Imagine having $220 million that you can only access with an encrypted password you created years ago. Now imagine you don't have any idea what that password is and you only have 10 tries to guess it before that $220 million is lost forever. Talk about stressful! This is the plight of German-born San Franciscan Stefan Thomas. As of this week, his Bitcoin portfolio is worth $220 million and Thomas has no idea what his IronKey, the hard drive that allows him access to his digital wallet of 7,003 Bitcoin, is. He lost the paper he wrote the password for his IronKey on years ago. Thomas has tried eight of his most commonly used password combinations so far with no success.

Thomas isn't the only Bitcoin owner locked out of his account. The unusual way the cryptocurrency encrypts the digital wallets means many people are locked out of their accounts due to lost or forgotten IronKeys. About 20% of the current 18.5 million Bitcoins are in lost or stranded wallets. These wallets are worth about $140 billion.

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Can you imagine the frustration these Bitcoin owners feel knowing they have literally millions of dollars locked up that they cannot access? In many cases, those digital wallets date back to the early days of Bitcoin, when no one really thought the cryptocurrency would take off and be worth anything. Unlike traditional banks like Chase and financial companies like PayPal which can reset a customer's password by verifying information, Bitcoin cannot do that. Bitcoin's mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto's main idea about Bitcoin is that it would allow anyone to open a digital bank account that no government could regulate. As such, Bitcoin is run by a network of computers that use a complex algorithm that creates an address and private key known only to the person that created the account. Bitcoin's computers allow the network to confirm passwords to allow transactions without Bitcoin knowing, seeing, or having any access to that password. Basically, this means a Bitcoin account can be created without any sort of identity check. Unfortunately, this system did not take into account how bad a lot of people are at remembering their passwords.

For Stefan Thomas, it's been nine years since he's been locked out of his Bitcoin wallet. In 2011, he was living in Switzerland and was given the 7,002 Bitcoin as payment for making an animated video called "What is Bitcoin?" which introduced the technology to people. At the time, Bitcoin was worth $2. Today it is worth $35,000 per Bitcoin. Within the year, he lost the digital keys to his Bitcoin account. When he first realized he'd lost the password in 2012, he had a few weeks where he felt pretty desperate. Since that time, he's made his peace with it. Of course, it helps that he has other Bitcoin accounts that he does remember the passwords to that have brought him more money than he could have ever hoped. Thomas, a programmer, is the former CTO of cryptocurrency company Ripple, also has an account there filled with that company's XRP currency.

But when it comes to that IronKey he doesn't remember the password to Thomas isn't giving up. He's stored it in a secure facility and is saving those last two guesses just in case someone develops a way of cracking complex cryptocurrency passwords.

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Bitcoin Owner Has Just Two Guesses Left To Unlock $220 Million Or He Loses It Forever - Celebrity Net Worth

By getting in and out at just the right time, a Texas man got enough money to pay for his dog's surgery.

Posted on February 2, 2021, at 5:25 p.m. ET

The people who have bought up GameStop stock thanks to the r/WallStreetBets subreddit have been portrayed as many things mainly greedy, anarchistic, and chaotic.

But that doesn't paint the full picture. Take, for example, the guy who just wanted to save his dog's life.

Patrick Delgado, 33, works in construction in the DallasFort Worth area. His best friend is his 2-year-old American bulldog named Satoshi Nakamoto, after the founder of bitcoin. He goes by Toshi, for short.

Recently, Delgado noticed that Toshi wasn't using one of his legs normally, so he took the dog to the vet. He got some bad news.

"They told me that he blew out his knee and that it was going to cost a minimum of 4 grand to get it fixed," Delgado told BuzzFeed News. "And because of the business struggling, I couldnt really see a way to come up with that."

The injury is the equivalent of a torn ACL in humans and is a common problem in bulldog breeds. The vet told Delgado the devastating news that without the surgery, the best option was to euthanize Toshi.

"I couldnt sleep that entire night and I kept trying to think of what I could do to raise the money," said Delgado. "I was going to start a GoFundMe or something, but Ive never been the kind of person to ask for charity."

Delgado was already invested in a few stocks and in cryptocurrency, so he had a look for what could be a way to raise the money. That took him to r/WallStreetBets.

"I figured I didnt have anything to lose," he said.

He took around $1,000 that he'd scraped together and invested in GameStop and AMC last Tuesday. At that time, GME was priced around $97. He was able to sell the next day when it was near $400, making the extra $3,000 he needed for Toshi's surgery. (BuzzFeed News reviewed screenshots of Delgados trading app, showing the jump in his stocks value and his withdrawal.)

That day, he put up a post on r/WallStreetBets titled "I want to thank you guys for saving my best friends life!"

"I just wanted to thank the community with that small post and I got so much support, it was really moving and I just felt really blessed and Toshi, hes already scheduled for surgery in another week and a half," Delgado said.

He got over 1,200 replies and said he read each one. Even though the general message in r/WallStreetBets was to hold and not sell, people were happy for Delgado and Toshi.

"I was expecting a lot of people to call me 'paper hands,' or 'weak-handed,' for selling, but people were actually super supportive," he said.

Other stories have since appeared on r/WallStreetBets from people saying their gains helped them pay for medical treatments or pay off student loans.

Delgado said people even messaged him offering to pay the capital gains taxes he will owe for selling the stocks.

"I got lucky. Im very blessed. Im in a much better mood, and I think because Im in such a better mood, my dog is as well," he said.

Delgado said the whole experience has given him renewed hope for humanity. He said that in the 2008 market crash, his family lost their ranch and had to file for bankruptcy.

"They lost all their assets, and we ended up having to move into a small two-bedroom apartment. There were six of us in that apartment," he said.

In the wake of all that, he learned how the market works and started buying into cryptocurrency, but also learned how the system seems rigged against regular people. Seeing people now using their collective numbers to try to create a win for retail investors gives him hope that the tide could change, and he's enjoying seeing his fellow investors "get back" at the hedge funds that overshorted GameStop.

"Even if youre playing a rigged game, at least theres a lot of people out there that are willing to help those who are less fortunate," he said.

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The WallStreetBets GameStop Hype Saved This Dog's Life - BuzzFeed News

Nigeria is the latest country to ban cryptocurrency trading as announced on Friday by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The CBN ordered banks and financial institutions to block bank accounts trading in cryptocurrency, stressing that failure to comply to the directive attracts severe regulator sanctions.

Meanwhile, here are five things you didnt know about cryptocurrency:

1. Cryptocurrency is digital money which can be used to buy goods and services. It exists online which means it doesnt appear in physical coins or bills.

2. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency and was created in January 2009 by a mysterious person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto. One Bitcoin sells at N15m as at the time of filing this report.

READ ALSO: WHO disqualifies Nigeria, eight others from global vaccine bid

3. Once you lose your address to your crypto wallet, you automatically lose all the money in your wallet. Simplilearn estimates that 60 per cent of cryptos are ghost because their owners have lost the address.

4. Cryptocurrency has been banned in Nigeria, China, Bolivia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Morocco and Iran.

READ ALSO: Use security budget to address armed Fulanis demand, Gumi tells FG

5. Cryptocurrency value Is extremely volatile, according to Express Computer. Just like a normal share market, there are a lot of external factors that have a direct impact on the value of Crypto money. They are super volatile and really depend on your sense of trading. The value can swing dramatically which is sometimes in your favour and sometimes terribly against it. Its digital-only presence and risk factor is why people choose to steer away from it.

READ ALSO: Experts kick as CBN orders closure of crypto accounts

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Five things you didn't know about Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies - Punch Newspapers

Many investors compare Bitcoin to gold as a store of value, even referring to Bitcoin as digital gold, a comparison believed to be one of the drivers of Bitcoins meteoric rise over the past several months.

But according to a paper by researchers at the University of Oregon, Bitcoin may be less like gold and more similar to ancient stone money.

In Banking on Stone Money: Ancient Antecedents to Bitcoin, published in January 2020 in the journal Economic Anthropology, Scott M. Fitzpatrick of the University of Oregon Department of Anthropology teamed with Inman Research Scholar and finance professor Stephen McKeon of the Lundquist College of Business to explore Bitcoins precedents as rooted in the ancient past, which involved the production, movement, and use of traditional forms of currency, the most visible and prominent of which were the famous stone money of Yap.

In the paper, the authors discuss Bitcoins origins and its consequences for global commerce, highlighting what might be learned by studying ancient stone currency. In particular, they note that the underlying technology powering Bitcoin, known as the blockchain, has much in common with the ledgers Yapese islanders used to document ownership of their enormous stone coins.

Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym adopted by an anonymous individual or group, introduced the concept of Bitcoin in a white paper distributed to members of an internet mailing list devoted to cryptography. In the paper, Nakamoto outlined a peer-to-peer virtual currency network where highly secured distributed ledgers, known as the blockchain, would be used to document transactions and currency ownership.

Further, new Bitcoins could be created or mined by computers validating those cryptographic ledgers when Bitcoins changed ownership. The rate of creation of new Bitcoins was built into the protocol, so that inflation is capped and known in advance.

Similarly, for centuries Yapese islanders in what is now known as Micronesia, sailed hundreds of kilometers to mine limestone they fashioned into enormous stone sculptures known as rai and used as currency. Those stone coins were so heavy that islanders drilled holes through the center so they could be carried on long poles. The tradition predates European contact with the Yapese in 1783 and formed the basis of their monetary system.

While it might seem like a giant stone coin would have little in common with Bitcoin, which has no physical presence, the sheer weight and difficulty of moving the rai from one holder to another creates a startling similarity.

An owner of a rai might not take physical possession of it. They might leave it on the side of a road or leave it with its original owner who has bartered it for some good or service. So, the Yapese created an oral ledger of ownership for each rai, in effect a precomputer blockchain to detail the origin of each piece of stone money, its transactions and its ultimate holder.

Given that the actual possession of rai was often infeasible, an owner would deem it to be valuable only if they could trust that all participants in the economic system agreed on the record of ownership, Fitzpatrick and McKeon write. Effectively, it was not a bearer asset; ownership was established solely through the ledger. Similarly, Bitcoin is often referred to as trustless. It is notable that it emerged during one of the worst economic recessions in recent history, a time during which trust in the financial system was at a historic low.

Other similarities with Bitcoin follow. The difficulty of mining limestone, fashioning it into rai and then transporting the currency helps to limit supply and to create scarcity that prevents inflation. Bitcoin is mined by computers solving complex math problems at great and growing expense.

There are some differences, of course. Bitcoins can be divided into smaller units while the Yapese had no system for spending smaller denominations of rai by breaking them into pieces. With Bitcoin, holders can be as anonymous as Satoshi, whereas the Yapese system functions based on a ledger where all participants to transactions are known by their real names.

Finally, all Bitcoins are equal. A rai, however, derived specific value from its size and craftsmanship, adding an element of artwork to the currency.

It isnt known if Nakamoto or his collaborators considered the Yapese, or ancient currencies, in their Bitcoin design. But it is known that some of the principles behind Bitcoin have been validated by history and that might offer a clue about the longevity and uses of blockchain based cryptocurrency as an asset class.

By Michael Maiello, for the Lundquist College of Business

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Researchers turn to stones to find the ancient origin of Bitcoin - AroundtheO

Christmas came early for white nationalists last year.

On December 8, 2020, over $500,000 worth of bitcoin was sent to various alt-right figures and causes. Some extremists took this donation as evidence that the Bitcoin Fairy had returned.

The Bitcoin Fairy is an element of far-right folklore dating back to an anonymous $60,000 bitcoin donation made after the now infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

Like the mysterious creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, the true identity of the Bitcoin Fairy is shrouded in mystery. In January 2021, however, research firm Chainalysis and Yahoo News unmasked French programmer Laurent Bachelier as the December 2020 mega-donor.

Bachelier, who the Wall Street Journal reported had lamented the decline of western civilization in online postings, committed suicide on December 9 and his donations appear to have been among his final acts. But could Bachelier also have been the mysterious 2017 donor, and thus the Bitcoin Fairy, as well?

In short, its impossible to definitively say. An analysis of the transactions, however, show significant differences in how the 2017 and 2020 donations were made. According to experts Bellingcat has spoken to, this suggests its extremely unlikely Bachelier was the Bitcoin Fairy of 2017 fame. Yet that hasnt stopped speculation from some far-right figures that he was.

On August 20, 2017, an unknown benefactor donated 14.88 BTC, or roughly $60,000, to the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi news website based in the US. Not only was the dollar value significant, but also the chosen digits 14 referencing a Nazi slogan about protecting a future for white children, and 88 being shorthand for Heil Hitler given H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

Just weeks after the shocking violence that marred the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, some media outlets would go on to describe bitcoin as a boon for extremist groups.

Not much more has become known about the identity of the 2017 donor, although researcher John Bambenek did discover that the money was connected to a larger bitcoin wallet that is now worth upwards of $100 million.

According to Chainalysis researcher, Valeria Kennedy, the individual responsible for this donation was an early bitcoin adopter who had either mined the crypto on their own or traded directly with someone who had mined them. These methods would leave virtually no paper trail or disclosure of personal information all but completely anonymizing the donors identity.

FILE PHOTO: Representations of virtual currency bitcoin are seen in this picture illustration taken taken March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Unsurprisingly, alt-right groups and personalities have continued to solicit donations of bitcoin in recent years. Yet few received as much as the Daily Stormer did in the August 2017 transaction.

That is, until December 8, 2020, when over $500,000 in bitcoin was donated to a smattering of over 15 different alt-right causes and figures. The largest beneficiary by far was alt-right podcaster Nick Fuentes, who received roughly $250,000. Video hosting platform Bitchute, a haven for extremist content creators kicked off of Youtube, received the next largest donation at two BTC, or over $60,000. The Daily Stormer, the main recipient of the August 2017 donation, also received one BTC, or roughly $30,000.

On December 13, 2020, a thread on Ruqqus, an anti-censorship platform popular among the alt right which also received money, began to dissect the transaction specifics noting those that had received the funds.

A screen grab of a thread detailing recipients of bitcoin donation worth more than $500,000 captured from the Ruqqus platform.

As word of the donations spread, popular far-right blogger Hunter Wallace announced the reappearance of the Bitcoin Fairy and posited that whoever was responsible for the Charlottesville transaction was also behind the early December donation.

A similar theory was discussed and linked to by Wallace whos real name is Bradley Griffin, according to research by the Southern Poverty Law Center on well-known far-right podcast Radio Free Indiana as well. Wallace initially appeared unhappy about the donation and speculated it was a conservative astroturfing initiative.

A screen grab of an article written by far-right blogger, Hunter Wallace, on the Occidental Dissent website.

Several weeks later, however, Chainalysis and Yahoo News uncovered Laurent Bacheliers identity as the December 2020 donor, doing so by connecting one of the bitcoin addresses associated with the $500,000 donation to an old NameID profile Bachelier kept.

NameID is a website that lets users post a profile connecting their bitcoin addresses to their names and email addresses if they so wish. Bacheliers profile included an email address that Chainalysis investigators were then able to use to find Bacheliers online blog, where he posted his suicide note and took ownership of the donation.

When Bacheliers identity became known, the far-right blogger, Wallace, then claimed in a post that Bachelier was the Bitcoin Fairy.

Yet the finer details of the 2017 and 2020 donations appear to tell a more complicated story.

The August 2017 donor attempted to send the money to the Daily Stormer by utilizing over two dozen go-between wallets to funnel the 14.88 BTC over many weeks. Such techniques are typically used to attempt to obfuscate the origin of funds. The graphic below shows the lengthy chain of wallets that the 2017 donation passed through before ending up with the Daily Stormer (click to expand image).

A graphic detailing a chain of wallets that bitcoin funds passed through before reaching the wallet of the Daily Stormer in 2017 (Credit: Chainalysis)

On December 8, 2020, however, Bachelier utilized an entirely separate network of wallets to transfer the money from his possession to the numerous causes in a matter of days and employed only two go-between wallets to transfer the funds. Bacheliers technique was direct and there was virtually no attempt to hide the origin and destination of his funds, as can be seen in the far simpler chain of wallets below (click image to expand).

A graphic detailing the far smaller chain of wallets (left) Laurent Bacheliers bitcoin donation traveled through before being dispersed to a number of far right figures and groups (Credit: Chainalysis)

Bachelier also used this wallet network consistently between 2013 and 2020, according to Valeria Kennedy of Chainalysis, who added that the network employed a completely different set of crypto-services whether that be exchanges, mixers, or other marketplaces than the 2017 donation.

According to John Bambenek, crypto-users, like most people, are creatures of habit and operate in predictable patterns.

Bambenek added: Looking at not just those two transactions but the history of the wallets and the behavior behind them exhibits two very different patterns that would be very atypical to be the same person.

Furthermore, the network of wallets used for the 2017 donation has shown no movement or transactions since then.

Both Bambenek and Kennedy acknowledged that it is impossible to rule out that Bachelier may have utilized completely different wallet networks, crypto services, and transaction patterns to conduct both donations. But both make clear they believe such a scenario is extremely unlikely.

To them, the identity of the 2017 donor remains a mystery.

While there may be some far-right figures who believe they have discovered the identity of the original Bitcoin Fairy, there appears to be little evidence to suggest that they have.

Read more from the original source:

Why $500k Donation to Right-Wing Causes Does Not Signify Return of 'Bitcoin Fairy' - bellingcat - bellingcat

Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, NEM and Monero are some of the altcoins looking to challenge bitcoin.

In a world going virtual, can currencies be far behind? Obviously not, particularly when cryptocurrency has become a hot button topic in trading and investment circles.

While bitcoins have tended to hog the limelight in this rarefied space, there are multiple other coins or cryptocurrencies that are attracting eyeballs. In that lot, altcoin is fast emerging as a favourite.

An altcoin is a cryptocurrency, or virtual currency. It is an alternative tobitcoin. Altcoins work much like the original Bitcoin. Using a private key, a payment can be sent from a digital wallet A to digital wallet B. In acryptocurrencysuch as these, there is a blockchain or recording ledger, where the transactions are permanently and publicly recorded, so exchanges can't be altered or denied. The blockchain is secured by mathematics proofs, which confirm transactions in block.

Moneycontrol goes deep into the world of altcoins, examining the main issues that surround the coins. Before that though, it is important to familiarise an investor about these coins. It will help set the context.

Right, so think of bitcoins as a digital currency, which cannot be manufactured or printed but only be mined by solving complex mathematical problems.

Bitcoin first grabbed peoples imagination on January 3, 2009, creating a network of sorts when a mysterious pseudonym known as Satoshi Nakamoto mined the starting block of the chain, known as the genesis block.

Today, this seems like a whole different world. So, are altcoins another form of bitcoin?

No. Altcoins stand for alternate coins or alternate to bitcoins and are non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies. Altcoins also don't all follow the same rules as Bitcoin. For example, while Bitcoin will only ever mine, or produce, bitcoins every 10 minutes, an altcoin called Litecoin will produce coins every 2.5 minutes. This makes Litecoin able to process payments faster. Litecoin will also produce 84 million litecoins, whereas Bitcoin will only produce 21 million bitcoins. Litecoin also uses a different set of rules for miningthan bitcoin. Whereas bitcoins require costly hardware to mine, litecoins can be mined with common computer hardware.

Now why do we need altcoins? Isnt bitcoin enough for crypto enthusiasts?

Bitcoin was one of the first cryptocurrencies to be developed, but since then, there have been layers of improvement on its structure. Certain altcoins have made transactions cheaper as well as faster. Some consume lesser energy to be mined while others bring in added layers of secrecy. While few have the same proof of concept, some altcoins operate on different proofs of concept. There is a complex technological analysis that can be put forward, but we can keep that for later explanations. The main point is these new coins have made technology stronger, better, making transactions less expensive. In addition, there was also the need for stabler cryptocurrency. Historically, bitcoin is prone to massive value fluctuations. So, there are some stable coins in the market as well, which are pegged against other fiat currencies like US Dollars. Libra, which was to be launched by Facebook and other tech companies, was supposed to be one such stable coin.

Can you give some examples of altcoins?

Interestingly, Litecoin is just one of the thousands of altcoins on the market. A few examples of altcoins include Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, NEM and Monero. Litecoin was introduced in 2011 after the success of bitcoins. While the proof of concept is nearly the same, it operates in different ways. Yet another example of altcoin could be Namecoin. It was also introduced in 2011, and uses the same proof of concept as bitcoins, but what it brings is greater anonymity and helps avoid any form of censorship. As per industry estimates, there could be as many as 5,000 such cryptocurrencies in the world. Except bitcoin, all the rest are clubbed under altcoins.

So, how are these altcoins used?

Link:

What are altcoins? All that you need to know about the non-bitcoin cryptos - Moneycontrol.com

No matter where you stand on bitcoin, we can agree on one thing: Its polarizing. Some investors believe its the way of the future and others think its a scam.

However, its gaining popularity. Its likely that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated its acceptance by pushing more retail online. Now, more than one-third of small- and medium-sized businesses will now take bitcoin as payment.1 And even bigger businesses like Microsoft are starting to accept it.2 Also, fans of bitcoin see it as a safeguard against inflation. And since the Federal Reserve has been printing money left and right, some are getting nervous about the future of the dollar.

You might be wondering: Should I jump on the bitcoin bandwagon, or run in the opposite direction? Here are four risks I want you to consider before taking the plunge:

Bitcoin is one of the most volatile investments you could make

Bitcoin goes through incredible spikes and plummets in value. Back in July of 2010, a year after bitcoin was released to the world, a bitcoin was worth only eight cents. The value jumped all over the place until it really started to make some waves in 2017. One bitcoin reached a value of $1,000 early on, then zoomed to $5,000 in October, then doubled to $10,000 in November. By mid-December one bitcoins value was almost $20,000. The bubble finally burst, and the value dropped to about $3,500 by November 2018.3

But bitcoins value started to skyrocket again in 2020. Just a couple weeks ago, the value of a bitcoin had hit an all-time high of just under $42,000but then tanked within 24 hours down to $34,863.4

Will it continue to grow in value? We dont know. But the reality is that volatility always equals risk. And risk isnt a bad thing, but you need to be aware of what it might cost in the end.

Bitcoin has a bit of an identity crisis

Does bitcoin have more in common with the U.S. dollar or with gold? The answer is both. While bitcoin is a currency, Uncle Sam has a different take. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sees bitcoin as a commodity (like gold), while the IRS treats it like property which meansyou guessed itthey can tax it.5, 6

We need to keep in mind that bitcoin is still the new kid on the block. While its been around for over 10 years now, we still dont have any tried and true best practices for building wealth with bitcoin.

Bitcoin is not regulated by any central bank or nation

Bitcoin has been shrouded in mystery ever since an unknown person named Satoshi Nakamoto released it into the world back in 2009.7 It operates without oversight from any bank or nation-state, meaning its exchanged peer to peer. Its like the Wild West of currenciestheres no marshal to uphold the law. For some, this is an attractive feature. Others recognize the risk that comes with zero regulation.

Bitcoin is widely used for illegal activity

Since all bitcoin trading is handled anonymously, the cryptocurrency scene is a hot spot for cybercrimes. All sorts of shady things, from blackmail to phishing to Ponzi schemes to deals done on the dark web, take place using bitcoin.8

Of course, there are plenty of upstanding people who use cryptocurrencies as well. But hackers who know a lot more about coding and software than the average Joe can use that knowledge to their advantageso be careful.

As youve probably guessed, Im not a fan of bitcoin. I would much rather see you invest your hard-earned cash in proven methods for building wealth, like tax-advantaged retirement accounts and growth stock mutual funds. But if you want to learn more about bitcoin, check out our full blog post on the subject. The most important thing is to be aware, informed, and in control of your financial choices at all times!

Chris Hogan is a two-time #1 national best-selling author, financial expert and host of The Chris Hogan Show. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, Fox Business, Yahoo! Finance, and the Rachael Ray Show. Since 2005, Hogan has served at Ramsey Solutions, where he gives practical money advice on retirement, investing and building wealth. Follow Chris on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube or online at chrishogan360.com.

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Should you invest in bitcoin in 2021? | Local News Stories | willistonherald.com - Williston Daily Herald

Over the last few years or so, several economists and those in the field of finance have expected a recession. After several years of the market crash, investors worried about this prospect could suddenly start searching for a way to move their assets to more secure and safer places.

The typical move will be to hedge towards gold-stock fluctuations. This has proved to be a successful approach in history, but a modern solution is an old-school safe Harbour. Developed in 2009, Bitcoin introduced a new age of digital currency. As the main cryptocurrency, bitcoin has a lot of currency attributes, but with certain special characteristics that might render it a viable refuge. At the end of the day, however, it stays for the individual user to decide if bitcoin is an acceptable safe place in a moment of financial trouble. Below, were going to equate gold and bitcoin as safe Harbour choices.

INVEST IN SOME GOLD:

Many reasons make gold a good haven commodity. It is important as a source for consumer products, such as jewellery and electronic devices, and it is rare. Despite the growth, supply remains disproportionately low. Gold cannot be created as a corporation that creates new shares or as a federal reserve bank publishes currency. It needs to be pulled up from the earth and stored.

As a result, gold has virtually no association with commodities such as assets and equity indexes such as the S&P 500. The precious commodity used to be linked to the dollar until 1971 after President Nixon cut relations between the U.S. currency and gold as a basis. Ever since those that do not want to battle stock market fluctuations to their fullest degree have participated in gold. Precious metal tends to ease the impact, or perhaps even the benefit when there is a downturn in the financial markets or a fall of at most 10%. Gold typically does well through corrections, and even though it doesnt improve, a commodity that stays stagnant when others fall is very useful as a buffer. Plus, because more people are leaving stocks and investing in them.

BITCOIN MAKES AN ENTRANCE:

Bitcoin is a blockchain-based virtual currency that shares certain characteristics with its gold equivalents. In actuality, most have dubbed bitcoin digital gold in history due to minimal connection with all other assets, the stock in particular. Currency traders may recognize in 2017 when the cost of a single bitcoin exceeded that of a singular troy ounce of gold for the very first time. As of January 2020, bitcoins price is over $8,700, but how beneficial is it? More pressingly, should the stockholders think about investing in digital currency?

Like gold, there is a minimal supply of bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous originator of bitcoin has restricted the fixed value to 21 million tokens. Bitcoin is just like gold because it is not authorized by the monetary system or the national government. As a decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin is produced by the mutual computational capabilities of miners, entities and pools of personnel employed to authenticate transfers that take place on the Bitcoin blockchain and are compensated for their time, computational infrastructure, and bitcoin commitment. To guarantee that the supply is not saturated, the Bitcoin Specification stipulates that these incentives will be halved annually, guaranteeing that the final bitcoin will not be distributed until it is created in 2140.

CONCLUSION:

Gold has overtaken the safe-haven commodity market for thousands of years, although bitcoin was introduced only about a decade ago and has only gained mainstream recognition during the last few years. Both gold and bitcoin are precious commodities. Golds proven trading, weighing and monitoring system is flawless. Its really difficult to steal it, to get away with counterfeit gold, or even to damage the metal. Bitcoin is also challenging to corrupt due to its cryptographic, decentralized mechanism and complex algorithms, but the technology to guarantee its protection is not yet in place.

In recent times, a range of alternate digital currencies has been introduced with the goal of offering further security than bitcoin. Tether, for example, is among the so-called stable coins. Tether is connected to the US dollar in almost the same manner as gold was before the 1970s. Investors searching for less uncertainty than bitcoin may probably want to search elsewhere in the virtual currency region for safe-havens. If you are chosen to invest in bitcoin, just simply open an account on any leading trading platform and start investing.

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SHOULD YOU INVEST IN BITCOIN OVER GOLD? - BusinessMole

Change is the only constant thing in the world. The world is becoming more and more digital in several ways each passing day. The way of connecting with your loved ones, doing business, learning something, and trading has already changed. You can notice a submissive emergence in the latest technologies. Even the way we pay our bills is purely digital. For the past decades, we use cash for delivering the goods and services we avail of. But the technology these days gave us ease and convenience for making payments online.

Those who are not familiar with cryptocurrencies are a form of digital asset that uses a peer-to-peer system. This is being used by many as the primary mode of exchange. There are different forms of digital money, such as Bitcoin. Each cryptocurrency is using blockchain technology to protect each transaction and build new units.

Many people say that cryptocurrencies are indeed one of the best alternatives to fiat currencies. If you are planning to enter the crypto world, it would be best to read real-life stories of using Bitcoin. Visit cpomagazine.com to know more.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is one of the first forms of cryptocurrencies that circulate in the world of crypto. This was established by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, but it seems that nobody knows what or who Satoshi Nakamoto is.

The developer of Bitcoin planned to create an independent electronic payment system. When we say independent, this payment system does not depend on any financial institutions or government.

When Bitcoin was launched in public in 2009, people did not have any idea about how it works and the technology behind it, which is blockchain. However, it became popular among crypto users around the world as time goes by. Thus, it is considered the first modern money that circulates in the crypto world.

There are lots of reasons behind the popularity of Bitcoin. These include the following:

Inexpensive, Easy, and Quick Transactions

As mentioned, Bitcoin does not depend its existence on banks and central authorities. This means that no entity can interfere with the transactions. Considering that there are no intermediaries, the transaction fees remain free, unlike fiat money.

Another advantage of Bitcoin over digital money is that you can process your payment with their system with ease and convenience and only involve an expensive transaction fee. Considering its popularity, Bitcoin has been used by a lot of people around the world. The good thing is that you dont need to follow any laws, restrictions, or regulations to complete the transaction.

Less Risk of Fraud

Considering that Bitcoin is highly digital, it caught the attention of a lot of investors and traders worldwide. In addition, your bitcoins are safe from fraud. This is because making payment transactions do not require a physical appearance. Besides, it is not being controlled by any financial institutions or central authority.

Highly Volatile Market

The Bitcoin market is not under the control of any entity, such as banks and governments. The controller of this digital money is its users. This means that Bitcoin has a highly volatile market. The exchange value depends on the number of its supply and demand. Before you start trading with Bitcoin, make sure that you know how to do it properly. This is because Bitcoin trading can take away all your coins in just a snap if you dont know how to manage it correctly. Also, bitcoin allows investors to invest their money in bitcoin tokens. They will save it for some time and sell it when the exchange value rises.

Conclusion

Bitcoin has the same value as fiat currencies. The main reason behind its popularity for the past few years is the growing number of its users around the world. A lot of businesses and individuals are using bitcoin as the primary mode of payment. Indeed, bitcoin can offer you more value than fiat money.

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Reasons Behind the Popularity of Bitcoin | Info4u | indiawest.com - India West

By Nathaniel PopperSAN FRANCISCO Jack Dorsey, Twitters chief executive, wrestled this month with the question of whether his social media service had exercised too much power by cutting off Donald Trumps account. Dorsey wondered aloud if the solution to that power imbalance was new technology inspired by the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

When YouTube and Facebook barred tens of thousands of Trumps supporters and white supremacists this month, many flocked to alternative apps such as LBRY, Minds and Sessions. What those sites had in common was that they were also inspired by the design of Bitcoin.

The twin developments were part of a growing movement by technologists, investors and everyday users to replace some of the internets fundamental building blocks in ways that would be harder for tech giants like Facebook and Google to control.

To do so, they are increasingly focused on new technological ideas introduced by Bitcoin, which was built atop an online network designed, at the most basic level, to decentralize power.

Unlike other types of digital money, Bitcoin are created and moved around not by a central bank or financial institution but by a broad and disparate network of computers. Its similar to the way that Wikipedia is edited by anyone who wants to help, rather than a single publishing house. That underlying technology is called the blockchain, a reference to the shared ledger on which all of Bitcoins records are kept.

These experiments are newly relevant after the biggest tech companies recently exercised their clout in ways that have raised questions about their power.

Facebook and Twitter prevented Trump from posting online after the Capitol rampage Jan. 6, saying he had broken their rules against inciting violence. Amazon, Apple and Google stopped working with Parler, a social networking site that had become popular with the far right, saying the app had not done enough to limit violent content.

While liberals and opponents of toxic content praised the companies actions, they were criticized by conservatives, First Amendment scholars and the American Civil Liberties Union for showing that private entities could decide who gets to stay online and who doesnt.

Even if you agree with the specific decisions, I do not for a second trust the people who are making the decisions to make universally good decisions, said Jeremy Kauffman, the founder of LBRY, which provides a decentralized service for streaming videos.

That has prompted a scramble for other options. Dozens of startups now offer alternatives to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Amazons web hosting services, all on top of decentralized networks and shared ledgers. Many have gained millions of new users over the past few weeks, according to data company SimilarWeb.

This is the biggest wave Ive ever seen, said Emmi Bevensee, a data scientist and the author of The Decentralized Web of Hate, a publication about the move of right-wing groups to decentralized technology. This has been discussed in niche communities, but now we are having a conversation with the broader world about how these emerging technologies may impact the world at quite large scales.

Bitcoin first emerged in 2009. Its creator, a shadowy figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto, has said its central idea was to allow anyone to open a digital bank account and hold the money in a way that no government could prevent or regulate.

For several years, Bitcoin gained little traction beyond a small coterie of online admirers and people who wanted to pay for illegal drugs online. But as its price rose over time, more people in Silicon Valley took notice of the unusual technical qualities underlying the cryptocurrency. Some promised that the technology could be used to redesign everything from produce tracking to online games.

The hype fell flat over the years as the underlying technology proved to be slow, prone to error and not easily accessible. But more investments and time have begun to result in software that people can actually use.

Last year, Arweave, a blockchain-based project for permanently storing and displaying websites, created an archive of sites and documents from the protests in Hong Kong that angered the Chinese government.

Minds, a blockchain-based replacement for Facebook founded in 2015, also became an online home to some of the right-wing personalities and neo-Nazis who were booted from mainstream social networks, along with fringe groups, in other countries, that have been targeted by their governments. Minds and other similar startups are funded by prominent venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures.

One of the biggest proponents of the trend has been Dorsey, 44, who has talked about the promise of decentralized social networks through Twitter and has promoted Bitcoin through the other company he runs, Square, a financial technology provider.

His public support for Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related designs dates to around 2017. In late 2019, Dorsey announced Blue Sky, a project to develop technology aimed at giving Twitter less influence over who could and could not use the service.

After shutting down Trumps account this month, Dorsey said he would hire a team for Blue Sky to address his discomfort with Twitters power by pursuing the vision set out by Bitcoin. On Thursday, Blue Sky published the findings of a task force that has been considering potential designs.

Twitter declined to make Dorsey available for an interview but said it intended to share more soon.

Blockchains are not the only solution for those in search of alternatives to Big Techs power. Many people have recently migrated to the encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram, which have no need for a blockchain. Moxie Marlinspike, the creator of Signal, has said decentralization made it hard to build good software.

The experimentation with decentralized systems has nonetheless ramped up over the past month. Brave, a new browser, announced last week that it would begin integrating a blockchain-based system, known as IPFS, into its software to make web content more reliable in case big service providers went down or tried to ban sites.

The IPFS network gives access to content even if it has been censored by corporations and nation-states, said Brian Bondy, a co-founder of Brave.

At LBRY, the blockchain-based alternative to YouTube, the number of people signing up daily has surged 250% from December, the company said. The newcomers appear to have largely been a motley crew of Trump fans, white supremacists and gun rights advocates who violated YouTubes rules.

When YouTube removed the latest videos from white supremacist video blogger Way of the World last week, he tweeted: Why do we waste our time on this globalist scum? Come to LBRY for all my videos in HD quality, censorship free!

Megan Squires, a professor at Elon University who studies new computer networks, said blockchain-based networks faced hurdles because the underlying technology made it hard to exercise any control over content.

As a technology it is very cool, but you cant just sit there and be a Pollyanna and think that all information will be free, she said. There will be racists, and people will shoot each other. Its going to be the total package.

Kauffman said LBRY had prepared for these situations. While anyone will be able to create an account and register content on the LBRY blockchain that the company cannot delete similar to the way that anyone can create an email address and send emails most people will get access to videos through a site on top of it. That allows LBRY to enforce moderation policies, much as Google can filter out spam and illegal content in email, he said.

Even so, Kauffman said, no one would lose basic access to online conversation.

Id be proud of almost any kind of marginalized voice using it, no matter how much I disagreed with it, he said.

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They found a way to limit Big Tech's power: Using the design of Bitcoin - Economic Times

Key facts:

Satoshi Nakamoto thought of Bitcoin as an electronic cash system of equals.

Some envision that bitcoin will be introduced to the masses by banks and institutions.

Throughout the 12-year life of bitcoin (BTC), the relationship that commercial banks had with the first cryptocurrency experienced a slow but definite change of course. It went from absolute rejection to a growing and progressive acceptance and, in some cases, incorporation of this product.

Because of this, bitcoiners, who initially hoped that the creation of Satoshi Nakamoto would bring about the downfall of the global banking system, also had to change their narrative and seek new answers to the question what should bitcoin become?

Gone are the days when bankers protested bitcoin and demanded its ban. Even the domain of the website that represented them, bankersagainstbitcoin.org, was taken down due to lack of interest in renewing it. Interestingly, someone recently bought it back via Namecheap, a name registrar that accepts payments in BTC.

Recent news, such as, for example, the announcement of the BBVA bank that incorporated the bitcoin custody and sale service, were unthinkable until just a couple of years ago. Also JP Morgan, a financial institution that for a long time opposed cryptocurrency, now considers it a good investment that could displace gold as an alternative safe-haven asset.

Bitcoin will do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster, they used to say. But the worlds bankers, regulators and governments were cunning. They knew how to apply accurately the popular saying if you cant fight them, join them. They understood that regulating is more effective than prohibiting, in an attempt to neutralize the strength of bitcoin.

From a good part of the commercial financial sector, bitcoin is currently considered as another asset, stripped of all revolutionary epics. Some banks are beginning to offer it within their products, financial advisers such as Kevin Grimes recommend having even a small part of your personal portfolio in bitcoin, and investors try to predict whether its price will rise or fall, to open or close your trading positions.

Bitcoin will be introduced to the masses by banks and institutions, said engineer Anbal Santaella during his participation in the BlockDown LATAM 2020 conference, last November.

Recognized bitcoiners accept that this is happening. In a Twitter thread he posted in 2018, Italian developer Giacomo Zucco outlined the paradigm shift on the part of banks and had predicted that, In 2020, it would be the same financial institutions that would offer bitcoin. The examples seen show that Zucco was not wrong.

Banks will say in 2020: Ok, they were right 2 years ago. We want to become bitcoin exchanges and eat that market now.

Giacomo Zucco, founder of BlockchainLab, April 25, 2018.

And the bitcoiners? What are you currently waiting for? Few people would dare to say that Bitcoin will wipe out the traditional banking system. Instead, more and more people are presenting Satoshi Nakamotos creation as a better alternative to gold as a safe haven asset against fiat money, that is to say, the one that is emitted by the States, like the dollar or the euro.

The non-specialized press begins to wonder if Bitcoin could replace gold as the worlds store of value. Some non-bitcoin entrepreneurs openly admit that the properties of the cryptocurrency make it more useful than gold for this function. At the same time, many dare to question the reign of the dollar.

Within bitcoin circles, the narrative of bitcoin as a store of value also strengthens and it is complemented by the conviction that it is not only the best store of value, but it is also a currency whose characteristics and benefits make it better than state money. Its decentralization, its deflationary characteristics, its resistance to censorship and the privacy it grants are often mentioned here.

The narrative of bitcoin as a store of value and as a currency superior to fiat money expands. Source: MasterTux / pixabay.com

People in countries with a highly inflationary economy, such as Argentina or Venezuela, already found in bitcoin a way to preserve their wealth. Bitcoin is open and anyone can use it, even despite government restrictions that may exist in some jurisdictions.

It is enough to look at the graph of the valuation of bitcoin throughout its history and compare it with the fall in the purchasing power of the dollar, one of the hardest currencies in the world, to realize that the cryptoactive is, in the medium and long term, a better store of value, perhaps the best known so far.

In the last decade, BTC has gained 11,000,000% more value against the dollar. The inorganic issuance of dollars by the Federal Reserve and the confidence that the creation of Satoshi Nakamoto gains day by day are causes that complement each other to make the cryptocurrency become stronger.

Today, a dollar is worth 2,679 satoshis. Source: usdsat.com

The arrival of state investments to Bitcoin it may be the definitive step for the crypto asset to permanently dethrone gold and stronger fiat currencies as dominant stores of value.

Today we see glimpses of this that, years ago, was unthinkable. For now they are isolated cases, like the mayor of Miami, who wants to put part of the citys treasury in Bitcoin; or like the Bitcoin Hodl Act, a proposal that seeks that the US government keep the BTC that it confiscates.

Of course, before States officially incorporate BTC into their reserves, they can wait new laws, stricter regulations, and greater control over movements on the blockchain.

Perhaps recent legislative advances, such as the one aimed at identifying self-custodial wallets for exchange users in the United States (recently paused by the Biden administration), are preparing the foundations for this new scenario.

Just as the narrative changed, the next step for each bitcoiner will be to see what position to take in the face of the new scenario that is looming.

One option could be adapt to the requirements of the new normal. This possibly includes accepting that the transactions be registered by a state body, using identified addresses and fulfilling previously non-existent requirements (for example, being over a certain age).

Another option is to go back to the origins. Satoshi Nakamoto, in the Bitcoin whitepaper, defined its creation as an electronic cash system of equals and thought of it in such a way that it does not require intermediaries or state authorization of any kind. Since about 2017, problems with network scalability have made this way of use relegated to the background until now.

Satoshi Nakamoto thought of Bitcoin as an electronic cash system of equals. Source: geralt / pixabay.com

Second-layer solutions like the Lightning network could lead to Bitcoin taking off again as a payment method. This is complemented by developments such as Taproot that will favor user privacy by reducing the amount of information registered on the blockchain.

In a world in which the links in the commercial chain decided trade bitcoin, the passage through fiat currency would be unnecessary when spending the BTC and the vision of Satoshi Nakamoto would be a reality: a system of cash between equals.

Some will dream that these transactions are mainly carried out outside the scope of the law, making institutions of the traditional financial system become expendable and eventually disappear.

I am skeptical that such a situation will arise. Instead, the coexistence of both worlds, that is, the use of bitcoin in a regulated way and also its discreet use, is probably a more realistic scenario. After all, this is exactly what happens today with cash And, as said, according to its creator, this is what bitcoin is meant to be.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to its author and do not necessarily reflect those of CriptoNoticias.

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Bitcoin would do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster what now? - Explica

Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Russell Okung will be the first professional athlete in any U.S. league to receive Bitcoin as a form of payment.

WASHINGTON NFL Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Russell Okung will be the first player to be partly paid in Bitcoin.

In May of 2019, he tweeted asking to be paid in Bitcoin. On Tuesday, he confirmed that he will indeed be paid by the digital currency.

"Paid in Bitcoin," he tweeted.

Okung, who is had a $13 million salary in 2020, will receive half of it in Bitcoin, according to a press release from Strike, a company that helps users convert traditional money to the cryptocurrency. He will be the first professional athlete in any U.S. league to receive Bitcoin as a form of payment.

Money is more than currency; its power, the two-time Pro Bowler said in a statement. The way money is handled from creation to dissemination is part of that power. Getting paid in Bitcoin is the first step of opting out of the corrupt, manipulated economy we all inhabit.

NFL Network said Okung's U.S. dollars paycheck will go into an account that's controlled by Strike. There it will convert to Bitcoin before going to Okung.

HOW DOES BITCOINS WORK?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not tied to a bank or government and allows users to spend money anonymously. The coins are created by users who mine them by lending computing power to verify other users transactions. They receive bitcoins in exchange. The coins also can be bought and sold on exchanges with U.S. dollars and other currencies. Some businesses also accept bitcoin, but its popularity has stalled out in recent years.

HOW BITCOINS ARE KEPT SECURE

The bitcoin network works by harnessing individuals greed for the collective good. A network of tech-savvy users called miners keep the system honest by pouring their computing power into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction. The blockchain prevents rogues from spending the same bitcoin twice, and the miners are rewarded for their efforts by being gifted with the occasional bitcoin. As long as miners keep the blockchain secure, counterfeiting shouldnt be an issue.

HOW BITCOIN CAME TO BE

Its a mystery. Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a person or group of people operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was then adopted by a small clutch of enthusiasts. Nakamoto dropped off the map as bitcoin began to attract widespread attention. But proponents say that doesnt matter: The currency obeys its own internal logic.

In 2016, An Australian entrepreneur stepped forward and claimed to be the founder of bitcoin, only to say days later that he did not have the courage to publish proof that he is. No one has claimed credit for the currency since.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Russell Okung to become first NFL player paid in Bitcoin - KING5.com

Key Takeaways

When the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, launched the Genesis Block on Jan. 3, 2009, they left a timestamp referencing The Times newspapers front page from the same day.

The Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks message has a much deeper meaning, one that still resonates with ardent Bitcoiners years later.

Despite the growing attention Bitcoin has earned since 2009, theres a lot of mystery surrounding its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Its now the digital currencys 12th anniversary, and their true identity is still unknown. Several candidates have been declared the one (or, in Craig Wrights case, put themselves forward), though no conclusive answer has materialized.

Whoever Satoshi Nakamoto really was, its widely believed that they had a disdain for the traditional finance system.

They released the Bitcoin whitepaper on Oct. 31, 2008, when the world was going through the global financial crisis. By late 2010, theyd vanished, still unwilling to lay claim to the groundbreaking monetary system theyd created.

The trail of messages Satoshi Nakamoto left prior to their sudden disappearance has led many to believe that Bitcoin was a response to the events of 2007-2008. On the message board for the P2P Foundation, an organization focused on peer-to-peer technology, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a memorable post introducing Bitcoin in February 2009.

In it, they showed their uneasiness at placing trust in fractional reserve banking:

Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.

Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoins Genesis Block on 18:15:05 UTC on Jan. 3, 2009. The moment would become a keystone of Bitcoin history.

There were several unique features to the block, also known as block 0. The 50 BTC mining reward from the first transaction was made unspendable. Though the reason for this has been a topic of debate among Bitcoiners, theres a good chance that Satoshi Nakamoto had accounted for the anomaly in their plansthis was an expert coder, after all.

Whereas new blocks are produced at an average of every 10 minutes, it took six days to find the next one on the chain. The reason behind this is also a mystery.

Some have even suggested that there could be a religious link: in the Book of Genesis, God created the heavens and earth in six days, then took a day of rest.

Notably, Satoshi Nakamoto only publicly announced Bitcoin to The Cryptography Mailing List on Jan. 9, the same day the next block on the chain was found.

But the most famous feature of the block was the message Satoshi Nakamoto left in its coinbase parameter, which read as follows:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.

The same message appeared in reverse on line #1616 when its hexadecimal string was converted to text:

sknab rof tuoliab dnoces fo knirb no rollecnahC 9002/naJ/30 semiT ehT.

This subtle memorandum gave the Genesis Block an immutable timestamp by referring to The Times newspapers front pageon Jan. 3, 2009.

But it likely had another hidden meaning. In the messages they posted online, Satoshi Nakamoto made it clear that they werent a fan of the financial system, so it wouldnt be a stretch to assume that their reference to the failings of traditional banking was a statement on what Bitcoin was setting out to fight against.

If they really did create Bitcoin in response to the financial crisis, theyd be hard-pressed to find a more fitting message to launch with.

Like Bitcoin itself, copies of The Times newspaper Satoshi Nakamoto immortalized are now much more valuable than they were in 2009.

Thats because theyre widely sought-after and incredibly rare. A handful has appeared on Bitcoin fan forums over the years, though these have been few and far between.

Theres also a dedicated website where a few original copies are listed on sale accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. Prices range from $250,000 to over $1 million.

Value is determined by scarcity, the website says. There are only 8 verified copies of this newspaper in existence.

Satoshi Nakamoto would make their final public post on the bitcointalk.org forum in December 2010, their identity still concealed even as Bitcoin began to draw wider interest. Though their deeper motives for creating the digital currency are still fairly opaque to this day, The Times reference is one of a few clues that hint at their intentions.

Whats indisputable, though, is the gravitas of the monetary revolution Satoshi Nakamoto laid the foundations for.

The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.

You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.

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Bitcoins Birthday: Satoshi Nakamotos Hidden Message Explained - Crypto Briefing

Bitcoin managed to shake the world once again as it broke the 2017 record in value. After many months of speculation, the price for 1 Bitcoin has finally crossed $20,000 and many experts believe that this cryptocurrency even has the potential to cross $50,000, which would be a historical moment.

The recent surge in value attracted many new traders which are keen to make a profit with Bitcoin. Not only that, but this cryptocurrency also has numerous advantages over the standard FIAT currencies when it comes to being used as a payment method. Some of those advantages are instant transactions, user anonymity, no added or hidden fees, and lower general fees.

As the stage is getting filled with new traders, we wanted to take a moment and explain several Bitcoin terms which can be very helpful for the novices as they hunt for profit and work to become wealthy people. Lets check them out.

Miners/ Mining

Through mining, traders are able to earn Bitcoin, thus make money. The process of mining is creating new Bitcoin by solving computer puzzles. The people who perform these actions are called miners. The more puzzles you solve, the more Bitcoins you will earn. The reason why mining is so popular is that it allows miners to earn money without actually investing a penny.

Miners need a graphics processing unit (GPU) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to set up a mining rig.

Trading Sites

Trading sites are platforms where traders buy and sell Bitcoins. Some of these sites even use the technology to their best benefit by calculating the future price of Bitcoin and thus, enabling people to make the biggest possible profit.

As we all know, it is hard to determine what the future price of Bitcoin will be, since the cryptocurrency has a high volatility rate. That means that its value is a subject to frequent changes. In many cases, the price for 1 Bitcoin changes day by day.

One of the trading sites that uses an AI-powered system which is able to calculate the future price of Bitcoins is https://bitcoinera.app/. This sites system determines the value for 1 Bitcoin with great precision, which is why it has a huge daily profitability rate. There are thousands of users from all around the world here and that is why it is considered as one of the most reputable trading sites.

Cryptography

We previously mentioned that one of the biggest advantages that Bitcoin has is that it provides traders with a certain level of anonymity. That benefit is given to them thanks to the process called cryptography. Cryptography is a method used to protect various information through the use of codes.

In Bitcoins case, the protected information is the traders true identity hence why they are provided with a certain level of anonymity. Now, mind you, we say a certain level because even though most of the information is hidden, that doesnt mean that traders are completely off the grid. Full anonymity cannot be provided.

Blockchain

Blockchain is probably one of the most popular terms in this sphere and one that you sure came across multiple times. But, what does it mean?

A blockchain is a log which contains all of the transactions that Bitcoin traders do. In this area, we also come across the term block, which is a fraction of a blockchain. If the blockchain is the full log of activities, a block would represent one recorded transactions.

Bitcoin users are in charge of verifying Bitcoin transactions and listing them in the blockchain. For every completed transaction, they receive Bitcoins as a reward.

Satoshi Nakamoto

Finally, we have one Asian name that we can meet on almost every Bitcoin article, but no one knows what it means. Satoshi Nakamoto is the founder of Bitcoin and the man that completed the first transaction with this cryptocurrency.

The tricky part here is that Satoshi is actually not the founders true name its a pseudonym. The real identity of this person remains unknown to this day and although there have been many speculations, we are still struggling to determine who that is.

Some rumours that were circulating were that Satoshi is a Japanese male that is in his mid-40s, but it was never confirmed. Some of the criticism of the claim that Satoshi is Japanese is that there is no way that is true, considering the fact that Bitcoin used the English language when it was created. If the person was Japanese, it would be logical for him or her to incorporate its native tongue.

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Bitcoin Terms That Beginner Traders Should Know [ARTICLE] - Pulse Live Kenya

LocalBitcoins, one of the oldest and most widely-used Bitcoin (BTC) services, reveals that most of its customers are based in developing countries. These are places (such as Argentina and Venezuela) where Bitcoin is needed badly as a store of value because local fiat currencies have failed.

Sampo, a Bitcoin analyst, notes in a blog post published by LocalBitcoins that centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are more like traditional financial services and trading platforms. However, services such as LocalBitcoins are more true to the original Bitcoin ethos since they provide peer-to-peer trading and are involved in as a third-party merely to provide the platform and to prevent malicious actors thanks to their escrow service and feedback system, Sampo argues.

The Bitcoin analyst points out that even the Bitcoin whitepapers title indicates or suggests that its supposed to operate as a P2P electronic cash system. Sampo adds that the term peer-to-peer is essential to the Bitcoin ethos, because its included in the whitepapers title and also in the first and third sentences of the document.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, notes:

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network.

According to Sampo, its important to note that Bitcoin wasnt created in a vacuum. It was reportedly a part of several related developments of various types of virtual currencies. As confirmed by the crypto analyst, some of the most famous Bitcoin predecessors were hashcash, b-money and bit gold.

As Nakamoto had stated, Bitcoin was developed as a potential solution to the double-spending problem that was found in previous implementations of virtual currencies, and this issue was addressed using the P2P network.

But Sampo clarified that these networks were not really a novel invention because P2P filesharing had become notorious at the turn of the millennium. The Bitcoin analyst added that its not far-fetched to claim that the peer-to-peer aspect was the last ingredient needed for a truly revolutionary digital currency.

Thats why Nakamoto used a known or proven network structure and the best qualities of previous versions of electronic cash to develop or author the Bitcoin protocol, Sampo noted. The analyst added that returning or going back to peer-to-peer might not seem so revolutionary because trade in this manner is one of the oldest professions and it all started as a deal or transaction between two consenting parties. Sampo claims that Bitcoin brings trade back to its oldest, and purest forms.

Sampo added that P2P sounds like a novel concept, but in fact its a term that describes the oldest form of trade between two individuals: bargaining. Sampo also mentioned that implementing a peer-to-peer network into a digital currency combined the best of both worlds: the simplicity of bargaining and the divisibility and omnipotence of digital currencies.

Sampo continued:

Bitcoin as a medium of exchange is similarly simplistic as the earliest forms of money such as sea shells. These mediums of exchange hold their value if both trade participants believe they do. Arguably Bitcoin also holds intrinsic value based on the cost of electricity required for the computational power that provides security for the network but in peer-to-peer trading the medium of exchange is actually irrelevant as long as the participants agree on the value of it.

The Bitcoin analyst argues that P2P trading is the purest form of trading because it doesnt require third-parties or intermediaries to complete the transaction.

Sampo pointed out that this is possible when the traders are physically present in the same location during the trade, however, the modern financial world needs global trading platforms, which requires digital technology and online platforms. These services are now being offered by platforms such as Paxful and LocalBitcoins (among others).

Established in 2012, LocalBitcoins aims to cater to the needs of people from different countries across the globe who want to exchange their local currencies into Bitcoins. LocalBitcoins and other P2P providers offer a platform for peer-to-peer trading. The actual trade on these platforms takes place directly between the parties (with the platform merely facilitating the trade by charging an escrow fee).

Sampo acknowledges that the definite downside of peer-to-peer trading is the limited liquidity which affects Bitcoin prices on the platform. Sampo added that another downside to peer-to-peer trading on platforms such as LocalBitcoins is that if you decide to buy from a seller that uses the escrow service, there might be a delay in receiving the Bitcoin since the seller has to release it from escrow and this can, in worst cases, take up to hours or days.

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Bitcoin Analyst Discusses the Pros and Cons of Peer to Peer Cryptocurrency Trading on Platforms like LocalBitcoins - Crowdfund Insider

On February 4, 2020, with the coinbase tag reading: taal.com on behalf of Satoshi Nakamoto the Genesis update to Bitcoin SV was activated by this transaction at block height 620,539. With it, the overwhelming majority of protocol-level Bitcoin rules were restored and set wide open. Honest nodes and aggressive hashers rejoiced for the elimination of the block size limit, restoration of nLockTime & nSequence rules, removal of P2SH and tons of small improvements to the efficiency of the code that runs the network. However, there was one nagging, little change that was not unlocked with the debut of Genesis: the child limit to unconfirmed parent transactions!

Often called the ancestor limit or the speed limit, this is one of the final aberrations inherited from the economic illiteracy of BTC Core. This restriction was predicated on the assumption that the block size limit is/was permanent, and that transactions should be ordered according to the value of their fee in order to be allowed across the heavily curtailed BTC network. One consequence of this arbitrary modification to the bitcoin protocol is that only 25 transactions could be re-spent before a block confirmation of the parent transaction, which is typically ten minutes.

This is no big deal for the small blockers who dont (cant) make lots of small transactions, but for users of Bitcoin SV, the limit was a major disappointment in lots of use cases! Imagine having a debate on Twetch, uploading a large webpage to Etched.page or making it rain on Peergame, and the worst thing in the world happens:

Bitcoin SV is billed as the only blockchain that scales, because it has no arbitrary limits! So were we all lied to? Was this an oversight in implementation? Users around the BSV economy lamented.

Some more eloquently than others!

Once the speed limit was reached, average users would have to wait for a block to proceed. And sometimes, blocks are not consistently timed, so this could lead to an excited new user tuning out completely due to the network being unable to serve them.

This was certainly losing money for every application that was fighting to keep the attention of BSV users without network frictionleading to a UX disaster for the budding startups built on Bitcoin SV.

Noble half steps

TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc.(CSE:TAAL| FWB:9SQ1 | OTC:TAALF) and a couple of other honest nodes were wise to accept higher limits as complaints started to hit social media. So 50-100 unconfirmed children were enabled while some due diligence was carefully managed by the team working on the SV Node software. This extra breathing room was certainly appreciated, but not exactly the earth-shattering change that would allow an explosion of new use cases. But some clever workarounds were developed, and as businesses do, adaptations and user guides for splitting UTXOs were deployed.

But, for Bitcoin SV to truly become the real bitcoin unlimited, something bigger had to be done.

The solution

Head of the Bitcoin SV Node Team, Steve Shadders, had mentioned 2020 as the target year for killing the limit; stating a number of times that he intended to make it a priority, but that there was a level of testing that absolutely needed to be completed first. Perhaps for the sake of holiday theatrics, the testing lasted until after the last full business week of the year.

In true Shadders fashion, without any warning or prelude, a Santa hat appeared on his Twitter profile picture, and a Christmas gift was pledged. On December 24th, Shadders let the world know that we would have something special sitting under the treeas long as we keep it up in the house for another couple of weeks

Details

Bitcoin SV version 1.0.7 (Dynastic) will be released in early January, and it will raise the default ancestor limit to 1000 children to an unconfirmed parent! Thats more than one unconfirmed transaction made per second between average block times, meaning that for human users, the speed limit is practically unreachable.

According to Shadders, we see no obvious reason not to remove it completely other than an abundance of caution in an adversarial environment. However, rest assured, after a few months of this 1000 limit being in the wild our intent is to get rid of it altogether.

And so, as nodes across the network update in January, the ancestor limit should bring about a new era of use cases in the newly liberated Bitcoin SV environment. Shadders closed his announcement saying, Like the explosion of script experimentation we saw post-Genesis Im expecting to see a new wave of innovation with long transaction chains.

Will there be room for more efficiency in the future? Most certainly. In fact, theres a Chronicle being written about it But that is for some holiday in the future!

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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Free the children, Bitcoin! - CoinGeek

The WikiLeaks Bitcoin donation wallet has received BTC from multiple people even as a London court has denied Julian Assanges extradition to the U.S. based on health concerns. WikiLeaks has a history of attracting BTC donations, with Assanges plight resonating with early adopters who share libertarian ideals.

Tweeting on Dec. 4, crypto transaction tracker Whale Alert revealed that the WikiLeaks wallet received inflows of about 8.48 BTC worth about $281,000 at the current market price. In total, the wallet now holds close to 20 BTC in its current balance (~$615,000).

The donations are coming on a day when Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has been denied extradition to the U.S. Delivering the judgment, the London court declared that it would be oppressive to ship Assange to the U.S. where he stands accused of multiple espionage charges, facing up to 175 years in prison for his alleged crimes.

Back in Dec. 2020, Assange was among the list of the names in the clamor among crypto stakeholders for a presidential pardon by outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump. Indeed, false reports of clemency for the WikiLeaks founder caused quite a stir on social media before a retraction from the source responsible for the news.

Assange and WikiLeaks continue to receive support from the crypto community. The platform began accepting cryptocurrency donations back in 2017 following the Freedom of the Press Foundations decision to cut off funding access for WikiLeaks.

However, not every crypto player remained in the WikiLeaks corner. As previously reported by CryptoPotato, Coinbase blocked the WikiLeaks shop without prior notice back in Apr. 2018.

According to a Reddit post from 2014, WikiLeaks was an early Bitcoin adopter. The platform reportedly created its first BTC wallet back in June 2011.

Perhaps, if not for the plea issued by Bitcoins unknown creator Satoshi Nakamoto, WikiLeaks may have begun using BTC as early as 2010. According to a Bitcointalk forum posting by Satoshi back in 2010, the Bitcoin creator urged WikiLeaks not to bring heat on BTC while still in its infancy.

Perhaps even more profound is the fact that the abovementioned post is one of Satoshis last pieces of correspondence anywhere on the internet before disappearing to this day.

Featured image courtesy of Wired

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$280K in Bitcoin Donated to WikiLeaks as Assange is Denied Extradition to US - CryptoPotato

Ten years ago today, the pseudonymous programmer (or programmers) Satoshi Nakamoto logged into the forum bitcointalk.org one last time, and left the Bitcoin community for good. The day prior Nakamoto wrote a final message to the crypto community by offering a quick build and telling developers that theres more work to be done on denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

When Satoshi Nakamoto was around, Bitcoins inventor was a mysterious enigma and often led developers in the right direction from 2008 to 2010. Bitcoins creator also left a final message to the community when he/she or they added to the thread on bitcointalk.org called: Added some DoS limits, removed safe mode. The message was written over a decade ago on December 12, 2010, and Nakamoto stressed that theres more work to do.

Theres more work to do on DoS, but Im doing a quick build of what I have so far in case its needed, before venturing into more complex ideas, Nakamoto said at the time. The build for this is version 0.3.19. Added some DoS controls. As Gavin and I have said clearly before, the software is not at all resistant to DoS attack. This is one improvement, but there are still more ways to attack than I can count. Im leaving the -limitfreerelay part as a switch for now and its there if you need it. Removed safe mode alerts, safe mode alerts was a temporary measure after the 0.3.9 overflow bug, Bitcoins creator added.

Nakamoto further wrote:

We can say all we want that users can just run with -disablesafemode, but its better just not to have it for the sake of appearances. It was never intended as a long term feature. Safe mode can still be triggered by seeing a longer (greater total PoW) invalid block chain.

While bitcoin (BTC) was swapping for $0.20 per coin, Nakamoto left a great number of technical replies on the forum that month, which addressed the current Bitcoin build at the time. In fact, during the first two weeks of December 2010, Nakamoto was very active on the forum.

No one knows why the inventor left so abruptly, but Nakamoto had shown he was a bit upset the day before his very last bitcointalk.org forum message. This was because bitcoin was mentioned in a viral pcworld.com article called: Could the Wikileaks Scandal Lead to New Virtual Currency?

At the time, Wikileaks was blocked by a U.S. financial blockade and because Paypal, Mastercard, and Visa stopped servicing the nonprofit whistleblowers, Wikileaks leveraged bitcoin donations.

From Nakamotos responses to the Wikileaks subject, one can assume the crypto inventor was very annoyed by the attention the small little network was getting at the time.

It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context, Nakamoto stressed. Wikileaks has kicked the hornets nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.

Bitcoin was changing fast, and Nakamoto seemed to know that he was steadily losing some of the control and people were making up their own minds on how the cryptocurrency should be back then. The same day the Wikileaks article from pcworld.com published, Nakamoto also thanked Hal Finney in a post called: minimalistic bitcoin client on D language?

Six days prior to Nakamoto speaking about the pcworld.com editorial, he responded to someone who said bring it on, after hearing that Wikileaks was considering cryptocurrency acceptance. Again, Nakamoto seemed flustered and wasnt a big fan of onboarding the nonprofit whistleblowing organization led by Julian Assange.

No, dont bring it on, Nakamoto insisted. The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way. I make this appeal to Wikileaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage, the inventor added.

Nakamotos appeal did not sway Wikileaks and soon after, the nonprofit began accepting bitcoin donations. Bitcoins inventor has not been heard from in over a decade, but there are a number of ostensible emails and messages from the creator that many assume stem from his legitimate accounts. For instance, when Newsweek published a story about Dorian Nakamoto being Bitcoins creator, a post published to p2pfoundation.ning.com on March 7, 2014 says: I am not Dorian Nakamoto.

Moreover, ever since Nakamoto left, there have been many self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamotos and even clues and messages that have been widely debunked. There are tales from individuals like Craig Wright, a man who has claimed to be Bitcoins inventor for the last five years. Although, Wrights stories have been widely dismissed and debunked by the greater cryptocurrency community.

There was also that time when Bloomberg columnist, Matthew Leising, told people about a so-called Satoshi and published an alleged tell-all about the nakamotofamilyfoundation.org and an individual dubbed: Duality. The patent holder and Hawaiian resident named Ronald Keala Kua Maria said he is Satoshi on a variety of website domains bearing the name Bitcoin and Satoshi.

A man with intense hair like Fabio believes he is Satoshi Nakamoto, but nobody believed Jrg Molts absurd story. In mid-August 2019, a PR firm called Ivy McLemore and the Pakastani Bilal Khalid said he was Bitcoins inventor. Of course, Khalids story was considered ridiculously unfathomable as well. A Belgium native called Debo Jurgen Etienne Guido has told the crypto community he is Satoshi Nakamoto on numerous occasions.

It has also been said that the 47-year-old cartel boss Paul Le Roux could have been Satoshi as well. Still, none of these suspects and self-proclaimed individuals have ever provided a smoking gun pointing in their direction and have always failed to sway the greater crypto community.

As far as recorded history is concerned, Satoshi Nakamoto left the Bitcoin community ten years ago on December 12, 2010, with his final message about adding some DoS controls. Almost everything else from that point forward has been suspect and lacking evidence of legitimacy.

After Bitcoins inventor published the post, the creator must have been curious about the responses and may have been prepared to write one last message. Nakamoto logged into bitcointalk.org on December 13, 2010, logged off, and has not been seen on the forum since then.

What do you think about the last message Satoshi Nakamoto wrote? Let us know what you think about this story in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, p2pfoundation, bitcointalk.org, pcworld.com,

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Ten Years Ago Satoshi Nakamoto Logged Off - The Final Message from Bitcoin's Inventor | Featured - Bitcoin News

KEY POINTS

Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared from the crypto space 10 years ago and in his last message, he talked about the importance of protecting thenetwork from denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

In a message, posted on the Bitcointalkforumon Dec.12, 2010, Nakamoto said, "There's more work to do on DoS, but I'm doing a quick build of what I have so far in case it's needed, before venturing into more complex ideas."

Nakamoto added that the improvement he did for what was at that time Bitcoin version 0.3.19 was just temporary because the software was not at all resistant to a DoS attack. "This is one improvement, but there are still more ways to attack than I can count,"he added.

The creator did not post an update after that one. The next day, on Dec.13, 2010, he logged off for good.

There was no explanation as to why Nakamoto suddenly left the community. According to Bitcoin.com, the creator was very active in December 2010. The day prior to his last post, he expressed disappointment over a story on PC World thatsuggested Wikileaks could adopt Bitcoin after it was denied access to PayPal, Mastercardand Visa, technically the three giants of the payments world.

Nakamoto was apparently annoyed by the idea because Bitcoin, at the time, was still a small network run by a small number of people. "It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context,"Nakamoto emphasized, adding that Wikileaks could drive attentionand,therefore, bring in criticism for Bitcoin.

The creator said Bitcoin needs to slow gradually so that the software can be strengthened along the way. "I make this appeal to Wikileaks not to try to use Bitcoin,"Nakamotosaid, adding that Bitcoin was a small beta community and hence, "bringing the heat"could likely destroy it.

While December 2010 was the last public post of Satoshi Nakamoto, there was anemail correspondence between the Bitcoin creator and developer Gavin Andresen on April 26, 2011. "I wish you wouldn't keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure, the press just turns that into a pirate currency angle,"Nakamoto said in the email. "Maybe instead make it about the open-source project and give more credit to your dev contributors; it helps motivate them."

Andresen replied to the email from Nakamoto, but the Bitcoin creator never responded.

Bitcoin is the best known virtual currency, but it may face a real problem next week Photo: AFP / INA FASSBENDER

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Satoshi Nakamoto's Last Message To Bitcoin Community ...

So many things are different about the breakout in Bitcoin this time around.

You know what I'm not seeing? Any articles about its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Anyone tweeting about the latest Bitcoin "breakeven" mining costs. I'm not even seeing any big think pieces or endless PR pitches about how the blockchain will change everything. No one's talking about blockchain, period!

All the smart people used to chuckle at Bitcoin but say, man, but this blockchain thing is the real story.Actually, it wasn't. The tell was when Blythe Masters stepped down as CEO of Digital Asset at the end of 2018. (Masters is the finance rockstar credited with inventing the credit-default swap.) "Masters was the public face of the 'blockchain, not Bitcoin' philosophy," Bloomberg wrote at the time. As of last year, she was working with Motive Partners, an investment firm that "has nothing to do with blockchain," per the Financial Times.

None of that matters now. The story is simply "everyone's buying Bitcoin, so you might as well buy some too." We talked yesterday about the huge pool of institutional capital that's starting to flood into the cryptocurrency. Bill Miller--who's having another huge year--emailed a few additional points about just how much demand could outstrip supply. There are an estimated 47 million millionaires globally, he notes, "so if each millionaire only wanted to own one Bitcoin, they could not," given Bitcoin's fixed cap of 21 million coins.

Also, Miller adds, it's thought that 95% of the current supply is owned by retail aficionados who have low turnover, leaving a very small slice of the pie available for the growing hordes who want to own some. Add it all up and it's no wonder that Bitcoin not only burst through $20,000 yesterday, but has surged above $23,000 today. Scott Minerd of Guggenheim is now saying it could hit $400,000. Sure, why not?

I also think traders who do get their hands on it want to goose this thing to the moon right now in order to show some impressive year-end "alpha." Hence today's subject line; it's the same one from last Thursday, except that time it was about the IPO chase into DoorDash and Airbnb. The chase is on foreverything right now. The Momentum ETF hit a new all-time high yesterday, Stifel notes. This headline sums it all up: "J.P. Morgan creates a 'YOLO' trade to bet on Ark ETFs." Ark being the Cathie Wood firm that is all-in on Tesla, speaking of momentum. Now you can own structured products leveraged on top of that!

So what happens when we turn the calendar to 2021? Maybe a healthy reset, a blow-off top. The vaccine brings back normalcy, the 10-year goes above 1%, the dollar maybe even strengthens, the high-fliers all come down to earth. Or since everyone seems to be expecting this, maybe not.

Maybe Satoshi reveals himself, says "to heck with this whole fixed 21-million supply thing," and Bitcoin implodes in spectacular fashion. Because that's about the only thing I could see collapsing its enthusiasm bubble right now.

See you at 1 p.m!

Kelly

Twitter: @KellyCNBC

Instagram: @realkellyevans

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Kelly Evans: The Bitcoin Chase Is on - NBC10 Boston