If youre a true believer in Bitcoin and you want to see it succeed, you can help strengthen the network by running a full node. It may sound intimidating if youre not a programmer but its actually a lot easier than you think. Heres why.

Running a full node is not like mining bitcoins. You dont need to spend $3,000 on an ASIC Antminer S9. You also dont need to have an abundance of cheap power or even an excessively powerful device.

Unlike mining, running a full node wont take up much of your electricity. It also wont place anywhere near as much strain on your equipment. Contrary to popular belief, you dont actually need to keep your computer on all the time (although the longer the better). A minimum of six hours a day is required.

Lets be clear. You cant run a full node from your mobile phone or travel laptop. There are certain requirements youll need to meet otherwise youll just run into a myriad of performance and cost issues.

But if you have a decent piece of kit already thats running a recent version of Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, youll only need 200GB of free disk space and 2GB of memory (RAM). This can be either a desktop or a laptop as long as it meets these specs.

You will also need an unmetered, high-speed internet connection, which many providers offer today. Although, be sure to check your internet plan first to make sure that excess upload bandwidth is included.

If your internet is spotty or youre barely able to stream Netflix, running a full node is probably not for you at this time.

Once youve checked with your internet provider and ensured that your equipment meets the minimum requirements, all you need to do is the latest Bitcoin core client version and run it.

Keep in mind that this may take some time. The Bitcoin blockchain is now over 260GB in size, so be patient while your node synchronizes.

If youre not tech-savvy in the slightest, it may be a good idea to call for some help in the beginning. While you certainly dont need a degree in computer science to contribute to making the network more robust and decentralized, you may encounter some issues.

For example, the Bitcoin blockchain contains parts of known computer viruses in it. Dont be alarmed, these cant infect your computer. But your anti-virus program may interfere and quarantine the data making it difficult to run Bitcoin Core.

This is generally a Windows problem and you can reach out to the community for assistance. Make sure that whoever helps you is qualified and reputable before taking their advice.

Running a full node isnt for everyone. But if youve been in the space for some time and want to help the network while also enjoying greater privacy, nows as good a time as any.

Did you find this helpful? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images via Shutterstock, Chart by Blockchain.info

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3 Reasons Why Running a Bitcoin Node Is Easier Than You Think - Bitcoinist

In brief

Warren Buffett has long been dismissive of Bitcoin, even going so far as to call it rat poison squared. But he has never really explained why he dislikes Bitcoin and doesnt see it as a worthy investment.

According to a video posted by the Tron Foundation, Buffett explained why he wouldnt buy Bitcoin at his recent meal with Tron CEO Justin Sunthat eventually happened earlier this month.

[Buffett] believes people get protection from stocks and equity, the video states. Bitcoin is simply a changing hands activity with no value added.

The video continues, relaying Buffetts belief that Bitcoin doesnt have enough practical value. Reportedly, Buffett stated that Bitcoin only derives worth from trading, and is incapable of storing valuemaking it no different from a seashell.

But it wasnt all bad news. The billionaire tycoon allegedly touted the benefits of blockchain technology, noting that it could become a disruptive force within finance.

Bitcoin cannot capture the value of blockchain. Just because something has value doesnt make it a good investment, Buffett purportedly said.

Mr. Buffett says blockchain has its value. There are a lot of incredible companies in the payment market and it has huge demands. He believes blockchain technology will have a disruptive effect on the future of payment, the video concludes.

So, Buffett is squarely in the blockchain, not Bitcoin camp. But for how long?

Have a news tip or inside information on a crypto, blockchain, or Web3 project? Email us at: tips@decrypt.co.

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Warren Buffett says what he really thinks about Bitcoin - Decrypt

Following yesterday selloff that sent Bitcoin down to lows of $9,500, the cryptocurrencys buyers have been able to absorb the intense selling pressure and push BTC higher, with it finding some decent stability within the upper-$9,000 region.

In the near-term, BTC does appear to be entering another fresh uptrend, as it is currently in the process of retesting the $10,000 region.

It is important to note that the benchmark cryptocurrency has also been trading within a descending channel, with its ultimate reaction to this pattern likely setting the tone for how it will trend in the weeks and months ahead.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading up 3% at its current price of $9,950, which marks a notable upwards movement from the consolidation phase it had been caught within around $9,600.

BTCs recent break below $10,000 had led many analysts to believe that the cryptos bullish market structure was on the cusp of being invalidated, but its signs of bullishness in the time since this drop occured seems to have invalidated this bearish sentiment.

Whether or not the crypto continues climbing higher or starts seeing intense bearishness could depend on how a descending channel it is currently caught within resolves.

Teddy, a popular cryptocurrency analyst and trader, spoke about this in a recent tweet, explaining that a bullish breakout could validate it as a bull flag, whereas a break below could spark a bout of capitulation.

BTC: Crucial moment right now, as a bounce or break below this level will define where the trend will go in the mid-term. 1. Is this a bull flag? break small down channel and continue uptrend? 2. Break below, and build greater down channel?

While looking at the aforementioned pattern, it is important to note that this isnt the first time that that Bitcoin has found itself caught within a similar descending channel, with the same pattern previously resulting in notable uptrends.

BTC: Price did indeed repeat pattern: 1. Rising wedge 2. Strong rejection from resistance 3. Break support 4. Make everyone freakout 5. Retest previous resistance as support (as we speak)and hopefully 5. Bounce to Pluto, he explained.

If this pattern does resolve in a sustained bull-favoring movement, it is highly probable that it will once again fly past $10,000 and potentially set fresh year-to-date highs.

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Bitcoin to See a Massive Trend-Defining Movement Because of This Simple Pattern - newsBTC

Professionalcycling legend Peter Sagan got embroiled in the Bitcoin Revolutionscam that uses the names of famous celebrities to sucker in gullible investors with the help of bogus ads and news articles.

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In his tweet, Sagan "categorically denies" any involvement in this scam, claiming that he has never been in contact with the company.

The article that he refers to states that Sagan recommended theget-rich-quickscheme during a recent interview. The Slovakian cyclistallegedly showed the audience how many greenbacks he got off automated trading with the help of Bitcoin Revolution.

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Bitcoin Revolution certainly gives the cryptocurrency industry a bad name. Its extensive list of victims already includes such big names as Jeremy Clarkson, Alex Ferguson, and Richard Branson.

Nobel-winning economists such asSteve HankeandNouriel Roubini use the proliferation of such scams as their main argument against crypto.

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Bitcoin Revolution Scam Strikes Again With Peter Sagan Becoming Its Latest Victim - U.Today

Bitcoin blogger Sylvain Saurel has published a thoughtful piece on essential qualities to being a True Bitcoiner. Although insightful, there are other factors that should be considered when choosing to invest in and hold the flagship cryptocurrency.

The decentralized architecture of blockchain technology is revolutionary, yet it is also complex. It carries with it significant risks for those that do not fully grasp its function. Seemingly simple tasks such as setting up wallets and sending transactions can result in catastrophe if not performed correctly.

Before purchasing Bitcoin, time should be invested in learning the ins and outs of blockchain technology. Its history, functionality, and shortcomings should be thoroughly studied. Research should also be performed on competing platforms. New adopters should put effort into learning about the major exchanges, wallets, and procedures for secure storage. They should also learn the meanings behind common terms such as proof-of-work and block time.

Virtually all unexpected crypto loss is due to easily avoidable user errors caused by a lack of technical knowledge. These often include lost keys, or using exchanges to store funds. Avoiding loss thus requires understanding and respecting the inner workings of blockchain platforms.

Given the revolutionary nature of distributed ledger technology, a healthy dose of skepticism is a must. Wild claims of easy profits are all but certain to be scams. Also, exchanges and wallets should be thoroughly reviewed by trusted sources before use.

This attitude should also be coupled with a conservative and reasonable investment approach. The most successful crypto investors over the past ten years have been those that have avoided exceedingly risky platforms or services. Rather, they have merely added to their crypto portfolio on a regular basis and kept their keys securely in their own wallets. It is worth noting that taking such a simple approach would have been remarkably profitable for almost every part of the past ten years.

The blockchain space is rapidly evolving technically, legally, and socially. All holders should routinely follow news and developments without exception. Platforms change, wallets update, and exchanges come and go. Staying updated in this environment is thus critical to keeping funds safe.

Following legal and regulatory developments is especially crucial, as governments are now taking a much closer look at blockchain assets. Some are requiring cryptocurrencies to be reported on tax forms. Others are seeking to squelch blockchain adoption. These issues are extremely relevant to anyone that has an investment in Bitcoin.

A key takeaway from the lessons of proper Bitcoin holding is that a sensible, traditional approach is the best means to keep funds safe. No investment should ever be made without careful study and security rests on being mature and vigilant.

What do you think are the most important qualities for becoming a bitcoin hodler? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Image via Shutterstock

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3 Things You Need To Be A Successful Bitcoin HODLer - Bitcoinist

Tether, the company behind the most widely-used stablecoin, has minted over $60 million worth of USDT. Its interesting to see if this will have any positive impact on Bitcoins price, given the fact that the infusion comes right after BTC surged upwards of $700 in 24 hours.

60,000,000 New USDT Minted

Earlier today, the popular monitoring resource Whale Alert published the transaction. It states that 60 million new USDT were minted on the Ethereum blockchain. All of the new coins have been sent to the Tether Treasury.

Bitfinex CTO, Paolo Ardoino, commented on the matter. He said that this is an authorized but not issued transaction. He added that this amount will be used as inventory for next period issuance.

Interestingly enough, a similar scenario occurred in the middle of 2019. At that point, Tether printed over $150 million worth of USDT. Ardoino weighed in on the topic, saying once again that all of the coins are for future issuance requests.

As it happens regularly when new USDT is minted, the community starts anticipating a price move. Members speculate that the new stablecoins will have a positive impact on the whole market. Some previous events might support the excitement.

For instance, when the $150 worth of USDT were minted on June 11th, 2019, Bitcoin was at approximately $8,000. In the following days, it recorded some of its best yearly trading days. Ultimately, it reached its yearly high on June 26th at nearly $14,000.

Tether has been previously accused of possibly manipulating cryptocurrency prices. Two university academics said that one single whale caused the 2017 surge. They claimed that the whale used USDT to inflate the price of Bitcoin artificially.

Shortly after, Tether completely denied all accusations. The company behind USDT outlined that no single entity can cause such a massive price increase and that Tether tokens have never been used for market manipulations.

In any case, its still early to assume that the newly minted USDT could have a positive impact on the cryptocurrency market. Additionally, history is not a legitimate price indicator. However, with the recent price surges in the cryptocurrency market, its undoubtedly worth sparing a thought.

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Is This The Fuel For The Next Bitcoin Price Pump? $60 Million Tether (USDT) Just Minted - CryptoPotato

Trading bitcoin can be an efficient way to make a profit. In the past, traders used to think that they could make a profit by trading the major currency pairs only. Things started to change when brokers started to embrace the cross pairs. Smart traders started trading cross pairs due to the high level of market volatility.

Now lets come to bitcoin. If you carefully observe the instruments offered by well-regulated brokers, you will find bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies in their tradable asset list. Many companies like bigx.com are also offering bitcoin exchange offers. Due to the ever more widespread embracing of bitcoin and the high volatility, it has become a very popular asset for traders. Lets explore some of the key reasons why you should trade bitcoin or other major cryptocurrencies.

Naive traders dont understand the importance of market volatility. If you want to make a consistent profit, you must learn to find the volatile pairs. When it comes to trading in Forex, you might have trouble selecting the pairs. But if you start trading bitcoin, you will never have to worry about the market volatility. Before you start trading bitcoin, you must learn about the technical and fundamental analysis. Unless you learn these two major techniques, you cant make a profit by trading bitcoin with bigX.

When you start trading the major Forex pairs, you will often get frustrated when analyzing the obvious trend. But if you trade cryptocurrency, you dont have to worry about the major trend. Buying bitcoin is one of the easiest ways to make a profit. Though you might have some trouble in understanding the high volatility, you can easily learn to trade the market with demo accounts. A demo account gives you the perfect learning ground, and you can easily develop your skills as a currency trader. Some of you might have experience in the currency trading business and trading the bitcoin will be an extremely easy task.

Those who are trading the Forex market knows the importance of fundamental analysis. Without assessing the fundamental factors, its very hard to predict the price movement. You must keep yourself tuned with the global economic news or else you might have to lose a big portion of your trading capital. On the other hand, if you trade bitcoin, you dont have to deal with tons of news factors. Just having fair knowledge of the technical parameters, you can expect to make a big profit by trading the cryptocurrency. You can also exchange bitcoin with the help of reputed companies like bigX.com and start making some serious cash.

Those who trade currency pairs always get access to a high leverage trading account. But trading the market with high leverage increases the risk factors to a great extent. When it comes to bitcoin trading, retail traders dont get access to a high leverage trading account. Most of the time, the reputed brokers offer 1:2 leverage. Even after having the urge to take a high risk in trading, you will not be able to open big trades. Due to this low leverage trading account, you will always trade with low-risk exposure. Making big trades out of frustration or based on other emotions is almost totally absent when you trade with such a low leverage account.

Before you start to trade bitcoin, you must have a decent knowledge of trading. Start by trading bitcoin in a demo account, and then, once you feel confident, start dealing with the real markets. Keep yourself tuned with the crypto industry by accessing a popular site like bigX.com. Once you keep yourself tuned in and take rational steps based on proper logic, you can change your life without having any trouble.

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Why You Should Consider Trading Bitcoin - NuWire Investor

Bitcoin took a substantial hit in trading on Monday, moving from $10,000 to $9,452, in just fourteen hours. The drop, which largely came on profit-taking sentiment, also saw Binance Futures registering one of its biggest long liquidations: worth $2 million.

The overleveraged exit order did not switch Bitcoins long-term bias which remains bullish, but it still ended up leaving the market sentiment in distaste. The position showed how bulls feel threatened by the cryptocurrencys sharp retracement from $10,500-resistance. The downside moves prompted them to close their highly-leveraged Long positions.

Even minor downside swings in bitcoins spot market could push leveraged positions into deep losses. That makes traders close their trades and sell the underlying asset. Such sales add more pressure on bitcoin, leading up to a selling frenzy. Traders call this phenomenon a Long Squeeze.

In this case, the market saw Binance liquidating a comparatively smaller Long order of just $2 million, which might not crash the market. For instance, the derivatives platform last month liquidated $108 million worth of bitcoin long positions within a few minutes, leading to a $900 price crash in the spot market.

Though smaller, the $2 million order left the bitcoin market under the risks of facing similar downside pressures. Overleveraged traders could take cues from the whale and mirror his/her strategy at a time when bitcoins uptrend is showing signs of bullish exhaustion above $10,000.

Possibilities of a Long squeeze are growing also because of funding rates.

In retrospect, derivative platforms like BitMEX and Binance Futures allow traders to earn profits via holding open and leveraged Long/Short position. A positive funding rate indicates that Short pays Longs. Similarly, a negative funding rate means that Longs pay Shorts.

The last recorded funding rate of XBT/USD perpetual contracts on BitMEX was 0.0261 percent. So even against a dwindling spot price, traders with opened long positions have to pay Short 0.0261 times their Long order every eight hours. That has further increased the potential of a Long Squeeze given the bitcoin price keeps falling.

Source: BitMEX

On Binance, the funding rate is higher at 0.0942. That said, a $100,000 long order, for instance, would have to pay Short $94.2 every eight hours.

Things are worse in Ethereum. The predicted funding rate for the cryptocurrencys swaps contracts is almost 2 percent now one of its highest. That said, a Long $100,000 order would need to pay Short $200 every 8 hours.

Bitcoin spot rate is now targeting $9,300 as its support.

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A $2M Bitcoin Long Just Got Liquidated on Binance; Start of a Steep Correction? - newsBTC

CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by the Human Rights Foundations Alex Gladstein and Syrian entrepreneur Moe Ghashim to discuss how cultural context shapes the way people view bitcoin, including stories from the Middle East.

Many bitcoiners see cryptocurrency as a cypherpunk tool that enhances personal freedoms, with cypherpunk meaning using privacy tech to promote social change. There are diverse users around the world gaining this type of value from bitcoin, but they rarely give interviews or are seen on stage at conferences.

Later well explore the risks of governments impacting the bitcoin ecosystem, through regulatory enforcement, censorship and market manipulation. Then well dive into what everyone can do to enhance bitcoins usability through education.

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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How Bitcoin Is Used by Activists and Refugees to Promote Human Rights - CoinDesk

The founding president of the Bitcoin Association Jimmy Nguyen has been discussing the future of sports, and the role Bitcoin SV (BSV) can play in transforming the sports industry, both now and in future.

In an interview with CoinGeek at the Future of Sports event in Moscow, Nguyen said that Bitcoin was the only blockchain ready to handle the needs of the sports industry right now, with the capacity to scale as necessary to respond to demand.

Bitcoin SV is the only blockchain capable of supporting microtransactions at the scale required of the sports industry, which tends to have significant peaks in interest around key global sporting events.

Fixtures like the soccer World Cup, the Olympics and the Super Bowl tend to lead to huge spikes in traffic in concentrated periods of time. According to Nguyen, the scalability of BSV means its the only blockchain ready to respond to these demands today.

Nguyen also spelled out the benefits of an honest public ledger in the sports sector, particularly applicable in sports betting as one obvious use case.

With provably fair records on the blockchain, BSV can deliver honest wins, honest transactions, and provably fair, honest sports betting, improving trust in the betting sector as well as delivering better value for players.

Beyond sports betting, the event also saw topics such as the use of BSV as a platform for anti-doping technology targeting amateur sports, with records recorded and written to the blockchain for independently verifiable, immutable record keeping.

The event also saw discussions on tokenization on BSV, with a number of commercial applications for sports fans.

Nguyen hailed the event as a success, with developers and stakeholders from across Russia and the wider region heading to Moscow in support of BSV.

The event comes at a time of growing interest in BSV globally, with more developers choosing bitcoin for developing blockchain apps.

The Future of Sports conference took place on February 14, with speakers including Toli Makris from Ex Sports, Joachim Thumfahrt on behalf of the UAE government, and representatives from global soccer team Tottenham Hotspur FC.

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

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Jimmy Nguyen discusses future of sports with Bitcoin SV - CoinGeek