Category Archives: Bitcoin

CoinTelegraph

Ripple Price Surge Continues, Altcoin Takes Advantage Of Bitcoin Scaling Troubles CoinTelegraph While the debate continues within the Bitcoin community, several altcoins have experienced a significant surge in overall value. Cryptocurrencies such as Dash and Ethereum have conquered new levels in price and market capitalization at a time that ...

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Ripple Price Surge Continues, Altcoin Takes Advantage Of Bitcoin Scaling Troubles - CoinTelegraph

CoinTelegraph

Learn The Secrets of Bitcoin Millionaires CoinTelegraph New site Bitcoin Millionaire has looked at what is out there in regards to investment advice for crypto-currencies, seen that it is lacking, and endeavored to fill the breach. With standard currencies, you are expected to take the word of those who ... and more »

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Learn The Secrets of Bitcoin Millionaires - CoinTelegraph

CoinTelegraph

Bitcoin Unlimited Hard Fork. Should I Do Something About It? CoinTelegraph The Bitcoin scaling debate is rapidly heating up. The several-year-long confrontation might be reaching a turning point over the coming weeks. With the support for the Bitcoin Unlimited proposal reaching an unprecedented high of over 37 percent of ... Bitcoin: The Future Of MoneyBrighter Kashmir all 2 news articles »

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Bitcoin Unlimited Hard Fork. Should I Do Something About It? - CoinTelegraph

Chinas largest gold deposit in history was discovered in the province of Shandong earlier this week. Local publications reported that the newly found gold mine will add over US$22 billion worth of supply to the gold market.

Shandong Gold Group, a Chinese gold mining company affiliated with the provincial government of Shandong, officially revealed in a press conference held on March 28 that the institution found a gold deposit of over 382.5 tons in the Laizhou-Zhaoyuan region of northwest Jiaodong Peninsula.

The area, which is better known to the public as Xilin, is said to have specific geological characteristics necessary to develop major gold deposit clusters. According to the representatives of Shandong Gold Group, the company will be able to produce gold at full capacity for 40 years, gaining the provide over $22 billion in profit.

Local publications including Peoples Daily which attended the press conference of Shandong Gold Group reported:

Currently, 382.58 tons of gold reserves have been prospected with an average gold grade of 4.52 g/t. And 550 tons of gold resources with more than $22billion (RMB150billion) potential economic value can be expected in two years. If producing on a scale of 10,000 tons every day, the gold deposit can produce gold continuously at full capacity for 40 years.

Since early 2016, the vast majority of short and mid-term investors of bitcoin have begun to perceive bitcoin as a wealth protection tool that is practical for avoiding economic decline and financial instability. As a result, large investment firms, as well as high profile traders, began to hold bitcoin to prevent potential variables such as increase of interest rate, reserve currency devaluation and stock market performance from affecting their portfolio of assets.

Two of the major reasons investors are appealed to bitcoin are the digital currencys decentralized nature and fixed supply. Since only 21 million bitcoins can exist and that monetary supply cant be altered due to the decentralization and governance system of bitcoin, investors consider bitcoin as a reliable store of value in avoiding short-term loss and gaining long-term success.

Due to bitcoins strong mid and long-term performance in terms of price, investors have begun to consider bitcoin as a safe haven asset. In other words, an asset expected to retain its value or even increase in times of market turbulence.

Gold, another asset which investors often turn to in economic instability, has proven to be a less efficient safe haven asset in comparison to bitcoin due to its inflationary nature. For instance, the discovery of the Shandong gold deposit immediately added $22 billion to the gold market and supply unexpectedly and such abrupt addition of supply will inevitably lead to the decline of gold price.

However, bitcoins supply is fixed and such abrupt expansion of supply isnt possible in a digital currency like bitcoin that was introduced with a fixed supply from the beginning.

For any safe haven asset or currency, rarity and scarcity are vital for long-term price surge and stability. Bitcoin has proven itself as reliable store of value, settlement network and safe haven asset for over 9 years of its existence. Hence, investors are starting to describe bitcoin as digital gold or gold 2.0.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Gold Supply Rises With Large Mine Discovery, Bitcoin is Better Safe Haven Asset - CryptoCoinsNews

Bitcoin price is making an upside breakout from a trend channel and a bullish flag pattern, signaling that buyers are getting back in the game.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

Bitcoin price is making an upside breakout from a trend channel and a bullish flag pattern, signaling that buyers are getting back in the game.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA just crossed above the longer-term 200 SMA so the path of least resistance is to the upside. In addition, the 100 SMA dynamic support lines up with the short-term triangle bottom, adding to its strength as a floor. A pullback could still find support at this level, which also coincides with the broken channel resistance.

Stochastic is on the move up so bitcoin price could follow suit. RSI is also turning higher after spending some time moving sideways, also indicating that buyers are regaining the upper hand. This could be enough to take bitcoin price at least to the triangle highs at $1060 and beyond.

However, if this proves to be a fakeout and traders quickly book profits at the end of this week and quarter, bitcoin price could fall back inside the longer-term channel and resume its selloff back to support at $850 or halfway there until $950.

Market Events

Profit-taking is expected by the end of this week as it also closes out the first quarter of 2017. As such, most investors are likely to book their winnings and close out their positions to crunch the numbers.

Although the dollar gained across the board versus its forex counterparts yesterday, it seems that risk appetite surged along with it so bitcoin price took advantage. The cryptocurrency is also drawing some support from uncertainties surrounding US fiscal policy and the upcoming Brexit negotiations. Reports that several exchanges are rejecting Bitcoin Unlimited, which is the newer version of the software, is renewing confidence that existing bitcoin will not lose its value.

Charts from SimpleFX

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Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 03/31/2017 Bullish Pressure Kicking In - newsBTC

The technology behind bitcoin can be a force for good, say startups that are chasing it San Francisco Business Times ... Bart Stephens, left, and Brad more. Todd Johnson | San Francisco Business Times. While some financial institutions have been reluctant to engage with bitcoin, the technology enabling the currency, blockchain, has garnered a great deal of interest. and more »

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The technology behind bitcoin can be a force for good, say startups that are chasing it - San Francisco Business Times

Bitcoin ransomware families are plentiful, which is what makes them incredibly dangerous. In some cases, different types of ransomware will have a similar name, which causes some confusion. CrptXXX is a type of malware that should not be confused with CryptXXX, even though both types of malicious software work towards a similar goal. CrptXXX is quite a powerful type of malware, although it can be removed with relative ease.

Most people are well aware of how ransomware works. This malicious software encrypts all files on the computer, gives them a random file extension, and forces users to pay a ransom in bitcoin to restore file access. However, certain types of malware have proven to be quite more potent than others, as its developers bring additional features to the table. After all, why only encrypt data when there is much more havoc to wreak?

In the case of CrptXXX, the ransomware does a few different things. Granted, in adds the.crptxxx extension to all encrypted files. Moreover, once this payload is active on a computer, it can modify all accessible files with relative ease. This allows users to retain some level of control over the machine so they can pay the ransom. Neither of these features is out of the ordinary, as those are the basic functions of any malware strain in existence.

What CrptXXX does differently is how it also allows the ransomware developer to gain remote control over the computer as long as the files remain encrypted. This gives criminals backdoor access to the device in question, which allows them to copy any file from the computer and make it their own. Through a dedicated Trojan component, CrptXXX victims can be spied upon at any given time, which is quite a troubling thought.

Speaking of which, information harvesting is what makes CrptXXX even more dangerous compared to most other types of malware. Downloading key settings, recording account credentials, and even stealing personal files is just a few of the possibilities. However, the bread and butter remains infected files and demanding a bitcoin ransom to have file access restored. With a variable ransom demand, CrptXXX developers are always looking for their next big score.

Distribution of CrptXXX is what one would expect from similar campaigns these days. Email spam, pirated content downloads, and infected software installers are the three most common distribution methods for CrptXXX. Additionally, it is possible to infect victims with this payload through direct attacks in the form of exploit kits or vulnerability testing frameworks. So far, CrptXXX is believed to have caused quite a bit of damage, although a solution has been provided to remove the malware completely without paying the bitcoin ransom.

Unlike most other types of ransomware, CrptXXX does not appear to delete the shadow volume copies. This allows users to restore files from a previous data backup. That is quite a relief to most people who had to deal with this ransomware in the past, as there is nothing more disturbing than losing valuable files due to a malware attack. Always back up important computer files on a regular basis, as one never knows when that backup may come in handy.

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Bitcoin Ransomware Education CrptXXX - The Merkle

Forbes

Bitcoin: 'Blood Diamonds' Of The Digital Era - Forbes Forbes Bitcoin has long been the transaction currency of choice for drug dealers and extortionists, but this month, the IRS has upped the game. Just as tax evasion ... Bitcoin Value Is High Only Due To Lawbreakers: Forbes AnalystCoinTelegraph Bitcoin Gains Value Due to Criminal Use [Only], Says Forbes ...CryptoCoinsNews Bitcoin Users May Be Cheating on Taxes - - CFO.comCFO all 5 news articles »

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Bitcoin: 'Blood Diamonds' Of The Digital Era - Forbes - Forbes

Although it is hard to say how big the chance actually is, Bitcoin Unlimited miners may soon start mining bigger blocks. If they do, they will diverge from the current Bitcoin protocol to split off to a new blockchain. This could also result in two separate currencies, by many exchanges referred to as BTC and BTU.

However, it increasingly seems that not everyone in favor of a Bitcoin Unlimited hard fork wants to settle for a coin-split. Instead, several prominent Bitcoin Unlimited proponents have indicated that it may be better to ensure only their chain survives. This is probably also the only chance it has to be widely considered the real Bitcoin rather than a spinoff altcoin.

To ensure that only one chain survives, they have suggested that the (original) Bitcoin blockchain can be made unusable. That way it would die off and only the Bitcoin Unlimited chain would remain.

Specifically, if miners favorable toward Bitcoin Unlimited are able to overpower the remaining Bitcoin miners with a majority of hashrate, its been suggested they could launch a 51% attack.

Here is a brief overview.

Former Bitcoin Lead Developer Gavin Andresen

Gavin Andresen is the former lead developer of Bitcoin Core (then called Bitcoin-QT or simply Bitcoin). He has since contributed to Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Classic. He now endorses Bitcoin Unlimited though he does not contribute to the project nor is he a member.

Although Andresen has in the past argued that a minority chain would be unlikely to sustain itself, he now acknowledges such a chain could, in fact, survive. As such, he noted on Twitter last February that preventing a minority-hashrate fork from confirming any transactions is a good idea.

More recently, on Reddit, Andresen elaborated on what the most effective way to attack the original Bitcoin chain would be. The former lead developer wrote:

It would be even more destructive to mine an 11-block-long empty chain, then wait until the slow chain gets 9 blocks until announcing it to the network. Or keep them guessing; choose a chain length at random, from 1 to some secret N, and orphan that many blocks at a time. Allow a couple normal blocks, then do it again.

It would be impossible for exchanges to know how many confirmations were safe for deposits and would be a nightmare for their withdrawal accounting.

Additionally, he said he wasnt sure whether such an attack would be immoral or not.

Im not even sure this kind of thing should be considered immoral majority hashpower acting selfishly for their own economic benefit (both short and long term) is the basic incentive structure that makes Bitcoin work.

And last weekend, Andresen on Twitter further distanced himself from a moral endorsement of such an attack. Instead, echoing comments he made on Reddit, Andresen claimed to have merely been exercising adversarial thinking.

Though he did add that an attack is very likely to happen.

BTC.TOP Pool Operator Jiang Zhuoer

BTC.TOP is a relatively new Chinese mining pool. Launched in late 2016, the pool currently controls some 5 percent of hash power on the Bitcoin network.

BTC.TOP is operated by Jiang Zhuoer, a former employee at China Mobile in Shanghai. Much like several other small mining pools that have appeared over the past six months, BTC.TOP has been signaling support for Bitcoin Unlimited.

In an interview with Cryptocoins News in March, Zhuoer was the first who explicitly said a 51% attack against the original Bitcoin blockchain, if it were to survive after Bitcoin Unlimited miners split off, is on the table.

We have prepared $100 million USD to kill the small fork of CoreCoin, no matter what [proof-of-work] algorithm, sha256 or scrypt or X11 or any other GPU algorithm, he said, of course referring to the continuation of the current Bitcoin protocol as CoreCoin.

The different hash algorithms mentioned by Zhuoer refer to a potential proof-of-work algorithm change Bitcoin users could deploy if the chain is attacked; a nuclear defense some Bitcoin Core developers have suggested may be proposed in such a scenario. (Whether this should still be considered Bitcoin or yet another spinoff altcoin is subject to different debate.)

Show me your money, Zhuoer added. We very much welcome a CoreCoin change to [proof of stake].

(If no proof-of-work algorithm succeeds in deterring the attack, a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm where coin holders rather than miners vote on the longest chain may be an alternative solution. But since this is unproven and perhaps insecure, this seems highly unlikely.)

Bitcoin Unlimited Chief Scientist Peter Rizun

Peter Rizun (better known as Peter R) refers to himself as the chief scientist of Bitcoin Unlimited, and has been one of the driving forces as the projects secretary.

Last week, Rizun, along with bitcoin.com business developer Jake Smith, visited the offices of Coinbase and BitPay to promote Bitcoin Unlimited. Coming back from these visits, Rizun published a blog post on Medium. The message Rizun said he had gotten from these companies is that a hard fork to larger blocks should be decisive and absolute.

Rizun described three levels of anti-split protection that could accomplish this. The first is an explanation of how mining would probably be unprofitable on the original Bitcoin chain decreasing the odds of the chain surviving in the first place.

The second level, however, is a type of 51% attack on a minority of miners. Once a majority of hash power signals support for Bitcoin Unlimited, Rizun wrote, the majority could reject (orphan) any blocks that do not signal this support.

Miners will orphan the blocks of non-compliant miners prior to the first larger block to serve as a reminder to upgrade. Simply due to the possibility of having blocks orphaned, all miners would be motivated to begin signaling for larger blocks once support definitively passes 51%. If some miners hold out (e.g., they may not be paying attention regarding the upgrade), then they will begin to pay attention after losing approximately $15,000 of revenue due to an orphaned block.

(It should be noted that this attack can be trivially subverted. Especially now that the attack is known, miners can, and probably will, signal fake support. Indeed, at least one small pool has literally signaled support with a poop emoticon.)

If the original Bitcoin blockchain survives even after these two levels, Rizun explained that a subset of miners in favor of Bitcoin Unlimited could disrupt this chain by exclusively producing empty blocks on the original chain. This would prevent any and all transactions from confirming as long as the attack is ongoing.

To address the risk of coins being spent on this chain (replay risk), majority miners will deploy hash power as needed to ensure the minority chain includes only empty blocks after the forking point.

And in line with the strategy described by Gavin Andresen:

This can easily be accomplished if the majority miners maintain a secret chain of empty blocks built off their last empty block publishing only as much of this chain as necessary to orphan any non-empty blocks produced on the minority chain.

(This attack can be waited out until the attackers funds run out, and perhaps dismantled altogether. Discussion on potential strategies is ongoing on the Bitcoin-development mailing list. And of course, there is the potential of a proof-of-work algorithm change.)

While noting that he doesnt necessarily endorse the strategy, Rizun predicted that a coin-split would be avoided in this way: a safe upgrade procedure, he later noted on Reddit.

Rizun also submitted his ideas to the Bitcoin-development mailing list. (Where it was, unsurprisingly, forcefully dismissed.)

Bitmain Co-CEO Jihan Wu

Jihan Wu is the co-CEO of Chinese ASIC-hardware producer Bitmain. AntPool is Bitmains mining pool, and BTC.com, another mining pool, is a subsidiary of Bitmain.

Wu is a vocal proponent of Bitcoin Unlimited as well, and announced to Bloomberg that he would switch the hash power in his pool to Bitcoin Unlimited in anticipation of a hard fork which he has since indeed done. (Though, notably, BTC.com has not.)

And in an interview with Forbes, Wu said he wouldnt rule out attacking the Bitcoin blockchain, or, undermining Core as it is described in the article.

It may not be necessary to attack it, he said. But to attack it is always an option.

Thanks to Libbitcoin lead developer Eric Voskuil for feedback.

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Bitcoin Unlimited Miners May Be Preparing a 51% Attack on Bitcoin - Bitcoin Magazine

Slide: 1 / of 1. Caption: Then One/WIRED

On the surface, bitcoin is having a very good year. The price of the digital currency reached record highs well over $1,000 after years of stagnation following a major crash. But if you pull back the curtain, the civil war rages.

The global community of companies, coders, and opportunists who control the bitcoin network is now on the verge of revolt after more than two years of infighting. Basically, the bitcoin network is moving data at a painfully slow pace, and the community cant agree on how to fix it. So, one increasingly powerful group is threatening to hard fork the project. In other words: They could split bitcoin into two separate digital currencies.

The ongoing battle represents a fundamental flaw not only with bitcoin, but with so many other projects based on the idea of a blockchain, the underlying technology that makes bitcoin possible. A blockchain is designed to operate without a central authority, securely verifying and recording transactions through a network machines rather a single government, bank, or company. Across Silicon Valley and beyond, many see this big idea as a way of significantly streamlining the exchange of moneymaybe even changing the very nature of business. But at the same time, the decentralized nature of these projects is a burden. Theres no good way for the many participants to readily change the underlying technology.

If we have a process for dealing with disagreement we wont have all the collateral damage we see with bitcoin. Arthur Breitman, Tezos

The community behind Ethereum, another influential part of this movement, recently forked its project after hackers exploited a bug in its code. That was their best option. And now, bitcoin is facing much the same conundrum. Its a flaw that could ultimately bring the digital currency crashing down.

But Arthur and Kathleen Breitman are working to eliminate this flaw. Theyre building a new blockchain where the stakeholders can change the underlying technology through a kind of online voting systema blockchain that can evolve according to the will of its community. If we have a process for dealing with disagreement, for being constructive and moving on, we wont have all the collateral damage we see with bitcoin, says Arthur Brietman, 35, a French-born financial trader and technologist who spent several years with big-name banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The biggest risk to bitcoin is a split in the community. That would harm the network. This is the kind of thing were trying to avoid.

The project may indeed provide a better way of building this kind of vastly distributed systemand possibly create a new kind of business. But it also raises questions about the fundamental nature of these projects and, indeed, the fundamental nature of democracy.

The Brietmans are husband-and-wife entrepreneurs based in Silicon Valley. Part of the vibrant, idealistic, and sometimes strange community of young free thinkers working to build a new kind of company using blockchain technologies, they call their creation Tezos. Under the cheeky pseudonym LM Goodmana thinly veiled reference to the Newsweek journalist who incorrectly identified the creator of bitcointhey first released a paper describing the project in 2014. Now, as they prepare to unveil the technology amid the battle over bitcoin, it carries a new significance.

On the bitcoin blockchain, transactions are processed and recorded by a vast network of miners, specialized machines that lend their computing power to the operation. In exchange for their participation, the miners receive bitcoin. But Tezos doesnt work that way. It will sell its tokens to the world at large, and then the token holders will help process and record the transactions. Basically, in recording each transaction, the system asks for help from a random token holder.

Whats more, these token holders will have the right to suggest and vote on changes to the network itself. The more tokens you hold, the more voting power you have. In other words, the token holders control the system in full. In this way, Tezos becomes a working democracy. Everyone can vote, and the vote decides outcomes. Some blockchain veterans believe Tezos could fundamentally change the dynamics of blockchain technology, helping to move projects closer to the grand ideals they espouse.

Its like the American democratic system, says Olaf Carlson-Wee, the first employee at Coinbase, Silicon Valleys most important bitcoin company, who has invested in Tezos through his hedge fund, Polychain. When you vote, even if your candidate doesnt win, you accept that democracy was in action. When people participate in a Tezos network, theyre accepting that the democratic vote of the other coin holders will govern the way the protocol moves.

Bitcoin, you could argue, is also a democracy. But the system operates in an ad hoc way. Participants must individually and manually upgrade the software running on miners and other machines, and this leads to the kind of thing you now see with the digital currency: months of people arguing, both online and off, about how the network should evolve. Tezos removes this unorganized in-fightingand then some. Through the Tezos voting system, stakeholders can also change the voting system. We are not necessarily beholden to voting as a governance mechanism, Breitman says. Every part of the system can evolve, including the governance system itself. He compares this means of self-correction to a constitutional amendmentanother powerful idea in light of the conflict over bitcoin.

If Tezos works, the knock-on effect is potentially enormous. Like Ethereum, the Tezos blockchain is designed to run smart contracts, online agreements built with computer code that can be used to bootstrap all sorts of other businesses and applications. (Ethereum, for instance, is now driving everything from hedge funds to distributed supercomputers.)

Tezos could extend this growing trend. But its also another invitation to completely start over. Though Bitcoin and Ethereum have the momentum, Tezos is asking coders and companies to move onto yet another blockchain. And how that will play out is anyones guess. Breitman argues that bitcoin and Ethereum are still relatively smalland in the future, distributed networks will be significantly larger. If you compare them to any other industry, their capitalization is very small and the amount of programming work is still tiny, he says. It is still early in this game.

Over the next several weeks, Breitman and his company will put this stance to the test. First, they will launch an ICO, or initial coin offering, letting anyone buy a digital token tied directly into the operation of the Tezos network. Such offerings are now common practice in the blockchain world, a new way of funding online companies, but also a new way of running them. Those who hold the tokens actually own and control the operation, something thats particularly true with Tezos.

But Breitmans and their idealism may run into reality. It will work crytopgraphically, just in terms of programming language theory, says Zooko Wilcox, who created the bitcoin alternative ZCash. But it is an experiment. Naturally, Wilcox mentions the DAO, an effort to create a kind of automated venture capital fund atop Ethereum.

The DAO was the largest crowdfunded project ever, and thanks to a bug in its smart contract, it was hacked to the tune of $50 million. This catastrophe is what eventually led to the Ethereum fork. Imagine that there is a bug in the version you have all upgraded to, he says, imagining one potential future for Tezos. What if thats a bug prevents future upgrades?

Brietman admits that his democracy could go wrong. But he also points out that this is true of any democracy, including the one here in the US of A. Democracy isnt necessarily about making good choices, he says. Its about avoiding conflict. Of course, there are other ways of avoiding conflict, and in the online agethe post-Trump ageits worth asking whether a true democracy is the best method. The crowds dont always get things right. The hope is that at the very least, democracy will eventually produce more good than bad.

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A Plan to Save Blockchain Democracy From Bitcoin's Civil War - WIRED