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Bitcoin Isn’t the Only Cryptocurrency in Town

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Currencies designed to fix perceived flaws in Bitcoin could lead to competition that makes the idea of digital cryptocurrency stick.

In recent weeks, the digital currency Bitcoin has soared and then dipped in value, along the way attracting more public attention than ever before and speculation as to whether it could become an established and widely accepted way to pay for goods and services.

But Bitcoin isnt the only cryptocurrency out there. Several others are also surging in popularity and value, and they claim to offer technical improvements that make them better suited to mainstream use.

Some of these competing currencies already represent significant stores of value. The value of a single bitcoin on the most popular exchange was $93.70 at time of publication, and the total value of all bitcoins in circulation just over $1 billion (it was over $2 billion at the markets high point last week). The largest alternative cryptocurrency, litecoins, were worth $2.31 each and $38 million in total; the next largest, PPCoin, were worth $0.22 each adding up to a total value of $4 million.

Bitcoin is based on mathematical techniques that control the production of new bitcoins, make it possible for a person to verify money sent to them is genuine, rule out counterfeiting, and limit the maximum number that can ever exist (to 21 million) (see What Bitcoin Is, and Why It Matters).

The Bitcoin alternatives are inspired by that design, which is published openly, and try to offer improvements.

One of Litecoins most significant claimed improvements over Bitcoin is that it allows transactions to be confirmed as legitimate much more quickly, says Charles Lee, who designed the currency, which is now maintained by him and a small group of other enthusiasts.

Bitcoin transactions are verified by the work of software run by other people using the currency, a process that takes on average 10 minutes and can be much longer, an hour in the case of many exchange sites. Lee says that hinders operators of online stores from using the currency. With Bitcoin, sometimes merchants are forced to accept unconfirmed transactions because confirmations are way too slow, he says. Faster confirmations lead to a more useful currency. Litecoin transactions are confirmed on average every 2.5 minutes, which Litecoins developers say is more practical for businesses.

Both Litecoin and the third most-popular cryptocurrency, PPCoin, also generate new coins in a way intended to be more practical than Bitcoins design. New bitcoins are created through a process known as mining, in which people run software that competes to solve a computational puzzle. Each time a puzzle is cracked, new coins are awarded and a new challenge is set. In a neat twist, the process of solving a puzzle also confirms the validity of recent transactions made with bitcoins.

However, because more powerful computers are more likely to solve these puzzles, an arms race between bitcoin miners has resulted. Today only those with very powerful, customized machines have a chance of profitably mining bitcoins and miners are still racing to build ever more powerful mining rigs.

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Bitcoin Isn't the Only Cryptocurrency in Town

ForexMinute Now Offers Brand New Cryptocurrency News for Online Traders

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London, UK (PRWEB) April 18, 2014

Ensuring that traders get the latest cryptocurrency news, ForexMinute puts all efforts and collects them from around the media space. Jonathan Millet, founder and CEO of the organization says that when someone is trading, efforts should be to be to enrich his knowledge base and for that he must follow some blogs or online portals like ForexMinute.

Mr. Millet says that online portals that bring cryptocurrency news like ForexMinute are helping traders to a great extent, as with these they are able to access exclusive information about them. He also adds that cryptocurrency news from his portal is fresh and updated every hour so that visitors get only the latest news updates.

According to Mr. Millet his portal was a pioneer in the Bitcoin industry in the sense that when it began its operation, there were not many online portals that delivered similar services. Now, it has emerged as the most trusted online portal for digital currency news and helps traders make profit generating trades.

Cryptocurrency News Covers News from Around the World

ForexMinute makes sure that traders receive the latest news on Bitcoin, litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, etc. and for that it has reporters from various parts of the world who not just collect the news but also make sure that only the news that can help traders is presented for traders.

Thus, with vibrant network of reporters around the world, ForexMinute makes sure that collected cryptocurrency news is presented in the manner that traders can use it for their analysis and trading.

About ForexMinute.com

ForexMinute, the worlds leading Forex news and views portal, has become a one-stop solution provider for Forex traders and brokers as well as Bitcoins news. It provides all the required tools to individuals to become a professional Forex trader. Also, it helps Forex brokers provide high-end user-friendly trading experience to traders with an array of resources e.g. financial news by the minute, fundamental analysis, technical analysis, Forex tools and others.

For more information, visit http://www.forexminute.com or call +1 800 758 5780.

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ForexMinute Now Offers Brand New Cryptocurrency News for Online Traders

Assange: Critics got lucky because NSA had no PR strategy

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking by Skype at SXSW today. Daniel Terdiman/CNET

AUSTIN, Tex.--National security reporters are a new kind of political refugee, but for the first time they've had a extremely powerful opponent without an effective public relations strategy.

Those were two of the main points delivered by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during a teleconference interview at South by Southwest today.

Assange, speaking over Skype from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, said that while the Internet had, over the last few years, been co-opted by the U.S. National Security Agency, the Pentagon, and other government organizations in what could amount to the "most aggressive form of state surveillance" ever created, critics had in some ways gotten lucky.

In the past, Assange said, the NSA had run a public relations strategy that relied on radio silence, to essentially not exist. But, he said, it appears that the intelligence agency was not prepared for the worldwide outcry that resulted from the release by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of documents revealing the organization's massive surveillance efforts. "The Pentagon has [always had] that strategy of trotting out soldiers wrapped in flags trying to demonstrate bravery, but the NSA didn't have that strategy," Assange said. "We got lucky, because we ended up with an opponent that didn't have a PR strategy."

What that's meant, he suggested, is that while the NSA has almost certainly not curtailed its surveillance actions, it has come under much brighter scrutiny than ever before, with substantial coverage of what it does, and intense criticism, both at home and abroad. And that, though change may be slow, can only be a good thing.

To be sure, many of the leading voices in the community of critics of national-security surveillance have had to run from prosecution. Assange, for example, has been forced to hole up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for nearly two years to avoid prosecution. Similarly, Snowden is in exile in Russia, and four other vocal critics, Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Applebaum, Sarah Harrison, and Laura Poitras are all living outside the United States and Britain. Greenwald is in Brazil, while Applebaum, Harrison, and Poitras are all living in Berlin.

To be sure, those critics have lost much of their personal freedom, at least insofar as where they live and work, and as such have become what Assange called "a new type of [political] refugee."

In addition to Assange, both Snowden and Greenwald will be speaking to SXSW by teleconference.

At the same time, though, Assange said he and the others have a freedom few political critics, especially those on the run, have never had before. Thanks to the Internet, each can still work and criticize organizations like the NSA, and similar institutions abroad. And in Assange's own situation, because he is protected inside an embassy, he is outside the reach of British police or other attempts to silence him. "To some degree," he said, "it is every national security reporter's dream, to be in a land without police."

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Assange: Critics got lucky because NSA had no PR strategy

Local attorney handling high-profile Manning case

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Created: 04/18/2014 10:31 PM By: Danielle Todesco, KOB Eyewitness News 4

An Albuquerque defense attorney has cases all over the world, and now she's picked up a case the whole world will be watching.

Nancy Hollander is heading up the appeal for Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning.

Manning, a former army soldier, was convicted last year of leaking the largest set of classified documents ever.

"We're going forward," Hollander said. "We're ready for this fight. It's going to be a fight, it's an uphill battle. We have the entire government of the United States against this one little person with us between her and the government."

Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years for leaking classified documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the public.

Hollander says Manning did plead guilty to some of the charges against her, but she says she did not violate the Espionage Act, and that's just one thing they'll fight in an appeals court.

So how did a local lawyer pick up such a high profile case?

Hollander has made a name for herself by handling some high profile cases, including accused terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay.

"Chelsea wrote to me after she was convicted. I received a letter one day asking if I'd be interested doing her appeal," Hollander said.

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Local attorney handling high-profile Manning case


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