Forget buy-to-let and Bitcoin. Id buy these 2 UK shares in an ISA today to retire rich – Yahoo Finance UK

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook said it has taken down a group that has surged in popularity since Election Day called Stop the Steal.The group, which had attracted more than 360,000 followers in recent days, was attempting to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the U.S. presidential election. The StopTheSteal hashtag has also become popular on Twitter.Facebook Inc. said it removed the group because some members were calling for violence.In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group Stop the Steal, which was creating real-world events, a Facebook spokesperson said. The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.A spokesperson for the group lashed out at Facebook for shutting them down. It is absolutely beyond the pale that Facebook would selectively choose to shut down our group. Is this the same standard they are applying to left wing groups?The answer is obvious -- they are selectively enforcing their new rules to silence conservatives, the spokesperson said. The group was formed to give a voice to the millions of Americans who are concerned about the vote counting process.The group was created on Nov. 4 with an announcement from the conservative organization Women for America First, which is run by activist Kylie Kremer, daughter of Tea Party activist Amy Kremer, who is co-founder of Women Vote Trump. MOBILIZING NOW- INVITE EVERYONE YOU CAN! the announcement said. Details forthcoming...Turn on notifications! Women for America First was opposed the impeachment of President Donald Trump and advocated for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.Women for America First didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.Were going to be holding everybody accountable and making sure the Secretary of State and everybody follows election law and that this election is not stolen from President Donald Trump, Kylie Kremer said on Nov. 4 in a live stream outside of State Farm Arena in Atlanta, where ballots are being counted.On Kremers Twitter account, she indicated the money raised will be used to fly in supporters to swing states. ALL HANDS ON DECK, Kremer tweeted. Need immediate support to fly in people to GA, PA, NV, AZ, WI, MI & NC to Stop The Steal NOW.Posts in the discussion section of Stop The Steal promoted a number of debunked claims about the vote, with several of the posts receiving several thousand interactions.Among the people promoting the StopTheSteal on Twitter was the presidents son, Eric Trump. The amount of FRAUD being reported in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin is unreal. Please report personal experiences. Please have all facts and evidence. StopTheSteal, he tweeted on Thursday.Twitter began monitoring the hashtag StopTheSteal and related Tweets early on Tuesday and have continued to do so. Theyve taken action in instances were users have violated Twitter rules, said a company spokesperson. Our teams will remain vigilant, specifically on this hashtag and on protecting the integrity of the election conversation across Twitter broadly, the spokesperson said.(Updates with additional details about group beginning in fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Forget buy-to-let and Bitcoin. Id buy these 2 UK shares in an ISA today to retire rich - Yahoo Finance UK

Nearly $1 billion worth of bitcoin linked to Silk Road black market is on the move, analysis shows – CNBC

A visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Yu Chun Christopher Wong| S3studio | Getty Images

Nearly $1 billion worth of bitcoin with potential ties to the Silk Road online black market is on the move, according to London-based blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.

Silk Road was closed down by U.S. federal authorities in 2013, while its creator, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison two years later. The site, hidden away as part of the dark web, allowed people to sell drugs and other illegal goods.

Elliptic, a firm that tracks the movement of dirty money in the cryptocurrency sphere, said Wednesday that it picked up on a transaction of funds believed to have originated from the site.

The company said that 69,369 bitcoins worth about $950 million today, according to CoinDesk had been moved out of a wallet that had the fourth-highest balance of any globally.

It added that an encrypted file circulating among hackers allegedly contained the passcode required to withdraw bitcoins from that wallet.

"The movement of these bitcoins today may represent Ulbricht or a Silk Road vendor moving their funds," Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist of Elliptic, said in a blog post. "However it seems unlikely that Ulbricht would be able to conduct a bitcoin transaction from prison."

"Alternatively, the encrypted wallet file may have been real, and the password has now been cracked allowing the bitcoins to be moved."

Though the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized 174,000 bitcoins from Ulbricht, Robinson said a further 440,000 bitcoins were earned from Silk Road commissions. "There has always been the suspicion that proceeds of the Silk Road may remain in circulation," he said.

The FBI was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Bitcoin has been on a tear in 2020, climbing 91% year-to-date as major companies like PayPal and Facebook have shown an increased interest in cryptocurrencies. But it's also been the target of scrutiny from regulators and bankers due to its use in criminal activities like money laundering.

Elliptic and a competitor called Chainalysis have tried to bring some legitimacy to the cryptocurrency industry by selling analytics tools that allow virtual currency exchanges and banks to block potentially dubious transactions.

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Nearly $1 billion worth of bitcoin linked to Silk Road black market is on the move, analysis shows - CNBC

Bitcoin Just Rocketed Over $14,000Heres Why – Forbes

Bitcoin traders and investors have been nervously eyeing markets over recent days, with uncertainty on the rise after bitcoin decoupled from the stock market last week.

The bitcoin price, up a staggering 50% on the last six months, looks set to close out 2020 as one of the year's best performing assets. Bitcoin spiked to just over $14,000 per bitcoin late last month for the first time since the great 2017 bitcoin bubble popped in January 2018.

Now, the bitcoin price has added 4% over the last 24 hours, rocketing back over $14,000 and again following traditional markets that jumped earlier today, with bulls firmly in control ahead of the U.S. election polls closing.

The bitcoin price has climbed ahead of the U.S. election result, with bitcoin traders and investor ... [+] closely watching the polls.

"We seem to be well in the green across the board right now both in terms of markets and crypto and it's hard to tell where this [rally over $14,000 per bitcoin] is coming from exactly, but it seems logical that the election must be playing a part," Jason Deane, an analyst at market advisory firm Quantum Economics, said via Telegram.

"Early sentiment is of a Biden victory which could point to expectation of getting a significant coronavirus stimulus passed quickly. In that scenario, bitcoin is little more than a passenger on a wave of positivity driving price discovery, rather than the fundamentals which, although strong, become a secondary consideration in that context."

Others in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community are confident that the bitcoin price will climb whoever takes the White House in coming days.

"Regardless of who wins, the forecast is for more quantitative easing and stimulus, continuing the favorable conditions for hard assets like bitcoin," Cory Klippsten, the chief executive of bitcoin-buying app Swan Bitcoin, said via Telegram, adding that "everything in the macro environment points to great opportunity for a major bitcoin bull market."

Bitcoin, with a fixed supply of just 21 million bitcoin tokens, has found fresh support this year as a hedge against the inflation some investors see on the horizon due to unprecedented government spending and stimulus measures designed to offset the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

The recent bitcoin price rally has reinvigorated the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community, with many celebrating a raft of major developments.

"There just aren't many sellers left. It feels like every time there's the slightest dip lately, it just gets bought up," Klippsten said, pointing to MicroStrategy MSTR kicking off a wave of publicly-listed companies adding bitcoin to their books, payments giant PayPal PYPL rolling out bitcoin-buying and spending services, and recent upgrades to the bitcoin network as fostering a "bullish" bitcoin ecosystem.

The bitcoin price has added over 3% today, pushing bitcoin over the psychological $14,000 per ... [+] bitcoin level for the second time this year.

Bitcoin prices are highly volatile, however, and some have been quick to point out sharp corrections often follow jumps higher.

Bitcoin "loves nothing more than to surprise everyone," George McDonaugh, managing director of digital asset investment company KR1, said via email.

"Were now clearly in a bull market and next year has huge potential, but watch out for those 30% declines that come seemingly out of nowhere. There were five such declines on the way up to $20,000 in 2016/17, so expect similar this time around."

Some think bitcoin will find support not far from its highs.

"What should be noted is the strong support seen at $13,000, which is allowing the bulls to reattempt breaching $14,000 with increased confidence," Joe DiPasquale, the chief executive of hedge fund BitBull Capital, said via email.

"In the short-term, the price is expected to remain volatile due to the U.S. elections, but long-term prospects remain increasingly bullish."

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Bitcoin Just Rocketed Over $14,000Heres Why - Forbes

Bond King who called Bitcoin a lie now says BTC is a hedge against inflation – Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) is a recommended hedge against fiat currency inflation along with gold, one of its well-known critics now says.

In an appearance on Rosenberg Researchs webcast series on Nov. 2, Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of investment management firm DoubleLine, produced rare praise for Bitcoin.

Gundlach, informally known as the Bond King, is no stranger to discussing Bitcoin, but had previously made it clear that he would not invest.

In an interview with Business Insider last month, the billionaire called Bitcoin a lie, building on previous claims that he did not believe it was unhackable.

I dont believe in bitcoin. I think that its a lie. I think that its very tracked, traceable. I dont think its anonymous, he told the publication.

Nonetheless, Gundlach insisted that he was not at all a Bitcoin hater a comment which he appeared to strengthen this week.

Telling listeners that they should own something to hedge against inflation, he mentioned gold and Bitcoin as good possibilities.

That perspective marks the closest that Gundlach has come to reversing his hands-off stance and advocating that investors actually buy Bitcoin.

Gold, meanwhile, is set to increase markedly over time, he continued, in line with other proponents of the precious metal currently forecasting major gains after the United StatesS. presidential election.

Data shows the extent of Bitcoins returns versus gold and other macro assets. Collated by on-chain analytics resource Skew, year-to-date figures were 88% as of Nov. 3, with gold on 24% and the S&P 500 just over 2%.

Against a backdrop of intensifying coronavirus lockdowns and associated reduced economic activity, Bitcoin is tipped to continue its rapid gains in the near- to mid-term.

As Cointelegraph reported, some expect new all-time highs to appear within the next three months, while statistician Willy Woo has argued that the cryptocurrency is already diverging from the path of other macro assets, including gold.

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Bond King who called Bitcoin a lie now says BTC is a hedge against inflation - Cointelegraph

Investor on why bitcoin is ‘literally the biggest story I’ve seen,’ may hit $1M and top gold’s market cap – Yahoo Finance

Influential investor Raoul Pal says the best trade he's ever found is bitcoin (BTC-USD), which he's described as "a call option on the future" and "the world's most pristine reserve asset."

In a recent interview on Yahoo Finance, Pal said that the central banks move toward digital currencies is "literally the biggest story" in his career.

Investors like Pal dont want to compete against central banks, but aim to create a digital world," Pal said, underscoring that despite big reservations, policymakers dont appear to want to ban crypto completely.

They understand the technology is out of the bottle. The genie is out of the bottle, the investor said. There's nothing you can do about it. It's not going away."

Despite the cryptocurrencys notorious head-spinning volatility and growing association with scams, Pal declared flatly that bitcoin and crypto is here to stay. Last week, PayPal (PYPL) launched its own service to buy, sell and hold digital currency.

Pal, a Goldman Sachs alum, previously co-managed GLG's global macro fund, one of the world's largest. Since retiring back in 2004, he now authors a research letter, The Global Macro Investor (GMI), which is read by some of the most influential hedge funds, asset managers, and sovereign wealth funds.

He's also the founder of Real Vision Television, an online subscription media company specializing in long-form investor interviews where he recently shared a 35-minute video detailing his crypto thesis.

Pal has stated repeatedly that bitcoin's price could get to $1 million, becoming a $10 trillion asset class, and possibly surpassing the gold market. In the last year, bitcoin's price has surged more than 47% to last trade near $13,801. Last month, the digital currency jumped more than 28%.

With a market cap of around $240 billion, bitcoin is approximately the size of a "large, mid-cap S&P [500 Index] stock," Pal pointed out. As it moves to $500 billion or $1 trillion, "suddenly it's a real asset class and sucks in more money." One of the drivers will be the "wall of institutional money" coming.

Story continues

"It becomes a Soros-style reflexive loop where we've got the macro story backing it up, said Pal referring to George Soros, the speculative investor once credited with breaking the Bank of England in a bet against the British pound.

We've got the flow of funds backing it up, then we've got the move, which the central banks are driving. It's literally the biggest story I've seen," Pal said.

What it means is more printing of currency. That's not just the U.S. It's basically every single country on earth is doing the same thing. Raoul Pal, investor

According to Pal, the macro story supporting his thesis is that the economy is about to enter a "despair" phase, which is part of his view that recessions unfold in three distinct phases that culminates in a prolonged period of insolvency.

Growth, he said, is likely to remain negative for longer than people expect, and that's going to mean that kind of corporate cash flows, household cashflows are quite impaired, and there's going to be a rise of insolvencies, bankruptcies, and that kind of thing.

Against a backdrop of what Pal calls a "dead patch," the lacking fiscal stimulus in the U.S. and Europe, economic data rolling over in Europe, and a rise in coronavirus cases, the "only answer we have is either more monetary or more fiscal stimulus."

The monetary side's challenge is moving to negative rates; on the fiscal side, it means governments will have to launch large fiscal programs that the central bank will try and monetize in order to cap bond yields.

"What it means is more printing of currency. That's not just the U.S. It's basically every single country on earth is doing the same thing, Pal speculated

And that's driving down the relative value of fiat currency overall It's not just a dollar story, or a euro story or a pound story. It's the whole lot. And, that's driving higher gold, but particularly crypto, he added.

As for the central banks moving toward digital currencies, one of the potential drawbacks of a scenario where depositors have a direct relationship with a central bank could be the loss of certain freedoms.

"That creates a whole bunch of other issues in terms of what control do they have over you if your direct banking relationship is with a central bank? he asked. Sure, they can give you fiscal stimulus directly, but they can also tax you, or give you negative interest rates, or ...they can give you a negative or me a positive one," Pal explained.

"We don't know what world that is. Bitcoin gives us an option out of that," he added.

To be sure, Pal argued that a future where central banks issue digital currencies makes bitcoin a "legitimate part of the system." What it does is revolutionize the global financial system by creating the "internet of money" where the various systems will connect and speak with each other, like Apples iOS and Google Android.

"That connection of all the systems is coming and the central bank currency route is going to be the platform by which they can all connect in terms of ease of use, and on-ramps/off-ramps into our normal lives."

In Pal's view, bitcoin "plays a role as the world's most pristine reserve asset" for individuals, corporations, pension funds.

"It's an incredible asset. It's the only one with a limited supply with growing demand. It's an extraordinary thing," he said.

Julia La Roche is a correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

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Investor on why bitcoin is 'literally the biggest story I've seen,' may hit $1M and top gold's market cap - Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin Price is On a Path to $15,000 But It Needs to Clear One Hurdle – InvestingCube

Bitcoin price is down slightly as traders wait for the official results of the American election. The currency is trading at $13,700, which is slightly below yesterdays high of $14,093. Ethereum, Ripple, and Bitcoin cash are trading at $380, $0.24, and $237, respectively.

Yesterday, Bitcoin price rallied as traders refocused on the US election and the overall weaker US dollar. Indeed, the dollar index fell by more than 0.75% yesterday, in part because the market was waiting for a clear victory by Joe Biden.

Today, the dollar index is up by more than 0.50% because investors have started pricing-in a victory by Donald Trump. As of this writing, Joe Biden has won 238 votes while Donald Trump has 213 votes. However, as shown below, Trump is leading in most of the remaining pivotal states.

As such, Bitcoin price is probably falling because of the inverse relationship it has with the US dollar.

Still, Bitcoin bulls are optimistic that the price will resume the upward trend. Indeed, the amount of open interest in the futures market has continued to rise. Indeed, according to Decrypt, open interest in futures tied to BTC is regularly hitting $45 billion per day. Although the futures market is relatively small, investors believe that it is sending a picture of more demand of the digital currency.

On the weekly chart, we see that Bitcoin price has been in a strong upward trend since March this year. The price is slightly below the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level, in a signal that bulls are in control. It is also slightly above the 50-day and 25-day moving averages.

Most importantly, it is attempting to move above the important resistance at $13,878. It also seems to be forming a cup and handle pattern.

Therefore, in the near term, I suspect that bulls will clear the current resistance as they target $15,000. To do this, it will need to have a power move above $13,878.

On the flip side, a move below the 50% retracement at $10,000 will invalidate this trend.

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Bitcoin Price is On a Path to $15,000 But It Needs to Clear One Hurdle - InvestingCube

What industry leaders would wish for Bitcoins white paper 12th anniversary – Cointelegraph

While the crypto community decides whether Bitcoin (BTC) was born or merelyconceived 12 years ago, the fact is that Oct. 31, 2008, remains one of the most notable dates in humanitys modern history. Exactly 12 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto published what some have described asa new bible Bitcoins white paper. Designed as a brand new purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash, many see the creation of Bitcoin as a response to a global financial crisis.

Related: Happy birthday dear Bitcoin: Cryptos first white paper turns 12

Cointelegraphs video team talked to Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, about the birth of Bitcoin. Check out the video here:

Although Bitcoinhas recently become more appealing than both Jesus and sex, at least among Reddit users, lets not forget that its only Bitcoins 12th anniversary and that many great achievements and challenges still lie ahead, though for this real-world saga, we can only hope to know how this story will end and who will emerge as the victor.

Cointelegraph has reached out to Bitcoins friends and supporters, asking them to send their birthday wishes to the Big BTC.

Alex Wilson, co-founder of The Giving Block:

Muneeb Ali, CEO and co-founder at Blockstack PBC:

Michael Terpin, founder of Transform Group and BitAngels:

Jimmy Song, instructor at Programming Blockchain:

Alejandro De La Torre, VP of Poolin, a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining pool:

Efi Pylarinou, fintech and blockchain advisor:

Scott Melker, trader, investor and the host of The Wolf Of All Streets podcast:

Taylor Pearson, entrepreneur and author of The End of Jobs:

Jonathan Reichental, CEO of Human Future:

Sandra Ro, CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council:

These quotes have been edited and condensed.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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What industry leaders would wish for Bitcoins white paper 12th anniversary - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin.com Exchange Reveals Role in the Cryptopia Rescue Group | Promoted – Bitcoin News

The world-class trading platform, Bitcoin.com Exchange announced its participating in the Cryptopia Exchange rescue consortium in order to help redistribute coins to customers. Bitcoin.coms trading platform will provide an exchange environment in order to bolster the Cryptopia Rescue redistribution plan.

Back in January 2019, the New Zealand cryptocurrency trading platform Cryptopia Exchange suffered a major breach and it affected 2.3 million account holders from all around the world. Estimates note that roughly $860 million worth of cryptocurrency was held on the exchange before the hack. Bitcoin.com is pleased to announce that our exchange will assist a rescue program dedicated to helping Cryptopia account holders.

Bitcoin.com Exchange has joined a consortium called the Cryptopia Rescue program, and it will produce a platform to distribute coins to Cryptopia Exchange Account Holders. The group formed in order to create a class action against the Liquidator, Grant Thornton.

Victor Cattermole, a Cryptopia Rescue spokesperson said:

The liquidator was proposing to write off more than 50% of the coin holdings. In our alternative plan, we have established a relationship with Bitcoin.com to provide an exchange environment to emulate the Cryptopia model so that all coins can be redistributed.

Currently, the Cryptopia Rescue team is working to connect with as many account holders as possible. The plan is to do everything possible to provide the best resolution to Cryptopias former customers. Since launching on September 2, 2019, the premier Bitcoin.com Exchange has provided customers with a professional trading engine combined with top-of-the-line security practices.

Speaking about joining the Cryptopia Rescue effort, Danish Chaudhry, CEO of Bitcoin.com Exchange explained the exchange team looks forward to helping the crypto community.

We take this role very seriously within the consortium, Chaudhry stressed. [Bitcoin.com Exchange] will do everything we can as a united group to provide the best-in-class platform to redistribute Cryptopia account holders their coins via our exchange, he added.

There are five limitations Cryptopia Exchange Account Holders need to take into account.

When the Cryptopia Exchange trustee completes the claim approval process and selects a distribution date, a provided payout support plan for distribution may be added. Customers that have any questions or issues with the Cryptopia claim process will need to contact Cryptopia support.

What do you think about the Bitcoin.com Exchange providing support to Cryptopia account holders? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Cryptopia Logo, Bitcoin.com Exchange, Bitcoin.com Logo,

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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Bitcoin.com Exchange Reveals Role in the Cryptopia Rescue Group | Promoted - Bitcoin News

Mempool Clog: Bitcoin Hashrate Drops 40%, Backlog Shows Over 100K Unconfirmed Transactions – Bitcoin News

The Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped significantly over the last four days sliding from a high of 161 exahash per second (EH/s) to 90 EH/s on October 27. Today, the Bitcoin hashrate has improved a hair as the networks security is currently hovering around 100 EH/s. However, the mempool log of unconfirmed transactions has spiked to levels not seen since the 2017 highs.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2020, the Bitcoin (BTC) hashrate is trying to regain what was lost during the last four days. According to statistics, since the October 27 high of 161 EH/s, the network hashrate is down -37.88% at 100 EH/s today. The overall SHA256 hashrate lost more than 40% between the highest point to the lowest metric recorded.

Analysts assume the drop was due to the end of the rainy season in Sichuan China and its been said that miners have been migrating to different regions in the country. The significant drop follows the networks all-time high when the hashrate spiked to 174 EH/s on October 14, 2020.

The executive from the mining organization Hashr8, Thomas Heller, spoke about the hashrate drop on Twitter on October 26.

Looking at the top 10 pools, we can see approx 22 EH/s left the Bitcoin network, Heller tweeted. Not a precise measure of course, but overlaid with the number of blocks mined per day, we can get a rough idea of the hashrate change. This coming difficulty adjustment is one to look forward to, the executive added.

Not too long ago, BTCs mining difficulty dropped from the highest point ever at 19.69T to todays range of 18.60T. With the hashrate so low, miners may see the difficulty drop even lower making it easier to mine bitcoins.

The next expected difficulty change however is still five days away scheduled for on or around November 2, 2020. Today there are 17 mining pools pointing their hash at the BTC chain. The top mining operation today is F2pool with 17.93 EH/s under the hood. F2pool is followed by Poolin, Btc.com, Antpool, and Binance Pool.

Now because the hashrate dropped and it has coincided with the price of bitcoin (BTC) rising, network fees have jumped considerably. Stats from bitcoinfees.cash indicates the next BTC block fee $8.26 and the current median fee is $5.10 per transaction.

Data from the mempool shows theres 121,000+ unconfirmed transactions waiting to be confirmed. Of course, the wait times have pushed the transaction fee market up because people are paying higher fees to get their BTC transactions confirmed.

For now, miners will have to be patient and wait out the five days in order for the difficulty to drop lower. It is uncertain how much migration is happening in China right now as far as Sichuan operations are concerned, but most of the hashrate losses stemmed from China-based mining pools.

What do you think about the big hashrate drop during the last four days? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, coinwarz.com/mining/bitcoin/hashrate-chart, Btc.com, bitcoinfees.cash,

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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Mempool Clog: Bitcoin Hashrate Drops 40%, Backlog Shows Over 100K Unconfirmed Transactions - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin Developer Amiti Uttarwar Explains that BTC Protocols Success May be Ensured by Addressing Privacy and Reliability Concerns – Crowdfund Insider

Amiti Uttarwar, a Bitcoin Core developer, received a $150,000 development grant (in June 2020) from HDR Global (the parent company of BitMEX) and OKCoin.

Uttarwar is currently focused on improving certain aspects of Bitcoins (BTC) peer-to-peer (P2P) layer by addressing issues related to privacy and reliability.

The OKCoin team notes in a blog post that it can be challenging for a system to be peer-to-peer and for it to also work as cash. OKCoin points out that taking part in a peer-to-peer network leaks identifying information which can threaten the privacy that cash requires. Uttarwar wanted to address this issue and shes now working on different aspects of the problem in order to resolve it.

Uttarwar recently explained how this tension (between privacy and reliability) unfolds in Bitcoin.

As noted by the OKCoin team:

A peer-to-peer network, she argued, needs to have the three [main] characteristics:

Reliability: the valid messages need to be delivered to all the participants in the network;

Timeliness: the messages need to be delivered in a reasonable amount of time;

Accessibility: it shouldnt be too demanding, technically or computationally, to participate in the network (in the case of Bitcoin, to run a validating node).

Since Bitcoin also functions as a currency (or medium of exchange), it adds two other requirements. As noted by OKCoin, these requirements include:

Privacy: the behavior of the networks participants shouldnt be linked to their real world identities;

Upgradability: the network should run, inclusive of all versions of the software

The exchange also mentioned:

The reliability of the Bitcoin network depends on the efficiency of its peer-to-peer infrastructure but its ability to work as cash hinges on its privacy feature. The conflict between the two, Amiti observed, is the following: concerns of reliability imply you want to tell everyone your message but concerns of privacy require you dont want them to know its yours. Solving this conundrum is key to ensuring Bitcoins success.

(Note: to learn more about what Uttarwar is doing to improve the Bitcoin protocol, check here.)

As reported recently, OKCoin celebrated the Bitcoin whitepapers 12th anniversary by allowing users to buy BTC with low fees and within 2 minutes.

The OKCoin team explained that its still not too late to take a position and begin dollar cost averaging over time. The exchange pointed out that Bitcoin may still be in its infancy (or early stage of adoption and development), with considerable upside opportunity for new investors and traders.

The exchange also mentioned that Bitcoin represents the progress of the crypto and blockchain sector. The flagship digital currency has shown us the significance of the open-source community, OKCoin states.

The exchange added:

We believe that Bitcoin provides an opportunity for investment as well as currency and were proud to offer an easy global on/off ramp for Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin Developer Amiti Uttarwar Explains that BTC Protocols Success May be Ensured by Addressing Privacy and Reliability Concerns - Crowdfund Insider