Category Archives: Bitcoin

A company co-owned by one of President Vladimir Putins internet advisers plans to raise the cryptocurrency equivalent of as much as $100 million in a push to help Russian entrepreneurs challenge China in bitcoin mining.

Russian Miner Coin is holding a so-called initial coin offering, where investors will use units of ethereum or bitcoin to buy new RMC tokens. These new tokens will have rights to 18 percent of the revenue earned with the companys mining equipment, according to a presentation posted on its website.

RMC plans to use semiconductor chips designed in Russia for use in satellites to minimize power consumption in computers for crypto-mining, Putins internet ombudsman, Dmitry Marinichev, said at at a news conference in Moscow.

Russia has the potential to reach up to 30 percent share in global cryptocurrency mining in the future," Marinichev said, adding that $10 million from the proceeds of the ICO may be spent developing the processors.

More and more startups are offering tokens as a way to raise money upfront for digital assets in ICOs. Unlike a traditional IPO in which buyers get shares, a startups ICO nets you virtual tokens unique to the issuing company or network that grow in value only if the business proves viable.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month warned that ICOs may be considered securities and signaled greater scrutiny of the sector, though it stopped short of suggesting a broader clampdown.

Todays bitcoin mining requires special computers based on chips with minimized power consumption. Chinas Bitmain Technologies Ltd. is one of the leading producers of such equipment and also runs Antpool, a processing pool that combines individual miners from China and other countries. Rival Bitfury Group, founded by Valery Vavilov, a Russian-speaking native of Latvia, produces equipment for mining virtual currencies and runs large-scale centers in Georgia and Iceland.

Russia has 20 gigawatts of excess power capacity, with consumer electricity prices as low as 80 kopeks (1.3 cents) per kilowatt hour, which is less than in China, RMC said in the presentation. The company initially plans to locate mining computers based on Bitfury chips in individual Russian households to challenge Bitmain by using Russias lower power prices.

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This Putin Ally Wants to Get in on the Bitcoin Mining Craze - Fortune

Bitcoin on Monday extended its ascent into rare air, with the digital currency adding to a recent record run-up about a week since the currency split into two distinct cyber units: bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

A single bitcoin BTCUSD, +2.39% was up 3.5% at $3,369.82, after enjoying a weekend ascent that has taken the cryptocurrency to its highest level since being created back in 2009. The total market value of bitcoin was nearly $55 billion, its highest on record, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

Some market participants theorized that this current rally in bitcoin is due to deceptive trading tactics employed by at least one deep-pocketed investor intended to create the illusion that a potential buyer is willing to, for example, buy bitcoin at a lofty price, which drives its value higher and potentially allows the bidder to then cancel the trade and sell at an inflated level, according to digital-money news site The Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin Cash, meanwhile, was up 52% on the session, but down 57% since its Aug. 2 peak when it hit $727.

Read: Bitcoin rallies to record, market cap hits $50 billion for first time

Prices of the original bitcoin have surged in the past week, after bitcoin launched last Tuesday a new version of its currency with a different configuration, known as Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is an attempt to solve processing issues by allowing blocks to be processed in 8-megabyte units, rather than the 1-megabyte block the older version of bitcoin uses.

Prices appear to be mostly rising across much of the digital-currency network, with Ethereums ether token ticking 0.4% higher. An ether token was at $266.61 in recent trade, with a total value of $25 billion for the currency network.

Total market value across the top cryptocurrencies put them at $116.9 billion, with Bitcoin Cash coming in as the fourth-largest cybercurrency at $5.2 billion, ahead of Litecoin tokens at $2.4 billion.

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Bitcoin extends record climb, as digital currencies on the rise - MarketWatch

Bitcoin Hard ForkNurPhoto via Getty Images

The newly created Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a rushed spinoff of Bitcoin (BTC), a clonecoin of which there have been many in Bitcoins past. Because the name is confusing, many have taken to calling it Bcash to avoid buyer confusion.

There have been myriad clonecoins of various types since Bitcoin's inception. Bitcoin Cash is a style of clone that copies Bitcoins codebase along with its blockchain up until a certain point. Normally when new alternative cryptocurrencies are created, developers just clone the code and not the blockchain. But Bitcoin Cash copied Bitcoins blockchain as well, which created a situation in which everyone that had one bitcoin suddenly also had one bitcoin cash.

The creation of Bitcoin Cash was an orchestrated scheme, rushed to the point of engendering significant safety risks. Digital currencies just dont spontaneously appear out of nowhere. The Bitcoin Cash fork was created by a developer that wanted to increase block sizes, with the hypothetical result being more transactions being processed on the blockchain.

This might sound like a good idea, but clonecoins can be incredibly disruptive to risk management and operational demands on digital currency infrastructure companies. The cost to launch a clonecoin is minimal, but the overhead for the ecosystem to actually support it is high. As Bitcoin Cash duplicated Bitcoin, at the time of the fork every bitcoin holder now had coins on another blockchain, and therefore skin in the game. This was a type of psychological experiment to see if people as a group could be tricked into ascribing value to something created from nothing, if they were given it as a gift. This experiment seemed to work, and it put a great deal of pressure on exchanges and wallet providers to support Bitcoin Cash, whereas a new altcoin would largely just be ignored.

Some exchanges such as Coinbase simply said they would not support Bitcoin Cash and urged their users to who felt otherwise to withdraw their coins prior to August 1, when the cryptocurrency forked. I can identify with these exchanges. Having run an exchange myself, I can tell you that supporting a new coin isnt something you rush into. Customer support teams need to be aware of the complexities and nuances so they can explain them to customers. Systems for processing deposits and withdrawals must be updated. Additional servers need to be spun up and integrated with existing systems. Security auditing and quality assurance testing must run their course. Compliance guidelines and terms of service need to be updated and reviewed by legal teams.

We have always taken a security-first approach to technology here at Blockstream, and commend exchanges for doing likewise. Exchanges are the operational end of Bitcoin infrastructure, with billions of dollars under technical management. In Bitcoin Cash, keys controlling ownership of coins are shared with real Bitcoin investments totaling $50 billion. Sharing those Bitcoin keys with untested software in order to claim a Bitcoin Cash gift is highly riskymaybe too risky.

The Bitcoin Cash chain may survive, but its value will likely dip below $100. Its currently trading anywhere from $200 to $300 on various exchanges, but this price is artificially inflated due to many exchanges refusing to accept deposits, as well as the Bitcoin Cash blockchain not functioning properly. Bitcoins blockchain processes a block of transactions roughly every 10 minutes, but Bitcoin Cash average block times are an hour (sometimes with no blocks for 13 hours). This means that users are having issues with even sending their bitcoin cash to exchanges to sell off.

We can already see a correlation between when Bitcoin Cash transactions are processed and when massive selloffs take place on exchanges. Compound that with the fact that 76% of all bitcoin cash that will ever exist is already mined and waiting to be sold , that there is absolutely no Bitcoin Cash integration or support in the real world, that its codebase is being maintained by a single developer, the long-term prospects of the new cryptocurrency are unclear.

Whatever happens though, Bitcoin Cashs birth has shown that markets can be manipulated with just a bit of computing power, a participating exchange, and a healthy dose of greed. If youre running a digital currency exchange or wallet, beware the attack of the clonecoins.

Samson Mow is the chief strategy officer at Blockstream .

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The Bitcoin Cash Fork Was a Dangerous Trick - Fortune

Photo Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister in an episode of Game of Thrones, which was targeted in a recent hack of HBO. Credit Macall B. Polay/HBO, via Associated Press

Hackers using the name Mr. Smith posted a fresh cache on Monday of stolen HBO files online, and demanded that the network pay a ransom of several million dollars to prevent further such releases.

The data dump included what appear to be scripts from five Game of Thrones episodes, including one coming episode, and a months worth of email from the account of Leslie Cohen, HBOs vice president for film programming. There were also internal documents, including a report of legal claims against the network and job offer letters to top executives.

HBO, which previously acknowledged the theft of proprietary information, said it was continuing to investigate and was working with the police and security experts. The network said on Monday that it still did not believe that its email system as a whole had been compromised.

This is the second data release from the hack. So far, the leaks at HBO have been limited, falling well short of the chaos inflicted on Sony in 2014. In that attack, hackers unearthed thousands of embarrassing emails and released personal information, including salaries and Social Security numbers, of nearly 50,000 current and former Sony employees. In the aftermath of the attack, the Sony Pictures chief, Amy Pascal, was ousted.

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Hackers Demand Millions in Bitcoin for Stolen HBO Files - New York Times

Bitcoin BTCUSD, +2.39% caught fire this weekend, taking out yet another record high and pushing above $50 billion in market capitalization for the first time ever. This after selling off in the wake of the split last week.

So whats triggering the latest push?

Apparently, a deep-pocketed trader (or group of traders), nicknamed Spoofy, is rumored to be manipulating the bitcoin market by employing his namesake tactic on the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, according to Cointelegraph.

Read: 10 things you need to know about bitcoin.

Spoofing is when a trader makes a deceptive bid or offer with the intent of canceling it before execution, thus giving the illusion that somebody is getting ready to buy or sell and potentially triggering a notable move in price.

For example, if Spoofy places a large buy order that entices smaller traders to hop aboard, he can turn around and instead use the uptick to execute a sell order.

Weve seen it before in other markets, like when Navinder Sarao, the British trader accused of contributing to the 2010 stock market flash crash, pleaded guilty to using the shady tactic.

So yes, spoofing is illegal, but since bitcoin markets are mostly unregulated, its quite common, Cointelegraph reports. The difference in Spoofys case is that hes got a massive bankroll that allows him to regular place orders upward of $60 million.

The BitCryptoed blog described the impact hes had on bitcoin.

Spoofy makes the price go up when he wants it to go up, and Spoofy makes the price go down when he wants it to go down, the blogger wrote. And hes got the coin both USD, and bitcoin, of course, to pull it off, and with impunity on Bitfinex.

Read: It could get ugly soon for bitcoin if this chart is right.

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Why is bitcoin surging? Ask 'Spoofy,' the trader who's reportedly manipulating prices - MarketWatch

More than five months after bitcoin and gold prices hit parity, bitcoin is now worth nearly three times as much as the more traditional store of value.

The price of bitcoin reached a new high above $3,400 during today's session, a figure that was more than $2,000 above the price of gold.At press time, the precious metalwas trading for $1,257 according to a spot exchange rate provided by Bloomberg.

Overall,it's the latest sign that the cryptocurrency asset class may be maturing in the eyes of an increasingly professional set of investors earlier today, the total value of all publicly traded cryptocurrencies set a new all-time high,rising above $117 billionfor the first time.

But while largely symbolic, the finding is notable given that bitcoin enthusiasts have long compared the digital asset to gold, arguing that it is a more effective store of value due to its digital and provably finite nature.

Still, it remains difficult to determine whether the two assets have any relationship in the market, with past attempts to draw a correlation largely coming up empty.

A CoinDesk report from July of last year found that, despite the fact they are both considered safe havens, there is hardly any similarity inmarket movements.

Gold bars image via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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Bitcoin Is Now Worth Nearly 3 Times More Than an Ounce of Gold ... - CoinDesk

Online retailer Overstock.com is shifting its cryptocurrency investment strategy keepinghalf of the bitcoin it takes in as payment, the company's CEOhas said.

Overstock reported itssecond-quarter earnings last week, revealingthat its Medici blockchain business lost $3.3 million before taxes during that period. At the time, the company explained the loss as necessary as it continues to ramp up development around it t0 crypto-securities trading platform.

In an accompanying earnings call, CEO Patrick Byrne was asked about the recent price increases in bitcoin markets and whether Overstock which has traditionally kept 10 percent of its bitcoin earnings and converted the rest to dollars had "changed its strategy" in light of the developments.

According to Byrne, Overstock's board of directors approved a plan to keep 50 percent instead. Notably, he indicated that the firm may move to hold other "crypto-securities", but did not elaborate further on what that might constitute.

He said on the earnings call:

"I mean we can keep it either in Bitcoin or in some assortment of cryptosecurities. So you'll see a portfolio emerge there. We've had there -- had some good luck with some of our -- we've been storing some coins from counterparties for a couple of years and they've turned out -- they've grown up nicely. Anyway, we have some nice gains in the coin department."

In response to the question, Byrne said that the company did at one point see a bump-up in overall bitcoin spending.

"We have seen a material change, in part because of everything in the news it spiked and then it settled back down to about $50,000 per week," Byrne explained.

Image via Shuttesrtock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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OSTK to HODL: Overstock to Keep 50% of All Bitcoin Payments as Investments - CoinDesk

Dear John: I really think you missed the boat on bitcoin.

You assume bitcoin is just money, when in fact it has many other uses. Its here to stay, and will disrupt every industry, including governance.

Bitcoin ATMs are an easy on/off ramp, since due to regulations in the US its very hard to get bitcoin today. If you look at all the companies (including all banks) that are looking into utilizing this technology, I think you may want to rethink your view.

Santander Bank alone will save $20 billion in internal transfers. E.G.

Dear E.G.: You are referring to a column I wrote about bitcoin being used to launder money from illegal activities.

It just so happens that last week a US jury indicted a Russian man for operating a digital bitcoin exchange that he allegedly used to launder more than $4 billion for people involved in crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking. The guys name is Alexander Vinnik, and he was arrested in a small beach-side village in northern Greece. This is all according to a report by Reuters.

US officials alleged Vinnik and his firm received more than $4 billion in bitcoin and did substantial business in the US without allowing appropriate protocols to protect against money laundering and other crimes.

So that pretty much confirms what I wrote about the sudden growth of bitcoin ATMs throughout the city.

But lets also look at the illogical stance you are taking. You say that bitcoin is going to disrupt every industry, including governance.

If that were so if governments were going to be disrupted why would governments allow bitcoin and other digital currency to survive? They wouldnt.

Will there someday be a universal currency used by all countries? And will it be digital?

Probably. But thats not going to happen until bitcoin and the others control the illicit activities they are condoning, and until someone backs these currencies with something other than the full faith and credit of nothing.

In other words, eventually governments will band together to create and back a digital currency. And it probably wont be bitcoin.

Dear John: The only way to make going to the doctor affordable is to get rid of the insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.

When I first began working full-time in 1985, I went to a neighborhood doctor, God rest his soul.

For a $20 visit and another $20 for a prescription, he got me well. Follow-ups were free. He gave free samples. He even made house calls.

In a cash business, doctors would only be able to charge what the patients have in their wallets and pocketbooks. No greedy middle men. Prices would fall.

God bless and straight ahead. S.H.

Dear S.H.: I remember when I could get an ice cream cone for 25 cents and a decent dinner would cost $20.

But those days are gone.

And so is the Marcus Welby-era that you describe.

Now Id like to see some real letters on the health care problem.

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Illicit activity is hurting Bitcoin's future | New York Post - New York Post

On August 1st, 2017, Bitcoin network hard forked as of block 478559. This was discussed in detail in my previous articles on the make or break bitcoin event and latest developments. As expected the event went out smoothly forking out the parent blockchain into two, bitcoin(BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCC or BTH). Now let us discuss a few interesting points about the new kid in town, the Bitcoin Cash.

The Bitcoin blockchain had forked apart, yet only few exchanges are allowing Bitcoin Cash in a tradable format. If you were holding before August 1st, you are owning Bitcoin Cash as well. But the catch is the tradability depends on the exchange where you trade. For example Bitfinex allows trading but Coinbase or Poloniex are yet to support Bitcoin Cash. So the bottom line is the overall liquidity is really low which makes the new coin heavily volatile. In the last 4 days, we have seen a high of nearly $1000 to a low of $200.

On August 3rd Poloniex came up with the below update

We will be crediting users who had BTC in their account balance at the time of the fork with matching BCH. We expect this to occur on or before 8/14/17. Keep in mind that we have not yet determined if we will be listing BCH as a market on Poloniex nor can we commit to supporting BCH withdrawals right away. The ability to withdraw BCH will depend on network stability which is completely outside of our control.

On August 5th Coinbase has come up with below update:

In the case of bitcoin cash, we made clear to our customers that we did not feel we could safely support it on the day it was launched. For customers who wanted immediate access to their bitcoin cash, we advised them to withdraw their bitcoin from the Coinbase platform. However, there are several points we want to make clear for our customers:

1. Both bitcoin and bitcoin cash remain safely stored on Coinbase.

2. Customers with balances of bitcoin at the time of the fork now have an equal quantity of bitcoin cash stored by Coinbase.

3. We operate by the general principle that our customers should benefit to the greatest extent possible from hard forks or other unexpected events.

The reason why many of the exchanges are not supporting Bitcoin Cash is because of the fact that the newly forked blockchain hasnt yet adjusted its difficulty, which happens automatically every 2016 blocks. As of now, Bitcoin cash blockchain is taking too long time to mine blocks and confirm transactions. For example, one block took nearly 10 hours instead of the ideal 10 minutes. Most exchanges require 8 block confirmations before they credit a deposit, so you can see how its basically impossible to move around bitcoin cash.

But eventually all exchanges will list Bitcoin Cash which could create huge selling pressure as investors see Bitcoin Cash as just a bonus. This is because the Bitcoin price has not gone southward after the split, which is normally the case with stock splits.

At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin Cash is the 4th highest valued crypto coin as per market cap. But sustaining this could be really hard once all exchanges start trading Bitcoin Cash. We can relate this with ethereum fork. The forked out ethereum classic reached the lowest mark of $1 before it gained momentum.

Bitcoin Cash has to prove itself for making it place worthy in the crypto space. We cannot predict its future as of now. I would personally recommend to keep your Bitcoins (BTC) for the long term and decide on BCC according to your conscience. Happy investing!!

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Editor's Note: This article covers one or more stocks trading at less than $1 per share and/or with less than a $100 million market cap. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

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Bitcoin Cash - The All New Crypto Kid In Town - Seeking Alpha

"When we first got this place, I was the only girl who was here and I actually got involved with this place because I have amazing friends," said Toni Lane Casserly, a faculty member at Singularity University, a collaborative technology learning platform.

Lane-Casserly has seen a shift in her years in the space. When she first got there, people were telling her that Bitcoin was used for bad ends. Now people are asking her how they could get involved in the ecosystem.

Another roommate, Viviane Ford, had a similar experience.

"It's funny to see this slowly just gain more and more ground. We used to have a Bitcoin predictor on the window up there and we would guess by the end of the year it's going to hit a thousand or something." said Ford, vice president of Operations at Comma.ai.

"There was one moment where we had a big white board upstairs, a bunch of us were talking about different things and I think Bitcoin hit $2,000," she said, adding that "at that moment we popped a bottle of champagne and celebrated."

Whether Bitcoin or other crypto currencies are flying high or sliding backward, for the visitors and tenants of the Crypto Castle, it's about the game and not the score.

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There's a house full of cryptocurrency gurus in San Francisco, and it's like a modern-day commune - CNBC