Bitcoin crashed this week, losing almost 50% of its value in a little over a weekwith some thinking it could fall even further before finding a firm floor.

The bitcoin price, well known to be highly volatile, had climbed over $10,000 last month before crashing back in the face of broader market turmoil caused by the spreading coronavirushitting lows of just under $4,000 per bitcoin before rebounding to around $5,000.

Ahead of bitcoin's massive sell-off this week, the incoming Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, warned that bitcoin investors need to "be prepared to lose all [their] money"adding his voice to a raft of bitcoin warnings from top government officials and regulators.

Andrew Bailey, the incoming Bank of England governor, has previously said that owning bitcoin is ... [+] similar to gambling.

"Theres no guarantee of the value of bitcoin," Bailey, who will begin his term as Bank of England governor tomorrow, told the U.K.'s Treasury select committee at the beginning of the month, where he was defending his record as head of the country's Financial Conduct Authority watchdog, adding bitcoin "hasn't caught on that much."

"I've said publicly because we were concerned about itif you want to buy bitcoin, be prepared to lose all your money," Bailey said. "If you want to buy it, fine, but understand that what you've got has no intrinsic value. It might have extrinsic value, but no intrinsic value."

Bailey, who served as the deputy governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2016, has previously slammed bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, comparing bitcoin investors to gamblers in 2017 because "[bitcoin] is not a currency" and is "a very volatile commodity in terms of its pricing."

Bitcoin's sudden sell-off has caused chaos within the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community, with one veteran trader warning the bitcoin price could crash below $1,000 per bitcoina level not seen since bitcoin's epic 2017 rally sent the bitcoin price from under $1,000 to around $20,000 in under 12 months.

Elsewhere, bitcoin bull and hedge fund multi-millionaire Mike Novogratzsaid he fears confidence in bitcoin has "evaporated."

The bitcoin price has given up all of its 2020 gains over the last week, falling back to levels not ... [+] seen since early last year.

Bitcoin's massive crashthis week has been put down to global market turmoil sparked by oil cartel Opec's failure to agree to a supply cut last weekend, sending the oil price to historic lowsbut some think bitcoin's move lower could have its origins elsewhere.

Opec, lead by Saudi Arabia, had wanted to cut oil production due to weaker demand caused by spreading coronavirus but some members, including Russia, torpedoed the plan.

Meanwhile, Bailey said the Bank of England would move quickly to soften the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak under his leadership.

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New Bank Of England Governor Sent Bitcoin Buyers A Stark Warning - Forbes

Although its difficult to quantify demand for bitcoin (BTC) in informal markets across the Middle East, small-scale traders from Lebanon to Yemen say interest in bitcoin as a safe-haven asset, not a speculative asset, is stronger than ever.

Rami Mohammad Ali, a bitcoin miner and trader based in the Palestinian area of East Jerusalem, said the sell side of the local peer-to-peer market dried up and the buy side exploded in March.

So far, hes sold a cumulative total of 30 bitcoin to 90 customers. Thats a significant increase from September 2019, when he said he sold roughly 20 bitcoin a month to 50 customers.

The appeal of holding value in bitcoin, he said, is that people can access the money any time they need it.

This appears to be true across the region. One anonymous Syrian trader with family in Lebanon said small Lebanese business owners are struggling to pay their invoices abroad. So, among the few Lebanese with family abroad and the necessary computer skills, some now buy [bitcoin] locally with cash and liquidate it abroad through friends and family to pay their invoices.

In fact, some Middle Eastern bitcoin traders reported relative newbies are learning quickly and looking to buy bitcoin this week, as global prices dip.

Meanwhile, in Tehran, an anonymous Iranian bitcoiner said people now tend to keep their assets in gold, dollars and housing, plus a little bitcoin. Due to the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the economic situation has gotten progressively worse. This means fewer public bitcoin meetups and quieter trades among a population with even less faith in national institutions. Small-scale bitcoin mining is now commonplace, locals say, despite the challenges faced by industrial operations.

Bitcoin is a revolutionary product but it needs a few more revolutions, the Tehran-based bitcoiner said. In the past, people thought bitcoin was a new type of scam. Now bitcoin is more trusted.

The analytics firm Gate Trade estimated there are now more than 30 Iranian companies using bitcoin, instead of fiat, for cross-border deals. But a Gate Trade spokesperson declined to specify which companies because the greatest barrier to bitcoin adoption in the Middle East appears to be international sanctions. That challenge isnt limited to Iran.

Yemeni bitcoin trader Mohammed Alsobhi said roughly five civilians continue to buy a small amount of bitcoin each month. The bitcoin market in Yemen is much smaller and quieter than most in the region due to the widespread censorship of telecommunication networks. But there is interest among locals knowledgeable about computer science.

"If I had the capabilities available in developed countries, I would have made great progress in this field," Alsobhi said of selling bitcoin in his war-torn nation. "Most companies that deal globally are excluding Yemen."

He said he hopes people in Yemen will gain access to crypto markets for trading opportunities. But, he added, war is the biggest barrier to bitcoin adoption in his country because of sanctions. For example, due to compliance concerns, he said people in Yemen cannot download wallets via Google Play.

Crypto-curious civilians are barred from the system as the sanctions collateral damage.

Yemen offers a microcosm of the global challenges civilians face using decentralized monetary networks.

Stepping back, a currency war emerged from Yemens civil war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels, which conquered the former capital city of Sanaa, and the Saudi-aligned Central Bank of Yemen, now in Aden. Yemenites dont trust either side. Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman recently accused President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi of being just another pawn under the Saudi occupation.

As such, sanctions have ripple effects for civilians trapped between failing banks and warring parties. Yemens United Nations representative, Abdullah Al-Saadi, accused the Houthi militants of consorting with the ultimate target of U.S. sanctions, the armed forces of Iran.

The militias continue to welcome Iranian experts and receive military support and weapons from Iran, Al-Saadi said in a U.N. Security Council meeting in February.

With widespread reports of Houthi looting and the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the idea of digital cash appeals to some tech-savvy Yemenites in urban areas.

Most of the population of Yemen is in [Houthi]-controlled areas, and are engaged in the bulk of economic activity in the country, said Hassan Al-Haifi, an ex-banker based in Sanaa. Cryptocurrency or e-money could help Yemenites under a formidable siege and blockade. Sana'a would be favorable to a more autonomous currency regime.

Ben Freeman, a former Goldman Sachs oil trader and CEO of Creo Commodities, said cryptocurrencys value in the region relies on being decentralized and censorship-resistant. He doesnt believe bitcoins current volatility has any impact on that value proposition, especially in light of the risk Yemens civil war presents for Saudi Arabian oil production.

Extreme market sell-offs generally hit most asset classes as assets are sold to generate collateral for losing positions, Freeman said. If institutions break down, and bitcoin is independent to any institution or government oversight, then well start to see more flight to bitcoin as an asset class.

The hurdles preventing local adoption in the Middle East arent the lack of opportunity or demand; they are primarily the byproduct of political conditions. In Yemen and Iran, bitcoiners may need to avoid both domestic and international compliance risks. Most fintech companies overlook Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, even without sanctions. As such, there are few comprehensive or clear datasets related to usage beyond global (and heavily regulated) crypto exchanges.

This makes local markets hard to quantify. Still, it doesnt appear that broader market dips reduced demand on the ground for over-the-counter (OTC) trades. Institutional players fleeing bitcoin have little impact on demand from grassroots Middle Eastern networks. To the contrary, lower prices present an opportunity for buyers in emerging markets.

Bitcoin transactions in Iran increased [in 2020], compared to previous years, the Tehran-based bitcoiner said. But the slope seems gentle.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Despite Bitcoin Price Dips, Crypto Is a Safe Haven in the Middle East - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Bitcoin (BTC) falling as a result of financial turmoil was obvious to one of the spaces leading speakers and educators he predicted it just two months ago.

Speaking on the What Bitcoin Did podcast on Jan. 3, the impact of a recession or similar event was obvious to Andreas Antonopoulos.

What most people dont realize I think is that, in the beginning at least, crypto will crash hard, he explained.

And the reason it will crash hard is because a lot of the venture capital, corporate investments and private investment from individuals that is based on cheap money and disposable income and excess cash in portfolios etc., like in any other part of the economy, will dry up.

That scenario forecast this weeks market mania to an uncanny degree. After some markets saw their worst day since 1987, Bitcoin followed by tanking 60% to lows of around $3,600 on some exchanges.

While commentators are scrambling to explain the phenomenon, Antonopoulos appeared to have already catered to such a scenario.

When people get scared, when there is a recession like that, they pull back their investments, and theyre going to pull back from crypto too, he continued.

Bitcoin derivatives trading volumes with March 12 spike. Source: Skew.com

He noted that Bitcoin alone in January required around $18 million of buys per day just to keep price parity.

From that perspective, I think the first order effect that happens if we have a recession is crypto crashes because all the liquidity dries up which is a classic effect and symptom of a recession.

Thereafter, Bitcoin has the chance to emerge as a safe haven, but the relative difficulty of accessing and storing for non-technical investors could form hurdles to adoption and price stability.

Antonopoulos concluded:

All of those things are really a symptom of the fact that we have a small lifeboat and a very, very large number of people who need saving.

BTC/USD managed to recoup some of Thursdays monumental losses the next day, but at press time still traded down 9%.

See more here:
2 Months Ago, Andreas Antonopoulos Explained Why Bitcoin Would Crash - Cointelegraph

A programmer has released a tool that can recover lost Bitcoins using partial key data. The program simplifies what can be a painstaking and frustrating process when wallet data has become damaged or corrupted. Other tricks may also be employed to find lost funds.

Redditor u/Coding_Enthusiast recently released the tool, which he calls the FinderOuter. Although not the first program designed to recover lost key data, it simplifies the process. The FinderOuter has a simple interface that enables the user to enter the partial information for Base-58 or Base-16 private keys. It then recovers the entire key.

The open-source tool can be downloaded from Github. The author intends to add more features, such as the ability to use partially known information to recover full BIP-based seed phrases and passwords.

There is no shortage of potential users of this software, as missing information is responsible for many lost Bitcoins. In fact, by some estimates, as much as twenty-five percent of all existing Bitcoins are currently inaccessible.

It is next to impossible to recover missing private keys without a partial amount of information, yet not every case of lost Bitcoins is hopeless. For example, computer crashes have often been responsible for losing funds, but many tools exist, both hardware and software, that can restore failed hard drives.

Also, files believed to be corrupted are often easily recoverable. In fact, it is common for different hardware or operating systems to read data believed to be hopelessly lost. The same is true of files that have been deleted, as tools designed to recover erased data have been around for decades.

Any crypto investment strategy should start with a plan to properly store funds for the long-term. Simply put, the best way to restore lost Bitcoins is to never lose them in the first place. Unfortunately, the mishandling of cryptocurrency is all-too-common.

Cold storage, generally via hardware wallets, has long been considered the best means to protect against loss. However, recovery phrases for these devices must still be carefully written down and stored in a very secure location. Cryptocurrency should never be kept on exchanges, nor should wallet data be kept on any device without adequate backup.

Also, substantial amounts of cryptocurrency have now been lost because owners have died without providing needed recovery information. Thus, this possibility should be factored into any long-term investment plan.

Have you lost any or all of your bitcoins? Tell us in the comments below.

Image via Shutterstock

The rest is here:
Lost Your Bitcoin? Here Is How You Can Recover It - Bitcoinist

To put an end to seven days of pandemonium in both the crypto world and traditional markets, crypto traders followed up a spurt of record-breaking activity with eerie quiescence.

In the past 24 hours, trading volume for Bitcoin totaled just $31 billion, down from peaks of near $80 billion on Fridaythe highest on record, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The tumult was down to the coronavirus pandemic: this week, the US announced a national emergency; Italys hospitals became overrun with patients; and Spain declared a nationwide lockdown. Uncertainty in the global economy caused a massive selloff of crypto. As a result, Bitcoin's price was cut in half, to lows of $4,107.

But following the historic trading boom, trading volume for Bitcoin this weekend hit its lowest ebb since the beginning of February. Last weekend, daily trading volume hovered around $36 million. The weekend before, $43 million.

Trading volume on major exchangesCoinbase and Krakenalso dipped over the past 24 hours, according to data from metrics site CoinGecko. In Fridays blowout, Kraken traded over $1 billion and Coinbase Pro reached $2 billion. In the past day, they traded around $100 million and $300 million, respectively.

Price stayed much the same in the past 24 hoursBitcoin now trades for around $5,360after taking a severe battering just days before.

Litecoin made modest gains of 0.85%, and Bitcoin Cash rose by 0.38%. Ethereum Classic was up by 0.63% and Bitcoin SV, rose just under 1%.

The outbreak is only getting worse: A World Health Organization report yesterday confirmed that 142,539 have the virus (9,769 new cases since Friday), and 5,393 have died (an increase of 438).

And the global economy already took this weeks news badly. The Dow Jones index fell 10% on Thursday, its worst performance in over 30 years, before rebounding slightly on Friday.

Bitcoin, which doesnt have the circuit breaker mechanisms of traditional markets, which temporarily cease trading if things get too rough, fared even worse.

But despite a big sell-off earlier in the week, Nic Carter, a partner at crypto venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures, said that most of the Bitcoin was traded between exchanges, and that it would be much more worrying if long-term holders were selling off their crypto assets.

After crypto's quiet weekend, all hell may break loose once again when global markets open for trading tomorrow.

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

Excerpt from:
After coronavirus panic, Bitcoin has quietest weekend in over a month - Decrypt

Quedex, a Gibraltar-regulated derivatives exchange, recently launched a bitcoin contract with the longest expiration date in crypto.

The CEO of Quedex Bitcoin Derivatives Exchange, Wiktor Gromniak, told CoinDesk the firm had experienced a surge in investor interest in its new BTCUSD contract, which expires in December 2021 and only became tradable last Friday.

Quedex volumes surged past a record $5 million on Saturday, beating the previous all-time high of $2 million reached in February, according to the exchange.

"The new December 2021 products account for about 5 to 15 percent of total volume on the exchange ... we see it as relatively high and promising for a product which [has been] live for less than a week," Gromniak said. "What's interesting is that the new December 2021 expiry options are the most popular among options products."

Quedex's total volumes peaked at over $16 million between March 6 and March 13, more than the exchange's $9.8 million weekly average. Over the same timeframe, volumes for the December 2021 contracts came in at $1.2 million with most activity taking place on Thursday, where volumes peaked at nearly $900,000, according to Gromniak.

Operating since 2016, Quedex is regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and offers various bitcoin-denominated products. As well as the two-year product, the exchange also offers contracts with expiries ranging from a week, to a month, to a quarter. Clients can also use a margin trading facility that comes with up to 10 times leverage.

The new contract's launch came before the coronavirus pandemic triggered mass sell-offs across both traditional and crypto markets. Contrary to the widely held safe-haven narrative, bitcoin's (BTC) price dropped to a 10-month low on Thursday, taking many traders completely unawares. Forced liquidations of long positions on derivatives exchange BitMEX have soared past $700 million, adding further downward pressure to the spot price.

While volatility is likely to continue for contracts with short term expiries, Gromniak attributes surging interest in his longer-dated products to investors trying to hedge their long-term exposure. Contracts with longer expiry dates, such as in two years' time, are not influenced by market downtrends such as the one sparked by the coronavirus, he said.

Previously, exchanges OKEx and FTX had the longest-reaching contracts that expired in December 2020. The longest contracts available on Deribit lists expire in September. Gromniak said Quedex would consider adding contracts with even longer expiration dates, but added the company would wait to see first if there was sufficient demand from the market.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Investors Can Hedge Long-Term Risk With New 2-Year Bitcoin Derivatives - CoinDesk - Coindesk

Bitcoin prices fell sharply amid the global sell-off in equities.

Luke MacGregor | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Cryptocurrencies took a battering following a global sell-off in stocks, with bitcoin seeing a near 40% plunge.

The market capitalization, or total value of the entire cryptocurrency market plummeted around $93.5 billion in the space of 24 hours as of 10:07 a.m. Singapore time, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

Bitcoin was down 48% from 24 hours before at 10:24 a.m. Singapore time at $4,001.60, according to data from Coindesk.

The fall in cryptocurrency markets comes amid a broader sell-off in equities as governments worldwide continue to grapple with the new coronavirus that's spreading rapidly across the world. The number of global cases has now exceeded 128,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

In the U.S., theDow Jones Industrial Averageclosed 2,352.60 points lower, or 9.99%, its worst drop since the 1987 "Black Monday" market crash. That selling spilled over into Asiaon Friday morning, where stock markets in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong saw heavy losses.

Investors are concerned about the global economic fallout from the coronavirus as businesses are disrupted and cities are locked down. Countries have taken different approaches with Italy, one of the worst hit-nations, shuttingdown shops and restaurants, and the U.S. canceling sporting events. Across the world, schools have been shut and people made to work from home.

Over the past few years, bitcoin has been likened to "digital gold" and has been seen by some as a safe haven asset to park money when markets are facing turmoil. But bitcoin, which has now erased all of its gains for the year and is in negative territory, is behaving more like a risk asset such as an equity.

And action by central banks has done little to soothe investors' concerns. This includes a recent emergency interest rate cute from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Englandas well as further easing measures by the European Central Bank.

Other cryptocurrencies suffered similar drops on Friday. Ethereum tanked 49% at 10:24 a.m. Singapore time while XRP was down over 42%.

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Cryptocurrencies see $93.5 billion wiped off value in 24 hours as bitcoin plunges 48% - CNBC

The mother of all weeks has seen Bitcoin in freefall. The biggest price drop since 2013 followed a WHO announcement of a global pandemic, and President Trumps ban on flights between the US and Europe. Uncertainty gripped the financial markets, and sent cryptocurrencies plummeting along with other assets, stocks and bonds.

On Thursday, Bitcoin had its worst day in history. Its price dropped from $7,900 to $4,600 over 40%. It then continued to drop, reaching a low of $3,850.

While its bounced back to over $5,000 since then, the Fear & Greed Index is still at extremeshowing the market is still fearful.

But weve been here before right? Bitcoin has died approximately 380 times. And its still here. So is Bitcoin really dead this time?

Erik Voorhees, CEO of Shapeshift crypto exchange, thinks the idea is ridiculous.

No, Bitcoin as a store of value isnt dead just because it had a super shitty day, he tweeted. In the coming months the world will see what anti-fragile means.

Voorhees has lived through plenty of super shitty days, since he got into crypto more than eight years ago. Hes also seen how quickly things can bounce back.

But many of the respondents to his assertion on Twitter disagreed. So did libertarian and Bitcoin Cash proponent, Roger Ver. He believes that its precisely this idea which has to be knocked on the head.

"Obviously it isnt the end of Bitcoin, but it should be the end of the nonsense idea put forth by BTC maximalists that Bitcoin is a store of value because Bitcoin is useful as a store of value, he told Decrypt. The reality is that the only way anything can become a store of value is by having some other use case.

No doubt about it, the market making industrythe institutional investors who provide essentially liquidity to the crypto industrytook a gigantic hit, pseudonymous Bitcoin maximalist Loomer told Decrypt. But he remains optimistic. I think the bottom just got printed, we will probably consolidate in this range for a while as people finally get back to grips and normality, he said. As long as people in the world have money, Bitcoin will be around.

Adam Back, cofounder of Bitcoin developer Blockstream also brushed off the recent tumult in the markets. Bitcoin has been lower last year with a bottom around $3400, and is known for being volatile, he said.

He pointed out that as well as the biggest loss, the cryptocurrency also saw its biggest gain.

Yesterday we saw price appreciate rapidly by the biggest intraday gain in Bitcoins history from its bottom just below $4000 to over $5500 within 30 minutes. So I think it's safe to say Bitcoin isn't going anywhere, he said.

Investor Dan Tapiero agreed, tweeting that Bitcoin was the only asset that could go down 50% in one day that didnt need government intervention to stabilize its price. It will be fine, he said.

But not everybody is convinced.

On the other side of the equation, skeptics argue that this might be it for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin bear Peter Schiff tweeted, With Bitcoin crashing below $4,000 I don't feel so bad about having lost all my Bitcoin. At the rate my lost Bitcoin are losing value soon the difference between having Bitcoin and not having any Bitcoin will be too small to matter.

Bitcoin skeptic David Gerard told Decryptthat it's crunch time. "Everything bitcoin's ever done has been under the best possible circumstances. Coiners forget that literally the entire price history of Bitcoinsince it could first be said to have a price, in late 2010 or early 2011has been in a conventional asset bull market."

The falling price poses further questions for the viability of Bitcoins economic model. It costs miners a lot of money in electricity bills to mine Bitcoin, and if it drops too far in valuethen they might not be able to afford to keep supporting the network.

Bitcoin miners help to keep the network running. Image: Shutterstock.

Charles Edwards founder of digital asset management startup Capriole tweeted that, Bitcoin miners are now unprofitable.

As a result, he argued that Bitcoin miners will leave the networkwhich would make it weaker, and more vulnerable to attack. The hash rate is the amount of processing power being used to mine new Bitcoin. Expect we hold (mostly) above $5,000, and then start to see [the] Hash Rate drop, he tweeted.

But perhaps price isnt everything. Charlie Shrem, host of Untold Stories, tweeted, Has Bitcoin changed from last week to this? Is the network broken? Has someone hacked it? No, Bitcoin is working, chugging along and growing!

Meanwhile, Peter McCormack, host of the What Bitcoin Did Next podcast, told Decrypt: "My only thought right now is I never really care about price much anymore, all I care about is its existence, just by existing it is a win for freedom."

Thats maximalism and existentialism for you.

View post:
Bitcoin is dead, long live Bitcoin - Decrypt

A famous painting by a Belgian Surrealist artist, Ren Magritte. It says: This is not a pipe.

Bitcoin's supply cap is one of its biggest selling points. Limiting the network to almost 21 million BTC, the cap makes Bitcoin a deflationary currency.

Naturally, people have been questioning whether it might be possible to remove this cap. In theory, by simply submitting a pull request to Bitcoin Core's GitHub, a hosting service that is most often used for code, repository, a developer could potentially have the cap's removal introduced into a future version of Bitcoin.

But according to Bitcoin developers and other industry players, the likelihood of this happening is very low. Yes, its technically feasible, but at least now there's an enormous social consensus against such removal. Even if such a pull request goes through, most likely it would end up with another version of Bitcoin while the original cryptocurrency would still have its supply cap.

The most recent debate kicked off with a tweet from Angela Walch, a research fellow at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies.

As Walch points out, there are only so many reasons why a pull request to update Bitcoin Core's code can be rejected by an editor. These include duplication of effort, disregard for formatting rules, being too unfocused or too broad, being technically unsound, not providing proper motivation or addressing backward compatibility.

However, another cause for rejection is the failure to comply with Bitcoin's philosophy. It's here that Walch's suggestion falls down, since a raised or unlimited supply cap would almost certainly depart from this philosophy, and it would almost certainly confront widespread opposition from Bitcoin developers.

"In order for a pull request to be accepted, it first needs to go through peer review," explains Benedict Chan, the chief technical officer for BitGo.

"A change to the supply cap would represent a significant modification to the behavior of the software properties, and would likely generate substantial discussion and pushback "NACK"s [negative-acknowledgments]. Without clear consensus, no Bitcoin core maintainer would merge it into the code repository."

But even if Bitcoin developers were to insert the removal of the cap into a new Bitcoin Core version, this doesn't necessarily mean that Bitcoin would have its cap removed.

"Once the new release is distributed, different stakeholders - users, miners, and various organizations that service the industry (exchanges and wallet providers) must all download and run it," says Benedict Chan.

Watch the latest reports by Block TV.

"These stakeholders are incentivized to verify the behavior of the code, understand what they are running, and (hopefully) act in a manner that will be positive for themselves and Bitcoin. They may not see the removal of the supply cap as an improvement, and thus not move forward to run it."

In other words, even if the developers release a new version of Bitcoin without the supply cap, the people who actually run Bitcoin may refuse to use it.

Guardian Circle CEO/Co-founder Mark Jeffrey agrees.

"If a change of this magnitude WERE to somehow make it through the Bitcoin developer community, there would be a revolt at the miner and exchange level," he says. "I'd expect a major fork to occur, and I would expect the market to largely rally around the fork where the 21m cap was preserved."

A fork into two separate cryptocurrencies would occur, and this leads CEO and co-founder of Bull Bitcoin, Francis Pouliot, to argue that the forked cryptocurrency without the 21 million supply cap would no longer be Bitcoin.

He tells Cryptonews.com, "Bitcoin's supply cap cannot be lifted, because whatever shitcoin is airdropped to existing Bitcoin users, even if its promoters call it Bitcoin, will be incompatible with the existing Bitcoin network and therefore would not be Bitcoin."

Meanwhile, there is another Bitcoin supply cap-related narrative, popular among the Bitcoin skeptics and in the camp of altcoins and altchains.

For example, Emin Gn Sirer, CEO of AVA Labs, the developer of the AVA blockchain, says that an alteration to the 21 million cap might be necessary after three more Bitcoin mining reward halvings due to security reasons.

"As the amount of awards given to the miners dwindles down, the security of the network will drop, he says, forecasting massive double-spend attacks targeting exchanges and suggesting that removing the supply cap would solve this.

However, Bitcoiners say that Sirer is wrong and halving block rewards wont weaken Bitcoins security. Read more about it on Cryptonews.com tomorrow, March 15.

More here:
Attempts to Increase Bitcoin's Supply Would End Up With Another "Bitcoin" - Cryptonews

Once set up with a bitcoin or bitcoin cash wallet and some coins, using and sending them is pretty easy. Part of this process involves paying a transaction fee, which is a small amount of coin included in a transaction incentivizing miners to work the tx into a block. Both BTC and BCH transactions have fees, with BCH fees being much lower. This post will detail some ways to find and track the best possible fees, set tx fees in your wallet, and make the most of this aspect of using peer-to-peer electronic cash.

Also read: How To Start Using Bitcoin: Buying, Storing, and Spending Crypto

A transaction (tx) fee is a small amount of bitcoin included in a transaction that rewards miners for validating a payment, which results in confirmation on the blockchain. Higher fees generally will result in a tx being processed more quickly. Depending on the nature of your transaction, you may not be in a hurry to have it confirmed, and can set a lower fee in your wallet which might result in the tx being confirmed in a later block. In a more urgent situation, a higher fee will get your tx processed more quickly. This post will look at both BTC and BCH tx fees, and how to make the most of them.

For starters, the highly customizable chart above from bitinfocharts.com, shows average BTC fees (blue) as compared to average BCH fees (red) over the past three months in USD. BCH fees are generally much cheaper thanks to a larger block size limit, meaning more transactions can fit into each block and the network is less subject to congestion. When a network is congested, users set higher and higher fees to outbid each other so their transaction will be processed first.

Another site that displays fees in a readily digestible, comparative format is bitcoinfees.cash, which shows the median Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core network fees. Typically, most people using Bitcoin as a currency dont want to wait many blocks for their transactions to be confirmed, the site maintains, so they pay next block fees to get their transaction confirmed within 10 minute block times. Median fees are just the middle range of all the fees to give users a better idea of the average amount being paid by everyone, discarding high and low fees.

One thing that the average user or crypto newcomer might not be aware of is that calculating an appropriate tx fee can be much more involved than just looking at averages and medians. Transaction size (measured in bytes) also affects miner incentive to take your tx out of the mempool waiting room and process it.

Miners are looking for value, so even if a high fee is paid, if the tx size is huge, there is no guarantee it will be processed as quickly as others paying the same amount. This is why some wallets offer highly customizable fee adjustment options and detailed tx info which can be used in conjunction with real-time network data to customize a fee. Luckily for most users, however, built-in fee estimators are fairly reliable for general purposes, taking tx size and fee rate into account automatically.

For those wanting to see current tx size info on both the BTC and BCH networks, charts.Bitcoin.com provides this resource.

Fees (often measured in satoshis per byte) can typically be adjusted in bitcoin wallets depending on the users individual needs. For users of the Bitcoin.com wallet both desktop and mobile there is a section entitled Network fee policy in the settings menu. Once tapped or clicked, a new menu is displayed which allows users to select their level of urgency, with options like priority, normal, and economy. This takes some of the guesswork out of setting fees where manual adjustment might be challenging for beginners, or inconvenient for everyday users.

Some wallets, such as the Electrum BTC wallet and the Electron Cash wallet for BCH, feature a slider by which the tx fee can be adjusted manually.

In the Electron Cash wallet the satoshi/byte fee rate is set as an integer from 1 to 10. In the Electrum wallet for Bitcoin Core, the fee rate is set according to a block target estimated time of arrival (ETA) as seen in the image below. The Electrum BTC wallet also provides further options for customizing fee settings such as the choice to estimate by mempool status, or to simply set a fixed fee rate. Fees can also be edited manually, and unconfirmed Replace-By-Fee (RBF) transactions batched (grouped together into a single transaction) to save on prices.

This likely sounds complicated for newcomers to crypto and everyday users, which is a large part of the reason Bitcoin Cash features a larger block size limit than Bitcoin Core. The greater capacity allows for less congestion and negligible fees, making many of the complications found in adjusting fees on the BTC network often seem unnecessary. BCHs Electron Cash wallet also allows for a custom fee rate to be set, beyond the default slider options, but as RBF is not part of the Bitcoin Cash codebase for security reasons, RBF batches arent available in this wallet.

As with traveling, sending a bitcoin tx is most easily and efficiently done when the roads are clear and traffic is light. If the side streets are clogged and you have to take a toll road, your trip is going to cost more. Also, depending on the time of day there may be traffic jams or rush hour congestion. Txstreet.com provides an excellent resource for viewing tx and mempool data, so bitcoiners can see the best time to send a transaction and a reasonable fee to pay.

When it comes to the best time to send a tx, that depends on a variety of factors. Price spikes can see network activity increase dramatically, and with it, fees. For example, just days after BTCs historic all time high in December 2017, the average tx fee in USD was over $37 per transaction. This resulted in legions of everyday bitcoiners having to wait days for their txs to be validated. While this was certainly a special event, network congestion nonetheless plays a role in determining daily fees.

A highly detailed resource for analyzing both the BTC and BCH mempool and tx fee activity, and getting familiar with daily, weekly, and market-correlated patterns across time can be found at Johoes Bitcoin Mempool Statistics. As the image directly above shows, the early a.m. hours of March 14 saw more unconfirmed transactions in the mempool as compared to other times of the day. The correlating Pending Transaction Fee in BTC chart on the site shows generally higher fees during the same interval.

The site notes: The data is separated into different fee levels given in satoshi per bytes. The lowest colored stripe is for transactions that pay the lowest fee. Higher fee transactions are stacked on top of it. Since miners prefer high fee transactions, a new block usually only removes the top 1 MB from the queue. If a colored stripe persists over several hours without getting smaller, this means that transactions paying this amount of fee are not confirmed during this time, because there are higher paying transactions that take precedence.

Sites like this and others can help bitcoiners, regardless of wallet or preferred network, be sure theyre setting a good tx fee that will help them save money and get their transaction validated in a timely manner.

How do you find the best fees when sending bitcoin or bitcoin cash? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship 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.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use.

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Graham Smith is an American expat living in Japan, and the founder of Voluntary Japanan initiative dedicated to spreading the philosophies of unschooling, individual self-ownership, and economic freedom in the land of the rising sun.

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How to Track, Get and Set the Best Transaction Fees with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash - Bitcoin News