Category Archives: Bitcoin

According to regional reports, Germanys largest bitcoin exchange Bitcoin.de has been giving customer data to investigators without a warrant.

Also read:Indian Government May Take Immediate Steps to Stop Bitcoin Use

The biggest bitcoin marketplace in Germany, Bitcoin.de, has been giving customer data to German police voluntarily. According to the countrys regionalMotherboard publication, investigators in the region have been dedicating energy towards taking down darknet markets. The report details it is easy for police to access user data from the Bitcoin.de exchange.

Data given to police includes bitcoin addresses, names, associated emails, locations, account summaries, IP addresses, and login history. One customer, Stephan Jansen from Southern Germany is not pleased with Bitcoin.des voluntary disclosure.

I am speechless, explains Jansen. I thought this is a serious company and that my data is safe there.

Bitcoin.de tells the publication that its legal reporting obligation is justified. According to the report, the company emphasized it has had a trustworthy cooperation with different authorities. The data collection follows a series of darknet market investigations in Germany and global law enforcement. A professor and data protection officer from Hamburg, Johannes Caspar, says Germanys Money Laundering Act (AMLA) says there is no legal obligation to give data to police. According to Caspar data collection like that can only be requested by the courts and the prosecutors office.

What do you think about Bitcoin.de giving away customer information voluntarily to police without a warrant? Do you think its a big deal? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, and the Bitcoin.de website.

Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. Thats why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics.

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Germany's Largest Bitcoin Exchange Hands Over Customer Data Voluntarily - Bitcoin News (press release)

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The world's most popular digital currency exchange, Coinbase, reversed course on Thursday and announced it would accept a new bitcoin offshoot that was issued to every bitcoin owner.

The reversal comes after days of tumult as angry Coinbase customers demanded to know why the company had not released their new currency, called Bitcoin Cash, to them. The exchange rate for the currency, which began trading on August 1, briefly reached $700 on Wednesday and is currently trading around $400 .

Coinbase announced the decision in a blog post, explaining it wanted to first ensure the company could safely support Bitcoin Cash before developing technology to support it. The exchange said it would start supporting Bitcoin cash begining on Jan. 1, 2018.

Over the last several days, weve examined all of the relevant issues and have decided to work on adding support for bitcoin cash for Coinbase customers. We made this decision based on factors such as the security of the network, customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations.

We are planning to have support for bitcoin cash by January 1, 2018, assuming no additional risks emerge during that time.

While the decision to support Bitcoin Cash may placate some Coinbase customers, others are likely to question why the company will take months to do so, even as other digital exchanges support the new currency.

It's also unclear how Coinbase's announcement will affect a campaign by a group of customers who had vowed to file a class action lawsuit if the company did not permit them to withdraw their Bitcoin Cash.

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In the days preceding the arrival of Bitcoin Coin cash, Coinbase made clear it did not intend to support the new currency and advised customers who objected to the policy to withdraw their bitcoins. This position, however, appeared to trigger a stampede of withdrawals, akin to a bank run, that led many customers to complain about long delays in getting access to their funds.

Meanwhile, reports suggest a large percentage of Coinbase's customer base elected to leave prior to August 1, which is when a so-called fork in bitcoin's underlying software took place that gave rise to Bitcoin Cash. A graph published by analytics company BlockSeer suggests customers withdrew over half of the $1 worth billion bitcoins stored in Coinbase's "vault" storage service:

It's unclear how many of the departing Coinbase customers elected to cash out their bitcoins into dollars or instead to transfer it to other digital wallet services where they would be eligible to receive the Bitcoin Cash immediately. One such company, London-based Blockchain, suggested most customers chose the latter course.

"It's been a record week for Blockchain," said a spokesperson for the company.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly suggested customers had withdrawn half of 1 billion bitcoins, not $1 billion worth of bitcoin.

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Coinbase to Let Users Withdraw Bitcoin Cash After Outcry - Fortune

Menant said Gatecoin would start supporting trade with "bitcoin cash". This is in contrast to Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin exchange, which decided not to support the new cryptocurrency.

In a Tweet on Tuesday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, said we "don't want to rush anything out," highlighting the uncertainty over "bitcoin cash's" future.

But the continuing debate over the underlying bitcoin technology continues. The fight was over how much to increase the block size of the blockchain.

To understand this, it's important to outline how transactions work. Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin.

Increasing the block size would boost transaction speeds. Some people wanted a solution that would dramatically increase the block size from its current 1 megabyte level. But the majority of the community have decided to increase the block size to 2 megabytes.

A full recap of what has happened can be found here. This 2MB increase is likely to come into effect in November, providing miners stick to their word and make the necessary software updates.

If this doesn't happen, then "bitcoin cash" could get a boost.

"If most miners decide that for economic reasons they prefer to mine larger blocks and commit more hashing power to Bcash, then it's likely more development work and user adoption would follow, and those conducting business with bitcoin may decide to adopt Bcash instead," Menant said.

"Yet for this to happen Bcash would need to prove that its technology can match the security features and reliability of bitcoin's software," he added, striking a note of caution.

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'Bitcoin cash' potential limited, but a catalyst could be looming for it to take off - CNBC

Hackers have cashed out on more than $143,000 worth of bitcoin relating to ransoms paid from the massive WannaCry cyber-attack earlier this year.

Bitcoin payments made by victims of the WannaCry ransomware attack which totaled 52.2 BTC (around $143,000) were withdrawn from online wallets overnight.

This was confirmed by Elliptic, a London-based start-up that helps law enforcement authorities track down criminals using the cryptocurrency.

The last withdrawal of the virtual cash was made at 3:25 am on Thursday, according to Elliptic.

Tom Robinson, Elliptic's co-founder, noted that the company believes the bitcoins being withdrawn are being converted into a separate cryptocurrency.

"We're following the movement of funds being sent out of the WannaCry wallets," Robinson told CNBC via email.

"We believe some of these funds are being converted into Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency. We continue to work with law enforcement to support their efforts in tracing ownership of these funds."

The balance of all of the wallets associated with the ransomware attack is now zero.

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Hackers have cashed out on $143000 of bitcoin from the massive WannaCry ransomware attack - CNBC

The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the agreement Tuesday.

"We very much look forward to responding to the growing interest in cryptocurrencies through the creation of bitcoin futures traded on a regulated derivatives exchange," CBOE Holdings Chairman and CEO Ed Tilly said in a release.

CBOE Holdings' other subsidiaries include the Bats exchanges.

In late April, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it would review its rejection of the Winklevoss brothers' application to list a bitcoin exchange-traded fund on the Bats BZX exchange.

The SEC declined to comment.

"By working with the team at CBOE, we are helping to make bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies increasingly accessible to both retail and institutional investors," Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss said in a press release.

On July 24, the CFTC announced it approved digital currency-trading platform LedgerX for clearing derivatives, which would mark the first federally supervised options venue for bitcoin.

LedgerX said at the time it plans to launch bitcoin options in early fall for institutional investors, although those firms could, in turn, offer retail investor products.

Bitcoin has more than doubled in value this year, while rival digital currency Ethereum has gained more than 2,000 percent. The value of all digital currencies has jumped from around $20 billion at the beginning of this year to more than $100 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

"We believe derivatives are the logical next step in the evolution of the bitcoin market," Gemini co-founder and president Cameron Winklevoss told CNBC in a phone interview. "In order for bitcoin to continue to grow, you need to incorporate it into the existing market system."

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CBOE plans to launch bitcoin futures, announces agreement with Winklevoss brothers' digital currency exchange - CNBC

BBC News

Bitcoin splits as new currency takes off BBC News A new version of Bitcoin has been mined for the first time in the crypto-currency's history. Bitcoin Cash is the result of months of debate and development over how the currency would continue to evolve. Fears of large swings in the value of Bitcoin ... New digital currency 'bitcoin cash' rallies nearly 200% following blockchain splitCNBC Bitcoin tumbles as 'split' takes effect; Ether reboundsMarketWatch Bitcoin splits into two as transaction volumes increaseFinancial Times Phys.Org -Novinite.com all 13 news articles »

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Bitcoin splits as new currency takes off - BBC News

After ongoing debates over how to scale the digital currency called bitcoin, some people have decided to make an entirely new currency called Bitcoin Cash.

It's a bit complicated for those who aren't in the bitcoin weeds. Essentially, political, technological, and ideological debates about growing bitcoin have come to a head. And some say that an entirely new currency called Bitcoin Cash could help scale bitcoin and bring it to the masses.

"The course of the summer has been a battle between competing visions," said Zaki Manain, an independent cryptocurrency expert. This week the competition is playing out.

In order for bitcoin to become a simple global payment system for anyone to use, it needs to get over its growing pains. For some, the solution to that is to make a whole new currency using similar software.

So what does that mean?

Let's start with why scaling bitcoin is tough.

Bitcoin is built on something called a blockchain. The bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger containing all the transaction data from anyone who uses bitcoin. Transactions are added to "blocks" or the links of code that make up the chain, and each transaction must be recorded on a block. But these blocks are full, and it is slowing transactions way down.

Currently, there are an average of about 1,700 transactions that can be saved per bitcoin block, at about three transactions per second, Manain said. That's not very much. (Visa, for example, handles thousands of transactions every second.)

Because the bitcoin blockchain is becoming too congested, someone could pay for something with bitcoin, but it wouldn't be approved for hours.

Related: What is bitcoin?

The bitcoin community tried to solve this problem by implementing a rule change to its software. Called "Segregated Witness," the rule change would let people put more transactions on each block. This, in technical terms, is called a "soft fork," and would not result in an entirely new cryptocurrency. The new rule is supposed be enacted this month.

For some, this was not enough. That's where Bitcoin Cash comes in.

Bitcoin Cash

The creation of Bitcoin Cash is what is called a "hard fork." The creators are releasing a completely new software that allows for eight times the number of transactions per block. This means Bitcoin Cash could process transactions faster.

Bitcoin Cash is not worth the same as bitcoin. As of this writing, a unit of Bitcoin Cash is valued around $240, but one Bitcoin is worth more than $2,700.

Like bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash relies on the community. It will only be successful if people decide en masse to create the blocks for the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. The first block was created Tuesday afternoon EST.

What it means for consumers and businesses

Anyone who owns bitcoin will also own the same number of Bitcoin Cash units. However, not all bitcoin exchanges (where people store their bitcoin) will accept Bitcoin Cash, and that could potentially hinder the widespread adoption of the new digital currency.

And in order for Bitcoin Cash to be used for mainstream transactions like buying coffee, businesses will have to accept it, regardless of whether they already accept bitcoin or not.

"This will be informative for how we deal with these systems in the future," Manain said. "Without a doubt this is going to be a blueprint, and we are going to learn a lot from this process."

CNNMoney (San Francisco) First published August 1, 2017: 2:09 PM ET

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Bitcoin split in two, here's what that means - CNNMoney

Prior to the bitcoin cash hard fork, research firm Nchain conducted a workshop with the Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) team. The intent of the meeting was to signal joint support for new bitcoin scaling initiatives. The two groups explored ways to achieve greater bitcoin scaling in order to grow overall network capacity. They met in Vancouver, Canada on July 26.

Also read: Fork Watch: First Bitcoin Cash Block Mined Included Over 6k Transactions

According to an Nchain press release, the meeting focused on ways Nchain can help enhance the Bitcoin Unlimited protocol. Nchain is supposed to make the software into a certified, next generation version. The software will be rigorously tested for quality assurance. They will eventually release a version intended for mass consumer and small business usage.Stefan Matthews, Chief Executive Officer of the nChain Group, elaborated:

Nchain has confidence in Bitcoin Unlimited and BUs code. With improvements we can provide using nChains expertise, we are also confident that our certified version of Bitcoin Unlimiteds client software will address the needs of enterprise users, especially miners. nChain intends to make this certified version available for usage without charge, as part of our contributions to help achieve a faster, more powerful bitcoin network and exponentially higher bitcoin value for everyones benefit.

With the happening of the recent Nchain and BU workshop, there have been whispers either BU or Nchain has had a connection with bitcoin cash. Dr. Craig Wright of Nchain has already come out and falsified those claims. He also praised bitcoin cash. He said,

I recognize why I am a polarizing figure in bitcoin and understand why so much is written about me on the Internet and social media, even though most online posts are incorrect. The incorrect comments include anything suggesting that I am behind the Bitcoin Cash initiative; I am not. However, I applaud the efforts of whoever is behind Bitcoin Cash to achieve a truly decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash with higher, more efficient transaction capacity.

Both teams, however, have a problem with Segwit2x. Nchain supports the 2mb fork increase. However, Nchain claims it is not enough. In staying true to Satoshi Nakamotos original vision, Nchain wants to see larger scaling initiatives for the Segwit fork of bitcoin. Nchain said they will remain open for communication and new research development to help bootstrap bitcoin with more network capacity.

What do you think about this meeting? Will Nchain and BU succeed at scaling bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, prnewswire.com, and bitcoinunlimited.info

Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. Thats why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics

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Nchain and Bitcoin Unlimited Promote Bitcoin Scaling Initiatives Amid Hard Fork - Bitcoin News (press release)

Bitcoin has just undergone a contentious hard fork that cleaved it into two separate entities for the first time in the cryptocurrencys nearly nine-year history. In addition to the first version of bitcoin, there is now a new cryptocurrency called bitcoin cash that offers an eight-fold increase in transaction capacity.

For the last several years, the bitcoin infrastructure has been struggling to handle a growing number of transactions, and technical experts have said a new implementation of the currency will solve its back-logging issues.

That is what bitcoin cash promises. Like the original bitcoin, it uses the currencys principal innovation: the blockchain, an immutable ledger of all the transactions ever performed with the cryptocurrency. Now that there are two versions of the ledger, however, there could be some practical problems, like vanishing coins, and philosophical ones, like a communal agreement on which blockchain represents the one, true, bitcoin.

The first bitcoin cash block on its own blockchain was successfully created at exactly 2:12 p.m. ET, and the new currency is already trading at $210 USD per coin.

Read next: Bitcoins civil war threatens to blow up the cryptocurrency itself

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Bitcoin has split, and there are now two versions of the popular cryptocurrency - Quartz

Last week, I wrote about the different methods used to calculate and express daily price changes in stocks and cryptocurrencies.

The big takeaway? Since cryptocurrencies trade in a 24/7 fashion, there is no closing price to quote. Instead, daily price changes are calculated by comparing the current price of the asset to the price of the same asset 24 hours earlier, and calculating the percent change between the two numbers.

Using this trailing 24-hour percent change calculation, however, can produce some very strange results.

As I wrote last week:

"What's the practical effect of this rolling denominator? In the simplest terms, it means that if you're just looking at the percentage change over the last 24 hours, you can't tell whether you're seeing real-time price movement in the cryptocurrency or just residual price volatility from the day before."

Today, I want to show you two examples of just how wildly distorting that rolling calculation can seem, using two hypothetical charts depicting bitcoin prices over a 48-hour timeframe.

In our first example, we have a chart that shows the price of bitcoin rising about 3percent in Day 1, as depicted by the yellow bar.

On Day 2, bitcoin essentially goes sideways for 24hours.

Now, take a look at what happens to the 24-hour price change during Day 2, as shown by the dark brown bar.

When Day 2 begins, the 24-hour change displays an increase of just over 3percent. As the day progresses, however, the 24-hour change begins to "roll off" until this figure hits zero on at 11:59pm.

Of course, all the 24-hour price change depicted by the brown bar during Day 2 happened when there was very little change in the value of bitcoin: the movement in 24-hour price change came entirely from "legacy" price volatility from the prior day.

The example shown in the second chart is even more unusual.

On Day 1, the price of bitcoin is very volatile.

Between 3 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., the price of bitcoin spikes up about 18percent on a straight price basis then bounces down a bit, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., and finally crashes over 20 percent between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

On Day 2, bitcoin trades basically sideways all day.

As the price stays flat, however, the 24-hour price change bounces all over the map. First, the 24-hour price change crashes more than 15 percent, then it spikes up over 8 percent, crashes down around 15 percent again, and ultimately "rolls off" at zero at day's end showing absolutely no change over the course of the 24-hour period.

For investors especially retail investors new to the cryptocurrency space it's easy to see how the 24-hour percent change convention could be confusing.

If you're new to trading, you may want to check your charts twice.

Trading chartimage via Shutterstock. CoinDesk charts and data via Alex Sunnarborg

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. Interested in offering your expertise or insights to our reporting? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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The Problem with Bitcoin Price Charts (Explained in Two Charts) - CoinDesk