Category Archives: Bitcoin

Bitcoin Magazine

BitKan Meetup Highlights OTC Trading in China Bitcoin Magazine Around 130 people, including over-the-counter (OTC) traders, mining factory owners, exchanges, bitcoin application firms and other related Chinese companies, attended this event held in a Chinese-style teahouse. The theme for the evening was OTC ...

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BitKan Meetup Highlights OTC Trading in China - Bitcoin Magazine

Forbes

How To Buy Bitcoin, Now That It's Reached An All-Time High Forbes This story appeared in the June 19, 2017 issue of Level Up by Forbes newsletter. Subscribe. If you've ever exchanged dollars for euros, you expect the exchange rate to be nearly equal, give or take a few cents. Knowing that, it's easy to see why ... and more »

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How To Buy Bitcoin, Now That It's Reached An All-Time High - Forbes

Note: This analysis does not attempt to speculate on the market implications of news events. This is a pure analysis of the market data.

The unprecedented rise in the BTC-USD market to near $3,000 even caught many of the more bullish traders by surprise. However, this quick rise in value did not come cheaply: once BTC finally ran out of steam, the market correction not only affected BTC-USD prices, but it was felt throughout the entire crypto-space as entire market cap took a massive plunge from $49B to $36B over the course of three days.

Figure 1: Market Cap PreBitcoin Price Correction

Figure 2: Market Cap PostBitcoin Price Correction

There are two ways of viewing the BTC-USD run to near $3,000 levels:

The top can be viewed as the absolute top of the market ($2,948)

The top can viewed as the peak at $2,726.50 with a healthy 127 percent Fibonacci Extension

Im going to analyze the market from the view of option 2 because I feel this provides a more sober outlook on the direction of the BTC-USD market. In strong Bull Runs, it is very common for markets to take a 50 percent correction; a 100 percent Retracement of the initial downward move (if its a very strong Bull Run), followed by a 127 percent Fibonacci Extension will provide another test to see how the market feels in the new market highs. In our case, we didnt quite make it to the 127 percent Extension (shown in orange in Figures 3 and 4).

Figure 3: BTC-USD, GDAX, 6-hr Candles, the Relative Market Top With Accompanying Extension

Figure 4: BTC-USD, GDAX, 2-hr Candles, Failed 127 Percent Fibonacci Extension

Currently, BTC-USD is finding support on the 50 percent Fibonacci Retracement of the Bear Run from $3,000 (labeled in green). It made a test of the 61 percent line (labeled in red) and it was ultimately rejected. This rejection and subsequent support test of the 50 percent line coincides with a decrease in volume and a near flip of the four-hour MACD from Bullish to Bearish (labeled in yellow). These market moves show that, unless significant volume hits the BTC-USD markets, there is a likely test of the lower Fibonacci Retracement Lines in its future.

Figure 5: BTC-USD, GDAX, 4-hr Candles, Fibonacci Retracement of Bear Run

After our initial market high around $2,700, multiple momentum indicators began to reveal that, although the price was increasing, the market was beginning to lose upward momentum this type of price activity is called Divergence and can be seen across the RSI, MACD and Volume. The long-term outlook for BTC-USD indicates a possibility of lower lows in its future. On the higher time-scales (refer to Figure 3), the momentum indicators are pointing toward more downward movement as the price is currently failing to make a new high and seeing decreased market volume. Its totally possible that the market could move sideways or even see price growth on decreasing volume markets arent always rational. However, if you want to know whether the price growth is sustainable and reliable, keep an eye on the momentum indicators and watch for volume to accompany price growth in the coming days. For the time being, I find it very unlikely that BTC-USD will see any significant price growth. But, after all, this is cryptocurrency; anything is possible.

Short-term indicators are showing a possible move to the lower Fibonacci Retracement values ($2,500, $2,400, $2,280).

Long-term indicators are showing a loss of upward momentum. Until more volume hits the markets, very little price growth is likely.

Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTCMedia related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTCMedia and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Understanding the BTC-USD Price Correction - Bitcoin Magazine

This article will go over some must have apps if you are a cryptocurrency enthusiast. Mainly, it will focus on those services that can be used for managing Bitcoin. The apps in question can accept Bitcoin as payment, serve as your Bitcoin wallet, or even just let you playgames that can let you earn some satoshis. The list is in no particular order.

This is a cryptocurrency tracker, and its able to track over 100 different coins allat once, bitcoin is of course included as well. For many crypto investors, its very important to get the latest market data as soon as possible. Any change in their currency of choice carries meaning, and its crucial to have reliable information regarding the coins price at all times.

However, what makes the app so special is the fact that it hit the top of the list of finance apps that people are willing to pay for, at least when it comes to Apple users. Having an app that you have to pay for, and whose only purpose is to track cryptocurrencies on top of the list shows how relevant these particular services are becoming.

The app can also be used on the Apple watch, and you can even use it to request bitcoin via a QR code. Other than that, it presents data about different cryptocurrencies in detailed and fully customizable graphs. Its a must have if youre in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Another very useful appand website. It tracks your location and then scans the area togive you the location of the closest bitcoin ATM. It supports both iOS and Android, which means that youll know where the nearest ATM is at any time.

Apart from the ATM map, it can also inform you about some of the details concerning a particular ATM. Its always useful to know as much as you can, and with this app youll know limits, fees, and even the type of the ATM.

Most of the bitcoin ATM types are covered, and that includes Robocoin, Genesis Coin, Lamassu, GeneralBytes, BitAccess, and SkyHook. The list of ATMs is growingwith the influence of cryptocurrencies, and you can track them all with this app.

A very promising app thats currently still in beta. It allows you to spend your Bitcoin in the real world. Many companies have already shown interest and signed up as partners. Those include Starbucks, Target, and Whole Foods. In all of their stores, you can pay for the services with bitcoin.

The process is simple, and all you have to do is load the amount of bitcoin that you plan on spending into the app. The app will make a barcode, and after scanning it, the money gets transferred to the services account.

This is the first bitcoin app that caughtthe interest of larger stores and services, which says enough about its potential. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are making their way into the modern society. More and more stores are accepting them, and apps like this will allow you to use them.

Think of this app as a marketplace. You can use it for selling and buying products or serviceswhile using only bitcoin. There are even different communities that you can join, and a message system that you can use to contact your friends.

Its compatible with several bitcoin wallets, and you can connect them to your account here. With this app, youll easily send payments, check your balances, and even scan QR codes.

The Gilph website itself describes the app as a sort of Swiss Army knife for bitcoin, and its not wrong. This is surely one of the apps with impenetrable security at its core.

The literal translation of this apps name in Japanese is flying monkey. Its a game where you earn bitcoin while playing, and the point is to swing Tobi from one vine to another. In the process, you collect bitcoin and bananas.

The game only has one level, but it gets harder the further you get. You must swing as far as you can, and to do that, you use power-ups that you pay for with bananas.

As mentioned, by playing the game, you collect coins, and at the end of the month, the games ad revenue converts them into a certain amount of bitcoin. The more coins you collect, the more bitcoin youll get. From time to time, you even get some tips about bitcoin from the game itself.

The game is pretty addictive, and along the way, you might even earn something. All in all, its a good way to attract a new audience and teach them about bitcoin.

This is another bitcoin-related game, it allowsyou to sell and trade virtual bitcoins. This game doesnt deal with actual bitcoin, which makes it more of a bonus to our list than a real bitcoin app.

Still, its fun to play, especially if you like progressing games. You start with nothing, as you play you can build up an entire fortune, you can buy new things and mine bitcoin when youre not playing. You can even get a T-Rex pet as an upgrade.

Its also a good way to promote and explain bitcoin without the danger of losing any real money.

The rising interest in cryptocurrencies is real and not just a hype or a short term trendanymore. You can tell by the number of different apps that are emerging for the ecosystem.

More and more services and stores are accepting them, and this new form of payment is what awaits us in the future. Check out these apps now and learn as much as you can, because youll need that knowledge very soon.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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6 Bitcoin Apps That You Must Check Out - The Merkle

A major U.S. Bitcoin exchange, responding to regulations intended to stop criminals, appears to be suspending the accounts of "white hat" security consultants who use Bitcoin to help law-abiding clients.

As reported by CoinDesk , Night Lion Securitys Vinny Troia was contacted last year by Coinbase, an exchange for buying and selling cryptocurrency. The exchange wanted to know how he was using his Bitcoin. Troia told Coinbase that his security business sometimes involved either paying digital ransom on behalf of clients impacted by attacks like WannaCry , or verifying database breaches by buying data from malicious hackersall with client permission.

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Coinbase, after asking whether Troia had U.S. Department of Justice authorization for those methodsauthorization which Troia couldnt confirm even existsCoinbase suspended his account. When he tried to open new accounts under the names of family members so he could continue conducting business, Coinbase shut those down, too.

The situation illustrates the growing pains of Bitcoin as its ecosystem matures. While there are plenty of good reasons that legitimate businesses might need to conduct Bitcoin transactions with shady charactersincluding, say, unlocking vital systems infected by a clever virusenabling such transactions could put an actor like Coinbase in conflict with regulations intended to prevent money laundering (often referred to by the acronym AML, for "anti-money laundering") and criminal activity (KYC, for "know your customer").

In a related incident in Dec. 2016, prosecutors in New York charged the operator of a Bitcoin exchange with violating anti-money laundering laws specifically because it facilitated ransomware payments. Coin Center, a cryptocurrency policy think tank, came out strongly against that move, pointing out both that everyone from police departments to hospitals have had to pay such ransoms in recent years, and that even the FBI has said that sometimes paying ransom is the sensible choice .

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Regulations Are Making it Harder For Security Experts to Use Bitcoin - Fortune

Some of the very first associations that the wider public made with Bitcoin upon learning about it were fairly focused on its potentially nefarious connotations. That being said, Bitcoin can still be used for criminal activities. This is most noticeable in the recent wanna cry ransomware attacks and fileless ransomware attacks. So does this mean -like a comment on this linked article suggested- that soon criminals will move beyond ransomware to straight up kidnap and ransom in the physical world?

Well, maybe. If someone is willing to accept any form of payment for any legal or illegal deal, then that currency has worth. Bitcoin would be no different in this case than say, cash or bearer bonds. Both of these are extremely anonymous forms of payment, more so than Bitcoin even.

Ransoms being paid in dead drops or trades means that a criminal would be exposing themselves to being followed after the exchange takes place. A wire transfer to a bank means that they would be immediately identified, so Bitcoin being moved to a new address would mean that this would be delayed. However, it would not be untraceable.

Lets put ourselves in the hypothetical that we are trying to negotiate the release of a hostage, and their kidnappers demanded payment in Bitcoin. This means that we have some time to buy bitcoin since most probably would not have stores of Bitcoin ready for kidnapping situations. If it is a large enough amount, we need to wait for verification from an exchange, and in some countries we would need to report these assets. Some countries also monitor the blockchain for large payments made. Law enforcement may already have pegged this situation before the payment is ever even made.

With the help of law enforcement or others, the public ledger nature of Bitcoin would mean that we could start to build a strategy to try to keep track of these funds, even as they undoubtedly will go through tumblers and mixers. Lets not forget again, the likelihood that this much money exchanged hands already has probably tipped off the cops if we have not by this point.

There is also the possibility that the -probably uneducated in Bitcoin- payer of the ransom does not know how many satoshi per byte to pay for a quick confirmation or even one at all. Delayed or cancelled payments does not only spell disaster for the victim, but also is problematic for the kidnappers. Lets remember, these people want money, not to feed, hide, or abuse and kill the victim.

While Bitcoin might provide security by not having to be present at an exchange or dead drop, it has a whole host of other problems. I do not see how Bitcoin would be easier or even more appealing to higher level criminals like this over cash or some other commodity. Too few people know about it, Blockchain analysts work tirelessly to connect addresses to personal information, and for larger sums of money it is just not as practical as other payment methods.

I am not saying that criminals do not use or will not use Bitcoin -because they do-, but I do not think we have to worry about kidnappers asking for ransoms only in Bitcoin in the future. In the end, they want money, not Bitcoin. That is how criminals always have operated. They want easily laundered and liquid monetary assets. Bitcoin may not be the most practical option for them in such a situation.

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Will Criminals Start Kidnapping People and Asking for Ransomware in Bitcoin? - The Merkle

A new gold rush is picking up speed as bitcoin doubles the size of its fund under the BIT-XBTEs management. The fund that was around $50 million on May 1st has jumped to $100 million a few days ago, which is animpressive growth.

The head of trading and operations at XBT Provider, Jean-Marie Mognetti, has stated that during the last two months, the Providers exchange of the traded Bitcoin notes has seen a major demand increase from industrial as well as retail investors. Everyone is searching for exposure to bitcoin, which is a sure sign that its rise isnt going to stop anytime soon.

Bitcoins increase has gone up by 200% since the beginning of the year, but even that isnt as fast as the growth of other currencies. For example, Ethereum has gone up over 3,000% this year alone.

The Bitcoin Tracker Euro ETNs, as well as Bitcoin Tracker One, are currently available in both Euros, as well as in Swedish Krona.

This all happened very soon after Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, decided to announce the need for analyst coverage concerning the cryptocurrencies. They stated that the client demands were simply too much. Despite the fact that the price of Bitcoin wasnt exactly specified, Goldman Sachs sees the buying opportunities somewhere in between $1,915 and $2,330.

However, Sheba Jafari, the chief technician has issued a warning for the clients, in which he advised against trading. The reason for this is that earlier this week, Bitcoin breached the $3,000. Instead, he advised waiting for it to go between $1,915 and $2,330.

Also, a few days ago, on June 13th, another report called Blockchain: Unchained was issued by Morgan Stanley. In the report, the commitment to exploring the technology on which Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies are built on was underlined. Caution is also advised due to the lack of any regulations in their price. Currently, that price is around $2,600.

According to Goldman Sachs, this attraction to the virtual currencies and Bitcoin in particular is due to the lack of volatility when it comes to other asset classes. The often changes in the currencies worth can also offer many opportunities for some.

Another big news related to this, is the new team up between XBT Provider and Xapo, a leading cryptocurrency custodian. Xapo is a very secure Bitcoin holder, and besides the wallet services, it also provides a vault insurance.

When it comes to protecting your Bitcoin, the safest way would be to hold them in the cold storage. What that means is that you would write the amount that you hold on a paper and store it on many different physical sites, or in wallets that dont have a connection to the internet.

XBT Providers head of investor relations, Ryan Radloff, has stated that adding Xapo to XBT Provider was a very critical step. Now that its done, the companys products will be sure to remain the most professional bitcoin investment product on a global scale.

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Bitcoin Gets the Attention of Goldman Sachs After Reaching New Heights - The Merkle

According to a recent write-up published byPanos Mourdoukoutas,Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at LIU Post in New York who is also contributing to several professional journals and magazines, such as Forbes and The New York Times, until its dive, bitcoin will make many more people millionaires.

Bitcoin hit $3,000 this month after a big correction down to $2,682 from $2,957 in the period of two days. CCN reported that billionaire Mark Cuban was calling bitcoins recent price surge a bubble. However, this is not the case since the cryptocurrency is showing an uptrend, recently standing on $2,831 and continuouslygoing upwards.

Mourdoukoutas shared a partly similar opinion to Cubans. Matching in the terms of saying that bitcoins price will drop after the huge surge, however, the university professor did not state that the cryptocurrency is a bubble.Mourdoukoutas added that the digital currency made many overnight millionaires people who invested into BTC when it was worth only a fraction of its current price. He added that bitcoinwill reach new highs, making more billionaires in the course of the action, before coming back down to earth.

According toMourdoukoutas, one reason for the increasing investment into the cryptocurrency is the ultra-low interest rate environment, which makes the trade of bitcoin an appealing proposition. In addition, there is a growing mistrust in the national currencies of multiple countries, following the government policies that pushed more investors into the cryptocurrency.

Mourdoukoutas said that one of these policies is the act when governments issue new treasurybonds at record low rates to cover the old debts with new ones. For example, Japan sells treasuries that yield almost nothing for the state, however, the countrys debts amount approximately the 250 percent of the GDP. The professor stated that Chinas treasuriesyield something, although, no one knows the exact amount of the unofficial debt.

The fact that there is a huge amount of debt connected to the Chinese Yuan and the Japanese Yen, makes the confidence of the investors disappear. And since there is bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that increased its value by 125 percent in 2016, people in Asia take advantage of the possibility and invest more into the digital currency.

The universityprofessor stated there is another government policy, which could decrease the trust in a countrys national currency. This move is when governments want to get rid of the old currency notes, as was the case in India and Venezuela. According toMourdoukoutas, one of these actions started the recent bitcoin surge.

Mourdoukoutas added in the write-up that there are certain advantages makingbitcoin a better hedge than conventional ones, such as gold. He added that the millennial generation is one of the biggest supporters of the cryptocurrency as they understand BTC better than the baby-boomer generation.

Unlike gold, for instance, bitcoin is a convenient medium of payment around the globe,Mourdoukoutas wrote.

According to the professor, bitcoins supply is expected to be limited to 21 million. Comparing to gold, there is no scarcity from the mineral since when the price of gold rises, it provides more incentive for gold miners to mine for gold.

Finally,Mourdoukoutas stated that the investor hype around bitcoin continuously helps the cryptocurrency to go upwards, as more and more investors are becoming familiar with the digital currency, and can use ETFs (exchange-traded funds) to conveniently participate in the market.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Economics Professor: Bitcoin Will Make Plenty of Millionaires - CryptoCoinsNews

Forbes

Bitcoin Millionaires And Newton's Mistake Forbes Congratulations Bitcoin millionaires. You made your first and perhaps your second million of dollars -- quickly, very quickly. Perhaps in the last six months in the Bitcoin investment trust. Now make sure that you don't lose all that money faster than ... and more »

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Bitcoin Millionaires And Newton's Mistake - Forbes

Forbes

Don't Ignore Technical Analysis If You Are Trading Bitcoin Forbes Bitcoin tumbles 19%, the most in more than two years, reported Bloomberg news. As a person who uses Elliott Waves, which is a form of technical analysis, I would like to demonstrate to you how traders can benefit enormously by paying attention to ...

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Don't Ignore Technical Analysis If You Are Trading Bitcoin - Forbes