag support) – would indicate the corrective rally from the low of $10,400 (Dec. 22 low) has ended and the sell-off from the record high of $19,891 has resumed.
   - The relative strength index (RSI) is back below 50.00 (bearish territory).
   - Since Dec. 21, trading volumes have remained well below the 30-day moving average. A sharp rise in volume on negative price action today (today) would boost odds of a bearish breakdown in prices.

View

  - A high volume bearish flag breakdown (close below $14,460) would open doors for a drop to $10,400 (Dec. 22 low). A violation there would expose the next support lined up at $9,965 (100-day MA).
   - Bullish scenario: Only an upside break of the flag would revive the bull run and shift risk in favor of rally to fresh record highs above $20,000.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-faces-bearish-move-as-prices-drop-towards-15k/

Banks and the Blockchain Blues



Like the misleading opening of a well-crafted thriller, the blockchain bustle in the banking sector is sending a confusing message.

To see how, let's take a brief look at the timeline:

   - In 2013, the news was full of banks shutting down bitcoin company accounts and worrying about being displaced by the innovation.
   - This continued in 2014, while a handful of brave institutions began to look at the underlying technology.
   - In 2015, we started to see the emergence of "thought leadership" from some incumbents, as well as promises of imminent blockchain trials and launches.
   - These began to materialize and multiply in 2016, as use-case testing spread.
   - And in 2017, we have seen an even greater number of trials, proofs-of-concept and prototypes, as well as the growth of financial consortiums.

It appears that confidence is increasing.

Or is it?

Given the seemingly frenzied activity over the past couple of years, we should be asking ourselves where the results are. Successful trials are great, but why have they not led to real-world use? Why is there so much applause and fanfare for work that has yet to show a practical application in banking? Why have countless promised deadlines come and gone with no follow-up?

Superimpose the scarcity of implemented blockchain projects over the subsequent silence around most of the trials from 2015-2017, and the implied confidence that we are close to useful solutions starts to weaken.


Two sides

On the one hand, I don't want to belittle the considerable investment that has been sunk into blockchain explorations in finance. Far from it, the knowledge acquired is an essential building block in the systems of tomorrow, in finance and other sectors.

And I still believe that finance – the "plumbing" of our economy – is one of the more compelling use cases for the technology.

What's more, there is plenty of interesting stuff going on. Trade finance and cross-border applications are two main areas of focus, and we will almost certainly see solid progress in these applications over the next couple of years. And many other intriguing trials are far along, with possible launches in 2018.

But on the other hand, the empty promises and quiet disappointments are starting to take their toll.

Interesting reports are getting lost in the noise, as most announcements these days appear to be along the lines of, "Hey, we're looking at blockchain!" – it would be more surprising to read a headline proclaiming that a bank is not interested in the technology.

With so many consortiums to join, potential use cases to announce and opinions on bitcoin to share with the world, it’s getting easier than ever for a bank's PR department to get its name in the press.


Be careful what you wish for

This is self-defeating.

First, there’s the loss of credibility. Looking back at the broken assurances from the past two years, we understandably take today's pronouncements with a grain of salt.

Second, there’s the creeping suspicion that the technology isn't all it's cracked up to be. If it was so good at streamlining processes and reducing costs, why isn't it already in the field?

Third, the level of noise is starting to induce an indifference to the progress. I’m sure I'm not the only one for whom bank CEO pronouncements trigger a boredom-induced numbness. And every time I read that a consortium has added yet another member, I'm reminded of what the collective brain power has yet to produce.

If the PR agencies could quieten down a bit, and if the press could be more selective about what it writes up, we could get a better sense of what really is happening "under the hood."

Unfortunately, PR agencies and marketers are not known for their restraint. And us journalists and commentators need to inform you of what the incumbents are doing, even if it's just talking, since they are both enablers and barriers to widespread adoption.

So, I expect that in 2018 we will continue to see empty announcements and mindshare positioning from the banking sector. The noise level will continue to increase, compounded by even more opinions on cryptocurrencies and token sales, as well as a stream of "me too" experiments that seem to repeat what has already been done.


My wish list

However, the eternal optimist in me hopes that the flurry will soon start to condense into substance.

The scattershot approach of many blockchain teams will consolidate into a few viable projects, as most use case explorations end up shelved due to regulatory obstacles, scant engagement or lack of buy-in from senior management. The "low-hanging fruit" targets will gradually be replaced with distributed ledgers, and lessons learned will nourish more complex ambitions.

Instead of fluff pieces that regurgitate press releases, the media will start to use its deepening knowledge to more carefully select what’s worth writing about, and will spend more time talking to those actually doing the work. PR agencies will start to turn down the volume, realising that we’re not so gullible anymore.

And perhaps we'll be able to talk more about how hard it is to go from lab to production, the difficulty of choosing the right problem to work on, the risk of operating in regulatory fog, and the struggle to get not only senior management buy-in but also the requisite partners on board. We would love to learn from mistakes, to hear more about the successful trials stuck in limbo, and to get a glimpse of what criteria are used in deciding to abandon a project.

That said, I also hope 2018 brings productive success to all those, in finance or not, who are working on blockchain applications – we are looking forward to reporting on your hard-won successful implementations that bring us a step closer to a better distributed and more trustworthy financial system.

But, please, keep the boring stuff to yourselves.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/banks-blockchain-blues/

The Crypto Market Just Dropped on One Data Adjustment

CoinMarketCap, perhaps the go-to source for cryptocurrency market data, has sparked an uproar after it moved to exclude South Korean exchanges from its price average calculations.

The unannounced move to remove data from Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit from its average calculations sparked confusion given that its front-page suggests a broad decline in the cryptocurrency market, including what appeared to be a near-30% fall in the price of XRP.

The overall market cap of the market – one measure by which traders assess the ecosystem – dropped sharply once the change went into effect, which appears to have taken place just before 5 a.m. UTC.



That shift can be notably seen in the 24-hour price chart for bitcoin cash, given that the three Korean exchanges are among the top-10 by trade volume for the cryptocurrency.



The exact reason for pulling the data isn't clear at this time, though as of press time Bithumb is offline because of what the exchange says is a server check. And prices on those exchanges have consistently traded far above the rest of the market, such as the more than $5,000 spread spread compared to markets like Bitfinex and GDAX.

Further, commentators like Ripple chief cryptographer David Schwartz, who tweeted out about the move, said the newly-reflected price is "more accurate and meaningful."

That sentiment hasn't spared CoinMarketCap from the crypto-community's ire, however.

Social media posts across Reddit and Twitter have chastised the site, crying foul about the lack of any formal announcement that they say led to an actual price decline as traders reacted to what they perceived as a tumbling market.

And while CoinMarketCap excluded Korean exchanges from its data, other data sites showed similar declines in asset prices.

OnChain FX's data matched CoinMarketCap's prices, yet CoinCap, while still showing declines in pricing for most of the top 50 crypto-assets, displayed higher prices for bitcoin, ether, XRP and bitcoin cash than CoinMarketCap did.

Similarly, data site LiveCoinWatch showed bitcoin falling to $14,787, somewhere between CoinMarketCap' $14,754 and CoinCap's $15,596 at time of writing.

The changes in the different sites' data go beyond just prices. Whereas LiveCoinWatch still shows XRP as the second-largest asset by market cap, the other data sites now show ethereum retaking its former spot.

Representatives for CoinMarketCap did not immediately respond to a submitted request for comment.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/the-crypto-market-just-dropped-on-one-data-adjustment/

What is really happening again, today?
Which country is banning ICOs again?
I know we're done with China!

I always tell people that life is a math game! All you have to do is take your calculation and calculate which one among the two is more profitable to you between bitcoin and your present job. That's all! Just make sure you follow the one with more profit.

Well, I think the bitcoin price is going grow even higher reaching up to $60,000 by the end of the year. There is still high demand of bitcoin in the market that is why I think many people will be buying bitcoin in the future. The only thing that is holding bitcoin back from breaking $25,000 benchmark by now is the bitcoin transaction issues and once they fixed everything will be back to normal. 

There are basically two major factors that affect the bitcoin price which are the demand and supply. Therefore, whenever there is a high demand of bitcoin the price will get higher, and when it is low bitcoin price will fall. The bitcoin is very valuable today because it has a limited supply of only 16.7 million bitcoins in circulation worldwide at the moment, and the demand of bitcoin is higher than the supply.   
 

Wow, this is a welcome development to the bitcoin community and the bitcoiners around the world. We need a lot of websites like the "BitcoinPeople" on the web to help people, business owners, and new businesses to use, and implement bitcoin as their payment system. Great work, thanks buddy.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that is fast, secure, decentralized and acceptable worldwide. Bitcoin is changing the world every day by providing jobs and investment opportunities where people can invest their money and make profit by just holding their bitcoins because bitcoin has limited supply that is why the value keeps growing. Therefore, the bitcoin is an investment opportunity not gambling, ponzi, or pyramid.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is fast, secure, decentralized, and acceptable worldwide which the USD is not! The bitcoin has limited supply of about 16.7 million bitcoins at the moment. Do you even know the USD monetary supply? even if you know that you can't compare it with the number of bitcoins in circulation that is why bitcoin is more valuable.

We all know there is an approximately 17 million bitcoins in circulation globally.
With the known largest bitcoins holders e.g. Mr. Nakamoto, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, NSA, and Winkleboss Twins.
These bitcoin holders accumulates over 2 million bitcoins in their wallets. How many bitcoins do you think left in circulation?  

Both bitcoin and blockchain technology are less than 10 years old and yet made a tremendous change in the word.
So, where do you see them in the next coming 20-30 years in the future.
Share with us what you think... thanks

 

I believe both bitcoin and blockchain technology are still under the incubation period they more to offer in the future because they are both less than 10 years old. Imagine where they'll be in the next 20-30 years in the future.

Bitcoin has been classified in to few different things:

1. A peer-to-peer digital currency.
2. A digital store of value.
3. A digital commodity.

These are the very best meaning of bitcoin, so far.

Well, the bitcoin is very secure to the level where no hacker or computer program can hack into it to steal people money or shut the network down. Bitcoin network is peer-to-peer which makes it unhackable to anyone person or computer. Bitcoin is decentralized, thus, no government or corporation can stop it. To stop the bitcoin you must shutdown the internet which is not possible.

Well, I think bitcoin is going to be huge in next 5 years. With the current high bitcoin demand by the people, it will be not less than $500k to a $1 million. The bitcoin limited supply with small number of bitcoins in circulation is what makes bitcoin very valuable, and that value will continue to grow in the future.