Category Archives: Bitcoin

Steve Jobs once said that the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Thats the motto an anonymous person took to heart as he shook up the financial world by creating an unregulated tech-based currency in early 2009. That very currency was developed using another revolutionary technology which is now in the news for its uses beyond trading unregulated online money, and has become a hot topic amongst financial and business executives recently.

Gary Vaynerchuk was so impressed with TNW Conference 2016 he paused mid-talk to applaud us.

Lets discuss what both technologies offer their users, and what the future holds for each.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, created and held electronically on your PC or in a virtual wallet. No one controls it or sees it its decentralized so no person, institution or bank controls the currency.

It was the year 2009 when bitcoin burst onto the financial scene, and soon computers all over the world started running sophisticated programs that would mine blocks of bitcoins by solving extremely complex mathematical equations. Mining bitcoin means to discover or verify new bitcoins because unlike traditional currency, bitcoin cannot be printed. Miners make money every time they discover new bitcoins or verify a bitcoin transaction.

There can only be a fixed 21 million bitcoins [to prevent inflation], out of which 15.5 million are currently in circulation, which leaves 5.5 million bitcoins to be discovered. These valued blocks of online information skyrocketed in price as time went on and investor appeal in the new technology grew. Today, January 19th, bitcoin is showing an upwards trend and is trading at US $890.90, below the US $1000 threshold it broke in November 2013.

Figure 1 Bitcoin price between July 2010 and Jan 2017. Source: Coindesk

Trading could be done online anonymously, quickly, without hassle from regulatory and exchange bodies. The ease of use and lack of a trail led to flexibility unheard of in the financial world. But for all its benefits, the currency was overshadowed because of its anonymous, unregulated nature as it became easy for people to use the currency for illicit transactions that would stay off the books, as well as for schemes that swindled people.

Coinbase has been one of the biggest proponents and enablers of bitcoin use. In an era where most traditional financial institutions avoid bitcoin discussions, the company sticks vehemently to its stand on bitcoin, likening the resistance of business executives to bitcoin to how companies once preferred private intranets over the open internet. We all know who won that battle!

While bitcoin had the power to make transactions untraceable, it was another innovation that promised to make every transaction transparent and permanent. Underlying the use of bitcoin is blockchain, which is almost entirely opposite its more famous alter-ego. Blockchain possesses the ability of having permanent records of the transactions the blocks (the name for their portions of value) are used for, and at any time people can see those changes online in real time. It is this transparency that people have hopes in, but thats not the only thing blockchain does differently than the cryptocurrency it drove for so long.

Blockchain can easily transfer everything from property rights to stocks and currencies without having to go through a middle man and clearing institution like SWIFT, while offering the same safety, higher speed and lower costs. Consider it from the financial perspective: billions of dollars are transferred daily in the financial markets, with every transaction being cleared by a middle man. Replacing the middle man with a revolutionary technology that is faster, cheaper and as secure will help save millions for businesses.

To put into perspective just how big the market is now and how big it will become, the World Economic Forum shared some metrics on Bitcoin and Blockchain. It estimates that currently $20 billion dollars worth of Bitcoin exists now on record. The bigger prediction, though, was that by 2027 about 10 percent of the entire global GDP would be stored on blockchains, meaning anyone who wanted to become part of that process still has time to get a piece of the pie.

Because of its cleaner reputation than bitcoin, blockchain has garnered the support of different financial institutions behind its design. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Bank of America have expressed great interest in blockchain by joining a coalition to implement it into banking practices. In addition to those large financial players, Visa, NASDAQ, Citi, and others have also agreed to be clients for blockchain related services and technology. These large, long established institutions feel that blockchain has less of a negative image attached to it than bitcoin, and because of that they seem more open to trying out the technology.

The rush towards blockchain is simple: banks can increase the efficiency of their transactions by using their own permissioned blockchains to record all transactions done by their customers, as opposed to trying to record all that data with different types of software that become outdated every few years.

However, some experts like Don Tapscott [University of Toronto] think that banks should be using blockchain technology not just to increase their banking capabilities, but to completely change how banking computing looks like for the entire industry.

Indeed, outside of traditional banking, blockchain services have allowed users to engage in high value currency transactions already. The processing times on these transactions are very quick, and allow for a high volume of money to be exchanged and recorded.

Major bitcoin players include names such as Bitreserve and Circle.

Bitreserve serves as an online portal to convert currency from one form to another. In the beginning, users had to deposit their currency in bitcoin form, and could then convert their bitcoin into 25 other world currencies or fourdifferent types of valuable metals. Circle at first only allowed use of its transfer services amazingly quick money transfers to anyone, anywhere to be done in bitcoin money, including the process of depositing, holding, and sending of currency.

Many of the companies who started off using bitcoin as their main currency are changing to focus on blockchain as a whole. Bitreserve changed its name to Uphold and has since allowed depositing of currency in any form, and Circle has changed to allow use of credit and debit cards to be used for deposit, holding, and sending of money worldwide.

Many startups that were created with a focus on bitcoin are changing to accommodate alternative currencies and to let others know that they are not nearly as bitcoin dependent as before for what seems to be a similar reason to the one banks use: that bitcoin has a negative connotation to it, and since blockchain is the hot commodity now, it seems like a smarter idea to tie the business to that. They hope that, as more businesses and users adopt the blockchain technology, their use of it will also allow them to gain in popularity and use.

For players in the financial sector, the best thing to do right now would be to seriously consider the advantages of blockchain. While bitcoin is the most top of mind for the general public, blockchain is attracting the biggest forces in the finance sector with its clean reputation. More than that, blockchain offers the opportunity to revitalize modern value transactions as we know it, and those who get their stakes in before that happens will have the best chance to shape what happens after. Its business management 101: first-mover advantage!

Is it crazy to change course of your company to try something so new, something so different from what you have has been accustomed to. Maybe so. But as Steve Jobs very rightly noted when thinking about changing the world, financial or otherwise its usually the crazy ones who do.

Read next: ASUS made a beefed-up Raspberry Pi rival that plays 4K video

Shh. Here's some distraction

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How Blockchain is overshadowing Bitcoin

CNBC.com has released their digital documentary The Bitcoin Uprising this morning. The documentary follows cnbc.com reporter Mary Thompson into the world of bitcoin, from home-based mining operations to the deep web. Thompson and one of her producers, Karina Frayter, decided to create this piece after realizing that a 1-minute hit (or story) on the currency was too difficult to do. The documentary will only be available online, as that is the most appropriate place for it, considering the bitcoin community is completely immersed in the digital world, Thompson explains.

Thompsons journey through the bitcoin sphere started from a place of pure curiosity. However, she quickly recognized that this new technology had many strong voices backing it, and strong voices criticizing it. Bitcoin Uprising presents a well-balanced view, as compared to many other one-sided pro or anti-bitcoin pieces, by considering both the potential for and the problems with the technology. We wanted to see what was behind both sides of this, Mary explains, and try to get a clearer way of seeing if there was a future for the digital currency. Kudos to Thompson and her team for presenting both sides of the (bit)coin.

The process itself to produce the show was exhausting compared to Thompsons usual 1-minute long pieces. However, Thompson found solace in the bitcoin community, who she describes as passionate about what they are doing, very, very straightforward, and willing to help [her] understand a very complicated topic.

The documentary itself starts by showing the sheer excitement amongst bitcoin enthusiasts. It moves through the lifestyle of a hard-core bitcoin early adopter and advocate a computer whiz kid and shows how he lives his life using bitcoin. It then explores home-based mining; the debate between old-school investors like Warren Buffet vs. new tech investors like Marc Andreessen (who is shown saying the historical track record of old white men, who dont understand technology, crapping on new technology is, I think, 100%); the dark side of bitcoin through drug and hitman-services on the deep web, where most merchants prefer bitcoin; and more. It also highlights the incredible rise of the currency, from a growth perspective, comparing bitcoin to Facebook stock.

Thompson worked with her producer to choose who she would be interviewing and highlighting through the documentary, noting that her producer had done a couple of stories that involved the hacking community, so she was able to connect [Thompson] with bitcoin users who were able to talk about what they were doing.

The Bitcoin community knows very well that the key issue to adoption is the currencys ease of use. Currently, the largest challenges prohibiting immediate mass adoption of Bitcoin are understanding the currency and its protocol, and then easily using it in day-to-day life. Its ironic that most people have no idea how their fiat currency operates, but continue to use it everyday. However, discussing Bitcoin brings these questions about money to the forefront. Thompson also explains that many people dont understand why bitcoin would be used over something like the U.S. dollar.

Behind the ease of use of regular credit and debit cards lies a massively complex system of regulation, fees, and intermediaries that add significant hidden costs to the overall transactions in our banked society. Compliance costs, credit card fees, interest, merchant fees, account fees, exchange fees, and government levies/taxes are only some examples. On one hand, Bitcoin can avoid nearly all those fees; on the other hand, it lacks the sheer manpower and infrastructure that makes our modern financial system tick.

Thompson sees this lack of infrastructure as Bitcoins greatest barrier to massive adoption. Storing bitcoin is already problematic for those of us who are banked, Thompson explains. Consider the worlds underbanked, who dont get to put their paper wallet in a safety deposit box.

Andreas Antonopoulos, the biggest supporter of bitcoins power to transform the underdeveloped world, agrees with Thompson on this. Somewhere in the not-so-distant future, Antonopoulos speculates that someone will crack the code and prime Bitcoin for mass adoption, making bitcoin easier for everyone to use (and that individual or company quite wealthy): every entrepreneur in this space should look carefully at user interface and user security and figure out where they can carve out the next open-source solution to [these problems].

Despite the difficulties Thompson sees in acquiring and storing the currency, she holds $10 USD worth, but only to go through the process of understanding how it is acquired. In the name of journalistic integrity, she is staying as neutral as possible. At the current time, CNBC does not have any plans to create any more Bitcoin documentaries, but Thompson sees this as a rapidly developing story, and notes that there were incredible changes to the technology even while she was filming, including the IRS decision to tax the currency like property.

Overall, The Bitcoin Uprising is enjoyable to watch and is accessible enough for public consumption and sharing. Mary Thompson did an excellent job of staying objective in her journalistic pursuits, noting that, whether she loves the digital currency or not, she must remain neutral if she will continue to report on it quite refreshing from polarized views that suggest Bitcoin is either the answer to, or cause of, an impending financial apocalypse.

Catch Bitcoin Uprisingand be sure to share your thoughts by commenting below or tweeting to us @BitcoinMagazine.

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CNBC Explores Bitcoin | Bitcoin Magazine

News By This Year United Kingdom FinTech Will Soar Higher!

The Brexit may have established some vagueness and the question that lingers is how does the United Kingdom keep up upon its lead? And this year the UK FinTech was anticipated to go mainstream. The uncertainty is massively slowing down the funding in which is leading upon slowing down each and every single innovation at the very same time. This particular menace that the London might possibly be overtaken by the non-United Kingdom FinTech hubs is getting right on the way.And as according to by the confirmation of Katia Lang in which is the Co-Founder of the Disrupts Media and the FintNews.com in which is the technology funding is officially slowing down. And right into the Q3, the European start-ups has suffered a colossal decline in the funding, and raising for over the summation of 2.1 billion right from the venture capital funds together with the 464 deals. The drop of a third in which is from the Q2, and the percentage of 39 in which is lower as being compared with the very same period from the year of 2015 as based on the charts in which was explained by Dow Jones of the VentureSource.By this period, the research group of the PitchBook has recorded a percentage of 38 right on the year-on-year decline in the venture capital investment in the European start-ups and a 31% drop in the deals that has been completed right in the third quarter of the year 2016. Katia Lang mentioned that the investors opinion regarding these particular situations has been divided, and some investors have pointed it out into the European Union referendum last June to elucidate the certain drop-off. On the other hand, some of the investors insisted that the Brexit is not the one to blame right for the funding drop; and just thinking it over that the major downturn is a part of a broad global correction in an inflated market.And on Katia Langs perception, the overall slowdown right in the funding was based onto a further careful investing. It unswervingly affects the research and development. And she also pointed it out that since the innovation is not a single event but a continuous progress and even a very minimal changes right in the funding and supplying R&D may possibly lead right into fluctuations and disruptions.All of the innovations of the last five years from now should be taken into the market. This pertains with the challenger banks, the money transfer companies, the insurance challengers and also the investment challengers. And all of these and furthermore are prepared to be delivered right into the United Kingdom B2B and B2C market and this year were the years to do it! Taking by the side of Veronika Bondareva which is the CTO at the Disrupts Media and FintNews.com she says that we the citizens all knew that it is hard t get the consumers to embrace and adopt the innovations and it is getting much harder each and every time. She also adds up that where the millennials are glad to use the new payment technologies which pertain with the smart cards, banking apps and also the wearables and the rest of the consumers are still hard to get anyway.The competence of the old marketing tools such as the advertising, the promotions and also the digital marketing has marked its way down. And it is way hard enough right for the innovators to make a push to make it rise above the din of information right from the competing sources. The price for the customers acquirement and also the maintenance will only get elevated, and the process is more complex than it ever was. Veronika Bondareva claims that the executives must rethink the means that they could be able to bring the innovations complex and also to the market to be able to make them a massive medium at the very exact and the same time.And with the FinTech that is being a future figure of all of the financial services, the worth that is brought right into the sector by making the FinTech mainstream is accurately billions of Pounds per month, and the media a significant collaborator here. Katia Lang emphasized that the FinTech sector probably needs a media institution that fully understands it and also understands how to be able to re-engineer the old commercial figures and also to assure that the propagation of the technologies in an ever increasing radius of influence.Then Veronika Bondareva noted that our digital news agency in which s the FintNews.com embodies the journalistic quality content together with the technological efficiencies; plus we can be able enough upon delivering news from our FinTech clients directly right into an ever growing media network, and it is a quite classic win-win-win technology a triumphant story.And one thing is certain, that one day in this year, the UK FinTech will take a massive lead right into the digital world.

Despite the fact that there are numerous proposals that are presently engaging right at the state level in the United States of America, the state of Illinois has commenced right on accepting the statements and suggestions right from the public together with their regards to its published guidance that intended upon at establishing the regulatory in which was dealing with the digital currencies as it currently subsists right under the states Transmitters of Money Act or the TOMA. The statements and the suggestions will be accepted until the 18th of January this year of 2017; as based on the press release right for the comments by the states Department of Financial and Professional Regulation or the DFPR.As the Department had anticipated that the Digital Currency Regulatory Guidance right on the decentralized digital currencies which is pertaining into the Bitcoin, DogeCoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and the ZCash was declared by the Secretary Bryan A Schneider as he noted that the Department had made a plan upon studying the digital currencies as the technology progresses, on the other hand, at this period, the digital currencies similarly to the Bitcoin had given their low transaction quantity and also somewhat alcove in usage, clearly at this momentum, it is the finest reveal as a speculative investment or probably even a freshest variant of an asset but not as money.With the focal point of the money transmissions and also the activities revolving around the decentralized digital currencies and also to those that are not established or released by a specific individual or entity and have no administrator at all, and plus having no central repository also.The regulation also search out to be able to determine whether or not an Illinois money transmitter license is necessary for an entity to be capable enough upon engaging right in the transmission of the decentralized digital currencies as this circles right on the query of whether a decentralized digital currency is being measured as money in which was identified right in TOMA. And right from the section five of the TOMA, the money is identified as a means of an exchange that is quite certified and embraced by a domestic of the foreign government as a part of its currency and that has been customarily utilized and honored as a medium of exchange right in the entire country of issuance. On the other hand, notwithstanding the classification, the regulatory noted that the decentralized digital currencies are a depiction of the value that can fully function as a means of an exchange but they are not absolutely considered as money right for the purposes of the TOMA due to the fact that they have not been authorized or adopted by a domestic or even a foreign government as a part of their currency.These days, as a novel payment technologies and capabilities developing right in the popularity and it is essential that we the citizens endow with a concise regulatory framework that fully showcase the businesses serving right in this particular space of crucial clarity. And aside right from the Californias AB 1326 bill in which fully had an excellent tailored classification of the virtual currency businesses, New York has its digital currency-specific state of regulation in which was the BitLicense. And as based with the Coin Centre, New Jerseys and North Californias bills are showing its full potential while on the other hand, Connecticuts is much more disconcerting.

Several of the Bitcoin users have compared the digital currency into a settlement networks in particularly the Visa. On the other hand, the one essential technical feature in which separates the Bitcoin right from the rest is the security.Right in early the November of this year, the Tesco Bank hover the entire user transactions right after the summation of 20,000 clients that have reportedly lost an estimated summation of $700 right from their account. And the research which is published right in the academic journal IEEE Security & Privacy in which was led by Mohammed Ali of the Newcastle University exposed that an attack entitled with the Distributed Guessing Attack that could have been possibly used upon infringing of the Tesco Bank accounts. For all of the intents and purposes, the Distributed Guessing Attack has been distinguished as a means in which totally allocates the hackers and the criminals to be able to gain an accessibility right into the Visa credit card numbers and its security code with the duration period of just 6 seconds by the means of the procedure of eradication.The author of the research Mohammed Ali has acknowledged the procedure of eradication within the credit card networks in which pertains with the Visa has ever made it feasible as they do allow an unlimited number of guesses for each and every single card data field. And he said that the boundless guesses upon merged together with the variants right in the payment data fields will eventually dreadfully quite fast and simple for the attackers to be able to generate all of the card information on one field at a particular time. And he adds up that each and every single generated card field can be utilized right in a succession upon generating right into the very next field and so on and so forth. And at the moment that the hits have reached into wide spread right into the websites, then the affirmative response with each and every single question will be received in as fast as two seconds, similarly to any other online payment. And the very first six numbers of any single credit card can fully give out essential information right into the hackers of which was the identity of the credit card network or provider, the bank information and also the card variety; with these particular three pieces of the information, the hackers can be able to use the DGA technique to spend the funds of the card owner. Right here and there Visa, condemn regarding Mohammed Alis research and study. And have not deny the possibility of running the DGA attacks right in their line of credit cards as they have stated through a statement that, the research does not fully take right into the account the multiple layers of fraud prevention that do really exist right within the payment system and each and every single of which must be accomplished to be capable of making a transaction possible in the very real world. The financial service providers and the credit card operators such as the Visa cleared up around the summation of $7 trillion in transactions per year and performing over the summation of 100 billion of transactions for their users. Bearing in mind that the sheer size of the Visa network in which it is pertaining right into unfolding that the hackers can just simply use the means such as the process of elimination to be able enough upon the blindly guess card number and also the security codes right into performing out any single transactions. The Visa and the Tesco Bank hacking attack barely illustrated the significance of the security and also establishing the very needs right for the trustless financial networks and financial systems.

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Bitcoin Exchange, Sell Bitcoins, Buy Bitcoins, Exchange ...

Bitcoin is the world's first decentralized digital currency and online payment system, which allows users to conduct transactions without the need of any third party intermediary (banks for example).

Bitcoin, which is the name given to one unit of the virtual currency, can be divided further into subunits (similar to cents and pennies), the smallest of which is referred to as a satoshi (one hundred millionth of a bitcoin). The bitcoin protocol and reference software (free and open-source), which works on any computer or smart phone, was developed from the one that had been introduced in 2008 by pseudonymous inventor known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

The currency is secured by cryptography thereby making it impossible to duplicate. To begin using bitcoin, a user can sign-up for a free account with any of the bitcoin wallet providers (Blockchain.info and Coinbase are the popular ones). Once signed up, a unique 34-character address (a combination of letters and numbers) is assigned to the user. Alternatively, for better security, a user can download an appropriate wallet and store the bitcoins offline (so called cold storage).

All transactions between the bitcoin users are verified by network nodes and recorded in open shared ledger referred to as the block chain. A record of each transaction is shown in the log of the user as well. Thus, a transaction commences only if there is spendable balance in the wallet. The bitcoin payment system uses a seed or a private key to prevent thieves from stealing the coins from the wallets and to prevent loss or duplication of the coins in the block chain.

The process of confirming the transactions (usually begins in 10 minutes) or record-keeping service is called mining. The computers involved in such a process are called the network nodes. There is a cap of 21 million bitcoins that would be ever created (through reward for the mining process). The rate of creation halves every four years until the cap is reached.

There are four ways of acquiring bitcoins:

Advantages over other forms of payment systems:

Disadvantages:

Here are some picks from the list of the Forex brokers working with Bitcoin:

You may also want to consider a possibility of getting almost passive income through margin lending investment.

To open a Bitcoin wallet, please visit Coinbase or Bitcoin.it.

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Bitcoin Introduction to Bitcoin Payment System

Bitcoin is the currency of the Internet: a distributed, worldwide, decentralized digital money. Unlike traditional currencies such as dollars, bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever: there is no government, company, or bank in charge of Bitcoin. As such, it is more resistant to wild inflation and corrupt banks. With Bitcoin, you can be your own bank.

If you are new to Bitcoin, check out We Use Coins and Bitcoin.org. You can also explore the Bitcoin Wiki:

How to buy bitcoins Buying Reddit Gold with bitcoin

Will I earn money by mining bitcoin?

Security guide for bitcoin

Sorted roughly by decreasing popularity.

chat.freenode.net #bitcoin

Bitcoin Forum Bitcoin Stack Exchange Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Core is the backbone of the Bitcoin network. Almost all Bitcoin wallets rely on Bitcoin Core in one way or another. If you have a fairly powerful computer that is almost always online, you can help the network by running Bitcoin Core. You can also use Bitcoin Core as a very secure Bitcoin wallet.

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The CSS used by this subreddit is the Erdune Theme modified by /u/Annihilia and /u/konkedas. Logo design by /u/Annihilia. Check out his other work here.

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We previously collected donations to fund Bitcoin advertising efforts, but we no longer accept donations. The funds already donated will be spent on some sort of advertising, as intended. As of now, 10.35799117 BTC was spent out of 22.51357574. If you have ideas for the remaining BTC, see here for more info.

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BITCOIN REDDIT - reddit: the front page of the internet

Latest Articles

The I.R.S. is looking at Bitcoin transactions for tax violations, demanding information from Coinbase, a virtual currency exchange.

By PETER J. HENNING

The I.R.S. has asked Coinbase, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the United States, for the records of customers who bought virtual currency from 2013 to 2015.

Unlike Bitcoin, Zcash transactions can be confirmed without recording the addresses involved, which could make it harder to win support from regulators and bankers.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

Thomson Reuters, the global digital information company, said it would move its senior executives to Toronto, and two automakers made deals with Canadian plants.

By IAN AUSTEN

Central banks view the technology behind the virtual currency as a possible way to compete and record transactions, or to issue their own currencies.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

The financial services industry needs to face the question of how to balance the appeal of pristine accounting with the demands of the real world.

The World Economic Forum predicts that the blockchain concept introduced by the virtual currency could help banks offer cheaper, faster and more secure services.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

Millions of dollars worth of the currency was taken from Bitfinex, causing a 20 percent decline in the price, which partially recovered later.

By AMIE TSANG

The banks profits dropped 40 percent in the second quarter.

Deutsche Bank Pulls Back from Coal Deals | Deal-Scouting Firm Scores Again With Danone Bid

A handful of Chinese companies that own vast farms of computer servers dispersed around the country have majority control of the Bitcoin network.

Through vast server farms and canny investments, Chinese companies have effectively centralized control over a currency designed to be borderless.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

A handful of Chinese companies that own vast farms of computer servers dispersed around the country have majority control of the Bitcoin network.

Hedge Fund Manager Charged With Insider Trading Is Found Dead | Why Law School Is Still a Solid Investment

The project, known as the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is raising broader questions about the security and viability of virtual currencies like Ether and Bitcoin.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

A group of computer scientists has asked the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or D.A.O., fund to hold off on investing until its vulnerabilities are addressed.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

Citigroup Fined in Rate-Rigging Inquiry | Mt. Gox Creditors Seek Trillions Where There Are Only Millions

The $2.4 trillion in bankruptcy claims against the failed Bitcoin exchange are a far cry from the $91 million in assets that have been tracked down.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

This collective digital-currency start-up runs head-on into regulatory obstacles, yet might very well upend the mysterious world of virtual investing.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

The I.R.S. is looking at Bitcoin transactions for tax violations, demanding information from Coinbase, a virtual currency exchange.

By PETER J. HENNING

The I.R.S. has asked Coinbase, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the United States, for the records of customers who bought virtual currency from 2013 to 2015.

Unlike Bitcoin, Zcash transactions can be confirmed without recording the addresses involved, which could make it harder to win support from regulators and bankers.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

Thomson Reuters, the global digital information company, said it would move its senior executives to Toronto, and two automakers made deals with Canadian plants.

By IAN AUSTEN

Central banks view the technology behind the virtual currency as a possible way to compete and record transactions, or to issue their own currencies.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

The financial services industry needs to face the question of how to balance the appeal of pristine accounting with the demands of the real world.

The World Economic Forum predicts that the blockchain concept introduced by the virtual currency could help banks offer cheaper, faster and more secure services.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

Millions of dollars worth of the currency was taken from Bitfinex, causing a 20 percent decline in the price, which partially recovered later.

By AMIE TSANG

The banks profits dropped 40 percent in the second quarter.

Deutsche Bank Pulls Back from Coal Deals | Deal-Scouting Firm Scores Again With Danone Bid

A handful of Chinese companies that own vast farms of computer servers dispersed around the country have majority control of the Bitcoin network.

Through vast server farms and canny investments, Chinese companies have effectively centralized control over a currency designed to be borderless.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

A handful of Chinese companies that own vast farms of computer servers dispersed around the country have majority control of the Bitcoin network.

Hedge Fund Manager Charged With Insider Trading Is Found Dead | Why Law School Is Still a Solid Investment

The project, known as the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is raising broader questions about the security and viability of virtual currencies like Ether and Bitcoin.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

A group of computer scientists has asked the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or D.A.O., fund to hold off on investing until its vulnerabilities are addressed.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

Citigroup Fined in Rate-Rigging Inquiry | Mt. Gox Creditors Seek Trillions Where There Are Only Millions

The $2.4 trillion in bankruptcy claims against the failed Bitcoin exchange are a far cry from the $91 million in assets that have been tracked down.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

This collective digital-currency start-up runs head-on into regulatory obstacles, yet might very well upend the mysterious world of virtual investing.

By NATHANIEL POPPER

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Bitcoin - The New York Times

Bitcoin outperformed every other reserve currency in 2016 by large margins. An increasing number of investors, traders and businesses have begun to recognize bitcoin as the worlds global currency, depending on bitcoin to protect their wealth from tightening regulations and the governments excessive control over money. This surge in demand for bitcoin led to its increased global acceptance, with 1.1 million new wallets being created every quarter.

2016 so far has been the year of capital controls, war on cash, restriction of assets and decline of gold, which most investors and traders believed to be the global safe haven asset for decades. Amongst rapidly devaluing currencies and assets, bitcoin continuously demonstrated a strong performance in terms of adoption and market value, recording a consistent growth of over 1.1 million new wallets each three months since earlier this year.

Also read: Why Jim Harper Is Dead Wrong on Bitcoin

Bloomberg recently revealed that bitcoin has seen a consistent growth in user base over the past two years. In 2016, the total number of bitcoin wallets on blockchain.info alone grew from 5.3 million to 11 million, adding 5.7 million new bitcoin wallets since January of this year.

Apart from blockchain.info, the most popular bitcoin wallet service provider today, other popular bitcoin wallet platforms have also reached significant milestones, with Coinbase reaching 5 million users in year-to-date.

The rapid increase in global awareness and adoption of bitcoin can be directly attributable to the market instability and economic struggle of most countries including India, China and the US amongst others. Particularly, two of the largest gold importers India and China have begun to ban gold importation and seize the precious metal at borders and airports while some countries have imposed serious capital controls to crackdown on criminal usage of cash and outflow of money.

As a result, Genesis Mining co-founder and CFO Marco Krohn told Bloomberg that he firmly believes the price of bitcoin will increase by 100% next year, as the user base of the digital currency continues to grow and the demand for bitcoin remains high in regions with heavy capital controls.

My personal expectation is that bitcoin will at least gain another 100 percent, said Krohn.

Security and bitcoin expert Andreas Antonopoulos also criticized the idea of governments solidifying their stance on restricting cash, describing cashless society as totalitarian society.

If more individuals, investors, businesses and traders continue to develop awareness towards excessive control of government on cash and assets, the demand for decentralized currencies like bitcoin will rise even further, expanding the global user base.

CNBC and many other mainstream media outlets criticized the slow growth of bitcoins userbase in 2015, stating that bitcoin would only have 5 million active users by 2019. Some consultants and analysts including Windsor Holden noted that bitcoin will not be able to hold up with the competition within the financial industry.

To my mind there are far more pressing needs for the retailers, there are so many other payment options emerging, saidHolden, head of forecasting and consultancy at Juniper.

More importantly, the study released by Juniper called The Future of Blockchain, which received mainstream media coverage, failed to predict the growth of bitcoin essentially by concluding that bitcoin would remain as a niche marketplace.

Holden, like other analysts, emphasized that payment networks from tech giants like Apple and Samsung would ultimately surpass the growth of bitcoin by appealing to the general population.

However, similar to most mainstream media predictions and analysis from research firms, this has proven to be false. Bitcoin has seen the registration of over 6 million new wallets in 2016 alone and as market instability worsens in 2017, bitcoin could wellexperience an explosive growth.

What do you think the growth of bitcoins userbase? Ready to bet? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock

How much do you want to know? Bitcoin.com has live data feeds with the latest world price indexes and trends (in three currencies) plus statistics on all the interesting facets of the bitcoin network.

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Bitcoin Gains 1 Million New Wallets Every Quarter ...

Bitcoin, that nebulous digital currency that trades in cyberspace and is mined by code-cracking computers, emerged as a better bet this year than every major foreign-exchange trade, stock index and commodity contract.

The electronic coin that trades and is regulated like oil and gold surged 79 percent since the start of 2016 to $778, its highest level since early 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. Thats four times the gains posted by Russias ruble and Brazils real, the worlds top two hard currencies.

After its 2008 creation, enthusiasts hailed bitcoin as the next big thingin foreign exchange markets and an obvious monetary evolution in an increasingly digital world. But by 2014, its value tumbled 58 percent as governments cracked down on its use and a major exchange lost account-holders funds.

There are a number of reasons the hard-to-track currency is staging a comeback now, from capital controls in places like China to isolationist rumblings in the U.K. and U.S. as well as, bitcoin supporters say, increased adoption by companies and consumers.

Bitcoin is coming into its own, says Tim Draper, a venture capitalist whos bought thousands of bitcoins over the years. There are starting to be consumer uses for bitcoin, and if people have any concerns about their own fiat currency -- the rupee, for example -- they flee to bitcoin as an alternate currency.

The rationale behind bitcoins booms and busts can be difficult to pinpoint, but heres what might be responsible for the cryptocurrencys stellar surge this year:

Global restrictions on sovereign currencies are playing a major role in driving increased bitcoin demand. The Chinese government, for example, made it more difficult for people to move the nations currency and spend it overseas, leading to trapped liquidity. Thats made bitcoin, which is not controlled by any government or central bank, more attractive.

Isolationist policies by some governments to restrict remittances are pushing consumers into bitcoin as well. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign that hed limit or halt remittances to Mexico until the Latin American nation agrees to pay for a border wall between the two countries.

The explosion of bitcoin supply growth is slowing, with so-called miners getting fewer electronic coins in exchange for letting the network use their computing power. The payment to owners of the computers that verify bitcoin transactions and record them in a public ledger known as the blockchain fell by half in the middle of this year.

More consumers are using bitcoins and more companies are accepting it as a means of payment. The use of bitcoins by investors and online shoppers is growing at a steady clip, with more than 1.1 million accounts known as wallets added in the third quarter, even with the second quarter and compared with 1.2 million a year earlier, CoinDesk says.

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Going into 2017, miner Marco Krohn sees more of the same. Many of the factors that drove bitcoin up this year will continue.

My personal expectation is that bitcoin will at least gain another 100 percent, said Krohn, chief financial officer of Hong Kong-based Genesis Mining, which deploys server farms to mine the currency.

Link:
Bitcoins Rally Crushed Every Other Currency in 2016. Heres ...

UK digital marketing agency In Front Digital has begun accepting bitcoin as payment following an increase in interest from businesses in the sector.

Also read:Did Barclays Just Declare War on Bitcoin Users?

The company, based in the countrys second city Birmingham, is still among the first movers in an environment comparatively slow to catch on to digital currency.

With the increase in interest in bitcoin, weve had several clients (mostly tech ones) ask if we did accept bitcoin, CEO Matthew Day told Bitcoin.com.

We have also had some interest around international work and barriers are a lot lower (and quicker) when dealing with bitcoin versus bank transfers or PayPal.

In Front Digital offers SEO and PPC services as part of its full service marketing package, all of which can now be paid for in bitcoin. In a press release issued Monday, the company indicated it had been eyeingbitcoins progress among merchants for some time prior to making a decision to come on board.

We have been following the trend and usage of cryptocurrencies over the past 18 months and see bitcoin is gaining in strength, popularity and use, Day explained.

Research into bitcoins full potential to help business process does not stop at pleasing tech clients. The past few years have seen startups demonstrate how the virtual currency can easily be used to streamline not just merchant payments, but a raft of internal processes, which Day is keenly aware of.

I would prefer to keep the money in bitcoin due to safety from inflation but I will convert some to pay for expenses, such as company running costs, as although the amount of places taking bitcoin is increasing, we are still for the most part restricted to the banking system, he continued.

He added he would welcome the day that he could pay staff salaries in bitcoin.

Unlike many businesses which use merchant providers such as BitPay or Coinbase to accept payments, Day is going it alone. Indeed, long term he considers it prudent to maintain a maximum amount of BTC profit in its original format.

I think it is safer to keep it in bitcoin rather than fiat currencies, he said. I havent really used merchant support infrastructure too much but I am aware of sites like BitPay and others.

The UK is currently shaping up to be a mixed environment for cryptocurrency and businesses that deal in it. While government schemes appear to broadly support disruptive fintech, recent moves from the countrys banks demonstrate a lack of understanding on legislation and liability.

What do you think about In Front Digitals perspective on Bitcoin adoption and the current UK regulatory stance? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images via Shutterstock, In Front Digital

If youd like to know more about how to accept Bitcoin as a business, read our User Guides or ask your questions on the Bitcoin.com Forum.

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UK Marketing Firm Goes Bitcoin as Industry Interest Surges ...

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