The Bank of England governor-designate earned himself a place in Bitcoiners hall of shame alongside Peter Schiff and Warren Buffett. Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, he said. Anyone who wants to buy it should be prepared to lose all your money. Yet, amid weak forex markets and a global contagion, BTC is holding its own. Heres why you should hold Bitcoin over government fiat.

As the coronavirus brings Chinas economy to its knees and causes global stock markets to fall, Donald Trump urges the Fed for more quantitive easing.

While Chairman Jerome Powell stands by the policy saying in no sense this is QE!, we all know what happens when governments print money at will.

Just take a look at the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar over the last 100 years. If you had a $100 bill in 1900, that would be worth around $3.48 today. Your $10,000 would only leave you with $348. Thats a 96.4% decrease in its buying power.

Bitcoins purchasing power on the other hand, with its built-in scarcity and limited supply, will not erode, but increase over time. This makes bitcoin a far superior store of value when compared to government fiat.

As the world braces for the next global economic recession, it pays to remember that this time around you have a choice. Bitcoin emerged as a response to the 2008 financial crisis in which excessive risk-taking by banks caused global economic dismay and widespread government bail-outs at the taxpayers expense.

If youre holding government fiat and the banks begin to collapse one by one, do you have a guarantee of being able to access your savings? No one can seize your bitcoin or initiate irresponsible monetary policies to control its price.

Unlike fiat, it also has an excellent chance of yielding a dramatic rate of return when compared to 0.01% in your savings account.

When faced with statistics like these, the Bank of England governor-designate doesnt have a leg to stand on. In fact, if youre holding government fiat now, it looks far more likely that you will lose all your money over time.

Do you think bitcoin is a better bet than government fiat? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter: @MMcrypto, @cz_binance, ObservationsAndNotes

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Op-Ed: Why You Should Hold Bitcoin Over Government Fiat? - Bitcoinist

Bitcoin (BTC) remains on the hunt for a notable recovery with prices holding above widely tracked average support.

The top cryptocurrency is currently trading above $8,760, having defended the 200-day moving average (MA) support at $8,720 early on Wednesday.

The support level is widely considered a barometer of long-term market trends and tends to attract buying or selling pressure, depending on the direction in which it is breached.

Therefore, a corrective bounce to levels above $9,000 put forward by a bullish reversal candlestick pattern confirmed Monday may remain elusive if prices find acceptance under the long-term average.

The key support has held ground so far today, keeping hopes for a recovery rally alive. The average support withstood selling pressure on Tuesday.

Bitcoin ran into offers during Tuesdays U.S. trading hours as the stock markets dropped with the Federal Reserve's announcement of a 50 basis point rate cut. Prices briefly fell below the 200-day average but the bears failed to secure a daily close under the support level.

Bitcoin jumped 4.5 percent on Monday, confirming a bullish reversal doji candle and opening the doors for a notable corrective rally.That pattern will remain valid as long as prices are holding above $8,410 (Sundays low).

That said, the prospects of a quick move to resistance at $9,075 (Feb. 4 low) would weaken if the 200-day average support at $8,720 gives in. That could yield a re-test of $8,410.

However, a sustained drop below the 200-day MA looks unlikely, as the MACD histogram is registering a higher low below zero for the fourth consecutive day a sign of weakening bearish momentum.

So bitcoin appears more likely to bounce from the 200-day MA toward resistance at $9,075 (Feb. 4 low). A violation there would expose the next resistance lined up at $9,312 (Feb. 19 low).

Bitcoin is trapped in a broadening descending channel on the hourly chart. A break above the top end of the channel, currently at $8,820, would confirm a breakout and imply an end of the pullback from Mondays high of $8,980 and a resumption of the rally from Sundays low of $8,410.

That would strengthen the case for a bounce to levels above $9,000.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.

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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Bitcoin Keeps Recovery Hopes Alive With Defense of Major Average Support - CoinDesk - Coindesk

A transfer of $1.4 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) is turning heads among crypto whale watchers.

The transaction was identified by ByteTrees Bitcoin tracking terminal andposted on Reddit, where crypto enthusiasts speculated on the nature of the transfer.

Although some Reddit users are concerned that the move implies that a whale is gearing up to rock the market by cashing out, the transfer could also be a crypto exchange moving its assets around for security purposes. The addresses of both the sending wallet and the receiving wallet are unknown at time of publishing.

Crypto traders are also tracking a number of XRP transactions. The largest is a transfer of nearly 86 million XRP worth about $20.6 million. The transfer happened between two wallets of unknown origin.

A separate transaction of 22 million XRP worth $5.3 million was transferred from the crypto exchange Bithumb to an unknown wallet on Friday.

In addition, Ripple sent 41 million XRP worth $10 million to the companys co-founder Jed McCaleb on Friday. The transfer is part of a settlement brokered between Ripple and McCaleb in 2016 that allows McCaleb to sell portions of his XRP holdings on a weekly basis.

A recent review from Whale Alert found McCaleb has sold $1.05 billion worth of XRP since 2014.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Martin Prochazkacz

Excerpt from:
$1,400,000,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) on the Move As Ripple Sends $10 Million in XRP to Co-Founder Jed McCaleb - The Daily Hodl

Brian Armstrong, CEO of digital currency exchange Coinbase, says Bitcoin (BTC) may be surpassed by other digital coins as the crypto industry evolves into maturity.

In a series of tweets, Armstrong highlights the parallels between the early internet and cryptocurrency. He says challenges that early internet developers faced are comparable to those that hound todays young crypto industry.

At Netscape, they were working with early internet protocols. Things werent very scalable (dial up modems), you had to be somewhat technical to figure out how to get online, and early websites were pretty basic (static sites, looked like toys).

Sound familiar to crypto at all??

They figured theyd try making a shopping cart (see if they could build a first party app).

There was no way to save state or create a session (for instance, to make a shopping cart), so they created the concept of cookies.

Then, next problem was that nobody wanted to put a credit card into the internet, because everything plain text over http. So they went and invented SSL/HTTPS.

Armstrong says that just as early internet users came up with better web tools, the 11-year-old crypto industry is also gearing up toward new solutions.

Slow internet speeds/dial up models reflect early challenges in scaling blockchains.

SSL and HTTPs are similar to some of the privacy coin efforts.

Based on the parallels of the two industries, Armstrong cites the features that digital coins need for the crypto industry to reachmass adoption.

For me, the biggest areas of development I see that I think we need to get right as an industry are: 1. Scalability we need blockchains that can get to at least thousands of TPS to get mainstream adoption of crypto (similar to broadband internet being a big unlock on the web)

2. Privacy perhaps a contrarian view, but I think well need privacy coins, just like we needed HTTPS as the default on the web, for many use cases in crypto long term. Everyone deserves access to financial services, and financial privacy.

Transaction scalability and privacy are two features that Bitcoin currently lacks. Because of these deficiencies, Armstrong says there is ultimately an opportunity for an altcoin to become the dominant crypto asset in the future.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Proxima Studio

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Coinbase CEO Says Bitcoin (BTC) May Lose Cryptocurrency Race to Altcoins Heres Why - The Daily Hodl

Bitcoin (BTC) is heading to at least $100,000 during the bull cycle which has already begun, one of the industrys best-known analysts has confirmed.

Speaking to RT financial news show the Keiser Report on March 3, Willy Woo said that described BTC/USD hitting $135,000 as a common-sense prediction.

Woo highlighted the cumulative average Bitcoin price as a particularly effective metric for forecasting future gains.

You go could 35 times the cumulative average of the price and thats actually picked every single top in the ten-year history of Bitcoin right now thats sitting above $50,000, but it keeps climbing the longer it runs for, he told host Max Keiser.

Explaining that Bitcoin ebbed and flowed in line with the four-year cycles of its block reward halvings, Woo likened new highs in BTC/USD to water sloshing in a bathtub.

If you make a best guess, its above $100,000; I think one of the more common-sense predictions would be around $135,000 based on the timing cycleture and the 35x of average cap, he continued.

Im looking at around the $100,000 to $250,000 range depending on how long this bull market runs.

Woo was speaking as BTC/USD continued trading at around its 200-day moving average after a week of noticeable losses.

A sudden but suspicious rally in traditional markets failed to spill over into Bitcoin, leading to criticism from one skeptic in particular that its successes in 2020 would be short-lived.

At the same time, several industry figures have delivered buoyant price forecasts for the rest of the year, while technical forecasts suggest that current price performance is exactly on schedule prior to Mays block reward halving.

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Bitcoin Hitting $135K This Bull Cycle Is Common Sense Willy Woo - Cointelegraph

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped right before and after the two previous block-reward halving events in 2012 and 2016. BTC is demonstrating a similar trend approaching the May 2020 halving.

A theory has emerged that miners tend to sell before the halving to accumulate enough Bitcoin to finance their operations for many months after the halving occurs, allowing them to hold onto the majority of Bitcoin they mine.

Theoretically, such a practice would be beneficial for miners because the break-even price of Bitcoin mining spikes significantly when a block-reward halving occurs. According to James Todaro, head of research at TradeBlock, the break-even price of Bitcoin mining is expected to surge from $7,000 to anywhere between $12,000 and $15,000 after the halving.

Following the Bitcoin halving, miners' estimated breakeven costs will rise from ~$7,000 today to ~$12,00015,000 per BTC after. I would not be surprised if we see Bitcoin prices rise above these levels so that miners remain profitable.

Because the halving drops the amount of BTC that is mined as Bitcoin approaches its fixed supply of 21 million, miners will earn less BTC after the halving for performing the same work. If the Bitcoin price does not increase substantially after the halving, and if the difficulty of mining remains put, miners will see a higher break-even price with similar revenues as before.

For that reason, it would make sense for big mining centers to accumulate large amounts of capital before the halving to finance their operations in advance in case the price of Bitcoin does not increase right away after the halving.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Alejandro De La Torre, vice president of mining pool Poolin, explained that there are two types of mining companies:

Some mining farms are highly sophisticated operations with the teams having many years of experience in data centers and finance. These mining farms usually hedge their risk in various ways. You have also mining farms that have been at it for years, these have stocked up massive amounts of coins and expanded their operations further, these farms tend to be huge and usually can withstand a significant decrease in price.

Simply put, while there are mining firms with complicated financial strategies, there are also large centers that have accumulated a significant amount of Bitcoin over time to be able to cover expenses for longer periods of time. In May 2019, Brian Kelly, the CEO of investment firm BKCM, said that many miners have sold enough Bitcoin to get through the next 12 months:

I've talked to a lot of miners around the world, a lot of them have said they have sold enough Bitcoin to get us through the next year or so and we are going to hoard Bitcoin at this point in time and we are not going to sell it and the supply of Bitcoin will get cut in half. Just real simple economics: lots of demand hitting little supply, price goes higher.

Miners and large sellers tend to trade Bitcoin in the over-the-counter market. The price of Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency exchange market takes some time to reflect the OTC market. After Kelly said that miners have sold large amounts of Bitcoin to finance their operations, the Bitcoin price proceeded to drop by around 18%, from $9,000 to $7,500, within the next several weeks.

Related: Half of Predictions Are Right Half the Time BTCs Halving Divides Opinions

For miners, it is less risky to obtain enough capital to last for 12 to 18 months after the halving, instead of maintaining strong momentum. In 2012 and 2016, the Bitcoin price consolidated before and after the halving, and it took around eight months for BTC to go on an extended rally.

For instance, the second block-reward halving in Bitcoins history occurred on July 9, 2016. Data from Bitfinex shows that Bitcoins price dropped from $683 to $572 over a period of 77 days after the halving occurred. Then, the Bitcoin price started to gradually recover over the next three months following the halving, entering a vertical rally beginning in March 2017.

So far in 2020, the price of Bitcoin has not shown an inverse correlation with stocks and gold. Due to the coronavirus outbreak across Asia, Europe and now the United States, investors have started to frantically sell all sorts of assets, regardless of their risk-on or risk-off nature. In the last two weeks, Bitcoin, stocks and gold have moved similarly, all reacting in the same way to macro events.

De La Torre told Cointelegraph that for now, there is insufficient evidence to claim that Bitcoins price has an inverse correlation with stocks or the broader financial market.

This is a test of the theory that Bitcoin is a hedge against market instability. We tend to see yearly events where this theory is tested. There is conflicting historical data on this theory (sometimes the price increase sometimes not), the results I believe are still inconclusive.

Other industry executives such as BitGo co-founder Ben Davenport said it is difficult to consider Bitcoin a safe-haven asset or a risk-on asset at this point:

Bitcoin is neither a risk-on nor a risk-off asset at this point. It still marches to the beat of its own drum. The actions of whales and leveraged traders are far more meaningful than any macro concerns.

The big impact coronavirus could have on Bitcoin is not necessarily on the price, but rather the supply chain of miners and mining manufacturers. The outbreak has made it difficult for many manufacturers worldwide across various industries to distribute products.

Considering that large mining centers depend on new mining equipment with improved specifications to vamp up their computing power to mine more BTC, De La Torre said that it could affect the Bitcoin networks hash rate, to a small extent:

This is more of a test of the mining manufacturers capabilities. The factories where all the parts are manufactured for these machines are in lock-down or are operating at a less than optimal capability. This will slow the production of mining rigs which in turn will affect the continued increase of the Bitcoin hash rate which then may cause some speculators to see this as a bearish signal.

Currently, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network is at a record high and has consistently grown past all-time highs throughout the past two years. As such, it remains uncertain whether the slowdown in the production of new mining equipment would ever have a negative effect on the hash rate of the Bitcoin network.

Hash rate of Bitcoin has continued to rise throughout the past two years. Source: blockchain.com

However, if the hash rate of the Bitcoin network goes down, it would cost less to mine Bitcoin, bringing down the break-even price of mining BTC. When the break-even price goes down, it attracts more miners into the Bitcoin ecosystem, which ultimately leads to a recovery in the hash rate. De La Torre added on the matter:

The Bitcoin hash rate is at the highest it's ever been. A drop, even a significant drop will most likely still be higher (in terms of hash rate) [...] than what it was this same time last year. Additionally, the network is working as intended and it is still the safest decentralized financial tool ever seen by human society.

There are contrasting theories as to how the Bitcoin price would react to the halving. In 2012 and 2016, Bitcoin did not have a strong infrastructure to facilitate trades as it does in 2020. Even up to 2017, many exchanges were facing lots of technical issues, losing client funds with no insurance or backup funds in place.

It was not until 2019 that reputable custodians, futures markets and exchanges emerged. Thus, 2020 will be the first time Bitcoin faces a block-reward halving with an efficient market infrastructure in place, with some balance between retail traders and accredited or institutional investors.

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Bitcoin Halving Can Have Negative Short-Term Effect on BTC Price Heres Why - Cointelegraph

Following an extended bout of sideways trading, Bitcoin and the aggregated cryptocurrency market has been able to post some decent upwards momentum, with BTC climbing above its previous key resistance level at $9,000. The latest upwards movement was not entirely unexpected, as one prominent analytics firm had previously noted that on-chain data seemed to suggest []

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Bitcoins price is very attractive because of this one simple indicator - CryptoSlate

Bitcoin saw a small 5% price rebound over the past week of trading. It had been falling the previous week and managed to stabilize after reaching support at $8,460 (downside 1.618 Fibonacci Extension level). This price rebound allowed it to climb higher as it broke above resistance at $8,978 and rose above $9,000 to reach the current trading level at $9,132. Bitcoin currently now holds a market cap valuation of around $167 billion and it is still up by a total of 33% from the 2020 price lows.

BTC/USD Daily CHART SHORT TERM

Taking a look at the daily chart above, Bitcoin managed to increase higher after bouncing from the support at $8,672, provided by a .5 Fibonacci Retracement level. The rebound allowed Bitcoin to break above the $9,000 resistance level as it reached $9,132.

Bitcoin is still considered as neutral and would need to break above $9,500 before being considered even slightly bullish in the short term. It would need to drop beneath the support at $8,672 to be considered as being in danger of turning bearish.

If the buyers push higher, the first level of resistance lies at $9,270 (bearish .382 Fib Retracement). Above this, resistance lies at $9,400 (1.272 Fib Extension), $9,500 (bearish .5 Fib Retracement), $9,676 (1.618 Fib Extension), and $9,741 (bearish .618 Fib Retracement).

On the other hand, if the sellers push lower, support lies at $9,000, $8,762, $8,461 (downside 1.618 Fib Extension), and $8,250.

Support:$9,000, $8,762, $8,559, $8,500, $8,420, $8,250, $8,200, $8,000.

Resistance: $8,979, $9,000, $9,100, $9,270, $9,506, $9,740, $9,975, $9,000, $9,270, $9,500.

Summary

Article Name

Bitcoin Momentum Stalls After Breaking Above $9,000 - Can The RSI Rise Above 50?

Description

Bitcoin witnessed a small 5% price rebound over the past 7-days of trading that allowed it to overcome resistance at $9,000 again.The cryptocurrency is still in danger of heading lower as the RSI stalls upon reaching the 50 level.

Author

Yaz Sheikh

Publisher Name

Coin Gape

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Bitcoin Momentum Stalls After Breaking Above $9,000 Can The RSI Rise Above 50? - Coingape

In brief

On a small plot of land in the Czech Republic, Karel and Kamila Bhm have a small flock of small sheep. And these small sheep love crypto.

Of course, the way to a sheeps affections is through its stomach, so IT network engineer Karel has set up a crypto-powered interactive sheep feeder. Donations of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency are converted into alfalfa pellets; the action is live-streamed on YouTube and Twitch, so donors can watch the antics of the sheep as they scramble for the feed.

Sheepish antics can be viewed from a variety of camera angles. (Image: Karel Bhm)

A donation of 50 Twitch bits ($0.60) paid for in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), or Ripples XRP triggers the tap in the sheep shed to release the tasty morsels. Or users can contribute $0.50 in crypto directly by scanning a QR code on the livestream, or donating to one of the wallet addresses Bhm has supplied.

Bhm introduced the five popular cryptocurrencies last month, and has also set up payment with Bitcoins scaling solution, the Lightning Network (LN). If they have a Lightning wallet, users need only scan the QR code, speeding things up for both Bitcoin-loving humans and sheep.

The engineer told Decrypt that he started his crypto experiment in 2018 to help his wife care for the eight Ouessant sheep she adopted. But the project began with another cryptocurrency altogetherIota, which has been designed for the Internet of Things. It was originally dubbed the SheepTangle, after the network's distributed ledger, the Tangle.

Donors can activate an alarm to call the sheep in from the field to be fed. (Image: Karel Bhm)

However, when the Iota Foundation switched off the network in February following a hack, (its due to come back on next week) Bhm didnt want to abandon the experiment, so he cast his net wide.

But when asked which cryptocurrency brings in the most donations, he was coy. He said that the project hadnt been running for long enough to establish that, and users were currently only funding around 20 feeds a day. Pressed, he told Decrypt that ETH, LTC and BTC LN, were currently the cryptocurrencies most used.

Scene of the all the action: the sheep shed in the couple's back yard. (Image: Karel Bhm)

As well as feeding the sheep, users can also earn sheep points just by watching the live feed. And there are special bonuses for watch streaks and for participating in a raid on the sheep shed, when its cleaned out.

Not only that, donors can activate an alarm to call the sheep in from the field to be fed, and switch camera views to get the best angle on the ensuing scramble for alfalfa.

Bhm is now working on an apple drop feature, which sheep also love, he said. The sheep continue to eat their staples, hay and grass, so the additional food is a treat.

Bhm also adheres to strict sheep feeding hours, from 8-20 CET time, and said that the system is designed to deliver a maximum of 100 feed drops per day, before feeding is stopped.

There is limitation and [the] whole solution is designed for sheep safety, so theyre not overfed or fed during sleeping hours.

The sheep shed cant really be described as a farm. Ouessant sheep are some of the smallest in the world. The sheepVlnka, Pepinka, Paja, Mufi, Marii, Jannet, Kiki and Julianaprovide no milk, and little wool, so the couple make no money from the enterprise. They also look after five injured birds: three wild buzzards and two hawks.

The latter feed on chicks. Thankfully, Bhm has no plans to instal a live feed in their cage.

Read more here:
Now you can feed a flock of sheep with Bitcoin - Decrypt

How confidential is our conversation? This question has come to the fore in recent months, driven by a flurry of news stories detailing the weakening of encrypted messenger apps at the behest of law enforcement. A concerted effort on the part of the state to backdoor messaging apps and spy on our most private conversations is something that should concern every member of the cryptocurrency community, many of whom are desperate for an invulnerable app that wont leak their secrets.

Also read: RBI to Challenge Supreme Court Verdict on Cryptocurrency

Within the crypto community, debates have been raging about the merits of popular encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram and Signal. Cloud-based platform Telegram has enjoyed tremendous success, with several hundred million downloads; its ambition is to cross the 1 billion threshold by 2022. Telegram is well known in the cryptosphere, having conducted a $1.7 billion token sale last year. However, because the platform isnt open-source, users must trust Telegram to honor its assurances that messages are secure from retention and interception.

Signal is widely viewed as an upgrade on Telegram, its policy of minimizing data retention having won rave reviews from many privacy absolutists including Edward Snowden. Unlike Telegram, the free app is open source and all messages encrypted end-to-end by default. That said, its not as feature-rich as users may like. Some people are also uncomfortable with having to use their phone number for verification, which could spawn further security risks.

Decentralized messaging platform Debrief is an interesting alternative, as it implements data storage, encryption and authentication on the blockchain. All messages are encrypted by default, and Debrief follows the same policy as Signal in terms of data retention (i.e. no stored chat logs). The platform also acts as an open-source middleware for blockchains and legacy comms tools, which can tap into its blockchain-based encryption protocols to enhance security and internal data privacy. By refraining from centralized control, we will be removing the weak link from the equation the third parties, says co-founder Jeff Pulver.

Dust (formerly known as Cyber Dust) is another blockchain-based, pro-privacy messenger app which utilizes the disappearing message feature to make sensitive data ephemeral. That said, messages self-delete after 24 hours with some users wondering whether automatic self-deletion would be preferable. Dust went live in March, 2014, meaning its a veteran in this space the fact that its still popularly used for text communication is a good sign.

In February, reports indicated that the EUs executive branch had urged staff to replace Whatsapp with Signal for all messaging needs, in a bid to enforce the security of communications. Like Whatsapp, Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging service, but while the former is owned by Facebook a company rightly criticized for its history of data harvesting Signal is an open-source project funded by the non-profit Signal Foundation. Pro-privacy features include the ability to send and receive view-once media, automatic metadata deletion, and the use of safety codes for each conversation. Screenshotting messages is disabled.

The European Unions executive branch determined that Whatsapp was not secure enough to handle sensitive and classified information shared between diplomats (and according to the latest update, even Signal may not be sufficiently secure). Fair enough. Yet its telling that the EU sees value in secure encryption, yet wants to retain the ability to undermine such standards when it comes to the general population.

The hypocrisy is staggering but not surprising. The National Security Council recently discussed whether to prohibit encryption without a mandatory backdoor for state access to plaintext. Members of Congress are also debating the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act, which promises to strip away Section 230 protections and open up backdoors to encryption.

Law enforcement in the U.K., U.S. and Australia, meanwhile, have urged Mark Zuckerberg to abandon his plan to introduce end-to-end encryption on all of Facebooks messaging products, while MI5s director general has urged tech companies to permit spy agencies exceptional access to encrypted communication. While this is all in the name of national security, it stinks of one rule for the government, another for the people. We are not entitled to privacy of communications in a free and democratic society, it seems.

On March 6, Matthew Green described the latest bipartisan bill pushed by U.S. senators, EARN IT, as a direct attack on end-to-end encryption, writing: Its extremely difficult to believe that this bill stems from an honest consideration of the rights of child victims, and that this legislation is anything other than a direct attack on the use of end-to-end encryption. He added:

My hope is that the Internet community and civil society will treat this proposal with the seriousness it deserves, and that well see Senators rally behind a bill that actually protects children from abuse, rather than using those issues as a cynical attempt to bring about a backdoor ban on encryption.

Against this Orwellian backdrop, the need for end-to-end encrypted messaging capabilities is obvious. This is something the crypto community well understands, as governments are especially determined to learn more about their financial affairs and transactions. And its not just governments you might wish to keep your communications safe from; its also cybercriminals, data thieves and extortionists.

Securing your communications with end-to-end encryption should be a right, not a privilege, in a digital age. Unfortunately, this quest is becoming increasingly difficult as three-letter agencies and politicians jockey to secure unprecedented access to the everyday affairs of their citizens under the guise of anti-terrorism and child protection. Theres no universal messenger that can provide a panacea to this problem, but there are applications, at least, that will minimize leakage and ensure your private conversations remain that way.

Which messaging platform do you think is most secure? 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 a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. 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.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.

Kai's been manipulating words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $12. It's long gone. He specializes in writing about darknet markets, onchain privacy, and counter-surveillance in the digital age.

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Crypto, Encryption, and the Quest for a Secure Messaging App - Bitcoin News