Category Archives: Bitcoin

A security flaw has been uncovered in the major internet utility Cloudflare, which millions of web businesses depend on. The bug was serious because the leaked memory could contain private information and because it had been cached by search engines, Cloudflares response team said on Thursday.

A list of 4,287,625 possibly affected domains includes many in the bitcoin space. The data shared includes passwords, private messages, API keys, and other sensitive data, although such data could not be targeted, and fell in the hands of random requesters. While the earliest date memory could have leaked is September 2016, Cloudflare has had no reports that outside parties had identified the issue or exploited it.

- Cloudflare response team

The bug was discovered by Google vulnerability researcher Tavis Ormandy on Friday, who notified CloudFlare about the leak immediately. Within 47 minutes, CloudFlare reported the leak as plugged, and the underlying issues were corrected within 7 hours.

Self-described cypherpunk and former CloudFlare employee Ryan Lackey subsequently wrote up an in-depth how to deal with it article, approved by Ormandy. Lackey provides system administrators with advice on handling the problem, and advised all CloudFlare users about what to look for.

The most sensitive information leaked is authentication information and credentials, Lackey explains. A compromise of this data can have lasting and ongoing consequences until credentials are revoked and replaced.

CloudFlare is one of the most popular content delivery networks, and used by all kinds of websites to lower bandwidth costs and protect against DDoS attacks. In the bitcoin service community specifically, major exchanges and utilities are on the list, including Coinbase, Blockchain.info, BTC-E, Bitpay, Localbitcoins, Glidera, Poloniex, BitcoinCharts, and Kraken.

Other major websites that Bitcoin users may visit on the list include Authy, Uber, Yelp, Medium, Upwork, Fiverr, Taringa!, Zoho, Pastebin, DigitalOcean, Namecheap, Glassdoor, Prosper, TorrentFreak, OKCupid, Zendesk, FitBit, oDesk, Pingdom, Techdirt, Statcounter, Typepad, Udemy, TechinAsia, Producthunt, and 4Chan, to name a few.

The users of these services are advised to change passwords and reset any two-factor authentication. While Cloudflares service was rapidly patched to eliminate this bug, data was leaking constantly before this pointfor months, states Lackey. Some of this data was cached publicly in search engines such as Google, and is being removed.

Bitpay was among the first in the bitcoin community to publically respond to the leak. We believe that it would not be possible for a BitPay users password to have been exposed by this bug, the company states, while recommending that users, take the time to reset your password.

Coinbase issued a statement several hours later. The company discovered a single instance of a leaked Coinbase session cookie, which they immediately invalidated. We have no reason to believe that any Coinbase customers personal data or account has been compromised. Users are advised to logout of any mobile apps and log back in to clear that session cookie. They also advised businesses using their API to get a new key.

The reclusive Russian exchange BTC-e also advised changing their API keys, and for safety gave their users until Sunday the 26th to change their login credentials. If not changed by then, users will be logged out of the exchange and be forced to change them before logging back in.

Kraken and Glidera both sent out an email to their users recommending a password and two-factor authentication update. Canadian bitcoin exchange QuadrigaCX posted similar instructions on the bitcoin Reddit forum.

- Bitpay

A similar wide-scale vulnerability affected the world in April 2014. The Heartbleed bug, which Cloudbleed is named after, was a weakness in site security encryption. The bug also leaked small chunks of private data from computer memory, but did so when websites used OpenSSL, a very common way for business websites and even banks to protect against hackers and theft. The fix for Heartbleed was more difficult than Cloudbleed, wherein websites had to upgrade to a new version of OpenSSL.

Bitcoin was also susceptible to the bug, and developers addressed the issue in Bitcoin Core version 0.9.1. Exchanges were the most vulnerable, but after the developers issued the patch, the major exchanges had all upgraded in a matter of hours. Cloudbleed, on the other hand, requires all users to take action in order to stay safe.

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The Cloudbleed bug affects a range Bitcoin users - Brave New Coin

Bits, the units of information that underlie any digital currency, have only two values: zero or one. Perhaps it's time investors were reminded thatbuying bitcoin is a similarly binary wager.

The virtual asset is trading at a record,shrugging off a campaignby the People's Bank of China to control trading. Underpinning its rise is the hope that American entrepreneursCameron and Tyler Winklevosswill succeed in their attempt to create thefirst bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

On March 11, the twins are expected to receive a final decision from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on whether they can list their ETF.Afavorable outcome would create a precedent and pave the way for other providers. There are two more fundsseeking a review from the regulator -- one of which already trades over the counter -- and talk abounds of many more.

Investors who have driven bitcoin's price above itsNovember 2013 high of $1,137 are betting that the advent of bitcoin ETFs will spur demand foran asset class withlimited supplyand cause prices to extend their climb.

High Hopes

Investors are betting that the first SEC-approved bitcoin ETF could spur demand

Source: Bloomberg

What they may be missing is the possibility that the Winklevoss twinswill fail. A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the possibility of approval of the Winklevoss ETF, showed favorable odds of only 34 percent on Monday.

Odds of SEC approval

34%

In spite of employing lawyerKathleen Moriarty, a legend in the ETF world, the Winklevosses have been forced to wait since July 2013as the regulator takes its time to determine whether the digital currency can be considered an asset class. Even the lawyers working for the twinsinitially didn't want to take the case because they thought bitcoin might be a Ponzi scheme.

All the while, the twins have been amending their filing in an attempt to convince the SEC. The latest bull run started shortly after their most recent addendum, registered on Jan. 20, which among other things requested a larger initial issue size for the fund.

Along the way, they've added settlement systems in order to establish the bitcoin price and determine the net asset value of the ETF at the end of every day. (Conveniently, that process will happen on the Gemini exchange, owned by the Winklevosses.) They've also added insurance, so potential hacks shouldn't be an issue.

Yet for all their bending over backward, they have yet to win an endorsement from the regulator, which stilloperates mostly on legislation enacted in 1933. The U.S. government simply may not be ready to give the stamp of approval to bitcoin that allowing an ETF would imply.

In the more likely outcome of an SEC rejection, bitcoin could quickly drop back to the sub-$800 levels tested after China's latest crackdown was unveiled in January. That would be a drop of about a third from the current price. Meanwhile, the upside in the event of approval is unclear.

The launch of the first Gold ETF was hardly bullish. For the first year of its existence, themetal's price actually dropped. Eventually, it took off, but more as a resultof the turmoil unleashed by the global financial crisis than on its own merits.

Fall to Rise

In the first year of the pioneer gold ETF, the yellow metal's price actually dropped

Source: Bloomberg

Put simply, the downside for bitcoin is potentially much bigger than the upside -- at least in the short term. The digital currency's future has never been this binary. Unlike with programming code, though, one of the two alternatives isn't zero: It's a deeply negative number.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

(Updates fifth paragraph withBitcoin Mercantile Exchange contract.)

To contact the author of this story: Christopher Langner in Singapore at clangner@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.net

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A Binary Bet on the Bitcoin Twins - Bloomberg

Danish law enforcement have arrested drug traffickers after an investigation that included surveilling the blockchain, according to the regional publication Berlingske. The Danish polices cyber crime unit NC3 claim they have made arrests based on criminal activity tracked via bitcoin transactions.

Law enforcement officials are indeed working with blockchain surveillance software globally, and even warning against the use of digital currency mixers.

Also read:Basel Institute: Take Action Against Digital Currency Mixers/Tumblers

The chief of the Danish cyber crime unit, Kim Aarenstrup, has revealed authorities in the region created a tracking system that analyzes bitcoin transactions. Aarenstrup details the tool has helped police with two narcotics convictions. One arrest took place in January when Danish police arrested a young man for purchasing ketamine, cocaine, and amphetamines on darknet marketplaces. (DNM)

Bitcoin and virtual currency in general is used a lot for trafficking in weapons and drugs, ransom cases and extortion cases, Aarenstrup said. It has become a heavily used tool for criminals. We are pretty much unique in the world at this point because theyre not really any others who have managed to use these trails as evidence.

The Danish prosecutor who worked on the convictions, Jesper Klyve, explained their blockchain analysis worked because the drug traffickers had correlatedbitcoin transactions. Many services that offer bitcoin purchasing platforms follow strict KYC policies and buyers typically have to verify their identification.

Aarenstrup told the press the new blockchain surveillance system was ground-breaking.

The Danish cyber crime unit is not the only agency utilizing blockchain surveillance software to capture criminals. There are four known startups using bitcoin transaction analysis tools and collaborating with law enforcement worldwide. Companies utilizing blockchain surveillance software include Elliptic, Chainalysis, Numisight, and Skry. Both Elliptic and Chainalysis have been working with law enforcement agencies like the FBI, Interpol, Europol and KYC/AML platform providers.

Last summer, Chainalysis detailed that the company was working with global authorities to combat ransomware. Michael Gronager, CEO and co-founder of Chainalysis,said at the time, Expect to see some arrests soon as law enforcement agencies wrap up their investigations into several ransomware operations.

In January, the Basel Institute on Governance, Europol, Interpol, and officialsfrom Qatar warned against the use of bitcoin transaction mixers.

All countries are advised to take action against digital currency mixers/tumblers, theyexplained.

Alongside the rise of startups and law enforcement deploying blockchain surveillance, software developers are also creating privacy-centric transaction tools and concepts for Bitcoin. Ideas like Tumblebit, Schnorr signatures, confidential transactions, and other protocols are being developed. There are also in-production mixing services like Joinmarket, and anonymizing wallets like Samourai.

The privacy activists behind the Samourai wallet recently introduced features like Ricochet, and reusable payment codes. Samourai rebukes warnings made by bureaucrats and law enforcement against privacy-enhancing tools. In a recent blog post called The Bureaucrats Are Coming, the privacy-centric wallet developers explain they are ready to fight the state.

Samourai will not cower to these ivory tower elites We will actively work to destroy the effectiveness of any legislation or policy that is produced.

What do you think about law enforcement officials tracking bitcoin transactions? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Danish Cyber Crime Unit, and Chainalysis.

Have you seen our new widget service? It allows anyone to embed informative Bitcoin.com widgets on their website. Theyre pretty cool and you can customize by size and color. The widgets include price-only, price and graph, price and news, forum threads. Theres also a widget dedicated to our mining pool, displaying our hash power.

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Danish Police Surveil the Blockchain to ... - news.bitcoin.com

In the last few months devastating earthquakes have hit central Italy, devastating many mountain villages, killing nearly 300 people and displacing 22 thousand inhabitants. The environmentalist association Legambiente, and several partners, have since been collaborating on a crowdfunding campaign for those affected.

Legambiente (League for the Environment) is the most widespread environmental organization in Italy, with 20 Regional branches and more than 115,000 members. It is acknowledged as association of environmental interest by the Ministry of the Environment; it represents the UNEP National Committee for Italy, it is one of the leading member of the European Environmental Bureau, and of IUCN - the World Conservation Union.

The bitcoin based campaign was Legambientes first foray into bitcoin donations, thanks to Helperbit. 59 percent of the campaigns goal, over eight bitcoins, have already been raised. Five of those bitcoins were donated by insurance giant Swiss Re.

- Helperbit

Helpbit is an Italian startup that uses Blockchain technology to allow people to donate digital and local currencies to charities and people in need all over the world, while tracking the donations and the manner in which they are used.

The company co-founders Guido Baroncini Turricchia, Davide Gessa, Davide Menegaldo, Roberto Tudini, Vincenzo Agu and Gianluca Carbone, initially came up with the idea for their platform in 2009, after reading news about the ineffective management of charitable funds following the 2009 LAquila earthquake in Italy.

In 2012, the Italian il Fatto Quotidiano reported that the five million euros donated by Italians to help with building reconstruction were transferred to a guarantee fund, which locked up the funds for nine years.

The lack of transparency that characterizes the traditional systems allows donative streams to be drained along their way to those who need it, Helperbit states. The lack of transparency puts people off donating and we want to unlock this unexpressed donative potential.

Having officially launched in 2015, Helperbit now offers a bitcoin platform that allows people to donate digital and local currencies to charities and people in need all over the world. Donors can trace the funds and the manner in which they are used, offering true transparency.

- Helperbit

The recent fundraising campaign provided a specific case study for the Helperbit platform. The campaign funds are being offered to local entrepreneurs. We want to support and promote their economic activities and finance projects presented by those that, in front of the tragedy of the earthquake, want to react, investing on new corporate initiatives in those areas, Helperbit explains.

Among the many affected locals, the earthquake in central Italy has taken away everything Ilaria and Lorenzo have. The owners of Societ Agricola Etiche Terre S.S., moved to the region less than a year ago to start the production of saffron, garlic and black truffle.

The farmers recently uploaded the first invoice on the Helperbit platform, activating a refund request from Legambiente. Much of the process is visible in the public Bitcoin Blockchain, including the proof of expenditure with a cryptographic reference to the invoice.

The document certifying the request and the transaction are now inextricably linked in the immutable and decentralized public register, giving the opportunity to verify the sender, the recipient and the justification. The process provides a higher level of transparency and increases donor participation. They know precisely how the funds are spent.

Donors should be able to decide how their donation is used. Organizations that act properly should not be affected by few bad behaviors, states Helpbit. Our aim is to offer tools that allow the system to work with a complete audit of economic flows.

Each campaign Helperbit runs uses multisignature technology. Recipients get as many multisignature keys as is appropriate for their organization. This reduces drastically the risk of theft and misuse of the donations, Helperbit explains. Donors also receive a key. Helperbit Donors can fund their accounts by either sending bitcoin or simply use their own debit cards. Organization can accept bitcoin or local currency.

The platform won second place in the iBank Challenge 2016 competition in December, taking home 11,000 after beating out all but one of the 83 contestants. The contest was promoted by the Italian Banking Association and organized by its own R&D laboratory, ABI Lab.

- Helperbit

Vaious Charities including the Red Cross and Greenpeace hace accepted bitcoins for individual fundraisers in the past, but typically they do not explore accepting bitcoin permanently as the size of the market is still too small. Unfortunately, few if any of these attempts have exposed the major charities to the technological benefits of using a blockchain.

Bitgives GiveTrack is one of very few similar attempts at tracking charity funding from donor to recipient. The platform has many of the same features as Helperbit, and has successfully run several campaigns. The Water Project raised $11,000, more than their $10,000 goal.

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Bitcoin charity platform Helperbit completes first case study - Brave New Coin

Bitcoin users need to be well aware of the recent CloudFlare issue, as it affects quite a few different cryptocurrency-related services. Several companies issued warnings regarding CloudBleed, all of whom advise users to change their passwords. With so many exchanges relying on CloudFlare, this is another example of why centralization needs to be avoided.

To put the CloudBleed security issue into perspective, the scope of services affected by this data leak extends well beyond the bitcoin space. It is believed the data leak exposes thousands of passwords and other personal information for several months until it was discovered. Cloudflare managed nearly 10% of all web traffic, which makes it one of the backbones of the internet, so to speak. Unfortunately, this also means virtually every popular service is affected by this data leak.

Among the information being leaked to anyone who requested it are passwords, cookies, messages, and any other type of personal information one can think of. The bug was discovered in September of 2016, yet no further specific details were provided to us at this time. We do know the list of clients affected by CloudBleed is a lot larger than most people would think possible.

Security analysts at Googles Project Zero noticed an overflow error that could leak sensitive information to search engines and other platforms scraping data from the internet. This opens up a treasure trove of financial information to hackers and other criminals looking to take advantage of it. It is unclear if any of this information was obtained by hackers, but it seems very plausible that is the case.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is confident the issue was fixed before someone could even take advantage of the flaw. That is a rather bold and positive statement, although it wont necessarily put peoples minds at ease. Various bitcoin companies issued warnings to their users to change their password immediately, as that remains the best course of action. Moreover, any platform where the same password was used will need to have the credentials updated as well.

The list of affected bitcoin companies is rather long and includes virtually every platform most users ever come in contact with. Popular exchanges, such as Coinbase, BTC-E, QuadrigaCX, Kraken, Bitstamp, and Bitfinex, for example, are all using Cloudflare for their Anti-DDOS protection. All of these companies advised users to update their password sooner rather than later. LocalBitcoins is also affected, even though the platform does not act as a custodian for funds. Then again, having someone steal your account and scamming users is still a real threat.

This event goes to show multiple companies relying on one and the same anti-DDoS provider is a big problem. Especially in the world of bitcoin and decentralization, a more distributed solution is direly needed. CloudFlare has built a strong reputation over the past few years, but this data leak highlights the problem of centralization. All bitcoin users relying on a service affected by this leak need to update their login credentials as soon as possible, that much is certain.

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CloudBleed Data Leak Is A Big Threat To Bitcoin Platforms - The Merkle

Forbes

Beyond Bitcoin: Blockchain R&D Firm Investing $1M+ In Scottish University Tech Lab Forbes With cascading disruption and decentralization in the blockchain space the order of the day, IOHK, a leading blockchain research and development company, and the University of Edinburgh are to invest between $500,000 and $1 million (m) a year in the ... and more »

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Beyond Bitcoin: Blockchain R&D Firm Investing $1M+ In Scottish University Tech Lab - Forbes

U.S. corporations that have long resisted bending to the demands of computer hackers who take their networks hostage are increasingly stockpiling bitcoin, the digital currency, so that they can quickly meet ransom demands rather than lose valuable corporate data.

The companies are responding to cybersecurity experts who recently have changed their advice on how to deal with the growing problem of extortionists taking control of the computers.

"It's a moral dilemma. If you pay, you are helping the bad guys," said Paula Long, chief executive of DataGravity, a Nashua, N.H., company that helps clients secure corporate data. But, she added, "You can't go to the moral high ground and put your company at risk."

"A lot of companies are doing that as part of their incident response planning," said Chris Pogue, chief information security officer at Nuix, a company that provides information management technologies. "They are setting up bitcoin wallets."

Pogue said he believed thousands of U.S. companies had prepared strategies for dealing with hacker extortion demands, and numerous law firms have stepped in to facilitate negotiations with hackers, many of whom operate from the other side of the globe.

Symantec, a Mountain View, Calif., company that makes security and storage software, estimates that ransom demands to companies average between $10,000 and $75,000 for hackers to provide keys to decrypt frozen networks. Individuals whose computers get hit pay as little as $100 to $300 to unlock their encrypted files.

Companies that analyze cyber threats say the use of ransomware has exploded, and payments have soared. Recorded Future, a Somerville, Mass., threat intelligence firm, says ransom payments skyrocketed 4,000 percent last year, reaching $1 billion. Another firm, Kaspersky Lab, estimates that a new business is attacked with ransomware every 40 seconds.

"If you're hit by ransomware today, you have only two options: You either pay the criminals or you lose your data," said Raj Samani, chief technical officer at Intel Security for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "We underestimated the scale of the issue."

Hackers often send out email with tainted hyperlinks to broad targets, say, an entire company. All it takes is one computer user in a company to click on the infected link to allow hackers to get a foothold in the broader network, leading to hostile encryption.

"At least one employee will click on anything," said Robert Gibbons, chief technology officer at Datto, a Connecticut company that offers digital disaster recovery services.

Law enforcement counsels U.S. businesses not to succumb to ransom demands, urging them to keep backup copies of their data in case of hostile encryption.

"The official FBI policy is that you shouldn't pay the ransom," said Leo Taddeo, chief security officer for Crypt-zone, a Waltham, Mass., company that provides network security. Until 2015, Taddeo ran the cyber division of the FBI's New York City office.

But practical considerations increasingly are dictating a different approach. "It's an option to pay the ransom to get back up and running. Sometimes it's the only option," Taddeo said.

"But it has downsides," he added. "Paying ransom just invites the next attack."

Moreover, 1 in 4 companies that pay ransoms never get their files restored, Gibbons said.

The idea of rewarding extortionists with payment makes some technologists see red.

"That makes me super mad," said Lior Div, chief executive of Cybereason, a Boston-area cybersecurity company. "There are things that are unacceptable, and we need to fight them."

Div and his company have done something about the extortion epidemic. They built a product called RansomFree that claims to detect 99 percent of all ransomware strains.

So far, the free software has been downloaded 125,000 times, the company says.

As extortionists get more sophisticated, researchers say, they are modifying their malicious code, their infection strategies and the way they collect payments.

Once they weasel their way into your network, they now take a look around.

"They'll actually explore your system to see how much money they can squeeze from you," said Andrei Barysevich, director of advanced collection at Recorded Future.

And they won't offer any sympathy, no matter how valuable the encrypted data, even if lives are at stake, say, in a health care network. They may even say they are doing nothing evil.

"They actually think they are on the moral high ground. They think the companies should have paid more for security," said Barysevich, who spoke at a presentation this week at the annual RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco, which bills itself as the world's leading gathering of cybersecurity specialists.

One of the reasons midsize and large companies are storing bitcoin for emergency use is that extortionists, once they succeed at penetrating a system, commonly give a deadline for payment before destroying data. But victims can't rush out and buy bitcoin in a day or two.

"It takes at times a week for (brokers) to process you," Barysevich said.

Setting up the wallet ahead of time, Pogue said, allows businesses an option that is quick, although perhaps repugnant.

"If they need to go to it, they are not spinning their wheels standing up a bitcoin wallet," Pogue said.

2017 The Star Democrat under contract with NewsEdge/Acquire Media. All rights reserved.

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Spooked by Cyber Extortion Spike, Businesses Stockpile Bitcoin - NewsFactor Network

Its been a volatile year so far for bitcoin. The value of the cryptocurrency jumped 20 percent in the first trading week of the year to a record high of $1,161 per virtual coin. Its value then plunged by more than a third over seven days, to $750, before climbing back up to top $1,200 on Friday.

Traders said the main cause of this roller coaster ride has been China, where the countrys central bank put domestic bitcoin exchanges on notice early last month that they needed to do more to tighten foreign exchange controls. China has been trying to curb the practice of using bitcoin to circumvent rules limiting the amount of money Chinese mainlanders can send abroad, which is currently capped at $50,000 a year.

This capital flight has caused a drop in the value of the renminbi and Chinese regulators have connected the dots between last years drop in the value of the countrys currency and a corresponding rise in the value of bitcoin. Bitcoin bought in renminbi accounted for a staggering 98 percent of all bitcoin trading activity in the last six months of 2016, according to bitcoinity.org.

Eager to convert the Chinese currency into a more stable global currency and stash that wealth abroad, many Chinese mainlanders have been buying bitcoin locally in renminbi and then, using bitcoins blockchain technology, which allows users to safely transmit bitcoin through the Internet, theyre sending bitcoin to other countries where recipients (family members, friends or other contacts) convert bitcoin back into a local currency which can then be used to make investments outside of the country.

But why isnt China simply clamping down hard on the whole bitcoin thing?

You have a government that likes to retain control, and bitcoin is a decentralized currency outside of the control of any nation-state, Christopher Burniske, blockchain products analyst at New York-based ARK Investment Management, told Salon. So that right there is a bit threatening, but at the same time China is working to be recognized as a global leader in technology and economics and the political fallout from outright banning or confiscating bitcoin is arguably too great.

Burniske said China may have other motives for not taking a hardline stance, such as working to develop its own form of digital currency, informally known as ChinaCoin. Early last year, the countrys central banksaid it was mulling a rollout of its own digital currency.

Theamount of bitcoin bought using the Chinese yuan has plummeted to less than 5 percent this week, thank to efforts by domestic exchanges to cool bitcoin trading activity with a one-month ban on making withdrawals and per-transaction fees that went into effect this month. Traders expect Chinas central bank to eventually impose regulations on local bitcoin trading, too, which helped to push the price of bitcoin down. Currently the market is unregulated in China, but traditional financial institutions are barred from dealing in bitcoin.

With so much less bitcoin trading activity from mainland China, why has the value of the currency bounced back to a record high?

Some of it has to do with traders betting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will approve at least one of three proposed exchange-traded funds based on bitcoin trading before a March 11 deadline. Though its uncertain whetherU.S. regulators would actually allow trading securities based on the fluctuation in the value of bitcoin, some less cautious investors are buying bitcoin hoping the value will jump after an announcement is made. The other reason is that bitcoin has become a alternative safe-harbor investment, like gold or U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. inflation is expected to rise this year and bitcoin is being used by some to hedge against a drop in the value of the U.S. dollar. Global political uncertainty may also be playing a role.

Whatever the case may be, bitcoins quick rebound from the China scare could be a sign that the cryptocurrency is becoming more mainstream, according to Burniske, being used more frequently to buy goods and services from merchants that accept it.

This is a sign of global traction for bitcoin, he said. You now have more bitcoin being transacted as a means of exchange than traded as astore of value. Im seeing this as a positive indication of bitcoins globally distributed support, that its not as reliant on China as many people believed it was just a few months ago.

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Bitcoin is devaluing China's currency but the country won't do much about it - Salon

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Is there an alternative, profound French phrase or two that can describe what investors have seen this week with bitcoin? Because dj vu no longer seems to cut it.

Bitcoin is quickly headed toward fresh three-year highs after jumping up over $100 in value since last weeks tracker. After breaking through the $1,000 mark (again) at the beginning of February, bitcoin decided to stick around.

Though the cryptocurrency flirted with higher numbers, bitcoin mostly settled just above or below $1,000 for the first half of the month likely while investors waited to see how the whole Chinese exchange investigation storyline would pan out.

But now that the major exchanges have halted withdrawals for upgrades and it appears, at least for now, that no catastrophic changes to the crypto-status quo are coming from the PBoC its off to the races once again.

First, bitcoin has managed to stay above $1,000 for a record 10 days, leading some to speculate that the cryptocurrency could be developing a new, $1,000 price floor though it may still be too early to tell. The rise in value is likely due to speculation that the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) will, in fact, receive approval from the SEC.

On Thursday (Feb. 23) morning, bitcoin had broken $1,150 in value, reaching a high of $1,153.04. At the time of writing, bitcoins price sat at $1,149 even, up 2.39 percent over Wednesdays close. The bitcoin market cap was over $18.5 billion. The cryptocurrencys maximum value, reached on Nov. 30, 2013, was $1,165.89, according to CoinDesk.

In stateside bitcoin news, Coinsource, the largest network of bitcoin ATMs in the U.S., recently announced the placement of three new machines in St. Louis, Missouri, the companys first foray into the Midwestern market.

Including the three new machines, Coinsource now has 80 machines in nine U.S. states up from 73 when PYMNTS interviewed CMO Bobby Sharp this past December. Founded in Feb. 2015, Coinsource debuted its first kiosk in the Miracle Mile Shops in Las Vegas.

Coinsource CEO Sheffield Clark saidthe company hopes to have 100 machines installed in the U.S. by the end of Q1, adding: In 2016, we were installing bitcoin ATMs at an average of 1.2 machines per week. We hope to double that this year.

Locations on the radar for new Coinsource ATMs in 2017, according to Sharp, included in Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis.

By the end of 2017, I think we could potentially be in 1520 states, Sharp said. Possibly even a couple of other continents by 2018. We definitely have some company goals to explore outside the United States.

In addition to expanding into new markets, Coinsource has made it a goal to augment the functionality of its current and new machines in 2017. The company is looking to add more financial services and platforms, as well as to increase the number of two-way machines nationwide.

In the international market, the past few weeks have also seen a number of propositions and efforts by various global governments, financial regulatory bodies and other organizations to work toward bitcoin regulation.

The big news as of late has come out of the Philippines after the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), announced itwould actively regulate the bitcoin industry as a means to combat money laundering and terrorist financing schemes.

Earlier this month, the BSP published guidelines for entities that offer exchange services, including a registration requirement with both BSP and the nations anti-money laundering organization. Bitcoin exchanges will also be subject to annual fee services.

While not an endorsement of cryptocurrency by any means, the move is a step forward in the country of nearly 100 millionand could work to combat the seedier elements at work in the bitcoin ecosystem, while protecting consumers and increasing financial stability for citizens using the digital currency for legal payments and remittances.

Last month, the central bank and government of the United Arab Emirates had drawn up regulatory frameworks for FinTech and digital payments at large.

Additionally, The Cointelegraph reported that government officials and political leaders have also come together to discuss the potential of bitcoin and blockchain technologies for the future of the financial industry and ecosystem in the UAE.

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Bitcoin Tracker: Up, Up And Away? - PYMNTS.com

Keeping bitcoin funds safe can be quite a challenge, especially for people who are new to the cryptocurrency world. There are several types of solutions to create a paper wallet, which make the process a bit easier. Do keep in mind that using single keys for anything but one-time paper wallet transfers is discouraged due to security concerns. Below are four paper wallet generation solutions which are all worth checking out.

Although very few people may know this app exists, it is an open-source tool that offers quite a few intriguing functions. One of those features includesprinting a bitcoin addresses as a paper wallet. It is worth noting this project was created by Casascius, the same person who introduced the most popular physical bitcoins to the world many years ago. It is also capable of creating private keys for brainwallets, which may be of use to some.

One of the oldest tools to be created as part of the bitcoin world goes by the name of CWallet. It allows users to easily and securely create paper wallets, although it is only compatible with the Pirate Linux live disc. The choice for that particular OS is not random, as Pirate Linux is based on Gentoo, the most secure operating system according to many experts. Keeping information secure while generating a paper wallet is of the utmost importance.

Unlike some other solutions, CWallet does not require a web browser to generate said paper wallet. Instead, it uses the graphic or command-line interface to create the wallet using real random numbers. Moreover, the tool ensures all printed data isnt corrupted and not tampered with. It is a very secure paper wallet solution, that much is certain.

The Bitcoin Paper Wallet site is one of the most convenient ways to generate a secure storage solution for cryptocurrency. The site lets users generate a wallet through the browser and print it afterward. Moreover, the owner sells tamper-evident stickers to ensure private keys are safe from harm and misuse. Its custom designs make this platform one of the most popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Plus, these paper wallets also make for excellent gifts, which is an added bonus.

When it comes to security, look no further thanVanityGen. Although this software is primarily used to generate vanity bitcoin wallet addresses, it can also be used to generate a secure paper wallet. Vanitygen accepts patterns or a list of patterns as input. It then produces multiple addresses and private keys based on this input. More complex patterns will require more time to generate. Using a complicated pattern may not be the best idea to generate appear wallet, though.

To generate a paper wallet, one could put Vanitygen on a USB stick and run it on a computer not connected to the internet. It is by far the most secure solution for this type of purpose, which still leaves room for customization. Generating a custom vanity wallet address can be a bit time-consuming, but it could be worth the effort to some cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

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