Category Archives: Bitcoin

If youve been listening to the bitcoin community, youd know in about two weeks the bitcoin network may face some protocol changes. Due to the possible user-activated soft fork (UASF) planned and the chance some groups may counter this plan, this has created thousands of discussions concerning August 1. Now the bitcoin-focused web portal Bitcoin.org has issued a warning on the site that informs users of a potential network disruption.

Also read:Mining, Merchants, and TradersThailands Got the Bitcoin Fever

Bitcoin users everywhere are getting prepared and heavily discussing the possibility of a blockchain split. The subject was discussed a lotthis past March when bitcoin proponents and cryptocurrency businesses feared a potential split when the Bitcoin Unlimited implementation was seeing strong support. Now the conversation has resurfaced, but the topic of UASF or BIP148 is an entirely different scenario.

UASF (BIP148) is a mechanism designed to start on August 1st, at 00:00 UTC that activates a soft fork enforced by full nodes. After this point, full nodes participating in this plan will reject blocks that have not upgraded to BIP141 otherwise known as Segregated Witness (Segwit). At press time there are 1095 total UASF nodes out of 7896 reachable bitcoin nodes globally according to Bitnodes. UASF requires a lot of industry support and miners to activate Segwit, by this point if they do not support the activation the chain could diverge into two.

Currently, there are businesses that have announced initial support for BIP148 such as Abra, Trezor, Samourai Wallet, Electrum, Coinomi, Mycelium and roughly 37 other organizations. However, there are many wallets and a vast majority of exchanges that have not announced any support or issued warnings about the upcoming August 1st Segwit enforcement. This includes a significant amount of wallet providers and exchanges including Bitstamp, Kraken, Bitfinex, Gemini, BTCC, Poloniex, and many more. One relatively small exchange in Switzerland called Bity has warned its customers the platform will be halting trading on August 1st.

On Wednesday, July 12, 2017, 08:00:00 GMT Bitcoin.org issued a warning in regards to the potential network disruption that may take place on July 31, 20:00:00 GMT/August 1st, 00:00 UTC.

Bitcoin confirmation scores may become unreliable for an unknown length of time, explains the network disruption warning. This means that any bitcoins you receive after that time may later disappear from your wallet or be a type of bitcoin that other people will not accept as payment.

Once the situation is resolved, confirmation scores will either automatically return to their normal reliability, or there will be two (or more) competing versions of Bitcoin. In the former case, you may return to using Bitcoin normally; in the later case, you will need to take extra steps in order to begin safely receiving bitcoins again.

The warning gives users some preparation guidelines and possible outcomes for during and after the UASF event. This includes not trusting payments during this time, and not sending payments until after the dust has settled. Even the maintainer of the website Bitcoinuptime.com says that there may be potential bitcoin downtime from the upcoming BIP148 fork and the networks 99.991523267% uptime will have to be updated. Further, there was an issue concerning the Bitcoin.org alert over the wording Bitcoin may be unsafe to use starting July 31st in contrast to saying potential network disruption. The developer who made the change writes;

Note: I object to this change, which I think makes the alert less clear, less forceful, and degrades alert usability. I make this change only because the Bitcoin.org site maintainer insists upon it.

Following Bitcoin.orgs disruption alert one large bitcoin exchange has come forward issuing a warning and how the company will handle the August 1 situation. The cryptocurrency trading platform GDAX, a subset of Coinbase announced there will be a temporary suspension of deposits, withdrawals, and possibly trading on August 1. GDAX executive Adam White says, the activation of UASF may create two blockchains, and outlines how the company plans on handling the possible fork. If August 1 results in two chains, GDAX states;

In either scenario, we will implement safeguards to ensure the safety of our customers funds. For example, we will temporarily suspend the deposit and withdrawal of bitcoin on GDAX and may pause the trading of bitcoin as well. This decision will be based on our assessment of the technical risks posed by the fork, such as replay attacks and other factors that could create network instability.

Another possible scenario to think about is the Bitcoin ABC (Adjustable Blocksize Cap) implementation that was revealed by the software engineer, Amaury Schet at The Future of Bitcoin event in Arnhem. The project has released its latest client Bitcoin ABC 0.14.2and says its a full node implementation of Bitcoin that removes Segwit code and replaces it with an adjustable block size cap. During the initial announcement, Schet detailed that Bitcoin ABC is part of the user-activated hard fork contingency plan against BIP148.

In essence, the ABC protocol prepares for any disruptive risks associated with UASF activation and could also activate during the August 1st Flag Day as well. Besides being a contingency plan, the UAHF protocol will move the block size cap towards the activation of emergent consensus where users can decide block size themselves. Bitcoin ABC could counter the BIP148 soft fork which could cause network disruption, and a possible blockchain split as well.

Alongside these two alternative plans, the Segwit2x working group has also been steadily preparing the compromise idea announced called the New York Agreement. The group released beta code and have been experimenting with the Segwit protocol and a 2MB hard fork on a Bitcoin testnet. So far there has been a lot of bickering about Segwit2x between the projects lead developer Jeff Garzik, Bitcoin core developers, and the Blockstream CEO Adam Back. Many core supporters refuse to compromise on Segwit2x calling it Franken-segwit and a great majority of core developers have rejected supporting the idea. However, some core maintainers have been making comments on Segwit2xs Github and the working groups Slack channel. There is still uncertainty concerning the New York Agreement plan, but the working group is still moving along as August 1st gets closer.

As far as August 1st is concerned users should make sure they hold their private keys. There is a possibility of network disruption and Bitcoin.com will inform our readers of everything people need to know, including exchange updates, trading, withdrawal and deposit suspensions, and any other important information that arises in regards to this specific date.

What do you think about August 1st? Do you think there will be any potential network disruption or do you think nothing will happen at all? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, Saltylemon.org, Bitcoin.org, and Bitcoin ABC.

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August 1 and the Potential Disruption of the Bitcoin Network - Bitcoin News (press release)

The most recent candidate was Craig Wright, a former Australian academic, who claimed to be the bitcoin inventor. Wright wrote blog posts and gave interviews to Wired, BBC and the Economist in 2015 and 2016 saying he was behind bitcoin.

After failing to provide unquestionable proof, Wright posted an apology message that said: "I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me. But, as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot."

There are asmany as 5.8 million users that have cryptocurrency wallets, according to research from the University of Cambridge, the majority of whom use bitcoin.

Bitcoin is has a range of uses, including funding companies, investing cash and transferring money without fees. It is commonly associated with criminal activity such as drug dealing, cyber crime and money laundering, since it can be near-impossible to tie a bitcoin wallet to any one individual.

Bitcoin can be spent online and at select retailers in the UK. They include CEX stores, Dell's website, Your Sushi restaurants, and some pubs. A full list of online and offline businesses that accept bitcoin is available here.They can also be withdrawn at a couple of dozen bitcoinATMs, which can be found here.

Others simply hold their bitcoins, hoping they will accumulate in value and prove to be a lucrative investment. Itsprice is notoriously volatile, and early investors are now sitting on massive gains.

The price of a bitcoin has jumped up and down since it first entered the mainstream consciousness in 2013. That year prices rose by almost 10,000 per cent before the collapse of Mt Gox, the biggest online bitcoin exchange, sent it crashing.

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What is Bitcoin? Everything you need to know - Telegraph.co.uk

Bitcoin may be the reigning prima donna of the crypto market, but at least one big Wall Street bank is not impressed.

A team of Morgan Stanley analysts led by James Faucette on Wednesday held up bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.19% as a poster child for speculation while downplaying its potential as a legitimate currency.

In a scathing report, the analysts noted that the number of online merchants accepting bitcoin has dropped to just three, from five a year earlier. During the same period, the value of the cryptocurrency has soared more than 250%.

The disparity between virtually no merchant acceptance and bitcoins rapid appreciation is striking, Faucette wrote.

He blamed the lack of bitcoins appeal for retailers on hoarding by investors given its rapid appreciation, as well as higher costs and slow transaction times.

But ironically, the main culprit may be its own skyrocketing worth.

The ecosystem has focused more on value speculation rather than the foot-leather-eating work of increasing acceptance way easier to trade speculatively than convince new merchants to accept the cryptocurrency, said Faucette.

Read: How big is bitcoin, really? This chart puts it all in perspective

In June, Morgan Stanley had warned that for digital currencies to join the ranks of other traditional investment tools, they must accept government oversight, although it did not articulate what that would entail.

Meanwhile, until those regulations are introduced, the debate over whether bitcoin is just another form of Monopoly money or a bona fide currency is likely to continue without a definitive conclusion.

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Morgan Stanley thinks bitcoin is nothing more than a poster child for ... - MarketWatch

A private bank in Switzerland is offering its clients services to help them better manage their bitcoin holdings.

Falcon Group announced todaythat it is launching the product, oneaimed specifically at allowing customers to buy and hold bitcoin with their traditional accounts. The services are being offered in partnership with Bitcoin Suisse AG, a bitcoin brokerage founded in 2013.

Arthur Vayloyan, global head of products and services for Falcon, said in a statement:

"We are proud to be the first-mover in the Swiss private banking area to provide blockchain asset management for our clients. Falcon is convinced that the time is right to enter this nascent market and it is our firm belief that this new product will fulfillour clients' future needs."

As part of the announcement,Falcon also revealed it has installed a bitcoin ATM in the lobby of its Zurich headquarters that will be open for public use. The integration reportedly came about following discussion with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

While it's rare for a bank to openly embrace cryptocurrency, Switzerland has emerged asactive in supporting blockchain-related initiatives in both the public and private sectors. Just yesterday, for example, the Swiss Federal Council revealed the regulator is "swiftly" moving toward a legal designation of digital currencies.

In addition, the city of Zug, which has openly expressed its intent to help move forward the adoption of blockchain technology, and which is backing an industry consortium called theCrypto Valley Association, recently revealed it intends to launch a digitalidentityservice that utilizes the tech this fall.

Bitcoin imagevia 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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Swiss Bank Launches Bitcoin Asset Management Service - CoinDesk

The great digital currency bull run of 2017 came to a screeching halt in early June. Shortly after hitting all-time highsbitcoin broke $3,000 and Ethereum nudged $400the party ended, and cryptocurrencies of all stripes plunged.

Now, almost two weeks into July, the picture is even less pretty as most types of digital money are firmly in bear territory.

How bad is it? Alex Sunnarborg, a researcher at Coindesk, tweeted a helpful chart that shows the respective declines for bitcoin and other currencies since the start of the month.

As you can see, bitcoin did not fare as badly as some of its smaller rivals. The original digital currency is down around 6.5% while Ether, the cryptocurrency associated with the decentralized computing network Ethereum, is down 29%. Ripple dropped a brutal 39%.

The average overall decline is approximately 22.7 %, though it's important to note some of these currencies are relative minnows. The market cap of bitcoin, the sector's undisputed heavyweight, is currently around $40 billion while that of Dash is $1.3 billion.

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All of this raises the question of what is driving the decline and whether the prices have bottomed out. Unlike earlier price jolts in the famously volatile digital currency market, there has been no obvious external shocka major hacking incident or a regulatory crackdownto explain the current decline.

As such, the dismal July may simply represent the deflating of a bubble inflated by lots of Johnny-come-lately speculators who rushed into the market in May and June. Now, some are suggesting that, in the case of Ethereum, the market has already hit bottom.

And indeed, in the past few days, the price of Ethereum has started nudging upward again, suggesting the prediction is right. On Wednesday, the currency had risen to around $220 from Tuesday's low of $192.

On the other hand, when it comes to bitcoin and Ethereum, it feels like anything canand doeshappen. (Did you see the guy photo-bomb Janet Yellon's remarks on Wednesday with a "buy bitcoin" sign?)

If you're a skeptic, you can take account of remarks this week by the chairman of BlackRock who called price charts related to blockchain-based companies "scary" and said bitcoin and Ethereum are in a bubble. Conversely, you can look to recent good news such as the IRS's decision to scale back Coinbase audits, and the lofty price targets set by Goldman Sachs , to think the crypto party is set to start all over again.

The only safe bet at this point is that cryptocurrency will continue to be a wild ride for investors for the foreseeable future.

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Cryptocurrencies Down 23% for July. Is This the Bottom? - Fortune

Starting next week, Bitcoin will be on the approved list of technologies that can move payments across the South Korean border. Fintech companies in the country will be able to obtain a permit allowing them to legally offer Bitcoin international transfer services.

Also read:South Korea Sets Up Task Force to Determine if Bitcoin Needs Regulations

Starting on July 18, the amended South Korean Foreign Exchange Transactions Act will enable fintech companies to register with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) to legally provide international money transfer services for small funds, The Herald reported an FSS official saying on Wednesday.

Once registered, companies can use various methods to send money abroad, including using Bitcoin. The amended law specifically permits digital currency remittances, which were illegal under the Foreign Exchange Transactions law, wrote online newspaper Dailian.

To obtain a permit, a fintech firm must have a paid-in capital of more than 2 billion won(approx. 1.75 mUSD at the time of writing) and a debt-to-equity ratio of below 200 percent, The Herald explained, adding that:

A one-off transfer via a fintech firm will be limited to $3,000 or less. By an account, an annual limit for international money transfers via fintech firms will be set at $20,000.

The amended law will allow new entrants to compete with traditional banks, offering money transfer services at a fraction of the incumbents fees, with a shorter transfer time.

For an overseas remittance of 1 million won, a typical bank commission is between 50,000 won and 60,000 won, Dailian detailed, adding that fintech companies are expected to charge between 3,000 to 40,000 won. It also takes banks two or three days to complete a transfer, the publication wrote.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin remittance service provider Coinone only charges a 1% commission fee and deposits are made within 3 minutes after requesting money transfer, its website shows.

Responding to new fintech competitors, Keb Hana Bank has limited some of its transfer fees to around 10,000 won, and Shinhan Bank is considering the introduction of a Bitcoin-based overseas remittance system, The Herald reported.Kang Mi-jung, a senior researcher at Hana Institute of Finance, commented:

Domestic banks need to find ways to provide remittance services for simple and inexpensive fees, and to establish new profit models through partnerships with fintech.

The worldwide money transfer industry is expected to grow to approximately $600 billion this year, according to research by Infosys.About 40 fintech firms are slated to launch international money transfer services starting on August 15, the news outlet reported FSS officials saying, adding that the move is expected to intensify competition in the 10 trillion won ($8.7 billion) international money transfer market.

Do you think Bitcoin remittances will overtake traditional bank transfers? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Business Korea

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South Korea Legalizes Bitcoin International Transfers, Challenging ... - Bitcoin News (press release)

BlackRock , the $5 trillion asset manager, has not traditionally paid much attention to cryptocurrency platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Now that the prices of those blockchain-based currencies have risen exponentially in recent months, however, even BlackRock's top economists are watching closelyand with some concern.

Asked by Fortune to address cryptocurrency at a press briefing Tuesday, Richard Turnill, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, waded into what he called "dangerous territory."

"I look at blockchain, I look at the charts , and to me that looks pretty scary, and reminiscent of what weve seen before," he said, referring to the characteristics of previous market bubbles, such as the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

It's that kind of nervousness that has helped deflate some of the recent crypto enthusiasm, which this year alone propelled the Bitcoin price up more than 200% to an all-time high of $3,000 in June, and Ethereum up more than 5,100% to a peak above $400. Just days after setting those records, though, Bitcoin and Ethereum crashed as much as 25% in a single day, and have so far been unable to recover.

The Ethereum price is currently under $190, down more than 50% from its high less than a month ago. Bitcoin now trades at about $2,280, 24% below its peak. (But even with the selloff, the cryptocurrencies have still delivered spectacular returns in 2017 to date: the Bitcoin price has more than doubled since the start of the year, while Ethereum is worth more than 23 times its value at the end of 2016.)

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is far from the first to express alarm over the rapid appreciation in the value of cryptocurrencies, which are estimated to exceed a combined $100 billiongreater than the stock market value of Goldman Sachs ( gs ) . In early June, Mark Cuban tweeted about cryptocurrency, "I think it's in a bubble," prompting the price of Bitcoin to swoon 5% . Two weeks ago, billionaire investor Michael Novogratz, who has 10% of his wealth invested in Bitcoin and Ethereum, said he'd been selling many of his coins , suspecting that the digital currencies had already peaked for the year. Cryptocurrency, Novogratz further predicted, "is going to be the single greatest bubble of our lifetime."

Last week, Goldman Sachs itself weighed in, warning that Bitcoin could fall another 19% from its current levels, to as low as $1,857.

Still, if cryptocurrency really is in a bubble, it poses less of a danger to the rest of the market if it pops than other bubblesfrom housing to tech stockshave historically when they burst. After all, unlike stocks and bonds, which are intricately entwined with big banks and the world financial system, Bitcoin and Ethereum exist in almost a parallel universe to conventional assets, with only tenuous links to traditional Wall Street.

"If the price went to zero tomorrow," Turnill noted, there likely would be no "broader financial impact at all" on any other assets. "But its an example of where youre getting big price movements in the market," he said.

Indeed, that's why BlackRock is keeping tabs on cryptocurrency in the first place: Not as a prospective investment at this time, but as a potential indicator of sentiment and investor behavior in other asset classeswhether gold, standard paper currency, bonds, or technology stocks.

Bitcoin "can be a signal of the macro environment," Jeffrey Rosenberg, BlackRocks chief fixed income strategist, added at the briefing. "So we do take a look at it."

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BlackRock's Top Economist Thinks Bitcoin and Ethereum Look Like a Bubble - Fortune

These miners are unhappy with SegWit and have suggested an alternative code change known as Bitcoin Unlimited. This would increase the block size significantly, but would also make their version of the bitcoin protocol incompatible with the original version.

As a result, a "hard fork" would take place, splitting the bitcoin blockchain in two, and even resulting in two separate coins. Investors would theoretically then hold some of the original bitcoin tokens, as well as the new Bitcoin Unlimited.

Each proposal requires large support from the participants in the bitcoin's ecosystem, but there is strong disagreement.

BTCC is a massive bitcoin exchange in China which signaled support for the SegWit proposal. Its CEO Bobby Lee told CNBC that he is "confident" a solution will be found, but the uncertainty could be a reason why the bitcoin price has paused for breath.

"Not everyone is on the same page, there are people worried, some may be selling bitcoin," Lee told CNBC by phone on Wednesday.

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Bitcoin falls to near one-month low amid bubble concern, scaling ... - CNBC

Controversial bitcoin scaling proposal Segwit2x's testnet forked yesterday, creating two different and incompatible testnets.

Nodes running older bitcoinsoftware continued on as they normally would. But nodes running the new Segwit2x code stalled atblock 27070, meaning mining pools running the newsoftware were not mining blocks.

Overall, the nodes were stalled for over 20 hours as a result of the issue.

While there wasn't any real money on the line, the community was abuzz withthe news, some dismissing the controversial scaling proposal for perceived lingering issues, while others defended the misstep as only a small stumbling block that wouldn't happen during alive deployment.

Some developers argue the fork is a symptom of a larger trend of Segwit2x developers not listening to other developers who have worked with the bitcoin code for a long time. Bitcoin Core developers, for example, haveprovided feedback,pointing outperceived errors, but some of that has been ignored.

On social media, some argued the testnet fork stemmed from the implementation of the 2MB hard fork developers discussed and disagreed upona couple of weeks ago.

The 2MB hard fork is the second part of the Segwit2x proposal, an effort todouble the block size parameter, which will happen three months after the Segregated Witness (SegWit) activation.

This second part is important in that if not everyonein the bitcoin ecosystem upgrades to the 2MB increase (and many say they don't plan to), bitcoin could split into two assets. If that split is not made permanent, one chain could "wipeout" transactions that occur on the other chain, potentially leading users to lose money.

On the project's GitHub, developers had different ideas of how to solve that.

Segwit2x went forward with software that requires at least the first block is greater than 1MB. Somecontend this is what lead to the testnet fork, since there weren't enough transactions in the mempool, the part of the network where transactions are collected before being selected for blocks.

Bitcoin developer James Hilliard had proposed what he calls a "simpler and better" way of implementing so-called "wipeout protection," where nodes insert a piece of data making their blocks invalid to the other network.

Still, given that it's slated to be deployed in two weeks, for many, the bottom line is that it's too late for the codeto have serious issues.

Working group members are expected to install and test the code this Friday. Then, mining pools, companies and users are expected to begin running the code on the main bitcoin network as soon as July 21.

ButBloq co-founder and BTC1 developer Jeff Garzik argued the fork is not an event to worry about. One of the testnet miners simply triggered an event sooner than plannedand without preparation from the working group participants, he said.

According to Garzik, this split wouldn't happen once Segwit2x is deployed on the main bitcoin network.

He told CoinDesk:

"It falls into the category of 'jokers can disrupt test networks, because test networks have very little mining power security.'"

BTC.com's Boaz Bechar, who's also working on the Segwit2x implementation, offered a similar explanation.

While the testnet isn't expected to have many transactions flowing through it, the main bitcoin network will.

"Although unexpected timing, this is otherwise a good field test," Garzik wrote on the Segwit2x working groupmailing list. "This is the whole reason for a test network, after all."

Disclosure:CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which helped organize the Segwit2x agreement.

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Immature Code or Good Test? Bitcoin Scaling Proposal Segwit2x's Testnet Forks - CoinDesk

He explained as people have yet to discover the true value of an asset like bitcoin, they tend to trade them at a certain, discounted level before the market realizes it could be worth more and then the price jumps.

Cryptocurrencies are partly becoming more popular because countries and companies are taking a closer look at the technology that underpins them: blockchain. Japan, for example, approved bitcoin as a legal payment method in April.

"We're now sort of at ... a tipping point, where people are now considering bitcoin or ethereum or digital assets as more mainstream," Dave Chapman, managing director of Hong Kong-based commodities and digital assets trading house Octagon Strategy, told CNBC. "A lot of the people that we service are actually very comfortable with having 1 percent of their net worth into bitcoin or ethereum."

To them, it's "just a natural extension of all their diversification of their portfolio" that includes other asset classes such as properties, precious metals or index funds.

Chapman added that while volatility may be off-putting, the returns on digital asset classes remain extremely attractive to investors. He said, "There's no other asset class in the world that could've given you the historic performance of this sector ... the historic performance, which is obviously not representative of future earnings, ... does appeal to a lot of people."

For context: $100 of bitcoin bought in 2010 is worth more than $75 million in 2017.

Analysts have made varied predictions about where prices and market capitalization for digital assets are headed. BTCC's Lee told CNBC he expected the market cap for bitcoin to hit at least $1 trillion, if not more, by 2025.

"I think it's going to go to at least $1 trillion, if not maybe $10 trillion in the next five to ten years," he said.

Data from industry website CoinDesk showed the current market cap for bitcoin is about $38.55 billion on a supply of about 16 million in circulation. The total supply of bitcoins is limited to 21 million. "In a grand of scheme of things it's nothing. Many, many companies are worth way more than that," Lee said. Tech companies like Alibaba and Apple have their market cap at hundreds of billions of dollars.

Regulation may help lend more credibility to this market as an asset class: major governments including those in Japan, Russia and China are looking at introducing new rules.

In the end, Chapman said that while many investors may not yet be fully convinced about the potential of digital currencies, they will still invest into them because of the fear of missing out.

"We get a lot of people who are like 'You know what? I still don't believe in this experiment I'm not really a believer, but I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines and missing out.'"

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The case for investors sticking out the volatility in bitcoin and ethereum - CNBC