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Digital assets management firm Grayscale has increased the weighting of Bitcoin and Ethereum in its Digital Large-Cap (DLC) investment fundat the expense of other major altcoins.

Grayscale announced in a Twitter thread on July 12 that the composition of its DLC fund had shifted moving into Q2 of 2020. Between March and June, the percentage of Bitcoin in the fund increased from 81% to 81.5%, while Ethereums weighting in the fund increased from 9.6% to 11.7%.

The presence of three other major altcoins in the fund was reduced in the same time period. XRPs (XRP) weighting dropped from 5% to 3.6%; Bitcoin Cash fell from 2.8% to 2%; and Litecoins presence decreased from 1.6% to 1.2%.

Grayscales single-asset investment funds for Bitcoin and Ethereum are the largest under the firms management, totalling $3.5 billion and $410 million respectively. Comparatively, the single-asset funds for Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and XRP total less than $12 million between them.

The worlds largest crypto-investment firm signaled a renewed thirst for Bitcoin throughout most of 2020. Prior to the Bitcoin halving event, Grayscale was estimated to be purchasing the equivalent of around half of all Bitcoin mined. In the two weeks after Bitcoins halving, Grayscales rate of Bitcoin acquisition increased to 153% of all BTC mined in that period.

By early April, the digital asset investment firm was also shown to be purchasing the equivalent of half of all ETH mined in 2020, eventually coming to own 1.1% of Ethereums circulating supply.

Its conceivable that Grayscales re-evaluation of its DLC fund is a reaction to market conditions. Since March 31, the global market dominance of Ethereum increased from 8.17%, to over 9.8% at time of writing. In the same time period, XRPs market dominance fell from 4.21% to 3.28%. Bitcoin Cashs dominance decreased from 2.27% to 1.6%. Likewise, Litecoins dominance dropped from 1.4% to 1.07%, according to CoinMarketCap.

The only exception to this trend is Bitcoin, the market dominance of which fell from 65.78% from March 31, to 62.46% at time of writing. This could be a result of the recent block reward halving, which resulted in half as many BTC being produced by Bitcoin miners.

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Grayscale large cap fund shifts focus to Bitcoin and Ethereum - Decrypt

A recent article by a Cointelegraph Markets contributor proclaimed that Bitcoin is the new Apple, explaining just how Bitcoins (BTC) price could reach $60,000 by 2023: Bitcoin hangs near the chasm of the adoption curve, and its price looks similar to Apples stock in 2008 before it broke out with a 520% rally.

The technology adoption curve referenced was Everett Rogers famous diffusion of innovations model, published in 1962, which described the five stages through which technology becomes diffused i.e., goes mainstream: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

In 2008, manufacturer Apples United States smartphone penetration was stalled at about 11% and still waiting to cross the chasm, the gap between the early adopter stage and the early majority stages in the Rogers lexicon. Any technical innovation worth its salt needs to cross that threshold. Apples smartphone surmounted that chasm, of course: Usage exploded, and Apples share price soared into the ionosphere. Bitcoin may well be in a similar place today.

But this comparison, satisfying as it may be, raises some questions. Is BTC even a technology like radios, PCs, and smartphones or is it something different: unique, sui generis i.e., in a class by itself? Is BTCs global penetration really anywhere close to 11% its putative U.S. penetration rate? Also, while smartphone usage indubitably crossed the chasm more than a decade ago, how does one extrapolate BTCs future price from AAPLs share price? Shouldnt it be compared with smartphones price?

The resemblance between Bitcoin and Apple in terms of growth and adoption is indeed there, but in short, is it fair to compare Bitcoin to younger versions of tech giants like Apple?

Arvind Singhal, a professor of communication at the University of Texas at El Paso, whose academic research has focused on the diffusion of innovation, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin did indeed seem singular: It has tremendous barriers to adoption for most individuals and operates in a space of multiple familiar currencies and that peculiarity would greatly influence its adoption.

Michel Rauchs, the head of Paradigma a consulting firm focusing on the digital assets sector and a former research affiliate for the cryptocurrency and blockchain research program at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge, told Cointelegraph: Bitcoin is not a technology in itself, and any comparison [with traditional technologies] is misguided. He added: It is a social/economic system, a new monetary order that uses technology to represent its unit of accounts. Technology is just a secondary component, a means to an end.

Additionally, it may be important here to separate Bitcoin from the more generalized blockchain technology in which it partakes or risk misapplying Rogerss diffusion of innovation theory suggested Theophanis Stratopoulos, PwC Chair Associate Professor at the University of Waterloos School of Accounting and Finance, who further explained to Cointelegraph:

When decision-makers consider whether to implement blockchain in, lets say, their supply chain they develop expectations in terms of the cost of making the investment e.g., paying for the implementation of the software versus the benefits, such as increased revenues or cost savings. It is the difference in expectations among decision-makers that explains the adoption cycle that was observed by Rogers.

But Bitcoin does not behave the same way as other technologies typically adopted by firms like CRM systems, for instance. When it comes to Bitcoin, its the expected price that drives people to invest in Bitcoin. It is a matter of speculation, Stratopoulos continued, closer to a pyramid scheme than a capital expenditure. If I believe that more people will want to hold Bitcoin in the future, the price of the Bitcoin will rise. In a case like this, it makes sense for me to invest today rather than tomorrow.

Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, the CEO and founder of the BCB Group a digital assets financial services group agreed that BTCs adoption cycle was anomalous, telling Cointelegraph: The reason Bitcoins adoption path has broken formation with established adoption curves is quite technical: In the short term, the more users there are, the less useful it is as a currency.

With more users, the Bitcoin network self-regulates by raising the network fees as the mem pool bulges up in busy periods and breathes out in quieter ones. But this makes Bitcoin less effective as a payments processing system. As von Landsberg-Sadie explained: When fees are high, no one is going to pay a $5 transaction fee on a $5 coffee.

Many technical solutions have been proposed to solve this dilemma, some in the form of forks, others like the Lightning Network project that makes use of a second layer, but none have truly stuck in the core Bitcoin protocol, which has been the slowest to evolve. The good news is that it is evolving, and the increase in off-chain transactions is reducing barriers, but all of this means one cant expect Bitcoin to follow a classic Rogers technical adoption curve, according to von Landsberg-Sadie.

When U.S. smartphone penetration stalled at around the 11% mark in December 2008, Apples share price became volatile three-month volatility stood at 92%, according to the July 6 Cointelegraph article. In June 2020, with BTC penetration at 11%, three-month volatility was at 64%, indeed also a very high figure.

But Stratopoulos was unimpressed. I would not compare Bitcoin to the performance of Apple or Amazon or any other high-tech company. Rogerss adoption cycle applies to innovations emerging technologies not to the price of stock. Kevin Dowd, a professor of finance and economics at Durham University in the United Kingdom, agreed, telling Cointelegraph:

Since BTC is a form of product, then the natural comparison is with Apples smartphone product. Apples share price might have risen strongly, but the better comparison is with the price of smartphones, which have not.

It is relatively easy to find correlations like between AAPL in 2008 and BTC in 2020, commented Stratopoulos. It does not mean that there is causation, or it could be just a spurious correlation.

What, then, can be said about Bitcoin adoption? If measured by awareness e.g., recognition of the term Bitcoin then it has already entered the mainstream, said Rauchs. A Blockchain Capital survey reported 89% awareness of Bitcoin in the U.S. as of Spring 2019. A U.K. Financial Conduct Authority survey conducted in December 2019, which was recently published, found that 73% have heard about crypto, compared to 58% in 2019.

As for BTC ownership, the Blockchain Capital survey reported: In total, 9% of the [U.S] population owns Bitcoin including 18% of those aged 1834 and 12% of those aged 3544. The firm originally reported 11% but that was later corrected. In the U.K. survey, by comparison, an estimated 3.86% of the general population currently own cryptocurrencies. This projects to approximately 1.9 million adults within the U.K. population (over 18) of roughly 50 million.

Rauchs finds the lower U.K. adoption estimate more realistic if generalizing; that is, he would peg crypto ownership at 3%5% of the global population, which also includes indirect ownership e.g., individuals participating in a pension fund that invests in Bitcoin. But this clearly means that all crypto is in the first half of the early adopter stage nowhere near the so-called chasm.

Its not much different for blockchain technology. Stratopoulos co-authored a paper on blockchain technology adoption exclusive of cryptocurrencies that concluded: Despite the recent hype, the current adoption rate is relatively low, and blockchain has not become mainstream yet.

Bitcoin clearly means different things to different people. Its most popular use today is as a store of value, while back in 2011, its principal use was as a payment method for gaming and other purposes, said Rauchs. Depending on its applications, different adoption curve scenarios are possible. For his part, Rauchs believes that BTCs most likely future usage will be as an alternative, non-sovereign store of value.

According to von Landsberg-Sadie, Bitcoins true adoption pattern will be more like a wave, oscillating higher at each cycle. In this view, the biggest bets are on the most extreme outcomes: Bitcoin will either ripple slowly out of relevance, or it will amplify meaningfully into the mainstream. My money is on the latter.

In sum, BTC following the same growth pattern as Apple sounds like a fun version of what may happen, but ultimately, one shouldnt quibble that it is not based on a statistically valid experiment, as Dowd reminded Cointelegraph. Still, according to several experts, it doesnt make sense to compare Bitcoin to traditional technologies because Bitcoin does not have the ability to create value either in the form of increasing revenues or reducing costs, as Stratopoulous noted. Moreover, global BTC penetration is arguably closer to 4% than to the 11% mark where smartphones stood in 2008, immediately before they went mainstream.

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Comparing Apple to Bitcoin? Crypto Occupies a Class of Its Own - Cointelegraph

For many years now physical bitcoins have been a very popular trend, but one specific type called the Casascius physical bitcoin collection has intrigued people for years. Last December, someone redeemed a 100 BTC Casascius bar and since then 560 Casascius coins worth $5.1 million have been redeemed. As of today, there are only 20,901 Casascius coins or bars left in the world, with roughly $424 million worth of bitcoins loaded on them.

Bitcoins believe it or not can have nostalgic value, especially when they are tethered to a physical bitcoin. During the last decade, numerous manufacturers have created physical bitcoins that have been loaded with the digital currency.

Most all of these types of coins are collectors items, as the physical attributes can give the cryptocurrency numismatic value. One of the most popular physical bitcoin creators was Mike Caldwell who issued the Casascius physical bitcoin collection from 2011 to 2013.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government shut down Caldwells operation by telling him he could no longer load the physical coins with real digital bitcoin. However, during Caldwells tenure of making the Casascius physical bitcoin collection, he minted close to 90,000 BTC in various denominations.

On July 12, 2020, theres only 45,760 active BTC held on Casascius physical coins or bars in existence, as there were roughly 46,320 active BTC coins in December 2019. That means at todays BTC/USD exchange rates out of the 560 coins redeemed, $5.1 million in BTC was spent.

Last December when news.Bitcoin.com reported on the 100 BTC gold bar that was redeemed on the 23rd, it was the last 100 BTC peeled since then. So far the highest increment peeled between December and now, was a few 25 BTC coins. At the time of writing, there are still 48- 100 BTC bars that have not been spent, leaving $44.4 million left (100 BTC bars) unspent to-date.

Caldwell also minted a number of 1,000 BTC bars and so far, most of those have been redeemed. The series one 1,000 BTC bar data shows that 87% have been redeemed. The series two Casascius bars only stored 500 BTC and every single one of those bars have been peeled.

Although some individuals are lucky enough to own the series one 1,000 BTC Casascius coins minted in 2011. Only six were manufactured and there are four coins left, and that means only 33.33% of the BTC has been spent so far. It could be possible that due to the size of these coins being much smaller (28.6mm) than the bars (80mm x 40mm x 6mm), a few may have been lost.

In the Casascius collection, there are a lot more physical coins with smaller increments between 0.5 BTC to 25 BTC. As mentioned above, Casascius coins have given bitcoiners a lot of nostalgia, and lots of these coins have gathered numismatic value that far exceeds the BTC value stored on the coin.

For instance, on Ebay theres two Casascius coins selling for far more than the original BTC value. One example shows a rare 2011- 1 BTC physical Casascius coin selling for $101,000. Another seller on the eBay auction website wants $25k for his 2013- fully funded 1 BTC Casascius coin.

There are not that many Casascius coins on eBay, but theres a whole lot more coins from manufacturers like Denarium and BTCC Mint. Caldwell did make a number of unloaded Casascius bitcoins that contain no real digital currency value, and those trinkets sell for $25 a pop.

People can follow the redemption cycle of Casascius bitcoins on Twitter by following the bot called Casascius Coin Tracker (@Casasciusbot). When news.Bitcoin.com reported on the 100 BTC bar peel, it was the largest month between now and then for redemptions with 172 coins peeled. In mid-March 54 coins were redeemed and so far only 14 Casascius coins have been peeled in July.

Of course, the biggest month in a long while was December 2017, when the public witnessed 1,172 redeemed Casascius coins. As 560 Casascius coins worth $5.1 million have been redeemed since December 2019, it shows that these physical bitcoins are becoming rarer by the day. Its likely that as scarcity continues to take hold of these loaded physical bitcoins, they will always be worth more than the original digital load value.

What do you think about the number of Casascius coins left in existence? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, casasciustracker.com

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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$424 Million and Numismatic Value: There's Only 20000 Casascius Physical Bitcoins Left Unspent | Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

The world of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has been set alight this week by the sudden surge of dogecoina "joke" cryptocurrency that's doubled in value in the last two days thanks videos posted on controversial China-based app TikTok.

Dogecoin, a tongue-in-cheek bitcoin rival named by Tesla TSLA chief executive Elon Musk as his "fav" cryptocurrency last year, is now worth $0.0046, up from $0.0023 earlier this week; effectively making it a cryptocurrency equivalent of a penny stock.

The dogecoin price rally was sparked by a viral TikTok video that's racked up almost 1 million viewswith the likes of Barstool Sports' David Portnoy pushing it onwards.

The doge meme is based on the Japanese Shiba Inu. The meme was turned into the "joke" currency ... [+] dogecoin, a cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin, in 2013.

"Lets all get rich," TikTok user James Galante told his relatively small number of 5,700 followers in a video that's now been viewed over 900,000 times. Galante's previous video, also promoting dogecoin, has been watched around 250,000 times.

"Dogecoin is practically worthless," Galante told his global audience. "There are 800 million TikTok users. Once it hits $1, youll have $10,000. Tell everyone you know."

TikTok videos, usually short, tightly edited clips featuring predominately younger people and often set to music, can attract huge audiences even if the video creators have few followers. TikTok's algorithm is good at picking up on what people like and promoting it to a wider audience, meaning that if a video is engaging there's a good chance it will get seen by a lot of people.

TikTok, which has 37 million U.S. users according to Statista, is potentially facing a country-wide ban after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox host Laura Ingraham this week the Trump administration is "certainly looking at" a ban and downloading the app would put people's "private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party."

TikTok, which has been downloaded more than two billion times globally, was banned in India last week amid security concerns and has also quit Hong Kong after China imposed a new security law on the city.

TikTok, now run by a former Disney top executive, Kevin Mayer, has said it would never share data with China.

But in the meantime, TikTok users continue to create, and watch, lots of dogecoin videos. There are now almost 10 million videos on TikTok with the hashtag "dogecoin," many with views well into the 10s of thousands.

"We're sending dogecoin to the moon," one TikTok user said, pointing his phone at a computer screen showing rocketing financial charts.

The sudden attention caused dogecoin trade volume to skyrocket by 1,000% at its peak on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Meanwhile, the TikTok-inspired dogecoin rally caught the attention of Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports who has turned to stock market day trading amid coronavirus lockdowns and massive share price rallies brought on by unprecedented intervention by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

"What's going on with dogecoin," Portnoy asked viewers of his Barstool Sports livestream Davey Day Trader, adding he "isn't in on bitcoin and litecoin" and other cryptocurrencies.

"Everyone is buying this dogecoin. It's a pump-and-dump. Dogecoin is bubbly ros," Portney told his viewers, a term he coined meaning a stock or commodity that's performing well.

The dogecoin rally, somewhat resembling the bitcoin and crypto mania of late 2017, comes after popular stock trading app Robinhood has seen massive uptake among young people in recent monthsmany of whom are out of work due to the severe economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the dogecoin price is now only a fraction of the peak it reached in early 2018. Dogecoin, along with bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies, have fallen sharply since hitting skyhigh values toward the end of 2017.

Elsewhere, veteran traders have also warned against people jumping on the dogecoin wagon.

"This is the most transparent pump-and-dump scam I've ever seen, though I'm not sure we can even call it a scam as everybody who gets involved knows it's a scam beforehand," Glen Goodman, a U.K.-based trader and author of The Crypto Trader, said via email.

"The TikTok videos urging people to bid up the doge price remind me of some of the world's most blatant pyramid schemes, where the sales pitch typically goes: 'Look, we all know this is a pyramid scheme that will collapse eventually, but you will be one of the winners who rakes in the cash, while only the later entrants will lose money.'"

The dogecoin price has almost doubled this week but the rapid rise is unlikely to hold, veteran ... [+] traders have warned.

A Twitter account associated with the cryptocurrency, @dogecoin, also cautioned potential buyers to beware.

"Be mindful of the intentions people have when they direct you to buy things," the unverified @dogecoin account that boasts almost 150,000 followers posted.

"None of them are in the spot to be financially advising. Make choices right for you, do not ride other people's [fear of missing out] or manipulation. Stay safe. Be smart."

For those wondering if they should buy dogecoin now to try to get in on the action, Goodman has some stark words of warning.

"With no fundamentals to support it, the price of dogecoin will only go up as long as the early buyers who are cashing out have new buyers to sell to," Goodman said. "Once the supply of willing suckers starts running dry, the price collapses."

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Lets All Get RichTeen TikTok Traders Want To Send Joke Bitcoin Rival Dogecoin To The Moon - Forbes

Bitcoin educator Andreas Antonopoulos says he would like to see more privacy features on Bitcoin, but theyre unlikely to happen anytime soon.

In a livestream Q&A on Antonopoulos YouTube channel on July 7, he said Bitcoin (BTC) was unlikely to ever implement privacy features similar to those used by Monero (XMR).

Antonopoulos said creating such features on a cryptocurrency like BTC would create an enormous amount of controversy. In addition, he said the structure of Bitcoin simply doesnt allow ring signatures and stealth addresses.

I think what were going to see soon is Schnorr, Taproot, and Tapscript, which open the door to a lot of improvements, Antonopoulos said, But they still do not involve zero-knowledge proofs or the types of ring signatures and stealth addresses that are done in Monero. Bitcoin is not a privacy coin.

The features to which Antonopoulos is referring Schnorr, Taproot, and Tapscript (a scripting update to Taproot) have been cited by others in the crypto community as having the potential to make Bitcoin more private.

The director of research at blockchain firm Blockstream Andrew Poelstra has referred to Taproot as a system which could possibly render any transaction mostly indistinguishable from one another on the BTC blockchain. However, he noted that transaction amounts and the transaction graph are still exposed, which are much harder problems to address.

Multisignature schemes (MuSigs) from Schnorr are another possibility. Poelstra said using this method doesnt reveal the original set of signers, or even provide the number of signers for MuSig transactions.

Bitcoin can be better thought of as pseudonymous rather than fully anonymous, as many transactions on the BTC blockchain can still be traced even with these privacy improvements.

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Bitcoin Will Never Be Truly Private Says Andreas Antonopoulos - Cointelegraph

DUBLIN, July 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ResearchAndMarkets.com published a new article on the bitcoin industry "Bug in Bitcoin Wallets Found Using the Replace-By-Fee Feature"

A team at ZenGo discovered the BigSpender bug affecting major crypto-wallets, including Ledger Live, Edge, BreadWallet and potentially many more. The bug exploits how certain wallets handle the replace-by-fee feature which allows a user to swap an unconfirmed transaction with another transaction that has a higher fee. The RBF feature has become a standard way for users to send bitcoin and was developed as a way to circumvent slow confirmation times by paying more in fees.

Attackers can send funds to a wallet and set the fees low enough to almost guarantee the transaction will not receive a confirmation. The attacker can then use the RBF feature to replace the pending transaction with a transaction to another wallet that they control. For vulnerable wallets, this pending transaction will be reflected as an increase in the account balance, leading some users to believe they have received funds even though they have not. Attackers can also use the BigSpender vulnerability to send multiple fake transactions and reroute them before they are confirmed. This can cause the victim's stated balance and actual funds to become decoupled and could make the wallet unusable. Both Breadwallet and Ledger Live have released fixes to prevent the attacks.

To see the full article and a list of related reports on the market, visit "Bug in Bitcoin Wallets Found Using the Replace-By-Fee Feature"

About ResearchAndMarkets.comResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Bug in Bitcoin Wallets Found Using the Replace-By-Fee Feature - PRNewswire

In an unexpected to say the least case of first impression, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, essentially, blew away the privacy doors of the cryptocurrency world when it forced a Bitcoin exchange to disclose user data to the federal government without being served a warrant. See USA v. Gratkowski, Case number 19-50492, (5th Cir. 2020). This Bitcoin exchange use blockchain technology that records every transaction in a publicly accessible ledger, but the persons owning the actual Bitcoin addresses are not known.

The appellate court found that the government could subpoena a cryptocurrency exchange, and obtain records since there was no violation of the defendants Fourth Amendment rights. The court reasoned that users of the digital coin exchanges have no greater privacy rights than those people who have accounts at ordinary banks. The court also held that Bitcoin traders have no expectation of privacy for information published on the public blockchain.

This decision also implicated the United States Supreme Courts recent decision requiring a warrant to access cellphone records in Carpenter v. United States. In this case, however, the court said only a subpoena was necessary because it was similar to bank records where there is not necessarily a Fourth Amendment protection. The court also indicated that no one considered Bitcoins to be as central to someones daily life like cellphones.

It would appear that, despite the well-known privacy benefits of blockchain technology, this court apparently believes these exchanges fall under the third-party doctrine, whereby there is no expectation of privacy when a party turns over their information voluntarily to a third party, including, but not limited to, banks. The court found that both traditional banks and cryptocurrency exchanges would be subject to the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, the statutory authority requiring financial institutions to turn over financial records.

Nonetheless, this decision may have a chilling effect on the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Many participants have been drawn to this medium because it offers high degree of privacy. It is possible that this decision may cause a great deal of anxiety in this area.

As a result, it is more likely that law enforcement authoritiescivil and criminalwill be seeking information from Bitcoin exchanges. Conversely, it is also likely that Bitcoin exchanges will probably publish less information and seek enhanced privacy protections. Accordingly, these issues should be carefully discussed with counsel when proceeding in the future.

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Bitcoin Exchanges And The Cryptocurrency World Was Just Rocked - JD Supra

A Parisian street artist is receiving hundreds of dollars every day in bitcoin donations from his painting that speaks about fiat and money printing.

Pascal Boyarts latest mural, Confessions of a Red Jester, is a modern interpretation of the 1862 painting Staczyk by Polish romanticist painter Jan Matejko. The original depicts a lonely jester against a lively ball in the background.

Boyart said he has earned about 0.0514 bitcoin (BTC) or around $500 in the five days to July 10. Since 2017, the artist, famed for his practical graffiti frescoes, has received over 1.3 BTC or $12,100 in donations from various artworks. His website also accepts donations in ethereum, litecoin and monero.

The latest piece, which can be seen on Paris rue de Montmorency, features a QR code, together with a spray-painted Bitcoin logo and a wallet address, allowing for direct BTC donations from admirers.

Boyarts rendition takes the crypto-angle a step further, with fiat money littering the floor around the solemn jesters feet.

The French artists past work has examined the relationship between art and money. In an interview published on Medium in 2018, Boyart said that digital financial assets represent a type of freedom thats reminiscent of the early days of the internet.

He stated that bitcoins decentralization is a good thing for creativity, and, therefore, good as a means for facilitating donations. Boyart said the top cryptocurrency provides a more direct relation with the people who love art and more horizontality in the business of art.

What do you think about Boyart tying art to bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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'Fiat and Money Printing' Street Mural Earns $500 in Bitcoin Donations in Five Days | News - Bitcoin News

The most popular stablecoin tether (USDT) has officially been minted on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain via the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP). At press time theres only 1,010 SLP-based USDT in circulation, as the firm Tether Limited seems to be issuing small amounts and testing the SLP framework.

Tether (USDT) is the king of stablecoins in the crypto economy and according to the companys transparency page, there are more than $9.8 billion tethers in existence.

The stablecoin is a token that is also hosted on a number of blockchains including the Ethereum network, Omni Layer, Algorand, Tron, Liquid, and the EOS chain. Not too long ago, news.Bitcoin.com revealed that tether (USDT) was migrating some coins over to the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain via the Simple Ledger Protocol.

Tether Limiteds transparency page now shows that the company has been minting and testing the SLP framework. The data website simpleledger.info shows that the Tether team has officially minted 3,027 USDTs so far on the BCH chain.

However, 2,017 SLP-based USDT tokens have been burned, which only leaves 1,010 SLP-based USDT in circulation at the time of publication. A thousand dollars worth of stablecoins is not much, but Bitcoin Cash proponents believe that the company is simply trialing the SLP infrastructure.

Simpleledger.info also shows that the baton is alive, which means USDTs can be minted at any time. The genesis of the SLP-based USDT shows that the tokens were born on May 25, 2020. Searching the term tether in the simpleledger.info database also shows there is a number of phony tethers people have created since the SLP network came out.

The official USDT token ID is shown at Tether Limiteds official website, alongside the balances of tether on other blockchains. Theres been a total of 50 SLP-based USDT transactions so far on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

The SLP-based USDT rich list shows that this address has the most stablecoins with a balance of 874.14 USDT at the time of publication. The rest of the coins in circulation are spread out through a number of different addresses.

The largest amount of USDTs on any blockchain is held on ETH with $6 billion in ERC20-based tethers to-date. Of course, Bitcoin Cash fans were both pleased and skeptical about the appearance of USDTs on BCH.

On the subreddit r/btc, BCH fans discussed the recently issued SLP-based USDT on the forum. On July 7, Sideshift.ai announced that the Bitcoin Cash version of USDT is now live on the swapping platform.

BCH proponents also discussed holding USDTs on the Bitcoin.com Wallet thanks to the recently added asset breakdown and stablecoin features. On Twitter, the Sideshift team wrote: Be one of the first humans to shift USDT on SLP.

What do you think about tether (USDT) being minted on the Bitcoin Cash chain? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Tether, Simpleledger.info, Twitter, Sideshift.ai,

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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The Popular Stablecoin Tether Is Now Circulating on the Bitcoin Cash Network - Bitcoin News

Coinbase is selling its blockchain analytics software to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service. Following criticisms from the crypto community, CEO Brian Armstrong defended Coinbases position.

Public records on the U.S. governments websites reveal that the San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase has signed a contract with the U.S. government for its blockchain analytics software. The records were first spotted by The Block.

The contract, awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was signed on May 9. It went into effect the next day with a tentative end date of May 11, 2024. The obligated amount is currently $49,000 and the potential award amount is $183,750. The contracting agency is the U.S. Secret Service, a federal agency that investigates monetary crimes such as fraud and counterfeiting; it was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.

Following the news of Coinbase selling its analytics software to the U.S. Secret Service, many people took to Twitter to criticize the companys action, with some urging others to delete Coinbase, saying that the company is bad for bitcoin and crypto.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong quickly defended his companys decision. Blockchain analytics software is nothing new has been around a long time it uses publicly available data to try and track crypto transactions usually to catch bad actors, he tweeted.

Armstrong proceeded to explain that his company started off by using some of the existing blockchain analytics services out there. This worked out ok, but the issue with it was that we dont like sharing data with third parties when we can avoid it, and they didnt support all the features/chains we needed. So we realized at some point we would need to bring this capability in house, the CEO described, elaborating:

Its expensive to build this capability, and we want to recoup costs. There is an existing market for blockchain analytics software, so we sell it to a handful of folks as well. It also helps us build relationships with law enforcement which is important to growing crypto.

Last month, it was reported that Coinbase wanted to sell its analytics software to two other U.S. government agencies: the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Meanwhile, the company is reportedly planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S.

What do you think about Coinbase selling its analytics software to the government? Let us know in the comments section below.

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US Dept of Homeland Security Buys Analytics Software From Coinbase | News - Bitcoin News