Quite a few traders have been discussing the recent rally of Bitcoin to recently breach the $10,000 level on May 7, 2020. This psychological price level is a major milestone for Bitcoin even though the price has fallen into an extended Flag/Pennant formation since reaching the recent peak. Many traders and speculators are expecting Bitcoin to rally alongside the precious metals sector as there appears to be a strong belief that Bitcoin aligns with precious metals well. Our researchers attempted to put this assumption into a simple test and this is what we found.

Bitcoin appears to be similarly volatile in comparison to precious metals, although the overall trending of Bitcoin has been moderately lower since the peak levels in February 2020 whereas the Gold/Silver sectors have seen advancing price activity over the same span of time. Precious metals rallied much quicker after the bottom near March 2020 whereas Bitcoin didnt really begin to rally until late April 2020. Because of this disconnect in price association, we dont believe Bitcoin is aligned with the precious metals segment.

Bitcoin doesnt seem to be aligned with the price action of the Dow Jones either. Initially, after the peak in February 2020, the price alignment between Bitcoin and the DJI was almost in sync. A broader price disconnect appears to be more evident in late April where Bitcoin rallied and the Dow Jones stayed rather flat. Because of this shift in price alignment we believe Bitcoin is not aligned with the Dow Jones well enough to derive any cross-market correlation.

Additionally, we attempted to compare Bitcoin to major consumer sectors (communications, staples, and utilities) to see if we could find any measurable correlation to these sectors in relation to Bitcoin price activity. Again, the early price alignment of all of these seemed somewhat in-sync in the early downside price collapse in February 2020. Yet that alignment quickly deteriorated in early March 2020 as Bitcoin prices collapsed and bottomed while the consumer sectors continued to trend a bit lower until after March 20, 2020. The one thing we did notice is that the consumer sectors appear to be much less volatile than Bitcoin in both downside and upside price activity.

Lastly, we compared Bitcoin to the NASDAQ 100 and the Russell 2000 attempting to find any price correlation between these major market sectors. Although the price correlation is not perfect, our researcher believes Bitcoin is moderately closely correlated to the Russell 200 more than any other symbol/sector we have attempted to analyze. Many of the bigger, more prominent, upward, and downward price cycles/trends seems to align with the Russell 2000 price action (often within 1 or 2 days of the Bitcoin trends if not immediately).

For example, the bottom/base near April 21 aligned almost perfectly between the two symbols, the rally starting near April 25 began 1 day apart on both symbols, the peak in price before a moderate selloff on March 26 happened on almost the same day for both symbols, the moderate upside peak before the big collapse on March 4 occurred only one day apart. Even though there is a broad price volatility difference between Bitcoin and the Russell 2000, the correlations between the two symbols seem much more aligned than any symbols weve attempted to run other comparisons.

We will add that appears a recent shift in price activity may be starting to disassociate Bitcoin to the Russell 2000 over the past 7+ days. Our researchers have identified the Russell 2000 (and other consumer sectors) appear to be attracting new investments from skilled technical traders while the major sectors appear to be weakening. We believe this is because capital is shifting away from already pricey assets and moving into undervalued assets that may do well as the recovery strengthens.

Will Bitcoin continue to rally above the $10,000 level? Eventually, the answer to that question is probably yes. The one thing we want to bring to our readers attention is the immediate downside price correlation of Bitcoin to all of the various sectors and symbols weve presented today. When a broader downside price collapse happens in the US/Global markets it appears Bitcoin is not immune or considered a decentralized asset class in any form. Bitcoin seems much more aligned with the Dow Jones and/or the Russell 2000 than any other symbols/sectors.

Because of this alignment, we suggest traders watch the Dow Jones and the Russell 2000 for price trend correlations that may relate to how Bitcoin price activity may react in the near future. Until this correlation is broken, we believe the alignment in price is relatively predictable for skilled technical traders.

I hope you found this informative, and if you would like to get a pre-market video every day before the opening bell, along with my trade alerts. These simple to follow ETF swing trades have our trading accounts sitting at new high water marks yet again this week, not many traders can say that this year. Visit myActive ETF Trading Newsletter.

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During the last year, news.Bitcoin.com created a series that shows the many facts that point to certain individuals who might just be Satoshi Nakamoto and its been a popular run so far. Our series has covered nearly everyone, but there are still a few individuals that havent been covered. On May 11, 2020, the popular Youtube channel Barely Social published a video called Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto, which claims that Blockstream CEO Adam Back could be Bitcoins mysterious inventor.

In mid-May, the Youtube channel Barely Social, a popular creator of analysis videos for odd corners of the internet, published a new video called Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto. The video creator has 391,000 subscribers and the Unmasking Satoshi video has been watched over 290,000 times to-date. The video was also posted to the top three crypto-related Reddit forums r/cryptocurrency, r/bitcoin, and r/btc. Barely Socials film was immediately removed from the r/bitcoin forum, it was discussed in r/cryptocurrency but downvoted heavily, and it was flagged for vote-brigading on the forum r/btc. The video explains the massive disconnect between two large factions of big block supporters and small block supporters, and how they went certain bitcoin community members separate ways. It also leverages circumstantial evidence that illustrates how Adam Back, the Blockstream CEO could possibly be Satoshi Nakamoto.

It all started well before the Bitcoin white paper was published on Halloween 2008, as Adam Back described the technology on various occasions and as early as 1998. However, prior to the release of the cryptocurrency and white paper, Back seemingly removed himself from the public eye during the Satoshis development period between 2009 and 2010. Coincidently after Satoshi left, Back appeared on the bitcointalk.org forum acting as though hes been around for quite some time, explains the Barely Social video.

Barely Socials film also had a number of other forms of circumstantial evidence that point to Back possibly being the creator of cryptocurrency. For years, during the early days, many people assumed that Back ignored Bitcoin for a while, and then joined the community with great fervor toward the technology. Backs first posts and replies to other bitcoiners on the bitcointalk.org forum shows his technical understanding of the blockchain was more advanced than most. Barely Social also highlights that when Back joined the community after Satoshi left, he was bossing people around like he had always been around.

Additionally, the video compares Satoshis writing style with Backs style, as they both double space and spell their words in a British fashion. Barely Social also mentions the 2015 email that allegedly stemmed from Satoshi, which has also never been disputed. Further, the videos narrator talks about how Adam Back has told people that Satoshi has written to him, but unlike Mike Hearn, Back has never shared these corresponding emails.

Barley Socials film also delves deep into the 2015-2017 manipulation and propaganda that stemmed from the block size debate. Within this section of the video, it shows how the r/bitcoin owner, Theymos, censored thousands of people and thousands of posts and still does to this day. Theymos operates r/bitcoin, bitcointalk.org, the bitcoin wiki page, and also he also has some control over bitcoin.org too with an anonymous individual called Cobra Bitcoin. Barley Socials video shows evidence that Back and other members of the company Blockstream were complicit with Theymos and his censorship techniques.

The video further discusses Gavin Andresens role when Satoshi handed the project over to the former lead developer. Barley Socials video details how Andresen fought against the control specific Bitcoin Core developers had over the project and Blockstreams influence. The video showed little bias and explained that both sides of the argument sought control. Barely Social also published a debate between Andresen and core developers, and Adam Back joined in during the discussion. Other prominent members of the discussion included Rusty Russell, Greg Maxwell, Theymos, and many other Bitcoin Core developers.

When Back appeared in the discussion, he was anti-hard fork from the beginning, and said the Bitcoin community needs to foster collaboration and consensus to reduce the risks. Barley Social assumes that a lot of developers know that Back is Satoshi, and that its possible a number of people have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The video also says that even though Andresen named Craig Wright as Satoshi Nakamoto in May 2016, it was done to be purposely misleading.

The film shows that Backs company Blockstream purposely stopped onchain scaling, so the company could provide relief to the community with the Liquid sidechain project. Essentially, the belief is the firm suppressed onchain scaling and hard forks, in order to claim revenue from transaction fees. This is probably why the Bitcoin Cash community and r/btc forum disliked Barely Socials theory, because they consider Back and Blockstream enemies of Bitcoin.

The r/bitcoin censorship probably stemmed from the fact that the video does expose the mass censorship thats been plaguing that subreddit for years. Adam Back also denies being Satoshi Nakamoto and has recently rejected the theory publicly. Back told the publication Decrypt that he wasnt Satoshi and said: Just that people speculate, but Im not Satoshi. To cut short Google searches and digging. Back also spoke up on Twitter and stated:

Some claim to be Satoshi, days google research blogging stories, and in court, to widespread non-belief. Seems I need the opposite: I am not Satoshi despite [the] recent video / Reddit claiming so. Some factors & timing may look suspicious in hindsight; coincidence & facts are untidy.

Of course, Barely Social says during the beginning of the film that Back can always leverage plausible deniability. There was also a recent Youtube video, which has the crypto pundit, Tone Vays, doing a rebuttal against Barely Socials video. Even though Barely Social was there in the live stream chat, he wasnt allowed to debate Vays criticism, which was filled with insults, and common logical fallacies.

The Blockstream CEO and Barely Social have also debated the subject on Twitter at great length. Following the video and coincidentally, theres also been a number of spends and messages on the BTC blockchain that stem from early addresses from 2009 and 2010. One 50 BTC block from February 2009, one month after the Bitcoin network was launched, was just spent and sent to another address.

What do you think about Barely Socials video which claims Adam Back may be Satoshi Nakamoto? Let us know in the comments below.

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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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South Korea will start taxing profits from bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies next year, according to local media reports.

The taxation will also apply to bitcoin mining operations and income from initial coin offerings, should it be approved by Parliament.

South Koreas Ministry of Economy and Finance proposed the amendments to the existing tax law to include the cryptocurrency industry, with backing from the Ministry of Information and Technology.

In September, the Ministry will table the amendments before Parliament. Once approved, the law will enter into force in 2021, allowing authorities to tax profits generated from the sale of digital assets for cash. Trades between cryptocurrencies will remain tax-free, and similarly those sold at a loss.

We are reviewing capital gains tax or other income tax on profits gained by domestic and foreign investors in the transfer of virtual assets, an official from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance was quoted as saying.

The proposed tax amendment will be announced in July and submitted to the regular assembly in September, the official added. The planned changes have been prompted by the idea of applying tax where income is located, officials said.

The Korean government has attempted to tax bitcoin in the past, most recently in January, but failed to enforce the regulations, reportedly because different government ministries could not agree whether bitcoin was an asset or not. Local crypto experts believe the proposed amendments will suffer the same fate.

Seung Seung-young, a researcher with the Korea Regional Tax Institute, told local newspaper E Daily that the planned law is not watertight in its current format, opening it to exploitation by investors. He opined:

If you do business through a peer-to-peer transaction without going through an exchange, there is a possibility of avoiding taxation. Even with IP tracking, if there are a large number of targets, administrative costs will increase and it will be difficult to track each day.

Kim Yong-min, chairman of the Korea Blockchain Association, notes that it will take three to four years before the government can set up infrastructure that truly understands cryptocurrency.

What do you think about South Koreas proposed tax on Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

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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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Since November 28, 2019, the Cashfusion protocol has helped facilitate 4,583 fusions to-date with roughly 40,564 bitcoin cash ($9.1M). Cashfusion is an extension of the Cashshuffle platform and the protocol has been deemed far more practical than other coinjoin protocols. Bitcoin Cash proponents are now waiting for the completion of the codebase audit, as the protocol will undergo a security audit from the well known firm Kudelski Security.

Cashfusion is a popular privacy-enhancing platform that is used for obfuscating bitcoin cash (BCH) transactions. The protocol has become very popular after many BCH supporter leveraged the previous platform called Cashshuffle. Cashfusion is an extension of Cashshuffle and makes transaction privacy even more enhanced.

The protocol has been reviewed by a number of people including the data analyst James Waugh. The analyst tested thousands of BCH transactions and combed through a number of inputs and outputs. Waugh realized that its not possible to establish a concrete link between fused transactions and he explained that Cashfusion is far more practical than other coinjoin protocols. Since then a great number of BCH supporters have been utilizing the privacy-enhancing software.

Since the end of November last year, BCH supporters have fused $9.1M worth of BCH or 40,564 BCH total. The 40,000 BCH was fused in 4,583 fusions with 266,752 inputs and 260,385 outputs. Users can see Cashfusion stats by leveraging Acidsploits stats.devzero.be/#/fusion website but also the web portal stats.cash is recording fusions as well.

The previous platform Cashshuffle still gets a lot of use and traction and since March 27, 2019 theres been 52,123 shuffles. Approximately 247,387 bitcoin cash has been shuffled since then as well or $55.8 million at todays exchange rates. On Fridays BCH fans celebrate Fusion Friday, as they gather together that day to produce a number of fusions. This trend was taken from Shuffle Saturdays, which sees participants shuffle more BCH every weekend.

Right now, BCH proponents are waiting for the security audit from Kudelski Security who will review the Cashfusion codebase and operations. Bitcoin.com and the grassroots BCH community raised $50,000 for the Kudelski audit and $50,000 for Cashfusion developer expenses.

After the Kudelski review of Cashshuffle, the developers launched the official version of the protocol. The Cashshuffle Kudelski review was positive and many BCH supporters look forward to the outcome of Cashfusions audit. The conclusion of the Cashshuffle audit explained that the protocol showed no significant deviations.

We further believe that the Cashshuffle codebase that we reviewed is implementing the Coinshuffle protocol with no significant deviations, and we did not find any evidence of malicious intent, flawed logic, or potential backdoor in the codebase, the security researchers at Kudelski said.

As governments and law enforcement officials worldwide continue to wreak havoc on financial privacy, Cashfusion is anticipated immensely for that reason. Further, blockchain analysis and surveillance have grown very large since the early days, and a better privacy option for bitcoin cash transactions that surpasses traditional coinjoin techniques, would be welcomed by the community. Lately, a number of BCH fans using the Reddit forum r/btc have been showing off their successful fusions and inputs and outputs.

What do you think about the $9.1 million worth of bitcoin cash fused so far? Let us know in the comments below.

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According to Bitpays Chief Marketing Officer, Bill Zielke, onchain bitcoin payments still rule the roost as far as payments are concerned. Zielke detailed that at least in the near future, Bitpay wont be supporting the Lightning Network or Blockstreams Liquid project.

The top cryptocurrency payment processor Bitpay says the company wont be leveraging the Liquid project or the Lightning Network any time soon. Both projects are offchain solutions that have been touted as the answer to BTCs scaling issues. However, both projects have seen little adoption compared to the Ethereum chains solutions. As far as bitcoin total value locked (TVL) within the chain, Ethereum is BTCs most prominent sidechain. This week, Bitpays Chief Marketing Officer Bill Zielke told fintech and crypto columnist, Kyle Torpey, that onchain bitcoin payments are the most prevalent of payments on the Atlanta-based companys system.

As of March, Bitcoin continues to be both the largest and most popular crypto asset representing over 95% of transactions by volume for Bitpay, Zielke explained in the report. Zielke also noted that bitcoin cash (BCH) transactions get a fair share of use as well. Bitcoin Cash ranks second representing nearly 2%. Bear in mind, Bitpay has been processing Bitcoin for almost 9 years and stablecoins for less than one year, the companys Chief Marketing Officer stressed.

Bitpays processing supports bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), xrp (XRP), ethereum (ETH), and four different stablecoins. The stablecoins the firm supports include USDC, BUSD, PAX, and GUSD. Bitpay launched PAX, GUSD, and USDC last year and BUSD this year, Zielke explained further. Since then Bitpay has seen stablecoins grow to about 2% of its overall volume in dollars and has successfully processed several thousand stablecoin transactions. As far as the Lightning Network and Blockstreams Liquid project the company doesnt have plans to utilize these solutions at the moment. Zielke stated:

Lightning Network and the Liquid sidechain are not in our current plans or roadmap but we are always evaluating new and innovative alternatives and collecting customer input on use cases, importance, and priority.

Both the Lightning Network (LN) and Liquid have been getting a fair share of criticism lately, as the concepts dont seem to be gathering a solid network effect. Just recently, the digital currency and blockchain developer, Tim Ruffing, explained that people who assume the LN payments are private should rethink the claim. Ruffing also shared a scholarly study called An Empirical Analysis of Privacy in the Lightning Network. Earlier this week, Bitcoin pundit John Carvalho got a few people riled up when he tweeted: Any notable Bitcoin company without an actual plan or timeline for supporting Lightning doesnt actually care about Bitcoin Time is up.

The commentary was controversial, as the official Samourai Wallet Twitter account and a few others took issue with Carvalhos tweet. Moreover, Blockstreams Liquid project was recently disparaged for not allowing an Iranian bitcoiner Ziya Sadrs firm to become a Liquid Functionary. With more Liquid members added in March, digital currency proponents still condemn Liquids tech for centralization issues.

Bitpay, on the other hand, continues to believe people will utilize digital assets for payments and the firm has seen an increase in crypto spending since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.

What do you think about Bitpays comments about Liquid and Lightning Network? Let us know in the comments below.

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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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Albuquerque, NM May 29, 2020 Feisty underdog and first generation cryptocurrency Reddcoin (RDD) launched the PoSV v2 consensus algorithm activation process on Christmas Eve 2019 enhancing all facets of support of the native lightning-quick blockchain to a self-funding independent model. That work has culminated in recent days and will be activating shortly, marking a transition for the never-say-die Reddcoin (RDD) development team and the project as a whole.

Reddcoin is a uniquely community-driven and user-focused decentralized cryptocurrency established in 2014 and running seamlessly for six years. A member of the BITA50 and ALT100 crypto-indices, and a Top 100 project with a market cap of approximately 40MM US, Reddcoin is also an all-volunteer and self-funded organization.

Unlike most in the blockchain space, having never experienced a significant security incident or hack is six years of operation, due to the nature of Reddcoins unique proof-of-stake-velocity (PoSV) technology, Reddcoin stands alone as a secure payment technology, with minimal hardware requirements, and an ecofriendly, less-energy-wasteful approach to socially responsible technology. With thousands of active wallets, exchanges, on- and off-ramps to fiat and other currencies, users and business can enjoy and leverage a full-featured payment gateway suite of services.

Reddcoin can provide point-to-point, multi-party, or full-suite merchant, transaction and remittance services at a fraction of the cost of traditional PayPal or credit card transactions with lightning-fast completion and state-of-the-art security and cryptographic protection against counterfeiting, fraud and data manipulation. Reddcoin also offers participants in its network automatic interest-like staking rewards as well as zero-to-low-fee transaction costs, lowering the bar for entry for any business, webstore or individual looking to participate in the new era of fintech.

The new algorithm and staking rules built into PoSV v2 will activate once supermajority of 9000/10000 blocks has been reached, estimated within the next weeks. Once that point has been reached, all remaining older Reddcoin wallets will need to be upgraded in order to spend or stake. As noted in the projects re-released 2019 Redd Paper, available on the website at (https://www.reddcoin.com/reddpaper), the new features of the PoSV v2 algorithm powering Reddcoin include such items as:

Participation Incentivization, which promises to multiply stake rewards up to 5x for all active users according to dynamic network staking participation variables; The Reddcoin Restitution Fund, aimed at replacing ReddHead community members lost or stolen funds; The Reddcoin Charity Initiative/Food &Supply Bank, offering more direct support to those in needs among and outside the community, and more.

These new features and programs overlay one of the fastest existing cryptocurrencies, zero-to-low-fee transactions, 60s block times, and ecofriendly all-platform staking options, offering a compelling value proposition along with the uniquely supportive and transformative Reddcoin ReddHead community.

Led by a dedicated team of open, transparent, and engaged volunteers, Reddcoin is always on the lookout for talent to help achieve the envisioned solutions and products. As one of the original cryptocurrencies, and an all-volunteer development team, Reddcoin is poised to launch through 2020 numerous tipping and content creator reward applications including the relaunch of ReddID, utilizing the unique properties of the RDD ecosystem to allow tipping and spendable rewards entirely free from restriction and censorship.

Learn more at https://www.medium.com/@techadeptor the main Reddcoin website.

Contact Email Addressinfo@reddcoin.com

Supporting Linkhttps://medium.com/@techadept

This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not 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 the press release.

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